The discussion we had in class was really interesting -- I do feel like we started off kind of making fun of the Bundrens. I do think MacGowan is kind of an extreme example of the kind of judgement the Bundrens face, although it is a bit of an effective shock at the end of the novel. However, people like Peabody and the Tulls have been criticizing and sort of making fun of the Bundrens the whole novel -- Peabody has some particularly great lines. So why do they get more of a pass than MacGowan?
Maybe one of the reasons is that Peabody & the Tulls are both about as rural as the Bundrens. Peabody maybe travels around for his job more than Anse, who has a philosophy about not moving too much, but they both seem to be on the same side. There doesn't seem to be any particular fondness between Peabody and Anse, but Anse still calls Peabody for help, and Peabody still looks at Addie, despite the fact that there's nothing he can really do. Peabody isn't taking advantage of the family at all, just extremely critical of them. It's the same thing with the Tulls -- the couple is actually quite helpful to the Bundrens, they just criticize them a lot privately as well -- so it's easy to excuse them making fun of the family.
Another part of this is that MacGowan is specifically totally looking down on Dewey Dell in particular. The large majority of what we've talked about in class about her has been very sympathetic to her -- she really hasn't done anything wrong, and she's in a terrible predicament because she doesn't have a lot of education. I don't really remember Peabody or the Tulls really making fun of Dewey Dell in particular -- there's a lot to criticize about Anse, but really, how can you be mean to Dewey Dell? Even if Peabody and the Tulls aren't really aware of her "problem" she seems to be decently competent and not super weird like Darl.
There's also the fact that MacGowan's narration is just incredibly slimy.
Reading the part of the book with MacGowan honestly made me sick to my stomach. At the beginning of the novel I was kind of frustrated and somewhat annoyed by Dewey Dell. One of the reasons might just be because she's a girl and female main characters generally tend to annoy me for some reason (ex. Katniss from the Hunger Games). But, once we got more of her story, saw her take charge a little more, I saw the rape scene, she completely won me over and I definitely sympathize with her.
ReplyDeleteTull and Cora are at least kind of good people. MacGowan's just a lying scumbag with no redeeming values. Cora and Tull were better developed, too, since we saw them for more than one chapter.
ReplyDeletePeabody is from Jefferson, and so not quite as "rural" as the Bundrens, but he is the "country doctor" who travels to these properties to treat these folks, so he's maybe more of an insider to their world than MacGowan (who I agree is totally slimy). Peabody's exasperation with Anse does take extreme form, rhetorically (as you say, he has some great lines, but they're *harsh*), but there's still that "insider" dynamic where he's rolling his eyes at Anse being Anse (and genuinely indignant about his moronic medical decisions)--he's making legitimate criticisms of how Anse conducts his business, from a professional/medical standpoint as well as a social one, whereas MacGowan is just demeaning and predatory. And you're right, it's especially ill to see him eyeing Dewey Dell in such a predatory way--there's a judgment there but also an eagerness to exploit, where we see no such eagerness in Peabody. Peabody will continue to do his best for this family, even if that means sawing off Cash's foot to save him from his father's foolishness.
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