Going to Meet the Man: Going to Meet the Man Summary & Analysis

Grace asks Jesse what’s wrong and he says he isn’t sure, that he might be tired. She suggests he is working too hard, and he shouts that it isn’t his fault. He touches her chest and then tries again to have sex with her and fails, reflecting bitterly to himself about how he could “ask a nigger girl” to help him but he cannot ask his wife. The thought of a Black woman excites him, but only slightly.

Grace tells Jesse to go to sleep since he has a hard day tomorrow and he agrees, rolling onto his side. He holds onto Grace’s breast and says, “Goddamn the niggers,” before asking Grace, “Wouldn’t you think they’d learn?” She moves his hand from her body and tells him that they will still be “out there” tomorrow and he should go to sleep.

Lying down, Jesse listens to the sounds outside. He hears a car on the road and reaches for his gun, but the car drives away. It’s probably full of “liver-lipped students” from out of state, coming to town for an event at the courthouse tomorrow. “The niggers are getting ready,” he thinks—but everyone else will be ready, too.

Jesse moans; he is a healthy, God-fearing 42-year-old man who didn’t used to have trouble sleeping or becoming erect. In the past, he sometimes needed some “spice” and, as deputy sheriff, would “pick up a black piece or arrest her, it came to the same thing,” though he couldn’t do that now since they might kill him. He asks himself, “What had the good Lord Almighty had in mind when he made the niggers?” and implies that one answer is they are good at sex.

Turning toward Grace, Jesse thinks that he would like to be buried inside her and not have to go to work at the jail house tomorrow where he will have to confront the Black protestors and see their ugly faces, smell their smells, hear them sing, feel their hair, watch their breasts fight against his cattle prod, hear them moan, and watch their lips bleed.

Comparing Black people to animals, Jesse condemns their dark smelly houses and incessant birthing of children, as well as their laughter and music. He remembers working as a payment collector for a mail-order business and how his Black customers were “too dumb to know they were being cheated blind,” how easy it was for him to scare them into paying their bills. Recalling how he would sometimes offer the children candy and rub “their rough bullet heads,” he has the thought that maybe he should have poisoned the treats.

Thinking of the mail-order business reminds Jesse that he had trouble with one of his former customers’ grandchildren just today. He starts to tell Grace about what happened, then asks if she is awake. She mumbles quietly, probably telling him to go to sleep, but he explains that this customer’s grandson is now a protest leader. His coworker Big Jim C. “had to whip that nigger’s ass today.”

Jesse explains with bitter laughter how the protestors had formed a line at the courthouse to register to vote, blocking traffic, singing, and refusing to move. Jesse’s former customer’s grandson was the protest leader, so Big Jim C. decided to target him, beating him and a few other leaders before taking them to jail. This is when Jesse got to the jail and was tasked with making the protest leaders stop their singing.

Like Big Jim C., Jesse decided to target the protest leader, who was already bleeding and moaning on the ground of his cell. Jesse prodded the man with his cattle prod and told him to make the protestors stop singing. When the man didn’t respond, Jesse prodded him again and watched him roll around in his urine-stained pants, blood coming out of his mouth. Jesse pauses his story for a moment, noticing that he “began to hurt all over with that peculiar excitement.” He then explains (more to himself now than to Grace) how he yelled at the man to stop not just the singing, but to stop disrupting the town with these protests.

Jesse stops speaking and, in a flashback, he’s prodding the protest leader as the man rolls in the dirt of the cell, unable to even scream in pain. Remembering he is not supposed to kill the man, Jesse stops for a minute, before angrily asking him if he’s had enough. The man is silent, but the other protestors continue singing and Jesse instinctively kicks the man in the jaw, thinking to himself, “this ain’t no nigger, this is a goddamn bull.” Again, he asks if the man has had enough, but the man is now unconscious. Jesse is shaking and he feels, for a minute, “close to a very peculiar, particular joy.”

