Too Little, Too Late

            Nature versus nurture has been a debate that has been at the forefront of biology for decades. Does your genetic code determine the person one will become, or does the environment shape the person? Nurture formed Henry Forge; he is surrounded by a racist father at the top of the ladder of class. However, he believed through nature that he is superior, that genetically his genes are the best.

            Henry’s father establishes in his son that he is better than anyone else and that he should not spend time with people who are beneath his status, as he tells Henry to abandon Loretta saying “Don’t chase after just any bitch in heat” “ You’re better than that” (88).  Henry believes that he is superior to anyone who is not white, or has less money than him, which is basically everyone, even as a child he believes this, telling Ginnie Miller “When I get married, I’m going to marry a beautiful woman. My father says not to waste energy on ugly girls” (19).

            From a young age Henry believed that he was superior. He does not realize that his actions have consequences, and he certainly doesn’t care if his actions were to cause harm to another person, especially if the person being hurt was of another race. This is exactly what happened with Filip, Henry told his father “They were talking about someone touching Mother. Maybe Filip” (57), This led to the death of Filip, which did not affect Henry at all, he got a man killed and did not even care.

            It takes Henry more than fifty years before he starts to think about consequences, it takes the death of his daughter, and a confrontation from Maryleen, who knew about Filip’s death, saying “I have the power to ruin the Forge name. That I most certainly do. And I suspect for you that would be an end more permanent than death” (476). Henry finally realizes he must make amends, but it is too late to do any meaningful change.

The only thing he can do is pull Hellsmouth from racing, but what Henry does not realize is that it is too late to do that. By pulling her from racing he will be saving the horse’s life, but he will be ruining the lives of more people. One of those people was his trainer Mack Snyder who confronted Henry saying, “You pulled the trigger three years ago and you cannot---LSTEN TO ME YOU CANNOT STOP THE BULLET NOW!” (506). Henry still must pay for his biggest mistake, ruining Allmon’s life. Henry forced Allmon away from Henrietta, lied to him about his son, and pushed him into a suicidal rampage to destroy Henry’s life. The gun was fired when Henry’s superiority complex formed, back when he was a child, and to stop the bullet he forced it into Allmon, ruining both of their lives.