This ending is different from many stories in that it allows the reader to come to their own conclusion about what took place next. Gabriel attacks the two with hate filled statements and questions, completely ignoring the fact that neither Elizabeth nor John played any role in the …show more content… The story ends with John picking up his father 's lunchbox off the floor, bending his dark head near the toe of his father’s heavy shoe. His first question is not for Roy, but is instead to Elizabeth and John. Near the end of the piece, Gabriel, John’s stepfather and Roy’s biological father, comes home and is incredibly upset that Roy is hurt. Both the themes of alienation and negate show strong ties to the stories underlying meanings. Favoritism is not the only theme present however. “Why didn’t you tell me he was downstairs?” (Baldwin 476) John’s mother asks him. Roy’s disregard for the rules is completely ignored by both Elizabeth and Gabriel, with the negative light shined entirely on John. Roy actively goes against his mother’s instruction to not go to the rockpile, and when he is injured, John is questioned and blamed for Roy’s poor actions. What reinforces these themes is that John is treated in the polar opposite way that one would come to expect from a well behaved child. While Roy is disrespectful, rude, and quite problematic.
He is well behaved, polite, and follows his parents directions. John, when compared to Roy, is a much better child overall. …show more content… Throughout the duration of the story, there is a pronounced sense that John, the only non Grime in the family by blood, is segregated from the rest of the family due to the fact that he is different, foreign. Elizabeth Grimes is the mother of John and Roy, with John being born out of wedlock with another man. John, the protagonist of the story, is constantly portrayed as being isolated from the rest of the Grimes family due to the fact that he is adopted. In the story, Roy is described as the troublesome, younger brother of John. The main plot device, as the title would suggest, is a rockpile that John and Roy are forbidden from playing near.Īlthough John and Roy are first introduced as brothers, it is quickly revealed that John, the older of the two boys, is the unlawful son of Elizabeth Grimes, the boy 's mother. Show More “The Rockpile” by James Baldwin centers on the adventure of two young brothers, John and Roy, in a Depression-era Harlem, New York.
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