Cedric's growth as a character is the central focus of A Hope in the Unseen and is the source of many of the thematic developments in the book. Thus, most of the specific ways in which Cedric develops as a character is dealt with in the Themes section, as his inner life is meant to be a reflection of society in general. That said, the contrast between beginning and end is worth noting in its own right, to illustrate Suskind's masterful achievement in his portrait of an individual young man.
Cedric begins the story insecure about his identity, angry enough to need something to push against in order to succeed, and relying on others (most notably his mother and church) for guidance. By the end of the book he is secure in who he is, has made peace with aspects of himself that had previously bothered him, and has grown into a self-reliant individual on the path to success. Comparing the angry and alienated teen in the first chapter with the contemplative young man in the Epilogue is startling, as it happens so subtly over the course of the book. This development is not achieved by any single event but a continuous chain of discovery and realization, which is exactly how a person grows in real life. It is possible to trace developments to key scenes in the book, but it is the overall cumulative effect which is most impressive in the reading.
The different aspects of Cedric's life tend to feed into each other in contributing to his growth: for example, his religious and moral convictions first work to keep him disciplined while a student at Ballou, then restricts him in a less positive fashion when he is a freshman at Brown, leading to the eventual break with his church. Academically, he is told repeatedly that he must learn to develop distance between himself as a scholar and his experiences; in this manner, he can develop the analytical abilities expected of him as a college student. The passion about his experiences helps Cedric up to a point, but it is the personal experiences - with his fellow freshmen, as well as with the classes he takes - which help him achieve the emotional maturity to finally be enough at peace so that intellectual distance becomes possible for him. Thus, the academic feeds into the personal which feeds back into the academic, which is exactly how college is for many people.
Cedric not only grows intellectually and emotionally, he also develops physically. He begins the book as a seemingly weak boy, but grows in the years that follow, getting taller and bulkier. Growing into manhood, he must deal with his resemblance to his father, which ties into the slow rapprochement achieved between Cedric Junior and Cedric Senior. In the same manner that Cedric faces a part of his father whenever he looks in the mirror, he must also come to terms with what that legacy means for him emotionally. Perhaps even more important, Cedric deals with his relationship with his mother over the course of the book: Cedric relies on her at the beginning, even as he yearns for a better life that will take him away from her care and protection. When he achieves this goal and becomes independent, there is a risk Cedric will forsake his past completely and in doing so abandon his mother. However, he explicitly reminds himself towards the very end of the book that while there is much that he fought against in his rise as a Brown student, it was his mother who empowered him and she cannot be left behind the way other aspects of his past have been. As with his father, Cedric's mother is a part of his legacy that he must deal with on a daily basis.
It isn't a surprise, then, that two other characters to develop significantly
over the course of the book are Cedric's parents, Barbara Jennings and
Cedric Gilliam.
Barbara Jennings is the rock on which Cedric's ambition and drive is
built. She protects her son as best she can, so that his future life can
be a significant improvement from the one they share. The success of this
goal is the crux of her conflict: she has set him on the path desired
but that the path separates them both physically and culturally. For the
second half of the novel, she falters as she no longer has Cedric to care
for, and winds up caring for herself poorly: not only do her finances
go seriously awry, but she suffers health problems with her heart. Her
situation comes to a head at the book's climax, when she and Cedric are
almost evicted from their apartment; Cedric is angered by how much Barbara
has been hiding from her and a rift is formed when he stops talking to
her for a month. Their hug at the end of the story proper affirms the
mother-son bond, and Barbara has accepted the new role her son will assume
now that he's a man. The information about Barbara in the Epilogue - that
she is later evicted from her apartment but starts to pay back longstanding
debt afterwards - show that she is indeed human and fallible, but able
to improve her life in a substantial manner.
Cedric Gilliam is introduced as a person taking poor advantage of his situation, selling drugs while on a prison work release program. He is clever and opportunistic, with a strong education that fails to keep him out of prison. In short, he is the worst case scenario for what Cedric Jennings can become, and what Barbara Jennings actively opposes with her strong moral guidance. However, Gilliam's situation deteriorates and he struggles over the course of the book to correct his wayward lifestyle. By the end, he has improved himself and in doing so has earned a small role in his son's life.
