Weeds: Analysis of Major Characters
"Weeds: Analysis of Major Characters" delves into the lives of various individuals navigating the harsh realities of sharecropping in rural Kentucky. Central to the narrative is Judith Pippinger Blackford, a vibrant and artistic young girl whose potential is stifled by her socioeconomic circumstances. As she marries and bears children, her beauty and spirit become dulled by the relentless toil of farm life. Her husband, Jerry Blackford, is portrayed as a well-meaning yet simplistic man, whose focus on financial survival often leads to a widening emotional gap between him and Judith.
Other significant figures include Jabez Moorhouse, an elderly farmhand who shares a deep connection with Judith through a mutual appreciation for nature and creativity, contrasting with the more conventional characters like Judith’s sister, Lizzie May, who embodies traditional roles without question. The narrative also explores the strain in Judith’s marriage, particularly when infidelity enters the picture, highlighting the complexities of love, isolation, and disappointment. Lastly, the character of the Revivalist serves to illustrate Judith’s longing for deeper connection and understanding, emphasizing her struggle against the limitations imposed by her environment. Through these characters, the story vividly captures themes of aspiration, despair, and the search for meaning amidst the drudgery of rural life.
Weeds: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Edith Summers Kelley
First published: 1923
Genre: Novel
Locale: Rural Kentucky
Plot: Naturalism
Time: The early twentieth century
Judith Pippinger Blackford, the daughter of a Kentucky sharecropper who becomes another sharecropper's wife. The story begins when she is a little girl. She is a diamond in the rough, a child who stands out—because of her beauty, vitality, and strength of character—among the ignorant, overworked people who surround her. She displays artistic ability at an early age and obviously could have been successful in that field if she had had any opportunities. Instead, she is condemned like all the other girls to marry a poor farmer, with nothing to look forward to but drudgery and childbearing. When the story ends, she has had three children and one self-induced miscarriage. Her beauty has faded, her body is bent and coarsened by poverty and toil, her rebellious spirit has been broken, and she is resigned to her fate.
Jerry Blackford, Judith's sharecropper husband. This farmer's son is a strong and handsome man who loves and admires Judith, although he cannot fully understand her moods, lacking her intelligence and sensitivity. His main interest, like that of most of the men in the area, is raising tobacco and trying to climb out of poverty. A large part of this naturalistic novel deals with the problems of tobacco growers over a period of good and bad years. The price of tobacco is high when weather conditions have caused a small crop; when there is favorable weather, the big yield drives tobacco prices down. The years of endless toil and disappointment gradually erode the Blackfords' affection for each other. At the end of the novel, the near-fatal illness of their youngest child brings them back together, making them realize that their fate is stamped and sealed. Like Adam and Eve in Genesis, their life of toil will be relieved only by whatever comfort they can give each other.
Jabez Moorhouse, an elderly farmhand who plays the fiddle at country socials. This wizened country philosopher is the counterpart of Judith, with whom he maintains a friendship throughout the novel. Jabez is the only other character who can see the beauty and mystery of nature, and he has the creative urge that sensitivity inspires. His main regret in life is that he was never able to learn to play the violin as well as he knows himself to be capable of doing. Like Judith, his higher aspirations have had no chance of flowering in this grim, impoverished environment.
Lizzie May Pippinger Pooler, Judith's older sister, a share-cropper's wife. Lizzie May is also physically attractive, but she lacks the special qualities of her younger sister. When Lizzie May marries and begins bearing children, she accepts her role in life with unquestioning docility, lacking the imagination to see that things could be any different. Her main functions in the novel are to portray the typical farm wife and to serve as a foil to Judith's unique personality.
Dan Pooler, Lizzie May's sharecropper husband, a hardworking, unimaginative man who typifies the character and experiences of the average man in the region.
Luke and Hat Wolf, a crude sharecropping couple, Judith and Jerry's closest neighbors. They, too, represent the typical farmers of the region. At one point, Judith discovers that Jerry, from whom she has become estranged, is having an affair with Hat. This further embitters her life and makes her feel more spiritually isolated than ever.
The Revivalist, a young traveling preacher. Judith is sexually captivated by this handsome young man because of his soulful eyes. For several months, they have a clandestine love affair. She is ultimately disappointed to realize that he is a creature of surface appearances and does not really share her inexpressible yearnings for some transcendental reality. When she discovers that she is pregnant with his child, she nearly kills herself trying to induce a miscarriage. His function in the story is to highlight her unique spirit and her hopeless predicament in this blighted environment.