Roger Malvin's Grandson

NOTES ROGER MALVIN'S GRANDSON Ann Ronald University of Nevada-Reno Most readings ofNathaniel Hawthorne's short story "Roger Malvin's Burial" focus on the man weighed under by guilt, Reuben Bourne. As the obvious center of the narrative, Reuben directs the reader's psychological and intellectual responses in ways that stress either the pathology ofthe tale or else its cultural connections with the past. Whether his acts finally are seen as sinful, innocent, justifiable, or inevitable, Reuben merits the most attention. Of significantly less importance, or so the critics argue, are Reuben's victims. The objects of Reuben's misdeeds—Roger Malvin himself , Dorcas, and her son Cyrus—often are dismissed peremptorily or else denied symbolic weight. Dorcas and Cyrus, in particular, are relegated by most readers to subsidiary roles. To ignore them, however, is to neglect a singular element ofthe theme of the story. "Roger Malvin's Burial" examines more than what it means to be a Puritan, more than the divine retribution ofa vengeful God, more than the abnormal psychology of a man twisted by guilt. It also looks away from the past toward a strangely lit future, one where the pioneer spirit meets a sad demise. This recurrent speculation of Hawthorne's, a question of the fate of the frontier, nowhere manifests itself as directly as in "Roger Malvin's Burial." Especially crucial to that manifestation is Cyrus Bourne and his premature death. The story's introduction to him, however, gives no hint ofhis personal fate but instead stresses his maturepotential. The fifteen-year-old, "beautiful in youth," is not merely an unformed youngster. Already he gives promise of a glorious manhood. He was peculiarly qualified for, and already began to excel in, the wild accomplishments of frontier life. His foot was fleet, his aim true, his apprehension quick, his heart glad and high; and all, who anticipated the return of Indian war, spoke of Cyrus Bourne as a future leader in the land.1 He sounds like Daniel Boone. He sounds like a young Natty Bumppo. Indeed , he sounds like the prototypical frontiersman and erstwhile symbol of the wilderness. Cyrus might be a model for the Deerslayer; or Hawk-eye ("that singular compound of quick, vigilant sagacity and of exquisite simplicity that by turn usurped the possession ofhis muscular features"2) might be a model for Cyrus Bourne. At any rate, the son ofReuben Bourne exemplifies the frontier spirit. 72Notes While other readers have noted a resemblance between Cyrus and the Western hero, they see this youngman in the shadow ofhis ancestors, not as the forerunner of a new breed. "Cyrus is the reincarnation of the younger Roger and Reuben—the beautiful young hunter and future warrior," says Agnes MacNeill Donohue. "He is the godlike man of the dream, the Adamic hero made for the uncorrupted Eden. The American Adam cannot survive, so he must die."3 Perhaps because Cyrus is dead, he subsequently rates no more than passing notice from this otherwise perceptive critic. Donohue, preferring to discuss the father, ignores the implications of the son. Diane Naples is equally unwilling to acknowledge Cyrus's role. She persuasively argues that "Reuben and Malvin are personifications of the frontier spirit cast in unheroic terms,"4 but she does not include their offspring in any like category. Even though she devotes a paragraph to Hawthorne's portrayal of the American Adam in this story, she leaves Cyrus completely out ofher analysis ofHawthorne and the frontier. Other critics make equally provocative remarks, only to dismiss them too. "Reuben has . . . projected himself into his son,"5 writes Frederick C. Crews, while Edwin Fussell concentrates on the "compulsive Western return ."6 Both Crews and Fussell immediately return to Reuben, the former mentioning Cyrus only as an adjunct to his father, the latter not regarding Cyrus's importance at all. Yet it is Cyrus who is Hawthorne's subject in the often-quoted passage about the American frontier. It is Cyrus who, fixing his eyes on the future, anticipates "the adventurous pleasures ofthe untrodden forest." Even when the narrator of "Roger Malvin's Burial" moves away from the boy and extrapolates prophetically, it is Cyrus, not Reuben, who triggers the...