The treatment of childhood, in literary history, changed
dramatically during the twentieth century, from being either
ignored or told from an adult, omniscient view, to a more
realistic approach in which the child's point of view stands in
direct contrast to how we as adults contextualize our narrative,
due to the obvious limitations of a youth's vantage and
comprehension.
Of all the experiences adults and children process differently,
death, particularly the death of a loved one, is one of the
experiences of great magnitude which challenges very young
children's comprehension. While an adult may go into shock and
feel nothing for a short period of time, the grief that an adult
feels is considered "whole." Very young children who live very
much moment to moment, don't really understand the finality of
death.
In Jame's Agee's novel, "A Death in the Family," the narrative
switches effortlessly between adult and child family members. The
six years old boy, Rufus, who biographers and critics say is
autobiographically based, is at the heart of the story.
Ironically, James Agee died before the novel was published,
suddenly, of a heart attack at age 46. He won the Pulitzer Prize
posthumously, for this novel, in 1957. The version of the story
which was published inserts unconnected but related material;
floating dream sequences and memories that don't tie in directly
to the otherwise very chronologically progressive narrative, into
several seemingly arbitrary insertion points, in italics. Aside
from these digressions, which at best add another layer of
mystery and complexity, the novel progresses to cover a very
short period of time in which Rufus's life changed forever.
The story begins with a brief portrait of Rufus's happy home life
including walks home from the theatre with his father Jay, after
catching the part of a Charlie Chaplain movie that they had
missed, descriptions of the men in the neighborhood all watering
the lawns at the same time of the evening, and summer nights
spent on blankets listening to the crickets and his father and
mother singing "Sweet Chariot" with alternate melodies. The
closeness between Jay and his wife Mary includes moments of
tenderness as well as teasing. Jay talks about Charlie Chaplain,
for example, just to get a rise out of Mary, who squeals and
calls him "disgusting," as much of his physical comedy involves
using his cane to attempt to lift women's skirts. In another
scene, Jay is shown singing and rocking Rufus much longer than
necessary, out of tenderness and love.
The action quickens with a telephone call in the middle of the
night. Jay's brother, Ralph, calls in a drunken stupor. Jay's
father, who has a heart condition, has experienced another
attack. Ralph insists that Jay come to see him on what may be his
deathbed. Jay, at first, wonders if Ralph is exaggerating,
considering Ralph's condition, and then feels guilty for trying
to second guess his father's health and decides that he needs to
leave immediately. He promises Mary he will be home before
nightfall. She cooks him a large breakfast, they gaze at each
other, and he warms milk for her to drink to help her get back to
sleep.
Little does Mary realize, she will never see Jay again. While
Jay's father survives, Jay is killed in a freak automobile
accident on his way back to his home in Knoxville. A stranger
calls late the next night, after the children have gone to bed,
and asks Mary to send a male relative saying only that her
husband has had an accident just down the road. She asks her
brother Andrew to go. Hoping for the best, she prepares the bed
for Jay, in case he needs to come home to recover.
At this point the story slows down, just as horrible things
sometimes seem to happen in slow motion. Every nuance of the
family's realization is rendered precisely, in great detail,
without judgment. While some family members cling to God, others
feel nothing but outwardly suppressed rage toward religion in
general and its adherents in particular.
The children don't know what is going on. Rufus is surprised
that he is excused from school, and seeing the older boys who
normally tease him, he blurts out that he is not going to school
because his Daddy is dead. The other boys treat him with newfound
awe and respect, even though it is a totally inappropriate thing
to brag about, for an adult, for a child it is a common reaction,
a sort of "reality testing" typical of the developmental stage he
is in as a six year old. As the author's own father died when the
author was six, one can only suppose that his awareness of, and
sensitivity to, human psychology was heightened by this
event.
In the end, the uncle, Andrew, who was asked to identify the
body, who is a nonbeliever, experiences a moment of transcendence
during the funeral in which he is able to suspend his disbelief
in any existence beyond the mortal realm. This small symbol of
hope is presented as both ordinary and miraculous, depending on
the reader's bias, open to any one of several
interpretations.
© 2010, Moira Cue / The Hollywood Sentinel.