Chapter 22: Callanwolde II

In Chapter 22, Tom, Savannah and Luke graduate from high school.  Throughout the summer, they think about and prepare for the future.  Near the end of the summer is the “day on the island” that has been foreshadowed throughout the novel.  Callanwolde and two of his friends from prison come to the Wingo’s house and finally succeed in raping not only Lila, but Savannah and Tom as well.  Luke brings Caesar into the house and lets him kill Callanwolde, and Tom and Savannah kill their rapists.  Three days later, Savannah cuts her wrists for the first time.

We have been expecting Savannah to get raped since Chapter 2.  However, we were shocked that Lila and Tom also got raped and that Callanwolde was behind it.  Now we are wondering why Savannah was the only one who went crazy; all of them went through the same ordeal.

The main event in this chapter was absolutely horrifying.  The content alone is shocking, and the mood is heightened by the powerful language Conroy uses.  He describes the graphic details explicitly, so that we can fully grasp the severity of the event.  We were perturbed by the scene Conroy created.

The fact that Callanwolde came back shows that the events from Chapter 5 were not finished.  The Wingos thought they were safe after leaving Atlanta, but in reality, Callanwolde waited for the next 10 years to come back for them.  Part of the terror of Callanwolde’s visits is that they are never expected and interrupt the Wingos having a good time.  This is a continuation of his visits from Chapter 5 and was completely unexpected just like before.  Callanwolde is a symbol for the terror, evil, and destruction that seem to define the Wingo family.  In fact, we don’t consider him to be a character.  He does not seem human; he does not evolve or interact with people the way other characters do.  The events for which Callanwolde is responsible are not as significant as the long-lasting sense of dread that he instills in the Wingo children.

Savannah’s reaction to the event is more obvious and public than Tom’s; however, we think that Tom was more deeply affected than Savannah.  Although rape is a terrible and damaging thing, it happens to women often and does not threaten their femininity.  When men are raped, on the other hand, it shames them and goes against their masculinity.  Throughout the novel, Tom has said that he is a feminist, and this event clarifies the reasons for that.  A lot of feminists consider themselves feminists because they think that men don’t understand what it’s like to be a woman, to be abused, to be raped, or to feel the pressures with which women have to cope.  However, Tom does understand these things.  He has been abused and raped, and the role he plays in his marriage—cooking, cleaning, and taking care of his children—is usually considered a female role.  Tom has many masculine qualities, but he experiences things that feminist women believe are reserved for them.  Conroy uses this characteristic to shoe that everyone can experience the same problems regardless of gender. 

Tom has made it clear throughout the novel that he hates his mother, and until reading this chapter, we didn’t realize why his feelings were so strong.  Lila’s reaction to the events in their chapter reveal her selfishness and insensitivity.  Now we share Tom’s contempt for his mother.  We were disgusted with the way Lila tried to Lila tried to cover up the incident and ignored the mental and physical pain that her children were experiencing because of it.  Tom was a significant injury from being raped, but when he tries to explain to Lila, “My a**hole is torn up,” she denies the gravity of his problem and only chides him for using profanity and gives him a pad. 

This chapter is important to the characterization of all the Wingos and explains a lot about why they have responded to their childhood in the ways that they did.

Tom and Lowenstein

Simply put, Herbert is a total jerk who doesn’t love Lowenstein at all.  They don’t get along well, and it is clear that they don’t love each other.  We think that Lowenstein never felt a strong connection with Herbert and has always wanted to be an individual; she demonstrated that by not changing her last name when she got married.  Herbert has an affair with Monique, who is a fellow musician and one of Lowenstein’s patients.  Herbert never explicitly tells Lowenstein about it, but she knows anyway because he is so obvious and doesn’t care what Lowenstein thinks.  

In Tom’s marriage with Sallie, the gender roles are reversed.  Sallie earns money for the family and acts as the head of the house, while Tom stays at home and takes care of the children and cooks.  It seems Tom and Sallie really loved each other at one point, and unlike Lowenstein, Sallie was willing to show a connection with her husband by taking his last name.  However, Tom has recently been too distracted by his own problems to have much regard for Sallie.  Sallie sympathizes with him but is still dissatisfied because Tom doesn’t pay attention to her.  She has an affair with one of the doctors with whom she works and confesses it to Tom in chapter 1.

When Tom and Lowenstein meet, there is a lot of tension between them.  Each has prejudices against the other—Tom doesn’t like therapists; Lowenstein doesn’t like Southerners.  Lowenstein is appalled at Tom’s behavior, including the language he uses, and Tom is displeased with Lowenstein’s views.  

As Tom tells more stories of his and Savannah’s childhood, Lowenstein opens up more about her marital problems.  Tom tells her she is beautiful, and she says her husband doesn’t think that.  They both get to know each other better than their spouses know them.  Their relationship grows from their trying to tolerate each other into romantic interest.  

