The Red Shoes

In Black’s “The Red Shoes,” the speaker must find the strength to leave their troubled relationship and the partner with a drug addiction. This, combined with the doomed relationship of another couple in the neighborhood, results in an epiphany for the speaker. At first the speaker and the partner seem to be invested in a similar way as they try to repair the floors, share stories about the hidden red slippers, and “paint [their] rooms” (Lines 25) bright colors like “cinnamon, Aegean blue” (Line 26). However, the couple is soon fighting, and the partner destroys the speaker’s “letters and diaries” (Line 27), littering the pieces out the window.

This disrespect for the speaker and their personal items shows the partner as volatile and angry. They become part of the violent surroundings rather than act as an exception to them. Soon, the partner winds up in “lockdown” (Line 33) at “St. // Luke’s” (Lines 32-33), which had a known psychiatric recovery facility specializing in drug detoxification (See: Further Reading & Resources). When the speaker’s acquaintance, Junior, dies from pneumonia, the speaker realizes the partner may be headed in the same direction. Junior/Jesus had a partner, Irma, who was found drowned. The comparison between the substance users forces the speaker to realize that they may not want to end up in the cemetery or in the river.