The Sense of Place In Virginia Hamilton's M.C. HIGGINS, THE GREAT (1978)

The Sense of Place In Virginia Hamilton's M.C. HIGGINS, THE GREAT By Martha E. Cook Martha E. Cook is an assistant professor in the Department of English, Longwood College, Farmville, Virginia. In 1975, Virginia Hamilton's novel M. C. Higgins, the Great was awarded both the Newbery Medal, which is presented annually for the best American children's book, and the National Book Award. This distinguished novel, set in the hills of Appalachia, tells the story of Mayo Cornelius Higgins, who is descended from an escaped slave woman who found her freedom on the mountain where his family still lives. The thirteen-year-old M. C. is determined to escape the dangers of the spoil-heap which has been formed on Sarah's Mountain by the powerful machinery of the stripminers. The boy hopes that his mother, Banina, who has a beautiful voice, can become a singing star and thus provide an opportunity for his family to move away. However, one of the major conflicts in the novel stems from the stubbornness of M. Cs father, Jones, who refuses to consider leaving the mountain because of the close ties of his family to the land. As the novel unfolds, M. C. comes to understand himself, his role within his family, the past, and his relationship to this place, Sarah's Mountain; at the conclusion, his decision to remain on the mountain with his family, which is influenced by the outsiders James K. Lewis and Lurhetta Outlaw, indicates a more mature attitude. In M. C. Higgins, the Great, Hamilton creates a pervasive sense of place; she skillfully uses Sarah's Mountain not only as the setting of the novel, but also as an important element of the theme. Hamilton begins the novel with a scene which establishes the duality of the place, Sarah's Mountain—its beauty and its horror—as well as the conflict with M. C. concerning the place. She describes the "grand sweep of hills"! which M. C. faces, yet indicates that he must "pretend there was nothing terrible behind him, above his head" (9). M. C. recalls that his father has told him the mountain will one day be his; but he seems to renounce his inheritance, thinking aloud: " 'We have to leave it ... , and that's a shame' " (10). Soon the reason for M. Cs ambivalent feelings about the place, his concern for his family, and his desire to leave the mountain is revealed: "Two years ago bulldozers had come to make a cut at the top of Sarah's Mountain. They began uprooting trees and pushing subsoil in a huge pile to get at 75 the coal. As the pile grew enormous, so had M. Cs fear of it. He had nightmares in which the heap came tumbling down. Over and over again it buried his family on the side of the mountain" (18). M. C. feels frustrated by the fact that his father, in the face of this danger, will not consider leaving the mountain, which Jones associates with his family, especially with his great-grandmother Sarah, who had found there " 'a place big enough to free her troubles' " (72). But M. C. also has strong family ties; although he is determined to leave the mountain and escape the dangers of the spoil-heap, "Still he could not imagine leaving without the whole family with him" (77). Throughout the novel, Hamilton effectively employs a variety of images to describe the two faces of the place, Sarah's Mountain, to which M. C. is so attached, yet by which he feels so threatened. Like his father, Jones, M. C. "loved the mountain, its long, lingering dawns" (10). Hamilton emphasizes the beauty of Sarah's Mountain , such as the "growth of trees . . . washed light green by morning sun and mist" (25). The strongest images, however, convey the ugliness and desolation left by the miners. In places they have created "giant gashes" (19); and on two sides of Sarah's Mountain, M. C. views the same kind of destruction, "rock and ruin" (38). The miners not only have taken away the beauty and fertility of the mountain, but also have left behind a grim reminder...