If I Survive You

Fiction | Short Story Collection | Adult | Published in 2022

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

“In Flux”

“Under the Ackee Tree”

“Odd Jobs”

“Pestilence”

“Splashdown”

“Independent Living”

“If He Suspected He’d Get Someone Killed This Morning, Delano Would Never Leave His Couch”

“If I Survive You”

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

“If I Survive You”Chapter Summaries & Analyses

“If I Survive You” Summary

The tables have turned. Their father is now frustrated with Delano rather than Trelawny. Delano has sunk into a depression after the breakup of his marriage, his children’s move to California, the accidental death of his employee, and the slow decline of his musical career. Trelawny speculates that Delano has not paid rent to their father in years.

Topper asks Trelawny if he would like to buy the house. Noting its state of ill repair, Trelawny declines. Shortly after Topper makes the offer, Delano informs his brother that the lawsuit against him has been settled, and insurance is covering everything. He and his most recent girlfriend, Sadie, have decided to start a band. He tells Trelawny that he’s kicking him out. Trelawny is incredulous and tells his brother that their father asked him to kick Delano out. Delano smirks; he has always been the favorite son and does not believe Trelawny. In this moment, Trelawny reconsiders buying the house.

Trelawny’s girlfriend, Jelly, has moved in with him and Delano, and although she points out that the house is in a state of disrepair, is sinking, and probably isn’t actually worth the low price that Topper is asking, the two discuss trying to buy it. Although they are happy, their relationship is not without its small conflicts, and Jelly’s parents do not entirely approve of her “Black” boyfriend. Because the two do not have enough savings, Trelawny scours Craigslist for opportunities to make extra money. He comes across an add from a couple who want someone to watch them have sex, and after meeting them for drinks, he agrees to their offer. He goes to their condo, and after an uncomfortable afternoon, he is paid $200.

Trelawny’s mother calls and tells him that she is contemplating moving to Italy. She is in Florence for a job interview. She also tells him that she and his father had decided to give the house to both boys when Topper died and that there is no mortgage. Their father had been lying all of these years, claiming that he had mortgages on both the house they grew up in and the new house that he’d built.

Tim and Morgan, the couple from Craigslist, text Trelawny and ask him to come over again. They’re willing to up their price to $300. He tells them that he will return, but they need to pay him $500. They agree on the condition that he wears baggy clothing and a hoodie. He meets Morgan at their condo’s pool, and while she is fetching Tim, Trelawny is approached by another woman. She wants to know what he is doing there. When their interaction turns tense, she screams and claims that he threatened to sexually assault her. Tim and Morgan return and make a big deal out of her racism. Despite Tim and Morgan taking his side, Trelawny cannot help but think that this pair of “perverse puppeteers” engineered the encounter in order to shame him. Back in their condo, Morgan offers to let Trelawny choke Tim with his tie, and Trelawny asks them for a loan to cover the cost of purchasing his childhood home.

Tim and Morgan agree, but when Trelawny is on his way home, he finds out from Jelly that Delano has put their belongings on the front lawn and changed the locks. Trelawny asks their father to intervene on his behalf, but his father declines, telling him that Delano has promised to get the money together to buy the house soon. Delano and his new band plan to enter a battle of the bands competition with a first prize of $100,000. When Trelawny tries to speak to Delano, one of his bandmates answers the door and refuses to let him in. Jelly tells him that there is no way that her parents will allow her Black boyfriend to spend the night in their home. Trelawny spends another night in his car. The next day, he discovers that Tim’s bank will not loan him the money. Having thought that Tim had promised a personal loan, he contacts the two. He hears from Morgan that she and Tim have had a fight and the deal is off, but she asks him to come to their condo. Trelawny calls his mother and finds out that his father had borrowed against the house; the boys had been paying fines, not the mortgage, and there is a lien on the house.

