God Behind the Screen by Janko Andrijasevic

Author:Janko Andrijasevic
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis (CAM)
Published: 2019-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Elmer Gantry’s Early Development

Does Elmer Gantry’s childhood narrative fit into any of the aforementioned developmental challenges? Although the novel does not dwell on Elmer’s life before college and gives only scant biographical data of his childhood, a keen observer might be able to pick enough information to start inquiring into and forming a solid picture of the shortcomings of his early days. He had no siblings, and psychology proposes that the development of narcissistic personality disorder is “particularly likely with only children.”24 Furthermore, his mother was a widow, which represents an additional risk of strengthened control and worry. But these facts are only “technicalities” that do not necessarily have significant negative effects on children when parenthood is conducted in a well-balanced way.

Elmer Gantry’s mother, though, could in no way be accounted for being well-balanced in any way. “She was a small woman, energetic, nagging but kindly […] and she had unusual courage.”25 The description so far does not reveal any unwholesome traits. However, glimpses into her instable personal and parental style are available in the phrase that she was “once given to passionate caresses and now to passionate prayer,”26 besides being “drained by early widowhood and drudgery.”27 Elmer was genuinely afraid of her even “though she came only to his shoulder, such was her bustling vigor, her swift shrewdness of tongue, such the gallantry of her long care for him.”28

Mrs. Gantry is an example of a controlling parent who does not allow their children any private space. She applied herself to instilling her own values in her son, the traditionalistic, corny values of a God-fearing life, without once hesitating to question them or give him the possibility of choice. The detrimental methods she used, which might well have been unconscious, were those of emotional blackmail and threat. She would be “weeping when he failed to study his Sunday School lesson,”29 but also “waiting to snatch at his soul if he showed weakening.”30 Instead of supporting him to evolve naturally, she projected ready-made pictures of his future life, which envisioned “Elmer with a famous church; with a cottage in Colorado for the summer; married to a dear pious little woman; with half a dozen children; and herself invited to join them for the summer; all of them kneeling in family prayers, led by Elmer.”31

The relationship between mother and son was essentially an unhealthy one. Considering the fact that she found “her only emotions in the hymns and the Bible,”32 it can be doubted whether she had any genuine feelings for Elmer, apart from when he was an obedient, religious son. He tried “affectionately to live out his mother’s plan of life for him”33 and, despite feeling “demoted to childhood, as he always was in his mother’s presence,”34 his “only authentic affection was for his mother.”35 On the other hand, he secretly engaged in all the forbidden pleasures, such as fighting, gambling, drinking, and seduction. Mrs. Gantry sensed that things were not right below the surface, and despite him doing formally whatever

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