Exploring the Theme of Patriotism in the 1960's novels - Essay Example

Exploring the Theme of Patriotism and Dissent in three particular 1960's novels: The Armies of the Night by Norman Mailer; The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Alex Haley; and Couples by John Updike Since its independence, America has been Utopia to many and Dystopia to many. Sometimes it is vehemently deplored for the underlying realities of its myth of success and development. Sometimes its stature is distended to cast a huge shadow over the rest of the world. If it is true that literature is the reflection of society, then the American novels of the 1960’s are the evidence of it. In this paper I attempt to depict how the theme of patriotism and dissent has been explored in three of those novels: The Armies of the Night by Norman Mailer; The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Alex Haley; and Couples by John Updike. In The Armies of the Night, using a unique genre that combines the narrative conventions of journalism, history and novel, Mailer documents with vividness and clarity the events adjoining the march on the Pentagon in Washington D.C. that he was a part of during 21-23 October, 1967 and which was a crusade against the Vietnam War. Among the other protestors were the famous Noam Chomsky, Robert Lowell and Dwight Macdonald and among the rest were mostly students comprising a cross-section of American society. Assuming the point-of-view of the novelist, Mailer begins with the line "From the outset, let us bring you news of your protagonist" (1). This book, which fetched its author the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, is aptly sub-titled History as a Novel/The Novel as History. In the first section, “History as a Novel: the Steps of the Pentagon,” Mailer chooses to open with the protagonist’s, that is, his own introduction by dint of citing an article from Times, “Washington's scruffy Ambassador Theater, normally a pad for psychedelic frolics, was the scene of an unscheduled scatological solo last week in support of the peace demonstrations. Its anti-star was author Norman Mailer, who proved even less prepared to explain ‘Why Are We In Vietnam?’ than his current novel bearing that title” (1). Mailer goes on to cite the entire article. However, as if to establish the truth, he immediately announces, “Now we may leave Time in order to find out what happened.” The purpose of the march, Mailer explains, was to awaken the American mass against the terrors of the war. Mailer is concerned about his country’s future under the powerful decision makers and the weak protesters. He is aware of the futility of the protest and the limitations of these armies of the night lacking strength and determination. The title alludes to the closing lines of Matthew Arnold’s famous poem, “Dover Beach” (1867), written exactly a century before the event: “Ah, love, let us be true To one another! For the world which seems To lie before us like a land of dreams, So various, so beautiful, so new, Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain; And we are here as on a darkling plain Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight Where ignorant armies clash by night.” In the second part, “The Novel as History: The Battle of the Pentagon”, his enthusiasm evidently drops and he purposefully eliminates humour. Mailer variously calls the America under Kennedy as the “technology land,” “corporation land.” He calls student-protesters “mad middle class children with their lobotomies from sin.” He is apprehensive about the tendency of “liberal academics to become servants of the social machine of the future?” Mailer sees them as the product of affluence who have no repentance for wastage and therefore unable to preserve there country’s peace and harmony. When he narrates the end of the march, Mailer masterfully uses irony. He recounts how these armies of the night were led to a confrontation with the real armies at midnight at the Pentagon and finally dragged to jail with the elapsing of the permitted time for the march. Compared to Whitman's diary of the Civil War, "Specimen Days," The Armies of the Night is no less intelligent and candid a personal statement of that restless era, which witnessed many concurrent happenings in Washington that weekend such starting from student riots to Civil Rights demonstrations taking place widely across the country. The Autobiography of Malcolm X is the collaborative effort of Malcolm X, the spokesman for the Nation of Islam (Black Muslim) movement during the 60’s and journalist Alex Haley. Alex Haley heard about the Nation of Islam in 1959 and first met Malcolm X in New York in 1960. Haley had a series of interviews over a period of two years with Malcolm X during which Malcolm told him his life story. Haley kept note cards before Malcolm and Malcolm used to scribble on them as he spoke to Haley. From these scribblings and their conversations Haley created the story of Malcolm X. Haley arranged the material and produced the text in the first person in one year, and Malcolm edited and approved every chapter. The work is rightly considered an autobiography, though Haley actually did the writing. It is one of the most significant twentieth century works, as it offers valuable insight into a key issue of the modern America. The opening chapter is rightly called “Nightmare.” The book opens with Malcolm in his mother’s womb, threatened