James Agee was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1909. Agee wrote the novel "A Death In The Family" in New York City, in 1955. This novel is a remembrance of events within a family. It is about marital love and loss and the need for religious faith. This novel is an autobiography about the death of Agee's father.
             This analysis deals with Jay, Mary and Rufus Follet and how Mary and Rufus deal with Jays death.
             Jay is a family man and he would do anything for his family. Jay's son Rufus is six years old, they have a great father-son relationship. Jay is very proud of his son and brags about him all the time. Jays wife Mary, loves him very much and he is very tender caring, and loving towards her. He also knows how to treat women and has great respect for them. (Character Analysis, 1-2.) Jay goes to visit his father who has suffered from a heart attack and on the way back home he killed in a car wreak. The rest of the novel shows the reactions of his wife, his four year
            
             old daughter, and especially his son, Rufus. (Review, 1.)
             Rufus Follet is the protagonist of the novel. Throughout the Novel it is shown that Rufus is an intelligent and sensitive little boy. (Agee, 1967.)
             Rufus questions his mother and aunts faith in God. Whenever the women give him religious explanations, he questions them and wants an answer that makes logical sense. An example of this is after his father, Jay, is dead, his mother Mary calls him and little Catherine to her and tells them that God has taken their father. Rufus must then ask if his father is dead. The word "Dead" has an absolute meaning for him and his mothers religious explanation does not. Rufus's aunt tells him and little Catherine the facts about Jays death, that a concussion had killed their father. Rufus says that if the concu
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