An American Requiem by James Carroll

In An American Requiem, by James Carroll, Carroll describes his struggle for knowledge, individuality and separation from his father’s beliefs. The relationship between them slowly degenerates with age, and as James becomes more aware of the life happening outside of his family. Throughout the novel, Carroll focuses on many of the prominent world issues of the time, giving light to both extreme sides through his father and himself, as his father eventually comes to represent relatively everything that he does not. Arguably the most obvious disagreement between the two, and certainly the turning point in their relationship, was their opinions of Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. At a time when the civil rights movement was flourishing at last, Martin Luther King arose as a leader. For such an emotionally-loaded topic, the leaders are generally regarded in one of the extremes, whether positive or negative, and for James and Joe it was the polar opposites.

Martin Luther King Jr. was to James at that point in his life, a true hero, who boldly and courageously dreamt the dream that he was so forbidden to dream at a time that needed it. He believed that there was still hope that all people could be treated equally, even though society did not seem to be budging anywhere towards that direction. He was a man who held strong to what he believed to be right, and did everything he could to see it through. James evolved quickly into this roll as well, after failing to persuade his father into seeing his side. He realized that if it came down to either impressing his father or doing what he believed to be right, it would be the latter that he would prefer, an innovative and brave thought from a man who grew up in such a straight-minded household. James had earlier described his father as, “A fluent patriot, a man of power,” (Carroll, 1). He continued, saying, “Grace and authority were so much a part of his natural temperament that I did not mark them as such until they no longer characterized him,” (Carroll, 1). As it is, disagreeing with his father whom he held in such an outstanding regard, displays a great bit of courageousness in his character.

When James approached his father about his feelings on Martin Luther King and the movement that he was leading, he seemed almost desperate, hoping, more than anything else, that his father would agree with him for once. However, he quickly became frustrated when his father responded to his feelings with short, meaningless retorts. In response to James’ stating King’s feelings about America only becoming a great nation when everyone is treated equally, Joe says, “America already is a great nation, don’t be a sap,” (Carroll, 142). Joe continues to accuse King of being a liar and a charlatan , but he refuses to provide any sort of information to back up his accusations, saying that the information is “classified.” Formerly, throughout his life, James had simply accepted the information that his father presented. So much so, that it was almost as if “truth” was what his father declared to be so. At this point in his life, however, James reached a point where he had found out his own “truth,” and put enough facts together about this certain topic, Martin Luther King, that he had formed his own opinion, completely independent of his father’s views. Although he remained silenced about the issue for the most part, merely out of respect for his father, this was the first time that James