Christian Allusions in A Long and Happy Life

“All my childhood stories, I see now, were mysteries. I heard them as mysteries, whatever they were. What they were at first was Bible stories” (“Needed” 211). The author Reynolds Price explains his interest in reading and writing stories in terms of the Bible stories he heard and read as a child. He shares examples from his life and “suggest[s] that the normal life around [him] and [his] first encounters with storybooks worked strongly together to create both [his] further curiosit[y] as a reader and [his] compulsion to manufacture stories as a life's occupation” (212). The reason for the stories that he heard and then writes is to answer the question “Why are they doing this? – Abraham to Isaac? Jesus to Mary? My father and mother to their lovely selves?” (212). Stories are meant to explain why people do what they do. His first novel, A Long and Happy Life, is about a woman, Rosacoke Mustian. Her story involves premarital sex, pregnancy, and the eventual decision to marry the child's father, Wesley Beavers. Perceiving allusions in this story to the stories from Price's childhood (the Bible) invites insight into why the characters involved in the novel made their choices, and what lessons may be learned from them. The Bible stories that Price grew up with were not directly from the Bible, but from the biblical interpretive community he grew up in, so they include more then direct biblical quotations. The epigraph and four events from the novel allude to particular events from the Bible or strong Christian themes and lend significance to them. Knowing the significance of these events should elucidate the mysteries of the characters presented in the novel.

The epigraph is found prior to the beginning of the novel, and may be used to introduce a theme. Allen Shepherd examines the epigraph in this novel and writes that it merely consists of “three lines from the Divine Comedy, in the original tongue,” and “doubtless smacks of elitist presumption” (12) due to its esoteric nature. However, when examining this novel in relation to Christianity it should not be ignored. Shepherd presents a translation of these lines: “for I have seen first, all the winter through, the / thorn display itself hard and forbidding, and / then upon its summit bear the rose;” (12). He comments about this translation, “[b]ut with the conclusion [of the novel] freshly in mind, [the reader] may well find that the epigraph raises a number of enlightening possibilities as to how one should read the novel and interpret the fate of its heroine, Rosacoke Mustian” (12). The Divine Comedy is not from the Bible and may seem unrelated to a pursuit of how the this novel relates to Bible stories. However, this epic poem draws heavily from Christian lore and represents a major interpretation and understanding of biblical knowledge. The connection between the epigraph and the novel may not be explicit, but it certainly exists. Shepherd offers two possible connections: it may, “intimate a good life, a happy future. . . for Rosacoke” (13), or it could be interpreted to be, “the thesis which Dante illustrates in the passage is essentially that one should not be deceived by false appearances or come to hasty conclusions” (13) meaning that the story is not finished at the end of the novel. This warns the reader to not assume that Rosa's agreement to marriage means that her life with Wesley will be long or happy. He then finishes with, “The question, or the answerable question, however, relates not so much to her future, but to how she blooms in the course of the novel. What the story means is the way she changes, what she discovers, and what she can do with what she learns” (13). By understanding that the story may not be intended to describe Rosa's future but just her journey through life, new interpretations of the novel can then be applied to individual understanding and response. These lines allude to the Christian idea that only God knows all things as the next lines of the poem include a horrific destruction of a vessel right before it makes a safe harbor. Perhaps we can see that the consequences of actions are not always clear, we can only choose well and hope for the best.

Shortly into the story Rosacoke is asked by a pastor (not her pastor) what her favorite scripture passage is, she replies, “Then Jesus asked him what is thy name and he said Legion” (57). This verse comes from the following episode:

And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, Who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains: Because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man tame him. And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones. But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him, And cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not. For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit. And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many. And he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country. Now there was there nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding. And all the devils besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them. And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, (they were about two thousand;) and were choked in the sea. (Mark 5:2–13)

