Henry's Ten "Commandments"

In “The Sport of Kings”, C.E. Morgan portrays ten inner thoughts of Henry during the opening scene of the book, but there are three in particular (one,seven, and ten) which are intriguing.  Each of these three thoughts seem somewhat out of place, but when pieced together, make for a near perfect outline of the character that Henry is at that point in the book, and foreshadows the man he ultimately does not want to become. 

Henry’s stubborn, family lineage-centric attitude is reflected in this first thought, “Number one, I am Henry Forge.”(Morgan 3). At the time, we may think that this is simply an innocent youth attempt at coming up with a self identity. As Henry becomes a man, his true colors are shown, and he treats others around him by the values he learnt in the only environment he ever wanted for himself: a breeding farm for race horses. It becomes evident in the way he raises his daughter and the way he treats African Americans. 

Thought number seven is particularly interesting, as Henry claims to himself, “Living beings are just complex machines.” (Morgan 7). This could mean that Henry believes humans are easy to “fix”, and that he really does not comprehend how humans feelings are affected by familial interactions. The dynamic between Henry and his mother is one relationship that clearly shows that young Henry cannot quite grasp his mother’s yearning for love and attention. His understanding of humans as just re-programmable “machines” is evident by the lack of effort that Henry puts into solving his mother’s problem, as he thinks that pouring out his issues with his dad onto his mother will make her feel more loved. 

Additionally, I believe thought number ten is what dictates Henry’s adulthood the most. The Latin phrase “Sic semper tyrannis” (Morgan 11) translates directly to “thus always to tyrants”. In calling his father a tyrant and wishing ill on him, Henry uses the education that his father taught him. This directly correlates to the contradictory lifestyle that Henry lives as a grown man, as he portrays a similar type of person that his father was in an effort to be different than him. Raising a farm for breeding race horses was ultimately Henry’s dream that tore him and his father apart, but John Henry’s racist, stubborn, and insensitive qualities rage rampant in Henry not only as an adult, but a father as well.