The Forgotten: "Ironweed"

Amy Snyder

Eng. 202, Sec.15

Novel Essay

18 October 2006

The Forgotten

In life, we all make mistakes, some more than others do. People do not grow into faultless perfection. That is something accomplished through hard work, but even then, cannot be fully achieved, much to our regret. People sometimes unsuccessfully give in to their fantasies, their ideals of living, and in reciprocation to that, they make big mistakes, as to err is only human. The protagonist in William Kennedy's Ironweed, Francis Phelan, is certainly no exception. He is a man who has made one too many mistakes and is now trying to come to terms with his life. From accidentally killing his son, to the (presumably accidental) murdering of a scab who took his job and in Francis’ mind, his life, taking refuge in alcohol and comfort in the weeds of the outdoors, to his family abandonment, it becomes a grim picture of a life not worth living. All this expands before and beyond the Great Depression of 1929 to the beginning and the present of the novel, the year 1938. In this essay, I hope to provide a description of William Kennedy’s outlook into the society of “bums,” the “homeless,” the “street people” that we so easily brush off every day.

The novel starts out the day before Halloween in 1938 with Francis Phelan observing his surroundings as he is “riding up the winding road of Saint Agnes Cemetery” to start his first day of solid work in years (Kennedy 1). In youth, Francis had looks, health, vitality and a flowering baseball career. Then it all disappeared into the beyond and then into the ghost of his past life. Francis and his friends, specifically Helen Archer and Rudy, just propel themselves onward, despite or until mental and physical difficulties keep them from continuing.

The characters do not whine or pout; they just deal with it. Kennedy portrays the homeless as people who, much like the more fortunate, are just trying to live. When the joys of life are blown away...