Alnilam: Analysis of Major Characters
"Alnilam: Analysis of Major Characters" explores the intricacies of its central characters against the backdrop of personal and ideological conflicts. The narrative centers on Frank Cahill, a carpenter and amateur bodybuilder who, despite being recently blinded, embarks on a journey to understand his son Joel, a missing cadet pilot. Joel is portrayed as a charismatic figure, whose idealism and romantic influences culminate in a student cult named "Alnilam," reflecting his quest for transcendence beyond physical limitations.
Supporting characters provide varied perspectives on Joel's influence and the dynamics of the cult. McClintock McCaig, a civilian flight instructor, facilitates Frank’s connection to aviation, symbolizing the search for personal balance. In contrast, Lennox Whitehall appreciates Joel’s intellectual pursuits, while Bruno Iannone offers a critical view, likening the cult to dangerous ideologies. Hannah Pelham represents the personal consequences of Joel's charisma, revealing the darker aspects of his power. Finally, Malcolm Shears, as Joel's devoted disciple, exemplifies the blend of youthful idealism and the potential for destructive groupthink. This layered character analysis invites readers to reflect on themes of individualism, authority, and the moral complexities of leadership.
Alnilam: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: James Dickey
First published: 1987
Genre: Novel
Locale: Peckover, North Carolina
Plot: Philosophical realism
Time: The 1940's
Frank Cahill, a fifty-four-year-old carpenter and amateur body builder recently blinded by a rare form of adult diabetes. Unpredictably energized by the challenges imposed by this condition, Cahill travels from the small amusement park he built in Atlanta, Georgia, to the Air Corps training facility where his son Joel has been declared missing after his plane crashed in a farmer's field. Accompanied by his wolflike dog Zack, Cahill tries to piece together a picture of the son he has never met; he and his wife separated shortly before Joel's birth. Himself subject to a form of egotism marked by a deep reliance on instinctual response, Cahill reacts positively to what he learns about Joel's self-confidence and faith in personal impulse, but he also comes to realize the destructive potential of such willful individualism when it is converted to political ends.
Joel Cahill, a nineteen-year-old cadet pilot who becomes the center of a student cult by the strength of his inherent charisma, physical attractiveness, and symbolic cast of mind. Informed by his reading of science fiction and nineteenth century Romantic poetry, especially the works of such idealistic believers in the transforming power of the imagination as English poets Percy Bysshe Shelley and James Thomson, Joel has constructed a personal brand of mysticism aimed at mastering the machine in order eventually to transcend its physical limitations and become one with the elements. Joel transmits his ideas to other specially chosen cadets and labels their secret confederacy “Alnilam” after the star in the center of the constellation of Orion. His hold over his followers is strengthened by his mysterious disappearance and by the fulfillment of his prediction that his father would arrive at the base to witness what he has set in motion.
McClintock McCaig (Double Mac), a former crop duster turned civilian flight instructor who serves as Frank Cahill's principal guide and companion at the North Carolina base. McCaig offers Cahill an opportunity to fly a plane, and this event gives Frank insight into his son's experiences in the air and a sense of his personal ability to find his own individual balance without the use of sight. Ironically, McCaig has volunteered for active duty in England and for training with the new invention of radar, which can be said to be a mechanical variation on the skills developed by sightless people in the detection of unseen objects.
Lennox Whitehall, a navigation instructor and veteran of the Pacific War who offers one of the two principal interpretations of Joel's status. Whitehall applauds Joel's mathematical and astronomical interests and his special ability to tap his full physical and intellectual potential, and he sympathizes with the Alnilam movement to the extent that it offers an imaginative outlet for the unconscious rebellious desires of the young and an antidote to the formulas of military bureaucracy.
Bruno Iannone, an articulate, practical-minded flight surgeon who provides Cahill with a more troubling spin on the significance of Joel's achievement. He sees Joel as the opportunistic nucleus of a fanatical group akin to the Nazis or the Ku Klux Klan, whose adherents blindly follow leaders who tell them that they are destined for some special fate.
Hannah Pelham, an Appalachian textile mill worker. By providing Joel with an opportunity to exercise his sadistic sexual fantasies, she offers evidence of the dark side of Joel's power over others. Hannah also grants Frank Cahill the comforts of her kitchen and bedroom.
Malcolm Shears, Joel's principal disciple and heir apparent. He is the keeper of Joel's undergraduate literature anthology, replete with the young man's gnomic marginalia, which the Alnilam cadets recite from memory during their secret ceremonies. With his knack for organization, Shears takes Joel's vision and imposes upon it his own sense of discipline. In the group's first collective action, a choreographed graduation-day runway traffic snarl, they intentionally destroy a number of aircraft and heedlessly cause the death of one pilot.