Norman Mailer - In the Belly of the Beast - Book Report/Review Example

? Irshad Ahmad Order # 740331 Academia-Research.Com November 05, In The Belly Of The Beast Jack Abbot corresponded with Norman Mailer from jailand his ideas, memories and the theories of solutions became the subject-matter of the book In The Belly Of The Beast. He was a strange person who passed most of his life in jail. The book is, no doubt, ranked among the best in the prison literature. To the world outside the prison, living with their luxuries, Abbott was but a ghost. It was thought as the right of the society to brutalize him behind the bars. Authorities at prison deemed him vulnerable for the environment of the jail. When he fights against the filth, the psychiatric torture of the jail administration and insults, he is hated. This was the situation that forced Abbott to write so harsh about the world. He was of those who had found ill-luck to go with them for the whole of their life. He was forced to bring up the cruel mentality which allowed no one and not even for a second to agitate against his wish. He developed a strange opinion of the world; to him, the people can be treated only with bullets and swords. He tells the same flaw in his mentality in the words: “The only time they appear human is when you have a knife at their throats. The instant you remove it, they fall back into animality” (Abbott and Mailer 83). One of the most interesting ideas which Abbot presents in his letters from jail is the one appealing towards communism. His life-long sufferings, flaw in mental health, the brutalities of the society and his own violent behavior made him believe that there was no God. The theories which the religions produce about God or gods are all false, according to Abbott. Had there been any God, he would surely have helped Abbott to get out of his sorrows. The world could not understand the genius in him and had there been God, there would have been no need for Abbott to explain his innocence before the world. Abbott expresses the cruelties the world has done to him in the words: “And what is so odd about it all is that society has denied me the experience it enjoys (or thinks it enjoys). The oddity exists in the fact that I cannot know from experience what I have missed, so why am I not happy? I have been denied the society of others: it is as simple as that” (Abbott and Mailer 146). Because the society denied him his due rights, he agitated against it. His agitations turned violent causing bloodshed and he had to bear the consequences in the shape of eternal solitude in jail. In In The Belly Of The Beast, he complains that the society could not treat him like he deserved. At this stage, he wants the society be reproached by the God for his maltreatment. But the God does not do it and he arrives at the conclusion that all the miseries happened to him because there was no God. He is troubled by the concept of God. This idea developed because he sees no solution for his troubles. It reveals he has cried a lot for a God to be there to listen to him. It shows his state of hopelessness against anticipation. He was in fact in dire need of God to solve all his problems but when disappointed, he created his hypothesis by telling Mailer that God was the concept which the human creates of his own and which is created due to despair. Communism is, according to him, the cure of all the diseases. Abbott resembles in fact aligns to Marx in his views. He believes that communism is above all the religions and it should be adopted likewise. In a communist society, all are told that they can get what they want irrespective of their abilities and capabilities. Abbott was unable to find luxuries for his life. It turned him violent and at last a vulnerable criminal ready for bloodshed every time. He could guess no reason behind his violence but the society which behaved brutally towards him. He thought he had to react in a harsher way. The only solution his mind picked was his yearning for a society where he could find everything he wished whether due or undue. When this was his mindset, the phenomenon of communism was already present to attract him. He wishes he could see the God but he cannot and he cannot believe what he does not see. The belief in the very being of God as the caretaker of the whole universe would surely have benefitted his nerves but he is haughty in his mood and he is never ready to believe what he does not see before his eyes. Abbott is, in fact, against the laws of the capitalism. He is of the view that a capitalist society has always been exploiting the humans. He argues that in a capitalist society, the non-whites in the prison are always exploited. They were forced to serve the white capitalists. Abbott hates the capitalism because he feels it helps in the increase of racism. He likes communism because he thinks communists have a softer heart than the capitalists and they behave the prisoners more humanely. They help the prisoners in all their affairs. He symbolizes the capitalist society to a wolf and complains why the world hates him as he is born from a wolf: “I cannot be critical of an infant whose only possible source of nourishment can be found in the dugs of a wolf” (Abbott and Mailer 178). He wants to stop the wolf give born to new children and, hence, longer the period of human miseries. My views, ideas and thoughts do not match with those of Abbott at all; they propagate the absence of the very being of God. No doubt, the society tortured him since his very childhood but he presented an ugly analysis and a bad solution. It does not coincide with facts. The facts of history have always argued in favor of God and the divine powers. Abbott seems to be a mental patient who needed proper treatment. His theories cannot be accepted on the grounds that he was an abnormal person. A man in anger always talks insanely and this is what Abbott did throughout his life. When talking of the crimes society did to him, he forgets of his own crimes which he did against the society. Patience is a very much necessary property for humans to live a healthy life which Abbott was devoid of. When he complains against God by allowing miseries over miseries to meet him in his life, he forgets that his own attitude was equally responsible for his sufferings. He forgets that all laws must be respected and besides the worldly laws, there are divine laws as well which the divine courts and power punishes itself if violated. In his fate, he seems to be lacking the realization of the very powers of God. It was God who taught him the lesson for his cruel nature, violence and bad deeds. As is the divine law, he was given the opportunity for revival, for instance, when he was once released from jail, but he proved not worthy of. In fact, he saw the world with his own eye and never cared for the problems of others. There are millions of things and phenomenon which are unseen but can be felt and Godly powers are felt by everyone. Abbott’s life is but a story of miseries and violence. In the letters he wrote to Mailer, each and every line tells of the mourning of despair. It is not strange if his life is looked upon but it is a tragedy that Abbott never tried for the betterment of his attitude. The theory of communism which he puts forth in favor of Marx is also one interpretation of his hopelessness. He spoke ruthlessly of capitalism despite the fact that it was the celebrated system of the most countries of the world. He negated the being of God and argued that he could believe what he could see. Strange was his life and strange its notions. His writings, however, deserve to be ranked as of highest standards. No doubt, he was the unluckiest person of the world but one of the great writers as well. This is a strange contrast. Work Cited Abbott, Jack H, and Norman Mailer. In the Belly of the Beast: Letters from Prison. New York: Vintage, 1991. Print. Read More