Henry Forge, as introduced at the beginning of the novel, is a rebellious character. He chafes under the tyranny of his father and is continually frustrated by his rigidity and emphasis on family dignity. In fact, he is so angered by his father's actions that he swears his hatred of John Henry and says "When I have children, I'll never be mean to him" (13). His adolescent rebellion eventually ends in a fundamental disagreement on the direction of the Forge Farm - he wants to raise horses while his father, conservative as he is, disapproves of this change. Of course, time comes for everyone - and John Henry is soon no longer around to keep Henry chained. He buys his horses, mingles with the upper classes, and establishes himself as a man of repute in horse racing.
However, Henry does not manage to run very far from his father. Despite materially being different, raising horses rather than crops, he is deeply influenced by his strict upbringing. Henry was in his formative years indoctrinated by his father in racism and misogyny, with lessons that claim "the negro is fundamentally a child" (55), and with cruel, manipulative advice such as "a damaged beauty is the only beauty capable of gratitude" (120).
This indoctrination fundamentally affects him, and Henry is misogynistic, racist, and a racial purist who uses questionable terms such as "empire." Though he promises to himself that he will not mistreat his children, he simply does not know any better. He raises his daughter Henrietta, in a way fulfilling his own earlier promise as he is not as cruel to her as John Henry was to him, but he is still a terrible parent. He rationalizes away his daughter's gender as to not confront his own misogyny, and in the end, Henrietta claims "You never loved me" (389). Despite all of his earlier hatred for his father, Henry has failed to establish a relationship with his child just as John Henry destroyed his relationship with Henry.
The two men are similar in many, many other ways. Both are caught up in the legacy of their family names, obsessed with maintaining their place at the top of the social ladder. Both are even prone to long monologues and lectures, speeches in which they attempt to promote their own misinterpreted views of evolution, race relations, and the role of women. John Henry is the only person from whom Henry could have formed his identity in his childhood and adolescence. The only authority figure in his childhood was John Henry. His mother
was a mute wallflower who could only offer him platitudes while she
himself suffered under her husband's nature, and Maryleen, arguably a
stronger woman than his mother, was black and under Henry's command. There was no one else to challenge him; everyone else was obviously inferior. It is no surprise, then, that Henry is a shadow of his father and only breaks out of this shell decades later.
One of the only real challenges to this perspective comes from Ginnie’s husband, Roger. Ginnie says, “You can’t help the way you were raised,” which expresses the same idea about Henry that you conveyed in your post. Roger replies, “Ah…but when you grow up, you have to take responsibility for your adult mind” (Morgan 407). Roger believes that Henry is ultimately responsible for himself, and his actions and beliefs cannot be blamed entirely on his father. Ginnie is more inclined to be sympathetic towards Henry; her own father was racist, yet she said, “But my daddy was kind, too” and still describes him as a “good man” (Morgan 407). However, Roger’s parents were Quakers and they taught him “that God made of one blood all peoples of the earth.” Roger cannot personally understand what it was like to grow up with racist parents and having to reject all of their teachings, and has much less tolerance for intolerance. Earlier in the novel, Ginnie made a joke about how she “married the man who holds the Guiness World Record for least words ever spoken in a marriage” (Morgan 114). By characterizing Roger as a man who does not speak much, the words that he does choose to say receive special emphasis. This line, in addition to Henry’s eventual change of heart, however late, seems to suggest that Morgan does believe, at least in part, that people are responsible for the beliefs that they hold.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your statement that John Henry is the sole authority figure in his son’s life. At the end of your post, you bring up Maryleen and how she could be considered a strong woman. This led me to think about Maryleen herself as a character, and how she develops over the course of the novel behind the scenes. Like you mention, she is initially under John Henry’s command. However, after she leaves her Forge household job, she goes on to become a successful writer. Years later, she turns up again in the Forge house, threatening Henry with a book that will ruin the family legacy. Finally, there is someone who is challenging a Forge. Notably, a black woman. I wonder if there are any other characters that can be seen as having successfully confronted the Forges? I also find it to be rightful justice in how Henry tells Allmon, “Hate you? I don’t even remember your [Allmon’s] name,’” (367), but in the end, it is his family name that is being threatened with poison and being forgotten (due to the possible publication of Maryleen’s book about the family). Overall, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, but the apple is finally facing some resistance.
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ReplyDeleteIt’s true that Henry doesn’t manage to run far from his father—at least not in Henrietta’s lifetime. However, he makes a lot of positive changes after Henrietta dies, which is certainly beneficial for Samuel. This switch is seen even through the names of the characters: John Henry, Henry, and Henrietta. But ‘Henry’ is not part of the grandson’s name. Instead, Henry names his grandson Samuel, the name of the first Forge man to settle in Kentucky. This serves as a sort of fresh start for the Forges; not only is the family line no longer white, but the child is no longer raised by a selfish & manipulative racial purist. Instead Samuel has the fortune to be raised by someone who cares enough about others to want to feed more than just the people in his family (465) and who wants to help people (or ‘patients’ as he calls them) and “never do harm to anyone” (509). I would also compare Samuel to Hellsmouth. Not only are there several parallels between Henrietta and Seconds Flat, especially when they are in labor—Henry told Lou to “bring that foal out at any cost […] I’d rather lose the mare than the foal” (308)— but when it comes down to Hellsmouth’s health and her participation in future races, Henry decides that he’d rather pull her than watch Mack break her (505); this is reflected in Henry putting Samuel’s care before going to the races and taking care of business as well.
ReplyDeleteIt is true that Henry does not manage to escape the old ways of John Henry, and until the birth of Samuel, Henry is an extremely similar person to John Henry the entire time. “The Sport of Kings” starts with the quote “How far away from your father can you run” (Morgan 1)?
ReplyDeleteThe truth is, Henry is not able to escape the actions of John Henry at any point up to the birth of his grandson. There are many examples of this throughout the novel, such as how Henry pulls Henrietta out of school for her use of the N-word, saying how she was not wrong it was the education system that was inferior to her intelligence. This reflects almost exactly how John Henry pulled Henry from school because he believed that the education system was far too inferior for Henry.
Henry also keeps the same racist tendencies that he learned from John Henry. Although John Henry was slightly more open about his actions, such as killing Filip, Henry is by many means a racist man as well. This post touches well on how John Henry used many obvious phrases, so Henry knew exactly what his thoughts were expected to be of African Americans. Henry does the same thing to Henrietta, telling her things to make herself feel it is an okay thing to be racist.
Overall Henry was not able to change from the ways of John Henry and is very similar to his father.