Young Lonigan by James T. Farrell :: Young Lonigan James Farrell Essays

Young Lonigan by James T. FarrellAfter they had go forth the parlor, Studs sat by the window. He looked out, watching the night strangeness, listening. The darkness was all over everything worry a warm bed-cover, and all the little sounds of night seemed to him as if they belonged to virtually great mystery. He listened to the wind in the tree by the window. The street was queer, and didnt seem at all like Wabash Avenue. He watched a man pass, his heels beating a monotonous echo. Studs imagined him to be some criminal being pursued by a detective like Maurice Costello, who used to act detective parts for Vitagraph. He watched. He image of Lucy on the street and himself bravely rescuing her from horrors more terrible than he could imagine.(Young Lonigan, 62) Studs Lonigan lives in a divers(prenominal) world from those around him. Chicago exists as different set of sensations for Studs, who communes with his environment in a language foreign to the masses. The wake and har dness of day are replaced by the creeping and overwhelming womanishness of the Chicago night it pushes the toughness out of his body, eliminates the immediacy of things and dulls the viciousness of conduct as an Irish boy without a future. Farrell writes Studs as a ruminative soul who verges on artistic sensitivity. When he examines his environment he is baffled its texture and physical existence. He simply does not belong to the city the way it owns the community, the people that lived, worked, suffered, procreated, aspired, filled out their little days, and died (Young Lonigan, 147). By constitution Studs cannot accept the authority or possessiveness of the city, but he is incapable of escape. It is as much a part of him as he is of it there is a symbiosis at work in Young Lonigan that depends very late upon the moments Studs shares with the fading day. Darkness provides us a view of Studs psyche that is intensely personal and crucial to understanding him as not only a char acter, but a representation of a developing personality and clean-living code. When darkness appears Studs is more vulnerable to both his hopes and his fears. At times he is overcome by visions of pain and hellfire he is wracked by his Catholic guilt and a perceived lack of purity. He puffed and looked close to the dark and lonely place.