An interesting aspect of the novel is the development of
Aloma and Orren’s relationship. It progresses quickly from the time the two first
meet even though Orren is the first boywith whom Aloma becomes intimate. Their
ability to come to know one another is hampered by a drive for physical
fulfillment. Initially, on their first time out together, Morgan says, “She
liked the way he was silent and attentive when she talked about piano, as
though she were telling him about a country he had never seen”. After Aloma and
Orren begin to have sex, it seems a good amount of the serious communication
stops. Morgan says that the sex “brought the fact of Orren into a proximity she
had not previously imagined”. Though they both knew they wanted different
things out of life, she to leave the mountains and study piano and he to
possess his own farm, they do not consider these distinct differences
significant enough to be a problem when they move in together.
Even after Orren and Aloma begin to live together, they fail
to communicate. Orren is deeply grieving the loss of his mother and brother,
but he will not talk about this with Aloma, preferring instead to throw himself
into his work and be moodily withdrawn from her. She doesn’t attempt to get him
to talk to her but rather becomes offended and lashes out at him as well. They
fight continuously but never sit down to discuss and solve their problems.
There is much the two don’t understand about one another. Aloma cannot fathom
the attachment and duty Orren feels to the land. Morgan says Aloma “thought too
of how Orren did not know this part of her, he’d not once seen her play piano,
she believed he did not know what she was capable of”. It is amazing that this
couple can live together and yet the two of them cannot understand such an
essential part of the other.
One would hope at some point during their first three months
living together Aloma and Orren would realize that their bond had not been
created through communication, common interests, and desire for the happiness
of the other but rather through sex and their desire to have what they want.
Instead, they decide to marry during a rare and brief moment in which they are
both in good moods. Immediately after the wedding, they are once again at each
other’s throats. At the end of the novel Aloma begins to realize the mistake
she has made as she comes to understand she has resigned herself to a life of
endless conflict. Morgan says Aloma “had married someone who was fastened to
this place, to these foothills, and she could not understand him no matter how
hard she tried”. Aloma begins to wonder to herself if he is the reason she is
not happy or if she is the cause of her own discontentment.
I think you make a great point by discussing how poorly Orren and Aloma seem to communicate, especially in the first few months after Aloma moves out to the farm. I felt the tension as soon as Aloma walked in the front door of the farm house, and have continually felt uncomfortable reading as Orren and Aloma interact ever since. When Aloma and Orren first met, there seemed to be an immediate connection. Their very first conversation describes by Aloma includes “’My name is Orren Clay Fenton’ he said and she liked his bookless voice and the way his vowels clung to the back of his throat” (17). Even a simple gesture such as saying his name was attractive to Aloma at the time. This is a stark contrast to how she feels toward Orren once she gets to the farm. Everything seems to be tense and argumentative, from their conversations to their body language with one another (even when being intimate). There is never a soft moment between Orren and Aloma.
ReplyDeleteI also found it interesting that Aloma’s immediate disgust with the state of the farmhouse piano seemed to resemble her disappointment in Orren after she arrived. She says “Light found the piano, lit its scrolled feet and the swirling and striping of its grain, brown on black-brown. In its splitting and sinking frame she saw the formidable wrack of its previous beauty” (38). This statement is very similar to how Aloma views Orren. As with the piano, she is still able to acknowledge the attraction and love she once felt for Orren, but now only sees a disappointing skeleton of the man she was willing to leave her old life behind for.
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ReplyDeleteI am intrigued by what you pointed out about how they choose to marry in what appears to simply be a good mood, a temporary emotion. I see what you are saying about the transitory happiness and understanding and I do not disagree with you. It is very concerning that she has feelings for Bell, the man who marries her and Orren. It is also concerning that they decide to get married on such a whim; they do not even sit down to have a serious conversation about it first. Rather, like everything else, they skim the surface and act impulsively. Earlier in the novel, Aloma describes Orren as an animal. She says “she thought him to be like an animal as he ate unthinkingly” (164). Both of them act like animals in that they act without thinking quite often, and their wedding does not appear to be an exception.
ReplyDeleteHowever, when I read it, I thought more optimistically and I believed (or at least hoped) that they had finally made a lasting connection and that, although their relationship would never be without arguments or tension, they would at least continue to grow in understanding of each other and care for one another as they aged and matured. I like to say that the act of birthing the calf together brought them together in the beauty of something as natural as birth. Even something so joyful turned sad, however, with the death of the mother and I think that this finally allowed Aloma to understand a little bit of the pain that Orren went through when he lost his family. When Orren sees her grief, he is finally gentle with her and helps her upstairs and onto the bed and sits with her awhile, holding her hand and tapping a beat with his thumb, which finally shows some sort of appreciation for her love of music. They do not have sex after this emotional night, something that typically clouds their views and just increases the tension between them, and they are able to wake up happy. Orren, in fact, smiles uncontrollably and actually pays attention to Aloma. Although the situation in which they are married is not ideal, I do not think that their marriage is without hope.
Rachel, I mostly agree with your assessment of the relationship between Orren and Aloma. I believe their relationship is, as so many other aspects of the book are, characterized by lacking. For much of the book, their relationship even lacks a title as Aloma points out when she feels that, “she was his young daughter and not his should-be wife, or his girlfriend, or whatever she was here in this place” (113). For much of the novel they lack communication and sympathy for one another. And it is interesting to note that both of them come from lacking familial structures. Orren’s family has been killed, and Aloma had never known hers. What is interesting though, is that for Aloma, lack has always been a way of life, whereas for Orren, it is a new development, “he was a family cut down to one. She too was a last one, but she’d never thought of herself that way, she’d never thought of it much at all. Aloma had learned of loss only by hearing that it happened to her” (122). I believe the driving dynamic behind their relationship then is how Aloma is already accustomed to lack and seeking to escape it, while Orren is still accustoming himself to it. Because of this, I tend to agree more with Courtney in that there is hope for their marriage once Orren too becomes accustomed to lack and begins contemplating how to escape it. I believe there are subtle hints at this throughout the novel, for instance when Aloma catches Orren singing a song, “He made sounds under his breath, inchanting so soft she almost didn’t hear it, almost mistook it for breathing” (95). This is also witnessed in the scene Courtney described where Orren taps a beat with his thumb to calm Aloma. As is plenty obvious, Aloma plans to escape lack though her music, and Orren’s increasing embrace of music as a form of release gives hope that one day they will both be willing to escape lack through it. Also towards the end, Aloma talks about renting a piano and giving lessons, and while this is not the dream that will escape her from her present situation, it is a practical step in the right direction and therefore, I believe, gives the reader reason to hope.
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