Much of life is results the result of a person’s philosophies. In Fred Chappell’s “Brighten the Corner Where You Are,” he gives the readers an opportunity to take a look inside the life and philosophy of Joe Robert Kirkman and perhaps allow the reader a moment of self-reflection. As the day unfolds Jess, Joe Robert’s son as well as the story’s narrator, sheds light on his father’s philosophy and the irony of what he believes is not always what he practices; through pushing the boundaries of society, moments of complete chaos, or the ugliest of acts of humanity in war.
“’There was a lovely quiet in the midst of hilarious turmoil”’ (35). Joe Robert’s ideologies are most prominent with the central theme of the story in which one of his students parents petition the school board for a hearing on the matter and for which he is facing …show more content…
The meaning in this bit of the prose is envisioned far before Bacchus or Joe Robert’s general science class, but rather at the start of the school day when he is called down to the office. When he arrives he is met by Pruitt and Ginny Dorson the parents of a former student and a war hero Lewis. During the meeting Joe Robert learns of Lewis’s death and in the hall Ginny tells him, “’He shot hisself [SIC]. Lewis took a pistol and killed hisself[SIC].”’ She than tells him, how he was forever damage from the war and never recovered (65) Again the images of the war are lain strewn across the walls of the broiler room in the form of a memorial that was tended to by Jubal the schools janitor. (119) It humbles Joe Robert to his core to see the faces of the fallen moment in the storytelling when the reader grapples with their own philosophies on death as if reaching through the pages and experiencing these overwhelming issues right alongside
“’There was a lovely quiet in the midst of hilarious turmoil”’ (35). Joe Robert’s ideologies are most prominent with the central theme of the story in which one of his students parents petition the school board for a hearing on the matter and for which he is facing …show more content…
The meaning in this bit of the prose is envisioned far before Bacchus or Joe Robert’s general science class, but rather at the start of the school day when he is called down to the office. When he arrives he is met by Pruitt and Ginny Dorson the parents of a former student and a war hero Lewis. During the meeting Joe Robert learns of Lewis’s death and in the hall Ginny tells him, “’He shot hisself [SIC]. Lewis took a pistol and killed hisself[SIC].”’ She than tells him, how he was forever damage from the war and never recovered (65) Again the images of the war are lain strewn across the walls of the broiler room in the form of a memorial that was tended to by Jubal the schools janitor. (119) It humbles Joe Robert to his core to see the faces of the fallen moment in the storytelling when the reader grapples with their own philosophies on death as if reaching through the pages and experiencing these overwhelming issues right alongside