As Jesse moves to leave the cell, the protest leader calls out, “White man.” Jesse stops in surprise and grabs his genitals, though he’s not sure why. Badly injured on the floor, the man asks Jesse if he remembers “Old Julia,” explaining that Mrs. Julia Blossom was his grandmother and asking if Jesse calls Black women by their names yet. Before passing out again, he tells Jesse that the protestors will not stop singing until white men like him lose their minds.

Looking at the unconscious protest leader, Jesse suddenly remembers that this man—who he has seen at several protests over the past year—was indeed the grandson of Julia Blossom (“Old Julia”), one of his mail-order customers he hadn’t seen in years. In another flashback, Jesse walks into Julia’s yard and smiles at a 10-year-old version of the man, asking if Old Julia is home. The boy stares at him before answering, “Don’t no Old Julia live here.” Jesse insists that this is her house and the boy, calling Jesse “white man,” says that nobody by that name lives here. The words white man echo in Jesse’s head as he starts to call out for Old Julia. Julia doesn’t respond.

In the silence, Jesse sees the boy-aged version of the protest leader looking at him with malevolence and begins to feel that he is trapped in a nightmare.  He asks the boy if Julia Blossom (“Old Julia”) has gone out and, when the boy doesn’t respond, he asks him to tell her he stopped by and will stop by again next week. He asks the boy if he wants chewing gum, to which the boy responds, “I don’t want nothing you got, white man,” before walking inside the house and closing the door.

Back at the jail house, Jesse looks down at the protest leader’s nearly dead body and thinks how he would like to pistol whip him until his head bursts open. Jesse begins to shake with what he thinks is rage, noticing that the protestors’ singing has become “monstrous.” Unable to control himself, he shouts to the man that he is lucky that white men like him “pump some white blood” into Black women, concluding with, “Here’s what I got for all the black bitches in the world—!” To his horror, he feels himself become erect and promptly leaves the cell.

Still furious, Jesse starts to complain about the protesters’ singing. The singing is familiar and oddly comforting. He understands that they are singing to God, asking for mercy for themselves and, sometimes, for him, too. He isn’t sure what “their heaven” is like or what God could be for them, though it is probably the same for everyone. He tries to be a good person and it’s not his fault that Black people go against the Bible. He concludes that he is only doing his duty by “protecting white people from the niggers and the niggers from themselves.”

Jesse remembers that there are a lot of “good niggers” around who would smile and quietly thank him when it was over, which gives him a sense that this trouble will pass. The young protestors had changed the words to some of their songs—he hadn’t looked at Black people when they were singing before, but he did not like the hatred he was seeing in these young peoples’ faces, hatred that seemed harder than his club. Thinking of how worn out he is from work each day, he suddenly feels he is “drowning in niggers” and it will never end. He considers that maybe these songs are not about getting Black people into heaven but forcing white people into Hell.

The older white men who taught Jesse how to be a man have become quieter and less confident telling certain jokes. He misses the ease of how life used to be, before people stayed home with their families because they were afraid of what would happen next. There have been some bombings around town recently, and he worries what would happen if Black people got their hands on dynamite. Jesse and his white men friends have considered searching Black peoples’ homes for weapons, but they worry protestors from the North would come down or that word would spread too quickly in the Black community for the search to be effective.

One problem is that Black men have access to guns through the Army and they could stockpile weapons like protestors in Europe and Africa. Jesse and his friends still curse the government and make jokes, but they are afraid to target the Black folks in town. It would be easier if the town were more overtly segregated, and they could set fire to all of the Black people by torching a single neighborhood. Despite the fact that any fire they set could spread and hurt their own families, he and his friends consider doing it anyway.

While this racial conflict feels like war, Jesse and his friends have not developed the unspoken communication and trust of true soldiers. Without the privacy they used to have, and with increased public scrutiny, they can no longer assume that they are all on the same page. They are fighting to save the civilized world, yet no one cares anymore, at least not enough to help them. He and his friends are like accomplices in a crime, unsure who might betray the rest for money or simply for the ease of confession. A part of him craves the relief of being forced to surrender.

