Masculinity In Chester Himes If He Hollers, Let Him Go

Many attributes and behaviors that society considers as masculine are typically associated with the idea of power. Overemphasis on power, particularly in the forms of physical and sexual aggression, can be described as hypermasculinity. African-American men have a long history of being subject to emasculation in many aspects, and thus are forced to perform their masculinity in other ways. Overcompensation results from hypermasculinity, and consequently contributes to the perpetuation of black males as more physically and sexually violent than their white male counterparts. In Chester Himes’s novel, If He Hollers, Let Him Go, Himes provides a representation of toxic, internalized masculinity through the main protagonist, Bob Jones. Bob’s experiences

are centralized around Himes’s inexplicit commentary of social hierarchy in America: whites are on top, and blacks are at the bottom. As a black man who lives in Los Angeles during the 1940s, Bob is constantly being forced to internalize his experiences with racism in his work and social life. These experiences feed his feelings of frustration over his lack of autonomy and begin to negatively affect his relationships with those around him. His frustration becomes increasingly worse over time and begins to slowly manifest into monstrous outbursts of sexual violence and murderous intent. Bob’s character serves as a vivid depiction of how society can largely affect one’s capacity for evil. Thus, his toxic hypermasculinity is a reaction to his state of emasculation as a way of compensating for his inability to control and exercise his roles in power.
At work, Bob finds himself with little to no authority because his existence as a black man places him at the bottom ranks of social hierarchy.

Bob works in shipbuilding as a leaderman, and one of his black workers asks him to bring another tacker to help. Bob asks Hank, a white leaderman, for a tacker; Hank goes on to claim that all of them are busy. Even when Bob gestures to “a couple of tackers lounging over at the port rail by the generators, gabbing,” Hank blatantly lies and claims that they are busy as well, and suggests that Bob go ask “another cracker bastard” (15). Bob holds a leadership position, but his authority is not accepted nor respected because he is black. His white coworkers refuse to let him exercise his power. In fact, even when he finally finds Madge, an available tacker, she refuses to work with him, exclaiming, “I ain’t gonna work with no nigger!” Not thinking, Bob retorts, “Screw you then, you cracker bitch!” (16). Bob’s position as a leaderman is stripped from him over this comment, further enforcing the social hierarchy he is forced to live by. Women are typically placed towards the bottom ranks of social hierarchy. In society, they are typically expected to accept whatever they are told, and suffer negative repercussions if they do not. If Madge was to report a white male leader for making sexist remarks, she would most likely be told to ignore him or not take him personally. However, because he is black, society has placed Bob even further from

agency than women are. White leadermen refuse to work with him, and a white woman’s words hold more weight against Bob’s existence as a man. When he loses his job, Bob “[gets] that crazy, scared feeling [he’d] waked [sic] up with that morning” (21). He feels trapped and frustrated, realizing that his blackness overrides his maleness. He is rendered powerless—powerless over both his job and the color of his skin—the exact opposite of what society says a man should be. However, not only is Bob’s authoritative role taken from him in his work, it is also stripped from him in his own personal relationships.