I’m writing this blog post right after reading the section where Sarah dies. I write this note because I feel like Coalhouse’s importance in the story is going to greatly increase over the next few chapters, and he’ll play a larger role in the plot.
We talked in class about Coalhouse’s character. I wanted to expand on the idea that Coalhouse’s
entrance is, in fact, actually very similar to J.P. Morgans. I think it was Omeed who brought up this
idea, and I think there’s even more merit to the idea than what we had hinted at in class. Morgan
shows up to his office, “in a dark blue suit, a black overcoat with a collar of lamb’s wool and a top
hat.” (137). When Mother is looking at Coalhouse, she notices that he “wore a fitted black overcoat,
a black and white hound’s-tooth suit, gray spats and pointed black shoes. He had in his hand a
charcoal gray cap and driving goggles.” As you can see, they are both wearing fancy clothes. But
the comparison doesn't stop there. J.P. Morgan is referred to as one who “affected fashions slightly
out of date.” I had to look up what affected means to make sure this comparison works, but affected
can mean artificial, pretentious, and/or designed to impress. So, Morgan is dressing in a way to kind
of show off that he can afford this, and that he can do what he wants. For Coalhouse, the
comparison is similar. Mother thinks that, “He was dressed in the affectation of wealth to which
colored people lent themselves.” Again, the use of the affected. This time, Mother is connecting this
potentially pretentious manner to his race, as she refers to these actions as ones “which colored
people lent themselves.” (156). Another key detail is the eyes. Morgan’s eyes are described as
having “fierce intolerant eyes set just close enough to suggest a psychopathology of his will.”
Coalhouse’s eyes are described as “large dark eyes so intense as to suggest they were about to
cross.” Their eyes are both close to their nose, and fierce and intense are words with such similar
meanings that it is hard to deny the connection. Another thing I noticed is the power of the car. Their
cars are both described grandly, and when the cars pull up, people come down to it. When
Coalhouse pulls up in a new Model T, the boy “ran down the steps and stood on the sidewalk.” He
went up and waited by it. For Morgan, by the time he is stepping out the car, there are several bank
officers who had, “rushed out to meet him disentangled the robe and hung it over the robe rail on the
inside of the door.” They both have people coming down to meet them as they pull up in their
beautiful new cars. There are words like burly and stocky comparing the two which have almost the
same meaning. It’s kind of like Doctorow went on Thesaurus.com to finish the comparison without
making it too obvious.
But the similarity doesn't stop at parking their cars, it also follows them as they move toward where
they are going. Morgan “marched in the building, assistants, aides and even some of the firm’s
they are going. Morgan “marched in the building, assistants, aides and even some of the firm’s
customers circling toward him like birds.” Although Coalhouse doesn't have works circling him, he
does march up into the building into a similar fashion. We talked in class about Coalhouse
understanding that he shouldn't go to the front door in this social scenario, but he still goes to the
backdoor with as much intent. Mother notices the way he asked if he could speak with Sarah and
was alarmed. And later, when she comes back to Coalhouse, he is inside the house and has broken
some of the boundaries he was supposed to be confined to as a guest to the house. He entered
seemingly without permission, and he went over the carriage, even when he really shouldn't have
been, because Sarah wanted him gone.
For both men, my mind is creating the same image. There is only one real difference: Coalhouse is
black. Although the comparisons of their car, clothes, manners, and actions are all almost exactly the
same, race stands out. In the middle of the boy’s description, he includes the line, “He was a
Negro.” (155) When Morgan is being potentially being pretentious about his wealth and image, he
faces no consequences or agency. When Coalhouse is called out for the same reasons, Mother
uses it as a way to say colored people often act this way to pretend they are rich.
There are more comparisons with the characters that I’m sure we’ll dive into as we get deeper into
Coalhouse’s character. I’m interested to see what happens to him in the next readings.
