Beyond the Bedroom Wall: A Family Album: Analysis of Major Characters

Author: Larry Woiwode

First published: 1975

Genre: Novel

Locale: North Dakota, Illinois, and New York City

Plot: Family

Time: 1935 to the mid-1960's

Otto Neumiller, the patriarch of a German Catholic family. He immigrates to North Dakota in 1881, when he is twenty-four years old, marries Mary Reisling, and fathers Lucy, Augustina, and Charles. Energetic and civic-minded, he farms, donates to the church, and serves on the county commission and the school and grain elevator boards. Concerned for the welfare of others, he loses all but his original homestead in a failed attempt to keep the elevator operating during an economic downturn. His rise in life and subsequent decline are recalled by his son, who travels to Mahomet in 1935 to bury him on his homestead, as he requested.

Charles John Christopher Neumiller, a carpenter, farmer, and school janitor, born in 1891 to Otto and Mary. He is dedicated, solemn and taciturn, generous, community-oriented, and a conscientious Catholic. With his wife, Marie, he fathers Martin, Elaine, Vince, Fred, Jay, Emil, Rose Marie, Tom, and Davy. A controlled man, he tenderly, but in a businesslike manner, prepares his father for burial in a homemade coffin. He feels chastened by the open expression of affection written in a birthday letter from his oldest son to his deceased father, and he wonders why he seldom thinks of the past. He admits that he can best express emotion in song, and his children remember his deep bass voice and wish for a pipe organ in their church. When he sells the North Dakota farm in 1938 and moves Marie and the younger children, his attachment to his farm animals prevents him from watching the sale. He has to be busy, frequently consults his watch, and with sons Fred and Tom operates a contracting company in Illinois. His grandson Jerome recalls that he always seemed prepared for any situation that arose. Together with his father, he represents the root and potential of a family from which later generations draw strength, but from which they also drift.

Marie Neumiller, the wife of Charles, described by her grandson Jerome as “such a bulwark of authority it seemed she was carrying within her a part of the country of Germany and a great deal of the Catholic church.” Proud that her family produced a cardinal and a scholar of ecclesiastical law, she cannot tolerate the drunken behavior of Ed Jones, whose daughter her son Martin marries.

Augustina Neumiller, a sister of Charles, born in 1888. Out of fear, she never marries. She is high-strung, terrified of strangers, subject to spells, and tirelessly devoted to her father. Following his death, she remains on the North Dakota farm with hired man Clarence Popp.

Martin Neumiller, a teacher, principal, life insurance salesman, plumber, and handyman, born in 1913 to Charles and Marie. In the late 1930's, he marries a non-Catholic, Alpha Jones, with whom he has five children: Jerome, Charles, Timothy, Marie, and Susan. He shares his father's work ethic but is more introspective, enjoys telling stories of his past, and hopes to write a book about his life. He practices his faith more loosely than do his parents, and without compunction he promotes life insurance by using a picture of the holy family. He ignores Alpha's questions about faith, preferring simply to believe. Although he is talented and diligent, his life is more disappointing than successful. To earn more money, he gives up his principalship and eventually follows his parents to Illinois, where financial considerations force him to move his family into his parents' basement, then into an old garage, which he converts into a home between jobs as a plasterer. the move contributes to his wife's death, at which time he contemplates suicide. His resolve to keep his family together ultimately sustains him. Eventually, he remarries and moves to Eglington, Illinois, to work as a guidance counselor. His own life experiences call into question his ability to guide; although he keeps his children together, they grow up haphazardly, and four of them suffer terribly from the loss of their mother. Emblematic of Martin's inability to fully manage his life is his struggle to make sense of it by writing about it; he feels overwhelmed by all the material that he wants to include.

Alpha Jones, Martin's wife, born in 1916. Big-boned and slightly overweight, she labors on her father's farm like a hired hand. Her life as a schoolteacher and years dating Martin are chronicled in a diary. She dies giving birth at the age of thirty-four. Her brief diary and children's recollections of her are the primary means of establishing her character. Deeply troubled by the suicide death of her talented brother, she names her first son after him. Her sensuality is neither fully understood nor appreciated by her husband. She converts to Catholicism only after several years of instruction, when she decides that its rituals tie her to a more ordered past. Her questions about faith and religious practice explore one of the novel's themes.

