abstract 17 humans have an innate tendency to construct civilization according to changes in their landscape, which becomes quite apparent in a post-apocalyptic setting: society chooses to either adopt novel social structures or forsake law and order. literature portrays the degradation or progression of such post-apocalyptic societies to reflect changes in the environment, oftentimes creating a conflicting dichotomy between the societies present before and after apocalyptic events have altered the surrounding nature. time and again, assorted theories and conceptions on this construct of civilization reflect an incomplete understanding. civilization is a broad term, derived from its etymological latin root word, cīvis, for citizen. the oxford english dictionary defines civilization in two main ways: “1. [t]he stage of human social development and organization which is considered most advanced,” and “2. a place that offers the comfortable way of life of a modern society” (oxford english dictionary). this essay aims to analyze the binary understandings of nature as both paradise and wasteland, the contemporary understandings of civilization and change, and nature and civilization’s inseparable ties to the post-apocalyptic narrative. in his essay, “the trouble with wilderness; or, getting back to the wrong nature,” william cronon (1995) employs the term civilization to denote an advanced social order— advanced not only in the economic and industrial sense but also in the moral sense. he deems that “it is all too easy to lose oneself in moral confusion and despair” when one oversteps “the margins of civilization” (cronon). instead of directly glamorizing civilization civilization and nature are quite intimately connected, and, as a result, a catastrophic change in the environment can produce significant alterations to both the understandings and perceptions of civilization. this paper examines the views of henry david thoreau in an excerpt of walden, william cronon’s perceptions in “the trouble with wilderness; or getting back to the right nature,” and james berger’s analysis of representations of the postapocalypse in his book after the end to explore how they differ and align in the context of the post-apocalypse. by peter anto johnson, university of alberta perspectives of civilization: new beginnings after the end 18 as some form of moral compass with strictly defined conventions and social standards, cronon belittles the “antithesis of an unnatural civilization”—wilderness. presenting the heavenly appeal of nature as a sort of euphemism for the wilderness, cronon attempts to define what civilization is not. drawing a dividing line between human and nature, he strongly asserts that “wilderness leaves no place for human beings” and that “to protect sacred wilderness from profane humanity, would . . . be suicide.” he then ridicules the paradoxical portrayal of nature as both “satan’s home” and “god’s own temple” in the bible and early romanticized narratives. stretching the rift between demonic, barbarian wilderness and the divine, paradisiacal garden of eden, cronon ascribes a sentiment of fictional fantasy and pretentiousness to both classifications. when its antithesis is assessed, cronon’s syllogistic deduction that civilization must then be the most realistic form of existence for humanity seems sensible. in line with the aforementioned dictionary definitions, it also becomes apparent that civilization provides the “most advanced” and “comfortable way of life” (oxford english dictionary). after firmly establishing this denotation for civilization, cronon consolidates this claim even further by refuting definitions “of urban-industrial civilization as confining, false, and artificial” that renders individuals “faceless, collective, [and] contemptible” (cronon). selecting for rebuttal the extended metaphor of civilization as the “human disease . . . infect[ing] the earth,” he paraphrases these individuals’ claim that the “best antidote to the ills of an overly refined and civilized modern world was a return to simpler, more primitive living” (cronon). implicit sarcasm and reproach in cronon’s tone are brought to light as he denounces nature and compliments civilization. in fact, this modified restatement also reveals cronon’s mobilization of the term civilization to conjure connotations of refinement. this is one common sentiment that resounds with many of cronon’s critics, such as alice ingerson. refinement, as invoked by cronon’s use of the term civilization, is often synonymous with concepts such as advancement and enhancement. how, then, does cronon define these concepts? one can think of these terms in relation to evolution as a form of natural selection that follows the principle of the survival of the fittest—a principle that also appears in post-apocalyptic literature. civilization would then be the society that is thriving under natural pressures that oppose survival. it becomes clear that “there can be no escape from manipulating and working and even killing some parts of nature to make our home” as it would be the most civilized approach (cronon). rather than a nomadic, primeval lifestyle, a modernized urban civilization is more pragmatic, as it offers better prospects of survival. johnson 19 henry david thoreau (1854) turns the notions of human constructionism and survival on their heads in an excerpt from his book, walden. the satirical work perceives civilization as chaotic bedlam as opposed to the “comfortable way of life” described by the second definition: civilization, to thoreau, offers nothing but shackles and chains restraining the lives of individuals with social burdens (oxford english dictionary). (notably, this epiphany often arises after an apocalyptic catastrophe.) it is neither comfortable nor a way of life; more precisely, it is a “chopping sea of civilized life”—a place unfit for living (thoreau 119). it is a place in which we are awoken “by the mechanical nudgings of some servitor” instead of our “genius” (thoreau 116). this mechanical artificiality of civilization constantly drains us of life, physically and mentally. thoreau is also a devout advocate of simplicity. in his argument, urban sprawl, busyness, and hectic affairs are aspects of civilization that make it “deadly slow” (thoreau 124). civilization is not some social refuge; on the contrary, it is a pandemonium of social indoctrination and classical conditioning of the mindless masses. exhibited by thoreau’s slate of individuals as “sleepers,” the insentient and comatose state of mental consciousness within the institution of civilization is fully unveiled (120). those deluded and comforted by the monotonous and perpetual design of civilizations are those whose vitality and vigor have been numbed by “slumbering, and consenting to be deceived by shows” (thoreau 125). they “establish and confirm their daily life of routine and habit” in spite of its “purely illusory foundations” (thoreau 125). ironically, it is the presence of the plethora of labors and affairs that create such a trance-like lethargy in individuals. civilization conditions these sleepers to awake, not by “genius” (thoreau 116) or conscious rousings, but rather by “mechanical aids” and “factory bells”—programmed stimuli (thoreau 117). the robotic and automated response displayed by the “sound sleepers” who “devote days and nights to the work” are, in thoreau’s mind, foundational to schemes of civilization (120). otherwise, “who will build railroads?” (thoreau 120). progress would not be feasible if these sleepers were conscious of their fate under civilization, which is a destiny often only fully realized following the disaster of a post-apocalyptic scenario. without these human drones, projects like the railroad would be incomplete, and society would be incapable of advancing, which is no loss to humanity as such “internal improvements . . . are all external and superficial” (thoreau 120). thoreau employs the extended metaphor of civilization as “an unwieldy and overgrown establishment, cluttered with furniture and tripped up by its own traps, ruined by luxury and heedless expense” (thoreau 120). with thoreau in mind, it becomes obvious that civilization is the polar opposite of the socially organized and most “advanced society” johnson 20 painted in the first dictionary definition and envisioned by cronon (oxford english dictionary). under thoreau, nature is an entity that, while derelict in modern society, holds a supreme value, an entity that could be fully understood when the environment is disrupted by an apocalyptic event that forces society to desert their modern tools. in contemporary society, however, the view of civilization as “comfortable” and the “most advanced” still dominates the dubious thoreauvian censure by far, even in more objective resources such as the oxford english dictionary. by ignoring thoreau’s criticism, the mauling, brainwashing tendencies of modern civilization continues to permeate humanity, as seen in the article “why modern civilization is a vicious circle” by shane parrish (2016). the distinctive notion that civilization “has its priorities messed up, [and] that we need to live in the moment” raises the same issue thoreau identified (parrish 22). modernity and materialism are instruments of civilization that “stimulate our sense organs until they become insensitive,” until we become sound sleepers (parrish 22). this opinion is extended to suggest another reason as to “why all affairs of civilization are rushed” (parrish 22). it is essential to note that “the civilized man does not know what he wants” and works under civilization for unattainable, abstract purposes: “success, fame, a happy marriage, fun, to help other people, or to become a ‘real person’” (parrish 23). such promises and guarantees of civilization are “constantly retreating phantom[s],” as one is eternally chasing but never attaining these goals (parrish 22). according to parrish, humans differ from animals in that they must utilize “the highest possible amount of consciousness, alertness, and chronic insomnia” in the pursuit of more material stimulation (parrish 22). this utensil of civilization—this bombardment of luxuries and wants—progressively functions to desensitize the individual, rendering them “incapable of real pleasure, insensitive to the most acute and subtle joys of life” (parrish 22). in this way, modern civilization is a vicious cycle—a world in which natural selection has yielded not an ethically upright, progressive society but has rather provided a contradictory stage of social regress and moral decay under a material hegemony. after reviewing the positive and negative commentary on the nature of modern civilization, one might then question how civilization would evolve or regress after a coreshaking apocalyptic event. the theory is tested and analyzed in james berger’s after the end as he combines historical, academic, and literary evidence to consider civilization’s “aftermath and remainders,” many analyses of which are reminiscent of thoreauvian conceptions and cronon’s ideas about civilization (xii). in his introductory examination of trauma, berger makes an explicit connection to historical events such as the holocaust, the johnson 21 vietnam war, and slavery in early america—events which mirror much of apocalyptic literature and which underscore its relevance to modern day civilization. he sheds light on the irony of the end as post-apocalyptic literature rarely ever offers any ending: in fact, a catastrophic event generally paves a new beginning to a different form of civilization, whether that is a dystopia or utopia. additionally, berger contemplates ideas of trauma from a perspective suggested by sigmund freud in his psychoanalytical works. while freud’s discussion centers around identifying the internal, psychological factors that are modified as a result of calamity, berger examines a larger picture, analyzing the role of social culture in trauma by bringing in slavoj zizek’s contemporary thinking on the “destabilizing intrusion of the real into a symbolic order” (berger 25). the representational systems—the symbolic orders that play a role in all societies—suddenly, in post-apocalpytic literature, become disrupted by catastrophic changes in the environment—the real. such a violent interruption paves the way to anarchy and other persisting social products, which are direct results result of this trauma. this is seen most vividly in zizek’s later reference to a “natural cycle of generation and corruption,” a concept which parallels parrish’s description of the vicious cycle but also expounds upon it by suggesting that the “absolute death—the destruction . . . liberates nature from its own laws” (berger 43). berger’s analysis of underlying ideologies that shape a new post-apocalyptic civilization is strongly rooted in his belief that there are two-part, internal variables, such as trauma, and external variables like geography and surrounding environment, contributing to the adoption of new social structures suggested by doyle and the resulting formation of novel cultures (doyle). berger expands his commentary on social environment as he evaluates the scenery following the abolishment of slavery. one might believe that berger’s investigation of the abolition of slavery would yield a perception of civilization that aligns with the first dictionary definition, as abolition constituted what many deem to be advancement in human rights and law. however, berger’s analysis goes further to imply the legacies of slavery still permeate even after the end; in this way, civilization has not aided humanity in becoming its most ethically advanced iteration—the view espoused by cronon—but has rather served as a safe haven for degrading and inhumane practices—as posited by thoreau. evaluated independently, each text conveys civilization with utterly different or identical denotations; taken together, the texts show the multidimensional and multifarious propensity of the term. in “the trouble with wilderness; or, getting back to the wrong johnson 22 nature,” cronon supports the definitation of civilization as the “most advanced” form of human organization by juxtaposing its practicality against the hyperbolic and embellished claims concerning wilderness, its antithesis (oxford english dictionary). walden depicts civilization as an anesthetizing establishment intended to brainwash its civilians by promoting lives as what essentially amounts to hurried, mechanical humanoids and programmable tools. parrish’s commentary also sheds light on this progressive computerization, systemization, and exploitation that civilization perpetrates by proclaiming apparitional vows of success, money, and an unattainable better future. in juxtaposition, berger’s after the end plays a culminating role in drawing lines that connect progression and deterioration of civilization as consequences of cataclysmic changes in the environment. taken as a whole, cronon’s views are contradictory to the beliefs of thoreau and parrish, while berger recognizes the persistence of both views post-apocalyptically. critically, “the trouble with wilderness; or, getting back to the wrong nature” presents a definition of civilization consistent with the dictionary definitions that advertise civilization as advanced in every aspect and as the most rational solution for human progress, whereas walden denies these claims, insisting instead that civilization is an immoral and degenerating organization with superficial purposes that program its civilians to become more automated, mechanical, and repetitive. while cronon persists in epitomizing civilization as a prototype designed by, and refined by, the pressures of survival to overcome the savagery of primeval nomadism and hunter-gatherer lifestyles, parrish exposes the fact that such an advanced model only deprives mental energy and deteriorates our lives by employing exhausting amounts of rush, hurry, and superfluity. both walden and “why modern civilization is a vicious circle” correspond in stance; however thoreau is more apprehensive of the exhaustive, inertial feature of civilization to render individuals paralyzed and disoriented, where parrish emphasizes the illusions of modernity, the materialism contrived by civilization, and the insatiable hunger for pleasure that results in an eternal, progress-hostile immobility. berger examines these views in their entirety, coming to the conclusion that the forces of nature have the power to progress or diminish a civilization after an apocalyptic catastrophe; however, more importantly, berger claims that the new beginnings and changes that occur rely greatly on the sociopolitical environment and sentiment that remains even after calamity. these findings are significant as it demonstrates that the post-apocalypse can become a moment of hope in rebuilding civilization in a better image. johnson 23 works cited berger, james. after the end: representations of post-apocalypse. university of minnesota press, 1999. cronon, william, editor. uncommon ground: rethinking the human place in nature. w.w. norton & co., 1995. rpt. in “the trouble with wilderness; or, getting back to the wrong nature.” william cronon, http://www.williamcronon.net/writing/trouble_with_ wilderness_ main.html. “civilization.” english oxford living dictionaries. oxford university press, http://www.oxford dictionaries.com/definition/english/civilization. doyle, briohny. “the postapocalyptic imagination.” thesis eleven, vol. 131, no. 1, 2015, pp. 99–113. doi:10.1177/0725513615613460. ingerson, alice e. “uncommon ground: toward reinventing nature. william cronon.” review of uncommon ground: toward reinventing nature by william cronon. the quarterly review of biology, vol. 72, no. 3, 1997, pp. 314–315. doi:10.1086/419867. parrish, shane. “why modern civilization is a vicious circle.” time, 20 feb. 2016, pp. 22-23. thoreau, henry d. walden. ticknor and fields, 1854. johnson kidnapped amazonians, severed breasts, and witches: renaissance perceptions of the destructive nature of the freakish female in spenser’s the bower of bliss and shakespeare’s two noble kinsmen social stratification operates via the vehicle of gender norms and the deviation from or nonconformity to these cultural expectations. those people who cannot or refuse to conform to social norms are often the subject of spectacle, observed by society as outsiders in a metaphorical freak show. the societal attitudes of renaissance england toward gender are permeated with a pervasive fear of feminine sexuality and the destructive impact that such “vehement passions” were believed to have upon men. this anxiety of gender nonconformity is especially prominent in the portrayal and perception of “foreign” women— females voluntarily transcending the roles of domesticity placed upon them or women deriving from cultures in which the ideals of femininity are noticeably different than those of renaissance england. william shakespeare and other authors within this time write from this bias when creating their own female characters, positioning these characters laken brooks, emory & henry college abstract freak shows are physical and metaphorical, demonstrating a cultural perception of what and who is privileged. in renaissance england, shakespeare and spenser both write of deviant women and perpetuate the stereotypes of foreign women, creating literary “freak shows” in their works two noble kinsmen and the bower of bliss. whether these characters are amazonian women disinterested in heterosexual romance or promiscuous witches, they are set as spectacle in the confines of their respective texts. digital literature review, vol. 3 (2016). © ball state university. all rights reserved. please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce critical edition to dlr@bsu.edu. 108 as commodities which readers may observe from outside of the text, as one stares at creatures in an exhibit. in shakespeare’s two noble kinsmen and edmund spenser’s the bower of bliss, two very different women— emilia and acrasia—emerge from a similar cultural anxiety concerning the inevitable carnality of female sexuality. although both women approach their femininity in very different ways, their identities are shaped within the literary arena of spectacle within spenser’s and shakespeare’s texts (indicative of the universal renaissance english biases against nonconforming women), and both lead to the downfall of the male ideal of temperance. to write of something is to arrest it and place it on display so that it may be witnessed by readers. spenser’s faerie queene was a work channeling the essence of misogyny. one particular section of spenser’s epic poem, titled the bower of bliss, praises the chastity and holiness of the familiar in the form of una, symbolic of the english queen elizabeth, while depicting the downfall of the wicked other embodied by acrasia. spenser’s work is a form of the human zoo to show the binary of gender and cultural norms. both the queen and acrasia are female leaders over their own respective kingdoms with the same perceived potential for weakness in comparison to a male, as indicated by their genitalia that, in the early modern period, would have been thought of as being internalized (and incomplete) penises. their differences lie in their adherence or lack thereof to standards of idealized femininity. elizabeth, the “virgin queen,” is loved and becomes an effective ruler in spite of her identity as a woman; it is only by not openly utilizing that which marks her as female that she can effectively transcend the vices of carnality and excessive emotion that are thought to be characteristic of womankind. acrasia represents the fulfilled fears of men concerning female sexuality in nearly every aspect. spenser’s poem views her through the male lens, identifying her socially unexpected qualities as one would label an animal in a zoo: mutant, sorceress, lustful. she is a witch who lures noblemen into her bower with her beauty and her spells. when sir guyon, representative of male power and spiritual temperance, first comes across the enchantress, he sees her, half-sleeping, on a bed of roses, clad in a veil of silk and silver, all round were many fair ladies and boys singing sweetly. not far off was her last victim, a gallant-looking youth, over whom she brooks 109 had cast an evil spell. his brave sword and armour hung idly on a tree, and he lay sunk in a heavy slumber, forgetful of all the noble deeds in which he had once delighted. (spenser 163) acrasia claims men, taking physical and emotional control over them in a way that deviates from the expected female role of sexual submissiveness. her identity as a sexually-active woman, living in her mysterious kingdom, labels her as dangerous and foreign in the eyes of renaissance english society. she distracts noblemen from their spiritual and physical valor by initiating sex and adopting the masculine role of penetrating them, so to speak, with her temptation. her victims are emasculated to the point where they become nearly feminine themselves, mutated by acrasia’s influence. they are compared to boys who have been stripped of their cultural markers of masculine significance, made into sleeping exhibitions to be passively acted upon by acrasia. what separates men from women and from other lower life forms, what makes men perhaps more human than their female counterparts, is their abstinence from the animalistic lusts of sexuality. in acrasia’s bower are wild creatures which “are really men whom the enchantress has thus transformed. now they are turned into these hideous figures, in accordance with their bad and ugly minds” (spenser 165). they are viewed by sir guyon in the artificial habitat of the golden bower, living among the metallic fruit trees as zoo animals removed from their natural landscape, and are incorporated into spenser’s framework of nesting scenes of human bizarreness. such a society is in direct opposition to the patriarchal culture of renaissance england and threatens the male privilege inherent in spenser’s setting. in acrasia’s land, feminine deviant power and sexual autonomy engender masculine inferiority and lead to acrasia’s delusion of her own capacity to lead. with the common concepts of a woman whose very emotional and physical wellbeing is at risk due to her deviant behavior, guyon is completely justified in capturing acrasia, “bound with adamantine chains, for nothing else would keep her safe” (spenser 165). this final act of caging acrasia is to make her and her bower into a menagerie. she is a freak of nature, an anomalous woman to serve as an entertainment and a warning to all who look upon her: see here what is different than us and know that her chains are the consequences of deviation. within shakespeare’s time, a foreign woman like emilia is something brooks 110 of a paradox within the eyes of a masculine society; she is to be lusted after and to be won, to be appropriated into the traditional female domestic role in english society. yet she is also to be feared. such a woman is something to be captured and brought back to england, a prize token of the cultural other. the act of writing of such foreignness is, on shakespeare’s part, an active attempt to profit from the cultural fascination of exoticness by placing an amazonian character on display for playgoers. shakespeare’s play two noble kinsmen utilizes legends of gendered conquest with its introductory account of hippolyta, an amazonian woman, entering in a wedding processional with athens’ king theseus. this very perception is, in and of itself, influenced by the misogynistic attitudes of the renaissance period in that it paints hippolyta, a woman, as the passive recipient of the marital desire of theseus, a man. this introduction to the play two noble kinsmen neglects to mention that, in mythology, hippolyta is a ruler who is abducted with her sister and brought back to athens. this act of male conquest against a female-dominated kingdom would perhaps have been approved of at this time, as it brings masculine order to the perceived chaos of a matriarchy. such opposition of “exotic” feminine power is not an unfamiliar topic in renaissance literature. the act of introducing two noble kinsmen with a wedding officiated by the god of marriage indicates a profound sense of female commodification. the portrayal of a divine figure watching over the upcoming nuptials of hippolyta and theseus implies that this marriage is not only acceptable, but that it and the non-consensual way in which hippolyta is “won” as a bride are the prototypes of ideal matrimony. if hippolyta is a symbol of the other, theseus is the tamer who brings this powerful woman to heel and flaunts her physical variation in his court as a sign of status. she is made into a sideshow to demonstrate theseus’s power to shape a foreign woman with english ideals. this idea harkens back to the perceived danger that foreign women have in their independence; without male guidance and without conforming to the appropriate english ideals of feminine domesticity, women like hippolyta are bringing themselves toward further danger of spiritual and physical debasement. theseus, like sir guyon, is not a male conqueror but is a rescuer who is helping hippolyta by holding power over her and thus by putting her “in her proper place.” despite the apparent conformity of hippolyta and her sister emilia to english brooks 111 ideals of femininity, there is always a mistrust of their adherence to such standards because the very nature of women, especially those women from cultures that do not adhere to male-dominated gender roles, is perceived as dangerously carnal. there is the underlying fear that these mighty women, made to perform docility before the court like trained animals performing tricks, will turn upon their captors and destroy them with their feminine debasement. whether from willful choice or from an existence centered around emotionality, even the most well-intentioned woman’s sexuality has the potential to destroy men, tempting them into the dregs of carnality. this ideology stems from the belief that such women operate in opposition to men, that they are incomplete or lesser forms of men and thus, by their very presence alone, can emasculate their partners. in renaissance england, biblically-sanctioned gendered behavior was expected in society and in the family unit: women were to keep house and care for children; men were to engage in community discourse. after all, “[i]n classical thought, folly is frequently associated with a feminized sexuality that is savage and transgressive. christianity reinforces the connections between folly, sexuality and woman in the fall myth” (chakravarti 81). to tip these scales with non-normative behaviors is to commit an abomination against god’s natural order of husbands lording over their wives, thus adopting the mantle of freakishness by threatening the social institutions that depended largely on christianity and the assumption that men pass economic and political power to their sons. these norms are unmet by women such as the amazonians, who are raised within matriarchal government and military systems. amazonian women are free from the constraints of the patriarchal women who adapt to misogynistic standards, yet emilia and hippolyta are expected to naturally assimilate to this “traditional order.” according to paromita chakravarti, “[t]he dichotomies of passion and reason, nature and culture, formlessness and form inflect the malefemale binary” in that they perpetuate the “stereotypes of irrational, instinctual and unstable women and rational, civil and balanced men” (80-81). contemporary notions about friendship rose from renaissance humanism, cementing friendship between two men as the most important social relationship, “superseding all other possible human associations, including those connected with family, courtship, romance, marriage, brooks 112 sexuality, service, fellowship, and politics” but threatened by “the unruliness of heteroerotic desires” (macfaul 222). women hindered the perceived perfection of male bonding, especially since renaissance england was a patriarchal society. autonomous women were criticized as attempting to erode these social norms with the indicative traits of the freakish female other: hyper-sexuality and hyper-emotionality. physically, english women were expected to fulfill the role of mother and wife. symbolic of these responsibilities are the breasts—objects of maternal care in the form of nursing and sexual gratification for men. amazonian women were dually freakified as other; not only did they transcend the cultural gender norms that prevented renaissance english women from having equal opportunities with their male counterparts, but they also looked physically different than english women. while the breasts were a blazon of the idealized wife and mother, the amazonian warrior woman may have had darker skin and cut off her right breast to offer her better control of her bow and arrow (foreman). physically and culturally, the amazonian woman as a character evokes intrigue and fear—an image of freakishness for a strictly patriarchal society. emilia is brought to theseus’ court in the freakshow wedding processional of supposedly-tame amazonian women, yet she does not conform to the english standard of privileging male-to-male friendships. in fact, she goes so far as to state, “true love ‘tween maid and maid may be more in sex dividual” (1.3.81-82). this line expresses gender nonconformity on multiple levels; not only does it outright state that women have the same capacity to form bonds that are equally, if not more, meaningful than the friendships held by men, but it also expresses the potential support of lesbian relationships over heterosexual romance. emilia is an image of otherness, involved in everything that is dangerous and unusual to englishmen: physical power in warfare and politics as an amazonian princess and a lesbian identity deviating from expected female heterosexual submissiveness. she, as a character, is freakified upon the stage—she is written as a foil of englishwomen to entertain an english audience, yet she is not even performed by a woman since most renaissance theaters did not hire actresses. emilia’s identity within two noble kinsmen threatens traditional male privilege in that it implies that men are not needed to form romantic brooks 113 relationships or friendships, and in fact the presence of men might hinder women from having rewarding friendships and sexual interactions with other women. emilia expresses a female sexual and emotional independence that questions the advantage of exclusively male friendships, viewing these homogendered masculine connections as being as freakish to her as her amazonian identity is to athens (a setting upon which are imposed the cultural norms of shakespeare’s england). as emilia questions the power of male friendships, her very presence as a woman serves to break apart the quintessential relationship between arcite and palamon by invoking sexual desire in these two companions. according to kathryn schwartz, “[a]ccounts of generation define woman as matter, man as spirit” (148). this gendered notion of existence is prevalent in the renaissance in which women were seen as emotional beings that evoke sentimental fragility and sexual desire in men, while men themselves are perceived as being more spiritual beings—the likes of which could be gravely distracted from such a higher frame of being by the carnality of female nature. this fear comes to life in the text of two noble kinsmen when arcite and palamon first fall in love with emilia. upon seeing her, palamon exclaims, “never till now was i in prison, arcite... might not a man well lose himself and love her?” (2.2.133-156). arcite responds likewise by saying, “now i feel my shackles” (2.2.157). in falling in love with emilia, the men are confined to the chains of sexual desire that indicate feminine existence rather than enjoying their own mutual friendship. they have become toys for female pleasure and control, taking on the instability of sexual desire that society deems grotesque in men. the men shed the pure aspirations that established them as belonging within a chaste and patriarchal society, delving into the animalistic desires of carnality that were previously freakish to the young men. although emilia has no direct control over how these men perceive her, her very nature as a foreign female leads the men’s friendship and the characters themselves toward their doom. her innate bizarreness destroys palamon and arcite’s friendship, establishing emilia as a force of freakishness that corrupts what is normal. with their shared attraction toward emilia comes palamon and arcite’s distraction from their plans of happiness, their thoughts that they would live their lives together. while they are in prison, they find comfort in one another’s presence—arcite tells his friend, “whilst palamon is with brooks 114 me, let me perish if i think this is our prison” (2.2.61-62)—but their freedom for male-to-male unity is shattered by their lust for emilia. their feelings for her threaten their chaste masculine identity (similar to acrasia’s victims). emilia’s presence is foreign and changes the atmosphere of stability around her. before they encounter emilia, palamon and arcite agree that there is no record of any two humans who have loved each other as much as they do (2.2.113-114), yet after they have both fallen in love with her, palamon tells arcite, “you shall not love at all” (2.2.168). due to the influence of emilia, a nonconforming female who ignites the flame of earthly desire in the two noblemen, these characters immediately redefine their definitions of “love” from their prototypical standard of male friendship to mere physical attraction. this change in palamon and arcite’s perception indicates a renaissance fear that women and the sexual desire that they incite have the power to cause men to alter or even lose their self-identity; women, especially those like emilia who are open or nonconforming in their sexuality and gender expression, are not normal. even putting such women on display as a testament of foreignness—as emilia is when she is brought to athens—can evoke the darkness of chaos in those who see her, releasing the inner freakishness of men who are otherwise held in balance by male friendships and chastity. initially, the two prisoners of war revel in their captivity, thinking that it will increase their ability to keep themselves pure of the outside world. of their captivity, arcite states, “let’s think this prison holy sanctuary, to keep us from corruption of worse men” (2.2.72-73). the irony of this is that it is female corruption that breaks down their friendships and their desire for chastity. arcite and palamon’s adoration of emilia is expressed as a form of idol worship, something unholy, even in their first expressions of love for the woman: “behold and wonder! by heaven, she is a goddess!” (2.2.132). sexual desire toward females is portrayed as being artificial in nature: a distraction from true worship and from the true happiness that can traditionally be found exclusively in male-to-male friendships, a sensation leading to the decimation of male values. the truly frightening quality of emilia’s unusual identity is not that she is a symbol of what is different and otherworldly, but that she encourages a breakdown of social cohesion. she is a freak, but those who love her swiftly devolve into freaks themselves. the death of arcite and palamon’s friendship foreshadows the physical death brooks 115 of arcite, pointing toward the fulfillment of the fear that foreign women and their deviation from standards of domesticity engender the ultimate destruction of masculine identity. emilia is a double outsider. within this play, there are levels of oddity: emilia’s perception of the exclusivity of male-to-male friendships, the athenians’ interest in and fear of the amazonian women’s status as symbols of alternative gender norms, and the english audience’s observation of the play and their perception of emilia’s nonconformity as portrayed by a male actor. even though she, unlike acrasia, never actively endeavors to seduce men, her very existence as a female has this result. her presence goes so far as to result in the accidental death of arcite and, with it, the death of his potential to complete more noble activities and to reproduce in his lifetime, two standards that would have marked the life of a successful and fulfilled gentleman in renaissance england and thus would have perpetuated the social norms of the day. the freakishness of her open femininity, in its lack of domesticity, forces her outside of the male-dominated society in which she has been placed; furthermore, her status as a foreigner isolates her within athenian culture. the audience watching the play understands emilia as a caricature of otherness, further emphasized by an actor performing her role. emilia is thus perhaps predestined to hold a semi-villainous role from the very start of two noble kinsmen. she is, in spite of herself, a force of chaos in the lives of men. her life as an autonomous being identifies her as being a commodity to represent the novelty of the exotic amazonian culture, yet due to her status as a foreign woman, she remains inherently dangerous to the ideals of the masculine society in which she is now forced to reside. emilia and acrasia are two characters, written within the metaphorical freak shows of their texts, which are born from the fears of renaissance society toward female independence and sexuality. the very concept of such feminine autonomy is a freakish concept in the masculinity of spenser’s and shakespeare’s england. these women are foils for idealized conformity and are written to be observed as freaks by readers. emilia and acrasia exist in opposition to the male privilege upon which much of the cultural infrastructure of the country is built. in the examples of emilia and acrasia, the reader is exposed to two females who question and/or threaten male power. the lives of these two characters, despite their very brooks 116 different actions (acrasia is intentional in her seduction of men, and emilia has no control over palamon and arcite’s perception of her), serve to lead toward the same result of the inevitable destruction of male temperance, embodying the freakishness of deviation and catalyzing the inner sinful lust that is the freak within all humans. this demonstrates the cultural fear that foreign women, as individuals who don’t conform to traditional femininity, are destructive figures whose very nature undermines social masculine values. in their role as representatives of physical and cultural difference, these women have little to no ability to change this identity. brooks 117 works cited chakravarti, paromita. “folly and androgyny: shakespeare’s king lear.” renaissance themes: essays presented to arun kumar das gupta. ed. sukanta chaudhuri. comp. das gupta arun kumar. new delhi: anthem, 2009. 80-81. print. foreman, amanda. “the amazonian woman: is there any truth behind the myth?” smithsonian. smithsonian, apr. 2014. web. 28 feb. 2016. macfaul, tom. male friendship in shakespeare and his contemporaries. cambridge and new york: cambridge university press, 2007. xi + 222. print. schwarz, kathryn. “missing the breast.” the body in parts: fantasies of corporeality in early modern europe. ed. david hillman. new york: routledge, 1997. print. shakespeare, william. “two noble kinsmen.” the norton shakespeare. ed. julia reinhead. oxford 2nd ed. new york and london: w.w. norton, 2008. n. pag. print. spenser, edmumd. “the bower of bliss.” sacred texts. evinity publishing, inc., 2011. web. 26 mar. 2015. brooks 118 normal versus freak: the issue of staring in the rocky horror picture show and classic american freak show the term “freak show” paints a variety of images on the canvas of the reader’s mind. one may think of anything from fat ladies and strong men to “giants” and “dwarves.” while these performers were certainly stock characters of the historical freak show, they barely scratch the surface of the variety of entertainers featured. according to scholar robert bogdan, the classic american freak show was at its height from 1840 until 1940 (23). during this hundred year span, humans who were considered outsiders from mainstream society were put on display to perform for the “normal” public, who in turn stared at these so-called “freaks” for entertainment purposes. disability scholar rosemarie garland thomson defines the dynamics of staring in the following passage: “staring at disability choreographs a visual relation between a spectator and a spectacle” (56). from the moment when this “starer” versus “stared at” relationship is established, a line of othering has been drawn. although the historical freak show is considered outdated by today’s standards, its influence can still be felt in modern culture, most prevalently in the entertainment industry where this line of othering still exists. in stage performances, it is generally understood that the actors perform and the audience watches. the actors exist in a totally different plane than the audience; they behave as if completely unaware of the existence of the audience, yet the audience is aware of the actors’ every movement. through this feigned obliviousness, both the performers and spectators are forced nikole darnell, ball state university abstract within the world of performance exists a line of othering. by juxtaposing the cult classic the rocky horror picture show and the historical freak show, the issue of staring becomes more apparent. 77 digital literature review, vol. 3 (2016). © ball state university. all rights reserved. please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce critical edition to dlr@bsu.edu. into a realm of othering. however, this is not always the case. during live performances of the cult classic the rocky horror picture show, audience members are frequently encouraged to behave in ways that would be considered utterly offensive in the world of traditional theater. during rocky horror shadow cast screenings—screenings at which the actors act out the film while the movie plays behind them—spectators have been known to throw things, shout at the screen, and even join the actors on stage for the iconic song, “the time warp.” in spite of all the crudity and lewdness, fans frequently flock to the famous midnight screenings of rocky horror to participate in the onstage zaniness and coarse merriment. during these screenings, it is common for participants to dress up like various characters from the film, especially if the film will feature a shadow cast. while the midnight screenings are not for everyone, the show’s interactive style creates a sense of unity between actor and audience that helps to bridge the othering gap characteristic of traditional live performances. juxtaposing elements of the historical freak show and the 1975 cult classic the rocky horror picture show reveals that, while it is clear that there is a line between the “spectator” who stares and the “spectacle” who is stared at (thomson), where exactly the line is drawn varies. the historical freak show and rocky horror definitely feature many of the same elements, but, whereas people come to rocky horror to participate, express pride, and show support for the show itself, audience members that attended the historical freak show often went to make a mockery of the entertainers and feel a sense of entitlement. in order to fully grasp the controversy surrounding the rocky horror picture show, it is critical to provide a summary. the film begins with two of the main characters, newly engaged brad majors and janet weiss, who are driving home when their car breaks down in front of a strange castle located oddly in a rural community. brad and janet knock on the front door in search of a phone, and they are greeted by riff raff, the castle’s “handyman.” he informs the couple that they are just in time for a party thrown by the “master.” the two protest, but riff raff and his sister, magenta, sweep the pair into a wild and lavish party where the famous “time warp” scene plays out. shortly after, the lead character, dr. frank n. furter, makes his debut. darnell 78 frank, a self-described “sweet transvestite from transsexual, transylvania” (the rocky horror picture show), announces that he has discovered the secret to life itself and invites everyone up to his secret laboratory to unveil it. the human creation is revealed to be a sexy, well-toned, blond man called rocky. the group once again bursts out in celebration, but the festivities are soon interrupted by eddie, the motorcycle riding ex-lover of both frank and one of his associates, columbia. annoyed by the disturbance, frank murders eddie with a pickaxe and proceeds to sweep rocky off for a night of pleasure. brad and janet are coerced into staying the night in the castle and are both individually seduced by frank. meanwhile, riff raff tortures rocky, prompting him to run and hide in terror. following her sexual encounter with frank, janet stumbles across rocky in hiding and in turn seduces him. while searching for rocky, frank is informed that an intruder has entered the castle, and it is none other than dr. scott, a former teacher of brad and janet’s and, conveniently, also eddie’s uncle. everyone discovers rocky and janet together, greatly upsetting both brad and frank. magenta breaks the tension by announcing that dinner is served. everyone sits down to an incredibly awkward dinner, and it soon becomes apparent they are eating eddie’s corpse. upon this realization, chaos ensues and sends janet running, with frank in pursuit. after a chase, everyone ends up back in frank’s lab, where he ensnares janet, brad, rocky, dr. scott, and columbia in his “medusa transducer,” a machine which freezes them in place. frank dresses the frozen individuals in corsets, fishnets, boas, and stage makeup and unfreezes them before forcing them to perform an elaborate cabaret number. the performance comes to a halt as riff raff and magenta reappear, revealing themselves and frank to be aliens from the planet transsexual in the galaxy transylvania. the pair decides they have had enough of following frank’s orders and proceed to kill him, columbia, and rocky. riff raff and magenta release the others outside before beaming the castle back into outer space. the film concludes with the survivors crawling around in the dirt, trying to make sense of what has happened to them (the rocky horror picture show). mark siegel, author of “the rocky horror picture show: more than a lip service,” accurately describes the film as “a raunchy, vulgar, and jolting film about the coming to earth of beings from the planet transsexual in the galaxy of transylvania” (305). siegel’s description is more than correct; darnell 79 the characters could be seen as incredibly selfish, sex-crazed, and unstable, particularly frank, whose crowning achievement is his creation of the perfect human being purely for his own sexual gratification. however, this does not change the fact that the show and its characters are adored by fans everywhere. while enthusiasts of the rocky horror picture show identify with the nonconformity, people who view themselves as “normal” would most likely deem the show to be ridiculous and offensive. christy tyson comments on reasons that some may not find the show or its midnight performances so appealing: “some find the music too loud, the people too freaky, the sexual innuendos too embarrassing” (60). while fans typically do not take issue with the show’s overtly sexual nature, others might be highly offended by the show as a whole and especially by frank’s actions. when frank visits both brad and janet individually in order to seduce them, both encounters take place behind a sheet so that only the silhouettes of the actors are visible. however, the audience is still very aware of what is happening behind the sheet, due to the visibility of the silhouettes performing dramatized sex acts (the rocky horror picture show). this is just one example of the sexual content in rocky horror that some viewers find objectionable. one reason opponents of rocky horror feel entitled to judge the show is that they view themselves as “normal” as opposed to the onstage performers, whom they view as “freakish.” whereas historical freak show performers were scorned for their atypical body types, rocky horror’s characters behave and dress in ways that are considered abnormal. the only reason that some individuals are freakified is that they do not fit into the mold that society has constructed for them. the title of scholar robert bogdan’s essay, “the social construction of ‘freaks’” says it all: the term “freak” is a social construction (23). “freak” is a term invented to put people in a box. it may be only a word, but it has the power to further the gap between performer and spectator. only “freaks” can perform in a freak show. only “normal” people can watch. bogdan puts it perfectly when he writes, “‘freak’ is a frame of mind, a set of practices, a way of thinking about and presenting people; it is not a person but the enactment of a tradition, the performance or a stylized presentation” (35). because these “abnormal” individuals do not fit in society’s mold, they are forced to create a new one for themselves. some darnell 80 are able to find comfort among others with unique characteristics, and some decide to profit from flaunting their deformities and “abnormalities.” fans of the rocky horror picture show may not necessarily profit from performing, but they also often find the show’s environment welcoming. at a midnight showing of the rocky horror picture show, costumes and unconventional behavior are not only accepted—they are encouraged. existing outside society’s constructed mold is liberating for many. it is clear people who are labeled strange or bizarre flock together; this is evident in both rocky horror and the classic freak show. the question is, why does this happen? in a 1980 issue of the english journal, similar questions were posed to its readers: “what is the significance of the rocky horror picture show? why do kids keep going to it?” one reader, christy tyson, wrote in and claimed that the show’s popularity was due to the fact that it appealed to those who stood out to others. “it’s ok to be different,” she writes. “it’s no wonder that fans feel a special kinship, a commonality of beliefs and attitudes, intensified by the heavy group participation that is part of the rocky experience” (60). whereas performers were stared at during the historical freak shows for their abnormalities, no one is stared at during rocky horror because the show puts forward the idea that everyone is abnormal. no one goes to a rocky horror performance to judge others or to feel entitled; they go to be around others who are just as strange as they are and to feel unified with their fellow rocky horror aficionados. john boe, author of the review “don’t dream it, be it,” would definitely agree with tyson’s opinion. boe writes that his daughter frequently performs in a rocky horror shadow cast as dr. frank n. furter. after watching his daughter masquerade as the erotic drag queen on stage many times, boe noticed common behavioral traits among the audience members. many of the guests were frequent goers and came to see the show “with an almost religious devotion…every saturday night, week after week, month after month, even year after year” (boe 63). such dedication is not indicative of a passing fancy. it has been 41 years since the rocky horror picture show debuted, and the midnight screenings are just as strong as they ever were. this strong dedication to the rocky horror lifestyle and frequent attendance of the midnight screenings is indicative of a cult following. when a person hears the word “cult,” they may think of anything from satanic rituals and chicken blood to charles manson and his followers; darnell 81 however, when discussing the term “cult” as it applies within the context of the rocky horror picture show and other pop culture films, it has an entirely different connotation. in their article, “toward a sociology of cult films: reading rocky horror,” authors patrick t. kinkade and michael a. katovich explore cult attraction and its definition. according to the authors, “secular cults feature fanatic attachments to objects that stand outside a religious perspective; they thus re-portray historical ties between the sacred and secular in society” (191). people that become so caught up in the film version of the rocky horror picture show are attracted to more than just the midnight screenings; they are drawn to the lifestyle it entails. of course, choosing to be abnormal comes with great responsibility. while rocky horror is about celebrating sexuality and nontraditional lifestyles, it is not widely accepted by everyone. although it has a plethora of fans, the rocky horror picture show also has its share of critics. people tend to stare at things that are out of their realm of comfort. staring is at the very root of audience involvement in both freaks shows and rocky horror—although the dynamics of staring are different in each. in rocky horror, the “normal” becomes the object that is stared at. within the film, brad and janet, the representatives of the norm, stare at other characters they view as peculiar, such as frank, riff raff, magenta, and columbia. during one of the film’s most iconic songs, “the time warp,” brad and janet watch as frank’s companions and various party guests dance about the mansion, but they do not participate themselves (the rocky horror picture show). brad and janet’s behavior is no different from the way in which people who consider themselves normal treat those they consider abnormal in real life. in “the politics of staring: visual rhetorics of disability in popular photography,” rosemarie garland thomson writes, “starers gawk with abandon in at the prosthetic hook, the empty sleeve, the scarred flesh, the unfocused eye, the twitching limb, but seldom does looking broaden to envelop the whole body of the person with the disability” (57). in rocky horror, this dynamic holds true; however, it is reversed. while brad and janet are staring at the “freaks” they have encountered in frank’s mansion, the audience members, who are often dressed up like frank and his merry group, are gawking and poking fun at brad and janet. while the duo might fit in within any “normal” setting, they stand out tremendously in darnell 82 the rocky horror universe. interestingly enough, several rocky horror goers do choose to dress up as janet in her underwear. it is as if fans only see her as someone worth idolizing once she has assimilated to frank’s world and has also become a “freak” as it pertains to the context of the film. people do not typically enjoy standing out or being othered. as a result, it is easy for people to critique those who take part in any sort of othering. critics of the historical freak show often take issue with the fact that many entertainers willingly have chosen to perform. after carefully considering this issue, scholar david a. gerber poses the question, “by what criteria can we judge that consent fictive or credible?” (gerber 38). in his article, “the ‘careers’ of people exhibited in freak shows: the problem of volition and valorization,” gerber describes an “ultra-obese individual,” more commonly known as a “fat lady,” who wears small, tight fitting clothing and sits in an atypically tiny chair to emphasize her weight (38-41). if she enjoys entertaining her audience, is it wrong for her to perform? this issue is complicated by the fact that, while contemporary performers have more freedom to consent and control over how they display their bodies, many historical performers did not. oftentimes, freak show performers were forced to perform, even frequently bought and sold akin to livestock. it would seem that in a circumstance where an entertainer who had not expressed their full consent to perform, even if they enjoyed what they were doing, would be unacceptable. staring without consent is a violation to one’s very right to exist. in a different article penned by gerber entitled, “pornography or entertainment? the rise and fall of the freak show,” he references otis jordan, also known as “the frogman” (20). according to gerber, jordan “argued that anti-freak show moralists were interfering with his right to make a decent, honest living” (20). jordan saw it as his personal choice to emphasize his physical differences and profit from it. although it is true that jordan was a performer in the 1980s, after it was no longer legal to traffick humans, his options for earning a living were still incredibly limited because of his disability. since rocky horror is a more contemporary show, the participants have more choice regarding how to represent themselves. since rocky horror is a more contemporary show, the performers have more choice in how they choose to represent themselves, audience members who choose to dress in drag included. anyone who has seen the darnell 83 rocky horror picture show knows frank is a crossdresser. during his first onstage appearance shortly after the conclusion of “the time warp,” he appears dressed in a long, black cape, which he throws to the side revealing incredibly feminine lingerie complete with heels, fishnets, and even a pearl necklace. even though he is lecherous and distasteful, audiences everywhere adore frank and frequently attempt to mimic his wardrobe. historically speaking, however, frank’s apparel choices would have been considered nothing short of an abomination. clare sears addresses the crossdressing issue in her article, “electric brilliancy: cross-dressing law and freak show displays in nineteenth-century san francisco,” which also discusses the oppression of the queer community in nineteenth-century america, primarily san francisco. according to sears’s research, twenty-one states passed laws forbidding public crossdressing over the span of fifty-two years between 1848 and 1900 (170). the san francisco law in particular explicitly forbade public nudity, wearing clothes appropriate for the opposite sex, and indecent exposure. a violation of any of these resulted in arrest and a fine of up to five hundred dollars (sears 171). to rocky horror fans, frank is not a criminal; he is only looking to freely express himself and his sexuality. but, according to this law, in the nineteenth century, he would have been considered no better than a sex offender. frank’s lifestyle and choices might make certain people feel uncomfortable, but this does not make his behavior wrong. these rules sears describes became a way to police people who did not wish to conform to mainstream society. the rocky horror picture show did not exist in this era, but, if it had, the unified diversity may have provided some comfort to these nonconformists. in addition to banning crossdressing, various cities, san francisco included, enacted laws designed to ban “problem bodies” from the streets (sears 174). since these cities felt that the crossdressing law had been effective in cleaning up the “undesirables” from the public eye, new laws were put in place to control the “abnormal” and regulate their place in society. the main targets in these cases were primarily chinese immigrants, prostitutes, and anyone who suffered from a visible physical disability (sears 174). these human beings did not fit the perfect social mold, so the popular mindset was that they were to be eliminated. many performers in the classic american freak show were merely human beings with disabilities who would definitely be targeted by these inhumane laws. the irony of the darnell 84 situation is that the law allowed these citizens to exist peacefully in their own homes—as long as they stayed there. in fact, sears notes several instances of neighbors calling the police on their crossdressing neighbors. the police told the neighbors that, although they sympathized with the situation, the offenders were not in the public eye, so no laws were broken (173). in the case of people with disabilities, as thomson puts it, “disabled people were sequestered from public view in institutions and the private sphere as middle-class decorum pronounced it impolite to stare” (57). when the undesirables were in view, they were stared at with reckless abandon (thomson). it seems that, wherever such people went, they were ruthlessly ridiculed simply for being different. with this being the case, it is no wonder that historical freak show performers often formed special bonds with each other. because these stigmas persist today, rocky horror provides a place where nonconformists can feel a sense of security and comradery at the events. the rocky horror picture show often acts as a safe haven for those who have been historically victimized and those who choose to be different. since the invention of vhs and dvd, the rocky horror picture show is available for viewing in the safety of one’s home. people are no longer forced, though have the opportunity if they wish, to venture to the midnight screenings to enjoy the show. scholar amittai f. aviram notes that the “rocky horror cult ought to be celebrated in public spaces, late at night, in the dark, and not trivialized by suburban solitude and trips to the kitchen for beer” (183). while the comfort and unobtrusiveness of home may make the film more enjoyable for some, many fans feel that the film can only truly be enjoyed out in the open. a film as zany and chaotic as the rocky horror picture show deserves an equally crazy environment in which to be viewed. embracing one’s differences in public is an important part of what rocky horror is all about. mark siegel would definitely agree with aviram’s stance. in the very first page of his article, siegel describes having a need for celebration in a world that seeks to “restore social equilibrium” (305): a world in which, as sears describes, “problem bodies” were hidden from the public eye and “normal” people roamed free (174). no person should feel they need to hide themselves from society’s view just because they are deemed a “problem.” the problem does not lie with those who are different, it lies with those who are “normal.” darnell 85 darnell these “normal” people are wholesome and good; they do not associate with “problem bodies” or crudity. if “freak” is a socially constructed term, then so must be “normal.” whether it has a positive or negative connotation, a label is still a label. when this label is applied to an individual, this individual is put inside a box in which they do not necessarily belong. there may always be a dance between the “spectator” and the “spectacle” (thomson 56). between the two exists a dividing line that will keep the “freaks” performing and the “normals” staring. performances like the rocky horror picture show will be there as well, however, to get us to question where and how that line is drawn. 