Introduction: Hank Williams’ legend is one marked by an untimely Icarian fall, as the country music star’s substance abuse and social implosion culminated in his death at only 29 years old. From the time his like-named son, Hank Williams Jr. was a young child, his mother Audrey molded him into a compensatory image of his father, a trajectory he eventually rejected, asserting his father’s legacy did not require his son’s advertising to live on. Generational struggle is a pervasive theme both within country music classics and American literature, therefore reflecting a contrast of American Identity between family ideals and the romanticization of a rugged, individualistic lifestyle. Music and literature alike reveal themes of identity, as well as cultural phenomena. Thus, although they are distinct forms of expression, it is productive to assess their conceptual overlap.
P’graph #1: Merle Haggard’s early life embraces this mode, as the future star engaged in petty crimes such as writing fraudulent checks and larceny. In Mama Tried, one of his better known singles, Haggard penitently addresses the gap between what his mother envisioned for his life, versus where he ended up: locked up in prison. “Mama tried to raise me right,” he bellows, following up with an acknowledgement of his stubborn nature, “no one could change my mind.” This mirrors Tarwater’s attitude of dismissiveness and rebellion, because it implies a backfiring of his fundamentalist upbringing, and by consequence a general apathy towards the world. Upon meeting Tarwater, his uncle Rayber, a secular-minded schoolteacher, describes him as “rigid and recalcitrant” (O’Connor XX). Shortly thereafter, he posits Tarwater’s “brand of independence” as “one that was irrational, backwards, and ignorant” (O’Connor XX). Much in the same way Merle Haggard’s mother supposedly sought to put her wayward son on the right track, resulting in nothing but counter-intuitive, penal outcome, so too did Mason’s strict and pseudo-moralistic parenting bring out a counter-productive defiance from his grandchild. Evidently, neither are living out their intergenerational ideals or expectations, instead opting to embody a perversion of the spirit of individualism.
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