Linden Hills

Race, racism, and racial identity form a core part of Naylor’s narrative. The neighborhoods in which the story primarily takes place—Linden Hills and Wayne Avenue—are predominantly black neighborhoods because the very first Luther Nedeed only rented land to black families. In fact, this Luther Nedeed intended Linden Hills to become “a beautiful, black wad of spit right in the white eye of America” (9). However, by the time this story takes place, we are told that Linden Hills “wasn’t black; it was successful” (19), meaning that it has lost its racial identity (19). Here, individuals are no longer interested in addressing racial inequality in the United States—which is what the first Luther Nedeed intended this community to do—but in advancing their own status, even if that means disguising their race or manipulating the white system to do so. This is most clearly illustrated through the character of Maxwell Smyth, who has been able “to make his blackness disappear” to attain success (102). Furthermore, the novel documents instances of racism that take place even inside a predominantly black community, such as when Willie and Lester are almost arrested for wandering through Linden Hills at night. The two white policemen do not believe that Lester is a Linden Hills resident, and both Willie and Lester are threatened at gunpoint. This violent incident, an obvious depiction of police brutality, highlights the racial stereotyping and racism that the wealthy and successful Linden Hills residents do not want to face, mistakenly believing that they are immune to such injustices.

Naylor’s Linden Hills is loosely based upon Dante’s Inferno—the first part of his epic Divine Comedy, written in the 14th century. In the Inferno, Dante journeys downward through the nine concentric rings of hell toward the devil at the center. As a whole, Dante’s Divine Comedy is meant to describe the journey toward God, as Dante rejects sin. Similarly, in Linden Hills, Willie and Lester journey downward through the neighborhood’s eight “drives”—Fifth to First Crescent Drive, and then Tupelo Drive (three drives)—finding work in residents’ houses until they eventually reach 999 Tupelo Drive, the Nedeed mansion at the very foot of the hill. On his journey, Dante is accompanied by Virgil, and the pair—just like Willie and Lester—are poets. The Nedeed mansion numbered “999” is an obvious allusion to the devil, and the fact that “up means down in the Hills” suggests that even as the residents think they are rising in status as they move closer to Tupelo Drive, they are physically moving down the hill and metaphorically moving further into the depths of hell (39). By comparing Linden Hills to the concentric rings of hell, Naylor further compounds her criticism of the American dream; she suggests that even as the Linden Hills residents believe they are moving up in society’s ranks, they are simultaneously depraving and degrading their souls to do so, which leads them inevitably closer to hell. At the novel’s close, we see Willie and Lester begin their climb up out of Linden Hills, which suggests that, having traveled through the rings of this hell, they have passed all of its tests without being seduced by its wealth and prosperity, in the same way that Dante rises out of hell with Vigil’s help.