Beyond the family, character development is perfunctory at best. As the story centers around Cedric Jennings and his personal journey, the growth of others characters isn't explored in nearly as much detail. Within the span of the book, none of Cedric's fellow students from Ballou - notably Phillip Atkins and LaTisha Williams - develop significantly beyond graduation. Outside of Cedric's parents, the adults who play a major role in the story - Bill Ramsey, Clarence Taylor, Bishop C.L. Long, Bernadine Dohrn, Helaine Schupack, Donald Korb, Larry Wakeford, and Tom James - are seen too briefly to grow as characters. Their role is to react to Cedric and perhaps the young people with whome he associates. They tend to represent a specific point of view in American society, and give voice to that perspective as a way to flesh out the main themes of the book.
This leaves the students at Brown, namely Zayd Dohrn, Rob Burton, and
Chiniqua Milligan. Each of them receives attention for the book primarily
in how they interact with Cedric, but also in terms of their own experiences
as college freshmen. Each also embodies a different theme of the book
regarding identity: faith, class, and race.
Zayd Dohrn has to deal with the conflicted feelings Cedric holds for
him, alternately enjoying their close friendship and keeping Zayd at a
distance, resulting in a month when the two do not talk to each other.
However, the two finally cement their friendship, as seen by the hug when
they part at the end of freshman year. It is Zayd's steadfast belief in
his friendship with Cedric and willingness to bond on Cedric's terms that
saves their friendship, providing a strong example of loyalty and faith
in Cedric over the second half of the book. In his own life, Zayd has
to deal with his conflicted attitude towards his parents and their background
in the sixties counterculture. He has the unenviable task of rebelling
against parents who embody rebellion, and does so by hunting with guns
and treating women as sexual objects. Towards the end of the book, Zayd
apparently finds a girl with whom he wants to be serious, and seems to
take Cedric's advice about going slowly with this person. In this small
way, he's made peace with who he is and the legacy his mother Bernadine
wants him to continue.
Rob Burton has the most vivid conflict with Cedric, as these dorm roommates
have heated fights due to their different habits and attitudes. Their
relationship has ups and downs, as they sometimes try to mend fences and
other times antagonize each other. Interestingly, Barbara Jennings frames
this as a test from God, which adds a religious dimension to the friendship,
and we learn in the epilogue that Cedric and Rob become friends after
their freshman year. Rob's own story is about coming to terms with his
affluent background: while Cedric has to struggle to move upwards on the
socioeconomic ladder, Rob is already on the upper rungs and is expected
to maintain position by fulfilling his family's expectations of academic
success. He treats his freshman year as a chance for experimentation,
and at the end of the book is pursuing his interests in marine biology
and English. Like Cedric, he has to find his own way, but still does so
while being respectful of his family's wishes.
Chiniqua Milligan is the only other African American in Cedric's dorm unit. Having made it to Brown, she decides to explore that aspect of her identity in greater depth, spending time with other black people on-campus. Chiniqua embodies the dual path of the ambitious minority student: assimilated into mainstream Caucasian culture in order to move forward, but seeking out her racial identity once her success is assured. She wishes to bring Cedric into this circle, but he resists: unlike Chiniqua, he has always been in the midst of African American culture and does not wish to do the same at Brown. Nevertheless, the two of them bond on a personal level, as seen by their discussion of the O.J. Simpson trial as well as their date during the second semester. What we see is a gentle struggle to define the proper way minorities (racial and otherwise) should assert their identity in a white, mainstream culture: does one stay within one's "tribes", as Suskind describes it, or does one reach out to other groups? Cedric finally relents to Chiniqua's requests by attending a party at Harambee House, but this only affirms how much he enjoys the diversity of the campus as a whole. A compromise is reached by the book's Epilogue: after their freshman year, Chiniqua has moved into Harambee House and Cedric spends time at the dorm.
Beyond specific characters, Suskind also describes in a general manner the
way young people grow up from high school to afterwards. There are passages
throughout the book which describes the growth from adolescence to adulthood
in abstracted, even poetic, terms. This may be interpreted as the character
development of American youth in modern times. It isn't monolithic, by
any means - after all, the experiences of the Ballou high school students
are quite different from those of freshmen at Brown University. However,
Cedric is able to bridge those worlds and in that way may be said to encompass
that wide range of experience which better capture the complexity - as
well as the difficult choices - behind the American dream and its promise
of opportunity.
Clapsaddle, Diane. "TheBestNotes on A Long Way Gone".
TheBestNotes.com.
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