The Middle of the Journey: Analysis of Major Characters
"The Middle of the Journey: Analysis of Major Characters" delves into the lives and transformations of key figures during a tumultuous period in American history. Central to the narrative is John Laskell, an urban affairs expert grappling with a midlife crisis after a brush with death. As he recuperates in rural Connecticut, Laskell reassesses his previously held beliefs, particularly regarding leftist politics, in the context of the shifting political landscape of the time.
Gifford Maxim, a former Communist Party member, embodies the complexities of ideological shifts as he transitions to an anti-Communist stance, grappling with fear for his safety due to his past involvements. The Croom family, consisting of Nancy and Arthur, represents middle-class communism and its disillusionments, while their handyman, Duck Caldwell, starkly contrasts their idealistic views with his troubling behavior and eventual tragedy.
Each character serves as a reflection of broader societal changes, illustrating the struggles between youthful idealism and the sobering realities of adulthood. The tragic event involving Duck's daughter, Susan, further catalyzes these characters’ transformations, prompting a reevaluation of their beliefs and relationships. This exploration highlights the nuanced personal and political dynamics of the time, inviting readers to consider the impact of ideology on individual lives.
The Middle of the Journey: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Lionel Trilling
First published: 1947
Genre: Novel
Locale: Connecticut
Plot: Political
Time: The mid-1930's
John Laskell, an urban affairs expert. At the age of thirty-three, this sensitive, introspective, scholarly man has just had a brush with death from scarlet fever and as a result is undergoing a somewhat premature midlife crisis. He finds himself reevaluating everything that he formerly believed, especially his left-wing politics, which had brought him into contact with many American communists and fellow travelers during the Great Depression. At the invitation of his friends, the Crooms, he goes to spend six weeks recuperating in rural Connecticut. While he is experiencing his transformation from the idealistic illusions of youth to the skeptical conservatism of middle age, he perceives most of the people he encounters as living symbols of the subtle changes taking place in American political thought at that critical point in history.
Gifford Maxim, a former member of the Communist Party who has just defected and is now anti-Communist. Maxim is described as a brilliant intellectual with the body of a wrestler. He and Laskell attended college together. Maxim has worked as a secret agent for the Communist Party, receiving orders directly from Moscow, and hints that he has been involved in espionage and other crimes. He is afraid that he will be murdered because he knows too much. Laskell is disgusted with Maxim for his apparent cowardice and betrayal of principles; he helps him establish a new life, however, by getting him a job with an innocuous liberal journal.
Nancy Croom, a young housewife and mother. She and her husband, Arthur, represent typical middle-class communist sympathizers of the period. Although they are not card-carrying members of that party, they have lost faith in traditional religion and believe that, instead of waiting for “pie in the sky,” humankind should unite under socialism, as expounded by Karl Marx, and make the present world as nearly perfect as possible. Nancy is outraged when she learns of Maxim's defection. She and her husband both serve as spokespersons for the opposition to Maxim's new viewpoint. They also represent the foolish middle-class intellectuals' belief in the innate nobility of the working class, which is shattered by the events that transpire.
Arthur Croom, a young professor of economics who shares his wife's illusions about communism and the desirability of a dictatorship of the proletariat.
Duck Caldwell, the Crooms' handyman. In keeping with their politics, the Crooms have many illusions about this local representative of the working class. They think that he is authentic, talented, and independent, a diamond in the rough. His actual behavior shows him to be lazy, cruel, lecherous, and a drunkard. At the climax of the novel, he accidentally kills his daughter, Susan, by brutally slapping her across the face at a public gathering. He avoids going to prison only because his wife had never told him of the child's potentially fatal heart defect.
Emily Caldwell, Duck's wife, another representative of the proletariat. Unlike her husband, she has artistic and intellectual pretensions. She has bad taste, no discipline, and little strength of character. She and Laskell have a brief affair. Although he sympathizes with her, he finds that he cannot love or respect her.
Susan Caldwell, the daughter of Duck and Emily. This eleven-year-old girl has been infected by her mother's cultural aspirations and hopes to go to Vassar or Smith. She and Laskell become friendly on the basis of their shared interest in literature. Her tragic death shocks everyone into a new perspective of reality.