South of the Slot

“At first, Freddie Drummond found it monstrously difficult to get along among the working people. He was not used to their ways, and they certainly were not used to his.”

These lines introduce Freddie’s initial entrance into the working-class area south of the Slot. He begins as an outsider and will become more comfortable there as the story progresses.

“In those six months he worked at many jobs and developed into a very good imitation of a genuine worker. He was a natural linguist, and he kept notebooks, making a scientific study of the workers’ slang or argot, until he could talk quite intelligibly. This language also enabled him more intimately to follow their mental processes, and thereby to gather much data for a projected chapter in some future book which he planned to entitle ‘Synthesis of Working-Class Psychology.’”

This passage describes Freddie’s initial approach to the residents south of the Slot. Essentially, he is there to research and study them and gather information to forward the writing of his book.

“He had but few friends. He was too undemonstrative, too frigid. He had no vices, nor had anyone ever discovered any temptations. Tobacco he detested, beer he abhorred, and he was never known to drink anything stronger than an occasional light wine at dinner.”

This passage provides a detailed look at Freddie’s character early in the story. He is measured, methodical, and generally boring. He enjoys routine and predictability.

“The one drawback to Freddie Drummond was his inhibition. He never unbent. In his football days, the higher the tension of the game, the cooler he grew. He was noted as a boxer, but he was regarded as an automaton, with the inhuman precision of a machine judging distance and timing blows, guarding, blocking, and stalling. He was rarely punished himself, while he rarely punished an opponent. He was too clever and too controlled to permit himself to put a pound more weight into a punch than he intended. With him it was a matter of exercise. It kept him fit.”

This passage illustrates Freddie’s lack of emotional involvement in life and society. He is likened to a machine that functions with precision and accuracy but no passion. In an era of industrialization, we can see a human treating his body in a manner similar to how one might maintain a machine’s productivity.

“As time went by, Freddie Drummond found himself more frequently crossing the Slot and losing himself in South of Market.”

These lines are the first indication of Feddie’s transformation from middle-class professor into a working-class sympathizer. As the story progresses, he “loses himself” more and more in the area south of the Slot.

“At first he had been merely a good actor, but as time went on, simulation became second nature. He no longer played a part, and he loved sausages, sausages and bacon, than which, in his own proper sphere, there was nothing more loathsome in the way of food.”

This passage shows another stage in the transformation of Freddie. He has begun to enjoy the food and the mannerisms of the area south of the Slot than the area north of the Slot.

“Freddie Drummond and Bill Totts were two totally different creatures. The desires and tastes and impulses of each ran counter to the other’s. Bill Totts could shirk at a job with clear conscience, while Freddie Drummond condemned shirking as vicious, criminal, and un-American, and devoted whole chapters to condemnation of the vice.”

The passage introduces a clear dichotomy between Freddie Drummond and Bill Totts, emphasizing their dissimilarity. This sets the stage for exploring their contrasting worldviews and attitudes toward work and life.

“Bill Totts really wasn’t able to see beyond the next meal and the prize-fight the following night at the Gaiety Athletic Club.”

This sentence captures the difference between Bill Totts’s worldview and Freddie Drummond’s. Bill lives in the moment and makes decisions day to day, even moment to moment, while Freddie is more concerned with planning for the future and exercising control of his life.

“Bill Totts had none of these considerations. He had liked Mary Condon from the moment his eyes first rested on her in the convention hall, and he had made it a point, then and there, to find out who she was.”

The passage explains Bill Totts’s immediate and unhesitant attraction to Mary Condon. The passage implies that Bill Totts does not consider social conventions, status, or other external factors when it comes to matters of the heart. His liking for Mary is portrayed as a straightforward and unencumbered emotion, unburdened by societal norms.

“Freddie Drummond was entirely safe, but Bill had fallen in love. There was no getting away from the fact of it, and it was this fact that had given Freddie Drummond his warning.”

This passage illustrates the contrasting emotional profiles of Freddie and Bill. Freddie is portrayed as emotionally reserved or stable, while Bill is depicted as more open to the vulnerabilities and complexities of romantic love.

“Beside each scab driver sat a policeman. Front and rear, and along each side of this procession, marched a protecting escort of one hundred police.”

The presence of policemen beside each scab driver symbolizes the authority and power of law enforcement. It suggests that the police are actively involved in protecting or supporting the replacement drivers during a labor strike.

“Drummond believed in law and order and the maintenance of the established, but this riotous savage within him would have none of it. Then, if ever, did Freddie Drummond call upon his iron inhibition to save him. But it is written that the house divided against itself must fall.”

This passage describes Freddie’s rigid self-control as his “iron inhibition,” which symbolizes his struggle to suppress primal instincts. The next sentence is a reference to Matthew 12:25: “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand” (KJV). This biblical allusion foreshadows that Freddie’s inner division will undermine his composed façade and ultimately lead to his downfall.

“Catherine Van Vorst saw her throw her arms around him and kiss him on the lips; and Catherine Van Vorst watched him curiously as he went on down the side walk, one arm around the woman, both talking and laughing, and he with a volubility and abandon she could never have dreamed possible.”

This sentence describes Catherine’s reaction to seeing Bill leave the scene of the riot with Mary. She is not especially troubled emotionally, but rather cannot understand what exactly has happened. The reserved Freddie has transformed into the boisterous Bill, so much so that the middle-class Catherine now cannot understand him or his actions.