by the supremacists in Omaha, Nebraska. Malcolm’s mother, Louise Little, although she belongs to the black community, is fair-skinned because she was conceived when a white man raped her mother. When Malcolm is only six years old his father Earl Little, who is a Baptist preacher, and who works for UNIA (Universal Negro Improvement Association) under the leadership of Marcus Garvey, is murdered by the whites. His fault was that he supported the return of American blacks to Africa. Earl Little’s death is given the appearance of a suicide leaving the claimants of his insurance policy helpless. Impressionistic Malcolm can understand even at this early age the great divide between the whites and the blacks when he sees their house in Lansing, Michigan, being burned down. Malcolm also notices that most of the blacks are jobless and poor. The best that they can do is shoe-polish or serving as a waiter. During Great Depression, they have nothing to eat, yet Louise rejects free pork offered by the welfare agency as she adheres to Seven-Day Adventist dietary restrictions. Calling her insane, the so called welfare agents send her to the mental asylum. Thus breaks the little home of the Littles. The siblings of Malcolm move with foster families and so does Malcolm. He is fostered by the Swerlins. Malcolm feels indebted to them for their generosity, but he never feels at home in the Swerlins’ house. He is sent to Mason Junior High School. He stands first in his class and is even elected as the class president, yet he feels discriminated. He is hurt when the teacher discourages him to become a lawyer which is his ambition and, instead, advices him to become a carpenter although he is more intelligent than his classmates. The teacher makes fun of the blacks in front of the whole class calling them dumb and lazy. Malcolm finds only one paragraph on the blacks’ history in his history text book and feels excluded. He shows his resentment against the school and grows up frustrated by Racism. He detests to be called a “nigger.” He is unable to choose his girlfriend unlike his friends as his society does not allow inter-race relationships. The job he gets is that of washing dishes. Malcolm decides to leave the Swerlins’ house and they fail to understand his decision. He does not reveal it either. Now his intention is to get a better job. He moves to a neighborhood of wealthy blacks in Boston, into the house of Ella his half-sister. However, he soon realizes that he is a misfit at Boston too. The wealthy blacks are different in their lifestyle from the poor black communities living down the hill. Malcolm shares proximity with the underdogs and hates the well-to-do black community as it apes the whites. He gets the job of shining shoes. However, he is soon taken over by the environment. People, after all, need to fit into a society. He gambles, drinks, smokes and takes to drugs. He buys himself a flamboyant suit and conks his hair, which makes his black hair look white. Malcolm hates his new job of a clerk at a medicine store because of its middle-class atmosphere. He meets Laura and Sophia and deserts the former in favour of the latter simply because his status in the society would be higher if he courts a white woman. This might remind the readers how Malcolm’s father, in spite of his campaign against the whites, loved Malcolm more than his other children because Malcolm had a light skin. It also shows that the blacks too were prejudiced and that discriminations, snobbery, and hypocrisy prevailed even in their community although of a different sort. This is the true picture of the American society of the 1930’s replete with moral double standards. In the successive chapters we are told how Malcolm is fascinated by the life in New York, particularly, by Harlem’s Savoy Ballroom and the Apollo Theater. He moves on switching jobs. When he is not allowed to sell sandwiches, he joins a bar, called Small’s Paradise, as a waiter and is happy to be there. He impresses his employer as well as his customers. He invests his tips in betting racket. After getting a permanent job, Malcolm goes and stays in a boarding house run by prostitutes where they call him “Detroit Red” as his hair looks bright red. He loses his job at the Small’s when he is caught as he directs a secret agent to a prostitute. He starts dealing in marijuana. After initial gains even here he tastes failure as the narcotics squad gets after him. Malcolm turns a victim of the same drugs he sells. He blames the whites for all the underworld activities related to women, gambling and drugs as they are the biggest buyers of these activities. He does not argue, however, about his moral responsibility in spite of being a party to these activities. During World War II, when the white population of America is targeted, Malcolm avoids meeting Sophia in public. The agitation in Harlem grows and ball rooms are shut down to stop interracial relationships. Malcolm outwits the Draft Board by announcing his campaign against the American whites and by dressing profligately. After failing as a gambler and a drugs dealer, he attempts robbery and smuggling of guns. He now switches over to cocaine in order to cope with the stress. When his life is at threat in Harlem, Malcolm moves to Boston with Shorty, his friend. His relationship with Sophia is caught by a friend of Sophia’s husband and is sentenced for ten years of imprisonment. In the prison, he is kept in