86 darnell works cited aviram, amittai f. “postmodern gay dionysus: dr. frank n. furter.” journal of popular culture 26.3 (1992): 183-192. academic search premier. web. 6 dec. 2015. boe, john. “don’t dream it, be it.” the san francisco jung institute library journal 4.3 (1983): 63–65. jstor. web. 16 nov. 2015. bogdan, robert. “the social construction of freaks.” freakery: cultural spectacles of the extraordinary body. ed. rosemarie garland thomson. new york: new york university press, 1996. 23-37. print. gerber, david. “pornography or entertainment? the rise and fall of the freak show.” reviews in american history 18.1 (1990): 15–21. jstor. web. 07 dec. 2015. ---. “the ‘careers’ of people exhibited in freak shows: the problem of volition and valorization.” freakery: cultural spectacles of the extraordinary body. ed. rosemarie garland thomson. new york: new york university press, 1996. 38-54. print. kinkade, patrick t., and michael a. katovich. “toward a sociology of cult films: reading ‘rocky horror.’” the sociological quarterly 33.2 (1992): 191–209. jstor. web. 6 dec. 2015. the rocky horror picture show. dir. jim sharman. perf. tim curry, susan sarandon, barry bostwick. 20th century fox, 1975. dvd. sears, clare. “electric brilliancy: cross-dressing law and freak show displays in nineteenth-century san francisco.” women’s studies quarterly 36.3/4 (2008): 170–187. jstor web. 07 dec. 2015. siegel, mark. “‘the rocky horror picture show:’ more than a lip service (le “rocky horror picture show,” du bout des lèvres)”. science fiction studies 7.3 (1980): 305–312. jstor. web. 20 nov. 2015. 87 darnell thomson, rosemarie garland. “the politics of staring: visual rhetorics of disability in popular photography.” disability studies: enabling the humanities (2002): 56-75. print. 27 jan. 2016. tyson, christy et al. “our readers write: what is the significance of the rocky horror picture show? why do kids keep going to it?” the english journal 69.7 (1980): 60–62. jstor. web. 20 nov. 2015. 88 africa speaks?: black monsters and revisionary history in horror films in the western eye, africa is more an idea than a physical location. discussion about the continent is riddled with historically mediated tropes, stereotypes, and misrepresentations. cultural products, like fashion trends and literature, perpetuate the imagination of an africa that does not truly exist. in western culture of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, film plays a crucial role in shaping people’s understanding of africa. this paper analyzes three films set apart by at least a decade: the night of the sorcerers (1973), panga (1991), and dominion: prequel to the exorcist (2005). each film includes motifs of possession, curses, magic, and monsters. moreover, each film is shaped by colonialism, for the terror stems from historical fears associated with expansion and an entrance into african spaces. my analysis follows a multi-layered structure. i begin with a discussion of the tropes that dominate the narratives and how each one is influenced by a colonial history. afterward, i examine how the tropes interact with the genre of horror to create an essentialist “african” entity that is equated with ideas of darkness and monstrosity. ultimately, this paper argues that the threat in these films is not the mere existence of darkness, but rather the possibility of contracting darkness. by virtue of engaging with the horror genre, these films other black bodies to the extremes of monstrosity. accordingly, the films center abstract this paper analyzes three films, the night of the sorcerers (1973), panga (1991), and dominion: prequel to the exorcist (2005), within the context of postcolonial theory. i examine how the films interweave themes of possession, magic, and monsters with a legacy of colonialism, constructing terror interactions with raced bodies. this paper argues that the threat in these films is not the mere existence of blackness, but rather the possibility of contracting blackness. moreover, these narratives affect a new reality, practicing a form of revisionary history that provides the other with a form (or at least the opportunity) of agency. arlette hernandez, washington and lee university 1digital literature review, vol. 4 (2017). ball state university. all rights reserved. please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce critical edition to dlr@bsu.edu. on the idea of transformations, specifically the mutation of white human into black monster. this article ends with an analysis of african-based horror as a genre, asserting that, while such narratives are influenced by a particular history, they also affect a new reality. these films act as a battleground between the european and african voice, embodied by hero and monster respectively. inevitably, the narratives practice a revisionary history that provides africans with a form of (or at least the opportunity for) agency. to provide a very brief background, the spanish horror film the night of the sorcerers begins with the 1910 murder of a female missionary worker by voodoo sorcerers in the (fake) west african country of bumbasa. subsequent female explorers are lured to the site of the original murder. here, the voodoo sorcerers return as african zombies and transform the women into half-leopard, bikini-clad, lesbian vampires, who murder their male explorer counterparts. panga unfolds the fate of a woman who interrupts a sacrificial ceremony near her home in south africa to save the life of a goat. her actions incur the wrath of the nyonga “witchdoctor,” who summons “the vengeful spirit that lives in the sea” (panga), umoya omube. while the malevolent forces in the night of the sorcerers and panga are the africans themselves, the religious overtones of dominion make the african connection slightly subtler. the film follows a catholic priest, who lost his faith during world war ii after a traumatic incident of nazi brutality. while on sabbatical in british east africa, father merrin performs an archaeological dig and unleashes an ancient demon that he must exorcise by the end of the film. the two most prevalent tropes in these films are those of a savage and a primitive africa. africa as savage implies wildness, an existence where one is not restricted by social standards of morality and normality. moreover, it is linked to ideas of primitivism and underdevelopment. historically, this image has been constructed through a process of differentiation whereby the westerner contrasts his own life and practices with those of african peoples. such perceptions developed from the juxtaposition of vast natural landscapes and condensed urban settings or collectivistic social groups and individualistic societies. in other words, western socio-political structures provided a framework for understanding what was “correct,” thereby privileging certain structures or behaviors and relegating to the margins those that did not correspond. in the nineteenth century, difference became immutable as science sought to explain such disparities. this mission resulted in evolutionist rhetoric, and figures like lewis henry morgan “developed a widely used model [that] described three categories of peoples: savage, barbarian, and civilized,” using qualities of social development like “living in cities, using handwriting, and having organized states” as criteria (keim 53). evolutionism also 2arlette hernandez featured a racial undertone that fused together skin color, hierarchy, and culture. scientific discourse perpetuated the notion that “superior races produced superior cultures, and naturally, the white race and white culture were superior” (keim 54). consequently, because of social structures and racial markers of difference, africans were considered inferior, or “less evolved” (keim 52), that is to say, primitive. colonial discourse is the product of a process. eurocentric viewpoints and systematic comparison construct and shape the idea of a savage and underdeveloped africa. such notions are then perpetuated, often through a dissemination of visual, auditory, and textual materials. in their examination of victorian travel literature, anthropologists dorothy hammond and alta jablow examine the different misperceptions of africa. they analyze a variety of sources from the colonial period which portray the author’s journey into the african continent, but the texts they cite often focus on ideas of “darkness” and how it consumes the continent (hammond and jablow 54). europeans saw africa as “hideous and grotesque,” as “a great beast,” or monster (60). such monstrosity pervades every corner and upon entering the continent, “the traveller might [expect] a corpse to be hidden behind every bush” (60). authors describe the continent’s inhabitants as the “lower breeds of mankind” (63), products of “a land teeming with horrors and guarded by the foul monsters of disease, of darkness and savagery” (61). yet, while the african is “a barbarous man,” he also resembles “a child” (64). all three horror films echo these misperceptions and deviant depictions. the africans in the night of the sorcerers practice voodoo and cannibalism, two customs the west considers primitive and savage. panga and dominion feature scenes in which africans participate in animal sacrifices, another “primitive” custom. in dominion, chuma, one of the few english-speaking african characters, asks father francis, a missionary working alongside merrin, if he thinks the turkana are savages because of the sacrifice. francis replies by saying, “i think you are good people, lost in confusion” (dominion), as if the people are enveloped by darkness that clouds their vision. moreover, the african characters in these films are dressed in clothing the west considers “traditional,” also feeding into images of a savage and backwards africa. lastly, each film recycles victorian constructs of dangerous landscapes and monstrous men. whether it is through cannibalism, blood sacrifice, or demonic possession, the films depict african characters as others, as nonhumans capable of an evil unfamiliar and contradictory to the western body. africa is often trapped in the fetishizing gaze of the west, effectively sexualizing the continent. the trope of “sexy africa,” in the already gendered genre of horror, catches the eye. a portion of the trope comes from “a more racist era when black africans were considered more animalistic and sensual” (keim 74). 3arlette hernandez race was seen as a biological feature, and, at the time, it was thought that people “were different sexually because of their biology” (74). yet, the trope is about more than sex appeal; it also makes assumptions about sexual behavior and orientation. in his book about gender and sexuality in africa, historian marc epprecht argues that there exists a “hypothetical singular african sexuality, [which] includes. . .purported tendencies toward heterosexual promiscuity” (2). the rhetoric of promiscuous african sexuality is linked to a colonial understanding of africans as backward and primitive, with western opinion “oscillat[ing] between notions of the exotic, the noble, and the depraved savage” (arnfred 7). the trope of sexualized africa is most glaring in the night of the sorcerers, where the women engage in what the west would deem deviant sexual behavior. african women are depicted as primitive sexual figures with uncovered breasts and a hunger for human flesh. they participate in cannibalism, an act of sexualized violence whereby two bodies are integrated, one entering—penetrating, if you will—the other. the white women are dressed conservatively until a whip exposes their breasts. then, they undergo a ritual that africanizes them, turning them into half-naked, leopard-human hybrid beasts, ravenous for the (sexual) consumption of other females. this scene accomplishes two things. it aligns blackness with a particular kind of aberrant sexuality. moreover, the scene posits blackness as the root of monstrosity. the film’s black characters corrupt the white explorers, provoking their transformation into lesbian vampires, into monsters. sexuality is subtler in panga and dominion, where africa does not necessarily turn the white characters into sexual deviants, but rather provides them with a safe space where they can express their sexuality. the wife in panga uses africa to construct a love story that adds sensuality to her marriage. she tells her husband that she will always love him, even when “africa becomes the dark continent” because she’s always “been a sucker for the sinister and mysterious” (panga). meanwhile, father merrin, who retreats to british east africa during a crisis of faith, is given freedom on the continent to explore his sexuality, kissing a woman after years of celibacy. nevertheless, in both of these instances, africa is antagonized. for the wife in panga, africa is the big bad wolf her husband must fight, while in dominion, africa is the source of carnal temptation. during the nineteenth century, all three of these tropes were implemented in creating “the myth of the dark continent” (keim 45). by this time, ideas about savagery and aberrant sexuality, as well as “racist and evolutionary doctrines in the social sciences . . . combined to give the [colonial] public a widely shared view of africa that demanded imperialization on moral, religious, and scientific grounds” (brantlinger 167-168). this framework of darkness and imperialism dominates the 4arlette hernandez narratives of our african-based horror narratives. in each film, the west justifies its presence in africa through the pretext of help. the explorers in night of the sorcerers wish to spread awareness about the endangered species of west africa, the family in panga wants to bring prosperity to barren african territories, and the british in dominion attempt to help africa through medicine and political organization. yet engagement with the rhetoric of aid assumes that (1) there is a problem and (2) it must and can be fixed. in both a literal and metaphorical sense, africa contains a darkness that must be illuminated through western light, or rather, western superiority. the dark continent myth is the immediate visualization of africa possessed by a spectator, effectively establishing a pessimistic and one-dimensional identity. darkness as identity operates in several ways. firstly, it operates as an essence similar to toni morrison’s “africanist presence,” a term that illustrates “the denotative and connotative blackness that african peoples have come to signify” (6). morrison uses the term blackness both racially and metaphorically. blackness is a literal marker used by the west to differentiate themselves from africans (i.e. through skin color), but also as a signified, or a concept, with blackness evoking the notions of inferiority and negativity that underlie western thought and association. as an africanist presence, darkness shrouds the continent in blackness. that is, the continent is both a space occupied by black bodies but also a space ruled by degradation. thus, to be african is to be intimately connected to the dark. in addition, within the structure of these genre films, darkness also acts as a malevolent force, or character, that drives the plot—a nemesis figure. screenwriting professors marc blake and sara bailey put it best when they wrote, “at the heart of every horror movie is the monster” (57). for these three films, the black body, but more broadly, africa and the africanist presence, is the monster. as postcolonial scholar achille mbembe asserts, africa is “deployed in the framework . . . of a meta-text about the animal—to be exact, about the beast” (1, emphasis original). all three films simultaneously use africa as a space and a character. each is set in an african country but also represents the continent through essentialist characters that resonate with pre-existing tropes and misperceptions. furthermore, the characters act as impaired bodies that personify the sinister and attack the west, striking “responses of fear and disgust in [its] viewers” (smith 25). in night of the sorcerers, the voodoo zombies and the lesbian vampires embody darkness. they are presented as monsters that evoke fear in the western characters. similarly, the witchdoctor in panga is a representation of darkness, but the most menacing presence is that of the vengeful spirit, umoya omube. darkness in dominion is not as distinctly african, for the main embodiment is an unknown demon 5arlette hernandez buried underground and constantly referred to as satan. still, through its physical immersion in an african landscape and its possession of an african vessel, the character of the demon can be read as a symbol of the continent and its darkness. in reading horror films through a lens of postcolonial theory, a dominant theme is that of contagion. several horror narratives deal with a fear of contamination, for “the idea that an infected person will contaminate us is universal” (blake and bailey 53). in addition, during the colonial period, “africa was seen as the worst of the world’s pathogenic spaces, a plague-ridden climate that prevented its people from rising above nature and developing a culture equivalent to that of europe” (bewell 194). these two ideas interact in the films, darkness and monstrosity striking unease in the viewer. nevertheless, the real fear stems from the possibility of exposure to that presence. history and horror interact as darkness is turned into a disease, colonial fear reverberating throughout the films. just as nineteenth century colonists feared they would acquire diseases from africa, the western characters in the films fear that they will be soiled by darkness. they fear contamination because infection spawns an altered state of being, whereby the west is victimized and then made monster. when set on the african continent, popular western-produced narratives of often employ the archetype of the white savior, a figure who redeems or rescues the othered. yet, horror films subvert this role of the white savior. the night of the sorcerers presents professor jonathan grant and his safari team as innocent explorers present only to conduct research in hopes of rescuing africa’s animals. however, once the dark presence is provoked, the westerners are hunted like prey—women seduced and men killed. panga depicts its central characters as innocent. elizabeth is an expecting mother, and her sister and brother-in-law are unknowing visitors of the continent. still, in trying to uphold eurocentric moral values, they rouse the vengeance of a dark africanist presence, resulting in their murders. innocence in dominion is more complex because of the religious element. the monster is not purely african and harms both the turkana and the british. nevertheless, father merrin, an ex-priest traumatized by nazi cruelty, respects the indigenous people and seeks nothing more than archaeological discoveries. however, in the process of doing good, he releases an african demon that inflicts harm on the westerners. he and his peer father francis are the two main targets of satan’s attacks. in each case, the white savior trope gives way to the white victim. to summarize what we have discussed up until this point, let us consider the structure of the horror film. marc blake and sara bailey identify the five main components of horror films as “unease, dread, terror, horror, and disgust” (45). the unease in these three films is built by historically mediated tropes that posit africa 6arlette hernandez as aberrant. dread then peaks at the discovery of a malevolent africanist darkness. horror is the depiction of death and massacre, while disgust comes from the realization of voyeurism. however, the climax of the story, the terror, comes from the idea of a white victim and, accordingly, the subversion of hegemonic order. as literature professor kyle bishop posits in an article about the cultural relevance of zombies, terror stems from “the prospect of a westerner becoming dominated, subjugated, and effectively ‘colonized’” (141). the africans who are preserved as voodoo zombies in the night of the sorcerers threaten the europeans because they represent the possibility of a “subsubaltern class . . . [that] are literally silent, enslaved, and unable to connect with the dominant culture through any liminal space of discourse” (bishop 141). by subaltern, i mean what famous literary theorist gayatri spivak defines as “everything that has limited or no access to the cultural imperialism . . . — a space of difference” (qtd. in de kock 45). the subaltern is not just the oppressed, but the culturally deprived and segregated. yet, while the zombies in the night of the sorcerers induce terror because of their position as sub-subaltern, i would argue that the figure of the lesbian vampire is most frightening, for it is a westerner who has been fully infected by the africanist presence and reduced to the same subaltern status as the african. they are figures that have truly “gone native.” though not in the same way, the sea spirit in panga also threatens western domination. through murder and death, the creature possesses the power to completely eliminate hierarchy and overthrow the oppressor. despite being subaltern, umoya omube, an entity with african origins, possesses uncontainable power, and this reality frightens the western presence. the threat of possession in dominion imperils western ideas of godliness, security, and sanitation. the demon can insert itself into any human vessel, consequently polluting it with a darkness that is seen as inherent to the continent. moreover, satan possesses the ability to kill and extinguish hierarchy in the same way as umoya omube. horror films grapple with the idea of conflict, often pitting the marginalized against the dominant. in her first book, entitled men, women, and chainsaws, film professor carol clover reads this conflict as a central element of occult theory and horror, terming it the struggle between “white science and black magic” (66). the plots of these three films usually involve some variation of a western body entering the larger african space and attempting to impose its white science, but inevitably facing opposition from the other’s black magic. the rest of the film then serves as a battleground where one agent tries to control the narrative by directing the spotlight, or rather the camera lens, over to their embodied voice. in the beginning, the camera emphasizes the european presence, privileging 7arlette hernandez western language and dialogue. as the plot unfolds, the africanist presence enters and attempts to speak, but they are quickly silenced. the night of the sorcerers is unique in that it begins with africans. however, their presence is contingent on their relationship to the white female missionary who they convert. moreover, the ritual is interrupted by a group of armed soldiers that invade and kill the africans. after that first scene, the film focuses exclusively on the westerners, dedicating ten minutes of screen time to an arrival that depicts actions inessential to the storyline. screen time begins to shift between the europeans and africans, the alternations demonstrating a tug-of-war for voice and power. each entity wants to be heard, but the africans are never permitted to speak. the figures of the dominating civilization use their status as oppressors to fight and stay superior. in panga and dominion, africans are allowed to speak, but only under certain conditions. there may only be one african character who speaks english, and those that speak the indigenous language are never given subtitles. though both entities are fighting to be heard, the africanist presence always falls behind. tired of being silenced when pursuing traditional methods of communication, the subaltern turn toward other approaches. violence and horror are subsequently militarized, converted into tools for garnering attention. the zombified africans and africanized white vampires engage in strategic essentialism, a concept promoted by gayatri spivak, which means “acting ‘as if ’ identities were stable for specific political reasons. for example, one might temporarily accept the category of ‘woman’ as a stable unity for the purpose of mobilizing women for political action” (spivak qtd. in ray 110). the african characters in the night of the sorcerers use their status as monsters to terrorize the west. similarly, umoya omube is never given a voice. instead, he is systematically erased and silenced, causing the vengeful spirit to adopt murder as a mouthpiece. satan, in dominion, is perhaps the chattiest of the africanist presences, but all doubt his existence at the beginning of the film. as a result, he beats and murders characters, using violence to be heard and reify his existence. in militarizing violence and practicing strategic essentialism, the subaltern transform from invisible entities to grotesque representations that demand consideration. deeply connected to this question of voice is the issue of agency, and in channeling voice, africans gain a form of agency. though produced by europeans, african-based horror films allow for the practice of revisionary history. the night of the sorcerers, dominion, and panga, while filled with factual inaccuracies and misrepresentations, ultimately allow for a re-writing of the colonial narrative. in the traditional colonial narrative, westerners enter african spaces, make claims of ownership, and set up systems of hierarchy that oppress the colonized. all too 8arlette hernandez often, the subaltern are erased and shown as passive recipients of such inferior positions. yet, in these films, africans are not completely dominated by the european presence. while they face conflict with and erasure by the west, they are also given the opportunity to fight back against invasion and make themselves known. thus, the nemesis figure becomes crucial as monsters are mobilized by the africanist presence to drive out the western hegemons. the voodoo zombies take revenge against the europeans that originally extinguished them, invading their sense of security in the same manner their own was once violated. umoya omube is summoned by the nyonga witchdoctor to punish the europeans who disrespected indigenous practice and culture. satan wreaks havoc on all the characters regardless of their culture, but the british are more keenly affected. the symbolic and topographical origins of his character transform him into a figure that defends the land from european corruption. respect plays an important role in the revisionary histories of these films. in traditional colonial narratives, indigenous cultures are frequently disrespected and wiped away. yet, because they fear african darkness and the possibility of attack at the hands of the africanist presence, these films also advocate for a toleration of african societies. the voodoo culture in the night of the sorcerers is not fragmented or deteriorated, but rather kept whole—so much so that it evokes fear. after elizabeth interrupts the nyonga sacrificial ceremony, her husband scolds her, telling her she cannot “trample over thousands of years of tradition” (panga). dominion’s father merrin treats the turkana with respect and highlights the hypocrisy of other western characters. when father francis points out there are bloodstains (likely from a sacrifice) in the altar to satan, merrin replies by saying, “yes, it’s almost like a scene out of the inquisition” (dominion), rejecting any conclusion francis may be drawing about a “savage africa.” the director, paul schrader, also avoids glorifying the british. he parallels the scene of arbitrary nazi massacre in holland to the pointless murder of a turkana woman in british east africa, indicating that monstrous behavior is not confined to any singular historical moment or culture. in constructing a revised history and subverted colonial narrative, these films reject the image of the passive african. africans are portrayed as the offenders rather than the offended. pessimistically, they are presented as monsters. yet, as the monsters of horror films, africans also reshape the role of oppressed people through bodies that actively reject hegemonic order. pop culture artifacts, such as films, are often subject to inaccuracies because, in their efforts to entertain, they often flattens reality into a more easily digestible form. yet nothing is as simply and wholly problematic as it seems. are horror films the best generic medium through which to portray africa? no. are they 9arlette hernandez deeply problematic in the perpetuation of african unrealities? yes. do these facts completely devalue such films? no, of course not. like any other cultural artifact, african-based horror films have their own strengths and drawbacks. they construct black bodies as monsters, perpetuating a legacy of africa as the dark continent while also depicting it as an entity that should be feared. however, these same films also provide africans with the opportunity to rewrite history and exert a form of agency, as violent as it may be. the key is not to find the perfect technique for portraying africa. rather, the point is to become deeply reflective about the items that surround us, those items that may appear innocent but, at their cores, are just as sinister if not more so than the monsters that litter bookstore shelves and netflix queues. 10arlette hernandez works cited arnfred, signe. “re-thinking sexualities in africa: introduction.” re-thinking sexualities in africa, edited by signe arnfred. nordiska afrikainstitutet, 2004, pp. 7-29. bewell, alan. romanticism and colonial disease. johns hopkins up, 1999. bishop, kyle. “the sub-subaltern monster: imperialist hegemony and the cinematic voodoo zombie.” journal of american culture, vol. 31, no. 2, 2008, pp. 141-152. wiley online library, doi:10.1111/j.1542-734x.2008.00668.x. accessed 12 april 2016. blake, marc and sara bailey. writing the horror movie. bloomsbury, 2013. brantlinger, patrick. “victorians and africans: the genealogy of the myth of the dark continent.” critical inquiry, vol. 12, no. 1, 1985, pp. 166-203. clover, carol j. men, women, and chainsaws: gender in the modern horror film. princeton up, 1992. dominion: prequel to the exorcist. schrader, paul, director, warner home video, 2006. epprecht, marc. heterosexual africa?: the history of an idea from the age of exploration to the age of aids. ohio up, 2008. hammond, dorothy and alta jablow. “the dawn of empire: mid-century.” the africa that never was: four centuries of british writing about africa, edited by dorothy hammond and alta jablow. twayne, 1970, pp. 49-73. keim, curtis. mistaking africa: curiosities and inventions of the american mind. westview press, 2014. de kock, leon. “interview with gayatri chakravorty spivak: new nation writers conference in south africa.” ariel: a review of international english literature, vol. 23, no. 3, 1992, pp. 29-47. 11arlette hernandez mbembe, achille. on the postcolony. university of california press, 2001. morrison, toni. playing in the dark: whiteness and the literary imagination. harvard up, 1992. panga (curse iii: blood sacrifice). barton, sean, director, mgm, 1991. ray, sangreeta. gayatri chakravorty spivak: in other words. wiley-blackwell, 2009. the night of the sorcerers (la noche de los brujos). de ossorio, armando, director, hesperia films s.a., 2009. smith, angela m. hideous progeny: disability, eugenics, and classic horror cinema. columbia up, 2011. 12arlette hernandez introduction few events in the world have captured the fascination of curious masses as did the exhibition of the aztec children. displayed for their physical difference from western norms, the two siblings were paraded and showcased in front of eager nineteenth-century audiences for profit. during this century, freak shows were at the height of their popularity due to the growing need for national identity, and thus the fame of the aztec children and their exploitation was no coincidence. the misconceptions about foreign cultures and misunderstanding of microcephaly at the time led to the exhibition of the aztec children. the aztec children were first exhibited in 1849 in the state of new york. the exhibition focused firstly on their physical “deformities” and secondly on their cognitive disabilities. these two traits allowed for easy stigmatization as well as the confusion of race with disability. audiences were encouraged to see the disabilities of these two as characteristics of their “aztec” race. this stigmatized their entire race as cognitively underdeveloped and portrayed those with the disability as “savages.” the owners of the aztec children played up their supposed “aztec” origins and lost-civilization appeal in order to attract customers and therefore profit from their exploitation. incredibly, people believed these stories. as nigel rothfels states, “we know that especially in the early years of their tours many believed the pair could in fact have been representatives of a lost race of aztecs” (159). in reality, the pair were mestizos. mestizo refers to people exhibit or human?: analysis on the life of the aztec children cassandra grosh, sarah keck and isabel vazquez, ball state university abstract through researching the lives of the aztec children, the exploitation of performers becomes evident. these “children” were adults with a congenital disorder who were purchased and commodified since childhood. due to the manipulation by their various owners, not even the true history of these two are known. this article delves into the history of these two, the issues surrounding their exhibition, and works at the time shedding further light on their time touring the world. 7 digital literature review, vol. 3 (2016). © ball state university. all rights reserved. please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce critical edition to dlr@bsu.edu. with both spanish and native american blood (“mestizo”). the aztec children were often displayed on stages throughout north america. they were dressed up in costumes with props that fit the image of “otherness” in the mid-1850s. they were generally dressed in clothing that conformed to the stereotyped notions of “aztec” garments, such as in the following photo. in this historical photo, the siblings are shown wearing ill-fitting and amateurly made clothes with triangle patterns and a sun on the front. their hair is teased, flamboyantly so, and they are shown on the ground next to some sort of stone pillar, hinting at primitivism and savagery. the background of a staircase and entrance is blurred and most likely painted, symbolizing lost civilizations and structures. in order to better understand the cultural significance of the aztec children, it is important to know their historical past. the “twins,” as they were known, were in fact siblings, a brother and sister with the names of maximo and bartola, respectively. in aztec children research, one comes across different, conflicting versions of the same story, some more realistic than others. this more than likely occurred due a lack of documentation in third-world areas, such as central america, as well as the false stories that were created in order to promote their popularity as freaks. if documentation did exist, it was neither official nor precise but forged. in fact, p.t. barnum is an example of someone who forged the history of human exhibits, even though at one point he claimed to be “duped” by a “forged bill of sale” for joice heth, the supposedly 161-year old nursemaid of george washington (fretz 102-103). because of her “deteriorated” appearance, barnum worked to make the story of her age believable in order to elicit profit. the aztec twins were treated similarly by their ownermanagers. rothfels notes, “the true origins of the ‘aztecs’ ‘bartola’ and ‘maximo’ will probably never be known” (159). according to an 1854 article, their story began in the village of san puerty, guatemala. a different version states that grosh, keck, vazquez image of the aztec children taken from penn libraries blog. 8 https://pennrare.wordpress.com/2014/04/08/maximo-and-bartola-and-the-myth-of-iximaya/ they came from el salvador (this difference might have to do with shifting geographical boundaries over the years). in this version, the mother of the aztec children sold the two siblings to a man by the name of raimond (or raymond) selva, who had the intent to display and profit from them. rothfels describes an origin story that is viewed as the most historically accurate by scholars and gives more details than previous versions. it states that the brother and sister were actual twins birthed to innocento and martina murgos from the town of tocoro in the department of san miguel and that raimond selva had taken a more active role in convincing the mother to sell them to him (rothfels 159). this second version places responsibility for the exploitation of the aztec children on selva, while the first story blames the mother. one of the less realistic stories states that the siblings passed into the ownership of an american man. another version of the story focuses on a man by the name of pedro velasquez in the year 1851. pedro velasquez was said to be a traveler who wrote a memoir published in 1850, about having “discovered” the ancient aztec city of iximaya with two other companions and left with two children (aguirre 45). he proclaimed he had with him twins from this lost city and that the twins were “found squatting on an altar of idols” (bogdan, “maximo and bartola” 128). not only were they found in those positions, but they apparently “looked” like sculptured images of aztec origin. thus, they were deemed to be the last two survivors of the aztec race (stephens 33). the next unrealistic story of maximo and bartola was created by their owner-manager, morris. morris fabricated this “history” after he learned about the traveler john lloyd stephens and his encounter with a spanish catholic priest in central america (aguirre 44). robert aguirre cites stephens’s volume about a lost city with inhabitants—still living there and speaking the mayan language—who would murder any white man who approached them (aguirre 44). it turned out stephens never went to that lost city, and, since that fact was not mentioned in his work, it left an opportunity to construct an origin story for the aztec children (45). the fabricated stories of the aztec children, their exhibition—which exemplified cultural stereotypes, and their display both of disability and race all did cultural work that brought in audiences. all of this worked to stigmatize other races and cultures as well as to confirm white superiority. grosh, keck, vazquez 9 the aztec children, in their fame, eventually made their way into europe in the year 1853. they toured for the remainder of their lives, often showcased privately to scientists and aristocrats. in 1867, in order to draw more attention to them, the aztec children were officially married, despite being brother and sister, under the names maximo valdez nuñez and bartola velasquez (rothfels 160). it is noteworthy to mention that the last name “velasquez,” given to bartola for the sake of this marriage, comes from the supposed “savior” of the aztec children. maximo died in the year 1913, while bartola’s exact date of death is unknown. the aztec children, in all actuality, had a condition known as microcephaly. by definition, microcephaly is a condition characterized by an abnormally small head accompanied by an incomplete development of the brain (“microcephaly”). microcephaly was recognized in the scientific community during this time period, though people with this disability were often displayed in freak shows as “pinheads” (“microcephaly”). features that today point at developmental problems would have not been as obvious for audiences during the mid-1800’s, making it far easier for the fantastical and fictional stories of these “aztec” beings to spread rapidly. the description of the siblings, as well as pictures of them, show the obvious physical differences of individuals with microcephaly. the two became well known, not just due to their tours around america and europe, but also through their display before the scientific community. doctors and scientists flocked to the aztec children in an attempt to better understand and classify disability and cognitive problems, as rothfels states in his essay: the two were measured in every possible way: their skulls (twenty-eight separate measurements by rudolf virchow in 1877 to be expanded upon in later examinations) were compared to those of apes; their hair, cropped peculiarly to further the theatrical presentation of difference, was compared to that of all the known races...the scientists discussed the vocalizations, expressions of will, and potential reproductive capability of the pair. (rothfels 166) while rothfels failed to comment on this in his discussion of disability, it is interesting to note the issue of consent. due to the siblings’ cognitive disability, it is questionable whether informed consent was ever possible for them. they were unable to give clear definite agreement, and this resulted grosh, keck, vazquez 10 in their own mother selling them in exchange for gold coins. the siblings were then paraded around the world in order to make fortunes for their owners without a say in their own fates. freaks who were physically, but not cognitively, disabled were able to give their consent, but even this consent presents ethical dilemmas for scholars. david gerber states, choice and consent continue to be problematic precisely because of the role of circumstances, such as the accident of the social situation into which we are born, in our lives, and because we are not equal in power to influence the course of our lives or even to understand them. (gerber 41) the fact that the aztec children were developmentally disabled intensifies this problem. the exhibition of the aztec children created not only a form of cheap entertainment but also a platform that both justified and conquered societal fears. the display of these “freaks” was directly tied to the thing that audiences at that time feared the most, namely an “other.” with evolutionary theory becoming a major issue during this time, it was no wonder audiences flocked towards these “aztecs” (rothfels 171). such fears and other social and cultural issues during this time period will be addressed in the following section. cultural issues regarding displays one reason for the multiple versions of maximo and bartola’s origin story is that the aztec children were handled by different managers and owners who concocted the stories to assure audiences of how otherworldly the siblings were. the managers may have had some facts, but they mixed fiction into the stories to get the audience’s attention. for example, pedro velasquez was made up, along with the lost city of iximaya, in order to fabricate maximo and bartola’s origins. their history in the 48-page booklet provided by morris was a hoax; their origin story along with their appearances—“dwarfish” (bogdan, “maximo and bartola” 128) with smallerthan-normal skulls due to microcephaly (tredgold 122), which mimicked the central american drawings and sculptures (rothfels 159)—furthered the speculation that they were of aztec origin. people took in the twins’ exhibition and believed these two to be part of a long-lost civilization. j. 11 tithonus pednaud’s research on human marvels and bizarre history backs up this belief as he writes that they wore “aztec-looking garb,” especially the aztec suns on their fronts (1). rothfels writes their hair was “cropped peculiarly to further the theatrical presentation of difference” (166). this cut would expose more of their heads to show people that they looked like the drawings and sculptures of the aztec people. this look distinguished the twins from “normal,” “modern-day” people at the time. when maximo and bartola were first placed on display in 1853 in europe, they were exhibited before the ethnological society of england (bogdan, “maximo and bartola” 130). according to ronald rainger’s research on organizations of anthropology, this society was known for collecting ethnographic data and publishing materials to learn about mankind’s “distinguishing characteristics” and what causes those characteristics (713). during that time, along with britain’s imperialism, the scientific community was fascinated with racial theory (aguirre 41); in america, they wanted to learn more about other races and civilizations, like the mayans, who had been the subjects of recent publications (pednaud 1). learning about the discovery of the “aztecs” was just as desirable. their microcephaly, a highly stigmatized trait, was used to make the aztec children and their entire “race” out to be inferior. this framed them, and their entire race, as the “other” when compared to americans and europeans. belief in white supremacy was common at the time. people of european descent believed they were culturally and morally superior (gardiner 3) and that they were “more fit” in regards to physical and intellectual capacity than african americans, native americans, etc., according to social darwinism (gardiner 12). rosemarie garland thomson recognizes this in her article, “the cultural work of american freak shows,” as she stresses how freak shows were an “opportunity to formulate the self in terms of what it was not” (59), which means that audiences could define themselves as ideal in comparison to what they considered “inhuman”: one who was not white, civilized, or able-bodied. freak shows would assure spectators of their superior selves. those represented as “freaks” could be anybody who was different from the norm in appearance or anybody considered “less evolved” or “primitive” in a white supremacist culture. in britain, scientists were drawn to latin american people, especially grosh, keck, vazquez 12 the “mestizo” (aguirre 41), which is defined by the oxford english dictionary as a person of spanish and native american heritage (“mestizo”). to scientists, mixed race individuals “confounded reigning binary models” (aguirre 41). mixed races were disapproved of because some people interpreted them to be offspring of “sin.” there are biblical verses that people saw as condemning interracial marriage. one example is from deuteronomy 7:3-4, when moses spoke with the israelites: “do not intermarry with them [hittites, jebusites, etc.]