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Chapter 6
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Devil in a Blue Dress, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Race and Identity
Power and Corruption
Violence, Justice, and Morality
The American Dream
Summary
Analysis
Easy returns home and finds a letter from Houston waiting for him. It’s from Mouse, who got Easy’s address from a mutual friend. In the letter, Mouse says that his wife, EttaMae, caught him cheating and kicked him out. He also mentions their young son, LaMarque, and says he’d like Easy to meet him. Mouse suggests they reconnect soon. After reading the letter, Easy is unsettled, sensing that Mouse is slowly drawing him back into his dangerous web. Easy instinctively hides in his closet, as though Mouse were already lurking just beyond his front door.
As though all of Easy’s recent thoughts about Mouse were powerful enough to conjure him, he appears via letter at the beginning of this chapter. It's interesting timing that feels almost fated; just as Easy begins down a morally gray path and aligns himself with corrupt people, the shady Mouse reappears. Easy’s visceral reaction to the letter speaks to the psychological weight of their shared history—this moment hints at a bond deeper than friendship, rooted in a complex, mysterious past that continues to haunt Easy.
Themes
Easy reflects on the event that drove him to leave Texas, join the military, and try to put Mouse out of his mind forever. Once best friends, Easy and Mouse spent nearly all their time together in Houston. But everything changed when Mouse, newly engaged to EttaMae, convinced Easy to drive him to the small town where his stepfather lived to claim his late mother’s inheritance. As Easy waited in the car, Mouse murdered his stepfather, emerging with $1,000 and giving $300 to Easy. Though Easy accepted the “blood money,” mostly out of fear, the decision haunts him. Mouse is a short man, but Easy knows he could take out a man as large as Dupree without much effort.
Mouse’s murder of his stepfather illustrates his dangerous unpredictability and highlights exactly what Easy ran away from in Houston. This event was a turning point in Easy’s life, ultimately propelling him toward a more stable, purposeful existence away from Mouse’s influence. Mouse’s small stature contrasted with his capacity for extreme violence cements him as a fascinating but threatening figure in Easy’s memory.
Themes
Easy spends the rest of the day drinking vodka and people watching from his window, occasionally rereading Mouse’s letter. He reflects on the contrast between life in the South and California, noting that many Black Southerners struggle with California’s relentless pace and demands for productivity, even with its greater opportunities. Late that night, Easy’s phone rings—it’s Albright, inquiring about his progress in finding Daphne. He requests that Easy promptly meet him at the Santa Monica pier to discuss their business in person.
The differences between the South and California reveal an underlying tension between the opportunity and alienation that Black Southerners face as they seek new lives in the West. While California offers greater chances for success, marginalized groups, particularly Black people, also face heightened exploitation, their labor undervalued and their identity weaponized against them. It’s ironic that Albright calls immediately following Easy’s thoughts, as Albright himself embodies the very systems of racial hierarchy that perpetuate inequality, using Easy to carry out tasks that serve his own interests.
Themes
