Deacon King Kong

Sportcoat’s character and relationship with other characters are both developed in this group of chapters. It’s crucial for the reader to understand Sportcoat, his motivation for trying to shoot Deems, and his reputation in the Cause Houses. First, Hettie’s exasperation with Sportcoat indicates that his alcoholism and resulting inability to financially support his family is problematic, even if he doesn’t yet acknowledge it. After all, the “vision” of Hettie is a product of Sportcoat’s mind, and her condemnations are really Sportcoat condemning himself after her death (the vision points this out later in the book). This illustrates that Sportcoat, though he doesn’t acknowledge it on the surface, feels guilty about her death and the way he behaved in their marriage. The backstory of Sportcoat’s childhood and adolescence increases the reader’s sense of sympathy for him as the trauma and difficulties he experienced follow him into adulthood, and there are racial dynamics of the 20th-century Jim Crow era southern US that Sportcoat was fleeing. His experiences in New York City, however, disappoint and frustrate his hopes for a better life rather than fulfill them.

Sportcoat’s relationship with Deems also helps the reader understand the motivation behind Sportcoat shooting Deems. McBride will reveal the past relationship of the two characters, making it clear that Sportcoat loves Deems and has a pseudo-paternal relationship with him. Sportcoat was Deems’s Sunday school teacher, confidant, and baseball coach in his youth, which makes Sportcoat’s despair over Deems’s work in the drug trade all the more poignant. This deep despair and anger over the younger man throwing his life away into dependence and crime leads to the shooting. This dynamic between the older and younger man will remain constant, although Sportcoat will vacillate between intervening to save Deems and then later trying to kill him again (although both attempts to harm Deems might have been intended to frighten him rather than kill him). This relationship is pivotal to Sportcoat’s character and to the plot.

After his involvement in these chapters, Jet doesn’t appear again in the novel beyond brief updates from other characters as he’s transferred around the city. However, his appearance is important beyond his intervention in the attempted murder, intervention that likely saves Deems’s life. He serves as a foil for Deems—both are young Black men who grew up in inner-city New York. However, Jet is entranced with the idea of breaking racial barriers in the New York Police Department. Deems, conversely, is entrenched in the underground world of drugs and organized crime. However, both of these young men are searching for a sense of success, belonging, and meaning, albeit in different spheres. Jet is also a foil for Potts, whose long-standing service in the police force has made him jaded and cynical about the idea of New York City ever changing. Jet’s youthful optimism highlights both Potts’s experience and his pessimism about life. This pessimism will eventually be overturned by his relationship with Sister Gee.