Walk like a Mortal by Dan Wickenden
"Walk like a Mortal" by Dan Wickenden is set in the 1920s and explores the profound effects of divorce on a young adult, specifically through the experiences of Gabriel Mackenzie, who is navigating the complexities of his impending adulthood. The narrative unfolds over a year, starting with a summer at a lake in New York, where Gabriel's idyllic life takes a turn as his mother, Margaret, grows distant from his father, leading to the dissolution of their marriage. Gabriel, characterized as a popular and accomplished teenager, finds his previously stable life disrupted by his parents' relationship turmoil.
As he transitions from high school to adulthood, Gabriel grapples with feelings of guilt, alienation, and the challenges of family dynamics while maintaining his academic and social successes. The story addresses the societal norms of the time, illustrating the stigma around divorce and family breakdown, particularly focusing on the mother's role. Wickenden’s work highlights the struggle for emotional independence amid familial upheaval, ultimately showing Gabriel's journey toward self-acceptance and resilience in a changing world. The novel serves as an early exploration of themes such as childhood trauma, identity, and the complexities of familial relationships.
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Subject Terms
Walk like a Mortal by Dan Wickenden
First published: 1940
Type of work: Domestic realism
Themes: Family and coming-of-age
Time of work: The late 1920’s
Recommended Ages: 15-18
Locale: New York
Principal Characters:
Gabriel (Gabe) Mackenzie , a highly popular high school senior, the main character of the novelJames Mackenzie , Gabriel’s father, an underwear salesman who has trouble communicating with his son, whom he loves dearlyMargaret Speare Mackenzie , Gabriel’s mother; mentally a teenager herself, she has an irresponsible affair with an artist and ends her twenty-year marriage to JamesCharlie Cobden , an artist and Margaret’s companion in adulteryJulia Mackenzie Smith , Gabriel’s elder sister who is married and pregnant, living away from homeHenry and May Mackenzie , James Mackenzie’s brother and sister-in-lawLucy Mackenzie , Gabriel’s seventy-three-year-old paternal grandmotherFrancis and Neil Mackenzie , Gabriel’s cousins, the sons of Henry and May MackenzieLouise Carpenter , Gabriel’s girlfriendChris Stevenson , Gabriel’s best friendVerity Richardson , neighbor to the Mackenzie family
The Story
Set in the American 1920’s, Walk like a Mortal is one of the earliest novels to deal with the effects of divorce upon the child. Even as such, Gabriel Mackenzie, who has his eighteenth birthday during these events, is nearly an adult and so the implications for him are ostensibly lessened. The narrative covers the time from the beginning of summer after Gabriel’s junior year in high school until his graduation from high school some fifteen months later.
Gabriel Mackenzie is not characterized as a typical, normal teenager. Rather, he is the most popular boy at school, president of the general organization (today, this would be called the student council), a champion tennis player, and a winning orator. He is strong, handsome, responsible, level-headed, and well-liked by all. What should be the best year of his life, then, turns into a psychological cobweb when his mother loses interest in her marriage to his father. At the beginning of the book, Gabriel and his mother are spending their usual summer at a lake in upstate New York, where they are having a customarily good vacation, but are somewhat bored. Margaret Mackenzie, Gabriel’s mother, happens to meet Charlie Cobden, an old friend, while shopping at the supermarket. Immediately, they begin to spend time with each other, and, when James Mackenzie, Gabriel’s father, comes to the lake near the end of the summer, Margaret is with Charlie and does not even bother to meet James at the train station. This first section of the book (“At the Lake”) ends with the realization by all the main characters that the marriage is over; the cottage at the lake will be sold, and Gabriel has had the last summer of his childhood.
The middle section of the work is entitled “At Home.” “Home,” here, means two things: school and not-home. Gabriel’s school life proceeds in a predictably successful way, despite the troubled relationships he has with his parents. When it exists at all, his home life does not thrive well; after taking a job, his mother is absent most of the time, and, when present, unable to talk to Gabriel in any meaningful way. The same unfortunate circumstances are true of his father. Gabriel’s life proceeds as well as can be expected: He dates, plays tennis, and attends football games with friends. Charlie Cobden, last seen at the lake departing for New Mexico, appears to visit Margaret. Gabriel finds his father drunk on their doorstep, unable to enter the apartment to confront Charlie and Margaret, who leaves home.
Gabriel’s father, given his wife’s absence, determines that he and Gabe will move into his brother Henry’s house, which provides the setting for the rest of the novel, “At Uncle Henry’s.” Gabriel does not want to move there, but once he is relocated all goes well: He adjusts quickly and even begins to like the change. He feels guilty and overburdened, though, when a letter from his mother invites him to visit her on his eighteenth birthday. He decides at the last minute to do so, but he is out of place with his mother’s friends and leaves his party abruptly and rudely. In school, he wins an oratorical contest and is otherwise occupied with choosing a college. His mother disappears for a few weeks and, upon returning, wants to start over again with her husband and son. They delay their answer, during which time she changes her mind about staying. The novel is concluded when Gabriel turns down his mother’s invitation to go to Europe with her for a year, rather than to go to college. It is clear, though, that Gabriel’s rejection of his mother’s proposition represents more than his not accepting an invitation. It is also a permanent separation from her, and probably from his father, as he enters the adult world in a state of emotional independence from them.
Context
Walk like a Mortal must be read with some understanding of the time of the action. In the late 1920’s, Prohibition was the law in the United States, running boards and crankshafts were features on automobiles, people traveled by train, smoking cigarettes was more rampant than in later years, the United States was drug-free though not alcohol-free, and talking films were becoming available and popular. It was a world in which divorce, for the most part, did not happen; it particularly did not happen as a result of infidelity on the part of the wife-mother.
Part of the author’s intention is to desanctify some of the underlying premises holding the society together in its artificial wholesomeness. Thus Lucy Mackenzie, Gabriel’s grandmother, calls his mother a “slut.” Gabriel himself coughs when socially entrapped into smoking a cigarette; on one occasion, he swears by saying “damn.” His girlfriend, though, can be scared away from him by a singular kiss given too forcefully. These and other such events function to neutralize the impossible, feigned sanitation that so many pretended was real and operative in society. Operative it was, but hypocritically so.
Despite the social milieu, Gabriel controls his own destiny in such a way as to become a survivor of both divorce and childhood, not victims of these two circumstances. To do so, he must effectually reject, not his mother or her love, but her control over and influence upon his own life and being. Such is the case, finally, for all children.