The evolving relationship between Orren and Aloma
continually intrigued me while reading All
the Living. Their relationship begins through strictly physical
interactions. Being that Aloma did not have her parents to raise her and her
aunt and uncle had raised her in a “middling, impersonal way” (12), Aloma longs
for a loving and caring relationship. She was always craving a chance to give
and receive love, and “before she knew Orren, she waited for him” (14). Once
she began having a relationship with Orren, it was strictly physical. When
they first began to have sex, Aloma felt a contradicting pain, “and when there
was pain, she was also surprised she did not want to end it” (20). The pain in
their physical relationship foreshadows the pain they would feel in their
emotional relationship.
The beginning of Orren and Aloma’s relationship resembles
the rest of their relationship throughout the novel. No longer are they
connected by physical attraction as they used to be. Instead, it is as if the
only thing connecting Aloma and Orren is the land surrounding them. Orren’s
main focus is saving the tobacco farm, and Aloma’s main focus is being able to
play the piano. What distinguishes their different realities is that Aloma “had
never been driven by the imminent loss of something like a home. It was more of
a matter of what she did not have than of what she could not stand to lose.” The
goals of Aloma and Orren and the reasons behind these goals could not be more
different, which leads them to feeling more distant and alone than ever before.
Aloma then blames Orren for holding her back from her
dreams of playing the piano. She loathes him for bringing her “to the sorry
edge of the mountains, the one place in the world she wanted to leave behind
her, where nothing worked, where every last thing wasted flesh into bone” (58)
Aloma and Orren are not satisfied with their own lives, and because they are
the only other person in each other’s lives, they continually blame one another
for their issues. Also, they try to “one-up” the other in regards to the misfortune
they have had in their lives. When Aloma tells Orren she “never had anyone to
do Christmas,” he retaliates by saying, “well I don’t got nobody my own self”
(84-85) The competition of who lacks the most shows how unstable their relationship
is. Right after the accident when Aloma moves in, their emotional relationship
is very strong and supportive, almost seeming unbreakable. As time goes on,
they begin to realize the bond they once had as been completely taken over by
their own desires and goals.
However, to my surprise, Orren and Aloma get married. In
the midst of their fighting and arguments, Orren finally decides he wants to
marry Aloma. I was shocked by the ending of the novel because, up until the
ending, their relationship has been very rocky and unstable. Then, within the
last five pages, they are married! While I never doubted that they loved each
other, I thought they were in no place to get married. At the same time, many
relationships thrive and bloom in hard times. Orren realizes that he has not
had the right understanding in the sense that “it comes and goes” (186). The “it”
Orren refers to is the hardships that he and Aloma have been facing for the
past months. For the majority of the novel, I did not think Orren and Aloma
were strong individuals. However, by the end of the novel, I realized that they
are a few of the strongest characters we have read about this semester. They
have endured extreme hardship together, and they are still willing to fight for
their relationship, something many people today are not courageous enough to
do.
I like your take on Aloma and Orren’s relationship. Even through hardship and loneliness, Aloma and Orren make things work and stay together. The part of their relationship that I found hard to accept is that throughout the novel, it always seems as though Aloma is just waiting for her chance to get out and away from the land, away from Orren. Many times Aloma finds this escape through the piano and through seemingly innocent flirtation with Bell. At one point when Aloma is practicing piano at the church, the narrator explains, “Once again, she felt the upswell of pleasure she’d been missing for so long and then a thought crossed her mind, that the preacher might be standing on the other side of the door… this gave her a different kind of pleasure” (p. 105). It is not only playing the piano that pleases Aloma, but also knowing that Bell is listening to her play. Aloma likes the idea that Bell cares to hear her play and finds his own pleasure out of it.
ReplyDeleteThe longer Aloma lives on the farm with Orren, though, her desires really do match his, and this makes their relationship stronger than it appears. She begins to want what Orren wants so that he will find solace and happiness in the land. The narrator relays, “Then, against her will, even as she blamed him for her restlessness, she felt a creeping reluctant desire for the very things he wanted, something for the land itself and the tobacco that meagered its little water from the soil” (p.110). Aloma loves Orren, and he loves her, but the strength in their relationship lies in Aloma’s ability to overlook her personal desires and simply want what Orren wants.