IM is awakened by a person's banging on the steam pipe. The person is angry because the heat has been turned off. In IM's attempt to stop the noise, he himself picks up a shoe and starts hitting back. He then spies an old bank that would make more noise. IM ends up smashing the bank; the pieces and coins scatter across the floor.

IM leaves his room and goes to eat breakfast. He is given coffee. IM gives Mary a hundred dollars in back pay, saying he won it gambling. He lies again by saying he has an appointment for a job, when in actuality, he is leaving to go work for the Brotherhood. His new employers would not be approved of by Mary. IM reenters his room and scoops up the splintered bank and coins and bundles them in newspaper.

After leaving Mary's, IM heads for the subway. He tries to dispose of the bank, but he is stopped twice. The first time a lady demands that he retrieve it from her garbage can. The second time he is accused of making a pigeon drop.

When he gets on the subway, he sees a newspaper that has a description of himself from the speech at the eviction. From the subway, he enters a clothing store and buys a new suit and accessories. IM then finds his new apartment that is much larger than he expects in a Spanish-Irish neighborhood. IM decides to take a bath and then read literature on the Brotherhood to prepare himself for the rally that evening.

old bank depicting a black man

time of slavery

although it may be broken, it still exists

stereotype of black-southern "boy" who agrees to everything

hundred-dollar bill

hope in a depressed economy

store owners will be skeptical when they see it

bank package

distrust among own racial group

people always assume the worst

some people's trash is worse than others

invisibility of something

blood, clothes, and bath

cleansing of self

preparation for new "world"

metamorphosis into a new person/identity

chipping silver off of pipe, appearance of roaches

rosy on surface, but rotten and falling apart underneath

hand reaching for package in trash can

descent into bad places

being controlled by others

"...I saw gray marks appearing where the old skin was flaking away beneath my digging nails"(318)

self expulsion

emergence of new self

"For a second I stopped, feeling hate charging within me, then dashed over and grabbed it, suddenly enraged by the tolerance or lack of discrimination, that allowed Mary to keep such a self-mocking image around..."(319)

destruction of relics of the past

reminders of the progress and work remaining

"We keep our place clean and respectable and we don't want you field niggers coming up here from the South and ruining things..."(328)

discrimination of minority against minority

stereotyping--being from the South makes one a bad person

by Julia Rausch