The living dead

"Still alive! From the doorway of the intensive care unit I can see my father in his bed swaddled in white like a comatose infant, and he is still alive (135)."

Memory plays a important role in "The Beating" as Maddie, continues to lives by her traumatic experience. Maddie, perhaps unwillingly, keeps her memory of Mr. Carmichael and lives with it due to its ties to her father. Maddie keeps the memory of her father being in the hospital and ties it to her attack. It can be said, Maddie could not forget the experience of that day in July even if she wanted to. Not only did her father get a beating of sorts but so did she. The beatings are defining moments in which fourteen year old Maddie must live off. It is often the case in which we, the readers experience a loss of innocence and can better connect with the story and what it means to say about memory.  

Why didn't Maddie notify someone she would be leaving home with Mr. Carmichael?

A ship named Hal 9000

I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon is best described as Inception meets Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind in SPACE (echo). Although originally I wanted to write about Martine, I could not overlook Siri on steroids. 

Everyone else aboard the ship lay in an unknowing state -- he was the exception, as if bad karma had attacked him for obscure reasons. Worst of all, he had to depend totally on the goodwill of the ship. Suppose it elected to feed him monsters?(360)

Reality versus perception is a major theme in the story and the ship seems to help define them both. Victor's dependence of the ship to keep him alive is much like that of God. Arguably the ship symbolizes perception and God symbolizes reality... at least to Victor. The ship's only desire is to preserve Victor's life and make him happy while Victor's reality, being memories of guilt and worthlessness only condemn him.  His condemnation is due to his perception of God and sin which is a result of trauma as a four year old.

Why would the ship decided to keep him alive if it would result in Victor losing his sanity?

Inescapable

" There is too much fear in him and too much guilt. He has buried it all, and yet it is still there, worrying him like a dog worrying a rag." (304)

Phillip K. Dick's "I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon" is built upon the dichotomy of memory and reality. In a world in which aging is something that can be halted and thus it is common for people to live far beyond 200 years, Victor Keannings remains haunted by two memories: the memory of his first wife who later leave him and the memory of a day when he was a boy and helped his cat eat a bird.  The quote above indicates that Dick's argument is that we as humans are defined by things in our memory that have struck us and that have hurt us, and that these effects are permanent. In the quote, it is also important to note that even though Keannings has "buried" these two memories, they still exist within him. Thus, Dick's argument also incorporates the idea that we cannot consciously choose which parts of our past affect us. 

Discussion Question: How do these two specific memories affect each other within the realm of Keannings psyche? 

Are we there yet?

In the short story "I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon" Philip K. Dick illustrates a futuristic story about, Mr. Kemmings, a man caught in space and forced to live within the confines of his own mind for ten years. At first, he is given memories to relive but once those memories become tainted by his guilty conscience, he is only allowed to look toward his seemingly unattainable future. After living out this future memory of arriving to the planet so many times he cannot believe it when he is actually there.

"'I'm going to try reliving the part with the cat,' he said, 'and this time not pick up the cat and not let it get the bird. If I do that, maybe my life will change so that it turns into something happy. Something that is real. My real mistake was separating from you. Here; I'll put my hand through you.' He placed his hand against her arm. The pressure of his muscles was vigorous; she felt the weight, the physical presence of him, against her. 'See?' he said. 'It goes right through you'" (373).

This moment represents Mr. Kemmings disillusionment and confusion towards the present. He has relived this future moment so many times that he cannot even tell when the real moment comes. Mr. Kemmings places his hand on Martine and thinks it goes completely through her. In this moment Mr. Kemmings cannot discern between reality and memory. He is left completely confused and unable to live out his current life because of his obsession with the past. The inability to distinguish between memory and reality imprisons him within himself and ultimately within his own altered reality.

Can Mr. Kemmings ever overcome the obstacle of living within his own memory? Are we all somewhat trapped within our own disillusioned realities?

too much repetition

"I've lived this often enough now," he said. "I've lived this over and over again. I come out of suspension; I walk down the ramp; I get my luggage; sometimes I have a drink at the bar and sometimes I come directly to my room. Usually I turn on the TV and then --" He came over and held his hand toward her. "See where the bee stung me?"
She saw no mark on his hand (372)

"I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon" is a story about memories. Victor Kemmings has been suspended in a ship reliving his past and reconstructed memories. His guilt of killing the bird taints and eventually ruins him (367). His own guilt eats away at his conscience leaving him psychotic. He has lived the same memory for ten years that he is unable to recognize what is real from what is artificial. His only notion of reality is based on his basic routine in which he has varied his actions, but he has come to realization that he is living a simulation created by the ship. Kemmings is unable to grasp reality when his routine changes. When he actually lands on the new world, Martine comes back into his life, his hand does not go through the wall, and there is no mark on his hand from a bee sting. He disregards this tangible evidence and continues on as if it were recirculated memory. Ten years has taken its toll as Victor is now delusional yet eerily content with his ex-wife living in what he believes is a fabrication. With reality so close, the ending of the story is rather depressing.

