Dead
End in Norvelt
By
Jack Gantos
Bibliography:
Gantos,
Jack. Dead End in Norvelt. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux,
2011. ISBN: 978-037437993
Summary and Critical Analysis:
Jack
Gantos’ Dead End in Norvelt is the
touching and laugh-out-loud funny story of a boy named Jack Gantos growing up in the
small town of Norvelt, Pennsylvania.
Norvelt, a real town founded during the New Deal as a place for
displaced workers to be able to have their own home and land to farm, is the
place where the author grew up, and by giving the protagonist his name, he
creates a world that, although fictional, evokes a sense of a real
slice-of-life. The story is set in the summer of
1962, as the original members of the social experiment that was Norvelt are
quickly dying off and most of the ideals of the town have been discarded. Using history as theme and backdrop, the
author creates a world where things are rapidly changing, a theme that surely resonates
today.
The
original settlers of Norvelt are dying, and with them, so is the town and the
ideals on which it was founded. Jack has
constant nosebleeds, but can’t get the problem fixed because the doctor wants
money now instead of working for trade like was the practice for so long after
the town was founded. Jack’s mother
laments this, but wants to stay while his father wants nothing more than to
move away to Florida and to a new life and, representatively, the future. At the same time, Jack’s father, an eccentric
like many in the town, insists on building a bomb shelter to protect the family
from feared Russian bombs, and builds an airplane so that they family can
escape if a never-coming Russian invasion were to happen.
But
the heart of the book is the relationship that develops between young Jack and
old Mrs. Volcker. "Grounded for life,"
Jack’s only outlet is to help Mrs. Volcker write obituaries for the town’s
original residents as they die off one by one.
Mrs. Volcker always adds in a history lesson to each obituary, always
reminding the reader about the sacrifices and fights that those who came before
had to pursue in the name of progress and equality. These historical lessons are supplemented by
the books that Mrs. Volcker loans Jack for helping her write the
obituaries. However, the historical
facts only add to the story and to the sense that history passing Norvelt by. The reader is not overwhelmed with facts, but
is shown how the past affects the future.
A
great deal happens in this novel, and to try and recap the plot would be a
disservice to the brilliant way that the author is able to parallel current
events with historical events. It’s not
giving too much away to say that the book involves the passing of an era, and
of the people of that era, and that, the gore of Jack’s incessant nosebleeds
included, there is something sinister going on in town which our protagonist
discovers through the course of the book.
In
a New York Times Review of the book, the reviewer states that “Jack Gantos has
a way with boys, or a good memory of being one.” He also has a memory and sense of history and
the joys its discovery can have for a young person, as shown in Jacks
fascination with the books of history he reads from Mrs. Volcker’s
bookshelf. The author’s style is
straightforward, breezy, and, at times just plain funny, even when dealing with
the more serious aspects of the story.
His use of “fake cussing” by the kids in the book with phrases such as “Cheese-us-Crust,”
or “Cheesus,” or even “good grief” sound right for the time and for the characters. Gantos uses humor, history, political philosophy,
a realistic portrayal of kids, and a more caricatured view of adults to weave
together an engaging, enlightening, and thoroughly enjoyable story that is,
when deeply examined, a very political tale.
Although
the book does not cite sources, Jack does read books given to him by Mrs.
Volcker, and mentions the Landmark Book Series of histories of famous events
and people that began publishing in the 1950s and is still publishing books
today. One of the books he reads from
Mrs. Volcker’s home is a book titled “Lost Worlds” that appears to be “The Horizon
Book of Lost Worlds” by Marshall B. Davidson, a popular history book published
in 1962. In addition, the information
the author provides about Norvelt, its founding and decline are well documented
in other sources.
The
author best sums up the theme of the book on the penultimate page when Jack and
his father are dropping water balloons on people from his father’s newly built
airplane and Jack remembers what it felt like when he accidentally fired his
father’s rifle at the first of the book.
He remembers how scary it must have been to his mother. He writes: “Only then I had no idea how
frightening it would be if I had shot someone or just scared someone. Now I know exactly what I was doing. The reason you remind yourself of the stupid
stuff you’ve done in the past is so you don’t do it again. That is what Mrs. Volcker had been teaching
us all these years.”
Review Excerpts:
Gantos has a relaxed style and writes very enjoyably, peppering the pages
with good jokes and eccentric characters, but it soon becomes clear that this
isn't simply his reminiscence of a charming childhood; the real hero of the
novel isn't Jack himself, but his home town and its values. Norvelt was a New
Deal town built by the US government to house poor families and named after
Eleanor Roosevelt, described by Miss Volker as "the greatest American
woman who has ever lived".
Miss Volker explains the inspiration behind the town: "Jefferson
believed that every American should have a house on a large enough piece of
fertile property so that during hard times, when money was difficult to come
by, a man and woman could always grow crops and have enough food to feed their
family. Jefferson believed that the farmer was the key to America and that a
well-run family farm was a model for a well-run government. Mrs. Roosevelt felt
the same. And we in Norvelt keep that belief alive."
…Dead End in
Norvelt is a defiantly
political novel that delivers some simple moral messages: question the stories
that you're told at school or in the media; "if you don't know your
history you won't know the difference between truth and wishful thinking";
and, most importantly, don't forget the narratives of American life that have
been neglected or deliberately buried by the dominant culture.
DEAD END IN NORVELT (reviewed
on August 15, 2011)
An exhilarating summer
marked by death, gore and fire sparks deep thoughts in a small-town lad not
uncoincidentally named “Jack Gantos.”
The gore is all Jack’s,
which to his continuing embarrassment “would spray out of my nose holes like
dragon flames” whenever anything exciting or upsetting happens. And that would
be on every other page, seemingly, as even though Jack’s feuding parents unite
to ground him for the summer after several mishaps, he does get out. He mixes
with the undertaker’s daughter, a band of Hell’s Angels out to exact fiery
revenge for a member flattened in town by a truck and, especially, with arthritic
neighbor Miss Volker, for whom he furnishes the “hired hands” that transcribe
what becomes a series of impassioned obituaries for the local paper as elderly
town residents suddenly begin passing on in rapid succession. Eventually the
unusual body count draws the—justified, as it turns out—attention of the
police. Ultimately, the obits and the many Landmark Books that Jack reads (this
is 1962) in his hours of confinement all combine in his head to broaden his
perspective about both history in general and the slow decline his own town is
experiencing.
Characteristically
provocative gothic comedy, with sublime undertones.
Connections:
Study the real Norvelt and other New Deal communities
that were founded during the depression.
What was there purpose? Were they
successful?
Study the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Cold War and its
effects on people of the US and the way it shaped a generation.
Have students build their own model airplanes and discuss
the reasons Jack’s father felt like the needed it.
Discuss Eleanor Roosevelt and her influence on her
husband and the cultural and political climate of the country during the
depression and New Deal.
Discuss Mrs. Volcker’s idea that American history doesn’t
adequately cover those who fought for progressive causes and for workers.
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