Introduction Summary

Written in the 1940s, this novel fictionalizes the experience of being black in America at a specific time in the country's history - specifically, in the early days of its involvement in World War II. The experience of being at war nationally is mirrored on a smaller scale in the struggle of the book's central character, Robert Jones, as he attempts to wage a personal war against racism. Other themes explored by the narrative include the nature of freedom and, on both a literal and metaphorical level, the tension between darkness and lightness.

This introduction, written by noted African-American academic Hinton Als, discusses the author's work within the context of two other noted black writers of the period - the more sentimental, idealistic, and professionally successful Richard Wright and James Baldwin. Als writes of the literary and personal tensions between the three men...