The Journey to Mount Clemens by John O'Hara
"The Journey to Mount Clemens" by John O'Hara is a short story set in the 1920s, narrated from the first-person perspective of an eighteen-year-old boy who has just been expelled from prep school. The narrator, who shares autobiographical elements with O'Hara, finds himself working with an engineering crew for an electric power corporation, despite lacking a formal engineering degree. As they embark on a treacherous winter journey to Mount Clemens, the narrative explores themes of power dynamics and the fleeting nature of success within the workplace.
The crew, led by the austere and disliked Carmichael, faces perilous conditions while traveling in two cars. Tension escalates between Carmichael and King, a seasoned worker whose decline mirrors the story's exploration of working-class lives compared to their superiors. The narrative captures the stark reality of their environment, as the men navigate snow-covered roads with the constant risk of danger. Ultimately, the story culminates in a poignant twist, as the narrator discovers King's lifeless body upon their arrival, underscoring themes of mortality and the transient nature of status. This story offers readers a reflective look at ambition, the complexities of workplace relationships, and the inevitable decline that can accompany professional aspirations.
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The Journey to Mount Clemens by John O'Hara
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition
First published: 1974 (collected in Gibbsville, PA: The Classic Stories, 1992)
Type of work: Short story
The Work
“The Journey to Mount Clemens” was written in 1966 or earlier, but The Saturday Evening Post did not accept it for publication until 1974. It was reprinted that same year in Good Samaritan, and Other Stories. “The Journey to Mount Clemens” is narrated in the first-person voice and contains a number of autobiographical elements.
The time period of the story is never stated outright, but all the details point to the 1920’s. The narrator is eighteen years old, is Catholic, has just been expelled from prep school, and has recently acquired a job through the influence of his physician father. Despite not having an engineering degree, he is working with an engineering crew from an electric power corporation. All the preceding biographical details apply to the young John O’Hara as much as to his narrator. Further, the narrator is more or less an objective observer, not the protagonist.
The scene is eastern Pennsylvania in winter. The narrator’s crew is making a tour of power plants, putting a valuation on the entire physical property of each. They have just finished their work at plant number 4 and are having their supper at Dugan’s Hotel before heading to their next assignment, a new substation at Mount Clemens. Carmichael, the chief of their party, has driven them relentlessly during the two weeks at number 4, and the men dislike him heartily. He wants to end the tour quickly so that he can return to the main office in New York, then join a dam-building project in the Sudan. No one in the crew dares to challenge the austere Carmichael except King, a man who has worked all over the world for the company and who once was Carmichael’s superior. The narrator observes that the company has gotten everything out of King that he had to give and has shunted him off to finish his career in a minor job. The narrator speculates that Carmichael will eventually suffer the same fate. When the conversation turns to Carmichael’s upcoming trip to North Africa, he and King have words.
It has been snowing heavily for two hours. The crew starts the hazardous twenty-eight-mile trip to Mount Clemens in two cars. Carmichael, King, and Thompson go first in the Paige; the narrator and Edmunds follow in the Studebaker. The company has furnished drivers—Carney for the Paige and Ed Stone (Stoney) for the Studebaker. The journey is slow, uncomfortable, and dangerous. Either of the cars may stall, leaving its passengers stranded in below-zero weather, or, worse still, may plunge three or four hundred feet down the embankment into the timber. As in other O’Hara stories, the working-class characters (here, Carney and Stoney) are less interesting than their economic and social superiors but are also more stable, clear-headed, and dependable.
The drivers handle their automobiles admirably in the snow, and, when the bickering between King and Carmichael erupts into fisticuffs, with the former giving the latter a bloody nose, “Sergeant” Carney is the man who restores order. He sends King back to ride the rest of the way in the Studebaker. Amid Edmunds’s repeated assertions that King has finally ruined himself with the company, King wraps a blanket about himself and goes to sleep. When the little caravan finally reaches Mount Clemens, Edmunds tries to rouse King but discovers that he is dead.
Again, O’Hara has traced the decline of the once powerful (or rich or prominent) to its ultimate conclusion. King’s regal name adds an ironic touch to the story.
Bibliography
Bruccoli, Matthew. John O’Hara: A Descriptive Bibliography. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1978.
Bruccoli, Matthew. The O’Hara Concern. New York: Random House, 1975.
Eppard, Philip B. Critical Essays on John O’Hara. New York: G. K. Hall, 1994.
Goldleaf, Steven. John O’Hara: A Study of the Short Fiction. New York: Twayne, 1999.
Grimes, William. “The John O’Hara Cult, at Least, Is Faithful.” The New York Times, November 9, 1996, p. 17.
MacShane, Frank. The Life of John O’Hara. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1980.
MacShane, Frank, ed. Collected Stories of John O’Hara. New York: Random House, 1984.
Wolfe, Geoffrey. The Art of Burning Bridges: A Life of John O’Hara. New York: Knopf, 2003.