The Emperor of Ocean Park".

Paper Summary:

This paper examines Stephen L. Carter's "The Emperor of Ocean Park" about of a chain of events that begin with the death of a conservative African-American lawyer named Oliver Garland and how Oliver Garland's life has to some extent been ruined by the fact that he has lost a chance to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court. It shows how Carter, through his protagonist, explores contemporary American political and academic life and the nature of race, class, and power in the United States today. It discusses how the subjects that are debated by the characters are certainly not new ones, the effect that a person's race has on him or her, the extent to which inherited wealth affects one's life, what difference feminism has or has not made in the lives of American women and how feminism (and gender) intersect with race.

From the Paper:

"But a closer reading of the text, and further reflection upon the experiences of men like Carter himself as well as other conservative black jurists like Clarence Thomas makes us question our initial reaction. The view of the author and of his protagonist seem alien to us not because we are unaware of the fact that there are powerful, wealthy blacks in the United States or even that there are powerful, wealthy, conservative blacks in the United States. Any disbelief that we feel over Talcott's vision of the world as one in which personal connections among rich conservatives are what makes the political wheels go round stems not from a disbelief that there are blacks who think the way that Talcott does."

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