A Death in the Family by James Agee
"A Death in the Family" by James Agee is a poignant novel that explores themes of love, loss, and the complexities of family relationships. The story is divided into three parts, beginning with the joyful bond between young Rufus and his father, Jay, as they share simple moments, including a trip to the movies. This idyllic family dynamic is disrupted by the news of Jay's father's imminent death, prompting a journey that reflects Jay's internal struggles and his wife's mixed feelings about their marriage and family life.
As tragedy strikes with Jay's accidental death, the narrative delves into the family's attempts to grapple with their sudden loss. Rufus’s perspective unfolds as he navigates his grief and confusion, trying to understand the implications of death while observing the reactions of family members. The novel culminates in the aftermath of the funeral, where Rufus encounters the stark realities of mortality and the differing beliefs surrounding it. Through vivid imagery and emotional depth, Agee captures the profound impact of bereavement on a family, inviting readers to reflect on their own experiences with love and loss.
A Death in the Family by James Agee
First published: 1957
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Domestic realism
Time of plot: Summer, 1915; May 15–20, 1916
Locale: Knoxville, Tennessee
Principal Characters
Rufus Follet , a six-year-old boyJay , Rufus’s fatherMary , Jay’s wife and Rufus’s motherCatherine , Rufus’s younger sisterFrank andRalph , Jay’s brothersAndrew , Mary’s brotherHannah Lynch , Jay and Mary’s friend and helper
The Story
Part one of the novel’s three parts opens with Rufus (James Agee’s real, and detested, nickname) being taken, joyously, by Jay, his father, to see a slapstick Charlie Chaplin movie, one that is all the funnier for being slightly risqué. Afterward, deciding to “hoist a couple,” Jay takes Rufus into a bar, where Jay brags about his boy’s reading ability, which Rufus, somewhat dismayed, realizes is his father’s way of not embarrassing him about his inability to fight off other boys. Balance is soon restored, the bonding tightens, and the contract between them reaffirms, as Rufus is offered a Life Saver—man-to-man—as Jay uses another to cloak his breath and Rufus grasps that when his father sets out on a slow, contented pace homeward it is because Jay genuinely savors time spent with his son. That gentle night, as Rufus drifts into sleep, he hears his father telling his mother that he will return before the kids are awake and then the grinding sounds of the family Ford being cranked. In the morning, Mary explains why Jay is not at breakfast.
His parents were awakened by a phone call from Jay’s younger brother, Ralph. Ralph and Jay’s ill father lives on a farm miles out of Knoxville, and the message was that their father is dying. Jay decided, chancing that his brother was right, to make the trip. Mary prepared Jay for his journey while Rufus and his younger sister, Catherine, slept.
Rufus imagines his father’s thoughts as he drove to the farm: Jay’s thoughts of home, encounters at the ferry, and the pleasant feel of Jay moving into his home country. Rufus imagines Mary, too, strict and religious, lying in bed, reviewing her marriage: its flaws, her dislike of Jay’s rural background, his lack of religion, her unconcern for his father, her resentment that others forgive Jay his weaknesses because of his generous ways, and her deep anger over the burdens he imposes upon her. She thinks of the gulf that widens between them, but she grimly sees her duty to put the future in the children and to raise them Catholic.
Rufus meanwhile dreams of his father exorcising his childish fears during a nightmare by joking and singing to him and of his mother’s different comforting and songs. He recalls both parents’ discussing the imminent birth of his sister, Catherine. Together, these are Rufus’s filtered remembrances of the varieties of love he receives and of the loves he perceives between others.
Part 2 deals with the accidental death that shatters the sense that Rufus and his family made of their world: the phone call conveying the ominous news of the accident, the family’s trying to cushion Mary’s shock with confirmation of Jay’s instantaneous death, Mary’s efforts to shield the children, and the full realization of the tragic event rippling through the family. Rufus, meanwhile, reflects on visits with relatives that bared to him the network of familial relationships. He contrasts his family life with the torture and tensions he suffers at the hands of other boys.
Mary, in part 3, explains Jay’s death to Rufus and Catherine, answering their questions as best she can but not quite clarifying the meaning of death. A priest is called. Relatives and friends arrive in preparation for the funeral. Finally Mary allows her children a last view of their father before his interment, Rufus all the while trying to comfort a bewildered Catherine. Afterward, placed in others’ charge, Rufus glimpses his father’s coffin and is proud Jay is so heavy and that it takes several men to handle it. When the graveyard ceremony concludes, Uncle Andrew confides a miracle to Rufus: Andrew saw a beautiful butterfly land on Jay’s coffin, a sign of Jay’s ascent to heaven. Andrew then bitterly denounces the priest, the funeral’s religious claptrap, and those who prayed, leaving Rufus baffled and full of unasked questions before he is taken home.
Bibliography
Agee, James.“A Death in the Family”: A Restoration of the Author’s Text. Ed. Michael A. Lofaro. Knoxville: U of Tennessee P, 2007. Print.
Agee, James. James Agee Rediscovered. Ed. Michael A. Lofaro and Hugh Davis. Knoxville: U of Tennessee P, 2005. Print.
Barson, Alfred T. A Way of Seeing: A Critical Study of James Agee. Amherst: U of Massachusetts P, 1972. Print.
Bergreen, Laurence. James Agee: A Life. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1984. Print.
Crank, James A. "Paternal Nightmare: Division and Masculinity in the Restored Edition of A Death in the Family." Southern Literary Jour. 42.2 (2010): 73–88. Print.
Doty, Mark A. Tell Me Who I Am: James Agee’s Search for Selfhood. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 1981. Print.
Folks, Jeffrey J. “Art and Anarchy in James Agee’s A Death in the Family.” In In Time of Disorder: Form and Meaning in Southern Fiction from Poe to O’Connor. New York: Peter Lang, 2003. Print.
Heitman, Danny. "Let Us Now Praise James Agee." Humanities 33.4 (Jul./Aug. 2012): 14–52. Print.
Kramer, Victor A. Agee and Actuality: Artistic Vision in His Work. Troy: Whitston, 1991. Print.
Kramer, Victor A. James Agee. Boston: Twayne, 1975. Print.
Kramer, Victor A. “Mood and Music: Landscape and Artistry in A Death in the Family.” James Agee: Reconsiderations. Ed. Michael A. Lofaro. Knoxville: U of Tennessee P, 1992. Print.
Madden, David, ed. Remembering James Agee. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 1974. Print.
Moreau, Geneviève. The Restless Journey of James Agee. Translated by Miriam Kleiger. New York: Morrow, 1977. Print.