In C.E. Morgan’s The Sport of Kings, Henry Forge obsesses with perfection. Since his childhood, Henry learns of perfection. Henry’s life revolves around his belief that his family possesses a perfect bloodline. He makes it his life's mission to create the perfect horse for horse-racing.
The concept of a perfect familial bloodline is passed down from generation to generation. Henry Forge’s father, John Henry, instills the idea of a perfect familial line. John Henry explains, “There is no need for improvement, Henry, only adherence to a line that has never altered, because it’s never proven unsound” (C.E. Morgan, 51) John Henry explains to Henry that their family cannot be improved. John Henry firmly believes that his familial line is both pure and perfect. He teaches that because the family is already perfect, it cannot be further improved. The ways of John Henry and his son’s ancestors cannot be wavered from because perfection has already been achieved. Henry’s obsession with perfection is rooted in the teachings of his father. Years later, Henry Forge teaches his daughter, Henrietta, the uniqueness of the Forge family. “The Forges, once a distinct subspecies, are quickly becoming a closed gene pool with a natural history all their own… bred long enough, a subspecies becomes a species in its own right, possessed of its distinct mark, the isolating trait” (C.E. Morgan, 149). Henry believes his family has such a distinctive bloodline that they have become a species separate from humanity. Henry describes their family as “bred,” an act that includes selecting mates based on specific and expressed traits, indicating that the Forge family is the result of purposefully manicured selection.
Henry strives for perfection above all else. After the death of his father, Henry converts the farm into a farm for race-horse breeding. He teaches Henrietta the race-racing business, as he plans to leave the farm to her. Henry teaches Henrietta, believing she can help him achieve perfection. In a lesson to his daughter, Henry’s strive for perfection is described.“For Henry so loved the horse that he gave his only begotten daughter, so that whosoever believeth in perfection shall have everlasting life, which is fame among men” (C.E. Morgan, 181). Henry believes that achieving perfection equates with achieving everlasting life because perfection results in a legacy. Henry’s strive for perfection is described in the same way that the Bible describes God sending his son to the world. In the same way that God sacrificed his son so that the world may be saved, Henry believes that he sacrifices his daughter to achieve perfection. Henry considers his strive for perfection to require great sacrifice, the sacrifice of his daughter, who he considers to be as perfect as the son of god.
The idea of perfection within the Forge family is very thought provoking and this post makes a very strong point when referencing the lesson that Henry tells his daughter. It displays the idea that these Forge men are willing to sacrifice their own blood and take risks in order to carry on what they believe to be the perfect family. The quote says that perfection brings fame among men and an everlasting legacy. When Henry tries to carry on perfection by having sex with his own daughter, he certainly makes a reputation and legacy, but it is certainly not a good one. The idea of perfection gets muddy near the end of the novel as Henrietta has her mixed child and the baby is constantly referred to as “just the most perfect little man” (pg. 405). This places into the notion that interbreeding and mixing traits is the best way to perfection, which is what science says. However, the book becomes confusing in the point that it is trying to get across when it reveals that Allmon and Henrietta are blood relatives. This relation now means that the process that produced such a perfect child was actually the result of breeding within the same line and this needs to be considered when discussing the idea of perfection presented by Morgan.
ReplyDeleteThis connection between the Forges, horses, and perfection is also interesting in light of Lou’s revelation to Henry at the end of the novel. Henry wanted to know what Lou said to Henrietta, and Lou explained that “the horse was the remnant of an evolutionary failure.” She mentions that “it’s really the first thing you learn when you study evolution in school.” For all of the Forges’ knowledge and extensive reading, this basic fact was unveiled like a mystery, demonstrating how misguided the Forges were and how little they actually knew due to their isolation. Henry understands evolution as “a ladder to a perfect thing” (Morgan 488), but Lou tells him the truth that “it’s more like…a bush.” Everything that the Forges have been working for has been fundamentally wrong. Lou says that the bush “gets stronger with each new branch, each new variation,” which goes against Henry’s beliefs about inbreeding (Morgan 489). Henry wanted to be the father of Henrietta’s child to create a stronger bloodline, but Lou’s explanation makes it clear that, from a strictly genetic standpoint, that would be an incorrect assumption. Allmon is a better genetic choice for the role of the father because he has a set of genes that is less similar to Henrietta’s, so Samuel will be stronger. Samuel is described in the novel as perfect, so Henry does eventually find perfection in the novel, it just does not come from a ladder.
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ReplyDeleteThis post is rather thought provoking in the way that it does describe how the entire Forge bloodline, as the readers see first through the actions of John Henry and then Henry, sees themselves as superior to the rest of the human race.
Expanding on the point made of the quote provided in the post that “Henry so loved the horse that he gave his only begotten daughter, so that whosoever believeth in perfection shall have everlasting life, which is fame among men” (Morgan 181), it can not only be seen that Henry believes his daughter so perfect that she is the equivalent of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, but that Henry believes that he is a god like figure as well.
This post also forced reflection on other actions in the book, such as when Seconds Flat finished in second place during her race, and the reader, through the thoughts of Henrietta, knows that “[Henry] would be furious, she knew; a second-place finish was a deep disappointment… it amounted to nothing.” (Morgan 162). This quote shows that anything less than the very best is considered a failure in the eyes of Henry, further emphasizing his need to attain perfection throughout the novel.
Henry’s struggle for perfection ultimately results in him viewing his own bloodline in the same way as a horse’s. Because of the strong parallels drawn between the Forges and horses, it can be interpreted that Lou is talking about the Forges when she calls the horse an evolutionary failure. The Forges have become so caught up in their own philosophies that, while they may have become another species in a sense, they’ve lost the traits that make humans different from animals. In that way, their evolution has led them to a failure. Henry’s search for perfection blinds him from this fact, he can see only the strength and beauty in his family, but cannot see all the flaws and faults that come with that. He can’t see that his family lacks those human qualities, and he can’t see that there are flaws that run deep in his family. Allmon himself is an example of what happens when the Forge line is not left to breed within itself, as he retains much more of the human quality that the Forges lack. He brings humanity back to the family, and brings their evolutionary track back closer to humanity in general, and that is what results in Samuel’s often referred to perfection.
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