Morgan asks Trelawny to procure a “Black woman” for Tim. Incredulous, Trelawny tells her that “we aren’t all for sale” (250) and that if she wants to find a sex worker, there are many right near their home. Morgan explains that Tim does not want a sex worker, that he would prefer a “regular” person, and that the deal is off if Trelawny does not find someone suitable. Morgan asks Trelawny to stay, and the two spend the afternoon drinking. At night, Trelawny leaves to go and apologize to his brother, but instead he disrupts the show and ends up in jail. Trelawny calls his father, and although it takes a while, Topper shows up to bail him out. Trelawny reflects that, perhaps, forgiveness is the best path forward.

“If I Survive You” Analysis

Immigration and Fraught Family Dynamics continues to be a focus in this story, and as with the previous story, it is Delano’s behavior that is primarily on display. However, race is arguably the primary topic at issue in “If I Survive You,” and this story, similar to “Odd Jobs,” also explores race and racism. The issue of exoticization and racist sexualization arises here too with the couple who want to pay Trelawny to serve their sexual desires; their behavior and expectations echo those of Ox and Tina.

Tim and Morgan, the couple who hope to add “some spice” to their marriage by enlisting the services of a paid watcher, provide a scaffolding to this story that speaks to society’s broader exploitation of people of color. Trelawny is initially uncomfortable with the couple. However, without any other options, he continues to see them in the hopes that they will help him to secure a loan for the amount he needs to purchase his father’s home. The differential in their power dynamic reflects that in the United States at large, playing out to varying effects in each of his visits. On one of his subsequent visits to their condo, Trelawny is confronted by a resident who objects to his presence in their condo and, because of his race, treats him with marked disrespect. Trelawny suspects that this encounter, to an extent, was orchestrated by Tim and Morgan: they asked him to dress in “baggy clothes,” hopefully a “hoodie,” and sunglasses, a costume that ties into the theme of Intersectionality, Socioeconomic Status, and Race. Trelawny was guaranteed to stand out at the condo not only because the residents would perceive him as Black but also because he would be wearing clothes that would suggest a Black American cultural identity and, in tandem, a lower socioeconomic status. Of course, though, Trelawny can prove nothing. Tim and Morgan come to Trelawny’s aid, but it is nonetheless clear that they harbor prejudiced stereotypes of Black men and that their sex games are in fact deeply racist.

The use of this couple to explore the more subtle methods of exploitation of Black people in the United States escalates when Tim asks Trelawny to procure a Black woman for Tim to have sex with. Tim doesn’t want a sex worker. He wants a “regular” person. Trelawny balks at the idea. He doesn’t know such a person, nor is he willing to ask friend or neighbor to participate in their “sick game.” Like so many other instances in which Black and white partners (of sorts) come together in this collection, the white individuals’ sexual desires stem from—and thereby expose—their racism. In this story, Escoffery harnesses the power of discomfort to prompt readers to sit with the uncomfortable reality of daily racism. The story is an important representation of Escoffery’s interest in more subtle manifestations of racism, and it builds on the many other stories in the collection that depict acts of prejudice that often go overlooked, certainly in literature.

The theme of Immigration and Cultural Identity is also at play given the work done in the previous stories to establish how Trelawny’s poor relationship with his father relates to the men’s relationships with cultural identity. Trelawny, now a teacher, lives with his brother in the ramshackle house that their father owns. Because Delano has stopped paying rent, their father offers to sell the home to Trelawny. Although Trelawny does not want it, he is moved to accept the offer by his brother’s arrogance and easy assurance that their father would never kick him out of the house. Trelawny learns from his mother that, contrary to what their father has said, there is a lien against the property and not a mortgage, and that the house’s status as an inheritance for both sons has already been decided and put in writing. In this story, Trelawny’s anger toward his father reaches another key inflection point (the first being the destruction of the ackee tree) and Trelawny is forced to come to terms with the fractured relationship that he has always shared with not only his father, but his brother. “If I Survive You” ends with Trelawny deciding to forgive both men, and the collection thus ends on a hopeful note.