night’s cast included a number of accomplished
performers including Richard Hale as Israel du
Bois, Barbara Bulgakova as Lise, Russell Hicks as
Captain Powell, and Clarence Redd as Samba Saar.
Bibliography
Atkinson, J. Brooks. “Black and White.” New York
Times,2 September 1928, 83.
———. “The Play.” New York Times,24 August 1928,
25.
“Golden Penknife, The”S. Miller Johnson
(1925)
An intense and dizzying short story by S. MILLER
JOHNSON. It was published in the August 1925
issue of THEMESSENGER,the NAACP magazine
whose editors included A. PHILIP RANDOLPH,
CHANDLEROWEN, and GEORGESCHUYLER. John-
son focuses on two young European immigrants
whose families enjoy economic success and who
are becoming increasingly Americanized because
of their good fortune. The Americanization of
these Russian immigrant families is defined primar-
ily by material gains, business expansion, and
higher social status. Johnson suggests, however,
that European assimilation into white America
cannot help but involve an increasing and deadly
anxiety about African Americans, interracial rela-
tionships, and miscegenation.
Anna Paul and Fred Soskii, her fiancé, live
with their families in Detroit, Michigan. Fred, the
son of Russian parents, is focused on improving his
family’s grocery store holdings and their reputation
in the community. He has traditional views about a
wife and family and hopes to “marry a chaste
pretty woman and settle down, have one or two
kids... take out insurance, join the Rotarians, de-
nounce lawbreakers, boost the Y, be patriotic, etc.
etc. etc.” Johnson’s description of Soskii’s aspira-
tions suggests that he regards these goals as oppres-
sively pedestrian. In sharp contrast to Soskii’s
domestic plans, however, are the unconventional
ideas and actions of Anna. She was raised as a
Catholic and is determined to “conform to her fa-
ther’s and her lover’s idea of what a good woman
should be.” Johnson begins the story with a telling
and provocative description of the evolving female
protagonist. “Now Anna was a pretty little devil,”
he writes, “Her lips, pursed as if to invite a kiss,
were red enough without rouge; and so were her
cheeks. Her eyes, clearly and light and roaming,
fairly beamed with loveliness that clamored for
wholesome expression.” Anna is thoroughly unset-
tled by puberty and hormones and is plagued by
the “enormous struggle between inward natural
desires and conventional morality.”
The parallel struggles against illicit physical de-
sires, unacceptable sexual activity, and social expec-
tations drive Anna and Fred apart. Her reputation is
threatened when she is rumored to be keeping com-
pany with any number of men, including figures
who are never clearly seen but are imagined to be
Negroes or other unacceptable ethnic people such
as Turks, Filipinos, or Indians. Fred almost succumbs
to the lure of showgirls but becomes the embodi-
ment of virtue as he mourns the loss of his fiancée.
Eventually, Fred encounters Anna and her friend, a
dark-haired Russian whom she has met and ro-
manced in a bookstore. Egged on by a friend, Fred
considers attacking Askof Tervanovitch. He resists
the temptation at first but ultimately lies in wait for
Anna outside her home. When he confronts her, he
demands the answer to one question: “Did you
know that fellow’s colored you were with tonight?”
Blinded by jealousy and romantic incompetence,
Fred Soskii invests in an explosive social myth about
the racial other in general and about African Amer-
icans in particular. Fred murders Anna before she
can reveal that her new lover shares their Russian
heritage. He uses his foot to turn her lifeless body
over in the snow, shrugs his shoulders, and then
spits before departing. His heartless gesture is a
chilling index of the disgust he feels for Anna’s ro-
mantic choice and his belief that her dalliance has
done irreparable damage to her family.
Johnson offered to Messengerreaders a vivid
exploration of 1920s sexual mores and the bur-
dens of assimilation. The story is a probing exami-
nation of social expectations and white anxiety
about race and difference. It concludes with
haunting suggestions about cultural blindness and
its deadly results.Bibliography
Wilson, Sondra. The Messenger Reader: Stories, Poetry,
and Essays from The Messenger Magazine.New York:
Modern, 2000.188 “Golden Penknife, The”