English 394

Seeing the World Differently: An Analysis of “When the Light Gets Green” Robert Penn Warren’s short story “When the Light Gets Green” is full of interesting images and themes. We led by a young boy who is looking back at an important period in his life. It is time that a child loses his innocence. The critic Paul West put it best when he said that “Most of Warren’s best stories are painful, guilt-ridden commemorations of some young person’s rites of passage.” This story is no different. We see a kid return to the farm he loves, only to be met with questions. His grandfather, Mr. Barden, is not the same as he remembered. The grandson has trouble understanding his grandfather’s sudden flaws, and by reexamining his grandfather, is not capable of loving him anymore.
At the beginning of the story we follow the grandson’s memory of what his grandfather looked like. The first line says “My grandfather had a long white beard and sat under the cedar tree.” This was how he imagined his grandfather while he was at school, but when he returned he was shocked to see that the beard was actually “gray and pointed.” This opening paragraph sets the tone for the entire story. The grandson had a majestic image of his grandfather in his mind, but the passage of time sheds light on imperfections that were previously unimportant. Paul Runyon says that “’When the Light Gets Green’ is a strongly autobiographical reminiscence of his grandfather Penn.” Runyon point helps show that this story is about the coming of age period in a young man’s life.
The grandson continues to analyze his grandfather, who is looking into a “wavy green mirror.” The mirror is an interesting symbol in this scene. A wavy mirror makes it seem as though it would alter the appearance anyone who was looking into it. Also the idea of looking at a reflection of yourself or another person is similar to analyzing someone. The grandson originally compares his grandfather’s face to Robert E. Lee and the fact that he was a soldier, but now he is noticing other characteristics. He says “I couldn’t help but notice how small his hips and backsides were… And in the morning when I noticed all this about his legs and backside, I felt a tight feeling in my stomach…” Here we see him beginning to see his grandfather’s shortcomings, which is not something that young children would normally notice. By the end of the second paragraph it is clear that the grandson’s childhood innocence is beginning to fade away.
Mr. Barden also plays a role in his grandson’s growth. He reminisces about the Civil War and what should have been done to beat the Yankees. The crucial aspect of this is the grandson’s thought process during Mr. Barden’s story. He tells his grandson about how his company escaped Fort Donelson in the winter, “And how the dead men looked in the river bottoms in winter, and I lay on my back on the grass, looking up in the thick cedar limbs, and thought how it was to be dead.” It is surprising that Mr. Barden would be so graphic about the Civil War to his grandson. It does show Mr. Barden’s obsession with the past, which was common in the South after the war. His story can also be seen as a way to educate his grandson on his heritage and where allegiance should lie. More importantly the grandson’s though of what it would be like to be dead shows us again that his innocence is fading. The fact that he is thinking about death gives the sense that he is also coming to terms with mortality.
The grandson provides another interesting description of his grandfather when he is asleep in his chair. “His mouth hung open, and under the hairs of his mustache, all yellow with nicotine, you could see his black teeth, and his lips that were wet and pink like a baby’s. Usually I remember him that way, asleep.” The grandson is continuing to recognize the various parts of his grandfather that he does not approve of. By saying that he usually remembers his grandfather asleep suggests that he no longer imagines the man he compared to Robert E. Lee. This is not surprising because his thoughts about death make him realize that his grandfather is eventually going to die. That is a disturbing thing to recognize as a child, but it is also inevitable.
It is at this point that we realize how uncomfortable the grandson is with death. He goes to see his grandfather after his stroke, and we discover why this story is being told. Mr. Barden says to him:
“I’m on borrowed time, it’s time to die.” I said, “No!” so sudden and loud I jumped. He waited a long time and said, “It’s time to die. Nobody loves me.” I tried to say, “Grandpa, I love you.” And then I did say it all right, feeling like hadn’t been me said it, and knowing all of a sudden it was a lie, because I didn’t feel anything. He just lay there; and I went downstairs.

That interaction gives us the answer we were looking for. Those various reevaluations of his grandfather’s features are understood as the grandson realizes that he doesn’t care. He doesn’t love him anymore because his innocence is gone and he can see his grandfather for who he truly is.
When Mr. Barden finally does die four years later, the reaction remains the same. It is strange to think that even as a young man the grandson feels the same. Paul West states that the grandson is “prey to familiar Warren incapacities, cannot love: he lies, feels guilty, and, grown adult, feels even guiltier for still being unable to comprehend his deficiency. It is, probably an unexpressed resolve to submit as little as necessary to the processes of mortality.” Although the grandson seems to feel guilty, the idea that the grandson is attempting to ignore “the processes of mortality” is taking his dilemma a little too far. It was his first experience with the possibility of death, and it is hard to know how to respond to something unknown and final.
Robert Penn Warren provides us with a powerful coming of age story. The grandson unknowingly begins to notice things about his grandfather that make him second guess his admiration for Mr. Barden. That, along with the experiences shared by Mr. Barden, the grandson realizes that he no longer loves his grandfather. It is hard for him to understand why his grandfather seems to give up, but that is only because he wants the grandfather he used to know back. It is a difficult process, but at some point in life people have to deal with it.

Works Cited

Runyon, Randolph Paul. "Robert Penn Warren." American Novelists Since World War
II: Fourth Series. Ed. James R. Giles and Wanda H. Giles. Detroit: Gale
Research, 1995. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 152. Literature
Resource Center. http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CH1200000569&v=2.1&u=tel_a_uots&it=r&p=LitRC&sw=w&asid=b676d961119348871584351b3765c25b

Warren, Robert Penn. “When the Light Gets Green.”

West, Paul. "In Robert Penn Warren." Robert Penn Warren. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1964. 34-38. Rpt. in Short Story Criticism. Ed. Janet
Witalec. Vol. 58. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Literature Resource Center. http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CH1420048601&v=2.1&u=tel_ a_uots&it=r&p=LitRC&sw=w&asid=28390a97e3a893780a9bbd35591e5e60 --------------------------------------------
[ 1 ]. West, Paul. “In Robert Penn Warren.”
[ 2 ]. Warren, Robert Penn. “When the Light Gets Green.” Page 88
[ 3 ]. Runyon, Randolph Paul. "Robert Penn Warren."
[ 4 ]. Warren, Robert Penn. “When the Light Gets Green.” Page 88
[ 5 ]. Warren, Robert Penn. “When the Light Gets Green.” Page 93
[ 6 ]. Warren, Robert Penn. “When the Light Gets Green.” Page 93
[ 7 ]. Warren, Robert Penn. “When the Light Gets Green.” Page 95
[ 8 ]. West, Paul. “In Robert Penn Warren.”