Title: A Summer Tragedy

Characters:

Jeff Patton - the black share farmer, and seemed to adore his job and place in
the world. They were very simple people, living a very simple farm life.

Jennie Patton – wife of Jeff Patton, She had a wasted, dead-life appearance.
Her body, as scrawny and gnarled as a string bean, seemed less than nothing in
the ocean of frayed and faded petticoats that surrounded her.

Stevenson – An old man whom the Patton couple have debt for years.

Summary:

Jeff Patton has farmed the same acres on Greenbriar Plantation for forty-five
years. He loves the land, but life has been physically demanding and the shares system
has kept him locked in poverty. A recent stroke has left him lame, and he fears that
another will make him a helpless burden on his wife, Jennie, who has been blind for
years and is now frail. Both are sound of mind, but their life has been reduced to a
series of losses, including the deaths of five adult children in the last two years. They
share a state of constant grief and anxiety.

Jeff struggles to don the moth-eaten formal attire that he wears only on rare
occasions, such as weddings. He feels excitement and fear as he and Jennie prepare for
a trip. A short time later, driving through the countryside with Jennie in their old Model
T Ford, Jeff feels a familiar thrill, as he surveys the vitality of the crops and natural
vegetation. He feels again the determination and pride that always have accompanied
his sense of his mental and physical strengths, required for survival on the land, but if
he takes his hands from the steering wheel, they shake violently.

Jennie has repeatedly prompted Jeff to make this trip, relying on his courage to
match her belief in the rightness of their decision. As they near their destination,
however, she becomes wracked by grief at the thought of leaving everything behind.
Crying like a child, she questions whether they should continue. Jeff is tortured by his
knowledge of what they are about to do and would like to turn back, but he assures his
wife that they must be strong. He knows that they have fully considered their fate, and
that more reflection would merely lead to the same, inevitable conclusion. They both
know that life has become intolerable, and would only get worse. After they regain their
resolve and composure, Jeff drives the car into the deep water of the Mississippi.

Reflection:

Historically, the concept of tragedy has implied that human life is very valuable,
and that suffering, especially when it results inevitably from the pursuit of happiness,
reveals that human life is richly meaningful. The combination of positive and negative
connotations in the title hints at the potential for such irony. The author generalizes the
truth of his perception by illustrating it with an instance from the common lives of
simple people, even persons whose fated suffering would typically be ignored. The
universality of what his characters face makes the story broadly applicable, and the way
they face their fate demonstrates the possibility of heroic action, even by ordinary
people.

Submitted to:

Submitted by:

Shemlagne Nalaonan