41 pages • 1-hour read
Last Exit to Brooklyn
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Character Analysis
Harry Black
Harry Black is a factory worker who lives an unsatisfying life. At home, he is emotionally detached from his wife, Mary, and their newborn son, but he cannot put into words why he dislikes her so much. Harry goes to work every day and enjoys himself, as the factory puts him in proximity with many men who cannot simply abandon him. He is a union official with a comprehensive knowledge of the union rulebook, which leads to him constantly arguing with the factory bosses. The union officials tolerate Harry as a useful patsy, the other workers resent his overbearing familiarity, and the bosses loathe his fastidious attitude—so much so that they are willing to shut down the factory for almost a year to remove him. Harry, however, enjoys life at the factory. He mistakes tolerance and proximity for friendship, believing that his behavior makes him an indispensable and loved member of the workforce. At home, Harry is unhappy but cannot explain why. At work, he is happy but delusional. He is not suited to any of the places he inhabits, and he is never entirely sure of himself or what he wants. He is disconnected from a society he does not understand, and all his efforts to reconnect ultimately end in rejection.
The factory strike gives purpose to Harry’s desperately adrift life. He is made responsible for the strike headquarters and instantly abuses his power. By purchasing beer for the strikers, he hopes to buy their friendship. Instead, he develops a severe alcohol problem. He becomes as corrupt as the factory bosses he loathes, charging everything he can to the union expense account. He fraternizes with the petty criminals from the Greek diner, who persuade him to buy stolen goods and use the union expense account to buy them food and drink. At last, Harry feels as though he has friends. Once again, however, his delusion means that he mistakes mockery and bullying for friendship. He may feel as though his life has purpose during the strike, but this feeling is built on shifting foundations; Harry’s sense of purpose is based on others’ lies and his increasingly alcohol-riddled thoughts.
The strike’s real benefit to Harry comes when the criminals from the Greek diner introduce Harry to a transgender woman named Ginger, who then introduces him to a bar favored by gay men, transgender women, and other people who do not adhere to the cisheteronormative views of society. Harry explores his sexuality, using his union connections to pay for everything. His low-scale corruption fuels his sexual exploration, but while this is an opportunity for him to learn more about why his marriage was so unsatisfying, he gives no indication of revelatory introspection. Harry is happier in a brief affair with a transgender woman named Regina than he ever was with Mary. However, Harry’s revelation meets a tragic end. The strike’s apparent victory is hollow, as the end of the strike means the end of Harry’s corrupt pecuniary advantage. Regina abandons him, and he no longer has any money. Desperate and confused by his conflicted sexuality, he assaults a young boy. Harry is beaten up by men from the Greek diner. In an ironic twist, he is violently abused (just as he abused Mary) by the men who helped him learn about his sexuality.
Georgette
Georgette is a transgender woman in search of validation. While she is certain of her identity as a woman, she wants society’s acceptance. There is a disparity between Georgette’s true identity and the identity imposed upon her, mirroring the contrast between her treatment at home and her treatment among friends. When Georgette is with her friends, they are accepting of her. While her friendship group is filled with petty rivalries and feuds, no one questions Georgette’s identity. At home, however, her abusive brother, Arthur, emotionally and physically tortures her because he rejects her womanhood. Georgette hates and fears her brother, not just because of his physical threat but because of what he represents. Arthur embodies the hateful society that victimizes Georgette. The contrast between Georgette’s behavior at home and her behavior among friends reveals that the real Georgette is only visible when she is away from her family.
Even with her friends, Georgette tries to find ways to validate her identity. Transgender people—in the context of the novel—exist on the peripheries of social awareness, though they find solidarity in places like the novel’s Brooklyn. Georgette is aware of this societal rejection, so she craves validation. She fixates on Vinnie as a notorious figure in the community, believing that if she can make Vinnie love her, then the rest of the world might love her as well. Georgette convinces herself that she loves Vinnie even though he mistreats her.
Georgette becomes so fixated on pursuing Vinnie that she overindulges on alcohol and drugs, losing herself in a confusing, desperate binge and accidently having sex with a different man. This mistake is a crushing blow to her identity as it robs her of the romantic ideals that she craved. She wanted to be accepted, and she wanted to believe that Vinnie loved her. By having sex with someone else, she may have achieved some form of acceptance, but it is not on the terms she wanted.
Georgette’s mistake leaves her distraught. The revelation that she had sex with someone who was not Vinnie further detaches her from society. She stumbles out of the party, lost in a strange blur of drugs, alcohol, and plunging temperatures. She wanders through the cold streets of the society that so frequently rejects her. The end of Georgette’s story suggests that there is never any resolution or acceptance for those whose identity is in crisis. Georgette, like many other characters in the novel, longs for identity and acceptance. Also like the other characters, the tragedy of Georgette’s life is that her weaknesses, paired with the overbearing weight of social pressures, trap her in a self-perpetuating cycle of dysfunction. She becomes untethered, and her dependency on alcohol and drugs leaves her in the confused, mortified daze of an overdose.
