My blog on "The Lost Phoebe"

Even though the main focus of Theodore Dreiser's, "The Lost Phoebe" is "Old Henry Reifsneider." (www.bsu.edu/ourlandourlit/literature/Authors/dreisert.html#lost) Mr. Reifsneider's wife is a main character also, I believe.

The Mid-West is, I believe, the region of interest within the piece. Primarily, because of the quote, "They lived together in a part of the country which was not so prosperous as it had once been, about three miles from one of those small towns that, instead of increasing in population is steadily decreasing."(www.bsu.edu/ourlandourlit/literature/Authors/dreisert.html#lost) In the South, which I thought was the location at the beginning of the story, there were many more miles between farms in those days. During the depression years, when the story was written, many people, especially young people, left the countryside and moved to the cities to search for work, because of dropping farm crop prices. However, Henry Reifsneider and his wife did not move to a city choosing to live a extremely common and isolated life. Naturalism, is the mode of writing Theodore Dreiser chose for his epic narrative. For Henry, the head of the household, revamped his family homestead, adding onto the original log portion with framing boards, lovingly for his bride, is the impression I received from the narrator's voice. As the narrator's flashbacks at the beginning or introduction of the piece is completed in the final sentence stating Henry's age and marriage, I, the reader, gleaned the idea from the beginning that Henry poor, but not destitute, ordinary man. Thus, whosoever he married was destined to join him in a very plain life.

The German decended man, married for love, certainly not for riches! In those days, whatever a woman owned automatically became the property of the husband, especially the wife. The wife apparantly did not come with a dowry. I did not realize the extent of the legal aspects of marriage until I began studying American history and American literature more in depth. Now I am enlightened.

The devoted husband loved his wife Phoebe to the point of obsession, I believe.

I do not think I could love anyone, but Jesus to that point. Not one person on this earth has been willing or is willing to pay for my sins, in a horribly tortured manner, with his natural life.

My mother-in-law loved her husband almost to that point, though. I do not know if the cause of her seeing his shaddow, hearing his voice sometimes, and dreaming of him as if he were still alive, after he died, is that she is on too much medicine or too much imagination, or something else. The 75-year-old woman would never chase a fantasy off of a cliff, however, like Henry did.

"The Lost Phoebe" tale is not such a far-fetched fiction to me in light of my hearing my mother-in-laws reports.