To Make My Bread - Grace Lumpkin

Grace Lumpkin’s To Make My Bread is the story of the McClure family, and other neighboring families living in the Appalachian region, and their journey searching for a better life. They move from the mountains to an urban setting in Leesville hoping to improve their economic situation; instead, their lifestyle only worsens under the conditions of the Company and the mill. The mill workers begin a strike against the mill, and Grace Lumpkin personifies the mill to be perceived as another character in the plot. The central theme of the novel is the rise of the working class, especially the working class women.

Once the strike went underway, the mill was portrayed as a character instead of a building. The mill possessed a power greater than any single man, and it was the mill workers’ job to fight against that power. The effect of the strike had a significant impact on the mill, “for the mill was now roused like a beast that has been disturbed in its pleasant slumber, and comes lumbering forth to kill or maim what has disturbed it” (354). This description suggests that the owners of the mill did not foresee any type of revolution because the mill workers remained silent. Now that the working class is actually fighting for their rights, as opposed to accepting their extremely low position, the owners, the militia, and the law must do whatever they deem necessary to maintain order. By portrayed the mill as an antagonist, Lumpkin effectively exaggerates the power that the mill has over its workers.

One of the central themes of To Make My Bread is the rise of working class women. The women in the novel are admirable in the sense that they can handle more burdens than the men, including having and raising children, working in the mill to provide for their families, while also maintaining the traditional feminine role by cooking and cleaning. Emma McClure is the first generation of rising females. When her family moves to the city, she must first suffer the transition from rural to urban life. However, instead of being contented with her situation, she tries to better her chances of improving the lifestyle of her and her family. Emma was considerate when it came time for her and Ora, her sister-in-law who was with child, to choose shifts at the mill, “It was the least Emma could do to take the burden of the heavy night work, with only snatches of sleep in the day” (208). Unfortunately, Emma soon becomes ill and can no longer work in the mill. At this point, more responsibility is given to her daughter, Bonnie.

Bonnie is the most important woman during the strike. Through her songs, she rallies the mill workers and encourages them to unite. In addition, Bonnie worked with the black inhabitants because she honestly viewed them as equal beings. Although her efforts were looked down upon by the people of the mill, her efforts strengthened the position of the working class because when a truck came to pick up blacks to replace the white workers at the mill, very few obliged. Through Bonnie, Lumpkin brings together the entire working class; it was a strong-willed woman that connected the two races together and encourages a hopeful end. However, Bonnie is shot and dies just before the workers are about to picket the mill. Since both of the strong women die, Lumpkin could be suggesting that the plight of women is not yet complete. Although both of these women acted admirably and signified both the strength and rise of women, their deaths portray the failure of their execution and women still have much to work for. In addition, Lumpkin suggests that every action has its consequences, especially for the lower working class. Bonnie’s death also signifies the long way that the mill workers must travel in order to gain the better conditions they have been fighting for. 

All in all, Grace Lumpkin’s To Make My Bread portrays the differences between classes and also portrays the plight of women. During the strike, the wealthy people were actually acting cowardly because they were always armed; they consistently attacked the mill workers when they were unarmed and defenseless. However, the mill workers refused to cave in to their power; they knew their actions were accompanied by consequences, and they were willing to accept their terms. This fact alone proves that the lower class was stronger and more courageous than the upper class cowards. In addition, Lumpkin includes two women as strong-willed workers who dealt with many burdens concerning both themselves and their families. Each women rose to accept the most responsibility. Unfortunately, the deaths of these women represent the long fight that women must fight in order to gain the equality they deserve. After all, To Make My Bread suggests that women must carry more burdens and must work harder than men.

Light in August Continued

Two of the most significant topics discussed in William Faulkner’s Light in August are gender roles and race, or racism. The setting of the story is in the South, so race has always been a topic for discussion, mostly in a negative sense. One of the most controversial characters that Faulkner introduces is Joe Christmas; he is white in appearance, but he has Negro blood in him. Therefore, he does not actually belong to either group—he is isolated.

