Preview

Up the Coulee

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
936 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Up the Coulee
Reconciliation In "Up the Coulee," Hamlin Garland depicts what occurs when Howard McLane is away for an extended period of time and begins to neglect his family. Howard's family members are offended by the negligence. Although his neglect causes his brother, Grant McLane, to resent him, Garland shows that part of having a family is being able to put aside negative feelings in order to resolve problems with relatives. Garland demonstrates how years apart can affect family relationships, causing neglect, resentment, and eventually, reconciliation. After a decade of not seeing his mother and brother, Howard returns to his hometown in Mississippi. It is evident how thrilled he is. As the train approaches town, he begins "to feel curious little movements of the heart, like a lover as he nears his sweetheart" (par. 3). He expects this visit to be a marvelous and welcoming homecoming. His career and travel have kept his schedule extremely full, causing him to previously postpone this trip to visit his family. Although he does not immediately recognize his behavior in the past ten years as neglectful, there are many factors that make him aware of it. For instance, Mrs. McLane, Howard's mother, has aged tremendously since he last saw her. She has "grown unable to write" (par. 72). Her declining health condition is an indicator of Howard's inattentiveness to his family; he has not been present to see her become ill. His neglect strikes him harder when he sees "a gray –haired woman" that showed "sorrow, resignation, and a sort of dumb despair in her attitude" (par. 91). Clearly, she is growing old, and Howard feels guilty for not attending her needs for such a long time period: "his throat [aches] with remorse and pity" (par. 439). He has been too occupied with his "excited and pleasurable life" that he has "neglected her" (par. 92). Another indication of Howard's neglect is the fact that his family no longer owns the farm and house where he grew up. They now reside in a


Cited: Garland, Hamlin. "Up the Coulee." Main-Travelled Road. 1891. 485 pars. 12 January 2005. .

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Grace Poured Out Summary

    • 558 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Herndon transparently describes the state of her family before Katie’s sickness. With three children and busy schedules, Herndon and her husband, Wes, have practically been living separate lives. Katie’s condition forces the family’s dynamics to shift, and the shift is most powerfully uncovered in the book’s distinctive, thought-provoking ending.…

    • 558 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Mrs. Wheeler, a Protestant Christian, has been married to Mr. Wheeler for more than twenty years. Although she has birthed three boys, she has taken care of many others in her life due to the farm life of her husband. That’s exactly what she is-a caretaker. She was the perfect…

    • 388 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Several witnesses have testified that Mr. Willard has conducted himself in such a manner which lead them to believe that he is obsessed with becoming mature. Belle Carpenter, his ex-girlfriend, described him as “full of his big words” and “needing to be taken as a man.” Not even of the age of majority yet, George somehow feels a need to be respected beyond his years. Though only together for a brief period of time, Mr. Willard has left the…

    • 764 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Psy/300 Week Review

    • 342 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Mr. Anderson describes his day-to-day living functions as difficult. He has admitted to becoming less involved in his work place because it requires too much energy. Mr. Anderson realizes that he no long do things that make him happy. He is known to go to the family lake house on the weekends but he hasn’t been in a month. Mr. Anderson described having difficulty falling to sleep. His sleeping patterns are irregular, leaving him unable to sleep. He stated that he has had a restful night of sleep in 2 weeks. Mr. Anderson never had to prepare and cook dinner but since his wife is no longer living someone has to complete the house chores. Mr. Anderson decided to hire an in home nanny to complete those chores. He also hired a personally driver to transportation Eloise and him to and from.…

    • 342 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    When McCandless decided to “live off the land”, he was also deciding to disassociate himself from his parents; more specifically, his father Walter. When Chris discovered his father’s double life, he was “smoldering anger… harboring his resentment, letting bad feelings build and build” (Krakauer 122). His entire life, his father set high…

    • 976 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Becoming weaker and weaker by the second from malnutrition and lack of proper sleep, it begins to slowly eat away at you mentally. Papa kept having these flashbacks of his wife, and woke up in a fright on the side of his road only to find that it was all a dream. It began to effect him mentally and made him realize he needs to prioritize his and the boys actions along their journey to the south. Food and shelter was always the most important, but as Papa began to dwindle away physically, he had a fatherly-feeling that he must teach his young child to defend himself on the road without him. Focus on the more important things in life, necessities, and do everything in your power to survive on through the rain and the snow, to be able to perform the next…

    • 699 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    He sees that things have changed from when he was a child. When he brings his son to the diner that he use to go to, he was surprised to find that the same people who work there had ages tremendously “There was a choice of pie for dessert, and one was blueberry and one was apple, and the waitresses were the same country girls, there having been no passage of time, only the illusion of it as it dropped curtain—the waitresses were still fifteen; their hair had been washed, that was the only difference—they had been to the movies and seen the pretty girls with clean hair” (pg 3). The father sees the same girls that always waited on him when he went to the dinner and he first walks into the diner. He convinces himself that nothing has changed except their hair, when in reality they grew up and got older. The father thinks that having three roads rather than two is a better because he is given more of a choice to get to his destination. The father looks at this situation as if he only has two choices instead of three, as he is getting older, he feels as if his life is limited in choices. “Up to the farmhouse to dinner through the teeming, dusty field… I missed terribly the middle alternative” (pg 3). The narrator’s childhood memories were that there were three option of walking the paths, but now that he is realizing time is passing, he recognizes that the road has changed. The…