. do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, for they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods” (niv/kjv parallel bible, deut. 7:3-4). mixing races was seen as going against the norms of society. the aztec children’s parents were “mulattos”—a period term for those with african and european heritage (aguirre 56). because of the theory of polygenism, a theory stating that humans evolved from several independent pairs of ancestors (“polygeny”), children of racially mixed couples were believed to be infertile (aguirre 56). not only would the aztec children be othered for being racially mixed, but their otherness would be confirmed if they could not produce children. according to robert bogdan’s article, “the social construction of freaks,” human differences, both physical and mental, were considered “dangerous” and were used to warn people that these exhibits would need to be “controlled” so they could not “weaken the breeding stock” (34). maximo and bartola’s small statures combined with their mental disabilities confirmed spectators’ beliefs that what they were seeing was a childish race. in one of the twins’ exhibitions in england, they were reported as behaving like “english children at two or three years of age” (aguirre 52). their small physical size allowed many spectators to see them as “children.” their small heads were touched most of the time and were compared to “dolls’ heads.” but these touches weren’t necessarily forced on them. in fact, their acts “encouraged mutual interaction”: not only were the twins touched, but they also touched spectators (aguirre 52-53). unfortunately, as gerber points out, shortness was stigmatized in and out of the western world; it was thought to signal “immaturity and powerlessness” (49). their mental condition was not emphasized, but they were not treated as the adults. the “aztecs” and evolution grosh, keck, vazquez 13 rothfels proclaims that, even though the story of their lives was in question, maximo and bartola held an “important and almost unique place in history” (rothfels 160). whether people believed the story of aztec origins or not, the scientific community saw their exhibition as a “preeminent site” for formulating and debating the “technical and philosophical features” of two theories: evolution and recapitulation (rothfels 160-62). the latter theory is defined as the “repetition of evolutionary stages in the growth of a young animal” (“recapitulation”). for anatomist carl vogt, the twins’ microcephalism provided “the classic case for exploring the validity of recapitulation and the importance of arrested developments” (rothfels 166). the latter subject is defined as “development stopped at some stage of its progress” (“arrested”). that, along with recapitulation, would raise the question of whether the twins could present a “milestone” in the understanding of human evolution (rothfels 166). in the descent of man, charles darwin takes note of carl vogt’s study with “microcephalous idiots.” their “skulls [were] smaller, and the convolutions of the brain [were] less complex, than in normal men. the frontal sinus… is largely developed, and the jaws are prognathous (projected forward), so that these idiots somewhat resemble the lower types of mankind” (116-17). their brains were thought to resemble those of apes (117), and thus it could be inferred that people like maximo and bartola might be seen as links between apes and humans. given that they were presented as representatives of their race, the entire latin american world was thus made “primitive.” maximo’s and bartola’s features were measured and compared to apes’ features. one argument was that, if what the promoters said was true when they claimed these aztec children were really descendants of “primitive people,” then maximo and bartola would be part of a race somehow halfhuman and half-ape (rothfels 166-67). in other words, their condition was seen as making them, not simply primitive, but also less human, equated with animals. rudolf virchow, an anatomist, had a different opinion however. he did not believe the aztec race was a “mature form of an extinct species or race.” because of the idea of “survival of the fittest,” virchow felt the aztecs grosh, keck, vazquez 14 would not be fit to live (rothfels 167). virchow believed they would have died off long ago due to the arrested development of their cognitive abilities: they would not understand how to survive and thrive. the aztec children, he thought, could not be part of that extinct race if they were still alive in the nineteenth century. conclusion the exhibition of maximo and bartola offered to provide people a look into a lost civilization apart from the western world and, in doing so, made westerners feel superior. the aztec children were made to seem primitive in comparison. because they were presented as representatives of an uncivilized, undeveloped, and primitive race, the stigma against them was extended to include an entire people. even though it was all a hoax, people still believed in what managers’ booklets said about the life story of the aztec children. the constructed origins and appearances of the aztec children, combined with their misunderstood microcephalic symptoms, contributed to their exhibition. primary sources “the aztec children”: this newspaper article goes into great detail about the physical appearance the boy, named “maximo,” is about ten years of age, and 33 3/4 inches in height; weighs 20 pounds 12 ounces; circumference of chest, which is well developed, 18 1/4 inches; ditto of waist, 17 inches; circumference of head, 12 3/4 inches. the girl, named “bartola,” is about eight years of age, and 29 1/2 inches in height; weight, 17 pounds; circumference of head, 13 inches. in both, the arms and legs are of the pipestep order of animal architecture, but are muscular, strong and tough. their physiological and anatomical formations have been pronounced perfect after several very careful examinations. in short, they are like each other, and nobody else, and nothing else, living, dead, or imagined. grosh, keck, vazquez 15 of the aztec children. these children were such a physical anomaly that they gained headlines simply so others could picture their appearance prior to seeing the show. while this newspaper article was not typical propaganda because it was not created by the exhibit itself, the information within the article was clearly provided by those exhibiting the aztec children. without having to pay for or directly associate themselves with the story, the owners of the exhibit were able to publicize and attract interest simply by providing a newspaper with the fascinating and unusual physical description of these twins. these descriptions also made the exhibit seem educational—these people were not on display for entertainment but for their value as scientific discoveries. by providing the physical measurements of the twins, readers of the newspaper could visit them under the pretense they were fascinated from a scientific standpoint. illustrated memoir: this memoir was clearly a piece of promotional propaganda intended to entice and interest potential spectators. by publishing a memoir covering the expedition to and from the home of the aztec children, ownermanagers legitimized the heritage of these twins. rather than simply telling spectators the whole history of these twins at the beginning of a show, this pamphlet provided a history, an adventure story, thrilling action, an escape from uncivilized people, and a triumphant return to the safety of civilized society—all for what was no doubt a bargain of a price. the pamphlet opens with a list of each royal family the twins met while traveling through europe on their tours prior to coming to america. the reader is then engaged in a gripping tale featuring diary entries describing both the journey and the people included in great detail. nearly everyone in the party died, but the grosh, keck, vazquez 16 in brief, these aztec children present the most extraordinary phenomenon in the human race ever witnessed by the modern world: let their origin be what it may—let their history and their country’s history be ever so vague and traditionary—doubt the truth of velasquez’s narrative or believe it wholly, these children present themselves the eighth wonder of the world. they are, without exception, the most remarkable and intensely interesting objects that were ever presented to the european public. aztec children and their savior, velasquez, miraculously lived. this tale would most likely be sold outside the tent exhibiting the twins. it would ideally create a profit, interest people in the show, and potentially lead people to return to the exhibit after reading this supposed history. “marriage of the aztec children”: this newspaper article was placed directly above other marriage notices, but the content is clearly different. the other marriage notices within this particular issue mentioned people within philadelphia, the city where this paper was published. however, rather than just focusing on the local news, the aztec children were considered so notable that the paper needed to include the london herald’s view on this marriage. despite not being married within the united states, the aztec children served as so large an attraction that the news of their marriage traveled across the globe. it is also carefully noted that the aztec children had the permission of their guardian to get married, a requirement most men and women are not forced to adhere to. the article also focused carefully on their attire. this extra attention draws the reader’s notice away from the joy of the ceremony and toward a mental image of how these “freaks” might have appeared in traditional wedding dress. the human monstrosities known here some years ago as the “aztec children” have recently been exhibited in england. the london papers report that they were married in that city on the 7th instant. the london herald says: “the bride was dressed in a russian costume, presented to her by the governor-general of moscow; and the couple proceeded, with mr. j. m. morris, their guardian, to the office of the registrar of st. george’s, hanover square, where, in the presence of the registrar-general, who had issued the license after due inquiry whether there was any bar to the union, the couple were made one by civil contract. they then returned to their lodgings, where the girl was attired in a white satin dress, with a lace veil, an orange-blossom wreath, all, as well as the jewelry which she wore, being made for the occasion….” grosh, keck, vazquez 17 monroe doctrine: while one does not generally connect the monroe doctrine with the aztec children, this passage clearly shows how the two are related. despite being just children, the aztec children were taken from their home and travelled around europe and the united states as nothing more than a sideshow. the monroe doctrine clearly states that people from established lands in the americas will not be bothered, but the aztec children were taken from their small community in mesoamerica by outsiders. these outsiders were from the american continent themselves, but they directly violated the moraland respect-based standards posed by the monroe doctrine. rather than leaving these children to their life in a small, unknown community, these children were kidnapped and used as a commodity—the exact act the monroe doctrine sought to discontinue. european nations saw the americas as a source of cheap labor and a land filled with foolish, uneducated people who could be used to better an educated man’s existence. when the aztec children were taken and used in freak show, they served only to create a profit and amuse a middleor upper-class family who chose to witness the spectacle of foreigners with strange, and seemingly disproportioned features. grosh, keck, vazquez 18 we owe it, therefore, to candor and to the amicable relations existing between the united states and those powers to declare that we should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety. with the existing colonies or dependencies of any european power we have not interfered and shall not interfere. but with the governments who have declared their independence and maintain it, and whose independence we have, on great consideration and on just principles, acknowledged, we could not view any interposition for the purpose of oppressing them, or controlling in any other manner their destiny, by any european power in any other light than as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the united states. works cited aguirre, robert d. “exhibiting degeneracy: the aztec children and the ruins of race.” victorian review 29.2 (2003): 40-63. jstor. web. 4 apr. 2016. “arrested development.” oxford english dictionary. 2nd ed. 1989. print. “the aztec children.” the daily crescent 28 dec 1850. web. 10 nov. 2015. bogdan, robert. “maximo and bartola.” freak show: presenting human oddities for amusement and profit. chicago: u of chicago, 1988. 127-28, 130-31. print. --“the social construction of freaks.” thomson 23-37. darwin, charles. the descent of man, and selection in relation to sex: in 2 vol. new york: d. appleton and co., 1871. 116-117. print. fretz, eric. “p.t. barnum’s theatrical selfhood and the nineteenth-century culture of exhibition.” thomson 97-107. gardiner, william j. reflections on the history of white supremacy in the united states (2009): 3, 12. uua.org. unitarian universalist association, 2015. web. 20 feb. 2016. gerber, david a. “the ‘careers’ of people exhibited in freak shows: the problem of volition and valorization.” thomson 38-54. “marriage of the ‘aztec children.’” the daily evening telegraph 24 jan 1867: 8. web. 14 oct. 2015. maximo and bartola. n.d. university of pennsylvania, philadelphia. penn libraries blogs. web. 14 mar. 2016. “mestizo.” oxford english dictionary. 2nd ed. 1989. print. “microcephaly.” virginia genetics program. virginia department of health, n.d. web. 12 nov. 2015. monroe, james. congress. 2 dec 1823. annual presidential address. niv/kjv parallel bible. grand rapids: zondervan, 2002. print. pednaud, j. tithonus. “maximo & bartola—the pinhead aztec children.” grosh, keck, vazquez 19 circus freaks and human oddites. the human marvels, 5 dec. 2007. web. 1 nov. 2015. rainger, ronald. “philanthropy and science in the 1830’s: the british and foreign aborigines’ protection society.” man 15.4 (1980): 702-717. jstor. web. 21 feb. 2016. “recapitulation.” def. 1b. oxford english dictionary. 2nd ed. 1989. print. rothfels, nigel. “aztecs, aborigines, and ape-people: science and freaks in germany, 1850-1900.” thomson 158-172. stephens, john l. illustrated memoir of an eventful expedition into central america resulting in the discovery of the idolatrous city of iximaya, in an unexplored region; and the possession of two remarkable aztec children maximo (the boy), and bartola (the girl), descendants and specimens of the sacerdotal caste (now nearly extinct), of the ancient aztec founders of the ruined temples of that country. new york: wynkoop, hallenbeck & thomas printers, 1860. print. thomson, rosemarie garland. “the cultural work of american freak shows, 1835-1940.” extraordinary bodies: figuring physical disability in american culture and literature. new york: columbia up, 1997. 59. print. ---, ed. freakery. new york: new york up, 1996. print. tredgold, a.f. “microcephaly.” the british medical journal 2.3680 (1931). jstor. web. 20 feb. 2016. grosh, keck, vazquez 20 68 beware the house that feels: the impact of sentient house hauntings on literary families ashley starling, ball state university this essay examines edgar allen poe’s “the fall of the house of usher,” shirley jackson’s the haunting of hill house, and mark z. danielewski’s house of leaves, texts featuring sentient house hauntings. the author focuses on how the family unit in each text undergoes drastic destruction, arguing that the breakdown of the family is the true source of horror in such hauntings where a traditional ghost is not present. the source of horror behind most literary hauntings can be traced back to a ghost’s visual or physical manifestation. in shakespeare’s hamlet, for example, the titular character only realizes the personal horror of his situation after seeing his father’s ghostly figure lurking in the hallways of his home. the governess in henry james’s the turn of the screw experiences not only horror but madness as well when she visualizes the ghosts of miss jessel and quint. in these instances, it is simple to pinpoint the cause of all negative emotion down to a human-like ghostly entity, and the characters can therefore work to eliminate that source of fear. works that feature sentient houses in their hauntings, however, weave a complicated web of horror that makes it difficult to determine what actually generates fear in the absence of a familiar ghost form. by looking at several literary works that feature sentient house hauntings, it is evident that the real horror in sentient houses does not come from an actual ghost in this type of haunting; rather, it is the revelation that the family at the center of the haunting is fragile and can be easily damaged beyond repair, which sparks the fear as the haunting displays an underlying cultural anxiety about familial instability as a whole. even for enthusiasts that are well-read in ghostly literature, the term sentient house may be a concept that is confusing or unclear. although this type of ghost story has become increasingly popular in fiction and film, there has not always been a single accepted classification for such stories; sentient house is perhaps the most concise designation that has been attributed to this style of haunting. literally, sentience is defined by merriam-webster as “finely sensitive in perception or feeling” (“sentient”). in ghostly literature and film, a house typically displays this quality as it becomes animated in a manner such as rearranging household items, warping its physical walls, or even attempting to inflict physical pain upon its inhabitants. in essence, sentient houses exhibit the characteristics of a typical ghost manifestation but display those characteristics in a dominantly malevolent structural presence rather than a posthumous human-like apparition. the sentient house figure has evolved over time, the behaviors of its malevolent structure being representative of the time period of its literary publication. one of the first instances of this haunting in literature is edgar allan poe’s “the fall of the house of usher.” in digital literature review, vol. 1 (2014). © ball state university. all rights reserved. please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce article to dlr@bsu.edu. mailto:dlr%40bsu.edu?subject= 69beware the house that feels, starling poe’s work, the sentient house displays qualities of the gothic genre popular at the time. it is in itself a gloomy backdrop for supernatural events, a setting that reflects the dark nature of the emotional turbulence experienced by the ushers. the house haunts its inhabitants in a way that is both internal and external in this way; the crumbling house possesses both ghostly behaviors and a catalyst for madness. shirley jackson’s the haunting of hill house reflects in its house the anxieties of 1950s america, especially the worries of women in that time. the house specifically targets eleanor in its haunting, calling out her abnormal social role as an older, unmarried woman in a time when marriage rates were at an all-time high. likewise, mark z. danielewski’s house of leaves features a sentient house that reflects modern concerns about technology. navidson uses equipment such as video cameras in order to explain the haunting, yet the house manipulates that technology for its own agenda. this brief timeline shows that sentient houses have evolved throughout their history to reflect the common thoughts of their time, but there is always one element that remains constant in these hauntings: a family at the center of the ordeal that is drastically damaged by various tribulations. one of the larger concepts that fuels the horror in a sentient house novel is a sense of the uncanny. the uncanny, or unheimlich in its original german, was a concept developed by sigmund freud in his 1919 essay “the uncanny.” freud provides multiple definitions for the uncanny, the most prevalent being all that “arouses dread and horror” (930). the uncanny is more complex, however, being both contradictory and complementary in nature: what is familiar becomes unfamiliar, the hidden is revealed, and a lingering sense of unease settles inside one’s mind. one definition in particular relates directly to sentient houses and the horror induced by the situation. freud describes the heimlich as being “the enjoyment of quiet content, etc., arousing a sense of agreeable restfulness and security as in one within the four walls of his house” (932) and furthermore associates the opposite of such enjoyment, unheimlich, with the idea of a “haunted house” (945). this “homely” and “unhomely” concept directly describes the fear felt in a sentient house haunting. haunted houses take the familiar security and comfort found in one’s home, the familiar and the known, and turns that security into a sense of fear in the face of what is unfamiliar and unknown. in a sentient house haunting, the uncanny works to destroy the physical representation of a family and throws the safety of the family into question. metaphorically, a home is typically associated with feelings of comfort, security, and everyday functions. it is the base of family life, the safe haven from the evils of the outside world. yet this place of domesticity supports an atmosphere that is ripe for malicious intrusion. anthony vidler, in the architectural uncanny: essays in the modern unhomely, states that in haunted houses “the house provide[s] an especially favored site for uncanny disturbances: its apparent domesticity, its residue of family history and nostalgia, its role as the last and most intimate shelter of private comfort sharpen[s] by contrast the terror of invasion by alien spirits” (17). in most horror situations, the home is a shelter into which characters can retreat in their distress, offering at least a temporary sense of security. haunted houses, particularly ones that feature traditional ghost figures, alter that security by placing the malevolent force within the structure of comfort, but this alteration only lasts until a cleanse or an exorcism dispels the ghost itself. once the ghost has gone, the house can return to its normal state. sentient house hauntings are therefore unique in that there is no safety at all to be taken from the haunted house; the only permanent solution to escaping the haunting would be to completely abandon the home, leaving behind the family history and memories associated with the structure. houses in such sentient hauntings, therefore, are no longer secure in their domesticity. in house of leaves, the navidsons’ constantly-shifting house reflects the uncanny and 70beware the house that feels, starling does not allow for any initial establishment of domesticity or familial comfort. the family’s initial occupancy of the house on ash tree lane is fueled by will navidson’s desire to both document how a family settles down and to experience that settlement for himself. “i just thought it would be nice to see how people move into a place and start to inhabit it,” will states early on in the novel. “personally, i just want to create a cozy little outpost for me and my family” (danielewski 9). the house therefore begins as a place of familial dreams, but the sentience sets in too quickly for the family to actually achieve any inkling of domesticity. after only weeks in their new home, the navidsons leave their inanimate dwelling for a few days but return to find something undoubtedly uncanny: a new door appears between the parents’ and the children’s rooms. even zampanó, one of the novel’s many narrators, remarks on this change: “in their absence, the navidsons’ home had become something else, and while not exactly sinister or even threatening, the change still destroyed any sense of security or well-being” (28). the immediacy of this intrusion halts the family’s domesticity through the will of the sentient house—the house will not allow the family to make the home familiar. likewise, the fact that the family has to be away for this uncanny door to appear shows that the house is indeed its own entity: while houses typically need an occupying family to bring life inside its walls, the house on ash tree lane establishes itself as an independent living structure. the uncanny in house of leaves therefore works to divide the family and the house from an early stage, destroying will’s hopes to settle his family securely into a new domestic life. the uncanny plays a similar role in inhibiting familial security in the haunting of hill house even though hill house itself gives the impression of comfortable family life. the family unit in this novel is not typical as it consists merely of weak bonds between strangers. these strangers often are depicted in scenes that exaggerate their role as a family of sorts. for instance, they once held a picnic in which “theodora and eleanor and luke brought back a handkerchief full [of strawberries] and lay on the lawn near the doctor, eating them, staining their hands and their mouths; like children, the doctor told them” (jackson 347). scenes such as these place the doctor in a parental role and the others as his dependents. yet the bonds between these strangers are very loose—they are brought together only to experience the haunted house, and this family dissipates once the experience is over. this means that there is always a false sense of security during this sentient house haunting; each individual thinks they are safe in their group but really they are vulnerable as individuals. tricia lootens, in “whose hand was i holding,” states that “hill house will be glad to give you a hand to hold in the night, someone to be there, a sense of belonging. when it is too late, you will realize that all along you were really alone, clinging to your enemy—or to nothing at all” (178). as seen in the quotation from lootens, the situation is a manifestation of the uncanny: the family unit that seems so familiar in the face of the haunting is yet very unfamiliar in its inner structure and reality. because the familial bonds are temporary, no complete sense of security can be established in the onset of this haunting. in “the fall of the house of usher,” the uncanny plays a vital role in establishing the sentient presence within the house—a presence that will hurry along the destruction of the family. the usher mansion is unlike the houses in house of leaves and the haunting of hill house in that the family experiencing the haunting has actually resided in the structure for generations. the house itself has become a symbol of the larger usher line. as such, it would be expected for this long-established house to give off a sense of security and warmth due to the length of familial inhabitance. however, as the narrator enters this house, what is felt instead is an uneasiness of great proportion. he describes the exterior as “an 71beware the house that feels, starling atmosphere which had no affinity with the air of heaven, but which had reeked up from the decayed trees, and the gray wall, and the silent tarn—a pestilent and mystic vapour, dull, sluggish, faintly discernible, and leaden-hued” (poe 233). this outside impression of the home makes the building that is familiar to the narrator from his youth quite unfamiliar in its sense of uneasiness, and the interior has a similar effect. the narrator even remarks that “while [he] hesitated not to acknowledge how familiar was all this—[he] still wondered to find how unfamiliar were the fancies which ordinary images were stirring up” (233). this uncanniness early on in poe’s tale works to initially establish the sentient presence in the usher mansion; the strange sounds that will occur at the climax of the story do not seem farfetched because the house has already been associated with an uneasy atmosphere. by using the uncanny in such a manner, authors writing this genre of ghost story destroy the sense of comfort, domesticity, and security that is associated with a home. taking away these qualities takes away the very physical and emotional foundations of a family unit, rendering the home nothing more than a malevolent house. this only allows for more permanent damage as the family, with no physical place for safety, must leave behind all memories and symbols of their past in order to fully escape a sentient house haunting. another common thread in sentient house novels is the onset of madness and lasting psychological change within its characters. the house itself often serves as a reflection of a character’s inner tribulations. for example, ridvan askin states that in house of leaves “the house and labyrinth on ash tree lane do not constitute two levels at all—they are located on one and the same level, matter and soul irreducibly folded into one another” (103). since the house and the labyrinth are “folded” within each other, the labyrinth can be seen as a reflection of the family’s mental state. furthermore, one of the critics quoted in house of leaves, ruby dahl, calls the house a “solipsistic heightener” and states that “the house, the halls, and the rooms all become the self—collapsing, expanding, tilting, closing, but always in perfect relation to the mental state of the individual” (165). this is seen as the family becomes more divided mentally and the descents into the labyrinth become more puzzling, more complicated, and more terrifying. additionally, as in any haunting experience, sentient houses are bound to leave long-term effects upon the characters. in many works of ghost literature, the text ends either at the end of the haunting or shortly afterward, making it difficult to certainly know any permanent damage for the characters. however, there is enough evidence in sentient house novels to show that the changes that take place psychologically revolve around traits such as personality and life goals. these hauntings work seemingly as a reality check for these characters, causing them to rethink previous priorities and obligations. these two elements—madness and psychological change—work to destroy the family unit because they place a mental distance between the members within the unit during the haunting and raise the question of familial compatibility after the haunting is complete. in these hauntings, there are two different types of madness displayed: a true mental madness and a temporary obsessive madness. the true madness shows a more permanent effect of a ghost experience; a haunting is such an incomprehensible situation, many simply cannot deal with the thoughtful implications. the obsessive madness, on the other hand, is more of a temporary state that is experienced in the moment of hauntings. regardless of which type a character exhibits during the course of the novel, madness places that character on a different thought plane than the rest of the family. it is therefore difficult for the family to stick together and resolve the haunting because their understandings of the situation contrast. furthermore, the changes in psychology and sanity throughout the haunting hint at a later 72beware the house that feels, starling incompatibility for the family overall. dale bailey, in american nightmares: the haunted house formula in american popular fiction, creates a formula for haunted houses that names three different options for the eventual climax, one of which is “the house survives, but the skeptical family makes its escape—though not without paying a high price, usually a fatal one” (62). although the resolutions of sentient house hauntings do often involve a family death, one of the other high prices paid is the mental changes seen in its characters. it is difficult to assume that a family will learn to function as easily as before the haunting if such issues as madness have crept their way into one of the family members. as seen in the sentient house texts, it may take much effort to establish the family back at the level it was before their haunting experience. in danielewski’s work, madness works to tear the navidson family apart as will becomes increasingly engrossed in exploring the sentient house. as mentioned earlier, the family (with will in particular) is united in its plan to establish a new life together in the new house. however, when will becomes obsessively interested in exploring more and more of the house’s curious labyrinth, he creates distance between himself and his partner, karen. while karen keeps herself grounded in the more logical, common situations by calling her parents or checking real estate, will obsesses over the homely anomaly and attempts to connect with outside people who would also find the situation interesting (danielewski 57). as the haunting progresses, it results in two drastically different goals between the husband and wife: while will wants nothing more than to answer his curiosity about the haunting, karen just wants to pack up her children and move. karen, in this case, wants to keep her family intact and sees leaving the house as the only option for that; however, without will being a willing participant in her plan, the rift between the couple grows. looking at the psychological changes in house of leaves reveals that, during the haunting, will and karen revert back to prior versions of themselves, versions that they had to initially abandon in order to maximize their overall compatibility and coherence as a family. will turns back into the overly goal-focused journalist and shifts away from any personal morality. this is the type of person will exemplified when he photographed delial and won his journalism award, a man that is more concerned with getting the perfect photograph and less concerned about the people involved. by putting his focus on the labyrinth and on the strange workings of his house, will neglects the well-being of his family as a whole. at the climax of the novel, when will has reached the focus of the labyrinth, he admits in his letter to karen that this is the type of person he really is: “i should burn the place down, forget about it. but going after something like this is who i am. you know that” (danielewski 389). meanwhile, karen strays from being the faithful wife that she had become into the adulterous woman she was in times prior. karen struggled to overcome her past adulteries (348-350), yet it is the stress of the sentient house that causes her to turn back to her old, comfortable habits. this is seen in an important scene within the first quarter of the novel: as will is deep inside the house’s labyrinth, karen kisses wax, an outsider brought in to help with the exploration. in this scene both characters present their former selves: will in his obsessive exploration and karen in her comfortable infidelity. this throws the overall compatibility of the two into question. both had to give up their vices in favor of the family’s new start in the new house, but, because they quickly turn back to those vices, it shows a deeper disconnect within the family unit, a disconnect that will permeate long after the haunting is resolved. “the fall of the house of usher” displays a more permanent type of madness destroying the family. the sentient house itself is generally viewed as a metaphor for the crumbling 73beware the house that feels, starling mental state of roderick usher and for the dissolving family itself. roderick seems to have become mad as part of his illness, yet the sentience within the house escalates this madness, breaking the bonds between roderick and both his sister and the narrator. the actions within the sentient house prompt the most important question of the story: was madeline really dead when she was buried, or did roderick bury her alive in a fit of madness? the truth behind that question, before it has been made clear, has irreparable effects on the individual members of the family unit. roderick usher believes that she was indeed alive when buried, and exclaims that he and the narrator “have put her living in the tomb! said i not that my senses were acute? i now tell you that i heard her first feeble movements in the hollow coffin” (poe 245). this quote makes the reader question roderick’s madness: was he truly mad all along and buried his sister alive, or has he just developed madness as a result of the sentient house and only mistakenly believes that she is still alive? either way, his willing burial of his twin sister separates himself and madeline, prompting the breaking of the family via life and death. even if madeline is truly dead, roderick has also caused a rift between himself and poe’s narrator, who can be considered as the other member of his family. the reader is forced to see the narrator as the sane and mentally capable character in this story; therefore, roderick’s madness distances him from both reality and the narrator. in this short story, overall, the madness displayed causes the breakdown both of the sentient house and of the usher family. in the haunting of hill house, the psychological change separates the “family” by essentially pitting one family member against the others. specifically, this character is eleanor as she struggles psychologically throughout the haunting. lisa kröger states that “eleanor’s psychological health is already compromised before she even leaves for hill house....some, like melanie anderson, may even go as far as to assert that eleanor herself is haunting hill house” (151). the latter assertion has quite the separating implication for the family in hill house. by considering eleanor’s psychological state as the cause of the haunting, eleanor is therefore responsible for any harm done to the others in the family unit. she becomes no longer a part of the group of innocent victims but rather an individual instigator in the haunting. furthermore, viewing eleanor as having taken on the mentality of hill house forces her to be classified with the sentient structure and not the living people. this means that she was never truly a part of the “family” established at hill house but rather an interloper grouped in with the others. additionally, eleanor’s madness highlights the lack of dependence with the family unit. at the end of the novel, eleanor is killed in a moment that causes confusion concerning her sanity (jackson 417). this not only separates her from the others in terms of life and death but also eliminates her presence completely from the lives of others. they can therefore associate eleanor with hill house in their memory, an experience they will most likely want to forget. eleanor’s thoughts during her final moments also reveal the lack of family dependence. she questions, “why am i doing this? why am i doing this? why don’t they stop me?” (417). that final question reveals that eleanor does see herself as connected to the others, enough so that they should step in if she were to attempt to harm herself. yet it can be concluded from the text that no one has helped her: at this moment, with the haunting now being over, the inhabitants are likely to view their temporary associations with each other as being over. the madness and psychological change within eleanor throughout the haunting of hill house works to establish the family unit as being simply a loose tie of temporary inhabitants. overall, madness is an important factor in the dissection of the family unit because those in a collective group must be of one mind within any haunting. it is important for each 74beware the house that feels, starling member of a family in a sentient house haunting, or even a traditional ghost haunting, to have the same understanding of the situation and how to go about solving the problem. by introducing madness into this equation, a new obstacle is introduced as the haunting problem is now twofold: there is a house haunting the family, but also a mental ghost haunting the mad individual. the psychological effects of hauntings further the breakdown of the family unit as the permanent effects of hauntings are made evident. each individual in a family does not come out of a haunting unscathed psychologically, making it immensely more difficult for the unit to function collectively as it once did. the endings of sentient house works showcase a family that is fragile and shaken to its core. in beyond words: signifying families in postmodern american fiction, mary holland explains that in house of leaves, “the last chapter presents the newly reunited navidson family, with will and karen finally stably wedded, [in a] completely normal house in vermouth, depicted as a homey home” (330). indeed, it may seem that house of leaves ends with a family that has recovered from its traumatic experience, and in some aspects, it has indeed healed. however, the haunting has left a lasting devastation on the family that will require years to fully heal: tom, will’s brother, died in the sentient house; will himself lost a hand and an eye; and, as karen recovers from the haunting, she develops cancer. all of these physical and emotional trials mingle with the harsh truth that they must learn how to function as a family once again. the house on ash tree lane still haunts the family, regardless: “the navidsons may have left the house, they may have even left virginia, but they will never be able to leave the memory of that place” (danielewski 526) and even will “has never stopped wrestling with the meaning of his experience” (527). house of leaves displays a relatively hopeful ending for the family at its conclusion—although the house still mentally haunts them, the family is able to move forward. other sentient house works do not end on such a positive note, however. the haunting of hill house resolves with a broken family that will never become a family again. this temporary grouping of individuals was a product of their situation, and they became essentially a family by choice. with the conclusion of the haunting of the crane house, the family has dissipated, the strangers not likely to ever encounter each other again. furthermore, with eleanor’s death at the very end, the family could never be complete if it were to try to reassemble. without that one individual, the family could not resurrect its former state at the onset of the work. finally, “the fall of the house of usher” shows a family that is shattered in multiple ways. the physical representation of the family, the large usher mansion which has housed generations and reflects the living experiences of that family, has been destroyed as it cracked open. the living family has been destroyed as well, as both ultimately cause the death of the other. only the narrator remains, a man who could be loosely grouped with the usher family by way of association, but a man that could never replace nor represent the true being of the usher line. there is no hope of the family ever reconstructing itself at the end of this work. the narrator even describes the outcome of the story as being left as “fragments” of the house of usher (poe 245), showing that irreparability. overall, ghost literature that features a sentient house concludes with families that are broken, sometimes beyond repair, as a result of the haunting. in conclusion, by looking at sentient house literature such as house of leaves, “the fall of the house of usher,” and the haunting of hill house, it is clear that the terror experienced through the breakdown of the family unit in these hauntings reflects an overall cultural anxiety about such familial turbulence. families are generally regarded as a collective source of security and comfort. the destruction of the family unit works to strip families of 75beware the house that feels, starling these qualities, diminishing the value of the unit from an emotional resource to merely an asset for basic survival. this is frightening to an individual in such a family that must learn to take on the complex situations of life without any familial support. by reading sentient house hauntings in literature, therefore, one may gain insight into an anxiety about family instability that is present in overall culture: that an unstable family will ultimately render an individual helplessly alone. it is this thought that provides the real source of terror in sentient house hauntings in place of a ghostly manifestation. 76beware the house that feels, starling works cited askin, ridvan. “‘folding, unfolding, refolding’: mark z. danielewski’s differential novel house of leaves.” revolutionary leaves: the fiction of mark z. danielewski. ed. sascha pohlmann. newcastle-upon-tyne, uk: cambridge scholars publishing, 2012. 99-121. print. bailey, dale. american nightmares: the haunted house formula in american popular fiction. bowling green, oh: bowling green state university popular press, 1999. print. danielewski, mark z. house of leaves. london: pantheon, 2000. print. freud, sigmund. “the ‘uncanny.’” the norton anthology of theory and criticism. ed. vincent b. leitch. new york: norton, 2001. 929-952. print. holland, mary katherine. beyond words: signifying families in postmodern american fiction. thesis. university of california, 2004. print. jackson, shirley. the haunting of hill house. new york: viking, 1959. rpt in shirley jackson: novels and stories. new york: the library of america, 2010. 243-420. print. kröger, lisa. “house of leaves: a postmodern retelling of shirley jackson’s the haunting of hill house.” journal of the georgia philological association dec. 2009: 149-156. print. lootens, tricia. “‘whose hand was i holding?’ familial and sexual politics in shirley jackson’s the haunting of hill house.’” haunting the house of fiction: feminist perspectives on ghost stories by american women. ed. lynette carpenter and wendy k. kolmar. knoxville: the university of tennessee press, 1991. 166-192. print. poe, edgar allan. “the fall of the house of usher.” burton’s gentleman’s magazine. sept 1839: 145-152. rpt in complete tales & poems: edgar allan poe. new york: vintage books, 1975. 231-245. print. “sentient.” def. 3. merriam webster online. merriam-webster, 2014. web. 4 feb. 2014. vidler, anthony. “unhomely houses.” the architectural uncanny: essays in the modern unhomely. cambridge, ma: mit, 1992. 17-44. print. the fate of a materialistic buddhist: a cultural edition of “jikininki” by lafcadio hearn a traditional japanese folktale, “jikininki” tells the story of muso, a traveling buddhist monk, and the horrors he discovers in the mountains of japan. in the story, he comes across a small, rural village where a citizen has recently died. muso is told by one of the townsfolk that after every funeral the bodies mysteriously disappear. that night, he discovers that the bodies are being devoured by a corpse-eating ghost, called the jikininki, cursed to consume the recently dead. in japanese buddhist mythology, jikininkis are usually the spirits of greedy people, unable to enter the afterlife because of their earthly appetites (roberts 62). little is known about the exact origin of the story, but much can be assumed from what is known about japanese culture, specifically zen buddhism, one of the primary religions of japan, and customs of rural japanese communities. when studying “jikininki,” it is clear that the teachings of zen buddhism and the cultures of rural communities are reflected in the fears and horrors surrounding the jikininki, specifically in the monstrification of materialism and the denouncement of rural folk traditions. the corpse-devouring monster depicted in “jikininki” is the intersection of two prominent cultural forces in rural japan (the selfless transcendence from human nature depicted in zen buddhism and ancient folkreligions, such as shintoism, built upon spirits of nature and ancestral worship) and, in addition, appears to represent the fear of losing both the global zen buddhist abstract lafcadio hearn has written and adapted many japanese folktales that explore religious and cultural traditions of the civilization. “jikininki” tells the tale of a buddhist priest who encounters a cursed, corpse-eating ghost. the authors examine the depiction of this corpse-devouring monster, its relation to the cultural forces in rural japan, and the representation of a fear of losing both the global zen buddhist and rural traditions through selfish mistreatment and material desires. natali cavanagh, sarah james, & shannon walter, ball state university 1digital literature review, vol. 4 (2017). ball state university. all rights reserved. please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce critical edition to dlr@bsu.edu. traditions and the rural traditions through selfish mistreatment and material desires. “jikininki” was originally published in a collection of japanese folktales, kwaidan: stories and studies of strange things, written by author and journalist lafcadio hearn. this collection is said to be loosely based on various excerpts of japanese buddhist mythology. from sections in his journal, it is apparent that hearn had been fascinated with evil, demonic creatures from a young age (bisland 26-28). hearn was born in greece and spent the majority of his childhood and young adult life in ireland and america, but he found his home in japan, spending fourteen years in various parts of the country. by day, he worked as an english literature professor, but he spent his free time carefully observing, learning, and recording the folklore of the ancient japanese culture. kwaidan is a culmination of what he learned and is considered to be his most successful work (lewis). throughout history and around the world, it is clear that religion and philosophy drastically shape the societies they are cultivated in, and this idea is no different for japanese culture. zen buddhism is one of the predominant religions that has influenced the japanese way of life — their hopes and beliefs, but also what they fear. buddhism was originally founded in india during the fifth and sixth centuries b.c.e. by siddhartha gautama, or the buddha, and arrived in japan by the sixth century c.e. (roberts xv). while there are many variations of buddhism (in china, korea, etc.), zen buddhism is specific to japan, and each sect has different ideas about how a person reaches enlightenment. according to paul carus’s article “the mythology of buddhism,” zen buddhism is driven by four specific truths (or the four noble truths) that comment on the origin of pain (carus 415). specifically, the underlying belief in these truths is that “to be human means to suffer” (roberts xv) and that the root of suffering comes from our resistance to change and our attachment to the physical world; carus writes, “the second noble truth states that the origin of suffering is the craving or clinging that clamors for the gratification of desire; it is the pursuit of pleasure . . . the lust of the senses, and the infatuation of all selfish conceits” (415). buddhism contends that humans are fooled by the illusion of physical pleasure; the tangible, material world we reside in may satisfy a person in the moment, but, because the physical world cannot last forever, it will never truly fulfill a person’s nature or soul. thus, we cannot be at peace simply by consuming the physical world. shunryu suzuki, a modern zen buddhist master, also notes, “according to the traditional buddhist understanding, our human nature is without ego. when we have no idea of ego, we have buddha’s view of life. our egoistic ideas are 2cavanagh, james, walter delusion, covering our buddha nature” (88). buddhists believe suffering comes from the desire and pursuit of earthly pleasures in physical, bodily desire and material objects. this desire is not even real, but merely an illusion, preventing us from ever knowing the true nature of the world or reaching enlightenment. and, according to the buddhists, because this desire goes against our nature, one must overcome desire before reaching enlightenment. in order to overcome suffering, one must overcome selfishness. these ideas of overcoming selfishness are condensed into the eightfold path of righteousness, a guide to the right mindset, right actions, and right understanding one must have in order to achieve enlightenment (roberts xv). the focus on selfishness as the root of all evil is emphasized again in buddhists’ personification of evil in mara, the buddhist devil (carus 417). he is depicted as a creature that feeds on bodily desires, sensual delight, and wicked selfishness — essentially the opposite of what the buddha and the eightfold path embody. interestingly, the monstrous jikininki seems to also portray the wicked selfishness that is demonized in buddhist mythology: a buddhist priest who “thought only of the food and the clothes that my sacred profession enabled me to gain” is cursed to return to earth as a haunted spirit, forced to eat the bodies of the recently dead (hearn 4). monster scholar jeffrey jerome cohen notes in “monster culture (seven theses)” that “[t]he monster is continually linked to forbidden practices in order to normalize and enforce . . . . the same creatures who terrify and interdict can evoke potent escapist fantasies; the linking of monstrosity with the forbidden makes the monster all the more appealing as a temporary egress from constraint” (16-17). in this sense, the jikininki seems to be a representation of the priest’s selfishness; the indulgence of the priest’s desire is what creates the monster. the priest is punished for straying from his own teachings but is also punished for his desires for material goods instead of enlightenment. he is punished for giving in to selfishness, for ignoring his true buddha nature. and, therefore, his suffering continues after his death. for the rural areas of japan, society is not only shaped by major religions, but also by the traditions and structures of small communities. scholar and author ichiro hori claims, “the essence of japanese folk-beliefs lies in the interaction between two belief systems: a little tradition . . . and a great tradition” (405). little traditions are the native religions of rural japan, whereas great traditions are the influences of major philosophies, such as taoism, confucianism, and buddhism. “jikininki” is an excellent example of how these two traditions intersect; muso kokushi, a zen buddhist priest, represents the great tradition of major philosophy, while the jikininki represents the little tradition of ancestor worship and respect for 3cavanagh, james, walter the dead in rural japanese folk traditions. this theme of an outside major philosophical force entering a local community is a common theme among japanese folktales; hori states, “one of the major problems of japanese religious history is to grasp the importance of the role played by such migratory missionaries in forming folk-beliefs in japan” (406). the role of missionaries from larger, global religions, such as muso kokushi in “jikininki,” was to introduce new concepts to rural communities, opening the door for greater knowledge and understanding. the culmination of these two forces, the global religion and the local religion, is echoed throughout “jikininki” and is represented by the monster itself. the selfishness of the buddhist priest who becomes the jikininki stems from both his desire for the worldly possessions given to him because of his religious position and from his apathy towards the treatment of the dead in the village he resides in. japanese folk religion places a significant importance on its treatment of the dead, with ancestral worship and the sanctity of mountains being core attributes to their traditions (hori 416). although zen buddhism is popular in japan, individual nature-oriented deities still exist in rural japanese folklore. most common of these are the spirits of the mountains. for example, many japanese farming villages believe “the god of the rice-fields comes down from the mountain or hill at the beginning of spring before seeding to guard his worshippers’ fields” (hori 415). in the mountainous area of mino, where “jikininki” takes place, the landscape itself would have been an important part of the village’s folk religions. mountains are seen as sacred in many cultures, providing landmarks as a source of identity or signifying being closer to god. in japan, mountains play a large part in the treatment of the dead, acting as burial sites or places of meditation. they are also seen as sites of spirits, both in relation to folk-religion and the dead. hori claims, “another important folk-belief is that a particular mountain . . . is associated with the spirit of the dead at the time of funerals” (416). mountains were viewed as a path to the afterlife, and many japanese legends, including “jikininki,” involve “buddhist monks, [and] shinto priests . . . [meeting] ghosts in such mountains” (hori 417). in the story, the former zen buddhist priest says that “the bodies of the mountain-folk who died used to be brought here — sometimes from great distances — in order that i might repeat over them the holy service. but i repeated the service and performed the rites only as a matter of business” (hearn 4). by disrespecting the importance of the treatment of the dead in a rural japanese village, he is forced to spend his afterlife as a monster. the only way to relieve 4cavanagh, james, walter himself of his monstrous existence is to have a devout priest honor the dead and treat his body with the same respect seen across rural japan. cohen states, “the monster awakens one to the pleasures of the body to the simple and fleeting joys of being frightened, or frightening — to the experience of mortality and corporeality” (17). the pleasures of this world are what caused the curse upon the priest, and he exists as both a frightened and frightening creature, forced to eat the corpses of deceased villagers as punishment for his decisions. the jikininki is forced to exist as a monster due to his selfishness and desire for worldly possessions, as well as apathy towards the treatment of the dead in japanese mountain villages. he remains in his afterlife to plague the citizens of a mountainous japanese village, their fear reflective of their shared beliefs; the loss of their values, represented in the jikininki himself, invokes fear in the community. the culmination of the mistreatment of both community traditions and global religion leads to the birth of this monster. “jikininki” by lafcadio hearn once, when muso kokushi, a priest of the zen sect1, was journeying alone through the province of mino2, he lost his way in a mountain-district where there was nobody to direct him. for a long time he wandered about helplessly; and he was beginning to despair of finding shelter for the night, when he perceived, on the top of a hill lighted by the last rays of the sun, one of those little hermitages, called anjitsu3, which are built for solitary priests. it seemed to be in ruinous condition; but he hastened to it eagerly, and found that it was inhabited by an aged priest, from whom he begged the favor of a night’s lodging. this the old man harshly refused; but he directed muso to a certain hamlet4, in the valley adjoining, where lodging and food could be obtained. muso found his way to the hamlet, which consisted of less than a dozen farm-cottages; and he was kindly received at the dwelling of the headman. forty or fifty persons were assembled in the principal apartment, at the moment of muso’s arrival; but he was shown into a small separate room, where he was promptly supplied with food and bedding. being very tired, he lay down to rest at an early hour; but a little before midnight he was roused from sleep by a sound of loud 5cavanagh, james, walter 1 zen buddhism originated in china during the tang dynasty. it emphasizes rigorous self-control, meditation-practice, insight into buddha-nature and the personal expression of this insight in daily life, especially for the benefit of others (d. suzuki 104). 2 mino is one of the old provinces of japan. it lies in the southern part of modern-day gifu prefecture (“mino area”). 3 an anjitsu is defined as a hermit’s cell, or a retreat (“anshitsu”). 4 a small settlement, generally one smaller than a village (“hamlet”). weeping in the next apartment. presently the sliding-screens were gently pushed apart; and a young man, carrying a lighted lantern, entered the room, respectfully saluted him, and said: “reverend sir, it is my painful duty to tell you that i am now the responsible head of this house. yesterday i was only the eldest son. but when you came here, tired as you were, we did not wish that you should feel embarrassed in any way: therefore we did not tell you that father had died only a few hours before. the people whom you saw in the next room are the inhabitants of this village: they all assembled here to pay their last respects to the dead; and now they are going to another village, about three miles off, — for, by our custom, no one of us may remain in this village during the night after a death has taken place. we make the proper offerings and prayers; then we go away, leaving the corpse alone. strange things always happen in the house where a corpse has thus been left: so we think that it will be better for you to come away with us. we can find you good lodging in the other village. but perhaps, as you are a priest, you have no fear of demons or evil spirits; and, if you are not afraid of being left alone with the body, you will be very welcome to the use of this poor house. however, i must tell you that nobody, except a priest, would dare to remain here tonight.” muso made answer: “for your kind intention and your generous hospitality i am deeply grateful. but i am sorry that you did not tell me of your father’s death when i came; for, though i was a little tired, i certainly was not so tired that i should have found difficulty in doing my duty as a priest. had you told me, i could have performed the service before your departure. as it is, i shall perform the service5 after you have gone away; and i shall stay by the body until morning. i do not know what you mean by your words about the danger of staying here alone; but i am not afraid of ghosts or demons: therefore please do not have any anxiety on my account.” the young man appeared to be rejoiced by these assurances, and expressed his gratitude in fitting words. then the other members of the family, and the folk assembled in the adjoining room, having been told of the priest’s kind promises, came to thank him — after which the master of the house said: “now, reverend sir, much as we regret to leave you alone, we must bid you farewell. by the rule of our village, none of us can stay here after midnight. we beg, kind sir, that you will take every care of your honorable body, while we are unable to attend upon you. and if you happen to hear or see anything strange during our 6cavanagh, james, walter 5 upon death, monks prepare the body by chanting comforting words while preparing the body for the funeral fire. they also accompany the family to the funeral to provide comfort and guidance for those left behind (bodiford 153). absence, please tell us of the matter when we return in the morning.” all then left the house, except the priest, who went to the room where the dead body was lying. the usual offerings had been set before the corpse; and a small buddhist lamp — tomyo6— was burning. the priest recited the service, and performed the funeral ceremonies — after which he entered into meditation. so meditating he remained through several silent hours; and there was no sound in the deserted village. but, when the hush of the night was at its deepest, there noiselessly entered a shape, vague and vast; and in the same moment muso found himself without power to move or speak. he saw that shape lift the corpse, as with hands, devour it, more quickly than a cat devours a rat — beginning at the head, and eating everything: the hair and the bones and even the shroud. and the monstrous thing, having thus consumed the body, turned to the offerings, and ate them also. then it went away, as mysteriously as it had come. when the villagers returned next morning, they found the priest awaiting them at the door of the headman’s dwelling. all in turn saluted him; and when they had entered, and looked about the room, no one expressed any surprise at the disappearance of the dead body and the offerings. but the master of the house said to muso: “reverend sir, you have probably seen unpleasant things during the night: all of us were anxious about you. but now we are very happy to find you alive and unharmed. gladly we would have stayed with you, if it had been possible. but the law of our village, as i told you last evening, obliges us to quit our houses after a death has taken place, and to leave the corpse alone. whenever this law has been broken, heretofore, some great misfortune has followed. whenever it is obeyed, we find that the corpse and the offerings disappear during our absence. perhaps you have seen the cause.” then muso told of the dim and awful shape that had entered the deathchamber to devour the body and the offerings. no person seemed to be surprised by his narration; and the master of the house observed: “what you have told us, reverend sir, agrees with what has been said about this matter from ancient time.” muso then inquired: “does not the priest on the hill sometimes perform the funeral-service for your dead?” “what priest?” the young man asked. 