The Significance of Existence

In the beginning of And Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, James Agee reminds us of the significance of existence: "In a novel, a house or a person has his meaning, his existence, entirely through the writer. Here, a hosue or a person has only the most limited of his meaning through me: his true meaning is much huger. It is that he exists, in actual being, you do and as I do, and as no character of the imagination can possibly exist. His great weight, mystery, and dignity are in this fact" (9).

While many people read of Hamlet's quest for justice or Holden Caufield's big city adventures, the Ricketts family and their fireplace hold a very important significance for Agee, simply because they exist. Though it may seem obvious and a bit silly to say, "The fireplace existed and Hamlet never did," I think that Agee places a great significance on this simple existence that is frequently overlooked.

I think that James Agee believed that his job was to report that existence, with no "artistry" of his own, and this scene exemplifies that. I believe that Agee chose to include such a detailed description of the fireplace, because of the bitter irony that speaks so loudly in an image of a poor family's fireplace being decorated with pictures and magazine covers depicting consumerist brands and a better life. The way in which he describes these decorations, one after another, meticulous in detail, poetic in language, resembles a tribute to the Ricketts and their fireplace almost, a nostalgic image that he paints for us to look back on, so that we can see for ourselves the items owned by this family that actually existed. Calendars, magazine covers, Coca-Cola advertisements--all of them breadcrumbs of a family gone elsewhere.