TIM’s main goal in this chapter is to go to Harlem find out what happened to Clifton. When TIM arrives in Harlem, he walks into Barrelhouse’s Jolly Dollar and greets a group of familiar brothers, including one named MacAdams. They look at him oddly and act indifferent to him. TIM is confused by this and begins chatting with another brother, the man who owns the bar. He learns that business is bad and that the brotherhood has declined since he left.

After leaving the bar he almost walks to Mary’s door but then decides to go to the old office instead. He cannot find his friends, Brother Tarp or Brother Maceo, so he decides to stay the night.

The next morning he realizes that he needs to find the committee to find out why there is a decline in the Brotherhood. When no one calls him for a meeting (normally scheduled at 1 o’clock), he becomes suspicious and goes to headquarters, only to find the meeting in session. Outraged and confused because he was not informed, he goes to shop for some shoes. On the way back he finds Clifton, who has resorted to live his life selling the Sambo doll. (This is illegal because he does not have the license to sell it. TIM is in shock!) The police are soon in the street after Clifton, and TIM watches in horror as they shoot him. Shaken by his experience, he gets on the subway and rides back to the district. It is here that he realizes he is the reason for the decline in the Brotherhood.

Characters
MacAdams: drunk man who accuses TIM of getting "white fever" and leaving the Harlem Brotherhood. This plants a seed in the back of TIM’s mind as to whether this might really be the cause of the decline in the Brotherhood.

Clifton: the brother whom TIM is sent to find. He finds him resorting to selling a child’s toy for income. TIM sees him shot in the stomach by a white cop.

Barrelhouse: the owner of the Jolly Dollar, the bar where TIM makes his first Harlem appearance. He is the first to directly tell TIM how the Brother hood has declined.

Brother Maceo: a contact of TIM’s whom he is looking for but never finds.

Policeman: shoots and kills Clifton. This forces TIM to think how the incident will be recorded only in the eyes of the murderer.

Symbols
Darkness: the description of Harlem and of the Jolly Dollar as "a black hole of a bar" (423) is very dark. This darkness is alluding to the bad times ahead.

New Shoes: these symbolize TIM’s regression into his childhood. They let him focus on the happy times, including the carefree foot races he used to have in his old neighborhood.

Sambo: the dancing actions of the doll foreshadow the death of Clifton when he is shot. The dance also symbolizes how, like TIM, the doll is being manipulated. TIM is manipulated by Brother Jack and Sambo is being manipulated by Clifton.

Setting
This chapter takes place mainly on the streets of Harlem and partly in the Jolly Roger. The streets change from dark, to busy, to full of life when Clifton is showing off Sambo. They then turn dark again at the death of Brother Clifton. The bar is always a dark place. The subway is also a setting. It is another dark hole that TIM crawls into to escape the horror of his friend’s death.

Quotations
"All things, it is said, are dually recorded--all things of importance, that is. But not quite, for actually it is only the known, the seen, the heard and only those events that the recorder regards as important that are put down, those lies his keepers keep their power by" (439): this is a description of Clifton’s assassination. It is a revelation for TIM that every event ever recorded is only remembered through the thoughts of one person. He realizes that the lies of one cop will be all that is left of the unjustified murder of Clifton.

"It was as though in this short block I was forced to walk past everyone I’d ever known and no one would smile or call my name. I walked in feverish isolation"(443): this exemplifies the invisibility TIM feels when he returns to and is walking on the streets of Harlem.

"All our work had been very little, no great change had been made. I’d been so fascinated by the motion that I’d forgotten to measure what it was bringing forth. I’d been asleep, dreaming"(444): this is TIM’s wake-up call to the fact that the Brotherhood was not all it was cracked up to be. He has been naive and is waking up to a harsh reality. Motifs
Union/Brotherhood: this is ironically "invisible" in this chapter because the Brotherhood has declined so much.

Dancing/Toys: in his dance Sambo the paper doll foreshadows the actions and death of his creator, Clifton. Both "fell forward on his knees, like a man saying his prayers"(436) and "spun on his toes like a dancer" (436).

Prejudice: this is displayed when the policeman arrests Clifton for selling his doll, Sambo.

Invisibility: the Brothers in Harlem make TIM feel invisible when they do not acknowledge his arrival by inviting him to the meeting. He also feels invisible when he is walking down the streets of Harlem and no one recognizes him or pays him any attention.

Blindness: at the end of the chapter TIM realizes how blind he has been when dealing with the affairs of the Brotherhood.

Violence: when Clifton punches the policeman, he provokes him to shoot Clifton. Therefore, one violent act leads to another.

Running: after TIM witnesses the murder of his friend, he runs to the subway to escape. It is another hole in the ground that he is really running toward.