How does Caleb Braithwaite affect Atticus and his family?
How does Caleb/Christina Braithwaite affect Atticus and his family in the Lovecraft Country novel and HBO show?
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The novel, “Lovecraft Country '', revolves around an African American male, Atticus, who is a retired Army soldier that is going back to his hometown Chicago in the 1950s. The story will revolve heavily around racism because he has to take the road trip from Florida to Chicago. During this time African Americans were not liked in the south and were treated very poorly. Atticus has been writing to his father Montrose since he is not home due to his service in the army. Montrose is Atticus’s father, he did not like the books Atticus read, cares about Atticus, and always asks about him but will never admit it, Cared about Dora’s past, his mother died at 17 years old, is Dyslexic, worked for the brothers as a mechanist, maintaining and operating the presses and doing occasional tune-up work on the shops two delivery trucks. Montrose did not like Atticus joining the military and sacrificing his life for a country that did not care about him, and also trying to have younger kids join as well. When Atticus arrives in Chicago he comes across the note that his father left him about trying to rightfully take back what is his. Since Montrose is so obsessed with his wife's past he wants Atticus to take what is his. So Montrose left about a week ago with a young white man in a fancy silver car with black windows to go to Ardham. When in Ardham they learn about an old family named the Braithwhites who founded a secret occult society named “The Adamite Order Of The Ancient Dawn”. As we find out later in the book Atticus is related to a slave named Titus Braithwaite, because Titus Braithwaite owned Atticus's mother, great great great grandmother. Titus Braithwaite is the founder of Ardham, and Atticus is the last descendant of Titus. The order of the ancient dawn requires Atticus so he is only treated well because he is the only thing walking the earth that is closest to Titus. A young man introduces himself as Caleb Braithwhite and offers to take Atticus to Montrose on the condition that Atticus co-operates with Caleb’s father, Samuel Braithwhite.
Caleb Braithwhite is a year and ten days older than Atticus, he is also the person that picked Montrose up to bring him to Ardham for his father. In the beginning part of the story, we do not know much about Caleb other than he is a part of the Braithwhite family. But while we are in Ardham we start to see that he helps out Atticus, and his family by bringing him to his father. Also, Caleb left a note to Atticus before his ritual, “Darkness is good and Light is bad”, which ended up saving his life and killing his father Samuel. As well as it killed everyone else in the ritual room, and the people in the ritual room were very important in the society named “The Adamite Order Of The Ancient Dawn”. Another time we see Caleb is when Atticus is trying to escape Ardham after freeing his father, we see that when they get to the bridge they run into Caleb and he shoots Montrose in the chest. But there was something about this shot to the chest that there was no wound, no bullet hole, the only blood was from Atticus's raw knuckles. But the next morning Montrose was still breathing, but the pain of the bullet hurt his chest so bad he couldn't move. Lastly, they send them off with modifications to the car that would put them invisible to cops, as well as gifts for everyone, books for George and Atticus, and stuff for Montrose. Then following the events in Ardham we find out that Letitia has gained a lot of money from her daddy’s business partner and wanted to get into the real estate market and get a house. But at the time no one would sell a house to African Americans, but rather they would force them to rely on installment contracts. It was similar to a mortgage but you just did not own the property until the contract was paid off, and even if you defaulted on the last payment you lost everything you put into it. Letia wants to pioneer, which means that she wants a house in white folk's neighborhood. A white man by the name of John Archibald decided to help them find a house, the house they looked at was called The Winthrop house which had brick exterior walls that looked like an old school, had a two-story atrium, had 14 