Jeff and Jennie's Reasonable Solution in "A Summer Tragedy"
Suicide can often seem like an escape or a weak way to deal with problems, but does that assumption always stand true? When individuals have lived long hard lives and only wish to sustain and harbor their pride away from their earthly bodies, should we judge their action of suicide so harshly? In Arna Bontemps, "A Summer Tragedy", we are presented these questions upon the case of an old couple, Jeff and Jennie. Dying with dignity and respect for oneself can certainly seem understandable in situations of a life filled with hardship. Their despair from financial problems, declining health, and mental anguish, which leads to their joint suicide, is understandable because of the abject circumstances sounding their later life. Jeff and Jennie have many financial hardships that burden their lives. They have spent their lives as sharecroppers. Sharecroppers have small plots of land where landowners divided plantations into small units and rented them to blacks for a large portion of the crop. Ev
------------------------------------------------------------------------ Though financial problems cause great despair, their overall health is declining. Jeff has had one stroke already. "There was always a chance that he would have another stroke...another one might kill him" (474) as Bontemps indicates in Jeff's thoughts. It is understandable Jeff does not want to go through another debilitating stroke. Another cause for despair is that Jeff even describes Jennie with "her useless eyes seemed very large, very white in their deep sockets" (472). Being blind, she relies on Jeff and this burdens their everyday strength. If one were to die before the other, the one left behind may suffer indefinitely. As Jeff depicts, "he could not bear to think of being helpless, like a baby, on Jennie's hands. Frail, blind Jennie" (474). There would be no way Jennie could tend the crops by herself and she would inevitability suffer hardship for her disability. en after many good years of farming, Jeff wil
Some common words found in the essay are:
Jeff Jennie, Jennie Dying, , Jeff Jennie's, Summer Tragedy, jeff jennie, health mental, cause despair, grown children, mental distress,
Approximate Word count = 679
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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