Look Homeward, Angel

At the age of 56, Gant takes “his last great voyage” to California, feeding “the final flare of the old hunger that had once darkened in the small gray eyes, leading a boy into new lands and toward the soft stone smile of an angel” (57-58). As he returns home by train, he ruminates on his aging, the presence of death all around him, and his own mortality. Images flit in and out of his mind as he recalls the memories of his past adventures and realizes how small Altamont, his home of 20 years, feels to him after just two months in California. The Square at the center of Altamont serves as a striking representation of this changed perception:

“He felt suddenly the cramped mean fixity of the Square: this was the one fixed spot in a world that writhed, evolved, and changed constantly in his vision, and he felt a sick green fear, a frozen constriction about his heart because the centre of his life now looked so shrunken” (62).

He returns to the family home and, finding Eliza struggling to reignite a dying fire, he brings the fire back to life by rashly pouring kerosene on it. As Eliza babbles and chats, Gant recalls the images of past adventures that haunted him on the train back home. He recommences his morning routine and goes to wake the children.

Eugene, now six, begins attending school, much to the chagrin of his resistant mother Eliza, who weeps at his newfound independence; “she knew that in her dark and sorrowful womb a stranger had come to life, fed by the lost communications of eternity, his own ghost, haunter of his own house, lonely to himself and to the world” (67). Eugene’s older siblings do not understand him. He only finds solace and connection in his brother Ben, who comforts and defends him, and in the many books he absorbs and learns to read.

Eugene and his companions, Max and Harry, terrorize the neighborhood by pranking the black and Jewish people who reside in Altamont. They also target the residents of Pigtail Alley, who are of a lower socioeconomic status. Eugene grows disillusioned with these cruel actions. He spends more time at his father’s shop and admires his father’s work and its ability to withstand time compared to the more ephemeral work of his companions’ fathers.

Eugene spends most of his time reading in the town library; he particularly enjoys reading books of romance and adventure. Imagining himself as his favorite fictional heroes, he becomes fixated on material success and on his desire “to marry himself to none but a Pure Woman” (85). Eugene revels in romantic escapades, such as the story of a heroic clergyman who maintains his strong moral values despite the passionate love he feels for an innocent, beautiful woman. Another is the story of a warrior facing death at the hands of a wild groups of “natives” who confesses his love in their seemingly final hours of life, only to be saved at the very last moment. Eugene sees himself in these heroic figures and, “lifted by his fantasy into a high interior world, he scored off briefly and entirely all the grimy smudges of life: he existed nobly in a heroic world with lovely and virtuous creatures” (88). These imaginary journeys rooted in strong virtue and morality sustain Eugene, although he also imagines himself engaging in a torrid affair with his schoolteacher.

Eliza and Gant both believe that it is necessary to teach the Gant boys economic independence by making them earn money from an early age. Ben works as a delivery boy for a local newspaper. He stopped attending school after the eighth grade and withdraws into his work; “in the brawling house he came and went, and was remembered, like a phantom” (92). Eugene’s first job is selling his father’s fruits and vegetables throughout their neighborhood; he later follows in his brothers’ footsteps and works for a newspaper, selling copies of the The Saturday Evening Post. Eugene hates the work, but his brother Luke thrives on the attention and recognition he receives.

Eugene eventually finds his own success and demonstrates his prowess as a salesman, venturing into the outskirts of Altamont to sell newspapers at sanitariums. In one such sanitarium, two patients attack Eugene, but he escapes them by overpowering them. Eugene continues to find comfort and understanding in his brother Ben, who, like Eugene, is aware of the social divide that separates the Gant family from Altamont’s upper class. Ben chastises their mother Eliza for not investing in Eugene’s potential.

Eliza maintains her obsession to own property and eventually focuses her ambition on a large boardinghouse named Dixieland. Eliza believes in the potential of Dixieland and proclaims, “They’ll put a street behind there someday” (103). Much to Eliza’s surprise, Gant approves of her purchase, and she purchases Dixieland for $7,500, which she will pay in installments earned through the boarders she hopes to attract. Gant and Eliza separate without much discussion or issue; Eliza feels her life “moving by a half blind but inevitable gravitation toward the centre of its desire” (105), a desire that was previously fixated on their move to St. Louis. Eugene reluctantly moves to Dixieland with his mother while Helen stays and cares for her father, which solidifies the tension between Helen and Eliza. Daisy is engaged to a young grocer from South Carolina, Ben and Luke come and go as they please, and Steve continues to live a transient life, forging checks in his father’s name and returning home when ill or desperate.

Eugene struggles with the change in the family dynamic and often finds himself back home with Gant and Helen; Gant, previously supportive of Eliza’s dream, now condescends her choice and nicknames Dixieland “The Barn.” Eliza struggles to keep on staff at Dixieland, as she distrusts staff and finds it difficult to delegate tasks. She comes to rely on Helen, who finds the boardinghouse a source of entertainment. Eliza becomes litigious and thrives in brandishing her power as a boss and businessowner. Ashamed of Dixieland, Eugene swallows his frustration with his mother and the family’s lack of social respectability. Eugene attends a Presbyterian church regularly and feels a connection to religion; “he gathered something of the pain, the mystery, the sensuous beauty of religion, something deeper and greater than this austere decency” (114).

Eugene continues to float between the two Gant family residences. Helen cares for him continuously while sometimes attacking Eugene for his brooding, intense ways and provoking him to uncontrollable displays of passion and rage. Though Helen is “at heart a severely conventional person,” she has a restlessness that impels her to seek excitement by relishing the attention of various suitors, drinking small portions of whiskey, and befriending “young fast women” (117). She strikes up a friendship with a young prostitute named Mary Thomas, a boarder at Dixieland, while simultaneously condemning her mother for allowing such women to stay at the boardinghouse.

Steve returns to Altamont and begins an affair with a desirable and adulterous married woman named Mrs. Selborne, a summer boarder at Dixieland. Their affair ends after Mrs. Selborne’s first summer in Altamont, but she maintains a close friendship with Helen, who even travels to South Carolina to visit her.

Daisy marries Joe Gambell, the young South Carolinian grocer who leaves his hometown and finds a new job in Augusta, Georgia, where he and Daisy begin their new life together. Gant and Eugene visit Daisy in Augusta soon after her marriage; the two-week trip opens Eugene’s eyes “as one bursts a window into the faery pageant of the world, as one who has lived in prison, and finds life and the earth in rosy dawn” (124). Daisy and Joe’s life in Augusta only lasts three months, and they soon move to Joe’s hometown.

In the ensuing years, Eugene and Eliza travel throughout the South, primarily in the winter, to find relief for Eliza’s rheumatism. Eliza rents out Dixieland during these periods without fully relinquishing her power and control. Gant, drinking heavily and suffering from rheumatism himself, escapes to Hot Springs for six weeks under Helen’s care. There he recovers much of his health, although his right hand remains permanently disabled. Eliza, in reaction to Helen and Gant’s solidified bond, ventures to Hot Springs with Eugene in tow. At Eliza’s insistence, Eugene resumes selling The Saturday Evening Post and hands out business cards advertising Dixieland, a task he deplores. By the end of Eugene and Eliza’s extensive journey throughout the South, Eugene is 11 years old.