rooms with glass tent of the skylight, and had an overgrown lot. But we find out later in the episode Caleb has something to do with Letitia getting the house, so this shows that Caleb helped Letitia out by giving her a place to stay for cheap. Lastly, another way that the Braithwhite family has helped out Atticus and his family is in the HBO show Christina Braithwhite says that she will help Ruby out for a favor in return. Christiana Braithwaite in the show has some characteristics of Caleb in the book, but also some of her characteristics as well. So, On New Year's day, Ruby, an African American woman, woke up white. She has been unlucky since Christmas, and she worked for a catering company called Demarski Catering. During one of her jobs catering there were earrings that were stolen, and they blamed Ruby for it, so she was interrogated by the cops, and let go the next day after spending the night in a holding cell. She was fired after this incident and did not have any money until New year's Day she met a guy at the Winthrop house party. He was young, sharp-dressed, well-groomed, and cute. Ruby goes to a club uptown with a white guy called Caleb Braithwaite, she doesn't know what she is about to get herself into. Caleb offered her a job to work with him, Rubby accepted because she enjoyed the white privilege due to the potion. The job that Caleb has for Ruby is that she has to become a live-in maid for a woman that owns Lancaster's property so that Lancaster does not find out the truth about it. This will last for six months to a year, but if she wants to continue she will get a deed to the house. Ruby can back out anytime. Caleb affects Ruby by giving her the privilege of a white woman and allowing her to live for free under his supervision. To conclude Caleb Braithwhite affects the family positively and negatively. Caleb Braithwites connection with Atticus and his family was used to benefit Caleb and his plan. The way that Caleb gave Letitia a home, saved Atticus from the ritual and gave Ruby white privilege by a potion. But the negative effect Caleb had on the family is what he put them through with magic, deaths, and hardships. The relationship between Atticus and his family was all a part of a scheme for Caleb to take over “The Adamite Order Of The Ancient Dawn” as his father was trying to do. The book ends with Caleb allowing Atticus to do the ritual on Lancaster. After the ritual killed Lancaster, Atticus reached for the “The Book of Names” to return to its rightful owner. Then Atticus placed his hand on Braithwhites chest to change “The Mark of Cain” that he had on his chest. After they changed the mark they bagged Caleb and threw him in the trunk of the car. When they brought him to Indiana and left him by car, by the time they were back in Chicago he was able to regain his strength to stand up. But the mark brings Caleb out of the brotherhood; Also it leaves him immortal still, but he won't have some of his old powers, also if he tries to learn new stuff it will make him sick, and he is allergic to natural philosophy. |
Other Reading from the Course
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The Lake
Demons Red Hook The Ballard of Black Tom |
Murray
Love Craft Country Love Craft Country HBO Jeykll and Hyde |
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Reflection of the Course
Horror in LiteratureAs a first-year transfer student, and starting the semester late I was a little nervous, as well as excited. This was an opportunity for a new beginning, new relationships, and new classes. Hearing that I had to take another English class while just finishing the English class at my other school was annoying. At my old school, I took a writing English class, so when I transferred I had to take a reading English class. But I am so glad they made me take this class. I was very interested at the start of the school year to be reading and analyzing horror stories. I do enjoy horror and was very interested in what it had to entail, I knew that it would involve at least one Edgar Allen Poe story due to the sole fact of his writing. Although I was not wrong, I was introduced to a bunch of new stories that I would have never read. My favorites include “Lovecraft Country” by Matt Ruff, “The Ballad of Black Tom” by Victor Lavalle, and “The Horror at Red Hook” by H.P Lovecraft. All the books and stories above had to do with race and segregation.
