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Transformation of a Father into New Man
 
Anjuelle D. Floyd
Edward P. Jones’
 A New Man
displays the transformation of a man whose daughter runsaway from home and does not return.The story opens with fifty-two-year-old Woodrow L. Cunningham arriving home earlymid-afternoon, one day in late October to find his fifteen year-old daughter, Elaine, homefrom school and with two boys in her company. An argument ensues when Woodrowdemands the boys leave and confronts Elaine as to what she was doing home and withtwo people of the opposite sex.Woodrow did not consider Elaine’s defense, “
They let us out early…The teachers had  some kinda meeting 
,” because “…
he
[Woodrow]
had found that she
[Elaine]
leave to lie
.” p. 204The heated discussion ends with Woodrow ordering Elaine to her room as he then liesdown on the sofa where Elaine and the two boys had sat moments earlier.Woodrow awakes at five-o-clock to Rita, his wife, “…
 sitting on the side of the couch
,”and asking Elaine’s whereabouts. “
She ain’t in her room
.” p. 209Thus begins the search for Elaine that extends to eighteen months. During the first threemonths after Elaine disappears, Woodrow and Rita arrive home from their respective jobs —he “…
the chief engineer…number one maintenance man…at the Sheraton Park  Hotel 
,” and Rita, “…
a school cafeteria worker 
…” and with their church friends, the twogo out searching for Elaine. Always at the end they gather in Woodrow and Rita’s living
11/17/2007 
(all excerpts taken from Edward P. Jones’
 Lost in the City
of 5
ISBN -00679258-X)
1
 
Transformation of a Father into New Man
 
Anjuelle D. Floyd
room where the minister speaks a few words and then prays for Elaine’s safe return. pp.203, 209.By February the number of people joining Woodrow and Rita dwindles. In March,Woodrow pens a letter to his father stating that his father need not come to Washington toassist in finding Elaine.Woodrow then begins going about the city, “…
 sometimes on foot 
…” looking for Elaine.To people he encounters he shows pictures of Elaine taken “…
months before her disappearance.” Over time Woodrow begins showing people a picture taken of Elaine…on an Easter Sunday
… [when]
 she was five-years-old 
. ” p. 213 This
 Easter picture
 becomes Woodrow’s
 passport 
into the homes and hearts of those he meets and who aretouched by his loss.Towards the end of April, 6 months after Elaine leaves, Rita removes from the kitchenwall the map they have used in searching for Elaine in Washington, DC and thesurrounding areas. Rita who used to be slight and skinny, has now gained much weight,so much so that she is made cashier at the cafeteria where she works--a job she can dowhile sitting. Woodrow on the other hand, who for years was encouraged to lose weightfor the good of his heart, has grown slim and weighs much less.A year and a half later following Elaine’s disappearance, and again in April, Ritaannounces rather casually, after stating that for dinner, “…
We have fish to eat and we
11/17/2007 
(all excerpts taken from Edward P. Jones’
 Lost in the City
of 5
ISBN -00679258-X)
2
 
Transformation of a Father into New Man
 
Anjuelle D. Floyd
have to move from this place
.” p. 214.Woodrow’s father dies in the seventh year past the October Elaine ran away. Woodrowand Rita attend the funeral. Back at his father’s house and searching through a “…
wooden trunk in one of the back rooms
…” Woodrow discovered “…
 pictures of hismother 
…” Woodrow cries out in a most painful manner, “…
as if he had been struck 
…” p. 215Woodrow later uncovers letters written to his father, during Woodrow’s early adulthoodand when working in various places such “…
camps
…” and the “…
railway years
.”Woodrow burns all the letters and returns to Washington, D.C. with Rita and some of the pictures of his mother.Back at their new place of residence, an apartment on
 Independence and Southeast 
 — seven years and approaching 8, since Elaine’s disappearance—Woodrow strikes out oncemore in search of Elaine. He has with him the photographs of Elaine at ages 5 years and15 years. But it is the picture of Elaine on Easter Sunday and at 5 years that he considersshowing to any of the residents of homes on 15
th
Street should they answer his knock.Woodrow L. Cunningham is made into a new man not simply as a result of the loss of hisdaughter, but by how people receive him in his hurt. People he encounters do not ask what made Elaine run away, rather they connect with his pain, and his sadness in havinglost a person, but most likely never expressed to her.
11/17/2007 
(all excerpts taken from Edward P. Jones’
 Lost in the City
of 5
ISBN -00679258-X)
3
of 00

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