Is Victor's state of psychosis better than being in a vegetative state?

A Nightmare in the Sky

This story is more of a nightmare than the ones we have read previously when characters are killed horrifically. I can't imagine being stuck taunted by old memories, tainting any good memories, and damaging any future ones. This is my idea of hell.  There are many symbols and motifs that continually resurface into his thoughts: the bee, the bird, the poster, but I think the most important and the most interesting reoccurring theme is that of guilt. "Turning, he gazed back up at the ship. Maybe I ought to go back, he thought. Have them freeze me forever. I am a man of guilt, a man who destroys. Tears filled his eyes (Dick, 103)." Even though it is a futuristic story, while the ship is helping Victor to reminisce on his life, the memories become cyclical and biblical in a sense. Religion is not really addressed, G-d is once mentioned, but he seems like a Catholic (at least a Christian of sorts) drowning in his own suppressed guilt. Every memory the ship plants in his mind ends in tears and weeping, like he was never forgiven for what his four-year-old self did.

Question: Is religion a major underlying theme or is he simply tainted by a guilty conscience?

Growing Up

"She was a steady and self-reliant woman, and when I think of her after all the years she has been dead, I think of her brown hands...back then it never crossed my mind that she would ever be dead" (68).

It is in this moment that I feel we get the greatest sense of a time lapse through this story, Blackberry Winter by Robert Penn Warren. It is in this moment that Seth acknoledges his innocence at nine-years-old in a way that nearly all children who have grown up can--he finally grasped that things end and change. This story is about the loss of innocence and the realization that every person is not as steady as Seth's mom, or stoic like Seth's dad, or wise like Old Jebb, or hardworking like Dellie. These are the examples Warren gives us of a child's view of his adults. Most children grow up trying to emulate the older people in their lives, seeing them as pristine and infallible. But, as Seth sees first-hand, Dellie is not perfect as she slaps Little Jebb across the face. All adults do not fit this ideal, especially when the stranger--who never does receive a name--comes to town. This is Seth's first encounter with a bad man, and it colors all of the other events that occur that one day. It is as if in meeting the stranger, the wool was pulled from Seth's eyes and he saw that people in his town were starving enough to want to eat a drowned cow, that maybe Dellie was not the perfect "white-Negro," and that men who emerge from the woods without a name or manners are not going to be good news.

Question: What effect did these revelations have on the course of Seth's life? What did he mean when he said he "did follow him, all the years" (87)?

The Unexpected

“When you are a boy and stand in the stillness of woods, which can be so still your heart almost stops beating and makes you want to stand there in the green twilight until you feel your very feet sinking into and clutching the earth like roots and your body breathing slow through its pores like the leaves—when you stand there and wait for the next drop to drop with its small, flat sound to a lower leaf, that sound seems to measure out something, to put an end to something, to begin something, and you cannot wait for it to happen and are afraid it will not happen, and then when it has happened, you are waiting again, almost afraid” (65).

Although Seth is a callow, reluctant nine-year-old boy, he has a premonition (above) that he cannot live in his childish unchanging world forever. The drops from leaves are representative of events that will interrupt time and the order of Seth’s life. The strange man, the cold weather, and the flood are some of “drops” that teach Seth about the unexpected interruptions in life.

The contradictory phrase, "blackberry winter," is used in the South to describe a brief period of cold weather in June that coincides with the blooming of blackberries. What purpose does this contradictory phrase serve in the story (besides just being a title and weather pattern)?

"The Change of Life and Time"

"What's woman-mizry?
Hit is the change, he said. Hit is the change of life and time...

Will everything die?
Everything and everybody, hit will be so...

What was he doing down there in the storm?
The good ones and the bad ones, they comes and they goes. Storm or sun, light or dark. They is folks and they comes and they goes lak folks." Pg. 82-83

The moment, when young Seth is talking to Old Jebb by the stables and asks him a series of questions regarding all the strange things going on that day, is very important to understanding the story's meaning. There is still many things that a child does not understand at the age of nine. He has limited understanding of menopause, death, and bad people. In one day he has seen animals (the cows and chickens) die from the storm, he has seen Dellie strike Jebb with an awful slap that he does not understand, and he has witnessed the stranger coming on a blackberry winter flashing a switchblade. All these things including cold in June make no sense to nine year old Seth, and perhaps this is why he remembers this blackberry winter day so vividly. It is a change in the way he sees and understands life.

Does Seth remember this blackberry winter because it symbolizes his loss of innocence?

If blackberry winter symbolizes change, does the end of the story mean that since then he has experienced bad things or that since then he has become bad folk like the stranger?

"But for those obstinate questionings of sense and outward things, fallings from us, vanishings;"

The moment I chose is sort of a large one, occuring on pages 82-83, and is the entire interaction of Seth and Old Jebb in the crib. A highlight of the moment:

"what you shiver fer?" he asked me.

"I'm cold. I'm cold because it's blackberry winter," I said.

"Maybe 'tis and maybe 'tain't," he said.

