In Stoner, social expectations shape not only people’s…
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In Stoner, social expectations shape not only people’s choices, but what they are capable of wanting
*Originally Posted on* Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8857510677
*Stoner* opens and initially reads as a mundane slice-of-life novel, perhaps showing the depth that may come packaged in the ordinary life of a man with typical faults and virtues. Upon further inspection, though, several themes can be noted, ranging from broad commentary about how we are socialized to how an individual's past experiences can enrich their basic sensations and appreciation of life. An interpretation I personally found interesting is how social expectations shape not just our actions, but also our desires and how we come to experience life. This is something I would like to dig into more, and I’ll mostly do so by examining Stoner and his wife, Edith, and how Stoner gradually separates himself from her in this regard.
As it so happens, we see Stoner take his first step away from what is socially expected of him after he is sent away from his family farm and off to school. The original intention of his parents was that he would study agriculture and then return with knowledge of increasing crop yields and the like. However, after taking a required composition course during his sophomore year, he abruptly changes his coursework for the next semester, moving away from his original path of agriculture and enrolling in multiple humanities courses. Throughout the rest of his time in college, he continues to enroll in the humanities and neglects his originally assigned degree in agriculture. He eventually graduates with an English degree, and his parents do not find out about his change of major, or his changed plans to move home after college, until after his graduation ceremony.
The way in which he goes about changing his coursework, and essentially the course of his life, is notably passive. This is a theme that can be detected throughout the book, and much of it seems tied to his reserved upbringing and the poverty of expression to which he was exposed growing up. In a sense, then, he remains very much in keeping with the social expectations under which he was raised when it comes to his temperament and avoidance of direct conflict.
Soon after he graduates, World War I breaks out in Europe. Several years after the war begins, when the United States joins, a flood of his peers and others at the university rush to enlist. After some internal conflict over the matter, he decides to stay and continue his coursework.
This continues to fit with the distinction between the situations in which he is and is not willing to go against what is expected of him. Declining to enlist in the Army is a passive mode of resistance. However, when he is asked about his decision by Dave Masters, one of his friends joining the war, he is unable to give an answer. Although an answer does occur to him, he does not articulate it.
Later, he meets his future wife, Edith, and after an especially awkward courtship and engagement, they get married. As we learn more about Edith, we discover a very dry upbringing that involved extensive education in activities considered “ladylike,” along with a moral education focused on chastity and dutifully fulfilling the roles of wife and mother. She is noted to have developed considerable skill in the activities she was encouraged to take up, but one can infer that she gained little satisfaction from them. She is described as passionless while doing these activities, whose only real purpose seems to be reinforcing her role as delicate and proper.
She comes to an inflection point similar to the one Stoner encounters when he chooses to pursue literature. When Stoner proposes to her, she is clearly torn, mostly because she has an upcoming trip to Europe and an engagement would interfere with it. It seems as though her sense of duty to fulfill social expectations is stronger than her desire to go to Europe, and she agrees to the marriage and pushes to expedite the process. An interesting contrast can be made between Stoner and Edith at this point. One may note that Edith’s upbringing was much more intentional in reinforcing her expectations and the roles she ought to play, whereas Stoner’s appears to have been more of a passive, learned process. He simply acts in the only fashion he has seen as possible, while Edith does what has been constantly hammered into her throughout her upbringing. As the novel continues, Stoner takes increasingly significant steps away from social expectations while retaining the passivity instilled by his upbringing. Edith, meanwhile, struggles to find lasting satisfaction because the roles she understands as available to her are ones for which she feels little genuine passion.
Throughout the rest of the novel, Edith repeatedly takes up certain duties and hobbies with significant vigor before eventually burning out and dropping them completely. These include an obsession with housecleaning, different types of art, and an absorbing interest in their daughter’s activities and popularity. Each pursuit appears to be something she was taught she should do, or should like to do, though none becomes a source of lasting, genuine interest or satisfaction.
As Edith cycles through these interests, we find Stoner venturing even further from social expectations. He eventually becomes involved in an affair with a younger instructor, Katherine, a more serious departure from social expectations than changing his major or declining to enlist. As with some of the other times he goes against the grain, he develops insights into his own life and life in general. He starts to understand love as a process in flux, one that changes over time, and that the person one first loves need not be the person one loves last. He finds significant happiness in this new relationship, and the prose itself becomes more vivid, suggesting a change in how he is experiencing the world in general. In the end, however, he succumbs again to the passivity instilled by his upbringing and lets go of this love when Lomax threatens Katherine’s professional future.
