Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned

Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned is a 1997 crime novel by American author Walter Mosley. It is split into fourteen chapters, each with its own plot arc, that together comprise a larger narrative about Socrates Fortlow, an ex-convict who struggles to live a moral life in Los Angeles. The novel takes place during 1995 and 1996 in the southern low-income neighborhood of Watts. Fortlow, now fifty-eight, served about half of his life in an Indiana prison for a double homicide; he is on his eighth year of freedom. Still, he is burdened by guilt and remorse, as well as feelings of profound loss for the lives he might have lived. Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned humanizes the ex-convict experience, demonstrating its protagonist’s unflagging resilience and positive attitude as he strives to make meaning out of what remains of his life.

Fortlow’s life in Los Angeles begins right after he is released from prison. He picks the city because he has never lived there, nor does he know anyone there. He hopes to create a blank slate for himself, knowing that his own tendency to solve problems with violence might still defeat him. In the first several chapters, Fortlow makes a living by picking up recyclable detritus from the streets and turning it in for cash. Eventually, he is hired at a grocery store. Fortlow soon finds that his primary challenge is not his own temperament, but rather the debilitating guilt and anger he holds against himself. His guilt exacerbates an insecurity that makes him especially vulnerable to racism and poverty, compelling him to rationalize his disenfranchisement.

Each of the chapters pivots on a central conflict, and Fortlow ultimately pulls through it by following a disciplined moral code. At the same time, he is presented with challenges unlike those he overcame in prison, or in his youth before his incarceration. They range from protecting his community against a criminal to learning to peacefully resist acts of racism. Fortlow, as a black man in a country with a broken criminal justice system, deeply distrusts the local police and deftly evades their antagonism. In the process, he occasionally chooses to break the law rather than succumb to police oppression. Though he instinctively knows that he has made the right decision and that moral matters are never black and white, he cannot help but believe that he remains a bad person. Mosley reveals through his narrative voice, and through Fortlow’s action, that he is a good person, even if the protagonist tragically never comes to realize it.



Though he is mostly a solitary man, Fortlow develops friendships with several people who help him pull through during hard times. Most central among these is Darryl, a boy on the cusp of middle school who kills another boy his age. To Fortlow, Darryl’s struggle resembles his own, and he tries to mentor him to save him from a similar fate. Ultimately, Fortlow succeeds in keeping Darryl out of trouble. His evolution from murderer to mentor completes his moral evolution and gives him a feeling of security and self-love that he never found in his youth or in jail. The novel ends, as Fortlow looks forward to improving himself further.

Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned acknowledges the truth value of its own title: criminality is a destructive and overwhelming force. On the other hand, it makes a case for the possibility of extricating oneself totally from a life of guilt and sorrow, demonstrating that even the most seemingly incorrigible people can learn from their actions.