2.3 Depiction of the Rural South in the ‘50s in Grisham’s A Painted House
In his novel, Grisham portrays the Chandlers, a family that lives in the rural South. The family is relatively poor and works in the cotton fields, and employs people who also need money. The life of the Chandlers is not of high quality as they live in an unpainted house and have financial problems that do not allow them to buy certain facilities, such as television. Despite that, there are some forms of entertainment, such as baseball, that the family can afford, and it does not make the Chandlers so unfortunate.
A Painted House portrays a lower class family that earns money by working in the cotton fields. In the 1950s, the family typically consists of the husband, the bread winner, the mother, the housekeeper, and their children. In the novel, however, all the family members work on a farm and their income depends on the cotton they pick. This is a feature of a family living in a rural area where everyone, including children, is required to work. This kind of work is difficult because it demands physical strength and stamina: “We would work beside them in the fields from sunrise until almost dark” (Grisham 14). Weather conditions have a significant influence on work as rain can cause damage to the cotton; therefore, the Chandlers and their workers have to use every dry day to pick as much cotton as possible. Moreover, there is a reason which motivates the protagonist, Luke, to work: “Ten days of hard labor, and I’d have enough money to purchase the jacket” (Grisham 20). The Cardinals jacket is what motivates Luke, and he is determined to work hard so that he could buy it before he goes back to school. Missing a work day because of being sick does not make Luke feel good about it, but he still has this aim. The Chandlers need to work in the fields to earn money, and, together with other people living in rural areas, they are different from those who live in cites because people working on farms are more dependent on their work as farming is the main source of income in rural areas. Setting has an important role in the novel as the novel is set in the 1950s and it reflects the rural South of that time. Setting that is depicted in A Painted House is accurate because Grisham portrays the place and time that he grew up in and “he [works] with the material he remembers well” (Pringle 67). The action in the novel takes place near Black Oak, Arkansas, and it takes about six weeks in the late summer. Setting is established in the first lines of the novel: The hill people and the Mexicans arrived on the same day. It was a Wednesday, early in September 1952. The Cardinals were five games behind the Dodgers with three weeks to go, and the season looked hopeless. The cotton, however, was waist-high to my father, over my head, and he …show more content…
The problem, from Luke’s perspective, is even more important when Luke compares his life and his mother’s: “She’d been raised in a painted house” (Grisham 11). Luke is aware that the conditions in which he lives are completely different from those that his mother, Kathleen, lived in. Luke retells what his mother had told him about her dream life: “She would one day have a house in a town or in a city, […] with paint on the boards, maybe even bricks. “Paint” was a sensitive word around the Chandler farm” (Grisham 31). It shows that his mother’s dream is not attainable, and that the issue related to the house and paint is really poignant. Despite Luke’s mother’s wishes, the house is unpainted, and this shows that the family is poor, and the period, to some extent, is represented in the novel through the unpainted house. Also, as Velm notes, middle-class people can afford more commodities or luxuries than those who live in rural areas because people living in farms have fewer opportunities to find well-paid jobs (Velm 245). Grisham reflects this aspect through the motive of an unpainted house and the lack of money in the Chandler
In his novel, Grisham portrays the Chandlers, a family that lives in the rural South. The family is relatively poor and works in the cotton fields, and employs people who also need money. The life of the Chandlers is not of high quality as they live in an unpainted house and have financial problems that do not allow them to buy certain facilities, such as television. Despite that, there are some forms of entertainment, such as baseball, that the family can afford, and it does not make the Chandlers so unfortunate.
A Painted House portrays a lower class family that earns money by working in the cotton fields. In the 1950s, the family typically consists of the husband, the bread winner, the mother, the housekeeper, and their children. In the novel, however, all the family members work on a farm and their income depends on the cotton they pick. This is a feature of a family living in a rural area where everyone, including children, is required to work. This kind of work is difficult because it demands physical strength and stamina: “We would work beside them in the fields from sunrise until almost dark” (Grisham 14). Weather conditions have a significant influence on work as rain can cause damage to the cotton; therefore, the Chandlers and their workers have to use every dry day to pick as much cotton as possible. Moreover, there is a reason which motivates the protagonist, Luke, to work: “Ten days of hard labor, and I’d have enough money to purchase the jacket” (Grisham 20). The Cardinals jacket is what motivates Luke, and he is determined to work hard so that he could buy it before he goes back to school. Missing a work day because of being sick does not make Luke feel good about it, but he still has this aim. The Chandlers need to work in the fields to earn money, and, together with other people living in rural areas, they are different from those who live in cites because people working on farms are more dependent on their work as farming is the main source of income in rural areas. Setting has an important role in the novel as the novel is set in the 1950s and it reflects the rural South of that time. Setting that is depicted in A Painted House is accurate because Grisham portrays the place and time that he grew up in and “he [works] with the material he remembers well” (Pringle 67). The action in the novel takes place near Black Oak, Arkansas, and it takes about six weeks in the late summer. Setting is established in the first lines of the novel: The hill people and the Mexicans arrived on the same day. It was a Wednesday, early in September 1952. The Cardinals were five games behind the Dodgers with three weeks to go, and the season looked hopeless. The cotton, however, was waist-high to my father, over my head, and he …show more content…
The problem, from Luke’s perspective, is even more important when Luke compares his life and his mother’s: “She’d been raised in a painted house” (Grisham 11). Luke is aware that the conditions in which he lives are completely different from those that his mother, Kathleen, lived in. Luke retells what his mother had told him about her dream life: “She would one day have a house in a town or in a city, […] with paint on the boards, maybe even bricks. “Paint” was a sensitive word around the Chandler farm” (Grisham 31). It shows that his mother’s dream is not attainable, and that the issue related to the house and paint is really poignant. Despite Luke’s mother’s wishes, the house is unpainted, and this shows that the family is poor, and the period, to some extent, is represented in the novel through the unpainted house. Also, as Velm notes, middle-class people can afford more commodities or luxuries than those who live in rural areas because people living in farms have fewer opportunities to find well-paid jobs (Velm 245). Grisham reflects this aspect through the motive of an unpainted house and the lack of money in the Chandler