Strike the Father Dead: Analysis of Major Characters
"Strike the Father Dead: Analysis of Major Characters" delves into the complex relationships between a father and son, centered around Alfred and Jeremy Coleman. Alfred, a middle-aged classics professor, grapples with his own emotional suppression and the legacy of his minister father. His rigidity drives Jeremy away, leading to a long estrangement until a moment of vulnerability during a hospital visit rekindles their connection. Jeremy, who feels unfulfilled by his father's academic values, ultimately discovers his passion for jazz music, illustrating the struggle between personal desires and parental expectations.
The narrative also explores supporting characters like Eleanor Coleman, Alfred's nurturing sister, who serves as a protective figure for Jeremy, and Percy Brett, a talented black musician who introduces Jeremy to the world of authentic jazz. Another character, Tim, represents the pitfalls of a superficial lifestyle, ultimately losing Jeremy's respect. Meanwhile, Diana, Jeremy's mistress, embodies the challenges of unhealthy relationships and their impact on personal growth. Together, these characters navigate themes of duty, emotional expression, and the quest for identity against the backdrop of familial and societal pressures.
Strike the Father Dead: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: John Wain
First published: 1962
Genre: Novel
Locale: London, Paris, and an unnamed provincial university town
Plot: Bildungsroman
Time: The 1940's and 1950's
Alfred Coleman, a middle-aged professor of the classics. The son of a minister, Alfred has inherited his father's sense of duty, if not his faith. Except for his wife, Mary, who died after ten years of marriage, Alfred has never permitted himself to become close to anyone. Although he is secretly troubled by the memory of his own wartime weakness, he projects an image of certainty, insisting that everyone accept his values, which are chiefly the suppression of emotion and dedication to learning, particularly to the classics. It is his inflexibility that drives his son, Jeremy Coleman, from home and causes a seventeen-year break in their relationship. Finally, while visiting his son in a hospital, Alfred admits his own vulnerability, enabling father and son to be reconciled.
Jeremy Coleman, the only son of Alfred Coleman and his dead wife. Of average stature, Jeremy is healthy but not athletic. He is bright but not scholarly, tending to drift into daydreams or toward the piano, his chief source of pleasure. Jeremy has always tried to please his father, but at the age of seventeen he realizes that he can find no happiness in Greek books, only in jazz. After running away from school, he eventually becomes a jazz pianist, first in London, then in Paris. After a ten-year period of stagnation, Jeremy once again meets his friend Percy Brett and is inspired to return to his music. Defending Percy in a fight against racist thugs, Jeremy is injured and taken to a hospital. There he and his father are reconciled. At the end of the novel, even though the new popularity of rock and roll means that Jeremy may no longer be able to make a living from jazz, he realizes that even if there is no audience to hear and applaud him, his music makes his life meaningful.
Eleanor Coleman, Alfred Coleman's sister, who acts as his housekeeper. A tenderhearted, gentle, and motherly person, Eleanor loves Jeremy as if he were her own child. Because she is in awe of her older brother Alfred, she rarely disagrees with him, but whenever Jeremy is threatened, she will fight like a tigress. It is at her insistence that Alfred goes to visit Jeremy in the hospital.
Percy Brett, a black musician. Of medium height but massive in stature, he has large, expressive eyes and a melodious voice. When Jeremy meets him in London, he is in the U.S. Air Force, but after World War II, Percy has no desire to return to his native Maryland or to anywhere else in the United States, where he would face racial discrimination. Percy, a brilliant trombonist, introduces Jeremy to real jazz. After Jeremy has been sidetracked by Diana, Percy persuades him to return to his music.
Tim, a friend of Jeremy, an inveterate womanizer, sponger, and scoundrel. Although he is roughly twenty-five years old when he first meets Jeremy, Tim successfully evades wartime service through his facility at lying and scheming and by employing his total lack of shame. Eventually, he sets himself up as Jeremy's public relations man. When Jeremy meets the pathetic wife and young children whom Tim has deserted and who have followed him to Paris, however, Jeremy loses all respect for Tim and breaks off their friendship.
Diana, an English woman. Pretty but discontented, she has a grudge against men because her parents spent all of their money educating her brother so that he could move upward in society. After she has become Jeremy's mistress in Paris, she goes to London, where for eight years she uses him to relieve her sexual frustrations while she seeks a husband. Jeremy blames her physical demands and her psychological attacks for the loss of his musical powers. After she finds a husband and discards Jeremy, he is able to return to his piano.