A Chat with Dubus about "Rose"

Mark: Mr. Dubus, your stories seem to be dealing with some real inner turmoil issues your charactors have to deal with. In Particular, in Rose, Rose is faced with a real test of her charactor when she sees her husband hit her children, what message are you attempting to convey to your readers?

Andre: Well Mark, I'm glad you asked. I thouroughly enjoy challenging the readers as they read as well. I can almost pictue many of my readers, (after observing Rose watch her husband hit their son, and do nothing), just yelling at their books. However it conveys a stronger message. My readers may not understand the repercussions of each step that could have potentially have been taken. I wanted to portray Rose in a good light, as one who wanted her marriage to work and really believed her husband wasn't a terrible guy at first. The reason I let the story drag on is to develope the depth of the struggle of the decision Rose faced.

Mark: This is true, Mr. Dubus. We really do get a great insight into Rose, and the journey through her decision.We get to know alot about her, and when she finally ends up killing her husband, did you think that this gives the readers some justification to Rose's passiveness?

Andre: I thought having Rose run her husband over with the car would be a good climactic culmination of the events preceeding it. You would expect her crime to be one of passion and pent up anger where she would violently kill him with a knife or someting... granted her continually backing up and going forward over his body is similar... however i felt having her run him over was a way to indirectly do it, the way she indirectly caused her children pain by passively doing nothing about him beating them.

Mark: Well I truly do appreciate the oppritunity to sit with you and discuss the inner workings of "Rose". Have a nice day.

Andre: Thanks you too.

Letter to Rose

Dear Rose,
I am very proud of you because you finally stood up for yourself and did not take any of his beatings anymore. I really have strong feelings about the subject of abuse and I feel that people should be punished for it. Your story made me feel very sad and angry. I felt horrible for you and your children because you had to deal with that awful man. You defiantly made the right decision and you should not regret it at all. I am behind your decision all the way. Women need to stand up against their abusive husbands and fight back. In addition, I think that you really need to overcome that fear of fire kind of how you overcame that fear of your husband. I realize that you had an awful experience with a fire but we all need to overcome our fears and live our lives in happiness. I really hope that we can maybe meet up and talk things over.
Sincerely,
P.J. Dwyer

Ten Interpretive Questions about "Rose"

1. Is Rose's current situation (her depressed state of mind) her fault?

2. Why didn't Rose find her children's foster home and try to stay close with them? Should she have?

3. Why can't Rose see the blessing in the fire the way the narrator does? Why doesn't the narrator try to point that out to her?

4. Even before mentioning abuse, the narrator states that Jim and Rose "were not driven, guided, by either passionate belief or strong resolve (214). Why aren't they driven? Was there some even that sucked all their passion out of them? Were they never really in love? Is it their poor situation?

5. Why does Dubus include all the introductory stuff like about the boy in the military? What can be connected from Rose's story and the other things Dubus talks about?

6. The narrator says hell must be filled with passive people. Why is passiveness that bad? What makes Rose be so passive? What makes us be passive?

7. When Rose is cutting onions and Jim slaps their son, are her tears really just because of the onions? Has she already become hardened to troubles?

8. Why does this story take place in a bar, where Rose only tells her story after a few drinks? Is that significant? How would the story change if Rose was a close friend of the narrator, or someone he visited in a nursing home?

9. Why does the story end with Rose unhappy? What can we get out of seeing her with unresolved problems?

10. Is Rose a strong, blessed woman as the narrator sees her, even though she doesn't feel that? Why?

A Comparison Between Rose in "Rose" and Other Dubus Characters

Andre Dubus creates characters which all have very different struggles and life stories. When considered together, though, the reader can see that many of the characters have strong similarities which in a way connect all of the stories.

The most obvious similar character to Rose in the stories we’ve read is Matt in Killings. Both Rose and Matt have lost connection with their children in some way. Rose feels like an outsider as she witnesses her husband abusing her three kids and Matt loses his son Frank through murder. A very literal similarity surfaces in both characters’ response to the abuse and murder of their kids: Rose and Matt both end up killing the person responsible. After this deed, both characters seem to live their life in a daze, shocked by their own behavior and disconnected by their actions from the real world. However, Rose and Matt also are very different in the ways they chose to kill Jim and Strout respectively. Rose’s was a crime of passion, and she lost control of her emotions in the heat of the moment as she ran over Jim’s body. Matt’s crime was more quiet, intricately planned, and altogether disturbing. While Matt actually had time to sort out his feelings and consider the consequences of his actions, he still committed a crime just as horrifying as Rose’s in the frenzy after saving her children from their father and the fire. Regardless of the circumstances, both characters found enough anger and grief in their hearts to throw away all of their values and commit murder.

Rose is also very similar to Yvonne, a more minor character in If They Knew Yvonne. Both women were in a loveless relationship, and both women were passive about their situation. Yvonne recognized that she and Harry, the main character, were engaged in a purely physical relationship. This drained her self-confidence and led her to a state of grim acceptance of her situation. Similarly, Rose witnesses and understands the nature of her husband Jim’s abusive behavior towards their children. She grows passive towards both the abuse and her own terrible relationship with her husband. While she hates herself for doing what she knows is the right thing in standing up for herself and the kids, Rose stands idly by until the very end of the story.

Matt, Yvonne, and Rose are just three Dubus characters who connect in their struggles, their emotions, and their actions. The short story author tells of different characters living in different worlds who are somehow very much the same.

Killing at the End of the Story

Drawing of the Killing at the end

Matt (from Andre Dubus' story The Killings) and I have a run in at the coffe Shop

As i stand in line at Starnucks the other day, waiting to grab my coffe, i couldn't help but notice a disheveled looking man at a nearby table. Obviously lacking sleep, his hair was a mess and he had on a dress shirt, witha loose tie on and his sirt was unbuttonned a bit. He had the look on his face likehe needed to say something but couldn't find it within himself to say it. I decided to befriend this man, and see if i could help lighten his load. As i sat down across from him he quickly looked startled and agitatated. I explained to him my name and asked him if he didnt mind me sharing his table for other tables were full, (which they were not, but i figured he was so lost in his own world that he wouldnt have the energy to investigate my statement). he obliged, and i began to strike up some friendly conversation. He only gave short quick and percicse answers, and it was obviuos he was holding back. I allueded to the fact he seemed lost, and he quickly snapped at me, "would you say its justified to take someones life who took someones life away from you?" I was extremly surprised at this comment, but reflected upon it for a few moments in the silence of my own head. He seemed to be clinging on to the last bit of energy he had to wait for my answer, as if what i said would give him some vindication or resolve. Finally i responded with, "in the bible it does say an eye for and eye, a tooth for a tooth, so i guess it depends upon the situation. Sometimes its best to let the courts resolve it, and i guess there may be an extreme case where that option is not best fitting..." i trailed off. Whatever i said seemed to give this man the answer he was looking for, and he briskly walked out of the coffee shop as if he had a pressing matter to attend to.