Hamlin Garland’s, A Son of the Middle Border and “Left Handed” by Yale Anthropologist, Walter Dyk use very distinctive craft styles. One is told in the Oral vernacular and the other written in Western literary tradition.
Garland’s, A Son of the Middle Border is a beautifully almost romantic narrative written in strokes of Walt Whitman-like reminiscences from Leaves of Grass, especially Whitman’s poem “Song of Myself” where nature informs the human psyche and were the pastoral teaches a young boy coming of age on his father’s farm. Garland’s opening paragraphs begin with the arrival of spring and continue as a song, paying homage to his childhood vivid and detailed memories of the farm: “sunrise symphony of exultant song.” In Garland’s essay the reader witnesses’ page after page of beautiful and tactile scenes where nature informs the young man. These are long expository summaries where the reader imagines the wild birds like the sandhill crane marks “the hearld of summer,” where birds “swells on sounding wing” to “cheer my lonely task,” and later in the narrative when the narrator herds the cattle on horseback: “My brother and I took turn and turn about at this delightful task, and soon learned to ride like Comanches. In fact we lived in the saddle, when freed from duty from the field.” (p. 124-125). The life on the farm is an “ecstatic world” that the narrator experience a nostalgic childhood. The young man lives with his mother, father and brother and sister. The narrator lives in a world never lacking “meat or clothing.”
On the other hand, “Left Handed” is an historical account of a young Navajo herder documented by Yale anthropologist Walter Dyk. This narrative is spoken out loud. It speaks like a verbatim testimony from Left Handed who is heartbroken, lost in grief, “out of his mind” over having to divorce his wife from the Red Clay clan. I’m not sure what tools such as interview, tape recordings or video Mr. Dyk may have used to document Left Handed’s autobiography. I’m not sure if the recordings or interviews were translated from Navajo to English. But Left Handed’s narrative is a more interior story from Garland’s carefully crafted prose. Garland’s “ecstatic world” is in sharp contrast to Left Handed’s experience of being a herder in the mountains and Garland’s experience as a herder on his family’s farm.
Left Handed’s narrative is equally or even more gripping than Garland’s because Left Handed is a vulnerable narrator. In fact, he seems to be on that edge of insanity: “Then I just turned my horse around and went over this hill. When I went over, I don’t what I was thinking. Maybe I was thinking, but I don’t know. I was out of my mind, I guess. Looked like I couldn’t even hear or see anything. It seemed to me that I wasn’t going anyplace. It seemed to me like I was staying still at one place. … but I knew I was going because I could see the herd going, and I knew I was behind them.” (p. 316).
Elmaz mentions that we love our narrator to be vulnerable, to be at risk, to be in danger, at the edge, because I think this vulnerability drives and creates action, dramatic tension and empathy, which keeps the reader on edge. The reader is sympathic because the narrator is living in a fractured life, on divided lands, he is without a home. Left Handed is alone without his father or family and has just divorced his wife. The narrator is out of his mind. The narrator is thirsty. The reader is following Left Handed’s despair and agony through the interior lens of Left Handed’s psyche:
“All at once I came upon a lake, and I started toward the lake. I just kept going to the lake. I didn’t know whether I was thinking or not. Maybe I was moving around, maybe not. I didn’t know. I just couldn’t tell what I was doing. All I knew was I was after my heard; that was all I knew. So I just kept on riding after my herd, down to this lake. Soon I got there and the herd was so thirsty they sure made a noise when they saw this lake. Running down, trying to get drink, they were just going as hard as they could go so they could get water. I got down there; I rode around them, saw them drinking and looked around.” (p. 317).
The narrative told in the first person by "Left Handed" who tells the account of heartache about his divorce and the mystery surrounding why he had to divorce is dramatic in itself.
The narrative differs than Garland’s because Left Handed is a story about people. Left Handed comes across two women who he has in depth conversations with, however in Garland’s the birds and wild life seemed to be given the most agency and characterization. There is dialogue with the women who Left Handed meets on his journey who also play vital role in his recovery.
Welcome to the Blog for Craft of Creative Non-Fiction at Mills, English 226, Fall 2011. Here is where you write your reader responses for the books we are reading this semester. These responses examine the scaffolding of the book in regards to presence and identity of the narrator. Don't forget to respond to your colleagues' blogs as well.
Thank you for your post Penina, I loved reading it! There seem to be two opposing sides to these stories; a narrator alone and a narrator with a people. I found it interesting that it is left-handed who is the vulnerable one because, as you say, he has a people. Garland, who does not belong to a people seems to be the stronger one, more grounded. Still, it is important to remember that Garland does have a family, and a functioning family structure. This is apparent when he speaks kindly of his mother and her private struggles. Garland hints at the troubles he and his family have faced, but then goes back to the land. The story is more about place than about people. Do you think that, for Garland, the land is his people. I think that it is possible to read the land and everything on it as his tribe. the ultimate personification!Do you find Garland to be a narrator that invites you in as a reader or one, because he is less sympathetic than left-handed, that closes you off?
ReplyDeleteLeft-handed is an interesting character. You are right in mentioning agency. Because he is speaking to an anthropologist, and in a sense to us directly, his voice is present, active, and engaging. How would this story read differently if it were not a transcription of his voice? As for his vulnerability, I remember discussing sympathetic narrators, and Left-handed is someone who I agree is more vulnerable, but how does that affect is trustworthiness? Do you find him to be a reliable narrator or a relatable one? I think it is interesting to think about the implication of both.
I love Diana's question about whether the narrator is reliable or relatable or both? It's great because you illustrate how they both do both things--the move through time and through the senses are well illustrated. In the family or solo the narrators describe the harrowing experiences of tearing up the wilderness (of course, agribusiness comes later :)
ReplyDeletee
Penina,
ReplyDeleteI'm really interested in the question of the vulnerable narrator. One of the amazing things about Left Handed's account is that he does create a great sense of vulnerability without often making direct appeals to emotion. But we do see him look back (an oddly Biblical moment), we do see him struggle understand what he is doing. We do see him put himself through hell to try to maintain the little that is left to him (the herd, sacrificing sleep).
Garland, on the other hand, doesn't seem terribly vulnerable, but I think he works hard to give us the sense of having toiled and earned his spot. In particular, he talks about not enjoying his work, which we can relate to. He wants to be a worker, with weak spots, a man who perseveres - a man we might want to root for.