“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.
