The Eye in the RockPile
The "Rockpile" by James Baldwin is an interesting tale that portrays family dynamic and religion. I will focus on what I think is a hidden clue that Baldwin included to further his point and give more emphasis to his writing. In short, the Rockpile describes a family who lives near a rock pile where the neighbourhood boys like to play. However in the is family the two boys, Roy the younger son and John the older step-son are not allowed to play at the rockpile and are only allowed to wistfully watch from a distance. One day Roy decided to play on the rockpile and gets hit right above his eye. He runs home crying getting help from his mother. His father Gabriel who is a pastor comes home and blames John for not watching over his younger brother.
The dialogue between Roy and his father clearly shows their intimate relationship that eludes John. “You don’t wanna cry. You’s Daddy’s little man. Tell your daddy what happened.” While trying to help his son Gabriel begins to make remarks about how Roy and John have different eyes. Gabriel said “He came mightly close to losing an eye. Course, his eyes ain’t as big as your’n” meaning that Roy and his mother have different eyes then compares the fact that John and his Mother share the same eyes. “He ain’t got your big eyes for nothing, does he.” It seems clear that Baldwin is not talking about eyes in this case but rather the fact that John is an illegitimate son. The idea of family in this story is broken by John not being accepted and becoming Gabriel’s Scapegoat for Roy’s actions. Once you realize that the different types of eyes represent the separation in the family, the idea of Roy losing an eye becomes more interesting. By going to the rockpile Roy disobeys his father and perhaps Baldwin is attempting to show the reader that he could have lost the connection to his father, through losing his eye. Becoming an outcast just like his scapegoat brother John.
Please let me know if you agree that Baldwin purposefully placed the injury or if I’m crazy.
The dialogue between Roy and his father clearly shows their intimate relationship that eludes John. “You don’t wanna cry. You’s Daddy’s little man. Tell your daddy what happened.” While trying to help his son Gabriel begins to make remarks about how Roy and John have different eyes. Gabriel said “He came mightly close to losing an eye. Course, his eyes ain’t as big as your’n” meaning that Roy and his mother have different eyes then compares the fact that John and his Mother share the same eyes. “He ain’t got your big eyes for nothing, does he.” It seems clear that Baldwin is not talking about eyes in this case but rather the fact that John is an illegitimate son. The idea of family in this story is broken by John not being accepted and becoming Gabriel’s Scapegoat for Roy’s actions. Once you realize that the different types of eyes represent the separation in the family, the idea of Roy losing an eye becomes more interesting. By going to the rockpile Roy disobeys his father and perhaps Baldwin is attempting to show the reader that he could have lost the connection to his father, through losing his eye. Becoming an outcast just like his scapegoat brother John.
Please let me know if you agree that Baldwin purposefully placed the injury or if I’m crazy.
Woah! I've never thought about that before! It really makes sense that Gabriel would feel like he is losing part of his connection to this son if Roy lost his eye. That really would explain the anger when Gabriel finds out. The depth of the story really shows in this scene. Great post, really made me think!
ReplyDeleteInteresting connection. It's hard to imagine that Baldwin wasn't consciously putting the focus on John seeming more his mother's child while Roy seems more like Gabriel's. I don't know how far he took that analogy (whether Roy's eye injury was symbolic of the breakdown of his relationship with his father directly because it had to do with his eyes--that may be reading too much into it but idk) but I did get the sense that Gabriel felt possessive of Roy as well as parental, which is what seemed to piss Roy off so much in the following story. So it's almost as if any injury to Roy is an injury to Gabriel's property.
ReplyDeleteThis is a really interesting post! I always just thought that Gabriel was mad because his precious (biological) son was hurt and because he never really liked John the illegitimate son to begin with. The connection with the eyes is really fascinating to think about and could be very possible. Good eye for detail!
ReplyDeleteDang I never really thought about Roy's eye injury as anything more than an eye injury, but in a way it makes sense. We find out later in "The Outing" that Roy hates his father too, so maybe he would want to go out to the Rockpile and lose his eye/connection to him on purpose. He doesn't want all the attention that he gets from his father, so maybe losing his eye would cause Gabriel to back off.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that you brought up such a discrete detail, but that may very well have been Baldwin's plan. I agree that Gabriel is the centerpiece of the family interactions as he shapes Roy's character and reaction to his injury as well as Johnnie and his mother's. One thing reading your post made me think about was a plot in which Roy was lost in the rockpile. Not to linger on the dark side of things, but it would be interesting to see how the family would function. The head of the family without his blood born son and even Johnnie or his mother held responsible.
ReplyDeleteThis one sounds like a bit of a stretch to me lmao. I thought, maybe if anything, of the Biblical proverb "an eye for an eye" and what it meant that John wasn't really to blame but was subjected to most of the anger for Roy's disobedience anyway.
ReplyDelete