The Sellout: Chapter 19 Summary & Analysis

There are only about ten people at the meeting. Foy has recently been in the news because his many children have decided to sue him for the anguish caused by his frequent media appearances. The narrator concludes that there is “no doubt the Dum Dum Donut Intellectuals [are] dying.” He sits down at the back next to King Cuz, and reads that ever since the appearance of the Wheaton Academy, housing prices and graduation rates have risen.

Foy begins speaking, saying that he has a “secret weapon” he plans to use against the Wheaton Academy. He holds up his own rewritten novel, Tom Soarer, announcing that it is “a WME, a Weapon of Mass Education!” In desperation, Foy has called three famous African American leaders to join the meeting, whom the narrator will not name for legal reasons. Then an argument emerges among the members about whether they would rather be born in the United States or in Africa. The narrator is furious that anyone would suggest slavery was worth it just so he can now enjoy the luxuries of contemporary American life.

After one of the Intellectuals calls Dickens a “hellhole,” King Cuz leaps to the city’s defense. The narrator is surprised to hear Cuz speak for the first time at a meeting. The narrator takes his father’s picture from the wall and slips out. While he is untying his horse, Foy comes out and gives him a pitying look. The narrator asks Foy if he owns the old, racist Little Rascals movies; Foy angrily shakes his head in response. Foy places a copy of Tom Soarer in the narrator’s saddlebag. It is inscribed: “To the Sellout, Like father, like son…”

The narrator rides off, annoyed. He realizes that even if he does achieve his goal of bringing Dickens back, no one will greet the news with “fanfare or fireworks.” He realizes that the only reward he will get for bringing back the city is “Hominy’s wide smile.”