Thoughts on The Fifth of July

The Fifth of July by Nat Akin was published in Ecotone Journal in Fall 2007. The narrator tells about the afternoon after his grandmother's funeral. The scene starts with the grandfather picking corn in a field with his son helping him. The action then moves to shucking the corn in the carport with two great-aunts, the grandfather and father, and the narrator.

The father is clearly emotional, but trying to cover it up by being stoic. His actions all say that he deeply misses his newly-departed mother, and doesn't understand how the grandfather can calmly shuck corn after burying his wife. The grandfather is just as stoic, but in a much calmer way. He does have an outburst, but it's directed towards his sisters, and it doesn't seem to be a reaction towards his wife's death. The grandfather is very calm and emotionless about losing his wife, and that bothers the son.

At the end of the piece, the narrator - who is clearly a younger person - asks their father what happens when corn isn't harvested and is left in the field. The father replies, with all the weight he had been carrying that day, that "It'll just get very hard."

I understand the point the narrator was trying to make. Farmers, especially older ones, like the grandfather written about here - who I can't help but imagine looks like my grandfather - tend not to get worked up about things, even death. Yes, he'll be torn up inside and grieving, but they'll keep that inside, and not let anyone see. I can easily imagine a scenario just like this happening if one of my grandparents or great aunts and uncles passes away. The younger father, who doesn't understand the farmer mentality (probably left home to work in the city) doesn't get why his dad isn't reacting the way he's expecting, and that bothers him. But really, the grandfather's reaction is nearly spot on.

The only problem I had with the story, which made it really hard to concentrate on, is the whole picking corn thing. It's early July, they're harvesting corn, and they mention that its a late harvest. Corn doesn't grow that fast. Yes, it does on big commercial farms in warmer climates, with specially modified corn, but this this is an old couple's farm, probably just a small garden plot. If the story had taken place in late summer, I would have bought it. But ignoring that crucial detail ruined the story for me, especially when the rest of the piece could very well have been a snapshot of an occasion I will have to go through in the future.