The uncertainty of race at the beginning of The Expendable Man places the issue of class at the forefront of the reader’s mind. This novel is more clearly noir than the previous novel we read, If He Hollers Let Him Go, because of its initial tone of ambiguity, especially in regards to race. It is not until page 24 when Hugh describes how he and Iris would look to people in town as “a strangely assorted couple” that their races are specifically mentioned. Although I had suspected that the main character would be a black man, Hugh’s reasoned approach to the situations in front of him, paired with a sense of dread at the possible consequences of his actions, give off a sense of unease characteristic of the noir genre. In the first pages Hughes notes the dangers of picking up strangers from the sides of the road, mentions Hugh’s “automatic anxiety reaction that a person might step in front of the car” , “a chill of apprehension”, all phrases that invoke fear into the reader. (Hughes 4). Even after the gravitas of the situation is revealed, Hugh’s social connections allow him to face his investigation with courage. In chapter 2 it is revealed that Hugh is from an upper middle class family with high standing in society. It is as if Hugh can forget his race, and has to remind himself that he is seen by his color before his class. For example when he is being interrogated by the police, he says that he pays his traffic tickets through the Auto club, “and realized at once that he’d done it again. Not for using the service but taking for granted the use…. Such conveniences were for white people; Negroes shuffled in line before a judge”(93). He is not outright afraid of racial violence, but the existence of his race creates a feeling of unease within the first events of the story. This class privilege gives Hugh a freedom from the stresses that Bob expressed in If He Hollers Let Him Go. Bob had an incessant desire to obtain and maintain his material wealth, and recognized others through their material signifiers. However, Hugh simply makes use of his resources without calling to attention the clothes he is wearing or the car he drives, unless it is based on how someone else sees him. Dorothy B. Hughes may be placing class at the forefront to say that when you have access to material wealth, the wealth that Bob was constantly striving for, race is more of a looming fear rather than a direct threat. This fear could at any moment, disrupt Hugh’s life, but with his access to resources, he can hide from its presence in a way that Bob could not.
(Post 5)