November Stillness Character Analysis

A major character, Mr. Weems, in the book December Stillness by Mary Downing Hahn dies near the end of the book in what seems like a tragic accident but even though his death was tragic, it was not an accident. He intentionally walked out in front of the car which struck and killed him.

December Stillness is a novel about a girl named Kelly who tries to get to know and understand a man named Mr. Weems, who is severely haunted by the acts which he and others committed in Vietnam and who would come daily to the library to read books about the war. Due to the trauma of the war and losses he suffers during the course of the book it is clear that Mr Weems death near the end of the book was not an accident. Mr Weems intentionally walked out in

Final evidence that his accident was intentional can be found when Kelly’s friend Julie grabs her and tells her that “the bagman” (Mr. Weems) had not been accidentally hit because the road was dark and it was raining. Instead, as she tells it, “‘He walked right in front of a car.’” (Hahn 155). Julie was reporting that someone had witnessed what had happened. This is proof that he saw the car coming towards him and could have avoided being hit and killed.

In conclusion, Mr. Weems death was not an accident. It was intentional and tragic. Mr. Weems would go to the library to keep warm but also he was probably trying to find a way to understand the war and to find a way to believe that what he did was not his fault. When the library was taken away from him, he was cut off from his only way of trying to understand or come to terms with what he did and what happened to him. Even her father, who was also a Vietnam veteran suggests it could be probable that the accident was intentional. He responds to Kelly’s mother’s question “‘You think he did it deliberately?’” with “‘He might have.’” Suicide can take many forms and some may appear like accidents when they were the last intentional acts of someone who had suffered trauma,given up hope, felt alone and isolated and who felt they couldn’t go