The Tree of Man(1955) Character of Amy Parker

The Tree of Man(1955)

Character of Amy Parker

v As a symbolic character:-

            “The Tree of Man” is a symbolic novel. White has used different images and symbols to heighten the effect of spiritual awareness in different characters to lead from ignorance to spiritual awareness. In the novel White portrays the married life of Stan Parker, a farmer of Durilgai and his wife Amy. The word ‘tree’ in the title of this novel stands for Stan’s quest of growth, for inexhaustible life. In Stan we find ‘the melancholic longing for permanence, while Amy stands of motion in life. Stan sets out in each of permanence. He removes all the bushes from his farm and whishes that his wife should live peacefully in his ‘honest house’ Here they take roots. They milk cows and grow cabbages. Amy plants garden. The neighbours also join them. Thus entire threads of the move round Stan’s identity findings and Amy’s bridal day and her present mental state.

v Amy’s  Hungry of Stan’s Love  :-

            When Stan takes Amy home just after his marriage, his cart jolts through the windy countryside. On the way, he dose don’t waste his time by talking to her or by showing her the beautiful scene around. He identifies himself simply with the permanence. Referring to Amy’s response to such a cold treatment White remarks,

            “She had begun to hate the wind, and the distance, and the road, because her importance tended to dwindle.

            She is a radical woman. She is restless and hungry of Stan’s love. The rose bush which she plants in the first days of her marriage serves as an outward sign of her emotions. Amy’s rose bush is juxtaposed to Stan’s tree. The giant size of the trees overshadows the rose bush. In this way, her husband Stan, like a giant  tree overshadows her passivity. 

v Amy’s  Frustration and Despair :-

             Later on, Amy becomes older and harder. The roses and cabbages of her youth are replaced in her middle age by the shrubs. At this age, she feels great frustration and despair in her. She realizes that she has never been worthy of Stan. This illumination of her should make her weary. Her want to be loved by her husband made her completely frustrated woman. On the mirror of her room, she writes the word, ‘Leo’. It was indeed a shameful act. After much repentance of her adultery, she rubs off the name but it is imprinted forever on her physical as well as spiritual plain. Her materialistic approaches to life rebound to her like boomerang. Thus she has become the victim of ‘Temptation’. She is thus ‘a modern Eve’ stand for materialistic happiness.

v Amy’s realization of the mystery :-

            We can notice well ‘Amy’s realization of the mystery that lies in the character of Stan. She makes every effort to make her husband realize her want from life living. She knows too that she does not posses her husband’s true emotion. And this constantly makes her restless. She cherishes a hopeless desire to grasp his thought. She always yearns to know and have him. She has an ardent desire to look into the inside of his skill and mind of Stan, but her husband remains the same.

            Her emotional inner self, never reaches to grab her husband’s mysterious yet peaceful living. The rose bushes of her life are thus replaced by the shrubs in her middle age. One more critic Beatson, in ‘Common Wealth Literature has points out ‘Stan Parker loves God through Nature, While Amy must find her love personalized in those around her.

v Amy’s Violent Self and Jealousy :-

            Amy’s violent self and jealousy leads her away from spiritual state of life. Amy must find her love personalized in those around her. Her need to express love through the body is frustrated by Stan’s ability to fulfill himself in Nature. She desires bodily pleasure that are denied by her husband. So he surrenders herself to the sexual pleasure. So she submits to adultery in the an attempt to fought out her disgust while making love to Leo, a commercial traveler. Amy finds it difficult to escape from her husband. She is swayed by the materialistic thought. She is governed by ‘a strange dictatorship of the body. Therefore a critic like Manfred Mackenzie states “Amy’s vision of life is essentially ‘corporeal’ (bodily)

v Amy’s illumination of her soul:-   

            After falling into worldly desires, jealousy and evil ways of life Amy thinks that she should be given another opportunity for total destruction. She realizes that she has never been worthy of Stan. Thus she feels ‘inner-illumination of her soul which leaves her weary. Stan’s discovery of Amy’s infidelity leads him to his loss of faith in God as well as Man.Both Amy and Stan or Man and Woman accept each other’s mystery. Amy becomes bitter and confused, when her son Ray dies a sordid death. At the end of the novel Stan becomes one with God. Amy still clings to her world possessions.