Train Ride by John Steptoe

First published: 1971; illustrated

Type of work: Social realism, adventure tale

Themes: Race and ethnicity

Time of work: The 1960’s

Recommended Ages: 10-13

Locale: New York City

Principal Characters:

• Charles, a black youth living somewhere in the ghettos of New York City
• Freddy, Charles’s neighbor and best friend, another black who takes the train ride
• Billy, and
• Terrence, two other friends who accompany Charles on his excursion downtown

The Story

One summer day in New York City, Charles and his friends tire of playing on the streets and decide to do something different. They notice, as usual in the extremely hot weather, people emerging from the train station at the corner of their block. None of the boys in the group has ever been on the train before, but Charles—who identifies himself as “the smartest one”—knows that the train goes into the city, although no one is sure of what “the city” is. Charles is the only one who has been there, but he does not know directions nor does he realize what the city truly is.

Acting on an impulse and primarily because they have nothing else to do, the four children decide to go for a train ride. All of them are scared as they realize they are disobeying their parents in leaving without permission. They have no money, so they sneak over the iron gate to the train station and manage to smuggle themselves aboard the next train.

They exit the train at Forty-second Street, where they see things previously unknown to them. First, they notice a block full of motion-picture houses, many of which are showing “dirty movies”; they also see clothing stores that carry what they call “dynamite” clothing. Their main activity and object of interest, however, is an arcade full of game machines and guns. Two or three of them have some coins in their pockets, and so they quickly use their quarters in attempts to win prizes, but fail to do so. Their money goes quickly; they then watch others play games until they become bored with this, and so they return to the street, where they simply watch people, look at the signs, and display interest for the films in the theaters.

Eventually someone realizes that the four boys must return to the train station and attempt to go home. There is a sudden realization that it is late and that all of them are in trouble, and they deal with this by insulting and blaming one another for the difficulties. They are in luck, however, when the train station clerk, realizing the desperateness of their plight, lets them board the train for the trip home, even though they have no money for fare. The trip is mostly a sad one, as they realize a beating awaits each of them when they do return to their parents. The next day, all of them meet on the street again, where they discuss and brag about their excursion the night before. All of the boys agree that the train trip was worth the beating, and each resolves to go back to the city again, but such a trip is seen as happening in the distant future.

Context

Train Ride is a book written by a black author specifically calculated to accommodate the reading desires of lower-income black children living in large cities. Steptoe accomplishes this objective in several ways: First, Train Ride is written in black dialect; the author not only records dialogue in dialect but also tells the entire story in this manner. Second, the setting is entirely “black,” which is to say that the location described and the activities depicted are all commonplace in the black environment of large urban centers in the late 1960’s. Third, all the characters are black; at least all the main ones are, while the race of other characters is indeterminate and inconsequential. Finally, the moral of the tale—that blacks must pay a price (in this case a beating) for knowledge of the mainstream society—comes from a particularly ethnic frame even if its application is in no way limited to the black outlook.

In addition to being a product of black America written for young black urban readers, Train Ride is also an outgrowth of the 1960’s. Steptoe makes every attempt to capture the reality of life as these children experience it. It is a time when everyone, specifically children coming of age, must take chances—do the daring—to work effectually for the improvement of self and the social all. Thus society itself is shown to be a place replete with pornographic films and unseemly game arcades and, more immediately, a place were the youths must return home to accept beatings from their parents. Steptoe’s effort is to record the world as it is likely to reveal itself to his target audience.

Thus the train ride itself becomes, vaguely, a metaphor for the movement of the individual within his immediate society and then within the society in general. The boys are wrong to take the trip in defiance of reason and in disobedience to their parents; moreover, they take it for the wrong reason—to escape boredom. Yet they are correct in wanting to learn, to see, to do, and to have new experiences. It becomes the right choice.