The Company of the Dead
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In Reynolds Price’s The Company of the Dead, we are privy to the recollections of a 92-year-old southern man named Hub. Hub recalls the time when he and his best friend Simp worked as “setters” from the period when they were about 12 ½ years-old to the time they were aged fifteen (Price 910). Most of the story is devoted to their experiences while “setting” for a forced-into-retirement schoolteacher named Miss Georgie. As bizarre as any imaginative character from Faulkner like Miss Emily, Miss Georgie lived alone save for an old black house-man. When she dies, they are asked to “set” for the first time ever. They relish the opportunity initially but experience fits of sleepiness, conflict with the house-man Jarvis, and, even worse, a ghoulish bubble which rises from Miss Georgie’s dead lips. This bubble puts the fear of God and the supernatural into the pair, as, when Hub tells Simp who is too afraid to look that the bubble has not disappeared “He heard the news with bald-faced terror” (Price 915). Despite their harrowing first job, the boys survive and feel stronger because of the experience. The next “setting” of General Matthew Husky’s “enormous remains” goes off without a hitch, mainly because the boys follow the work ethic advice of “setters” delivered to them by Hub “The lesson is nothing but this. Keep the corpse as cool as you can, no more bugs than you can help, and don’t go touching their burial clothes” (Price 9
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next. No lover thrives or ends with flesh and mind intact, uncharred and smiling. I’ve kept that lesson hid well within me, a guiding secret like no known light in the mounting hours of age and loss. And through this hapless republic-…-I’ve struggled by the instant to keep my own heart dry inside me, not launched on the pointed stages of love.
(Price 921)
When we look at critical interpretations of Price’s writing, we see that many critics underscore aspects of Price’s themes, style, and topics that can be related to The Company of the Dead. For example, the narrator in Company discovers as his ultimate lesson as a child, that wounds and scars create permanent damage “All of these stories are bout crossing the perimeters that may not be crossed without terrible responsibilities; love, compassion, confession are wounds, and their scars are permanent” (Davenport 1). Other critics also interpret Price’s writing in a way that seems to suggest the author’s style becomes his character’s. For example, this depiction by one critic of Price is eerily similar to the character of Hub and his quest for lessons “He makes peace with the questions he has set himself to answer, and in the process he draws conclusions that are often quit
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1216
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)
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