54 pages • 1 hour read
Brendan SlocumbThe Violin Conspiracy
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2022A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Character Analysis
Ray
Ray is the protagonist of The Violin Conspiracy. Although the novel is written in third-person narration, the colloquial language closely follows his natural voice. Slocumb neither makes Ray a caricature of an uneducated, underprivileged Black man nor ignores the specificity of being Black in the classical music industry; instead, Ray speaks like a young Black man with a unique streak of ruthless determination that carries him forward in a corrupt cultural system.
Ray’s character development can be traced partly via the theme of Racial Prejudice and Preconception. Before Ray plays violin at a wedding for the first time in Chapter 6, he also hasn’t had any direct contact with racism at a dangerous level. While he sees it from his classmates, teachers, and community, his experience with Uncle Roger is something new. Previously, he had only been aware of this type of racial discrimination through a wider cultural lens. After he’s thrown out of his wedding performance, he’s forced to look at his place in the world in a new way. The nonchronological structure of the novel, however, means that Slocumb creates dramatic irony in this scene: Ray worries in Chapter 2 that he is proving the prejudices that everyone had against him, meaning that the reader knows, by Chapter 6, that the event at the wedding is only the beginning of Ray experiencing prejudice and overcoming harmful preconceptions in the novel.
Early in the novel, although his mother and her siblings are largely dismissive of him, Ray accepts his place in their hierarchy. While the lack of his mother’s love is hurtful, his reaction is minimal because it has always been this way. Despite Ray’s damaged relationship with his family, he still tries his best to support them. Slocumb uses Ray’s family loyalty to drive the plot as Ray pursues and extends an intergenerational story. His need for a family connection is present in his relationship with his Stradivarius violin. He never sees it as a way to ease his financial hardships—a point that underscores the theme of Art Versus Commerce—and even though he acknowledges its superiority as a tool of the musical craft, its practicality is not its primary value either. Rather, Ray connects with it because he sees it as a through-line that links together a family legacy extending back to his grandmother’s grandfather. It also connects him to his lost grandmother, who was the only truly positive family relationship he had in his youth. Throughout his performances, he finds ways to honor her, from the pink rose he gives out to the audience to her favorite songs that he works into his repertoire. In this way, his musical career has the unique dichotomy of elevating him above the limitations of his family and bringing them closer together.
As the novel progresses, Ray channels the same determination that he put into learning music toward paying the ransom on his violin. He raises nearly $5 million in a very short amount of time, an accomplishment on par with reaching the finals of the Tchaikovsky Competition. The charisma that he mobilizes in order to win over the public and fundraise parallels the qualities with which Slocumb constructs Ray to connect him with the reader. This connection allows Slocumb to evoke pathos and triumph at narrative climaxes. Slocumb does, however, make Ray a three-dimensional character with flaws, including the fact that he is impulsive and occasionally reckless in his single-minded determination, as displayed when he quickly strikes up a relationship with Nicole or disobeys orders and follows his violin first to Serbia.
Nicole
Nicole appears in Ray’s life as a part of his newfound family unit; she and Janice become close as they support Ray in different ways. When she and Ray first meet, she’s performing in a relatively small-time orchestra and catches his attention by flattering his playing in front of the other musicians. It’s not specified when her plan to steal his violin was first conceived, and Slocumb uses this ambiguity to engage readers with Nicole’s story, particularly in Chapter 36 when the reader learns of her emails to Ray. When her crime is revealed, she blames her boyfriend, Marcus, for the plot, something that is also unresolved and left to the reader to decipher. However, she takes the active role in gaining Ray’s trust and becoming a part of his life. Music is important to Nicole, which is conveyed through her music note tattoo. Unlike the rest of her projected persona, her tattoo is pre-existing and permanent. Slocumb uses this aspect to suggest that certain parts of her story, such as her love of music and her ambition, are genuine.
