The Behavior of the Hawkweeds by Andrea Barrett
"The Behavior of the Hawkweeds" by Andrea Barrett intricately weaves together themes of love, ambition, and the interplay between past and present through the lens of science and personal relationships. The narrative centers on Antonia and Richard, whose marriage begins in the late 1940s when Antonia captivates Richard with a story about her grandfather's connection to the esteemed scientist Gregor Mendel. This storytelling serves as a bridge that not only reveals their emotional dynamics but also echoes the historical struggles of Mendel, who faced significant challenges in his groundbreaking research on genetics.
As the story unfolds through various time periods, Richard's academic career and his interactions with students, particularly a young German scientist named Sebastian Dunitz, highlight the complexities of ambition and misunderstanding. The narrative further explores Antonia's childhood experiences in a nursery, where her grandfather's confrontation with a condescending boss leads to tragic consequences. Through these layered stories, the author illustrates how personal histories are intertwined with scientific legacies, inviting readers to reflect on themes of identity, recognition, and the cyclical nature of knowledge. Overall, Barrett's work provides a rich tapestry of narrative that connects individual lives to broader scientific histories, encouraging deeper contemplation about the influence of legacy on contemporary relationships.
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The Behavior of the Hawkweeds by Andrea Barrett
First published: 1994
Type of plot: Historical, realism
Time of work: The 1930's to 1970's
Locale: Niskayuna and Schenectady, New York
Principal Characters:
Antonia , the narratorRichard , her science professor husbandAnton "Tati" Vaculik , her Czech grandfatherOtto Leiniger , her grandfather's German bossSebastian Dunitz , a teaching and research assistant from GermanyGregor Mendel , nineteenth century pioneer in the science of genetics
The Story
Andrea Barrett's interest in the history of science is reflected in "The Behavior of the Hawkweeds," a complex exploration of how the past is paralleled in the present. The story take place in several different time frames. The primary story focuses on the marriage of Antonia and Richard, who met in the late 1940's when he was finishing his doctoral thesis. As a way to get him to love her, Antonia tells him a story about her grandfather's personal relationship with Gregor Mendel, who she knows is Richard's hero; she tells him how Mendel was disillusioned in his research by a disastrous suggestion made to him by the well-known botanist Carl Nägeli.
When Richard becomes a professor, he tells the story to his students to impress them, identifying with Mendel as being unappreciated and misunderstood. Antonia believes Richard muddles the story and that he is more like Nägeli than Mendel. In the 1970's, when Richard invites Sebastian Dunitz, a bright young student scientist from Germany to come live with them, Antonia, bored with the tedium of her everyday life, is attracted to him. When he misunderstands her attraction as being sexual and rebuffs her, she calls him a German pig, the same name her grandfather called his boss when she was a child.
The second story is about Antonia's experience when she was five and working with her grandfather Anton (who she calls Tati) in a nursery in Niskayuna, New York. One day her grandfather came into the nursery and caught his boss, Otto Leiniger, a self-important and condescending German, trying to look down Antonia's dress. He called Leiniger a German pig, then struck him. Leiniger fell, hit his head on a heating pipe, and later died. Antonia's grandfather dies before he can be tried. Antonia does not tell this story to Richard until the 1970's, when she tells it in his presence to Dunitz.
The third story is the one that the grandfather tells Antonia about Mendel. After doing years of research on the hybridization of the edible pea, the Augustinian monk Gregor Mendel presented his findings to scientific societies but was ignored. When he sent his ideas to the famous botanist Nägeli, the expert on hawkweeds advised Mendel to concentrate on them rather than peas. Mendel spent years working on hawkweeds, but because the plant does not hybridize in rational ways, Mendel began to believe that his work was useless and gave it up.