However, even after they have grown closer, they don’t always get along.  They relate to each other better, but they still have some opposing views.  Lowenstein gets mad at Tom for making rude jokes and brushing off important topics.  In turn, Tom gets mad at Lowenstein for her anger as well as for her feminist views.  Their differences in opinion sometimes lead to bitter arguments and, at one point, physical violence when Lowenstein throws a dictionary at tom and causes him to bleed profusely.  However, they make up quickly after their fights and never hold grudges.  

In chapter 23, Tom sees for the first time what Lowenstein and Herbert’s relationship is really like.  Each of them, but especially Herbert, constantly tries to find ways to make the other mad.  Tom has dinner with Herbert and Lowenstein and some of their friends, including Monique, and he sees Herbert knowingly cause a lot of stress to Lowenstein and their guests.  Tom gets very angry and demands that Herbert apologize to everyone, threatening to destroy his Stradivarius if he doesn’t.  After Herbert apologizes, tom decides to leave.  That night (and the next morning), Tom and Lowenstein have sex.  

That night marks a turning point in Tom and Lowenstein’s relationship.  Romantic interest has been growing for a while, but now they have finally broken the ice and shown their commitment to each other.  

Chapters 26-27: Moving the Town & Luke's War

In chapter 26, Isabel Newbury dies and Lila marries Reese.  Lila now owns all of Melrose Island after her divorce with Henry, and her land ownership and Reese’s political power allow them to fuel a campaign that would relocate all of Colleton’s residents and turn the county into a nuclear research and bomb construction facility.  Luke protests this move more than anyone else and single-handedly tries to stop it.

The entire novel builds up to this event, and Tom tells Lowenstein that this is even worse that Callanwolde returning in chapter 22.  At first, we were surprised by this claim because, in terms of content, these chapters were boring compared to Callanwolde’s return.  However, when we considered their literary significance, we realized that the events of these chapters were the key to nearly all of the Wingo family’s problems.

Luke’s campaign to stop the moving of the town begins with his speech at the assembly.  In his speech, he compares Colleton to the Garden of Eden and says that the forbidden fruit that would destroy it is plutonium.  He encourages his fellow citizens to join him in a war against moving the town.  Even though no one in the town is brave enough to help him, Luke still carries out his war by himself and does everything he possibly can to achieve his goal.  He hides in the woods and blows up construction sites.  The workers are afraid of him and the FBI is after him.  He eventually plans to surrender, but before he gets the chance, one of the people who had been hired to hunt him down finds him and kills him.

Luke told Lila after his speech that while “most people are smart about a hundred things,” he is “just smart about four or five things (600).”  Luke had seemed unintelligent before this chapter, but this quote and his actions in these chapters show how passionate he is and how he just has different priorities than other people.  We had seen before with Caesar and the white porpoise that Luke is passionate about nature, but in these chapters, we see the extent of his love for his town and how far he is willing to go to save it.  Tom admires Luke for his passion and wishes that there was something he himself felt that strongly about.

Lila betrayed her family by marrying Reese Newbury and selling Melrose Island.  Ironically, Lila had always told her children that family loyalty was the most important thing, but her actions in these chapters are completely disloyal.  The Wingos hate the Newburys and everything they stand for, but Lila marries a Newbury because she wants money and high social standing.  More significantly, she sells Melrose Island, which has belonged to the Wingo family for generations and represents everything that is important to them and particularly to Luke.  Lila’s actions here completely tear the family apart and cause Tom to hate her.

Luke’s death is not tragic simply because he died.  It is tragic because of how it happened and how the whole town died with him.  The town and the island held everything that mattered to Luke, but Lila was selfish enough to destroy them for her own benefit.  Tom hates Lila because her selfishness took away his island, his town, his connection with his family, and his brother’s life.

Image Study

Caesar

In chapter 13, Henry buys a vicious tiger named Caesar and tries to use it to attract customers to his gas station.  Luke loves it and tries to train it.  It also serves as a school mascot at Tom and Luke’s football games.  Caesar ultimately saves the Wingos’ lives by killing two of the rapists that threaten to kill them and then dies tragically.

Caesar is characterized as scary and vicious.  When he eats one of the seals at the circus, everyone is terrified.  However, he is also described as beautiful, majestic, and powerful.

The tiger is an important element in Luke’s characterization.  When Luke tries to train him in the barn at night, it is the first time we see him display his true passion.  Caesar’s fierceness matches Luke’s passion for nature.

One of the most significant things about Caesar is that he does not belong where he is.  He clearly should be in the wild, and in the circus and in the town he is out of place and unhappy.  Luke is closely connected with the tiger because ultimately, people try to force both of them into places and situations that are unnatural for them.  Caesar becomes a symbol for people having to cope with being in a place they don’t fit in, like Luke, Benji Washington and Mr. Fruit.

Carolina Snow

While the tiger demonstrates ferocity and power, Carolina Snow, the white porpoise, represents another side of nature: its beauty and vulnerability.  Both the tiger and the porpoise are important to Luke’s characterization because Luke loves both sides of nature.