7cavanagh, james, walter 6 the gift of light and the accompanying prayers help bring less suffering and greater happiness in times of death, according to zen buddhism (“lamp offerings”). “the priest who yesterday evening directed me to this village,” answered muso. “i called at his anjitsu on the hill yonder. he refused me lodging, but told me the way here.” the listeners looked at each other, as in astonishment; and, after a moment of silence, the master of the house said: “reverend sir, there is no priest and there is no anjitsu on the hill. for the time of many generations there has not been any resident-priest in this neighborhood.” muso said nothing more on the subject; for it was evident that his kind hosts supposed him to have been deluded by some goblin. but after having bidden them farewell, and obtained all necessary information as to his road, he determined to look again for the hermitage on the hill, and so to ascertain whether he had really been deceived. he found the anjitsu without any difficulty; and, this time, its aged occupant invited him to enter. when he had done so, the hermit humbly bowed down before him, exclaiming: — “ah! i am ashamed ! — i am very much ashamed! — i am exceedingly ashamed!” “you need not be ashamed for having refused me shelter,” said muso. “you directed me to the village yonder, where i was very kindly treated; and i thank you for that favor.” “i can give no man shelter,” the recluse made answer; “and it is not for the refusal that i am ashamed. i am ashamed only that you should have seen me in my real shape, — for it was i who devoured the corpse and the offerings last night before your eyes. . . . know, reverend sir, that i am a jikininki7, — an eater of human flesh. have pity upon me, and suffer me to confess the secret fault by which i became reduced to this condition. “a long, long time ago, i was a priest in this desolate region. there was no other priest for many leagues around. so, in that time, the bodies of the mountainfolk who died used to be brought here, — sometimes from great distances, — in order that i might repeat over them the holy service. but i repeated the service and performed the rites only as a matter of business — i thought only of the food and the clothes that my sacred profession enabled me to gain. and because of this selfish impiety i was reborn, immediately after my death, into the state of a jikininki. since then i have been obliged to feed upon the corpses of the people who die in this district: every one of them i must devour in the way that you saw last night. . . . now, reverend sir, let me beseech you to perform a segaki-service8 8cavanagh, james, walter 7 “corpse-eating devils in japanese buddhist myth. many jikininki are the spirits of greedy people whose appetites for worldly goods kept them from entering the spirit world” (roberts 62). 8 “the name ‘segaki’ means ‘feeding the hungry ghosts,’ and the rituals and practices done for this festival contain a great deal of teaching about training in buddhism” (carlson). for me: help me by your prayers, i entreat you, so that i may be soon able to escape from this horrible state of existence”. . . no sooner had the hermit uttered this petition than he disappeared; and the hermitage also disappeared at the same instant. and muso kokushi found himself kneeling alone in the high grass, beside an ancient and moss-grown tomb of the form called go-rin-ishi9, which seemed to be the tomb of a priest. 9cavanagh, james, walter 9 also referred to as a “five circle stone,” a go-rin-ishi is a buddhist tomb. this idea is further explored in our primary sources (“gorintou”). elizabeth bisland, lafcadio hearn, and bruce rogers’s “boyhood” (1906) to the devils indeed — because i supposed them stronger than the rest — i had often prayed for help and friendship; very humbly at first, and in great fear of being too grimly answered — but afterwards with words of reproach on finding that my condensations had been ignored. but in spite of their indifference, my sympathy of the enemies of cousin jane’s god steadily strengthened; and my interest in all the spirits that the church history called evil, especially the heathen gods, continued to grow. (26-27) this letter was written by lafcadio hearn in regards to his thoughts on the influence his childhood had on his views of religion. this section of his letter is of particular interest because it denotes his fascination with “evil” and the dark side of religion. he finishes the section of the letter regarding “idolatry” and religion by stating, “[a]nd even to-day, in spite of larger knowledge, the words ‘heathen’ and ‘pagan’ — however ignorantly used in scorn — revive within me old sensations of light and beauty, of freedom and joy” (28). the conclusion to his letter illustrates his positive associations with a side of religion that is not typically advocated. through reading this excerpt from hearn’s personal letter, readers are able to get an idea of hearn’s point of view as is related to his upbringing. by reading about his childhood and his reflections on his childhood fascinations and religious ideals, the reader is clued into where hearn was coming from when he wrote this short story. at the time, it was common for society to lump non-christian religions, such as buddhism, together with the christian ideals of evil. as it is said that hearn’s book of japanese tales is loosely based upon snippets of japanese buddhist mythology, it begins to makes sense as to why lafcadio hearn is so interested in writing stories, like “jikininki,” that investigate the dark side of the buddhist religion, when excerpts such as this one so clearly delineate hearn’s interest, or borderline obsession, with evil and heathen gods. 10cavanagh, james, walter lafcadio hearn’s “the literature of the dead” (1898) as i write these lines a full moon looks into my study over the trees of the temple-garden, and brings me the recollection of a little buddhist poem: from the foot of the mountain, many are the paths ascending in the shadow; but from the cloudless summit all who climb behold the selfsame moon. the reader who knows the truth shrined in this little verse will not regret an hour passed with me among the tombs of kobudera. (147) the buddhist faith puts a strong focus on reflection and meditation. this primary source is a collection of hearn’s buddhist writings and illustrates his deep connection with the buddhist faith. much of the background on the author depicts him as a world traveler, never staying in one place for an extended period of time, but all sources state that he spent most of his time in japan, becoming absorbed in the buddhist faith. while this excerpt does not specifically relate to “jikininki,” it illustrates hearn’s deep meditations and reflections in regards to buddhism. as “jikininki” revolves around zen buddhism, these deeply religious writings from hearn provide an excellent example of the reason he chose to focus on zen buddhism in this short story as well as others he has written. in addition, while small, there is a connection in the setting of hearn’s excerpt and the mountainous setting of “jikininki.” mountains can be viewed as quiet, removed places for reflection. as reflection is an important part of zen buddhism, the correlation between hearn’s reflections in the mountains and muso’s moments of reflection and prayer in the rural village in the mountains illustrates the importance of reflection in removed, quiet, and natural settings. additionally, this source gives the audience a strong, well-rounded background of the author and where he is coming from when writing “jikininki.” this conclusion to one chapter of his buddhist writings illustrates the importance of buddhism to lafcadio hearn. this provides an additional layer of connection when reading “jikininki,” knowing that the author is a devout zen buddhist who believes and takes part in the religious cultures and traditions depicted throughout the short story. 11cavanagh, james, walter bhikshu subhadra’s a buddhist catechism: an outline of the doctrine of the buddha gotama in the form of question and answer (1920) it is addressed to those for whom material progress and augmented means of luxury do not constitute the goal of life, and to whom the prevalent cruel strife for the possession of worldly goods and grandeur, which the general selfishness makes each day more pitiless. (6) the oxford english dictionary defines “catechism” as “[a]n elementary treatise for instruction in the principles of the christian religion, in the form of question and answer; such a book accepted and issued by a church as an authoritative exposition of its teaching” (“catechism”). while generally thought of as a part of the christian religion, this buddhist catechism serves the same purpose as defined above. through question and answer, the guidelines are laid out to those who practice buddhism. very specific questions are posed, such as: “who is buddha?” “is buddha a proper name?” and “when was prince siddhartha born?” this catechism, doctrine of the buddha gotama in the form of question and answer, provides a detailed layout of what it means to be buddhist, the history of buddhism, and how to practice buddhism. through this buddhist catechism, and mainly through the quote that has been pulled from the source, readers become more acquainted with what it means to practice buddhism, especially as it pertains to the idea of materialism in the buddhist faith. with the quote spelling out who the catechism is addressing, readers are given reference to the implications of the negativity of materialism in “jikininki.” the jikininki in the story states that he was cursed for his materialistic nature as a buddhist priest, implying that this is an important aspect of the buddhist culture. in addition, cohen makes the statement that “escapist delight gives way to horror only when the monster threatens to overstep these boundaries, to destroy or deconstruct the thin walls of category and culture” (17). this quotation is an illustration of one of cohen’s seven monster theses: “fear of the monster is really a kind of desire” (17). in “jikininki,” this specific desire is materialism, and, as we see from the catechism, the desire for material goods is explicitly warned against, which as cohen states, only makes it that much more desirable. throughout the story, we see that the jikininki itself is punished for this monstrous desire for worldly goods and gives way to a horrific ending of living eternally as a flesh-eating monster after overstepping the buddhist boundaries throughout his life as a human being. 12cavanagh, james, walter burton holmes’s “a go-rin-ishi or ‘five circle stone,’ the tomb of matsudaira, in matsue” (1922) this photograph provides visual representation for the tomb mentioned at the end of “jikininki.” in the story, it is stated, “muso kokushi found himself kneeling alone in the high grass, beside an ancient and moss-grown tomb of the form called go-rin-ishi, which seemed to be the tomb of a priest” (hearn 33). as stated in the title of the photograph, this tomb, or go-rin-ishi, is made of five stones. each stone is said to represent each of the five elements of buddhism. the bottom, square-like rock corresponds to the earth, the spherical stone represents water, the triangular stone represents fire, the “reclining half-moon” stone represents the wind, and the final stone on top represents space (“gorintou”). the importance of nature in the buddhist religion shines through in the description and explanation of this specific tomb for a buddhist priest. this visual representation provides context to readers as to what the tomb of a buddhist priest looks like, as well as why it looks this way. with this concrete example of the tomb of a priest, readers are able to visualize what muso is seeing at the end of this short story, which adds a level of understanding and connection. a second level of understanding is added when readers are provided with the context of what each stone means on the gorin-ishi.”the subtle focus on nature in the buddhist religion and, specifically, in the short story, are illustrated well through this photograph and the explanation of the importance of each stone. through better understanding the meaning of this buddhist tomb, the audience is given a more well-rounded knowledge of the uses of nature throughout the short story. for example, “jikininki” takes place in a rural japanese village; this setting makes more sense when taking into consideration the importance of nature in the buddhist culture. by understanding that each of the five stones that make up this tomb represent the most important elements of nature, the relation between the natural setting of the short story and the natural focus of zen buddhism creates a stronger understanding and focus for the audience. 13cavanagh, james, walter works cited “anshitsu.” jlearn.net, http://jlearn.net/dictionary/browse/1154290anshitsu-%e3%81%82%e3%82%93%e3%81%97%e3%81%a4%e5%ba%b5%e5%ae%a4. accessed 17 nov. 2016. bisland, elizabeth, lafcadio hearn, and bruce rogers. “boyhood”. the life and letters of lafcadio hearn. houghton mifflin company, 1906, pp. 3-39. bodiford, william m. “zen in the art of funerals: ritual salvation in japanese buddhism.” history of religions, vol. 32, no. 2, 1992, pp. 146–164. jstor, 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buddhist writings of lafcadio hearn. ross-erikson, inc., publishers, 1977. holmes, burton. “a go-rin-ishi or ‘five circle stone,’ the tomb of matsudaira, in matsue.” the writings of lafcadio hearn, volume 11 by lafcadio hearn, houghton mifflin company, 1922, p. 204. hori, ichiro. “japanese folk-beliefs.” american anthropologist, vol. 61, no. 3, 1959, pp. 405–424. jstor, http://www.jstor.org.proxy.bsu.edu/stable/667207. accessed 16 nov. 2016. “lamp offerings.” chinese buddhist encyclopedia, 25 jan. 2016, http://www. chinabuddhismencyclopedia.com/en/index.php/lamp_offerings. accessed 17 nov. 2016. lewis, oscar. “introduction.” kwaidan; stories and studies of strange things. dover publications, 1968, pp. v-xii. “mino area.” japan national tourism organization, https://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/ regional/gifu/mino.html. accessed 17 nov. 2016. “occident, n. and adj.” oed online, 2016, http://www.oed.com/view/ entry/130137?rskey=byj1wu&result=1&isadvanced=false#eid. accessed 16 nov. 2016. roberts, jeremy. japanese mythology a to z. 2nd ed., infobase pub., 2009. subhadra, bhikshu. a buddhist catechism : an outline of the doctrine of the buddha gotama in the form of question and answer. brentano’s, 1920. suzuki, daisetz teitaro. an introduction to zen buddhism. grove press, 1991. suzuki, shunryu. zen mind, beginner’s mind: informal talks on zen meditation and practice. shambhala, 2011. 15cavanagh, james, walter http://www.jstor.org.proxy.bsu.edu/stable/667207 http://www.chinabuddhismencyclopedia.com/en/index.php/lamp_offerings http://www.chinabuddhismencyclopedia.com/en/index.php/lamp_offerings https://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/regional/gifu/mino.html https://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/regional/gifu/mino.html http://www.oed.com/view/entry/130137?rskey=byj1wu&result=1&isadvanced=false#eid. http://www.oed.com/view/entry/130137?rskey=byj1wu&result=1&isadvanced=false#eid. “man’s hatred has made me so”: freakification and the shifting gaze in the phantom of the opera (1925) as the conventional freak shows reached their peak in the 1920s and began their steady descent, another art form came to take their place, complete with the potential to freakify its subjects in more complex, subtle ways. film had begun with the minute-long footage of the horse in motion in 1878 (which was intended to answer a scientific inquiry, not to entertain), but it had since advanced to full-length movies, albeit without dialog until 1927’s groundbreaking the jazz singer. although sitting in a 1920s theatre and watching a black-and-white silent film at first glance seems a far cry from the experience of going to a freak show, the similarities become apparent in the genre of horror. like the freak show, the horror film delves into the liminal spaces between man and beast, often exploiting patrons’ desire to look on the physical differences of others, a desire motivated by the hunger for novel entertainments, as well as the need to establish the boundaries of cultural otherness and affirm one’s own position within the majority. according to stephen prince, horror delves deeper than other genres into the “fundamental questions about the nature of human existence.” it interrogates “nonhuman categories” via “the violation of the ontological categories on which being and culture reside.” this creates an “us” versus “them” dichotomy. horror films also generate a paradox in exploring “the kathryn hampsire, ball state university abstract by using artistic conventions only available through cinema, the phantom of the opera (1925) manipulates the gaze to create a character so inhuman and unsympathetic, he transcends the position of the freak into the realm of the monster. the silent horror version of this film extends the social construct of the freak into cinema so that, while the freak shows may have been closing their doors, the legacy of the freak lived on. digital literature review, vol. 3 (2016). © ball state university. all rights reserved. please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce critical edition to dlr@bsu.edu. 119 way that terror opens onto pleasure” (prince 2, 3, 10). jeffrey jerome cohen adds that the horror film is a safe space in which to make these explorations: “we watch the monstrous spectacle of the horror film because we know that the cinema is a temporary place, that the jolting sensuousness of the celluloid images will be followed by reentry into the world of comfort and light” (cohen 17). in many ways, the freak show performs these same functions. according to rosemarie garland thomson in her book extraordinary bodies: figuring physical disability in american culture and literature, “freak shows framed and choreographed bodily differences that we now call ‘race,’ ‘ethnicity,’ and ‘disability’ in a ritual that enacted the social process of making cultural otherness from the raw materials of human physical variation” (60). this made a silent horror film the perfect bridge between the old genre for freakification and the new. indeed, ian conrich points out that freak shows and horror films alike explore “the boundary separating beast and mankind [that] is often challenged” by the monstrous portrayals characteristic of these movies (47). although many versions of the phantom of the opera’s story make use of the freak show trope (some even more explicitly than this one), the 1925 production in particular occupies an interesting place in american cinematic history as one of the age’s “horror spectaculars” (conrich 40); it also capitalizes on the shift of the freak show from the sideshow to the big screen during the age of silent film. in this production, the paris opera house is home of beautiful singers like christine, the protagonist, and also to a much darker figure—the phantom of the opera, whose spectral presence has birthed a multitude of rumors and superstitions among the owners and patrons alike. previously known as erik, the phantom is not truly a monster, but an escaped convict with severe facial disfigurements who lives beneath the opera house in what was once torture chambers. he has been giving christine voice lessons for years and has become obsessed with the young singer, although they have never met face-to-face. his fixation on her reaches a crisis when another suitor, raoul, plans to marry christine; this leads the phantom to finally reveal himself to her, albeit hiding his face behind a mask, and he proceeds to wreak havoc in her life and those of everyone else involved with the opera house. the film climaxes when the phantom kidnaps christine, raoul rescues her, and an angry mob hampshire 120 chases the phantom into the river. the film serves as an extension of the dying freak show, performing an important move of shifting the process of freakification from live performance to the world of cinematic entertainment, “with a cinematic experience of images of the aberrant and the bizarre replacing the immediacy of the genuine (and often fabricated, or ‘gaffed’) disabilities of the live carnival” (conrich 47). the phantom of the opera even features a character, buquet, who is similar to a freak show’s master of ceremonies, complete with “his visceral descriptions and melodramatic manner” (randell 77). thus, by examining this film in particular, one can see the important ways that traditional freak show practices are enhanced and complicated by their new home on screen. by using artistic conventions only available through the cinematic medium, phantom manipulates the gaze of the characters and the audience members to create a character so inhuman and unsympathetic that he transcends the position of the freak into the realm of the monster. gazing and pointing at freaks as the freak show transitioned onto the horror film screen, the silent film enhanced elements of its predecessor that were essential in the process of freakification; in particular, the silent film emphasizes the visual conventions upon which human exhibits relied, such as staring. in “‘the phantom of the opera’: the lost voice of opera in silent film,” michal grover-friedlander points out the way that silent movies and operatic performances both place emphasis on “an extravagance of gesture and movement” (180). this emphasis on gestures is particular to phantom’s place in cinematic history. norman king noted that there was a “marked” shift of “acting style away from the exaggeratedly gestural toward the naturalistic” in silent films that added sound beyond instrumental accompaniment (39). because this film was made prior to this shift, it still carries all of the exaggerated gestures characteristic of both silent film and the opera. the phantom uses such gestures to redistribute the gaze from himself as a physically disabled man onto the female object of his desire. throughout my analysis of the film, i noticed that most of the extravagant gestures originated from the object of freakification, the phantom. the most prominent and frequent of such gesticulations is that hampshire 121 of pointing. while the objectifying gaze—the act of staring—has received much discussion within critical conversations about freakification and disability studies (see thomson’s book, staring), this film demonstrates the importance of the physical gestures that accompany it. the act of pointing is a more extreme form of freakification than the gaze because it takes staring one step further by adding a direct physical action that is apparent to potential onlookers. this increases the attention drawn to the object of the gaze. several times, the phantom points dramatically at christine in a way that emphasizes his reversal of the gaze onto her. although erik is treated as a “freak” because of his physical disabilities, very rarely do other characters point at him, while he points at christine no less than nine times. the two observed moments where erik himself is the object of pointing occur early in the film, and, in one of them, he points to himself before the intertitle screen (the printed text screens that interrupt filmed action in silent movies to provide dialogue and narration) conveys his words: “men once knew me as erik, but for many years i have lived in these cellars, a nameless legend” (43:00). the other is when christine accuses him of being the infamous phantom (42:23). other than these two early instances, the rest of the moments in the film that include pointing occur either when he points at christine or, in the two instances, when he gestures toward an angry mob (1:40:30, 1:40:44). the sheer number of times this happens over the course of a film just under two hours and the fact that the pointing almost always serves to emphasize an implicit relationship between the phantom and christine demonstrate the importance of this extended form of the gaze to the film. often, the phantom uses these gestures to create a sense of accusation or anger toward christine. other times, this motion serves to draw attention away from himself: after christine sneaks up behind him and removes his mask, he points at her in a dramatic moment when her fear—both of his newly-revealed face and his ominous advances—is evident (50:27). additionally, when his gesture refers to the angry mob of people who are hunting him down, erik is striving to deflect their gaze from himself by redirecting it back onto them. besides the way that pointing functions within the film, it is also important to consider what this gesture serves for the story as a film, a visual art with viewers. when a character points to something or someone hampshire 122 else on screen, this motion draws the eye to the object of the gesture. since this action is nearly always observed coming from the phantom himself, this demonstrates a way that the character is drawing attention away from himself, whenever he is being freakified. he takes the gaze that is implicitly on him due to his position as a freak and twists it by deflecting the audience’s gaze onto someone else, inviting the audience to look with him, instead of at him. within the context of a freak show, it would have been common to see patrons pointing at the human exhibits; this invites the others witnessing the myriad of human oddities to join that individual in gazing at one specimen in particular. this invitation to gaze with someone else is inverted in phantom the same way that it would have been if one of the exhibits at a freak show had been pointing back at the patrons; this would have given the audience pause as they attempt to navigate the fact that their visual attention is being drawn away from the freak and toward a member of the normate population, someone who looks like them. the act of pointing to one of the patrons at a freak show could have caused those present to acquire empathy for the one at whom they have been pointing, thus restoring a semblance of that freak’s humanity. however, while this gaze reversal could have humanized the phantom, making him someone with whom the audience could empathize, the way that the film consistently animalizes this character prevents such a reaction, creating a tension between the freakifying gaze, its reversal, and the portrayal of the freak himself. the mirror and mask as moderators for the gaze two ways that this film endeavors to construct the phantom as a freak is through its use of the mirror and the mask. scholars like groverfriedlander and andrew p. williams have discussed the presence of mirrors in the film, but the connection between these set devices and freakification has yet to be explored. williams focuses on the mirror as “mark[ing] the boundary between the patriarchal code of raoul and the exotic mysteries of the ‘sexual other’” (92). by contrast, grover-friedlander looks a bit closer at the film’s reflection in its many mirrors, agreeing that their main power is in their ability to transform the characters but also noting their implied hampshire 123 connection to power dynamics. according to this author, mirrors emphasize the ways that “the voice of the phantom will overpower the prima donna’s voice” and how they later “signify the phantom’s loss of power over the prima donna’s voice when christine crosses through the mirror and sees him: the mirror becomes merely one of the phantom’s [fetishized] objects underneath the opera house, and at that point it has lost all power” (189). missing from this discussion is an examination of the implications mirrors have for freakification. for any individual whose physical appearance has served as the catalyst for societal freakification, the image in a mirror can understandably range from causing depression to inciting rage. the implication that the gaze—particularly at one’s self—is something to be feared is evident when raoul and leddoux of the secret police “‘have fallen into the room of many mirrors—the old torture chamber!’” (1:22:42). the idea of having mirrors in a torture chamber is both logical and haunting: not only would the objects of torture be in agony, but they would be seeing the acts and the results of those actions on their physical bodies as they occur, creating implications of psychological torment in this scene that stem from the mirrors themselves. likewise, the phantom here demonstrates that, from his perspective, seeing oneself is the ultimate form of torture. as society has freakified erik throughout his life, he has grown to associate his physical appearance as the source of this torment. seeing himself is thus equated to torture in this moment, demonstrating the inherent connection between being freakified and being tortured. however, the phantom turns what could be objects of loathing into portals through which he gazes upon the object of his obsession: the beautiful christine. as williams observes, the two-way mirror in christine’s dressing room allows the phantom to “gaze into the mirror and see the beauty” instead of “the painful realities of his own reflection” (92). instead of coming to terms with his freakishness, he channels that energy into creating the perfect woman, training her through vocal instruction and conditioning her to call him “master” (21:57). in this way, the phantom continues to reverse the gaze away from himself—who cannot see himself in the two-way mirror—and onto christine. by thus manipulating their use, he transforms the mirrors that would present him with his own “deformities” into access points to socially acceptable beauty. a key point to emphasize here is the way that the conventional hampshire 124 gaze between the freak and the normate—which appears countless times throughout the film—is reversed through the mirror. throughout the first half hour, erik has been watching christine, gazing upon her, with and without her consent, through the one-way mirror. indeed, he “does not appear in person until the fourth reel of this production, but his shadow manifestations are said to be enough to enthrall the spectators” (“lon chaney plays role”). since he does not appear right away, it is through his intertitle lines and descriptions from other characters that the audience builds their initial impression of him. erik controls his image by restricting access to it through hiding (both out of sight and behind a mask), but he frames the first real encounter with christine as a privilege for the young singer. prior to his appearance in her dressing room, he says, “soon, christine, this spirit will take form and command your love!” to which she responds, “call for me when you will. i shall be waiting” (22:20). when he finally comes for her, she is “ready, master—waiting!” to finally meet him, and he tells her to “[w]alk to your mirror, my dear—have no fear!” (32:20), giving her permission to see him, albeit still in a restricted sense as he keeps his mask on. prior to his unmasking, it appears that erik might be the same as other men, even if he seems a bit socially awkward and sleeps in a coffin. however, at the moment of the unmasking, the audience faces an entirely new being. after christine takes off his mask, “[n]o longer needing to hide his ‘otherness,’ erik’s tender appeals for love disappear,” to be replaced with animalistic, violent forwardness (williams 93-94). like the anatomical museums that were declining alongside the freak shows (finally closing their doors in the 1930s), this moment splits the character in two. these exhibits displayed “the body with a capital b, separate from, deprived of, punished by, or in rebellion against, a moralizing, rationalizing, disciplining spirit” (sappol). likewise, the spirit of erik truly becomes separated in this moment from the physical body and social construction of the monstrous phantom. this transformation is indicative of one of the main ways that this film creates a cinematic freak show: by presenting erik as an animal, the movie plays into a larger trend of framing those with disabilities as something less than human, thus rendering them outside of the same moral purview that might hinder one’s ability to fully freakify the individual. hampshire 125 the exact moment when christine takes off the mask marks a turning point in the film where it shifts definitively into the genre of horror. according to a review from the time of the film’s premier, “the scene wherein curiosity impels her to remove his mask is said to be manipulated so that the simple act of slipping off the disguise furnishes excitement” (“lon chaney plays role”). indeed, the intertitle sets the scene as the phantom proclaims, “yet listen—there sounds an ominous undercurrent of warning!” (49:23). as christine reaches for the mask, her face bears an expression of anticipation that quickly turns to horror when the mask finally comes off (50:20). for the next two minutes, the camera switches between direct face shots of lon chaney (the actor playing the phantom in this film), bearing a wide-eyed, gaped-mouth, inhuman expression, and full scene shots of him looming over christine’s fearful huddled form. he grabs her face, forcing her to look upon him, with the words, “feast your eyes—glut your soul, on my accursed ugliness!” (51:20). in his action and word choice, we find a sense of violence in the gaze he invites; instead of a more permissive request or a gentler touch, the phantom is demanding that she look at him, while physically not giving her any choice in the matter. here, the phantom becomes, like freak show exhibits, a personification of anxiety about physical difference in such a way that impairs one’s ability to empathize with him. the particular appearance of the phantom’s face in this moment establishes definitively what the film has been hinting at thus far: that erik is something less than human. his face is presented as distorted, practically beyond recognition as a human face. as groverfriedlander describes, [t]he visual image is stretched out, formless, transgressive, shapeless, emphasizing the hollowness of the skull, the beastliness of the eye, nose and mouth cavities, and the lack of humanity in the phantom’s face. described in terms of orifices and cavities—noseless visage, black holes instead of eyes—the phantom’s face is the negative of a human face, a trace of a human body, a literally phantom-like living corpse. (188) previous to this moment, there have only been rumors of his appearance to feed the audience’s curiosity, and these descriptions vary and even contradict each other, like when the dancers “saw him for an instant—a hampshire 126 gray shadow—and he was gone!,” and they cannot agree if he had a nose or not (10:34). thus far, the phantom is less than human in his ghostlike elusiveness; however, in this moment of unmasking, the audience members, with christine, get to see for themselves. here, inhumanity transitions from ethereal and elusive to material and monstrous. the film constructs an inhuman and unsympathetic character, and the way the unmasking is presented emphasizes these efforts. from this moment forward, the film includes several scenes and intertitle word choices that emphasize the animalistic portrayal that plays into the freakification of this character. twice, christine directly calls him a “monster” when talking to raoul (1:00:24, 1:08:20). additionally, the phrase permeated the film’s reviews, calling him “the inhuman monster of iniquity” (“lon chaney plays role”). this specific word has great implications on the freakification of an individual because, by using this term, christine designates that his status as a human being is not only in question, but that it is beyond hope—he is not only monstrous, but a monster. according to the oxford english dictionary, the implications of this term are clear. the original definition of the word was “a mythical creature which is part animal and part human, or combines elements of two or more animal forms, and is frequently of great size and ferocious appearance,” and the later and more general definition is “any imaginary creature that is large, ugly, and frightening.” another definition it provides is “a person of repulsively unnatural character, or exhibiting such extreme cruelty or wickedness as to appear inhuman” (“monster”). together, these definitions demonstrate the implications of the term the film uses to identify the phantom: erik is presented as ugly, frightening, and repulsive, somewhere in the liminal space between human and animal—the same space to which the freak show banished such real-life performers as joseph merrick (the elephant man), stephan bibrowsky (lionel, the lion-faced boy), and p.t. barnum’s “what is it?” exhibit. according to thomson, the freak show defined and exhibited the ‘abnormal.’ by highlighting ostensible human anomaly of every sort and combination, barnum’s exhibits challenged audiences not only to classify and explain what they saw, but to relate the performance to themselves, to american individual and collective identity (“the cultural work of american freak hampshire 127 shows” 58). indeed, the use of the term “monster” plays into a history of exploring and exploiting liminality within the freak show: according to thomson, “the word monster [is] perhaps the earliest and most enduring name for the singular body.... by challenging the boundaries of the human and the coherence of what seemed to be the natural world, monstrous bodies appeared as sublime, merging the terrible with the wonderful, equalizing repulsion with attraction” (“introduction” 3). this aspect of the character aligns with thesis iii of jeffrey jerome cohen’s “monster culture (seven theses),” which is that “the monster is the harbinger of category crisis.” within this section of his work, he explains, [the] refusal to participate in the classificatory “order of things” is true of monsters generally: they are disturbing hybrids whose externally incoherent bodies resist attempts to include them in any systematic structuration. and so the monster is dangerous, a form suspended between forms that threatens to smash distinctions. (6) by the very nature of his existence and the way that he is perceived by the normate (coupled with how the film consistently places emphasis on a monstrous portrayal), the phantom is a monster of hybridization. the fact that people cannot easily classify him as man or beast is cause for anxiety and fear, as is reflected on the faces of the other characters in the movie who see him without his mask—not to mention on those of the audience members who saw the film when it came out in 1925. beyond the moment of unmasking, the importance placed upon the necessity of the mask at the beginning likewise emphasizes the scenes in which the phantom foregoes it. there is a significant difference between how the phantom acts with his mask and without it. most notably, his change of attitude toward its absence is worth examining. at first, when christine takes it off, he is distraught and violent and even appears to cover his face and cry at one point (50:30). however, after this moment when the mystery has been lost and he knows that christine cannot unsee what she has seen, this element of shame falls by the wayside in favor of exaggerated expressions and anger. after the scenes at the bal masque de l’opera, christine and raoul retreat to the opera’s roof to talk, while the phantom secretly leers down hampshire 128 at them from the gargoyles above (59:42). when christine proclaims that “[h]e is a monster—a loathsome beast! you must save me from him, raoul!” (1:00:24), erik’s gestures and facial expressions align him with the gothic statues; chaney performs without the mask as the phantom’s cloak billows in the wind in a stark parody of the visible angel statues. the cinematography and acting in this scene show how, without his mask, erik has fallen from the angels of love and music to become one of the opera house’s most intimidating gargoyles. the appearance of these particular forms of architectural adornment creates its own set of implications. according to cohen, “gargoyles and ornately sculpted grotesques, lurking at the crossbeams or upon the roof of the cathedral, likewise record the liberating fantasies of a bored or repressed hand suddenly freed to populate the margins” (17-18). this scene aligns the phantom with these same sentiments; he embodies that feeling of liberation and freedom that come with being on the edges of society, of not belonging to the normate population. he embraces his monster status in this moment and joins the gargoyles in their inhuman and terrifying freedom, which threatens the safety of innocents like christine and raoul. another moment where his sans-mask human status comes into question is when he stalks raoul’s boat in the underground lagoon as the lover searches for christine. just after insisting that he is “a human like other men” (1:23:12), he contradicts this statement with his actions as he uses his cane to breathe underwater, implying that he is a creature from the deep. this is only intensified when he emerges from the depths later, framed in a manner that makes him look even less “human” than usual (1:27:05). likewise, the phantom contradicts his claims to humanity with his language. at one point, he compares himself to a toad, saying “no longer like a toad in these foul cellars will i secrete the venom of hatred—for you shall bring me love!” (1:21:32). in addition to these animalistic portrayals, he also often refers to himself as a spirit, demonstrating a dichotomy between his aspirations to be more than human and his treatment as less than human. this spiritual element, though, is not always presented in a positive light. for example, at the beginning, he frames himself as christine’s spirit guide of music; later, he calls her an “ungrateful fool,” saying, “you have spurned the spirit that inspired you—the spirit that made you great!... now, you shall see the evil spirit that makes my evil face!” (1:21:01). this aligns hampshire 129 with the preconception with which many in the audience could have walked in, for frequently “the trope of disability is used to connote evil” (randell 71). later, while driving the cart without his mask, he is depicted with an expression that reads as crazed and even non-sentient. he throws the cart’s driver to the ground and boards the front bench quickly, with a dazed christine in the backseat. he maintains this expression throughout this scene, laughing and staring directly at the camera, confronting the audience with his freakishness (1:42:20). in the film’s final moments, as he runs from the angry mob, he suddenly seems to become aware of his face’s nakedness, attempting to cover it with his cloak (1:43:47). in this moment, the tension between his masked and mask-less selves comes forward as he faces the way the rest of humanity sees him. although he has himself contributed to the construction of his freakification, that position was originally bestowed by society, which is now embodied in the angry mob. as the film’s freak, it is necessary that some segment of the normate populace destroy him in the end; cohen explains that monsters must meet this kind of sticky end because of the way that they are “transgressive, too sexual, perversely erotic, a lawbreaker; and so the monster and all that it embodies must be exiled or destroyed” (16). in these final moments, though, erik clings to his humanity and hides the physical deformities that were the focus of his original ostracism in a last-ditch effort to deconstruct, or at least deflect, freakish identity; however, while there may be a happy ending for christine and raoul, erik gets no such mercy in a tragic end to a miserable, fundamentally misunderstood, character who really only desired to be loved. this purpose became hopelessly distorted from the moment christine removed that mask. cinematic choices: the role of setting and casting in erik’s freakification besides props like the mirror and the mask, the film’s use of set also works to create the monstrous portrayal of the phantom. as a 1925 review of the film states, most of the more horrible and impressive scenes of the picture take place in the cellars and sub-cellars of the opera house where one’s appetite for thrills is regaled with ghostlike shadows, trap doors working unexpectedly, an underground lake and torture hampshire 130 chambers in which one may be smothered with heat or suffer almost any untold agony. (“‘phantom of opera,’ new film at astor”) the dramatic difference between the dark, dismal cellars and the light, beautiful opera house creates a distinction between those who inhabit these spaces. the film establishes this division early on, from the first intertitle: “sanctuary of song lovers, the paris opera house, rising nobly over medieval torture chambers, hidden dungeons, long forgotten” (2:57). following are establishing shots of the opera’s beautiful architecture and interior. then, viewers witness a perfectly choreographed performance of two hundred dancers (“paris opera reproduced”), all of whom look identical, moving as one. this establishes the societal ideal that is reinforced by the audience’s applause. the set and dancers present a society where conformity is key, and where aesthetic beauty is necessary for acceptance, directly contrasting with the phantom, who is alone and monstrous. when the phantom enters this realm of beauty, the film shows the disastrous results of this mingling. in addition to the ways that he causes psychological and physical harm to the heroes, the set demonstrates this point through the chandelier. clearly the pride of the opera house, the phantom causes it to fall, leading to pandemonium in the crowd (28:52). the chandelier’s wreckage is symbolic of the perceived destruction of social order and beauty that occur when a freak breeches the outside world and pursues beauty. this scene of set destruction reinforces the preconceptions that audience members would have had based on freak shows, a context that would have insinuated that the freak, being less than human, does not belong in the company of man. in an examination of the sleeping quarters, viewers can see an additional way that the phantom’s less-than-human status in society has permeated his definition of self. in the cellars, the phantom possesses two places for sleeping: an ornate boat-shaped bed that he bequeaths unto an unconscious christine (43:38), and a coffin he identifies as his own, a bed which “keeps me reminded of other dreamless sleep that cures all ills— forever!” (42:11). the contrast between these two beds and their implications demonstrate how he sees himself as less than human, as a living corpse of a man incapable of rejoining the society of people even in such simple ways as his own choice of amenities. the socially constructed position of the hampshire 131 freak that he occupies has permeated his views of himself to the point where he doesn’t need other people to tell him he’s a freak—he affirms this title himself regularly. in order to create the most freakish character possible, this film chose to have the phantom played by actor lon chaney, who “was recognized for his portrayal of grotesques: physically malformed, or disfigured, afflicted, and stigmatized” (conrich 46). throughout his career as an actor, he had the roles of a variety of disabled characters, such as quasimodo in the hunchback of notre dame (1923) and a cripple in the miracle man (1919). in “lon chaney plays role of paris opera phantom,” a new york times review of the film from 1925, the author discusses the importance of this casting choice. chaney was known for playing the disabled: “mr. chaney... made a specialty of appearing as a distorted or crippled person” (“lon chaney plays role”). so, by choosing chaney for the role, this film plays into the expectations that the audience members would have had for a chaney monstrosity. indeed, another review stated that with this film the actor “adds another gruesome, and this time spooky, characterization to his [list] of interpretations.” this particular review actually cites chaney’s portrayal of the phantom as perhaps going too far: “there is something wanting in... sincere characterization. this is partly because in the leading role lon chaney is so much taken up with being hideous and with giving the audience the horrors that he has forgotten to be a bit human as well” (“new film at astor”). this critique of the film demonstrates how people viewing the film at the time of its release would have been aware of the way that chaney’s portrayal freakifies erik to the point of losing his humanity. by playing his monstrous character almost too well, chaney engages with the same practices freak shows used to distance their performers from their patrons. instead of a human, empathetic response to the disabled person, the viewers are instead encouraged to see them as nothing more than freaks. this can be partially attributed to the film’s time period. according to karen randell, “it is possible to see this repeated motif of the deformed and disfigured man in chaney’s films as a deferred or latent representation of the disabled veteran” (70). however, while she believes that the film “both exhibits the body as fascinatingly grotesque and portrays the damaged male body as a site for sympathetic response” (76), i argue that the actor and hampshire 132 setting alike animalize erik beyond the point of empathy. by manipulating the gaze, emphasizing pointing, and dehumanizing the character, the film engages with the same practices as freak shows, while complicating them with the nuances of the new medium. conclusion when erik responds to christine’s accusation by stating, “if i am the phantom, it is because man’s hatred has made me so” (42:33), he points to the nature of freakification: freaks occupy a socially-constructed position. similarly, the film constructs this position via its participation in and reversal of the gaze, emphasis on dramatic gesticulations, tropes like the mirror and the mask, and cast/set decisions. these practices are eerily reminiscent of the ways that freak show directors would carefully construct the identities of their performers. thus, the 1925 version of the phantom of the opera extends the social construct of the freak into a cinematic construction of the monstrous portrayal so that, while the freak shows may have been closing their doors, the legacy of the freak show lived on. hampshire 133 works cited cohen, jeffrey jerome. “monster culture (seven theses). monster theory: reading culture. minneapolis: regents of the university of minnesota, 1996. 3-25. print. conrich, ian. “before sound: universal, silent cinema, and the last of the horror-spectaculars.” the horror film. ed. stephen prince. new brunswick: rutgers university press, 2004. 40-57. print. grover-friedlander, michal. “‘the phantom of the opera’: the lost voice of opera in silent film.” cambridge opera journal 11.2 (1999): 179-192. jstor. web. 16 nov 2015. king, norman. “the sound of silents.” silent film. ed. richard abel. new brunswick: rutgers univerity press, 1996. 31-44. web. 16 nov 2015. “lon chaney plays role of paris opera phantom.” new york times 6 september 1925: 5. proquest historical newspapers: the new york times. web. 16 nov 2015. “monster, n., adv., and adj.” oed online. oxford university press, september 2015. web. 3 feb 2016. “paris opera reproduced.” new york times 15 march 1925: 5. proquest historical newspapers: the new york times. print. “‘phantom of opera,’ new film at astor, impresses by setting: lon chaney gives gruesome and spooky interpretation of ‘erik.’” women’s wear 8 sept 1925: 6, 15. proquest historical newspapers: women’s wear daily archive. web. 16 nov 2015. prince, stephen. “introduction: the dark genre and its paradoxes.” the horror film. ed. stephen prince. new brunswick: rutgers university press, 2004. 1-11. print. hampshire 134 randell, karen. “mad love: the anxiety of difference in the films of lon chaney sr.” screening the dark side of love: from european horror to american cinema. eds. karen randell and karen a. ritzenhoff. new york: palgrave macmillan, 2012. 69-81. mla international bibliography. print. sappol, michael. “‘morbid curiosity’: the decline and fall of the popular anatomical museum.” common-place: the interactive journal of early american life 4.2 (2004): n.p. web. 19 oct 2015. “the phantom of the opera (1925) (silent).” online video. amazon prime, n.d. web. 10 mar 2016. thomson, rosemarie garland. “the cultural work of american freak shows, 1835-1940.” extraordinary bodies: figuring physical disability in american culture and literature. new york: columbia university press, 1997. 55-80. print ---. “introduction: from wonder to error—a genealogy of freak discourse in modernity.” freakery. ed. rosemarie garland thomson. new york: new york university press, 1996. 1-19. print. williams, andrew p. “the silent threat: a (re)viewing of the ‘sexual other’ in the phantom of the opera and nosferatu.” the midwest quarterly 38.1 (1996): 90-101. mla international bibliography. web. 24 nov 2015. hampshire 135 30 dealing with our bloody past: repression vs. recognition of american history in stanley kubrick’s the shining kameron mcbride, ball state university this essay explores how director stanley kubrick’s the shining establishes the overlook hotel as an environment where conservative complacency has become the norm and all hope of progression is lost. by using a maze motif and the backdrop of native american genocide the shining explores and critiques how modern america was constructed. introduction in 1980 anticipation was high in the united states for stanley kubrick’s new film the shining, as it would be the iconic director’s first foray into the horror genre. yet, when when the first trailer for the shining premiered in the u.s., audiences only witnessed one horrific image to tease the film. the trailer started on a shot of a hallway ending in an elevator. audience members may have noticed the native american motif on the elevator doors and the columns in the hallway, or perhaps the mezzo-american red paint covering the hallways and columns. names began to scroll up the screen in the electric blue font that was used for the credits in the shining as menacing music built louder and louder in the background. there was a slight pause as the name “stanley kubrick” passed before blood suddenly began to trickle out from the corners of the elevator. the doors never opened, yet they could not contain the river of red that gushed out of every crevice of the door, engulfing the camera and audience itself. this image, one of the signature scenes of the shining, is the most literal portrayal of the blood upon which the overlook hotel was built. film historian geoffrey cocks interpreted this image as “…the blood of centuries, the blood of millions, and, in particular, the blood of war and genocide in kubrick’s own century” (185). even though the doors of the elevator desperately try to contain and conceal the blood, they cannot, for the blood is the very structure of the hotel itself, or as film critic bill blakemore interprets: “the blood upon which this nation, like most nations, was built as was the overlook hotel” (blakemore). in the shining, director stanley kubrick uses ghosts and the motif of being trapped in a maze in order to critique how contemporary america was built and how individuals choose to interpret this history. the overlook hotel is constructed as a haunted environment where characters must choose to interpret or repress america’s own bloody past, a choice that ultimately decides their own fate. the resort hotel buries its bloody history within itself to the point where it cannot be contained and leaks from the walls themselves. however, digital literature review, vol. 1 (2014). © ball state university. all rights reserved. please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce article to dlr@bsu.edu. mailto:dlr%40bsu.edu?subject= dealing with our bloody past, mcbride the ghosts within the hotel are not the spirits of the native americans but instead those of the previous residents of the hotel, those who have also been lost within the macabre trappings of the hotel and are doomed to repeat the same cycles of violence over and over. jack torrance, the doomed caretaker of the hotel in the film, is an individual corrupted and entrapped by the bloody history of the hotel and, by extension, america. the ghosts of the hotel haunt jack and lead him to not only accept the history of the hotel but allow him to become obsessed and eventually entrapped forever within it. by contrast, jack’s son danny resists this corruption and is able to escape the metaphorical and literal maze by taking a more objective view of the overlook hotel. while much scholarship has been written about the motif of the maze in the shining and the idea of genocide’s presence in the film, there has not been an exploration of danny and jack as representations of differing paths of confronting american history. this paper will examine how jack grows to represent the complacent conservatism of the hotel while danny offers the audience some hope for a progressive future. jack as damaged goods jack torrance is not a mentally stable person at the beginning of the shining. this fact might seem obvious to those who have seen the film; certainly by the end we have seen enough evidence to conclude that jack has been brought to madness by the ghosts of the hotel, but it is important to note that jack is not exactly a model citizen prior to the events of the film. he is a recovering alcoholic with a history of abusing his only son, danny, and who mistreats and clearly does not love his wife, wendy. when he accepts the responsibility of looking after the hotel for an entire winter, in his mind he is starting over. he even mentions several times that he is starting to outline an ambiguous “writing project.” the ultimate irony ends up being that there could not be a place more ill-suited for torrance to start over than the hotel. in fact, his own history of violence fits perfectly with the overlook’s own grisly past. the history of the overlook hotel is mostly parsed out in two conversations with the hotel’s manager, stuart ullman. the first of these takes place as jack is interviewing for the position and meets ullman in his office. during this conversation, ullman tells jack about an incident where a previous caretaker “hacked his family to pieces, and then neatly stacked them in a room before putting both barrels of a shotgun in his mouth.” this is information that jack brushes aside, claiming that wendy will love it, since she’s a “horror film and novel buff,” implying that the haunted history of the hotel is more of an attraction than an actual deterrent. this moment is where we first see how the history and violence linked to the hotel is treated in such a candid manner. randy rasmussen, an author who breaks down films scene-by-scene in his work, thinks this moment is so ridiculous that he relates it to dr. strangelove, another kubrick film: “like president muffley trying to tell premier kissoff about a nuclear attack on russia, he [ullman] alternately acknowledges and minimizes the horror” (rasmussen 239). essentially, the idea of ullman withholding this information about the hotel seems so ridiculous that it is comparable to a black comedy. ghostly representations and native americans in the shining the second of these history lessons occurs as ullman leads jack, wendy, and danny on a tour of the hotel and the grounds. here, we quickly learn that the hotel was built on 31 dealing with our bloody past, mcbride an ancient native american burial ground. ullman passes over this casually, remarking that a few attacks were even repelled during the construction of the hotel. once again, ullman talks about a violent episode in the hotel’s past without much consideration. rasmussen also notes this in his analysis: “his casual manner reduces a once passionate cultural conflict to a trivial footnote in history” (245). from this very early point in the film, kubrick is planting the idea of the hotel’s history being repressed. what we as an audience can infer from ullman’s actions is that the denial of the history of the hotel has been passed all the way down to the present day. this is further evoked when wendy asks whether famous people had stayed at the hotel in the past. ullman replies: “oh yes, in its heyday movie stars…all the best people.” as he says this the group walks through a hallway leading to the colorado lounge, a room rife with visible native american décor and even a portrait of what looks to be a chief hanging on the wall: “we are invited to read the cues in the room historically and clearly in relation to the violent history of the american frontier and the destruction of the native americans” (luckhurst 43). from the get-go, the shining is anything but subtle about presenting the history of the hotel as haunted by the genocide of native americans, and yet nobody at the hotel seems unsettled by this fact. by introducing the possibility of native american ghosts, kubrick is evoking a popular trope that has haunted american horror stories for a long time. the presence of a native american haunting brings out a very unique response in american audiences, and can even lead to questioning the basis upon which the united states is founded: …the ghosting of american indians presents us with a host of doubts about america and the american ideology.