Little Scarlet Walter Mosley Analysis

In the novel, “Little Scarlet”, the author Walter Mosley is discussing the ordeal the riots have created in Watts. In 1965, riots had become the only way for people to express their feelings towards racial inequality. The 1965 riots also highlighted issues within the police department. The novel exposed crimes that were going on as a result of the riots. Throughout the novel, Walter Mosley introduces various characters to paint a picture of society in 1965. Mosley uses a murder as a twisted plot for justice. The murder case forces Rawlins to address the ethnic tribulations of the 1965 watts riots. Ezekiel Eazy Rawlins is the protagonist in the novel. Easy tries to initiate peace in the midst of the controversy surrounding the riots. Easy helps police investigate a crime that occurred at the time of the riots. He is asked to help conduct an investigation on the murder of Nola Payne, an African American woman that helped shelter a white man during the riot. Easy is also an African American citizen that has found himself helping the same people that undermined equality in Los Angeles.
Melvin Suggs is a white detective that asks easy for help to solve the unreported crime of Nola Payne. He threatened easy, Suggs had knowledge that easy was unlicensed. Detective Suggs relays on easys “blackness” to help with the investigation. The detective wanted easy to question people without bringing too much attention to the murder of Nola Payne. The relationship between easy and Suggs is the only positive light among African Americans and whites during that era. Suggs made easy feel respected and created vulnerability in the anger black man Easy was supposed to be. Easy tried not to let his newfound respect for suggs, a white man, create a weakness inside