Walkin' the Dog by Walter Mosley

First published: 1999

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Social realism

Time of work: 1990’s

Locale: Watts, Los Angeles, California

Principal Characters:

• Socrates Fortlow, an ex-convict attempting to live a straight and quiet life
• Killer, Fortlow’s dog, who has lost two of his legs and manages to live an astonishingly full life
• Darryl, a young, wayward boy whom Socrates treats as his own son
• Aunt Bellandra, Socrates’ aunt, who often provides philosophical commentary on the African American experience

The Novel

Walkin’ the Dog is the second novel in Walter Mosley’s Fortlow series, featuring Socrates Fortlow, an ex-convict who has settled down to live a quiet life, but who is constantly challenged by events in his neighborhood and community that make it difficult for him to remain a peaceful man. His difficulty is that he cannot ignore injustice. He realizes, however, that fighting that injustice may jeopardize his current situation: For the first time in his life, Socrates may have the opportunity to live a normal life with a decent job and home. He is barely able to believe his good fortune, even when he is offered a promotion at the produce market where he works. Socrates wonders if he wants the added responsibility the promotion entails. He values his independence, and a part of him would prefer not to give up some of that independence in return for a better job.

Socrates lives in a high-crime neighborhood but has managed to stay out of jail for nine years. He has a modest and very circumscribed domestic life that includes a two-legged dog named Killer. It is hard for him to live on an even keel, when the police continue to pester him, trying to link Socrates to various crimes in his area. Inured to police suspicion, Socrates just barely manages to keep his temper, although he stands up for his rights and will not be bullied.

The novel takes the form of a series of vignettes, complete in themselves as short stories but linked by Socrates’ continual troubles with the law. These run-ins culminate in his campaign to protest the violent crimes of a police officer who has abused and even killed African Americans. Socrates turns himself into a walking billboard, and though at first he seems destined to be arrested, he is soon joined by others who share his concerns. Ultimately, one man’s protests become a community’s cause, which in turn generates media attention and pressure on the police department to discipline and punish its own. His success represents a double triumph for Socrates, since his first impulse was simply to murder the officer. It strengthens his resolve to seek ways to channel his rage into socially responsible behavior. At the same time, he refuses to accept the status quo; he continues to take risks that he knows may result in his return to prison.

The Characters

Socrates Fortlow is not a conventional hero. He has served half his life in an Indiana prison for committing murder and rape. Although he is nearly sixty, he is a powerful man who is just barely slowing down and learning to exercise some caution and prudence. He even mentors a young teen, Darryl, becoming a surrogate father to the boy, counseling him, and confiding in him.

Darryl tends to act out, hitting a girl at school and behaving in antisocial ways that Socrates knows can lead to no good end. However, Darryl is basically a good kid who needs the kind of discipline that Socrates can offer. Indeed, Socrates makes Darryl his confidant to a remarkable degree given their difference in ages. Darryl reciprocates, asking Socrates hard questions about his own actions and in general motivating Socrates to continue setting a good example.

Aunt Bellandra provides an adjunct to Socrates’s own thoughts about what it means to be an African American. He often remembers her pithy sayings and observations about African American life, and especially about African American men. She is present in his consciousness as he formulates his own proper identity.

Critical Context

Mosley has been praised for his powerful evocation of African Americans and their milieu. His work portrays African Americans interacting with one another, creating both their problems and their solutions. While the white power structure certainly impinges on these African American characters, the characters are not victims. On the contrary, they are accorded their full humanity and the right, so to speak, to make their own mistakes and to achieve their own successes as individuals and as a people.

Mosley has emphasized that in Fortlow he created an African American thinker, a representative of African American consciousness. This is probably why the Fortlow stories have relatively little plot or action. They are centered, instead, on the development of character and theme. As a result, Mosley’s main character seems to resemble the skeptical philosopher he is named after. Socrates doubts the certitudes that others express, because he realizes the precariousness of not only his own position but also those of others: He knows that the African Americans he encounters might, like himself, end up in prison, precisely because their worldviews are flawed and do not take into account so many of the forces in society over which individuals have no control. In this respect, he has been compared to Tom Joad, the philosophizing common man of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath (1939). Both men, hemmed in by societal pressures, commit murder, yet they conceive of a redemptive vision of humanity that transcends their individual fates.

Mosley has certainly become one of the most successful of the African American authors whose work has crossed over into mainstream fiction. His novels have been compared favorably to classic African American authors such as Chester Himes and John Edgar Wideman. As Francis Smith Foster concludes, however, he surpasses these authors and others in his ability to dramatize the lives of ordinary African Americans with a political consciousness and sense of social history.

Bibliography

Foster, Frances Smith. “Mosley, Walter.” In The Oxford Companion to African American Literature, edited by William L. Andrews, Frances Smith Foster, and Trudier Harris. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. An indispensable source for assessing Mosley’s contribution to African American literature.

Goodheart, Adam. Review of Walkin’ The Dog, by Walter Mosley. The New York Times Book Review, November 7, 1999, p. 9. Praises the authenticity of Mosley’s depiction of ghetto life, while suggesting that the author sometimes lapses into sentimentality, a pitfall of the ghetto stories.

Mosley, Walter. “Anger and Hope Mosley’s Formula for Success.” Inteview by Greg Burchall. The Age, January 31, 1996, p. 4. Mosely discusses his career, growing up in South Los Angeles, and his belief in the heroism of the African American struggle, as well as the literary influences on his work and the process of drafting his novels.

Mosley, Walter. “Mosley Is Out Talkin’ the Dog: Mystery Writer and His History of Success.” Interview by Bill Bell. Daily News, November 1, 1999, p. 43. Mosley describes Socrates Fortlow as a ghetto philosopher in action.

Upson, Nicola. Review of Walkin’ the Dog, by Walter Mosley. New Statesman, May 29, 2000, p. 57. Like other critics, Upson praises Mosley’s lyrical prose and dialogue, as well as his ability to capture the texture of daily life while dramatizing the growth and development of his main character.