…ghostly indians present us with the possibility of vanishing ourselves, being swallowed up into another person, another ideology. when ghostly indian figures haunt the white american imagination, they serve as constant reminders of the fragility of national identity. (bergland 5) by this, bergland infers that the presence of native american ghosts challenge our sense of national pride and the ideology upon which this nation was founded. in the shining we see this enacted by the fact that the native americans don’t appear as ghosts. rather, the ghosts in the film are trying actively to preserve their dominance over the native americans. contrary to the initial set up of the film, these native american ghosts are not present nor trying to exact revenge on the patrons of the hotel. rather, every hallway is decorated with some sort of piece of art or pattern that evokes native american culture. this is a choice kubrick specifically makes to link the violence that takes place over the course of the film with the history of the hotel. as the story unfolds and we witness jack slowly slip into madness, the audience is constantly reminded that he is haunted by the past of the hotel and everything that has happened there. or, as film scholar bill blakemore says, “the shining is also about america’s general inability to admit the gravity of the genocide of the native americans—or, more exactly, its ability to ‘overlook’ that genocide” (blakemore). as blakemore suggests, the ghosts of the overlook want to overlook the genocide and continue life as they best remember it. however, the overlook hotel’s past is a maze of violence and bloodshed that manifests itself into these ghosts that haunt jack until he becomes one of them. jack wants to repress his violent past while 32 dealing with our bloody past, mcbride the hotel has already been doing that since its construction. thus, the film chronicles jack’s slide towards acceptance within the mazes of the hotel. danny and his hope for the future jack’s son danny also comes emotionally damaged to the overlook hotel, though in a very unique way. danny learns from dick holloran, the kindly african american cook of the overlook, that he has the ability to “shine.” this is a kind of telepathic power that enables him to see visions, either from the past or the future. danny also has an imaginary friend named tony who he says is “a little boy that lives inside my mouth.” danny uses tony as a coping mechanism for these images he sees; his ability to create a reliable method to deal with these visions already places danny ahead of his father in terms of how he chooses to confront the past. a crucial scene illustrating how danny understands the past occurs as jack has been touring the hotel while wendy and danny take stock of the kitchen stores. dick gets danny ice cream and tells him about his ability to “shine,” and that he will see some horrifying images in the hotel. however, he comforts danny with one piece of wisdom: “they’re like pictures in a book, doc, they can’t hurt you.” this quote forms the crux that juxtaposes danny and jack as representations of different reactions and interpretations of american history. danny is told to treat his visions of the hotel as harmless images. danny acknowledges these specters in the hotel but never gives in to their influence. jack, on the other hand, initially chooses to repress these images but eventually gives in to them because he simply can’t handle the haunting and instead gives himself over to the hotel. roger luckhurst, a scholar with the british film institute, describes the film as “a pessimistic account of the human failure ever to escape the ineluctable forces that entrap men” (87). jack represents this entrapment, while the “ineluctable forces” are represented by the ghosts and their steadfast desire to cling to the past. jack and danny as two different paths “pictures in a book” becomes a metaphor that both literally and psychologically explains the film. dick is, of course, referring to danny’s ability to “shine” and see the horrific images of the hotel’s grisly past. however, we also get a literal interpretation of these pictures in a book. in stephen king’s original novel upon which the film is based, jack takes a trip to the basement of the hotel where he discovers a photo album containing a pictorial history of the hotel. while this scene doesn’t appear in the film version, we do see the picture book open on jack’s desk as he tries to work on his “writing project,” perhaps a source of inspiration for whatever he is writing about. as we see later in the film, however, the picture book is no muse and instead drives jack to construct his gleefully psychotic “all work and no play makes jack a dull boy” manuscript, a hopelessly winding maze of text that seems totally removed from rational thought. jack and danny are both given similar images of the history and violence of the hotel’s past, and yet “danny, jack, and wendy each make of overlook and its past what he or she is equipped and inclined to make of it” (rasmussen 234). what rasmussen illustrates is that the main characters of the shining each see the past of the overlook through a different lens. however, it is how each character reacts to these ghosts that separate how they interpret the overlook’s past. 33 dealing with our bloody past, mcbride danny and jack also navigate the space of the hotel in very different ways. three times in the film we get the famous shots of danny riding around the hotel in his big wheel, exploring his surroundings and understanding the mazelike corridors of the hotel. by contrast, jack sits in the middle of the hotel, unwilling or unable to explore the hotel. these scenes set up the hotel as a dizzying labyrinth where the interior begins to look similar to the famous hedge maze in the back of the hotel, as film scholar and professor mario falsetto notes in his stylistic analysis of kubrick’s films: one of the shining’s most impressive features is the way it carefully sets up comparisons between the interior spaces of the hotel and the exterior maze space….perhaps the most intriguing interpretation of the film’s spatial strategies involves reading the space as a metaphorical landscape for jack’s (jack nicholson) deteriorating mind. the final nine-minute sequence of jack chasing danny through the maze could be viewed as a metaphor for jack’s frenzied mental condition. (70) here falsetto connects the hotel’s mazelike structure with jack’s deteriorating mental state. this idea can actually be pushed farther to connect the idea that jack becomes more ghostly as the spaces of the hotel begin to trap him. jack’s deteriorating mind is actually just adjusting to the attitudes of the ghosts of the overlook, willingly becoming trapped within maze. as danny wanders and probes, navigating the space, jack remains still, squatting over his typewriter in eerie concentration. danny goes out and explores the hotel’s hedge maze with his mother while jack is content to stay inside and watch them from a window. as author juli kearns points out in the documentary room 237, jack literally becomes the minotaur at the center of the maze, trapped in his own space, unwilling and unable to move and express himself as an individual. significantly, jack wants to stay inside the hotel’s maze rather than explore its surroundings…symbolically, he wants to “forget” himself (jack torrance in the present time) and to “remember” not how to escape from the center of the maze but how to command its static and enclosed timelessness. (nelson 207) as nelson points out, jack is becoming more and more a part of the maze and, by extension, the overlook hotel. jack is becoming similar to the ghosts of the hotel, complacent and happy with the time he’s being trapped in. jack’s subverted feelings surfacing the first time jack physically interacts with a ghost is after danny encounters the ghostly woman in room 237. upon seeing mysterious injuries on danny’s neck, wendy accuses jack of injuring their son, causing jack to storm off into the “gold ballroom,” the main party room of the hotel, and stare into the mirror across the dry bar, begging for some alcohol. before long, jack is greeted by lloyd, the calm yet sinister-looking barkeep that begins to liquor jack up and lets him rant about his dissatisfaction with wendy. the interesting part of their conversation is when jack references “white man’s burden,” without any provocation, a poem by rudyard kipling that is commonly interpreted as a 34 dealing with our bloody past, mcbride poem endorsing imperialist rule of other countries: the implication, of course, was that the empire existed not for the benefit—economic or strategic or otherwise—of britain itself, but in order that primitive peoples, incapable of self-government, could, with british guidance, eventually become civilized (and christianized). (cody) jack’s reference to this poem that justifies imperialism in the middle of casual conversation suggests that he is giving in to the influence of the hotel. as cody notes, kipling may be suggesting through his poem that it is up to white “empires” to colonize “primitive people.” the fact that jack is beginning to think in these terms represents his assimilation into the ghosts of the hotel. as film scholar thomas nelson points out: “…the fact [is] that soon he will forget himself and only remember a once latent urge to dominate and rule” (nelson 223). as cody notes, the poem is commonly inferring that it is up to white “empires” to colonize “primitive people.” jack beginning to think in these terms represents his assimilation into the ghosts of the hotel. film scholar thomas nelson points out: “…the fact that soon he will forget himself and only remember a once latent urge to dominate and rule” (nelson 223). what nelson suggests is that jack is now remembering this desire to rule and his psychological makeup is becoming more akin to the ghosts of the hotel. in the following scene we see jack give himself over to direct physical contact with these ghosts in a way danny never does. up to this point in the film, danny is invited several times by the ghostly sisters that haunt the hallways to “come play with us…forever and ever,” and yet he resists. jack, on the other hand, is enticed sexually by an attractive young woman ghost in room 237, the same ghost who terrorized danny moments earlier. danny is recognizing and acknowledging these ghosts, but still resisting their influence. as jack begins to engage with her, however, he pulls back to realize she is a decaying corpse, which becomes very representative of the enticing, yet rotten foundation of the hotel: “the rotting corpse of a now much older woman that jack embraces is only revealed—as ever—in the revealing mirror, the logic of dreams making desire turn to revulsion” (luckhurst 64). in other words, jack actually sees through the hotel’s invitation to become trapped in a moment of glory but accepts it anyway. after this encounter, jack goes back to the room with wendy and claims that he didn’t see anything in the room. in this scene we see that jack is now perfectly content to be in the middle of the maze. despite being confronted with such a horrifying experience that clearly points to the dark nature of the hotel, jack represses the incident and decides to stay. by this point in the film, astute viewers will note the clothing choices of the film begin to slowly change as the story nears its end. towards the beginning of the film wendy and danny are clad in clothes with a red, white, and blue color scheme, while jack wears clothes befitting a schoolteacher. as the film goes on, however, and he becomes more aware of the ghosts in the hotel, jack begins to look sloppier and disheveled while he only wears clothes with red, white, and blue. danny and wendy, however, slowly begin to shed the patriotic scheme in favor of different colors. in fact, wendy actually dons a yellow cardigan covered in teepees towards the end of the film. this acts as another visual clue that jack is becoming more and more rooted in the frontier-american perspective of the ghosts and sees wendy and danny as enemies that need to be eliminated, which is literally represented by their clothing. a scene that shows jack’s full acceptance of the hotel’s influence is a discussion he has 35 dealing with our bloody past, mcbride with the ghost of the prior caretaker, grady. this is during jack’s second trip to the gold room, but this time more than just lloyd are present. in fact, an entire party is going on with hundreds of partygoers dressed in dazzling 1920s attire. the discussion between grady and jack begins after grady spills a drink on jack, causing them to retreat into the bathroom to clean up. what follows is an interaction ripe with misidentification of both the two characters and the time which they live in. “grady” at this point in the story resonates with audiences as the name of the previous caretaker who, according to ullman, murdered his entire family with an axe. however, this grady claims his name is delbert, while the grady mentioned earlier in the film is named charles. jack attempts to confront grady, accusing him of being the previous caretaker; however, grady denies this and then suggests that jack has always been the caretaker, claiming, “i should know; i have always been here.” sight and sound film critic paul meyersberg notes, “events that seem to take place in the present may be re-enactments or simply memories of the past. to take the shining at its face value is a mistake” (253). what this means is that the shining is constantly placing its characters in re-enactments of events of the past, forcing them to re-enact moments over and over again. this is because the overlook hotel is a maze trapping the ghosts and the torrance family inside, forcing them to retread the same path over and over. grady goes on to further confuse identities by claiming that he had a wife and two daughters (the same as the murderous caretaker ullman describes at the beginning of the film) and describes how he had to “correct” his wife and children, while suggesting that jack do the same. jack accepts this and does indeed try to “correct” danny and wendy. however, before he leaves, grady adds one last statement: “your son is trying to bring an outside party into this situation…a nigger cook.” jack is slow to respond to grady; however, he also accepts the idea to eliminate dick. professor james naremore suggests that “the reaction suggests that jack’s repressed racism, already revealed in the earlier conversation with lloyd, has been given a new outlet” (203). naremore makes the claim that jake’s repressed racism is given new life by grady; however, this can be further extended to the idea that jack is taking the next step towards becoming a ghost. bit by bit he is accepting a past version of himself and disappearing into attitudes associated with the hotel’s glory days. race through the maze danny indeed has used his ability to “shine” in order to communicate with dick in a desperate attempt to summon help to the hotel. however, danny’s efforts prove futile as jack buries his axe deep into dick’s chest, leaving his body to bleed over a navajo-inspired rug. this act seemingly completes jack’s transition into one of the overlook’s ghosts by spilling the blood—of the minority hotel member no less—that the hotel demands. drunk on his kill, jack then chases danny out of the hotel, howling as they both enter the maze in a frenzied and frantic game of cat and mouse. jack attempts to track danny through his footprints while danny races through the maze he and his mother had playfully navigated only months earlier. this climactic moment also represents the choice danny makes that ultimately separates him from his father: he retraces his footsteps. while jack charges ahead, eagerly following the tracks in front of him, danny retraces a few of his steps to end the trail then races out of the maze while his father is stuck inside. jack then continues to limp around, his screaming becoming more and more nonsensical until he finally collapses. a cut away reveals a horrifying image of jack completely fro36 dealing with our bloody past, mcbride zen, his face permanently stuck in a grotesque grimace as he dies of exposure. this moment represents the final choice for both characters, the final moment where they decide how they choose to interpret the history of the hotel. danny chooses to face what has happened and, in a literal act, retraces his steps, accepts the past and then strides forward towards his mother and (we presume) a future. danny is able to look at the past in such a way that enables forward movement. jack, on the other hand, traps himself within the maze and chooses to forever reside within the overlook hotel. as we see in the final frames of the film, jack’s body not only will be trapped in the hotel forever but his spirit will (and always has been) as well. the final shot of the shining is the final clue to unlocking the idea of america’s past in conjunction with the overlook hotel. the photograph depicts a well-dressed jack attending a party in the gold room, with the date on the photo reading: “july 4th, 1921.” the simplicity in this lies in the fact that jack has now officially conceded to the history and culture of the hotel. we just saw him literally captured in the middle of the maze, but now we see jack entrapped on a more spiritual level. the date “july 4th” has obvious ties to the united states, but the year is every bit as important for this reading. as luckhurst argues, the 1920s represent perhaps a “return to the last confident moment of class and race hierarchy in america in the 1920s, a response to the economic and social instabilities of the ’70s that arguably helped foster the horror boom in the first place. the overlook is america’s past glory, frontier-triumphant, however bathed in blood” (luckhurst 91). this means that kubrick’s decision to place these ghosts in the 1920s makes sense, because it evokes a time of extravagance and white dominance in america. events like the tulsa race riot illustrate that america was struggling with racial acceptance, while at the same time the “roaring ’20s” show an america that was drunk on luxury and spending. thus, the ’20s make sense as the apex of overlook hotel’s history, a time when the hotel was at its absolute peak. the hotel and the ghosts essentially represent a time capsule where the past is always present and they never have to move on from the early ’20s. this photograph represents jack fully accepting this idea and becoming a ghost himself: “jack has retreated to a distinctly american past, at a moment of national celebration just a few years after a victorious world war and nearly a decade before the great depression. the shining, in its characters’ perceptions and attitudes is a distinctly american nightmare” (rasmussen 284). rasmussen’s point is well taken: jack and the ghosts are in a moment that is perfect for them. at the center of the hotel’s maze is a preserved past where these ghosts can stay in the same time forever and ever. as mentioned before, jack always existed in the overlook due to his attitudes and how he chooses to interpret the past. he always existed there because of the haunted nature of the overlook hotel, which fosters a never-ending cycle that began during the construction and that will seemingly never end. nelson again explores how the hotel is a maze constructed specifically to entrap jack and the ghosts in this time: “rather than exploring and discovering, making choices and risking both failure and success, he prefers to sit inertly in the center of an enclosed world and shine from above in god-like contemplation of the beauty of his creation” (nelson 229). in other words, kubrick sets up the overlook hotel as a haunting rooted in complacency and conservatism. the specters of the hotel fight maliciously against anything that may bring about change within the hotel and are excessively good at eliminating anything that could bring this about. the hotel was built on blood, and now it sustains itself through the same blood and the same ghosts, occasionally adding some to their number. 37 dealing with our bloody past, mcbride the photograph we see at the end of the film is merely the final visual proof that jack has accepted this fate and will be a ghost haunting those mazelike corridors for all time. conclusion in an interview concerning why he wanted to tackle the challenge of directing a horror film, kubrick offered up the following answer: “there’s something inherently wrong with the human personality. there’s an evil side to it. one of the things that horror stories can do is to show us…the dark side without having to confront it directly” (howard 157). this, perhaps better than anything else, explains the true purpose of kubrick’s film and explains what the haunted ghosts of the overlook hotel should really mean to audiences. kubrick wanted to offer up a method for audiences to confront the bloody past of america, and any other nation for that matter, without having to become absorbed in the same way as jack. instead, audiences are treated to the horror in the same fashion as danny; the information is laid out in front of us like “pictures in a book.” they are images on the screen that can haunt us but can’t harm us. what is important is that we, the audience, understand the importance of being able to face our faults, to confront our horrible history and be able to understand it, rather than constantly attempting to ignore it. kubrick himself explained how humans tend to repress this history, rather than face it head on: i think we tend to be a bit hypocritical about ourselves. we find it very easy not to see our own faults, and i don’t just mean minor faults. i suspect there have been very few people who have done serious wrong who have not rationalized away what they’re done, shifting the blame to those they have injured. we are capable of the greatest good and the greatest evil, and the problem is that we often can’t distinguish between them when it suits our purpose. (qtd. in ciment 193) through these scenes and the mazes with which kubrick litters his film, the audience gets a clear sense of the very unique haunting that is affecting both jack and danny. on the surface the overlook hotel is haunted due to being built on an ancient native american burial ground. however, what we ultimately see in the film is that the hotel is haunted by repression. the ghosts in the hotel represent the ways in which america has denied its bloody past and instead chosen to remain blissfully unaware and live in a time of supposed glory. the shining presents its viewers with two options: either repress this history, like jack, and do not face the horrors at hand until their influence you; or behave like danny and respect the horror without letting it fully overtake you. in this sense there is at least the hope of escaping from the vicious cycle that the overlook represents. of course kubrick doesn’t definitively end his film but instead chooses to leave the ending ambiguous, open to all kinds of interpretations. for jack, kubrick suggests that the entire story has been repeated throughout history and will continue to be repeated in the future. as luckhurst points out: “circularity, by definition, refuses to force an ending. instead, the last shot is a recursive revelation that demands an instant reviewing of the film to hunt for clues. and so we watch it again. and again” (91). luckhurst’s idea unlocks the narrative maze that kubrick sets forth for the audience. ghosts by definition are trapped in the past; there is no future as much as there is always a present. by finishing the film with the photograph, kubrick breaks down the idea of a traditional narrative. instead 38 dealing with our bloody past, mcbride of offering an ending, he offers a cycle. the only hope the film offers is that danny and wendy escape at the end. they are alone in a blizzard with only a snow cat as a means of transportation, but they at least represent the hope of moving forward, unlike jack and the ghosts of the overlook. 39 dealing with our bloody past, mcbride works cited bergland, renée l. “indian ghosts and american subjects.” introduction. the national uncanny: indian ghosts and american subjects. hanover, nh: dartmouth college, 2000. 1-22. print. blakemore, bill. “kubrick’s ‘shining’ secret: film’s hidden horror is the murder of the indian.” washington post 12 july 1987, entertainment sec.: f1+. print. ciment, michel. kubrick: the definitive edition. new york: faber and faber, 2001. print. cocks, geoffrey, james diedrick, and glenn perusek. depth of field: stanley kubrick, film, and the uses of history. madison, wi: university of wisconsin, 2006. print. cody, david. “the british empire.” the british empire. victorian web, 1988. web. 05 feb. 2014. falsetto, mario. stanley kubrick: a narrative and stylistic analysis. westport, ct: praeger publishers, 2001. print. howard, james. stanley kubrick companion. london: b.t. batsford ltd., 1999. print. luckhurst, roger. the shining. london: palgrave macmillan on behalf of british film institute, 2013. print. meyersberg, paul. “the overlook hotel.” perspectives on stanley kubrick. ed mario falsetto. new york: g.k. hall, 1996. n. pag. print. naremore, james. on kubrick. london: british film institute, 2007. print. nelson, thomas allen. kubrick: inside a film artist’s maze. bloomington: indiana university press, 1982. print. rasmussen, randy loren. stanley kubrick: seven films analyzed. jefferson, nc: mcfarland, 2001. print. room 237. dir. rodney ascher. perf. bill blakemore, geoffrey cocks. highland parks classics, 2012. dvd. 40 kinderbrutanstalt and kindchenschema: the child hatchery and the psychology of cute traditionally, brooklyn’s coney island has been thought of as a family-oriented fun park featuring rollercoasters, sweets, and more. however, over the course of its history, coney island has been home to freak shows and human exhibits of all kinds. historically, freak shows have displayed humans with disabilities for financial gain and nothing more. today, these sort of freak shows are condemned by modern society. but what is to be made of a freak show display responsible for saving human lives? from 1903 until the late 1940s, dr. martin couney exhibited premature infants in incubators and charged admission to gaze upon these so-called “incubator babies” (brangham). the work that martin couney did with the incubator babies may have been questionable, but one cannot deny that several lives were saved in the process. although it is true that “the incubator doctor” saved thousands of lives while his exhibit was at coney island, there are certain questionable elements present in the exhibition, such as using the psychology of cute to manipulate spectators and perpetuating the guilt of a society that exploits its young even to save their lives. the exhibit in context the year is 1903. theodore roosevelt is president, henry ford’s automobile factory is well on its way, and escape artist harry houdini is nikole darnell, kathryn hampshire, and amory orchard, ball state university abstract today, coney island is known for family fun and entertainment. but few people realize that at one time it was home to the first infant incubators in the nation. by examining the history of these incubators, putting children on display without their direct consent, and the psychology of cute, the authors delve into the darker side of coney island’s history. 46 digital literature review, vol. 3 (2016). © ball state university. all rights reserved. please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce critical edition to dlr@bsu.edu. stunning crowds everywhere with his seemingly magical tricks. meanwhile, couney has just worked a little magic of his own by opening his exhibit displaying premature babies in coney island, new york (brangham). in order to fund his research on the care of premature infants, couney charged 25 cents per person to come and gaze upon the tiny babies in their astonishing glass incubators (green). the exhibit stood alongside bars, racetracks, and seedy hotels in “the gut,” which has been described as a “latter-day sodom” (stanton). its tenure would span the course of forty years, witnessing impactful world events such as the sinking of the titanic, lindbergh’s flight across the atlantic, and two world wars. it all began in the 1890s when couney gained his medical degree in leipzig, germany. then, he travelled to paris in order to study under renowned physician dr. pierre constant budin, who helped to improve the primitive incubators being implemented at the time by adding an electric bell that would sound if the infant was in danger of overheating (silverman). couney took great interest in budin’s achievements and was eager to be his pupil. in 1896, budin charged couney with the task of displaying the incubators at the world exposition in berlin. however, in order to do so successfully, they would need to present these new machines in action. the premature babies necessary for the exhibit were obtained from local berlin’s charity hospital. because they were so small and underdeveloped, these infants were thought to have little to no chance of survival. the display was dubbed “kinderbrutanstalt,” or “child hatchery.” berlin’s “child hatchery” was always crammed with onlookers, eager to see the tiny babies who had a chance to live because of the incubators (silverman). british event promoter samuel schenkein was amazed by the exhibit and invited couney to recreate it at the victorian era exhibition the following year; couney agreed. in berlin, the exhibit attracted crowds of people and was wildly popular. by 1898, the display had come to america at nebraska’s trans-mississippi exposition, a world’s fair whose intent was to show western technological innovations. from 1900 until 1902, couney continued to display the premature babies in incubators at various other expositions in order to demonstrate the new advancements in neonatology. then, in 1903, amongst the carousels, restaurants, and hotels, the famous coney island exhibit debuted. shortly after this shift in venue, couney married a nurse who was an darnell, hampshire, orchard 47 expert in premature infant care, annabelle may, and had a premature baby daughter of his own, whom he named hildegarde. she was displayed with the other preemies at coney island for the first three months of her life, until she was well enough to live outside of the glass box. as an adult, she became a nurse and helped her father with his work. over the years, the display had gone quite well and often boasted of its low infant mortality rates (silverman). it seemed that newborns who had been denied a chance at life were finally going to live, thanks to this freakshow exhibit that doubled as a medical experiment1. however, although numerous infant lives were saved by dr. couney’s experiment, it cannot be ignored that human beings were put on display without their explicit consent. the juxtaposition of these two truths makes the case difficult to critique, especially when children instead of consenting adults become involved. the psychology of cute in any human exhibit, the showman capitalizes on some aspect of the individual’s physicality or abilities in order to draw a crowd. for the incubator babies, it was their size that interested the public. because premature infants are inherently smaller than the average human newborn, the subjects of this exhibit occupy the position of the freak due to a quality not normally codified as freakish: more than anything else, they were cute. it is important to examine this element of the exhibit because of the way that it capitalizes on an inherent human instinctual preference for the cute. before discussing the ways that cuteness pervades this exhibit, it is important to establish what this term entails. according to lori merish in her article “cuteness and commodity aesthetics,” [c]uteness is a highly conventionalized aesthetic, distinguishable both by its formal aesthetic features and the formalized emotional response it engenders. it is generally associated with the child... in terms of the formal property of smallness or ‘miniatureness.’ (187) merish goes on to describe various features that people usually associate with this type of aesthetic, such as round, thick limbs; large head-to-body ratio; and other features that are easily observable in the human infant. in 1943, austrian ethologist konrad lorenz introduced the term “kindchenschema,” or “baby schema,” to talk about the specific set of darnell, hampshire, orchard 48 1 for more history on couney, his coney island exhibit, and the history of the incubator, see baker 654-662 features that create a positive emotional response in human beings. according to lorenz, these features were almost entirely within the realm of infantile characteristics, such as a large head, high and protruding forehead, large eyes, chubby cheeks, small nose and mouth, short and thick extremities, and plump body shape. together, these features cause people to experience feelings of affection and a desire for caregiving (glocker et al. 257). these findings have been verified by several studies, which reveal that “the baby schema affects cuteness perception and motivation for caretaking in adults, also suggesting a neurophysiologic mechanism by which baby schema could promote human nurturing behavior” (borgi et al. 8). inherent in the term “baby” schema is the relation of this theory to this exhibit: because the objects of exhibition were all infants in this situation, they all occupied the position of the cute. the fact that they were premature only adds to this factor: even though they would not have had the chubby cheeks or the plump and thick body parts, they would have been even smaller than usual with an even more extreme head-to-body ratio. in fact, a premature infant resource site, “perfectly preemie,” lists four different categories for classifying baby size: micro (1-2.5lbs, 11-15”), tiny (2-4lbs, 14.5-16.5”), preemie (3-6lbs, 15-18.5”), and newborn (5-8lbs, 17.5-21”). while these distinctions are not medically relevant, they serve to provide a visual for the wide range of sizes infants can be and still be viable. even though a premature infant as small as one pound would not have likely been viable at the time of this particular exhibit, the fact that a baby can be so small and survive demonstrates the extreme nature of the cuteness factor at work. this would have made them seem both adorable and unusual since, aside from medical professionals, this would have been the first time most members of the public saw a preemie. additionally, as demonstrated in appendix b, the babies were portrayed in such a way as to exaggerate their diminutive size, thus increasing the cute factor based on their position as miniatures— not only miniature humans, but also miniature when compared to other newborns who came to full term. in addition to being a factor of nature, the cute is inherently reflective of the culture in which it is being perceived. this exhibit demonstrates this connection by the way that it focused on the salvation—and exhibition—of white infants over those of other races. evident in appendix b is a more subtle aspect of the way that the incubator institute pulled on the cuteness darnell, hampshire, orchard 49 thread within the minds of those who attended: based on all photographic evidence, the infants exhibited were all caucasian. according to merish, race plays an important part in the way that people perceive the cute because “appreciating the cute—loving the ‘adorable’ as culturally defined—entails a structure of identification, wanting to be like the cute—or, more exactly, wanting the cute to be just like the self” (186). by including only white babies, couney not only created an element of exclusion to those infants benefited by this medical advancement, but he also excluded non-whites from his target audience. this exclusion implicitly presents whiteness as a culturally desired and valued trait for the infants because it is only by their membership in this segment of the population that they merited consideration and acceptance into this life-saving experience. additionally, because there would have been a racial divide between individuals of any other race than those babies, they would not have been drawn to it to the same degree. thus, couney others all but the white consumer from his exhibit by presenting subjects who can only be linked to the self if the self happens to be white too. this also plays into the potential racism in the audience since the majority would have likely rejected the exhibit if it had contained minority babies. even though this kind of exclusion limited his target audience, the individuals included in this population were still in the majority, so the exhibit still saw a phenomenal amount of foot traffic. the way that the exhibit pulls on various aspects of the human psyche explains the reason why so many people attended this exhibit and why it was so longlasting. additionally, the feelings of wanting to care for the cute that these researchers describe would have only been intensified by the pitiable state of these individuals in particular: these incubator babies were tiny, vulnerable, and teetering on the liminal space between life and death. even though the incubators in which they were placed were providing for the role of medical caregiver, they would nonetheless emotionally affect the people who viewed them because of their cuteness registers. as the patrons looked at the babies in these mechanical caregivers, the gaze merits consideration. in terms of this gaze, using infants in an exhibit context makes sense due to the fact that “adults tend to look longer at infant than at adult faces and at cuter than at less cute infants” (borgie et al. 2). this could be a result of the fact that the face of a human child is darnell, hampshire, orchard 50 more biologically relevant to the brain’s attention system, as discussed in “that baby caught my eye... attention capture by infant faces” by tobias brosch, david sander, and klaus r. scherer of the university of geneva. in their study, they found that just as threat-related stimuli registers faster, so too does “all classes of stimuli that have high biological significance” and that “[n]ewborns are a prototypical example of a highly biologically relevant stimulus for members of a species” (685). in other words, one of the reasons adults are drawn to the young of their same species has its roots in biology and survival instincts. the fact that adults usually gaze upon the faces of babies for longer than any other kind of face, coupled with this inherent biological significance, increases the impact potential for this kind of exhibit. according to borgi et. al., [t]he concept of cuteness not only encompasses the evaluation of specific morphological traits (i.e., cuteness ratings, preference, attractiveness), but also involves a positive/affectionate behavior response (cute response), which appears to be anticipated by a visual prioritization of—and an intentional bias to—infantile stimuli. (9) because the subjects of this particular exhibit were all infants themselves, couney capitalized on this visual prioritization. according to merish, the cuteness of an infant “demands a maternal response and interpellates its viewers/consumers as ‘maternal’” (186). even though the majority of people who attended the exhibit would not have had familial ties to the babies in the incubators, the cuteness/ caregiving response would still have been intense because these instincts transcend blood ties. according to a study performed by glocker et. al., which provided “the first experimental proof that baby schema in infant faces is perceived as cute and induces motivation for caretaking in adults,” these features “motivate caretaking behaviors towards any infant, from any potential caregiver in a group, regardless of kinship” (262). this study explains why people still experience maternal/paternal responses to babies, regardless of whether they know the child personally, and, by extension, explains why these incubator babies were so appealing to the general public. additionally, within a discussion about the lack of familial ties the subjects would have had with their patrons, it is important to note the darnell, hampshire, orchard 51 way that these babies are displayed as distinctly removed from their parents. according to merish, “the cute always in some sense designates a commodity in search of its mother, and is constructed to generate maternal desire; the consumer (or potential consumer) of the cute is expected... to pretend she or he is the cute’s mother” (186). this type of evaluation of the cute factor is extremely relevant to a discussion of this exhibit because there was an admission fee, so the patrons of the incubator babies occupy the position as consumer of the babies as commodities; in other words, couney was selling their cuteness for a profit. this situation points to the way that the powerless, cute subject is vulnerable to exploitation since cuteness enacts the fundamental ambivalence of the child in a liberal-capitalist order: as at once consenting ‘subject,’ and property ‘object.’ evoking an ideal of maternal or benevolent ownership, cuteness stages a problematic of identification that centers on the child’s body. (merish 187) in this way, even though it may have seemed to be for humanitarian purposes, by creating a power dynamic of consumer-commodity, this exhibit is exploiting the cute in a very freakshow-esque manner. although it is unclear how much of the money the exhibit earned went back into the research and their care, this commodification points to a problematic aspect of the infants’ reality: in order to receive the medical care they required to survive, their parents had to allow them to be displayed. even though they were too young to understand their situation—much less consent to it—they nonetheless were submitted to the eyes of society and occupied the position of a commodity in order to have that society fund their survival. in addition to this commodification, displaying the babies sans parents pulls on a theme of displaying children as orphans in order to get a faux-familial reaction out of audience members. this theme is readily apparent within an examination of the popularity of the shirley temple films. in her article, merish examines the fact that temple was often portrayed as family-less because of the way this invites a type of parental voyeurism from audience members: “since within the film’s diegesis the space of the mother is empty, the viewer is invited to ‘occupy’ that space” (197). in the same way, adults attending the incubator baby exhibit see these babies in a much cuter, more appealing light because of the fact that they are visually parentless—the viewer’s desire to nurture and care for the infant darnell, hampshire, orchard 52 is heightened and so, too, is their desire to fill that parental void, even if only subconsciously because of the way that “[w]hat the cute stages is, in part, a need for adult care” (merish 187); these babies were probably more in need of that care than any infant the audience had ever seen. the fact that these babies are in need of care also places them in a nuanced position within the rhetoric of cute. when the patrons of this exhibit witness its subjects in the incubators, they are aware of the fact that couney has rescued them, which fulfills what merish calls “an erotics of maternal longing.” she states that having cuteness on display creates a situation where “‘exposure’ in the public sphere generates an appropriative desire to ‘rescue’ the cute object by resituating it within a properly loving and appreciative (i.e., affectionally normative) familial context” (188). even though the people visiting these babies were not directly providing this family structure, the way that the gaze dynamic allows them the vicarious position of maternal figure helps them fulfill this desire for rescue. adults looking at infants who are presented visually lacking parental figures would find themselves drawn to filling that void; even though this dynamic would only be on the subconscious level, it is nonetheless an integral factor in understanding this gaze. they can stare at these helpless infants with the knowledge that they supposedly already have been rescued by the caring, good-natured couney, who was portrayed as a father/savior figure to the babies (see appendix a). however, this prevented them from seeing this exhibit as the freak show that it was, playing into science’s history of walking the line between advancement for the betterment of human beings and exploitative exhibition for gratification and profit. this liminal space between medical care and freakification of the human subjects is strikingly familiar when one considers another exhibit that was prominent during this time period: from the 1840s to the 1930s, the american entertainment and medical fields combined to give genesis to the anatomical museums. like the child hatchery, these exhibits presented human subjects for display for a fee; however, these were more sinister because their subjects were all already dead. michael sappol, who critiques these exhibits in his article “‘morbid curiosity’: the decline and fall of the popular anatomical museum,” observes that “[t]he museum claimed to serve the cause of moral reformation, but it really worked on base emotions and bodily appetites.” similarly, the child hatchery utilized the “base emotions” darnell, hampshire, orchard 53 of maternal/paternal care and the “bodily appetites” of visual consumption of the cute to draw people into the exhibit. this exhibit draws on a desire for the aesthetic of cuteness that was particularly culturally significant to the time period because of the way that the late nineteenth century introduced the “‘feminization’ of commercial amusements, especially vaudeville and, later, cinema,” observes merish. she points to the way that forms of exhibition during this time faced alterations in order to cater to “a more ‘respectable’ and female clientele” as “the emergence of cuteness as a commercial style in the second half of the nineteenth century activated a structure of feminine spectatorship and identification and helped constitute a feminine consumer public” (merish 195, 188). indeed, this phenomenon was not limited to the incubator baby exhibit as other cultural events promoted the commercialization and adoration of the cute (see appendix c). these kinds of cultural moves within the context of human exhibitions reveal that the culture of consumption was conducive to the creation and success of an exhibit built on traditionally feminine desires for nurturing and childcare. based on several psychological studies, “women tend to be more interested in infants and caretaking activities than men” due to women’s cultural roles (glocker et al. 258). this could possibly explain why women in particular would have been more interested in this exhibit and why couney utilized women nurses within the exhibit to not only care for his subjects but also to participate in the display. while demographic information about the exact ratio of women to men who participated in this exhibit is yet to be discovered, one can postulate based on this kind of cultural and psychological information that the majority of them would have been female. even though this kind of all-infant display is unique, the world of the freak show is no stranger to exhibiting people because of their size. indeed, some of the most famous “freaks” were put on display due to being larger, smaller, taller, or shorter than the average person. one of the more prominent examples of the cute factor specifically playing into freak shows is with the exhibition of individuals of short stature. famous little people include charles sherwood stratton, stage name “general tom thumb,” and his wife, lavinia warren. the cuteness factor creates a distinction between little people and darnell, hampshire, orchard 54 others who were exhibited as “human oddities” because “[a]lthough they, like all ‘freaks,’ were known as ‘curiosities,’ the curiosity engendered by midgets was tempered by sympathy” (merish 192). according to merish, this type of sentimental gaze creates a situation where “the powerless were sympathized with and pitied.... because of its association with childhood, cuteness always to some extent anesthetizes powerlessness” (191, 187). similarly, the way that people looked at the incubator babies would have also held this element of sympathy, especially with parents who would have logically thought about what it would have been like if one of their children had faced this tenuous fate. there are very few individuals who hold a position as powerless as that of an infant, much less one born prematurely. thus, although merish does not make this connection to the child hatchery herslef, her analysis of the cuteness factor is even more applicable when discussing exhibits like couney’s. while freaks in this category are often likened to infants, this exhibit goes straight to the source of this type of freakification by focusing on freakifying the infants themselves. thus, even though the infants are not freaks in the conventional sense of the word, they nonetheless are occupying that cultural position, something that merish would not find surprising as she observes that “cuteness is... intimately bound up with the history of the ‘freak.’ there are obvious parallels between child and freak: both are liminal figures, residing on the boundaries that separate the ‘fully human’ from the ‘less-than-human’” (189). a rhetorical analysis of the incubator institute despite citing his accreditations wherever possible and claiming that this was his moral duty (see appendix a), couney was exploiting these children’s cuteness for the purpose of medical fundraising. although couney insisted that displaying the babies and advertising his coney island establishment was “extremely ethical” and that he was not a showman (liebling), he used a variety of persuasive strategies often employed by human exhibits of the time until the day the exhibit closed in the 1940s. despite this, only a small number of critics (modern-day and from the early twentieth century) have spoken out against his practices. one of the first-known published criticisms came from an 1898 editorial in the lancet. the author wrote, “[the exhibit] attracted the darnell, hampshire, orchard 55 attention and cupidity of public showmen. . . who had no knowledge of the intricate scientific problem involved, [and] started to organise [sic] baby incubator shows just as they might have exhibited marionettes, fat women, or any sort of catch-penny monstrosity” (silverman). in the twenty-first century, a set of scholars and medical practitioners, mazurak and czyżewska, refer to couney’s exhibit as “mixed with an experimental method of treatment that eventually became a universally accepted method of the neonatal care” (316), which demonstrates that couney’s efforts to save these children have since gone on to save others in the generations to follow. however, none of these critics have broken down the exhibit and examined the persuasive elements of couney’s exhibit. among them, freak show staples such as carnival barkers, banners, and visual trickery were used to appeal to an audience’s attraction to the “cute.” the coney island boardwalk in those days had a wide variety of human exhibits which audiences paid to see. in order to stand out from the competition, carnival barkers (often referred to as “talkers” or “outside lecturers”) were hired by freakshow owners to sell tickets to curious passersby (bogdan 27). as a medical practitioner, couney had the space and equipment so his patients could live and grow inside the incubators. unfortunately for him, his role as a doctor-turned-salesman required him to attract an audience that would pay to keep the machines running to keep the babies alive. thus, couney hired a barker for the season and placed signs and banners outside the main structure, using language designed to target the audience’s emotions. these barkers would cry out messages such as “don’t pass the babies by,” while a sign at the entrance read, “all the world loves a baby” (silverman). apart from the barker and signs, emotional appeals were also a staple in human exhibits when the owners did not wish to be identified as such. instead, couney must have wanted his incubator baby show to be deemed “morally uplifting and educational, not merely as frivolous amusement” (bogdan 27). here, the phrase “don’t pass the babies by” implies the following: that one cannot possibly pass the incubator babies or they might die. in addition to the show’s language, couney’s nurses were told to bulk up if they were to keep their jobs. they were ordered to “add more clothes as the babies grew larger to heighten the illusion of smallness of each of darnell, hampshire, orchard 56 the infants on display,” and former exhibit nurse madame recht wore an oversized diamond ring on her finger; she slipped this huge “sparkler” over the babies’ wrists periodically to demonstrate how tiny the hands were (silverman). although it would not seem like a persuasive rhetorical move, this is also a strategy commonplace in the freak show. for instance, fat people in freak shows could often be found wearing clothes that exaggerated their size or appeared with props that made them appear larger. in other instances, fat people were often displayed with or married to “living skeletons,” or those who have muscle atrophy diseases. in this instance, it is true that the nurses and not the babies whose bodies are being modified. however, the juxtaposition of tiny against the large is still present. it is clear that couney had faith in his exhibit due to the fact that he chose to display his own premature daughter, hildegarde. others also believe that couney’s exhibit was successful due to the many fragile infant lives that he managed to save. lucille horn, one of the premature newborns displayed at coney island, speaks positively about couney’s experiment. she was born in 1920 along with a twin who died at birth. the hospital where she was born told her father that there was little they could do for the newborn baby girl, who weighed little more than two pounds (green). lucky for lucille, her father refused to accept the hospital’s answer. aware of the incubator babies on coney island, lucille’s father wrapped her in a blanket, hailed a cab, and took her to see martin couney. he accepted the little girl and displayed her in the incubator along with the other premature babies. when asked how she felt about people paying to see her, lucille replied, “it’s strange, but as long as they saw me and i was alive, it was all right. i think it was definitely more of a freak show. something that they ordinarily did not see” (green). lucille is correct—at the time, the thought of seeing premature newborns in glass boxes was something out of a science fiction film. although incubators are commonplace items in neonatal units today, at one time they were so out of the ordinary that they were featured in a sideshow attraction near the four-legged woman and the sword swallowers (brangham). modern connection: telethons and exploitation while today people cannot go to gawk at preemies in incubators at coney island, there are still many modern forms of entertainment darnell, hampshire, orchard 57 that demonstrate that these tendencies were not left behind in the earlytwentieth century. one of these modern examples is the telethon, that is a tv show which seeks to acquire funds from donors based on a live show, often featuring individuals personally impacted by the issue at hand. some of the most well-known telethons are the pbs pledge week and britain’s comic relief and children in need. the most famous telethon, though, is jerry lewis’s muscular dystrophy telethon. many are familiar with the annual telethon that entertainer jerry lewis hosted in order to raise funds for those with muscular dystrophy, often abbreviated to “md.” while the jerry lewis muscular dystrophy telethons were successful in raising millions of dollars for the families affected by this disease, they were also subject to criticism from disability rights organizations. the main criticism was that the telethons were demeaning because they “infantilized the disabled public, and made them appear intrinsically dependent on ablebodied [sic] society” (smith 688). in other words, the telethons made it appear that the disabled were incapable of helping themselves—if the able bodied would not help them, then no one would. the children sponsored on the telethon were known as “jerry’s kids,” furthering the stigma that people with disabilities are not capable of taking care of themselves. by using the term, “jerry’s kids,” the telethon inadvertently depicts lewis as a paternal figure whose duty it is to look after these seemingly helpless children. while the intention was to raise funds for those afflicted with md, it does not change the fact that images of “jerry’s kids” were being used. while it is true that the money went to the benefit of the patients themselves, they were forced to demean themselves before society would donate the money for a cure. in his article, “‘please call now, before it’s too late’: spectacle discourse in the jerry lewis muscular dystrophy telethon,” christopher r. smith compares jerry lewis’s telethon to the historical freak show. he states that “both events attempt to generate capital via the exhibition of different bodies” (smith). more than likely, smith would also place couney’s exhibits in this category. while it is true that admission charged to see the newborns was used for their care, it does not change the fact that people were willing to pay money to gaze upon medical curiosities, just like in the telethons. spectators of both events had no problem with paying to stare because they felt like they were helping. it darnell, hampshire, orchard 58 is arguable to say that voyeurism is acceptable, as long as it is paid for. this says a great deal about a culture that demands a spectacle before it will help a fellow human being in need. conclusion although martin couney’s incubators appeared to be nothing short of innovative and spectacular, when viewed through a critical lens, it is easy to take issue with the way they were funded. by having humans on display and charging admission for the public to come and see, couney was recreating a freak show comparable to those of the early twentieth century. but how could the spectators resist? the psychology of cute dictates that the audience members would feel obligated to help these seemingly helpless creatures and would feel an intense desire to see them with their own eyes. audience members may have thought that they were helping by paying the admission fee, and couney could indeed have been genuine in his desires to aid these babies beyond hope, but they were participating in the display of human beings nonetheless. primary sources appendix a: article/profile: “a patron of the preemies.” the new yorker. june 3, 1939 one profile for the new yorker, in particular, demonstrates how the doctor’s role in saving these babies’ lives blurred the lines between medical professional and showman. dr. couney was interviewed many times about the exhibit at luna park in the years before his death. staff reporter a.j. liebling goes to great lengths to portray the doctor as a man of good ethos who would never exploit children: darnell, hampshire, orchard 59 “the doctor has no financial backer; the $35,000 building at flushing was, he says, a considerable strain on his resources. other long-time residents of coney island rate him ‘a solid man’ (3). here, he comes across to the casual 1930s reader as a father-figure—even savior— to his charges. rather than a hard-hitting journalistic piece, the profile asks dr. couney to talk about his former charges: this passage indicates that couney is encouraging the public to come invest in these children’s futures because these babies are guaranteed to grow up to be upright citizens who are bound to contribute to society. of course, saving human lives is not nefarious by itself. however, what is ethically ambiguous is the manner in which dr. couney, a medical professional, used methods of advertising and showmanship commonplace in human exhibits at the time to persuade visitors to offer more money by using emotionally persuasive techniques. appendix b: photograph collection: “infant incubator hildegarde couney with other nurses holding three sets of twins” new york world’s fair collection (1939-1940) thousands of photographs were taken at the 1939 new york world’s fair, including several of premature babies from couney’s luna park exhibit at coney island. this photograph depicts couney’s daughter, hildegarde (a former preemie herself) and another nurse holding up four babies to the camera. as the authors discuss in this paper, couney’s nurses were expected to wear certain uniforms and jewelry which would exaggerate the size of their own features in juxtaposition with the babies’. the nurses also frequently held their tiny charges rather than having them remain in the incubators. as this photo demonstrates, the babies—although indeed small—were being depicted as smaller than they truly were. appendix c: news article: “baby show draws 200,000 to coney: 500 infants entered, 250 prizes awarded— girl is adjudged the most beautiful. 