The death of a father seen from a child's point of view in A Death in the Family

First, yes, unsurprisingly James Agee's novel A Death in the Family (1957) is based on events of his own childhood: He grew up in Knoxville, father died when he was young, so it would seem that Agee puts all his thoughts, memories, and confusions into the mind of the young boy, Rufus. As noted in yesterday's post, this novel is told in extreme close-up; we see the various family gatherings and fallings over the course of two or three days after the father's death, as the large family comes together for the funeral service and the burial. A lot of what happens is never made entirely clear to readers, but that is intentional and highlights the close narration, which remains w/ the point of view of the child, who observes many things that he can't understand or explain, such as the strange scene when Rufus and his younger sister, Catherine, listen outside the bedroom door as his mother and aunt, led by a despicable priest whom the children hate and fear, recite prayers in Latin. Agee holds nothing back in his condemnation of the church, as Rufus's Uncle Ralph goes off on a tirade about the church and the priest's refusal to administer last rites because Rufus's father had never been "confirmed." Everything Rufus can piece together about his father's death is by indirection; people tell him very little, but he observes a lot - even some information that's painful and difficult for him to comprehend (notably, the boys on his street relating that their parents said the father's car accident was a result of his drinking - probably correct, but we know nothing about this directly, as the POV stays w/ Rufus and does not step back into omniscience). The family tries in various ways to shelter the children, but this adumbration just confuses the children even more; it's obvious that Agee must have spent a lifetime trying to recollect and understand and, at last, communicate his lifetime of pain (dulled, apparently, with his own heavy drinking) and his memories of this fateful time.