The porpoise is closely connected to the town.  Tom explains that she is a symbol of luck and that as long as she swims in the Colleton River, the residents of Colleton will have good luck.  Everyone in the town recognizes her and loves her, and they all work together to save her when she is threatened.  When the porpoise is finally captured, it means that the town’s luck has lapsed and foreshadows the moving of the town at the end of the novel.

Part of Henry’s characterization involves the porpoise.  When she is taken, we find out that Henry was helping the captors and that they paid him $1000 to betray the porpoise and the entire town, showing that he is selfish and does not have his priorities straight.  His betrayal of the porpoise parallels the way he raises his children: The porpoise is a symbol of luck, happiness, and purity, and just as he helps remove the porpoise from the town, he takes those things away from their childhood.  Henry’s actions in this chapter are also compared to Lila selling the town at the climax of the novel.  Both Henry and Lila are willing to betray the family and their town for selfish reasons.

Colleton

Colleton is a small, rural town that epitomizes the South.  The people all know each other, and most of them are friendly toward each other.  An important part of the characterization of the town is its response to Mr. Fruit, the presumably mentally disabled man who directs traffic where there is a correctly functioning traffic light.  Tom says that “any community can be judged in its humanity or corruption by how it manages to accommodate the Mr. Fruits of the world (208),” and Colleton proves itself to be a genial town by accepting and respecting Mr. Fruit when other towns wouldn’t.

The town is an important image because it is what Tom, Luke, and many others live.  Its destruction at the end of the novel in tragic because of the love so many people had for it.

Conroy also uses to Colleton to establish one of his claims about America: that its top priorities are increasing its size and wealth.  Colleton was destroyed because it didn’t want to change to match those ideals.

The Salt Marshes

“To describe our growing up in the lowcountry of South Carolina, I would have to take you the marsh on a spring day, flush the great blue heron from its silent occupation, scatter marsh hens as we sink to our knees in mud, open you an oyster with a pocketknife and feed it to you from the shell and say, “There.  That taste.  That’s that taste of my childhood (6).”

The marshes are an important part of Tom, Luke, and Savannah’s childhood.  Since they lived on the marsh and their father was a shrimper, the children spent a lot of time outside, whether it was on the boat, swimming in the river, or sitting on the dock.  The came to appreciate a lot about the power of nature, that marshes, and the tides.

When Luke goes to Vietnam, he sees rice paddies that remind him of the salt marshes.  This makes beautiful parts of nature a motif in the novel and shows that they can be found all over the world.  The Wingo children, primarily Luke, love their island and their town not just for sentimental reasons but also for the beauty of nature that they see there.  Conroy shows us that nature connects everyone in the world because it exists everywhere and anyone can appreciate it.

Themes from American Literature

Gender, race, geography, and religion don’t define who you are and how things affect you.

The Prince of Tides is about people who go against stereotypes and respond to their experiences in ways that have no connection to the expectations of society.  Conroy explores the labels that society has put on different types of people and explains that those labels mean nothing and that experiences shape who we are.

One of the main categories Conroy addresses is gender.  Men and women are often seen as having separate roles, but we see in this novel that those roles can be mixed or reversed.  When Tom marries Sallie, he takes on what would often be considered the woman’s job—cooking and taking care of his home and his children—while Sallie becomes a doctor and earns most of the money for the family.  This lifestyle does not make Tom any less masculine or Sallie any less feminine; it is simply a different way to live.

           

Gender is also an important part of the sexual assaults on the Wingo family and their responses to them.  In chapter 5, when Callanwolde comes for the first time, Tom has the most emotional reaction.  He is horrified by the power of his own gender and cannot speak for days.  In chapter 22, Conroy addresses the vanity of stereotypical gender roles when Callanwolde and his cohorts rape Lila, Savannah, and Tom.  Before the incident, Tom didn’t even realize it was possible for a man to be raped.  Conroy uses this incident to prove that men and women can experience the same things.  Tom calls himself a feminist after being raped, but he disagrees with Savannah, Lowenstein, and other feminists because they believe that only women can be abused.

Conroy uses the story of Benji Washington, the first black student to graduate from Colleton High School, to make a statement about race.  Aside from being a different color from everyone else, Benji is a normal high school student.  He is also an excellent football player, and when he is on the football field, it doesn’t matter that he is black; it only matters that he plays well for his school.  The other students mistreat Benji and believe that he merits being treated differently because of his race, but really, his race doesn’t matter.  People group him into a different category, but he is really just like the rest of them.

Tom and Lowenstein are very different in many ways, but they are still able to have a relationship.  Conroy addresses both religion and geography through Tom and Lowenstein: Tom is from the South and was raised Catholic, while Lowenstein is from New York and is Jewish.  Each of them has stereotypes against the other when they first meet, but they soon realize that they share some of the same problems, and they are able to form a connection based on what they have in common.  They both have problems with their families, both of their spouses are cheating on them, and they are both generally unhappy with their lives.  Conroy shows that they bond because of their experiences and feelings and proves that their differences don’t mean anything.

