Sam May
Sam May is the father of Chico (Edward May) and Billy May in Gordon Lachance's embedded story "Stud City," a man whose life has been diminished by loss and a second marriage. He is a big man, but in a shambling way, and Chico observes that he got smaller after he married Virginia and smaller again after Johnny died. He works days at a mill, while his dead son Johnny had chosen night work at a racetrack to avoid being home alone with Virginia. Sam May is a man who has lost control of his household and his son's respect, and who is slowly being ground down by a wife who manipulates him with calm efficiency.
Identity and Background
Sam May is introduced as a man who has remarried a woman named Virginia, and who has two surviving sons: Chico, the narrator of the story, and a younger boy named Billy. He is a working-class man, and the family lives in a house with fiberboard walls so thin that Chico can hear his father and Virginia "going at it at night." The house is described as a completely unappetizing aqua color, with a shed that sticks off at a ragtag, double-jointed angle. Sam May's life is marked by the death of his eldest son Johnny, who was killed when a runaway Mustang struck him while he was changing a tire at Oxford Plains Speedway. Chico believes that if Sam had not married Virginia, Johnny would still be alive, a thought he nearly blurts out during a confrontation.
Relationship with Chico and Family Conflict
Sam May's relationship with his son Chico is defined by a series of escalating confrontations that reveal his impotence and his son's contempt. When Chico returns home after spending the day with a girl, Sam accuses him of being "like a stranger" and reminds him that he provides "the bed and board." Chico retorts, "Some bed. Some board," and Sam responds with anger, his teeth yellow with French's mustard, threatening to break Chico's nose. The conflict escalates when Chico announces his plan to fix up Johnny's car and go to California. Sam dismisses the idea, saying the car will never make it as far as Castle Rock, and Chico replies, "Just watch my fucking dust." Sam throws a hot dog at Chico, hitting him in the chest and spraying mustard on his sweater. Chico throws it back, and Sam, his face the color of an old brick and the vein in his forehead pulsing, overturns a TV tray. Billy, the younger son, stands in the kitchen doorway, his plate of franks and beans tipped over, bean juice running onto the floor, his eyes wide and his mouth trembling. Sam then gropes for the half-eaten hot dog, holds it in his fist "like a severed phallus," and begins to eat it while crying, saying, "You raise them up best you can and they spit on you. Ayuh. That's how it goes."
The Role of Virginia
Virginia, Sam's second wife, is the central corrosive force in the family. She is described as having large, calm, brown eyes, and she speaks in a low, calm voice. When Chico accuses his father of being "pussywhipped," Sam takes a step forward but stops when Chico makes a curt beckoning gesture. Virginia then intervenes, asking Chico if he has had a girl in his room, and mentions that the girl left a handkerchief. She speaks gently, saying, "The boy doesn't know what he's saying, Sam. It's hard, at his age. It's hard to grow up." Chico sees that she has "whipped him" and that it is the end. He realizes that Virginia knows he knows about what was going on between her and Johnny before Johnny died, and that the only way he can hurt her is by telling his father, which would kill him. Sam, unaware of this secret, lunges at the new gambit "like a bear," asking if Chico has been "screwing in my house." Virginia calmly tells Sam to watch his language. When Chico finally tells Virginia, "The sheets are bloody. I broke her in," he thinks something stirs in her eyes, but she only says, "Please go now, Ed. You're scaring Billy." Sam, defeated, tells Chico to get out and not come back until he can apologize to his mother and him. Chico cries, "Don't you dare call that bitch my mother! I'll kill you!" and Billy screams for them to stop.
Narrative Role and Significance
Sam May functions as a tragic figure in "Stud City," a man whose grief over Johnny's death has been exploited by a manipulative wife and whose remaining son has lost all respect for him. He is a character who cannot see the truth about Virginia, or who chooses not to see it, and who is therefore powerless to stop the destruction of his family. His inability to control his household, his tearful outbursts, and his ultimate capitulation to Virginia's calm authority mark him as a figure of pathos. He represents a kind of failed masculinity, one that is unable to protect his sons or himself from the emotional and sexual predation within his own home. His presence in the story underscores Chico's rage and his desperate desire to escape, and his fate—to be ground down by a woman who has already destroyed his eldest son—is a central element of the story's bleak vision of family life.