"My mother says it is."

"Ain't sayen Miss Sallie doan know and ain't sayen she do. But folks don't know everything."

Old Jebb seems to be not only a source of knowledge to Seth, but also a symbol of wisdom. The emphasis on Jebb's physical strength, despite his advanced age, effectively adds mass to the character of Old Jebb; he seems to have a larger hand in Seth's emotional growth than do the characters of his mother and father, and his words have a kind of density about them. What Old Jebb presented to Seth was the inability of a person to truly know something. Old Jebb even questions the month of June itself, ""June," he replied with great contempt. "That what folks say. What June mean?"". Musing on mankind's illusion of control over the natural world, Old Jebb explains to Seth the ease at which the earth my decide to "take a rest", causing "everybody and everything" to die. This idea of impermanence, human fragility, and the "unknowable" clashes with Seth's previous resolution: "When you know something you know it. You know how a thing has been and you know you can go barefoot in June."

The reader sees the breakdown of Seth's "knowledge"; going barefoot in June freezes Seth's feet! Seth's conception of reality, the blackberry winter itself and whether it is occuring at all, is questioned, quite rightly actually (a true blackberry winters occurs in May). The fact that the short story itself is titled "Blackberry Winter" suggests a similar breakdown in "knowing", in the narrator's case, the ability for a person to accurately capture the significance of a memory. Many years separates the adult narrator and the nine year old Seth. Old Jebb's prediction of a tired earth that would stop offering nourishment can be read as the human mind's inability to produce and "grow" in the manner in which it did in younger years. Inevitably, a cold spell comes, and it stays. We end up losing our ability to remember how our youth shaped us. The narrator's statement that he has been following the tramp all these years is just as false to me as Seth's earlier statement about being able to go barefoot in June. Instead, the narrator has been following Old Jebb, who is still alive and present in his life, and who "lived forever" in the story, and in the mind of the narrator.

Question: To what extent is the narrator lamenting his youthful ignorance? Or is the narrator thankful for the "eternal" feelings of childhood, when "what you remember seems forever"?

note: the title is from Wordsworth's Intimations ode

Good Beginnings

My favorite part, and also the part that spoke to me the most, happened on the first page of the story: "Nobody had ever tried to stop me in June as long as I could remember, and when you are nine years old, what you remember seems forever; for you remember everything and everything is important and stands bigs and full and fills up Time and is so solid that you can walk around and around it like a tree and look at it. You are aware that times passes, that there is a movement in time, but that is not what Time is. Time is not a movement, a flowing, a wind then, but is, rather, a kind of climate in which things are, and when a thing happens it begins to live and keeps on living and stands solid in Time like the tree that you can walk around (Warren, 63)." I related to young Seth, especially in terms of his confidence in his knowledge and how he saw manners as the law.  And so the story began with a strong start.  I loved the narration of the older Seth, clearly recanting his past in this novelette/short story.  The narrative was colloquial and rich in description while relating to the reader. The story contained such great dialect which accurately depicts a small southern town... which made it that more surprising when the story reached its conclusion... Maybe I missed the point, but what was the point of ending the story so abruptly? 

A better question for the class: How does the conclusion actually conclude the story? Does it?

disillusionment

That was what he said, for me to not follow him. But I did follow him, all the years. (87)

The narrator, Seth, is recounting this story thirty-five years after the fact. He is now forty-four and has experienced loss and death. It seems to me that Warren's "Blackberry Winter" is a story of disillusionment. The man that comes to the farm opens Seth's eyes to the evils in the world. From then on he experiences the deaths of the chickens, the death of the cow, the dirtiness outside Dellie's house, etc. Since the man comes to work, Seth is exposed to reality. His awakening or disillusionment towards reality or away from ideality follows him throughout his life. He remembers "still [being] a boy, but a big boy" (86) when his father died. The man opened Seth's eyes to the real world and "Blackberry Winter" is a memory of Seth's naivete.

Was the man using scare tactics to help Seth maintain his innocence for a little while longer? If the man symbolizes disillusionment and the bad things in Seth's world is he innately good for telling Seth to not follow him?

Barefootedness

"When you are nine, you know that there are things that you don't know, but you know that when you know something you know it. You know how a thing has been and you know that you can go barefoot in June." (64)

In Warren's, "Blackberry Winter", the story begins with the narrator's resistance to put on shoes. This moment struck me as important because not only does the narrator go on about how odd it was to have to put on shoes in June, but he emphasizes it in such a way that indicates more strange things to come. His confusion on the subject foreshadows an important change in his life. He knew he should be able to go barefoot in June, yet he could not. Furthermore, he would not stress this lack of clothing if it did not mean something. Since the story is written in retrospect, the shoes symbolize something significant to the adult as it did the child. It sets up the idea of losing one's innocence, for it was that day that he was told not to go barefoot anymore, even though "you know you can go barefoot in June".

Do you think the narrator's lack of shoes could represent something greater? How do you think the outcome of the story would have changed if he had put on shoes in the beginning?

