One of the more peculiar elements of All the Living is the lack of time frame. Morgan neglects to
provide the readers with any sort of decade or year within to place our
characters – Aloma, Orren and Bell. This lack of time wasn’t very noticeable to
me at first, but the more I got into the more the more it began to bother me. I
became more aware of time indicators (such as the kind of groceries Aloma
purchases at the beginning of the novel) as the novel went on. I believe this
lack of information acts as just that – a lacking.
There is so
much lacking in this novel that it’s debatable if there is a plot at all. There
is a lack of excitement in Aloma’s life; there’s a lack of money on the farm;
there’s a lack of rain for the farm. This lack of time just adds to the list of
things the readers are not getting from the novel. It also appears to keep
Aloma and Orren trapped in their own little world without time. The first time
Aloma manages to make it out of the house and into the city she notes the
“dates engraved on (the store’s) doors that surprised her vaguely.” (50). This
is an example of how isolated Aloma feels while working away in the farmhouse. There
is an element of life and time that Aloma is lacking by being isolated in the
house, and it isn’t until she starts playing the piano for the church that she
begins to get that life back.
The lack of
time frame could also be seen as a way to keep any sort of civilization
impeding on the two main characters and their life on the farm. They appear so desolate
and dispossessed; this could be in part because of the lack of information we
have on any life outside of Aloma and Orren. If the story were given any sort
or periodical or historical context then we would have a frame of reference for
life off of their farm. Without a time period to put with their story, it’s
almost as if a life outside of their farm doesn’t exist.
While
Morgan’s choice to not include a time period for the novel is an unusual one, I
believe it adds to the complexity of the novel by adding to the sense of
lacking. There is almost nothing in this book, yet it’s still so perplex.
The lack of a time frame for the novel is certainly intentional and Morgan makes it painfully obvious by the lack of certain commodities such as cell phones, televisions, and other technology. The story could arguably have taken place any time in the twentieth century.
ReplyDeleteI think Morgan's reasoning for not providing a time frame is actually to take the reader's attention away from the time they live in. If the story was known to take place during the depression, which it certainly could have, it could have been used as a cause as to why the character's do what they do in the novel. The way the book is written forces the reader to look at other causes for Aloma's dysfunctional relationships rather than just saying she acts the way she does because of the time she lives in.
Sierra, I agree that the novel has a predominant lacking tone that extends to most aspects of Orren and Aloma’s life, even the time period in which they live in. There are a few references to the lack of time in this novel, one being the dates engraved on the store doors as you pointed out. We also see a hint at the technology of the time, when they reference bringing a tv in to watch the weather on the news so that, “If any more tornadoes came, they could flee with barely any warning around the side of the house to root cellar” (127). Clearly these two have a tv, which points to a minimum point in time that they could be in, but nothing is known beyond that. It could be a giant thick cathode ray tv or it could be a razor thin flatscreen (probably not though). The point is that there no details outside the factors most directly affecting Aloma’s life. The reader also sees another reference to a point in time during one of Bell’s sermons when he says, “And the thing is, the dust bowl wasn’t so long ago now, was it, mother’s and your all’s folks lived through that, some of you too” (116). This passage places a much more specific range of time. If Bell is 36 years old and he did not live through the dustbowl but the older members likely in their fifties or sixties did, then that would place Orren and Aloma anywhere from the 1970s to the 1990s. This calculation is beyond what the author probably intended though. Bell’s phrase, “wasn’t so long ago” is purposely vague and reinforces the unimportance of the time period. I believe this is also why the Morgan places her characters in an environment where it seems Orren and Aloma, for the most part, reject modern technology such as the television. Instead what is focused on is purely the interactions Aloma has with the land, the pianos, and other men (Orren and Bell). In this way the reader can feel the isolation that Aloma also feels. All Aloma experiences is all the reader knows.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what has been said by this post, as well as the comments. Like we discussed in class, I believe their is not a distinct time period so that the reader is unbiased toward the characters. If we knew exactly when the novel took place, some readers make think that the characters are acting or behaving in a certain way due to the period of time in which they live. Without the time period known, characters can be judged based on their words and actions, rather than the implications of society at the time in which they live.
ReplyDeleteTime does not matter to the characters in the novel. When it comes time to harvest, Aloma "did not even realize that the first week of September had arrived until Orren announced to her one morning... that he'd always liked a first harvest to usher in the fall" (150). This is the only mention of a specific month that I could find in the novel, and it only occurs because of the farm, which is Orren's main focus. Overall, time does not matter to the characters, so it is unimportant to mention in the novel.