8 - Thev Mature Novelist

Summary

THE SERPENT

Neil Gunn wrote in a letter to F. R. Hart, ‘The Serpent… is one of my own peculiar ones about which I'd say nowt.’ Academic critics seem to agree, for the book has received little detailed attention. In fact it is central to Gunn's work and marks a distinct phase in his development. The story gradually attains the force of myth from the depths of a clairvoyant understanding.

It is in some respects the most dramatic and moving of his novels, heavy with dark incident but in the end profoundly positive. Gunn has gained the ability to write from ‘elsewhere’ while probing empathically the deep reality of emotional crisis.

For the first time he can confront head-on the negative aspects of the Highland community rather than concentrating on the disruptive effect of alien forces. Oppressive Calvinist dogma is used by hell-and-sin-fixated elders as a weapon to boost their power and self-importance. The conflict between the individual need to arrive at a personal vision of the world and this form of intellectual tyranny is embodied in the conflict between Tom, nicknamed ‘The Philosopher’, and his jealous, brooding father.

There are two other themes which run through the book: one is Tom's relationship with his loving, inarticulate mother, the other his affair with Janet, the girl who follows her own nature to betray him, sacrificing loving friendship for passion.

Tom's inner confidence is destroyed by the blame which the community lays on him for the death of his father, and by his grief and bitterness at Janet's desertion. He is rescued from this psychological breakdown by the total devotion of a mother whose lack of intellectual ability has irritated him for years.

The book is written after the pattern of Highland River, with Tom reviewing and recreating in his last days the desperation and fury of a turbulent youth, which he can now see with tolerant detachment. The method is used more directly and effectively than in Highland River, so that the transitions from story to reflection are managed with a straightforward honesty which makes changes of tone and mood seem as natural as breathing.