bum in the great depression

Ironweed reveals people, who lived like a bum, struggling in the violence of society, hesitating in the chaos of humanity in the Great Depression and trying to expiate the criminal which they did unintented. What William Kennedy was good at is that he introduced the story by telling the characters’ thoughts and minds, which created a good environment: the characters even don’t know what they actually thought.

Francis is very innocent, very thoughtful, very everything and very catholic. He threw the stone the size of a potato and broken Harold Allen’s skull unintentionally in a worker movement: Allen become a reflection who wears black coat and a motorman’s cap, asking why Fancis did that.
“ you deserve what you got”
Francis said. He still in a guiltless motion that Allen snatched his job intentionally. In the Great Depression, people even killed others in order to get a job. The author let Allen always talked to Francis to exhibit the distortion of people and regret after the chaos of violence.

Francis escaped from the train to his hometown and again unintentionally slide his 13 -days baby from diaper. He feared, confused, ran again--lived like a bum. He then lived with Helen, a whore, but he always denied her that he would not live with such cold and confused woman who was a living explosion of unbearable memory and indomitable joy, who like a blackbird when sun comes for a little while. After the years, he came back to the place where he did the criminal and wanted to atone his behavior. But again, he killed a person. Drunk Rowdy Dick wanted to cut Francis’ feet to get his shoes and was killed in the chaotic fight.

Francis eyes roved over every cemetery, where he became a amateur grave-digger, all the dead things: gas stoves, broken train, wood, dead iceboxes and bikes with twisted wheels. After all of them became blurred, he conjure the images of dead people and afraid his baby’s cemetery is in other family’s grave. Then the vague passed, even today the flower is still remained and now it’s a history marvel that only the very old people, or that the solitary spirit wondered discoveries when rambling among the gravestones and generally attributes to a freakish natural effusion. He began to run, run from the bases after the crack of the bat, the running from accusation, the calumny of men and women, the family, bondage, destitution of spirit through ritualistic straightening, in a quest for pure flight a fulfilling mannerism of the spirit. In the end, Francis can’t distinguish the violence and chaos, or that violence became chaos, can’t admitted that he is a bum and insisted that just because people liked to say that.

Francis is poor character in the Great Depression, he experienced the most obvious pain in that period and the distenguishness between rich and poor, finally, in the regret, he even got the fulfillment of fight.