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Silvia-Antonia Rus

HONORS 391 A

03.12.2016

The Life of the Mind (50%)

In the novels Stoner by John Williams, and I am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe, the

academia is presented as the force that deviates the “objects” from their innate paths. Both

Charlotte’s and Stoner’s lives were changed once they interacted with the university

environment. For Stoner, the academia was a refuge, where he would be able to pursue his

passion, while for Charlotte, it developed to be more than a refuge, it was her push towards

greatness. Stoner considered the academia, as a place almost pure from the ignorant corruption of

the world, therefore trying to defend it from people who would bring that pollution into the heart

of his shelter.

Stoner’s strong appreciation for the life of the mind strengthens his resistance not towards

Walker himself, but rather to what he represents, the mischievousness of the human nature in the

real world. He tells Finch that “Dave would have thought of Walker as—the world.” (Williams,

167). The author, Williams, emphasizes that although, Walker is crippled, he is the world, thus

criticizing a common stereotype that links appearances to moral attributes. Stoner connects

Walker’s physical disability to his embodiment of the real world to emphasize the extent to

which the outside world is disabled from evolving. According to Stoner, the real world has lost

its roots, in its concentrated pursue to complain about the present, similar to how Walker

answered the specific questions about his area of specialty, but was not able to answer “the

simplest questions”(Williams, 161). By calling him incompetent, Stoner calls the real world
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incompetent, and makes it his mission to defend the academia from its pollutions, having hope

that the future can still be saved. Years after Stoner was published, I am Charlotte Simmons

opened the subject of the life of the academia to the public once more. Wolfe and Williams were

contemporaries, thus even though this might not have been Wolfe’s intention, I am Charlotte

Simmons acts as a mirror of Stoner’s fears come true. Dupont University has been polluted by

people who do not belong to the ideal of the academia, but they use it to “jumpstart” them in the

real world. Both Hoyt, in I am Charlotte Simmons, as well as Walker in Stoner, manipulate the

educational system and their physical traits to obtain what they want, without appreciating their

opportunities to the fullest. Stoner has feared that once the university accepted to keep those with

connections and little gratefulness, it will lose its value and its role as the force that applied to the

closed system of humanity, changes its path.

Both Professor Stoner and Charlotte Simmons convey a profound appreciation of the

academia, however their views differ as they spend more time surrounded by it. Stoner considers

the university to be a refuge, where he could run away from the real world, while Charlotte

understand it to be her key to the real world. The irony of these two characters is that they are

both naïve dreamers; however, they are looking for opposite things, the first seeking shelter,

while the latter evading. The academia is important for both Stoner and Charlotte, but their

interpretations of it are so fundamentally different, that makes one wonder, whether the academia

has been the real world all along, and they were led to believe it as a transition state, since the

real world is the only place that means a lot of things, and they are all true. Stoner said that

Walker is the world but he is also a student, not an outsider, therefore unconsciously admitting to

himself that the university is the real world and not a refuge from it. The incident with Walker

and Lomax had strong repercussions upon Stoner’s teaching career and social life at the
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university. At his retirement dinner, “members of the department who had not spoken to him

waved across to him…” and “Lomax was smiling…he did not look at Stoner”. Throughout the

rest of the teaching career, he was isolated more and more because of his feud with Lomax and

Walker. The purpose of the long-held “hatred” and scheming of Lomax and Stoner is to support

that the university is the real world, or at least a real world, since Stoner’s decision actually had

an effect on his future. In I am Charlotte Simmons, the idea that the university is not the real

world is rejected multiple times, especially by Charlotte’s friend, Laurie, who tells Charlotte that

“College is the only time in your life, or your adult life anyway, when you can really

experiment,…when you graduate or whatever, everybody’s memory like evaporates” (Wolfe,

157). The different perspectives presented by the main characters accentuate the ambiguity of

life, and how dependent it is on the individual, rather than the other way around. Throughout the

entire book, Stoner has shown his presumed fear of the real world, especially when his was

rejecting Walker, but he has never left it.

In essence, the professor does not fear the real world, but rather he fears its ignorance.

Walker is a portrayal of corrupted ignorance, not having the vast knowledge required by his

status, and wanting to obtain his position in the academia through intricate maneuvers, therefore

Stoner sees him as a threat to the integrity of his beliefs. Ironically, Stoner accepts Lomax in

power, who is even more ignorant to the corruption in the department, despite his prestigious

academic experience. In conclusion, Stoner fights Walker in the hope to keep the real world

away, not being aware in his reverie that the academia is as real as Walker, who he believes is

the real world.

