If Beale Street Could Talk

Fonny is 22 during the central events of the novel. Baldwin draws him as a determined young man who chooses to be an artist and a lover despite the odds against him as a young, African American man in the city. There are few shifts in Fonny’s character, and all these shifts are filtered through the point of view of Tish, the primary narrator. As a boy, Fonny was conscious of the dysfunction in his family and aware that his mother did not love him because she saw him as similar to his father. As a result, Fonny was constantly in trouble in school and in the streets.

Fonny’s discovery of art and his love of Tish changed his trajectory. The Fonny the readers encounter during the main events of the novel is one who is fully committed to being a sculptor, a man who refuses to bow down to the systemic racism as represented by Bell, and one who wants to make a domestic space where he can be a father, husband, and artist.

The next major shift in Fonny’s character is during his incarceration. Fonny is forced to accept help from Tish, the Rivers family, and Frank to regain his freedom. He is forced to engage in physical contests to protect himself from injury and rape. Finally, he is forced to endure by maintaining focus on his child and his art through acts of imagination. 

Ernestine is the witty and strong elder sister of Tish. Sis is a protector figure in her family, especially for her sister. Her character is relatively static throughout the novel but experienced substantial changes prior to the events of the novel.

Tish’s description of Sis implies that as a girl, Sis was vain and constantly fought with her little sister. As a teenager, Sis became more serious and studious. Her reading forced her to confront the unfairness of life and other people’s ideas about her identity. She took work in a settlement house working with children. Her work in the settlement house serves her family well because it connects her to resources outside of Harlem, such as the services of Hayward, who defends Fonny.

Sharon is a woman who started out life as a singer from Alabama, met and married Joseph, and became the adaptive, supportive mother to her two daughters. The major changes in her character occurred before the events of the novel. As a young woman, Sharon aspired to be a singer, and her modest talent was enough to help her escape from the Deep South to Albany. The trajectory-changing event in her life was meeting Joseph and marrying him in New York a week later.

Her actions during the events of the novel show the results of her commitment to protecting her family. She braves a trip to Puerto Rico, including to a nightclub and the slums, on behalf of her future son-in-law. Her advice to Tish—to be prepared for setbacks in her relationship with Fonny, to avoid judging herself for having gotten pregnant before marriage, to stand strong in the face of Fonny’s incarceration—show her wisdom and her ability to equip her child to confront the world as it is. 

Joseph is another figure whose most substantial shifts occur before the central events of the novel. As a young man, Joseph was adrift, working as a merchant seaman and a porter, but he finally settled down once he encountered Sharon. He is transformed by her love into a provider and father who does everything in his power—even beyond what is legal—to care for and protect his family from the dangers of Harlem. He is fiercely protective of his daughters, especially Tish, as shown by his initially skeptical reaction to Fonny’s marriage proposal.

Joseph serves as a foil to Frank. When confronted with the problem of how to come up with legal fees and bail, Joseph is creative and adaptive: He tells Frank they will have to work extra hours and steal goods from work to meet these needs. While Frank buckles, Joseph does not because he has the support of his family. Joseph’s ability to endure helps Baldwin to reinforce the idea that familial love is crucial to survival. 

Alice is a light-skinned woman who holds conservative religious beliefs. Alice aspires to be respectable, so she despises her husband’s drinking, withholds affection from her son when he refuses to go to church regularly, and feels forced to debase herself to engage in sex with her husband. She is a relatively static, flat character.

Her actions in the novel are ones that disadvantage her children and family. The tension with Frank makes their household an uneasy one, causing Fonny to get into trouble in the streets. Her distaste for dark skin leads Fonny to question himself and her daughters to assume they are better than others because of their light skin. When Fonny is arrested and Tish reveals her pregnancy, Alice chooses to condemn the two young people as immoral and not to support them.

Baldwin presents Alice as one of two weak links (Frank being the other) in the family circle. The lack of a stable family unit makes the Hunts less resilient when faced with crises, such as Fonny’s incarceration and Frank’s job loss.

Frank is the unhappy patriarch of the Hunt family. Frank is a static character whose lack of resilience is apparent from the beginning to the end of the novel. Frank’s earliest iteration is when Tish meets him after the family moves in across the street from the Rivers family; during these early years, Frank is a drinker who has a soft spot for his son because both males in the house are forced to deal with Alice’s contempt and disapproval.

Frank’s responses to crises are destructive. When Alice insults Tish after the revelation of Tish’s pregnancy, Frank strikes his wife. Faced with the burden of Fonny’s legal fees, Frank nearly gives up until Joseph Rivers sternly demands that he support Fonny and Tish by any means necessary. Frank’s last act is self-destructive—after he loses his job and Fonny’s legal situation becomes dire, Frank kills himself. Frank’s tragic character arc makes him a foil for Joseph, who perseveres due to the presence of love and family in his life.

Victoria is a young, Puerto Rican woman for whose rape Fonny is framed. Baldwin portrays Victoria as a young woman who is a pawn of the criminal justice system. Baldwin presents her directly once in the novel, during Sharon’s visit to Puerto Rico. Victoria is a fragile young woman who relies on her brother and her neighbors in Santurce to protect her. By the end of the novel, her rape and the confrontation with Sharon cause a total psychological breakdown. She is as much a victim of Bell and the criminal justice system as Fonny.

Officer Bell is a flat, static character whose primary purpose in the novel is to represent the impact of white supremacy on encounters between law enforcement and African Americans. Officer Bell’s name appears throughout the novel, but Baldwin waits until the end of the long first section of the novel to present Bell directly.

When Bell does finally appear, he turns out to be a physically unimpressive man with an ego that cannot bear Fonny and Tish’s challenges to his authority as a white police officer. He uses racist speech, including addressing Fonny as a boy in the encounter in front of the shop, and he also sexually harasses and stalks Tish as he maneuvers to trap Fonny. The defining act for his character is that he frames Fonny for Victoria Rogers’ rape. 

Hayward is Fonny’s lawyer and is one of the few white characters. He takes on Fonny’s case as a favor to Sis, but his increasing awareness of the racism of the criminal justice system causes him to commit more and more energy to the case. Within the novel, he serves as the sole representative of courts. His inability to free Fonny despite the best of intentions shows the deep flaws of the criminal justice system.