34 pages • 1 hour read
Leslie FeinbergStone Butch Blues
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1993A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 5-8Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 5 Summary
The narrator has nowhere to go and ends up sleeping wherever she can. Eventually, her co-worker, Gloria, gives her the name of a local gay bar, Abba. There, the narrator makes several new friends, most of whom are African-American. They give the narrator books to read, such as Baldwin and DuBois, hoping to make her more aware of the ways they are doubly persecuted for being both gay and black. One night, the bar is raided by the cops and Jess and a friend, Ed, are badly beaten. It takes them both time to heal and recover and when the narrator is finally well, she is asked to be the Master of Ceremonies at an Upcoming Drag Show. The night is one of happiness and self-acceptance until again the bar is raided. Jess is raped by the cops.
Chapter 6 Summary
The narrator struggles to deal with life after the rape. Her friends, Peaches and Betty, care for her and help her get a job waiting tables at the Malibu, which is nearby. It takes time for the narrator to feel ready to connect, to speak. When a relationship with a friend, Toni, suddenly sours and verges on a fistfight, the narrator again feels betrayed and misplaced. She then meets Angie, a prostitute and femme, who offers her a place to stay. The two end up sleeping together. This is the narrator’s first time having sex with a woman.
Chapter 7 Summary
The narrator attempts to land the union job that she feels will give her a steady, solid income and adequate protection against harassment. She hopes to get into a steel or auto union but first finds work at a frozen food plant. Unloading the truck is hard work, especially in the freezing cold, and she notes the missing section of ears and missing fingers of fellow employees who have suffered frostbite on the job.
Later, she is hired at a union bindery. A sizable portion of the female employees are Native American. They immediately welcome the narrator, sharing food and laughs with her. She enjoys listening to their songs and eventually she joins in. Appreciative of her interest in their culture, the women of the Six Nations invite her to a powwow. There, the narrator has a romantic encounter with a young woman, Yvonne, whose mother, Muriel, also works at the factory. After the powwow, the Native American women tell the narrator that she must lead the song this time. The narrator is scared enough to quit but eventually finds her voice. She feels true acceptance but then is laid off. She walks home in the snow, depressed, and starts drinking. Soon, there is a knock at her door. It is the women from the factory, including Yvonne, who arrive with food and gifts. Now, they say, they are going to teach her to dance.
Chapter 8 Summary
At her new job, the narrator works with many other lesbians and feels a sense of comradery and protection. She advances well in her work and is about to make “grade five” when she is informed by a union leader that her promotion would throw off the hierarchy of the factory and she needs to temporarily stay at “grade four” while the company makes a decision on the union’s future status. The narrator is frustrated but decides that protecting the union that protects her is important and worth fighting for. She finds an unlikely ally in a co-worker, Duffy, who works to make sure that the women are included in all work functions. The narrator and friends are invited to a company picnic that they were previously excluded from and she gets into a fight with a man who has harassed her on the job, Jim Boney. Jess challenges him to a baseball game, the butch lesbian team versus the men, with the bet being that Jess will kiss the harassing bully Jim Boney if her team loses. In the end, her team is victorious. She celebrates with her female friends and her newfound friend, Duffy.
Chapters 5-8 Analysis
When Jess starts hanging out at the Malibu, a black gay club, she learns about Malcolm X and the Civil Rights movement, most especially from Edwin, who encourages Jess to make more of an effort to understand the plight and “souls” of African-Americans. Through reading and conversation, Jess comes to more fully understand racial oppression. She also makes friends who help her to recover after she is again gang raped, this time by the cops. To make the trauma all the more painful, Jess loses the turquoise ring she received as a child from her Dineh neighbor, an item that serves as a talisman for her.
Jess has sex with a woman for the first time when she meets and quickly connects with Angie, a prostitute who offers Jess a place to stay. The relationship is short lived but teaches Jess a lot. Jess also learns from the Native American women at her factory job, who offer her the sort of comradery that she has been craving. She is honored when they invite her to a powwow. The thought of chiming in with her own song is terrifying to her, though. It takes Jess awhile to find her voice, but the indigenous women are both patient and encouraging. Jess also makes other allies at work, most importantly Duffy, who sees Jess as a potentially great union organizer. When Jess’s baseball team beats Jim Boney’s at the work picnic, she is afforded greater respect from her co-workers, who begin to accept her on her own terms.
