Herman E. Calloway

Character Analysis

The Mean Old Coot

This old timer is all business. He is a musician and is famous all over Grand Rapids, Michigan, for playing a mean bass fiddle. Mr. C is a tough customer, and he sure is stubborn. For most of the book, it seems like he's just going to be cranky and mean forever. He definitely isn't very good and telling us how he feels—unless he's angry.

There is no doubt about it: this guy is cold. Bud is right when he says, "But isn't it just my luck to come clean across the state to find my daddy and he turns out to be a mean old coot?" (13.78) Calloway wants nothing to do with Bud—or with anyone who wastes his time. For a long time, Calloway is just downright mean to Bud, so mean that Bud gives up on ever making Calloway care about him.

Why So Cranky, Mr. C?

But Calloway's not all bad. A lot changes in Herman Calloway's life, and at the end of the book, we see that he does have the potential to be kind and caring. What we don't know until later in the book is that Calloway is still sour and heartbroken over the fact that his only daughter up and ran away. He shows us how much he cared about Bud's mother by the way he behaves when he finds out that Bud is his grandson and that his daughter is dead, he cracks open and becomes less mean and a lot more emotional.

Think about when Bud quietly goes into his room and finds the old man there crying. Bud comforts him, but all Calloway can sputter out is, "I…I…how'd…I'm, I'm so…look, Buddy… I… I just…" (19.41). This is the best apology Calloway can come up with, and it tells us that even though he's truly sorry and wants to say something nice to Bud, Calloway has trouble saying what he feels. He's just a stern kind of guy, and it's hard for him to express himself in any other way.

Maybe that's why Calloway was so hard on Angela. According to Miss Thomas and Jimmy, Calloway wanted to make Angela strong and able to survive in a hard world. He was tough on her out of love, not hate.

Now, let's think a little more about Calloway being mean out of love. Doesn't that sound backwards? Well, we learn though the grapevine that he has always been hard on people because he has high standards. Like Jimmy tells Bud, "I mean we all knew Herman was hard on her, but it wasn't like it was nothing personal, he was hard on everybody […] I can remember his exact words, he said, 'Easy-go don't make the mare run. This is a hard world, especially for a Negro woman, there's a hundred million folks out there of every shade and hue, both male and female, who are just dying to be harder on her than I ever could be. She's got to be ready…'" (19.63).

So, Calloway's hard on people because he wants them to be prepared to live in a tough world. This shows us that despite his cold shoulder to Bud or anyone who gets close to him, Calloway has good intentions. He's mean for a reason. He wants people to be the best they can be, and he wants them to be able to take care of themselves. Is being hard on people the right way to make them confident and independent? We're not sure, but it does seem like Calloway's heart is in the right place.