"I've lived hard as nails..."
Coal Mining in River of Earth
In James Still’s River of Earth, coal mining is an important theme that plays a significant role in the lives of Alpha, Brack, and the Baldridge children. Brack is coal miner, who has recently been laid off because of the mines being closed, so in order to support his family, he and Alpha primarily focus on using the land as a resource to grow their own food. Although Brack and Alpha cultivate all the food they eat, Brack doesn’t believe any way of life besides mining will be sufficient enough to survive on. The biggest dilemma with living the life of a coal miner, with a family to support, is the uncertainty of the mines. Brack can only make so much money when the mines are rich with coal, and the quality of the mines is spread through the towns by hearsay. Brack tells Alpha, “Going to be good times in Blackjack. I hear they’re to pay nigh fifty cents a ton for coal loading. And they’re building some new company houses. I got my word in for one” (175).
Because of this uncertainty the coalmines represent, Alpha is strongly
opposed to moving from coal camp to camp. The mines, in her eyes, are a false sense
of security, a lifestyle that leads people chasing an unobtainable task. On page
52, Alpha says to Brack, “I saw Walking John Gay once when I was a child.
Walked all the days of his life; seen more of creation than any living creature.
A lifetime of going and he’s got nowhere, found no peace” (52).
Unfortunately for Alpha, Brack doesn't see such contentment. He sees mining as the only real way to make money, the only possible opportunity to “make and provide” and hunt that “regular bread with a mite of grease on it” (52). Although Brack states all of this, underlying his views is the truth that mining is the only trade he knows, and it’s the only profession he will subject his family to.
Brack’s views of the importance
of coal mining drastically poses a negative affect on his family. Coal mining
can be viewed as the new industrialization of society, and this has resulted in
giving people like Brack the option to up and leave their home frequently, when
they once would’ve been stationary. As a result, Brack’s family is
constantly uprooted, never securing a solid
homeplace. It becomes such a
dominant factor for Brack that he ignores what’s best for his family’s
interest. Coal mining takes them all over the region, prohibiting his children
from receiving an education, and impacting the amount of food his family has.
The economic vicissitudes of the mining industry constantly forced families and workers to move from camp to camp in search of work. This theme plays out in a number of books including Denise Giardina's Storming Heaven.