Horton Foote died March 4, 2009, at the age of 92. Rarely does an author’s, poet’s, or playwright’s death affect me, but when I found out about Foote’s death, I sensed both a loss and a determination.
Foote seems so gentle and hopeful because of his characters, and I will miss that. So often with contemporary dramatists, it seems the focus is on the ugly, the downtrodden, and the depraved. It’s hard reading about such hopeless individuals in such hopeless situations.
Foote’s characters, however, have an element of goodness despite their difficult situations—they may just make it to a better stage of life. The two that convey that feeling are Mac Sledge from Tender Mercies and Mrs. Watts from The Trip to Bountiful. Mac is a deep down-and-out drunk cowboy songwriter who has lost his career and his family, but because of determination and the love of a woman and young boy, he changes and blesses lives. Mrs. Watts is an oppressed, emotionally abused elderly woman who just wants to return to her childhood home that no longer exists, but who eventually finds peace in the present.
My students were able to connect with both of Foote’s characters and screenplays last semester in which they explored own relationships not as removed as they first appear. In fact, Foote’s strength is in creating the common character who isn’t much different than we are.
So I feel a loss because of Foote’s death. But I now have a determination to read more of his works. I want now to focus first on his Orphan Home Cycle plays—I have much to read and many new characters to become a part of my life.
I look forward to discovering and feeling the hope that Horton Foote expresses in the following quotation:
"I have enormous respect for the human being, because they're asked to take on a lot. And I don't think there's any easy solution. But I think the journey is what you have to finally be satisfied with, but not be afraid of the lessons one has to learn ... it ends up as grace. And you grow, you find a way to continue." --Horton Foote
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