Avoidance Not Heroic

While reading this book I never considered any of the characters to be incredibly heroic. They had their little moments now and then, but on the whole I felt like the entire novel revolved around the family's issues with avoidance and cowardice.

When Marie first falls ill, "the word tumor was avoided" (Ferro 13). They refuse to talk about the prognosis of six months, and merely refer to her condition as 'something in her head.' Later on when a very sick Marie is able to dance the Peabody with John at a birthday party, all of the adults "slip into the dining room to compose [themselves]" or out through another door, "like a French farce" (89).The remainder of the novel is filled with situations much like these, where Max or other members of his family seek to avoid a situation rather than confront and overcome it. This reminds me of Pecola in The Bluest Eye, who eventually avoids reality in an extreme way by going slightly insane.

Max shows characteristics of avoidance and cowardice throughout his life. This could be accepted in a child, but it continues through his adulthood, which is why he seems so un-heroic to me. When John takes down the tapestry and gets in a fight with Max about it, Max threatens to cut off his ties to the entire family unless his father appeases him. When his brother Jack asks him what all it would take to bridge this rift, Max merely replies that "he didn't think harmony was possible," that 'down the drain' was "where [their relationship] seems to belong" (126). Max doesn't even make the effort to reconcile with his father. This is stubborn and selfish -- not at all the qualities of a hero.

John, Max's father, is no better. Rather than dealing with his grief over Marie's death and then moving on with his life to focus on the family and friends he has left, he commits a "polite suicide"; basically, "the removal of all responsibility" (170). As Max observes, John just seems to give up and expect that "God would now solve his problems" (163). He avoids the reality of his grief and responsibility altogether. This example is the most similar to Pecola's created illusion for herself in Morrison's novel.

Everyone seems to have this habit of avoidance throughout the novel. I don't see how any of them can be considered a hero if they never really faced their problems.