In Flannery O’Connor’s “The Enduring Chill,” Asbury Fox is a young man who believes himself to be an artist, though few other people do. He comes to have an issue with all the people he meets, with the exception of two unlikely friends. From the moment Asbury steps off the train in his hometown, he speaks with an irritable tone to his mother and sister, and it gets worse from there. He is also very rude to Doctor Block and Father Finn. All of these people share a common characteristic which is that they care about Asbury and want him to get better, even despite his coarseness toward them. The only two people that we see Asbury take a liking to are two African-American farmhands named Morgan and Randall. This is very interesting because of the setting. This story is estimated to take place in either the late 1940’s or the 1950’s in the southern United States, a time when segregation was still very present in society. Through Asbury’s words and actions to other characters in “The Enduring Chill,” we can see that he is very introverted and believes that he has all the answers since he is deathly ill (or so he thinks). 

Asbury Fox treats his mother very disrespectfully from the moment he arrives home. He steps off the train and instantly tells her that he doesn’t want to talk to her. He also snapped at her shortly after that that she does not need to tell him what the temperature is, in response to her asking him to take his coat off. He often does not even reply to her when she would speak to him. She assumed that he was about to have a nervous breakdown, a condition she attributed to being pent up in the cold, bustling city of New York. She believed that he needed time outside in the sun and the fields. He had tried it before when he wrote a play about Negroes, revealing his mother’s racist beliefs, as the story says “why anyone would want to write a play about Negroes was beyond her.” It is clear that Mrs. Fox really wants the best for Asbury, as she welcomes him home for as long as he wishes, tries to bring him to the doctor, and at the very least make him sit on the porch in the sunlight. Asbury also wrote her a long letter, filling up several notebooks, with a goal of making her realize “all she had done to him.” He believes that she is the reason for his difficulties in his career and life, likely a significant reason he treats her so poorly. Another strained familial relationship Asbury has is with his sister, Mary George. When he arrives, she is still asleep in the car. Asbury says to his mother “let sleeping dogs lie,” in reference to his sister, attempting to be witty and disrespectful to her by calling her a dog in a subtle manner. When the family arrived home, Asbury snapped at his mother to keep going toward the house, waking his sister up. She wondered “What’s that cry of deadly pain?” and then realized it was Asbury, sarcastically calling him an artist. Asbury does not think highly of his sister, an elementary school principal, saying her I.Q. couldn’t be over 75 and that she was very unattractive. Conversely, she didn’t think highly of him, believing that he wasn’t an artist, didn’t have any talent, and because of that hadn’t published anything by age 25. Mary George really doubts that he is sick until she actually sees him out of the car, remarking on how old he looks. Her last snide remark about him stated “The artist arrives at the gas chamber,” referring to World War II. Asbury’s relationship with his sister and mother really set the tone for his other relationships in this story, as well, such as with Dr. Block and Father Finn. 

Asbury refuses to see Dr. Block, or any other doctor for that matter. He believes that his illness is beyond the expertise of any doctor, especially Dr. Block who is from a small southern town very different from New York. Finally, Dr. Block arrives and tries to treat Asbury, though he constantly tried to refuse his care. Kids loved Block, but Asbury (obviously not a child) cannot stand him. Finally the doctor draws blood from his arm and gets on his way, with Mrs. Fox insisting Asbury’s arrogance is due to his illness. Each subsequent time, Block enters the house somberly, without any sort of humor. Asbury attributes this to the grim prognosis he has, but it is also likely that this is just because of the way Asbury treats him. It is possible that Asbury feels the way he does towards him because of his sickness, but it is also seems like Asbury is simply a person who does not love social interaction. Near the end of the story, Block returns with a diagnosis for Asbury. It turns out he has the non-lethal undulant fever, likely a result of drinking unpasteurized milk. For as much as Asbury resented the doctor already, this likely caused it to increase because he revealed the fact that he was not going to die, only live a life of misery, the exact opposite of what he wanted. 

Another person who Asbury is at odds with during this story was Father Finn. Asbury wanted an intellectual Jesuit priest, but he got this abrasive elderly man instead, instantly getting off on the wrong foot. The two have a bad conversation, as Asbury wants to talk about social issues but the priest only wants to make Asbury pure and faithful. The priest is very traditional and Asbury argues with him about just about everything. It seems that Asbury doesn’t like him because of their difference in views- traditional versus modern. 

 There were two people in the entire story who Asbury had a friendship with- two African American farmhands named Morgan and Randall. Asbury spent time working with them when he was writing a play on Negroes and their living/working conditions. He smoked cigarettes in the barn with them in a moment that was noted to transcend the difference between white and black. A day later, Asbury decided to break the rules again and decided to drink milk fresh out of the cow. Morgan and Randall both don’t want any, likely because they know it’s dangerous to drink unpasteurized milk. Mrs. Fox finds out that someone smoked in the barn and instantly blames the two farmhands, despite Asbury repeatedly saying that he did it, not them. This showed how black people were perceived very negatively at this time. Asbury also requests to his mother that they come “say goodbye” to him as Asbury thinks he’s near death, much to Mrs. Fox’s confusion. The two farmhands have a strange conversation with him, emphasizing how Asbury looked well, possibly provoked by Mrs. Fox. Morgan and Randall may be acting so nice to him because they really know that they are partly responsible for him getting ill due to the milk. Asbury also does a generous deed giving them a pack of cigarettes. One likely reason that Asbury likes these two so much is because all three of them are kind of social outcasts. Asbury, a sick artist, is looked down upon by many for his choice of career. Morgan and Randall are looked down upon because they are black in the south. Neither is right, but it is a likely reason they get along. 

Asbury Fox is at odds with so many people throughout this story. His illness surely doesn’t help his irritability, but he comes off as an unlikable, arrogant young man. His only two “friends,” if they can even be called that, are two African-American farmhands. Asbury likes them because they are two people he can relate to as sort of social outcasts. Everyone else Asbury meets is not as smart as him in his eyes, which is why he disagrees so strongly with everyone. Because Asbury Fox is ill and hates nearly every person he meets, he lives a miserable life, one that will continue for a long time because his debilitating illness is not fatal or as bad as he really thinks it is. 
