Apex Hides the Hurt

Regina Goode is Winthrop’s first Black mayor and a descendant of one of the town’s founding families. She is elegant, professional, and interested in signifiers of status and upward mobility, as demonstrated in her welcome gift of an expensive bottle of wine. Regina belongs to a distinguished lineage—her name literally means “queen.” Streets on the historically Black side of town are named after her family, and she is striving to bring back the town’s original name, Freedom, created by her ancestor Abraham Goode. This will ensure her family’s legacy and cement Regina’s standing as a town celebrity.

Regina hopes that by telling the protagonist about Winthrop’s Black history, she will win his favor, possibly because he is also African American. She attempts to woo him to her side by telling him an uplifting version of the original Black settlers, formerly enslaved people who traveled west in the late 1860s for the rare opportunity to live in an all-Black town without segregation. In her rendition, Reginald Goode’s decision—to save Freedom by allowing Sterling Winthrop to establish his factory there—was a way to preserve the Black community. Regina thinks her chosen name will uplift this now-marginalized population. In the end, although the protagonist does harken back to the African American founders for the town name, he resurrects the name proposed by a town founder who did not have any descendants, preserving true history rather than a branded version. 

Lucky Aberdeen is a tech entrepreneur who wields considerable authority due to his status as a business leader in the community. He is a fast-talking salesman and, and in the novel, he represents the legacy and history-destroying effects of capitalism.

Like the original Winthrop, Lucky wants to rename—or more accurately, rebrand—the town to reflect his identity and values. His business headquarters is even located in the old Winthrop factory. However, he does not want to name the town after himself; rather, his instinct is to erase heritage. Happy to poorly co-opt and appropriate other cultures, Lucky wears a gaudy leather vest with fringe and turquoise sequins that he calls his “Indian vest” (16); similarly, he brings in a group of white settlers who are eager to gentrify the town by buying up property in the historically Black section. It is not surprising that Lucky relies on consumer culture to rename the town, hiring the protagonist’s former company to come up with New Prospera.

Lucky hopes to sway the protagonist because, like him, Lucky sees the world in terms of branding. Instead of building his case on emotional rapport, Lucky stages the weekend and its finale to demonstrate why New Prospera should win. It is not clear whether the name Struggle will negatively impact Lucky’s plans—whether it is the brand name that matters, or if, as the bartender believes, a place will stay same regardless of its name.