C. E. Morgan’s All the Living features desires ranging from sexual, to emotional, to simple needs of food and shelter. While both Orren and Aloma have similar desires for money and relative success, they have opposing desires in regards to their relationship and their individual futures. Aloma’s desires tend to be oriented towards the future, whereas Orren’s desires are pegged in the past.
Aloma does not have a strong familial background or even strong connections to her missionary school. Instead, she focuses entirely on her future, staring “down her future with an unblinking eye” (15) with hopes of using piano to escape into the future.
Orren, on the other hand, uses the farm to escape into his past. He desperately holds on to memories of his family. He adamantly remains in the house he grew up in- when his family was all alive- and refuses to return to the nicer, larger farmhouse where the family lived prior to their death.
Aloma earns for money through piano and Orren wants success for his family’s farm, yet because their motivations are different they struggle to understand each other’s choices. This could, in part, influence the differences in their ideal relationship. Aloma consistently seeks a passion and love from Orren, but he seems to grow more distant throughout the novel. This issue is frequently brought up in arguments between the couple, when Aloma will iterate that she doesn’t “ever see you no matter that I live with you and then when I do see you, you don’t have anything to say” (106). Morgan shows us through these constant arguments and Aloma’s growing frustration that she wishes to be treated as a wife.
Orren, however, seems to treat Aloma as an ignorant, young child. She is chastened for not properly attending to the chores but is not acknowledged for her successes. Orren views her almost as “his young daughter and not his should-be wife” (113). This is only enhanced by Orren’s indifference to Aloma’s piano playing. He has “not once seen her play piano” (99) and only asks her about it in reference to the money she was making or the possibility that she was cheating on him. Overall, Orren desires to own Aloma and gain help around the farm; he does not want to give her ownership, power, or frankly much of his personal time and affection.
At the end of the novel, Aloma and Orren technically fulfill their desire to marry. However, Morgan reminds readers that not much has changed by ending the novel with a final argument and the return to the old house. Orren is still living in his past while Aloma is still unhappy without her escape to her future. The novel closes with a juxtaposition between Emma and Cassius’ carved statement of their love, and the frustrated, passionless relationship of Aloma and Orren.
I agree that Orren and Aloma’s relationship is unhealthy and oriented in different directions. It’s clear from the beginning that Aloma and Orren don’t know each other very well, and something has changed drastically in Orren because of the death of his remaining family. Morgan uses silence to demonstrate the widening chasm in their relationship. Whenever Orren and Aloma argue, deep silence follows. For example, when Orren fails to ask Aloma to help during the tobacco harvest, she makes lunch “without singing to herself” (153) because she’s upset, and the night after she did help with the harvest Orren “was silent as the grave” (168) as they had sex. Also, something I found interesting was how often Aloma and Orren would turn away from each other so as to end an argument or get the last word. Multiple times throughout the novel, they seem to run away from each other. After Orren kills the rooster and Aloma gets mad at him Orren “disappeared into the dark in a way that was becoming familiar” (62). The main problem with their relationship is that they don’t communicate well enough to reconcile their differing desires. Instead of talking to each other and figuring out what they each want to do with their lives, they bottle up their ideas and let them all spill out in anger when they argue, which inevitably makes the arguments worse.
ReplyDelete