Erika Gentry
English 1001
September 6, 2014
In the novel, Our Time, John Edgar Wideman is desperate to connect, understand and
communicate with his younger brother Robby, who is currently serving time in jail. While John
was always well disciplined, educated and respectful, his brother was the family rebel roaming
the streets of Homewood looking for trouble. Now, John is a successful writer with a family
whereas Robby is being charged for a murder and a robbery. It is obvious that the two traveled
two very different paths at an early age and John is longing for an answer. When and how did his
brother, who shared the same mother, turn out so different? In his search, John depicts the stories
of many people and places that had some effect on both his brother and himself. He pulls apart
the details surrounding his mother, her father, their hometown, and his brother in order to better
understand what really happened. I feel as if their mother’s story is most pertinent to not only
Robby and John’s story but their current situation as well, she was the one who raised them both
and ultimately had the power to put Robby’s behavior to rest. Wideman chose to start his
mother’s story in the midst of her life which I thought was a bit peculiar, and because of that, I
am going to start her story from the beginning.
Growing up, John and Robby’s mother was referred to as a “French girl” which isn’t a
false description because that’s who she was. Her father was John French, and they lived in
Homewood, the old Homewood that is. The Homewood where people actually cared about their
community and their home. Where the neighbors would greet each other each day and every
person had nothing but respect for the people living on their street. John French taught is
daughter about patience, respect and most importantly the benefit of the doubt, in other words he
wanted his daughter to have a favorable opinion of others despite uncertainty. John and Robby’s
mother had, “fair, light, bright, almost white redbone complexion and fine brown hair” (pg.434)
and grew up on Cassina Way. She was a polite church girl who believed in upmost fairness.
Geraldine French watched her beautiful community turn to waste in a matter of years.
People no longer took pride in their home and the children lacked respect, but not her children.
Her three eldest children were, as I stated earlier, well disciplined, educated and knew their
place. Their mother taught them the same values that John French taught her as a child. But, that
all changed when Robert came along. Robby was the fourth and final child and always felt as if
he was living in his sibling’s shadows, so he began to defy his mother.
As Robby grew up, parenting and accounting for him was causing his mother to have a
lot of stress. She didn’t understand why her other children would listen to and obey her whereas
associating with Robby felt like, “talking to a wall” (pg. 428). After John moved away, leaving
Robby to continue to cause trouble, the only word to describe their mother was unhappy.
Completely and utterly unhappy. It made her sick to watch Robby speed in and out of the house
every day and wonder where he was going. She hated finding money missing from her purse and
empty syringes lying around the house. She ultimately felt alone and helpless knowing she lost
control of her son.
Garth’s death was the final straw for her. After that it became harder for her to give
people the benefit of the doubt and look through their eyes. She felt that the people at the
hospital were not giving Gath the proper treatment and ultimately left him to die. It was so hard
to watch Robby lose his best friend and Garth’s mother to lose her son. Their mother was no
longer gentle, patient and calm but became aggressive and bitter, especially after the court’s
ruling for Robby’s imprisonment. During that time, she understood completely that Robby had to
accept his consequences accordingly, but all she wanted was a fair treatment towards him. And
when she realized that Robby wasn’t receiving this treatment she began to hate. She could see
and understand the court’s side completely but it was clear that they had no interest in
understanding her side. She finally accepted that she was going to ultimately “suffer and grow
with Robby” during this time. From that point on, she only expected the worst and had to learn
how to cope with disaster.
It is clear that John Edgar Wideman didn’t include this long and specific story of his
mother just to fill in some white space. It obviously has some vital connection between Robby
and John’s story. John wanted to reflect on these details surrounding his mother and see if he
could uncover any underlying piece of information that will help in understanding his brother.
I think John included these stories about his mom, because he is trying desperately to
understand what went wrong. She had a good childhood and was taught all the right things. She
attended church every Sunday and never judged anyone, always giving people a second chance.
And when she became a mother she had three wonderful children, including John, who excelled
in school and at home. So why Robby? What event happened in his childhood that made him
turn out the way he did?
There are few reasons that their mother negatively influenced Robby’s upbringing.
Although she claimed she tried her hardest, I am sure there were times when she neglected to
give Robby the proper amount of attention with three other kids running around. Along with that,
after three children, I think Robby may have experienced a very different Homewood than his
brothers and sisters did. With his mother preoccupied, this gave Robby a chance to explore new,
but negative, things outside his home. And as John mentioned in the book, Robby’s birthday fell
around Christmas, so not only was this major holiday stealing his only day in the year, there
were also many deaths surrounding his birthday which led to much grief in later years.
All in all, I think that Robby wanted to become his own person. He didn’t want to be
sculpted into what his mother made his brother and sisters into. He wanted to be an individual,
and for him that meant the, “family rebel.” Looking back, I think John and Robby’s mother
could have tried harder. Instead of watching Robby ruin his life, she could have stepped in and
showed him who the authority figure is. This way he wouldn’t have been running around the
neighborhood throughout the night causing trouble and he might have ended up more like his
brother. I don’t think John necessarily blames his mother for the man that Robby has become,
but after much thought and reflection I’m sure he can see that she did have some influence on his
character.