Father Timeline and Summary

More

Father Timeline and Summary

  • Father attends Groton and Harvard and then, after his family has squandered their fortune, buys a small flag and fireworks business that he grows into a successful business.
  • Father meets Mother during a business trip through Ohio and later marries her. They have a son, Little Boy.
  • Father goes to the Arctic with Peary, where he is always cold and is fascinated by the customs of the Inuit. He sleeps with an Inuit woman.
  • Father returns from the Arctic voyage "gaunt, shrunken..." He tries to adjust to the new confidence of his wife and the black woman and baby now living in his home.
  • After Coalhouse's car is vandalized, Father tries to help him get restitution and then tells him to move on.
  • Father helps the police in their pursuit of Coalhouse.
  • Feeling that he's neglected his son, Father takes him to a baseball game and is offended by the coarse language.
  • During the pursuit of Coalhouse, Father takes the family to Atlantic City. At first he enjoys himself, but soon he can't sleep and is bored.
  • Father returns to New York to help the police negotiate with Coalhouse.
  • After he and Mother become estranged, Father moves to Washington D.C., where he sells weapons to the U.S. Military. He dies on a business trip to London when the Lusitania is sunk.