Hypocrisy in Society - Book Report/Review Example

 1 ON THE BOOK “BURR” BY GORE VIDAL The last time I experienced Gore Vidal, I figuratively had a shower of acid rain. In Myra Breckinridge, Gore Vidal was seething with acid. There, he could no longer hide his contempt for conventions and categorizing, for hypocrisy in society, and for his revulsion against sexual norms. In the Myra novel, he showed all and sundry, his mastery of satire, irony and sarcasm. With a caustic and sardonic wit, he displayed a subversive attitude and a ferociously bitter antagonism to society-dictated conventions. In “Burr”, it was expected that he would mellow down in his usual satiric stance, this being a historical novel, an exposition of the political events that unfolded a few decades after the American Revolution. If the latter, consumed so much passion, turbulence, physical energy and liters of gore spilled, we expect a subsidence, a quieting down and pacification in the decades following. In ”Burr”, we’re in for a big surprise for there was turbulence and passions galore beside the rampant jockeying for positions and power, intrigues, scandals and hypocrisy. Gore Vidal was still in his element here still witty, bitchy and sardonic. But what sets “Burr” apart is the rampant iconoclasm. Gore Vidal’s guns were trained not only to traditional political institutions but to American ‘greats’ such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, James Madison and Martin Van Buren, who happened to be rumored here as Burr’s bastard son. Irreverent and sassy, practically no one was spared here as Vidal cannot be stopped from unmasking the weaknesses and follies of revered heroes. Vidal’s interpretation of early American history, was therefore on the dark side. This interpretation was best expressed when Vidal put the following words in Burr’s mouth i.e. “Between the dishonest canting of Jefferson and the egotism of Hamilton, this state had been no good from the beginning …that early republic of ours was no place for a man who wanted to 2 live in a good world” ( Vidal 156). Vidal postulated that in this era the new nation still had to grope for stability; to organize things that were still in disarray; and had to strengthen its newly acquired independence and institutions. The Constitution, the legal system and the system of a 3-powered government desperately begged for amendments and rectifications as these were far from ideal and were subject to abuse. Vidal exposed the absence of the separation of powers among the judiciary, the executive and the legislative departments. That was why, President Jefferson was able to actively pursue the judicial indictment and incarceration of Burr and harass his witnesses. Besides placing the judge, Justice Marshall in a hot seat, he was also able to pressure and dictate the Senate to bend according to his will. Not only that , the laws against oral defamation and libel were so inutile that when Burr could no longer stand the slandering of Hamilton, he was left with no option but dare him for a duel. To buttress his contention that the system in the early American history was defective and in topsy-turvy condition, he pointed to the flawed electoral system. “The framers had planned for a world without parties, in which the president and the vice-president were picked independently, each elector having 2 votes in the process, with the winner in the Electoral College filling the office of the president, and the lesser office going to the runner-up” (Emery 1). The time bomb exploded when both Jefferson and Burr tied with 73 votes and Burr refused to defer to the imperious Jefferson. Thus, emanated Jefferson’s deep-seated hatred for Burr. This electoral system resulted to more confusing events and netted nothing more than rancor and enmity. Because of the above dilemma, Hamilton rode the political melee and urged Congress to break the tie in favor of Jefferson, calling Burr “ a profligate, a voluptuary…bankrupt beyond redemption, except by the plunder of his country- artful and intriguing to an inconceivable degree” (Emery 2). Thus, Hamilton stoked the fire of fury in Burr. Lastly, because Vidal expressed contempt and disdain on all political leaders of that era, we can possibly extrapolate that Vidal deemed the nation at that era as a ship sailing 3 without an efficient captain. It’s no surprise because Gordon Wood expressed that “probably no American writer since Franklin has derided, ridiculed and mocked Americans more skillfully and more often than Vidal” (1). Lehmann summarized it by stating that “ Mr. Vidal gives us an interpretation of our early history that says in effect that all the old verities were never much to begin with “ (3). If we analyze the life of Vidal (real name: Eugene Luther Gore Vidal), then we can possibly fathom Vidal’s acerbic, combative, controversial and unconventional stance as well as his interest in