“The Hurt Man” by Wendell Berry is a short story, which takes place in the end of the 18th century in Port William. Port William is a typical cowboy town, like we see in western movies. There are horses and carriages and the men of the town are probably drinking at the public saloon like in picture 1.
The plot is about Mat Feltner, who has a moment of insight when he is 5 years old. He watches his mother taking care of a man who has been hurt, and this influences him for life.
Mat Feltner is an only child. His parents had had three children, a boy and two girls, before Mat was born, but they have died, so Mat have never met them. In the text it says that he, at the age of five, already had forgotten how he had found out that the he had siblings on the graveyard. But at that point Mat isn’t aware of what it means that they are laying on the graveyard.
Mat’s mother is, even though she has lost three children, not as protective as you might think. She allows Mat to do whatever he wants, except when the crowds fill the town on Saturday afternoons and on election days, then she keeps him in sight. Because of the crowds, who fill the town on a Saturday afternoons, they sit together on the front porch in the late summer of 1888. The reason for the filling of the town is probably because they don’t work on Saturdays, and the men get drunk in the saloon. And a 5-year-old has nothing to do between drunk, and maybe violent men. While they’re sitting there, a man comes running towards them. He is covered in blood and followed by other men. Mat’s mother, Nancy, pushes Mat inside and then lets the blood covered man inside. The men who were following him explain that they’re his friends, so she lets them in too. Mat is very fascinated by all this, but not scared at all. That is probably because of his age. At the age of 5 you can’t see the danger in different situations; you simple aren’t mature enough to understand them. Mat comments on the man’s cloth and says that he isn’t wearing any hat. This shows us that the men normally are wearing hats. It could be the typical cowboy hats like the ones they’re wearing in picture 1. Nancy begins to give the men order, that they shall bring some water or cut the man’s shirt off. This is very unusual for the period as women normally are submitted to men, and do as they say. This is also discussed in text 3 “Men of the West.” by Cathy Luchetti. Cathy describes under which circumstances the women lived under in the “Wild West”. The text says that Hubert Bancroft, who lived at that time, believed that women were childlike and easily bewildered. He, and all men, thought that women simple were too stupid to take care of themselves, so they needed the men to protect them. In “The Hurt Man” we have the exact opposite situation. The men trust in Nancy and they do as she says. It is actually the men who needs her, and not otherwise. However, at this entire episode, Mat just sits on the stairs and observes the whole situation. He is very absorbed in his mother, and studies her face and reactions. And it is then that he realizes that his mother all this time has been carrying the pain and grief about the loss of her children inside her. He realizes that his siblings not just are lying on the graveyard, but that they have actually lived once. That everybody who is lying on the graveyard actually has lived once upon a time, and that the man, who his mother is taking care of, also will die one day. This is Mat’s first confrontation with death, and it is then that he actually understands the meaning of it.
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