Courtney Oldfield
Dr. Robert Murdock
ENGL 2089 Sec 093
6 September 2015
The Wideman Project
“Our Time”
While Wideman writes about several stories in his essay the one that stands out
are the ones about his mother. Most children have undying love for their mothers. John
is no different. As John Wideman writes the essay and the stories about his mother, the
reader can see the difference occurring in his mother. At first, from his glance from
living far away, it isn’t much of problem that is recognized by John. He downplays the
messes and damage, which Robby’s life has on his mother. But as the stories continue,
there is definitely a change to be seen. Maybe it is due to over time the mother learns to
accept her children and problems or could it be that society changed her.
In the beginning, mother talks to John about Robby’s life changes after Garth died
but John half listened but as his brother is retelling the story about the robbery and
killing, then John starts to remember what his mom had told him six years earlier. “My
mom and I were in the kitchen of the house on Tokay Street. My recollections of details
was vague at first but something about the conversation had made a lasting impression
because six years later, hearing Robby say the name Garth brought back my mother’s
words.” (Wideman 428). Like any mother, John and Robby’s mother worried about her
kids. She especially worried about Robby because unlike her other kids, Robby doesn’t
listen to her. “You’d misbehave but I could talk to you or smack you if I had to and
you’d straighten up. With Robby it’s like talking to a wall.” (Wideman 428)
John begins to notice more how the dangers and errors of Robby’s ways are
affecting his mother. John figured Robby was going through his brushes with the law but
he thought Robby would grow up and start behaving well. “In the meantime the most
serious consequences of his wildness was Mom’s devastating unhappiness.” (Wideman
429) But he didn’t and “She couldn’t sustain the detachment, the laissez-faire optimism
I had talked myself into.” (Wideman 429). Their mother would hope and pray for Robby
to return safe and John could worry about the effects on his mother but he knew the
blame was all on his brother.
“Shame the way they did that boy.” (Wideman 430) Their mother describes how
Garth’s death has changed Robby and this is where the reader starts to notice the change
in her. “Until she told me Garth’s story I guess I hadn’t realized how much my mother
had begun to change.” (Wideman 430) Mother always showed patience and also
followed her father’s favorite saying “Give em’ the benefit of the doubt.” (Wideman
430) Mother was very kind, understanding and always gave the benefit of the doubt.
John loved that in his mother until she “related the story of Garth’s death and my
brother’s anger and remorse, her tone was uncompromisingly bitter.” (Wideman 431)
Mother was very upset, not understanding and viewed “They had killed Garth….the
battle lines were drawn.” (Wideman 431) Again John states how he notices his mother’s
change, “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
Robby.” (Wideman 431) Mother was the kind of mother who didn’t voice her opinion in
public and she knew news stories confirmed her beliefs of corruption in politicians and
she understood not to sweat the small things in life. When Robby was charged for the
robbery and murder, their mother loved him. She tried to believe in the “benefit of the
doubt” when she knew Robby did the crime and should do the time but she also thought
there was a middle ground whereas he should be treated fairly and humane. “Fairness
was what made her willing to give him up to punishment even thought her love screamed
no and her hands clung to his shoulders. Fairness was what she expected from the other
side in their dealings with her and her son.” (Wideman 433) She understood the
workings of what happens to black people, she understood the laws and wanted to believe
in the kindness of others like her father once did. John describes his mother’s upbringing
as one of respect, trust, spiritual and a lady. “A French girl was somebody who lived in
Cassina Way, somebody you didn’t fool with or talk nasty to.” (Wideman 434) Her
hometown was fine until outsiders started to change her hometown by closing grocery
stores, and other businesses forcing her to “realize her personal unhappiness and grief
were inseparable from what was happening out there.” (Wideman 435) With those
society changes, “She decided to train herself to be as wary, as unforgiving as she’d once
been ready to live and let live.” John notices the change more in his mother here,
“Things she’d say or do startled me, set me back on my heels because I didn’t recognize
my mother in them.” (Wideman 435) “…..I was hearing a new voice. Something about
the voice struck me then, but I missed what was novel and crucial.” (Wideman 436)
Robby even explains to John that he wrote mother a letter trying to say he was
sorry for “spoiling her life” (Wideman 447) especially after all mother did for him.
Robby explains he could vision mother’s face adding wrinkles from his misbehaving.
John tells how mother was suspicious of Robby’s drug habit, how Robby stole money
from her and how she believed it wasn’t Robby. Mothers knows! She knew when Robby
was up to no good when she tried to get him up to go to his own birthday party. She
begged him almost to tears. But Robby didn’t go, instead stealing his brother’s TV,
selling it for drugs along we tearing up the house to look like a robbery. When mother
came home she knew then that “Robby as gone. Somebody else walking round in his
skin. Mom was wounded in ways I hadn’t begun to guess at.” (Wideman 454). When
Robby was arrested for the drugs, the police told his mother to leave Robby in jail but
Robby pleaded to be released and mother gave in to pay the fine. This was the beginning
of the end for Robby because shortly after this incident is when Robby is sentenced to
death and the confirmation for his mother.
After reading “Our Time” the reader can clearly see and understand Wideman’s
changes in his mother. Wideman clearly demonstrates how his mother changed and he
was blind to it in Robby’s younger years. But he is beginning to see the toil it has taken
on her over the years especially after Garth died. Wideman wrote how the outside
community changed his mother when the doctors didn’t treat Garth and let him die. The
readers also learn how mother grew up to believe in the “benefit of the doubt” but lost
that belief when Robby was arrested and sent to jail. Wideman saw the different signs in
his mother but tended to not believe in the changes. A mother can be calm, quiet and
respectful but when numerous things try her beliefs then she becomes a changed mother.
Works Cited
Wideman, John Edgar. "Our Time." Ways of Reading: An Anthology for Writers. Tenth
ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's. 420-458. Print.
Bartholomae, David, Tony Petrosky, and Stacey Waite. Ways of Reading: An Anthology
for Writers. Tenth ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's. Print.