The Poorhouse Fair by John Updike
"The Poorhouse Fair" is a novel by John Updike set in the Diamond County Home for the Aged during its annual fair, a day when elderly residents sell homemade crafts to the community. The narrative begins with a sense of disruption as two residents, John Hook and Billy Gregg, face new regulations imposed by Mr. Conner, the institution's prefect, which restrict their freedom and provoke dissent among the inmates. The story explores themes of elder abuse, social reform, and contrasting ideals of old America versus a more modern, regulated society. Hook embodies a nostalgic view of humanity, faith, and the intrinsic value of individuals, while Conner represents a mechanistic approach to care that prioritizes order and progress over empathy. As tensions rise, the residents ultimately revolt against Conner, symbolizing a struggle for dignity and self-respect in a world that often neglects their humanity. The novel captures the complexities of aging, institutionalization, and the search for meaning within the confines of a social system that seeks to control rather than understand.
On this Page
The Poorhouse Fair by John Updike
First published: 1959
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Social satire
Time of plot: 1980’s
Locale: New Jersey
Principal characters
John Hook , ,Billy Gregg , ,George Lucas , andMartha Lucas , resident of the Diamond County Home for the AgedStephen Conner , the home’s prefectBuddy , his assistantTed , a teenage delivery boy
The Story:
At the Diamond County Home for the Aged it is the day of the annual fair, when the elderly men and women set up stands and sell such homemade products as quilts, candy, and peach-stone carvings to visitors from nearby communities. This year, the great day gets off to a bad start. Two of the home’s residents, or inmates—John Hook, a ninety-four-year-old former schoolteacher, and Billy Gregg, a seventy-year-old retired electrician—discover that the home’s porch chairs have had name tags attached, and hereafter each inmate is to occupy only the chair assigned to him or her. This latest action by Mr. Conner, the prefect of the institution, provides an opportunity for protest.
Misunderstandings and misadventures add to Conner’s burden of do-gooding humanitarianism. When Gregg introduces a diseased stray cat onto the grounds, Conner orders Buddy, the prefect’s adoring assistant, to shoot the animal. Ted, a teenage truck driver, knocks down part of a stone wall while delivering cases of Pepsi-Cola for the fair. A pet parakeet belonging to Martha Lucas, the wife of George Lucas, a former real estate salesman, gets loose in the infirmary. When rain threatens to ruin the fair, the inmates take refuge in the community sitting room, where Hook and Conner argue the ideals of an older America of faith and idealism against the theories of scientific determinism and social perfectibility.
Hook, a gentle, meditative man, looks back to the days of William Howard Taft, a period when Americans had greater political freedom (despite economic uncertainty), pride of craftsmanship, and, in times of private or public calamity, trust in God. Filled with that sense of satisfaction that is time’s final gift to the old, he has faith in the possible virtue of humanity. Hook believes that this quality of virtue redeems the human animal’s capacity for folly and evil because such virtue brings humanity close to the idea of God.
In contrast, in Conner’s brave new world there is no more place for God than there is for error. Fanatical in his belief in progress, order, hygiene, and the elimination of superstition and pain, Conner possesses the inhuman energy of a machine. The truth is that he does not think of the home’s residents as people; they are his charges, and it is his job to confer on them the good they often cannot understand and sometimes do not want. In his view, all of life should be regulated and institutionalized, as passionless as the antics of tomorrow’s adolescents, who satisfy their emotional needs by undressing and then staring in curiosity but without desire at one another’s nude bodies. Conner is a citizen of a planned society, and the institution is his calling.
The tensions of the day finally break when the inmates turn on Conner and stone him with the rubble from the damaged wall. Then the skies clear, and the fair is held after all, but under circumstances that allow the old people to save some remnants of their pride and self-respect. Asking only the bread of understanding, they have been offered the cold stone of charity, and they have rejected it along with a world they never made.
Bibliography
Detweiler, Robert. John Updike. Rev. ed. Boston: Twayne, 1984. Offers an excellent introductory survey of Updike’s work through 1983, with biographical information and analyses of individual works. The chapter on The Poorhouse Fair briefly covers the novel’s setting and its use of language, characters, and themes.
Greiner, Donald J. John Updike’s Novels. Athens: Ohio University Press, 1984. Examination of Updike’s long fiction includes a chapter that discusses the origins of The Poorhouse Fair, drawing on Updike’s introduction to the revised edition of 1977.
Hamilton, Alice, and Kenneth Hamilton. The Elements of John Updike. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1970. Provides detailed discussion of the theological dimensions of The Poorhouse Fair, noting and explaining the religious allusions and symbols that appear in the novel.
Newman, Judie. John Updike. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1988. Compares Updike’s 1968 novel Couples with The Poorhouse Fair in a chapter that considers both books in the context of American society at the times they were written. Includes informative discussion of Updike’s uses of metaphor.
Pritchard, William H. Updike: America’s Man of Letters. South Royalton, Vt.: Steerforth Press, 2000. Presents a chronological survey and analysis of Updike’s work. Chapter 1, “Fresh Fruits,” includes a discussion of The Poorhouse Fair.
Schiff, James A. John Updike Revisited. New York: Twayne, 1998. Endeavors to understand Updike’s entire oeuvre, putting individual works in context for the reader. Provides commentary on works that have largely been ignored by the public as well as books that have received little critical attention. Chapter 2 includes a critical analysis of The Poorhouse Fair.
Updike, John. Self-Consciousness: Memoirs. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1989. In the essay “On Being a Self Forever,” Updike discusses his position on religion at length, covering many of the issues he examines in The Poorhouse Fair.
Vargo, Edward P. Rainstorms and Fire: Ritual in the Novels of John Updike. Port Washington, N.Y.: Kennikat Press, 1973. Includes a chapter on The Poorhouse Fair that focuses on how rituals and celebrations are used as means of expressing a religious vision.