Father, a man frozen in time

    On average during class we tend to focus on the broad ideas of our assigned readings. We focus on CoalHouse Walker Jr. and his tensions surrounding civil rights, we go deep into how Mother takes responsibility in the absence of her husband, and we talk about all of the historically accurate and possibly inaccurate events of real life people. But there is one important character that, behind the scenes of our discussion, shapes the book in many ways. And perhaps you can look at it as this character provides contrast between post-modernist and the traditional 1900s. This blog post is about Father, possibly the most reactive, and dramatic character in the entire book. As you know, Father is married to mother, they have a son, they live with Mothers Younger Brother and Grandfather. Eventually their house is graced with a baby and Sarah, who faces a life changing tragedy..., and then CoalHouse who is the sole reason change happens in the family. But i'm not focusing on change within Father, i'm focusing on the absence on change. 

    When Father leaves for the Peary expedition Mother is living in the house with the boy, and the Grandfather. Sometimes Mother's Younger Brother is present. We get a sense that Mother and Father's marriage, on the surface, is content. However, there is a sense that below that surface it's not the most stable. We get this idea when the narrator explains that, "the marriage seemed to flourish on Father's extended absences." (Doctorow 11). Suggesting that the couples marriage is more stagnant. Mother sees their time alone as formal, and dutiful instead of intimate. Ironically, Father is oblivious that their marriage is 'formal,' we see this later in the book when Mother is being noticed by other men in Atlantic City, "Father was oblivious to the man's spectacle notice of his wife. Mother was amused by this." (Doctorow 252). To wrap up this idea, Father is leaving a simple house where his relationship is good, to his analysis, and there are two sometimes three other people in the house.

    After Father's return home a few tiny things have changed... Mother is now taking care of a black baby, and the mother of that child, Sarah, is hiding in his house. On top of that, Mother has taken all the responsibilities of the house, even reading Emma Goldman books. She has gone from a woman who relied on her husband, to an independent head of the house, starting by saying, "I will take the responsibility [of the child]." (Doctorow 70-71). Additionally his son had become smarter, and taller. Father felt "childlike" next to his own child. (Doctorow 112). "He wandered through the house finding everywhere signs of his own exclusion." (Doctorow 110). Father feels excluded in the families advancements while he was absent. He didn't even recognize himself. However, although his physical appearance has changed, his mental and psychological aspects hadn't changed. While he was home he made note about how different everything was in his household now. "He felt passed by life." (Doctorow 216)

    To add onto Father's slowing crumbling hold on his masculinity in the family, CoalHouse Walker Jr. enters the story. This black man drives up in his new fancy Model T. Ford, shows up every week in hopes of courting Sarah, and ultimately uproots Fathers life. This is where we see Father's fragile masculinity starting to show, he even resorts to shaming C.H.W for "not [knowing] he was a Negro." (Doctorow 162). He goes so far to say that "there is something reckless about [C.H.]. Even Matthew Henson knows his place." (Doctorow 162). I think that in that moment Father is intimidated, Mother even has to calm him down from his dramatics. At times, she calmly places her hand over top of his to silence him, "Ill call the police, he said," after C.H.'s visits became often, "Mother laid a hand on his arm." (Doctorow 157). We see Mother then becoming the head of the house while Father is catching up with societies new eras. 

    To close, I think that it is immensely important to focus on characters that aren't always the main event of the chapter, because it adds context when you hone in on one character. The contrast with Mother and Father provides us a contrast between modernist or the early 1900s and post-modernist. Mother is reading Emma Goldman, while Father gets back from an expedition that screams the early 1900s. When Father takes his son to a ball game he is astonished by how different baseball his compared to Harvard 20 years ago. By the end of the book we can kind of assume that Father's mental aspects had changed, he starts to help the policemen in their pursuit of CoalHouse Walker. We aren't given a clear explanation other than Father confessing that he felt safer in the Police station, even coming to the rude conclusion that he actually didn't hate CoalHouse because of his skin color but rather by his anger towards the death of his wife. Father embodies the resistance of societal change, and the complex journey of ones "catching up" in a world that is forever transforming.

    -     Zoe Parker

    Works:

                Doctorow, E. L. Ragtime. Random House, 2007 .