Pyramids of Power

In Doctorow’s novel, the fictional representation of J.P. Morgan harbors an obsession with Egyptology. The novel draws many parallelisms between the giant business tycoons of the age and the pharaohs of ancient times. For example, J.P. Morgan notes a striking similarity between both Henry Ford and the Pharaoh Seti I. Both were innovative and commanding men who ruled their own empire of sorts. On the other hand, Morgan, who sought to distance himself from contemporaries such as Carnegie, could be compared to the Pharaoh Cheops, who sought to elevate himself further from the power-wielding priests. Furthermore, Cheops is mistakenly thought to have used slaves as manpower to construct his pyramid, finished in 2600 BC, which stands as one of the Great Pyramids of Giza. In fact, Cheops’ pyramid was built during a time when the Nile did not flood, when crops could not be grown and when many were unemployed. Cheops created many jobs and made provisions for his workers although the construction of the pyramid itself was brutally grueling. To build his pyramid, limestone blocks for the pyramids were quarried by inserting wooden wedges into cracks and moistening the wedges so that they expanded to sever the block from its bed. These blocks were then transported up the Nile by boat and then to the site by a sled. At this time, the Egyptians had no knowledge of the wheel so how they lifted the blocks to such astonishing heights, even with ramps, remains a mystery. Furthermore, in the novel, the pyramid is a symbol for power. Therefore, Morgan wishes to harness said power by building a pyramid and performing pharaonic death rites in order to signify that his life was something more than that of the average mortal. However he is unable to build a tomb before the time of his death due to the fact that he was “so urgently needed again on earth that he was exempt from the usual entombment rituals”(312). This shows that no matter how powerful Morgan had been in life, he was still unable to conquer death and that the mortal part of him still owes a service to those around him since he still had a business to run and cannot allow him to ascend towards a higher status. In addition, Morgan’s inability to build his own pyramid despite his travels and observations is an allusion to the fact that we do not actually know how exactly the pyramids were built. But they, like Morgan’s money, represented an empire and the blood, sweat and hard work of many men.

By Kelvin Chang

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