A Hope in the Unseen: Chapter 7 Summary & Analysis

It is moving day, and Cedric is looking for a few important items as he leaves his room—he has lost his graphing calculator, and finally decides he must leave without it and buy a new one at Brown. Barbara is feeling unsentimental as she looks at the nearly empty room and thinks about how so many other families will be packing up and leaving today, but from nicer, happier homes. She has hauled most of Cedric’s belongings out herself, and now he is left to pick up his television—his “date every Friday night.” They leave the apartment and get into a Dodge Caravan. The van rental cost Barbara $232, and she will spend another $96 to stay at the Holiday Inn in Providence, Rhode Island, before returning home.

As Cedric and Barbara drive out of D.C. towards New England, they begin to talk about school breaks. Barbara explains that Bishop Long will be sending money so that Cedric can come home for Thanksgiving, and he responds that he does not plan on coming home for breaks, even Christmas, and that he doesn’t plan on calling Barbara very much, either, because he will be very busy. She informs him that she will be attending Brown’s parents’ weekend in October, because it is her right as a parent. This silences them both, as Barbara spends much of the trip reminiscing about the past, and Cedric is focused on the road—and his life—in front of him. The tension is finally broken around midnight, as they near Providence, when Cedric finds a tape of gospel songs, and together they sing along.

After the long drive, Barbara and Cedric get a late start to the day, and it is nearly lunchtime when they get to Cedric’s dorm room in Andrews Hall and begin to unpack. While Cedric is beginning to feel more at ease on campus, Barbara feels tense and pensive, observing the other parents—clearly more affluent, and presumably used to the college atmosphere—and wondering where she fits in. She has sacrificed so much, and now she worries that she will lose Cedric in this new world. They have lunch together, and when they get back to Cedric’s room, his new roommate Rob is there, so Barbara decides that it is time for her to leave. Before driving off, she hands him all of the extra money she has—three twenty-dollar bills.

With Barbara gone, Cedric sits on his freshly made bed and begins to talk to Rob, his new roommate. Rob tells Cedric that he is from Marblehead, Massachusetts, that his father is currently birding on Cape Cod, and that his sister is away at Harvard. Cedric does not know what birding is, and Rob has to explain it to him. They being to talk about music, finding that they have very different tastes, and then decide how to organize their dorm room. When Cedric notices that Rob has brought a small brown dorm fridge for their room, he is so excited he shakes his roommate’s hand.

The first week is an orientation period for Brown freshmen, with carefully planned activities designed to help them get to know each other and the campus. Cedric begins to read the orientation packet, and focuses on the racial diversity of the 5,559-person class, learning that “black, non-Hispanic” students like him make up 6.5% of the incoming class. Later on, when he meets the other 33 freshmen in his unit, he counts two black students (including himself), roughly corresponding to the 6.5% of the class overall. For the first few days, Cedric is watchful, taking in more than he offers to others, and learning as much as he can about the people who surround him. He is exhausted by the end of each day, feeling like he has been studying for exams.

The Brown freshmen are often reminded of how proud they should be to have been accepted to such a prestigious institution, and of how intelligent and diverse they are as a class. This instills a pride of place, and they begin to really think of themselves as Brown students. But one evening, when students begin to discuss their SAT scores, Cedric begins to worry. One student announces that he scored at 1200, which must be the lowest score of the group. As the other students share their scores, Cedric finds that they range from 1430 to a low of 970. When it is Cedric’s turn, he tries to be casual as he reveals he scored 960, but knows that each one of these students will remember this number and associate it with him forever.

After this conversation about SAT scores, and the handful of references that Cedric does not understand, he gets up early to re-think the courses he will take this semester. He has lost his temporary ID card, so he has a breakfast of Fritos in the dorm lounge while he looks through the catalogue for courses that he feels he can handle. He meets with his advisor, explaining that he does not want to get in over his head. While his grades and test scores would place him in a third-semester calculus class, he decides to take a second-semester course instead; he does the same with Spanish, and he also opts for an English class on Richard Wright, because he has already read Native Son.

The last issue Cedric discusses with his advisor is his plan to take all of his courses pass/fail, explaining with a note of shame that he comes from “a real bad city school.” His advisor approves this plan, as Brown students are given a lot of autonomy over their academic careers. The college is known for its open curriculum, and allowing students to take as many classes as they want on a pass/fail basis. The idea is to allow students to challenge themselves without fear of bad grades, but for Cedric, this is a chance to take a slightly easier path while he gets used to the new academic and social atmosphere of the college.

Friday night is the diversity orientation for Brown freshmen: they are welcomed by the university chaplain, a Rabbi Flam, and a Hispanic third-year student, who will lead them through a number of activities to help them understand Brown’s take on diversity and community. Their first activity involves finding other students who know specific cultural facts, like the significance of Cinco de Mayo, which will lead them to lean on their preconceived ideas about their classmates. Cedric is overwhelmed by other students in his unit asking him who Rosa Parks is, and he rightly feels singled out for the color of his skin. This is the point of the exercise, of course: for students to access the prejudices they claim not to have.

