"Bad Politics": Old Southwestern Humor and the Southern Gothic in Woody Guthrie's
Bound for Glory
from the The Seventeenth Southern Writers Symposium
Edward A. Shannon, Ramapo College of New Jersey
Edward A. Shannon, Ramapo College of New Jersey
Essay Sections:
Introduction |
The Southwestern Hero | Big Jim
| Complex Nostalgia|
Southern Gothic Meets the Old Southwest
| Southern Writers Symposium
| Southern Writers Symposium
The Southwestern Hero:
Guthrie's reinvention of himself in the role of the Old Southwestern hero
in
Bound for Glory blurs the line between fiction and autobiography,
but crossing generic lines was part of the Old Southwestern tradition.
The "Crockett Almanacs"
of the 1830's "contain[ed] tall tales based mainly on legends of oral tradition,
concerned with Crockett [ . . . ] Daniel Boone, and Kit Carson" ("Crockett
Almanacs" 176).
Guthrie was not shy about joining in the mythologizing of real-life characters,
like the Dalton Gang, Belle Starr, Pretty Boy Floyd, or . . . Woody Guthrie.
Where the Crockett
character obviously embodies American individualism and Manifest Destiny,
the Woody Guthrie of Bound for Glory exists to sing the virtues of the
workingman and spur the nation on to
victory in the Second World War's battle against fascism.
Guthrie's narrative should be read as part of a broader tradition of American humor that, as David Reynolds writes, "featured a dynamic rascal who flouted decency and the law and who embodied the [ . . .] view of man as a wily being who relies on cunning to survive in an unpredictable, inscrutable universe" (442-3). This tradition was rooted in the work of such "Old Southwestern humorists such as Thomas Bangs Thorpe and George Washington Harris" (442-3). Reynolds sees a distinctly political subtext to the excesses of the Old Southwestern tales, which he calls "orgies of liberty" that take "on the aspect of a grotesque democratic carnival" (448). Bound for Glory's Woody Guthrie is cut from the same mold as the Old Southwestern tale's "'screamer' or 'ring-tailed roarer,' the loud backwoods braggart who spouted streams of strange metaphors" (Reynolds 449). He is an incredulous innocent turned wryly ironic truth-telling "prophet singer" (Guthrie "Prophet Singer" 27) able to cut through corruption with a few well-chosen words.
Other qualities of the Old Southwestern tale include, as Hennig Cohen and William B. Dillingham have written, "fights, mock fights, reluctant fighters [ . . . ] elections and electioneering [ . . . ] the visitor in a humble home, rude accommodations for travelers [ . . . ] adventures of a rogue [ . . . ] cures, sickness and bodily discomfort " (xxiv). All are present in Bound for Glory. Guthrie's exploits, especially those of his youth, which take up a great part of the book, are somewhat less than accurate, but to a reader of the Old Southwestern tales and the works they inspired, they seem very familiar. Like Huckleberry Finn, young Woody emerges as a trickster and storyteller of great skill, and the many battles of his childhood are recounted like scenes from Twain's work, and very much in the spirit of Old Southwestern humor tale. For instance, Guthrie relates one occasion on which he is taunted into fighting a childhood friend named "Big Jim," who has himself just been taunted into beating "Little Jim." Young Woody at first wants to have nothing to do with the arranged battle, as he has no quarrel with Big Jim. Only the crowd's appeal to the reputation of Woody's rough and tumble dad can budge him. They shout, "Old man Charlie Guthrie's a fighter! Old Charlie Guthrie would come down and fight!" (Guthrie 110). As in Augustus Baldwin Longstreet's stories "The Horse-Swap" and "The Fight," the crowd goads the two antagonists into confrontation.