Joe Christmas has faced both internal and external conflict throughout his entire life. Although he is a white man from his appearance, he has Negro blood running through his veins. When this knowledge became public, neither the white people accepted him, nor the black people. Christmas was forced to live alone and fend for himself. His internal conflict consisted mostly of his actions; i.e. the good actions versus the evil and violent. Christmas takes advantage of women and is involved in many violent actions that seem to be beyond his control—it is caused by the black blood. Before he decides he is going to kill her “He began to curse her. He stood beneath the dark window, cursing her with slow and calculated obscenity” (107). A white man would not use this type of language without cause, according to social roles. His motives for murdering Mrs. Burden are completely unclear. He suffers the internal conflict of whether or not he should kill her to save himself; now he must live with the burden bearing on his shoulders.

Christmas’ upbringing was also not filled with the love and care that he yearned for. Instead, his father whipped every time he did wrong and his mother did not show him affection, except in the absence of her husband—the mother’s character proves that men are superior to women. Before running away from his home, Joe hits his father with a chair and knocks him unconscious, but he thinks he has killed him and is actually proud of his deed. He screams, “‘Stand back! I said I would kill him one day! I told him so!” (206). Although he does not realize it, in some instances, it is his own actions that cause others to turn away from him—when the townspeople discovered his crime, they began to turn away from him, and he lost the girl that he loved and planned to run away with. All in all, Christmas seems to use his violent acts to either seek revenge on those who were cruel or to simply occupy his mind. He faces no guilt, but maintains to a high level of pride.

The primary difference between Joe Christmas and another man who commits wrongdoings is Christmas does not try to hide himself from society. As an example, when comparing Joe Christmas to Joe Brown, Christmas does not hide his identity; Brown, on the other hand, moves away and changes his name with the hopes of beginning a new life. Christmas leaves and goes to Mottstown after killing Mrs. Burden, but when someone notices him and asks if he is Joe Christmas, he replies the affirmative. On the contrary, Joe Brown (Lucas Burch) has relations with a woman and is the father of her child; however, instead of accepting responsibility for his actions, he runs away and changes his name. The main difference between these two characters is courage, or even identity. Joe Christmas does not fully know who he is, so he thinks that he has nothing to lose. Burch still wants to keep a strong reputation, which he cannot maintain, and be accepted by his community.

The debate about race is one of the most recurring themes in Faulkner’s Light in August. He creates Joe Christmas as the man who represents both sides of the battle; due to his background, he is not accepted by either community. In the end, it could be his isolation from society that primarily leads to his violent nature. After all, it is human nature to seek human contact and communication; if one is not able to have communication with other beings, it can drive one to insanity. Christmas manages to keep his sanity, but only through his ability to overlook the seriousness of the actions that he has committed. He has always been an outcast and, like everyone else in society, only wishes to fit in with the crowd.

Light in August - William Faulkner

William Faulkner’s Light in August focuses on the lives of three major characters: Lena Grove, Reverend Hightower and Joe Christmas. Each character seems to be very different from one another, especially when comparing their lifestyles. An interesting aspect of this novel is that each character is focused on a different time in their life. In other words, Reverend Hightower is stuck living in the past, Joe Christmas is primarily living in the present, and Lena Grove is focused more on her future life.

Reverend Hightower is not a well-respected man in town and is known to live a strange and lonely lifestyle. The reason why is the fact that he cannot move past the time of the Civil War. Faulkner describes “the young minister was still excited even after six months, still talking about the Civil War and his grandfather, a cavalryman, who was killed” (61). There is no clear explanation as to why he cannot seem to move forward. It could possibly be that he regrets something that he did in the past and wishes to rewind and start again. His constant mention of his grandfather is curious as well. All that is certain is Reverend Hightower is stuck living in the past and this caused him to live the rest of his life in solitude.

Joe Christmas, on the other hand, lives in the present time, not thinking about the future or the past. Whenever Christmas is the focus, Faulkner incorporates much more imagery and description of the scenery to describe the present time to establish the fact that Christmas lives entirely in the present. For example, when he woke one morning, “He felt quite rested, as if he had slept an unbroken eight hours. It was the unexpected sleep, since he had not expected to sleep at all” (109). Faulkner describes how Christmas feels at this precise point in time. Christmas does not think about his future, his past, or the consequences that he must suffer for his actions; instead, he acts without thinking. This could also be a possible cause for his violent behavior.

