A Fair Price
Written: January 25th, 2015
Poem: Alexandra Fuller's "Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight" - accessible here, page 6.
No one is guaranteed success and well-being in the world. Poverty, homelessness, and pay-check to pay-check living prove this. In his fictional work, “Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight”, Alexandra Fuller describes the typical course of a selling-day for tobacco farmers. Through this description, Fuller implies that such a farmer’s physical and mental well-being is dependent upon their economic success. She utilizes three literary devices to get her message across: tone, imagery, and characterization.
The tone of the passage under consideration is one of tense, anxious anticipation. For example, the mother and tobacco farmer “tightens” (Fuller 2) her clutch on the selling-stand as the “buyers walk the line of…tobacco” (1), suggesting a feeling of apprehension. And when the buyers approach, she gives them a “fierce, fixed, terrifying stare” (9). Given the mother wants the buyers to offer as much as they can, it can be assumed that her terrifying stare is more accurately stated as her terrified stare, creating a tone, not only of apprehension, but of desperation as well. Or again, when the buyers write down their price and begin to walk away, the father “whispers…[a] warning” (17) to the mother to hold poise. Whispers of warning suggest two things. First of all, a tight, tense atmosphere where everything must be spoken quietly, lest someone overhear. Second of all, the fact that it is a warning being issued, rather than a mere suggestion, implies that the situation is one with major consequences. Additionally, when these buyers walk by, “waves of…anxiety sink down” (9) into the children. Even so young a person as a child can experience anxiety over the result of their parents’ tobacco sales, because the consequences of a bad turnout are so grave. Further, if the father does not like the prices offered, the children “become quite” (32) with the realization that things did not go as so desperately hoped. In short, these four examples create a tone of anxiety and desperation. An anxious and desperate tone makes sense if the narrator wants to get the point across that the very well-being of the family relies upon a good tobacco sale. For such is not the outcome, the family does not make money, and if the family does not make money, they suffer.
While tone suggests major ramifications to the tobacco-selling family if their sales do not turnout, imagery develops what those ramifications are. The imagery presented in the passage is extreme, to the point that deeper meaning is implied. On the one hand, the mother tells her children to “look hungry” (5) as the buyers walk by. They comply. The first sister and narrator is described as having “eyes as wide as they will go” (6). The second sister “sinks her head to her chest” (7). Both of these characters give the impression of being “hollow and needy” (7). While these dispositions are intentionally created by the characters for manipulative purposes, the point is that there would be no reason to go to the point of manipulation unless there were serious consequences of not persuading the buyers to offer a high price. And those consequences are real hollowness and neediness themselves. On the other hand, if the buyers offer a pleasing and sufficient price, the bidding tickets become “beautiful whole rectangles of yellow” (34), as if they were bars of gold. Given that the tickets themselves are just crumpled bits of parchment, calling the paper beautiful suggests that it will bring about something beautiful: the children becoming “giddy” (33), “run[ning] through the bales, exuberant, silly, [and] loud” (34). That yellow piece of paper, in and of itself nearly worthless, brings such joy because it means the avoidance of the hollowness and neediness outlined above. These two qualities are instances of someone’s well-being, and therefore the imagery of the passage suggests that the economic situation of tobacco farmers has major repercussions on their mental and physical well-being.