Tralala
Tralala is a sex worker who insists that her indifference toward sex is the key to her professional success. Her continued insistence that she does not care about sex exemplifies her desire to will something into reality: She is trying to convince herself just as much as she is trying to convince the rest of the world. Tralala needs this emotional disconnection to be true, otherwise the reality of her life would be too traumatic. She uses drugs and drinks heavily to distract herself from any lingering doubts she might have regarding her attitude toward sex. By purging all emotion from the act, she believes that she takes control over her life. Apathy is empowerment.
For a brief moment, Tralala is given an insight into the life she thinks she deserves: She spends time with a military officer who spends ravishingly on her. He buys her clothes, treats her to expensive dinners, and they visit restaurants and cinemas. He treats her as she believes she deserves to be treated and, in doing so, threatens Tralala’s insistence on a disconnect between sex and emotion. Tralala does not love this man, but she does love the life he affords her. During their brief time together, the officer allows Tralala to experience a lifestyle that she craves but that she will eventually be denied. When he leaves, she must return to her previous routine, but she forms a new emotional bond with sex: Whenever Tralala has sex with a new client, she resents their inability to offer her the same lavish experiences. This bitterness is a negative emotion associated with sex, and she now actively resents the limitations of her profession and the inadequacies of her clients. This new complication leaves her depressed every day.
Tralala’s resentment and bitterness send her into a tragic spiral of overindulgence. She drinks heavily and uses drugs, trying to recapture the indifference that she believes made her successful. She uses narcotics to numb herself to the world, allowing her to have sex with clients and not be reminded of what she has lost. However, she takes this approach too far and unwittingly weaponizes her indifference against herself. She becomes so detached and estranged from reality that people take advantage of her. After Tralala announces she will have sex with every man at the bar, she is raped by a group of men in a parking lot. They take Tralala’s indifference to sex to a brutal new level, dehumanizing her for their pleasure. Tralala once told the world that she did not care about sex and insisted that this made her successful, but by the end of her story, the world has tragically, violently twisted her words against her.
Vinnie
Vinnie is a petty ruffian who appears in several stories in Last Exit to Brooklyn. He is a regular fixture at the Greek diner, whether he is abusing Georgette, taking advantage of Harry Black, or simply searching for criminal opportunities to line his pockets. Vinnie is a member of the criminal underworld, but not a particularly important one. His greatest claim to fame is sharing a jail cell with a more successful, more notorious criminal. Vinnie tells everyone about this, hoping to weave himself into the fabric of the local mythology by association rather than any personal action. To this extent, he embodies the world of small-time criminals: Not particularly noteworthy in his own right, he remains ever-present for immoral happenings in Brooklyn. Vinnie represents the indulgent criminality that typifies the neighborhood.
Vinnie’s treatment of others illustrates his narcissistic nihilism; he cares about only himself—and he barely even cares about himself. Georgette is in love with Vinnie, but he has no interest in returning her affection. Instead, he only offers her occasional glimpses of familiarity to retain her emotional dependence. His ego enjoys Georgette’s attention, not caring that this manipulation might hurt her. Likewise, he preys on Harry’s desperate loneliness when Harry offers beer to Vinnie and his friends. Vinnie leads the group, not just taking advantage of Harry’s generosity but convincing him to take part in further criminality that will benefit Vinnie (buying a stolen radio, for example). He offers Harry a vague imitation of friendship in exchange for this; Vinnie recognizes Harry’s desperation and immediately moves to take advantage. As such, Vinnie operates as a cautionary tale in the novel. He is a warning not to grow attached to anybody; every person in the fictional Brooklyn is waiting to exploit everyone else.
Abraham
Abraham, a resident of the public housing estate in Part 6 of Last Exit to Brooklyn, is a narcissist who self-indulgently wastes his family’s money. From his waking moments, he cares more for his appearance than for his children. While the children cry for help or food, he combs his hair. While his wife needs money for essentials, he takes his car for detailing and makes sure to tip everyone he meets along the way. Abraham carefully cultivates an image of wealth and success—but his desire for superiority is limited to superficialities, and his moral character and his family’s needs go unaddressed. His abusiveness reveals his inner destitution.
Abraham is not just narcissistic; he is actively abusive. He barely acknowledges his children’s existence, and when his wife confronts him about his absence, he hits her. Abraham may want the world to see him as a smooth and successful man, but he cannot tolerate his wife challenging this self-perception as he knows she is correct. The only way Abraham knows how to react to this unwelcome exposure is by punching his wife in the face. At the end of the story, however, he peacefully drifts off to sleep while Irene deals with the children. In the world of Last Exit to Brooklyn, such malignant figures evade punishment and sleep peacefully while perpetuating the novel’s definitive cycles of violence.
With the exception of Tralala, whose name suggests carefree happiness, Abraham’s name is the most darkly ironic (even sardonic) in the novel; while Abraham is beyond a failure of a father or provider, his name recalls the biblical figure, one of the foremost father archetypes in the Western literary tradition. The novel’s final words, “Abraham slept,” allude to the Abrahamic Covenant: In the book of Genesis, God puts Abram to sleep and gives him a dream that promises he will be the “father” of a great nation. This covenant changes Abram’s name to Abraham. While the biblical mythology traditionally symbolizes hope for a future, Selby’s infernal Abraham symbolizes the opposite.
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