Entry Twelve: Parrish Revisited

Tom Parrish
“Bonnie Ledet”

 “ “No, man. Bonnie put rubbing alcohol in his coffee. Fucked him up.” “Is he gonna die?” “Nah, He’s too mean to die.” … Blane sipped his coffee and stared at the wall like he hadn’t heard Roland. He lit a cigarette, but it was already halfway burned in the ashtray and he hadn’t touched it. “Why’d

she go to the hospital with him?” I asked. Blane looked at me from the corner of his eye as though I’d asked the most ridiculous question. “Cause he’s our daddy,” he said.”

I have to say that I wasn’t enthralled with the two pieces we read of Parrish’s for class, and in a strange way I’m pleased that I was able to read this additional story of his. With this piece, I found a much more deep connection with it, for one reason or another. With Bonnie Ledet, I had a significantly more intimate relationship with these characters, and I found myself caring about them much more than those from It Pours or Complicity.

This connection, I believe, has something to do with the characters introduced in this story to begin with. Our narrator, Jeb, has gone through a significant trauma for his young age, and it’s made apparent right away. It’s used as a ploy for sympathy, but I found it to be significantly more than that throughout the story. He’s a character with an emotional depth that would be surprising for his age, until we learn more about Roland, Blane, and Bonnie.

Something else I really latched onto was Bonnie’s character. Her struggle is something I very much can sympathize with, but in different ways than she’s portrayed as going through. We both have lost our mothers, and with this fact there was significantly more responsibility placed on us as a young age. I was very fortunate to not go through the emotional and physical abuses that she had to suffer, but I do share the emotional weight of a loss. It’s something very impacting, and difficult to write without misrepresenting – something Parrish has written quite well.

As a whole, I do believe that this was the most impactful and emotionally riveting of the stories I’ve been able to read of Parrish’s.  Jeb has a continuous struggle throughout this story; a game of balance with how far he should go with Bonnie, which is something incredibly relatable to anyone who’s pursued someone else as a romantic partner. In addition, he’s struggling to cope with the chronic illness his mothers has – he knows that he should be a proper son, to take care of her and do his best not to stress her. It’s a kind of struggle that’s relatable to the majority of readers, which is why I think I enjoyed reading this story as much as I did.

Bonnie Ledet is a social example; it’s something that easily translated to our modern day. It shows how far some people are willing to go for someone they care about. It showcases the immersion of someone into a culture that isn’t their own, and the confusion that can home from it.

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Bonnie Ledet shares some similarities with Complicity as well as It Pours, and as I said before, I think it excels in the places these two stories faltered. One of the biggest things I noticed was the integration of issues from both It Pours and Complicity were featured in this story – the domestic violence and unsettled household from Complicity, and the drastic power disconnect of mother and father in It Pours.

In Pours, the narrator’s family is portrayed to be a very patriarchal one; we hear mostly from his father, the PTSD-ridden man and his struggle to cope with his mental illness. In that story, the mother plays a very minor role, and as readers, we don’t learn nearly as much about her as we do the other characters. In the case of Bonnie, it’s quite the opposite; Jeb’s father is mentioned once or twice, while his mother is an integral character in regards to Jeb’s development as well as the plot. Both of these stories, however, portray an atypical and uncomfortable family situation for their narrator.

In addition, all three of these stories showcase different cultures, and how the narrator observes them and relates to them. In It Pours, the narrator’s neighbors are Cuba – for Jeb, Bonnie and her family are Cajun. This kind of diversity is a common theme, and it’s something I’ve come to enjoy. It adds a variety to characters that a lot of others stories are missing.