Ed Jones, Alpha' father, an alcoholic farmer born in 1871. Napoleonic in stature and demeanor, he speaks crudely and roughly but actually regrets his inability to relate well to Alpha. With his wife Electra, he fathers Elling, Conrad, Alpha, Jerome, Bernice, Kristine, and Lionell. Threatened by his wife's poise, beauty, and height, he reacts churlishly. As a former baseball catcher, dancing instructor, and Shakespearean actor who still wears his worn, hand-tailored suits and shirts, he seems ill-suited to farming. For financial reasons, he sends his two oldest sons to labor for relatives and his two youngest daughters to live with maiden aunts. As he ages, his physical ailments render him almost totally dependent on his wife. His crude humor and jokes contrast with the seriousness of the Neumiller family.

Electra Jones, the wife of Ed and mother of Alpha. Tall and attractive, with long hair, she is frail and plagued by psychosomatic illnesses. Although she is righteous and moral, she tolerates her husband's vulgarity and possesses some blatant prejudices about life and people.

Jerome Jones, a brother of Alpha, born in 1921. Unattractive, skinny, and reclusive, he is an avid reader and extremely precocious. His interest in flowers and animals leads him, without success, to form a wildlife club. Following his graduation and valedictory speech, he commits suicide by drowning himself at a class picnic. His sensitivity links him to nephews he never meets, Alpha's sons Charles and Timothy.

Jerome Neumiller, a doctor and the oldest son of Alpha and Martin, more confident and secure than his siblings. Jerome's interest in psychology leads him to perform a battery of tests on his brother Charles. Upon the death of his grandfather, his analysis of his family helps to establish the nature of several characters within the novel. No longer practicing a faith, he represents his generation's distance from the strong Catholic doctrine that directed their great-grandfather, Otto, and grandfather, Charles.

Charles Neumiller, an actor, the second son of Martin and Alpha. He marries Katherine and has a daughter. As a child, he seeks his mother's approval and is traumatized by her death. A dream about trying to reach her and communicate with her provides one source for the novel's title. His uncle Lionell, with whom he spends summers, relates to him only by criticizing him. Lionell forces Charles to masturbate him. This relationship produces in Charles unpredictable behavior and savage energy that confuse and worry his father and siblings. Jerome determines that Charles is a borderline psychotic. When older and living in New York, Charles reacts with surprise when his father admires his voice and approves of his work doing television voice-overs. Typical of the missed communications in his life is his touching letter to his grandmother, Electra Jones, which arrives after her death.

Timothy (Tim) Neumiller, a poet and teacher, the third son of Martin and Alpha. He marries Cheri and has three children. When his mother dies, he loses his serene nature and retreats into his own world of concocted languages and voice imitations, and he calls himself Tinvalin, a name that only his wife will use. His life becomes more stable when he lives temporarily with his mother's relatives. As an adult, his recollections of the Neumiller family keep him awake at night. Paradoxically, he freely accepts his family's description of him as being apathetic, self-indulgent, and neglectful. Tim's generation is united by shared experiences, but its members do not feel the solidarity of a generation earlier, when the Neumiller business flourished and Martin moved to live closer to his parents.

Marie Neumiller, the fourth child and oldest daughter of Martin and Alpha. She never marries. Although she is a handsome child who hums and sings, Marie is heavy, and her spendthrift ways and disorganized room anger her father. Sensitive and quiet, she likes candles, cries over soap operas, carefully decorates the house for Christmas, and majors in special education. While still too young to be embarrassed, both she and Susan permit themselves to be fondled by their sexually curious brothers.

Susan Neumiller, the fifth child and youngest daughter of Martin and Alpha. She quits college to marry and works as a bookkeeper for a physician. She provides a first-person description of her stepmother, Laura. While her father dates Laura, Susan resentfully stays home and grades his school papers. She admits that the family piano is unattractive, but she feels threatened by Laura's desire to abandon it and move to Chicago. Considered by her brothers and sisters to be bright and carefree, Susan represents the element within the family that seeks to preserve common ties. Having little to no recollection of her mother, she claims that she has heard enough to see her mother however she pleases.

Laura, Martin's second wife, a devout Catholic, former music teacher, executive secretary, and private bookkeeper. When she marries Martin, she and her daughter, Ginny, move into the Pettibone, Illinois, house. An organized and careful planner, she never overcomes the discomfort that she feels in Martin's home, and she urges him to move. Her death from breast cancer brings the family together and closes the novel, just as Otto Neumiller's death opens it.

Father Schimmelpfennig, a Catholic priest in North Dakota. He hosts weekly card parties at which players drink beer and place bets. He ministers to the Neumiller family and travels to Illinois to deliver Alpha's eulogy. Sensing the instability in young Charles's life, he takes Charles and Lionell Jones on a fishing trip during a summer when Charles stays with his uncle. His periodic appearances function as a reminder of the family's geographic and religious origins in North Dakota and in the Catholic church.