Suddenly a line of a song comes to Jesse: “I stepped in the river at Jordan.” He can hear the melody but can’t place the song and quickly asks Grace if she is awake. She doesn’t respond. More of the song comes to him: “I stepped in the river at Jordan. / The water came to my knees.” He begins to sweat and feels a combination of fear and pleasure thinking of Black people singing this song. Even more lyrics come: “I stepped in the river at Jordan. / The water came to my waist.”

In a flashback, it is nighttime, and Jesse is in a car between his mother and father, sleepy and excited. He hears the song coming over the fields. More lyrics come to Jesse. Jesse’s father wearily suggests that they might be singing for “him” before adding that, even when mournful, Black people sound violent. Jesse’s mother tells him not to talk that way, but he instead becomes more animated, whistling and mocking the singers. Jesse thinks about Otis, a Black friend his age with whom he plays. Suddenly the thought of Otis makes him sick and he starts to shiver, inspiring his mother to put her arm around him.

Jesse says that he didn’t see Otis this morning, though he’s not sure why he says it. Jesse’s mother responds that he hasn’t seen Otis for a couple mornings, though Jesse only cares about this morning. Jesse’s father suggests that Otis’s parents were afraid to let him show himself, which confuses Jesse, who responds that Otis didn’t do anything. His father explains that Otis can’t do anything because he is a child, but that they want to make sure he won’t do anything when he’s older. His father asks Jesse to pass this warning onto Otis and he agrees.

That night in bed, Jesse is unable to sleep. The darkness weighs on him, and he wants to call to his mother but he knows his father wouldn’t approve. He hears his father make a joke and feels even more afraid since he knows they will soon have sex, which they do. He hears them moaning and the bed rocking, noticing his father’s breathing most of all.

In the morning, eight white people in a car approach the house with excitement. Jesse’s father runs to them and asks, “They got him, then?” Jesse recognizes some of the children. A woman in a fancy dress says yes, they found him early this morning. Jesse’s father asks how far he got and one of the men tells him he didn’t get far, he probably got lost in the trees or was so scared he couldn’t move. This makes everyone laugh. One of the women adds he was found near a graveyard, and they laugh more.

Two more cars approach to join the conversation, and Jesse notices that everyone looks excited. They are also all carrying food, which makes it feel to Jesse like a Fourth of July picnic. The visitors encourage Jesse’s father to hurry up and not to worry about food since they have enough for everyone. Jesse’s parents prepare for the drive and Jesse notices that he can hear the sound of singing from the visitors’ cars as they drive away.

Jesse gets in the car and sits close to his father, feeling he is about to go on a great journey. He asks if they are going on a picnic, thinking he knows where they’re going without being sure. Jesse’s father says, yes, they are going on a picnic, but “You won’t ever forget this picnic—!” Jesse asks if they are “going to see the bad nigger” who knocked down old Miss Standish. Jesse’s mother says they might see him.

Jesse has questions he wants to ask, such as “Will Otis be there?” but he doesn’t ask them because, in an odd way, he feels he already knows the answer. He notices that their friends in the other cars are way up ahead, joined by many other cars. Cars have filled in behind Jesse’s parents’ car as well. He can hear singing coming from all of the cars. He feels both happy and afraid and does not understand what is happening or who to ask. He usually goes to Otis with such questions since “Otis knew everything,” but he can’t ask Otis about this. He hasn’t seen Otis for two days, anyway.

Jesse hasn’t seen any Black people so far on the drive. They are passing houses where he knows Black people live, and yet there is no sign of life. He is used to seeing women washing their clothes, children playing, men passing them in cars or walking on foot and smiling as they tip their hats, “their eyes as warm as the sun.” Even the Black church is empty and locked up, the graveyard abandoned and without any flowers. Jesse wants to ask where everyone is but is too afraid to ask.

The hill they are driving on gets steeper and the day feels colder. Jesse’s mother and Jesse’s father look straight ahead, seeming to listen to the singing. Suddenly, Jesse feels they are strangers to him, noticing his father’s lips have a cruel curve, his body seems enormous, and his normally grey-green eyes now appear yellow. His mother looks in the car mirror and adjusts her bow, inspiring his father to laugh and say, “When that nigger looks at you, he’s going to swear he throwed his life away for nothing.”

