Strength Within Characters and Within Ourselves
I have found through reading many novels in my English class
that authors will build stories on the symbols of strong and weak characters. In using the
symbols of strong and weak characters, the author may be inclined to represent survival in
a community and culture. In many communities, we find characters of both strong and weak.
Our communities depend on strength of character to survive. The symbol of strength is
found in characters of people in every day lives. I find many authors use characters to
symbolize the strength and weakness of diversity within different cultures and communities
within their stories.
In the novel, Fools Crow by James Welch, the author
portrays characters to symbolize strength and weakness in the American Indian culture.
White Man’s Dog was a young warrior who had not yet learned of what the symbol of
strength meant. The character of this story grows stronger from the stories his culture
passes down. As White Man’s Dog matures, he finds strength within his community, The
Blackfeet, and the courage to defend his community. Defending his group of people,
he raids the camp of the Crow Indians to prove his strength. The community has a naming
ceremony where he is given the name of Fools Crow, "And a new name. They tell
me you fool the Crows now. Is this true?” (182). The author uses the symbol of name
changing his character to show the strength the character has gained. The strength of this
character helps the community, as with strength comes change.
The author then portrays the symbol of weakness in the character,
Fast Horse, who is devastated by the weakness within him and this makes him unable to face
his own people. Fast Horse betrays his peoples culture by not taking heed to the
seriousness of spirits they believe in. The farther he moved from strength of the
community the worse he became. When the spirit does not deliver his promises to Fast
Horse, he loses face within his people. The symbol of weakness in Fast Horse causes him to
ban himself from the community, “But all that had changed now because Fast Horse had
changed. He had become an outsider within his own band” (8). We find many people
within our community today that could relate to Fools Crow and Fast Horse. The strength of
character is needed in our community and culture to help it grow and survive.
The symbol of strong characters helps the weak characters to find a
way back into the community. Reading novels about symbols of strong and weak characters
can give access to the characters in our own culture and community. Hurston’s main
character “Janie”, in the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, finds
her strength from another character named Tea Cake. We don’t have to look far to find
the characters of Janie and Tea Cake in our community and culture. We can find the symbol
of strength in many marriages that have survived hardships during the time of slavery and
depression. Between these two characters, Hurston reveals the symbol of strength and
weakness in the American Black Culture. Hurston depicts the strength of love with strength
as the sea, “Love is lak de sea. It’s
uh movin’ thing, but still and all, it takes its shape from de shore it meets, and
it’s different with every shore” (191). Janie and Tea Cake’s love was
present to the eyes of the community they lived in and opened the eyes of the community to
what love means.
When Janie had to kill Tea Cake, the community was devastated. The
community tried to find blame for Tea Cakes death, but through the symbol of strength and
love they found forgiveness, “ Because they really loved Janie just a little less
than they had loved Tea Cake, and because they wanted to think
well of themselves, they wanted their hostile attitude forgotten” (191). Janie
decided to return to her own community after the burial of Tea Cake. Knowing her
communities feelings towards their marriage, she still had the strength of love to face
them, “Course, talkin’ do’t amount tuh uh hill uh beans when yuh can’t
do nothin’ else. Two things everybody’s got tuh do fuh theyselves. They got tuh
go tuh God, and they got tuh find out about livin’ fuh theyselves” (192). To go
back to a community where you are not comfortable is something of a challenge. Janie
found strength in Tea Cakes love and his love of his community, which gave her strength to
face her own community. In using the symbols of strong and weak characters, the author was
able to represent survival in Janie’s community and her Black culture.
In the novel, Where I’m Calling From by Raymond
Carver, the author displays characters to symbolize the strengths and weaknesses within
the American culture. Carver has the ability to use characters from everyday lives to show
how people deal with the diversity within our culture. Steve King from The Spectator
describes Raymond Carvers five new stories as ‘on the brink of melodrama’ (64).
