“A Man Among Men” in Algerian Paris: Modeling Motivation and Movement in Jake Lamar’s Rendezvous Eighteenth Main Menu Rendezvous Eighteenth Header Splash Page Jake Lamar and Rendezvous Eighteenth An introduction to Jake Lamar French Impressionism and Rendezvous Eighteenth Thesis Thesis Statement Morrison: Point of View Theoretical Framework Amine: Algerian Paris Keaton: Black American Paris Routes of Narration: Detective Fiction Routes of Narration: romance “A Man Among Men” in the Eighteenth "A Man Among Men": Valitsa "A Man Among Men": Fatima “Algerian Paris” Revisited "Algerian Paris" Revisited": Barbes "Algerian Paris" Revisited: Mairie of the Eighteenth "Algerian Paris" Revisited: La Goutte d'Or PDF

La Goutte d'Or: Rendezvous Eighteenth and The Stone Face

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Smith’s novel The Stone Face depicts the difficult transformation of the “black American expatriate from a content appreciation” of Paris to “an uneasy consciousness of the injustice around him and, finally, to a new commitment” to the Civil Rights Movement (Fabre 247). In the novel, Simon's escapes to Paris to prevent himself from murdering a racist who possesses the “stone face.” In Paris, Simeon is a part of colony of African-American expatriates. His interest in the plight of Algerians is peaked once he sees newspaper headlines about the French-Algerian War. He befriends Ahmed, an Algerian, and participates in a riot. He learns that racism and white supremacy are a world-wide problem and France was not exempt: “the joy of Paris was fading for Simeon; the Algerian war was doing something terrible to Paris and to France. As the African colonies gained their independence, as the area of French power contracted, a decomposition was setting in—Simeon could sense it all around him” (Smith 173). Understanding that he cannot escape the stone face, Simeon returns to the United States to assist with the Civil Rights Movement.

Both The Stone Face and Rendezvous Eighteenth have a visit to area of la Goutte d’Or that depict Arab men and their visibility on the street, their fashion, and their temperament. The section of the novel that has similarities to Rendezvous Eighteenth is Simeon’s visit to Ahmed’s home in La Goutte d’Or. In his visit, Simeon compares la Goutte d’Or to Harlem and later depicts the uprisings that happened there. Smith writes:

Like Harlem and like all the ghettos of the world. The men he saw through the window of the bus had whiter skins and less frizzly hair, but they were in other ways like Negroes in the United States. They adopted the same poses; “stashing” on the corners, ready for the scared of the ever-possible “trouble,” eyes sullen and distrusting, dressed in pegged pants, flashy shirts and narrow pointed shoes. He could almost hear them saying, “Whatchu putting down, man?” (86-7)

In this passage, Smith compares the neighborhood of la Goutte d’Or to neighborhoods in the USA that are largely populated by African Americans. He expands this comparison by way of their visibility on the street corner and their fashion sense. He says they “stash” on the street corner, which suggests that they are in hiding but also highly visible. The street corner increases their visibility, but their eyes are not engaging through displaying sullenness and distrust. The passage also implies that their hiding is due to the threat of “trouble.” This trouble they hide from is being harassed for carte nationale d'identité or being “picked up in a raid and sent to a concentration camp” in France (The Stone Face 84, 90). These Arab men on the corners of the Parisian ghetto are compared to Negroes in Harlem. The fashion sense reminds the narrator of style of Negroes at the time. Their style is so similar that he images them speaking “Black English.” Gardner’s description of the Arab population in la Goutte d’Or is strikingly similar to Lamar’s descriptions of Arab’s in la Goutte d’Or nearly forty years later.

The narrator in Rendezvous Eighteenth revisits the familiar moment in The Stone Face. Like Simeon, when Ricky Jenks enters la Goutte d’Or, he thinks about the United States and begins to compare the Arab population there to the African-Americans in the USA. Upon Ricky’s arrival in la Goutte d’Or, the narrator explains that “No other part of Paris reminded Ricky so much of America” (260). This line expresses what Gardner conveys when Simeon enters this area. Additionally, when Ricky exits the car in la Goutte d’Or, he encounters four young men who are likely French Algerians that belong to the “hip hop generation.” Ricky feels that those young men look threatening, but he suggests that they appear more threatening than they are. The narrator states:

As soon as he stepped out of the car, Ricky checked out the crew of tan-complexioned teenagers who were checking him out. There were four of them. Ricky figures they were Beurs—the French-born children of North African immigrants. They stood on the walkway leading to the building that, when compared with most of Paris’s architecture, looked like a prison. They each sported a shiny warm-up suit, immaculate basketball shoes and a fashionable banlieue homeboy haircut: straight and greasy on the top, totally shaved on the sides and the back of the head. (261) 

Here, Lamar discusses the visibility and fashion sense of the “beurs” in the likeness that Gardner depicts Arabs in la Goutte d’Or Instead of men standing on the street corner, they are teenagers standing on the sidewalk in front of an apartment building that resembles a prison. The narrator mentioning prison harkens to Smith’s narrator stating that the men were “scared of the ever-possible trouble” and the violence of the police (87). This image symbolizes the threat of incarceration that looms over the men in The Stone Face and the teenagers in Rendezvous Eighteenth. Lamar shows the visibility of the North African population in la Goutte d’Or in a way that is similar to Smith’s depiction.

The portrayal of the teenagers’ clothing as “shiny” is like Smith’s portrayal of the Arabs in “flashy” clothes. Smith describes the men wearing attire that is fashionable during the period, and Lamar describes the teenagers in sweat suits and basketball shoes that is synonymous with urban or hip hop fashion. It is their visibility, fashion disposition, and location that contribute to the narrator and the protagonist feeling that la Goutte d’Or is most like the United States. This brief passage in The Stone Face and Rendezvous Eighteenth depicts a similarity—that is the familiar—element of point of view in the novel. 

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