An American Requiem

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-mind...

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...that his only choice was to take his own life, which King refused. James calls this, "a true act of American fascism," (Carroll, 144), and would never truly forgive his father for this investigation and conspiracy in which he was obviously involved.

James Carroll grew up accepting the ideas of his father without ever reviewing them for himself. With the entrance of Martin Luther King Jr. in his life, however, James was forced to question his father's ideas, and found himself in a situation where he disagreed with his father on the entirety of the subject. With such a blatant conflict in ideas, James could not suppress the obvious reality that his all-knowing father was not in fact so perfect in his perceptions. The overwhelming concept of Martin Luther King opened up a world of ideas and controversy that may have otherwise gone unnoticed in James Carroll's life.