500,000 attend at night resort crowded with visitors. who make merry till dawn, when carnival closes.” new york times. 21 sep 1924: 23 darnell, hampshire, orchard 60 responsibility for the existence of so many additional human beings might crush a misanthrope, but the doctor bears the burden lightly. “they are good, normal, respectable people, all of them, i bet,” he says with conviction. “i get letters every year from people who their parents told them they were raised in my incubators. i never yet got a letter from a jail.” (3) http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/5e66b3e8-852c-d471-e040-e00a180654d7 this excerpt from a 1924 the new york times article is another example of how people from late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries valued a baby’s cuteness factor. in this article, thousands flocked to coney island to see babies who were not even members of dr. couney’s exhibit. several of the five hundred babies entered into the contest by their parents walked away with prizes with titles such as “most beautiful.” this indicates that society’s fascination with couney’s preemies was not its own phenomenon. many little children throughout the years— entered in these baby shows—were freakified because of their cuteness and were deemed cuter than others in the process. such contests still exist today. appendix d: “‘mechanical mother’ saves lives of infants.” modern mechanix. march 1931 this final primary source is a 1931 article from the newsletter, modern mechanix. this source is particularly “the annual baby show was a feature of coney island’s mardi gras yesterday afternoon, and a crowd of 200,000 visitors cheered the baby parade. about 230 prizes and blue ribbons were awarded for various qualities in babies. last night the crowd passed up to the half million mark in numbers and the resort was swamped with merrymakers . . . of the 500 infants entered in the baby show, a 7-month-old child, dorothy bonadonna, daughter of mr. and mrs. joseph bonadonna of 255 sumpter street, brooklyn, was adjudged the prettiest, and received the william randolph hearst gold cup . . . the most original costume was adjudged to be that worn by myrtle lightell, aged 7 of 103 131st street, richmond hill. li., who was attired as a bride” (23). darnell, hampshire, orchard 61 “man-made machines have again triumphed over the seemingly unconquerable forces of nature with the invention of the mechanical mother. . . before dr. couney’s humanitarian and life-saving machine was perfected to the advance [sic] state in which one now finds it, the word ‘incubator’ was generally associated with the raising of chicks. a visit to his incubator institute, either at coney island boardwalk or the atlantic city boardwalk, will reveal the precious invention of dr. couney in operation. so indispensable are these mechanical mothers to prematurely born babies that life would vanish instantly from their bodies without them. nothing else in the world of science or nature could save them.” significant because many of the publications about incubator babies at the time were news pieces about particular events that took place at luna park or about couney himself. even though modern mechanix was a publication distributed with scientific intentions, it still portrays couney and his modified incubator as a nurturing mother substitute. it reflects several attitudes from the time period: that couney’s medical expertise and raising money to fund these machines (and scientific discovery in the process) was absolutely necessary for the survival of premature children. darnell, hampshire, orchard 62 works cited “baby show draws 200,000 to coney: 500 infants entered, 250 prizes awarded— girl is adjudged the most beautiful. 500,000 attend at night resort crowded with visitors. who make merry till dawn, when carnival closes.” new york times. 21 sep 1924: 23 proquest historical newspapers: the new york times. web. 14 nov 2015 baker, jeffrey p. “the incubator controversy: pediatricians and the origins of premature infant technology in the united states, 1890 to 1910.” pediatrics 87.5 (1991): 654-62. ulrichsweb: global serials directory. web. 30 nov 2015. bogdan, robert. “the social construction of freaks.” freakery. ed. rosemarie garland thomson. new york: new york university press, 1996. 23-37. print. borgi, marta. irene cogliati-dezza, victoria brelsford, kersten meints, and francesca cirulli. “baby schema in human and animal faces induces cuteness perception and gaze allocation in children.” frontiers in psychology 5 (2014): 1-12. psycinfo. web. 11 nov 2015. brangham, william. “how a coney island sideshow advanced medicine for premature babies.” pbs newshour. newshour productions, llc, 21 jul 2015. web. 9 nov 2015. brosch, tobias, david sander, and klaus r. scherer. “that baby caught my eye… attention capture by infant faces.” emotion 7.3 (2007): 685-689. psycarticles. web. 14 nov 2015. glocker, melanie l., daniel d. langleben, kosha ruparel, james w. loughead, ruben c. gur, and norbert sachser. “baby schema in infant faces induces cuteness perception and motivation for caretaking in adults.” ethology 115.3. (2009): 257-263. psycinfo. web. 11 nov 2015. darnell, hampshire, orchard 63 green, david. “babies on display: when a hospital couldn’t save them, a sideshow did.” interview with lucille and barbara horn. npr. 2015. web. 9 nov 2015. infant incubator -hildegarde couney with other nurses holding three sets of twins. 1935 1945. new york world’s fair, ny. manuscripts and archives division, the new york public library. the new york public library digital collections. web. 15 nov 2015 http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/ items/5e66b3e8-852c-d471-e040-e00a180654d7 liebling, a. j. “a patron of the preemies.” the new yorker 3 june 1939: 20-24. print. mazurak, magdalena, and malgorzata czyzewska. “incubator doctor and the dionne quintuplets:on the phenomenon of exhibiting premature infants.” history of medicine 43.2 (2006): 313–316. web. 16 oct 2015. “‘mechanical mother’ saves lives of infants.” fawcett’s modern mechanics and inventions 1 mar 1931: 100-04. print. merish, lori. “cuteness and commodity aesthetics: tom thumb and shirley temple.” freakery. ed. rosemarie garland thomson. new york: new york university press, 1996. 185-203. print. sappol, michael. “‘morbid curiosity’: the decline and fall of the popular anatomical museum.” common-place: the interactive journal of early american life 4.2 (2004): n.p. web. 19 oct 2015. silverman, william a. “incubator-baby side shows.” pediatrics 64.2 (1979): 127. academic search premier. web. 11 nov 2015. “size chart.” perfectly preemie. perfectly preemie, 2015. web. 14 nov 2015. smith, christopher r. “‘please call now, before it’s too late’: spectacle discourse in the jerry lewis muscular dystrophy telethon.” journal of popular culture 36.4 (2003): 687. academic search premier. web. 13 nov 2015. darnell, hampshire, orchard 64 stanton, jeffrey. “coney islandearly history (1881-1903).” westland.net. coney island history site, 15 sept 1997. web. 23 nov 2015. darnell, hampshire, orchard 65 currently on its sixteenth season, there is no question that nbc’s law & order: special victims unit (svu) has gained immense popularity in modern television. one of many spin-offs from the original “mother ship” law & order program, svu focuses on crimes with “special victims,” which usually refer to those of sexual assault, as the opening narration states: in the criminal justice system, sexually-based offenses are considered especially heinous. in new york city, the dedicated detectives who investigate these vicious felonies are members of an elite squad known as the special victims unit. these are their stories. it also depicts other crimes including cases with children, the elderly, and trafficking victims. this show is not without its critics, however. many in the academic community point to the sexually-charged content as both the reason for svu’s success and also the site of its controversy. scholar of media culture and author cynthia chris states, “no amount of stolid narrative closure…could temper the graphic fear contained in” a particularly harrowing 2008 episode. “there was something sticky and toxic at work in the show,” chris continues, “and i could not overlook it ever again” (62). scholars like chris find themselves questioning svu’s graphic content, coming to the same conclusion: “we don’t really know why so many are drawn to these entertainments, nor to what effect. we don’t even have a firm grasp on the scope and received meanings of violence contained within popular entertainment products” (62). many others focus on the implications this show has for questions of gender and race in the media. svu hangs on a point of tension within the critical discourse thanks to the diversity—and lack thereof—in the cast, which has yet to receive much explicit attention. the show features many elements characteristic of the white savior trope, since only one children in chains: on the productive and exploitative tendencies of representation in law & order: special victims unit kathryn hampshire, ball state university key words: law & order: special victims unit, revictimization, white savior, child slavery, exploitation, trafficking abstract: this paper explores the depiction of child enslavement in the television show law & order: special victims unit and how this portrayal is ambiguous as it both productively explores this issue and also exploits it for entertainment purposes. the author focuses on the program’s use of revictimization, the white savior trope, and its voyeuristic tendencies. 49 digital literature review, vol. 2 (2015). © ball state university. all rights reserved. please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce critical edition to dlr@bsu.edu. main detective, odafin “fin” tutuola, is black. however, the gender factor disrupts the pervasiveness of this motif: this literary device usually leans heavily on strong white males, but svu features a distinctly strong and empowering female presence in the character of olivia benson, the only detective to endure through all sixteen seasons and whose actress, mariska hargitay, is an influential victims’ rights advocate in real life. in this way, i propose that the show hangs in limbo between detrimentally buying into harmful media practices and productively contributing to diversity discourse. working within the more prevalent lines of discussion, professors lisa m. cuklanz and sujata moorti argue in their article, “television’s ‘new’ feminism: prime-time representations of women and victimization,” that, while svu does indeed incorporate a productive feminist perspective regarding sexual assault, the show’s depiction of women themselves problematically demonstrates “an anxiety about feminine characteristics and the power women possess within the private sphere” (304). in this way, cuklanz and moorti argue in a fashion that is representative of the feminist discourse surrounding the show, using scholarship ripe with “seemingly contradictory” moves (303). often, the same scholars praising svu’s efforts are also those tearing them apart. in this paper, i will be engaging in a similar pattern of discussion, here addressing svu’s depiction of child slavery—a facet of the show that has yet to receive much attention. while this program does indeed bring several important critical themes to light regarding enslavement and trauma, svu still has exploitative tendencies. here, i will examine several specific episodes about child enslavement to demonstrate the productive and exploitative tendencies of the show, analyzing specifically the themes of revictimization, the white savior trope, and problematic imagery, along with their implications for the show as a whole. innocence and exploitation: child enslavement in svu slavery is abhorrent on all levels, but when the victims are children, the facts become much more heart-breaking. in the words of sally stoecker, a scholar-in-residence at the transnational crime and corruption center of american university in washington, dc, “it is a sad commentary on the state of the global economy…that women and children are being traded as quickly as commodities…. this phenomenon can be called the ‘commodification of persons’” (13). in svu, the storyline of several episodes includes depictions of child victims, often in the context of trafficking. while this practice could serve to dynamically bring about awareness regarding various aspects of the trafficking discourse, the potential for the situation to turn exploitative creates a site of moral ambiguity which needs to be considered. in their essay, “does ‘special’ mean young, white and female? deconstructing the meaning of ‘special’ in law & order: special victims unit,” central washington university scholars sarah britto, tycy hughes, kurt saltzman, and colin stroh discuss the types of victims the show portrays and the implications of these choices: “age, in both extremes, is used as a way to depict innocence,” and svu certainly capitalizes on this (britto et al. 43). the fact that many of svu’s victims are children places a form of inherent emphasis on the subject matter of those episodes since “children represent both vulnerability and potential for the future and as such their images are attention grabbing and powerful, particularly when the issue is crime” (britto et al. 42). in this analysis, i will be examining several episodes in which children in particular are the victims of slavery because of this emphasis. 50 hampshire by using children as the object of these crimes, svu draws special attention to the subjects of these episodes and the messages they convey. oftentimes, episodes contain scenes in which characters discuss the issues at hand in such a way that viewers can learn about real-life situations through the show’s treatment of them. in “merchandise,” for example, a scene between detectives and an assistant us attorney informs the audience about the little-discussed issue of american children in various types of domestic slavery. according to the episode’s executive producer neal baer, “we hear about sex trafficking, which is horrendous, but we don’t hear as much about trafficking where kids are forced to work on farms and work for people in their homes” (qtd. in keehn). in the episode, the characters discuss how foreign victims have access to aid, whereas domestic slaves “get nothing”; the assistant us attorney then describes several examples of children enslaved across the country. in this way, i propose that svu constructively contributes to the much-needed efforts in the overall trafficking discourse “to expand the definition of trafficking to include purposes other than prostitution, such as forced labor, forced marriage, and slavery-like practices,” as dr. jyoti sanghera, section chief of human rights and economic and social issues at the united nations office of the high commissioner for human rights in geneva, says (10). this scene in “merchandise” is exemplary of how the show fits in moments meant to inform viewers while simultaneously moving the storyline along. in addition to these conversations, characters often portray the real effects that enslavement can have in such a way that viewers can become more informed about trauma. continuing our analysis of “merchandise,” the episode continues its efforts to engage in critical slavery dialogue when a child victim named micah reveals the inherent non-linear nature of trauma in a way that can enlighten viewers into this aspect of a victim’s experience. often, victims of extremely traumatic experiences face difficulties putting those experiences into a chronological, linear narrative that normal experiences generally allow. they instead remember and recount their trauma in nonlinear flashes of memories and feelings, which is evident in micah’s interview with psychiatrist dr. george huang. micah begins his story in the middle, describing the sounds, smells, and feelings of the cellar in which he was held. he then says, “do something wrong, make a mistake, and we all get a beating” (“merchandise”). the rest of the conversation follows this nonlinear pattern. huang attempts to put micah on a chronological path with leading questions, but micah’s narrative continues to push back. this conversation demonstrates how severe trauma like slavery is resistant to a linear narrative. in addition to nonlinearity, svu also reveals the traumatic implications these experiences can have on their victims, based on real-life experiences. in her analysis of real-life child trafficking victims, daniela nicolaescu notes, “the analysed subjects show us that…the forms of abuse which the child endured while being trafficked have disastrous consequences on the emotional balance and on the general behavior of the children,” including stockholm syndrome, panic, post-traumatic stress disorder (ptsd), and anxiety (102, 95, 99). often, victims on svu deal with these same results from their traumatic experiences, such as kristen in “stranger,” a victim of prolonged sexual enslavement who suffers from ptsd and stockholm syndrome. this episode even features a scene when the detectives discuss the implications of the latter, thus informing the audience about a commonly-misunderstood mental issue. however, despite the various productive ways that the show is raising awareness about various slaveryand trauma-related issues, it is important to recognize the fact that it exists 51 hampshire within an entertainment medium. as britto et al. explain, “children’s images…are often the basis of moral panics, suggesting when crime stories focus on children they have more salience among consumers” (42). they go on to speculate that this, perhaps, is the reason why svu is the most popular of the law & order spin-off shows and to note that nearly “one-half of all the victims on svu were under the age of 18, compared to ncvs [national crime victimization survey] reports that suggest the actual figure is closer to one-quarter [of ] all victims” (46). this calls into question whether the program’s emphatic and disproportionate use of child victims is as innocent as it may at first appear. svu could be using this particular demographic in order to draw attention to issues, but the reasons could also be exploitative. they could be attempting to attract and maintain the attention of more viewers or perhaps unknowingly, but nonetheless perversely, providing a voyeuristic opportunity for viewers to observe the torture and maltreatment of children. even with the ways that svu is contributing to a discourse about trafficking, it is important to consider whether the price is worth paying in exchange. although one might hope that the show’s goals are to bring the abovementioned issues about slavery and trauma to light, the fact still remains that channels like usa broadcast svu among other shows like necessary roughness, royal pains, and satisfaction. it would be a very difficult case to argue that these other programs have activist goals in mind when they are so clearly meant for entertainment, and it is disturbing to consider that svu may be using child enslavement for the purpose of entertainment. what does it mean when these types of seemingly-productive discourse-raising themes are present in a show which keeps such company? the use and heavy reliance on the child victim character type and the fact that this show is clearly at least partially, if not entirely, intended for entertainment creates a site of ambiguity when considering whether as a whole svu productively contributes to the trafficking discourse. when will the madness end?: an examination of revictimization on and off screen victims of these types of crimes often experience further victimization after the initial crime has taken place. from the police officers who first take their statements to the medical professionals who attempt to care for their physical and mental needs, victims often seem to find themselves thinking that they would have been better off if they had simply remained silent. this process is known as revictimization, and it is prevalent in reality as well as in svu. in an article for the washington post, special counsel on human rights malika saada saar recounts the story of tami, a 15-year-old victim of forced prostitution who, when she finally escaped, was arrested instead of protected, and she questions: “but should an abused child be incarcerated for the abuses perpetrated against her?” saar continues by arguing that “the people who rape these girls, the politely termed ‘johns,’ are rarely arrested for statutory rape, child endangerment or sexual assault of a minor.” often, children forced into prostitution are treated like criminals when they are actually victims of a much graver offense; under-aged prostitutes, regardless of whether they are slaves or not, are victims of statutory rape and should be treated as such. often in svu, revictimization is overtly prevalent, and thus the show productively raises awareness about it. victims often express their displeasure with the way that they are treated 52 hampshire by the state, a sentiment grounded in reality. according to a study performed by rebecca campbell of michigan state university, “43% to 52% of victims who had contact with the legal system rated their experience as unhelpful and/or hurtful” (704). the show makes it clear to viewers that, even though there is a chance for justice to be served, that chance often comes with a price. kristen exemplifies the cost a victim might face from pursuing justice in a particularly overwhelming scene from “stranger.” she suffers from ptsd as a result of her enslavement. soon after she is released from the hospital, the detectives take her out to retrace her steps in order to find her abuser. throughout, kristen becomes increasingly overwhelmed and triggered by the loud sounds and the detectives’ pressuring questions. even though the purpose of this process was to assist her in getting justice, the overall result was further victimization. this demonstrates to viewers that even the most well-intentioned servants of the state may inadvertently cause further suffering for victims in the process of helping them get justice. within other episodes of svu, the concept of revictimization becomes a site of contradiction. the show both raises awareness about this troublesome reality and also participates in it. one episode exemplary of this contradiction is “merchandise,” which focuses on child enslavement and demonstrates “how these heinous crimes can be hidden in plain sight—and how victims of sex trafficking are often prosecuted as criminals” (keehn). detectives discover that micah has a record for prostitution, despite the fact that he is only thirteen years old. since micah is paradoxically a victim of sex trafficking being charged with prostitution, the show points to how the legal system is revictimizing him by criminalizing actions that he was forced to perform. instead of arresting the pimps, “johns,” or traffickers, officers have arrested their victim. this theme continues later in the episode, only in a different light because the characters and the show itself revictimize micah. during a struggle to take the boy in, his shirt tears, revealing a back covered in lacerations—putting the boy’s injured body on display for the viewers. even though micah is a fictional character, the way this scene takes advantage of the set-up of the episode and the real-life implications of this type of treatment are extremely problematic. this moment of cinematography is exploitative on many levels: it exposes the body of a victim, it shocks some viewers into a state of pity (which is problematic in and of itself ) without the probability of productive action to take in response to this experience, and it capitalizes on other viewers’ desire to witness the results of torture. when micah begins to repeatedly hurt himself, fin then goes to restrain micah for his own protection. detective eliot stabler protests, “you saw his back—they made him a slave. are you going to treat him like one now?” to this, benson states, “maybe it’s the only thing he’s used to.” here, benson argues that micah has been treated like a slave for so long that he can no longer process anything else, explaining his self-destructive behavior. however, regardless of what micah is “used to,” they should not subject him to further victimization. by putting him in handcuffs, they are doing exactly what the show accused other officers of earlier: they are treating the victim like a criminal. benson’s comment may have been true, but that does not justify further victimization of a child who has already been forced into labor and prostitution, repeatedly raped and sodomized, and arrested and charged with crimes out of his control. another source of secondary victimization is through the medical professionals with whom victims interact after an assault, specifically through the harrowing process of getting a rape kit. campbell states that because “the survivor’s body is a crime scene,” an extremely 53 hampshire invasive and meticulous medical procedure is necessary to preserve evidence of the crime, a process which often leaves victims feeling as though they have been raped a second time (706). this aspect of revictimization is also addressed through svu, but the way in which it is brought to light merits scrutiny. in “stranger,” when a victim of sexual enslavement goes to the hospital with benson, the scenes that follow are problematic. while benson asks her about her trauma, the camera pans over the girl’s exposed body in suggestive patterns, down her back, up between her legs, and over her chest; focuses on a needle slowly penetrating her skin; and shows her expressionless, motionless, haunted face. these startling and pseudo-pornographic images, along with how her narrative is given as a voice-over, draw attention away from her narrating her trauma and toward her body. while this scene certainly demonstrates and raises awareness about the trauma of getting a rape kit, it does so in a way that is also exploitative. the white knight with a badge: svu’s use of the white savior trope throughout literature pertaining to slavery, one widespread trope is that of the white savior— the “messianic white self ” who “is the redeemer of the weak, the great leader who saves blacks from slavery or oppression” (vera and gordon 33). the white savior is persistent throughout film and tv alike in such blockbusters as indiana jones and the temple of doom, the matrix, avatar, and the blind side, and it is much more harmful than it may seem. originating in western traditions of enslavement, the white savior represents a history of white paternalism and racist abolition movements, as well as a supposition of nonwhite submission and an inherent need for a savior. according to authors hernán vera (a professor of sociology and a prolific race relations writer) and andrew m. gordon (an associate professor of english and a film critic), in contemporary media, these types of characters present “whites with pleasing images of themselves as saviors rather than oppressors of other races,” when history clearly shows the latter to be a much more accurate depiction (34). when analyzing the depiction of an issue as racially-charged as slavery, it is important to evaluate whether the work in question is complicit in the use of this harmful and pervasive character type. upon evaluating several episodes of svu, i have found the white savior to be alarmingly prevalent. in order to demonstrate the various ways that the white savior trope is present in svu, i will examine two episodes in particular: “ritual” and “merchandise.” in “ritual,” a white man purchases a young black boy from nigeria through a trafficking ring to use for his own sexual perversions while his wife is away. the episode evolves to revolve around how these young black children from nigeria are taken under false pretenses from their homes to be trafficked into the united states for sexual exploitation and domestic servitude. throughout this episode, the black child slaves are portrayed in a way similar to how vera and gordon analyze the treatment of natives in the film stargate: they are “credulous, ignorant, and superstitious” and even have special amulets like the black characters of that movie (36). this places these characters in a white-savioristic situation, which problematically “racializes and separates people into those who are redeemers (whites) and those who are redeemed or in need of redemption (nonwhites),” as mathew w. hughey describes the trope in his book the white savior film: content, critics, and consumption (2). over the course of this episode, the detectives work to uncover the trafficking operation. toward the end, the detectives receive information which leads to a raid on a warehouse and the discovery of dozens of black children in chains, huddled in the dark, their faces now up54 hampshire turned from their previous stupor of hopelessness as they are rescued by their white saviors. this image of black bodies—much less those of black children—in chains is problematic on many levels which will be discussed later, but here i will emphasize the way that this episode positions the seemingly ignorant, helpless, compliant black slave children with the bold, justice-seeking white adults. later on in the episode, it is revealed that the main perpetrator of enslaving these children is a man from nigeria himself, thus positioning the only adult from these children’s home as the episode’s villain. what’s more, the typecasting for this character buys into mainstream colorism, a type of discrimination based on skin color (distinctly different from racism which is based on ancestry and various other factors in addition to skin color). according to dr. ronald hall of the university of st. thomas, who is one of the nation’s leading scholars on skin color, “african american males who have darker skin are viewed as more sinister and threatening by both the dominant and dominated populations” (178). since the actor for the nigerian trafficker is one of the darkest male characters in the episode, the show is simultaneously ascribing negative connotations to him based on his darker skin color and potentially contributing to viewers’ preexisting colorism mentalities. even at the end of this episode when the one black detective, fin (who notably happens to be much lighter than the trafficker), is accosting the trafficker and the situation turns violent, the white detectives intervene to make the official arrest, thus yet again “saving” the day. in “merchandise,” the white savior trope takes a turn by juxtaposing the power of the various detectives on the force. when the case of enslaved at-risk american youths becomes one of federal jurisdiction, benson and stabler become temporary u.s. marshals. it is important to note here that even though fin—again, the team’s only black detective—played an integral role in the case thus far, it is the white detectives who achieve this new level of authority. indeed, directly following this scene, fin expresses how impressed he is with their new credentials, reinforcing the underlying theme of white saviordom by juxtaposing his lack of power to save the children with the white detectives’ newly-empowered ability to do so. as these episodes are representative of trends within the show, it is clear that svu leans on the white savior trope throughout its treatment of slavery. even though we have already examined several ways in which svu is productively adding to the trafficking discourse and raising awareness about real-world slavery concerns, it is important here to discuss the ways that its reliance on this character type could be causing some level of harm to viewers and, by extension, to race relations in modern society. the white savior is a trope of contention wherever it appears with “people wrangl[ing] over the site and suitability” and “stak[ing] out a position along the spectrum of evaluations: good to bad, progressive to racist, and stereotype to true story” (hughey 3-4). within the context of svu specifically, it is my position that the white savior falls on the latter side of this spectrum because of its subtlety; it is extremely prevalent without being so obvious that the average viewer would necessarily notice. the motif makes appearances in such a subversive way that could potentially derail any productive efforts the show could be having within the trafficking discourse. similar to films depending on this trope, svu characters might come across as straight-forward depictions of heroic characters, and “yet they are sites of both purposeful ideological labor and implicit explanations about race so normalized as common sense that many may fail to recognize them as ideological” (hughey 8). from a show with a flawed framework which allows for this kind of treatment of race relations, it is 55 hampshire important to be critical about whether it can still make positive and productive contributions to the discourse surrounding slavery. in a study on racial stereotypes, s. plous and tyrone williams of wesleyan university ascertained that: “some 20% of the public expresses a belief that blacks are innately inferior in thinking ability, and a majority endorses at least one racial stereotype concerning inborn ability. in addition, roughly 50% of the public endorses at least one stereotypical difference in anatomy between blacks and whites” (811). their research summary explains how stereotypes of this sort have firmly rooted themselves in the american history of oppression since early views about blacks centered on “characteristics which, it was argued, naturally suited them to slavery” (796). one of the reasons for these types of stereotypes remaining persistent today can be ascribed to the media’s treatment of people of color. in our visual culture, images have the ability to shape people’s worldviews. this includes both obvious sources like the news and also more seemingly innocent forms like entertainment television. in turn, we can posit that the way shows like svu lean on racist and colorist tropes like the white savior is problematically adding to this harmful trend. however, while certainly problematic, there could potentially be a somewhat plausible motive behind its use. pulitzer prize winning journalist nicholas kristof often uses this trope within his own writing, but he believes that it is for a greater cause: frankly, the moment a reader sees that i’m writing about central africa, for an awful lot of them, that’s the moment to turn the page…. one way of getting people to read at least a few [paragraphs] in is to have some kind of foreign protagonist, some american who they can identify with as a bridge character. and so if this is a way i can get people to care about foreign countries, to read about them, ideally, to get a little bit more involved, then i plead guilty. (qtd. in hughey 3) while kristof ’s argument may be partially applicable to svu, it cannot fully excuse the trope’s presence due to the entertainment factor. regardless of its attributes, this show still runs on tv stations like usa alongside other shows like white collar and psych, programs whose main purpose is to entertain. this begs the question of whether or not the primary goal of this show is to divert audiences, as opposed to getting them “a little bit more involved.” thus, what value does its use of the white savior truly have? especially when one considers all of the evidence which points to the trope being harmful, these small attempts at using it productively seem to be a weak justification at best. although it is clear that svu has a problematic tendency to lean on the white savior trope throughout its treatment of the issue of slavery, this seemingly clear-cut issue is complicated by a single factor, namely a single character: olivia benson. detective benson is a strong female character in the show and always has been from the first season. throughout the show’s sixteen seasons, she has advanced through the ranks to become the current supervisor of the detective squad. as a “feminist heroine ” (cuklanz and moorti 305), benson demonstrates many characteristics that many within the feminist conversation surrounding the show have praised as one of svu’s most powerful and positive contributions to the gender discourse in modern television. however, as a white detective, benson still finds herself in the position of the white savior quite frequently, raising concerns about her character’s productive nature within the critical discourse surrounding the show as a whole. in his book, hughey points to several films which include “characters whose innate sense of justice drives these tales of racial cooperation, nonwhite uplift, 56 hampshire and white redemption” (7). while these particular themes may not be applicable to the show as a whole, one can certainly make a case that they are present in the episodes discussed thus far in this analysis. benson is certainly a white protagonist character who fits hughey’s description of this type of white savior; however, we arrive at the point of contention when the gender factor comes into play because, usually, the white savior trope refers to a man. amidst the productive ways that benson’s character interacts with the storyline in regards to feminist theory, there are these problematic elements of her character which stem from the show’s favoritism toward white savioristic depictions and situations. this again raises the question of whether or not the show is productive or problematic within the trafficking discourse. the severity of this tension makes it difficult to discern whether there is a clear answer. indeed, benson is further complicated by the actress who plays her: mariska hargitay is an activist and advocate in real life for victims of sexual assault, domestic violence, and child abuse. “it all started for me when i began my work on law & order: special victims unit over a decade ago,” she says on the website for her organization, the joyful heart foundation. she describes shocking statistics about sexual abuse, along with letters from viewers who wanted to share their stories about abuse. “that these individuals would reveal something so intensely personal—often for the very first time—to someone they knew only as a character on television demonstrated to me how desperate they were to be heard, believed, supported, and healed,” she writes, and these experiences moved her to become an activist. not in name only, hargitay has received training to become a crisis counselor, studied the subject, used her visibility to become an advocate and affect change, and has several advocacy awards to show for it. this is not to sing hargitay’s praises but to demonstrate her dedication to bringing about awareness and change regarding several issues central to the conflict in svu. indeed, according to cuklanz and moorti, “hargitay’s volunteer work outside the show… emphasize[s] the commitment of both svu the program and benson the character to victims’ perspectives and experiences” (305). how, then, could a person so passionate about productive discourse possibly find herself complicit in a show which, as we have seen, has so many exploitative tendencies? cinematographic sins: exploitative portrayals and voyeuristic tendencies since television is predominately visual, it is vital to consider the imagery in a show like svu when questioning its potential for being productive versus exploitative. as viewers of this program most likely have noticed, often the images the producers select to tell these stories of trauma can be traumatizing in and of themselves. when discussing the issue of slavery, these images can have even more sinister implications which could potentially stand in the way of svu being a productive venue for the trafficking discourse by becoming complicit in voyeurism. in many episodes, the body of a victim is put on display for viewers. this has caused a great deal of controversy within feminist discussions of the show from the very beginning because “while the majority of the episodes in the first season focused on the victimization of ‘classic’ powerless subjects—women and children—storylines have increasingly drawn attention to other violated bodies, those gendered subjects who occupy the space of the female body in ‘rape scripts’” (cuklanz and moorti 301). indeed, this progression has continued throughout the seasons with increasingly more disturbing visual representations of 57 hampshire victims’ traumatic experiences. a prime example of this trend can be found in the medical exam scene from “stranger.” these kinds of pseudo-pornographic images become much more explicit in some of the other episodes like “slaves.” in this episode, detectives investigate a case of a young romanian girl being held as a domestic/sex slave. even though “slaves” brings to light several of the issues surrounding domestic slavery in the united states, several moments overtly point to the bdsm (bondage-discipline/dominance-submission/sadism-masochism) subculture. throughout the course of questioning a suspect, the detectives use photos of tortured female bodies who allegedly had died as a result of torture. later, upon searching the home of the suspect, they find various incriminating devices, including chains, head cages, and other instruments of torture, which could clearly point to sexual slavery. however, the case is complicated by the wife’s seemingly willing participation (which turns out to be anything but) in these practices until the detectives discover the romanian girl being held in a cage box built into the underside of the couple’s bed. the fact that this episode relies so heavily on bdsm culture while simultaneously engaging in the topic of slavery is a site of tension because of the fact that several sexually deviant behaviors associated in bdsm, while consensual, have their roots in fantasies of rape and sexual slavery. scholar marcus wood asks in his book slavery, empathy and pornography: “is it too much to see bondage, body art, sado-masochism, mystical religious cults, the constructions of black male and female sexuality by whites as having evolved, more or less directly, out of the submerged and devious reaction of successive western societies to the inheritance of atlantic slavery?” (12). when considering svu, the answer is an emphatic no. even though the victim here is white, the episode nonetheless makes connections between the slave trade and modern sexual practices in such a way as to invite a voyeuristic viewing from audience members. thus, it implicitly welcomes “white fantasies of black lives and suffering,” which is “more or less, the cultural memory of english slavery,” according to wood (21). specifically, the imagery of instruments of torture is fetishized by the photographs of tortured female bodies, the bdsm themes, the final image of the girl in the box, and the general context of the episode as a whole. in summation, this episode’s imagery plays into a highly problematic tendency to associate legitimate sexual slavery with its consensual counterpart. “slaves” is even more disarming to the viewer since it is the finale to the first season, which was one of the most moderate of the sixteen seasons. potentially even more problematic than the show’s treatment of the enslaved female body is that of the black slave body. svu buys into a media tendency to discount the value of a single black voice by reducing individualized narratives in favor of groups in need of salvation: “although a single white victim was frequently the sole focus of an episode on svu, minority victims were almost always portrayed in groups” (britto et al. 47). this practice mirrors that of reality since “similar to past media research when minority victims are shown [in svu], they are often depersonalized by only showing a photo rather than a person and grouping victims together and not developing their individual stories” (britto et al. 50). this practice is arguably never more prevalent than in “ritual” during the liberation scene. in this scene, the group of black children in chains draws on highly sinister roots in the heri58 hampshire tage of the slave trade. historically, chains have served not only as devices of physical control but also of psychological dehumanization. by placing the slaves in chains, they are likened to animals, who are then rendered much easier to exploit and control. according to wood, “the comparison of slave body with the animal body has often been considered in terms of the manner in which it legitimated inhuman behavior on the part of the slave owner” (403). “ritual” specifically draws on this history in a disconcertingly vivid way since the children are often kept as domestic “pets” by white families: “yet perhaps of more sinister cultural import is the manner in which the slave-animal comparison, within the context of the domestic pet, opened up areas of positive emotional identification” (wood 403). wood goes on to discuss the significance of the use of the collar and other forms of restraints in the iconography of enslavement, a trope which is clearly evident in this scene from “ritual.” as one of the show’s most disturbing moments, this scene seems to serve no productive purpose and draws on a history of black subjugation in the exploitative context of the black child slave’s body, in addition to the white savior themes. the fact that these types of abuse of the victim’s body take place within the context of a tv show adds an extra level of exploitation because of the viewer’s voyeuristic ability to re-watch scenes of torture and subjugation. this relates directly to wood’s discussion of laurence sterne’s a sentimental journey, when he says of the narrator: “he can come back to, and ‘enjoy’ the suffering of his fantasy slave at any time, and in any way he likes. this act of imaginative possession exists in a troubled relation to the manner in which a real slave-owner can use the slave’s body at any time, in any way” (16). watching real children in chains: an area for further consideration besides the various ways examined here regarding svu’s exploitative practices, i believe that an even deeper and more threatening issue merits further consideration. there has yet to be meaningful research about what these experiences do to the child actors who facilitate these traumatic narratives. for example, a great number of young child actors of color were needed for the liberation scene from “ritual” discussed at length above, and these young performers were actually physically occupying the space of a trafficked child being saved by white detectives. what is the show performing when it creates this situation where these children are acting out these highly traumatic scenes of racialized subjugation at such an impressionable age? while this is not a question i am qualified to answer here, it merits further consideration and warrants mentioning here since it represents a potentially highly problematic site of exploitation. conclusion according to baer, “svu asks the major questions—troubling, difficult, intractable issues of our time…i’m interested in how things fall apart” (qtd. in lee 92). indeed, the show does seem to spend a considerable amount of effort in productively participating in trafficking dialogue and raising awareness about critical issues pertaining to real-life themes. however, these efforts “fall apart” when one considers the various exploitative implications and underlying sinister themes of individual episodes and, by extension, the show as a whole. in order to be truly productive, svu would need to shy away from harmful practices like the white savior trope and treat issues like revictimization in ways in which it does not end up participating in it themselves. 59 hampshire 60 hampshire in such a visual medium as television, it is vital to ensure that a show of this nature does not become explicitly exploitative through cinematographic decisions. while graphic moments may draw viewers in, it does so for voyeuristic reasons, which are harmful to the show’s overall value as a productive participant in the dialogue. in tackling difficult subject matter like child enslavement, it is understandable that a program merely meant for entertainment may come up short when critically examined for these types of issues. however, by choosing to focus on “special victims,” svu opens the door for this type of criticism. in terms of visual culture, it is important to note that because “images can educate as well as corrupt,” the show has a responsibility to guide viewers to the former, although “the power of interpretation, or revision… lies solely with the viewer” (bachman 151). as the show progresses through its sixteenth season, critical viewers can hope that these types of considerations will be taken into account so that the potential for productive conversation can come to fruition. 61 hampshire works cited “911.” law & order: special victims unit. nbc. 4 oct. 2005. television. bachman, maria. “‘strange prisoners’: plato goes to pleasantville.” visual media and the humanities: a pedagogy of representation. ed. kecia driver mcbride. knoxville: the university of tennessee press, 2004. 137-154. print. britto, sarah, tycy hughes, kurt saltzman, and colin stroh. “does ‘special’ mean young, white and female? deconstructing the meaning of ‘special’ in law & order: special victims unit.” journal of criminal justice and popular culture 14.1 (2007): 39-57. web. 5 nov. 2014. campbell, rebecca. “the psychological impact of rape victims’ experiences with the legal, medical, and mental health systems.” american psychologist 63.8 (2008): 702-717. web. 1 dec. 2014. chris, cynthia. “queasy questions about media effects.” contexts 12.3 (2013): 60-62. web. 5 nov. 2014. cuklanz, lisa m. and sujata moorti. “television’s ‘new’ feminism: prime-time representations of women and victimization.” critical studies in media communication 23.4 (2006): 302321. web. 5 nov. 2014. hall, ronald. “the bleaching syndrome: african americans’ response to cultural domination vis-à-vis skin color.” journal of black studies 26.2 (1995): 172-184. web. 4 feb. 2015. hargitay, mariska. “founder’s corner.” the joyful heart foundation. the joyful heart foundation, 2014. web. 4 feb. 2014. hughey, matthew w. the white savior film: content, critics, and consumption. philadelphia: temple university press, 2014. print. joyful heart foundation. “more about mariska.” the joyful heart foundation. the joyful heart foundation, 2014. web. 4 feb. 2014. keehn, anne. “law & order: svu’s slavery episode inspired by free the slaves?” fts blog. free the slaves, 7 oct. 2010. web. 5 nov. 2014. lee, susanna. “‘these are our stories’: trauma, form, and the screen phenomenon of law and order.” discourse 25.1-2. (2003): 81-97. web. 5 nov. 2014. “merchandise.” law & order: special victims unit. nbc. 6 oct. 2010. television. 62 hampshire nicolaescu, daniela. “assistance of the children traffic victims—interventions and multidisciplinary evaluations.” journal of community positive practices 14.1. (2014): 92-103. web. 9 nov. 2014. plous, s. and tyrone williams. “racial stereotypes from the days of american slavery: a continuing legacy.” journal of applied social psychology 25.9 (1995): 795-817. print. “ritual.” law & order: special victims unit. nbc. 3 feb. 2004. television. saar, malika saada. “there is no such thing as a child prostitute.” the washington post. the washington post, 17 february 2014. web. 23 nov. 2014. sanghera, jyoti. “unpacking the trafficking discourse.” trafficking and prostitution reconsidered: new perspectives on migration, sex work, and human rights. 2nd ed. eds. kamala kempadoo, jyoti sanghera, and bandana pattanaik. boulder: paradigm publishers, 2012. 3-24. print. “slaves.” law & order: special victims unit. nbc. 19 may 2000. television. stoecker, sally. “human trafficking: a new challenge for russia and the united states.” human traffic and transnational crime: eurasian and american perspectives. eds. sally stoecker and louise shelley. lanham: rowman & littlefield publishers, inc., 2005. 13-27. print. “stranger.” law & order: special victims unit. nbc. 6 jan. 2009. television. vera, hernán and andrew m. gordon. “the beautiful white american: sincere fictions of the savior.” screen saviors: hollywood fictions of whiteness. lanbam: rowman & littlefield publishers, inc., 2003. 33-51. print. wood, marcus. slavery, empathy and pornography. 