They eventually make it to a sun-filled clearing where there are hundreds of people staring at something Jesse can’t yet see, though he assumes there is a fire, since he can smell smoke. After parking, Jesse’s father asks Jesse if he is all right. Jesse says yes. In the clearing, strangers greet Jesse, hugging and patting him, telling him how much he’s grown, which confuses him. The wind blows smoke into his eyes and nose. He’s too short to see anything, but he can hear the sounds of laughing, cursing, wrath, and something else. The spectators in the front of the crowd are full of delight at what they see, a joy that Jesse feels is “more acrid than the smoke.”

Jesse’s father picks Jesse up and puts him on his shoulders, which grants him a view of the fire. He is able to make out a chain attached to a tree, and then two Black hands bound together by the chain. The lynching victim is dropped closer to the fire, smoke pours up, and the crowd cheers with delight before he is pulled upward again. As the man is pulled up, Jesse notices his sweating and bloody head, how black and tangled his hair is. He notices how the man’s hanging head has a widow’s peak, like he and his father both have. The man’s face is mangled, dripping with blood and sweat, his hands held straight above his head.

Jesse feels the urge to say something, but he doesn’t know what. A man puts more wood on the fire and the crowd cheers. The fire grows larger, and Jesse thinks he hears the lynching victim scream. Sweat is pouring down the man’s body as he is lowered and raised again. When the man screams again, blood bubbles out of his mouth, and Jesse clings to his father out of fear, though the man’s scream is overtaken by the cheering of the crowd.

Jesse notices that the lynching victim wants death to come quickly, but the crowd wants it to be slow, and they have the control. He wonders, “What did the man do? What did he do?” but doesn’t feel he can ask his father. He is physically close to his father but experiences him as being very far away. Two of Jesse’s father’s friends are in charge of the chain now, but everyone there seems responsible for the fire. The lynching victim's pubic hair has been burned off, and Jesse smells something that is both sweet and rotten.

Jesse turns to look at his mother, whose face seems more beautiful than ever and also more strange. He feels a type of joy he has never felt before and regards the lynching victim’s hanging body as the most beautiful and terrible object he has ever seen. As he watches one of his father’s friends wield a knife, Jesse wishes that he were that man. The crowd laughs at the sight of the knife and Jesse’s father tightens his grip on Jesse’s legs. The man with the knife walks up to the hanging man’s body. As he turns and smiles the crowd goes silent.

The lynching victim looks up, and the man with the knife smiles as he takes the hanging man’s genitals in his hands, cradling them as if weighing them. Jesse feels his scrotum tighten as he notices how large the lynching victim’s penis is, much larger than Jesse’s father’s, “the largest thing he had seen till then and the blackest.” Suddenly the lynching victim is looking directly into Jesse’s eyes and Jesse screams. Just then the man with the knife castrates the hanging man and the crowd screams, too.

The crowd rushes toward the bleeding and burned hanging man, tearing at his body with their hands, knives, and stones. Jesse’s head falls downward toward his father’s. Someone throws kerosene on the hanging body, and it is engulfed in flames. Jesse’s father lowers Jesse to the ground and says that he knew Jesse would never forget this picnic. Jesse notices that, though his father is covered in sweat, his eyes are peaceful. Suddenly he feels he loves his father more than ever for carrying him through this mighty test that has revealed a key secret about life.

As Jesse’s mother laughs with the other women, Jesse’s father walks them toward the lynching victim’s dead body. The man’s head is torn apart and caved in, but it is hard to notice much else because his body is so charred. Jesse asks his father if they are going to leave the body there and his father says yes, they’ll get him eventually, then suggests they get some food before it’s all gone.

Back in the present, thinking of the protest leader in his cell, the lynching victim in the fire, and the knife that was used to kill him, Jesse becomes aroused and starts to touch himself, letting out a howling sound as he drags Grace awake. She stares at him and, laughing and crying, he starts having sex with her, whispering, “I’m going to do you like a nigger… love me just like you’d love a nigger.” Grace moans and Jesse becomes aroused thinking of the coming morning, putting more effort into their sex than usual. Before he finishes, morning arrives.