Intruder In The Dust

This final section foregrounds Race and Justice as Lucas goes free and the guilty party is finally arrested. However, the racism of the society forecloses the possibility of real justice. When the men return to the town, Charles studies the streets. He expects to see the mob, only to find that most of the people have returned to their homes, realizing that they will not be able to murder Lucas. The townspeople slink away, dispersing as rapidly as they assembled. This disgusts Charles. For nothing, the mob was willing to lynch an innocent man, and now that his innocence has been proven, they are able to return to their homes and pretend that nothing happened. Lucas may be saved, Charles thinks, but there is no justice to be delivered against the people who were prepared to commit murder, nor against the society that tolerates such acts of brutal racist violence.

Charles expresses this horror to his uncle, who shares his disgust but advises Charles that he must continue trying to change the world through his actions. Invoking The Future of the American South, Gavin says that these small deeds will help the South to build a better, more egalitarian society. Justice may not have been done in terms of the mob, but Charles’s individual actions demonstrate that white southerners have the capacity to grow.

With Lucas’s help, the sheriff arrests Crawford. He is taken to jail, but he acquires a pistol and dies by suicide. This series of events—the capture and death of Crawford Gowrie—is not directly depicted by the novel. The narrative, much like the townspeople, has little concern for the fate of a white murderer. No crowd gathered to threaten Crawford; people cared so little that he was able to sneak a pistol into his cell to shoot himself. The quiet, ignoble death of Crawford contrasts with the detailed account of the lynching Lucas faces for a crime he did not commit. Again, different standards are applied to men of different races even though they are accused of the same crime. Crawford’s death by suicide furthermore prevents him from being tried, which means Lucas will never receive the official exoneration he deserves.

At the end of the novel, Lucas visits Gavin’s office. He wants to settle his legal costs but, as Gavin notes, there is a deeper meaning to his actions. The ending of the novel provides a mirror to the exploration of Debt and Pride in the opening chapter. At the beginning of the novel, the young Charles tried to offer money to Lucas in exchange for his kindness, only for Lucas to refuse him out of pride. At the end of the novel, Lucas tries to pay Gavin for legal services that were not really rendered. Gavin points this out and begins to haggle with Lucas about the resolution, before conceding that he will allow Lucas to pay him two dollars. This is an arbitrary sum; what matters is that the arrangement allows Lucas to retain his pride. He does not want charity; he wants to be treated like anyone else. The gesture of payment makes his relationship with Gavin purely transactional, freeing him from any sense of indebtedness or subordination to the white man. His insistence on paying Gavin mirrors Charles’s insistence on paying him at the beginning of the book, but unlike Charles, he succeeds in getting the other person to accept his payment. He then demands his receipt, documentary evidence of his ability to engage with the legal system as any white person might.