The entire novel is about the Wingo children’s experiences and how they responded to them as adults.  Details like their gender and religion don’t have anything to do with their responses.  The emotion in the novel is much stronger because it is all based on experience, and any reader can empathize with the Wingo children because Conroy shows us that anyone can go through the same trauma and feel the same things.

America is extremely flawed because it feels the need to meddle in other countries’ affairs, is too emotionally detached, and is too industrial.

Although it takes a back seat to other themes, there is a somewhat anti-American feel to The Prince of Tides.  We mostly see this from Luke during his war for the town, but there are several hints throughout the novel from Tom also.  Most of them are merely subtle criticisms of America.

A lot of Luke’s criticisms originate during his time in Vietnam.  He sees the peasants in the rice paddies that remind him of the marshes.  Then he witnesses American soldiers killing those peasants and is forced to kill them himself.  He doesn’t understand why that was necessary or why America always feels the need to be involved in everything even when whatever it is doesn’t have to do with America. 

Luke also did not like that he could be part of the military and that the government could still take away his house.  Joining the military is usually something honorable and something that you are rewarded for, but instead of being rewarded for his service, Luke has his house taken away by the government.  This makes him very angry and distrustful of the government.  Luke begins to think that the only place he can really count on is the South, particularly the marshes of Colleton.  

A criticism that primarily Tom makes is that Americans, including himself, are too emotionally detached.  For instance, when he leaves Tolitha in a nursing home, he says, “Because I’m an American, I let her die by degrees, isolated and abandoned by her family” (146).  He knows that he should care enough about her to take care of her in her old age, but instead, he leaves her in a nursing home away from her family.  The government is also too detached.  It expects everyone in Colleton to not be too upset about moving as long as they would be compensated.  This reflects Tom’s desire to be like Luke, who was very emotional and intensely passionate about the town and nature that he loved.  In the idea that America is too emotionally detached, Tom seems to separate the South from the rest of the country.  The South is emotional and sentimental which is part of what Tom loves about it so much.  

Another criticism about American that is made in this novel is that America tries to expand and industrialize too much.  The destruction of the town of Colleton is significant beyond the fact that it made everyone relocate their homes and families.  The town had been a charming home because of the connections that all of its citizens had with each other because of the nature, the white porpoise, and the history they had together.  The destruction of the town was also the destruction of their memories and their lives and their friendships.  Tom acknowledges this flaw in America when he says, “As a town, we had made the error of staying small—and there is no more unforgivable crime in America” (607).  Conroy makes the argument that small town life in which people have connections and a relationship with lots of the other residents is the right way to live.      

Prologue- Chapter 3: Settings

In these chapters, we are introduced to the troubled Wingo family.  Tom, the narrator, tells us cynically about his challenging childhood, decaying marriage, and most importantly, his suicidal sister Savannah. The prologue addresses the importance of Tom's South Carolinian identity and his past.  In chapter 1, Tom discovers that Savannah has attempted suicide for the second or third time, and that he must travel to New York to see her.  Tom does not like New York one bit, but Savannah seems to be happier there than in South Carolina.  Chapter 2 reveals the details of Tom's first visit to New York with his brother Luke to see Savannah.  Extreme contrasts are made between southern, rural South Carolina and urban New York. We (the readers) also realize just how deranged Savannah is in the mind.  In chapter 3, Tom, back in the present, meets Dr. Lowenstein, Savannah's psychiatrist.  She tells him how serious Savannah's condition is and asks to know more about Savannah's past. 


Colleton, South Carolina is characterized by sterotypical Southern culture and the astounding beauty of nature.  The people have similar southern roots, know each other, and are courteous.  In New York City, on the other hand, the cold concrete buildings and streets parallel the aloofness of the people.  Having been raised in the South, Tom is uncomfortable in the impersonal city of New York.  Conroy's diction indicates Tom's disdain for the city, incorporating words like "enervating", "hideous", "cheerless", "damaged", and "s***hole" when describing New York.  Tom says:

"It takes too much energy and endurance to record the infinite number of ways the city offends me.  Were I to list them all, I would fill up a book the size of the Manhattan yellow pages, and that would merely be the prologue (32)."

Unlike Tom, Savannah is fascinated with the fierceness and artistry of the city.

"Even the muggers, drug addicts, winos, and bag ladies...are a major part of the city's ineffable charm for her.  It is these damaged birds of paradise, burnt out and sneaking past the mean alleys, that define the city's most extreme limits for her.  She finds beauty in these extremities (33)."