The Luck of the Irish

“He spoke enthusiastically. ‘And that’s not countin what I maybe can pick up in wolf bounties. Possible another hundred. Enough to git us started. I’m thinkin horses, raise horses. Folks always need horses. I’ll quit this feller’s ranch after a year an git back here.’” (61)

Archie and Rose are a young married couple trying to make successful lives for themselves. However, they have had a rough start as Archie was orphaned at a young age, and Rose’s mother is ill and her father has a drinking problem. Archie was born to Irish immigrants, and it is suggested that Rose is of immigrant descent as her wedding present from her mother was “a large silver spoon that had come across the Atlantic” (48,49). Archie inherits money from Mrs. Peck, a widow who raised him after his parents died. He uses this money to buy some land, and is “thrilled to be a landowner” (50). After being laid off by Bunk Peck, Archie travels to Cheyenne in search of work. He finds a good paying job, but will require him to be absent from the birth of his son. Consequently, Rose goes into labor early and is forced to give birth alone. Both the baby and Rose do not survive. Archie also faces difficulties while he is away. He comes down with pneumonia, and it is not known if he survives.

Does Archie’s (and possibly Rose’s) immigrant heritage effect their outcome? Had they not been born to immigrants would they have been better able to succeed?

The Wilderness of Reality

"There was no way to know what had happened. The more he thought about Archie the more he remembered the clear, hard voice and the singing. He thought about Gold Dust's rampant vigor and rich fur, about the sleek weasel at the McLaverty cabin. Some lived and some died, and that's how it was." (77)

Struggles of survival and domination are prevalent throughout "Them Old Cowboy Songs," primarily in the lives of Archie and Rose. As Archie attempts to withstand the harsh conditions of life as a cowboy, Rose endures her pregnancy in extreme conditions of heat and cold, both in some state of isolation. Proulx equalizes humans and animals, demonstrating the perseverance of reality over ideals. Social life, ranching life, and especially the life of a woman are all struggles to defeat the dangers of some form of death, literal or metaphorical. There are several instances in the piece where characters are given animal-like qualities, such as when Mr. Dorgan "gnawed at his untrimmed mustache" after Mrs. Dorgan asserts her dominance as the founder of his political life, and therefore his dependence on her, in order to survive as a "genteel specimen of womanhood." (75) As Rose attempts to preserve her idealistic vision of a happy family, she is confronted with a life that "reeked of desertion and betrayal" (61) that eventually ends in her death, and the death of her ideal. Rose buries her child in an "ancient rage" (65) with the silver spoon that symbolized the promise of riches and happiness for ancestors coming to America. Her rage is primitive and animalistic, as she attempts to maintain her womanly pride by concealing the "horror" (66) of her failure as a woman to bear a child. Instead of feeding her baby with the silver spoon of prosperity, she uses it to bury the infant that is eventually devoured by the cruel and indiscriminate jaws of the wild. Proulx works to emphasize the indifferent nature of reality of life, and its ability to destroy the isolated stragglers, or those without the determination and strength to survive its challenges.

Throughout the story, the women mentioned fall victim to some consequence of a man's mistake. Rose dies because there was no one there to assist her in childbirth as Archie promised, her mother is sick with only a drunken husband for support and care, and Mrs. Dorgan's reputation is threatened by the false claims of the telegraph operator. Is Proulx claiming women are in a constant state of self-preservation because of the irresponsibility of the men in their lives, and that because of this hardship they are stronger in their will and resilience?

how it was

"She seemed unaware that she lived in a time when love killed women" (55). 

In thinking about our theme of region, it seems there is no room for love to take root on the American frontier in Proulx's "Them Old Cowboy Songs."  Despite Rose's efforts to fight against the hardening effects of pioneer life, she and Archie quickly "[shift] out of days of clutching love and into the long haul of married life" (57).  But this haul proves too heavy to carry.  Even Archie feels the pain brought on by love.  He feels "like [he has] been shot" after Rose asserts her sexual desire for her husband.  Strangers, too, are privy to the inappropriateness of love on the frontier.  Sink, who knows little about Archie's home life, portends Archie's "life already too complicated to live" (67).  And indeed it is.  Rose's failed pregnancy and Archie's work-induced illness are unsuccessful attempts to improve their married life on the frontier.  Eventually, their efforts end in their deaths.  But in the end, no one cares: "Some lived and some died, and that's how it was" (77).

What does the frontier's rejection of love reveal about the region and its role in the lives of those old cowboys in this story?

Youth

"An older woman would have seen that although they were little more than children, they were shifting out of the days of clutching love and into the long haul of married life.
'Cows cost money, specially butter and cream does. We ain't got enough for a butter dish even....'Missus McLaverty, I wouldn't work in no mine. You married you a cowboy'" - pg. 57

In the first part of this section, Archie is dreaming of a better, impractical life, complete with a spring and a butter cow when, as Rose points out, the couple doesn't even have the money for a butter dish. The second part of this passage illustrates Archie's idealism and determination to be a cowboy and find ranch work, much like Ennis and Jack in Brokeback Mountain. This story seems another one of Proulx's western parables, and once again, she seems interested in the topic of idealism. If Archie hadn't been so insistent on being a "cowboy" and so resistant to working closer to home in a mine, perhaps their love would have survived, perhaps they would have survived? Yet, so as not to beat the topic of idealism in Proulx's stories to death, this story has an ingredient that 'Brokeback Mountain' does not; youth. Archie and Rose were an incredibly young couple, and this arguably led to several of their struggles and indirectly caused their death in the stories.

