Family Rank and Hope

Agee is very careful in Let Us Now Praise Famous Men to describe each tenant family in detail, so they do not merge into one generalization of the tenant farmer life. Before Agee goes into deep explanation of the families' homes, he describes their monetary situation in relation to one another.

The families are essentially ranked by Agee according to how much money they have in profit at the end of the year. The Woods family cleared at best $1300 one year, the Gudgers cleared $125, and the Ricketts have consistently remained in debt. Agee spends a lot of time describing in particular the Ricketts fireplace, and describing carefully the difference between their home and the average tenant farmer.

In his description of the Rickett home, he explains that their home was once inhabited by a small farmer, not a tenant, who likely lost his home in foreclosure from the same people who the Ricketts now work for. The Rickett family is in the worst of conditions financially, and lives in a home whose history could be foreshadowing of their future.

The fireplace is of utmost importance to the Ricketts, since it is the one object that can make a room seem “more or less well-appointed than it actually is” (183). About the Ricketts fireplace are objects which serve no functional purpose, but which provide only aesthetic pleasure. The posters hanging above the mantle-piece are of higher-class people, such as men in suits, and objects which they cannot afford, like roasts and cakes. Compared to the other fireplaces in the Grudge and Woods homes, the Ricketts fireplace is just decoration. The Grudge and Woods family use the fireplace to hold objects like nail files and hair combs. The other fireplaces do still have some relics of attempts to make their homes “pretty”, though their neglect is now apparent. Mrs. Grudge, for example, once attempted to decorate her mantle with lace, but admits to have given up trying to make the house pretty. The Ricketts still maintain some hope in their home, and still attempt to make it more livable for that reason. It is ironic in the sense that they are the family that will most likely not make it much longer without facing foreclosure; it seems as though the only thing they have left is hope.