Tom and Luke think that no one can find privacy in New York because there are so many people.  Savannah believes that precisely for that reason, one can have privacy.  She explains that in such a big city, nobody knows you personally, so you can get by unnoticed.
Savannah also loves New York because it is the opposite of Colleton.  She had a difficult childhood and needed to escape from the memory of it.  She tells Luke:

"'That's why I came here to New York, to escape everything in my past.  I hated every single thing about my childhood.  I love New York because I'm not reminded of Colleton at all.  Nothing that I see here, absolutely nothing, reminds me of my childhood.' (44)"

We think that the details of Savannah's feminist followers and the bleeding angels in her vision suggest that she was raped, possibly by her father.  We are eager for more information about Savannah's past to be revealed so that we can see if our predictions are correct.
We noticed in these chapters that Tom and Savannah are closely connected, but that the setting divides them.  Their different opinions of Colleton and New York City reflect the different ways they deal with their childhood.  Tom says that his job is to forget his past, so he loves South Carolina because he doesn't acknowledge what happened there.  He says that it is Savannah's job to remember her past in detail and try to escape from it, so she moves away from the locus of her suffering.  As the novel progresses, it will become Tom's job to remember everything so that he can solve the mystery of Savannah's madness and save not only Savannah, but himself as well.

Chapter 4: Rhetoric Study

"There are no verdicts to childhood, only consequences, and the bright freight of memory.  I speak now of the sun-struck, deeply lived-in days of my past.  I am more fabulist than historian, but I will try to give you the insoluble, unedited terror of youth.  I betray the integrity of my family’s history by turning everything, even sadness, into romance.  There is no romance in this story; there is only the story.

Let us begin with a single fact: The island dogs are calling to each other.

It is night.  My grandfather listens to them and does not like the sound.  In that melody of hounds all the elegiac loneliness of my part of the world is contained.  The island dogs are afraid.  It is October 4, 1944, ten o’clock in the evening.  The tide is rising and will not be full until 1:49 the next morning. 

My sister is born in the white house by the river.  My mother is not due for a month, but that is of small import now.  Sarah Jenkins, eighty-five, black, and a midwife for sixty years, is bent over my mother as Savannah is born.  Dr. Bannister, Colleton’s only doctor, is dying in Charleston at this very moment. 

Sarah Jenkins is tending to Savannah when she notices my head making its unexpected appearance.  I came as a surprise, an afterthought.

There is a hurricane moving toward Melrose Island.  My grandfather is strengthening the windows with masking tape.  He goes over and stares down into the cradle at Luke, who is sleeping.  He listens again to the medley of dogs but he can barely hear them now because of the wind.  The power went out over an hour before and I am delivered into the world by candlelight.

Sarah Jenkins cleans us thoroughly and attends to our mother.  It has been a messy, difficult birth and she fears there might be complications (75-76)."

Chapter 4 is the first of a series of flashbacks that help explain the Wingos’ past and Savannah’s insanity.  In this excerpt, Tom reveals some important details about his and Savannah’s birth.  Conroy’s abstract diction, the details of the setting, and the present-tense narration are important rhetorical techniques that strengthen the meaning of the passage.

This passage only covers the hours surrounding Tom and Savannah’s birth, but it represents patterns that continue throughout their lives.  The abstract language, including phrases like “elegiac loneliness” and “insoluble, unedited terror” helps create an ominous, oppressing mood, while the tangible descriptions of the setting and the background events show the hardship more directly.

When Savannah and Tom are born, a hurricane is heading for Melrose Island.  Their grandfather prepares by putting masking tape over the window panes, showing us that the storm is going to be serious and threatening.  The island dogs are howling, adding to the eeriness and foreboding of the occasion.  The power goes out, leaving everyone in a primitive, organic situation and demonstrating that they are against nature in their survival attempts, without modern conveniences to aid them.  Most importantly, they are alone.  It is implied that there is nobody else on the island, at least not anybody near them.  The town doctor is not able to assist with the birth because he is dying miles away.  It is a difficult birth, and the midwife “fears there might be complications.”

There is a parallel between the "messy, difficult birth" and Tom and Savannah's childhood.  The potential of complications shows that just because they got through the birth doesn't mean they are free from problems.  Similarly, enduring their childhood and moving on into adulthood does not free them from emotional problems.

Interestingly, Tom narrates this passage in present tense, as though he is observing the scene from the outside instead of being involved in it.  His narration shows detachment from his life.  Tom is very emotional, but he chooses to ignore the emotion of his childhood experiences.  As an adult, he looks back on them as an outsider because he does not want to remember the pain of being involved in them.

Chapter 5: Callanwolde

In Chapter 5, Henry goes to fight in the Korean War, so Lila and her children go to Atlanta to stay with Henry’s parents.  Before Henry leaves, the family has a picnic on Stone Mountain, and we see an example of Henry abusing them.  Everyone is happy for him to leave, and they feel free when they’re in Atlanta.  However, their freedom is threatened when a mysterious and scary man, who they call Callanwolde, starts coming to their house.

We found the story of Callanwolde absolutely terrifying.  Both the description of Callanwolde and the description of the family’s fear contributed to the horror.  Callanwolde’s behavior is disgusting and disturbing, and Conroy presents it straightforwardly, without any fluff.  The writing in this section is powerful, and although we cannot relate to the Wingos’ situation, we can empathize with the family for their fear.