politics and history. It’s noteworthy to mention that Vidal didn’t grow with both parents as they divorced when he was three. Then politics is in his blood. “His father , Eugene Luther Vidal, worked for the Roosevelt administration as Director of Air Commerce. His maternal grandfather was Senator Thomas Prior Gore of Oklahoma” (Parini 2). Then he was in one way or another related to the Kennedy clan because his mother, Nina, married High Auchincloss, who divorced her to marry Jacqueline Kennedy’s mother. Then his military training at Virginia Military Institute and his work as an officer of Army Transportation Corps prepared him for the many battles that he would be writing about. As to his sardonic style of writing, he possibly could have perfected that after writing all those novels, essays, plays and even detective stories under the pseudonym Edward Box.. He is probably, by nature sardonic and sarcastic. Consider this, in an interview he once considered himself “the gentleman bitch of American letters. I am exactly as I appear. There is no warm, lovable person inside. Beneath my cold exterior, once you break the ice, you find cold water” (Dick 3). It’s probably important to mention that he had twice failed in his bid for public office and he had suffered rejections of his work in his earlier years as a writer. He also lived-in for 30 years with Howard Austin and lived in both America and Italy along the Amalfi Coast. However, he refused to be labeled as a ‘homosexual writer’. 4 The novel “Burr” is but one leg of the ‘Narratives of the Empire”, which is a “major sequence of 7 novels about American History” (Parini 1). The rest of the novels are Lincoln, The Golden Age, 1876, Washington DC, Duluth, and the Smithsonian Institution. “Burr”, the first of such, is more of a political fiction than historical novel. It is a fiction because the memoir itself as well as the major characters William Leggett and the narrator of the story, Charles Schuyler, Burr’s amanuensis to whom Burr confides, are fictional. But the facts are actual and the major characters’ words and actions are culled from real events, the product of Vidal’s extensive research. The book is characterized by too much political wrangling and rivalries. The novel itself is one big steaming cauldron of political bickering, manipulations and intrigues. Thus, Jefferson and his VP Burr secretly hated and plotted against each other; Burr and Hamilton vowed to put up a retributive vengeance against each other at the most opportune time; Washington and Hamilton were locked in a love-hate relationship; Jefferson and Hamilton feuded against each other when common friend Madison broke up with Hamilton to become Jefferson’s ally; Washington “had a fine talent for defeating rival generals in the Congress” ( Vidal 57). Jefferson and Adams at the outset , were the best of friends, then later became the worst enemies, then reestablished friendship again. Adams and Hamilton, meanwhile, abhorred each other . The hostilities and the ephemeral state were such that Vidal was made to comment that there was indeed lack of civilization in that era. Burr’s historical value, then, principally, was that through him and his unforgettable duel with Hamilton and his trial for treason, was unfurled the weaknesses of the justice and legal system of that era. Through Burr, the nation was shaken from reality that in order for the nation to propel itself forward, things had to be turned almost 360 degrees forward. Historical value is important because it would form the basis for moving things upward in order for prosperity to be attained. The fact that Burr was one of the Founding Fathers, was America’s third vice-president 5 from 1801-1805, and was a senator helped him attain such historical value. Vidal expressed his novel in the memoir form. The novel itself opened in the ‘present’ July 1, 1833, when Burr, 78 years of age, made preparations for his marriage to a wealthy widow 10 years his junior, Madame Eliza Bowen Jumel, whispered around as a former whore. Through narration by both Burr and his amanuensis, Charlie Schuyler, the story backtracks to the time of the American Revolution as Burr reminisced his life as a revolutionary war hero assisting Col. Benedict Arnold in the colonials’ drive to capture Fort Ticonderoga as well as in their bitter defeat in the hands of the British at Quebec. He further remembered experiencing a ‘winter of discontent’ at Valley Forge. Burr then proceeded on with his iconoclastic attacks on Washington, Gen. Henry Knox, Gen. Lee, Hamilton, Frenchman Marquis de Lafayette, Prussian Von Steuben, Lord Stirling, James Monroe, and Benedict Arnold. No one was spared from such iconoclasm. Indeed Vidal was, as he claimed “a gentleman bitch”. An example was his merciless denunciation of Washington i.e. “Although defective in grammar and spelling , owing to a poor education, the General was