23 pages • 46 minutes read
James BaldwinThe Rockpile
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1965A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Familial Responsibility in a Patriarchal Home
After it is clear that Roy’s wounds are only superficial, the tension in the Grimes family stems from assigning blame for the incident. Gabriel is determined to blame anyone but Roy for his actions. He first attempts to blame Elizabeth for the wound, telling her “it sure ain’t [her] fault that [Roy] ain’t dead” and asking where she was when Roy went downstairs (23). When Elizabeth is quick to defend herself, Gabriel attempts to blame John, asking him why he didn’t tell Elizabeth that Roy was downstairs. Elizabeth interrupts to tell Gabriel it was his fault if it was anyone’s—because Gabriel spoils Roy, Roy thinks “he can just do anything and get away with it” (24). As is evidenced by Roy’s refusal to punish Roy, this theory holds water.
Beyond the immediate issue of who is responsible for Roy’s actions, the story also explores the subject of familial responsibility more generally. The implication in the story is that John owes something to everyone in the family. He is supposed to watch over Roy as his older brother, even if Roy is uncontrollable. And he owes obedience to his mother and to Gabriel. Although he tries his best to live up to these responsibilities, he is given very little in return. Gabriel treats John like a “stranger” because he is “unalterable testimony to his mother’s days in sin” (22). It is clear that Gabriel has beaten John before—and probably others in the family, given how afraid of him they are—and it is likely that Gabriel routinely directs his anger at John, regardless of the circumstances.
He thinks he is owed absolute power in the household as the patriarch, and, worse, he thinks Elizabeth and John should be especially grateful to him for taking them in and lifting them out of sin. But he treats them cruelly, making fun of their eyes and staring at Elizabeth with hatred and fury. At the end of the story, he only changes his look from one of pure hatred to something else when he sees Elizabeth as the mother of his children and “the helpmeet given by the Lord,” a phrasing that suggests he sees her not as someone he is responsible for loving and providing for, but rather something that is owed him and responsible for providing for him (25). Thus, while the story explores the theme of familial responsibility, it implies that for the Grimes family, responsibilities are not equal.
Violence as a Dominant Feature of American Life
Violence is everywhere in “The Rockpile.” Roy and John both know the rockpile itself is a source of violence, as they see gangs of boys fighting on it every weekend. The neighborhood has other threats too, with the river being violent enough to kill a boy. The rockpile’s fighting draws the attention of both boys who watch it in wonder, but only one of them wants to participate in it. While John cowers from threats of violence, Roy is intrigued by them. Although he too fears Gabriel’s violence, he relishes in fighting the other boys his size on the rockpile, suggesting he likes to inflict violence even if he does not like being the victim of it. At the rockpile, John climbs to the top of the fighting mob, establishing his dominance for a fleeting moment before the can brings him down. Had he not ended up bloodied, he would likely have stayed on the pile for longer and continued to inflict harm on others. The blood his mother and Sister McCandless wash off him metaphorically cleanses him of the sin of violence, but he is reminded of his actions by Gabriel’s touch, a touch he expects to be violent. Such is the prevalence of violence in the life of the Grimes family that even the loving gesture of his father connotes violence for Roy.
Looming larger than the actual violence that Roy inflicts and is victim of is the threat of violence promised by Gabriel. The family is terrified of him and what he might do, presumably based on what he has done in the past. When he turns to blame John for Roy’s injuries, he threatens that he will “take a strap” to him (24). Though Elizabeth prevents that from happening on that particular day, John is still terrified as he bends down to pick up Gabriel’s lunchbox, placing his head right next to the large shoe Gabriel wears, a reminder that John could be severely hurt any minute.
The story implies that many men and boys are stuck in a cycle of violence. They may perpetuate it on each other via the rockpile—a metaphor for American society at large—or within their own families. Given that Roy is said to have the same “head” as Gabriel, one that “got to be broken before it’ll bow,” it stands to reason that Roy will grow up to be like Gabriel, inflicting violence on the world around him (24). As his actions on the rockpile indicate, he may even enjoy hurting others however briefly.
The Cruelty of Religious Hypocrisy
Gabriel’s work as a reverend brings religion to the forefront of “The Rockpile.” He raises John and Roy to be very cognizant of sin, and they spend each Saturday on their fire escape watching people walk down their street. The street is a place of sin, they think, and they divide the walkers into sinners and those who have been “redeemed” from the “wickedness of the street” (16). To them, so ingrained is their fear of sin that the mere act of watching the street is wicked and sinful. Even the virtues that they have been taught prove to be pointless in comparison to sin. John is told simply to tell the truth—which should set him free, according to the Bible—about what happened to Roy, but that truth is not good enough for Sister McCandless, a religious woman who tells Gabriel the news of Roy’s accident before anyone else can, cuing up his rage before he even enters the apartment.
Each family member has names that connote religious figures except Roy. This places the story in a religious framework, as one can see parallels between the way Gabriel views himself and his biblical namesake. He sees himself as having saved Elizabeth from barrenness and sin, just as the archangel Gabriel saved Elizabeth after being granted that power by God. But Gabriel’s salvation is not the loving or uplifting kind the Bible story suggests, for as much as religion seems to play in the role of the lives of the Grimes family, religion is not seen as a source of joy for any of them. Rather, religion serves as a means of control. The family is terrified of Gabriel’s wrath and the punishments he delivers as a patriarch, as a reverend, and thus as God’s representative. With John and Elizabeth in particular, he seems to hate them for sins that occurred well before he even knew them. And it is John’s fear of being punished by Gabriel that prevents him from doing anything that might be considered a sin. But Gabriel does not even need John to sin in order to punish him, as John’s original sin was simply being conceived in sin and born.
As such, the story is critical of the ways Christianity impacted the Black community. The Grimes, like many Black people in Harlem in the 1930s, have not been uplifted by their faith; rather, they are kept in poverty and fear because of it. Their faith is used not to spread love but instead to spread hatred and violence and to subject families to the cruel patriarchy of men like Gabriel.
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