Rosacoke thinks about this scripture at a time when she knows she will soon be alone with Wesley, her “maybe” boyfriend. The passage is about a man possessed by demons, not just one, but a multitude of them. After the pastor leaves Wesley leads her into the woods and, “did what he generally did around her face and lips and her white neck. And she let him go till he took heart and moved to what was underneath, trying for what he had never tried before” (63). He wants to have sex with her, and even brought protection so they would be safe, but she refuses and the night ends. This scripture doesn't seem to bring out any particularly useful information unless the verse is connected to a later event. In contrast to this first night the next night they are alone together, three months later, they have sex. Their copulation is described from Rosa's view: “. . .soon taking heart and oaring her as if he was nothing but the loveliest boat on earth and she was the sea that took him where he had to go, and then multiplying into what seemed a dozen boys swarming on her with that many hands and mouths and that many high little whines coming up to their lips” (emphasis added 111–112). The connection here is the multiplying into a dozen boys. The scripture Rosa thinks about describes a man possessed by a multitude of demons, enough to fill 2,000 swine. When she has sex with Wesley, she perceives him as a boy multiplied into a dozen boys. Wesley “who whispered to her softer than ever, 'I thank you, Mae' (which wasn't any part of her name) and not knowing what he had said, rolled off her and straightaway threw his flashlight on the sky” (112), is so possessed by something he does not even say Rosa's name or realize he says Mae's. By connecting Rosa's verse to the events that later transpire, Wesley (or any man) can be seen as possessed while in the act of sex. A man thus engaged is controlled by his hormones and physical drives, not his mind, and so will do and say things without conscious realization, showing that men, by nature, can be possessed (by demons or hormones) and lose their rationality. That Rosacoke thought of this scripture shortly before she would be alone with Wesley may imply she knew that he would lose control of himself, and only she would have a voice of reason in their physical relationship.

James Schiff also noted an interesting correlation between the Bible and this novel. He writes “[t]hough Wesley is steering the motorcycle, Rosacoke has determined their destination, the church at Mount Moriah, which seems fitting since Rosacoke's unstated objective throughout the novel it so get Wesley to a church to marry him” (31). He then connects this idea from the novel to the Bible: “[p]erhaps Moriah, the place of Isaac's near-sacrifice by his loving father, Abraham, is significant. Rosacoke too will have to offer a sacrifice, ceding a part of herself and her ideals in order to be with Wesley” (31). It may seem a stretch to connect the story of Rosa and Wesley to Abraham and Isaac; however, the parallel is insightful. Abraham is commanded to sacrifice his favorite son. He submits to the will of God and takes his son to the mountain to be sacrificed, and through an angelic visitation the command is retracted and a lamb is sacrificed instead. Abraham is willing to give up what (who) he loves in order to do what an external force dictates, and only through a last minute miracle is he able to continue following this command and keep what he loves. Rosacoke first sacrifices her virginity to “hold” Wesley, and no miracle saves her from this sacrifice. However, upon Wesley's marriage proposal, Rosa at first intends to reject him. She thinks: “He hasn't got to take no share of this load I brought on myself. I am free from him. God knows I am free” (188). She then attends the pageant, intending to sacrifice the marriage she had worked towards because she felt it right; however, at the last minute she changes her mind because, “it was her duty, for all it would mean. But also it was her wish” (209). She changes her mind while holding another baby, whose influence may affect her changing will. She realizes she has a responsibility to her child, and so instead of sacrificing her dream (Abraham's favored son, Isaac) she sacrifices her feelings of freedom and individual will (a last minute find of something else, a lamb). By doing so she does what an external force commands (society recognizing the baby's name), but also gets what she wished to have from the beginning (holding Wesley).

Even before the widely known story of Abraham comes the story of Eve succumbing to the snake's temptation. She lives in paradise, presumably happy, until approached by the serpent: “And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day you eat thereof, then you eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:4–5). She then eats the forbidden fruit, convinces Adam to eat, and they both are cast from paradise. In the novel a strong parallel to this story is found. Rosa plays Eve as she lives in adolescence free from the responsibilities of marriage or children, not directly involved in sexual matters. Wesley must then be Adam, maybe not innocent, but certainly involved in Rosa's fall from innocence. He is seduced by Rosa when she discovers a way to "hold" him. The role of the snake must then be played by Rosa's brother Milo. He claims: “Sissie, [his wife] come tell Rosa what your uncle said was the way to get old Milo” (86). He sings those instructions: “Pull up your petticoat, pull down your drawers, / Give him one look at old Santy Claus” (86). Rosa then goes to her room and, “cried over Wesley for the first time in her life” (86). She asks herself, “What must I do about Wesley Beavers?” (87). Her answer is: “[i]t was the second time she had asked the question, and the only answer anyone had offered was Milo's jingle. Milo was the closest kin she had that was grown. . . and he had sung that to her” (87). The only answer she receives in her pursuit of Wesley is to seduce him. With these thoughts in her head, she goes to take a picture of a child, and stop by Wesley's house, not sure if Wesley would be there. Wesley is home and asks to drive her home; they walk into the woods and end in the broomstraw field. Possibly with Milo's song echoing in her head, Rosa initiates sex with Wesley, completing Rosa's loss of innocence and resulting in pregnancy. Both could be seen to have been cast out of the garden (youth), forced to mature with the impending responsibility of childbirth. The garden is not sexual innocence but freedom from the responsibility of child-rearing. Eve only knew she was commanded not to eat the fruit, and when confronted with an opportunity and a good reason to do so, did eat. Rosa did not know how to keep Wesley interested, and when presented with a way to do so, acted upon it. Price may not have intended this similarity between Eve and Rosa, but the parallel is clear nonetheless. From both, perhaps, a reader can learn that when faced with the opportunity to fulfill desires the knowledge of how to do so coupled with the opportunity creates a nearly irresistible temptation.