uncommonly shrewd in the way he flattered Congressmen. Ultimately he must be judged as a politician who had no gift for warfare” (Vidal 56). As for Gen. Knox, “Henry Knox was most truly adhesive. Fat, slow-moving…he lacked however, the military gift…he was never entirely certain which end of the cannon you lit” (Vidal 79). To Gen. Lee, “Lee had been mysteriously captured while visiting a lady in a tavern: mysteriously because some suspected Washington of having arranged the capture to remove a rival “ (Vidal 90). As to Marquis de Lafayette, “He was all youthful enthusiasm and charm and silliness” (Vidal 91). For Von Steuben, a “marvelous liar who had put it about that he was Lt. general to Frederick the Great when the highest rank he ever held was captain” (Vidal 91). For Lord Stirling and Monroe, “Lord Stirling who was always attended by his aide James Monroe, whose principal task….was to keep his lordship’s cup filled until it was time to put him to bed” 6 (Vidal 92). And to Benedict Arnold, “His quarrelsome and autocratic nature was further exacerbated by too much drink” (Vidal 93). Burr further intoned, “The one thing that Jefferson, Hamilton, and I had in common was indebtedness. We all lived beyond our means” (Vidal 157). He again continued , “Jefferson was a ruthless man…so eminently vague, so entirely dishonest. He then pictured Andrew Jackson as “a young man who tended to incoherence when passionate. He used also to drool at the corners of his mouth. Jefferson called him the mad dog” (Vidal 194). He also had this anecdote of Jefferson mounting a horse up the hill when “suddenly Jefferson’s horse shied. Savagely he jerked at the animal’s mouth till blood came with the foam; all the while using his whip until the poor creature was heavily wealed” (Vidal 195). Practically half of the novel was spent on anecdotes that make good fodder for the grist mill. The second half however, starting from the time that Hamilton acceded to Burr’s challenge to a duel right to the time that the ‘devil incarnate’ Jefferson employed all the tricks in the books legal or illegal, to harass and decimate Burr, the tempo immediately surged as the reader would be compelled to lend a protective mantle to Burr. From the outset, both Burr and Hamilton had been bitter political rivals. Both were revolutionary war heroes, both brilliant lawyers and both ladies’ men. But there was an unexplained animosity in Hamilton. In the published articles he wrote, he gave vent to his dislike to Burr by writing slanderous stories about him. In one dinner party, Burr took umbrage at some remarks made by Hamilton. They were so distressing that Burr challenged Haamilton to a duel to rectify his honor. Arnold Rogow wrote that “according to Vidal, Hamilton accused Burr of incest- of sleeping with his daughter Theodosia” (Rogow 351). There were also at that time “unpleasant rumors currently circulating about Col. Burr- this had to do with my (Burr) thrusting Eliza Bowen (Burr’s wife) into Hamilton’s bed in order to learn his secrets” (Vidal 264). The outcome of this duel on Weehawk Heights was fatal to Hamilton and resulted to 7 the charge of murder being filed against Burr. However, Burr was acquitted of the charge. But the event wrote finis to Burr’s political career in the east. Destroyed, Burr set his sights on the west, where he was still popular. He bought property at the Blennerhassett Island, where some grandiose plans were hatched. One such project was “the liberation of Mexico from Spain…because to many….the people of the United States wanted the Spanish Dons driven from our hemisphere” (Vidal 261). He thus made a trek to Mexico with the quixotic aim of making it a new Eden, way from the corrupt USA. This unsettled Jefferson who was privy to rumors that Burr had formed his own regiment of at least 200 men in Blennerhassett Island. Working in tandem with Gen. James Wilkinson, the commander of the US Army, they devised a plan to entrap Burr. Wilkinson, being in the pay of Spain, was opposed to the idea of a Mexican conquest. However, the scheme was for him to pretend to agree to the plan and to promise cooperation. Jefferson, playing the prosecutor, charged Burr with treason and the conspiracy to capture lands that belonged to the Louisiana Purchase and to declare an illegal war against Spain, re its colony in Mexico. What Jefferson so abhorred about was the possibility of Burr being crowned emperor of Mexico as well as the possible secession of New York and New England from the Virginia-based Union. At that time talks were rife to the above plan and Jefferson suspected Burr to be behind it. In the Senate, Senator Pickering was the most vocal claiming that “the purchase of Louisiana had been the last straw….Jefferson, the Virginia junta would carve up that vast region into a number of slave-holding Republican states and that New England would simply wither away” (Vidal 259). It