Images of things are somewhat impersonal, but people themselves are eminently relatable. Descriptions of each character, or characterization, suggests that each of them is deeply affected by the outcome of the family’s tobacco sales. For instance, the children are empathic to the feelings of their parents. When the narrator sees her mother, “waves of [the mother’s] anxiety sink into her” (11). When the children see the disappointment of their father at a less than pleasing tobacco sale, they “feel themselves become quite” (31-32). Due to the fact that the parents are affected by sales of tobacco, the children are guaranteed to be so affected as well. Secondly, the mother is a nervous, desperate, and superstitious women. She “tightens” (2) her grip, “hisses” (5) to her children, gives the tobacco buyers a “fierce, fixed” (9) gaze, and is described as an overall “fretful animal” (19). When tobacco does not sale, she resorts to superstitious practices in the hope that they will help sell the crop (29-30). There would be no reason for her to resort to these measures unless failing to sale has a deep, negative effect on her. Finally, the father is hardened, angry, and manipulative. He is hardened because only if the tobacco sales at a good price are “[h]is fingers wrapped around” (38) his wife’s. His affection for his wife is dependent upon the money made. He is an angry man, because every time he sees the unsold bales of tobacco, “they...anger [him]” (28). Perhaps they make him feel inadequate, unable to support his family. These feelings naturally lead to anger. He is manipulative because he “nonchalantly stands…like a horse at rest” (3) when buyers near, suggesting to them that he does not so desperately need their business. Indeed, “[h]e looks away” when they approach, in some sense playing hard to get. Further, when they do offer a pleasing bid, “[the father] doesn’t smile, or concede any kind of victory” (40). In these ways, he manipulates his buyers. All of this goes to show that selling tobacco has left a deep mark in the father’s character. More generally, all three characters are the way they are because the cash crop has its fingers so tightly wrapped around their lives. And it is nothing other than their very well-being that is affected. If it were merely the clothes they could buy, or the food they could eat that was touched by tobacco sales, their characters and their actions would not be so scared by those sales.
In summary, characterization, imagery, and tone are used to argue that a tobacco farmer’s happiness, health, and prosperity (or well-being, for short) are entirely dependent upon the numbers scrawled on a few, tiny bits of yellow paper. The questions this realization raises are numerous, but one in particular stands above the rest. In a socialist economy, with the means of production and the prices of goods in the hands of the state, it seems less likely for a situation like the tobacco farmer’s to come about. Only in capitalist economy, through competition between multiple producers, is the plight of the farmer possible. So the question raised is, is a socialist system better than a capitalist one? But of course, in a free-market economy, where success is theoretically reliant only upon one’s personal ambition and intelligence, one can escape the plights of the tobacco farmer and rise to even greater economic heights. Given the centrality of intelligence to this scenario, perhaps the answer reached here is this: the solution to the anxiety of the farmer is, not socialism, but education. Through education, one may develop creativity, and through creativity, the world opens up, and one need not be so deeply reliant upon a “Fair price” (41).
Poem: Alexandra Fuller's "Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight" - accessible here, page 6.
No one is guaranteed success and well-being in the world. Poverty, homelessness, and pay-check to pay-check living prove this. In his fictional work, “Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight”, Alexandra Fuller describes the typical course of a selling-day for tobacco farmers. Through this description, Fuller implies that such a farmer’s physical and mental well-being is dependent upon their economic success. She utilizes three literary devices to get her message across: tone, imagery, and characterization.
The tone of the passage under consideration is one of tense, anxious anticipation. For example, the mother and tobacco farmer “tightens” (Fuller 2) her clutch on the selling-stand as the “buyers walk the line of…tobacco” (1), suggesting a feeling of apprehension. And when the buyers approach, she gives them a “fierce, fixed, terrifying stare” (9). Given the mother wants the buyers to offer as much as they can, it can be assumed that her terrifying stare is more accurately stated as her terrified stare, creating a tone, not only of apprehension, but of desperation as well. Or again, when the buyers write down their price and begin to walk away, the father “whispers…[a] warning” (17) to the mother to hold poise. Whispers of warning suggest two things. First of all, a tight, tense atmosphere where everything must be spoken quietly, lest someone overhear. Second of all, the fact that it is a warning being issued, rather than a mere suggestion, implies that the situation is one with major consequences. Additionally, when these buyers walk by, “waves of…anxiety sink down” (9) into the children. Even so young a person as a child can experience anxiety over the result of their parents’ tobacco sales, because the consequences of a bad turnout are so grave. Further, if the father does not like the prices offered, the children “become quite” (32) with the realization that things did not go as so desperately hoped. In short, these four examples create a tone of anxiety and desperation. An anxious and desperate tone makes sense if the narrator wants to get the point across that the very well-being of the family relies upon a good tobacco sale. For such is not the outcome, the family does not make money, and if the family does not make money, they suffer.
