The Theme Of Hope In Edgar Allan Poe's The Night Of The Hunter
“Is there – is there balm in Gilead? – tell me – tell me, I implore!" Hope is the very essence of humanity. Without hope, without a “balm in Gilead,” what is the point of life? There is no greater punishment than the total loss of hope; the absence of hope is hell. In Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven,” the “ghastly grim and ancient” (46) Raven destroys the narrator in a way far more tortuous than a simple slit to the throat. In Davis Grubb’s gothic novel, The Night of the Hunter, Miz Cunningham, with the face “of an ancient and querulous turkey hen,” (Grubb 36) mirrors the Raven in more ways than simply her avian appearance. Like the Raven, Miz Cunningham leeches hope out of those around her, preying on the misfortune of others. Grubb uses
her avian appearance along with her world of “anguished retrospect” (38) to highlight that those without hope often drain hope out of others.
At first glance, Miz Cunningham doesn’t appear to embody evil. She seemingly innocently offers the two children “a nice hot cup of coffee” (37). Yet sinister motives lie behind the facade; behind her elderly appearance lurks a bird of prey, ready to sweep up the “Harper lambs” (36).
Perhaps the “vast panoply of miserable and tired coats and vests and pants” (36) should have served as forewarning. For one thing certain in Gothic Literature is that nothing inhibits the elderly from being great villains. Grubb wastes little time in using bird imagery paint her as a villain and highlight her theft of dreams: he writes that her “kitchen… was like the the nest of a thieving black crow” (37). “Thieving black [crows]” are scavengers who subsist on the bounty of others. There is no more crow-like occupation than ownership of a pawn shop. As the owner, “in the end, she got her hands on nearly everything in the world!” (37)--even dreams!
When people pawn something, they give up more than just material possessions--they give up part of the very essence of their souls--their hopes. A pawned ring is a pawned hope. John and Pearl’s dreams lie in the money hidden in Pearl’s doll, so it is no surprise when “Miz Cunningham’s hen voice [comes] picking its yellow bill through the dream that covered him” (38). She has no business asking John, “with all guile and oil gone” (39), “did you see where [the money] was hid?” (39). To escape her “miserable and tired” world Miz Cunningham quite literally tries to seize John and Pearl’s one hope.
Stealing dreams has been the essence of her life--“it was probable that when Miz Cunningham like an ancient barn owl fluttered and flapped to earth at last, they would taker her away and pluck her open and find... the tiny mice skulls of myriad dreams” (37). Those “myriad dreams” are the most valuable items she has acquired as a pawnbroker and her greatest heist--hopes and dreams are priceless--they make us human.
her avian appearance along with her world of “anguished retrospect” (38) to highlight that those without hope often drain hope out of others.
At first glance, Miz Cunningham doesn’t appear to embody evil. She seemingly innocently offers the two children “a nice hot cup of coffee” (37). Yet sinister motives lie behind the facade; behind her elderly appearance lurks a bird of prey, ready to sweep up the “Harper lambs” (36).
Perhaps the “vast panoply of miserable and tired coats and vests and pants” (36) should have served as forewarning. For one thing certain in Gothic Literature is that nothing inhibits the elderly from being great villains. Grubb wastes little time in using bird imagery paint her as a villain and highlight her theft of dreams: he writes that her “kitchen… was like the the nest of a thieving black crow” (37). “Thieving black [crows]” are scavengers who subsist on the bounty of others. There is no more crow-like occupation than ownership of a pawn shop. As the owner, “in the end, she got her hands on nearly everything in the world!” (37)--even dreams!
When people pawn something, they give up more than just material possessions--they give up part of the very essence of their souls--their hopes. A pawned ring is a pawned hope. John and Pearl’s dreams lie in the money hidden in Pearl’s doll, so it is no surprise when “Miz Cunningham’s hen voice [comes] picking its yellow bill through the dream that covered him” (38). She has no business asking John, “with all guile and oil gone” (39), “did you see where [the money] was hid?” (39). To escape her “miserable and tired” world Miz Cunningham quite literally tries to seize John and Pearl’s one hope.
Stealing dreams has been the essence of her life--“it was probable that when Miz Cunningham like an ancient barn owl fluttered and flapped to earth at last, they would taker her away and pluck her open and find... the tiny mice skulls of myriad dreams” (37). Those “myriad dreams” are the most valuable items she has acquired as a pawnbroker and her greatest heist--hopes and dreams are priceless--they make us human.