The Rickett's fireplace: Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

One can be forever lost in the deep descriptions of Agee's Let Us Now Praise Famous Men; however, my interpretation of this particular passage is rather simple. His analyses of the Woods and Gudgers houses are much more focused on the lack of much beyond the necessities. He depicts the Gudgers house as very minimal, with little to no decorations of any sort, and the furniture is nothing more than practical. His description of their fireplace paints a very plain picture. "All the frame and mantel of the fireplace and the rather dark, blank wall, to a squared-off height of perhaps five and a half feet, and some of the wall beyond the frame, are whitewashed...yet a very cold and fine white, the edges of the work carefully labored and inexpert," (Agee, 151).

The Woods' home is told to have been minimal as well, though a little more decorated than the Gudgers. In their short passage, they are described as having decorations such as an ancestor's sword and scabbard on the wall of one of the bedrooms, a mirror, and smaller knick-knacks, but nothing seemingly very inspired or personal.

What sets the Ricketts apart, I think, is as Kaelin pointed 0ut; there is more personal connection implied with the items listed. A little earlier in the passage, Agee points out that the room with the fireplace is "of no use for living" becaues of its caved-in chimmney (Agee, 172-173), which is interested to find out later that this is the room he describes as being filled with their "pretty things". He lists a number of magazine covers and advertisements the family has set aside, indicating their interest in each of the images. The family is noted for its stinginess, but the family appears to make-do with what they have, and thus the never-ending list of favored images they set aside. As Agee mentions in his notes following the passage, he believes houses such as the aforementioned households "achieve an extraordinary 'beauty'," (Agee, 177) in that the esthetics are normally overlooked by the obvious shortcomings at hand, when in turn, despite the family's short income, a house such as the Ricketts' still sports an eye for what it deems as its own "beauty".