To Have And Have Not

As Richard walks down the street, he passes the low-income areas of Key West and surveys “Conch town, where all was starched, well-shuttered, virtue, failure, grits and boiled grunts, under-nourishment, prejudice, righteousness, interbreeding and the comforts of religion” (193). The bartender at the Lilac Time offers him absinthe to help him forget his marital conflict, but the effect is lost on him. A stranger at the bar recognizes Richard as the famous writer of social unrest novels and assures him that they have met before, but Richard does not remember.

The sheriff walks in and alerts Richard that Harry Morgan’s boat was found drifting in the Gulf with one survivor on board. He asks Richard to tag along as the boat is brought into the Navy Yard. As they head down the street, raucous fighting at Freddy’s bar draws the attention of the sheriff, and both he and Richard walk in to find a group of war veterans in a scuffle.

The veterans reveal that they are in the Keys because they have no place else to go, thanks to the government that wants to “get rid of [them]” (206). The concept of this governmental mistreatment intrigues Richard, who stays behind to speak with them.

Richard sees MacWalsey sitting at the other end of the bar and gets a “sick feeling in his chest” (212), knowing that this is the man Helen wants. The veterans offer to beat up MacWalsey for him, but Richard refuses and speaks to MacWalsey instead. MacWalsey reveals that his wife died in the Spanish influenza epidemic of 1918, but he is now ready to try marriage again with Helen. Richard hits him in the face and is then knocked out himself by someone attacking him from behind. When he wakes, he finds himself outside of Freddy’s with the bouncer, who reveals that he hit Richard to keep him away from MacWalsey, a bar regular. MacWalsey then offers to take Richard home in a taxi, but Richard gets out and begins walking when MacWalsey stops to get cigarettes.

A Coast Guard ship tows in Freddy’s boat. The captain and first mate discuss Harry, who is lying in the captain’s cabin, barely alive and only making vague, incomprehensible statements. His responses to their questions are short and cryptic, and he continually bemoans his luck and that he is “one man alone [...] pass[ing] cars on top of hills” (225). As the captain and first mate return to the top deck, the captain says that while Harry probably won’t make it, “you can’t ever tell” (226).

The marina watchman guards the entrance to the numerous yachts in the harbor. He forbids two men, Henry Carpenter and Wallace Johnston, from entering, but they brush past him and head to their boat. Their conversation revolves around the Bradleys and their marriage. Henry, who has slept with Helene, calls her “such a good time” (229) while Wallace sneers that he “can’t stick her at any price” (229), implying that Helene often has paid sex with rich men. They wonder if her husband is impotent, but it doesn’t matter to Wallace; both Bradleys embody everything he hates about men and women.

The yacht belongs to Wallace, who is a rich, unmarried composer with nothing to tie him down. Henry, on the other hand, is a trust fund-reliant Harvard graduate whose financial security is swiftly spiraling after the bank made a series of bad investments. Now, held to a vastly inferior sum—“one hundred and seventy dollars more a month than the fisherman Albert Tracy” (233) made before his death—Henry is contemplating suicide rather than sinking into obscurity.

On a nearby yacht, an older man lies awake thinking about an upcoming audit from the Internal Revenue Service for unpaid taxes. Over the years, he has manipulated the numbers to build his fortune, and now that reality is catching up to him, he realizes he has no desire to fight any more battles. He used to be quite the lothario, bedding women often in their own staterooms but returning alone to his own place to bask in his virility. Now, even that libido has failed him. He does not think about the people he’s cheated, only about how life has cheated him.

Nearby lies a yacht with a “pleasant, dull, and upright family” (238) on board asleep. Jon Jacobson, the owner, made his fortune honestly and with consideration for others, so he and his family “sleep soundly” (240). The remaining yachts encompass a group of traveling Estonians and a wealthy young man and his married sexual partner, who takes a sedative hoping (but failing) to put herself to sleep to avoid anxious ruminations. Meanwhile, the Coast Guard cutter pulls Freddy’s boat into the harbor.

Harry is taken off of Freddy’s boat via stretcher, still unconscious. The crew of the Coast Guard cutter explains to the sheriff that the other bodies and the bags of money are still onboard, but that the leaking gasoline will complicate any investigation. The sheriff asks for the body of Albert Tracy, but the crew has no idea where he is. Everyone assumes that the deadly shootout occurred during a fight for the money.

Albert’s wife arrives, screaming and crying about her husband. She is shoved into the water by two Cubans who push their way through to the boat, and two Coast Guard men dive in to rescue her.

Meanwhile, Marie and her three daughters wait at the hospital for news about Harry’s condition. The surgeon arrives and tells her that Harry is in surgery and cannot be seen at the moment. She realizes that she needs to take the girls home. On the way, she sees a drunken man stumbling down the street—it is Richard Gordon on his way back to his ruined life. When she returns to the hospital, the doctor meets her and informs her that Harry died. He shows Marie into the operating room, and she cries.

A week after Harry’s death, Marie sits at the dining room table and ponders life without her husband. She feels “dead inside” (257) yet wonders how long it will be before she forgets the face she once loved. The money is running thin, and she knows she must sell the house to make ends meet. Her thoughts then turn to the Cubans who killed Harry, and she realizes she’s always hated Cuba and everything that comes with it. She believes she was lucky to have ever met a man like Harry who loved her despite her dyed hair, weight, and sexual past involving multiple partners. Finally, Marie reassures herself that numbness is the only way anyone endures this kind of trauma. She looks out the window at a brand new day as a yacht enters the harbor. Far out on the horizon, a tanker moves west with the Gulf Stream.