Lena Grove, a pregnant woman, sets out from Alabama on a quest to find the father of her child, Lucas Burch. She thinks about her future with her family. Whether she is looking for Burch for herself or the benefit of the child is still unclear. Either way, her quest is for a better life in the future. Along her journey, Mr. and Mrs. Armstid provide hospitality for her. During her stay, Lena tells her how she feels about family: “I reckon a family ought to all be together when a chap comes. Specially the first one” (21). In this particular statement, Faulkner establishes the lack of clarity about Lena’s reasoning. She could want Burch around to help her raise the child, or she could want him around so the child will have a father to look up to. She does not seem to care how long it will take to find him; she is primarily focused on the final goal, the future.

Another conclusion that can be made about the lifestyles of the main characters is their age. Reverend Hightower is the oldest of these characters, and he is the one that is living in the past. This could imply that he cannot accept the fact that he is aging; therefore, he does not wish to leave the time when he was younger. On the other hand, Lena Grove is the youngest and she is constantly looking toward the future as a justification for her quest. As most young people do, she is wishing her life away with the hopes of receiving an instant gratification of a fulfilled lifestyle.

All in all, Faulkner plays with time in his novel Light in August. Each of his main characters seem to live in a different time frame: Reverend Hightower in the past, Joe Christmas in the present, and Lena Grove in the future. Each character has a completely different mindset and different goals; therefore, the time frame in which they live parallels with their thought process.

The Professor's House - Willa Cather

Willa Cather’s novel focuses on an aging professor who is facing the challenges of change. Unfortunately, his family members do not share his beliefs and he must cope with loneliness in his own, old ways. Willa Cather creates a variety of contradicting ideas in her novel The Professor’s House. She introduces opposite sisters, friends who share conflicting ideas, and a common theme of new versus old.

Cather introduces two sisters, Professor Godfrey St. Peter’s two daughters, Kathleen and Rosamond. All the two have in common is their childhood memories. After marriage, Rosamond indulged herself into a life of luxury with her husband. Rosamond also differs from her husband primarily based on their attitudes toward everyone besides each other. She does not maintain a generous attitude nor does she wish to see her items go to waste while her husband is willing to allow others to enjoy their items if they are not being put to good use. When they are ready to move to their new home, her husband suggests letting Kathleen and her husband look through the items they are not using. Rosamond’s initially “looked at him in astonishment” (145) making it clear that she does not want to give up her things. She is a selfish materialistic woman with a husband to mooch off of.

On the other hand, Kathleen is also married, but does not have a large income from her husband, who is a journalist. Kathleen has always admired her sister until she married. Now she simply envies her for her looks and belongings. However, she maintains a much kinder heart and attitude and loves her husband, especially for his extra work, motivation, and sacrifice for her. After marriage, Kathleen strongly differs from her sister, even in the fact that she visits her father in his old study to check on him; she puts her family before material items.

In addition, Cather includes Tom Outland’s story, which completely interrupts the story of Professor St. Peter. One possible reason is to show the difference between the new modern world and the old antique world. Tom and his friend Roddy Blake discover a ground on which Indians used to live before the tribe suffered extinction. Tom travels to Washington with the hopes of finding archaeologists to analyze the area and learn more about the country’s history. However, the capitol was not interested in the same knowledge. Instead, the officials whom Tom needed to meet with would only meet for an expensive lunch, on Tom. The wealthy officials were not interested in history; they were only interested in money. This represents a significant difference between the modern world and the past. Everyone is only interested in the value of an item as opposed to the item itself.

Tom was an old world man and saw the value in all of the pottery and other belongings in the area. Unfortunately, Roddy didn’t maintain the same values and beliefs that Tom had and sold all of the items to a German man for a large sum of money. Roddy said that “he knew I cared about the things, and was proud of them, but he’d always supposed I meant to ‘realize’ on them, just as he did, and that it would come to money in the end” 220). Tom’s anger expressed toward him did not relate to the money that they earned; instead, he was upset that his friend would simply give up the value of some great pieces of history to some passerby. Tom did not have a materialistic mindset, nor did he wish to gain top dollar for his discovery. He wanted the items to fall into the right hands: the hands of people who could appreciate history and the work that the Indians put into their home and belongings.

