Time+of+Bitter+Children

Time of Bitter Children by George Garrett



**Summary ** “Time of Bitter Children” by George Garrett is told mostly from the point of view of a traveling salesman named Lee Southgate. The main plot centers around a mysterious hitchhiker by the name of Battling Bill Thibault, who is first introduced in a scene that has him being left on the side of the road by the truck driver who had given him a ride. Eventually, Lee Southgate picks him up. At first, Lee seems fascinated by the man because, with his older age and shabby appearance, he doesn’t fit the description of the hitchhikers Lee is used to encountering on his trips. Lee also notes several times that the old man hasn’t taken his right hand out of his pocket and spends some the ride speculating about what he could be hiding. Bill’s bad temper during the drive—which only gets worse when Lee doesn’t recognize him from his fighting days after he’s told him his name—causes Lee to become irritated enough to put the man out of his car early even though they’re heading for the same destination. He offers to give Bill enough money for food and bus fare if he shows him what he’s hiding in his pocket, and Bill lets Lee see his disfigured hand. Disgusted, Lee gives the man some money without counting it and drives off in a hurry.

Analysis: Flipping the Binary Operations
The overarching question when using deconstruction to analyze a text is “what if?” One of the keys to finding any of the infinite answers to this question, Bressler says in chapter five of //Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Theory and Practice//, is to “dismantle previously held worldviews” (118) by finding and reversing the binary operations within a work. A more obvious hierarchy at work in “Time of Bitter Children” is the middle-to-upper class/poor, where Lee Southgate, a successful traveling salesman, is the superior, and Bill, a shabby hitchhiker, is the inferior. According to Bressler, flipping this binary would go along with the wish of the deconstructionists “to free us from the constraints of our prejudice beliefs” (116)—the belief in this case being that the lower class is inferior to those with money.

If, then, “Time of Bitter Children” is approached from the perspective of Bill’s character being in the favored position, it takes on a whole different meaning. It’s clear that Lee thinks he is doing a favor for the hitchhikers he gives rides to because he makes mention in the story that “terrible things happen these days” (201). However, what is terrible to Lee might not be so bad to the people he picks up, and his assuming that it does comes from his position of privilege as a man with money, a home, a wife, and etcetera. Instead of bothering to discover why the man he picked up is hitchhiking, Lee spends the first part of the car ride speculating if the stranger has a knife in his pocket and whether the nice jacket he’s wearing was stolen. He doesn’t stop to assume that maybe this lifestyle, one that’s free of the worries that accompany owning too many material possessions, is preferable to his own, which, though lucrative, “was hard on him, wore him down” (200). Lee also becomes irritable with Bill for not conversing with him as he’d hoped he would, something that seems indicative of how, because of his class status, he’s used to getting what he wants.

Neither Lee nor the truck driver ever bothers to look past his own assumptions about Fighting Bill Thibault. By the end of the ride, the truck driver just views Bill as a burden he wants to get rid of, and Lee sees a charity case who is ultimately there for his own benefit, as evidenced by how he notes that the young hitchhikers he usually picks up remind of himself during his youth and statements such as “too pleased with the sound of another voice to care what was said” (202) when Bill finally starts talking. It turns out, though, that Bill is actually the one taking advantage of them. After the truck driver leaves him on the side of the road, Bill congratulates himself for “[foxing] that fool out of half a pack of ready-made cigarettes” (200). Then once Lee shoves money for food and bus fare at him and drives off feeling “sickened and ashamed” (206), Bill is left with what is described as an “expression of simple childish pleasure and victory” (206). This makes it seem like it is Bill, not the characters who are superior according to conventional thought, who is the one with the power.

In the spirit of deconstruction here is a totally different analysis of the story in an Ahead visual presentation. Click on the fullscreen icon for a better view.

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= = = = = = =Deconstruction Analysis: =

Literature can be interpreted in many different ways using various literary techniques. One of these techniques is Deconstruction. To construct is to build, thus deconstruct you have reverse the known;s and bias you already embody. Simply put deconstruction for me is like seeing the world while your sitting on your head. Our perspective is flipped and we are now enabled to attain a whole new perspective, this is what deconstruction does for literature. In deconstruction this is called binary oppositions. In "The Time Of Bitter Children", the concept I will be reversing is Big/Small. In the story the hitchhiker is continually referred to as the "little man". In our current society those who are small can be seen as weak, powerless, and helpless. In the same story the author writes "He was a big man, gentle in knowledge of his own great strength and power"(197) of the diver Lee Southgate. This implies that the driver is somewhat superior to the hitchhiker because of his stature. Someone who is big can come across as strong, intimidating and as someone that can protect and provide for himself and others.Also the driver the one who is big and strong is in control because he is the one driving, thus making the hitchhiker in this case dependent on the one who is in charge. At first glance by the repetitive use of the term "little man" by the author to describe the hitchhiker you would think that the driver is superior to the hitchhiker. With deconstruction we can reverse this and look at it and a whole new perspective. The concept of Big/Small can be reversed and the hitchhiker can be the one who is actually superior. Yes the driver may be bigger in stature and younger, but that doesn't necessarily mean he has more power, not in terms of strength at least. Power can mean intelligence and with the hitchhiker age comes experience of a life that he as lived. Even though the the driver seems like he's the one in charge because he is driving, the hitchhiker is getting a free ride. The driver has now become a chauffeur for the hitchhiker. Even though the driver eventually kicks out the hitchhiker, it still cost him. The driver had to give up some of his cigarettes, when the hitchhiker exited his vehicle. So the hitchhiker got a free ride, free heat from the drivers truck and free cigarettes, but what did the driver get from the so called "little man"? The driver got absolutely nothing in return. So who even though the hitchhiker was older, smaller, that doesn't mean he wasn't in a position of power. Deconstruction allows for multiple interpretations, and I find that this technique broadens the critic's mind.

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