Until her true role is revealed, Nicole is shown to be a caring, loyal, and supportive partner. Unlike other women who express interest in Ray, Nicole uses her musical training to connect with him on a deeper and more intellectual level. She offers specific, useful advice about his playing and is able to understand what his music means to him in a way that many others could not. Like Ray, Nicole is also driven by her passion and ambition for music, and her theft choices highlight the theme of the friction between Art Versus Commerce. Nicole continues to manipulate him even after her betrayal is revealed, telling him that she loves him and asking him to petition for leniency. However, the truth of her love or the extent to which she was involved in the planning is ambiguous, meaning that the reader, alongside Ray, must consider her emails.
Janice
Janice becomes a surrogate mother, friend, and mentor figure to Ray at the start of his journey. As another Black musician, she understands Ray’s struggles and the unique challenges that he will face. She represents the later part of Ray’s career trajectory, having overcome many of these challenges herself. This means that, while the reader sees very little of Ray’s later career (aside from in the Epilogue), Slocumb presents a future for Ray. By the time Ray meets her, Janice has accumulated a huge range of industry contacts and favors to call in, which she puts toward supporting Ray and giving him opportunities that he wouldn’t otherwise have had. For example, when Ray faces a sudden change in his musical lineup at a concert, Janice steps in with authority and conviction in a way that Ray doesn’t master until later in the book. However, he does display these traits in later chapters, showing that Janice has taught him how to present himself respectfully in times of crisis.
Despite her elevated status and experience, Janice does still find herself subject to racial discrimination and suspicion. When she gives extra attention to Ray in university, another student petitions to have her removed for favoritism. This parallels Ray’s own experience with his master class later on. Both instances are resolved positively; however, her character illustrates that some of these challenges will never go away. The theme of Racial Prejudice and Preconception applies to Black characters of every class and career status in the novel.
Janice is a generally flat character who supports the male protagonist. However, her support and encouragement of him can be seen as a reaction to her own prior struggles in carving out a place in a predominantly white industry. By helping Ray to become a success, she takes a step toward addressing the racial disparity in classical music and in inspiring other Black musicians who may have thought there was no place for them within it. Like Ray’s grandmother, Janice’s presence becomes a throughline that emphasizes sources of support and strength for Ray across the scope of his journey. This is reinforced particularly at the end of the novel when Ray discusses the next steps of his career with her ghost.
Ray’s Mom
Ray’s mother is one of the novel’s primary antagonists, serving as an obstacle between Ray and his goals at multiple points in the story. Much of the rising action in relation to her results from selfish behavior. Ray reflects that the distance between them grew because she didn’t want to be isolated and out of place around other mothers of musicians; Slocumb hence highlights the racism and classism that underpins Ray’s mother’s antagonism, which is juxtaposed with the white supremacist values of the Marks siblings. Early in Ray’s career, his mother is dismissive to the point of aggression and refuses to support him in any way. She refuses to drive him to gigs, forbids him from attending university, and tries to stop her mother from giving Ray her grandfather’s violin; her character is hence granted severe geographical limitations, even to the extent of not driving to a gig, which contrasts with Ray’s international journeys and career opportunities. Ray’s mom believes that music is too unstable and unsustainable for a Black musician and that a lower-paying job would offer more reliability. Slocumb presents these beliefs to further highlight the obstacles faced by musicians from low-income backgrounds. Her opposition to Ray’s creativity both reflects her controlling relationship with Ray and highlights the theme of Art Versus Commerce.
Slocumb presents very few points throughout the novel in which Ray’s mother displays love toward her son. There are a few small moments of affection, such as when she hugs him after one of his performances, but these are largely presented as characteristic affectations to uphold a social standard. She repeatedly calls his music “noise,” disparaging him in front of their other family members, and makes no effort to spare his feelings even when she is visibly hurting him. One difference between her and the rest of their family, however, is her honesty. She never propositions Ray under false pretenses or expresses enthusiasm for his work in pursuit of a financial goal, suggesting (like her description of music as “noise”) a pragmatic approach to commerce derived from art. Ray’s mother is unapologetic in her actions and confident of her place in the family.
Ray’s mother is a foil to both Janice and Grandma Nora, as both serve as maternal figures in Ray’s life. However, Janice’s influence doesn’t stop Ray from trying to earn his mother’s love and approval.