While tone suggests major ramifications to the tobacco-selling family if their sales do not turnout, imagery develops what those ramifications are. The imagery presented in the passage is extreme, to the point that deeper meaning is implied. On the one hand, the mother tells her children to “look hungry” (5) as the buyers walk by. They comply. The first sister and narrator is described as having “eyes as wide as they will go” (6). The second sister “sinks her head to her chest” (7). Both of these characters give the impression of being “hollow and needy” (7). While these dispositions are intentionally created by the characters for manipulative purposes, the point is that there would be no reason to go to the point of manipulation unless there were serious consequences of not persuading the buyers to offer a high price. And those consequences are real hollowness and neediness themselves. On the other hand, if the buyers offer a pleasing and sufficient price, the bidding tickets become “beautiful whole rectangles of yellow” (34), as if they were bars of gold. Given that the tickets themselves are just crumpled bits of parchment, calling the paper beautiful suggests that it will bring about something beautiful: the children becoming “giddy” (33), “run[ning] through the bales, exuberant, silly, [and] loud” (34). That yellow piece of paper, in and of itself nearly worthless, brings such joy because it means the avoidance of the hollowness and neediness outlined above. These two qualities are instances of someone’s well-being, and therefore the imagery of the passage suggests that the economic situation of tobacco farmers has major repercussions on their mental and physical well-being.
Images of things are somewhat impersonal, but people themselves are eminently relatable. Descriptions of each character, or characterization, suggests that each of them is deeply affected by the outcome of the family’s tobacco sales. For instance, the children are empathic to the feelings of their parents. When the narrator sees her mother, “waves of [the mother’s] anxiety sink into her” (11). When the children see the disappointment of their father at a less than pleasing tobacco sale, they “feel themselves become quite” (31-32). Due to the fact that the parents are affected by sales of tobacco, the children are guaranteed to be so affected as well. Secondly, the mother is a nervous, desperate, and superstitious women. She “tightens” (2) her grip, “hisses” (5) to her children, gives the tobacco buyers a “fierce, fixed” (9) gaze, and is described as an overall “fretful animal” (19). When tobacco does not sale, she resorts to superstitious practices in the hope that they will help sell the crop (29-30). There would be no reason for her to resort to these measures unless failing to sale has a deep, negative effect on her. Finally, the father is hardened, angry, and manipulative. He is hardened because only if the tobacco sales at a good price are “[h]is fingers wrapped around” (38) his wife’s. His affection for his wife is dependent upon the money made. He is an angry man, because every time he sees the unsold bales of tobacco, “they...anger [him]” (28). Perhaps they make him feel inadequate, unable to support his family. These feelings naturally lead to anger. He is manipulative because he “nonchalantly stands…like a horse at rest” (3) when buyers near, suggesting to them that he does not so desperately need their business. Indeed, “[h]e looks away” when they approach, in some sense playing hard to get. Further, when they do offer a pleasing bid, “[the father] doesn’t smile, or concede any kind of victory” (40). In these ways, he manipulates his buyers. All of this goes to show that selling tobacco has left a deep mark in the father’s character. More generally, all three characters are the way they are because the cash crop has its fingers so tightly wrapped around their lives. And it is nothing other than their very well-being that is affected. If it were merely the clothes they could buy, or the food they could eat that was touched by tobacco sales, their characters and their actions would not be so scared by those sales.
In summary, characterization, imagery, and tone are used to argue that a tobacco farmer’s happiness, health, and prosperity (or well-being, for short) are entirely dependent upon the numbers scrawled on a few, tiny bits of yellow paper. The questions this realization raises are numerous, but one in particular stands above the rest. In a socialist economy, with the means of production and the prices of goods in the hands of the state, it seems less likely for a situation like the tobacco farmer’s to come about. Only in capitalist economy, through competition between multiple producers, is the plight of the farmer possible. So the question raised is, is a socialist system better than a capitalist one? But of course, in a free-market economy, where success is theoretically reliant only upon one’s personal ambition and intelligence, one can escape the plights of the tobacco farmer and rise to even greater economic heights. Given the centrality of intelligence to this scenario, perhaps the answer reached here is this: the solution to the anxiety of the farmer is, not socialism, but education. Through education, one may develop creativity, and through creativity, the world opens up, and one need not be so deeply reliant upon a “Fair price” (41).
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