What Does Wolfe Characterize Bland

Victoria Elrod
Mrs. Inouye
IB English; Per1
September 7, 2013
Bland Characterization As human beings attempting to navigate our way through life we must choose a profession that will either benefit our skillset or meet our daily needs of performing what we love to do. Some of us are not so fortunate when seeking out our place of work, and select an occupation that begins to wither away over time and develops to be less important to us. We may be blindsided in the first place that this may be a passion closer to our hearts than we think or even choose it for our own greedy benefit; not the greater good of others. Even if our dexterity calls for the career, our heart may not. In the excerpt from You Can’t Go Home Again by Thomas Wolfe,
character Judge Bland is depicted as a captivating corrupted evil-lifeless man, who is not interested in his line of work any longer but still maintains an odd mesmerizing goodness. These characteristics are portrayed through Wolfe’s diction and figurative analogies in the setting of Bland’s work place, his appearance, and his actions.

Wolfe utilizes Bland’s workplace to characterize the ominous being, Rumford Bland. The author paints a picture of Bland’s character by his surrounding, giving the reader insight into his mind and moral consciousness. An illustration of this is in the beginning of the excerpt when Wolfe establishes a setting for the reader to imagine what Bland is encircled by. The scenery is laden with and old obscure tone along with a worn wooden staircase accompanied by “a hand rail, loose as an old tooth, smooth, be sweated by the touch of many black palm, led up to a dark hallway”(4-6). The atmosphere is established as gloomy and ancient, due to the use of past tense, which yields insight that the office may no longer be used. The simile of the rail being as “loose as an old tooth” expresses the connection between the stairs not being of any use anymore, just as a tooth falling out when it is no longer needed, verifying again that the office is no longer in use, and that Bland is not concerned with the upkeep of his place of work; displaying that he doesn’t care about his occupation. Another case that points out the extent that Bland disregards his profession is inscribed on “the gazed glass of the office door, which bore the legend in black paint, partly flaked off: RUMFORD BLAND ATTORNEY AT LAW”(10-14). Bland’s environment and the fact that this name is “partly flaked off” directly connects to the degree of exactly how much he does not value his job and also if taken figuratively relates to him being hard to read and worn with old age. The condition of his administrative center is in no way, shape, or form exhibiting that law is important to him. But it may have been at one time, reputable attorneys of the town have even admitted that they would have been “Judge Bland’s match in skill and ability had he chosen to use his talents in an honest way,”(49-51) although he didn’t take the honest route with his job and now his office is run down and vacant this passage proves he is very skilled in his line of work, or was in the past.

Bland is also depicted as being a sinister-corrupted individual through actions that he carries out, and those deeds portray him as dark and morally inoperative. For instance, there is contact where the reader can examine bland as a third party objective when he meets another individual, he greets them with the “deadly weariness of his tone of voice, in the dead-white texture of his emaciated face, in his lank and lusterless auburn hair, and, most of all, in his sunken mouth, around which there hovered constantly the ghost of a smile”(56-61). A first acquaintance with someone is most important, and can tell you the majority about a person, which later may lead to a friendship of some sort. Surely though many would not be too keen on having a long lasting relationship or even a long conversation with someone like Judge Bland. All aspects of his being repel any other individual, and yet the reader can see that at one time he may have been happy by the description that there linger a “ghost of a smile”, one might even go as far to say that he took pride in his job at one time. To understand the complexly of the character that is Bland we must also venture into the deep perception of Bland’s secluded private life, which is presented vaguely when an object is introduced. It is positioned against the wall in the back room, and is a “plush sofa--- [and] the room it was whispered, [is] ‘where Bland took his women’”(29-30). Bland is clearly morally corrupt, and the fact that the information was “whispered” confirms it was rumored and many new about his escapades, along with the many “women” he had his way with; which leads to the thought that if he was so evil what made these women okay with intercourse. Even if the women he slept with were paid one would think many would fear his corrupt soul and find work elsewhere. But it is said “there was goodness in him that had never altogether died”(86-87). So maybe Judge Bland captivated the women, and this fascination made it acceptable to do what they did with him.

Bland’s evil persona is also represented in his appearance and how others observed him.
His dark soul can be seen at a glance and the profundity of his wickedness is understood when one looks upon him. Wolfe describes him as “stained with evil”(52) and as many know a stain is not just hovering on the surface of the material it is split on, it is much deeper and harder to remove; also becoming permanent over time. Bland’s stained with a deep corrupt nature and though it may have not been his choice he is forever marked with the malevolent liquid that is depravity. Another example of Bland’s evil nature portrayed through his self-exhibition is the fact he had to wear glasses. He began to wear them after he left his hometown, “Libya Hill, and the thin, white face, with its shadowy smile, had been given a sinister enhancement by the dark spectacles which he then wore”(68-70). Bland began to go blind and the illness was developing at a worsening pace. His Blindness was not due to cataracts or an eye abrasion, the ailment has been “engendered in his eyes” long ago. This may be and innuendo towards the many women that he slept with yielding a sexually transmitted disease that can result in blindness and it also can be somewhat ironic that he is in a profession having to do with law, because justice is blind. The public already was well aware that he was having forty winks with many women, and it does not seem difficult to connect the dots that this was the reason his sight was deteriorating. Having a disease you cannot control is socially acceptable but receiving a disease from indecent un-reputable actions causes people to have unattractive opinions about that person. Everyone was under the idea that he was corrupted, they all knew he was “genuinely, unfathomably evil—and evil of this sort has a certain grandeur about it not unlike the grandeur of supreme goodness”(83-85) It seems easy for the public to easily recall his goodness, the clean good white material under the
dark stain of corruption, over his horrible deeds. Because, after all, people want to see the good in others: they want to see the good in Mr. Bland though far off it may be.

Although Judge Bland lost the importance of his occupation it cannot be denied that he was not skilled in the field he chose to go into. Along with the fact he could have reached a high level of respect and admiration if he decided to chose the route of honestly and goodness, that he clearly contained inside him. Instead of keeping true to being fair and righteous he ventured the path that was easier than that of honor and justice; the course adorned with immorality. This dark path he took seeped deep into his soul, and caused the corrupt evil man he will die as.