What role did youth play in Archie and Rosie's idealism, romance, and interactions with nature?

Foreshadowed Singing

"Archie McLaverty had a singing voice that once heard was never forgotten. It was a straight, hard voice, the words falling out halfway between a shout and a song. Sad and flat and without ornamentation, it expressed things felt but unsayable" (49).

I found the way Archie sang while on his land to be particularly important in this story because his voice so closely echoes his life and land. The way that Proulx describes his singing as "straight," "hard," and "flat" are particular adjectives that reflect more on his land than possibly his singing. Proulx doesn't really describe the land other than the immediate surroundings of their cabin and the nearby mountain. Using these words to describe Archie's singing voice seems to create a deeper connection between the land and its owner. It even seems to foreshadow his life on his land as being "sad and flat." Sad because his wife and child die while on the land and flat because everything he dreams of doing with the land falls flat with his and his family's death.

Another interesting word choice here is how his voice expresses "things felt but unsayable." I really like this because when you apply it to the story, there are a number of things that go unsaid for a long time. When the story switches from Rose to Archie after she has buried her baby, we don't really know what has happened to her, possibly because it was unsayable until Tom discovered her body rapped and murdered by Indians. I found this scenario hard to believe. It seemed more likely that the injurious Tom noted where left over from child birth and she had simply bled out. Either way, Tom only mentions it once and after that he pushes it into the unsayable and remembers Archie and his wife in song.

I wonder if singing to the land in this story is the way the characters express the landscape?

Live Together, Die Alone

"We'll git you down to Cheyenne and you can ride the train a where your mother is, your folks, Rawlins, whatever. Karok says. And he says you are fired. I had a tell him you was married so he would let you loose. He was all set a have you die in the bunkhouse. We'll get a doc, beat this down. It's only pneumony. I had it twice" (71).

In my opinion, Sink ends up being the only redeeming character in this horrific story. Sink goes out of his way to save Archie after he has contracted pneumonia. Other characters, such as the Dorgan's will not even pay attention to Tom Ackler as he tells about Rose's horrific death. The lack of sensitive characters in this story is alarming and contributes to the overall brokenness one is left feeling after reading it. If not for Sink and the contribution he paid in trying to save Archie's life, one might think not a single person is capable of doing good. Even Archie abandons his wife, during her pregnancy and time of need; therefore, Sink's actions are shocking, becuase they greatly contrast those of the other greedy characters.

Do you agree Sink is the only redeeming character or do you think he has an alterior motive by helping Archie?

Self Preservation

"At that the old man stood up. "You act more like a Pitts than A fortune," he said. He had never made such an ugly remark to her before and he was sorry the instant he had said it. It hurt him more than it did her." (537)

There is much more to Flannery O'Connor's story A View of the Woods than a simple parable about a man outdone by his greed. At the core of O'Connor's main character, a self-centered octogenarian referred to as only Mr. Fortune, lies the basic human emotion of fear. Mr. Fortune would readily tell you that he does not fear progress and movement into the future as many people of his generation do. I will not argue that fact, but instead propose that it is fear of death that haunts the old man; perhaps even more so the fear of being forgotten. Mr. Fortune couldn't be less of a family man if he tried, only taking an interest in his granddaughter Mary Fortune. Mary just so happens to be the spitting image of her grandfather, both physically and intellectually. She is quick witted and strong willed, fearless and sturdy-minded. Throughout the story Mr. Fortune often comments on the similarities he sees between himself and his granddaughter, reflecting fondly on the likenesses. It is this borderline obsession with Fortune traits in his granddaughter that lead me to believe his invested interest stems from some idea of self-preservation. Mr. Fortune himself is afraid of the end, of the progress that will occur without him. This fear drives Mr. Fortune's actions. This fear is Mr. Fortune's fatal flaw. This fear of losing self leads to the death of both Mary Fortune when she became more Pitts than Fortune and Mr. Fortune himself.

Do you think that Mr. Fortune spelled out his own demise by living with fear and greed or do you think he was simply a victim of circumstance (his bad heart)?

Holy Woods

"On both sides of him he saw that the gaunt trees had thickened into mysterious dark files that were marching across the water and away into the distance. He looked around desperately for someone to help him but the place was deserted except for one huge yellow monster which sat to the side, as stationary as he was, gorging itself on clay"  (196/546).

