A Summer Tragedy

Content Warning: This story features discussions and depictions of death by suicide.

“A Summer Tragedy” opens with an elderly Black couple, Jeff and Jennie Patton, dressing up to go on a trip. It is clear from the start that the couple has lived an impoverished life; Jeff no longer has his teeth, while Jennie’s body is “as scrawny and gnarled as a string bean” (349). The couple’s poverty is reinforced by the decay around them. Though Jeff is dressing up in his swallowtailed coat, the coat is “as full of holes as the overalls in which he worked on week days” (349).

Despite their destitute conditions, Jeff and Jennie demonstrate deep love and commitment to one another. He often refers to her as “baby” when he speaks to her. Though Jennie is blind and increasingly frail, she still helps Jeff when he asks her to tie his bow tie, although it is a “slow and painful ordeal for each of them” (350). Jennie’s devotion to Jeff is reinforced by the jealousy she still experiences, which also evokes scenes from earlier in their marriage. In particular, she recalls how Delia Moore used to “grin” at Jeff “long ago when her teeth were good” (353). Delia’s past attempts to flirt with Jeff still invoke Jennie’s wrath, and she takes satisfaction in knowing that Delia sees her being driven somewhere by her husband while they were both in their best clothes.

One might expect the couple to be excited about the trip, since they are dressing up in their best clothes and taking a journey they planned together. However, this expectation is undermined by the foreboding tone that permeates the story. As Jeff prepares to bring their car around to the front of the house, he is stopped in his tracks by the mere thought of their trip: “Fear came into his eyes; excitement took over him” (350). Jeff’s apprehensiveness offers the first hint that they are not embarking on a normal journey. This sense of foreboding continues throughout the story; Jeff finds himself involuntarily trembling and shivering as he contemplates their trip. Every time Jeff’s thoughts linger on the trip, the prospect of what lies ahead falls “into the machinery of his mind like a wrench” (351). Throughout their drive, Jennie inquires whether or not Jeff is scared. Though he consistently denies it, the limited third-person narration provides insight into Jeff’s thought process, revealing his increasing fear and doubt about their trip. It is not revealed until the end of the story that the “trip” Jeff and Jennie are referring to is actually a suicide pact. By not revealing the true purpose of the trip until the end, the foreboding tone of the story sustains a sense of uncertainty and suspense that partially mirrors the uncertainty Jeff feels.

The implication of future danger suggested by the story’s foreboding tone is reinforced by its condensed timeline. The entire story takes place over the course of a single afternoon, tracing Jeff and Jennie’s movements as they prepare for, and eventually follow through with, their suicide pact. As Jeff and Jennie drive to the river, his wandering thoughts, flashbacks, and conversations with Jennie reveal the hopelessness of their situation. The couple’s poverty is contextualized through Jeff’s ruminations on the share farming system through which he made a living. In particular, he believes that the backbreaking labor demanded by share farming led to the early deaths of many farmers and mules. In addition, Jeff and Jennie’s conversations reveal the exploitative nature of this system. Like many farmers who were forced to work as sharecroppers, Jeff and Jennie are deeply in debt and realize that they will never be able to fully pay off their debts to Major Stevenson. On top of their economic insecurity, brief references to past tragedies suggest that Jeff and Jennie are completely alone in the world. They lost all five of their grown children within the span of two years, leaving nobody to care for them in their old age. This context is interjected by Jennie’s inquiries about how close they are to the river, continually reinforcing the sense of impending danger.

The story’s condensed timeline and delayed reveal regarding the true purpose of Jeff and Jennie’s trip help contextualize the couple’s decision to end their lives. By the time they reach the river, it is clear that despite their longing to change their circumstances, they are ultimately trapped in debt and poverty with no way out. Furthermore, their failing health will soon leave them completely unable to care for themselves. Though they remain devoted to each other, Jeff does not believe that Jennie is capable of caring for him in the event that he has another stroke. If he is confined to his bed, Jeff realizes that he would be better off dead than having a “frail blind woman” (356) look after him. He cannot stand the thought that he would be “helpless, like a baby” (354) after years of proudly withstanding circumstances that other men could not.

Jeff and Jennie’s conversations present suicide as the characters’ planned method of dying with dignity. Rather than wasting away in poverty with declining health, Jeff and Jennie dress up in their best clothes and take agency over their situation by deciding when and how they die. Because they see no other options for continuing to live independently or supporting themselves, they view death as their only possible means of achieving a sense of freedom and liberation in the face of poverty, debt, and failing health. This demonstrates the exploitation and instability that are inherent in the sharecropping system, which allows only the landowner to live with autonomy and security. Jeff and Jennie’s suicide pact is a product of their isolation and vulnerability. While their health is failing and they are increasingly unable to care for one another, they do not want to live without each other. Having no remaining family members or governmental support system to help care for them leaves them helpless; when the story was written, there was no Social Security system or healthcare system for senior citizens to provide them a sustainable living situation with healthcare benefits. In their final moments, both of them find strength in one another; they are stoic as the car barrels toward the water, showing no signs of excitement or doubt. Still, the story’s title identifies their deaths as an unambiguous tragedy, emphasizing the injustice of Jennie and Jeff’s circumstances and the catastrophe that is their loss of life.