Forged By Fire

Monique is Gerald’s mother. She is a drug addict, alcoholic, and is a poor mother to her children. Although the novel doesn’t mention her age, Aunt Queen implies that she had Gerald when she was very young. Her addictions lead her to be more abusive to her children. She marries Jordan Sparks, who often beats her. Monique is very afraid of him, but she is also dependent on him and does not want him to leave her or her children. She is obsessed with her self-image and how people, especially Jordan, perceive her. She tends to care more about how she looks than caring for her own children.

When Gerald and Angel confront her about Jordan’s abusive behavior, Monique dismisses it. Although Jordan is abusive to her, and Monique lives in fear of him, she derives much of her self-worth from Jordan’s presence. She is often desperate for his approval and attention. In Chapter 18, she is hit by a car trying to get cigarettes for him. After the accident, Monique becomes addicted to pain pills and is rarely lucid. Her opinion of Jordan and her children begins to change at the end of the novel. After Jordan’s death, she realizes the “pain and hatred he had caused” and begins to focus on caring for her children (155).

Angel is Monique and Jordan’s daughter as well as Gerald’s half-sister (though Jordan questions his parentage in later chapters). She is described as delicate “like one of those glass dolls that shatter when you drop them” (36). Angel tends to be quiet, downtrodden, and is very scared of her mother and father. She is very sensitive and shy around new people. When she lived in Atlanta with her grandmother, she was criticized for “[crying] too much” (41). She, like Gerald, has been abused since she was very young, and it shapes the way she acts around others. Because of her upbringing, she is very hesitant and often out of touch with her body.

Her father, Jordan, sexually abuses her as she gets older. Monique does not believe her, nor does she offer any support. Gerald is the only one who believes her and helps her work through it. Angel carries a lot of shame and guilt because of this. Only through dance classes does she begin to reclaim her body and heal from the past.

Aunt Queen is Monique’s aunt. After Monique’s arrest, Gerald spends six years at Aunt Queen’s house. She is an older woman, who has raised six children. Aunt Queen is in a wheelchair due to arthritis and refuses to see that as a limitation. She is very tough, deliberate, and nurturing. She does not allow anyone to take advantage of her and is in control of her life. She is a major influence and inspiration in Gerald’s life. Without her, he would not have the life skills and knowledge needed to move forward in the novel. She teaches him right from wrong and the importance of perseverance. Although her death forces Gerald to move back in with his mother, it also forces him to grow up faster and to embody the wisdom and enables him to parent Angel.