'The Horror at Red Hook '' was one of my favorites because it connected to the book “The Ballad of Black Tom ''. It connected to the book ``TheBallad of Black Tom '' because there were shared characters between the two books, like Detective Malone and Suydam. Also for instance the setting in the two stories are the same which is New York City, and Red Hook. Another reason that I enjoyed this story was the plot, even though it was confusing at times I enjoyed breaking it down and trying to understand it. The story of “ Red Hook'' begins when a New York City detective has to look into “a collapse of several old brick buildings during a raid in which he had shared, and something about the wholesale loss of life, both of prisoners and his companions, had peculiarly appalled him.” So Malone was very suspicious of this collapse in the Red Hook district so he went to investigate. When going to Red Hook he found that the case of Malone would take him to the heart of Red Hook. After finding Suydam, Malone requested an officer to follow him wherever he goes and to watch him. To conclude the story ends with Malone figuring out that Robert Suydam was at fault for the murders and was fault for the culture of Red Hook. I enjoyed this story due to the fact of how it connected to the Ballad of Black Tom and how the story can be looked at and understood better after reading “The Ballad of Black Tom.” “The Ballad of Black Tom” is split into two parts, part one is told from the perspective of Charles Tommy Tester. Charles Thomas Tester lived in an apartment in Harlem, where he learned how to make a living from this error in thinking. He is a 20-year-old African American male who has to work to support his dying dad, he hustles to provide food and shelter, and he went by Charles at home but on the street, everyone knew he has “Tommy”. He always carried a guitar case and thought of himself as an entertainer because he lacked talent, but always wanted to be a musician like his mother and father. The book revolves around the “The Supreme Alphabet is a system of interpreting text and finding deeper meaning from the NOI Lessons by assigning actual meanings to the letters of the Latin script. The last page in the book is: "In the Divine Alphabet, Z stands for Zig-Zag-Zig, which means Knowledge, Wisdom, and Understanding. It's the last letter of the alphabet and represents the final step of consciousness.” Tommy was a hustler and tried to make money any way he could, so he was hired to go transport a little yellow book called “ ZIG ZAG ZIG”, to a woman named Ma’Att. Ma'Att lived in Queens, which was a white part of town, and she did not want her neighbors to see her. Towards the end of part one, we find out that Officer Howard has killed Otis Tester, and that is when Tommy gets his name Black Tom and turns to Magic with Suydam. To conclude the character of Ma’At we see that her whole house was just ripped out of the ground and all that was left was the sewage and water pipes. That is when Ma’At ran outside after Black Tom which was unusual because she never left the house and it was the first time the neighbors had seen her as well. During the second part of the story, we get to see it from Malone's point of view which is very interesting and relates heavily to the red hook. This story ties to race because as we find out Malone is not racist, but he acts racist in front of Detective Howard because it is socially acceptable. The story ends with Black Tom, killing Suydam in the basement, and then Black Tom cutting off Malone’s eyelids and saying, “ Try to shut them now, You can't choose blindness when it suits you. Not anymore”. After this officers entered the basement and fired 57 shots at Black Tom and killed him. To conclude “The Ballad of Black Tom”, I enjoyed reading this story because it allowed me to see how people were treated based on their race and how the characters relate to other stories. This was a very good book that allowed me to enjoy the class and made me participate in the class more. My favorite assignments in the class were the Lovecraft country book and the HBO show. Although they did not match up, I did end up liking watching both and seeing how the film producers interpreted the show in comparison to how it was written. The story of Lovecraft Country revolves around a character named Atticus, and his friends and family. The story takes place in the 1950s when Atticus’s father Montrose goes to take what is Atticus. As we find out later what he goes to take is a master plan for the Braithwaite family and Caleb to take over “The Adamite Order Of The Ancient Dawn” as his father was trying to do. So we see Atticus and his family trying to disconnect from the Braithwaite family, but it is impossible because Atticus is what they want. Since he is the only person that is a descendant of Titus Braithwaite. The book ends with Atticus destroying all magical powers in the Braithwaite family by changing “The Mark of Cain” which he had on his chest. By changing the mark they kicked Caleb out of the brotherhood. Also, it leaves him immortal, but he won't have some of his old powers, also if he tries to learn new stuff it will make him sick. He is allergic to natural philosophy. To conclude the reflective essay this class had allowed me to learn and grow as a student with my reading comprehension skills, it challenged my thinking and made me look at writings differently. This class also allowed for a very easy transition to a new school for my first semester. |
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