A Sandstone Farmhouse by John Updike
"A Sandstone Farmhouse" by John Updike is a reflective narrative centered around the character Joey, who returns to the farmhouse in rural Pennsylvania after the death of his mother. The farmhouse, built in 1812, holds significant emotional weight for Joey, as he lived there from age thirteen until graduating high school. Initially, Joey resented the move from a vibrant city life to the rural setting, viewing it as a loss of connection to friends and urban energy.
Following his mother's funeral, Joey faces the daunting task of clearing out the farmhouse, filled with remnants of his mother's life, including furniture, collected items, and her beloved pets. As he prepares the house for sale, he experiences a poignant realization about his past and the life he might have found within those walls. Joey's journey reflects themes of nostalgia, loss, and the complexity of familial ties. The story ultimately reveals an inner conflict as he grapples with the concept of home and the meaning of belonging. Through vivid imagery and emotional depth, Updike invites readers to contemplate the significance of place and memory in shaping one's identity.
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A Sandstone Farmhouse by John Updike
First published: 1990
Type of plot: Psychological, autobiographical
Time of work: The twentieth century
Locale: A farmhouse in Pennsylvania
Principal Characters:
Joey , a man who inherits a farmhouseHis mother
The Story
When Joey's mother dies, Joey returns to the sandstone farmhouse built in 1812 in rural Pennsylvania in which she was born and died. Joey lived in the farmhouse from age thirteen until he graduated from high school. After he entered college, he lived mostly in New York City but returned periodically to the farmhouse to visit. His mother lived there alone during her last years, refusing to leave and, for a while, refusing to die because she felt that the farmhouse needed her. Joey, however, resented the move to the farmhouse in his early teens because he had to leave a house he loved, his friends, and the city life to which he was accustomed.
After his mother's funeral, Joey begins to empty the farmhouse in preparation for selling it. He removes all the furniture and all his mother's other possessions, many of which she had stored in the barn or left lying about the house, including stacks of canned cat food, old newspapers, and mail-order catalogues as well as collections of plastic grocery bags, string, and twine. He keeps only a few things from the time before the family moved to the farmhouse. One of Joey's former wives takes his mother's old dog. A man from the humane society traps the cats his mother fed and takes them away. Joey traps some of the mice and kills others with poison, throwing their bodies in the swamp near the house.
On Joey's final visit to clean the house, he finds a dead flying squirrel drowned in the toilet; it had apparently fallen in, desperately thirsty after ingesting rat poison. He remembers a pair of flying squirrels from the first summer he lived in the house. Later, as he lies in his bed in New York City, he feels that the house calls to him and needs him. He always had wanted to be in the center of the action, and he discovers that for him the action had really been back at the farmhouse.
Bibliography
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