In the novel, Gilead,
John Ames writes to his young son, sharing his past experiences from childhood
and beyond. The stories that he stares are important to Ames, and spread meaning
to his son. Through his anecdotes, Ames provides his son with advice and words
of wisdom to take with him and follow throughout his life.
At the time of writing the letter, Ames is seventy-six years
old, and dying. His son is not even seven, so he will likely not have much
memory of his father as he grows older. He feels guilty for the situations his
son has been in, as he writes “The main thing I want to tell you, that I regret
very deeply the hard times you and your mother must have gone through, with no
real help from me at all except my prayers, and I pray all the time” (4). This
letter is Ames’s way of making up to his son, when there is very little left he
can do for him.
In one instance, he is discussing a walk he took after a
rain. He discusses how he wish he would have paid more attention to the water.
He writes, “My list of regrets may seem unusual, but who can know that they
are, really. This is an interesting planet. It deserves all the attention you
can give it” (28). He is sharing his
regrets in order to help his son live a more meaningful life. This shows the
purpose and meaning in the stories he shares with his son.
He wants his son to live the best life he can. He tells him “You
read the dreams of an anxious fuddled old man…I want your dear perishable self
to live long and to love this poor perishable world” (53). He wants his son to
read the words he writes and derive meaning from them. He tells his son his
feelings as he writes in hopes of providing his son a sense of who he was.
In writing the letter to his son, Ames does more than merely
tell him stories. He provides him with fatherly advice that he was not able to
give him during his lifetime. He creates purpose in the stories he tells and
hopes to provide to his son something meaningful.
Ames mentions that he regrets not being able to be there for the fundamental parts of his son's life. For this reason, his letter is encompassed with not only fatherly advice, but also sentiments of comfort and solace for his son. Through his writing, Ames gives his son a sense of who he was, something his son is not able to experience firsthand in his life. Amongst the many regrets Ames has, his greatest dissatisfaction comes from the fact he could not be more of a father figure to his son and that he left him and Lilah behind with nothing but prayers. He explains his relationship with Lilah, someone much younger than him, and states that he “could have married again while [he] was still young” (55). His relationship with Lilah existed because of the initial connection that existed and flourished between them. So, as a whole, Ames' letter to his son is less about his role as a father but more of a scripture to encourage and give hope to his son. This is something he wishes he could have done while he was still alive and had the chance, but hopes the letter will comfort his son and remind him that his father was thinking of him until his last breath.
ReplyDeleteI really like your perspective on important messages in Gilead; however, I think that Ames also wants his son to appreciate the simple things in life. Overall, this novel is very simple in nature and is narrated very slowly with a plot line that does not show until the end. Throughout the story Ames narrates about things that cross his mind, going randomly from one topic to the next. Within these aimless passages there are many important lessons that can go easily overlooked due to their simplicity. While Ames describes the town of Gilead, he reassures his son that, “There have been heroes here, and saints and martyrs, and I want you to know that. Because that is the truth, even if no one remembers it” (Robinson 173). In a small Middle Western town that most think of as boring, Ames finds beauty and appreciation for its history. Earlier on in the novel, Ames recalls a time where he sees a group of teenagers conversing and notes that, “It is an amazing thing to watch people laugh, the way it sort of takes them over” (Robinson 5). Ames always tries to find beauty in life, whether it be because he is dying or because he has always appreciated it. Either way I believe that he wants his son to have the same outlook as him when it comes to enjoying the simple things in life.
ReplyDeleteThroughout Marilynne Robinson’s novel Gilead, dying narrator John Ames reflects upon his life in letters addressed to his young son. While Ames does write the letters to impart wisdom and understanding to his son, he also writes to articulate the significance of his son’s life.
