John Edgar Wideman
Our Time
Wideman was born on June 14, 1941. He grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA and much of his writing is set there, especially in the Homewood neighborhood of the East End. He graduated from Pittsburgh's Peabody High School, then attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he became an All-Ivy League forward on the basketball team. He was the second African-American to win a Rhodes Scholarship (New College, Oxford University, England), graduating in 1966. “Our Time is part of “Brothers and Keepers” memoir published in 1984 (New York\NY) and 1985 (London).
John Edgar Wideman's "Our Time" is an essay about how John and his brother Robby were products of their environments and random events. Wideman first uses an epilogue that explains what some aspects of living in "street world life" are like. The epilogue helps me to kind of understand where John and Robby are coming from but still does not justify their actions. How rediculous would it life be if every time a close friend or family member died someone would go on a crime spree. But metaphorically speaking it gives us a canvas paint a picture on. After the epilogue Wideman jumps straight into an important part of the story, the death of Robby's friend Garth in Robby's point of view. This is important because this is what sparks Robby's behavioral changes. Then John, as an outsider looking in on the situation moves onto how he views Robby. He understands Robby's behavior is wrong but he lets it go because of all the awful things that Robby has gone through growing up. Wideman now finds that his mother is starting to accept that Robby is a product of his environment and the events lead up to his wrong doings. John visits Robby in prison and finally opens the lines of communication between each other. They decide to write a book together but John doubted himself. John did not trust himself with Robby's story because he was tempted to make it his own. The first story Robby talks about is his friend Garth in the hospital. Garth seems very sick, he's stuck in a hospital bed. He was misdiagnosed by the doctors and dies because of it. Garth’s death just added to the fact that Robby was already bitter with the world and had a pessimistic attitude about it. This cynical point of view was enforced with Garth’s death. He didn’t think it fair that his friend had to die and he was angry at the doctors because he thought that they should have been able to do something more to help him. Robby ended up resenting the world “The world’s a stone bitch. Nothing true if that’s not true” (694). This standpoint of Robby’s ended up getting him into trouble further on in his life. At the time he had no idea of the impact this would have on his life and what it would bring to him in the future.
John’s mother’s viewpoint was mostly expressed in the view of how John saw her. However, there is a point in the essay where her voice actually comes through with her own thoughts and feeling and not just what John later infers. She talks about Garth’s death, which also affected her own outlook on life. It mostly affected her because it affected her son so much. She resented the fact that the doctors didn’t see to Garth properly; they let the disease that killed him take control over his body. She resented them because she foresaw the effect his death would have on her own son “A thing like that tears people up. It’s worse if you keep it inside. And that’s your brother’s way. He’ll let it eat him up and then go out and do something crazy” (698). John said she was always the one who “tried on the other person’s point of view.” John was angry with Robby for upsetting his mother. He never understood exactly what Robby was going through, or what he had to grow up through. He talks about how his family grew up metaphorically in a little hut village; each family member had their own little hut for personal privacy, but with a protective wall of the whole group enclosing them. They kept their issues to themselves and dealt with their own problems. Wideman had to stop and actually and listen to what Robby was saying; he also had to be able to understand why Robby made the decisions he did. Listening to someone is not always understanding why. You have to be able to take what they say and be able to see their point of view, and then take it into consideration.
The most important thing about the mention of the prison experiences is simply that it gives the reader sympathy for Robby. After Robby goes to prison he becomes aware of all the wrong he did to the people around him. He recognizes the pain he put his mother through. He says that he understands that as sorry as he is, he knows that all the sorrys in the world won't make everything okay again. Robby in a sense is reforming. But even though he's reforming he is sentenced to die. Robby is treated horribly by the guards and he has no way of redeeming himself now. It is a sad ending. Even though the story never ends with Robby dying, Wideman, by explaining the living conditions Robby is exposed to, foreshadows his inevitable end. Wideman’s essay sought to convey the message of understanding between people, not always agreeing with but taking into considerations other peoples thoughts and actions.