A Death In The Family By James Agee

The autobiographical novel, A Death In The Family, written by James Agee is about how the Follet family deals and reacts with the death of a young father. Broken up into three parts, Agee formulates the story to display each of the character’s thoughts and feelings about the loss and grief of the adolescent father, Jay Follet. Part one of the novel opens up with a father, Jay, and his son, Rufus, taking an outing to the movie theater to watch a Charlie Chaplin motion picture. Both enjoyed these trips with just the two of them because it gave them the time to bond. Later that night, Jay receives a call from his brother Ralph informing him that their father might be on his deathbed. Not sure whether or not to trust his drunk brother, he decides to drive out and see his father. He sets off early in the morning promising his wife, Mary, that he would be back before nightfall.
After Jay leaves to ensure the health of his father, Mary is left with the
kids and her thoughts on Jay’s father. Personally she didn’t fancy her father-in-law because of the way he acted. Feeling a little guilty of the way she felt towards Jay’s father, she prays to God to give her strength in liking the sick man. In the morning she informs the children that their father has gone to see their Grandpa and said that he would be back before they went to bed. During the intervening time, Jay arrived at the farm and comes to find out that Ralph over exaggerated the condition of his father. This made Jay very angry because he felt that the trip he made was unnecessary. Part two of the story begins when Mary receives a phone call from a man informing her that Jay had gotten into a car accident and that she should send over a male member of the family to know all the information on what had happened. Straightaway, she sends over her brother Andrew and a family friend Walter Starr to drive out there together. Before heading out, they drop off Aunt Hannah with Mary so that they can keep each other company. There the two women wait worried and tense. When Andrew finally arrives he tells the awaiting people that Jay has passed away. Something was wrong with the steering mechanism of Jay’s car which caused the accident. Jay hit a rock on the road that made him fly out of the car resulting in a concussion that instantly killed him. The only mark that was left on his body was a blueish slash on his chin. Part three of the story is when Mary tells her kids that their father has died. It was a struggle to explain the death of Jay to her kids. Especially to Catherine because she was still very little. A few days after Jay’s death, his body was transported to Knoxville where his funeral was held. This book had a very simple plot considering it was just about a death of someone and the effect it had on a family.
Everyone’s reaction to death will always be similar with some slight differences and that is being sad about it. Because of this in mind, the plot was very predictable. My favorite part of the book was how religion got incorporated into several events of the story. It affected many of the characters actions and the way they believed in the happenings of life. The character that I relate to the most is Mary Follet because she is intelligent and sensitive. She has a soft heart for the black people. Her sensitivity makes her smart. Being able to feel for the other person and understand them can say a lot about a person. I relate to her the most because Iḿ like that as well. My friends often come to me for advices or just to let off steam. The intended audience for this book is mainly for the people who has faced death in their families. With this kind of past, they can relate to the author’s writing
purposes. The major theme of A Death In The Family is religion. Religion was a substantial cause of discussion within the characters of the story. When Mary had to tell the news to her children that their father has died, she used the Christian belief of ¨getting called by God¨ as a way to help them better understand what happened to their father. In my opinion, this book was written well because the author made it possible to describe every feeling that each character felt about the story. Not only was it clearly written, but it also gave the readers different perspectives of the events that happened. James Agee’s writing style in this novel is third person omniscient point of view. He smoothly shifts the point of view between the characters to let the thoughts of every character be open to the reader. The social significance of this book is dealing with a loss to a loved one. A death of someone you dearly love is always hard and is never easy. Everyone experiences a loss sometime in their life and it is something that could either break you or make you stronger. This book provided its readers how others have dealt with situations like these and it could provide them relief and help. Indeed I do have an emotional response to this book because like I said in the beginning of this paragraph, everyone deals with a loss some point in their lifetime. A Death In The Family was a very engrossing piece of literature. The major theme of this novel was religion because it played a very important role with how some characters reacted with the death of the young father. In the story, Mary had to break the news to her children by using the Christian belief of what happens when someone dies to help them understand. The social significance that this novel presented was the effects of death to a family. Mary, Rufus, Catherine, Aunt Hannah, Andrew, and Mary’s parents were all affected by Jay’s demise because it changed the way they lived their lives after the incident.