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The Role of the University (30%)

At first glance, in both of the novels, the university is presented to the audience as the

main aspiration of the characters, even though for Stoner, this aspiration developed after his first

English composition seminar. The ideality of the role of superior education is emphasized

throughout the first chapters in both of the books, denoting the attitude of the American public

towards it. In John Williams’s novel, Stoner, Professor Stoner views the university to be a

destination, while in Tom Wolfe’s novel, I am Charlotte Simmons, Charlotte sees the university

as a beginning.

Both Stoner and Charlotte come from poor economic backgrounds, but manage to go to

university; however, their motivations differ, for Stoner had no strong interest in his education,

while Charlotte has defined her life in terms of her academic success. At first, Stoner had

considered the university as a beginning as well, even though he had no special interest in it.

That changed after one class with Sloane, who inspired Stoner to emulate in his pursue of the

English major, thus making the university the destination of his journey, rather than the

beginning. This new place, yet old in its traditions, has enchanted Stoner into considering the

institution his home, rather than the farm of his parents, or his own house, later in the novel. He

became “the dreamer, the madman in a madder world”, idealizing the institution, while ignoring

what was happening around it, as well as within it (Williams, 30). Stoner was indeed an idealist,

who had tried not to be disturbed from his imagined path; however, his singular focus is what

deviated him from his desire to be a good teacher. Throughout his life, he had tried to represent

the university, as much as it represented him, and he succeeded to a moderate extent, not through

being a good teacher, but rather becoming a character of the university. Both Stoner and

Charlotte were searching for the place where they belonged, and Stoner found that among the
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students, instructors, and professors of the English department. Despite the age difference

between the two characters, both of them were looking for notoriety, in different ways however,

that seem to be determined by the social life of the academia rather than by themselves. Stoner

becomes known for a short period of time due to his feud with Lomax, rather than through his

teaching skills, and Charlotte achieved notoriety through the boys she associated herself with,

rather than through finding her niche.

Charlotte has almost always looked at Dupont University as the beginning of her journey,

where she would emerge herself in the life of the mind, and where she would gain the experience

to navigate in the real world. She has only viewed Dupont as a destination when she associated it

as a refuge from the monotony of her life in Sparta. She came to the university with its ideal

already formed. She imagined the institution to be the home of the great minds that aspire to

expand towards greatness; however, her ideal has died within her first day on-campus, where

students acted like the ordinary students from her former high school, or even worse. Unlike

Stoner, Charlotte felt like an outsider within the social life of the campus, but that still did not

diminished her perspective of what the academic part of the university is, a passport to grandeur.

Despite being discouraged for the first two weeks of the semester by both social interactions and

academics, she learned slowly how to navigate both, and maintained her hope to find the life of

the mind. It is interesting that as she became more acquainted with the idea of popularity, her

thoughts regarding the university became less open to the audience, at moments even denoting

embarrassment for craving knowledge outside of the classroom, while Stoner became more

passionate in his pursuit of knowledge, as he became more of a character among the students.

Charlotte sees the university as her escape from the sheltered life that she had, even though she is

not fully aware that she is seeking new experiences.

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Stoner and Charlotte seem to present each other’s reversed processes, where Stoner views

the role of the university as a beginning, then a destination, while Charlotte goes through the

exact opposite. This correlation between the changes in views can be explained by their social

experiences, Stoner finding the place where he belonged unexpectedly, while Charlotte does not,

although she was expecting to. In addition to the feeling of belonging acquired, Stoner and

Charlotte’s different views can also be explained by their sense of self. Neither of them know

who they are, but they know what they fear to be. Stoner fears to disappear once the corruption

of the world is accepted into the university, which creates irony because the novel starts with

how he was not a strong presence on the students and faculty, while Charlotte has no interest into

leaving a social “footprint” at Dupont, even though she fears to be lonely. In conclusion, the

distinct views between Stoner and Charlotte are influenced by their personal ambitions,

academia, and their social interactions.

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Work Cited

Williams, John. Stoner. New York: New York Review, 2003. Print.

Wolfe, Tom. I Am Charlotte Simmons. New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2004. Print.