"Death in the Family" - Lyrical Novel Written by James Rufus Agee

Author : Aaron Schwartz
"Death in the Family" is a deep, lyrical novel written by James Rufus Agee in 1955 and published posthumously in two years quickly became a literary classic and had a great impact on the modern literature. In 1959 it won Pulitzer Prize. Demanding critics and unsophisticated readers appreciate this deep survey of human feelings and emotions in a crisis situation written with peculiar to Agee passion, penetration and realism. The novel is almost completely autobiographical and shows the life of the small boy Rufus and his family after the death of his father in an absurd car crash. This deeply felt novel is shown mainly through the eyes of Rufus – six-year-old boy. That is the author himself in the childhood. The story became so lively and realistic because it was achieved through suffering by James Agee. True art must come only from the depth of the soul and should be suffered by the author. And that is the case with the novel "Death in the Family". The author aimed to find the answers for eternal questions of life, death, love first of all for himself and due to this sincerity his narrations attracted attention of the readers. He managed to return many years back to his childhood and to recall the event which has influenced him so much. It's a story about a special time and a special place with a special set of values that are largely forgotten now. But not the outer world is in the focus of the attention of the author. The main value of the work is a detailed observation of the inner world of the people and their emotional experiences. A difficult task was set up by the author – to depict autobiographical events from his past and to stay unprejudiced, to reveal his pain and internal conflict and to stay an observer. But the task was accomplished brilliantly and "Death in the Family" - poetic meditation about the life has appeared. The people there are described like individual universes that care about each other and really appreciate the genuine treasure of human care and communication."Death in the Family" is rather a deep novel than a wide one. It penetrates deeply and illuminates in detail the impact of the father's dearth on a child and his family. The parents in the novel are modeled from the real parents of James Rufus and he shows them again as they were seen by a little six-year-old boy. Main subjects touched in the novel include the psychological conflicts of the family life, children's perception of them, and the confrontation of two volume systems, two different worlds. An idealistic picture of the ideal family in the beginning is disturbed by the confrontation and quarrels between the parents and finally turns to crisis. The death of the father (Jay Follet) became a central action of the novel. The writer shows how a fragile world of happiness can be easily destroyed. Compiling the viewpoints of Mary Follet, Jay's wife, Andrew, his brother, and son Rufus, using flashbacks the author creates an overwhelming story of innocence, tenderness, love and faith. The prose text is written in a special peculiar to Agee manner and is full of music in prose.The main external conflict of the novel is a conflict between two worlds represented by two parents of Rufus. Agee remembered his father as a lively, enthusiastic and loving person not burdened with moral teachings and dogmas. And that is how he's described him in the book. But there was a dark sport on his bright personality. His drinking habits became the source of the quarrels in the family and were a subject of a great concern of his wife. Being socially conscious and very religious, she was presented another world. Her world was the world of extreme subjection to moralistic attitudes and blind faith. Mary Follet finds the consolation in pray and refuses sometimes to see the real world around. And was a reason for the quarrels and misunderstanding in the family as her husband Jay wasn't even baptized. Religious faith became a source of tension in their otherwise strong and close marriage. Their difference in the perception of religion is immense and finally becomes an abyss which separates them forever. And a small boy finds himself in the middle of this conflict and can not stay indifferent of course. The conflict of his parents' that surrounds a boy in his childhood will become an internal conflict in his further life and it will take him a life to get to terms with it. And it's symbolic also that Agee's last unfinished work illuminates it. The division between the faith and temporal will tear his soul and the search of the golden mean will take him a life. "Death in the Family" could be regarded as an attempt to find the origins of the internal conflict of all his life. But that's not the only conflict which's drifted from his childhood. A feeling that father's behavior and drinking could become the reason of the crash which's taken his life poisoned his light memories and turned him to the side of his dominating mother. All this tendencies can be traced in the novel.And of course it's an author's confession where he touches vital for him problems of religion and faith. Taking the position of an observer, the author doesn't give us a direct appraisal but puts his thoughts in the mouths of the characters of the novel. In his effort to be unbiased he gives illuminates this question from the different sides thought his characters. The point of view in the narrative shifts back and forth between characters and in each scene it shows us only what the particular character feels.A conflict presented by Rufus's parents Mary and Jay, a conflict between religious and agnostic outlook growths into the conflict between the members of the family after the sudden death of Jay. Now it's a contradiction between Mary and Aunt Hannah's Catholicism and Joel and Andrew's skepticism. After the tragedy this conflict becomes especially evident due to the different attitude to the tragedy. Everybody is seeking for consolation of course. But they all seek it in different things. Mary and Hannah turn as usually to religion and pray. Mary's frantic prayers and eagerness to accept God's will are balanced to Hannah's silent restraint. Mary's first reaction on the accident was an effort to blame herself and to see an accident as a punishment of God. But she quickly puts aside this dangerous thought and turns to self-pity and usual to her religiousness. Her aunt Hannah is the most helpful and the most sympathetic to her piety. Hannah is unite with her in her thoughts. But she lives out the tragedy in silence. She doesn't complain and doesn't look for anybody guilty. She is obedient to God's will. "The most characteristic words describing her position are: I don't think it's a kind of thing that can be prepared for; it just has to be lived through." That is how she perceives the death and lives and behaves accordingly to this principle. She tries to escape in religion and routine actions. A very characteristic of her behavior is a scene where she is in a hurry to take the hat off Rufus's heard before his mother tells the children about their father's death. Even blinded with grief she tries to follow the norms and ceremonies. She is the one who takes care of the children before the funeral and keeps everything in order.
