The Faces of Blood Kindred by William Goyen
"The Faces of Blood Kindred" by William Goyen explores the complex relationship between two fourteen-year-old cousins, the protagonist and his cousin James, amidst the backdrop of familial struggle and emotional turmoil. The narrative unfolds as James arrives to stay with his cousin, revealing their differing personalities: the timid, obedient cousin and the wild, independent James, who has experienced significant family distress due to a runaway father and a hospitalized mother. Their bond, despite its complexities and inherent sadness, is marked by a shared understanding of their blood ties.
A pivotal incident occurs when the boys venture to a farm to acquire a fighting cock, an event that spirals into tragedy, revealing the weight of their family legacy. This moment serves as a catalyst for the cousin's profound feelings of guilt and his longing to protect his kindred from suffering. Years later, as adults, the cousins’ paths cross again at an award ceremony where a brief moment of connection highlights the enduring isolation and the unexpressed pain between them. Ultimately, Goyen's story delves into themes of familial bonds, the burdens of human existence, and the longing for understanding amidst isolation.
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The Faces of Blood Kindred by William Goyen
First published: 1952
Type of plot: Domestic realism
Time of work: About 1920-1950
Locale: Houston, Texas, and an unnamed Midwestern city
Principal Characters:
The cousin , a sensitive, compassionate, melancholy member of a large Texas familyJames , a wild, mysterious, lonely boy who lives briefly with his cousin
The Story
"The Faces of Blood Kindred" focuses on the relationship between the protagonist and his cousin James, and on two particular incidents that had a deeply felt and lasting effect on the protagonist. The lives of these two boys are shaped by and characteristic of the larger life of their wandering and suffering extended family. The mystery and profundity of blood ties and the essential sadness of human life are two of William Goyen's primary concerns here and throughout his fiction.
Their story begins as James is coming to stay with the protagonist, who is referred to simply as "the cousin" (both boys are fourteen years old). James's father ran away long ago, and his mother, crippled by arthritis, is hospitalized and unable to care for him. The two boys have little in common other than "their mysterious cousinhood, a bond of nature that they instinctively respected." The cousin is timid, obedient, naïve, and sensitive; James, a "faintly hairlipped" stutterer who had owned and loved fighting cocks, is "wild," "mysterious, wandering," and fiercely independent. In spite of their differences, the boys get along well. James tolerates his cousin's timid and fearful nature with tender disdain; the cousin idolizes James for his daring and experience and pities him for his loneliness and isolation.
One afternoon at James's suggestion, the boys go to a farm at the edge of the city to look at some Cornish fighting cocks raised, trained, bought, and sold (illegally) by a roosterlike man named Chuck. The cousin, drawn by the illicit excitement of the venture, agrees to come, though he is afraid and feels guilty because he "stole away" and"did not tell his mother." The cousin's anxiety and awe increase when James counts out fifteen dollars to purchase a "big blue cock with stars on its breast." He is afraid that they will get into trouble at home, that James will have no place to keep the cock. James assures him that he has a place for the bird, and they hitchhike back to town and go to their grandmother's great, rambling house, where James intends to hide the cock for a night.
The big, old, rotting house of the grandmother is filled with members of the family and appears to be a desolate place full of human misery, chaos, frustration, and waste. The cries of Aunt Beatrice seem to give voice to the collective pain and need of the whole various clan: "Somebody! Please help me, I am so sick." Behind this old house is a small grove of fig trees that conceals "a secret place, a damp and musky cove" known only to the children of the house. James intends to keep his new cock in the dark security of this grove for the night. The bird escapes from his grasp, however, and springs into a fig tree; James shakes the tree violently in an effort to get the bird back. The cousin, overexcited by the disconcerting events of the day, concerned that James will "ruin Granny's figs," and terrified of being caught or getting home too late, panics and hurls a stone at the cock, the embodiment of his anxiety. To his surprise and horror, his aim is true, and the Cornish cock falls at James's feet. The cousin retreats beyond the deep shadow of the tree and watches in despair as he sees James "fall to the ground and kneel over his Cornish cock" and hears him "sob softly." The cousin walks away from his grandmother's house, leaving James and the dead cock under the fig trees. He is overwhelmed by the grief he has caused and by the suffering in the dark house. He cannot understand how his admiration and affection for James could have yielded such agony, or why there seems to be "a doom of suffering over the house of his kinfolks." In his naïveté, he believes that he will understand one day, and he resolves to try "one day [to] save all his kindred from pain or help them to some hope." He returns home to "the benevolent figure of his mother in the kitchen fixing supper." James does not come back, though; he runs away to St. Louis and seeks out his father, whom he has not seen in seven years.
Years later, the cousins see each other once again. The cousin, having attained a measure of success in life, is in a large Midwestern city where he is being honored for his achievements. James appears in the hall and moves forward through the crowd: "There was something James had to say, it was on his face." The cousin is drawn away momentarily to receive the congratulations of some dignitary, and when he turns with trepidation to face James, "to look back into the face of his own secret sorrow, James was gone; and the cousins never met again." This final, failed encounter forces the cousin to shed whatever illusions he has managed to hold on to about his having "answered any speechless question, atoned for the blind failing, the outrage, and the pain on the face of his blood kindred." Human beings' essential isolation, their inability to communicate, the emptiness of public life, the inadequacies of love, are all borne home on the adult cousin in this moment. He carries from that instant a wound deeper and more painful than the one he opened so many years before on the night he accidently killed the big blue cock.