Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe are pioneers of the noir protagonist; with their grim assessments of human nature and honesty that borders on cruelty, these straight white male protagonists laid the groundwork for the aloof yet somehow righteous upholders of justice. Bob Jones adopts this identity and morphs it into an alarming yet fascinating character, plagued by the relentless racism of World War II as a black man. All three noir protagonists navigate the anarchy of the 1930s and 1940s in the United States by using fear as an organ of perception and justice. Noir is grounded in gritty urban settings–namely San Francisco and Los Angeles–in order to express the loss of connection between the social classes.
Spade and Marlowe assume the role of the detective who can travel between these geographical compartments and the social classes that inhabit them without ever truly being connected to any of them. They feel a sense of nostalgia–a temporary relief from the trials of the present by imagining a past that never truly existed–as they travel to places that remain the same save for the people who live in them. Although Spade never explicitly names what is different about these places, it becomes clear through subtle nuances that people who are considered to be “other” have replaced the traditional white population. Jones is part of this group; consequently, nostalgia has little to do with his cynicism about the world around him.
Jones buys into the promise of materialism that has overtaken California, using his car to navigate the disconnected parts of the unforgiving city. Unlike Spade and Marlowe, Jones feels the need to constantly prove himself as the constant threat of racism is always at hand. All three noir protagonists are obsessed with having been done wrong, and for this reason, they adhere to strict moral codes that ultimately lead to their downfall.
The femme fatale is a facet of noir that plays a significant role in the actions of these three protagonists. Spade, Marlowe, and Jones view sex as a power struggle that can only be engaged in with the most poisonous of women. The femme fatale is a symbol of male castration who is fatal not only to the men she uses her sex appeal to win over but ultimately to herself. She lives on the exigencies of society just as the protagonist does. Yet Jones becomes aware of a contentious dynamic between black men and white women; both groups are considered to be “other,” and both are vying for power in the emerging workforce of the 1930s and 1940s.
I think your explanation of why Jones does not romanticize the past and why “If He Hollars Let Him Go” has much less nostalgia is interesting. Because Jones possesses a certain level of cynicism toward the world and tends to make observations as they are instead of glamorizing them, he has no desire to look to the past. The past, for Jones, is a space in which the same injustices he fights now still survive. This made me think of how Jones constantly thinks and talks about the Japanese being forced from their homes. He sees the past as another place filled with prejudice.