The Gold Cadillac, written by celebrated African-American Mildred D. Taylor is a short story set in the fifties. It offers an enlightening tale about racism, discrimination, and prejudice in the United States during those times. It also talks about the differences that North and the South had on race and color. This story focused on the story of Lois, and her family, who lived in the North of the United States. Her father bought a new gold Cadillac, much to the displeasure of her mother. The whole neighborhood rejoices, and has fun riding around in the new car until the father decides that he wants to take the car and drive south to visit family. Most of his close ones are mortified, except for his wife, who insists that he take the children and her with him on his journey. He agrees, begrudgingly, and the whole family of aunt, uncles, and cousins go along with them, in order to look out for each other. As they drive south, the father gets arrested under the pretext of stealing the car. Having learned his lesson, he sold the car soon after they returned home and decided that family was more important. This story focuses on three topics; Racism, family, and monetary status.
Racism is an important act in the story, as the main plot of the story revolves around it. As the whole family drove southward, all sorts of crazy signs that said “White Only” or “Colored not allowed”. This demonstrates how much southerners despised people of color, and wanted to keep them out. For people like Lois, who grew up in a much more accepting environment in the North, she “didn’t like it” and felt as if she were in a “foreign land”. The father later explains to her that black people were not allowed to stop by restaurants or motels, so they had to pack food for their trip. As they drive, a police car comes behind them, and orders the father out. Immediately, one of the police officers asked him “‘who’s car is it?’”, and did not believe it when he insisted that he bought the car with his own money. They accused him of stealing, and subsequently arrested him. He was held in custody for hours, forcing his family to wait, worried for his safety.
Family is something that we cannot misty in the story. Even though they sometimes disagree, they always support and care about each other. A good example would be the uncles and aunts going with Lois’s immediate family South, even though they argued with her father about it. Disregarding the arguments they had about the south being “dangerous”, and that driving there was “putting a loaded gun” to one’s head, the aunts and uncles still packed food and drove to the South with them, telling them that they would “look out for each other”. Another example could be the mother’s ability to forgive and move on. In the beginning, she was angry at her husband for buying the fancy new car, but towards the end of the story, her anger cooled. This shows that families should stand behind each other, and also try to understand each other to the best of their abilities.
A small detail that we may not all notice in the story would be the family’s monetary status. Their financial situation was not poor, since they owned a house and ate good food. However, we can notice that money was still tight in a way. When the mother finds out that her husband had purchased the Golden Cadillac, she was enraged because they were supposed to be “saving up for a house”. This demonstrates that they didn’t have a lot of money to spare for unnecessary things, and that buying a brand new, expensive car was not a financially sound decision for them. The mother also mentions that their old car, the Mercury, was “perfectly good”. She seemed to not understand why they would need to buy a new car, let alone a fancy one. This is a hint that the family didn’t like to spend money on luxuries, and had more needy goals with their money. Even though the family was not introduced as typically “poor”, it could be inferred that money was not something they could spend a large amount of.
In conclusion, the short story, The Gold Cadillac, is a very simple yet moving story about how black families endured racism at the hands of white people, looked out for each other, and dealt with financial problems. By reading this story, I was able to see America through a young black girl’s perspective, and understand what it was really like for her and her family. I think that this story was special because it does not only focus on racism, like most stories about African Americans. I was able to see their interactions as a family, and some minor family feuds over the car. I also liked how the author did not make the family extremely poor, but made them have an average financial status. It is a must read for anyone who wants a light read while learning about racism!
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