A view of the woods
A man seventy-nine years of age cannot let himself be run over by a child of nine. His face set in a look that was just as determined as hers. Are you a Fortune, he said or are you a Pitts? make up your mind. Her voice was loud and positive and belligerent. I’m Mary- Fortune- Pitts, she said.
When Mary tells her grandfather her full names for the first time in the story she is trying to get her grandfather to acknowledge that she is her father’s daughter therefore a “Pitts” that’s why she insists that she is Mary- Fortune- Pitts.
Mary it seems was already dedicated to her grandfather even before she was born. Her parents when they find out that they are expecting their 7th child offer to name him after Mr. Fortune if it’s a boy. Her grandfather had then told her parents that if they were going to add the name Pitts they should forget about it. But when she came out a girl her grandfather could already see that she resembled him and decided that she should be named Mary Fortune after his mother. The fact that her grandfather possesses her from the time she is born means that she is not given time to bond with her parents and almost feels like she is denied a chance to be a Pitts.
This situation is further compounded by the fact that her grandfather hates her father and considers him to be an idiot. Mary to her grandfather is almost like a protégé, the text also implies that except for Mr. Fortune, no one else was glad that she looked like her grandfather. This shows that nobody liked her grandfather and this is understandable given how Mr. Fortune treats his family. Mary spends a lot of her time with her grandfather and doesn’t seem to spend time with her nuclear family. It almost seems like her grandfather is trying to separate her from her family who he has a disdain for.
Given her resemblance to her grandfather in both looks and mannerism she attracts resentment from her family especially her father who has a squabble with her grandfather over land. Her father beats her occasionally seemingly because he can’t get to her grandfather and therefore deflects his anger on her. When her father calls for her “come with me” she follows him even though she knows she is going to get a beating. This implies that Mary is desperate for her father to acknowledge her as his daughter. When Mr. fortune announces that he is selling the lot in front of their house to be converted to a filling station her father singles her out and tells her “you have done this to us” this shows that her father keeps seeing Mary as a representation of Mr. Fortune. The fact that neither her mother nor her siblings try to stand up for her shows that they view Mary the same way as her father.
That she follows her father so willingly infuriates her grandfather who doesn’t seem to know why she obeys him, this is the one characteristic that the grandfather doesn’t recognize. When her father asks her to follow him, he recognizes a look that is foreign to him “a look that is part terror part respect and part something else something like cooperation.” When Mary accompanies her grandfather to Mr. Tilman’s shop and leaves with the father it infuriates her grandfather who wonders why she cannot stand up to him. Becouse Mary seems to stand up to her grandfather and not her father shows that she respects and love her father and wants him to recognize her as a Pitts. when Mary is questioned by her grandfather as to why she left with her father she says it because she wanted to. That Mary always follows her father when she has to choose between her grandfather and her father is an indication of how badly she wants to be seen by her father and that she is choosing Pitts over Fortune.
When Mr. Fortune enquires from Mary why he keeps letting him beat her. She says that he doesn’t and that no one beats her and if any one try’s she will kill them. Even when her grandfather witnesses the beating she still refuses to implicate her father and claims that he doesn’t beat her. By refusing to acknowledge that her father beats her it’s almost like Mary is taking the beating as punishment for looking so much like Mr. fortune rather than her father.
In the begging of the text Mary and her grandfather are watching as a machine lifts out dirt on construction site on one of the lots that her grandfather had sold. The lot had previously been her father’s cow pasture and which her grandfather sold to infuriate her father. Her grandfather mistakes her keenness on the machine to be love for development and therefore Mary being like him instead of her father who just wants to raise cows. But Mary’s only concern is that the bulldozer does not go beyond the stob. She says “if he knocks the stob I’ll stop him” her action of running towards the bulldozer to see how much of the stob had been shaken indicates that like her father Pitts she is actually looking out for the land and not the development.
When her grandfather calls out for her to be careful because if she falls she would not see the development she doesn’t move and pretends not to hear him because she really does not care to see the land developed and when she gets back to the car her attention is back to the bulldozer not for the development, but that it does not go beyond the designated land. It almost seems like she is guarding the land on behalf of her father. Mary also makes it clear to her grandfather that she is not interested in his bonus that he promises to give her after he sells another lot, when the grandfather states that she has never refused it she retorts that she has never asked for one.
Mary is displeased with her grandfather plan to sell the field in front of their house because she claims that’s where they play but when her grandfather tells her that they can play elsewhere she tells him that they will not be able to see the woods across the road. When her grandfather is not convinced she says “my daddy grazes his calves on the lot.” This shocks her grandfather that he slams his fist on his car. Mr. Fortune in shock tells Mary that he doesn’t care where the fool grazes his calves to which Mary respond he who calls his brother a fool is subject to hell fire. This response shows that Mary considers her father highly. The response could also be taken as threat to his grandfather to not call her daddy a fool or he would have to face her. Also that Mary refers to the lot as a lawn shows that she acknowledges the land as her mother sees it not how her grandfather sees it as empty land that should be developed. That she also sees the land as playground like her siblings an indication of her Pitts side rather than the Fortune appetite for development. Her grandfather even admits that she acts more like a Pitts than a Fortune.
