Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter

The social setting of the novel explores racism, particularly during Larry and Silas’s adolescence, in the 90s. For example, as a child, Larry shows how he views the black boys in his class as different to him, and he does not interact with them: 

He was terrified of black kids. The fall after the summer he turned eleven he had entered the seventh grade. Recent redistricting of county schools had removed him from the public school in Fulsom, and forced him to go to the Chabot school, where 80 percent of the student population (and a lot of the teachers and the vice principal) were black […] (p. 40)

Larry also mentions that even though the schools are no longer segregated by race, the churches still are (p. 51). This shows that the society Larry exists in is still affected by racist beliefs. Larry shows to be affected by these beliefs too, as when he finds out Alice warns Silas not to play with Larry, he does not understand why a black woman might not want her son to have a white friend: 

Larry was puzzled. It had to be his color. What else could it be? He’d known his own father would disapprove. He would never tell Carl about the friendship, but wouldn’t it be different for Silas? Wouldn’t a black woman be happy her son had a white friend? They’d given them coats, a car. He’d assumed the anger that black folks felt was a reaction to white people’s attitude toward them. Yall started it. But if somebody white was willing to befriend somebody black, offer them gifts, even a place to live, shouldn’t the blacks be grateful? (p. 86)

This shows that as a child, Larry has a narrow understanding of racism, as well as of the relationship between Alice and his parents. As an adult, however, Larry shows a deeper understanding and empathizes with Alice: “Sometimes he thought of Alice Jones, of Silas, how Larry’s mother had given them coats but not a ride in her car. How what seemed like kindness could be the opposite” (p. 208).

The chapters which focus on Silas’ point of view explore racism from a different, personal perspective. For example, when Alice warns Silas to stay away from Cindy Walker, she specifically mentions the way mixed-race relationships are viewed in a Southern state such as Mississippi, which was part of the Confederate states of the American Civil War and fought against the emancipation of black people and the abolition of slavery: 

'Son, nothing good ever come out of colors mixing.'

'Momma–'

'Such and suching like you doing would be dangerous enough in Chicago, but you in Mississippi now. Emmet Till ,' she said, 'was from Chicago.' (p. 232-233)

In this way, Alice points out that Silas’s relationship with a white girl is very dangerous for Silas, who might even be risking his life by seeing Cindy.