I’ve probably read “Chemistry” ten times now. I first read it in the ENCW 101 in 2019 and since then I’ve felt compelled to revisit it every couple of months. I spent a lot of my childhood summers in Cleveland County, NC (where Joel’s father goes to see snakes), and I appreciate Rash’s attendance to place in this story. More than the geography itself, the feeling of this region is captured in the conflict between Joel’s parents: teetering just on the edge of the mountains, there’s a choice between Appalachian life and something more “civilized.” Appalachia has a somewhat insular culture, including fervent religious traditions, that are difficult to find other places. (My own father spent a lot of my upbringing with similar complaints to Paul about lack of passion in “yankee” services.) I don’t think any of us, except Joel and maybe his mother, could blame the man for trying to get back to his roots in the aftermath of a significant mental episode, especially if, as the story seems to imply, he’s never truly given up his Pentecostal ways.
Every time I read this there’s a line I kind of trip over. “That spring my allegiances were with my mother.” (25) It’s unclear how far in the future Joel is to be telling this story, but we can tell from this one line that it’s far enough in the future for him to have changed his mind. As a teenager, he couldn’t help but be concerned about his dad’s rejection of doctor’s orders following such a crisis, and he was doing what he thought was best at the time. Now, though, he can understand more fully his father’s perspective. For a while, I believed this change was a latent reaction to seeing the congregation of snake handlers, but I realized that really, it was in the aftermath of his father’s death that he began to really understand it all, perhaps falling into a similar depression as Paul had, as implied on page 36. No matter the cause, the change in Joel came too late for the two of them to have a mutual understanding. I believe that the telling of this story is an attempt to remedy this, and to provide someone else with the nuanced perspective on a difficult situation our narrator was unable to share while it was happening.
All of this, Rachel, is insightful (and nicely written to boot):
Every time I read this there’s a line I kind of trip over. “That spring my allegiances were with my mother.” (25) It’s unclear how far in the future Joel is to be telling this story, but we can tell from this one line that it’s far enough in the future for him to have changed his mind. As a teenager, he couldn’t help but be concerned about his dad’s rejection of doctor’s orders following such a crisis, and he was doing what he thought was best at the time. Now, though, he can understand more fully his father’s perspective. For a while, I believed this change was a latent reaction to seeing the congregation of snake handlers, but I realized that really, it was in the aftermath of his father’s death that he began to really understand it all, perhaps falling into a similar depression as Paul had, as implied on page 36. No matter the cause, the change in Joel came too late for the two of them to have a mutual understanding. I believe that the telling of this story is an attempt to remedy this, and to provide someone else with the nuanced perspective on a difficult situation our narrator was unable to share while it was happening.