The Overalls

“Try—I cannot write it here—to imagine and to know, as against other garments, the difference of their feelings against your body", Agee begins his description of the men of the tenant families' overalls. This quote points to the effectiveness of a description of clothing that, because of it's universal and sensorial nature, goes beyond what the description of the houses does in terms of drawing conclusions about the owner. I most enjoyed Agee’s description of the overalls and, assuming from his lengthy devotion to the description, it appears as if he did as well. Agee describes the overalls in a number of ways: The overalls are described in an almost scientific manner, much like the categorical way in which he describes the rest of the tenant’s clothing. It is obvious that Agee loved the overalls because of the life-like qualities he endows them with. He describes the seams as “those of a living plant of animal” and the garment as an almost independent being that ages, matures and evolves. They are compared to art: not only are they compared to a painting of Cézanne, but they are given architectural qualities that allude not only to the esthetic quality of the overalls, but its functional ability to protect and house the man inside (reminiscent of the description of the shoes in this chapter that we read the first day of class). And, most importantly, the overalls are described as indicators of the lfe and identity of the owner. Agee refers to the overalls as a “blueprint” and “a map of a working man” because of the conclusions we can come to about not only the curves and contours of the owner’s body but the rigor of his work and the state of his poverty. Not only do the overalls illuminate the nature of the lifestyles of the owners, but, they also provide an indication of identity to the families: Agee mentions in this passage that the appearance of a “peasant” is universal both through time and place, however, that overalls are “a garment native to this country” and “are relatively new and local”, therefore, rooting the Gudgers, Woods and Rickets in their place and time in history. Furthermore, the description of the overalls allows us to further deduce Agee’s preference for the Gudgers. George Gudger’s overalls are the only ones mentioned in this description and he is glorified as a worker who “wears in his work on the power of his shoulders a fabric as intricate and fragile, and as deeply in honor of the reigning sun, as the feather mantle of a Toltec prince”.