Runner Mack: Analysis of Major Characters
"Runner Mack: Analysis of Major Characters" explores the lives and struggles of several key figures in a narrative that delves into themes of ambition, disillusionment, and social injustice. Central to the story is Henry Adams, a black baseball player from Mississippi who embarks on a journey to achieve his dream of stardom but faces a series of harrowing setbacks, including a tragic accident and challenges related to urban life. His wife, Beatrice Mark Adams, also from Mississippi, grapples with the harsh realities of their new environment while confronting personal hardships, including her deteriorating health and communication barriers.
The character of Runnington "Runner" Mack introduces a revolutionary spirit, as he seeks to unite soldiers of different backgrounds for a common cause against oppression. His natural leadership is contrasted sharply with the tragic end he meets, highlighting the often-unmet aspirations for change. Supporting characters like Mr. Boye and M. A. Peters provide insight into the corporate dynamics and frustrations faced by individuals within a flawed system, adding depth to the narrative's critique of societal structures. Through these characters, the analysis sheds light on the complexities of race, ambition, and the pursuit of identity in a challenging landscape.
Runner Mack: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Barry Beckham
First published: 1972
Genre: Novel
Locale: Various locations in the United States
Plot: Absurdist
Time: A time resembling the Vietnam War era of the 1960's
Henry Adams, a black baseball player. A wiry, athletic, and relatively short young man, Adams has come north from Mississippi with a clear goal: to become a baseball star. Instead, he is hit by a truck, employed in a meaningless job, terrorized by police, humiliated by the baseball team that had called him to a tryout, drafted and sent to a war in Alaska, and finally taken back to the northern city for a revolution that fails to materialize. As the novel ends, another truck is bearingdownonhim.
Beatrice Mark Adams, Henry's wife, another native of Mississippi. She is young, light-skinned, graceful, and charmingly seductive. A much-loved child, she insisted on marrying Henry, despite her father's conviction that he could never support her. In the northern city where Henry takes her, she spends most of her time in their inadequate apartment, troubled by the air pollution, which makes it impossible for her to breathe, and by the maddening level of urban noise. Just as Henry is about to leave for Alaska, she tells him that she is pregnant. When he returns, he finds that she can no longer hear what he says: The noise has made her deaf.
Runnington (Runner) Mack, a black soldier and revolutionary. A tall, mustached man from the West whose every other word is profane, he is a natural leader. When Henry encounters him in an Alaska barracks, Mack is already organizing black and white soldiers for the invasion of Washington. His confidence is illustrated by the fact that he shows no hesitation in seizing and piloting a helicopter, even though he admits that he has had no training. After a successful trip from Alaska in various conveyances, ranging from limousine to train, Runner Mack arrives at the union hall to lead the revolution that will change the country. When he finds only eight participants present, he hangs himself in the men's room.
Mr. Boye, Henry's supervisor at Home Manufacturing Company. A man in late middle age, he has a pimpled forehead and a tendency to spill saliva while he is talking. An employee of the company for forty years, he has risen from messenger boy to supervisor; however, he is frustrated because he has been stopped at that level for thirty years, when someone decided that he should rise no further. In an effort to establish himself as a friend of the black workers, he shows Henry pornographic photographs of a black woman. When Henry later asks about the meaning of his job, Boye admits that he has never known what he himself is doing or even what the plant is making. Later, he is reprimanded for that confession.
M. A. Peters, the personnel manager at Home Manufacturing Company, where Henry Adams works. A tall man with bushy brows and closely clipped hair, he wears the corporate pinstriped suit and a meaningless smile. At the Christmas party, he is the typical toady, leading the employees in applause for the decrepit company president.