From 1959 to 1962, he taught at Chico State University in California one of his students during this time was Raymond Carver, the short story writer.

After completing his Ph.D., Gardner taught at a number of colleges and universities. In addition to creative writing, Gardner studied medieval literature. Gardner finished his undergraduate career at Washington University in St. When he was nineteen, he married Joan Patterson. The tragedy became an important motivation for Gardner’s writing in later years.Īfter graduating from high school, Gardner attended De Pauw University. When Gardner was in early adolescence, he was responsible for the accidental death of his brother, Gilbert, who was crushed beneath a cultipacker young Gardner was driving home.

As a result, Gardner was exposed to a myriad of literature and His mother had been an English teacher, and his father, like the father in “Redemption” was an avid reader of poetry, Shakespeare, and the Bible. The son of farmer John Champlin Gardner and his wife Priscilla Jones Gardner, John Gardner was born on July 21, 1933, and grew up on a farm. Gardner’s recurring themes are present in this piece of short fiction: the relationship between art and experience, the consequences of death for survivors, the redemption from guilt, and the struggle between the forces of order and disorder. As a young man, Gardner accidentally killed his younger brother the circumstances of that tragic event are nearly identical to those described in the story. The central event in the story is autobiographical. The accident takes place in the first paragraph, and the rest of the story reveals how Jack and the members of his family deal with the loss. “Redemption” chronicles the story of a young man named Jack Hawthorne who accidentally kills his seven-year-old brother in a farming accident. Gardner later included the story in his collection of short stories, The Art of Living, published by Knopf in 1981. John Gardner’s story, “Redemption,” was first published in the Atlantic Monthly in May, 1977.

Mass effect redemption summary