In A View of the Woods, the woods are representative of a divine figure. O'Connor constantly changes the description of the woods to accurately match the moods of characters and the greedy actions of Mr. Fortune. The ever-changing "moods" of the woods acted as warning signs of Fortune's fate. It is at this moment (above) when the reader realizes that the woods are divine and Forutne's dark fate is revealed. Fortune, desperate for someone to help, was deserted by the woods (i.e., God) and left to the hell of his evil behavior.

Does Mr. Fortune feel that his actions are justified? Why or why not?

Dominance

The old man looked up into his own image. It was triumphant and hostile. "You been whipped," it said, "by me," and then it added, bearing down on each word, "and I'm PURE Pitts." (545)

"A View of the Woods" deals with power and submission as the grandfather tries to see his region progress. This is the first time in the story that Mary verbally identifies herself solely as a Pitts. It's a mirror image of her grandfather as he identifies himself as "PURE Fortune" (541) but also since Mary is the spitting image of her grandfather. The moment struck me as interesting because at this point in the story, Mary is dehumanized and referred to as "it." This technique leaves primal/animal instincts, which could be seen as "hostile." These instincts are an assertion of power, claiming one's superiority. Just as Mary must submit to her father, she makes her grandfather yield to her. "It" enjoys the power and dominant position it holds over the grandfather. Not only that, the last four words as O'Connor writes are an addition, and yet, they are deemed necessary. Mary has already physically exercises control over her  grandfather but takes it a step further to make sure he knows who she is. She identifies herself with her father, Pitts, the very person that the grandfather dislikes. This is a fatal blow to the grandfather who often identified and saw himself in the child. 

Why does O'Connor use Mary to assert Pitts's dominance?

Blocking the view

Old man Fortune was a man of excess, a man of progress, and a man of family, well to one person at least...Kind of...This visionary man dreamed big and altered his plans as the times advanced. He was on top of it, and he chose to leave his work under the supposedly trustful eyes of Mary Fortune. Even though she oscillates loyalty back and forth between her step-father and her grandfather. He saw himself so vividly in her, and she was that much more aware of what happened to her and how she responded and was supposed to respond. The bulldozer has captured her attention since the beginning of the story. The machine and the man became quite a spectacle, a focus of her every attention. It gave her an escape from Pitts' beatings, and her grandfather's constant attention. I think that the most memorable moment, besides the continuous and maturing bulldozer symbol, was the moment that occurred on pg. 532 of the course packet. This moment is especially noteworthy because of the title, it is clearly central to the story.  Mary Fortune starts off with her concern that "[they] wo[uld]n't be able to see the woods across the road". Her grandfather responds with disdain and anger about how the view means nothing, that it doesn't matter. That it is just another place. This is a defining moment in Mary's character, this was her breaking point. This was the beginning of the end.

Question for the class?

Do y'all think that the bulldozer symbolizes one aspect of the story in particular? If so what does it symbolize or what different things does the dozer symbolize?

Greed Greed Greed

The Moment: "He wanted to see a paved highway in front of his house with plenty of new-model cars on it, he wanted to see a supermarket store across the road from, he wanted to see a gas station, a motel, a drive-in picture show within easy distance...There was talk of an eventual town. He thought this should be called Fortune, Georiga."

In "A View of the Woods", O' Connor presents a rather nasty old man by the name of Mark Fortune who is in every sense of the word guilty of the sin of greed. He craves money and from the above moment, status and wealth. He is very uncharitable to even his own flesh and blood except that of the youngest daughter who is a younger female version of himself in appearance. Extending this view of him symbolizing Greed he "marks" plots  that will bring him money or "fortune" and irritate his son-in-law. As he extends this greed, the natural pure landscape around the home is destroyed and devoured and in a mark of pure malice he intends to sell the very lot in front of the home. However this original sin gets a hold of him fully by then and in the end he destroys the only earthly thing he actually cared for, his granddaughter only a child. In the fight the granddaughter could be seen as symbolic of pure wild nature trying to fight against that of the greedy force of the grandfather that is threatening the sanctuary of the landscape and the granddaughter's home.

Question: The author uses many symbols of religion in this story, what other examples are there? What else could Mary represent?

A Land on Fire

“…the gaunt trunks appeared to be raised in a pool of red light that gushed from the almost hidden sun setting behind them…He saw it, in his hallucination, as if someone were wounded behind the woods and the trees were bathed in blood.”

This moment occurs the third time Fortune takes a look at the woods. Laced with powerful sight imagery, the scene symbolizes the story’s greater message by casting a precautionary light on the dangers of rural development.

Situated in Georgia, the rural landscape is filled with vast pastures, farms and densely wooded areas. Development of the space has begun and no one is a bigger advocate for progress than Mr. Fortune. To his surprise, he discovers a firm resistance from his young companion Mary Fortune which is vocalized upon her discovery that Fortune intends to sell their lawn. Fortune holds a high disregard for preserving nature and would rather see it replaced with a more urban setting. What he defines as progress, the author demonstrates as mere destruction. O’Conner writes, “red light,” “wounded,” and “trees were bathed in blood” to describe the woods, the most definite symbol of nature in the story, to forewarn a devastating future that will occur should people continue to uproot the land for commercial ventures. Also, the author’s descriptions also evoke sight imagery preluding to death which is shown to be a consequence of disturbing the processes of nature.

