Another Country

Another Country is set in New York City. The city becomes a symbol of the multifaceted nature of the society. As depicted in the novel, New York is a city in which people from all races, backgrounds, sexualities, and genders are thrown together in close proximity. Eric shows Vivaldo a street near his home where a bar frequented by a group of longshoremen is opposite another bar frequented by gay men. Every night, Eric explains, the two groups fight each other. The clash between the groups is a smaller version of the tension that is found all over the city. People shout through thin apartment walls, children divide themselves into groups along racial lines, and certain neighborhoods and streets are associated with certain groups and often placed right next to other groups with whom they are rivals. The haphazard melting pot of the New York City depicted in the novel symbolizes the multifaceted nature of humanity and the frictions and anxieties that can emerge when different groups are thrust together in such a forceful fashion.

Though the city as a whole is depicted as a melting pot, the characters are very aware of the subtle segregation of the city. Certain parts of New York are associated with certain groups to the extent that every character knows what it means to go uptown or to visit Harlem. When Vivaldo describes his trips uptown to meet women, other characters recognize that he is going to largely African American neighborhoods. Similarly, certain streets are associated with other ethnic groups while large stretches of the city are associated with white people to the point where characters like Ida are threatened just for stepping into an apartment in these neighborhoods. The way in which the characters subtly understand these ethnic divisions in the city shows the extent to which they have internalized the racial hierarchy in their contemporary society. They may reject racism, or they may wish to be defiant, but their understanding of New York City is entwined with their understanding of racial division. Racism is sewn so deeply into society that characters organize the local geography along racial lines, even when they do not mean to do so. The racial segregation of the city symbolizes the way in which racism has permeated society itself.

With the characters’ having internalized the racial segregation of the city, the movement between different areas becomes a symbolic act. Vivaldo loudly brags about how happy he is to spend time in Harlem or to go to the African American neighborhoods uptown. In his view, the movement from white areas to African American areas is an act of racial solidarity. He views himself as a progressive because he is willing to travel to parts of the city where Black people live, typically with the intention of visiting a prostitute. Whereas Vivaldo views his behavior as a progressive and antiracist act, Ida shoots him down. She tells him that he is actually doing quite the opposite. She explains that—by traveling uptown to visit African American prostitutes—Vivaldo is symbolically consecrating the racial divisions of the city. He travels to a nonwhite neighborhood to indulge his sexual impulses, just like many other white men. These men, Ida explains, would rather abuse and exploit poor Black women rather than risk being caught anywhere near their homes. To men like Vivaldo, the Black women of Harlem are irrelevant and inhuman receptacles of forbidden urges. Vivaldo’s behavior is not an act of solidarity but of reinforcement. Rather than trying to achieve racial equality, Vivaldo is reinforcing racial segregation in a symbolic sense and then lying to himself afterward. Vivaldo’s behavior symbolizes the racial segregation of the city while his need to give himself a comforting excuse symbolizes the way in which white progressives hinder the pursuit of racial equality.