Somewhere in the Darkness by Walter Dean Myers
"Somewhere in the Darkness" by Walter Dean Myers is a poignant novel that follows the journey of fourteen-year-old Jimmy Little and his estranged father, Crab, as they navigate complex emotional terrain. As Crab approaches the end of his life due to kidney disease, he seeks to reconnect with Jimmy and clear his name of a wrongful conviction that has haunted him. Their journey takes them from New York to Chicago and back to Crab's hometown of Marion, Arkansas, where they hope to find Rydell Depuis, the man who might prove Crab's innocence.
The novel unfolds through a third-person perspective, primarily reflecting Jimmy's conflicting feelings of pity and resentment towards his father. Amidst personal struggles in school and life, Jimmy grapples with issues of identity and responsibility, influenced by Mama Jean, the woman who raised him after his mother's death. As Crab's desperate quest unfolds, their relationship evolves in a tense and ambiguous manner, culminating in a confrontation that forces them to reconcile their past and present.
Through this narrative, Myers delves into themes of family, redemption, and the challenges faced by young African American men in a complex society, offering insights into the difficulty of finding one's path amidst uncertainty. The book ultimately leaves readers contemplating the nuances of father-son relationships and the quest for personal integrity.
Somewhere in the Darkness by Walter Dean Myers
First published: 1992
Subjects: Coming-of-age, crime, family, health and illness, and race and ethnicity
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Psychological realism and social realism
Time of work: The early 1990’s
Recommended Ages: 13-18
Locale: Various homes and hotels in New York, Chicago, and Arkansas
Principal Characters:
Jimmy Little , a fourteen-year-old boy who is reunited with the father he has never knownCephus “Crab” Little , Jimmy’s father, who has escaped from prison and who is dying of kidney diseaseMama Jean , the woman who reared Jimmy while his father was in prisonRydell Depuis , the Arkansas man who presumably can confirm Crab’s innocence in a robberyMavis , a female friend whom Crab visits in ChicagoFrank , Mavis’ sixteen-year-old sonHigh John , the “conjure man” to whom Crab goes in Arkansas for relief from his pain
Form and Content
Somewhere in the Darkness revolves around both a literal and a psychological journey for fourteen-year-old Jimmy Little and his father, Crab. In the last days of his life, Jimmy’s father searches in desperation for what has been missing in his life, a closer relationship with his son. He also attempts to regain a sense of self-respect by using his last days to attempt to clear his name in the crime for which he was convicted, in the hopes that at least Jimmy will have proof of his innocence. Crab assumes that both objectives can be accomplished by taking Jimmy with him on a journey from New York to Chicago and finally back to Crab’s hometown of Marion, Arkansas, where Rydell Depuis, the man who probably committed the crime, could tell Jimmy the truth. The novel unfolds through a third-person point of view told from Jimmy’s perspective as he alternately pities and hates the man who claims to be his father but with whom he has never had a close relationship. Gradually, the reader, along with Jimmy, begins to understand Crab.
Crab reenters Jimmy’s life at a time of uncertainty for the young man. Jimmy feels both physical and mental exhaustion as he copes with academic and personal troubles during his sophomore year of high school. He is intelligent, but his grades are slipping, and he has begun to cut class and to make excuses. His peers refuse to take personal responsibility for their actions, and Jimmy is beginning to be like them. “I didn’t do nothing,” one boy says, “I just got picked.” Mama Jean, the woman who has reared Jimmy since his mother’s death and his father’s imprisonment, struggles to convince him of the importance of education and personal responsibility, but Jimmy seems to be drifting toward a dead end.
Jimmy comes home one day to find his father waiting on the stairs. Crab takes Jimmy away with him, presumably to a new life and a new job in Chicago. Jimmy, sick and bewildered at the sudden disruption in his life, is strangely attracted to and repulsed by the father he has never known. He is curious to find out more about Crab and about his family. Crab, in constant pain and dying from kidney disease, takes Jimmy on a journey from New York to Chicago, renewing old acquaintances, trying to revive a faded career as a jazz musician, and funding his travels through car theft and credit card fraud. Crab reveals that he has escaped from prison so that he will not die in a prison hospital before the truth of his innocence has been revealed, at least to Jimmy. He does not want to go to his grave with his son thinking that he had a part in shooting someone. Jimmy returns with Crab to Arkansas in a search for Rydell Depuis, Crab’s last hope to clear his name.
Crab finds him, only to have Depuis alert the police. As the police are closing in on Crab, he and Jimmy dramatically confront each other and realize that they have become father and son again, but that the relationship is complex and ambiguous and is far from ideal. Crab collapses and is hospitalized after his arrest, dying in a hospital in Arkansas. Jimmy returns to New York and Mama Jean, changed by his experience, but clearly still confused about what it means to be a man, especially an African American man, and with a resolve to be a different kind of father to his own son, if he should ever have one.
Critical Context
Somewhere in the Darkness contributes to Walter Dean Myers’ growing reputation as a novelist particularly attuned to the complexities of the relationships among young men and within families. Several of Myers’ works explore the African American experience, but the overriding issues in the novels concern the complexities of growing up and coming to terms with how one lives responsibly in a dangerous and uncertain world. Myers comes to no easy resolutions.
Myers’ novels feature young men from a variety of racial backgrounds and ages. For example, in one of his best-known novels, Scorpions (1988), he explores the friendship between two twelve-year-olds, one African American and the other Puerto Rican, both of whom must make difficult choices about gangs, drugs, and violence. Another well-known novel, Fallen Angels (1988), takes a seventeen-year-old boy out of Harlem to Vietnam, where he copes with the dangers of war and issues of bigotry and interracial tension. Myers’ young men must make increasingly difficult choices in a world full of danger and ambiguity. These novels are psychologically stark, but certainly not hopeless, landscapes.
Bibliography
Bishop, Rudine Sims. Presenting Walter Dean Myers. Boston: Twayne, 1990.
Burshtein, Karen. Walter Dean Myers. New York: Rosen, 2004.
Jordan, Denise M. Walter Dean Myers: Writer for Real Teens. Berkeley Heights, N.J.: Enslow, 1999.
McElmeel, Sharron L. “A Profile: Walter Dean Myers. Book Report 20, no. 2 (September/October, 2001): 42-45.
Smith, Amanda. “Walter Dean Myers.” Publishers Weekly 239, nos. 32/33 (July 20, 1992): 217-218.