Although he loses this new love in the end, he develops an understanding of the world that he did not have previously, primarily through his new understanding of the nature of love and his knowledge of what it truly means to love someone as he loved Katherine. This subtheme, of growth through the experiences he gains by pursuing passion over social duty, is particularly important. Throughout the book, Edith seems to struggle with emotional regulation and expression. This becomes especially stark when we find her self-soothing in a baby-talk voice and distancing herself from her surroundings by narrating her own experience in the third person. Her lack of self-growth appears tied to her inability to pursue what she truly wants, something that remains unknown to the reader and likely to Edith herself.
Taken together, we essentially find that Stoner begins early on to discover what he authentically desires and grows as a person while pursuing those desires. He never completely separates himself from certain aspects instilled by his upbringing, but he certainly makes progress and develops a richer understanding and appreciation of the world as a result. Edith, in contrast, is a victim of the duties she was trained to fulfill. She knows no life outside of what she was socialized to perform. For her, this leads to stunted personal growth and, in some respects, locks her at the emotional age of a child. I see this contrast between Stoner and Edith not as a condemnation of Edith, but as a return to the broader point of social expectations shaping what we choose, what we desire, and how we experience the world. From what we know of Stoner’s background, there was simply a lack of expression and confrontation. Edith seems to have experienced this as well, in addition to rigorous reinforcement of what she should and should not do. Stoner’s upbringing left a little wiggle room for him to escape and find himself, while Edith’s effectively trapped her in obligation.
I feel as though I could write about this book for ages and still have plenty of fodder left to explore in this book. The thematic depth is incredible and I find it unfortunate that so many people reduce it to merely “a slice-of-life” when it is clearly so much more.
Please let me know if you have any differing thoughts or want to expand on things I've written here! I love hearing the different interpretations and I'm newish to this whole analysis process so I could certainly use some feedback and criticism of my own writing.
#entertainment
source
*Originally Posted on* Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8857510677
*Stoner* opens and initially reads as a mundane slice-of-life novel, perhaps showing the depth that may come packaged in the ordinary life of a man with typical faults and virtues. Upon further inspection, though, several themes can be noted, ranging from broad commentary about how we are socialized to how an individual's past experiences can enrich their basic sensations and appreciation of life. An interpretation I personally found interesting is how social expectations shape not just our actions, but also our desires and how we come to experience life. This is something I would like to dig into more, and I’ll mostly do so by examining Stoner and his wife, Edith, and how Stoner gradually separates himself from her in this regard.
As it so happens, we see Stoner take his first step away from what is socially expected of him after he is sent away from his family farm and off to school. The original intention of his parents was that he would study agriculture and then return with knowledge of increasing crop yields and the like. However, after taking a required composition course during his sophomore year, he abruptly changes his coursework for the next semester, moving away from his original path of agriculture and enrolling in multiple humanities courses. Throughout the rest of his time in college, he continues to enroll in the humanities and neglects his originally assigned degree in agriculture. He eventually graduates with an English degree, and his parents do not find out about his change of major, or his changed plans to move home after college, until after his graduation ceremony.
The way in which he goes about changing his coursework, and essentially the course of his life, is notably passive. This is a theme that can be detected throughout the book, and much of it seems tied to his reserved upbringing and the poverty of expression to which he was exposed growing up. In a sense, then, he remains very much in keeping with the social expectations under which he was raised when it comes to his temperament and avoidance of direct conflict.
Soon after he graduates, World War I breaks out in Europe. Several years after the war begins, when the United States joins, a flood of his peers and others at the university rush to enlist. After some internal conflict over the matter, he decides to stay and continue his coursework.
This continues to fit with the distinction between the situations in which he is and is not willing to go against what is expected of him. Declining to enlist in the Army is a passive mode of resistance. However, when he is asked about his decision by Dave Masters, one of his friends joining the war, he is unable to give an answer. Although an answer does occur to him, he does not articulate it.
