41 pages • 1 hour read
George SchuylerBlack No More: Being an Account of the Strange and Wonderful Workings of Science in the Land of the Free
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1931A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 1-3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary
Max, the protagonist of Black No More, smokes a thin cigar outside a cabaret in New York City, as he reflects on his low mood. It is New Year’s Eve in the year 1933, and he and his girlfriend Minnie have just broken up. Max wonders why Minnie, who is a light-skinned, biracial woman, has been so dissatisfied lately, and he decides that he, a black man, has been too generous with her and that she is “[s]tuck on her color” (1). Max’s friend Bunny arrives, and they discuss the break-up; Bunny suggests Max give him Minnie’s ticket to the New Year’s Eve party at the cabaret so they can have a good time together. At this point, the narrator provides the reader with background information regarding Max and Bunny’s friendship. The two men met when they were soldiers in France during the first World War, and they share a preference for “yellow women” (2).
While enjoying their ginger ales at their table, Max and Bunny discuss women just as a group of white party-goers enters the club. One slender, red-haired woman catches their eye, and Max immediately identifies her as a Southern “cracker.” A man from this group approaches Max and Bunny, asking them if they know where he can locate some liquor; after Max delivers the alcohol, he is disappointed when the man fails to invite them to join the group. Undeterred, Max asks the red-haired woman to dance, and she rejects him, calling him a “nigger” (5). Max learns from a waiter that the woman is from Atlanta, and he marvels at the strangeness of the entire situation: “Gee, but white folks were funny. They didn’t want black folks’ game and yet they were always frequenting Negro resorts.” (6)
Max and Bunny leave the club at three o’clock in the morning, and Max takes a taxi home where he falls asleep and has a dream about the red-haired woman. He wakes up to the telephone ringing, and when he answers, Bunny tells him about an article in the morning’s newspaper about Dr. Crookman, who has just returned to Harlem from his studies in Germany with a method to turn black people into white people.
Bunny jokes that the doctor’s treatment center, soon to open in Harlem, where both men live, is an ideal opportunity for Max. Though Max reacts irritably to the suggestion, he investigates Dr. Crookman’s discovery himself over breakfast, considering what it would be like to be “the first Negro to try it out” (7). Max finishes his breakfast quickly, making his way to the doctor’s hotel, and he finds both black and white reporters swarming the doctor and two other men, a realtor named Chuck Foster and a banker named Hank Johnson. Dr. Crookman tells the story of his inspiration to create the process that offers “the Negro [a way] to solve his problem in America” (8), acknowledging that Foster and Johnson provided him with the funding he needed to make his discovery. After the interview, Max approaches the doctor, who recognizes him immediately.
The chapter concludes with a description of Max’s repeated visits to Dr. Crookman’s sanitarium and his determination to be the first black man to undergo treatment. On the day of Max’s treatment, Johnson and Foster marvel at the numbers of black men and women lining up for their turns, celebrating the money they are sure to make. Max anxiously approaches the room where he will be treated, observing that the chair in which he is to be strapped appears to be “a cross between a dentist’s chair and an electric chair” (13).
Chapter 2 Summary
As Max recovers from his treatment in the sanitarium, he looks in the mirror to see his new reflection. His skin color has paled, his lips and nose have changed shape, and his hair is now blonde, straight, and smooth. As he leaves the sanitarium, Max feels a sense of relief and a joy inspired by the fact that he is “now indistinguishable from nine-tenths of the people of the United States” (15). Journalists pounce on Max, but he refuses to answer any questions without payment for his story. When he escapes the fray by jumping into a taxi, he finds an attractive woman already in the cab and learns that she is a reporter from The Scimitar named Sybil Smith. She offers Max a thousand dollars for his story and accepts his invitation to have dinner with him the same night. Not long after Max gives the interview, he is irritated to see his picture in the newspaper; after all, he had endured a painful process “in order to escape the conspicuousness of dark skin and now he was being made conspicuous because he once had dark skin” (17).
