Chapter 14
By: Kate Irwin
Chapter Summary
In this chapter, TIM contacts the red-haired man who had offered him a job. He calls the phone number on the paper and is instructed by Brother Jack to meet him. When they meet, Brother Jack takes TIM to a Brotherhood party. At the party, TIM is told about the Brotherhood and what kind of work they do. Brother Jack tells TIM that he will be the next Booker T. Washington. TIM decides to join the Brotherhood and he is given a new name and money to buy new clothes. He can no longer live with Mary, and the Brotherhood gives him money to pay her for TIM's rent. When TIM returns to the party, Brother Jack takes him around and introduces him to many of the other people in the rotherhood. TIM is insulted by a drunken brother, but he is able to control the crowd at the party and put them at ease. He dances with Emma, and then decides to leave and return to Mary's. When he gets to his room he struggles with how to tell Mary he is leaving. He makes the decision to leave the money for her on the table. Then he goes to bed. Characters
TIM: The main character in the novel. In this chapter he joins the Brotherhood.

Mary: TIM rents a room in her house. In this chapter, he realizes that she is short of rent and that he probably owes her money. She makes cabbage for dinner, and the smell of it follows TIM throughout the chapter.

Brother Jack: The leader of the Brotherhood. He convinces TIM to join and tells him that he will be the next Booker T. Washington.

Emma: One of the women in the Brotherhood. She is dressed in fancy clothes and many jewels. When she and TIM dance together, the Vet's prediction that TIM will even dance with a white woman comes true.

Symbols
Cabbage: This symbol appears when Mary is cooking dinner and again when TIM is in the luncheonette. Cabbage symbolizes a part of his past, and since it reappears throughout the chapter, that shows that the past is something that TIM cannot escape.

TIM's Brotherhood name: This symbolizes the beginning of TIM's new life, or his rebirth. This is the first step to giving him a completely new identity. The piece of paper with the Brotherhood name written on it is important later in the novel when TIM realizes that the handwriting on it and a note he receives are exactly alike.

Motifs
Brotherhood: The Brotherhood is the main focus of the chapter. It signifies the beginning of a new life for TIM.

White Women: When TIM dances with Emma, a white woman, the Vet's prediction has come true. Also, during the party, TIM is approached by a white woman wearing a black dress. She apologizes for the behavior of the drunken brother and says that she understands how it would be backwards to ask a colored brother to sing. TIM is confused by her saying that she understands.

Paper - TIM receives his Brotherhood name on a piece of paper.

Dancing - TIM dances with Emma.

Setting
Most of the chapter takes place at the Chthonian, the place where the party is held. It is an expensive-looking building with frosted glass windows and uniformed doormen. The room that the party is held in has a bronze door-knocker shaped like an owl. The main room is decorated with old musical instruments and lined with books. There are leather chairs and mahogany shelves and a desk with crystal writing tools. Another room has a grand piano and red Italian draperies. TIM is struck by the rich surroundings and the rather poor quality clothing of the other Brotherhood members.

Quotations
"By the sense that I had somehow been through it all before. I couldn’t decide if it were from watching some similar scene in the movies, from books I’d read, or from some recurrent but deeply buried dream. Whatsoever, it was like entering a scene which, because of some devious circumstance, I had hitherto watched only from a distance." (300): TIM is describing what it feels like when he walks into the surroundings of a party. He feels like his actions had all happened before; he feels like he is in a dream.

"It was as though they hadn’t seen me, as though I were here, and yet not here." (301): TIM is describing how none of the other guests would talk to him when he first walked into the party. He recognizes his own invisibility.

"We’re not interested in his looks but in his voice." (303): This is Brother Jack’s response to Emma’s comment that TIM should be blacker. It is foreshadowing that the Brotherhood has something planned for TIM.

Chapter Themes
The main theme of this chapter is rebirth and a new beginning. TIM is beginning a new phase of his life by joining the Brotherhood. He is being reborn because he must cover up all ties to his past life and start all over in his new life.