The pageant mentioned earlier is to celebrate Christmas and is held at Rosa's church. Lynn Sadler writes: “Price's earliest experiences, then, draw visual and biblical narrative together,” continuing with:

Elsewhere, he [Price] describes such pictures as enabling him to imagine significant deeds by children and recalls his near epiphany at his first Christmas pageant, when he was four or five: 'I wouldn't have been able to state my personal logic, but the substance was something very much like this---A child is the center of Christmas. All these adults are gathered to watch him. A child is the center of an entire faith. I am a child. I matter in the world'” (Sadler 2).

She finishes this thought with “Rosacoke Mustian works out what to do with her life as she plays Mary in the Christmas pageant” (3). The birth of Jesus is an event celebrated throughout the world through various pageantry; it is the focal point of the Christian religion, and it has greatly affected world history. Such an important Biblical story is not without a parallel in Price's book, as pointed out by Sadler. While Rosacoke is playing Mary in her town's Christmas pageant, she decides what her future will be. She is no doubt influenced by her unborn child and the future she wants for it. She describes her final decision (similar to Reynolds epiphany), “And she knew that was her answer, for all it meant, the answer she would have to give when the pageant was over and Wesley drove her home and stopped in the yard and make his offer again– 'Are we riding to Dillon tonight?' –because it was her duty, for all it would mean. But also it was her wish” (209). Her realization during this Christmas celebration may also echo the actions of Mary: “And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart” (Luke 2:18–19). To both women their child was central to their lives and decision making, and, to Price, a child was central to faith. While Rosacoke's pregnancy may not have world-reaching ramifications, to her (and likely any pregnant woman) it is something that will change the course of her life and all future decisions.

One of the great questions literature seems to answer is why people do what they do. By drawing on the Bible and Christian interpretation of it, whether intentionally or not, Price is able to craft a work that gives good insight into why his fictional characters make their choices. This is not an exhaustive comparison of the Bible and this book, merely an introduction. The Bible has a long tradition of Christian interpretation and has been interpreted in almost as many ways as it has readers, so a story written with it in mind seems to also be open to interpretation enabling many readers to find meaning in it. A Long and Happy Life is a novel ready to enter in, with the Bible and Christian literature, the ongoing conversation of what makes a happy life. By presenting the characters in a Christian context the mystery of their actions it made clearer. While this novel does not necessarily give guidance to the reader, by understanding the characters in it, a reader can have a better understanding of the choices they make, the ways they grow, and the consequences of their actions. A reader with the knowledge of biblical stories and their Christian interpretations will see them echoed in this novel and be better able to see the truthfulness of the characters' actions and the application of both the Bible and this novel into real life.

Works Cited

The Holy Bible. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 1979. Print. 2003. Reprint. Authorized King James Vers with Explanatory Notes and Cross References to the Standard Works of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Price, Reynolds. A Long and Happy Life. 1962. New York: Scribner, 2009. Print.

----. “You Are Needed Now and Always Will Be.” A Common Room: Essays 1954–1987. New York: Atheneum, 1989. 210–217. Print.

Sadler, Lynn Veach. “Reynolds Price and Religion: The “Almost Blindingly Lucid” Palpable World.” The Southern Quarterly 26.2 (1988): 1-11. Print.

Schiff, James A. Understanding Reynolds Price. Columbia: UP of South Carolina. 1996. 24–39. Print.

Shepherd, Allen. “Reynolds Price's A Long and Happy Life: The Epigraph.” Notes on Contemporary Literature. Georgia: West Georgia College. 12–13. Print.