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Eric Lunde
Dr. Murdock
ENGL2089
25 January 2015
Wideman Project: A Mothers Tale of Despair
Through John Edgar Wideman’s, Our Time, he illustrates the stories of the people in
his life and how they were ultimately affected by his brother’s incarceration. Their mother
was especially affected by Robby’s apparent downfall. Due to this she underwent a series
of changes that in a way undermined her upbringing and rules set forth by her father.
Throughout this project I will tell you the story of John and Robby’s mother, her story’s
connection with their own, and will illustrate the relationship between community and
personal identity.
In old Homewood the Wideman’s mother was born to John French. At the time
Homewood was a different place than it is today. It was a close-knit community with a
concrete set of morals and values, based on the resident’s common identity. These informal
rules kept the peace on their own, and made for an extremely self reliant neighborhood.
Little outside help was needed for the community to remain whole, and problems were
dealt with on their own. John French had and identity in this community. He was a man
known for his values, values that he passed down to his children. The French name was a
name of respect. This respect was drawn from the family’s righteous beliefs in God, Family,
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and Community. John French protected both his family and the community of Homewood.
He did however have a murky appearance with his “big brown country hat” and his
gambling and drinking habits. But nonetheless he was known as a righteous pillar of
Homewood. The French girls were afforded the same level of respect as John was, likely to
avoid any repercussions along the lines of what happened to Elias Brown and the man who
tried to cheat John at a game of dice. With a father such as John, the Wideman’s mother
adopted many of the same morals from her upbringing.
Before Garth’s death John and Robby’s mother often gave the benefit of the doubt to
other people. An ability of which John said he envied greatly. This was an ability that was
also handed down by their grandfather John French. But not the only one, “She had always
seemed to me to exemplify the tolerance, the patience, the long view epitomized in her
father.” (Wideman, 701), as John Wideman described. While these characteristics made her
calm and collected at the face of opposition, she was by no means submissive. She refused
to back down against those with power and authority, especially if they abused said power.
But she afforded them with the same attention as everyone else. Another one of her father’s
lessons is to treat others with the same respect you expect. She refused to hold grudges or
hatred, but that all changed after the death of Garth.
When Garth died, it tore both Robby and his mother apart. Seeing her son mourn
and revolt due to the loss of his best friend changed her. She no longer contained the same
capacity of forgiveness, nor any of the other values instilled in her by her father John. When
the emergency care “physicians” did not do anything for Garth but give him a Band-Aid and
turn him to the door, his injuries worsened and led to his eventual demise. By the time
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Garth even got to the hospital it was to late. And for this Robby’s mother was instilled with
hatred for those responsible. She hated the fact that Garth’s death could have been
prevented if the physicians just cared a little more, that a black teen was shot, instead of
writing him off. This sort of racial discrimination was apparent during the time and was an
unavoidable reality. She hated what the death did to Garth’s family, and more importantly
what it did to her son Robby. After this point Robby just fell deeper and deeper into the
slums, eventually leading to him robbing and killing a man. With Robby’s fall, his mother
fell along his side and would be forever changed by the ordeal. In John’s words, “In spite of
all her temperamental and philosophic resistance to extremes, my mother would be
radicalized.” (Wideman, 762).
Robby was caught after his crime and entered a system that only seen the color of
his skin, and the blood on his hands. His mother faced a situation that no mother should
ever have to be put in. She was forced accept the fact that the son whom she loved deeply,
is now a criminal, and a killer. He had killed someone else’s son, which they loved just as
much. She accepted the fact, but knew that she was still his mother and wasn’t going to
stand idly by as the system treated him as a black criminal first, and a human being second.
“Her life to that point had equipped her with values, with tools for sorting out and coping
with disaster.” (Wideman, 763). These are the same values that she obtained from her
father, John French. She was going to fight this system not because she believed that her
son shouldn’t be punished, but because the system was not capable of granting humanity.
The justice system was the farthest thing from being fair; her father passed something that
of course it’s importance down too.
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When this fairness was unreachable and defeat was imminent she adopted hatred.
She hated everything about this system, which unjustly treats her son. This hatred, not
unlike the hatred after Garth’s death, consumed her. Their mother now expects the worst.
She no longer holds the benefit of the doubt for others. After Garth’s death and Robby’s
imprisonment, John Wideman could hardly recognize his mother.
John and Robby’s story plays a vital part in their own of course. She is their mother.
She raised them and was a figure of understanding, and righteousness not unlike their
grandfather John French. But now that she has undergone these transformations, and
adaptation of hatred she is no longer recognizable. She is no longer the mother they grew
up with, and that was a hard thing for the brothers to deal with.
In their mother’s story, the connection between personal identity and community
are abundant. Homewood shaped their mother’s identity in many ways. The community’s
values, informal sanctions, and the community’s own identity came off onto their mother.
John French shared the same values as others in Homewood, and played an important role
in shaping her as well. Many communities work in this way, as a way to shape future
generations identities in some way, no matter how miniscule it is.
Wideman, John E. "Our Time." Ways of Reading. Tenth ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's,
2014. 422-59. Print.