Aloma's main conflict in C.E. Morgan's All the Living (besides dealing with Orren's callousness) is whether to stay with her husband on their Kentucky farm or to strive for independence elsewhere. While Aloma had a rough childhood and an unorthodox adolescence at a settlement school, she is initially inept to life on a farm...or at least that's how Orren sees it. So he takes it upon himself to do all the farm work while Aloma is stuck inside cooking and cleaning--and resenting him all the while. So why does she stay? I asked myself this question repeatedly while reading about Aloma's and Orren's aggressive fights and subsequent making-up. This does not seem like healthy behavior by any means, especially for a live-in couple who only have each other. If Aloma detests Orren's distance and anger so much, then why doesn't she leave? She does cook and clean, trying to make the old house new again, so she is capable of at least surviving on her own. Once she acquires a job as a church pianist, she proves that she can not only survive, but thrive independently of Orren.
Aloma's hidden desire for Bell the preacher heightens my questioning and wish for her to leave Orren behind her. After the Fenton family's accident, Orren and Aloma are both orphans, but Bell is the man who shows Aloma any sympathy. Of course, Aloma tries to play off her own parents' passing as a trivial matter, as if she doesn't need them or anyone, but Bell sees through her façade (137). She's not even sure what she wants, with which Bell confronts her. He says, "Sometimes you got a cagey thing about you. Like you can't decide if you want to run off or get took in" (141). Perhaps Aloma has been independent for so long that it's all she knows and is comfortable with. Or maybe she's tired of independence and is ready for someone like Bell to love her as she's always wanted to be loved. Unlike Bell, Orren does not seem capable of this love because of his immense pain from his family's deaths. Not that this is his fault, of course, but his quickness to shut Aloma out is detrimental, especially since she is damaged from her childhood as well.
Aloma and Orren met while they were still in school, and their immaturity shows in the way they deal with home life and with each other. "Bell was right, she was tenoned to Orren...She only knew that she had been foolish, for thinking that the easy thing was the one worth wanting" (175). In the end, Aloma stays with Orren, but why? Is it a matter of this convenience that she once found desirable, or has he really begun to warm up to her? By the end of the novel, Orren has begun to show a character complexity, especially with the calf's birthing. However, the two of them never seem to progress as a couple (aside from frequent sex even when Aloma is unwilling); Orren is too overwhelmed with the death of his family to provide a stable home life for Aloma. Since she hopes that he will change, Aloma chooses not to leave Orren for Bell and remains trapped in a relationship lacking in love.
Although throughout the novel, Orren does not outwardly show Aloma any affection, I do not think that their relationship completely lacks love. For a while, I thought that Aloma should leave, although it was because of both of their behavior, not just Orren’s. Neither one of them was behaving well, which made their relationship seem unhealthy. Like you said, they are both very immature, and because of this, they do not understand how to love one another or even connect with each other at all. Both of them are lost within themselves, their own problems, and their own desires and therefore fail to see these things within the other person. However, by the end of the novel, both Aloma and Orren seem to realize this. After working in the fields with Orren, Aloma goes upstairs to avoid him in the kitchen and realizes “she had fought not to love even as she had asked him for love” (174). Later, after the birth of the calf, Orren says “I’ve not had a right understanding” (186) about their relationship, acknowledging his misunderstanding of Aloma. Although they continue to argue and their relationship is anything but smooth and comfortable, their increasing mental maturity gives me hope that their relationship will continue to develop and they will both be as happy as they could be with anyone.
ReplyDeleteWhile I would definitely agree that Orren and Aloma do not have a healthy relationship, I don´t think the dysfunction is caused by a lack of love on Orren´s part. He´s obviously not very good at communicating his feelings to Aloma most of the time, but there are several moments where Orren´s genuine love and concern shines through. One such moment is when Aloma reveals that she´s only eaten in a restaurant once or twice. When he hears this, Orren “turned the truck around in the middle of the block and gunned back to the restaurant” (50). Even though money is incredibly tight and it made much more sense to eat at home, Orren takes Aloma out to eat. There´s no logical reason, just that Orren loved Aloma and wanted to do something nice for her. Similarly, after learning that Aloma quit her job playing piano at the church, Orren admits, “´I like having you around…You don´t think I notice when you´re up there, but I do. I hear you singing´” (191). Despite all the fighting and immaturity, Orren shows a softer, more intimate side here when he tells Aloma how he feels. Though these brief moments of affection are not enough to make Orren and Aloma´s relationship a stable or healthy one, I do think it counts for something that there is some level of genuine affection underneath it all. And I guess that makes the ending a bit easier to handle/ understand.
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