That night, Max and Sybil go to Times Square to have dinner and go dancing, and though Max feels happy, he is bored. He thinks of the pleasures of his old haunts in Harlem, comparing the fun times he used to have with his current experience, when the sight of a group of beautiful white women distracts him from his disappointment. After Max takes Sybil home at three in the morning, he finds a taxi to take him to Harlem, and he goes to Boogie’s, his local bar, where Bunny must vouch for him to be allowed in. Bunny cannot believe Max’s new appearance, and Max reveals that he intends to go to Atlanta to “make up for lost time” (19). Max gives Bunny money so he can also be transformed, and the two men walk to Dr. Crookman’s building where the words “BLACK-NO-MORE” appear on a bright electric sign. Max and Bunny see thousands of black people milling around the sanitarium, and as every patient leaves the building, no longer black, the crowd becomes increasingly fascinated. Max says goodbye to Bunny, explaining he can’t wait for him, and Bunny hints at Max’s interest in the woman who rebuffed him on New Year’s Eve who just happens to live in Atlanta. Max leaves Harlem in a taxi an hour later and heads to Penn Station to catch a train.
Chapter 3 Summary
Two weeks after Max is transformed into a white man, Dr. Crookman, Chuck Foster, and Hank Johnson discuss their business and the reaction of the public to the Black-No-More treatment. Johnson is confident about their success while Foster wonders if a law will be passed that forbids their treatment in some way. Dr. Crookman agrees with Foster, quoting from various newspapers from around the country, but Johnson reassures them, explaining that he can always resort to bribery if the government tries to get involved. One newspaper article from Tallahassee warns readers that women will marry white men and bear black children. As Johnson reflects on his career, he, “one of the leading Negroes of the world” (26), feels pride in his fraudulent accomplishments. Chuck Foster is doubtful about the future and skeptical about the success of this current business. Dr. Crookman, “a great lover of his race” (28) is tired, having worked harder these last two weeks than ever before. As the three men conclude their meeting, the beautiful light-skinned Mrs. Crookman enters the room to remind Dr. Crookman that it is time to go home.
In Harlem, the banks are busy as local people take out their money to pay for Dr. Crookman’s treatment. Meanwhile, Madame Blandish’s hair-straightening salon, a local Harlem business, is quiet. When Madame Blandish sees a regular customer pass her by, she confronts the customer only to learn that the young woman is saving her money for the Black-No-More treatment.
Chapters 1-3 Analysis
The first three chapters of the novel take place in Harlem, a predominantly black enclave of New York City. The themes of racism, hatred, and fear as well as the presence of deeply flawed individuals who are driven by greed and power appear in all of these chapters, setting the tone for the rest of the novel and introducing important characters like Max, Bunny, and Crookman, the inventor of the radical Black-No-More treatment.
While trying to take Max’s mind off of his recent break-up, Bunny and Max survey the scene before them at the New Year’s Eve party they are attending. Girl-watching appears to soothe Max’s nerves. Max, a black man, is confident in himself, so confident that he does not think twice about asking a white woman to dance; though he is rebuffed cruelly, Max lingers on thoughts of this woman at the end of this night and beyond, an unexpected reaction to being treated with such unwarranted hostility and racial prejudice. Max’s insensitivity to the woman’s comment demonstrates Max’s willingness to overlook racist behavior, an important facet of his character and one that enables him to become wealthy and powerful later in the book.
Max’s clever decision to save the story of his transformation for the highest bidder reveals his strategic mindset, especially when money is concerned. Though the narrator does not provide the reader with much information about Max’s background and experience in Harlem, the reader can deduce that it was not remarkably comfortable nor profitable to Max, not financially nor romantically; as soon as he can, Max undergoes the Black-No-More treatment, certain that life as a white man will deliver everything he hopes for, including access to the white woman who insulted him at the New Year’s Eve gathering.
In Chapter 3, the newspaper headlines capture the attention of Dr. Crookman and his investors, and the motif of newspapers and news articles gathers momentum. The power of the published word appears to scandalize Dr. Crookman’s invention while also popularizing it. Black men and women throng outside of the Harlem sanitarium, and the narrator depicts the chaos and violence with vivid imagery that emphasizes the emotional depth of the experience without sentimentalizing it.
