Coalhouse Walker Jr is an upstanding gentleman with unquestionable class, style, and sophistication. So many things about him set him apart from those around him, however his most undeniably unique trait is his burning sense of pride. In a time in American history in which black people were expected to "ingratiate themselves" and put their dignity aside for the sake of the white man, Coalhouse refuses to do so. The matter in which he stands his ground, may be considered fairly small in a larger context of hate crimes, but his decision to fight is far from insignificant.
What Coalhouse demands is to simply be treated with basic human decency. The crime committed against him, while not violent is disgusting, Coalhouse was treated as if he were not a man worthy of respect. The profoundness of Coalhouse's movement lies in the simplicity of his requests. So much damage is caused over the destruction of a car. A crime that the fire chief and his crew are most certainly guilty and liable of.
The power of Coalhouse is that even in a situation in which he has the option to ingratiate himself and just move on he will still stop at nothing to see that he is respected and gets what he deserves. So, however extreme his tactics may have been, his motives are clear and arguably just, and the liability and guilt should lie in the laps of authorities who didn't give him what he deserved.
What Coalhouse demands is to simply be treated with basic human decency. The crime committed against him, while not violent is disgusting, Coalhouse was treated as if he were not a man worthy of respect. The profoundness of Coalhouse's movement lies in the simplicity of his requests. So much damage is caused over the destruction of a car. A crime that the fire chief and his crew are most certainly guilty and liable of.
The power of Coalhouse is that even in a situation in which he has the option to ingratiate himself and just move on he will still stop at nothing to see that he is respected and gets what he deserves. So, however extreme his tactics may have been, his motives are clear and arguably just, and the liability and guilt should lie in the laps of authorities who didn't give him what he deserved.
I like your analysis of Coalhouse. His character reminds me of an idealized version Castiglione's renaissance man. He is well-spoken, dresses well, polite, etc. He exudes confidence, yet is a soft-spoken and mature man. In other words, it could not be more different from how racist early 20th century whites would expect a Black man to behave.
ReplyDeleteI especially like to look at how different Coalhouse is from Father and Conklin. While Coalhouse is sophisticated and classy, Father and Conklin spew racial slurs and yell. Its ironic that Father and Conklin look down on blacks for being less sophisticated than whites, when they are the more animal-like and immature people themselves.
I agree with this post! I do not find Coalhouse's pride to be a flaw, but something to be admired as a revolutionary quality, if that makes sense. All he wanted was respect, like every human deserves, and he received none. He tried every legal method available to him and was very calm throughout the process, until he had no choice (and with the death of Sarah pushing his determination) but to turn to violence and demand the respect he wasn't being given. I believe Father was the one who stated in the novel that Coalhouse didn't act the way black people were supposed to act at this time. For Coalhouse to even have pride and confidence was a revolutionary act against the white society he lived in.
ReplyDeleteIt's an interesting question, whether Coalhouse is justified in his actions. On one hand, he's only defending his own property, and Conklin was clearly wrong in attacking him. But at the same time, Coalhouse is becoming a terrorist, and killing people completely unconnected to Conklin's initial actions. Overall though, I think you make a good case for Coalhouse here, and I am more inclined to agree with Coalhouse now.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, Elliot. While Conklin's actions were (clearly) wrong, and it is extremely frustrating as a reader to see how Coalhouse is treated by the authorities, I still believe that he should have simply made it an issue with the fire department. If he wished to picket or vandalize the fire department, that is one thing. Bombing and committing arson on innocent bystanders is another. His actions could be considered terrorism, and while I respect Coalhouse's pride and expectation of being treated like a human being, he certainly went about it in a way that is hard to justify.
DeleteI like your conclusions about liability and guilt. It's tough to discuss Coalhouse cause we are hesitant to condone violence, and terrorism. I don't think Doctorow's goal is specifically justify this form of violence, but it's to put it in context. This violent response is a result of the perpetual racism, and failings of any other possible response. Doctorow is also pointing out how unfairly militancy can be depicted historically.
ReplyDeleteYes! Preach Lucas! I agree with you about Coalhouse about how he did nothing wrong at all and just wanted to be treated like the rest of us. He even went through the legal system like a normal person as well. And it puts the authorities in a new light. His demands were not hard, he mainly just wanted his car back. They caused alot of this trouble themselves, yet they were hesitant to own up to it. This could be saying somthing about the legal system in America.
ReplyDeleteCoalhouse Walker deserves to be as prideful as anyone else. Sure having too much pride is never good, but Coalhouse is an accomplished and successful ragtime pianist and wants to be treated as such. Coalhouse may have went pretty far making it difficult for us readers to really agree with him, but deep down this conflict could have been resolved if the firefighters just met his simple demands early on and admitted to being in the wrong. It's a complicated situation to wrap my head around.
ReplyDeleteYou're right that there is no explicit violence in the firefighters' harassment of Coalhouse, but I'd argue that such all-too-familiar bullying/gang-up dynamics *always* carry the implicit threat of violence--the person being harassed (Coalhouse, here) always feels outnumbered and solitary, cornered, with no allies in sight (remember how Coalhouse fixes on the two young black kids he sees nearby--total strangers--as the closest thing to an ally he can find when he asks them to watch his car). When Coalhouse calmly considers his options, it's pretty clear that any outward resistance or defiance would be risky: the school bully demands your lunch money as something you "owe" him, or his due; but if you refuse to turn it over, he's not just going to walk away disappointed. You're more likely about to be stuffed into a locker, and he's going to get the money anyway.
ReplyDeleteIn Coalhouse's case, I'm sure he's all too aware that any attempt to fight back on his part would be reported to authorities as a "crazed Negro violently attacking these respectable firefighters at their own station." (Which is exactly how his retributive violence *is* portrayed in the media, later.)