1998-English 201
Third Place
The Best is Yet to Come
By Dawn Simmons
Hank Aaron does not get to forever retain his title of "American baseball's all-time champion home-run hitter" simply because he was the first baseball player to hit 755 balls out of the park (Hank Aaron, 1). Instead, this record remains a goal for all aspiring players of the game. George Washington is not considered the only President of the United States just because he was the first, nor do Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, or Richard M. Nixon have a corner on the presidential market because they are considered among the best to have ever held that position. Jack Parr is not considered the only talk show host though he was among the first and arguably one of the best. Why, then, would we consider only the likes of John Steinbeck, William Shakespeare, and Ernest Hemingway when we refer to "classic" literature and limit our Introduction to Literature classes to only their works? Harold Bloom, one of the foremost literary critics in American, would have us believe so. But then, "does he seriously believe this? You can't really tell" (Lehmann-Haupt, 1). Undoubtedly, they are among the best in their field-but they are no longer alone. Writers such as Joan Didion, Alice Walker, Bharati Mukhurjee, and Toni Morrison continue to pave the way for the female and minority "literati" of both our past and future, to write "the types of books that (they) should have been allowed to read" (Winchell, xi), and there is room for all of these literary geniuses in the curriculum of our college and university programs.
Ernest Hemingway proves himself worthy of being considered one of the best in his field with his short story "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber." His characters come to life immediately for the reader in their initial dialogue as they sit together in "the dining tent pretending that nothing had happened" (Hemingway, 245). Francis Macomber, the story's protagonist, suggests either "lime juice or lemon squash" (Hemingway, 245) for their evening cocktails. "The white hunter" (Hemingway, 246), Robert Wilson, the Macombers' guide on the African safari along which the story is based, insists that he will "have a gimlet" (Hemingway, 245). Macomber's wife snaps that she "will have a gimlet too" as she "needs something." "I suppose it's the thing to do," Francis concedes (Hemingway, 245). Macomber, as Francis is referred to throughout the piece, is obviously at the mercy of himself and his company in this scene and throughout the piece. His drink suggestions seem inadequate in comparison to Robert Wilson's choice, and his wife's attitude suggests that his choice is inappropriate considering their current situation and state of mind. The reader later learns that the three are drinking, not in celebration of the day's successful hunt, but because Francis "had just shown himself, very publicly, to be a coward" (Hemingway, 246). Robert Wilson's choice of drinks attests to his character in light of the day's events. While Macomber is ambivalent, "the white hunter" is a man who knows what he wants. Margaret Macomber, too, is more decisive than her husband, choosing the man's drink and doing so in a way that not so subtlety suggests her distaste for her husband and his earlier display of cowardice. With four simple lines, the lives of these characters begin to unfold and the mood of the story is set for the audience.
Hemingway further ensures his place in "canonical" literature by broaching subjects that endure the test of time. A marriage based solely on money and social status, like that of Francis' and Margaret's, is a concept to which a reader can relate in any day and age. While Francis is confident that his wife "would not ever leave him" because he is "very wealthy, and would be much wealthier," Margaret knows that she is "not a great enough beauty any more at home to be able to leave him and better herself" (Hemingway, 256). Such complacency in the union of marriage is, unfortunately, prevalent in society. When Margaret has an affair with "Wilson," the reader is also likely to be able to relate that to his or her environment, as will they recognize the aloofness with which Macomber deals with the situation. Margaret is not necessarily attracted to Robert Wilson, but she sleeps with him in order to belittle her husband and maintain control of their relationship. When his wife slips from their tent in the middle of the night for a rendezvous with Mr. Wilson, Macomber does not feel betrayed, nor is he depressed at the thought of his wife with another man-he is angered at the thought of yet another blow to his ego in the presence of his antagonist. As is usually the case, and as the author so expertly insinuates, the debauchery of society is perpetuated by the individual's selfish concerns. With this short story, in addition to his many other works, Hemingway establishes that he is deserved of his place among his esteemed colleagues.
