Coalhouse Walker: Infected with Jes Grew?

      I was sitting in free period earlier today, and I was applying the Mumbo Jumbo framework of Jes Grew and Atonism to random things, until I began to consider Ragtime. Ragtime as a whole is mostly Atonist. One could say that J. P. Morgan is at the very top of the Atonist pyramid, and Father is most definitely very Atonist in thought and manner. However, Coalhouse rocks the boat in some ways.

      When Coalhouse enters the story, he is a very respectable ragtime musician. Ragtime, as referenced in Mumbo Jumbo, was a surge of Jes Grew in the 1890s and early 1900s, even though it does die out as Jes Grew shortly afterwards. Therefore, as a ragtime musician, Coalhouse is infected with Jes Grew. This is most clear when he plays for the family. The music is described as "like bouquets," "robust," and "a vigorous music that roused the senses and never stood still a moment." This does fit nicely with some of Jes Grew's descriptions in Mumbo Jumbo. Coalhouse also is confident, while also being rebellious, that is, against the Atonist worldview. However, the way he goes about being against the Atonist worldview is by becoming somewhat Atonist himself. He plays music in an orchestra, a very regulated system, and he dresses and talks in a more Atonist fashion. Also, when we first see Coalhouse, he wants to move up in the social system, specifically the Atonist social system. It is kind of ambiguous whether he should be classified as somewhat Atonist, but I think he is still more Jes Grew-ist (is there a word for that?).

      After Sarah's death, Coalhouse leaves behind his music, orchestra, and social status to grow militant. He turns from the Atonist system to become anti-Atonist, literally terrorizing them and criticizing his ways. Just like Benoit Battraville, he asks for the sheriff (or Hinkle von Vampton) to be handed over to his justice outside of the United States legality because the American legal system is too Atonist and has failed him before. In the end, Coalhouse learns that he cannot survive in the Atonist world. He has been too deeply infected and affected by Jes Grew and now he can never turn back. In the end, just like Father not being able to survive with his views in the coming era, Coalhouse cannot survive in the Atonist system. 

      There are some ways in which Ragtime doesn't quite line up with Jes Grew and Atonism, but that may be merely because I am trying to impose Jes Grew when I am primarily Atonist. However, when it comes to Coalhouse, it is interesting to compare his story with that of Berbelang and other characters in Mumbo Jumbo as they relate to Jes Grew and the Atonist structure of American society.