american tragedy

Chapter 2

Chapter 12
The family introduced above, you may feel that they are a little different.In fact, that's exactly the case, let's start with the father of the family, Asa Griffiths: he's a dysfunctional man, the product of a certain environment and a certain religious theory, with no insights of his own. .But he was sensitive and emotional, but not at all practical, and it was not easy to fathom how he felt about life, how he felt emotionally.However, as has been said, Mrs. Griffiths had a stronger personality, and it was not likely that she had more correct and practical opinions than he.

The life experience of this couple, apart from the influence of Clyde Griffiths, actually has no special significance.This guy is a little sentimental and likes romantic things, which is what distinguishes him from this family.He had acquired most of these traits from his father, and he had livelier and wiser fantasies about things which, if they had come true, would have made a different world for him.Until the age of 12, one of the things that bothered Clyde the most was that their industry looked poor in the eyes of others.Throughout his teenage years, his parents hosted churches in cities such as Detroit, Millawake, Chicago, and Kansas City, or preached on the streets.The average person, at least the boys and girls he met, apparently looked down on him and his siblings because they were the children of such parents.A few times, he even got into fights with other people's children on the road.It was against his parents' temper.They never approved of his waywardness.But every time a fight is over, no matter whether he wins or loses, it makes him realize that the career his parents do is despised, too humble, too humble.So he kept thinking, one day, when he was able to escape, what should he do.

Clyde's parents have never had realistic plans for their children's future. They do not understand that some kind of practical education is very important to every child, and it can be said that it is indispensable.On the contrary, they are only single-mindedly planning to spread the gospel to the world, and they don't care about getting their children to go to school for a long time in any one place.They tend to move at any time because some places have bigger territory and better conditions for missionary work, even when their children are in the middle of their studies and are doing quite well.At other times, their missions were not thriving, their income was poor, and Asa couldn't make much money from the two things he knew well—gardening and selling new products—so he couldn't get enough to eat or wear. No matter what the children think, the Asa couple are always optimistic, or rather optimistic, and they still maintain a firm belief in God and believe that God will bestow on them.

The family house-cum-ministerium was a lifeless atmosphere which would depress any boy or girl who was a little angry.It was an old wooden house with no luster and no artistic taste, and they lived on the whole floor downstairs.The Log House is located east of Independence Avenue and west of Trust Road in Kansas City.The exact name of the street is Bilaire.The street is short and runs off Missouri Road.That road is a little longer, but it's in a mess.There is also a vague and unpleasant reminiscence about the prosperity of commerce in those days.Some people who are enthusiastic about religion and persuade people to believe in religion hold open-air worship twice a week at the Wudaojie intersection from here.

The ground floor of the house looked out onto the rue de Bilaire, looking into the gloomy backyards of some equally gloomy timber-framed houses.Part of the house was divided into a hall forty feet long by twenty-five feet wide, with some sixty wooden folding chairs, a reading altar, a holy map of Palestine, and 25 printed aphorisms. , as a decoration on the wall, but there is no frame.

The forty feet at the rear of the modest building were intricately and artfully divided into three small bedrooms and a sitting room.The living room looked out to the backyard, and also to the wooden fences of some other houses, and these front yards were not much higher than the back yards.There was also a kitchen-dining room that was exactly ten feet square.There was also a storeroom in which sermon pamphlets and hymn-books were kept, as well as boxes, boxes, and other objects which the family did not use but which might be useful.This special little room is just behind the preaching hall, and the Griffiths often come here before or after a sermon, or when they need to discuss things, and sometimes they meditate here Or pray.

Clyde and his siblings were always looking at their mother or father, or both, talking to a cornered or penitent wretch.This kind of person is here to ask for advice or help.Sometimes, when their parents are having a particularly hard time, the kids see them thinking in this room, or, as Asa Griffiths used to say in times of desperation, "'Pray' There is a way."Later, Clyde gradually realized that this method was actually useless.

The surrounding places were all very gloomy and dilapidated, and Clyde hated the thought of living in this place, not to mention asking people for help frequently. In order to maintain this scene, he had to be there to pray and give thanks together.

Before she married Asa, Mrs. Elvira Griffiths was just an ignorant country girl who seldom thought about religion since she was a child. The set of obsessively spreading the gospel and persuading people to believe in religion.From then on, she always willingly pursued all his activities and all his whims.