a compartment where he is all by himself the reason being his fierceness. He is nicknamed “Satan.” He does some serious introspection. Malcolm holds himself responsible for ruining the life of Laura, who has turned a prostitute. By doing so he, indirectly, revises his views about the sufferings of the blacks. He had always thought that only when whites stop discriminating against the blacks the latter will grow. But now he believes that if the blacks want to alleviate their sufferings, then only they can do something about themselves. He realizes that overthrowing responsibility is not the cure for them rather empowerment and self-reliance is. Under the influence of Bimbi, a commanding and respectable prisoner, who acts like a surrogate father for Malcolm, he is metamorphosed. The prison brings to him a kind of enlightenment as he spends all his time in the prison library. It not only improves his English but also turns his anger and frustration into wisdom. He gets converted to Islam and he now understands the problems of racism even better. He realizes that racism is spread across the international boundaries. He is sent to Norfolk Prison Colony in 1948 which has a huge library. It is around this time that he is drawn towards Islam partly because of the anti-white theories of the Islamic leader and partly because all his sins will be pardoned by the merciful Allah. His vast reading informs him that Colonialism is not confined to Africa. He learns how India and China have protested against the British Colonialism. In the prison, they have debate programmes. This becomes Malcolm’s first experience of public speaking. In 1952, Malcolm is released from the prison. he buys himself a wristwatch that indicates his time-consciousness. He devotes himself to the Nation of Islam. He starts spreading his present faith. He decides use “X” as his surname so as to symbolize the surname he would have had, had his ancestors not been enslaved after being kidnapped by the whites. In 1956, Malcolm gets married to Betty who bears him five children. In 1962, the Twenty-Fourth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution is proposed which includes a ban on poll taxes in federal elections, and which gives the African Americans, particularly the poor, the eligibility to vote. Around 1963, Malcolm becomes so famous that he is invited to lecture in universities. Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam, is jealous. When Elijah Muhammad’s transgressions are exposed, Malcolm expects him to confess in the public but Elijah does not do so. The later circumstances reveal it to Malcolm that Elijah Muhammad has betrayed him. He comes to know that the Nation of Islam wants Malcolm to be murdered. Instead of thinking about the Nation of Islam, he now focuses more on the problems of the blacks. Malcolm visits Mecca in spite of all ordeals. Now his official name is El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz although he remains Malcolm X popularly. He tours extensively and is overwhelmed to see the way he is received everywhere. He meets many whites who are not contaminated with the anti-black feelings. He relates this experience to his earlier experience with whites like the Swerlins, Sophia and others who have never had any hatred for his race. He can now clearly see that it is not really a black vs. white problem in America. It is something else. He concludes that “America needs to understand Islam, because this is the one religion that erases from its society the race problem.” He sees the big picture now and declares “I’m for truth, no matter who tells it. I’m for justice, no matter who it is for or against.” He is no more an enraged anti-white. He has become a compassionate anti-racist. He no more wants an independent route but integration Thus Malcolm blends the autobiography of his identities, which he started writing in 1962 and completed in 1964, with that of the milieu which makes this book a poignant cultural document. The epilogue recounts the last two years of Malcolm’s life from Haley’s point of view. Haley mentions the death threats that Malcolm received before his assassination on February 21, 1965, when three members from among the audience at a lecture at Harlem’s Audubon Ballroom shot Malcolm dead. The three convicts had Muslim affiliations. Haley informs that Malcolm’s funeral was attended by thousands of blacks, whites, Muslims, and non-Muslims. This shows how Malcolm had evolved from a revolutionary into a direction setter, a true champion of equality and fraternity. John Updike’s treatment of race and inner life is one of the factors that distinguish him from the rest of the Big Four (Saul Bellow, Norman Mailer and Phillip Roth). His 1968-best seller Couples is set in 1963 against the background of the Kennedy era of realism in the Boston suburb of Tarbox. The characters include a group of well-heeled couples whose married lives are characterized by infidelity. Updike talks about the cracks in these crisscross relationships while also exploring simultaneously the theme of dissent which is an underlining feature in almost all the American novels of the 1960’s. Works Cited Haley, Alex. The Autobiography of Malcolm X. New York: Balantine, 1965. Mailer, Norman. The Armies of the Night: History as a Novel/ The Novel as History. New York: New American library, 1968. Updike, John. Couples. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1968. Read More