Do I like Doctorow’s J. P. Morgan?

My initial reactions to J. P. Morgan the way Doctorow depicts him were positive, I saw him as a little strange and over the top due to his wealth, but I felt sympathy for him. Then looking back I realized there was a lot going against him in the descriptions of him and his life, but ultimately I felt he deserves a little understanding.

Morgan’s wealth was unparalleled, therefore his influence was as well. He even financially saved the federal government in their times of trouble (another U.S. History class connection) making him the one in control. In fact, his situation was so unlike that of any other person that he was apparently lonely. Lonely all by himself on top of the world, and there is the one moment in the novel where he expresses this fact to a gull perched nearby him. I am aware that many people read this scene as ironic and even laughable, but I think it is a moment that shows his real isolation. It brings out his human qualities and shows some signs of his feelings. His role in the book doesn’t end here though, as he also has an absurd obsession with Egypt and Egyptian artifacts. This study of his gives his own personality a further twist, and at the end of chapter 19 Doctorow delivers a surprising last sentence to close (as he often does to end chapters). Morgan thinks that Ford resembles the great Seti I, the father of Ramses.

Ford and Morgan have an interesting interaction that is the basis for my open eyes to Morgan’s state. When he invited Ford to join him for lunch he was expecting someone that would end his loneliness. Contrary to his hopes, Ford turns out to be a thorough disappointment. Even before their meeting Doctorow places a bad image on Ford. While he is respectable in the sense that he is efficient, respectable, and clean cut in his work, there is also the side to him that is simplistic, unaware, and unintelligent. Doctorow actually pulls in his 1970s perspective on the emerging energy crisis into the novel that reveals his distaste towards Ford’s mass production system. And concluding Ford’s involvement in the novel is the lunch meeting itself. Morgan had many guests before, and they were all apparently terribly uninteresting (hence his isolation in the world). Andrew Carnegie is brought up, for instance, as a guest who “dozed over his brandy.” But even though Ford surpasses these other famous (but unimpressive) figures, he takes on a new level of failure in Morgan’s eyes. I think this is why my first impression of Morgan was understanding, because I felt sorry for him. As the conversation between the two figures went along I could see Morgan’s hope being torn apart.

Many people in 4^th hour seemed to come to the conclusion that Morgan is a power hungry jerk, but I don’t think I can totally agree with those ideas. Yes, he has an abundance of wealth and he did steal a super-duper valuable sarcophagus, but he does have some traits that call for the reader to feel sympathy for him. His interactions with Ford bring out the most of these, and in the end, I feel that he is not so bad after all.