The Acorn Plan Essay

The Acorn Plan by Tim McLaurin (1988) illustrates the unambiguous lives of the South East mill occupants. He focuses on the lives of Billy, Bubble and Ruby, their intangible dreams hardened by the inevitable reality, with the hope for something more. McLaurin does not soften the view of the South East mill occupants; he makes the readers fully aware of the stereotypes, as his characters fit all of the negative cliché’s associated with poor southerners. Critics of this book, such as Gary Davenport, have been skeptical of McLaurin’s’ depiction of these characters and are overall disappointed in his execution of the book. Conversely, critics such as Bledsoe, believes that McLaurin is successful in writing about the poor south reassessing the stereotypes
from a perspective within that class. Davenport views the characters as unintelligent and unsuccessfully hypostatize. However McLaurin depicts his characters with an authenticity that does not devalue the characters with an unwanted fakeness, he shows the characters diversity through the terrors of the poor south. In order to understand the criticism of poor whites, context behind the stereotype is needed. Poor whiteness is categorized with great variety. It is often hard to define it in one way. Derogatory terms such as “redneck, white trash, cracker, and poor white” (Bledsoe, 69) have been used interchangeably to define white southern people. However each person has their own definition of the term being used, therefore making it difficult to accurately place a person in one of the varied categories.
The characters of the Acorn Plan are true down to earth people that are portrayed without a façade, they are realistic depictions of the poor south, that face diversity and persevere through it or dies trying. McLaurin depicts his characters without anything hidden. Bledsoe states, “This new generation of southern writers is giving voice to a different group of stereotypes and beliefs while challenging the literacy roles traditionally assigned poor whites” (68). They are real characters with real problems that they are fighting throughout the book to overcome. Some of the characters can actually make it past their problems while others are overwhelmed. Davenport disagrees stating, “The author of the Acorn Plan conceives his minor characters in terms of the worst clichés (Vietnam veterans who get drunk and cry “In coming! In coming!), and his major characters say breathtakingly trite and simpleminded things (708). However in no place of the book are characters shouting in coming for any reason. He is over dramatizing the way that the characters are being portrayed, and trying to fit them into stereotypes that they do not fit in to. Worst clichés, is impossible to say when the characters are characterized as ordinary people from the poor south. Bubble does become a drunk; he says “I got to do this thing for Billy. That boy has got to see right damn soon what drinking will do to ya” (McLaurin, 24). The only stereotype that he could accurately fit is an alcoholic, anything other than that would be a stretch. McLaurin is depicting his characters in a new light, he is not over characterizing them, and he is portraying them as they would be in real life. Bledsoe states, “What Allison lets her readers see, like Brown and McLaurin, is full, complex world of characters who both confirm some stereotypes and transcend others” (83). Billy throughout the starting of the book is characterized as a badass because of his fighting and drinking. He gets in a terrible fight and then winds up in jail. Later he meets people, and is pushed to getting an education and staying out of trouble. He gets out of his stereotype refusing to fight to keep his “badass” status. He instead realizes that he could do better and get more out of life than what the residents of Fayetteville had to offer. McLaurin shows the adversity through the terrors of the poor south, and how each character deals with the situations they are in. He doesn’t devalue their character with an over characterization or unwanted fakeness, he is accurate in his depiction. McLaurin successfully gives an accurate depiction of these characters language paralleled with the setting of this book in Fayetteville North Carolina. McLaurin is meticulously detailed in reminding you of the rough environment of these characters. He states; “Damn ugly place, Billy thought. Still, it’s better than jail. The dusty windows of the house seemed to stare at him like blind eyes (McLaurin, 32). Within the Acorn Plan McLaurin often refers to the buildings and the run down look of everything. He also refers back to the lack of education in the community. Davenport disagrees with the way the characters are portrayed by stating “an author who wants so badly to document the authentic southernness of his fictional world should know better than to spell bream “brim” and y’all “ya’ll”” (708). Davenports’ argument would be agreeable; however McLaurin repetitively makes reference to the lack of education in the entire community of Fayetteville. Most of the workers are known to work factory jobs or in bars and have no real need for furthering their education let alone speaking properly. The way McLaurin describes the community and the people in it is a direct reflection on the way they would carry themselves and how their speech would be. Bledsoe states; “In these and subsequent works, all three authors write about lower-class characters whose background they share. They were born in and write about the Rough South, … and more commonly referred to as the world of the redneck or white trash” (68). The way McLaurin writes is how he depicts his characters way of speech to show the “authentic southerness” from the place he grew up. He grew up in the poor south and is more equip to speak on behalf of southerners’ when he spells a word a certain way showing a certain groups dialect. He is more than knowledgeable to know how those words are spelled, but he is just portraying the way they would say it with the incorrect spelling. McLaurin’s book is set up as sequenced order of events making it easy to read, understand, and follow the characters path.
He shows the order of events, their consequences and the way the characters overcome the trails they are faced with. Davenport nevertheless believes that “A desire to experience authorial mismanagement at its worst is perhaps the only justification for reading Tim McLaurin’s The Acorn Plan.” (708). This is not the case; Davenport must not be accustomed to a sequenced order of events jumping from perspectives of different characters flowing in harmony with the plot. In the first page of the book McLaurin sets up the rest of the book so you know exactly how it will go. McLaurin writes; “Bubble Riley decided to drink all the wine in the world the night Billy cut the soldier’s lung in half” (1). Mismanagement not in the least, the book starts with Billy and the confrontation with cutting the man’s lung in half to subsequently being placed in jail. He gets out of jail after a couple of days, but is put on probation to make better decisions which in turn he does throughout the rest of the book. It shows the major events along with smaller ones that correspond with the plot. The other characters follow Billy’s’ story with their own stories flowing in harmony and even coinciding in certain
chapters. McLaurin is overall successful in the execution of this book, regardless of what overzealous critics like Davenport have to say about his work. It is an accurate depiction of the poor south and the characters, and story line fit together perfectly. The Acorn Plan is a very enthralling book that keeps you on the edge of your seat. It is down to earth and the characters are depicted with an authenticity that is easily relatable, and not over characterized.