STORY OF THE STRIKEBREAKER

Final project for ENG 237 by Nathaniel Schwartz

Topic: The strikebreaker, or the scab, who “crosses

thepicket line” during a union strike.

Life and Dunkin’ Donuts, a humanist perespective of Elizabeth Strout’s “Olive Kitteridge”

Nathaniel Schwartz

Eng 237 – Book Report

Olive Kitteridge, as a character, could perhaps be the true epitome of an average working class woman. If such a thing exists, she is it. However, through her actions, her perception of the world and the how the world perceives her, an entirely different light is shed on a seemingly static character. Olive Kitteridge is no stranger to change. She sees it everyday in her small town of Crosby, Maine, where she was born and raised, where she married her husband Henry, where she taught at the local high school for 30 years, and where she rose her only son. This coastal town is the brain, the impulse and the inclination of every working class idiosyncrasy, and Olive is the heart. She represents the progress of stillness; all of the joy that can come with immobility, as well as the plights. She possesses the singular, defining voice of a long-lived life. It is through this character that author Elizabeth Strout so boldly inhibits the lives of the common man in her collection of short stories, titled Olive Kitteridge. Though she does not appear in every short story, Olive serves as a marker, or totem pole, denoting the long and often confusing ancestry that a small town such as Crosby can hold. She weaves in and out of Strout’s pointed narrative just enough for the reader to glimpse how meaningful any life can be, and how simplicity is not without its complications.

There are many short stories in this book, but all serve a similar purpose; to freeze a period in time, like a fallen leaf frozen in a pond of water. We so often overlook small things, but Strout forces the reader to keep looking, to pause, to see the invisible. Many of her narratives come off initially as “quaint”, but she is able to redefine the word and remove the negative connotations attached to it. What is quaint is not always quiet. In “Pharmacy”, Strout steals a moment between Olive and her husband, Henry, that begs a closer inspection. Henry runs the towns only pharmacy, and he employs a young, mousy girl as his assistant. When she becomes a widow, the kind Henry begins a seemingly devious relationship with her. She thus becomes emotionally attached to her senior, and boss.  While most will say this story is boringly familiar, it isn’t. Henry stays true to Olive, though he admits their relationship as of late is not perfect. He, in his mid life, is presented with a perfect opportunity to have a crisis and he coolly gives it away, not wanting to disturb. He is a quite man and he is beautiful because of it. This often frustrates Olive, who is self described as “a bit melancholy”. She sees herself as complex, while she views Henry as simplistic. Instead of pulling them apart, this very opposition is what binds them together, even after Henry has a massive stroke and Olive is forced to put him in a home. The situations we follow in their 35-year marriage are heartfelt and sometimes hard to follow. What seems a slow pace is really a run to the finish, and at the end you realize you had your head down the whole way and missed the view.

It is not just about intimacy. In reality, a working class town has no intimacy. It has no personal boundaries and more importantly would not allow it. Olive and Henry were not going through their marriage alone; the whole town was watching, participating, just as Olive and Henry were deeply involved with the other characters and their own personal journeys. There are no secrets in a real community. This message is portrayed over and over in each story, but none so much as “Incoming Tide”. Again, in its simplest form it tells a timeless story. But what it captures is a unique personal perspective of how the miniscule can amount to the mighty in time. Kevin is going to commit suicide. He has decided he will go to his old, small town of Crosby, drive to the house he grew up in, and kill himself, just as his mother did 15 years ago. He is not part of what you would consider the working class – he may have grown up in a small town but he has since moved on to bigger things, New York City and medical school. But fortune cannot keep him from standing still. Kevin is plagued by his past, by his alcoholic father and his abuses, by his unfortunately giving mother who lost her will to live and by his subsequent upbringing. He is going to kill himself – but Olive happens to see him in his car and unintentionally disrupts his plans. It is her prying that keeps him in his parked car for so long. She does not ask to get in, but rather invites herself, feeling the same familiarity she felt for Kevin when she taught him in seventh grade. It is in this familiarity that we realize how united a person can be to another. How revealing and random a connection can be, and how sometimes it seems more like a miracle. Kevin and Olive almost witness a waitress drowning while they talk. She is saved by her ability to stay above water, because of her struggle to survive. Her struggle saves Kevin’s own life, as well, because he is able to see through a larger perspective; through the perspective of Olive Kitteridge and the waitress. He witnesses how all of their struggles sometimes form the same shape. Their screams of unhappiness can form to create a singular, piercing cry. This is the united cry that has the ability to drive the pain away.

It is not often that we are told working class stories with a happy ending. In fact, most often we are shown the grit, the stain that will not come off – all the tragedy with just a glimpse of laughter. But Elizabeth Strout is able to create a more harmonious, truthful representation of struggle. Perhaps it reflects the location of the town, or the time period in which we presently reside. Some typical working class issues were altogether avoided, like race. Instead, Strout offers a bolder truth – that class itself can be a defining factor, regardless of race or sex. All of the stories contained in Olive Kitteridge speak of sorrow and unrelenting pain, of placidity and contempt for the hand that holds you down, but many also contain rebirth; the drawing back of the tide, the point of horizon where the sunset meets the ocean. Struggle is an acceptable part of life, and all characters choose to wear it differently. But, and I believe this is something Strout strives to recognize, all characters choose to wear their strife. We all choose to be happy or unhappy, regardless of our situation or our upbringing. At some point in time, you have to wake up and drive yourself to “Dunkin’ Donuts”, as Olive might say. We all have the ability to choose. Some may choose to go at it alone, so may choose to stay in bed, but what unites the whole town of Crosby, Maine and therefore humanity itself, is that very ability.