The Intuitionist Analysis

In The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead, the reader is introduced to the world of protagonist, Lila Mae Watson; a black elevator inspector in an urban, film noir-like world, where there is danger around every corner. Paying close attention to detail, one can see that this city is a grimey, corrupt, sleepless metropolis, one that is steeped in racial and socioeconomic divides from top to bottom. This city landscape is important to the development of the story, as Lila Mae finds herself at the center of a scandal, that pushes her into the depths of the city, it’s inequality, and it’s elevators.

Whitehead's descriptions make the reader feel like Lila Mea is in New York City, sometime during the middle of the 20th century. Though this is never

As the city grows, neighborhoods change, property is purchased, new people move in, and the old residents are forced out. Those displaced are usually forced into circumstances that lead to poverty, crime, and violence. One example this is the neighborhood occupied by Lila Mae’s only black co-worker, Pompey, which is changing for the worse. He says that he grew up in this neighborhood, but then goes on to say that, “It’s changed… Ten years from now they won’t even be kids playing ball on the street. Won’t be safe enough even to do that...My kids won’t be here when that happens. I need money to take them out off here.” This assertion by Pompey, shows that he believed the nefarious activity that he has engaged in—cleaning up shotty elevator repairs conducted by mafia-fronted elevator repair companies, so he could make an extra buck—was somehow justified, given the changing condition of his neighborhood. These types of scenarios seem to be characteristic of race and class struggles, where one justifies one’s own wrongdoing, in an effort to transcend the environment created by the wrongdoings of society at