Stoner: The Patron Saint of Academics

Stoner, by John Williams, details the life of a humble farmer’s son and his pursuit of higher learning and his love of literature, in the face of marital instability, career stagnation and alienation from his only child. This novel of little consequence when first published, has been revived and shows that the problems of academia were always there, that the men of yesteryear could be so easily dominated by their wives as the men of today and though we may find fault in William Stoner, we can still empathize with him, care for him, and even admire him.

John Williams tortures his protagonist throughout the novel, without malice, with a series of disappointments and hurdles in all aspects of his life. For his part, Stoner faces down life with stoic resolve and his contentment with his circumstances both endears the reader to him as well as frustrates that same audience. John Williams’ treatment of Stoner is the closest man has gotten to God’s love for his creation that I have ever read. In the hands of a lesser writer, the novel could come off as existential torture porn, but instead we have what many critics and fellow writers have called a perfect novel.

Stoner’s life is focused towards the pursuit of love and of work, both of which he fails at. Despite this failure, he is happy to continue pursuing them. At the beginning of the novel, Stoner has already passed and his name, if ever spoken at all, is done so with caution, as an example of how all men will one day be forgotten. The only lasting legacy he leaves behind is a medieval manuscript, donated by his department, dedicated to him in the same way a street name is dedicated to some local civil servant. One might wonder who the dedication belongs to, but not for longer than a passing thought.

Stoner is raised on a dirt farm at the turn of the Twentieth Century by his equally stoic and silent parents, who decide to send him to the University of Missouri’s new School of Agriculture to learn new farming techniques that may bring life back to the dying soil. He works for room and board on another small farm, owned by an estranged cousin, while he studies. In his Sophomore English survey course, he falls in love with literature, so much so, that he changes his course of study to that end.

By the time he is set to graduate, Stoner has yet to tell his parents of the change in plans, and in awkward confession, admits he will not be joining them on their journey back to the farm after coming to see him receive his degree. His mother becomes visibly upset, though says little, but his father accepts the news with the same quiet detachment that Stoner displays throughout the novel. The only sign of his father’s disappointment ins that he thought sending Stoner to college was doing right by his son and laments that they can maintain their land without him. For the rest of his father’s life, Stoner regards his parents as familiar strangers and every time he sees them thereafter, they have less and less in common. A small tragedy that many these days can relate to.

Stoner’s primary influence during his school years is the head of the English department, Archer Sloane. He is erratic and eccentric, though nurture’s Stoner’s love of literature because he recognizes the same passion that drives him as well. He declares his mission and the mission of the University is to get mankind out of the slime. By the time the First World War comes around, Sloane sees man of his students and faculty volunteer to fight in France, much to his disappointment. Sloane ages decades in the year that America fight's the Central Powers, seeing all his efforts to raise Western Civilization wasted as the killing and maiming sink mankind back into the slime. He dies as broken as the post-war world.

William does not volunteer to fight in France, but instead applies for an exemption from the draft, which he gets and finishes his Master’s program. He sees off his two friends and fellow post-grads, Dave Masters and Gordon Finch, who are the only friends Stoner has throughout the course of the novel. In an earlier scene, the three are at a saloon, drinking beer and waxing philosophically about the nature of the University. Dave Masters, a fatalist and sort of Nihilist, sees the University as an insane asylum where he and his kind are free to pursue their niche subjects in a contained environment that will matter little in the real world, but keep the inmates occupied so as to not do any damage outside the marble cage. Dave Masters is killed shortly after arriving in France, though his memory haunts Stoner for the rest of his life.

The third of their triumvirate, Gordon Finch, is described as the dullest, but most charming of the friends. He is not a deep thinker, yet leads the most happy and successful life of the group. When America declares war on Germany, he is the first to beat the war drum and describe his hatred for “The Hun”. When Stoner declares he won’t join them, Finch meets him with deep disappointment and warns that Stoner will live to regret the decision. Finch is selected for Officer Candidate School and is allowed to finish his degree at Columbia University in New York, returning to Missouri after the war to a hero’s welcome, well-liked by all the students and faculty, finding real love, and a position as the next Dean of Faculty.

Finch displays true friendship and brotherly love to Stoner, love that Stoner seldom recognizes, hardly appreciates and never returns. Finch introduces Stoner to Edith, his future wife, is best man at their wedding and uses his position as Dean of Faculty to protect Stoner for the rest of his career. Through all this, Stoner regards Finch with his trademarked detached familiarity. Finch is the only person to call him “Bill”, Stoner hardly ever refers to Finch by name.

When Stoner meets Edith, he falls in love with the idea of her, believing that the circumstances of her upbringing make them kindred spirits. He proposes marriage not long after their courtship begins and it is only on their wedding night, that he realizes the marriage will be a failure. Where Stoner accepts that life will not always be fair, Edith harbors deep resentment at her lot in life, focusing that resentment at her husband throughout their marriage because he is the only person around. Her one ambition was to go to Europe with her aunt, a trip that is cancelled because of the wedding, which Edith uses as ammunition throughout their marriage. Edith declares a cold war on Stoner, the only brief reprieve made in order to conceive a child, whom Stoner loves and Edith uses to hurt her husband. As their daughter, Grace, grows, the close relationship she and Stoner has becomes strained until one day she is as distant from him as he was to his own parents.

Stoner’s career faces similar trials. He is known as a passionate instructor, dedicated to the Canon, putting him at odds with a fellow Professor, Hollis Lomax. When Lomax’s protégé, a smooth talking, though inept student, is unable to pass Stoner’s course, Lomax intervenes on the boy’s behalf. Walker is unable to answer rudimentary questions about the course of study and Stoner recommends failing him, though this decision is delayed. Lomax, who is protective of Walker because they are both disabled, never forgets the slight and does his best to ruin Stoner’s career whenever he can. When Lomax is made head of the English Department, he relegates Stoner, the most senior man in the department, to teaching introductory courses and surveys.

Stoner finds true love in a young graduate student named Katherine Driscoll, who shares his deep love of literature and the two begin an affair. Though Edith reveals that she knows about his tryst, she waves it away and for the first time in years, his home life improves somewhat. However, when Lomax hears rumors of the affair, he threatens Katherine’s career and standing in society. The lovers end the affair and Stoner thinks of her often. She later dedicates her published thesis to him as W.S.

When Stoner dies, he drops a copy of his only published book, which was reviewed favorably, though sold poorly, a nod to the Author’s own life and what legacy he saw for himself. Both Williams and Stoner, however, now hold the banner of academic rigidity in the face of lax standards, the pursuit of self-expression and the acceptance of any interpretation as long as it is novel or interesting.

William Stoner is not a dynamic protagonist, certainly not heroic nor brave. In a thread I wrote that inspired this article, several responders bemoaned and denigrated Stoner, that if in his shoes, they would act with more authority and manhood than Stoner, who is weak and feeble and should be disdained. But this misses the Point of Stoner. Stoner is not to be emulated, but regarded as a cautionary figure, it says as much at the beginning of the book. As Auron MacIntyre repeats often, “The side that wants to be left alone will always lose to the side that wants to win”. Stoner was the canary in the coal mine for the University system, a prime example of a man stuck in the longhouse and in his dying days, regretful that he was not a stronger, more loving husband and father. If you read Stoner and find a likeness in him, then take this away: It is not too late to be who you want to be.