Real Cool Killers: Evaluating the Status of Women Through Chester Himes
The world of Chester Himes is wrought with violence and turmoil. The story behind The Real Cool Killers is a murder mystery, where African-American cops rule over Harlem to catch a murderous pack of thugs. Still, there is a lot more beneath the surface here. Chester Himes also presents a social commentary on the status of women at the time. In this commentary, he signifies how women were still struggling against their male oppressors, and that even though there are some clear gains being made here, they are in many ways still being oppressed and treated like sex objects more than anything else throughout the novel.
The Real Cool Killers is a pulp fiction type of novel with a set of anti-hero African-American police officers solving a senseless murder on the streets of Harlem. The pair of police is Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed,; together they make a formidable force that always seems to get their man. This is one of many novels featuring the detectives, and in many ways gives a sense of honor and cunningness to these African-American anti-heroes. Still, these men are not the typical heroes that one might expect. They go beyond the anti-hero of the noir genre. Grave Digger Jones is scarred, making him a menacing figure in a world full of violence. Himes writes that "violence surged in him like blood" (Himes 2011). He is not one to be messed with, and neither is his partner. When a group of African-American Muslim teens is implicated in the death of white man, racism and hypocrisy comes out in full force. Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed set off to find the killers who committed a senseless act of gratuitous violence. In the end, the two detectives leave a wake of bodies in their path, hunting down the teenage killers like a pack of dogs.
The purpose of this review sits amidst the racism and oppression of the African-American women of the...
Women are seen as being oppressed by both characters black and white, signifying the universal oppression of women that has kept females from finding any sense of equality within American society. Race has its boundaries. But male chauvinism seems to transcend racial boundaries, and is present in one way or another in all societies, much at the disadvantage of the women both in the book and in the real world. Women are featured in a very dark light, with prostitution and ignorance seeming to make up how Himes characterizes most of them. Himes himself tends to echo a chauvinist tone throughout the novel. When he describes Richardson's injuries he writes "he would never look the same, however, and should his teenage whore ever see him again she wouldn't recognize him" (Himes 2011). There is also a sense that the African-American women seem to be even more objectified in the eyes of white men. For example, right before the white man gets killed, he is in the bar and an African-American woman is dancing for him in a way that signifies her as a sex object. Himes writes "the colored woman seemed to be dancing for his exclusive entertainment. A slight flush spread over his sallow face" (Homes 2011). This plays into the racism of the day as well. African-American women are exploited by white men, but also by African-American men. Women are sex objects whose fate is even more ominous because of their status as a sex object to both races.
Another clear example of women being oppressed as sex objects are seen in the cases of SUgartit and Sissie. Just in their nicknames, it is clear what their position could be within society if they are nit clearly corrected. Interestingly enough, Sugartit and Sissy are much more progressive in their status within society. They smoke without worry about how it will look to the men around them. Still, Sugartit is still in the grips of being seen as a sex object by the men around her.…
