'Tobacco Road'

Paper Summary:

In this essay, the writer introduces, discusses and analyzes the book "Tobacco Road," by Erskine Caldwell. Specifically, the writer discusses the author's life and its effect on his writing of "Tobacco Road". Further, the writer provides criticisms of the novel and looks at the novel's place in literary history. The writer notes that "Tobacco Road" is probably one of the most enduring glimpses into a tragic part of America's history that has ever been written. The writer explains that profiling a poor white family from Georgia, it encapsulates the poverty and hunger these people faced, while using dark humor and pathos to portray the tragedy of their lives, and the gradual decline of any decency in their spirit. The paper includes over 10 pages of copied critiques on this subject.

Outline:
Introduction
Tobacco Road
References

From the Paper:

"It seems the only one with any sense at all in the family is Pearl, and she has enough sense to want to get out and go to Augusta. She is also the most unusual character in the novel - she never speaks, and refuses to sleep with her husband, Lov. Early in the novel, the reader discovers Jeeter is not her father, and this explains why she is different, and why she wants to leave the area. Everyone else in the novel seems a bit dazed by what happens around them, just as Lov is dazed when he loses the turnips. Caldwell gives a sense of unreality to the novel, as if things are happing around the characters, and they do not understand why they happen, or how everything relates to them and their lives. It is as if they are walking through life - seeing it but not really taking part.
"Jeeter uses his children to further himself, no matter how shocking this may be. He sold Pearl to Lov for seven dollars and some household items, and is absolutely enthralled with Ellie May's sexual seduction of Lov so Jeeter can grab the turnips. He also in effect sells his son Dude to Sister Bessie Rice for a car and the chance to get his firewood to market. Jeeter is always full of hope, but he is so scheming and lazy he can never get past the hoping stage."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Burke, Kenneth. "Caldwell: Maker of Grotesques." The New Republic, Volume LXXXII, number 1062, April 10, 1935, pp. 232-35.
• Caldwell, Erskine. Tobacco Road. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1995.
• Flora, Joseph M., and Robert Bain, eds. Fifty Southern Writers after 1900: A Bio-Bibliographical Sourcebook. New York: Greenwood Press, 1987.
• Giddens, Tharon A. "Erskine Caldwell and 'Tobacco Road.'" The Augusta Chronicle. 2003. 25 March 2003.< http://www.cris.com/~Pgarber/caldwell.html >
• MacDonald, Scott. "Erskine Caldwell." Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 9: American Novels 1910-1945. Edited by James J. Martine, Gale Research Inc., 1981, pp. 122-31.

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