The Hurt Man

The Hurt Man

-By Wendell Berry

"The Hurt Man" is a short-story written by Wendell Berry. The narrator in the story is describing a memory from Mat Feltner's child-hood which was a turning point in his life.

The setting has a vital part to play in the story. It takes place in a small town called Port Williams in the U.S in 1888.

"Like every place it had its angers, and its angers, as always, as everywhere, found justifications... anger had a license that it might not have had in another place."1

The city is a particularly dangerous and tough place where violence is used as a vehicle for people to solve their conflicts and disagreements. This is also why Mat's older brother and two sisters are already deceased. "...the graveyard, which was even then more populous than the town." 2

This also tells a lot about the society, and how tough it could be at some places in the US at that time.

It's a third person narrator who is omniscient given that he knows everything about Mat's feelings and is predicting what is going to happen.

Mat's mother is described as a highly dynamic and cheerful woman, who isn't dwelling on the loss of her three children. The way she demonstrates her grief is by wearing black clothes, but it is not like her sorrow impacts on her behavior, or at least it doesn't seem like Mat is feeling her mourning in his everyday life.

The first four years the parents are watching him very closely. But even though three of her children are dead, she considers the riskiness in the world as a natural thing, and thus Mat is allowed to stray off when he is five years old, and naturally is beginning to be active and curious about his surroundings. She can't protect him his entire life, and he has to learn how to fend himself in the tough environment. But she does make certain restrictions - he has to stay with her on Saturday afternoons and election days due to the big risk of scuffles in the crowds.

The central episode is occurring a Saturday when a man is breaking out of the crowd and running towards Mat and his mother, who are sitting on the front porch, watching the people from a distance. The man is clearly in a bad shape and therefore Mat's mother chooses to let the man into their porch. She is immediately on top of the situation, another thing that emphasizes her dynamic character. It is in the mother's treatment of the badly, hurt man, that Mat discovers a brand new side of life, namely the more black side such as death and sorrow.

"What he saw in her face would remain with him forever. It was pity, but it was more than that. It was a hurt love that seemed to include entirely the hurt man. It included him and disregarded everything else."