The Callanwolde occurrence has a powerful effect on the children.  Before the strange man appears, “Callanwolde” has a completely different meaning.  It refers to the forest where the children play and symbolizes magical, fantastic adventures.  However, after the man becomes a chronic problem, the name “Callanwolde” comes to refer to him.  Its pleasant meaning is corrupted, and the children use it to label all bad or evil situations.

            “The word Callanwolde changed meaning for us, and, following Savannah’s example, we began to refer to the man as Callanwolde... When Sister Immaculata described the terrors of hell in her sweet voice, she was explaining the boundaries and perimeters of Callanwolde to me and Savannah...  It was a specific person, a specific place, and a general condition of a world suddenly fearful and a fate uncontrollable.” (132)

One of the major problems that Tom and his siblings have throughout their childhood is that things like the meaning of “Callanwolde” change drastically for them.  Before the Callanwolde occurrence, they pray for their father to die in Korea, but afterwards, they anxiously await his return, as he is the only one who can save them.  We have noticed multiple examples of things changing rapidly for them and believe that that has contributed to their confusion and suffering.

Callanwolde is an extreme example of the evil side of men.  His barbaric behavior and physicality contribute to the power of his character as a symbol in the novel.  He rarely speaks when he comes to the house; the only things he ever says are terse threats like “I’ll be back” and “I want you.”  It is as though he does not have a mind but only embodies creepiness and evil.  His appearance, particularly the fact that he is nearly seven feet tall, demonstrates his masculinity.  His advances towards Lila and his exposed genitals show his lack of civility and his evil sexual power.

Each family member’s reaction to Callanwolde is important to his/her characterization.

Luke reacts physically to Callanwolde and tries to fight him off, ignoring the fact that he is a seven-year-old boy against a seven-foot-tall man.  He always has the most active response to Callanwolde’s visits.  He seems to assume the role of man of the house when his mother and siblings are threatened.

Lila is the target of Callanwolde’s attention, although the man is a threat to the entire family.  Lila is scared for herself as well as for her children.  She sleeps during the day and walks through the house checking the locks at night.  Her response demonstrates her powerlessness around men but also shows her concern for her children.  The Callanwolde case also reveals more about her relationship with Henry: She is intimidated by her husband and specifically asks the children not to tell him about Callanwolde because she fears he will judge her.  Henry had told her many time that “no woman was raped who had not asked for it.” (137)

Savannah clearly has a problem with men, and this incident is the first manifestation of that.  Her father has beaten her before, but his event is the first time that a threat has come from outside of her family or has been sexual in nature.  Her problems with her father were discipline-based, but the Callanwolde incident shows the evil power of a man whose goal seems to be nothing but enjoyment.  Her reaction to Callanwolde indicates that her problem with men is sexually based.

Tom has the most emotional response to Callanwolde.  He is more terrified than any of the others—he is literally paralyzed with fear and doesn’t speak for days after Callanwolde comes for the second time.  Like Savannah, Tom has never before experienced any type of attack from a man, and this event is the first time he realizes the maliciousness of those of his own gender.  As an adult, he becomes particularly passionate about acknowledging true male identity.

Chapters 6-7: Character Study

In chapter 6, we first see Tom and Dr. Lowenstein talking over dinner where Tom explains his current perception of his mother.  We also realize that Dr. Lowenstein’s family relationships are more complicated and broken than we might have thought.  After stating that his grandmother is presently alone in a nursing home, Tom goes on to explain that after her husband died, she travelled the world, examining different cultures.  She eventually comes back to Colleton to live with Tom’s grandfather, whom she had been separated from since the Depression.  Tom goes into further characterization of the two of them and their kindness and wonders how his father could have come from them.  In chapter 7, we see even more about Dr. Lowenstein’s home life and her relationship with her son Bernard.  Then we learn about Lila’s miscarriages and how that reflects on the family’s characterization.  Then Tom finds Savannah with Rose Aster, their dead baby sister, in her bed.  But the next day Tom realizes that Savannah cannot remember lots of traumatic things from their childhood, the previous night included. This is the first time that Savannah is presented as crazy.  We also see more about Tom’s “nervous breakdown” and Dr. Lowenstein’s son Bernard.


Henry Wingo abuses his family.  This fact is more apparent than anything else about him.  He is the opposite of his parents Amos and Tolitha Wingo possibly because his parents were too busy with their own lives to bother raising their son.  Tom seems to believe this.  He says, “His childhood had been a sanctioned debacle of neglect, and my grandparents were the pale, unindictable executers of my father’s violations against his own children (156).”

Another possibility to consider is that Henry, like his son Tom and many others, did not want to resemble his parents and, unlike Tom, succeeded. 

We don’t know very much about Henry besides the fact that he was violent with his family.  Although he must have possessed other qualities, they don’t seem to have made any kind of an impact because they were overshadowed by his brutality.  Tom suggests, “If Henry Wingo had not been a violent man, I think he would have made a splendid father (5).”


