Part 5, Night and Day: Chapters 1–6 Summary

Part 5, Chapter 1 opens as Oprah interviews Michael Jackson and asks him why his skin color has changed since childhood, becoming lighter. Jackson gives a nonanswer. The narrator is now 18, still living with her mother, who is now divorced. Her mother does volunteer work to buff her image as a future politician. Looking for speakers for a local community center, the mother is insulted when the narrator turns down her request to speak and says her daughter has never known struggle.

Chapter 2 continues this story thread as the narrator is putting up a poster for a talk she is giving for her mother after all: The History of Dance. She is surprised to meet Tracey, who is getting ready to graduate from school and start auditioning. Tracey says her father is building a big house for her in Jamaica, but when the narrator next sees Louie, he is in London with a pregnant woman. The narrator reflects that Tracey has probably lied about many of Louie’s previous absences and decides she can no longer have intimate conversations with Tracey. When she tells her mother about seeing Louie, her mother flies into a rage about the legacy of Jamaican slavery and all the “ghost men” it has created. Someone, possibly motivated by Louie, burns down the community center.

Chapter 3 finds the narrator in Africa to celebrate the completion of Aimee’s school. She enjoys talking with Fernando. Fern says his job is to make sure something useful is left behind when Aimee, inevitably, gets bored with the school. The next day, the narrator meets Hawa’s cousin Musa, who lectures his family on how they should be “new Muslims,” more conservative. Lamin complains to his friends that Musa can barely even speak Arabic, having gone to a Catholic school.

Chapter 4 returns to the narrator at age 18 as she visits universities with her father. She and Tracey, who has been auditioning, volunteer for Miss Isabel’s end-of-summer show. The little girls idolize Tracey, a real dancer. Mr. Booth is playing a familiar song, and the narrator sings along with him.

Chapter 5 returns to the opening of Aimee’s school, in which children parade in, each dressed as the leader of an African nation. Aimee thinks this is hilarious, especially when a miniature version of the country’s president arrives with a “wife” throwing Monopoly money at the crowd. A party begins with much dancing. One of the women there says that the locals actually hate the president, and everyone who is able to do so leaves via a back way. The narrator meets Hawa’s half-brother, an economist who tells her about his experiences in America. He believes Americans don’t value the heritage of others and view foreigners like him with contempt.

In Chapter 6, Miss Isabel arrives to say that someone has stolen the school’s cashboxes. Tracey is immediately suspected, but when Miss Isabel speaks to Tracey’s mother, the latter blames Mr. Booth. She tells the narrator that the narrator and the narrator’s mother always thought they were better than Tracey’s family, and Mr. Booth loses his job.

Part 5, Night and Day: Chapters 1–6 Analysis

The title of Part 5, “Night and Day,” is the name of a Cole Porter song that tells of the singer’s burning passion for a lover. In the novel, it is used to emphasize the many contrasts in this part of the book, including between Tracey and the narrator. Louie’s appearance prompts a lecture by the narrator’s mother about the legacy of Jamaican slavery and the “ghost men” it has created. Smith shows that the relationship between gender and identity is even more complicated when race is factored in.

Other contrasts explored in Part 5 are those between poverty and wealth and between African and American life. In the chapters set in Africa, the narrator has serious discussions about poverty with both Fernando, the project manager, and the brother of Hawa. In both conversations, the men suggest that there is dignity in poverty. Furthermore, Hawa’s brother points out, there is a kind of equality in the village that is nowhere to be found in America.

Cultural appropriation, as shown in Part 5, is not limited to America. On the one hand, America has Michael Jackson, whose skin turned from brown to white over the course of his career. The entertainer attributed the change to a disfiguring skin condition. However, America’s fascination with his skin tone—to the point that he is asked about it in a serious interview—suggests a national concern over members of one group trying to look or act like members of another. The African village where Aimee’s school is built includes Musa, the brother of Hawa. Musa was educated by Catholics but claims to be more Muslim than the rest of his family, a claim that Lamin bitterly disputes.