A death in the family Essay -- essays research papers

James Agees A Death in the Family is a posthumous novel based on the largely complete manuscript that the author left upon his death in 1955. Agee had been working on the novel for many years, and portions of the work had already appeargond in The zealot Review, The Cambridge Review, The New Yorker, and Harpers Bazaar. Published in 1957, the novel was edited by David McDowell. Several lengthy passages, part of Agees manuscript whose position in the chronology was not identified by the author, were placed in italics by the editor, whose decision it was to place them at the conclusion of eccentrics I and II. These dream-like sequences suggest the influence of James Joyce, especially of Ulysses, on Agees writing. It was besides McDowells decision to add the brief prefatory section, Knoxville Summer, 1915, Agees poetic meditation on his southern childhood. As an overture to the novel, this evocative section, although not part of Agees original manuscript, is exceedingly effective, f or it introduces the theme of lost childhood happiness that is central in the novel as a whole. The novel will treat the same milieu of middle-class domestic life-a social milieu whose calm surface of normality is shattered by the tragic and possibly suicidal death of Jay Follet, the child protagonists father. In Part I of the novel, Agee quickly establishes the importance of the father-son relationship. Rufus Follet, Jays six-year-old son, accompanies his father to the silent film theatre against the objection of Rufuss mother, who finds Charlie Chaplin (one of James Agees heroes) nasty and vulgar. This disagreement underscores the marital conflict that underlies Rufuss ambivalent feelings toward some(prenominal) his p bents. When Jay takes Rufus to a neighborhood tavern after the picture show, despite the fathers warmth and love for his son, it is clear that the fathers pride is constrained by the fact that the sons proclivities, even at this early age, follow the mothers intere sts in culture rather than the fathers more democratic tastes for athletic ability and social pursuits. Tensions between Rufuss parents are apparent as Jays imbibition and vulgar habits become a point of contention in the household, with the child Rufus caught between his sometimes bickering parents. For her part, Mary Follet is a character whose extreme faithfulness to moralistic attitudes suggests... ... a prayer for the dead. Meanwhile Uncle Andrew takes Rufus for a walk and tells him about the magnificent butterfly that settled on Jays coffin just as it was lower into the grave before flying off high into the sky an episode that Andrew believes miraculous. Andrews then reviles Father Jackson, who has refused to read the full burial service, since Jay has never been baptized. Rufus struggles to understand the aggressiveness that Andrew feels toward the church even as he loves Christians such as Mary and Hannah. Rufus wants to ask for some clarification, but instead he and An drew walk silently home. gum olibanum Agee ends the novel on a note of unresolved conflict. As he grows up, it is suggested, Rufus will continue to suffer from the same divisions of faith and social milieu that are involved in his parents relationship, and he will develop into the contemplative artist who already, at the age of six, has shown such sensitivity to human motives and the language in which they are conveyed. Written toward the end of his life, A Death in the Family may be considered Agees attempt to understand the origins of, and to come to terms with, the self-division that plagued his existence.