should be noted down that there were talks that Jefferson kept many slaves and even fathered slaves. Burr denied being part of the secession scheme. But Jefferson proceeded with the order to arrest and imprison Burr and his friends and ‘co-conspirators’. Burr immediately surrendered to the Governor of Mississippi because Wilkinson was sending agents to kill him. Said Burr, “if I were to come under Wilkinson’s jurisdiction, 8 I would not live long enough to have my day in court, or anywhere else” (Vidal 347). After payment of bail, Burr went into hiding but Jefferson pressured the governor to forfeit his bail and to offer $2,000 to the public for Burr’s head. He was eventually captured and then faced trial in Richmond, Virginia. Jefferson sought out and bribed witnesses to testify that Burr planned to invade New Orleans, rob the banks there and would then be proceeding to Mexico. He also presented letters and then pressured Senate to suspend the writ of habeas corpus with the aim that Burr’s friends Dr. Bollman and Swartwout, could be placed in government custody and be pressured to turn against Burr by devious means. This exploded in Jefferson’s face as Dr. Bollman refused to be cowed. He rejected the idea that his deposition be used as evidence against Burr in return for government pardon. He stressed that he was not guilty of any wrongdoing and thus didn’t deserve any pardon. Swartwout, meanwhile, attested to Burr’s innocence. But Jefferson’s Waterloo was the selection of his cousin , ex-Chief Justice John Marshall as judge of the grand jury trial. Marshall was adamant and refused to be controlled. He then ordered a subpoena duces tecum on Jefferson’s documents which were later proven to be trumped up. Marshall reminded the grand jury that “in the matter of treason, the court is explicit: two persons must witness the traitor in the act of levying war against the United States or of adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort” (Vidal 370). The grand jury decided that there is no proof sufficient to indict Burr as guilty of the crime of treason. After reading Vidal’s novel and experiencing all the titillating tidbits, the bitchiness, the scandals, the intrigues all interspersed with hard, historical facts, I’ve come to the conclusion that the study of history has become more interesting and more exciting. Reading a straightforward historical book is like eating meal minus the condiments and spices. In an historical novel, the author is given leeway to rearrange facts and the freedom to attribute motivations to characters’ deeds and behavior. However, the reader will have the onus of having to sift reality from 9 author’s imagination. At every step of the way, the reader will have to ask the question , “Is this real?” Vidal in this novel showed Burr aching to retreat to Mexico to build his paradise there. Burr was so fed up with the corruption, the complexity of life, the turbulence, all the intrigues and the topsy-turvy existence in the New World. If that was Vidals’ view of early American history, life in the 60’s and the 70’s were just as turbulent, complex and as topsy-turvy. It seemed as if the 60’s and the 70’s were mere continuation of early American history. If Burr were alive in that era, he would probably hide off to Timbuktu to seek peace and solace. For peace was a diminishing factor in that era. The Cold War between USA and Russia was at its climactic stage, black civil rightists and the women’s libbers were demonstrating in the streets of America. There was turmoil left and right as everybody else demands rights and liberation. There was the Black Power Movement, the Brown Power, the Red Power Movements, the Gay Liberation and the Women’s Liberation. To add complexity, there was the KU Klux Klan, the NAACP, the rightists and the leftists, the hard rock bands, drugs, LSD, the Flower Power Movement. There were boycotts, riots, assassinations including that of Pres. Kennedy and his brother Robert as well as that of Martin Luther King. Lastly, there was the Vietnam War, of which the entry of USA spawned anti-war demonstrations. If early 1800’s had its scandals, early 70’s had its Watergate Scandal. Both early 1800’s and the 60’s and 70’s had its share of political intrigues, power plays and devious schemes. 10 BIBLIOGRAPHY Dick, Bernard F. “The Apostate Angel: Gore Vidal.” 1974. http://www.levity.com/corduroy/vidal.html. Emery, Noemie. “Our Aaron Burr.” The Weekly Standard 4Dec. 2000. Lehmann, Christopher. “Back To The First Principles. The New York Times” http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/011/home/video-burr.html. Parini, Jay. “American Masters.” . Rogow, Arnold A. A Fatal Friendship: Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. New York:Hill and Wang. 1998:351. Vidal, Gore. Burr: A Novel. 1973. New York. Random House. Wood, Gordon S. Aaron Burr. The New York Times 14 Dec. 2003. Read More