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Victoria Rogers
Fonny’s friend. After many years apart, Daniel and Fonny run into one another on the street not long before Fonny is arrested. Going back to Fonny’s apartment, they drink beer and talk about Daniel’s experience in prison, where he has spent the last two years on an unjust charge. As Tish makes them dinner, Daniel explains that he was accused of stealing a car even though he can’t even drive. Because he was carrying marijuana at the time of his arrest, though, it was easy for the prosecutors to convince him to take a bargain, saying that if he agreed to plead guilty for the theft, they’d give him a reduced sentence and drop the drug charge. This is what he did, he tells Fonny and Tish, and though he did regain his freedom after two years, his time in jail has changed him forever, as he was raped and beaten as a prisoner. Furthermore, Daniel is with Fonny when he’s arrested shortly after this evening, making him an important person in Fonny’s case, since he can testify that Fonny was at home when Mrs. Rogers was raped. However, the District Attorney has Daniel arrested and tries to use his previous record against him, beating him and possibly even drugging him so that he’ll agree to change his testimony.
Daniel Carty Quotes in If Beale Street Could Talk
The If Beale Street Could Talk quotes below are all either spoken by Daniel Carty or refer to Daniel Carty. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Troubled About My Soul Quotes
They said—they still say—stole a car. Man, I can’t even drive a car, and I tried to make my lawyer—but he was really their lawyer, dig, he worked for the city—prove that, but he didn’t. And, anyway, I wasn’t in no car when they picked me up. But I had a little grass on me. I was on my stoop. And so they come and picked me up, like that, you know, it was about midnight, and they locked me up and then the next morning they put me in the lineup and somebody said it was me stole the car—that car I ain’t seen yet. And so—you know—since I had that weed on me, they had me anyhow and so they said if I would plead guilty they’d give me a lighter sentence. If I didn’t plead guilty, they’d throw me the book. Well […] I was alone, baby, wasn’t nobody, and so I entered the guilty plea. Two years!
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Man, it was bad. Very bad. And it’s bad now. Maybe I’d feel different if I had done something and got caught. But I didn’t do nothing. They were just playing with me, man, because they could. And I’m lucky it was only two years, you dig? Because they can do with you whatever they want. Whatever they want. And they dogs, man. I really found out, in the slammer, what Malcolm and them cats was talking about. The white man’s got to be the devil. He sure ain’t a man. Some of the things I saw, baby, I’ll be dreaming about until the day I die.
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Daniel Carty Character Timeline in If Beale Street Could Talk
The timeline below shows where the character Daniel Carty appears in If Beale Street Could Talk. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Troubled About My Soul
...Tish was friends with a confrontational girl named Geneva who got into a scrap with Daniel, one of Fonny’s friends. When Tish tried to pull Daniel off of Geneva, Fonny tried...
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...that you were together, in the room on Bank Street, along with an old friend, Daniel Carty,” he says, explaining that—unfortunately—this testimony “counts for nothing.”
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Outlining the difficulties of Fonny’s case, Hayward informs Tish and Sharon that Daniel has been arrested by the D.A. and “is being held incommunicado.” In fact, Hayward isn’t...
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...Hayward, Tish thinks back to before Fonny was arrested. In the memory, Fonny bumps into Daniel on the street after many years of not seeing him. The friends then return to...
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“I was alone, baby, […] so I entered the guilty plea,” Daniel says, lamenting the fact that he spent the next two years of his life in...
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...all what happens to a young black man like Fonny. Finally, Hayward succeeds in visiting Daniel in jail, but he can’t continue to see him unless he becomes his lawyer. Because...
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...afraid of me.” With this, they part ways, and Tish goes to the apartment, where Daniel is crying and talking about how he was raped in prison. That night, the police...
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Zion
...“principal witness,” but Tish knows that Fonny’s case is still a difficult one, especially since Daniel has been taken to a prison outside the city, where Hayward is now trying hard...
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