Forged By Fire

In Chapter 4, after Aunt Queen tells Gerald that his mother is out of prison and would like to see him, he is overwhelmed since “all of the hot fears and fiery memories that he had let fade over the last few years were only hidden, not forgotten” (30). Gerald’s response shows how the trauma of his early years is still a central factor in his life. Though it has been years since the fire and his life with Aunt Queen is significantly better, the memories of abuse are still within him and resurface when he is reminded of his mother. In Chapter 5, when Monique asks him to live with her and Jordan, “tears [fill] his eyes and he [runs] out of the kitchen door, letting it slam behind him” and bikes away (39). His strong reaction and need for distance reveal his reluctance to face that chapter of his life.

In Chapter 5, Jordan Sparks, Gerald’s stepfather, is introduced. When Gerald first sees him, he is “paying no attention to the nervous conversation or the rich breakfast smells about him” (35). Although he is physically present at breakfast at Aunt Queen’s house, he is emotionally absent and distant. When Monique asks him for advice on whether it is the right time for Gerald to live with them, he responds with “your kid. Your call” (39) and then goes outside to smoke a cigarette. From his response, it is clear that he does not care to get to know Gerald at all and offers little support to Monique as her husband. This moment foreshadows Jordan’s neglectful behavior and suggests he will be a poor influence in Monique’s life.

Angel also appears for the first time in Chapter 5, and Draper describes her as “one of those glass dolls that shatter when you drop them” (36). In Chapter 6, when Aunt Queen says Angel should take off her stockings because it’s hot outside, she immediately tenses up, “her large eyes looked like those of a deer, frozen in fear by a hunter’s gun” and says, “Mama would get me” (43). When Aunt Queen asks her about how she liked living with her grandmother before coming to Cincinnati, she says her grandmother accused her of crying too much. Aunt Queen reassures her “it’s okay to cry” (41). From these interactions, Aunt Queen presumes that Angel has been abused and conditioned to be ashamed of her own emotions. The description of Angel as a fragile doll reveals that she needs to be protected, as Gerald will attempt to do in later chapters, and hints at her lack of bodily autonomy. That the novel describes her as a hunted deer foreshadows Jordan’s sexual abuse; he is “preying” on her.