Later, he meets his future wife, Edith, and after an especially awkward courtship and engagement, they get married. As we learn more about Edith, we discover a very dry upbringing that involved extensive education in activities considered “ladylike,” along with a moral education focused on chastity and dutifully fulfilling the roles of wife and mother. She is noted to have developed considerable skill in the activities she was encouraged to take up, but one can infer that she gained little satisfaction from them. She is described as passionless while doing these activities, whose only real purpose seems to be reinforcing her role as delicate and proper.
She comes to an inflection point similar to the one Stoner encounters when he chooses to pursue literature. When Stoner proposes to her, she is clearly torn, mostly because she has an upcoming trip to Europe and an engagement would interfere with it. It seems as though her sense of duty to fulfill social expectations is stronger than her desire to go to Europe, and she agrees to the marriage and pushes to expedite the process. An interesting contrast can be made between Stoner and Edith at this point. One may note that Edith’s upbringing was much more intentional in reinforcing her expectations and the roles she ought to play, whereas Stoner’s appears to have been more of a passive, learned process. He simply acts in the only fashion he has seen as possible, while Edith does what has been constantly hammered into her throughout her upbringing. As the novel continues, Stoner takes increasingly significant steps away from social expectations while retaining the passivity instilled by his upbringing. Edith, meanwhile, struggles to find lasting satisfaction because the roles she understands as available to her are ones for which she feels little genuine passion.
Throughout the rest of the novel, Edith repeatedly takes up certain duties and hobbies with significant vigor before eventually burning out and dropping them completely. These include an obsession with housecleaning, different types of art, and an absorbing interest in their daughter’s activities and popularity. Each pursuit appears to be something she was taught she should do, or should like to do, though none becomes a source of lasting, genuine interest or satisfaction.
As Edith cycles through these interests, we find Stoner venturing even further from social expectations. He eventually becomes involved in an affair with a younger instructor, Katherine, a more serious departure from social expectations than changing his major or declining to enlist. As with some of the other times he goes against the grain, he develops insights into his own life and life in general. He starts to understand love as a process in flux, one that changes over time, and that the person one first loves need not be the person one loves last. He finds significant happiness in this new relationship, and the prose itself becomes more vivid, suggesting a change in how he is experiencing the world in general. In the end, however, he succumbs again to the passivity instilled by his upbringing and lets go of this love when Lomax threatens Katherine’s professional future.
Although he loses this new love in the end, he develops an understanding of the world that he did not have previously, primarily through his new understanding of the nature of love and his knowledge of what it truly means to love someone as he loved Katherine. This subtheme, of growth through the experiences he gains by pursuing passion over social duty, is particularly important. Throughout the book, Edith seems to struggle with emotional regulation and expression. This becomes especially stark when we find her self-soothing in a baby-talk voice and distancing herself from her surroundings by narrating her own experience in the third person. Her lack of self-growth appears tied to her inability to pursue what she truly wants, something that remains unknown to the reader and likely to Edith herself.
Taken together, we essentially find that Stoner begins early on to discover what he authentically desires and grows as a person while pursuing those desires. He never completely separates himself from certain aspects instilled by his upbringing, but he certainly makes progress and develops a richer understanding and appreciation of the world as a result. Edith, in contrast, is a victim of the duties she was trained to fulfill. She knows no life outside of what she was socialized to perform. For her, this leads to stunted personal growth and, in some respects, locks her at the emotional age of a child. I see this contrast between Stoner and Edith not as a condemnation of Edith, but as a return to the broader point of social expectations shaping what we choose, what we desire, and how we experience the world. From what we know of Stoner’s background, there was simply a lack of expression and confrontation. Edith seems to have experienced this as well, in addition to rigorous reinforcement of what she should and should not do. Stoner’s upbringing left a little wiggle room for him to escape and find himself, while Edith’s effectively trapped her in obligation.
I feel as though I could write about this book for ages and still have plenty of fodder left to explore in this book. The thematic depth is incredible and I find it unfortunate that so many people reduce it to merely “a slice-of-life” when it is clearly so much more.
Please let me know if you have any differing thoughts or want to expand on things I've written here! I love hearing the different interpretations and I'm newish to this whole analysis process so I could certainly use some feedback and criticism of my own writing.
#entertainment
source
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