In chapters 19- 21 J.P. Morgan, one of the most influential businessmen in American history, who came into his fortune primarily through bond and stock trading of railroads, is introduced.2 He is first seen arriving to work in a limousine, with multiple assistants running around anxiously, trying to make everything around him perfect. He then strides into his office, “a modest glass-paneled room on the main floor of the bank where he was visible to everyone and everyone to him” (138). In this instance, and as the imagery of glass and windows continues to be developed throughout the book, the large glass windows come to represent a division between classes. While J.P. Morgan can see all of the people walking on the streets and they can see him in his office, his world is completely impregnable to everyone except for the members of his elite upper class social circle. The concept of his glass-paneled window keeps him removed from the people moving about on the streets, as he amasses millions of dollars and makes business deals with incredible bearing on global economics. While the masses can see in to his office and observe him, they cannot become involved or join him.
This concept of a glass window as a barrier, across which people can see but not cross, is also seen with Tateh and the little girl with store windows. As they walk the streets of Philadelphia in Chapter 18, they look in department store windows and they continue along, and as they progress, even though they can physically enter the department stores, they do not belong there. This is exemplified through the tone of free indirect discourse of the little girl, as it describes her fascination with the store and the cashier system. This division is further exemplified when Tateh says, “One of these hats is worth more than a week’s wages” (131). In contrasting the hats to the work that laborers perform, the lifestyle differences are illustrated. The store windows, like those of JP Morgan’s office, represent this barrier between classes, as lower class people will look in upon the store in awe, but can never afford to waste money on such baroque items, while upper class people come and go at their leisure, looking through the window and seeing the latest trends that they will soon acquire.
While the glass serves as a symbolic barrier between the classes, it is also indicative of the instability of this division. Glass, which is a “transparent or translucent material that has no crystalline structure and that usually breaks or shatters easily,”3 is not actually as impregnable as it first seems. Because of this structural lack of order on a molecular chemistry level, it is quite fragile. This, combined with the presence of many imperfections on glass surface, which allow for concentrated points of pressure that lead to fracture, makes glass very weak4. This instability is seen later on in the text, as Tateh ascends into the upper class, through his success in the film business, and as manifested in the central conflict of the book, when Coalhouse Walker and his gang seize and temporarily control JP Morgan’s library, which he had filled with all of his prized possessions. The symbolic glass windows, although acting as a barrier between classes, are ultimately a permeable division that lacks the strength to completely bar out the masses from the elite upper class.
of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C., 20540 USA.
Library of Congress. Web. 11 May 2011. <http://www.loc.gov/pictures/
item/99471908/>.
2 Encyclopedia of American History: The Development of the Industrial United States, 1870 to 1899, Revised Edition (Volume VI)
3 "glass." American Heritage Student Science Dictionary (2009): 151. Science Reference Center. EBSCO. Web. 11 May 2011.
4 J. F. McMahon, J. Wenzel, J. Wenzel, "Glass," in AccessScience, ©McGraw-Hill Companies, 2008, http://www.accessscience.com
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