But not everybody can find the consolation in the religion. Joel, Mary's father can not accept the death of a young and healthy man in the prime of life and disagrees this cruel will of God by any means. He accuses God of killing men "for sport" like boys do to flies.Feeling helpless in front of the grief he tells to himself "People can only get through these things by being blind at least half the time." He and Andrew, Mary's brother are deprived of the possibility to look for the consolation in the religion.In contrast Joel blames cruel God and Andrew decries heartless priests presented in the book by father John.
A contradiction between two ways of thinking is depicted in all detail in a very profound scene in the Follets' house when Mary and Hanna can feel the presence of Joel's spirit in the house as it passes through the room. Touched to tears, they see it as an opportunity to say last good bye to their dear person. And that raises the conflict again between them and Mary's brother Andrew and father Joel, who don't believe in God and don't feel the presence of the spirit. This episode shows very neatly the confrontation of their value systems and attitude to religion. Mary's and Hanna's blind faith close to fanaticism is contrasted to Joel's and Andrew's agnosticism. Subconsciously or intentionally, but Mary has repeated the destiny of her mother getting married with a person who didn't share her faith and religious beliefs.Another conflict arises after the death of Jay. That is a conflict with Jay's brother Ralph. Mary's family declines all his suggestions in his sincere wish to be helpful organizing the funeral. That only reinforces confrontation between their families.It's also interesting to mention that all the women of the novel are religious and all the male representatives of the family are agnostic and skeptical. This way Andrew goes even further than his father in his disbelief. He is even cynic in his judgments and very quick to determine the sanctimoniousness of the representatives of the church.The question of the attitude to the religion is one of the crucial ones touched in the book. Agee's attitude towards Catholicism is shown through the eyes of the children. Small Rufus and Catherine don't like the priest Father Jackson who visits Mary Follet, their mother. Children are always the best indicators of truth ands sincerity. It's impossible to cheat on them as they perceive things not rationally but emotionally and intuitionally. And in the case with Father Jackson he is perceived as an "unpleasant" and "unkind" priest by small Rufus. After listening to the conversation of the priest with their mother children at once feel his insincerity and hard-heartedness. They feel as he was aiming to hurt and defeat their mother instead of giving her expected help and support. The children are even afraid of Father Jackson, the person meant to give the light and hope to the people in the difficult moments of their lives.
Mary feels lost and devastated after the talk with Father Jackson. That's a very symbolic moment as it shows that even the most religious person can be overwhelmed and suppressed by the attitude of the church representatives. And Rusus and Catherine are the first ones to notice that. Rufus even thinks that father would have killed the priest if he only were alive.Finally Father Jackson refuses to read the full burial service, since Jay has never been baptized. The grief of the family doesn't change his decision. As opposed to insincerity and hypocritical strictness of the priest a friend of the family Walter Starr tells hearty words to the children about their father and describes him as a good, warm hearted person who had a great understanding of humanity. His speech sounds like the antipode to the formal and settled answers of Father Jackson though they are trying to explain one and the same thing.Another contrast to Father Jackson is created by Andrew - Mary's brother who doesn't believe in God. He reviles Father Jackson for his refusal to give to Jay full burial rites. Not knowing about that, Andrew creates another contradiction in the mind of a small boy. Rufus is eager to understand the hostility that Andrew feels toward the church at the same time as he loves Catholics such as Mary and Hannah with all his heart.
And that is Andrew, who tells Rufus about a "miraculous" event. He has noticed a butterfly sitting in the coffin as it was lowered into the grave. He sees a good sign in that. And that's not in vain. During his life Jay was full of life, he was a life himself and it gave his last kind smile to him with the help of the butterfly. The life itself gave him its blessing despite the disapproval of the church and priests who sometimes can not see a real picture because of their dogmas and canons. This small light of hope was noticed by Andrew. This bright symbol is a brilliant boon of Agee and his swear in his eternal love to his father.It's a sad story of hope. It shows a tragedy of the family but it doesn't leave us devastated and hopeless. It's a unique book that shows us a sad but inevitable experience of coping with the death of the dear people. It shows all the stages of despair, hope and coming back to life. That was a crucial event in the life of the author and the idea to describe it appeared in his mind when he was sixteen but it took him so many years to it a reality.Agee found a wonderful way to dramatize the way the family could overcome the great tragedy, to fill the vacuum caused by the death of the father. The situation described in the book is tragic but common for our life and it gives us essential lessons which teach us how to overcome a grief like that. A unity which is finally achieved by the members of the family can give us a wonderful example of finding the way out. The tragedy of loosing a dear one is not as interesting as the way the family overcomes that. They find the courage to go on and forces to live. And that is the most important lesson of the book.The book is written that way that can not leave anyone indifferent. Agee appeals to our deepest and strongest feelings. The plot of the story is secondary in comparison to the emotional filling of the characters, details, symbols. And despite the religious problems enlightened in the novel, the author has avoided using clichés and moralizing on the topic. Everything depicted in the novel is a result of Agee's life experience lived out and felt deeply by him. And we also live it out while reading the book.Aaron is a professional freelance writer at custom essays writing service: Buy custom essays
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