As Hemingway paved the way for the "literati" of his day, Alice Walker selectively resurfaced that road, filling in the holes and leveling out the ruts that have existed and have been simultaneously worn and ignored for many years. While her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Color Purple, touched the lives of many a reader and moviegoer alike, her collection of "Womanist Prose" entitled In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens is an inspiration to both established and aspiring writers of our time and will be for many generations to come. Walker's passion for literature is undeniable, and quite extraordinary considering that at the time that this young writer was most impressionable, her only role models in the female, African-American genre were "Jessie Fauset, Nella Larsen, Ann Petry, Paule Marshall...and Zora Neale Hurston:" writers whose names were "appended, like verbal footnotes, to the illustrious all-male list that paralleled them"(Walker, 84). Walker expresses her kinship for Hurston's work as a "need" (Walker, 83). "Here was the model Walker had been searching for. Here was her link between past and present...having discovered Hurston, Walker was able to link the survival of the artist to the survival of cultural heritage" (Winchell, 18). "Zora's work" exhibited a quality of "racial health; a sense of black people as complete, complex, undiminished human beings" that "so much black writing and literature" lacked during her formative years" (Walker, 85). In an effort to feed her writing talent, Walker "committed (herself) to Zora's work" and though she claims that it was "a mistake," her readers recognize the irony in such a statement. Alice Walker feared that "a woman who wrote and spoke her mind" as Zora had done and as she aspired to do, would be subjected to "misleading, deliberately belittling, inaccurate, and generally irresponsible attacks on her work and her life" similar to those that Hurston was forced to endure (Walker, 86-87). As any great mind would do, one who believed in herself enough to weather her provincial critics' wrath, Walker persevered, and in doing so provided a future generation with an inspiration like that she had found in Zora Neale Hurston. In this particular essay, Walker not only justifies her own talent and cinches a position among the greatest writers who ever lived, but she insists that "a people do not throw our geniuses away...for the sake of our children" (Walker, 92). Through her insistence, those geniuses who once died in obscurity are resurrected and given new life.
The fact that there is a "first" and a "best" of something is indicative only that there is more and better to come. When Jackie Robinson became the first African-American to play major league baseball, he did not intend, nor did he succeed in cornering the market. Instead, he led the way and provided the inspiration for the likes of Arthur Ashe, Tiger Woods, and Hank Aaron. Though academia may reject such a comparison, these athletes' lives and works are much like those of the greatest writers.
Hemingway's characters are exquisite, but most of us would like to believe that they are also dated and, therefore, their messages must be kept in perspective. Sure, it is unfortunate that Macomber's life is cut short just as he begins to truly live, but can one sympathize with a grown man who does not have the courage to stand up to his wife and his squash-playing patrician friends yet is crazy enough to chase a wounded buffalo into the wild African bush? Should women of the nineties be forced to read only about women who measure their worth in their choice of a husband and their beauty in the going price of an endorsement for a beauty product she refuses to wear? Should a society still struggling to overcome the throws of racism be continually subjected to stories such as this one of the "white hunter" who still has his "personal boys" beaten because, as he claims, "they prefer it" to the fines imposed by their government in light of their civil rights? Zora Neale Hurston would "pity" any society who forced such limitations on its students. In the spirit of Alice Walker, we would again be "subtly and without intent or malice...miseducating" the generations of the future (Walker, 132). While the critic Paul Gray suggests that my argument "has by now turned itself into a campus cliché," even he has to agree that it has not "gone away" (Gray, 62). I submit that it never will.
Works Cited
Bloom, Harold. The Western Canon: The Books and Schools of the Ages. New York: Putnam Berkley, 1995-1996.
Buell, Lawrence. "Literary History Without Sexism? Feminist Studies and Canonical Reconception." American Literature 59.1 (1987): 102-114.
Gray, Paul. "Hurrah for Dead White Males." Time 10 Oct. 1994: 62-63.
Hemingway, Ernest. "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber." DiYanni, Robert. Literature: reading fiction, poetry, drama, and the essay. 3rd ed. Ed. Steve Pensinger and James R. Belser. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1990. 245-265.
Katz, Seymour. "Two Cheers for Traditions and One (Softly) for Canons." American Quarterly 41.1 (1989): 172-177.
Lehmann-Haupt, Christopher. Rev. of The Western Canon: The Books and Schools of Ages, by Harold Bloom. New York Times 1994. America Online.
"Shadowball: Hank Aaron." American Online. http://www.negro-league.columbus.oh.us/aaron.htm.
Walker, Alice. "Zora Neale Hurston: A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan View." In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens. New York; Harcourt Brace & Company, 1983. 83-92.
Winchell, Donna Haisty. Alice Walker. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1992.
(Dawn Simmons--Employed at Memorial Medical Center, Inc. as Customer Support Analyst in the Information Services Department. Memorial's Tuition Reimbursement plan for employees pays 80% of my tuition and books while I maintain a 2.75 or above average and managerial approval. My managers have recently agreed to allow me to change my major to English, and I agreed in return to concentrate as much as possible on Technical and Business writing.)