TOW #18 - "Knoxville: Summer of 1915"

This beautiful essay by James Agee was written in 1938. After some research, I found that he had wrote it in a mere ninety minutes because he was practicing experiments with what we call free-form writing. Agee appeals to a lot of sensory factors, especially imagery when describing a "mid-summer's eve" in his hometown of Knoxville. The most emphasized symbol was a garden hose, which Agee spent nearly the entire middle portion of his essay talking about. "First an insane noise of violence in the nozzle, then the still irregular sound of adjustment, then the smoothing into steadiness and a pitch as accurately tuned to the size and style of stream as any violin." (172). This symbol was important in aiding Agee's overall purpose of describing how much times have changed since that summer in 1915. A garden hose is seen most often during the summer than any other time of year, whether it is watering a lawn or powering a sprinkler. To Agee, it is the ideal image of summer, and is what he remembers most vividly about the summer of 1915. Another symbol emphasized by Agee was the porches that wrapped around nearly every single house. He believed that something as simple as porches were an essential part of bringing families together, because they would gather on their porch together after dinner in summers to enjoy the sunsets and warm nights. It is important to realize that Agee is describing all of these events with a very nostalgic tone, because after the summer of 1915, his life would change dramatically. His father died the next year and the implementation of a television in every home on his street would mean families would no longer enjoy their time together outside on their porches. And so the lovely wraparound porch would no longer be built on houses erected after the summer of 1915. Agee's ways of describing this fond childhood memory are very effective in getting across his purpose, and he does a wonderful job of telling how important this summer was.