His nascent manhood questioned, Woody acquiesces. In pitched battle, he fights to win, still questioning the circumstances that brought the fight about. Naturally seeking harmony, not battle, Guthrie describes his youthful self as particularly insightful. As he fights, he thinks, "I hated fighting my hometown kids. I was throwing my fists at Big Jim, but I was really fighting these crazy notions that folks get and keep in their heads" (111-112). As a reward for the entertainment their battle provides, Woody and Big Jim earn two dollars and seventy-five cents between them, which they spend on ice cream. They split the money fifty-fifty, of course, but that leaves an extra nickel. The problem is solved in typical socialistic fashion and they share the money with Little Jim (113). Here, as in many of his songs, Guthrie imbues the Old Southwestern braggart character with his own political views. As Guy Logsdon has written of Guthrie's music, "[h]e used the American frontier braggart traditions of folk heroes [ . . . ] to criticize those who [ . . . ] thrive on misfortunes of others" (Logsdon, Hard Travelin' 19).
Guthrie's narrative should be read as part of a broader tradition of American humor that, as David Reynolds writes, "featured a dynamic rascal who flouted decency and the law and who embodied the [ . . .] view of man as a wily being who relies on cunning to survive in an unpredictable, inscrutable universe" (442-3). This tradition was rooted in the work of such "Old Southwestern humorists such as Thomas Bangs Thorpe and George Washington Harris" (442-3). Reynolds sees a distinctly political subtext to the excesses of the Old Southwestern tales, which he calls "orgies of liberty" that take "on the aspect of a grotesque democratic carnival" (448). Bound for Glory's Woody Guthrie is cut from the same mold as the Old Southwestern tale's "'screamer' or 'ring-tailed roarer,' the loud backwoods braggart who spouted streams of strange metaphors" (Reynolds 449). He is an incredulous innocent turned wryly ironic truth-telling "prophet singer" (Guthrie "Prophet Singer" 27) able to cut through corruption with a few well-chosen words.
Other qualities of the Old Southwestern tale include, as Hennig Cohen and William B. Dillingham have written, "fights, mock fights, reluctant fighters [ . . . ] elections and electioneering [ . . . ] the visitor in a humble home, rude accommodations for travelers [ . . . ] adventures of a rogue [ . . . ] cures, sickness and bodily discomfort " (xxiv). All are present in Bound for Glory. Guthrie's exploits, especially those of his youth, which take up a great part of the book, are somewhat less than accurate, but to a reader of the Old Southwestern tales and the works they inspired, they seem very familiar. Like Huckleberry Finn, young Woody emerges as a trickster and storyteller of great skill, and the many battles of his childhood are recounted like scenes from Twain's work, and very much in the spirit of Old Southwestern humor tale. For instance, Guthrie relates one occasion on which he is taunted into fighting a childhood friend named "Big Jim," who has himself just been taunted into beating "Little Jim." Young Woody at first wants to have nothing to do with the arranged battle, as he has no quarrel with Big Jim. Only the crowd's appeal to the reputation of Woody's rough and tumble dad can budge him. They shout, "Old man Charlie Guthrie's a fighter! Old Charlie Guthrie would come down and fight!" (Guthrie 110). As in Augustus Baldwin Longstreet's stories "The Horse-Swap" and "The Fight," the crowd goads the two antagonists into confrontation.
His nascent manhood questioned, Woody acquiesces. In pitched battle, he fights to win, still questioning the circumstances that brought the fight about. Naturally seeking harmony, not battle, Guthrie describes his youthful self as particularly insightful. As he fights, he thinks, "I hated fighting my hometown kids. I was throwing my fists at Big Jim, but I was really fighting these crazy notions that folks get and keep in their heads" (111-112). As a reward for the entertainment their battle provides, Woody and Big Jim earn two dollars and seventy-five cents between them, which they spend on ice cream. They split the money fifty-fifty, of course, but that leaves an extra nickel. The problem is solved in typical socialistic fashion and they share the money with Little Jim (113). Here, as in many of his songs, Guthrie imbues the Old Southwestern braggart character with his own political views. As Guy Logsdon has written of Guthrie's music, "[h]e used the American frontier braggart traditions of folk heroes [ . . . ] to criticize those who [ . . . ] thrive on misfortunes of others" (Logsdon, Hard Travelin' 19).
Essay Sections:
Introduction |
The Southwestern Hero | Big Jim
| Complex Nostalgia|
Southern Gothic Meets the Old Southwest
| Southern Writers Symposium
| Southern Writers Symposium