Lila Wingo is first presented as a beautiful, imaginative, loving woman, but as the story progresses, we see a different side to her that is much fiercer and more terrible than the first.  When Tom becomes aware of this change in his perception of her, he says, “Before, I had thought of her as only beautiful and unapproachable, but now I became aware of something dissatisfied, even cunning, behind the prettiest blue eyes I would ever see (180-181).”

One of the things that contributed to her unhappiness was having four miscarriages after her three children were born.  Lila’s miscarriages deeply disturbed her, but her love for her living children starts to become questionable.  She seems very unsatisfied with the life she chose, which contributes to her discontentedness around her family.  She seems to see them as physical reminders of her non-existent wealth and low social status.   In the present, Tom is very aware of her impurity.  At this point, it is unclear if there was a specific event that caused this mindset in Tom or if it was merely a realization that grew larger and more serious over time.


Luke Wingo is probably the least mentioned family member.  From the information that Tom does give us, Luke seems to be the strongest whether because he doesn’t let everything affect him the same way it affects everyone else or because he is simple in thought and emotion compared to the rest of the family.  He acts as the protector when Henry is either hurting them or is not around to protect them.  Although we don’t know much about Luke yet, he must be important later because while talking to Dr. Lowenstein, Tom says,“’None of us suspected it when we were growing up, but Luke was the one living the essential life, the only one that mattered (144).’”

Perhaps it was his ability to get past the experiences that were so damaging to his siblings that allowed him to live “the essential life.”  Perhaps he led the only life that mattered because he was the only one who was able to lead a normal life.  Tom and Savannah were too altered by their childhood to move past it.  Luke's life seemed less significant than Tom and Savannah's because he was not as intelligent as they were, but it might have been that very quality that saved him.


Savannah Wingo is shown as a fighter in her childhood.  She seemed to be the twin that could handle the stress of living in the Wingo family, yet in the present she is the one unable to cope with her childhood.  We learn, however, that she cannot remember many of the traumatic things that had happened to them.  As a result, she seemed to live more in her mind than in reality.  Tom says that “even then, her interior life was far more important to her than her external one (184).”

Perhaps this was a defense mechanism that allowed her to deal with her past by forgetting it, but it seems that eventually, it might have turned on her.  By living mostly in her mind, things might have formed there from which she can never escape.  She may have gone crazy not because of her inability to cope with her childhood, but because of her way of handling it.


Tom Wingo is the most emotional of all of the characters.  It seems that he is the sibling who is most affected by his childhood experiences.  Although Savannah seems to be more deeply affected because of her insanity, Tom is really the one who is unable to let go of his childhood enough to live in the present. 

Tom’s characterization is based on the rest of the characters and his attitude towards them.  For instance, he is frightened by his father’s violence, and seemed to be always waiting for him to strike.  This is displayed when Tom says, “I lived out my childhood thinking my father would one day kill me (157).”

Tom also seems to be obsessed with gender.  There are many instances, such as Callanwolde, that seem to make him ashamed of his own gender.  But beyond that, Tom appears to have trouble coming to terms with the way all people are.  While talking to Dr. Lowenstein, he professes that there are problems with each gender and that his problems with both relate back to his childhood and his parents. 

“’Is there a part of you that hates women, Tom?’[Dr. Lowenstein] asked, leaning toward me. ‘Really hates them?’

‘Yes,’ I answered, matching the dark intensity of her stare.

‘Do you have any idea why you hate women?’ she asked, again the unruffled professional, dauntless in her role.

‘Yes, I know exactly why I hate women.  I was raised by a woman.  Now ask me the next question.  The next logical question.’

‘I’m afraid I don’t understand.’

‘Ask me if I hate men, New York feminist doctor,’ I said. ‘Ask me if I hate f**king men.’

‘Do you hate men?’ she asked.

‘Yes,’ I replied. ‘I hate men because I was raised by a man (165-166).’”

Dr. Susan Lowenstein seems at first to be well put-together and reasonably happy due to her high-paying job, but we quickly come to realize that she is not content in her marriage.  She seems to be hurt by her husband’s disinterest, and this has caused her self-confidence to go rocketing downward.  This is displayed by a piece of dialogue from her and Tom.

“‘… I haven’t felt attractive in a very long time, Lowenstein.’

Again, there was a softening, and I watched her mouth relax as she said, ‘Neither have I, Tom (144).’”

She is also confused by her son and his unhappiness.  She doesn’t have the solutions to her own life the way she does for everyone else.  She seems to represent the idea that everyone has problems.  No one, not even the people who had a perfect childhood, can be perfect people or live in a perfect world.  In the same way that we see Tom starting to recover from his disturbing childhood, Dr. Lowenstein is beginning to recover from her damaging marriage. We think that as the novel progresses, we will also see her opening up to both Tom and her son.

