Tobacco Road

The movie’s version is quite different from the novel.

It’s hard to say which version is better. What made it different is Captain Tim (Captain John in the novel) plays an important role in the movie.

In the movie, some of the people actually care for each other and are kind hearted. We see hope at the end; also, Captain Tim is very handsome. On the other hand, the movie lost the original plot that all characters are rotten to the bone. 

                                                                       RIP, Jeeter Lester

          There is a Chinese saying, “饑寒起盜心" which means hunger and cold breed the temptation to steal and rob. It makes sense. The communities or countries where people live in extreme poverty usually have a greater chance of having a higher crime rate. It always troubles me why most great writings in literature are tragic. But, Tobacco Road has changed my thinking. All characters in Tobacco Road behave like wild animals and lack dignity; yet, they show no desire to escape from their fate. Therefore, their sufferings are not surprising. This is the first novel I read which makes me think that death can be a good ending. The main protagonist, Jeeter Lester, in Tobacco Road, lacks initiative and his selfishness, casual violence, and gross sexuality which lead him to a bad end.

          I had no idea how bad it was during the Great Depression in the US, so I did some research. I found many people during that period of time had lost hope and their work ethic. Some people committed suicide and the rest did whatever they could legally or illegally to survive. In this kind of circumstance, I understand Jeeter's selfishness to blame others for his situation. For example, he blamed his son-in-law, Lov, for not giving him food by saying to Lov, “You know I ain't got a penny to my name and no knowing where to get money. You got a good job and it pays you a heap of money. You ought to make a trade with me so I'll have something to eat and won't have to starve to death” (14). He blamed the land's owner, captain John, for his inability to get cotton seed and said, “It ain't my fault that Captain John shut down on giving us rations and snuff. It's his fault” (65). He blamed God for sending him every misery (69); he blamed his mother for eating too much and “was angry with his mother because she persisted in living” (129, 71).

          If after you had worked so hard growing cotton, at the end, not only did the loan company take all the money but also you owe 3 dollars to the owner of the mule (115). How discouraging that can be! How can we blame Jeeter a lazy man for not planting the crop soon enough those seven or eight years before he died (59)? How can we laugh at Jeeter's attempt to sell blackjack as fire wood, which was the only thing he could sell (12)? It might be worth “as much as a dollar for the load” (113). Too bad that “nobody, it seemed, was foolish enough to buy wood that was tougher than iron water-pipes” (7). He tried at least, didn't he (141)? He lacks initiative and his selfishness to blame others are flawed society's fault. If the government back then had taken care of the farmers like today using subsidy, the farmers wouldn't have gone to the exploiting loan company.

          Some people claimed that Erskine Caldwell had aimed for both comedy and tragedy in Tobacco Road with which I disagree. It's so hard for me to laugh while reading it especially the violent parts in the book. All I see are indignities that are caused from uneducated people who think that laws don't apply to them. For instance, Dude, Jeeter's sixteen-year-old son, ran a black man off the road and killed him. He only regretted the damage done to the car (123); later on, he ran over his grandmother (164). The most disturbing scene was after Dude ran over the grandmother, Jeeter and Lov buried her while she was still alive; “she was procumbent, and her face was mashed on the ground, but she had moved several feet closer to the house.” Yet, when Lov asked Jeeter, “Is she dead,” Jeeter answered, “She ain't stiff yet, but I don't reckon she'll live. You help me tote her out in the field and I'll dig a ditch to put her in” (172). Tobacco Road is grim but never comedy. All characters are cruel and ignorant. This is one of the novels that I will never read again. Education and law enforcement should prevail.

          There is evidence everywhere in Tobacco Road about gross sexuality. The reason that Dude married Sister Bessie, a sexually voracious widow who was a woman preacher nearly twenty five years older than Dude, was to drive a new automobile which Sister Bessie would buy if they got married (82). When the couple went into the bedroom, the rest of the Lesters held to the sill with the ends of their fingers or dragged a ladder up to the window trying to see inside (106). Jeeter daydreamed about having sex with his daughter-in-law, Sister Bessie by telling his daughter, Ellie May, who was the only daughter of Jeeter's 12 surviving children out of 17 who didn't get married, that “Bessie makes a fine woman for a man—any man... She might be just a little bit more than Dude can take care of though, I fear. It looked to me like she requires a heap of satisfaction...I don't know if Dude is that kind or not... if it was me, there wouldn't be no question of it. I'd please Sister Bessie coming and going, right from the start, and keep it up clear to the end” (111). And, it is implied that Jeeter's dirty mind even lusted for his daughters. The evidence is what Sister Bessie said to Jeeter, “that's the reason God sent Ellie May into the world with a slit in her lip. He figured she would be safe from a sinner like you, because you wouldn't like the looks of her” (54).

          On the other hand, eighteen-year-old Ellie May tried horsing with Lov, who was her brother-in-law (21). The most ridiculous scene which made me laugh and sad at the same time was after being treated as a free prostitute at the hotel, Sister Bessie said, giggling, “I want to go back some time and spend another night at the hotel. I had the best time last night. It made me feel good, staying there. They sure know how to treat women real nice” (152). Moreover, Jeeter's main income so far in the book came from selling his daughter, Pearl, age 12, to a neighbor, Lov, for some quilts, not quite a gallon of cylinder oil, and 7 dollars (25). In these cases, Caldwell did bring the awareness about the most unfortunate members of society. Just like the kid who plays banjo in the movie, Deliverance, must be a product from family inbreeding. The savage incest not only happened in west-central Georgia during the Great Depression in Tobacco Road but is still happening in today's world.

          Jeeter Lester's great fear was if his coffin is placed in the corn crib when he dies because his father's coffin was locked in the corn crib and “the rat had eaten away nearly all of the left side of his father's face and neck” (73). As a result, Jeeter made everyone especially his son-in-law, Lov, promise not to put his coffin in the corn crib. However, there is no reason for Jeeter to worry anymore since he was burned to death while asleep (178). He started the fire in the field the day before even though he knew the time for burning broom-sedge and plowing had ended (175, 177). Sister Bessie once said: “Lord, Jeeter Lester is a powerful sinful man, but I'll pray for him until the devil goes clear back to hell” (43). RIP, Jeeter Lester, the man who lacks decency with his selfishness, violence and gross sexuality; the man who never had to solve the mystery of his life again which is “He could not understand why he had nothing, and would never have anything” (175). Just as Lov said in front of Jeeter's grave, “I reckon old Jeeter had the best thing happen to him” (180). Indeed, death was a good ending for Jeeter Lester. (1366 words)