October Light: Analysis of Major Characters
"October Light: Analysis of Major Characters" delves into the complex relationships and emotional struggles of the Page family and their acquaintances, set against the backdrop of rural Vermont. Central to the narrative is James Page, a fiercely independent and traditionally-minded farmer grappling with the trauma of his son Richard's suicide and the shadows of his past. His character embodies a resistance to modernity and an internal conflict arising from his harsh expectations of masculinity. Ariah Page, his deceased wife, represents the silent suffering endured under James's domineering presence, creating a poignant contrast to his aggression.
The story also explores the dynamics within the extended family, particularly through the character of Sally Page Abbott, James's progressive sister, who symbolizes a modern perspective amidst the conservative values of her brother. Their daughter, Ginny, attempts to bridge familial divides while navigating her own injuries, both physical and emotional. Other characters, such as the wise handyman Lewis Hicks and the reverend Lane Walker, contribute to the evolving understanding of community and tolerance, pushing against James's rigid worldview. The interplay of these characters highlights themes of grief, reconciliation, and the struggle between tradition and change within a tightly-knit family structure.
October Light: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: John Gardner
First published: 1976
Genre: Novel
Locale: A farm outside Bennington, Vermont
Plot: Domestic realism
Time: Autumn, 1976, during the bicentennial of the American Revolution
James Page, a stubbornly conservative, belligerently independent Vermont farmer, seventy-three years old. He is so antimodern that he destroys his sister's television set, then locks her in her bedroom with a shotgun facing her door. Part of his anger comes from his son Richard's suicide, which he takes to be a sign of weakness. Nor has he ever forgotten Uncle Ira, who shot himself. James considers himself a rugged descendant of Ethan Allen's Green Mountain Boys. He is gripped by chronic constipation. When he almost causes his friend Ed Thomas' death by fright, he begins to be less uptight and to understand brother-in-law Horace's accidental death. Later, purged of anger, he finds it impossible to shoot a black bear in search of a honeycomb.
Ariah Page, James's former wife, an exceedingly plain woman, now dead. She was often beaten by James yet remained gentle. She never explained to her husband why their son killed himself. Her silence was not the result of vindictiveness but rather of a pledge of secrecy.
Sally Page Abbott, James's progressive, eighty-year-old sister. While she is locked up, she reads a fantastic paperback novel, The Smugglers of Lost Souls'Rock, and lives on apples only. As a result, she suffers from diarrhea. A basket of those apples placed over her door to fall on James, should he try to enter, injures instead the head of the Pages' daughter, Ginny. Sally relents, ready to be reconciled.
Horace Abbott, Sally's dentist husband, who died of a heart attack twenty years previously. He thought his personal tolerance should be extended to the entire nation, in the name of democracy.
Richard Page, James's son. Overwhelmed by his father's stern expectations, he hanged himself at the age of twenty-five, twenty years before the time of the novel. Earlier, he had been accused by James of leaning a ladder against the barn roof, from which his younger brother then accidentally fell to his death. As if to confirm that he is death-prone, one Halloween he unwittingly frightened his Uncle Horace into having a fatal heart attack. He did not dare confess this accident to anyone except his mother, Ariah, whom he swore to secrecy.
Virginia (Ginny) Page Hicks, James's grown daughter, who sympathizes with her Aunt Sally's fight for equal rights within the family home. She calls her father medieval and her Aunt Sally modern. Trying to play the peacemaker, she suffers a hairline fracture when the basket of apples hits her head.
Lewis Hicks, a swamp-Yankee handyman. His part-Indian origins give him a sense of nature's interlocking dependencies and help him quiet the differences between James and Sally.
Dickey Hicks, a nine-year-old who was adopted by Ginny and named after her brother Richard, whom everyone, except James, liked. Irrationally, Dickey feels somehow responsible for the quarrel between his elders. He finds the paperback discarded by James and leaves it where Sally finally finds it.
Estelle Parks, age eighty-three, who enjoyed teaching literature to children of her former students. Late in life, she wed a mathematics professor from Bennington College; he died in a car accident eight years later. She tries to mediate between James and Sally by bringing the entire neighborhood to the Page farm for singing and dancing.
The Reverend Lane Walker, who once marched with Father Hernandez in the antiracist demonstrations at Selma. He tries to make peace by suggesting that apes descended from human beings. He claims that the latter act more primitively than other primates, as self-destructive human inventions tend to prove.
Father Rafe Hernandez, a Tucson priest who asks to be tolerated as he tries to abide the New England accent.
Ruth Thomas, the village librarian, who used to read the classics to Horace while he milked.
Ed Thomas, her husband, who believes that he may have to sell his dairy because his heart will not last. James's sudden appearance, with shotgun ready, brings on Ed's attack. He explains to James later, in the hospital, that television can be a useful way of provoking thought and providing many points of view, especially at election time. His regret that he may not live until Spring's unlocking-time helps James come to terms with his dead son Richard, whom he had always loved in his own rough way and whom he still misses.