Until his death Mr. Fortune held fast to his belief in “progress.” Should Mr. Fortune be considered a protagonist or antagonist in the story? Why or why not?

I'm sorry Mrs. Thompson

 

Noon Wine by Katherine Anne Porter (1939)

Life was all one dread, the faces of her neighbors, of her boys, of her husband, the face of the whole world, the shape of her own house in the darkness, the very smell of the grass and the trees were horrible to her… How was she going to keep on living now? Why had she lived at all? She wished now she had dies one of those times when she had been so sick, instead of living on for this. (268)

The moment embellishes the idea of death and shows how truly miserable Mrs. Thompson is with her life. What is important about this moment is how it foreshadows the death of Mr. Thompson. Suicide seems to be a poetic motif in many authors’ writings as most display it to be a beautiful rescue. The use of darkness in language argues in favor with naturalism as in you are born alone and die alone.

I’m not familiar with the theme of region but in some sense I guess it would follow from hard labor and tie into some Marxism. Perhaps the land/area is what defines who you are in the world. The farm was nothing without Mr. Helton and once he was gone it would make sense that the farm would go with him.

Why is it significant to the story that Mr. Thompson killed himself? 

American Psycho

"Haw, ha," said Mr. Hatch, "heh, he, that's good! Ha, ha, ha, I hadn't thought of it jes like that. Yeah, that's right! Let's all go crazy and get rid of our wives and save our money, hey!"

This moment, initially presented an instance where Mr. Hatch is "taking the words out of Mr. Thompson's mouth" suggest the possible insanity of Mr. Thompson himself. Confusion about the self and identity is apparent after this moment, when Mr. Thompson does not "know himself what he had said" about Aunt Ida, the straight jacket, or craziness in general. Considering how much he concerned himself with outward appearances, there is an heavy overtone of paranoia that seems to plague Mr. Thompson at all times. The "real" lunatic, Mr. Helton, exhibits silence and emotional seclusion that only serve to emphasize the lack of affection Mr. Thompson shows towards his sons and wife. Mr. Thompson's murder of Mr. Hatch also recalls the Helton fratricide, in its abruptness.

When Mr. Thompson begins to questions the events of the murder, considering the idea that Mr. Hatch hadn't actually stabbed Mr. Helton at all, he is ultimately questioning his own reality, and thus his own sanity. I believe he shoots himself because he really does believe himself to be a murderer, but writes the note, scratching out his wife just as Mr. Hatch suggested in the quote, to keep up appearances of innocence and sanity.

Question: Mr. Thompson, Mr. Helton, Mrs. Thompson, and the boys all prefer inward reflection to sympathetic connection with one another. What factors contribute to this independent attitude in the short novel and how do they reflect larger regional attitudes?

Because I'm curious: Upon brushing up on my Texas history, aside from the comments about the previous farmhands that fit well with post reconstruction Texas, I am struggling to make any connection to Region in this story. Do others feel the story could have been set anywhere in the U.S., not just in south Texas?

In the Sight of God and Men

"All his carefully limited fields of activity were related somehow to Mr. Thompson's feeling for the appearance of things, his own appearance in the sight of God and man. 'It don't look right,' was his final reason for not doing anything he did not wish to do."

This preoccupation with public appearance and opinion is clearly Mr. Thompson's defining characteristic, as well as being an issue of concern to just about every character in the story, except for Mr. Helton and the children. Mr. Hatch tries to use this in an attempt to convince Mr. Thompson to participate in Mr. Helton's capture and it seems to be the sole reason Mr. Thompson drives around the county and repeats his story to all of the neighbors, who are similarly preoccupied with it, or at least that's the impression Mr. Thompson gets. This, along with repeated mentions of "minding one's own business"and the dogged use of the honorifics, Mr. and Mrs., for every character strikes me as a clear indication of the collective personality of the area. There is a universally recognized way of being, living, working, eating, etc. and the price of defying that is high. Public judgment is swift, harsh and immutable.

Do you think that the neighbors are actually as immovably judgmental as Mr. Thompson perceives, or is this a method for communicating his paranoia and personal obsession with appearances?

being friendly with strangers

"He was dead to his other life, he had got to the end of something without knowing why, and he had to make a fresh start, he did not know how.  Something different was going to begin, he didn't know what.  It was in some way not his business.  He didn't feel he was going to have much to do with it." (276). 

Throughout the story, Mr. Thompson is a man concerned about "his own appearance in the sight of God and man" (244).  But these concerns turn trivial after he kills Mr. Hatch.  Before this incident, Mr. Thompson does not go around town explaining and apologizing for his unprofitable farm, his sick, distrusting wife, or his bratty boys.  After the trial, he -- with his wife in tow -- work like salespeople going door to door selling the story he was never allowed to tell at his trial.  But as they make their final rounds, the McClellans tell them that they don't care about "these murder matters" (275).  Finally, Mr. Thompson begins to understand that he can no longer affect his public perception.  And whether he's convicted in the court of public opinion, or whether the public is apathetic toward him, Mr. Thompson feels his future is no longer under his control. 

