Discussion: Essays From Second Topic in Pat Conroy Contest (Family)

Thanks to each of these entries from our second week of the Pat Conroy contest in which winners will receive a 1st Edition copy of Conroy's South of Broad.  (Read Rules Here)

Of the 15 books we have to give away, 7 have been reserved for non-essay writers who participate by adding to or leading the discussion both on Swampland and on the Writers of the South Facebook page.

We are posting all of the essays here so that people can comment on them, Conroy, or the topic at large.  By doing so, you can win a copy of South of Broad.

We encourage everyone to contribute!  

(You can comment on this page by using your Facebook login through Facebook Connect.)

Essay Topic #2:

We want contest essays to expand beyond merely using the works of Pat Conroy in order to explore thoroughly the role of family in all of southern writing. Feel free use the work(s) of the southern writers at large and their fictional or non-fictional characters to explore the theme of family. Share with us your southern literary experiences that might have moved you personally or best captured the essence of family. Again, you need not illustrate your essay from the novels of Pat Conroy. Writers of the South Facebook Group and Swampland celebrate all of southern writing.

Essay #1:
"My wound is geography." Tom Wingo's opening words in The Prince of Tides could have easily been spoken by Quentin Compson or Scout Finch or Dewey Dell Bundren. The line is emblematic of the struggle of characters in Southern literature: they traverse a terrain of division and dichotomy, negotiating a space that juxtaposes poverty and wealth, gentility and racism. It is not simply "place" that defines Wingo's geography, but "sense of place." In the South, individual identity is inextricably bound to family identity, each marking the other, and "Who are your people?" defines one as clearly as individual accomplishment.

Essay #2:
Family, that irrefutable bond which binds each of us to those with whom we may or may not desire to be connected. Each family has their own demons and angels that defines the flavour of the clan. One persons demon maybe another family members angel and vice versa. Some are more transparent than others. Beware of the big, bright smile or the cool, alluring eyes, for you know not what they hide.

Won't it be fun to be the fly on the family's wall, "when the genealogist dig into every source of material they can find?", as penned Anne George.

Essay #3:
It is not uncommon for family members to love each other. It may be less common, however, for them to truly like each other. I have never doubted my sister’s love for me, but I have always wondered if I was only a little brother to her if she saw me as a close friend, like I see her. All of my doubts vanished when, at twenty-one years of age, she voluntarily became a roommate to her nineteen-year-old brother. Seeing that I was unhappy living with our mother and her husband, my sister asked I would be willing to share a room with her at our father’s house. I wholeheartedly accepted. Now, we have two full size beds, an overwhelming number of books, and the movie collections of two film buffs piled into one small room. The most important thing, however, is that I am blessed with a sister who not only loves me but who likes me enough to trade her own space and privacy for my happiness.

Essay #4:
Southern writers often leave gaps and vary time sequence to reveal the family relationships that mold characters. While many novelists condescend to explain every nuance, our finest Southern authors, Conroy included, have faith in the readers' intelligence to fill the gaps and order the plot. Faulkner, of course, is king of the genre. How interesting could "A Rose for Emily" be if it had begun with Miss Emily's childhood and explained her relationship with her father? Current authors, such as Nancy Kincaid and Lee Smith, are also adept at plot manipulation. In Smith's Black Mountain Breakdown, we do not read what happens to Crystal during the summer after her rape by a slow-witted, adult cousin. We are never told the importance of that time, which might have been a book in itself. When Crystal experiences a psycotic break at the end of the novel, as with Faulkner and as in our own lives, we re-read, re-allign, and feel compelled to fill those gaps and find the answers.

Essay #5:
After two divorces, I read every book on co-dependence, children of alcoholics, and
dysfunctional families I could get my hands on. A girlfriend once asked me, "Is there any book in this house I can read that won't make me healthier, more spiritual, or wiser?" I was seriously trying to learn how to survive in a world of chaos.