    • 1172 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “The lack of meaningful communication between father and son was based on a lifetime of isolation. Henry had been an only child, without siblings around to talk to, to share things with constantly. And Marty was the same. Whatever stumbling methods of communication Henry has used with his own father seemed to have been passed down to Marty. (page 61, paragraph 2)” This one kinda reminds me of when is was an only child and how there is nothing to do or someone to talk and play with. You also have to learn how to keep yourself…

    • 702 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Inheritance of Tools

    • 736 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Within the first two sentences, the reader understands this family’s gentle disposition when the narrator hits his thumb with a hammer and supposes his father’s response. The narrator hurts himself with a hammer that has been passed down through his family for three generations. Through out the essay, words and actions from different generations of the family encompass a tender sarcasm, a light humor, and an understanding nature that renders a unique patience which is passed down from generation to generation, just like the hammer. This disposition was applied to being resourceful when the narrator’s grandfather married. Even though the grandfather “had not quite finished the house” by the day of the wedding, he “took his wife home and put her to work”. Before sunset, the house was finished. Though the narrator obviously was not present for the day of his grandparents’ wedding, from his point of view, he sees his grandfather dedicated to the endeavor of building a house for his future family. The narrator emulates the same behaviors…

    • 736 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    A Good Man Is Hard To Find

    • 1120 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Throughout, the story we see the grandmother being manipulative, deceitful, and selfish. Aruther Breatha, the author of the article “O’Connor’s A Good Man is Hard to Find” even compares the grandmother morally and philosophically to the serial-killing Misfit (Breatha 246). The grandmother is seen being manipulative when she is trying to change her son Baily’s mind about going to Florida, so she can go to Tennessee. She is described as “seizing at every chance to change Bailey’s mind” (O’Connor 364). She even tries to make Baily feel bad about taking his children in the direction where a criminal is a loose (O’ Connor 364). She has no care, for what the family as a whole want to do, and is only concerned, with what she wants to do, and where she wants to go on vacation. When all her attempts to stop the family from going to Florida fail, she starts to become deceitful. The first of her deceitful action is bring the cat along even though Baily said not to so, then when the family is on the road the grandmother want to stop at an old plantation she used to visit as a child. Baily does not want to stop so she lies and tell the children that “There was a secret panel in this house” (O’Connor 368), and that it was filled with silver. This of course drives the children to bug, Baily, and the grandmother get what she wants. Once, the family turns down…

    • 1120 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Emperor Of The Air

    • 925 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Narrator experiences a heart attack that slows him down considerably. The Narrator is married and thinks about his wife Vera, who is nearly his age, but because she still has her health she has gone off for several weeks to hike the Appalachian Trail and gets to enjoy many other activities that he can't partake in. The fact that the Narrator is at home quite a bit gives him time to dwell on subjects that he might not have given so much attention to if he still had his health.…

    • 925 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Bucket List

    • 460 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Carter Chambers was married to his dear wife, Virginia, for 45 years he had a happy marriage and a wonderful family but, Mr. Chambers felt as if something was missing. He explained that for the last forty five years of his life were mostly dedicated to his family and wife, now he wants to have time for himself and do the things he always wanted to do, but didn’t get a chance to do. Even though his friend Edward Cole was a billionaire; he also felt as if there was something missing out of his life, he had a lot of money and many divorces, and a daughter that he has not spoken with, that didn’t make him feel like he had the true meaning to life.…

    • 460 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    I Stand Here Ironing

    • 668 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The character confesses that she had to parent alone, a nineteen-year-old single parent, and sarcastically quotes a note her husband left for her "…he could no longer endure." Tillie Olsen leaves us, the reader with the sense that the character in the story now feels more of a failure. Because of the thinking of her time, she should be married. It is unfortunate that her husband failed his family, expecting that 'she could endure' where he could…

    • 668 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    One’s house, no matter if it is temporary or permanent, should always feel like a home when one is surrounded by people one loves. However, in this case the house is an enabler for the narrator’s isolation which leads to her mental demise. The house that the narrator’s husband, John, chooses for their family, for her sake, is, “quite alone” and “three miles from the village” (Gilman 1); as a physical representation of her separation from society, John exerts his…

    • 2126 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    African American Religion

    • 2610 Words
    • 11 Pages

    Bibliography: Murphy, L. G. (2000). Down By the Riverside. New York: New Yourk University Press.…

    • 2610 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Better Essays