# Gin-head Susy — Home to Harlem character guide

> Gin-head Susy in Home to Harlem by Claude McKay.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Susy

**First appearance:** 0006-iv-congo-rose

## Snapshot

Gin-head Susy runs an all-male speakeasy where the gin is regal and the hostess is mocked, a hard-drinking woman whose wages drown in liquor and whose breast carries a hive of discontents.

## Who they are

Susy throws sociable evenings for yellow poolroom youngsters and bellboys, holding a congenital contempt for women and a vain desire for a lover who will stay once she's cleaned him up and straightened his hair. Her guests drink her Gordon Dry, swap rakish stories, and leave her for pleasures elsewhere, while the boys crack jokes about her ugly spade and B-flat trotters. Her new friendship with the putty-skinned Lavinia Curdy begins to change her, and her gin-soaked front room becomes one of the Belt's essential stages, a place where Harlem's appetites and cruelties are poured out nightly.

## In the story

### [First Part](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/home_to_harlem_se/chapters/first-part)

A woman who keeps Zeddy, representing a form of transactional domesticity in the neighborhood.

### [Myrtle Avenue](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/home_to_harlem_se/chapters/vi-myrtle-avenue)

Hosts the party, is attracted to a yellow youth, and becomes angry when he leaves.

### [VII: Zeddy's Rise and Fall](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/home_to_harlem_se/chapters/vii-zeddy-s-rise-and-fall)

Susy is the matriarchal provider who keeps Zeddy. She is generous with her cooking and gin but fiercely possessive, issuing ultimatums to keep Zeddy from straying. Her authority is challenged as Zeddy begins to push back.

### [Second Part](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/home_to_harlem_se/chapters/second-part)

A woman who is keeping Zeddy.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/home_to_harlem_se/characters/susy
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/home_to_harlem_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/home_to_harlem_se/characters