Townie, a memoir written by Andre Dubus III, uncovers his unfortunate and tragic childhood filled with violence and dysfunction. This intense memoir vividly tells the story of how Andre exhibits many moments where his life could be considered as a case study for violence. Wether it be through bullies or street fights, Andre’s life becomes surrounded by violence. The decisions he makes and the friends he encounters in his life lead him through a dark path. Growing up practically fatherless and bullied, Andre had a lot of internal anger and fear. No matter what town he and his poor family moved to, Andre found himself the target of bullies and instigators looking to harm a weak target, forcing him to channel these passionate emotions through learning how to defend himself and taking on his opponents head-on. One could argue that this violence is positive in that it protected Andre as well as his family from harm, but instead it demonstrates a dramatic change in character that steers Andre into a path of destruction onto himself and others. It is until he learns how to write when he learns how to control his built up anger and fear. Writing helps Andre discover new things in his life that help him overcome the recurring violence in his life and eventually lead him into the right direction.
Andre moves around from town to town with his mother and siblings while also being financially unstable. Because of Andre’s parents divorce and his father’s absence, Andre’s mom raised all four children by herself. However, she was always working trying to make a living for her family which made Andre feel as though he was abandoned by both his parents. He thought that in a way he was at fault for his family’s dysfunction. His parents’ absence in his early life not only made him feel worthless but also allowed him to have a lot of freedom and independence. Growing up fatherless revisioned Andre’s perspective on manhood and what it means to be a man. Without a father to teach him, he taught himself that if you don’t fight, you are not a man. This general mentality is what ultimately drives Andre into a downwards spiral into violence.
Early on in the memoir, Andre is described to be afraid of violence. Running away from bullies, Andre attempts to avoid any contact with violence at all, which is ironic for when he grows up, he looks for it. One of his early encounters with bullying was with a kid from his school, Clay. Andre would describe his beatings by Clay thoroughly as well as Clay’s abuse to his siblings, calling them derogatory, offensive names and all Andre would do was run into his house and hide (Dubus III 30). Andre wanted nothing but to stay away from anything dealing with violence, for he had enough to deal with already. If he was so opposed to violence, what was the turning point in his life that led him to indulge himself in it?
His brother Jeb was brutally assaulted in front of him, which led a determined Andre learn how to defend his siblings and himself as well as kickstart his violent lifestyle. As his brother was being beat up, Andre just stood there helplessly knowing he couldn’t help him. He did not have the physical capability to do anything about it. ““I stood there on the sidewalk where Tommy J. had beaten up my brother and called my mother a whore. And what had I done? I’d pleaded with him” (Dubus III 78). Because of this event as well as Suzanne’s rape, Andre was motivated to work out and build muscle so that bullies weren’t able to harm him or his siblings again. Later on in the memoir, Andre reflects on how much he changed by working out after he kicks a person’s motorcycle: “I was throwing combinations at the heavy bag that rocked the joists of the house I began to feel I was defending for the first time” (Dubus III 137). However, Andre channeled his internal struggles into external aggression therefore upbringing his violent lifestyle. He wound up becoming the person he kept running away from, a bully.
As well as Jeb’s incident, his sisters also had troubles which fueled Andre’s internal anger. His older sister, Suzanne was raped, addicted to drugs, and was abused by her husband. His younger sister, Nicole, isolated herself from everybody in her family by locking herself in her room and not opening up to anybody. By not being able to ‘save’ his siblings from their own suffering, Andre felt guilty for failing his family. This generated a fire inside of Andre which led him to live a raging, violent lifestyle. He was never able to forgive himself for letting all these things happen to his siblings. Moreover, he developed a feeling of worthlessness.
Andre felt as if his life wasn’t worth anything and that he was predisposed to be doomed. He did not want to live his life with dealing with his internal pain and suffering and became somewhat suicidal. Andre was almost fascinated with the thought of death. With this perspective and morality, he chased for violence wherever. He became involved in countless street fights where he would put opponents to serious injuries. One of the more eye-opening scenes from the memoir was when Andre fought the person who had pulled out a knife on his friend Sam. Andre is filled with so much rage and anger that he almost comes to the point of murder. The worse thing is that Dubus describes himself so numb and desensitized while he brutally beats his opponent. “I straddle him and keep punching him in the skull, the ear, the temple, his bare hands, his neck…I’m standing and kicking him in the head” (Dubus III 225). This illustrates Andre’s rage towards his opponents perfectly and show the direct consequences for his tragic upbringing surrounded by bullies, drugs, and lack of parental figures.
When in the streets fighting, it seemed like Andre was unable to have control over his body, but he knew that what he was doing was wrong. Andre knew that if he didn’t find anywhere else to channel his anger and internal struggle, he was going to end up killing somebody. At this moment was when Andre found a passion for reading and writing. “What was I doing? And why? Why was I doing this? For a short time or a long time, I stared at the page… I picked up the pencil and set it on top like some kind of marker, a reminder to me of something important I shouldn’t lose” (Dubus III 254-255).
He began by reading short stories, “Andre discovers, was ‘like water leaking from an ear you hadn't known was blocked, and then something warm and wet is on your skin and now you can hear’”(Gurria-Quintana). Soon afterwards, he started writing on his own and his journey to recovery initiated. After he began to write, his entire life started to change for the better. Andre had found another way to express his deep emotions than to pick fights with anybody he sees. He ultimately feels more like himself and more like a person that he ever has. He says he had so many “formed layers of skin and muscle” that others would see him as but writing peeled all those layers and revealed who Andre truly is. If Andre wanted to stay alive and be himself, he would have to keep writing (Dubus III 259). Violence was a fake version of himself that he used to protect himself from his struggles.
At the end of the memoir, Andre starts a fight with a couple men at the airport. However, this encounter with violence was completely different from any other encounters he had had throughout the memoir. Before he fought these two men, he thought about the consequences this fight would have afterwards, proving that he now has control over his own violent behavior. For once in the memoir, he had thought before he acted.
Violence had completely changed his life but writing had saved him. He was freed from his own brutality and was able to escape from everything that had been going on in his life. Instead he would focus on his characters, his stories and his words. After having a rough childhood, being bullied and having a lack of any role model, Andre realized it could only end with him. As Andre wrote more and more, he began to transition from his first life to his second life. Writing truly saved Andre Dubus III from a life that could have ended in imprisonment or even death. He was shaped into the person he is today by his violence upbringing but saved by his true passion, writing.
Now, Andre Dubus III resides in Newbury, Massachusetts as an English professor at University of Massachusetts – Lowell. As well as teaching, Dubus is also a highly successful author of six novels, including Townie, and is nationally well-known. He is also a father of three and happily married. Dubus is completely away from any violence for he has “not punched anybody in 25 years” (Bancroft). After living an early life filled with so much darkness and tragedy, he was able to mature from it and forgive himself, “I'm not mad at my father, I'm not mad at my mother. I'm not even mad at myself anymore” (Bancroft). Andre Dubus III would make a perfect case study for violence and its effect on a person. Through Townie, it is clear to see how violence affected Dubus negatively but also it can be seen how positively his experiences shaped him.