Sometimes a Great Notion

Lee’s attempt to gain revenge against his half-brother Hank drives the plot of Sometimes a Great Notion, and the psychological underpinnings of this revenge quest connect to key themes. A graduate student in literature at Yale, Lee is bookish, like his mother Myra and his sister-in-law Viv. He is prone to using elevated vocabulary and making jokes referencing Shakespeare and other intellectual interests. His tastes in music are similarly high-minded, as he prefers the complex jazz of John Coltrane to the more traditional works that Hank prefers.

Yet Lee is very much a Stamper, and exemplifies the family’s brashness and toughness. For example, on his first day of logging work, Lee is determined to prove himself to “Brother Hank fast and measure up early” (206).

Lee is vulnerable: The still-traumatic memory of Hank’s affair with Myra and her later suicide not only drive him to seek revenge, but have also led to drug use, mental illness, and his own attempt to kill himself. To his shame, Lee is not physically imposing: In Oregon, Hank has to save Lee from a rowdy gang of teenagers harassing him on the beach. Yet despite Lee’s feud with Hank over their childhood and over Lee’s affair with Viv, by the end of the novel Lee chooses to stay with the Stampers instead of returning to Yale.