Friendswood Discussion Question #4

Andrew McTigue
Professor Young
English Writing 1101
24 October 2016

4) Discuss Hal's confession to Justine. Does he truly apply positive accountability? Considering your understanding of static and dynamic characters, which is Hal? Use support to substantiate your responses.

Hal Holbrook has impulses that jeopardize his ability to internalize an everlasting change. In the 2014 dramatic novel Friendswood, Rene Steinke presents a small town that has been plagued with medical and economical devastation from an oil spill at a neighboring community. The issues create an atmosphere for both dynamic and static characterization to bloom. A handful of characters allow themselves to use the conflicts as an opportunity to change along with building personal understanding. Other characters, however, use the conflict as an excuse to pursue negative habits. Hal Holbrook embodies the ideals of the latter group. The spill had disastrous effects on his job as a real estate agent and his infidelity and alcoholism had disastrous effects on his relationships with his wife and son. Consequently, Hal sought religion as a way of motivating himself to rid these “bad moods and doubts” that he believed prevented him from earning privileges in life.  

 In his goal to force his Christianity, he became accustomed to receiving “gifts of the spirit” after every prayer (Steinke 46). Unfortunately, his expectations began to increase for he expects blessings after every prayer and feels betrayed when his life does not change for the better. The reader sees this when Hal does not earn an exclusive listing from his boss and his son's athletic talents begin to falter. Hal felt he deserved the promotion because he prayed and he was patient, and expresses the grief by calling his mistress, Justine. He feels that talking to a person who her would remind him of a time before a daily repetition of “his wife annoying him, his business in shambles,” when he had someone in his life who he "never had to explain" to (Steinke 324, 326).

Hal tells her about "Cully's confession about the girl and how he'd counseled Cully not to tell anyone." Steinke holds from expressing Hal's argument through quotations, as a way to juxtapose his immoral serenity with Justine's biting viewpoint of reality. She rightfully condemns him as a “monster” for not “thinking about that little girl,” (Steinke 326). He attempts to manipulate her into holding back her grief through artificial compliments such as, "Sweetheart," (Steinke 326). When his attempt fails, he lays out a series of brief defenses such as, "She's hardly little," and “I’m sitting at a bar. A bar on this woeful highway,” as a way for her to gain understanding of his actions (Steinke 326). To some readers, Hal's reaches for defense could feel as a callback to his introduction, when his business first began to fail. Before he attempted to improve his relationships, he first blamed his problems with his job on the rise of people who “just recklessly relied on the internet” to find work (Steinke 13). Even then, he decided to change primarily to reverse the depression he felt with the collapse of his family structure, a primarily personal motive. He first appears to understand that he needs to take accountability for his actions, as he acknowledges that he needs to “be clean in the mind, to turn this bad luck around,” (Steinke 17). Nonetheless, when he experiences adversity again, his disastrous behavior patterns return. Once again, he finds himself alone, drinking so he can  “his wife annoying him” and “his business in shambles,” finding excuses to avoid taking accountability (Steinke 324). Therefore, Hal's impulse to blame devastate his dreams of change.

Works Cited

Steinke. Rene. "Friendswood." New York: Riverhead Books, 2014. Print. Accessed 17 October 2016.