-XISU-MWZ-

In “Which New Era Would That Be?”, Jake and Jennifer’s encounter is doomed to fail.

Here are some details that foreshadow the unsuccessful encounter. They are within the going of the story. It can be said that almost every sentence and paragraph foreshadows the failure. My analysis goes along with the development of the story.

At the beginning of the story, Jake was cooking bacon when he noticed there was a steady knock on the front door. He “made an impatient silencing gesture” towards his men in the shop. Although the gesture was not made directly towards the people who were knocking the door, we could see that, Jennifer and Alister’s coming actually disturbed Jake and his men’s regular life. For example, the end-of-the-day brandy was hidden behind the curtains or quickly tossed down. Then, Jake “yelled” to ask who was at the door. He was really impatient, or we could say that he not at all wanted to meet anyone at this time of a day.

Jake “flung” the door open, instead of just open it. Next is Jennifer’s passionate self-introduction and “firm” hand-shaking with Jake. Her overwhelming enthusiastic towards natives is irritating to some extent. “He had never met her before but he knew the type well- had seen it over and over again at meetings of the Congress of Democrats, and other organizations where whites met progressive blacks.” Jake had a distinct hatred towards these women. They were hypocrites because they pretended and acted as if they knew everything happened to natives or colored persons. “That was even worse, he thought, than the persons who persisted in regarding you as their equal.” “But these women-oh, Christ1-these women felt as you did.” “There was no escaping from there understanding.” This indicates that in the following paragraphs, when Jennifer showed her understanding, Jake would feel it unbearable. In fact, before Jennifer talked, Jake hated her deep in his heart. Of course this would kind of determine his attitude towards her although the story. In paragraph 59, again there is a description of Jake’s monologue, “…what did they see in such women-bristling, sharp, all-seeing, knowing women, who talked like men…” All in all, Jennifer had nothing for Jake to like.

Latter in the story, in paragraph 7, we could see that Jake liked traditional white women who were not as that modern, mannish and liberal as Jennifer. Also in paragraph 59, Jake had his own ideas about what a white woman should behave.

In paragraph 8, after a description of Jennifer’s dramatic make-ups and dresses, there is the sentence “she was good-looking, he supposed with disgust.” By contrast, Jennifer’s hands were not handsome. This may indicate that she was superficial and cared only the appearance but not details. We could see that Jennifer had herself dressed up like a native or African woman. Probably Jennifer made it like this to stress that she really regarded herself as one of the natives and local people. However, Jake didn’t like it. “Who the hell want a woman to look at you honestly, anyway?”, when Jake looked that Jennifer’s eyes, he felt it irritating.

Starting from paragraph 9, Jake had always his grins, which developed along with the talks between Jennifer and men in his shop. The “insolent” indicates that Jake treated the conversation a funny thing. Deep in Jake’s heart, he didn’t take what Jennifer was talking serious. He didn’t even bother to remember her name. For example, in paragraph 16, Jake asked again about Jennifer’s name. In paragraph 30, “‘Well, some people’ve got queer tastes,’ Jake remarked, laughing, to no one in particular, as if she were not there.” When Temba told his stories in slums, Jennifer said that she had also led that kind of life as her “job” but she just couldn’t bear it. At this time, Jake asked straight forwards to Jennifer, and looked straight at her, “then why do you, lady, why do you?” Jake at this moment probably thought Jennifer was only causing troubles for herself. What she was doing in slums was totally nonsense.

In paragraph 38, “…as if some sort of signal might be expected…” Actually, every colored man on the scene knew that Jake was not happy with the lady’s talk, or even mere her presence had made him unhappy.

From paragraph 42, Jake again ignored Jennifer’s presence. He made dirty jokes and pressed his tooth with a fingernail, which were not proper to speak up or to do with a lady there. In paragraph 56, “Jake did not move-merely looking at her lazily. ‘This is not the way to talk with a lady around.’ He grinned, unapologetically.” This is Jake’s covered but still fierce confrontation to Jennifer. 

When Maxie told his story about being segregated, Jennifer was “biting in her lower lip, as if this were a problem to be solved psychologically.” And Jake laughed strongly in front of Jennifer, his belly convulsed. If he respected Jennifer, he would do that.    

In paragraph 73, Jennifer said “…you have none of the usual softening of the vowels of most Africans. And you haven’t got an Afrikaans accent, as some Africans have, even if they get rid of the African thing.” This indicates that, Jennifer was not at all a real non-racist. There was a difference between the white, the black, and the colored people in her heart.

Paragraph 92 is the key climax. “…She would go to the length of calling him a liar to show by frankness how much she respected him- to insinuate, perhaps, that she was with him, even in the need to invent something about a white man that she, because herself was white, could not believe…” This was the last straw to provoke Jake. All through the talk, Jennifer kept behaving as if she knew every bite that native or colored men had suffered. She enjoyed herself a kind of superiority over them even though she acted as one of them. She might think that her condescendingly calling on to Jake would make her a modern and liberal women warrior; on the contrary, all she had done deeply hurt Jake and his men’s feeling. It seemed like that they told miserable and bitter stories to gain pity from the white. What they were suffering from were adventures and mysterious issues towards the white!

Another thing to be mentioned is Jake’s laughter. His laughers developed from giggle, grin to a wide laugher that made him sweat and flow tears. Jake’s laughter is complex. There are many feelings in it. Despising, and mocking at Jennifer’s silly talks or sadness for native/ colored people at the mercy of the whites? Anyway, Jake and Jennifer’s encounter is doomed to fail from the very beginning. It’s part for Jake’s dislike to Jennifer, part for Jennifer’s arrogant, over-confident, over-passionate, and innocence talks and behaviors.