The Coup: Analysis of Major Characters
"The Coup: Analysis of Major Characters" examines the complex dynamics among key figures in a fictional sub-Saharan African state, Kush, following a military coup. Central to the narrative is Colonel Hakim Félix Ellelloû, a self-effacing leader shaped by his experiences in conservative America. His rise to power is marked by a strong anti-imperialist stance, with a focus on addressing poverty and corruption, symbolized by his actions against the deposed King Edumu IV. The characters surrounding Ellelloû, including his wives—Candace, Sittina, and Kadongolimi—reflect diverse perspectives on gender, power, and personal agency, from Candace's struggle against her past to Sittina's artistic aspirations.
The story also highlights the influence of foreign powers through figures like Donald Gibbs, a U.S. official, and Colonel Sirin, a Soviet representative, both attempting to manipulate Kush's political landscape. Betrayal emerges through Michaelis Ezana, who shifts allegiance toward Western materialism, and Dorfû, a young opportunist who orchestrates the coup against Ellelloû. The character of Kutunda adds further complexity, embodying both personal ambition and the harsh realities of political turmoil. Together, these characters illustrate the intricate interplay of personal motivations and broader socio-political forces in a changing world.
The Coup: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: John Updike
First published: 1978
Genre: Novel
Locale: Kush, a fictional African country; and Franchise, Wisconsin
Plot: Political
Time: 1973, with flashbacks to the 1950's
Colonel Hakim Félix Ellelloû (hah-KEEM fay-LEE ehl-lay-LEW), the forty-year-old, self-effacing president of Kush, a sub-Saharan African state. After the 1968 coup against French colonial authorities, he became minister of defense, then president after the assassination of his predecessor. Previously, as a student at conservative McCarthy College in Wisconsin, he had his strict Muslim Marxist beliefs confirmed by what he considered to be capitalist greed and consumerism. He has brought back Candace from the United States but keeps her muffled in purdah. Having visited his people in disguise, he blames their poverty on corrupt King Edumu. A purist, he has the king tried and executed, hoping that rains will then come to the arid desert and end a five-year famine. He is hostile to imperialists of both the United States and Russia; he believes they would subvert Kush's peanut and cattle culture as surely as Arabs, centuries before, sold West Africans into slavery. He is equally hard on himself and considers his humiliation in the tasteless, bourgeois Bad Quarters well-deserved, especially because the rains soon follow. He agrees to be exiled in southern France and to leave Kush to its fate.
King Edumu IV (ay-DEW-mew), a blind, old rebel against French colonialism. He supports Ellelloû's political rise because he respects the colonel's love for Kush. He is imprisoned and finally decapitated for failing to end his people's poverty and considering trade with the West.
Donald Gibbs, a U.S. official trying to insinuate American influence into Kush affairs by offering crates of processed, famous-brand cereals. When a stack of these is set afire, he dies like a martyr at its pinnacle.
Angelica Gibbs, Donald's wife. She hardly remembers his name but comes to claim his ashes. Refusing to return to a wintry climate, she offers herself to Ezana, who has replaced Ellelloû.
Klipspringer, a State Department representative who has no real knowledge of nor interest in Kush.
Colonel Sirin, the strict head of a Soviet intercontinental ballistic missile site in the desert. His underground bunker is decorated in czarist comfort.
Michaelis Ezana (mihk-AY-lihs ay-ZAH-nah), a former minister of the interior in Kush. Infatuated with Western materialism, he is eager to make financial deals with the World Bank or any wealthy foreign country. He betrays the nomadic desert economy by helping to build an industrial city and an oil refinery along the Libyan border. He weds the widowed Angelica Gibbs.
Dorfû (DOHR-few), a young opportunist who, in conspiracy with Ezana, organizes the coup against Ellelloû. Originally, he was an underling, a police guard whose sole function was to read the Koran to the blind king. He evacuates the inhabitants of the small villages, now zoned for agribusiness.
Kutunda (kew-TEWN-da), an impoverished companion to a company of traveling well-diggers. After briefly serving as Ellelloû's mistress, she joins the coup against him. Her greed makes her a bloodthirsty minister of the interior. She becomes sister-mistress of Dorfû.
Sheba (SHEE-bah), the childlike, petite fourth wife of Ellelloû. She joins him in the caravan heading toward Libya. In a constant dreamlike state, she plays music to overcome the desert delirium but disappears at the end of their quest.
Kadongolimi (kah-dohn-goh-LEE-mee), the earthy first wife of Ellelloû, fat as a queen termite. Her age allows her to mother Ellelloû and temper his rigorous views with common sense. She dies after he is overthrown.
Candace (Candy) Cunningham, Ellelloû's second wife, who rebelled against her Wisconsinite father's racism. In her desire to prove herself to be a liberated woman, she spends several years in Ellelloû's harem, completely shrouded. There she develops a robust coarseness but is not insensitive to his feelings of a mission failed when she finally leaves him to return to the United States.
Sittina (siht-TEE-nah), the sophisticated third wife of Ellelloû. Educated in Alabama, she is a dress designer and semiprofessional painter. The wife most compatible with the larger world of art that transcends power struggles, she accompanies Ellelloû when he goes into exile in France.
Mr. Cunningham, Candace's father, who would like to see all “undesirables” placed in concentration camps.