16. Reuben Pantier
Reuben Pantier, product of a broken home - a father defeated by his wife, a mother disgusted by her husband. A boy with all the wrong role models, learning, from his father, that men can take what they desire from women, and, from his mother, that women will discard their men like so much garbage. No wonder that young Reuben little respected anyone, including - or, maybe, especially - himself, adopting a life of debauchery, such that he was deemed the "worthless son of Benjamin Pantier" by A.D. Blood, a view probably held communally.
Pantier acknowledges this effect his parents had upon him, maybe seeing it as his excuse for the life of "wine and women and joy of life" he fled towards after his "trouble" with the Millner's daughter, Dora Williams. His lifestyle, like the young man himself, is a product of his upbringing, adopted without thought or care, a seeking after those immediate gratifications that serve to fill the void in the lives of those who lack awareness of purpose and meaning. A youth growing up in a home where love is not binding is unlikely to learn the meaning of concepts like commitment, compromise or, even, sacrifice.
So, Pantier goes out into the world, escaping the physical confines of Spoon River, if not its influence. In a second reference to Napoleon Bonaparte, after Kinsey Keene's referencing of Cambronne's mythic declaration, Pantier finds himself on the Rue de Rivoli, the most famous street in Paris, named after Bonaparte's early victory against the Austrians. Two such references so close together can't help but make us wonder at the allusion. That the defeat comes first, prior to the memorial to Bonaparte's success, forces us to recognise that success achieved for the wrong reasons or by the wrong means is, ultimately, a form of defeat. Pantier may well be enjoying the "joys of life" but they are as pointless as a street name memorialising a battle won on the way to losing the war.
To his credit, Reuben realises he is wasting his life. He thanks Emily Sparks for this dawning wisdom, acknowledging her undying "love that saw me still as good". As we hear in the very next epitaph, the school teacher, Ms Sparks, indeed did pray for her "boy", whom she "loved best of all in the school". Was it her prayers, then, that worked the transformation in life?
We are born as the product of others' labour. It is the easier - for not having to put up any resistance - route through life to simply be what, in a sense, we were made to be - as Reuben Pantier is made to be a user of women but "worthless" as a man.
Only when we are able to look at ourselves and see what we are, see that we could be so much more - or less - can we then take over control of our lives and become who we want to be. I like to think that Reuben Pantier reached this point, however much he might express gratitude to Emily Sparks. But he is "three thousand miles away" and it is her "eternal silence" which he credits for his awakening. There is no doubting his gratitude for another soul who never lost faith in him, but his recognition and acceptance of the need for change is wrought at his own instigation, in response to his "new vision".
Pantier ceases to be merely a lump of clay, moulded by the hands of others and becomes, instead, the image he sees of himself. Rather than being but a product of another's labour, Reuben Pantier becomes his own work of art.
Pantier acknowledges this effect his parents had upon him, maybe seeing it as his excuse for the life of "wine and women and joy of life" he fled towards after his "trouble" with the Millner's daughter, Dora Williams. His lifestyle, like the young man himself, is a product of his upbringing, adopted without thought or care, a seeking after those immediate gratifications that serve to fill the void in the lives of those who lack awareness of purpose and meaning. A youth growing up in a home where love is not binding is unlikely to learn the meaning of concepts like commitment, compromise or, even, sacrifice.
So, Pantier goes out into the world, escaping the physical confines of Spoon River, if not its influence. In a second reference to Napoleon Bonaparte, after Kinsey Keene's referencing of Cambronne's mythic declaration, Pantier finds himself on the Rue de Rivoli, the most famous street in Paris, named after Bonaparte's early victory against the Austrians. Two such references so close together can't help but make us wonder at the allusion. That the defeat comes first, prior to the memorial to Bonaparte's success, forces us to recognise that success achieved for the wrong reasons or by the wrong means is, ultimately, a form of defeat. Pantier may well be enjoying the "joys of life" but they are as pointless as a street name memorialising a battle won on the way to losing the war.
To his credit, Reuben realises he is wasting his life. He thanks Emily Sparks for this dawning wisdom, acknowledging her undying "love that saw me still as good". As we hear in the very next epitaph, the school teacher, Ms Sparks, indeed did pray for her "boy", whom she "loved best of all in the school". Was it her prayers, then, that worked the transformation in life?
We are born as the product of others' labour. It is the easier - for not having to put up any resistance - route through life to simply be what, in a sense, we were made to be - as Reuben Pantier is made to be a user of women but "worthless" as a man.
Only when we are able to look at ourselves and see what we are, see that we could be so much more - or less - can we then take over control of our lives and become who we want to be. I like to think that Reuben Pantier reached this point, however much he might express gratitude to Emily Sparks. But he is "three thousand miles away" and it is her "eternal silence" which he credits for his awakening. There is no doubting his gratitude for another soul who never lost faith in him, but his recognition and acceptance of the need for change is wrought at his own instigation, in response to his "new vision".
Pantier ceases to be merely a lump of clay, moulded by the hands of others and becomes, instead, the image he sees of himself. Rather than being but a product of another's labour, Reuben Pantier becomes his own work of art.
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