So I'm curious: In this story, to what extent is the importance of public opinion created by Mr. Thompson's psychology, and how much of it is an actual feature of South Texas life?

Guilty Verdict

"Every time he shut his eyes, trying to sleep, Mr. Thompson's mind started up and began to run like a rabbit, it jumped from one thing to another, trying to pick up a trail here or there that would straighten out what had happened that day he killed Mr. Hatch...he knew that it was not right...killing Mr. Hatch was wrong from start to finish" (276-277).

"Guilt" is the overarching theme in Noon Wine. Mr. Thompson constantly tried to convince himself that what he did was the right thing to do; however, he knew deep-down that killing Hatch was an evil act. The expressions on the faces of his neighbors, wife, and sons were what stopped him from denying the immorality of his action and come to the terms that he was in fact, guilty. The guilt inside his head is what ultimately leads to his suicide. 

Question of Faith

"Mrs. Thompson bowed her hear: 'for these and all Thy blessings.... Amen,' she whispered weakly, and the Thompsons sat there with their eyes down and their faces sorrowful, as if they were at a funeral" (276).

I chose this passage because it is the last prayer the family says together before Mr. Thompson commits suicide and it so happens to be very similar to the first prayer we hear from Mrs. Thompson, only by this point in the story, it is like they are saying a prayer at a funeral and it turns out they were.

The sporadic religious comments that occur throughout the story actually makes the ending with Mr. Thompson committing suicide really interesting. Because by the time Mr. Hatch comes into the story, we really start to get a clear picture of Mr. Thompson as a religious man who will defend Mr. Helton. I love the parallel between Mr. Thompson's murder and Mr. Helton's. It's not the murder itself that I find so interesting though, but how both men dealt with it. Mr. Helton bared it for nine years without confiding in anyone, while Mr. Thompson kills himself within weeks. By the end of the story, both men could be considered "looney."

Obviously Mr. Helton had found peace in life after he murdered his brother, but it seems impossible for Mr. Thompson, who appears to have more faith in religion throughout the story. My question is which man (Mr. Thompson or Mr. Helton) was more religious?

Denial, Denial, Denial

"Mr. Thompson knew he had the ax in his own hands and felt himself lifting it, but he couldn't remember hitting Mr. Hatch. He couldn't remember it. He couldn't. He remembered only that he had been determined to stop Mr. Hatch from cutting Mr. Helton" (273).

At this point in the story, the trial is over but Mr. Thompson spends a lot of time convincing himself he attacked Mr. Hatch out of self-defense instead of killing him because he initially disliked him. Mr. Thompson's repetition of "couldn't" emphasizes his denial. It is almost as if he is fabricating his own memories. He does not want to accept the truth of his actions so much so that he uses his wife as a reinforcement when he tells his story to his neighbors. Still, no one believes him. In fact, his own wife sees him as a murderer and blames him for ruining their lives (270). Mr. Thompson calls himself a murderer (272) but he cannot own up to his terrible deed. Instead, he chooses to forget or reject the memory, therefore destroying his reputation in the eyes of his neighbors. His guilt torments him, eventually leading to his self-inflicted death.

If Mr. Thompson had pled guilty would the results of the trial have made a difference? Is Mr. Thompson's denial solely to preserve his position in his small society or is it because he really didn't believe that he could kill someone?

Basic Instincts II: South Texas

When Mr. Hatch threatens to inform Mr. Thompson's neighbors about his refusal to assist in the arrest of the lunatic Mr. Helton; a moment of hesitation and panic settles into Mr. Thompson. We learn that:

"Mr. Thompson knew almost before he heard the words that it would look funny. It would put him in a mighty awkward position" (266).

Mr. Thompson kills Hatch out of a purely instinctual need to preserve his own reputation and livelihood. Far earlier in Katherine Anne Porter's fifty page short story, we discover that for Mr. Thompson "it was his dignity and his reputation that he cared about [most], " and given that fact it makes sense why he kills Mr. Hatch in a trance like state (244). Mr. Thompson's only passion in life was his reputation; he thinks his cow farm is emasculating, he had lost interest in his wife, and he thinks his boys are doomed for failure. Which means the favorable opinions of the people in his region or county wake him up in the morning and keep the shotgun pointed away from his head. So when Mr. Hatch jeopardizes his very existence and position in his region, Mr. Thompson rationalizes killing him by hallucinating Mr. Helton's stabbing. The desire to save his reputation, transforms into a county-wide PR campaign that fails to garner support and sympathy. In a creepy irony, Mr. Thompson ends up in an "awkward" position right before he shoots himself. 

Had Mr. Hatch been a Black man, do you think he would have been tried and do you think he would have lost his reputation? Why does Mr. Hatch introduce himself as a descendant from this small South Texas county?