Wendell Berry “Jayber Crow”

Introduction

Wendell edible kernel discovers the attachment between the natural world and Christianity in a uniquely symbolic way in his 2000 novel Jayber Crow. The article of a modest barber's quest to accomplish spiritual understanding, Jayber Crow hunts for to draw a parallel between obedience to God and good stewardship of the land.

Analysis

Berry's publication starts with two epigraphs. The first is a paraphrase of the famous frontispiece to Huckleberry Finn in which the scribe urges the reader not to read too deeply or to suffer the penalties (in Twain, getting shot; in Berry, getting banished in exile). But the second is an unattributed passage from Andrew Marvell's metaphysical verse "The Definition of Love": "Magnanimous Despair solely could show me so divine a thing." This quotation to Marvell gives us a sign about the approaching narrative, at least for those well-read sufficient to know the original (or willing to put in the time to google it): "The Definition of Love" is a verse about a love that cannot be recognized or requited. However, it's a mystifying way to start the novel, given the previous Twain-like admonition; metaphysical verse is intended to be a logical riddle for a book reader to explain, like piecing simultaneously the steps of a geometric proof. Why, then, would edible kernel alert readers not to believe too much about the subtext of his story?

Throughout Berry's innovative, we are constantly recalled that Jayber's character is on a spiritual journal. He starts out in life as Jonah Crow in Goforth, then misplaces his sense of individuality at an orphanage in Pigeonville. After briefly contemplating a vocation in the ministry, Jonah realizes that he is bewildered about his purpose in life. “I was a lost traveler wandering in the woods, needing to be on my way somewhere but not knowing where,” he says (Wendell Berry, 133).

Eventually, he finishes up in Port William, the community he hasn't glimpsed since the age of ten. Having picked up the barbering trade at the orphanage, Jonah buys Port William's closed-up barber shop and begins a business that will last him thirty years. He is re-christened Jayber by the town's persons, who come to accept him as one of their own as they sit and exchange little converse with him week after week.

For Jayber, Christianity has to do with adoring one's neighbors, as well as one's enemies. With Port William's community of ranchers, the kind in which this love is expressed is often associated to the treatment of the land and the natural world in general. In Berry's innovative, the way persons care for the land reflects, in some ways, how they care for each other.

Not surprisingly, the development of industrialization is considered with some skepticism by Jayber and his friends. The risk of modernization to the vintage fashioned grower is illustrated in the overly determined Troy Chatham, who arrives to represent those persons who use God's creation to their own advantage. Troy is interested in the land mainly for its ability ...