Chapter 4

Jake enters SingerÂ’s room and asks him who the thin black man was on the stairs. He canÂ’t understand why the man gave him such a hateful look. Singer puts more wood on the fire and then sits down to listen to Jake talk. Jake tells him about Miss Clara. She was a woman who first set him on the path of thinking that he is now pursuing. Before he met her, he had been a born again preacher. He tells Singer that as a young boy, he went to work at a bowling hall and then left home for another job. He never told his parents he was leaving and assumes that they were glad to see him gone. When he got the faith in Christianity, one night he hammered a nail into the palm of his hand. He planned to go around the country preaching. Then he met Miss Clara in Texas and changed the direction of his thinking. He tells Singer that there are only a few in the world "who know," from ten to twenty thousand.

He speaks of the process of a man who "knows" as he watches "the slow agglutination of capital and power" and looks at the United States as a "crazy house." He talks of the strife of poverty where children go hungry and family members steal from each other. He talks of the "donÂ’t knows" who live with the lie that this state of affairs is natural and right. His thoughts begin to wander and he tells Singer that he is the only one who knows. Jake has become quite familiar with the town. He wanders the streets when he is off from work. He likes his work. He has added more duties to his job and now functions as the one who keeps everything in order. He gets home after midnight and usually has trouble sleeping. His room has a wet smell that makes him nauseous. He walks the floor of his room or leaves his place to walk the streets and look for people to talk to about his ideas. Often when people laugh at him, he gets into fights. He finds work a relief. It puts him in the midst of a bustling crowd of people. On Sundays heÂ’s off and goes to SingerÂ’s apartment to talk to him with great relief.

He begins to laugh and canÂ’t stop himself. He laughs for a long time. Singer looks worried. He indicates that it is time to go for dinner, but Jake continues to laugh hysterically. Then Jake begins to name the parts of the meal they will have and speaks with fierce gusto. He tells of the owner of the carnival where he works, Mr. Clark Patterson, who is fat and smokes marijuana all day in his trailer. As they leave SingerÂ’s apartment, Jake hangs back. He always lets Singer lead him. That night when they get back, Jake starts to feel enraged again and goes on and on about "the things they have done to us." He says that he and Jesus and Karl Marx could sit at the same table together. As he talks, the vein on his forehead throbs hugely and his lips and hands tremble. He tells Singer that it does no good to be mad about all the injustice. One has to go around telling the truth. Jake finally falls asleep.

When he wakes up, Singer is gone and had left some food out for Jake. Jake leaves and as he walks home he sees a sign hand-written on a wall in an alley. It reads "Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth." He is so shocked by the message that he stands there for a long time. Then he gets a thick red pencil from his pocket and writes on the wall that whoever wrote this message should meet him there the next day at noon. The next day he waits, but no one comes. He also waits the day after that, but is again disappointed. On Friday, it rains and the messages are washed away.

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