Occasionally, a small group of people followed the two missionaries to their mission, or found it after hearing them mention it while they were preaching in the street. Disordered people are everywhere.For many years, Clyde was still unable to be independent, so he had to reluctantly submit to participate in various religious gatherings.The people who come here are the down-and-out coolies, the vagrants, the drunks and the bums, and those wretched, helpless wretches who seem to be wandering here only because they have nowhere else to go. come here.Clyde didn't like these people, they were always trying to prove that God or Christ or spirits could save them from all kinds of troubles, but they never showed how they saved others.His parents kept saying "Amen" and "Glory to God" and sang hymns, followed by collections for the church's overhead.Donations, in his estimation, could only sustain the various missionary endeavors they sponsored.

There was only one thing he really cared about about his parents, and that was that somewhere in the east, in a little town called Lycurgus, near Utiga, there was an uncle who was in the same situation as them apparently. different.The uncle's name was Samuel Griffiths, and he was a rich man.From the conversation of his parents, Clyde seems to have heard that as long as this uncle is happy, he can help others.They also said he was a shrewd and tough businessman.Said he had a large house at Lycurgus; and a large factory for collars and shirts, employing not less than three hundred workmen; and that he had a son, about Clyde's age, and at least two daughters.According to Clyde's guess, they must have lived a luxurious life in Lycurgos.News of this kind had apparently been brought west by friends who knew Asa and Asa's father and brother.In Clyde's mind, this uncle must be a kind of person like Chryses, living a comfortable and luxurious life in the East.But out west, in Kansas City, life for him and his parents and brothers and sisters had always been poor and dull and hand-to-mouth.

But on this point, he saw clearly very early on that unless he could find his own way out, there would be no way out.When Clyde was fifteen, or even earlier, his own education and that of his brothers and sisters were unfortunately delayed.In this situation, how can one get ahead? When he was three, four, or five years old, he started looking for ways in newspapers.He found that most skilled people were once apprentices.But he was not very interested in this industry at that time, because he thought the same as the average American youth, and took the same attitude towards life, thinking that he was a person superior to purely manual laborers.He thinks that those boys who are no better than him can be shop assistants, bookkeepers and assistants in banks and real estate companies. Should he be asked to drive machines, lay bricks, learn to be a carpenter or a mason? If he wears old clothes, Wouldn't it be mean to get up early in the morning and do ordinary things like those people? Wasn't it just like his old life.

Although Clyde is poor, he is vain.He was an interesting sort of pretentious person, one who was part of the family but never got along with it, and had no gratitude to the two old men who bore him.Not only that, but he likes to examine his parents, not with a sharp and harsh attitude, but with a correct understanding of their qualities and abilities.Although he is very judgmental in this respect, he can't figure out his future. He didn't have any idea until he was 16 years old, but it was only a tentative plan.

It so happened that at this time, the temptation of sex, or the demand for sex, had already begun to emerge.The beauty of the opposite sex and the attraction of the opposite sex to him have aroused his strong interest.Things like dress and appearance began to trouble him too.He was concerned with his own appearance, and with that of the other boys, which was natural and in keeping with his psychological changes.It pained him now to think that his clothes were not good enough, that he could not have been more attractively adorned.He was born poor, no one could help him, and he had no ability to think of a way.

Whenever he sees a mirror, he always looks at it by the way, so he is confident that he looks good, with a straight nose, a high and white forehead, wavy, smooth black hair, and dark, dark eyes.But the family is so unfortunate after all, and the work that parents do, and the relationship with other aspects are like this.Therefore, the fact that he had never had any real friends in the past, and, in his opinion, he will not find any in the future, aroused more and more psychological distress in him, which aroused his rebellion against the status quo.Although his appearance is very attractive, and he is more attractive than ordinary people, but when those children who are very different from him look at him intentionally, because of his parents, he often misunderstands what they mean. To look at him was to see if he was interested in them or indifferent, if he had guts or if he was worthless.

But it would be nice if he could have a better collared shirt, a nice pair of shoes, a good suit, and a nice overcoat like other boys, even before he made money! How enticing were the boys' fine clothes and fine houses, and their watches and rings! How enviable were boys his age! They even had cars provided by their parents.On the streets of Kansas, I saw them flying around like flies.And there are beautiful girls with them.He has nothing.

But there are so many things to do in the world, what should he do? Which direction should he go? What kind of profession should he choose in order to achieve something? He couldn't tell.He didn't quite know, and besides, his eccentric parents were by no means in a position to tell him.

(End of this chapter)