A Chocolate Soldier: Analysis of Major Characters
"A Chocolate Soldier: Analysis of Major Characters" delves into the complex relationships and emotional struggles of its characters, set against a backdrop of racial tension and personal tragedy. The narrative revolves around Meshach Coriolanus Barry, a 55-year-old black pastor plagued by a troubled past and an obsession with his deceased college friend, Cager Lee. Cager is portrayed as a rebellious figure with a messianic drive to uplift his community, ultimately leading him to tragic actions that result in his lynching.
The story also highlights the strained relationship between Meshach and his daughter, Carol, whose resentment towards her father's need to relive the past creates a rift between them. Other key figures include Mary Eliza Fitzhugh Dabney, a plantation matriarch whose views transform through her interactions with Cager, and Haley Tulah Barnes, a supportive professor who recognizes Cager’s potential. Additionally, Flo, Cager's love interest, adds emotional depth to the narrative, reflecting on themes of love and loss. Together, these characters illustrate the profound struggles tied to identity, legacy, and the quest for redemption within a racially charged environment.
A Chocolate Soldier: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Cyrus Colter
First published: 1988
Genre: Novel
Locale: At and near Gladstone College in Valhalla, Tennessee
Plot: Psychological realism
Time: The 1920's to the 1980's
Meshach Coriolanus Barry, the narrator, a lonely, obsessive fifty-five-year-old black pastor. A life of professional tragedies as well as accomplishments has led him through prison and mental hospitals. He decides to write the history of his long-dead college friend Cager Lee. For thirty-five years, Meshach has been obsessed with the events leading to Cager's death, and he has mythologized Cager as the “hero” of his tale. Meshach sets himself up as Cager's antithesis, a hypocritical preacher who merely goes through the motions of faith. By writing this history, Meshach hopes not only to define his relationship to Cager but also to understand the meaning of his own life.
Carol Barry, Meshach's daughter, a serious young woman in her late twenties whose relationship with her father has been strained since her teenage years, when, as the narrator hints, he engaged in an incestuous relationship with her. Meshach desperately needs Carol as an audience for his story about Cager, but she has heard this story before and resents her father's need to relive the past. Unable to cope with her father's obsessive need to retell history, she finally rejects him.
Rollo Ezekiel “Cager” Lee, the rebellious, doomed hero of Meshach's narrative, portrayed as a messianic young man whose desire to improve the lives of his fellow African Americans leads him to drop his studies at Gladstone College and attempt to muster an all-black militia. Believing that force is always necessary in the struggle for freedom, Cager idolizes Robert E. Lee as a brilliant military tactician. It is while working as a butler for Mrs. Dabney that Cager learns about a nineteenth century slave rebellion, which stirs him to make the same type of violent gesture of protest against oppression. After murdering Mrs. Dabney, Cager is lynched by a mob.
Mary Eliza Fitzhugh Dabney, the elderly matriarch of an old Virginia plantation family who divides her time between donating to conservative philanthropic societies and leading organizations celebrating the Confederacy. She employs Cager as a servant and is transformed by his influences. Without realizing the source of her new attitude, she begins to change from a fiery believer in social Darwinism into a generous benefactor of all-black Gladstone College before she is killed by Cager.
Haley Tulah Barnes, a compassionate black professor of history at Gladstone College. When he sees that Cager is doing poorly at school, he works out a plan to get Cager a job with Mrs. Dabney so that the boy will have some time to consider his future goals.
Flo, a beautiful and dignified single mother in her late twenties or early thirties who falls in love with Cager because of his intensity and drive. Flo provides Cager with maternal and romantic affection, but she makes the mistake of thoughtlessly revealing to him that his genitals are severely misshapen. Emotionally wounded, Cager isolates himself from her. In the meantime, Meshach, also smitten with Flo, becomes her new lover. Flo, however, sees through Meshach's preacherly professions of faith to the doubting confused man he really is. Still in love with Cager when he is lynched after killing Mrs. Dabney, Flo flees to New Orleans with her daughter. Years later, she dies there, from tuberculosis.