Daddy Was a Number Runner by Louise Meriwether
"Daddy Was a Number Runner" by Louise Meriwether is a coming-of-age story set in a struggling urban environment, focusing on the life of an eleven-year-old girl named Francie. The narrative unfolds during a school lunch break, where Francie collects number slips for her father, who is involved in a local numbers racket, a prevalent form of gambling in their community. This numbers game serves as a backdrop for exploring themes of survival, family dynamics, and identity formation.
As Francie navigates her responsibilities, she dreams of a better life, symbolized by a winning number that briefly brings her family some financial relief. However, the struggle for stability is ever-present, highlighted by her father's arrest and the family's ongoing challenges, including job loss and social pressures. The story also delves into Francie's relationships, particularly with her friend Sukie, illustrating the impact of their respective home lives. Over time, Francie's experiences culminate in a transformative moment of assertiveness, showcasing her growth from innocence to a more resilient adolescent. This poignant tale reflects the complexities of life in a marginalized community, emphasizing resilience in the face of adversity.
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Daddy Was a Number Runner by Louise Meriwether
First published: 1967
Type of plot: Coming of age
Time of work: Summer, 1934
Locale: Harlem, New York City
Principal Characters:
Francie , the bright eleven-year-old narratorJames , her fatherJessie , her motherSukie Maceo , her best friend
The Story
The story opens during a school lunch break, with eleven-year-old Francie collecting number slips for her father; it ends with her father released from jail after being arrested by the police trying to show some power in this mob-controlled neighborhood. Between those two incidents, readers are granted a detailed and revealing look into the naturalistic world of one family's struggles to survive, and a prepubescent girl's struggle for her own identity.
The major details of the story circle around the numbers racket that permeates the community. Everyone plays and everyone dreams of the big win that will get them out of this world. When Francie's number 514—a number based on her dream of a catfish—pays off $215, the family eats well for about a week, but as Francie notes, they soon are back to fried cabbage and ham hocks just as if the big hit had never happened.
Francie's journey toward adulthood is given in terms of this numbers game. Although only eleven years of age, she is responsible enough to collect the number slips and take them home to hide in a buffet drawer. When the police raid her railroad flat after the big win, they do not find the receipts they need for an arrest, but they take Daddy off anyway, charged with assault and battery for protecting Francie. She takes the numbers downstairs to Frenchy, the local agent for Big Dutch, and tells him that her father has been arrested. In this crisis, Francie demonstrates her resourcefulness and intelligence.
The rest of Francie's family has similar struggles in the story. After losing his job as a house painter, her father tries to help the family by playing the piano at parties over the weekend, but he does not make much money this way. Francie's two brothers may be cutting school to hang out with the Ebony Dukes, the local gang. Jessie, her mother, goes off as a domestic day worker for Mrs. Schwartz, and at the end of the story reveals that she has gone to the relief agency and applied for assistance. Daddy is hurt that she has done this but, as she tells her husband, his pride will not feed the children.
Besides incidents concerning family and the numbers racket, the story circles around Francie's friend Sukie. They are best friends, but Sukie fights with Francie whenever the pressures of her own life—her father a drunk, her sister a prostitute—get to her. By the end of the story, the incidents of Francie's life have made her as tough, and, instead of running away from Sukie, she seeks her out to fight. She has become the aggressor, and she beats up Sukie. The fight signals Francie's development into a tougher, more capable adolescent.
Bibliography
Bell, Bernard W. The Afro-American Novel and Its Tradition. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1987. This comprehensive study of the African American novel places Daddy Was a Number Runner in its twentieth century context. This novel about growing up black in Harlem, Bell argues, is a bildungsroman and an example of traditional realism.
Dandridge, Rita. "From Economic Insecurity to Disintegration: A Study of Character in Louise Meriwether's Daddy Was a Number Runner." Negro American Literary Forum 9 (Fall, 1975): 82-85. Argues that "the three interacting factors in the novel—economic insecurity, loss of self-esteem, and self-debasement—all operate in the life of each of the Coffins and contribute to the disintegration of the family unit."
McKay, Nellie. Afterword to Daddy Was a Number Runner, by Louise Meriwether. New York: Feminist Press, 1986. A detailed analysis of the historical context of the book, which McKay calls the "personal side of the story of living and growing up feeling entrapped by race and class in the black urban ghetto between the two great wars."
Russell, Sandi. Render Me My Song: African-American Women Writers from Slavery to the Present. New York: Pandora, 2002. Chronological study of African American women's literature; includes a chapter on urban realism featuring Meriwether alongside five other female African American realist authors of the 1930's to the 1960's.
Walker, Melissa. Down from the Mountaintop: Black Women's Novels in the Wake of the Civil Rights Movement, 1966-1989. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1991. Chapter 3—"Harbingers of Change: Harlem"—contains an excellent analysis of Daddy Was a Number Runner that shows how "the protagonist's determined effort to acquire historical sensibility" is at the center of the novel. Argues that Francie "matures as she learns to understand how the public arena informs private lives."