In the Garden of the North American Martyrs by Tobias Wolff
"In the Garden of the North American Martyrs" by Tobias Wolff is a narrative centered on Mary, a college history teacher whose career is marked by avoidance of controversy and a desire to blend into her academic environment. Throughout her fifteen years at Brandon College, she adopts a persona of harmless eccentricity while meticulously curating her lectures to avoid offending anyone. However, following the unexpected closure of her college, Mary finds herself at a struggling institution in Oregon, grappling with both a challenging job market and a harsh living environment.
The story evolves when Mary receives a letter from a former colleague, Louise, inviting her to interview for a position at a prestigious college in New York. As Mary navigates this opportunity, she experiences a sense of déjà vu and becomes increasingly aware of her reduced status as the token female candidate in a male-dominated interview committee. Despite the pressures and expectations placed upon her by Louise and the interviewers, Mary ultimately chooses to speak on a different subject during her lecture, shifting from prepared remarks to an unfiltered discussion on the historical atrocities committed by the Iroquois, notably the martyrdom of Jesuit priests. This act of defiance culminates in a moment of self-assertion, where Mary disregards the constraints imposed on her and reveals her true voice, challenging the expectations placed upon her.
In the Garden of the North American Martyrs by Tobias Wolff
First published: 1980
Type of plot: Satire
Time of work: Unspecified
Locale: Colleges in Oregon and upstate New York
Principal Characters:
Mary , the protagonist, a history teacher at an Oregon collegeLouise , Mary's former colleague, a professor at an upstate New York collegeTed , Louise's husbandJonathan , Louise's loverRoger , a student campus guide at Louise's collegeDr. Howells , the history department chairman at Louise's college
The Story
"In the Garden of the North American Martyrs" begins with a summary of Mary's career, a sort of curriculum vitae establishing her credentials as an uninvolved person: a college history teacher who "watched herself." Early in her career, she witnessed the firing of "a brilliant and original" professor whose ideas upset the college's trustees. To diminish the chances of similarly offending, Mary carefully wrote her lectures "out in full" beforehand, "using the arguments and often the words of other, approved writers." She just as carefully avoided entanglement in departmental politics, the cliques and ongoing quarrels of her colleagues. Instead, Mary adopted the role of a campus character, cultivating little eccentricities and making people groan with her corny jokes, culled from books and records. She was also such a good listener that eventually she had to get a hearing aid.
Thus, Mary's innocuous career of playing it safe coasted along for fifteen years at Brandon College. Then, suddenly, Brandon College went bankrupt (the result of the business manager's speculations) and closed. Shocked, Mary was forced into a tight job market. She did get another job, but in a miserable Oregon college housed in one building (apparently a former high school or junior high). Mary found the weather in Oregon equally miserable: The incessant rain troubled her lungs and hearing aid, flooded her basement, and encouraged "toadstools growing behind the refrigerator." Mary kept applying for jobs elsewhere but received no further offer.
When the story's main action begins, Mary is in her third year at the Oregon college. One day she receives a surprise letter from Louise, a former Brandon colleague who "had scored a great success with a book on Benedict Arnold and was now on the faculty of a famous college in upstate New York." Louise says there is an opening in her department and invites Mary to apply for it. Although Mary has never considered Louise to have much "enthusiasm for other people's causes," she sends in her application. In rather short order, Louise, chairwoman of the search committee, calls to schedule an on-campus interview for Mary. Mary thinks things are looking good, but as she flies east she cannot get over a strange feeling of déjà vu.
Mary's feeling intensifies in Syracuse, where Louise meets her at the airport. She even mentions the feeling to Louise, but Louise brushes it aside: "Don't get serious on me. . . . That's not your long suit. Just be your funny, wisecracking old self. Tell me now—honestly—how do I look?" Obviously Louise is still her egotistical old self, just as she expects Mary to assume her old roles, particularly the role of good listener. Seeking Mary's approval and occasional flattery, Louise talks almost nonstop about herself during the hour's drive to the college. The most interesting news is that Louise has a lover, Jonathan, and that Ted (her husband) and the children are not at all understanding about him. Finally, Louise turns the talk to Mary, telling her not to worry about the interview and lecture. Mary is shocked to learn that she has to deliver a lecture, unprepared as she is, but Louise offers her unpublished article on the Marshall Plan for Mary to read. Mary hesitantly accepts, concerned that "reading Louise's work as her own . . . would be her first complete act of plagiarism."
After dropping Mary off at a college guest cabin, Louise returns later in the night, distraught and in need of further sympathy. That scoundrel Jonathan, whom she has been with, had the nerve to tell her that she was not "womanly" and had "no sense of humor." Eventually Louise calms down and stretches out on the couch, but for the rest of the night before the big interview, neither woman gets any sleep. The next day during Mary's private campus tour, Roger the student guide informs her that, even though the school is a replica of an old English college, it is up-to-date: "They let girls come here now, and some of the teachers are women. In fact, there's a statute that says they have to interview at least one woman for each opening."
Mary's interview is one of the most perfunctory on record. The interviewing committee is twenty minutes late, giving Mary an opportunity to discover that no one has read her two books lying on the table. When the committee members arrive, they are all men except for Louise. After a preliminary remark or two, Mary and Dr. Howells, the department chairman, briefly discuss the Oregon rain. Dr. Howells, a native of Utah, likes a dry climate: "Of course it snows here, and you have your rain now and then, but it's a dry rain." Then the interview is over, and Mary realizes that she has been the token woman candidate. Questioned afterward, Louise confirms that Mary has been interviewed only to satisfy the statute. Louise thought Mary would not mind the free trip, and, anyway, Louise needed to see her old friend: "I've been unhappy and I thought you might cheer me up."
Mary decides not to give the lecture, but Louise tells her that she must, after all of their expense. Mary goes into the lecture room, looks over the crowd of students and professors, and dispenses with her prepared text on the Marshall Plan. Instead, she speaks extemporaneously: "I wonder how many of you know . . . that we are in the Long House, the ancient domain of the Five Nations of the Iroquois." Her new subject is the cruelty of the Iroquois, who slaughtered people mercilessly and tortured prisoners fiendishly. She presents the example of the two martyrs Jean de Brebeuf and Gabriel Lalement, Jesuit priests who went on preaching even as the Iroquois tortured them. Mary describes, in detail, the tortures inflicted on the priests. She pretends to report Brebeufs sermon, telling her audience, "Mend your lives. . . . " The professors are aghast. Dr. Howells and Louise leap up and wave, shouting at Mary to stop, but Mary turns off her hearing aid and goes on speaking: "Mary had more to say, much more. . . . "
Sources for Further Study
Best Sellers. XLI, November, 1981, p. 293.
Kirkus Reviews. XLIX, August 15, 1981, p. 1036.
Library Journal. CVI, October 1, 1981, p. 1946.
Nation. CCXXXIV, February 6, 1982, p. 152.
The New York Times Book Review. LXXXVI, November 15, 1981, p. 11.
Publishers Weekly. CCXX, August 28, 1981, p. 390.
Village Voice Literary Supplement. October, 1981, p. 3.