Vision Of Our Time John Wideman Analysis

27 March 2007
ENC 1102
Dr. Lacrone Visions of Our Time John Wideman starts off Our Time with the story of his friend Garth on his death bed. Using extreme detail its hard not to believe you are staring him right in the face. The story of John and Robby's mother is inspiration for willpower. Not only a smart and sophisticated woman, but keeps her head up during all the bad times. Also, never disrespects anyone. The story of their mother has to do with John and Robby because she is a key ingredient in helping them cope with Garth's death. Wideman tells stories of his mother in his excerpt. He never realized how much his mother changed until she told him Garth's story. Most of the time remained calm, but had her grudges and quarrels. She reacted strongly to things but at the same time kept opinions to herself. "My mother had that capacity. I'd admired, envied, and benefited infinitely from its presence. As she related the story of Garth's death and my brother's anger and remorse, her tone was uncompromisingly bitter"(Wideman 698). Always believed that Garth's caretakers killed Garth and his dying had killed a part of
Robby. "Before she told Garth's story, my mother had already changed, but it took years for me to realize how profoundly she hated what had been done to Garth and then to Robby" (Wideman 698).
Her friendliness hid her true feeling for people. "In spite of all her temperamental and philosophic resistance to extremes, my mother would be radicalized. What the demonstrations, protest marches, and slogans of the sixties had not effected and would be accomplished by Garth's death and my brother's troubles" (Wideman 699). Even though Robby was locked up and put in jail, the love for her son would never change. Trying to make herself believe that everything wasn't Robby's fault, still was able to exercise her love for him. Accepting the version of reality encoded in the government's rules would be like stepping inside the cell and locking herself
in. "She could love her son, accept his guilt, accept the necessity of punishment, suffer with him, grow with him past the stage of blaming everyone but himself for his troubles, grieve with him when true penitence began to exact its toll"(Wideman 700). She understood that he was guilty and needed to do his time but didn't believe the death sentence was "fair". They refused to see her side and therefore began to hate. The individuals who took control over Robby's life denied his humanity.

Authority and law did not make sense at first, they went against her instincts. "My mother had been raised in Homewood. The old Homewood. Her relations with people in that close-knit, homogeneous community were based on trust, mutual respect, common spiritual and material concerns. Face-to-face contact, shared language and values, a large fund of communal experience rendered individual lives extremely visible in Homewood"(Wideman 701). Grew up known as the "French girl" she was taught manners and proper etiquette. The story of John and Robby's mother is a key ingredient in helping both the boys cope with not only Garth's death, but with life itself. A strong woman who is by her son's sides no matter what. Someone all women can appreciate and understand where her heart comes from.