Pros And Cons Of Coalhouse

The fact that Coalhouse exhausted all his legal means of obtaining justice before resorting to the violence that would later be associated with him led to anger being pent up inside of him. He acted respectful, and throughout his initial push for revenge he demonstrated exceptional patience towards others. However, his very persistent and exceptionally optimistic view of American society proved to be the nail in the coffin for his descent into violence. Father observed that Coalhouse’s insistence on impossible justice was such a foolish thing to have happened. In fact, society viewed Coalhouse’s plight as “his fault, because he was Negro and it was the kind of problem that would only adhere to a Negro. His [Coalhouse’s] monumental negritude

Instead, he lost all faith in his ability to live the life he once enjoyed. His sense of “whiteness” had made him think that he could get justice in a system he knew was racist, but now that the reality had washed over him—the tragic realization that because of his skin color, finding justice would only lead him on more disastrous paths—Coalhouse looked for solace and comfort in the only way physically possible: terrorism. The various tactics to frustrate Coalhouse’s immense patience and force him to abandon his case ended up establishing a reason for his later rage and “lashing out” against firemen. His first act of terrorism is extremely targeted, and could almost be considered revenge. Coalhouse burned down and massacred the firemen at the specific fire station where he lost all he held dear. Coalhouse wanted his “automobile returned to me in its original condition,” (177). However, Viewed from an undiscerning eye, this act could very well be a form of ideologically-motivated terrorism, especially when one considered the latter half of the letter which threatened to “continue to kill firemen and burn firehouses… [and] destroy the entire city if need be,” (177). While these firemen were guilty of a higher moral crime of treating a man like trash because of his skin color, the

When Coalhouse and his fellow supporters took over J.P. Morgan’s library, his sole demand was not “greater freedoms for blacks” or “an end to systemic racism” but simply “[his] car returned in just the condition it was when my way was blocked,” (232) . His sole demand was not one relating to a higher cause, but one relating a personal cause of his own. Once Coalhouse received what he wanted, he ended the “ransom” situation—much to the chagrin of his supporters. Coalhouse’s supporters believed in a higher cause, and when he abandoned it in favor of receiving his “god damn car,” his followers made “appeals to change his mind… They said they were a nation,” (249). Coalhouse’s henchmen were truly “freedom fighters,” while Coalhouse had one, and only one, objective: to finish what he started. Coalhouse’s persistence moved him to create an apparatus of terror to finally get his Model T back. People, such as Mother’s Younger Brother, rallied behind him for a different cause, only to be disappointed by the fact that Coalhouse never