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Lightening the Somber: A Death in the Family
By Thomas Fuhrman

The film A Death in the Family, based on James Agee's classic American novel, contains a number of excellent visual allusions to Agee's explicit contrast between light and darkness, which reinforces Agee's character development for the film audience.  What is particularly notable and commendable with regard to the filmmaker's ability is the frequency with which the pronounced character Jay's face is depicted (either with close attention paid to Agee's text or with some inadvertent ingenuity).  In two nearly dichotomous halves, a shadow is cast quite prominently upon one side of his face while the other side remains well lit.  The excessively remarkable darkness in Agee's work seems to be cast upon his main character both as a comfort and as an ill-fated omen of what is to come for the seemingly reckless father.  The darkness might be read as a foreshadowing of Jay's death or even as a symbol of the constant tension placed upon Jay's character, which minimally suggests that he is neither dead nor alive because of the implications of the religious overtones in the story.  The face of young innocent Rufus, on the contrary, seems to be cast in a bright light for much of the film until it seems the prodigy must somehow replace his father. 

Light, in the movie, also seems to play a role in itself separate from its integration with character traits.  In the use of sunlight, park lights, and even the film projector, the light seems to set the scene for what is somehow less than real because of the darkness upon which it is projected.  The contrast of the darkness of shadows with the light of real characters as they walk down a meticulously constructed and staged street reveals the confusion and ambiguity present in the decisions and ambience of Agee's story.  Even more apparent, and possibly intentionally so, are the mirror reflections as Jay and Rufus gaze into the store window at the prized hats or as they stroll casually near the pond in the park.  Overall, the contrast of light and darkness presented in the film version of A Death in the Family adds a pleasurable, if not ingenious element to what might at first sight appear a rather mundane and potentially depressing plot.

Thomas Fuhrman is a graduate student in secondary education–English, at Tennessee Technological University.

For the student

1. As you watch the film, what additional uses of light and dark do you notice? What symbolic meaning can you give to these effects?
2. Besides the use of light, do you see any other common motifs in the film? What are they, and what is your symbolic interpretation of them?