58 pages 1 hour read

Chester Himes

If He Hollers Let Him Go

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1945

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Chapters 20-22Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 20 Summary

Now that Alice has agreed to marry Bob, Bob decides he should try to get his old job as a leaderman back. When he gets back to work, he goes to talk to his boss, Mac. Mac assumes Bob is trying to avoid being drafted into the army, and while Bob admits this is partially true, he also explains that he wants to get married. Bob tells Mac that Alice is a social worker; seeming to think that Alice has used her social work training to advise Bob to accuse Mac of discrimination, Mac says that there was no discrimination involved in the decision to demote Bob and maintains that anyone who curses a woman would be demoted. However, Mac says that Bob can continue working on his old crew under the new leaderman, and if he shows that he can hold his temper and obey orders, he will consider approaching Kelly about Bob being made a leaderman again. Although Bob wants to protest, he thinks of Alice and reluctantly agrees to this arrangement. 

Bob is discouraged to find that his old crew is happy with the new, white leaderman because he is able to get them better jobs. Bob assumes his old crew will never want him back as leaderman now.