Jayber Crow and Of Human Bondage

Comparison of the books Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry and Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham. Contains spoilers. 

I read Jane Eyre and Anna Karenina back-to-back with the purpose of comparing them. Ironically, I did not plan on comparing the next two books I read, nor did I expect them to be so uncannily similar.

Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry is the story of a boy becoming a man and how he immortalizes his suffering. It is a story of community lost due to progressive thought and industrialism, and of the lonely man. It is written to stir the senses toward empathy, perhaps somewhat toward apathy, but the light is tinted. Jayber Crow's story is not happy story, although he falsely believes himself to be happy. 

Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham follows the life of Philip Carey, of his search to find meaning and focus, and how he repeatedly succumbs to man's nature to the desire of treasuring suffering above goodness. 

I shared most of my thoughts on Jayber Crow in a previous post. Suffice it to summarize I was disappointed in the book. So much was promised. Delusion was gratified by soaking its own fleece with man's self-willed tears. 

There are a few that agreed with my analysis, many felt it was too harsh. And on further thought I think there were things about the book that triggered me beyond literary disseverment. Wendell Berry writes for nostalgia, not to inspire or to guide us back, but perhaps to help us understand what it is we no longer have. If anything, I was reacting to a certain sentiment I saw among Berry fans to hold this book up as a great testament of man's nature. It is not meant to be inspirational, nor validating. It is the depressing rambles of a lost and delusional man. That is all. One can't hate Jayber, just as one can't hate any creature of God's. And yet, to love is not to assimilate nor to be assured of our own delusions.  

In some ways, because I was so displeased, with Jayber Crow, it was unpleasant being confronted with the ghosts of the same plot immediately after.

If I ever meet Wendell Berry, I will someday ask him, "Did you read Of Human Bondage?" If he says yes, I'll ask him, "Why didn't you write such a sweet ending, or at least also add some reference to the Sweet William flower?" 

I hear he responds to letters from fans. So, I probably will write this question to him soon after I publish this post. 

Jayber Crow's and Philip Carey's end prematurely with the same loss: their parents die and they are sent to live with their aunt and uncle. Both Jayber and Philip come to care for their aunts deeply as a second mother, and when the women die (Jayber as a young boy and Philip as a young man) are rather devasted and feel completely alone. Jayber goes to a strict religious orphanage and Philip is sent to an uptight boys' boarding school. They have miserable experiences intermingled with beautiful but scandalous thoughts of God until they decide that they are going to attend seminary school. For a brief period of life, they live with ecstatic hope because they have a calling. 

God will see them and bless them. Or will He? He doesn't. The boys fall into agnosticism while holding steadfast to wonderous ideas about life, beauty, and how God would be if He were God. 

Then comes a time of forgetting their calling and finding their vocation. They have an important conversation with their favorite teachers and share their doubts and desires. Ultimately Jayber drops out of seminary school and Philip leaves high school. Jayber heads to the big city of Lexington, and Philip travels to Europe. They find their adventure. Jayber does odd jobs then revamps an old man's barber shop and helps him prosper. Philip studies art. 

Their explorations end in discontented success for Jayber and mediocracy for Philip. 

Here my respect for Jayber begins to waver while it soars for Phillip. Without hesitation, Phillip accepts the humiliation and acknowledges failure. He admits he is not a great artist, and that it would be better to restart life while he still has the chance than to strive after delusional opportunities. He leaves France commits to his first dispassionate, logical decision. He enters medical school as his uncle had originally encouraged of him and Philip pursues his deceased father's vocation.

Jayber, without a word of farewell to those who helped him, leaves the Lexington for his childhood hometown. He reopens the run-down barbershop, sure of success because he has no family responsibilities, and the town men are in need of a barbershop. 

This slight diversion of the story focus leads Jayber and Philip to the same place again. It's World War I and Philip is disqualified from the draft because of his club foot. Jayber signs up to fight in the second world war but is disqualified because of a heart murmur. Jayber and Philip fall in love with unavailable girls, and their lives take a downward spiral as they lose themselves to the enamoring of toxic romances, and their dreams turn into foggy delusions. Conveniently these both marry unfaithful husbands, and this furthers Jayber's and Philip's belief that they are the better men for these women. Neither woman encourage Jayber and Philip, and yet they persist claiming to love these women.

Once more, though the plots are eerily similar, the tones become drastically different. Jayber romanticizes his suffering as something of meaning, as love manifested. Philip loses himself. He fails important medical tests but does not care because of his unattainable obsession. Jayber imagines his love is wholesome, imagines himself to be married to a woman he's never spoken to, to be justified in his suffering without her married to himself. Philip on the other hand knows that his lust for Mildred is dark and repulsive. At times he cherishes his suffering. And at other times he aims to be happy, to be done destroying his soul. 

These two men were prone to believe their unreciprocated love meant just as much as their agnosticism toward God signified some greater promised reconciliation. But at times it seems Philip got it. 

While Jayber believed he was made to understand God better because he suffered through unreciprocated love for the remainder of his life, Philip came that this misunderstood both God's love and Jesus' suffering. Jesus did not suffer because He loved us. He loved us therefore he suffered. He will not always suffer; but his Love will always be. 

Love might suffer all things, but it is not suffering.

They each had their breather, their time for redemption. They took to other women. Philip began courting a wealthier woman who understood him and let him talk to her. Jayber's woman might be engaged to some other man, but they never talked of that. They needed someone to dance with, someone to write poetry for. Norah strengthens Philip and he is able to pass his exams. Jayber finds himself happy with Clydie. They could have had these women. But in that moment, when it was possible, they ran away from the women, without a proper goodbye, sending only a short letter that did no kindness to the friendships these women had bestowed upon these lonely men. 

They went back to their delusions and continued living as misunderstood bachelors. 

Until Philip could take it no longer. Jayber continued to find beauty in his longing, but Philip decided to do something about it. He ended his toxic romance and went back to the woman who'd loved him. But it was too late. Norah had happily married. Jayber, too, later listened to hear what had become of his castaway girlfriend. Clydie too was married. Jayber expressed having no regrets, but Philip knew he'd been a fool, and he was determined to commit no more follies. 

Jayber settled into his dreams and his silent lonely musings. Philip threw himself into becoming a new man. He became a favorite among his country clients and made life tolerable for himself. He forgot his old ways. 

Jayber and Philip both yearned for family ways. Nearer the end Jayber moved to a riverside cabin and found himself invited to the family's nearby as often as he could come, where there was a pile of friendly children and meals made to share. Philip, too, found himself in such a home, surrounded by children and plenty to eat. These families offered visions to the two men. Jayber placidly pondered what would never be his. 

Philip did the same, until the oldest daughter made it clear she was old enough for him. He seized the opportunity to change his course permanently for the good. Philip married this woman, past obsessions and mistakes together forfeited. He moved to the country, as Jayber did, but he did not go alone. He went a happy man.