Stoner

In the spring of 1927, Stoner receives the news his father died. He returns to Booneville without Edith and Grace. His mother explains his father was overworked, working the fields even though he was sick. He invites his mother to move in with him and Edith, but his mother insists on staying in the only home she knows. Stoner makes more trips back to Booneville to visit his mother, and she soon dies as well. Stoner sells the farm, which earns him enough money to pay off some of his debt on his house to his father-in-law.

In October of 1929, the stock market fails, and banks swiftly fall apart. The failure of the banks is so dire Edith’s father, a banker, dies by suicide because of his financial ruin. Edith returns to her mother for two months, leaving her daughter behind with Stoner. Despite the work of being a single parent, Stoner enjoys not having to walk on eggshells around his home. Grace turns six years old. Though she often plays with the neighborhood children, she spends a lot of her time quietly playing in her father’s study while Stoner works. He helps her learn and is fulfilled by being Grace’s father.

In helping to teach Grace, Stoner discovers new strategies to bring to his classroom. He becomes a better teacher, and the text explains:

The love of literature, of language, of the mystery of the mind and heart showing themselves in the minute, strange, and unexpected combinations of letters and words, in the blackest and coldest print—the love which he had hidden as if it were illicit and dangerous, he began to display, tentatively at first, and then boldly, and then proudly (115).

He can sense his classes are going well and that he is coming into a new layer of his identity, a part of himself he wishes he discovered years earlier.

When Edith finally returns, she discovers Stoner changed and became more confident. She has a new haircut and style of dress, but Stoner’s more profound change angers Edith.

While Edith was with her mother, she looked through her childhood things and destroyed them. Edith wants a new life, a new persona. Her mother gives her the money to buy a new wardrobe. She joins a theater group and makes new friends. Stoner doesn’t begrudge her new social life because he knows their marriage is essentially over, and he figures she should try to find happiness wherever she can.

Just as Stoner plans a new book project, Edith abruptly stops spending time with her friends. Edith decides to retake control over her household. She forbids Grace from spending time in Stoner’s study, even though both Grace and Stoner love spending time together in the study. Stoner knows Edith is waging a war against him. Stoner is outraged and shocked when he overhears Edith telling the neighborhood mothers Stoner doesn’t have any time for Grace. Edith forces Grace to socialize more with other children, take piano lessons, and play with dolls. Stoner sees this is all depressing Grace. When Stoner confronts Edith about using Grace to punish Stoner, Edith points out Stoner will never leave her so he might as well leave it alone.

Edith moves Stoner’s things out of his study and into the sun porch so she can use his study for her painting. Edith then starts storing her things in Stoner’s new, smaller study on the sun porch. Stoner stops working at home and spends more hours in his office on campus. He stops working on his new book and spends hours in his office reading for pleasure instead, just to avoid his home life. With Stoner spending more time out of the house, Edith releases some pressure on Grace and Grace becomes happier.

Stoner is now a popular, in-demand teacher among the graduate students. Charles Walker, a PhD student, asks for special permission to be admitted into Stoner’s selective and already full seminar. Stoner agrees, but Walker comes in late and spends the seminar interrupting Stoner’s lectures and challenging his teaching. When Stoner asks Hollis about Walker, Hollis says Walker is brilliant and attributes Walker’s challenging attitude to Walker’s own self-conscious problems with his body because he is handicapped. Walker continues to interrupt Stoner’s seminar with irrelevant questions, but the other students laugh at Walker, and he eventually turns silent and angry. Another student in the class, Katherine Driscoll, asks Stoner to review her dissertation. Katherine presents her dissertation, and Stoner tells her it’s one of the best he has heard.

Walker presents his dissertation to the class after Katherine’s dissertation presentation. He spends the time mocking Katherine’s dissertation, which Katherine and Stoner both realize is actually a way to mock Stoner. The presentation is uncomfortable and offensive. Stoner tells Walker he’ll have to fail him, because his dissertation had nothing to do with his chosen topic and everything to do with attacking another student. Walker argues with Stoner and accuses him of being unfair to Walker because Walker doesn’t agree with the way Stoner interprets and teaches literature. Stoner suggests the graduate program is not the right place for Walker, offending Walker even more.

Finch calls Stoner in to discuss Walker. Finch and Stoner are still friends; though they don’t socialize often, they remember one another fondly from their youth. Stoner explains to Finch that Walker clearly did not do any of the reading assigned in the seminar and tells him about the dissertation presentation debacle. A new chair of the English Department is needed, and when Finch asks Stoner if he’s interested in the job, he assures Finch he’s not.

Stoner is put on Walker’s dissertation committee. Stoner is pleasantly surprised to find Walker has some great ideas he presents at his oral examination. But it becomes clear Hollis is coaching Walker through the challenging questions Walker doesn’t know how to answer. When it’s Stoner’s time to question Walker, he asks him simple undergraduate-level questions about English literature, which Walker can’t answer. Whenever Hollis tries to interrupt to help coach Walker, Stoner stops him. The committee deliberates, and Stoner insists Walker clearly failed his oral examination. This enrages Hollis, who is also offended when Stoner suggests Hollis is interfering on Walker’s behalf. The men argue vociferously back and forth. Finch ends the argument by giving an extension on the decision.

Finch counsels Stoner to give into Hollis for the sake of harmony in the department. Stoner argues he has a responsibility to the academy to prevent people like Walker who are not prepared to be teachers and scholars from becoming academics. When it becomes clear Stoner won’t change his mind about his vote against Walker, Hollis again becomes enraged. Hollis officially accuses Stoner of unethical abuse and prejudice against Charles Walker due to the latter’s having a physical disability. Hollis insists he will bring formal charges against Stoner, threatening his tenure. Finch finds this ridiculous, but Hollis won’t let go of his anger. Finch and Stoner wonder why Hollis is so invested in defending Walker.

Hollis punishes Stoner by giving him undergraduate freshmen composition classes for his next semester. Stoner considers applying for jobs at other universities, but Edith doesn’t want to leave Columbia.