The Ledge

*Apologies in advance for the sarcasm*


Oh my, where on earth do I start with this one. First off, can anyone say depressing? Holy crap! Every single story we read this week was abysmally depressing--from suicide, to wartime, to this. I'm sorry, but I fail to see the point of this level of depression. Of course, I am fully aware of the blinders I wear--I definitely prefer happy endings with rainbows and unicorns and fluffy kittens. Yeah, just kidding. I used to, though. In fact, I used to shun anything with even a remotely sad ending. Now, on the other hand, I am proud to say I can recognize the worth of a depressing ending, and when you look at this story in the context of history, it becomes even clearer.

"The Ledge" was written in 1960, by Lawrence Sargent Hall, and is the story of a grizzled fisherman who takes his son and nephew duck hunting on Christmas morning. And there ends any inkling of a happy story. Yes, they do have a slightly heart-warming "bonding" moment out there on the ledge, their hunt being incredibly successful. We can tell that the fisherman cares about the boys, although he has difficulty showing it, but still, the entire attitude of the text is harsh and frigid. It doesn't help that in the end, the skiff drifts off to sea, and the entire party freezes to death. Well, the fisherman does--the boys' bodies are never found.

I had to take a minute to think about this one, and finally realized that in historical context, the depressing ending is justified. It was in the start of the 60s that the horror of WWII was processed, and a lot of this came about with a blossoming of realistic fiction. Of course, I don't know who decided that 'realistic' had to mean 'depressing' but oh well. Everyone needs time to process, and that is what these stories are. They are processing the events of the previous war, as well as the impending horrors of Vietnam. Granted, the events of this story take place before the inklings of Vietnam, but as a cultural thing, many stories in this decade were influenced by it.

And enough with the history, let's take a look at the author. This connection is pretty straight-laced--Lawrence Sargent Hall spent a good portion of his life running a marina on the coast of Maine, and was quite concerned with how humans deal with situations under pressure, and he tended to write about gruff "manly men" in his stories. Anyone catch the similarities? Hall's life on the coast and his love for the sea was his inspiration, it is no wonder that his stories reflect this. I feel every writer does this--creates a story to either illustrate an inspiration or to cope with an emotion. In Hall's case, I believe it was to illustrate an inspiration...his love for the sea and his fascination with human behavior.