Since Carvers first book in 1976 to his death in 1988, he has been recognized as a famous
short story writer. Carver writes about ordinary people in every day lives, ‘They
drink. They argue. They have affairs’ (64). Carvers writing style is well liked and
typical Carver. After describing fine points of the short stories, King informs how
Carver’s endings are blameless yet strongly evocative. He knew when to repress and
let the absence and silence do the work.
Where some authors give you the results of the strong
characters verses the weak, Carver leaves it to your own imagination or experiences by
leaving out the beginning and the ending of his stories. Most of Carvers characters are
either fighting to be strong or depend on the strong to pull them through a rough time in
their life. We can find these characters everyday by reading the newspaper and watching
the news on television. Carver writes a short story, “Where I’m Calling
From” in his novel, where he displays Frank Martin’s drying out facility. This
is where he introduces his two main characters first day. Where all the characters have
the same problem, they find themselves identifying and supporting each other. While it is
J.P.’s first time at the facility, the narrator of the story has been here before.
J.P. witnesses one of the other characters going through the steps of drying out. Although
he doesn’t dare ask how it feels, he pictures himself in his shoes.
As the narrator sits and listens, J.P. tells of his life growing up
and how he met his wife. He also tells of what led up to his drinking and how he ended up
at the facility. Even if nobody was hungry, the table is where they would sit and talk.
Even if the stories weren’t interesting, they would still listen no matter what. They
were at the drying out facility to get their lives back. The narrator then tells about his
ex-wife and his girl friend. He talks about what led to his second time at the facility.
Through conversations, the narrator begins to look back at the good times of his marriage.
He contemplates whom he wants to call, his ex-wife or his girl friend. He knows if he
calls his wife she will ask, “Where I’m Calling From” (296).
Carver uses his uncanny ability to show two characters looking for
the strength from each other to pull themselves through a rough time in their lives. Many
of Carvers stories can be related to just about every community and culture in the world.
There will be someone reading his stories that can relate and pull strength from the
characters in his stories. The symbol of strength in one character helps the other
character find strength.
The idea of taking a novel and the
characters within to focus on our own culture and community is not so bizarre. Many
authors write about their own experiences in life. The three authors mentioned here,
Carver, Hurston, and Welch, all use their culture and life experiences to write their
stories. I find Carver most interesting in his characters of short stories where he
portrays characters that many can relate to,
I lean toward realistic, ‘lifelike’ characters – that is to say, people
– in realistically detailed situations, ‘he writes. ‘I’m drawn toward
the traditional (some would call it old-fashioned) methods of storytelling: one layer of
reality unfolding and giving way to another, perhaps richer layer; the gradual accretion
of meaningful detail; dialogue that not only reveals something about character but
advances the story. I’m not very interested, finally, in haphazard revelations,
attenuated characters, stories where methods or technique is all – stories, in short,
where nothing much happens, or where what does happen merely confirms one’s sour view
of a world gone out of control. (Kakutani 3)
Carver displays are own strength and weaknesses in his
stories. Carver comes from a family of the working-class people during the depression. He
dealt with the strength and weakness of fighting alcoholism himself. To find the symbol of
strength within our community and culture we have to be there for each other. The weak
rely on the strong to show their community or culture they have support to deal with life.
Relating novels that show the symbol of strength and weakness of different cultures and
communities to our own we can find continued existence within ourselves.
Works Cited
Carver, Raymond. Where I’m Calling From. The Atlantic Monthly Press, New
York,1988: 278-296.
---. Where I’m Calling From. New York, N.Y: Vintage Contemporaries, 1989.
King, Steve. “Master of Absence and Silence.” The Spectator 30
Sep. 2000, 64.
Michiko, Kakutani. “Raymond Carver and the Kitchen Sink.” The New
York Times 16 Jan. 2001. late ed. E.10.
Wakefield, Richard. “The last of Raymond Carver.” Seattle Times
28 Jan. 2001, Sunday ed. F8.
Welch, James. Fools Crow. Viking Penguin Inc. 1986.
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