Comparing Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll
...ies to satisfy everybody on top of trying to keep Left Front published, though the Communist Party members think that the publication is useless. One day, a young Jewish man who introduces himself as Comrade Young attends one of the Chicago meetings, stating that he has just moved from Detroit. Without money, Young asks Richard if he can use the John Reed Club headquarters for lodging. Thinking that Young is sincere and loyal, Richard agrees. Young impresses the best painters in the club with his artwork and becomes admired by all. Richard tries to contact the Detroit chapter to ask for information of Young, but he gets no reply. At one meeting, Young accuses Swann one of the club's best young artists of being a traitor to the workers. Chaos and verbal battles ensue within the club until Comrade Young disappears mysteriously. One afternoon, Richard and Comrade Grimm search the luggage that Young left behind at the club. They find a Detroit address, to which Richard writes and asks for news about Young. A few days later, he receives a reply from a mental institution saying that Young had previously escaped but was apprehended and back in custody. All charges against Swann were dropped and Richard, along with some other trusted members of the club, keeps the information about Young a secret from the others. Chapter 19 Summary:Now a full-fledged member of the Communist Party, Richard attends a secret unit the party's basic form of organization meeting and proposes his idea to write a book of biographical sketches of black Communists. The members, despite Richard's background, label him an "intellectual" because of hi proper speech and dress. Richard also learns that the unit does not approve of him reading materials outside of Party literature, claiming that other literature is bourgeois, or not for the masses. Richard begins to fear their militant ignorance. Richard begins to interview Ross, a communist who had been charged with "inciting to riot," for his biographical book. But he begins to receive threats from party leaders with messages such as: "Intellectuals don't fit well into the party, Wright." One morning in Ross's home, a black Communist named Ed Green arrives and begins to question Richard. Green is a member of the Party's Central Committee a man with power and is suspicious of Richard's work. As days pass, Ross begins to speak less and less to Richard. Soon afterward, Ross is charged with anti-leadership tendencies. Richard drops his idea of making a book of biographical sketches and instead, uses his material from Ross to write short stories. Thereafter, the Party leaders decide to disband all clubs and assign writers to composing party pamphlets and other propaganda. Richard begins to tear himself away from the party. Buddy Nealson, a member of the Communist International, is sent to Chicago to take over the black Communist movement. Nealson launches a campaign to rid the party of all "Negro Trotskyite elements," in other words, to rid the club of traitors to the party. In 1935,...