Upon reading A Jonquil for Mary Penn, a short story by Wendell Berry, contained in a collection of stories titled, Fidelity: Five Stories, I came across a character that I identify with and yet desire to become. The character, Elton Penn, is younger than I, yet a year older in his marriage, he is just a step ahead of me. The nineteen year old has been truly fending for himself for five years, also a step ahead of me.
I do not wish to be a farmer in an antiquated, poor rural community. I do admire the community in which the Penns live however and wish with all hope that my life will be surrounded by people of such character.
I find myself similar to Elton Penn in my insatiable appetite for ambition. This is evidenced by yet another entrepreneurial idea and ambition for my life. I however have so many and am so little rested by the haunting of my pursuits, that I must let yesterday's new one depart or at least sit on the back burner.
So I identify with this character, whose mood swings can be detrimental to his self-confidence. I love my wife and hope to pursue her as he does in this story. (note, ending to give away here) In the end, Mary finds herself forlorn and forgotten. She kept herself hidden emotionally from her husband, and was bothered by his apparently lack of notice. She awakes from her nap, a welcome slumber to pacify her sickly weakness, to find her friend rocking in a chair in the same room. She knew. Knew that her husband, Elton, had cared, had picked up on her warry nature and had acted.
This is an amazing story. Idealistic, happilly ever-after kind of stuff that leaves the reader sentimentally sappy. Berry has a way with words and a method of plotting out the story that is a-linear but dynamic with momentum. This is the second story of his that I have digested and I find myself in each one wondering where the story will end up. Eventually, after jaunting down different rabbit trails, the reader meets up with the stream of the story and comes to its end.
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