The character that most represented the struggle of transition from the old world to the new modern world is Professor Godfrey St. Peter himself. The professor builds a new house to improve his family’s lifestyle, but he is unhappily accepting this change. Instead of building a new study for his work, he continues to work in his old study. This represents that he is not able to cope with such a significant change in his lifestyle. Early in the novel, the professor transfers his unhappiness into a question asked by a student regarding the progression of technology. His complains that the people of the modern world simply rest on the luxuries of technology. He basically complains about the laziness of the modern age and wishes to maintain his work ethic. Therefore, he transfers his energy into trying to hold on to his previous lifestyle in his old house. As an example, he exclaims, “I can’t have this room changed if I’m going to work here” (10) when Augusta, the seamstress, is about to take her forms to the new house. He cannot accept the change in his lifestyle which parallels with his failure to accept the modern world.

Winesburg, Ohio - Sherwood Anderson

In his novel Winesburg, Ohio, Sherwood Anderson portrays the lifestyle of small town America from a negative perspective. Winesburg, Ohio is separated into twenty-four different stories, each pertaining to a specific person of the town; in each story, Anderson portrays each person as deformed in some way. Most often, the inhabitants are suffering from loneliness or a loveless life. In other words, each person is trapped in small town America sulking in their loneliness and not trying to better themselves or their lifestyles.

The first story of the book, “Hands,” focuses on an old schoolteacher, Wing Biddlebaum. In his lectures, he encouraged his students to think freely and dream, but he continuously put his hands on the boys’ shoulders and played with their hair. He was driven from the schoolhouse by the infuriated parents, and lived the remainder of his life alone. Anderson says, “For twenty years Adolph Myers lived alone in Winesburg. He was but forty but looked sixty-five” (13). He looks older than he should because he sits waiting for his life to return to normal; he gawks at what he has degraded himself to, yet does nothing. He has been brainwashed and can only think along the narrow lines that he already knows. He preaches to his students that it is alright to think freely because he does not want the same fate for his students. The fact that he had to encourage his students to think for themselves implies that small town America brainwashes its citizens.

           

Many of the women suffer mostly from loneliness relating to their love lives. In one instance, a teenage girl name Alice Hindman fell in love with Ned Currie. Unfortunately for her, Ned left for the city in order to secure a job. At first, Ned wrote to her often, so she felt as if her future was secure. But as time went on, he got caught up in city life in addition to other women, but Alice continued to wait for his homecoming. “In the dry goods store weeks ran into months and months into years as Alice waited and dreamed of her lover’s return” (61). She fell into the trap and refused to give up on her affair. Her life in small town America, consisting of dreams too large to fulfill, caused her to waste many years simply grieving over her lost love and living in loneliness wanting nothing more than “to be loved, to have something answer the call that was growing louder and louder within her” (63). Her loveless life dismantled her unrealistic dreams and held her captive in Winesburg.

           

George Willard is the only character that manages to maintain his sanity. George acts almost like a therapist to some of the characters. He appears in 15 of the 24 stories proving himself to be the vision of hope amongst the inhabitants of Winesburg. As one example, a boy named Enroch Robinson returns to Winesburg from an odd life as an artist in New York City and feels a strong need to just speak with someone about his troubles. Anderson explains that “Enroch told George Willard about it (his reason for leaving New York City) one night. He wanted to talk to someone, and he chose the newspaper reporter” (96). Although George did not know him on a more intimate level, he offers his consolation to Enroch by listening to his story.  Although George deals with many of the troubled characters in the town, he manages to keep his composure as well as his sanity.

           

Overall, Sherwood Anderson introduces the warped town of Winesburg and its troubled citizens. Through the various stories, he describes small town America as a lonely world that holds its inhabitants captive. The people hold onto their large dreams that are too large for them to hold, and they become trapped in a dream in which they cannot find an escape, or rather, do not search for an escape. Instead, they act content with their lonesome lives. Anderson’s main message in Winesburg, Ohio is for one to think freely and not become trapped in a lifestyle based on assumptions that others may have. In the end, the only way to escape a lonely life is to leave a find a new, better suited lifestyle.