ReplyDeleteAlthough John Ames loves his late family, he lived a vast majority of his life alone. His first wife, Louisa, and first-born child, Angeline, both passed away early in Ames’s life, leaving him a widower. Ames was unsure if he would ever have a family of his own, stating “I’d never have believed I’d see a wife of mine doting on a child of mine” (52). His uncertainty leads Boughton, a close friend of his, to name one of his sons John Ames Boughton to be Ames’s namesake. Ames describes his loneliness and slight resentment of Boughton’s family, saying, “He’d come here, to my house, because his house was full of children… I used to dread walking into his house, because it made mine seem so empty” (65).
However, meeting Lila and the birth of their son changes the latter part of Ames’s life. Ames explains this when he writes, “I’m writing this in part to tell you that if you ever wonder what you’ve done in your life, and everyone does wonder sooner or later, you have been God’s grace to me, a miracle, something more than a miracle You may not remember me very well at all, and it may seem to you to be no great thing to have been the good child of an old man in a shabby little town you will no doubt leave behind. If only I had the words to tell you” (52). For John Ames, his son is a miracle and thus is incredibly important to him, inspiring him to leave a piece of himself behind through his letters so that his son will recognize the importance of his existence in his father’s life.
Taylor, I agree with the sentiment that John Ames is writing the letter to share his wisdom with his son, but I also think its Johns way of preserving the memories he has as well as those he’s gained from his father and grandfather. I think this effort can be seen throughout the many stories he shares about his father and grandfather, and he also uses the memories as a way to help guide his son to be as balanced as he his. For instance, when describing a memory of his fathers regret for leaving the church during the civil war, Ames also makes a point about his grandfather by writing “He would say, Peace will come only when the war ends… He said all this with that gun in his belt” (101). I took this that while Ames grandfather stayed loyal to the congregation, he also was working against his preaching. Additionally, this is also seen when Ames describes the moment of his grandfather sharing his vision with him. He described his grandfather looking at him with “the old grief fresh” (49). This helps to show his son what kind of man his grandfather was and what drove him and his absolute dedication to altruism. With these stories, I feel that Ames tried to help preserve those that came before him, and in way use them to help make his point to his son.
ReplyDeleteTaylor, although I agree that Ames is providing valuable fatherly advice through his letter, I also believe he is writing in hopes that his son will continue evaluating the ideas which he was unable to finish. Ames calculates that he has written 225 books, “which puts [him] up there with Augustine and Calvin for quantity”(19). Just as Ames intends for these written works to leave an ongoing legacy, he figures that writing this letter to his son will allow him to continue exploring the unfinished thoughts, struggles, and earthly experiences that Ames dwells upon with much wisdom, but little time. Ames addresses his son with the intention to share “the things I might never have thought to tell you if I had brought you up myself…I believe they may be the things that mean the most to you”(102). At the same time, Ames encourages his son to explore his doubts and to occasionally stray from the line of thinking Ames presents, claiming, “It all means more than I can tell you. So you must not judge what I know by what I find words for”(114). Ames even recounts his worst mistakes to his son, risking his reputation because, “if I had lived, you’d have learned from my example, bad as well as good”(134). Overall, Ames aims to inspire his son to build upon the knowledge he has gathered, a value which is also emphasized greatly through scripture, thereby presenting an opportunity for a new beginning in his own ending.
ReplyDeleteAs we have discussed in class, the way the language in this book reads is unquestionably beautiful. However, this beauty is not mutually exclusive to it also reading in a rambling and, at times, incomprehensible format. I feel this is entirely on purpose, as to John, this is how the world exists, beautiful yet incomprehensible. With this, the aim of these lessons to his young son are to teach him how to make sense of it. John sees his son being like his wife (30), who is a woman that possess an “earned innocence” (30), foreshadowing that his son might not be able to handle harsh realities he faces. As a pastor, John handles his issues using religion- “with no real help from me at all except my prayers, and I pray all the time” (4)- but recognizes and presents the validity of other approaches, showing how famous atheist Ludwig Feuerbach can refuse religion even as he “loves the world” (24) and “is marvelous on the subject of joy” (24). This lesson quite possibly is a result of the polar argument between his father and his father’s father. Neither of them could bear to see the world the other way around, leading to anger and animosity, a trap for which John does not wish for his son to fall in to.
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