The Prizewinner of Defiance Ohio

It's interesting to me that Terry Ryan's account of growing up in poverty with nine siblings mentions her hometown of Defiance. Her mother, the prize-winning protagonist, was anything but defiant. Evelyn Ryan, who fed her ten kids with the winnings of her jingle writing ability, is really glorified in this film, the book, and the two commentary tracks on the DVD. However, her blithe acceptance of her violent, volatile, alcoholic husband is nothing I admire, 1950's Ohio or no.

Yes, I realize things were different then, women had less options. But Evelyn did have options. Hey, how about not having ten kids with a loser guy? Ever think of that one? And once you had those kids and watched your husband drink away their milk money every night, ever consider using your obviously intelligent mind to actually do something about it? Did you ever consider telling him to change or get out?

The more I think about this woman and the accolades she accumulates throughout the telling of this story, the more disturbed I am. The trailer calls her remarkable. Director Jane Anderson lauds her, calling her passive acceptance of just about everything, "mid-west zen". I think Jane needs to do a little reading on Zen. Zen is about mindful awareness. I see Evelyn's attitude as quite the opposite. Cheerful exuberance as your husband goes on violent rampages in front of your ten kids is not mindful, no matter the decade, the Catholic indoctrination, the midwest isolation.

Evelyn's winnings allow her to put a down-payment on a house. But, she lets her clearly irresponsible husband put it solely in his name. Big mistake, he took out a second mortgage without her knowledge and almost lost it. Yes, unbelievably, by some miracle, she won one of the last big prizes given out to clever housewives in a Dr. Pepper contest and saved the day, moments before they had to move out. Would Terry have admired her mom so much had she not won these contests? It was, after all, basically, luck.

Yes, this was a real-life story just made for Hollywood, which treasures its non-probable happy endings. But, without the exciting miracles, this is a story of a woman who is even less sympathetic to me than the average battered woman because Evelyn was smart. She did have options and she spent her whole life with a man who did nothing but drag her down. I'm all for having a positive attitude, but this woman was in denial. She allowed herself and her kids to be impoverished by an out-of-control man without ever really demanding change. I see no prizes there.