The next activity requires students to write down their identity in one word on a piece of paper. Cedric thinks about his conversation with Clarence Thomas, who advised him not to think of himself as black at Brown, and is unsure of what to write. He finds that other students have similar concerns, and very few of them want to use their racial identity as their defining characteristic. This generation of students has grown up with the understanding that “multiculturalism” can cause divisiveness. The third-year student who is leading the conversation digs in further, asking what identities people might have been avoiding, like HIV positive, LGBTQ, abuse survivor, anorexic, and handicapped.

There is a discussion about whether or not it is appropriate to use a limitation (like a handicap) to define oneself, and this strikes a chord within Cedric. He speaks up, arguing that identity should be linked to something that a person is proud of, not just what sets them apart from others. He uses the example of losing a leg—he would consider that a part of himself, but would not want that to define who he is. The third-year counters that identity can be both positive and negative, and is often imposed by others, despite how a person may attempt to define themselves. They move on to other issues, like why Caucasian is not considered an identity, which prompts one student to announce that “Caucasian is the oppressor group,” and that most people would rather side with a minority or victim group.

On Saturday afternoon, Rob returns to his room after a morning of playing soccer, and enjoys a moment of rest and relaxation. He thinks about his life in Marblehead, and while he misses home, he is also very confident that this is where he belongs. He begins to write a letter to his parents, and when he mentions Cedric, he begins to think about his roommate, and how this will be a broadening experience for him with a roommate like Cedric. He has never had a black friend, and in most of his interactions with black men, he has felt like he has to be extra careful of what he says or how he sounds. He is not alone in this experience—many of his new friends at Brown are interested in Cedric, because they haven’t met many people like him, and he is something of an anomaly at Brown.

Cedric comes into the boys’ dorm room, and he and Rob discuss the fact that Cedric has lost his temporary ID and cannot eat in the dining hall at the moment; Rob offers to steal food for him to help him out. Cedric asks if Rob would consider mopping the floors every once in a while, and notes that Rob’s feet smell bad. Cedric is disgusted by the fact that Rob walks around barefoot, and when Rob tells him that everyone does the same, Cedric responds, “not where I’m from.” Cedric turns on his tv, and Rob is annoyed because he can’t concentrate on his letter to his parents. Frustrated, he leaves the room to find some friends to hang out with.

Cedric finally manages to get his permanent Brown ID card and goes off to have a meal with the other students from his unit. They talk about the karaoke party from the previous evening, in which Cedric sang, and everyone is amazed by his voice. They ask if he will be joining any of the singing groups on campus, and while he is not sure if he wants to, he is happy to be recognized for something other than being black. The conversation moves on, and when Rob is talking, Cedric suddenly interrupts to announce that Rob is Wally Cleaver from the old television show Leave it to Beaver. He realizes that this is a set of references that will connect him to his new classmates, and he continues, giving the other kids at lunch their television identities.

Later that day, Cedric goes to the Brown bookstore to pick up his books. As he wanders the aisles, he becomes increasingly anxious about how much he does not yet know. The bookstore will close soon, but Cedric still needs to find a fourth course to take, and is using the required reading to help him decide. He looks at, and disregards, courses on psychology, religious studies, physics, and philosophy. He feels internally conflicted about the religious studies course, because he can feel Bishop Long’s eyes on him, reminding him that the only true answers come from God.

Cedric lands on an education textbook, and likes the practical aspect of the course, so he decides that his fourth course will be the History of American Education with Professor James. In line to purchase all of his books, Cedric looks at the cover of Rolling Stone, which announces the death of Jerry Garcia. He opens the magazine and gets a quick lesson on who the man is.

The next morning, after a highly formal processional, with a strategically diverse set of students carrying the “Class of 1999” banner through campus, the students assemble for the convocation. The speaker is Elie Wiesel, Nobel Prize winner and Holocaust survivor, whose message is bereft of hope and faith, and fails to inspire Cedric. After convocation, the students attend their classes for the first time, receive their syllabi, and receive their first assignments. They discuss the classes afterwards, and Cedric tells Rob he is excited about his Richard Wright seminar, and likes his instructor, an African American graduate student named Stephan Wheelock. Rob is excited about his Marine Biology course, because he is hoping to major in it.

At dinner, Cedric mentions how disgusted he is that some students shower without shoes on, which he considers very dirty. He is met with a knowing smile from the other African American student in his unit, Chiniqua Milligan, and another girl volunteers that she thinks everyone should wear flip-flops to shower. Cedric continues his television references, calling one student Casey Kasem. When the question of roommates comes around, Cedric and Rob joke that they have big problems. Back in their room, they are both feeling relaxed and happy, and Cedric suddenly breaks into song—he sings “It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday,” and Rob is astonished at his voice.