Summarizer

=Summary Chapter 1-3 (by Samantha Trejo :) )=

Chapter 1 Lutie Johnson is looking for an apartment and sees a sign while walking outside on cold November day. She goes to the building to check it out and sees a women outside with snake like eyes watching her as she goes in. Once she's inside she looks at all the mail boxes and discover that the woman with the snake eyes is named Mrs. Hedges. She moves on and knocks on the Supers door. Lutie begins to second guess herself once she sees the inside. She begins to second guess herself and thinks back to where she is living now with Pop and his girlfriend LIl, including other "roomers". Then she begins to think about her son Bub, and how she doesn't want him learning how to light Lil's cigarettes. So she decides to look at the apartment.
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The Super shows Lutie up to the apartment where it was filthy with trash going all up the stairs. The apartment is small with only one window, but while she's looking around she feels the Super staring at her with what she thinks is desire. She tells herself not to think so foolishly as her mother would and keeps on looking around. Once she was done looking, Lutie asked for the price and took the apartment. On her way out she saw Mrs. Hedges again and could feel her eyes watching her as she was walking up the street.

Chapter 2 Lutie is on an express and sees an ad of a kitchen that looked exactly like the one she used to work in. Then she flashes back to how that very kitchen had ruined her and Jims relationship. She had seen an ad about a job out in the country as a maid that would pay seventy-five dollars a month. Immediately, she wrote a letter, not thinking of Jim or Bub, but of the money and how they would be able to pay their house. Once she was done she realized she needed a reference and went to Mrs. Pizzini. Mrs. Pizzini accepted in writing the letter for Lutie but when she gave the letter to her she said "It's best that the man do the work when the babies are young. And the man is young. Not good for the woman to work when she's young. Not good for the man"(pg 33). Lutie got a letter back with a train faire to Lyme. When she told Jim he didn't say much, he didn't say much either the day she left so she left to the on her own and tried to put Jim in the back of her mind.

The train stopped in Saybrook, where Mrs. Chandler (the woman who put the ad up) was there to pick her up. They drove out into the country until they finally made it to the house. Lutie was in awe of the house for she had never seen such a beautiful and perfect home. But of course nothing is perfect for long. After six months Lutie began to see how Mrs. Chandler would never hug or cuddle with her son Little Henry. She would just push hiim away. Another thing she recognized was that Mrs. Chandlers husband Mr. Chandler was a heavy drinker. Though of course Mrs. Chandler never took the time to notice. Although the drinking and the rejection didn't bother her much, there was one thing that did and that was Mrs. Chandler's friends. They would stare at Lutie and talk about how colored woman would always make "passes" at men, especially with how beautiful she is. From that moment on Lutie began to see that she was in a different place.

One thing that Lutie learned from the Chandlers was that the most important thing to them was to be filthy filthy rich. She too began to think that if her and Jim worked hard enough that they could become wealthy as well. After a year and a half, Lutie began to realize how much more time Mrs. Chandler would spend with other men other than her husband. One day at a party the Chandlers held at their home, Lutie and Mr. Chandler caught Mrs. Chandler kissing another man. But Mr. Chandler did nothing but press his lips into a line. Although Lutie thought that money was important, she began to see the things it would do to people. On Christmas morning, Mr. Chandler's brother shot himself in the head in front of the family. All Mrs. Chandlers mother could say was how much of an embarrassment it was. After that things remained somewhat the same in the household until one day Lutie got a letter. It had been two years exactly that she had been working for the Chandlers when she got a letter from Pop. It was short and simple saying "Dear Lutie: You better come home. Jim's carrying on with another woman. Pop"(pg 52).

That same day she went home to find Jim and another woman in her home. Jim forced her to sit down until the woman had left. Lutie was so angry, all this time she had been sending her money month after month for this woman to be eating her food and sleeping in her bed with her husband. After the woman left all Jim did was laugh at her and shrug his shoulders asking her what did she expect after she just left him with Bub all on his own. That was the day when Lutie and Bub left to go live with Pop in his apartment. Lutie then goes back to present time on the express and begins to think of how her life is now with Bub and after finally getting her own apartment.

Chapter 3 Afetr getting off the express Lutie begins to think about Bub and how he had told her about him not liking lunch at school, and how he had to stay home alone after school since Lutie had to work. On her way home she goes to get some groceries and stops at the butcher shop first. While waiting in line she thinks about the apartment and making plans for the future. This makes her feel a little more confident that she can do anything of she just puts her mind to it. On the way home Lutie walked by kids asking her to shine her shoes. Of course she just kept walking but began to wonder about how they should find a better way to earn money or they'll just end up sweeping or mopping floors for the rest of their lives.

Once she got to the apartment building she heard a boy ask her "Shine Miss?", and saw that it was Bub. Bub just sat there smiling at her, but Lutie was furious with him and slapped him across the face twice and told him to get inside. Poor Bub reached for his shoe shine box but Lutie slapped him again, so he just went on inside. She could hear him sobbing as they went up the stairs and could still see the tears in his eyes by the time they got up to the apartment. Bub just looked at her and eventually told her that he was just trying to make a little money since she had always told him that they don't have any extra money to be spending. Lutle told him that she didn't want him to be earning money they way white folks expected them to earn money. Bub didn't understand why the whites thought that way but they just left it at that.

Pages 172- 258 by Jeremy Gill

This section was alot about how Lutie was getting jobs as a singer in different clubs and ow she was hanging around Boots and he was introducing her to different styles of music and places that she could sing. Luttie wasn't home as much so Bud had to rely on himself for his needs he talks about how he should get a new job because his mother doesn't particularly approve of him and his shoe shining job. ||