The Centaur: Analysis of Major Characters
"The Centaur: Analysis of Major Characters" focuses on the intricate relationships and symbolic roles of various characters set against a backdrop of personal and mythological exploration. Central to the narrative is George Caldwell, a high school science teacher who embodies the mythic centaur Chiron, reflecting themes of wisdom and mortality as he grapples with his own self-worth and fear of death. His son, Peter Caldwell, represents Prometheus, facing his struggles with psoriasis and the complexities of adolescence, including his emerging sexuality and artistic aspirations.
The narrative is enriched by other characters, such as Catherine (Cassie) Caldwell, who symbolizes Ceres and finds joy in nature despite her turbulent interactions with her husband and son. Pop Kramer, Cassie’s father, serves as a contrast to George, embodying the dethroned Titan Kronos, while Al Hummel, the local mechanic, represents Hephaestus, showcasing themes of craftsmanship and personal grief. Vera Hummel, Al's wife, as the goddess Venus, adds layers of sexual sensitivity and emotional connection, particularly in her interactions with Peter. Additional characters like Louis M. Zimmerman, the assertive principal likened to Zeus, and Dr. Harry Appleton, mirroring Apollo as a healer, further depth to the narrative.
Through these characters, the story explores the intersection of myth and reality, illuminating the struggles of human connection, identity, and the search for meaning in an evolving landscape.
The Centaur: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: John Updike
First published: 1963
Genre: Novel
Locale: Olinger, Pennsylvania, and its environs
Plot: Magical realism
Time: Monday morning to Thursday morning of the second week of January, 1947
George Caldwell, a general science teacher at Olinger High School and, at the mythic level, the centaur Chiron who is the teacher of the gods. Fifty years old and in physical pain, Caldwell is fearful about death and uncertain about the value of his own teaching. Despite his doubt and self-deprecation, Caldwell shows a deep sensitivity to the needs and fears of others. During the three days depicted in the novel, he and his son, Peter, are forced by car trouble and a snowstorm to spend two nights together away from home. They encounter a world that is realistic in detail yet explicitly mythic in its emotional and spiritual resonance.
Peter Caldwell, George's son, a fifteen-year-old high school student who at the mythic level is Prometheus, the Titan who brought fire to humans and was chained to a rock on Mount Olympus as punishment. Chiron accepted death in exchange for Prometheus' freedom. In the period of the novel, Peter is troubled by psoriasis, a skin condition inherited from his mother, and is fearful about his father's illness. Furthermore, Peter is struggling to understand his emerging sexuality and his relationship to the community of his childhood. A promising art student, he contrasts the grimy, uncultured bleakness of Olinger with images of glamour and wealth in New York City. Ironically, as he tells the story fourteen years later, Peter is an abstract expressionist painter in New York City, but his life with his black lover seems to lack the “firm stage resonant with metaphor” that he recalls in depicting his adolescence.
Catherine (Cassie) Caldwell, George's wife and Peter's mother. She is the goddess Ceres at the mythic level. No longer a beautiful woman, she is intermittently sharp and tender in her responses to George, Peter, and her father, who lives with them. Her greatest fulfillment is in her love of nature. As a result of her desire to live in the rural farmhouse in Firetown, George and Peter must drive eleven miles to Olinger High School. This journey precipitates their three days of adventure in the novel.
Pop Kramer, Cassie's father, who at the mythic level is the dethroned Titan Kronos. He is an aphorism-spouting old man whose certainties contrast with George Caldwell's pained and thoughtful skepticism.
Al Hummel, a skilled mechanic and the owner of a local garage. He is Cassie's cousin. At the mythic level, he is Hephaestus, the god of fire and craftsmanship. Hummel's hunched and limping body reflects a childhood accident as well as expressing his dismay at the postwar economy and his grief in his childless marriage to Vera, who is notoriously unfaithful. An understanding friend to George, Hummel helped him to get the teaching job in Olinger. On the second night that George and Peter are stranded in Olinger, they trudge through the snow to Hummel's house, where they sleep together in Peter's great-aunt's bed. The next day, Hummel helps them to shovel out their snowbound car for their return to the farmhouse in Firetown.
Vera Hummel, Al's wife and the girls' basketball coach at the high school. At the mythic level, she is Venus, the goddess of love. She is beautiful, amber-haired and slender, with golden skin and clear, delicate features. Her laughter is not, however, simply an expression of spontaneous joy; it is also a release and a consolation for her grief in her marriage to Hummel and, in her role as goddess, for her woe at men's ribald mockery of sexual desire. Her scenes with George and Peter affirm that sexual sensitivity and responsiveness are central issues in Peter's understanding of his father and his own emerging maturity. On the morning after the snowstorm, for example, Vera gives Peter breakfast and talks with him, providing glowing moments of release from the fears and anxieties he has carried throughout the previous three days.
Louis M. Zimmerman, the Olinger High School principal and, at the mythic level, Zeus, the ruler of the heavens. Both resented and respected in the small town, he is assertive, lecherous, and impetuous. In his insensitive evaluation of George's teaching, his misappropriation of 140 tickets for a basketball game, and his affair with a woman on the school board, Zimmerman is a major source of George's anxieties about money and his fear of losing his teaching job.
Dr. Harry Appleton, a local medical doctor, a plump, pink, balding man. He is Apollo, the god of healing, at the mythic level. Like Peter, Doc Appleton has psoriasis, and his matter-of-fact concern for Peter's skin condition parallels his humane directness in discussing George's symptoms and fears. His telephone call to Cassie reporting the results of George's X rays lifts the dread that has characterized the three days of adventure.
Hester Appleton, Doc Appleton's twin sister and the Olinger High School teacher of French and Latin. At fifty years old, she is plump and virginal, and, at the level of myth, she is the goddess Artemis. With her precise, sensitive use of language and her expressions of concern for George, Hester affirms his significance as a teacher and as a person.
Ray Deifendorf, a student at Olinger High School and a successful competitor on the losing swimming team that George coaches. Deifendorf is somewhat lewd and insensitive, but he feels deep affection for George. Years later, Peter learns that Deifendorf has become a high school teacher.