About the same time I watched the film "Prince of Tides." I remember to this day the scene where the alcoholic father raged for his food while the children looked on with fear in their eyes. The mother never said a word. She simply continued to prepare his supper. I wanted to kill him and found myself clinching my fists. The mother quietly reached for a can of dog food, opened it, poured it into a skillet, and served him hash. In that one brief scene, I learned more than any self-help book ever taught me!

Essay #6:
Growing up in a religious cult in East Texas, surviving the beatings of an alcoholic father and manipulations of a bitter, mentally unstable mother, I devoured Mary Karr’s book, The Liars Club. While it was Mary’s mother, Charlie Marie, who was the manipulative, alcoholic parent, Mary also had a violent father, J. P. Both Mary and I worked overtime trying to create normalcy in wickedly strange environments. However, unlike Mary, my mother had not been married before, to a wealthy man who used his money to brand his wife unfit and steal the first two children she birthed.

Essay #7:
I grew up on both sides of the track, so I was more than a little confused. My thirteen year old heart was all rock and roll, but my thirteen year old life was all Southern Baptist Church.If the doors the the church were open, my clan was inside. From my Grandaddy and Grandmother on my Daddys' side to his brother and all the cousins that came with him and the great uncles and aunts that were also a part of the tiny congregation. It was never a choice or even up for discussion. I recall it being mandated and enforced with fear of the devil and corporal punishment.

One of the southern writers to have influenced my way of thinking and my world views was dubbed The Reverend by a former bandmate due to his theological background. Jeff Mosier is a poet,lyricist,and founder of the band Blueground Undergrass. Mosier refers to himself as a "recovering Southern Baptist" and i'm in line for the mandated meetings that accompany these groups.

Essay #8:
Southern family - My southern mother-in-law could tell a tale. True or not, she always declared it was "gospel." The story I remember most was about the cork-whip snake. When my mother-in-law was only about seven, she was out in the cotton fields with her siblings picking cotton. On the way back home she heard a rustling in the grass on the side of the road. Instead of running away, as her siblings did, being of a curious nature, she went to see what it was. As she parted the grass, a snake rose up to take a look at her as she was looking at it. Normally a child would scream and run - she did. According to her so did the snake, but it did not run away it ran after her - chased her across the field and whipped up and wrapped around her chest and started beating her with its head. It took three of her brothers to get it off of her - she even shows a small bluish bruise on her chest - which she swear is were she was permanently marked by the snake.

Essay #9:
What is family? As I crossed the Talmadge Bridge in to Savannah for the first time, it was as if my soul began to sing "welcome home." The late morning sky was the bluest of blues and the marsh grass was so vibrant and green, I wanted to leap from my car and dance in it. I fell in love with this magical city that I have called home for over eleven years now. I have loved and lost and loved again. I have been given God's ultimate blessing of being a mother to a wonderful little girl. I have girlfriends that are like sisters. Mr.Jere to pop in on downtown when I need advice. People watching in the Forsyth while I enjoy my morning coffee from the Sentinent Bean. Drives along the causeway with the windows rolled down and wind in my hair. My volunteer work with children and seeing hope resurface in a strangers eyes. Like Pat Conroy himself in The Water is Wide,I have created a special family that I never knew before, but am thankful for the love and the land.

Essay #10:
I don’t think southerners are more apt to have strange relatives, or even more likely to show them off, I simply think we are born tellers of tales and we can describe family angst and characters better than any group in literature. A master of this art through journalism is Rick Bragg. In “Somebody Told Me,” a collection of features that won him the Pulitzer, he described the agony of a family whose young daughter was killed by a tornado, the pathos that would lead Susan Smith to kill her children and the fanaticism felt at an Elvis fan club gathering. He describes southern people with such vividness, you feel you know them. Bragg’s memoir “All Over But the Shoutin’” is the ultimate portrait of southern family. The introduction itself is one of the best commentaries on southern tale-tellers I have ever read.

Go To Week 1's Essay Entries (Fate)

Go To Week 3's Essay Entries (Relationships)

related tags

Read More...

Comments

Please login or you can to leave a comment.

If you aren't registered, Register Now to start leaving comments.