ENG111 Online
June 13, 2011
Commitment to Family or Freedom to Self The three literary pieces The Glass Menagerie, Barn Burning, and Ulysses all have something in common. A significant character from each work abandoned his family to seek out his own needs. As I read the three different literary works recently I reflected on what a one-of-a-kind thing a family is to each of us. Is it wrong to put our own needs above that of our parents, our brothers and sisters, or even our spouses or children? Even when raised by the by the same parents, in the same community we all grow into unique individuals with directions of our own, independent from the aspirations of our parents and siblings. As I read the three pieces of literature The Glass Menagerie, Barn Burning, and Ulysses it got me thinking about some of the ways in which I feel about my own family situation. I know I could never leave them, but I do know so many people who have set off away from their families. I sometimes desperately envy those with that freedom. In all three works, there is a balance to be found towards responsibility and commitment to family, and freedom and choice to self. For the purpose of this essay I will compare the roles of Tom from The Glass Menagerie, Sarty in Barn Burning, and Ulysses in the poem Ulysses. Although they each served a different role in the family as a brother, father, and a son, they in the end all made a decision to leave their families in each literary piece. |
In the play The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, the main character Tom Wingfield struggles with choosing between his own personal dreams versus accepting the reality of his Family’s situation. Tom and his family live in an alley apartment and survive mainly on Tom’s salary from a shoe factory. Tom often seems uninterested in self improvement tasks such as attending night school courses, and he frequently presents himself as a dreamer. Tom feels confinement from being stuck in an uninspiring job, cramped into a small apartment with his family, and unable to see the world or have adventures. Williams uses a description of the setting to establish the prison-like feel the Wingfield apartment takes on for Tom. “The Wingfield apartment is in the rear of the building, one of those vast hive-like conglomerations of cellular living-units that flower as warty growths in overcrowded urban centers of lower middle-class populations and are symptomatic of the impulse of this largest and fundamentally enslaved section of American society to avoid fluidity and differentiation and to exist and function as one interfused mass of automatism. (stage directions, 1.1)” Despite the love and devotion Tom felt for his mother, and especially his sister. In the end his individual dreams had to be pursued. I really enjoyed the thought provoking question in the essay written by Ryan Norris, he asks “Throughout the course of this drama the reader must ask himself: is Tom an admirable figure in this play in which he abandons his family? Norris’s opinion is that Tom is less than admirable. He states “Because Tom chooses to leave and abandon this responsibility, he cannot be considered an “admirable” character. Although it can be said that Tom tried to find a support for his family by inviting Jim O’Connor to call on his sister before he left, the reader sees Tom’s last moment effort as half-hearted.” He also adds that “The reader is alerted to this half effort by Tom’s failure to investigate Jim’s situation. “The warehouse is where I work not where I know things about people” (Scene VII). Although Tom has aspirations and dreams, which is certainly admirable, the care of a family in situation of missing the father as a primary caregiver is seen as more admirable and thereby outweighs Tom’s needs.
The name Ulysses instantly conjures up images of heroism and adventure. Even modern readers who are less well versed in classical literature recognize the larger-than-life character, if not the specific details of his legend. Also known as Odysseus, he was a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's epic poem the Odyssey. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's Iliad and other works in the Epic Cycle. It is with these associations in mind that one approaches the poetic monologue "Ulysses" by Alfred Tennyson. An anonymous author writes “Tennyson, however, presents the reader with a man rather than a hero. The Ulysses of his imagination is restless rather than self-satisfied, irresponsible and selfish rather than altruistic. This Ulysses feels unrepentant contempt for his home, for the people who have cheered him on and anxiously awaited his return from battle. Yet in spite of his faults, indeed, because of his faults, Ulysses has power to inspire.” I felt connected to this comment because for all the anger that I felt at him for leaving his wife and child behind, I was jealous too.
Ulysses declares that it is boring to stay in one place, and that to remain stationary is to rust rather than to shine; to stay in one place is to pretend that all there is to life is the simple act of breathing, whereas he knows that in fact life contains much novelty, and he longs to encounter this. His spirit yearns constantly for new experiences that will broaden his horizons; he wishes “to follow knowledge like a sinking star” and forever grow in wisdom and in learning. Of all three characters, he actually seemed to me to be the least emotionally attached to his family. Ulysses (Odysseus) declares that there is little point in his staying home “by this still hearth” with his old wife, doling out rewards and punishments for the unnamed masses who live in his kingdom. He speaks highly but also patronizingly of his son’s capabilities as a ruler, praising his prudence, dedication, and devotion to the gods. Telemachus will do his work of governing the island while Ulysses will do his work of traveling the seas: “He works his work, I mine.”
In Barn Burning ten-year-old Sarty Snopes's dad has a thing for burning down his landlords' barns, and he wants Sarty to join him, or at least cover for him. Sarty knows barn burning is wrong, but doesn't want to betray his dad. Imagine what it must have felt like to have his father accuse him of planning to not lie, hit him, and then give him a lecture about being loyal to your family. Seeing the de Spain mansion was a turning point for Sarty, because it represented a chance of a better home and life. At moments in the story, Sarty wanted to run away, but something held him back. The final pivotal moment happened when Sarty's father asked him to get oil for him, obviously to burn down the de Spain barn. At that moment, when Sarty was in the act of getting the oil and becoming his father's accomplice, he imagined running away and never having "to see [Abner’s] face again". Interestingly, he feels that he "can't". Sarty does run away at the end of Barn Burning. What exactly turns Sarty's can't into a can? Maybe it's when he realizes that his father and brother know he doesn't want them to burn down the barn, but are going to do it anyway. Once again, his wishes are brushed aside as unimportant; to overcome "the terrible handicap of being young.” I think that Gwendolyn Cuizon says it perfectly when she writes that “Barn Burning by William Faulkner talks about a ten-year old boy's bold choice to give up his family in favor of truth and to be able to live a life of dignity.”
Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work. In the end what I took away from these three works was that we are somehow instilled with an individual set of values that tell us what right and wrong are when it comes to family loyalty. Even at the young age of ten, Sarty’s life had enough outside influence to teach him right and wrong, maybe from spending as much time in courts from his dad being in trouble. Barn Burning ended up being one of my favorite short stories, I sure would have liked to know where that Sarty ended up. http://www.suite101.com/content/barn-burning-by-william-faulkner-a94420 http://doc.studenti.it/appunti/inglese/critical-analysis-of-ulisses-by-tennyson.html#docRelated
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/81353/tom_wingfields_character_in_tennessee.html