Hunter's Horn: Harriette Arnow's Subversive Hunting Tale
1984; University of North Carolina Press; Volume: 17; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1534-1461
Autores Tópico(s)Archaeology and Natural History
ResumoHarriette Arnow's Hunter's Horn (1949) has been relegated to peripheral status a regional novel, prized by Appalachian fans for its lively treatment of Little Smokey Creek in Cumberland Mountains. But novel has merits beyond its regional features; in fact, it provides a subtle examination of code of individuality which pervades American life and literature. Reviewers clearly sensed something more than local color in novel, hailing it a potential Pulitzer prize winner and comparing it to Moby-Dick. Such comparisons arise from Arnow's treatment of a long and obsessive hunt: for three years, Nunnely Ballew stalks Devil, a particularly brazen and elusive fox, increasingly neglecting his family and his farm in process. However, reviewers who attempted to read Arnow an Appalachian Melville were disappointed. One reviewer chided, That Melville's influence can be dangerous is shown in case by fact that Nunn Ballew's chase of King Devil has little of intensity of Ahab's passionate quest for white whale, (1) and another commented, as a symbol, fox is inadequately and only sporadically developed. (2) Actually, context is appropriate: Hunter's Horn can best be understood in relation to tradition of American hunting tales. What has yet to be appreciated, however, is that Arnow's divergence from that tradition is purposeful, original, and acute. Though Hunter's Horn has been rated a hunting tale, it is in fact a highly subversive entry in that field. American hunting generally emphasize significance of a highly individualistic quest, one which subsumes hunter's role a member of a group. A notable exception is Faulkner's Bear, to which Hunter's Horn might profitably be compared, though Arnow's concern with interdependence is more fully imbedded in narrative than is Faulkner's. In hands of Melville, Hemingway, or Dickey, hunting tale has been a vehicle for presenting a man in search of some fundamental truth about himself or his condition. Whether hunter returns to civilization chastened or primed, narrative stresses movement out and away. Thus both serious of hunting and traditional tall tales reflect in large measure strategy of evasion which Leslie Fiedler finds characteristic of American literature: the typical male protagonist of our fiction has been a man on run, harried into forest and out to sea, down river or into combat--anywhere to avoid `civilization,' which is to say, confrontation of a man and woman which leads to fall to sex, marriage and (3) Hunting are superbly suited to validate--and even celebrate--separation. Much of Hunter's Horn is indeed puzzling when approached with expectation that meaning will reside in Nunn Ballew's testing confrontation with a mysterious and significant adversary. The point of view is principally centered on Nunn, who is presented fully and sympathetically, but Arnow also explores consciousnesses of members of his family, and these shifts present very separate lives and needs and griefs which do not give resonance to Nunn's obsession. An occasional, vivid scene of hunting is depicted, but equally vivid, frequent--and resonant--are scenes of childbirth which intersperse narrative. The conclusion of Nunn's long contest coincides with end of novel, but capture is overshadowed by a family crisis which is also reaching its culmination. If attention is paid to these domestic details and pattern of their juxtaposition with hunt, it becomes clear that Arnow is interested in cost of hunter's absence rather than in challenge of hunt. Arnow's achievement lies in mapping area of tension to which one is subject a member of a group, tension between self-fulfillment and responsibility. She is sympathetic toward her hunter's drive for a more fulfilling experience than that afforded by prosaic, impoverished, repetitive circuit of farming which he neglects, but she ultimately deflates romance of his hunt while giving weight to claims upon him. …
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