Death of the Nigger

The Nigger, a celebrated madam in Salinas, died in late November 1916, and her passing marked the end of a distinctive and somber era in the town's underworld. Her funeral, conducted according to the strict instructions of her will, was a stark and austere affair that stood in sharp contrast to the raucous establishments of her rivals, Jenny and Kate. The event served as a final, dignified ritual for a woman who had presided over a house of dark and fatal sex, an institution as hopeless and deeply hurtful as human sacrifice itself.

The Funeral and Its Rituals

The Nigger's body lay for a day in Muller's Funeral Chapel, displayed in an ebony and silver casket. Her lean and severe profile was made even more ascetic by the four large candles set at the four corners of the casket. In accordance with her will, there were no flowers, no ceremony, no sermon, and no grief. Her little black husband crouched like a cat by her right shoulder, remaining as still as she for many hours. A strange and catholic selection of citizens—lawyers, laborers, clerks, and bank tellers, most of them past middle age—tiptoed to the chapel door, peered in, and went away. Her own girls came in one at a time to look at her for decency and for luck before departing. The funeral procession itself was minimal: a hearse and one automobile, with the husband crouched back in a corner. At the cemetery, after the casket was lowered with oiled and silent winches, the husband filled the grave himself with a new shovel, while a caretaker, cutting dry weeds a hundred yards away, heard a whining carried on the wind.

The End of an Institution

The Nigger's death was perceived as the loss of a unique institution from Salinas. Her house had offered a somber mystery of connection that was like a voodoo offering, a dark and fatal sex that left a man shaken and weak and frightened at himself. This was gone forever. In contrast, Jenny's place would still jangle with honky-tonk and rock with belching laughter, and Kate's would continue to rip the nerves to a sinful ecstasy. The Nigger's establishment had occupied a distinct niche, one of austere and philosophic sorrow, where the experience was felt as something pretty stern and important, a far cry from a mere jump in the hay. Her death thus signaled the closing of a chapter in the social history of Salinas's underworld, leaving only the more vulgar and vicious houses to carry on.

Narrative Role and Thematic Significance

The Nigger's death serves as a narrative marker of a changing world, a world where even the most established and peculiar institutions of vice are subject to the passage of time. Her funeral, with its strict adherence to her will and the silent grief of her husband, provides a moment of stark dignity within the novel's exploration of good and evil. It contrasts sharply with the manipulative and cruel world of Kate, who represents a different, more predatory form of evil. The event also highlights the complex social fabric of Salinas, where a madam could be a respected, if unspoken, pillar of the community, and her passing could draw a diverse crowd of mourners who recognized her role in their lives. The Nigger's death, therefore, is not merely a plot point but a quiet commentary on the inevitable end of all things, even the most deeply entrenched and peculiar forms of human enterprise.