27 pages • 54 minutes read
Tim GautreauxWelding with Children
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1999A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Responsibility of Parenthood
The story reinforces the impressionability of children and the important role parents and caregivers play in shaping children’s’ lives. Children grow up to reflect their upbringing, a fact made evident by Bruton’s daughters, whose life decisions link back to their childhood. Moreover, children require a strong foundation, and the failure to provide one can lead to consequences later in life. Mr. Fordlyson admonishes Bruton to “deal directly with those kids” (14), which reinforces the importance of playing an active role in children’s lives.
However, Bruton struggles to grapple with this lesson in the story. Though Bruton admits that his daughters’ current situation is partly his fault, he does not know what he should have done differently. His opinions regarding parenting and fatherhood are filled with gender biases and misconceptions. He admits, for instance, he did not teach his daughters about religion as he assumed they would “pick it up” from his wife (7). His view reflects the chauvinist notion that it is the wife’s job to teach children about morals while the father works. Bruton also tries to evade responsibility by blaming cable TV for his daughters’ beliefs, claiming that his girls grew up “watching cable and videos every night, and that’s where they got their view of the world” (7). Bruton would rather denounce society than evaluate his own culpability as father.
Bruton’s misconceptions regarding parenting are gradually broken down as he takes on a more active role with his grandchildren. Initially, Bruton is a passive babysitter: He lets his grandchildren swing on the engine even after he tells them not to and takes them to Pak-a-Sak after they demand Icees. When Bruton hears his grandchildren talking “white trash,” however, he realizes how impressionable the children are. The grandchildren’s outlook has already been colored by the movies and programs they have seen: They repeat bad words they hear on comedy programs, and they see the Bible through the lens of the violence they have watched on screen. Rather than allow his grandchildren to be corrupted by pop culture as his daughters were, however, Bruton resolves to “raise them right.” He cuts the fuse for the TV and reads the children a story book. At the end of the story Bruton cleans up the yard so it is suitable for the children to play in and resolves to take his grandchildren to Sunday school.
Bruton essentially must parent his grandchildren after seemingly failing his own, a connection that frustrates and baffles him. His role in his children’s life is only minorly discussed, but his annoyance that his wife didn’t teach his daughters properly and that the children cannot play with his welding equipment or the engine hanging from the tree suggests he lacks experience with fatherhood despite his many years of parenting. By the end of the story, he is sure he knows exactly what the kids need to succeed in life, religion being a major player. He wants the kids to mirror his own personality, though he is frustrated about his stagnancy in life and the role he has played in his family. There is humor in this discrepancy, as Bruton cannot see that his grand guidelines for life haven’t led him to the success he dreams of for the grandchildren.
The Price of Redemption
Mr. Fordlyson sums up the message of the story well when he tells Bruton, “[E]verything worth doing hurts like hell” (16). Redemption for Bruton is neither easy nor straightforward. The hard work in store for Bruton is foreshadowed when Moonbean hits her grandfather with an electric rod, causing him to “jump back like [he] was hit with religion” (2). The moment anticipates Bruton’s later epiphany, when he is metaphorically hit with religion by Mr. Fordlyson. The conversation with Mr. Fordlyson is a rude awakening for Bruton, leaving him a “sour breath” (16) in his face.
In the subsequent paragraph, Bruton describes his action in his yard in a long list of verbs. He “begged and borrowed Miss Hanchy’s Super-A” and “bush-hogged” and “cut” the grass on his property (16). The arduous physical labor Bruton puts in to improve his yard forecasts the difficult work he will have to put into raising his grandchildren. Moreover, the large volume of junk Bruton must get rid of illustrates how much Bruton must give up to move forward. When the salvage company arrives, they load up “four derelict cars, six engines, four washing machines, ten broken lawn mowers, and two and a quarter tons of scrap iron” (16). The exchange of the trash for new cans of paint symbolizes Bruton’s redemption as he makes up for his past sins for a new life with his grandchildren.
Throughout the story the hard price of redemption is juxtaposed against the temptations of escape and fantasy. Bruton’s daughters, for instance, allow themselves to fall for “married pulpwood-truck drivers and garage mechanics” (7). Likewise, Bruton’s wife goes to the casino, leaving Bruton to take care of the children. Bruton’s oldest daughter also “rac[es] toward the most cigarette smoke, music, and beer she [can] find in one place” (18), dropping off her son and Freddie to Bruton.
Although Bruton does not run to bars or casinos, he does have his own fantasies of escape. At one point, Bruton has a vision of “gathering all these kids into [his] Caprice and heading out northwest to start over, away from their mammas, TVs, mildew, their casino-mad grandmother, and Louisiana in general” (12). He pictures getting a job in a whole different place and raising the children “right” so they can become successful. As tantalizing as this fantasy is, however, Bruton realizes it is not realistic or fair to his daughters who probably have similar fantasies of escape. Bruton realizes his solution lies in confronting his past and changing the environment around him rather than running away.
The Importance of Community
While interactions prove essential for Bruton to gain knowledge and connect with others, such conversations are not easy. Throughout the narrative, Bruton grows through the help of the community and particularly through Mr. Fordlyson. Bruton’s description of Gumwood as one of those towns where “everybody looks at everything that moves” indicates the communal concern exhibited by the town (7). While this constant surveillance might seem disconcerting, Bruton, however, asserts that this is a good thing because “it makes you watch how you behave” (7). Indeed, this is arguably beneficial to Bruton because the experience of being constantly monitored by the town forces him to reflect on his past behaviors, and to be better with his grandchildren. Significantly, however, it has taken him a lifetime thus far to change his ways.
Furthermore, Bruton’s few significant moments within the story occur specifically when with the few other characters, mainly Mr. Fordlyson. In fact, it is the moments that Bruton interacts with others that are essential to his development and mark the transformative moments in his character. For instance, Bruton’s interactions with Mr. Fordlyson at both the store and the Tree of Knowledge push Bruton to take accountability and to drastically reassess his values and priorities; ultimately causing Bruton to make extra efforts with his grandchildren. Mr. Fordlyson’s fixed moral compass and brutal sense of honesty contrasts Bruton’s more lax sense of morals. Mr. Fordlyson’s comments toward Bruton at the store lack tact, but they do have the effect of inspiring Bruton to act: events that ultimately lead to a significant transformation in Bruton’s life.
The communal setting where Bruton has these interactions is also significant. This is because the communal areas of Gumwood form a monitored, yet encouraging, space that both controls and enables Bruton. For instance, Bruton is insulted in the store, where he is being observed and monitored from all angles by both Mr. Fordlyson and his grandchildren. Whilst initially jumping to violence, he thereby is deterred from such actions in his response to the ridicules and, critically, begins to show increased respect to his grandchildren. Similarly, when he later meets Mr. Fordlyson at The Tree of Knowledge, Bruton is again initially dismissive, when remarking that old men typically gather there, before having his epiphanic conversation with Mr. Fordlyson. The external spacing, again, conditions Bruton into a healthier thought process.
