"Junior" by Katherine D. Stutzman (O.Henry Anthology)

Once upon a time, when the influence of the American New Critics was at its height, it was considered de rigeur that a work of literary art should have an ending that called back to the beginning. Above all, a work should feel whole and unitary, the critics of that era felt. This is no longer considered a necessity, but it is still nice to find a work that feels as whole as "Junior" by Katherine D. Stutzman. It makes it easy to understand why critics have felt this was such an important goal to strive for. 

Nearly all of the story has a very limited scenery. It almost all takes place at the farm along the Herne River where Junior has lived his whole life. Junior takes care of cows and his father in equal measure. When he finds out that the Herne is going to be dammed up and the town of Willards Mill flooded, "Junior Ogilvy does not alter his routine." 

That opening line of the story could well serve as a synopsis for all of it, in that most of the slow drama in the story involves Junior trying to maintain equilibrium and normalcy as his town is about to disappear, along with his farm, his way of life, and, it so happens, his father, who is dying in the room upstairs. Junior and his father are a perfect example of individuals trying to live their private lives when something big and public comes along to interrupt them. In this case, there has evidently been some kind of eminent domain claim made on the land where they live that means they will have to move. It's the sort of event that reminds those affected how contingent everything in life is, how the things we've done for so long that we not only take them for granted, but even take for granted taking them for granted, can be taken from us. It's a reminder that there is a public and political side to life even for those trying the hardest to keep it out and live privately. 

"Try to keep it out" is what Junior does to the very last. There is a great moment when he gets a letter from a sister he hardly knows. She lives at Fort Drum in New York, where she is married to a soldier. She is offering to bring their father to live with her, since Willards Mill is about to be flooded. She can provide for the old man's comfort while Junior goes off to make a new life for himself. It's a very fair and thoughtful offer, but Junior can't bring himself to accept it. He can't even respond, because responding would be acknowledging that the thing is about to happen. When he first gets the letter, he "does so in the morning, feeling that it will be better to carry the letter's contents out into the cold, into the barn, among the cows with their breath steaming from their nostrils, rather than carrying it into his little room under the stairs and into his sleep." He physically removes the letter as far from his inner life as he can, hoping this will also keep it emotionally and psychologically removed. 

This story reminds me of TMBG's best album

Junior isn't in complete denial. He worries that his father might not die before they have to leave. He sells his herd, knowing they can't stay. He does prepare for leaving on some level, including building a coffin for his father with the scraps of lumber left at the Willards Mill hardware store. He sees signs all around him of other people preparing to leave, and he knows he will have to, as well, and soon. Nonetheless, he stays until almost the very end, until at last his father dies and he can put him in the coffin he built. He puts the coffin on the cart he used to use for carrying milk, and he heads off. Here is where the end loops back to the beginning so neatly: "When at last Junior Ogilvy leaves Willards Mill, he does not go down through town and away along the River Road. He walks beside his mule out behind the farmhouse and across the pasture. He will find his way up and over the hill, to another valley, to a place where he can put his father into the ground and begin again." 

The beginning of the story was Junior trying to maintain normalcy as the big world was forcing change upon him. The end is him determined to reestablish a new normalcy after enduring the change. Junior is an incredibly normal and unremarkable person--even the name "Junior" suggests that he is not original--but his determination to continue on with his normal life, to find meaning in it for himself, is admirable. In a setting largely circumscribed by the shabby furniture of his bedroom or the bleak landscape seen from the window or the cold air of the barn, Junior struggles to make it all mean something and to remain steadfast in his belief in what it means. 

Aside one

Let's be honest. For most of human history, and very much including the present, country folk have been conservative and city folk have represented change. Pastoral settings are the site of people with traditional morality, while cities contain those with a more flexible moral vision. Free-thinking city folks tend to either idealize the country or to belittle it. When they are belittling it, it's by calling its denizens things like "xenophobic." 

Junior doesn't spend much timing musing about outsiders. The story takes place less than a year after the end of World War I, but Junior doesn't even consider this fact. He doesn't waste any breath or thought cursing those city slickers who came up with the idea to flood the valley, undoubtedly to build something that will benefit them and not him. But I think we can understand why someone in Junior's position might be a little suspect of outsiders. Part of the psyche of working the land, I suppose, is to believe in the importance of permanence. Putting all that work into the soil would be impossible if one didn't believe things would be more or less the same tomorrow as they are today. Putting this story in Junior's perspective makes the supposed "xenophobia" of country dwellers a little easier to understand, because there isn't much that comes from outside that is really there for their benefit. 

Aside two (the Internet sucks now) 

Where the hell was Willards Mill? Where is the Herne River? A Google search, which is now more about Google's AI than its old algorithms, keeps insisting I mean the Rhine in Germany, which apparently goes by a town called Herne. I cannot convince it that this isn't what I mean. The story is pretty clearly not in Germany, not with a town called "Willards Mill" and a complete lack of mention of the war. If I try to search Willards Mill, I get deluged (hahahhaha deluged) with stuff about a fictional town from some show called "Stan Against Evil." Flipping it all around and adding in terms about flooding and so on doesn't improve my results. The Internet sucks now, because it's trying to think for me, and it won't believe me if I try to tell it that's not what I'm thinking of. 

So either this is historical fiction set in a town someone in the U.S. with a local history known only to those from the area, or this is a completely made-up episode. It doesn't really matter too much to me, but I do wish I had more confidence that the Internet wasn't ganging up on me to make it harder to find out.