When Mr. Fortune tells Mary to walk home because he cannot ride with a jezebel she refers to her grandfather as the Whore of Babylon her grandfather shouts back at her that a whore is a woman. In calling her grandfather the whore of Babylon Mary is showing disappointment that her grandfather is willing to sell land to complete strangers rather than pass it down to his own family which is unmanly of him.
To Mary Mr. Tilman who operates many businesses such as a dance hall and a scrap metal yard represents her grandfather appetite for development. when the day comes to sell the land Mr. Fortune wakes up and does not see Mary at her side he even looks beneath his bed and does not see her this is strange because ever since Mary could walk she had always been the one to wake her grandfather up. Instead on this day she is outside looking at the woods, even when her grandfather goes out and sit next to her she does look at him and continues to look at the words. This act shows that Mary is choosing her Pitts side over her Fortune side. And that’s why when PTilman finally signs the deed Mary is infuriated and aims at him with a bottle. The act of throwing a bottle at Mr. Tilman represents her sense of feeling defeat and being beaten and that’s why she try’s to harm him as she says “no one beats me and if they do I will kill them.”
Her position seems to be reinforced by the salesman at the boat store where her grandfather takes her. When he asks to be shown the yachts for poor people the sales man tells him that all of them are for poor folk because you will be poor when you finish buying one. As Mary is showing no interest Mr. Fortune tells the salesman that they be back another day. He even offers Mary a quarter to buy whatever she wants but she still declines. to Mary accepting this offers means she is happy with her grandfather selling the land.
She was on him so quickly that he could not have recalled which blow he felt first, whether the weight of her whole solid body or the jabs of her feet or the pummeling of her fist on his chest, he flailed the belt in the air, not knowing where to hit but trying to get her off him until he could decide where to get a grip on her.
“leggo!” he shouted “ leggo I tell you!” but she seemed to be everywhere , coming at him from all directions at once . it was as if he was being attacked not by one child but by a pack of small demons all with stout brown school shoes and small rocklike fists. His glasses flew to the side.
“I toljer to take them off,” she growled without pausing
He cought her knee and danced on one foot and a rain of blows fell on his stomach. He felt five claws in the flesh of his upper arm where she was hanging from while her feet mechanically battered his knees and her free fist pounded him again and again in the chest. The n with horror he saw her face rise up in front of his, teeth exposed and he roared like a bull as she bit the side of his jaw. He seemed to see his own face coming to bite him several sides at once but he could not attend to it for he was being kicked indiscriminately, in the stomach and then in the crotch. Suddenly he threw himself on the ground and began to roll like a man on fire. She was on top of him at once, rolling with him and still kicking and now with both fists free to batter his chest.
“I’m an old man!” he piped. “leave me alone!” but she did not stop. She began a fresh assault on his jaw.
“stop stop!” he wheezed” I’m your grandfather!”
She paused, her face exactly on top of his pale identical eye looked into pale identical eye,” have you had enough?” she asked.
The old man looked up into his own image. it was triumphant and hostile. You have been whipped,” it said, “by me,” and then it added bearing down on each word “and I’m pure pitts.”
Finally, Mary’s anger is directed to the man that she believes holds her back from being a Pitts she is particularly angry because she has been unable to defeat him. It seems almost as though she believes by beating him, a spitting image of her. she could take out the Fortune in her and finally be able to be a pure Pitts. By beating her grandfather, she is beating the barrier between her and her nuclear family. She is also doing it on behalf of her father always been humiliated by her grandfather. When she asks her grandfather whether he has had enough its almost as if she is asking if he has hard enough of taking her from her family, of separating her from her father and of humiliating her family. By attacking her father, she proves to him that she is a Pitts because as she always says nobody beats her and if they do she will kill them. The her in this statement represents Pitts because when her father beats her she takes it as it represents in her mind the Fortune. But when her grandfather tries to do the same to her it represents the Pitts and she will do anything to defend her family’s honor. She also is finally able to stand up to the man that no one else in her family is able to. To Mary at that moment her grandfather represents everything bad and she is also fighting for her land and fighting against development. when Mary refuses to be beaten by her grandfather it is the final act of defiance. Her grandfather cannot stand that despite his efforts to humiliate his son in law, she, his granddaughter still values her father more than she does him, this leads him to kill her as though to say if she cannot be a Fortune she cannot be a Pitts either.
The text views Mary Fortune as fortunate for having her grandfather love. That her grandfather doesn’t even like his own children including her mother who is not even named and Mr. Fortune is not even appreciative of his own daughter who choses to stay with him and look after him in his old age the father does not even know whether she is her fourth or fifth child. he also thinks that his other grandchild is not worthy and should be whipped regularly. Mary on the other hand is his favorite from the time she is born because she looks like him not only does he believe that Mary shares his business acumen but also his vision of development. He also plans to deny his other family members an inheritance and leave it all to Mary. The text views Mary as the only one who has respect from her grandfather while in fact he is just using her for his own selfish gains. He does this by separating her from her family and making her the object of their anger. He also uses her and his land to control his daughter and her family because he regularly reminds them that’s it’s his land that they live there and he occasionally angers her father by selling pieces of it to strangers while he completely refuses to sell it to son in law. He also tells them that they will never get his land and that Mary is the only one who can inherit his land. By wanting Mary to be a Fortune and not a Pitts it shows how her grandfather is trying to keep his family name alive through her even though she is actually a Pitts. When she finally tells her grandfather that she is pure Pitts he can no longer control her and therefore he ends up killing her.
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