Chapters 8-14: A Multifaceted Hodgepodge of a Personal Response

In Chapter 8, Tolitha takes the children to shop for a coffin with her.  At the funeral parlor, she lies down in a coffin and tricks Ruby Blankenship into thinking she is dead, then raises up from the coffin, climbs out, and runs away with the children, leaving Ruby in hysterics.  In Chapter 14, Amos carries out his Good Friday tradition of imitating Jesus’ walk to Calvary by dressing in a robe and sandals and carrying a cross through the streets of Colleton.

Chapter 8 shows Tolitha’s awareness of her mortality but also her youthful spirit.  It seems that she is trying to convince herself that she is old and about to die.  She argues that even though she seems healthy for her age, she knows she is going to suffer heart failure soon because a gypsy told her so.  However, she is very playful and seems young at heart.  Her plot to trick Ruby Blankenship and her fit of hysterical laughter that followed aren’t typical behavior of a frail old lady.  The question is: Does Tolitha want to die?  It wouldn’t seem natural for her to die anytime soon, but she is determined for it happen.  We hope that as we continue reading, Conroy will give us more information about Tolitha and her opinion of death.

Amos and Tolitha are complete opposites, and it’s not clear why they married each other.  Amos is a quiet, religious man who makes his living selling Bibles.  Tolitha is a wild, adventurous quasi-alcoholic who travels the world and has many husbands without telling Amos.  However, it seems that they love each other despite not understanding each other’s way of life.  They are also very loving, and it’s not clear why Henry turned out the way he did when his parents were so kind (see Character Study).

In Chapter 9, Tom beats up Todd Newbury for saying bad things about the Wingo family.  This chapter establishes the hatred between the Newburys and the Wingos.  In Chapter 11, Lila is determined to become a member of the Colleton League and works on creating a recipe to submit to their cookbook.  When the Colleton League not only rejects her recipe but then treats the Wingos in a way that embarrasses Lila, the children wait until the Newburys go to Barbados and then leave a dead loggerhead turtle to rot in their house.

Lila is very concerned with keeping up appearances.  She is embarrassed that her family is poor, and she wants to look high-class.  She hates the Newburys, but she listens to Isabel Newbury and stops wearing flowers in her hair, tries to join the Colleton League with Isabel, and ends up marrying Reese Newbury in order to raise her social standing.  Her social status matters to her more than most things, so she puts all of her time into trying to improve it and makes some unwise decisions along the way.

These chapters also show how loving and close-knit the family can be, with the exception of Henry.  As an adult, Tom hates his mother for what she has done, including some terrible things he hasn’t revealed to us yet, but as a child, he is very supportive of his mother and loves her deeply.  Every time Lila is embarrassed or insulted by the Newburys or the Colleton League, her children come to her defense and encourage her.  They are incredibly loving and supportive of their mother in these chapters, which shows that whatever she did to make them hate her must have been really serious.

In Chapter 10, Tom meets Bernard, Dr. Lowenstein’s son, and begins teaching him to play football.  In Chapter 12, Tom talks to Dr. Lowenstein about Bernard and his training.

Conroy makes a lot of statements about parenting and the parents’ influence on their children in this book, mainly because it is based on his own childhood experiences.  Dr. Lowenstein, her husband, and Bernard are an interesting example of parent-child relationships and long-term effects of bad parenting.  Dr. Lowenstein had explained earlier that she never got too involved in Bernard’s life because she was afraid she would mess him up.  Tom describes Bernard as “neglected” as says that Bernard’s childhood has made him bitter and uncommunicative.  Tom feels some disrespect towards Dr. Lowenstein and her husband because of the way have raised Bernard.

Tom seems determined to improve Dr. Lowenstein’s relationship with her son.  He scolds her for not showing any interest in football.  He then starts teaching her the basics of football so that she can understand Bernard’s interest and follow the games he plays.  It is interesting that Tom is trying so hard to help her, as she is a psychiatrist, and even though Tom isn’t her patient, it would make more sense for her to help him.  But even though Tom's problems seem more horrific, Dr. Lowenstein's are no less legitimate.  Tom and Dr. Lowenstein are able to help each other because they each represent one side of the issue:  Tom understands what it's like to have bad parents, and Dr. Lowenstein understands how difficult parenting is.  Their relationship strengthens the theme that everybody has problems, even those who seem to lead perfect lives.

In Chapter 13, we learn about Henry’s stupid attempts at making money.  The biggest one is purchasing a gas station and a tiger to go with it.  After six months, the gas station closes.  The family has lost a lot of money, including the children’s college funds, and is left with only a vicious tiger.

We’re not really sure what the tiger represents, but we know it has some significance because Savannah talked about tigers in her crazy speech after she woke up from her coma.  She mentioned “the tiger man,” and we think that foreshadows that something significant is going to happen with the tiger.

This chapter is also important to Luke's characterization.  In the way he deals with the tiger, he is presented as more passionate than we have seen him before.  Before reading this chapter, we saw Luke as physical and unintelligent, but the tiger provides him with a setting to express his emotions more deeply.