High School Literary
Criticism Papers
Valdosta State University
instructors, VSU Archivist Deborah Davis, and Janice Daugharty
collaborated with high school English teachers at Valdosta High School, Lowndes
High School, Echols County High School, and Clinch County High School to
instruct high school students for three days about engaging in the writing
process, conducting literary and historical research on primary sources,
regional identity themes, Southern authors, the writer's role as an observer,
and writing literary criticism.
Students were prepared for
the project activities by reading a Janice Daugharty's
short story "Shorn Glory" and by reviewing a CD handout created by
the project developers containing primary and secondary sources and literary
criticism related to Daugharty's short story.
On day one of this project
activity, Deborah Davis presented a tabletop exhibit and a multi-media show on Daugharty, and discussed the VSU archive collection of
Janice Daugharty, and her writings including various
drafts of her works. She also demonstrated how the archive collection can be
used as a primary resource in studying a piece of literature.
On day two instructors, Daugharty, and students,
discussed Daugharty's short stories, the writing process,
and sense of place as it related the
stories.
On day three instructors taught students about how to use historical and
literary research; and instructed students about how to incorporate what they
learned about sense of place into their critical essays.
As part of this project activity, approximately 100 high school juniors and
seniors submitted literary criticism papers for evaluation and nine were chosen
for this journal. The nine students whose essays were chosen presented their
papers at the Janice Daugharty Festival, a regional
writing conference, held on
Mama Always Said Not to Get Haircuts from Drunk Rednecks
by Patrick Poole
The combination
of sensory imagery and underlying themes allows Janice Daugharty to depict both
the distinct emotions of her characters and the unique environment of
Daugharty begins her story with a graphic image of the inebriated Clifford pedaling his bicycle underneath a blazing sun. She describes his drinking interestingly: “…he took a nearly polished-off pint of Lord-Calvert, uncapping as it neared his nose, and praised the caustic sweetness before the bottle mouth merged with his own.” Daugharty illustrates many such commonplace occurrences with a similar focus on imagery. A glare transforms into a “white ball of sun bouncing off the bucket,” and light shining through the forest trees becomes a “throb of sun on the sand.” Even bird excrement can be described vividly, as she calls it “a chalky star” dropping down onto Clifford’s nose—beautiful and disgusting at once! Ultimately Clifford’s drinking and riding results in collision with a well, but also serves to introduce him to the young triplets.
For the entirety of the interaction between these four characters, the triplets are implied angels. Daugharty spends extra effort on the image of the eyes—“the bluest eyes this side of heaven—or the other side as the case may be.” Among the image-invoking descriptions she uses are “sapphires set in lumps of clay” and “slits of eyes that squeezed light.” Everything about the trinity radiates a sense of purity and innocence, especially their “mantle of silvery hair.” This divine raiment, “sheeting like spun glass” that “captured the full tilt of curried summer light,” becomes the focus of the story. Clifford’s desire to relieve the girls of this heavenly hair implies his antagonistic part in the story.
To juxtapose the images of light and purity suggested in the triplets, Clifford assumes a role of darker, more devilish undertones. Before talking with Clifford, the trio “huddled together like sheep and stopped at the start of the shade,” as if they feel reluctant to enter the vile aura of alcoholism and immorality that surrounds him. Clifford’s shifty ways become certain when he drains the rest of his bottle while the girls are looking away, and the devilish side of Clifford emerges as he tries to use the Bible to rationalize drinking. When he says, “Paul-in-the-Bible says you oughta drink a little wine for your stomach’s sake,” he echoes Shakespeare:
“The devil can
cite Scripture for his purpose.
An evil soul, producing holy witness,
Is like a villain with a smiling cheek,
A goodly apple rotten at the heart:
O what a goodly outside falsehood hath!”
(MND 1.3.92-97)
Clifford’s purpose now becomes clear; he wishes to rob the girls of their precious hair.
Symbolism is the dominant device Daugharty utilizes to tell of Gloriann’s corruption by Clifford. Ironically, Gloriann’s kindness in fetching Clifford a drink draws her into the circle of darkness and taints her character. As the conversation between angels and devil continues, a shady Clifford slowly persuades the pure triplets toward purgatory. “They watched him cue in on a creamy cloud putting east to west above the woods, then eased nearer;” the creamy cloud symbolizes the girls’ innocent essence slowly moving west towards the setting sun and the beginning of nighttime. The cloud symbol arises earlier as Clifford attempts to befriend the girls by relating their experiences with his own: “ ‘Sunday school, huh?’ He gazed up as though drawing memories from a single shred of white cloud. ‘I used to go to Sunday school my ownself when I was little.’ ” Gloriann’s journey towards corruption can be directly correlated with this passage: “The door slammed and Gloriann dashed through the span of sun between the cabin and the shade. Excited prisms of light glanced from the scissors to the dead shadow of the tree. Rushing up to her sisters, she turned and backed slowly to Clifford, squinting her eyes shut.” Gloriann, now lost to her sisters, willingly fetches the instrument of defilement and backs from the light into Clifford’s darkness. Then the cutting commences; Clifford violently “[saws] the scissors through [Gloriann’s] hair.” His violent barbering occurs as he cries about his lost mother, occupying the three girls in conversation as he commits his crime. The image of Gloriann’s hair “[snaking] on the raised roots of the chinaberry tree” brings the creation story allusion to completion—the naïve woman has been corrupted by a devil under a tree with deadly fruit (chinaberry trees are known for their small, yellow, poisonous fruit). As Clifford finishes shearing, Gloriann “[shoots] away to the edge of the shade” but not out into the light, as she is now unable to enter the radiance she used to bask in.
Clifford’s evil seems only temporary, perhaps even only a part of his drinking, since when he awakens “despairingly sober” he “hobbles out of the lessening shade.” He spies two of the sisters looking morosely out of a “mullioned” window (the window of a prison cell comes to mind), but Gloriann gives him a “faint smile of familiarity and gratitude more than scorn,” suggesting that she feels happy with the change. This rebellion from the orthodox church lifestyle her mother enforces may be exactly what Gloriann needs. Clifford proceeds to get back on his bicycle and “[tool] east with the heat on his back,” towards morning glory.
Rich language and vivid imagery define Janice Daugharty’s style.
Flannery O’Connor writes “The Southern writer is forced from all sides
to make his gaze extend beyond the surface, beyond mere problems, until it
touches that realm which is the concern of prophets and poets” (45). In many places more like poetry than prose, Daugharty’s stories utilize an abundance of description and
symbolism to shed light on the distinctive soul of
Work cited
Daugharty, Janice. “Shorn Glory.” Going Through the Change.
Press, 1994, 123-131.
Daugharty, Janice. “Write Where You Know.” Writer’s Digest, 77, 5, May 1997, p. 32. Galileo.
O’ Connor, Flannery. “Some Aspects of the Grotesque in Southern Fiction.” Mystery and Manners.
Shakespeare,
William. The Merchant
of