John Edgar Wideman Essay Essay, Research Paper
How do you tell a story of a boy who was raised right but
turned out wrong? Do you focus on key events during the course of his
life, or do you examine his life in sequence from birth? In his
compelling essay Our Time , John Edgar Wideman has the
responsibility of telling the story of the boy who turned out wrong. .
The boy is Widman s younger brother and black sheep of the family
Robby. Wideman uses three voices and three events to tell his brother
Robby s story. The three voices that Wideman brings into his essay to
help his readers understand why his brother went bad are the voices
of his brother Robby, his mother, and himself. The three events that
Wideman mingles into his essay to help himself come to an
understanding of his brother and the troubles that plagued him are
the tragic death of Robby s best friend Garth, the family s move to
Shadyshide, (A predominant white neighborhood) and the time of
Robby s birth. Why does Wideman present the three events the way he
does? Is he trying to single out the event that caused Robby s
downfall? Each event has an effect on Robby; an effect that would
steer him towards drugs, crime, and involvement in a murder that
would mean a life sentence in prison. Did Robby have bad luck?
Imagine rolling the dice and seeing snake eyes come up or landing on
the chance spot on the Monopoly board and picking up that little
orange card and reading, Do not pass Go Do not collect two hundred
dollars Go Straight to Jail. No, it wasn t bad luck; it started with
Garth s death.
During a visit to the prison Robby reassembles Garth s death to
his brother, Something had crawled inside Garth s belly. The man
said it wasn t nothing. Sold him some aspirins and said he d be all
right in no time. The man killed Garth (656). Garth died of a
mysterious disease in the summer of 1975. The tragedy of his best
friend hit Robby like a heavyweight slap in the face. It stung him
and pissed him off. Robby believed he lost Garth because the doctors
mistreated and misdiagnosed him. As Widman listens to his brother
venting his anger over Garth s death he recalls a conversation he had
with his mother six years ago about Garth: Garth had been down to
the clinic two or three times but they sent him home. You know how
they are down there. Have to be spitting blood to get attention. Then
all they give you is a Band-Aid (660). As the author begins to piece
the puzzle of Garth s death together he sees the change in attitude
from his mother and brother. Robby justified his anger and bitterness
over his friend s death by lashing out at society. Robby figured he
was doomed to die on the streets so why bother caring anymore. Man,
how could they let him die? Garth was the gang s dreamer; he had a
special gift and was well liked in the neighborhood and streets of
Homewood. He could make you feel good when you were down with his
kind words and smiling grin. That s what tore at Robby s soul the
most. Just because you re poor and black doesn t mean you re not
important, or as important as everyone else in the world is. Robby
cursed and blamed society for Garth s death. As he cursed society
with his middle finger waving in the air he hugged the streets
tighter, embracing the life that would spiral him downward: his gang,
drugs, and crime.
Homewood was the place that Robby was introduced to the
streets, the parties, the dope, and the crime. It started up on
G
sheltered from the streets for most of his life because his family
lived in an all-white neighborhood like Shadyshide, so when Robby
discovered Homewood he began getting curious about the streets and
the black culture. Robby s family tried to shield him from the
dangers of the streets but Robby would not be denied. Started to
wondering what was so different about a black neighborhood. I was
just a little kid and I was curious. Didn t care if it was bad or
good or dangerous or what, I had to find out (673). Robby was curious
and wild. He needed to fit in somewhere. He needed to find a place
that was his own. Robby felt stuck in the middle living in white
suburbia:
Seems like I should start the story back in Shadyshide.
Nothing but white kids around. Them little white kids had
everything, too. It made me kinda shy around them. There was
them white kids with everything and there was the black world
Mommy was holding back from me. I guess you could say I was
stuck in the middle (678).
This feeling of being in the middle for Robby may have influenced his
downfall. Robby didn t feel comfortable or as good as the white kids
in his neighborhood of Shadyshide so he turned to Homewood, his
heaven where he could drink with the fellows, and always a party to
go to. This is where Robby s rebellion begins.
The third event or beginning that Wideman writes about is the time of
Robby s birth. Robby was born on December 29th. The month of December
was a dark month for the Wideman family because both of Robby s
grandfathers and his maternal grandmother had passed away right
around Robby s birthday. The holidays would become a time of mourning
and loss especially after Wideman s sister had a miscarriage in early
January. The family started believing the holiday season was jinxed.
To Robby December were his lowest times. The year before the robbery
and killing in 1970 was the year that Robby got hooked on heroin. It
was also the time when Robby stole the TV and set the house up to
look like a burglary. This was a bottom for Robby. Stealing from your
family is usually the last sign that a junkie has lost all their
morals and values. Happy Birthday Robby! Don t you wish you could do
it all over again?
Writing about the three events and going over them again and again
helped Wideman and this reader understand a key point. The key to
making sense of something and in this case the something being why
Robby went bad is to go over it and over it and piece it together
from different angles and break it down so you can figure it out for
yourself. What did Wideman want to figure out? Was he just going over
things like a good writer does trying to piece together a puzzle that
is mind boggling? I tend to think he was writing a tribute of guilt.
Guilt for not being there for his brother. Where was I, Wideman would
ask himself? How did I miss so much? In his essay you can hear
Wideman saying I m sorry to Robby for not being there for you. So, he
writes a great piece of literature about a boy growing up on the
right side of the track who ends up being a junkie, thief, and
convicted murderer. Does this cleanse the guilt he has for not being
there for his brother? Does it make up for it? No, I don t think it
does, because it shouldn t take a tragedy to bring a family closer
together. Wideman writes a great essay about his brother, but as a
brother he was not great.