Bob, the protagonist of If He Hollers Let Him Go by Chester Himes, embodies the aspect of interiority and introspection that is integral to the noir genre. Similar to the other protagonists in the books we have read, Bob exists within the shadows of society. Like an outsider looking in, he has a fatalistic outlook on society, moral ambiguity, and an alienation from society. Spade and Marlowe have an unquestioned personal autonomy and masculinity within their respective worlds as white men. Bob, however, has an identity that is not self-defined. His personhood is instead defined by its proximity to whiteness, taking away his autonomy at the very basic level.
In our discussion in class, the question of paranoia came up in regards to Bob’s anxiety towards white people. Some may argue that he seems overly paranoid, however I would argue that this anxiety is founded in truth. As a black person who has existed in predominantly white spaces for most of my life, the sense of dread and hypersensitivity to your perception by others is something that is a constant in my life. I am always aware of color: I notice that I am the only black person in a room and brace myself for looks from people. I am constantly aware that I am “the other”. There is something that is uncanny about having this awareness about oneself. It is the idea of double consciousness: to be both your interior self, and to watch how other people see you from the outside. There is a certain sense of detachment from reality that this psychology brings.
The liminal space that Bob and black people in general exist in can be stretched to discuss the inverse descent into darkness that Bob experienced in his decision to kill that white man. Coming from a place that is charged with anger and anxiety, there is a freedom in allowing oneself to descend in the darkness. I may pursue this idea in a later paper.
This investigation into blackness is leading me to a broader thesis about blackness and noir. I think that being a black American, having no real roots to cling to because we can never know our true heritage, and having an identity that is exterior rather than interior, creates an existential feeling that is similar to the tenants of noir: oneiric, strange, ambivalent.