2002. oxford: oxford university press, 2009. print. freaks and magic: the freakification of magical creatures in harry potter the harry potter series has touched thousands of people around the world. teaching lessons of humility, benevolence, friendship, and numerous other values, the series has shaped people’s lives, particularly those of the children and young adults reading these novels as they matured. while using the power of words to morally aid and guide readers, author of the seven-book series, j. k. rowling, has also included social commentary about the hierarchal foundations of society. right and wrong are directly addressed through the battles between harry potter and the antagonist, lord voldemort; however, more than black and white ideas of good and evil are featured within the novels. rowling clearly critiques the wizarding world’s hierarchy, which places witches and wizards in a superior position above other magical creatures. she describes the treatment of these creatures in a way comparable to the experiences of those who worked in freak shows of the nineteenth century, and, through these comparisons, rowling critiques the treatment of both magical creatures and stigmatized people. each novel in the harry potter series corresponds with a year students spend at the wizarding school, hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry. at age eleven, harry receives a letter inviting him to attend wizarding school for the next seven years. there, he befriends ron weasley, a pureblood from one of the kindest, yet least respected, wizarding families, and hermione granger, the most intelligent student in their year despite being born to non-magical parents. the trio navigate the hardships of school, cassandra grosh, ball state university abstract by comparing the magical creatures within harry potter to the nineteenth-century freak show, the mistreatment and lack of concern for the basic rights of centaurs, giants, and house-elves are put into perspective due to the now-uneasy feeling many acquire when thinking of the exhibition of people as “freaks.” digital literature review, vol. 3 (2016). © ball state university. all rights reserved. please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce critical edition to dlr@bsu.edu. 89 adolescence, and the rise of lord voldemort as he, for the second time, tries to conquer the wizarding world. through the experiences of harry, readers are exposed to various magical creatures and the customs of wizards. readers also gain an outsider’s insight to the mistreatment of these creatures. despite being a wizard, harry is an outsider because he was not raised in the wizarding world. lord voldemort murdered his parents, and harry’s wizard hating, non-magical aunt and uncle raised him. despite attempts by harry’s relatives to keep all wizard knowledge from him, he follows the fate prophesized for him and continuously battles lord voldemort. the seventh novel follows harry, ron, and hermione as they choose not to attend their final year of school but instead search for the way to defeat lord voldemort once and for all. through this seven-book series, obvious differences and distinctions between wizards and non-magical humans (or muggles, as the wizards say) are highlighted. however, a similarity between these two groups can be found in their othering of those who appear or act differently and their creation of a social hierarchy based upon this othering. during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, real-world people with physical disabilities were placed on display both in traveling freak shows and local human exhibitions (“appendix 14c”). these people were deemed different due to their physical appearances, much like magical creatures in comparison to wizards. in both the wizarding and muggle worlds, those who are physically different are either persecuted to the point of death or ostracized until they are no longer a part of society. those who are considered “ideal” in both the wizarding and muggle worlds have achieved this status by shifting “perception…to claim the center” of the ideal spectrum “for themselves and banish others to the margins” (thomson, extraordinary 62-63). by asserting their dominance in this way, wizards have achieved a position of complete superiority over other magical creatures. part of this superiority is maintained through slanderous stories and malicious traditions passed down through families, a very important part of the wizarding world’s social hierarchy. power within the wizarding world is associated with the age of a family and whether the family is of pure wizarding blood. just as pureblood wizards are more desirable among grosh 90 wizards, the more “desirable” appearance of witches and wizards grants them superiority over other magical creatures. the three types of magical creatures examined within this paper — giants, centaurs, and house-elves—all have physical character traits that immediately ostracize them within wizarding society: giants are too large, house-elves too small, and centaurs too animalistic. these three groups bear some semblance to wizards, but, by “having a human body differently configured, the monstrous body exists beyond” acceptance (weinstock, “freaks in space” 328, emphasis original). magical creatures are “at once the to-be-looked-at and not-to-be-looked-at” (thomson, “staring” 57). one is to note how different they are, but it is not acceptable to dwell on those differences for too long. wizards, by creating an ideal image that can only be obtained by them, have created the less-than-ideal “in relation to what is human” (weinstock, “invisible monsters” 275). since wizards are still considered human, they have been able to create a permanent social hierarchy, based solely on physical characteristics, that places them in complete control at the top. the question is then posed as to who decided wizards are the elite. why are wizards ideal and other magical creatures so easy to critique? according to the series, in the fourteenth century, wizards decided it was necessary to determine intelligent beings from “beasts.” a being, as determined by the wizarding government, the ministry of magic, is “any creature that has sufficient intelligence to understand the laws of the magical community and to bear part of the responsibility in shaping those laws” (rowling, fantastic beasts xix). centaurs were aligned with wizards in the “beings” category while house-elves and giants were considered “beasts.” however, centaurs opted to change their classification due to how offensive it was to be compared to “hags and vampires” (rowling, fantastic beasts xxiii). while centaurs asked not to be considered beings, neither centaurs nor giants asked to be persecuted by wizards. in fact, many reject the giants and centaurs that attempt to integrate themselves into wizarding society. in contrast, house-elves welcome their inferior place in society. only one can be found as an exception, and he is shunned by his fellow house-elves for seeking freedom and desiring freewill. however, the question of consent applies not only to magical creatures but also to those who performed grosh 91 in freak shows. some consented to their roles (gerber 48) while others were purchased and considered the property of their manager (thomson, extraordinary 60, 72, 76-77). with the issue of consent, magical creatures within the wizarding world serve as the voice freak performers never had. centaurs are featured frequently within greek mythology. myths passed down describe centaurs as kind, but violent and unpredictable (buxton 117). however, perhaps the most famous centaur, chiron, is continuously spoken of with praise. chiron taught and guided famous greek heroes, such as achilles and jason. being both “civilized” and “uncivilized,” chiron was able to guide these heroes, and many others, through childhood into adulthood where they became great soldiers (buxton 110). chiron was able to accomplish teachings no man could, and, despite being from a partially wild species, he held a place of great respect during the height of greek civilization. despite the respect and admiration chiron achieved in the greek world, wizards do not hold a similar regard toward centaurs. centaurs consider themselves more intelligent than wizards, but they are kept at a distance due to their wild nature. in fact, despite the notion that centaurs are the more intelligent creatures, the text cites law fifteen b, a law that defines centaurs to be of only “near human intelligence” (rowling, order of the phoenix 754). based solely on the physical difference of centaurs in comparison to wizards, centaurs are considered less intelligent than the “ideal” or “perfect” specimen of nature, wizards. a law such as law fifteen b allows for the unjust superiority of wizards above centaurs, and it implies that centaurs lack the mental capacity to intellectually challenge wizards. the lack of respect centaurs receive from wizards has led to tension and even hatred on the part of the centaurs. centaurs do not appreciate being discriminated against, and they are not alone. real-world laws discriminating against those who appear different have existed for centuries. throughout human history, biases have created unfair ideals and unrealistic requirements for people to function within society. those who did not meet these requirements were ostracized and considered lesser beings. during the eighteenth century, research was conducted to see if the deaf were “capable of reasoning” and, consequently, the academy for the deaf and the dumb was opened in scotland (“appendix 14c”). both centaurs in the wizarding world and the deaf in the eighteenth century were considered to be of “near grosh 92 human intelligence,” and each group was compared to an unrealistic ideal, wizards and people who can hear, respectively. eighteenth-century europe did not see deaf people as fully capable members of society much like the wizarding world fails to see centaurs in the same way. not all magical creatures allow the biases against them to interfere with their relationship toward wizards. for a period of time, a centaur, firenze, teaches divination to students at hogwarts. some students opt out of the course because they do not want a centaur for a professor. one reason for this could be their aforementioned classification as “beasts.” another possible reason for a student’s discomfort with centaurs would be the wild appearance of centaurs and their foreignness due to physical ostracism. centaurs live in the forbidden forest, a dangerous place where students are not only unwelcome but can also face punishment for entering (rowling, sorcerer’s stone 127). without the ability to approach centaurs and learn more about them, it is impossible for students to understand or feel comfortable around creatures portrayed as dangerous, wild animals. by teaching at hogwarts, firenze attempts to bridge the gap between centaurs and wizards. his appearance at hogwarts is the first interaction most students have had with a centaur, and it shows these students that not all centaurs are wild and uncontrollable animals. as far as wizards are concerned, firenze’s teaching methods are far from conventional, but he shows he is a compassionate creature hoping to aid his students in whatever way possible. he is exiled from his tribe for choosing to interact so closely with witches and wizards, but he educates these students on the true nature of centaurs, a lesson that could not otherwise have been learned by many. while the lack of knowledge about centaurs and their physical separation from wizards is partially accredited to their arrogance and hatred of wizards, the physical difference of centaurs also clearly plays a role in this ostracism. like humans with physical differences who performed in freak shows, centaurs are viewed as visual spectacles. wizards, by placing themselves in a social hierarchy far above centaurs, have allowed for misconceptions about the supposedly ”wild” behavior of centaurs to be considered truth. even hermione says she “never really liked horses” when discussing her disinterest in taking a class taught by firenze (rowling, order of the phoenix 399). this is intended to be nothing more than a snide comment to upset one of her peers, but hermione’s words say much about grosh 93 how wizards feel in regards to centaurs. hermione proves herself to be the most passionate and sensitive wizard when it comes to the needs of magical creatures; she even creates an organization to protect house-elves (rowling, goblet of fire 224) and later works for the department of regulation and control of magical creatures within the ministry of magic advocating for equal rights of all magical creatures (“j. k. rowling”). hermione’s comment about firenze is offensive and inappropriate, but it also shows she does not understand all the issues surrounding magical creatures. spectators at freak shows did not see an issue with the performances, but, as science and medical understanding advanced, people began to realize how inappropriate freak shows were. the idea that “freaks” should not be allowed in public brought about the decline of freak shows and thus the medicalization of “freaks” in the 1940s (thomson, extraordinary 75, 78). however, the issue of staring did not dissipate. despite having “freaks” locked away in asylums and hospitals, textual and visual media still created platforms to judge and other these people. as hermione grows and becomes more educated, she learns that all magical creatures need aid and protection, not just house-elves. she advances her opinions and seeks to advance the opinions of others. unfortunately, the medicalization of “freaks” failed to accomplish the same thing. giants, similar to centaurs, are seen as threatening to wizards, but there are vastly different reasons as to why each of these creatures are considered threatening. giants are deemed a threat because of their size, strength, and irrational behavior while centaurs are threats due to their intelligence and blatant lack of concern for the opinions of wizards. giants throughout human history tend to be depicted as villainous monsters that desire only to kill and obtain power, and this misconception flows through the wizarding world as well. the public opinion of giants is extremely negative, and this opinion supports the choice by wizards to place giants extremely low on the social hierarchy. giants are ranked so low that their worth in comparison to wizards is never questioned, and, much like centaurs, their mistreatment never receives an advocate for change. in fact, giants are questioned and judged negatively by ron. just as hermione showed her lack of education and understanding in relation to centaurs, ron shows he does not understand giants when he quickly and irrationally reacts to learning one of his friends, hagrid, is a half-giant. grosh 94 hagrid, the hogwarts gamekeeper and professor of the care of magical creatures courses, proves himself to be perhaps the most compassionate and open-minded of the characters. he serves as a stark contrast to ron’s harsh words describing giants: “not very nice,” “vicious,” and “like trolls…they just like killing” (rowling, goblet of fire 430). how did ron form these opinions of giants that vary so drastically from the one giant he knows? his opinions were most likely formed through stories he heard as a child. giants are more severely separated from wizards than centaurs. while centaurs live in the forbidden forest just off of hogwarts’ grounds, giants no longer live in britain but “abroad… in mountains” (rowling goblet of fire 430). by having them located so far from wizarding civilization, there is no evidence all giants are not violent creatures. they stem from “dark regions of uncertain danger,” and the only evidence of their interaction with society comes from stories passed down through generations (cohen 19). these stories even affect the opinions of people, such as ron, who are generally good. as one can see through ron’s misconceptions, the ostracism of magical creatures simplifies the process of othering these creatures. similar to the idea of ostracizing whole groups, people who work in freak shows are never portrayed as from a nearby location. if these people were local, they would seem less odd and far less extraordinary. the distant homelands of people in freak shows make them more “exotic” and interesting. describing people in freak shows as “from an undefined and strictly non-british region of elsewhere” not only makes them seem physically different but also makes them appear to be representatives of a whole land of people, a whole land of potential “freaks” (ferguson 245). with the homelands of these “freaks” being so far away, no one could know if there were a whole group of people in this specific location who looked and behaved differently. freaks and giants are both judged because there is no evidence to contradict the stories about their heritage and nature that the audience and wizards are told. hagrid serves to contrast all that readers learn about giants, but it is important to note hagrid himself is only a half-giant, born of a giantess and wizard (rowling, goblet of fire 427-428). he exhibits the physical features of giants, such as height and size, but, since he is only a half-giant, he is considered small for someone of giant heritage. both his small stature and “unwavering loyalty and goodness” sever “hagrid from his lineage and the grosh 95 past actions of his race” (strimel 48). while he might be a half-giant, he is the “antithesis” of what many giants represent in wizarding society (strimel 49). however, despite hagrid’s visual appearance giving way to his giant heritage, news of his heritage is still considered worthy of a newspaper headline. in a slanderous article describing hagrid as a reckless professor with little care for his students and his mother as one of the cruelest giants to fight alongside lord voldemort, the popular wizarding paper, the daily prophet, tells the community of hagrid’s true racial heritage (rowling, goblet of fire 439). this changed the public perception of hagrid. while some students were not comfortable with his teaching methods prior to the article, many become more outspoken after learning of hagrid’s heritage. while hagrid wished to stay out of the headlines and not draw attention, managers and owners of people in freak shows thrived off of headlines and talk of their exhibits. many “freaks” were given stage names including “king,” “queen,” and “general” in order to draw attention to the performer. in addition to these titles, some performers changed their homelands and names to sound more european. performers who were advertised in a prestigious manner typically boasted of their sophisticated language skills and their interactions with various members of royalty (bogdan 29-30). the other way that freak shows drew attention to performers was by presenting them as “savages.” an example would be the aztec children, a brother and sister from central america who suffered from microcephaly, a disease categorized by “abnormal smallness of the head” and “incomplete brain development” (“microcephaly”). they received their fame due to their racial lineage, much like hagrid. central america was “exotic” enough to spark interest among audience members, and, like many freakshow performers, their foreignness was played upon through their odd dress. their dress was also a part of the international newspaper headlines that appeared when a wedding was staged for them in russia (“marriage of the ‘aztec children’”). news of their marriage made the aztec children an even larger sensation and surely brought them more fame and attention than they previous had acquired. like the aztec children, hagrid was very young when he first gained attention of the wizards around him. unfortunately, much like the daily grosh 96 prophet article, this attention was not positive. as a student at hogwarts, he was expelled for supposedly opening the chamber of secrets, home to a basilisk, a reptilian creature that was used to kill and injure muggleborn witches and wizards (rowling, chamber of secrets 246-248). evidence against hagrid is not provided within the text. in fact, all information about the chamber of secrets points to nearly anyone besides hagrid as the mastermind behind the attacks. the reader is made aware that one can only control the basilisk by speaking parseltongue, the language of snakes, and a language understood mainly by those who are heir to the founder of one of the hogwarts houses, salazar slytherin (rowling, chamber of secrets 197). slytherin house is home to prideful witches and wizards who are “cunning” and “use any means to achieve their ends” (rowling, sorcerer’s stone 118). those within slytherin house have “a thirst to prove” themselves and desire “greatness” (rowling, sorcerer’s stone 121). while hagrid might wish to prove himself innocent and a loyal friend, slytherin house is a place where he clearly does not belong. rowling has since announced that hagrid was sorted into gryffindor house (“barnes and noble”), a house filled with “the brave at heart,” so there are no direct ties between him and anyone in the line of salazar slytherin (rowling, sorcerer’s stone 118). when accused, hagrid does not have the opportunity to undergo a trial, which, even for wizards, is atypical. this blatant disregard for hagrid’s rights, education, and well-being serves as evidence of prejudice for his giant heritage. the prejudice did not end once hagrid lost any chance at receiving a wizarding education. nearly fifty years later, the chamber of secrets was again open, and hagrid was, for the second time, convicted of a crime not supported by evidence. once again, he did not face trial. instead, he was locked away in the wizarding prison, azkaban (rowling, chamber of secrets 261-262). hagrid’s treatment is clear commentary on the flaws of the justice system in relation to those who are different. readers are forced to question the morals of the wizarding world upon the realization that the idea of “innocent until proven guilty” is nonexistent here. it is much easier for wizards to choose a scapegoat rather than face the unusual concept that someone who is physically different might also be morally good. by admitting hagrid’s innocence, the wizards would have to recognize that not all giants are violent murderers. the wizarding world would have to grosh 97 acknowledge evidence supporting witches and wizards being just as capable, if not more so, than giants when it comes to murder. giants, no longer ostracized due to the end of malicious rumors and stereotypes about them, would be accepted into society as evil witches and wizards were slowly thrown out. this acceptance of giants would cause a rift within the clearly fragile social hierarchy wizards have built around themselves. in contrast to the freak performers and managers who falsified information to gain attention, some people opt to lie in order to stay out of the limelight. hagrid is the most notable giant within the harry potter series, but he is not the only giant mentioned. madame maxime is the headmistress at the french wizarding school, beauxbatons academy of magic. like hagrid, madame maxime is a half-giantess. she never admits to it within the series, and, when hagrid inquires, she becomes incredibly offended. rather than disclosing her heritage, she claims to “’ave big bones” (rowling, goblet of fire 429). madame maxime clearly fears losing all she has obtained due to her heritage. if the wizarding world learned of her giantess nature, she would risk losing her position as headmistress due to the fear and hatred wizards have toward giants. unlike hagrid, she has managed to overcome stereotypes throughout her life and prove herself as a powerful witch. however, as is evident by the inclusion of only negative descriptions of giants, her reputation holds no standing when compared to her heritage. for madam maxime, being a spectacle will not generate popularity and intrigue but rather hatred and ridicule. it is in her own best interest to lie about who she is rather than openly advertise herself and her heritage. in stark contrast to giants and centaurs, readers continuously encounter house-elves who genuinely enjoy their position and apparent enslavement within wizarding society. when describing her role in life, winky, formerly employed by the crouch family, says, “house-elves does what they is told” (rowling, goblet of fire 99). she later admits to being “properly ashamed of being free” and not having a master to directly and obediently serve (rowling, goblet of fire 379). while house-elves live alongside their masters, living adjacent to wizards is far from equality. contracted to lifelong servitude, which, if not freed, is passed down unto their children, house-elves live in the cupboards or basements of their masters, so they are always available to serve and please in whatever way grosh 98 necessary (kellner 368). despite living alongside witches and wizards, house-elves do not live an enjoyable life. most live in dirty, cramped, and dark spaces, and they do not own anything. possessions would show an equal status to wizards, and that is the opposite of what is desired for most house-elves. in addition to not owning any possessions, house-elves also do not have traditional clothing; they gather cast-aside linens and wear these instead. house-elves gather these articles of clothing over time so they have something suitable to wear, even if many would consider clothing and linens that were thrown away to be far from suitable. dobby wore only an old pillowcase, winky and the hogwarts elves tea towels, and kreacher a rag (rowling, chamber of secrets 12, goblet of fire 97, 376, order of the phoenix 107). when a master gives their house-elf an article of clothing, it is considered a sign of freedom. the house-elf is no longer employed and is free to do as he or she wishes. the idea of having only non-traditional clothing is also present within freak shows. saartje baartman, better known by her performance name of “the hottentot venus,” was considered a freak due to the foreignness of her non-western body, particularly her buttocks and genitalia. to exemplify how different her body was from the western idea of “normal,” she would wear only small, tight-fitting clothing while on stage. this allowed for the audience to better gaze at her body and see she truly was a “freak” (thomson, extraordinary 72). both baartman and the house-elves were forced to wear negligible amounts of clothing in order to further other them and make it obvious how little they mattered in comparison to the audience and wizards, respectively. not only are house-elves denied proper clothing and suitable living conditions, but they are also verbally and physically abused. the most obvious example is dobby’s struggles within chamber of secrets. serving the malfoys, a family known for greed, hatred, and pride, dobby is continuously beaten and mistreated by his master, lucius malfoy (rowling, chamber of secrets 334-337). dobby is also forced to physically punish himself whenever he speaks ill of his masters or fails to directly follow the orders of the malfoys. when dobby warns harry of the imminent danger at hogwarts, he both circumvents a direct order and puts himself in a position where he spoke ill of the malfoys. as punishment, he beats his head against the window, bashes a lamp against his head, and states that he would later shut grosh 99 his ears in the oven doors (rowling, chamber of secrets 14-17). winky, the only female house-elf encountered in the novels, is also verbally abused when she is released from her duties as the house-elf for the crouch family. when her master, barty crouch, sr., fires her, she cries and begs to remain employed (rowling, goblet of fire 138). to most houseelves, being freed is considered shameful and a sign they have failed to accomplish their assigned tasks. many house-elves believe they exist solely to serve, and being free shows they have failed at their reason for existence. winky, shamed and filled with self-hatred due to her supposed failures, takes up drinking butterbeer, a popular wizarding beverage, rather than accepting her life without employment. while butterbeer has a very low alcohol content, it is enough to quickly intoxicate house-elves (rowling, goblet of fire 536). dobby, in an effort to help winky and potentially cease her selfmedication, aids her in obtaining a job at hogwarts. once she is again an employed house-elf, dobby thought winky would find her way again and return to the happy elf she once was. instead of recovering, winky continues to drink and often fails to do any of the tasks she is assigned to complete. she wears various articles of clothing and sits on a stool drinking her butterbeer (rowling, goblet of fire 536). having been enslaved her whole life, winky held no identity outside of her duties to the crouch family. after losing her position as the family’s house-elf, winky lost all sense of identity. without the family who so carelessly cast her aside, she was not able to find a purpose in life. her new position at hogwarts was not even able to bring her satisfaction because her existence revolved around another, now nonexistent, employer. the third house-elf readers are introduced to in the series, kreacher, is also abused. sirius black, kreacher’s master and harry’s godfather, is verbally abrasive toward his house-elf. the readers are led to believe this is due to sirius’ lack of respect for his deceased family members whom kreacher idolizes and views as his “true” masters. no matter what the reasoning behind sirius’s verbal abuse of kreacher is, it is not acceptable. sirius, typically portrayed as a kind and caring man despite his desire to avenge the death of harry’s parents, does not see kreacher as an equal, and, because of this, he does not hesitate to yell at or banish kreacher from his sights (rowling, order of the phoenix 110). being raised in the wizarding world grosh 100 by a pureblooded family, sirius never saw any reason to consider houseelves equals or respectable members of society. dumbledore himself took note of this and said sirius never “saw kreacher as a being with feelings as acute as a human’s” (rowling, order of the phoenix 832). the effect wizards have on house-elves is not merely a location on a societal hierarchy, and the same can be said for freakshow performers. as is exhibited by the treatment of dobby, winky, and kreacher, houseelves are physically, mentally, and emotionally affected by the treatment their masters give them. despite living lives of servitude, house-elves are sentient beings that require care and comfort. abuse destroys a house-elf just the same as it destroys any other person or creature. while freakshow performers are performers, it does not mean they do not deserve respect, admiration, and care. not all performers are abused or mistreated, but the audiences who gawk at them every day far from respect them. just like the neglect of house-elves can destroy who they are, the neglect of people can be detrimental. the inability for wizards and humans to see this shows how truly self-absorbed many are. a wizard’s lack of respect for house-elves does not end after abusing them. for the black family, house-elves are considered a way to show their status as a pureblood family and as objects of décor. upon the death of a house-elf, the black family has the house-elf’s head mounted. these heads line the halls of the family’s home (rowling, order of the phoenix 61). this practice has a very obvious freak element to it, similar to the exhibition of deceased children or stuffed oddities. julia pastrana, famous for her unusual physical appearance and sometimes compared to a bear (thomson, extraordinary 75), was stuffed, along with her infant son, post mortem to be displayed and admired for their physical differences. in the case of julia pastrana, she was seen as a way for her husband/manager to make a profit even after losing her performance abilities (thomson, extraordinary 77). with house-elves, mounting the heads of the deceased served no monetary purpose but showed pre-existing power and wealth as well as a long line of pureblood heritage. the mounted house-elves served as a symbol of status as well as decorative conversation pieces. despite intensive evidence showing how poorly house-elves are treated, not all suffer abuse through their masters. the house-elves working at hogwarts live in the dungeons, but it is because the kitchens are located grosh 101 there. no evidence is provided of abuse, and the employment of houseelves through hogwarts started so they would have a good, safe place to work (“transcript”). house-elves at hogwarts, along with working in the kitchens, clean the common rooms of the various houses (rowling, order of the phoenix 385). while the house-elves at hogwarts have living conditions and masters much kinder than many other elves, they are still considered enslaved. these elves are bound to work for hogwarts until their death or freedom—whichever comes first. hermione strives to change the working conditions of all house-elves. being a student, her first focus is hogwarts. she creates society for the promotion of elfish welfare (s.p.e.w.) in an attempt to radicalize the house-elves and show both them and wizards that the wizarding world needs to change and appreciate house-elves more. one of her goals is to free all the house-elves, so they can then be employed by hogwarts in the traditional sense: a salary, vacation, and reasonable living conditions (rowling, goblet of fire 224-225). house-elves are similar to some freak performers in the sense that both are exploited due to their lack of life experience. charles stratton, or “general tom thumb,” became a very successful and wealthy “midget” due to his work in the freak show. he was able to buy lavish things, wear fine clothes, and travel the world—all things he would not have been able to accomplish while living with his family rather than in a freak show. however, the question needs to be posed as to what stratton lost. entering the freak show as a child, he never had another life (gerber 50-51). much like house-elves, stratton was never truly given a choice as to how he wanted to live his life. he might not have felt as if he was suffering, just as house-elves think they live satisfying lives, but, without knowing what it is like living a life outside of the freak show or outside of servitude, it can never be known if stratton or the house-elves would prefer a different type of life. by creating an organization to benefit house-elves rather than giants or centaurs, hermione shows she sees the differences in oppression these creatures face. giants and centaurs recognize they are being wronged and denied fair treatment. this is evident through hagrid’s experiences and the hatred centaurs feel toward wizards. however, house-elves feel they are doing what they were meant to do. they consent to their enslavement, but they do not realize a different type of life is available to them. in a sense, grosh 102 house-elves have been brainwashed to believe there is nothing more to life other than servitude. dobby realizes there is more to life than blindly serving a wizard. appreciating the employment conditions hermione tries to advocate for through s.p.e.w., dobby opts to seek employment at hogwarts. he is rejected by many of the house-elves because it is considered unacceptable for house-elves to seek payment or reward for their services: the idea is that a house-elf should willing serve his or her master without objection. dobby’s unwillingness to serve hogwarts without pay is seen as a character flaw on his part (rowling, goblet of fire 98, 379, 381, 538-539). the other houseelves frown on this because “they are totally incapable of rebellion, even in thought” (morris 352). since they have always been enslaved and serve for life, they know and understand no other life. the house-elves cannot see the flaw in their logic, and, because of this, they cannot escape the never-ending cycle of servitude within which they are trapped. they fail to realize that freedom and thus freewill is what allows them to truly consent to serving wizards. until they obtain both these things, house-elves are nothing more than slaves. some may ask why those who performed in freak shows opted to do so. house-elves offer modern audiences an interesting comparison to freak performers and allow for a level of understanding not otherwise available to those who were not alive during the height of the freak show. while within a freak show, the performer needed to continuously please the audience, no matter what the price might be. people like charles stratton performed because they knew no other life. others performed because the other choices they had in life were worse than being a “freak.” one such person would be otis “the frogman” jordan, a man born without arms. throughout his life, he was unable to financially support himself. one day, when a carnival came to town, he did the classic trick of men without arms: “the survival skill of rolling, lighting, and smoking a cigarette, all with his lips.” this trick gained him a job and financial stability, a comfort he had never before enjoyed (gerber 48). for jordan, consenting to being a “freak” was his only way to survive. he did not do it because he knew no other life but rather because he had lived another type of life and suffered for it. dobby can be seen as comparable to jordan because both were able to enter employment and make choices freely rather than feeling trapped. grosh 103 while s.p.e.w. was far from as productive or accepted as hermione might have liked, it does jar the reader and bring questions of societal issues to the forefront of the reader’s mind. up until this point, no one in the series questioned whether magical creatures should be treated differently. while s.p.e.w.’s focus is the welfare of house-elves, the original name for the organization was stop the outrageous abuse of our fellow magical creatures and campaign for a change in their legal status (rowling, goblet of fire 224). this title, and later the headline for s.p.e.w.’s manifesto, implies hermione’s concern for all magical creatures, not just house-elves. s.p.e.w., more specifically shown through its original title, forces readers and wizards alike to question the societal restraints and standards of the wizarding world. hermione recognizes the unjust treatment of magical creatures, and, as harry matures, he too becomes “aware of the hidden prejudices of wizard society” (hall 78). despite being the hero of the series, harry himself is bullied and ostracized while at hogwarts. it is through the alienation between him and the other students that harry realizes magical creatures are treated unjustly. his own experiences allow for harry to understand and relate to the rejected creatures of the wizarding world (hall 78). this is evident even in the case of kreacher. within the final novel, harry shows the house-elf kindness by waiting for kreacher to calm down, asking the house-elf to take his time in talking to him, saying “please,” and gifting kreacher a necklace that belonged to one of his former owners (rowling, deathly hallows 173-174). despite harry’s lack of respect for kreacher, he learned through his own personal experiences that every living thing deserves to be treated properly, even untrustworthy house-elves. through characters such as hermione, dumbledore, and, later, harry himself, rowling calls for the reader to critique witches and wizards. while it is not initially evident, the wizarding world is filled with prejudice toward other magical creatures. characters that readers grow to love are ostracized and mistreated due to their physical and racial differences—differences that, in a society that credits itself for extreme intelligence and sophistication, should not be considered character flaws. rowling clearly opposes the wizarding world for its self-righteous social hierarchy, and she aims to educate and inform readers as to the underlying prejudices within not only the wizarding society but the real-world society as well. as dumbledore said, “we have mistreated and abused our fellows for too long” (rowling, order of the phoenix 834). grosh 104 works cited “appendix 14c: perspectives on the historical treatment of people with disabilities.” teaching for diversity and social justice. ed. adams, maurianne, lee anne bell, pat griffin. new york and london: routledge, 2007. n.p. university of arizona. web. 18 dec. 2015. “barnes and noble & yahoo! chat with j. k. rowling, barnesandnoble.com, 20, october, 2000.” accio-quote.org. web. 6 feb. 2016. bogdan, robert. “social construction of freaks.” thomson 23-37. buxton, richard. the complete world of greek mythology. new york: thames & hudson, 2004. print. cohen, jeffrey jerome. “monster culture (seven theses).” monster theory: reading culture. minneapolis: regents of the university of minnesota, 1996. 3-25. ebook. ferguson, christine. “gooble-gabble, one of us: grotesque rhetoric and the victorian 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bodies. new york: columbia grosh 106 university press, 1997. print. ---, ed. freakery. new york: new york up, 1996. print. ---. “the politics of staring: visual rhetorics of disability in popular photography.” disability studies: enabling the humanities. ed. snyder, l. sharon, brenda jo brueggemann, and rosemarie garland thomson. new york: modern language association, 2002. print. weinstock, jeffrey a. “freaks in space: ‘extraterrestrialism’ and ‘deep-space multiculturalism.’” thomson 327-337. ---. “invisible monsters: vision, horror, and contemporary culture.” the ashgate research companion to monsters and the monstrous. ed. asa simon mittman and peter j. dendle. surrey: ashgate publishing limited, 2012. 275-289. print. grosh 107 the cultural significance of “jack and the beanstalk” introduction for the majority of humanity’s existence, oral history has been the only way of preserving events and passing stories on to future generations. long before reading and writing became forms of human communication, oral history was the only way to make events survive beyond oneself. from these oral histories come many of the most popular stories, whose existences have long outlived their medium. these stories, or folktales, have spawned archetypes that stretch throughout cultures and through time. one notable example of this is the trickster story. as explained by the encyclopedia of african-american writing, “ [i]n all cases, trickster characters are wily, charming, and mischievous, and they almost invariably come into conflict with characters who are physically larger and more powerful than they are, so they must use their craftiness to trick these more powerful adversaries” (“trickster tales”). examples of this type of character date back thousands of years. some of the most well-known are david from his biblical battle against goliath, br’er rabbit from african-american slave stories, loki from norse mythology, and of course, jack from “jack and the beanstalk,” which has continued to be a popular story even to this day. however, the version examined here comes from a 1907 publication of the 1890 red fairy book by andrew lang. at the time of the publication of lang’s abstract “jack and the beanstalk” is a widely known fairy tale with a longstanding tradition of rewrites to fit the cultural norm. andrew lang’s version from 1890 is just another such version of the classic story. however, his version has distinct influence from the culture around him at the time, namely those of marxism and british imperialism mindsets, which were wildly influential at the time. it is within these cultural ideologies that lang’s jack exists, as jack the oppressor and jack the oppressed. along with other artifacts of the time, this paper seeks to position lang’s version against the marxist and british imperialist influences to paint a full picture of the cultural significance of “jack and the beanstalk.” madeline m.h. grosh, aidan s. mcbride, & kj ross-wilcox, ball state university 1digital literature review, vol. 4 (2017). ball state university. all rights reserved. please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce critical edition to dlr@bsu.edu. edition of “jack and the beanstalk”, two of the primary rhetorical lenses through which society was viewed were class distinctions (famously analyzed by karl marx and friedrich engels in their work the communist manifesto), and the british imperialist mindset. the duality between these two mindsets creates the framework through which one can understand the cultural implications of the story. it is within this cultural duality that jack exists, both as jack the oppressor and jack the oppressed. while the story has been around in many forms across many centuries, the story and its themes became widely popular around the early nineteenth to early twentieth centuries (“jack tales”). our version, from 1907, fits perfectly within this timeframe. in this time, issues of class and wealth disparity were very much in the focus of society. marx and engels’s the communist manifesto both perfectly summarizes and embodies this shift in the understanding of social differences. the document, originally published in 1842, was relatively obscure to an englishspeaking audience because it was not translated into english until the 1880s. however, in the 1870s, the pamphlet rose to become one of the most important political documents of its time (“marxism”). what was most striking about the communist manifesto was marx and engels’s observations on class systems. marx and engels argue that classes, groups of people loosely connected by their access to the means of production, have always existed as a form of oppression. specifically addressing issues of the midto-late nineteenth century, marx and engels say, “the modern bourgeois society that has sprouted from the ruins of feudal society has not done away with class antagonisms. it has but established new classes, new conditions of oppression, and new forms of struggle in place of the old ones” (485). the oxford english dictionary defines bourgeois as “a person who upholds the interests of capitalism, or who is considered to be an exploiter of the proletariat, typically through ownership of the means of production” (“bourgeois”). these words about class disparity and the antagonism between social groups have had a profound impact on the world and have influenced every aspect of society, going all the way down to the stories told to children before bed. at the same time as marx and engels’s the communist manifesto, the ideas of manifest destiny and british imperialism were at their strongest. the concept of social classes may well have resurfaced in the minds of many people throughout societies at the time, but ideas of imperialism were almost subconscious at that point. for clarification, imperialism “is widely used as an emotive—and more rarely as a theoretical—term to denote specific forms of aggressive behavior on the part of certain states against others” (“imperialism”). imperialism is also about the power 2grosh, mcbride, ross-wilcox of an empire, specifically the act of exerting said power over another group in the interest of strengthening the empire’s control and influence around the world. in this time period, imperialism was not seen as bad thing.in fact, quite the opposite was true: it was seen as a necessary procedure to allow westernized societies to elevate other, “lesser” societies to their level. this idea that it was the white man’s burden to lift other cultures up from their supposed barbarism is expressed in a rudyard kipling poem of the same name and is best illustrated by victor gillam in the political cartoon appropriately titled the white man’s burden (apologies to rudyard kipling). this illustration will be further discussed later in this paper, but what matters for now is to understand that it represents the view that it was seen as the responsibility of the british and americans to raise other cultures to what they considered a civilized standard at that time. the part of this duality which is most emphasized in lang’s version itself is jack as the oppressed. trickster tales, such as this one, are almost universally used to craft a narrative around the small character fighting against the larger, usually oppressive, character. in this regard, it makes perfect sense to look at jack’s trickster story in the context of monster scholar jeffrey jerome cohen’s “monster culture (seven theses)” to understand the cultural implications of what jack’s monster, the giant, means. as cohen states in his first thesis, “[t]he monster is born only at this metaphoric crossroads, as an embodiment of a certain cultural moment—of a time, a feeling, and a place” (4). this is to say that to understand the monster’s purpose, we must understand what it is doing and why jack is afraid of it. to that end, we must understand what makes the giant a monster, both in the general sense and in regards to jack specifically. it is first relevant to understand what a giant is, in terms of the history of folklore. according to archetypes and motifs in folklore and literature, “[i]n world mythologies, however, giants are generally colossal figures of evil disposition, enemies of gods and mortals, and frequently exhibiting an unusual trait such as breathing fire, having multiple heads, or engaging in cannibalism” (nagar 32). while this specific retelling of the jack story leaves out such absurd qualities, it certainly has its own unique characteristics, which are best understood through the grotesque. as described by kelly hurley, who references m. m. bakhtin — a russian literary critic whose work has been widely influential to the field of literary theory — the grotesque deals with “the human body in all its coarse, clumsy earthiness and changeful mortality, focusing on the material thingness of the human subject rather than intellect or spirit” (138). this is to say that the grotesque breaks humanity down to an excess of earthly body, lacking in spirituality, and this is something which is seen with the giant. specifically, this giant’s unique characteristics are an excess 3grosh, mcbride, ross-wilcox of size and weight and an uncanny gluttony to match. the giant is described as eating elephant steaks in this version, which is particularly monstrous when one considers that the townspeople are all starving below his castle (lang 138). this emphasis on weight also falls in line with a long-running association between upper-class people and weight. throughout history, until the twentieth century, the wealthy were often portrayed as massive beings, thus creating a direct comparison between the disparity in weight and the disparity of class (“fat bias”). put simply, the aristocratic class is viewed as both physically big and economically oppressive in relation to the lower classes. as can be seen below in joseph keppler’s “the bosses of the senate,” the rich trust members who are portrayed as running everything (in a negative way) are physically very similar to the giant: large, overweight, and certainly gigantic. importantly, the story is told from the perspective of a young man who is not only poor but also is without a father and in drastic need of food. with this in mind, it makes sense for jack to be contrasted with the giant. as cohen says, what we fear in monsters is really what we desire: “the same creatures who terrify and interdict can evoke potent escapist fantasies; the linking of monstrosity with the forbidden makes the monster even more appealing as a temporary egress from constraint” (17). for instance, the giant is alone with a motherly figure, his wife, and is also shown to not be very intelligent, as his wife easily convinces him that jack is not there. however, what is important is the contrast between the two: jack is small and poor while the giant is gluttonous and wealthy, his size a literal reflection of his status. the things that make him monstrous— his size, his imposing nature, and his excessive greed— are all things that jack openly envies. more telling of the time is the ending, in which, after the giant is slain (unintentional as the death may have been), the people of the local village rally behind jack, charge the castle to overthrow the giantess, and take back the land for jack and the people (lang 145-146). this ending is oozing with a marxist aura, both with the rallying of the lower class to overthrow the upper class and with the peasants arguing that it is their duty to fight for their land. all of these marxist undertones relate to portraying jack as a trickster because he must use charisma 4grosh, mcbride, ross-wilcox and wit to take down the oppressive, threatening creature attacking him in order to make it out alive. however, what can be revealed upon closer inspection is the fact that this piece reinforces the narrative of the white man’s burden, completely absolving jack of any wrongdoing and, in this version, even rewarding him and outright stating that his invasion of the giant’s home and his robbery of the giant’s possessions is a birthright. something important to note is that this piece does not humanize the giant. both the giant and the giantess are only referred to as that: giant and giantess. the audience does not even know their names; the giants are only referred to by their species, something very telling of the times. additionally, lang’s version of “jack and the beanstalk” goes out of its way to show the audience that jack did nothing wrong. in fact, the story makes jack a hero for his actions. this may seem strange to a contemporary audience, but, at the time, the attitude that some groups of people were inferior to others made perfect sense. in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the ideas of manifest destiny and imperialism were very prominent in the minds of the people. in the cartoon shown here, john gast’s american progress, one can see this mindset represented. what this image shows is a woman, representing western culture, leading a group of citizens onward into the “uncivilized” land, towards the natives and the animals. ahead of them, the land is dark, and the woman is bringing forth a holy light with her to illuminate the lives of the natives. this represents the mindset that western cultures were justified and morally obligated to elevate the cultures of the rest of the world. while this specific painting is about america’s idea of manifest destiny, it also very much portrays the british mindset. through the perspective of this picture, one can see why jack’s questionable actions are shown in a positive light in the story: he is acting out this idea of imperialism on the giant. the giant himself makes it clear that he is of a different species than jack. he makes the distinction by saying that he can smell that jack’s breath is that of an englishman, implying that the giant himself is not (lang 139). something to keep in mind is that lang’s version is unique because it portrays jack’s family as the original rulers of the castle until the giant stole jack’s father’s land, murdered his 5grosh, mcbride, ross-wilcox siblings, and cast him and his mother out. more importantly, jack has a birthright to steal the hen which lays golden eggs, and ultimately the castle itself, because of who he is; i.e., a representative of manifest destiny. the giant invades jack’s lands and takes the belongings of jack’s ancestors. thus it becomes jack´s duty to take everything back. the giant represents a fear of imperialism inverted, as portrayed by patrick brantlinger, a professor of english at indiana university, in rule of darkness. brantlinger says, “imperial gothic expresses anxieties about the waning of religious orthodoxy, but even more clearly it expresses anxieties about the ease with which civilization can revert to barbarism or savagery and thus about the weakening of britain’s imperial hegemony” (229). this fear that another culture might one day take over the empire and revert it to barbarism was an idea that was prolific throughout the late nineteenth century. jack, through this lens, stands to reassure the readers. even if another culture has people of unfathomable size and strength, it is the duty of the crafty british boy to win the day. because he is doing what is perceived as right, he will always win, thus reaffirming his place at the top of the cultural ladder. it is between these two influential ideologies of the late nineteenth century that lang’s version of “jack and the beanstalk” rests. jack is at once an oppressor and the oppressed. the reading of the text must then reflect this notion, viewing jack as neither exclusively the hero lang intended, nor the conquering imperialist that the subtext reveals, but rather a combination of both of these ideologies, fused into one cultural entity. jack and the beanstalk jack sells the cow once upon a time there was a poor widow who lived in a little cottage with her only son jack1. jack was a giddy, thoughtless boy, but very kind-hearted and affectionate. there had been a hard winter, and after it the poor woman had suffered from fever and ague. jack did no work as yet, and by degrees they grew dreadfully poor. the widow saw that there was no means of keeping jack and herself from starvation but by selling her cow; so one morning she said to her son, `i am too weak to go myself, jack, so you must take the cow to market for 6grosh, mcbride, ross-wilcox 1 this is an example of some of the oppression that jack faces. for this time, one would have to be poor to face the living conditions jack and his mother do, making them members of the proletariat. the proletariat is defined as “[w]age earners collectively, esp. those who have no capital and who depend for subsistence on their daily labour; the working classes. the lowest class in society; the poor, the masses” (“proletariat”). me, and sell her.’ jack liked going to market to sell the cow very much; but as he was on the way, he met a butcher who had some beautiful beans in his hand. jack stopped to look at them, and the butcher told the boy that they were of great value, and persuaded the silly lad to sell the cow for these beans2. when he brought them home to his mother instead of the money she expected for her nice cow, she was very vexed and shed many tears, scolding jack for his folly. he was very sorry, and mother and son went to bed very sadly that night; their last hope seemed gone. at daybreak jack rose and went out into the garden. `at least,’ he thought, `i will sow the wonderful beans. mother says that they are just common scarlet-runners, and nothing else; but i may as well sow them.’ so he took a piece of stick, and made some holes in the ground, and put in the beans. that day they had very little dinner, and went sadly to bed, knowing that for the next day there would be none and jack, unable to sleep from grief and vexation, got up at day-dawn and went out into the garden. what was his amazement to find that the beans had grown up in the night, and climbed up and up till they covered the high cliff that sheltered the cottage, and disappeared above it! the stalks had twined and twisted themselves together till they formed quite a ladder. `it would be easy to climb it,’ thought jack. and, having thought of the experiment, he at once resolved to carry it out, for jack was a good climber. however, after his late mistake about the cow, he thought he had better consult his mother first. wonderful growth of the beanstalk so jack called his mother, and they both gazed in silent wonder at the beanstalk, which was not only of great height, but was thick enough to bear jack’s weight. `i wonder where it ends,’ said jack to his mother; `i think i will climb up and see.’ his mother wished him not to venture up this strange ladder, but jack coaxed her to give her consent to the attempt, for he was certain there must be something wonderful in the beanstalk; so at last she yielded to his wishes. jack instantly began to climb, and went up and up on the ladder-like bean till everything he had left behind him--the cottage, the village, and even the tall church tower7grosh, mcbride, ross-wilcox 2 this could be perceived as a way of controlling the working classes by pitting them against one another. jack is trusting that the butcher will not cheat him in a deal, but, instead of giving jack (who is an impressionable child) money, he gives him “magical beans.” it does not appear to be a fair deal, and it seems that the older, smarter, working man is taking advantage of a poor child within his same social standing in order to get ahead. -looked quite little, and still he could not see the top of the beanstalk. jack felt a little tired, and thought for a moment that he would go back again; but he was a very persevering boy, and he knew that the way to succeed in anything is not to give up. so after resting for a moment he went on. after climbing higher and higher, till he grew afraid to look down for fear he should be giddy, jack at last reached the top of the beanstalk, and found himself in a beautiful country, finely wooded, with beautiful meadows covered with sheep. a crystal stream ran through the pastures; not far from the place where he had got off the beanstalk stood a fine, strong castle. jack wondered very much that he had never heard of or seen this castle before; but when he reflected on the subject, he saw that it was as much separated from the village by the perpendicular rock on which it stood as if it were in another land. while jack was standing looking at the castle, a very strange-looking woman came out of the wood, and advanced towards him. she wore a pointed cap of quilted red satin turned up with ermine, her hair streamed loose over her shoulders, and she walked with a staff. jack took off his cap and made her a bow. `if you please, ma’am,’ said he, `is this your house?’ `no,’ said the old lady. `listen, and i will tell you the story of that castle. `once upon a time there was a noble knight, who lived in this castle, which is on the borders of fairyland. he had a fair and beloved wife and several lovely children: and as his neighbours, the little people, were very friendly towards him, they bestowed on him many excellent and precious gifts. rumour whispered of these treasures; and a monstrous giant, who lived at no great distance, and who was a very wicked being, resolved to obtain possession of them. `so he bribed a false servant to let him inside the castle, when the knight was in bed and asleep, and he killed him as he lay. then he went to the part of the castle which was the nursery, and also killed all the poor little ones he found there. happily for her, the lady was not to be found. she had gone with her infant son, who was only two or three months old, to visit her old nurse, who lived in the valley; and she had been detained all night there by a storm. ‘the next morning, as soon as it was light, one of the servants at the castle, who had managed to escape, came to tell the poor lady of the sad fate of her husband and her pretty babes. she could scarcely believe him at first, and was eager at once to go back and share the fate of her dear ones; but the old nurse, with many tears, besought her to remember that she had still a child, and that it was her duty to preserve her life for the sake of the poor innocent. the lady yielded to this reasoning, and consented to remain at her nurse’s house as the best place of concealment; for the servant told her that the giant had vowed, if he could find her, he would kill both her and her baby. years rolled on. the old nurse died, leaving her cottage and the few articles of furniture it contained to her poor lady, who dwelt in 8grosh, mcbride, ross-wilcox it, working as a peasant for her daily bread. her spinning-wheel and the milk of a cow, which she had purchased with the little money she had with her, sufficed for the scanty subsistence of herself and her little son. there was a nice little garden attached to the cottage, in which they cultivated peas, beans, and cabbages, and the lady was not ashamed to go out at harvest time, and glean in the fields to supply her little son’s wants. `jack, that poor lady is your mother. this castle was once your father’s, and must again be yours3.’ jack uttered a cry of surprise. `my mother! oh, madam, what ought i to do? my poor father! my dear mother!’ `your duty requires you to win it back for your mother. but the task is a very difficult one, and full of peril, jack. have you courage to undertake it?’ `i fear nothing when i am doing right,’ said jack4. `then,’ said the lady in the red cap, `you are one of those who slay giants. you must get into the castle, and if possible possess yourself of a hen that lays golden eggs, and a harp that talks. remember, all the giant possesses is really yours5.’ as she ceased speaking, the lady of the red hat suddenly disappeared, and of course jack knew she was a fairy. jack determined at once to attempt the adventure; so he advanced, and blew the horn which hung at the castle portal. the door was opened in a minute or two by a frightful giantess, with one great eye in the middle of her forehead. as soon as jack saw her he turned to run away, but she caught him, and dragged him into the castle. `ho, ho!’ she laughed terribly. `you didn’t expect to see me here, that is clear! no, i shan’t let you go again. i am weary of my life. i am so overworked, and i don’t see why i should not have a page as well as other ladies. and you shall be my boy. you shall clean the knives, and black the boots, and make the fires, and help me generally when the giant is out. when he is at home i must hide you, for he has eaten up all my pages hitherto, and you would be a dainty morsel, my little 9grosh, mcbride, ross-wilcox 3 on one hand the giant is the oppressor, but this is also reminiscent of the stories and mindsets settlers had when it came to the natives—settlers felt that it was their destiny to discover new worlds and that they were entitled to the land. they justified this behavior by making the natives seem evil and savage (kipling). 4 this is an example of the mindset the settlers had (that the settlers were saving the natives from themselves)—the settlers believe it to be their moral obligation to civilize who and what they perceive as “uncivil.” this can be seen in “the white man’s burden,” as the settlers saw it as their duty to make “civilized men” out of “savages” (kipling). 5 this is the mindset of entitlement the settlers possessed as they entered new lands. it also reflects the entitlement of the bourgeoisie, defined as “the capitalist class who own most of society’s wealth and means of production, typically with reference to its perceived materialistic values or conventional attitudes” (“bourgeois”). lad.’ while she spoke she dragged jack right into the castle. the poor boy was very much frightened, as i am sure you and i would have been in his place. but he remembered that fear disgraces a man; so he struggled to be brave and make the best of things. `i am quite ready to help you, and do all i can to serve you, madam,’ he said, `only i beg you will be good enough to hide me from your husband, for i should not like to be eaten at all.’ `that’s a good boy,’ said the giantess, nodding her head; `it is lucky for you that you did not scream out when you saw me, as the other boys who have been here did, for if you had done so my husband would have awakened and have eaten you, as he did them, for breakfast. come here, child; go into my wardrobe: he never ventures to open that; you will be safe there.’ and she opened a huge wardrobe which stood in the great hall, and shut him into it. but the keyhole was so large that it admitted plenty of air, and he could see everything that took place through it. by-and-by he heard a heavy tramp on the stairs, like the lumbering along of a great cannon, and then a voice like thunder cried out; `fe, fa, fi-fo-fum, i smell the breath of an englishman. let him be alive or let him be dead, i’ll grind his bones to make my bread6.’ `wife,’ cried the giant, `there is a man in the castle. let me have him for breakfast.’ `you are grown old and stupid,’ cried the lady in her loud tones. `it is only a nice fresh steak off an elephant, that i have cooked for you, which you smell. there, sit down and make a good breakfast.’ and she placed a huge dish before him of savoury steaming meat, which greatly pleased him, and made him forget his idea of an englishman being in the castle. when he had breakfasted he went out for a walk; and then the giantess opened the door, and made jack come out to help her. he helped her all day. she fed him well, and when evening came put him back in the wardrobe. the hen that lays golden eggs. the giant came in to supper. jack watched him through the keyhole, and 10grosh, mcbride, ross-wilcox 6 this is an example of the assumed savagery of the native, demonstrated by their inability to speak english. the use of “englishman” could be perceived as reflecting how the settlers felt attacked by the “uncivilized” natives that they invaded, which we see when the giant is searching for the intruding jack. on the other hand, from a more satirical standpoint, as shown in the political cartoon “the bosses of the senate” (in the introduction), the giant is the bourgeois oppressor instead of the oppressed. was amazed to see him pick a wolf ’s bone, and put half a fowl at a time into his capacious mouth. when the supper was ended he bade his wife bring him his hen that laid the golden eggs. `it lays as well as it did when it belonged to that paltry knight,’ he said; `indeed i think the eggs are heavier than ever.’ the giantess went away, and soon returned with a little brown hen, which she placed on the table before her husband. `and now, my dear,’ she said, `i am going for a walk, if you don’t want me any longer.’ `go,’ said the giant; `i shall be glad to have a nap by-and-by.’ then he took up the brown hen and said to her: `lay!’ and she instantly laid a golden egg. `lay!’ said the giant again. and she laid another. `lay!’ he repeated the third time. and again a golden egg lay on the table. now jack was sure this hen was that of which the fairy had spoken. by-and-by the giant put the hen down on the floor, and soon after went fast asleep, snoring so loud that it sounded like thunder. directly jack perceived that the giant was fast asleep, he pushed open the door of the wardrobe and crept out; very softly he stole across the room, and, picking up the hen, made haste to quit the apartment7. he knew the way to the kitchen, the door of which he found was left ajar; he opened it, shut and locked it after him, and flew back to the beanstalk, which he descended as fast as his feet would move. when his mother saw him enter the house she wept for joy, for she had feared that the fairies had carried him away, or that the giant had found him. but jack put the brown hen down before her, and told her how he had been in the giant’s castle, and all his adventures. she was very glad to see the hen, which would make them rich once more. the money bags. jack made another journey up the beanstalk to the giant’s castle one day while his mother had gone to market; but first he dyed his hair and disguised himself. the old woman did not know him again, and dragged him in as she had done before, to help her to do the work; but she heard her husband coming, and hid him in the wardrobe, not thinking that it was the same boy who had stolen the hen. she bade him stay quite still there, or the giant would eat him. then the giant came in saying: `fe, fa, fi-fo-fum, i smell the breath of an englishman. let him be alive or let him be dead, i’ll grind his bones to make my 11grosh, mcbride, ross-wilcox 7 this is another example of jack stealing what he believes to be his and what he believes he has a right to. this is what keeps jack in this dual category of how settlers saw the natives and their land, as well as how the bourgeoisie treated the proletariat. bread.’ `nonsense!’ said the wife, `it is only a roasted bullock8 that i thought would be a tit-bit for your supper; sit down and i will bring it up at once.’ the giant sat down, and soon his wife brought up a roasted bullock on a large dish, and they began their supper. jack was amazed to see them pick the bones of the bullock as if it had been a lark. as soon as they had finished their meal, the giantess rose and said: `now, my dear, with your leave i am going up to my room to finish the story i am reading. if you want me call for me.’ `first,’ answered the giant, `bring me my money bags, that i may count my golden pieces before i sleep9.’ the giantess obeyed. she went and soon returned with two large bags over her shoulders, which she put down by her husband. there,’ she said; `that is all that is left of the knight’s money. when you have spent it you must go and take another baron’s castle.’ `that he shan’t, if i can help it,’ thought jack. the giant, when his wife was gone, took out heaps and heaps of golden pieces, and counted them, and put them in piles, till he was tired of the amusement. then he swept them all back into their bags, and leaning back in his chair fell fast asleep, snoring so loud that no other sound was audible. jack stole softly out of the wardrobe, and taking up the bags of money (which were his very own, because the giant had stolen them from his father10), he ran off, and with great difficulty descending the beanstalk, laid the bags of gold on his mother’s table. she had just returned from town, and was crying at not finding jack. `there, mother, i have brought you the gold that my father lost.’ `oh, jack! you are a very good boy, but i wish you would not risk your precious life in the giant’s castle. tell me how you came to go there again.’ and jack told her all about it. jack’s mother was very glad to get the money, but she did not like him to run any risk for her. but after a time jack made up his mind to go again to the giant’s castle. 12grosh, mcbride, ross-wilcox 8 bullock is an term for steer (“bullock”). 9 in lore, giants also have a history of being perceived as either rich or stealing riches from others and claiming it as their own. this is the entitlement the settlers had and how the bourgeoisie was also perceived. andrew teverson discusses this perception in his essay “‘giants have trampled the earth’: colonialism and the english tale in samuel selvon’s turn again tiger.” 10 this, once again, is an example of jack taking what he believes is his. he thinks and believes, just like the settlers, that it is his birthright to take these things. this is also an example of jack being a trickster, described further in “jack tales.” the talking harp so he climbed the beanstalk once more, and blew the horn at the giant’s gate. the giantess soon opened the door; she was very stupid, and did not know him again, but she stopped a minute before she took him in. she feared another robbery; but jack’s fresh face looked so innocent that she could not resist him, and so she bade him come in, and again hid him away in the wardrobe. by-and-by the giant came home, and as soon as he had crossed the threshold he roared out: `fe, fa, fi-fo-fum, i smell the breath of an englishman. let him be alive or let him be dead, i’ll grind his bones to make my bread.’ `you stupid old giant,’ said his wife, `you only smell a nice sheep, which i have grilled for your dinner.’ and the giant sat down, and his wife brought up a whole sheep for his dinner. when he had eaten it all up, he said: `now bring me my harp, and i will have a little music while you take your walk.’ the giantess obeyed, and returned with a beautiful harp. the framework was all sparkling with diamonds and rubies, and the strings were all of gold. `this is one of the nicest things i took from the knight,’ said the giant. `i am very fond of music, and my harp is a faithful servant.’ so he drew the harp towards him, and said: `play!’ and the harp played a very soft, sad air. `play something merrier!’ said the giant. and the harp played a merry tune. `now play me a lullaby,’ roared the giant; and the harp played a sweet lullaby, to the sound of which its master fell asleep. then jack stole softly out of the wardrobe, and went into the huge kitchen to see if the giantess had gone out; he found no one there, so he went to the door and opened it softly, for he thought he could not do so with the harp in his hand. then he entered the giant’s room and seized the harp and ran away with it; but as he jumped over the threshold the harp called out: `master! master!’ and the giant woke up. with a tremendous roar he sprang from his seat, and in two strides had reached the door. but jack was very nimble. he fled like lightning with the harp, talking to it as he went (for he saw it was a fairy), and telling it he was the son of its old master, the knight. still the giant came on so fast that he was quite close to poor jack, and had stretched out his great hand to catch him. but, luckily, just at that moment he stepped upon a loose stone, stumbled, and fell flat on the ground, where he lay at his full length. this accident gave jack time to get on the beanstalk and hasten down it; but just as he reached their own garden he beheld the giant descending after him. `mother i mother!’ cried jack, `make haste and give me the axe.’ his mother 13grosh, mcbride, ross-wilcox ran to him with a hatchet in her hand, and jack with one tremendous blow cut through all the beanstalks except one. `now, mother, stand out of the way!’ said he. the giant breaks his neck. jack’s mother shrank back, and it was well she did so, for just as the giant took hold of the last branch of the beanstalk, jack cut the stem quite through and darted from the spot. down came the giant with a terrible crash, and as he fell on his head, he broke his neck, and lay dead11 at the feet of the woman he had so much injured. before jack and his mother had recovered from their alarm and agitation, a beautiful lady stood before them. `jack,’ said she, `you have acted like a brave knight’s son, and deserve to have your inheritance restored to you. dig a grave and bury the giant, and then go and kill the giantess.’ `but,’ said jack, `i could not kill anyone unless i were fighting with him; and i could not draw my sword upon a woman. moreover, the giantess was very kind to me.’ the fairy smiled on jack. `i am very much pleased with your generous feeling,’ she said. `nevertheless, return to the castle, and act as you will find needful.’ jack asked the fairy if she would show him the way to the castle, as the beanstalk was now down. she told him that she would drive him there in her chariot, which was drawn by two peacocks. jack thanked her, and sat down in the chariot with her. the fairy drove him a long distance round, till they reached a village which lay at the bottom of the hill. here they found a number of miserable-looking men assembled. the fairy stopped her carriage and addressed them: `my friends,’ said she, `the cruel giant who oppressed you and ate up all your flocks and herds is dead, and this young gentleman was the means of your being delivered from him, and is the son of your kind old master, the knight.’ the men gave a loud cheer at these words, and pressed forward to say that they would serve jack as faithfully as they had served his father. the fairy bade 14grosh, mcbride, ross-wilcox 11 with the giant dead, the question at hand is, “did jack slay those he oppressed or did he conquer his oppressors?” the giant’s death can be seen as the oppressed finally defeating their oppressors (bourgeoisie being taken down by the proletariat), but it is also a metaphor for the settlers killing, robbing, and conquering the native people. with the two narratives being simultaneously told in this story, on one hand jack is the poor, proletariat boy who has taken back what was rightfully his, defeated his oppressor, and appears to be the moral hero; on the other, jack is a young settler who comes to a foreign land, stealing riches he believes to be his birthright as he kills the native who he views a savage. this is also an example of the trickster winning in the end after he has outsmarted the giant and taken back what is “rightfully” his. them follow her to the castle, and they marched thither in a body, and jack blew the horn and demanded admittance. the old giantess saw them coming from the turret loop-hole. she was very much frightened, for she guessed that something had happened to her husband; and as she came downstairs very fast she caught her foot in her dress, and fell from the top to the bottom and broke her neck. when the people outside found that the door was not opened to them, they took crowbars and forced the portal. nobody was to be seen, but on leaving the hall they found the body of the giantess at the foot of the stairs. thus jack took possession of the castle. the fairy went and brought his mother to him, with the hen and the harp. he had the giantess buried, and endeavoured as much as lay in his power to do right to those whom the giant had robbed. before her departure for fairyland, the fairy explained to jack that she had sent the butcher to meet him with the beans, in order to try what sort of lad he was. ‘if you had looked at the gigantic beanstalk and only stupidly wondered about it,’ she said, `i should have left you where misfortune had placed you, only restoring her cow to your mother. but you showed an inquiring mind, and great courage and enterprise, therefore you deserve to rise; and when you mounted the beanstalk you climbed the ladder of fortune.’ she then took her leave of jack and his mother. introduction to “tobit and jack the giant-killer” the name “jack” was used in many trickster stories. this larger narrative makes the character of jack in “jack and the beanstalk” both a unique character and a common example of this genre of “folk lore” (“jack tales”). in “tobit and jack the giant-killer,” a short story published in 1898, jack is a cunning warrior who has become renowned for his agility and swiftness as a giant slayer. after being captured for his actions, jack serves as a loyal servant at the hands of the prince, who has earned jack’s services after showing a grand gesture of generosity. these services occur prior to jack’s death at the hands of the law. the prince’s life is endangered multiple times throughout this tale, and, each time, jack uses his trickery, special gifts, and warrior’s will to save the prince from death’s clutches. the prince is in love with a fair maiden and desires her hand in marriage. she will accept if he completes two (impossible) tasks given to him. with jack’s cunning and swiftness, jack helps the prince to complete these tasks. at the end, readers find out the devil has bewitched the maiden. by completing these tasks, jack and the prince finally trick lucifer and successfully cut off his head. this act releases the maiden from his power and allows the maiden to be with the prince. this story gives the reader a sense of why jack’s trickery is thought to be 15grosh, mcbride, ross-wilcox acceptable. jack uses his skills and cunning behavior to keep the prince alive, and it is in the same way that jack is able to steal from the giant and eventually slay the him. another connection that can be made is jack’s ability to slay another person yet be perceived as a hero. this is only possible if the being he slayed was a monster of a sort. similar to the giant, lucifer is also seen as a grotesque and evil monster, who jack must kill to ensure the safety of the people he cares about. the murder seems justified because the threat is personal to jack. also, because lucifer is perceived as the monster in this story, his actions are perceived as immoral. overall, this story reinforces the idea that anyone can become great—even a young peasant boy. “tobit and jack the giant-killer” simply gives a greater sense as to why jack is considered a hero: jack illustrates to the reader through his actions that one is able to succeed in any act with enough mental ability, will power, and strength. “tobit and jack the giant-killer” excerpt12 now it happened in these days that king arthur’s only son asked his father to give him a large sum of money in order that he might go and seek his fortune in wales, where lived a beautiful lady possessed with seven evil spirits. the king did his best to dissuade his son, but in vain, so at last gave way; and the prince set out off with two horses, one loaded with money, the other for himself to ride upon. now, after several days’ travel, he came to a market-town in wales where he beheld a vast crowd of people gathered together. the prince asked the reason of it, and was told that they had arrested a corpse for several large sums of money which the deceased owed when he died. the prince replied that it was a pity creditors should be so cruel, and said: ‘go, bury the dead, and let his creditors come to my lodging, and there their debts shall be paid.’ they came in such great numbers that before night he had only twopence left for himself. now jack the giant-killer, coming that way, was so taken with the generosity of the prince that he desired to be his servant. this being agreed upon, the next morning they set forward on their journey together, when, as they were riding out of the town, an old woman called after the prince, saying: ‘he has owed me twopence these seven years; pray, pay me as well as the rest.’ putting his hand to his pocket the prince gave the woman all he had left, so that after their day’s food, which cost what small spell jack had by him, they were without a penny between them . . . . [t]hey quickly arrived at the house of the lady the prince sought, who, finding the prince to be a suitor, prepared a splendid banquet for him. after the repast was concluded she told him she had a task for 16grosh, mcbride, ross-wilcox 12 (groome 226-244) him. she wiped his mouth with a handkerchief, saying: ‘you must show me that handkerchief to-morrow morning or else you will lose your head.’ with that she put it in her bosom. the prince went to bed in great sorrow, but jack’s cap of knowledge informed him how it was to be obtained. in the middle of the night she called upon her familiar spirit to carry her to lucifer. but jack put on his coat of darkness and his shoes of swiftness, and was there as soon as she was. when she entered the place of the old one she gave the handkerchief to old lucifer, who laid it upon a shelf, whence jack took it and brought it to his master, who showed it to the lady next day, and so saved his life. on that day she gave the prince a kiss, and told him he must show her the lips to-morrow morning that she kissed last night or lose his head. ‘oh!’ he replied, ‘if you kiss none but mine, i will.’ ‘that is neither here nor there,’ said she. ‘if you do not, death’s your portion.’ at midnight she went as before, and was angry with old lucifer for letting the handkerchief go. ‘but now,’ quoth she, ‘i will be too hard for the king’s son, for i will kiss thee, and he is to show me thy lips.’ which she did, and jack, when she was not standing by, cut off lucifer’s head, and brought it under his invisible coat to his master, who the next morning pulled it out by the horns before the lady. this broke the enchantment, and the evil spirit left her, and she appeared in all her beauty. they were married the next morning. introduction to “mother goose and the golden egg” “mother goose and the golden egg,” published circa 1850, is a children’s poem many grew up hearing and reading. in this poem, jack tries to sell a golden egg that came from his goose, but a “rogue jew”— an ethnic stereotype — tries to take advantage of him and refuses to pay the price jack has asked for the golden egg. when jack comes to the realization that the jew is trying to swindle him, jack goes for help. the jew then comes back and surprises jack, stealing from jack once again. this jack story echoes the two themes from “jack and the beanstalk.” first, it pits poor jack against a rich man who cheats him, just as the wealthy giant had robbed the peasants in “jack and the beanstalk.” second, whereas the giant symbolized another race, in this case, jack’s opponent is an actual member of an ethnic minority, who is portrayed in a stereotypical and stigmatizing manner as greedy and untrustworthy. according to learning about the holocaust: a student’s guide, in europe between 1870 and 1944, jews often served as “scapegoat[s]” 17grosh, mcbride, ross-wilcox (“antisemitism”). thus, while this story tries to teach a lesson through the way jack deals with the upper-class gentleman who attempts to cheat him in a deal, jack still oppresses the minority, the jew. “mother goose and the golden egg” excerpt13 mother goose had a house, ‘twas built in a wood, where an owl at the door, for sentinel stood. this is her son jack, a plain looking lad, he is not very good, nor yet very bad. she sent him to market, a live goose he bought, here, mother, says he, it will not go for naught. jack’s goose and her gander, grew very fond, they’d both eat together, or swim in one pond. jack found one morning, as i have been told, his goose had laid him, an egg of pure gold. jack rode to his mother, the news for to tell, she called him a good boy, and said it was well. jack sold his gold egg, to a rogue of a jew, who cheated him out of the half of his due. then jack went a courting, a lady so gay, as fair as the filly, 18grosh, mcbride, ross-wilcox 13 (“mother goose” 2-8) and sweet as the may. the jew and the squire, came behind his back, and began to belabour, the sides of poor jack. then old mother goose, that instant came in, and turned her son jack, into fam’d harlequin. the jew got the goose, which he vow’d he would kill, resolving at once, his pockets to fill. jack’s mother came in, and caught the goose soon, and mounted it’s back, flew up to the moon. introduction to the communist manifesto the communist manifesto had a profound impact on the culture of the midto-late nineteenth century in britain and the united states. this is because the fears to which the communist manifesto appeals were common throughout society and ones which marx and engels were simply putting to words. with this in mind, while one cannot say that lang’s “jack and the beanstalk” was specifically influenced by marx and engels’s piece, it is clear that both works are reacting in different ways to similar fears of class oppression. specifically, jack and his mother and their abhorrent living conditions could represent the proletariat and their oppression by the bourgeoisie. the giant, of course, could then be the bourgeoisie, hoarding all the communal wealth for himself. most tellingly, the ending of lang’s edition of “jack and the beanstalk” has an almost uncanny similarity to the revolutions that would take place in russia in the early twentieth century. this depiction has jack rallying the common people, reflective of the proletariat masses of which marx and engels speak, to rise against the oppressive giant, or the bourgeoisie, so that they can take back the wealth that is rightfully theirs. in other words, jack is motivating the people by saying that they have nothing to lose but their chains of oppression and have everything to win, which is what marx and engels argue as a form of motivation and justification for communism. 19grosh, mcbride, ross-wilcox the communist manifesto excerpt14 the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles. freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary reconstitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes. in the earlier epochs of history, we find almost everywhere a complicated arrangement of society into various orders, a manifold gradation of social rank. in ancient rome we have patricians, knights, plebeians, slaves; in the middle ages, feudal lords, vassals, guild-masters, journeymen, apprentices, serfs; in almost all of these classes, again, subordinate gradations. the modern bourgeois society that has sprouted from the ruins of feudal society has not done away with class antagonisms. it has but established new classes, new conditions of oppression, new forms of struggle in place of the old ones. our epoch, the epoch of the bourgeoisie, possesses, however, this distinct feature: it has simplified class antagonisms. society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other — bourgeoisie and proletariat. from the serfs of the middle ages sprang the chartered burghers of the earliest towns. from these burgesses the first elements of the bourgeoisie were developed. the discovery of america, the rounding of the cape, opened up fresh ground for the rising bourgeoisie. the east-indian and chinese markets, the colonisation of america, trade with the colonies, the increase in the means of exchange and in commodities generally, gave to commerce, to navigation, to industry, an impulse never before known, and thereby, to the revolutionary element in the tottering feudal society, a rapid development. the feudal system of industry, in which industrial production was monopolised by closed guilds, now no longer sufficed for the growing wants of the new markets. the manufacturing system took its place. the guild-masters were pushed on one side by the manufacturing middle class; division of labour between the different corporate guilds vanished in the face of division of labour in each single workshop. 20grosh, mcbride, ross-wilcox 14 (engels and marx 482-485) introduction to “the white man’s burden (apologies to rudyard kipling)” “the white man’s burden (apologies to rudyard kipling)” is an illustration, based on a poem by rudyard kipling, depicting british john bull and american uncle sam carrying offensive caricatures of those ostracized by the dominant, white european culture. both carry the burdens of those whom they are bringing up and into the light of “civilization.” this is reflected in “jack and the beanstalk” because the giant is a foreigner, and jack’s family are nobles. jack’s father is burdened with elevating the giant, a foreigner, to the point where it ultimately leads to the destruction of his family and personal wealth. after gaining the father’s trust, the giant eats jack’s siblings and his father, leaving only jack and his mother to fend for themselves. jack’s father is ultimately the reason for this cruel finale of the family, as well. in this sense, the reader perceives that jack is completely justified when he begins to steal from the giant, as the giant’s possessions are all truly jack’s. by killing the giant, jack is alleviating himself and his mother of the burden of not living up to the father’s desires, one which has been laying upon their shoulders for so long. therefore, when viewed through the social environment of the time, jack’s murders and thefts are simply his successes in freeing himself of the white man’s burden. the white man’s burden (apologies to rudyard kipling) 21grosh, mcbride, ross-wilcox works cited “antisemitism.” learning about the holocaust: a student’s guide, vol. 1, macmillan reference usa, 2001. gale virtual reference library, go.galegroup.com/ 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http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=gvrl&sw=w&u=munc80314&v=2.1&it=r&id=gale%7ccx3439400195&asid=bb19f3ce33323f127f8c288bc6497058 http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=gvrl&sw=w&u=munc80314&v=2.1&it=r&id=gale%7ccx3439400195&asid=bb19f3ce33323f127f8c288bc6497058 http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=gvrl&sw=w&u=munc80314&v=2.1&it=r&id=gale%7ccx3439400195&asid=bb19f3ce33323f127f8c288bc6497058 “mother goose and the golden egg.” child’s book of fairy tales, edited by fortey, william samuel, w.s. fortey, 1860, pp. 2-8. internet archives, https://archive. org/details/mcgilllibrary-pn970_f6_m68_1860-1578. accessed on 14 apr. 2017 nagar, deeksha. “fight of the gods and giants: motif a162.1.” archetypes and motifs in folklore and literature: a handbook, edited by jane garry and hasan el-shamy, 2005. gale virtual reference library, go.galegroup.com/ ps/i.do?p=gvrl&sw=w&u=munc80314&v=2.1&it=r&id=gale%7ccx2899500016&asid=618744ce29eeab9240c748e3a44cf1d3. accessed on 31 mar. 2017. “proletariat, n.” oxford 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http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=gvrl&sw=w&u=munc80314&v=2.1&it=r&id=gale%7ccx2899500016&asid=618744ce29eeab9240c748e3a44cf1d3 http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=gvrl&sw=w&u=munc80314&v=2.1&it=r&id=gale%7ccx2899500016&asid=618744ce29eeab9240c748e3a44cf1d3 http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=gvrl&sw=w&u=munc80314&v=2.1&it=r&id=gale%7ccx2899500016&asid=618744ce29eeab9240c748e3a44cf1d3 http://www.oed.com/view/entry/152329?redirectedfrom=proletariate#eid http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/marvels_and_tales/v024/24.2.teverson.html http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/marvels_and_tales/v024/24.2.teverson.html http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=gvrl&sw=w&u=munc80314&v=2.1&it=r&id=gale%7ccx3093600657&asid=45d3fd6c1ea0b4ee2de3c41d8bcf293e http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=gvrl&sw=w&u=munc80314&v=2.1&it=r&id=gale%7ccx3093600657&asid=45d3fd6c1ea0b4ee2de3c41d8bcf293e http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=gvrl&sw=w&u=munc80314&v=2.1&it=r&id=gale%7ccx3093600657&asid=45d3fd6c1ea0b4ee2de3c41d8bcf293e abstract 8 9 by brandon best, cedarville university in irrational man, william barrett shows how the atrocities of world war ii revealed to people in western societies the disparity between their external power over nature and their impoverished ability to control that power (65). though the west believed a rational organization of society would produce “uniform and continuous progress without limits” (barrett 37), by the twentieth century, the increased economic production masked people’s inability to understand the “[ab]surd and unpredictable” realities of their own existence (barrett 35). both the holocaust and the use of nuclear weapons produced a cultural apocalypse that, as james berger explains in after the end, seemed “to annihilate, along with a physical population, all previous ways of thinking and that transform[ed] the world that follow[ed] so as to make it incommensurable with what went before” (61). the catastrophes of world war ii followed by the potential of nuclear war throughout the 1950s compelled people to examine their ability to rationally understand the world and their own existence. in his 1957 play endgame, samuel beckett examines humans’ ability to reasonably comprehend the world as hamm and clov struggle to make sense of their lives. hamm, the master of the house, remains confined to his chair and unable to see, waiting to receive his painkiller from clov, his unhappy servant. hamm and clov, trapped in an unknown postapocalyptic setting, are unable to talk about the catastrophe that devastated their world and how they ended up in the house together. though clov intends to leave hamm, he hesitates because “outside of [the house] is death” (beckett 96). both hamm and clov remain dissatisfied in their roles within the house but neither knows how to escape or change their master and servant relationship. the post-catastrophe consciousness: the semiotics of alienation and belief in samuel beckett’s endgame this essay explores how samuel beckett’s endgame portrays the post-apocalyptic consciousness. using walker percy’s semiotic theory to understand the play, this paper posits that endgame shows the struggle for individuals to apprehend themselves amidst catastrophe without objectifying themselves. unable to find a semiotic referent to identify themselves with, people experience alienation as shown in endgame through hamm and clov. through their struggle to place themselves in their post-apocalyptic context, hamm and clov show the futility of rationally ordering life amidst catastrophe. 10 best this essay uses semiotics to interpret hamm and clov’s relationship within the context of the catastrophes of world war ii. these catastrophes transformed how people understood their own experience because, as james berger explains, apocalyptic effects of the holocaust and nuclear weaponry created a “representational impasse” (13), obliterating previous historical narratives while impelling a reexamination “of how the remainder [of the world] has been transformed” (7). by examining how people order the world through language, a semiotic reading of endgame interprets how hamm and clov’s relationship reveals both the apocalyptic effects of world war ii on language and the struggle to meaningfully restructure discourse afterward. the semiotic theory of the philosopher walker percy, who wrote during the same time as beckett about similarly catastrophic events, can explain how humans can use signs to either objectify themselves or gain subjectivity and, ultimately, shows why hamm’s rationalized discourse alienates him from his own experience, accounting for his failure to find semiotic security in the postapocalyptic world. through showing hamm’s alienation from his own self in endgame, samuel beckett reveals the meaninglessness of living rationally in a catastrophic world. philosopher william barrett explains that as work became more abstracted and analytical throughout the twentieth century, people increasingly identified with their function within society. because society only requires people to “perform competently [their] own particular social function,” people identify with their function (barrett 36). by identifying with something external to themselves, people allowed their being “to subsist as best it can—usually to be dropped below the surface of consciousness and forgotten” (barrett 36). western culture, “positivist to the core,” exacerbated the contrast between people’s external identity and their being as the modes of work in society (barrett 38). this emphasized the manufacture of rational knowledge as corporations and the sciences attempted to develop a “complete systematization” of social life (barrett 39). the progress of this systematization encouraged people to identify with their role within a system, stressing a rational understanding of themselves and their relationships to others. however, this rational understanding of one’s social function encouraged people to develop a “strict and literal attachment to [the] objects” they associated with their function (barrett 44). this “rampant extroversion” nearly led society to its own destruction during world war ii as people threatened to destroy the world through genocide and weapons of mass destruction in order to protect their roles in society (barrett 44), revealing that humankind’s problems could not be solved through the exertion of external controls but only through the “change and conversion” of humans’ entire being (barrett 73). 11 best walker percy, who was active in the decades following world war ii, claims that this extroversion developed because people sought to understand their semiotic relationships rationally and became alienated from their own selves. percy explains that people use signs—such as language, images, or sensory feelings—as “signifiers” to denote their experience (93). while these signs provide information about an experience, signs cannot wholly represent someone’s relationship to the “referent”—the actual experience the sign identifies (percy 95). in recognizing this relationship, the individual begins to understand the signs around them and experiences consciousness, which percy defines as the “act of attention to something under the auspices of its sign” (105). however, when people try to order their lives rationally, they lapse into “dyadic” semiotic relations and attempt to evaluate the signs they encounter in relation to other signs (percy 91). by attempting to interpret their semiotic relationships rationally, people lose their ability to be conscious of their relationships with the world because they evaluate their semiotic relationships exclusively based on signs. failing to recognize the indirect nature of semiotic relationships, people attempt to identify with external signs and, in the process, alienate themselves from their own experience. unable to examine the referents beneath the signs one encounters, the individual believes their world to be “totally construed by signs” (percy 100). yet, within this world of signs, “the self has no sign of itself” because the self is only composed by one’s experiences with the world (percy 107). this paradox of a sign-less self compels the individual to attempt to place theirself in the world, though they can only do this through identifying with signs external to their own self in their search to discover “a permanent semiotic habiliment” (percy 108). through this futile search for semiotic security, as john desmond, a percy scholar, explains, the individual becomes alienated from theirself as they “objectif[y]” their own self with signs (desmond 67). though this objectification enables one’s self to temporarily transcend its subjective state, the self will “always incur the problem of ‘reentry,’ that is, the inevitable and often crushing return of the self to its existential, limited situation” (desmond 80). “the pleasure of such transcendence,” percy notes, “derives not from the recovery of self but from the loss of self,” and the same effect can often be accomplished through a dependence on anesthetics such as drugs or alcohol (124). though these modes of transcendence allow the individual to escape their semiotic instability, the individual still must endure their subjective experience, which they no longer identify with and from which they have been alienated. as they endure the process of alienation from their experience, the individual will either regain consciousness by 12 best recognizing the catastrophe of their own alienation or reassert their autonomy found in objectifying themself with signs. the catastrophe of alienation compels the self to change its being towards semiotic consciousness or autonomy; and this change, desmond writes, “was what most interested percy . . . the question of what shape, what self-understanding would emerge in the post-catastrophe consciousness” (67). if the individual recognizes their catastrophe, they can search inward for a “recovery of being and a recognition of one’s place in reality” by questioning the signs they identify with (desmond 66). but, if the self refuses to recognize this catastrophe, it will become autonomous in its pursuit of semiotic stability and, “believing in nothing, can fall prey to ideology and kill millions of people” (percy 157). if the self rejects the experience it shares with other beings in order to maintain its semiotic identity, the autonomous self can use signs to rationalize endless violence in order to maintain its semiotic order. during the 1950s, western societies failed to interrogate the causes of violence during the second world war and instead attempted to rationalize future violence as they prepared themselves for the potential of nuclear war. in his essay, “trying to understand endgame,” theodor adorno describes society’s struggle to change in light of its moral failures, writing that “after the second war, everything is destroyed, even resurrected culture, without knowing it; humanity vegetates along . . . on a pile of ruins which even renders futile self-reflection of one’s own battered state” (122). anything that remains the same after the war, such as “resurrected culture,” reveals itself to be incapable of change and existentially dead. the survivors cannot stop future violence by reflecting on their state intellectually but, instead, should only look to change themselves. adorno suggests, to provoke this change, people should understand history only as it affects their existential predicament—“as decline” (125). however, ignoring the catastrophe of the war, people continued to rationalize violence through the expectations they established for the cold war. adorno noted dramatizations of nuclear war “hopelessly [falsified] the horror of historical anonymity by shoving it into the characters and actions of humans, and possibly by gaping at the ‘prominents’ who decide whether the button will be pushed” (123). by preparing audiences for the possibility of how war may come about and shifting blame onto a select few, these depictions legitimized nuclear war as a possibility in the future for all humankind. to challenge society’s acceptance of future violence, beckett used endgame to show humans’ inability to rationalize their experience and compel them to reject violent ideologies. beckett developed his beliefs about art and its relation to history while he visited 13 best nazi germany between 1936 and 1937 as well as while he lived in vichy france1 during world war ii (kennedy 196). both regimes horrified beckett with their emphases on racial purity and cultish variations of nationalism (kennedy 196). after witnessing the atrocities caused by these countries, beckett said, “art has nothing to do with clarity” and instead proposed that “art must express the mess of history, not rationalize it” because any rationalization of violence became complicit with it (qtd. in kennedy 197). beckett, realizing humanity’s willingness to resort to violence during the cold war, wrote endgame to interrogate humankind’s image of itself as a rational being that had already yielded to mass murder (morin 64). as endgame takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where many have died and the characters are surrounded by death, hamm and clov attempt to rationally understand their surroundings and fail to find meaning, only alienating themselves in the process. reading endgame in light of walker percy’s theories about selfhood, semiotics, and post-catastrophe consciousness can help show how the self, amidst catastrophe, manages to reassert its own rationality and secures its self-alienation. without a history to provide meaning for his life, hamm fails to rationally understand his existence. as the play opens, “the room’s sole ornament, a picture turned against the wall, suggests the bearing of a collective history that can only be articulated in the negative” (morin 61). because history cannot provide a positive explanation for his life, hamm must attempt to account for himself apart from any justification beyond the immediate context of his life. though he doubts the meaning of his life—asking clov, “have you not had enough?”—hamm still attempts to rationalize his existence within the room (beckett 94). while his ratiocinations about his life contradict themselves, these claims display hamm’s desire to transcend his existential predicament. hamm claims to accept his state because “there’s no reason for it to change” (beckett 94), but later argues to clov, “we breathe, we change! we lose our hair, our teeth! our bloom! our ideals!” (beckett 97). these contradictory claims reveal hamm’s desire to rationalize his existence in order to transcend his immediate predicament. however, this reasoning fails to ease hamm’s existential uncertainty, as after both attempts at explanation, he asks clov, “is it not time for my painkiller?” (beckett 95-97). hamm tries to anaesthetize himself in order to dull himself and his anxieties about his existence. yet, because it is not yet “time for [his] painkiller” (beckett 9597), hamm fails to numb his existential anxieties. still faced with the problem of his subjective existence, hamm can only seek to identify with external signs even though this 1 after the german takeover of france during world war ii, the replacement french government that supported the third reich ruled southern france from vichy. during this time, beckett moved to the village of roussillon, north of avignon (mccormack 32). 14 best identification alienates himself from his own experiences. after clov denies him his painkiller again, hamm recognizes the absurdity of his attempts to numb his condition and laments, “in the morning they brace you up and in the evening they calm you down. unless it’s the other way round” (beckett 104). through being braced up and calmed down, hamm recognizes that easing his pain does not change his condition or his ability to understand it. understanding his own instability in the world, hamm avoids introspection by trying to place himself within an external semiotic order. hamm tells clov to take him to “my place . . . in the center,” defining his own position in relation to the external room (beckett 104). as clov must gauge hamm’s distance from each side of the room, this positioning makes no difference to hamm who, being blind, cannot tell whether he sits equidistant from each wall or not (beckett 104). by positioning himself in the center of the room, hamm tries to identify with an external image of himself positioned rationally, though this idea of a “center” makes no difference in hamm’s life because he cannot tell whether he is centered or not (beckett 104). hamm tries to find meaning through the externalized signs of his life as he later explains to clov, “imagine if a rational being came back to earth, wouldn’t he be liable to get ideas into his head if he observed us long enough?” (beckett 108). through his attempt to see himself through the imagined lens of a rational being, hamm becomes alienated from himself as he invests his self-conception with meaning not present in his actual experience. in his attempts to identify with an image of himself, hamm externalizes meaning onto a sign apart from his actual experience. with his self-understanding separated from his actual existence, hamm alienates himself from the other beings he encounters as he reduces their relationships to the signs he witnesses, divesting their shared experience of meaning. to communicate to hamm whether clov has left him or has died, they create a system of signs to relay clov’s fate to hamm. clov explains, “you whistle me. i don’t come. the alarm rings. i’m gone. it doesn’t ring. i’m dead” (beckett 115). in this system, hamm only knows clov through the servant’s functional role within the home as indicated by the signs—the whistle, alarm rings, or silence—he produces rather than attempting to experience meaning together. the exchange of signs similarly dominates hamm’s relationship with nagg, his father who lives in the garbage can at the back of the stage, when hamm promises nagg a sugar-plum for listening to his story (beckett 116). in that moment, nagg does not listen to empathize or gain consciousness of hamm’s being but, at the story’s end, only demands, “me sugar-plum!” (beckett 118). hamm epitomizes his commitment to rational relationships as he tries to pray to god but rejects god after his prayer fails to generate a sign in response. hamm declares, “the bastard! he 15 best doesn’t exist!” (beckett 120). hamm refuses to believe in a god outside of his rational order. yet, the failure of his rationality to make sense of his life becomes evident when hamm and clov disagree over the meaning of order within their house. hamm, hearing clov pick up objects lying on the ground, shouts, “order!” (beckett 120). but clov responds, “i love order. it’s my dream” and continues to pick up the objects (beckett 120). though both hamm and clov share the same experiences within the room, both have opposing conceptions about what a rational order means within the room. this divergence reveals that neither hamm’s nor clov’s rational order comes from their shared existence within the room, but that both their ideas of order remain independent of their own experience. because his rational order neglects to understand his own experience, hamm cannot experience meaning in his life. hamm displays his inability to have an experience when, after asking to be placed under a window of light, he exclaims, “that’s what i call light! [pause.] feels like a ray of sunshine,” before clov tells him he is not actually in sunshine (beckett 123). hamm trusts his own rational order—telling clov where to place him— rather than his own experience to learn where he sits in the room. hamm realizes his failure to experience reality when he says, “i was never there” and “absent always. it all happened without me. i don’t know what’s happened” (beckett 128). though recognizing his consciousness failed to engage with reality, this realization of his failure does not enable hamm to experience meaning, as he remains unable to change his being and is trapped in his alienated consciousness where he can only see the external signs of his life. even after clov leaves and hamm sits alone, he repeats his actions literally aloud: “raise hat,” “and put on again,” “wipe,” “and put on again” (beckett 133). trapped by his own alienation, hamm continues to identify with external signs of himself, unable to even experience the meaning of his loneliness. through showing the process of alienation hamm endures in his search for a rational order in the world, endgame displays how humans can continue to pursue autonomy through asserting their rational order instead of examining their role in the universe. as long as humans attempt to rationalize their experiences within the world, they will only perpetuate violence. by showing hamm’s alienation from his own experience, samuel beckett uses endgame to show the futility of attempting rationally ordered life amidst catastrophe. only by believing in something beyond their own idea of order in the world can humans begin to experience meaning and transform their being. without surrendering their own ideas of order, people will remain alienated in post-apocalyptic discourses and impotent to restructure life to prevent future catastrophes. 16 best works cited adorno, theodor w., and michael t. jones. “trying to understand endgame.” new german critique, no. 26, 1982, pp. 119–150. jstor, www.jstor.org/stable/488027. barrett, william. irrational man: a study in existential philosophy. anchor books, 1990. beckett, samuel. endgame. the complete dramatic works. faber and faber, 2006, pp. 89–134. berger, james. after the end: representations of post-apocalypse. university of minnesota press, 1999. desmond, john f. “cosmos revisited: belief and the ‘future’ of walker percy.” renascence, vol. 62, no. 1, fall 2009, pp. 63-82. kennedy, seán. “‘humanity in ruins:’ beckett and history.” the new cambridge companion to samuel beckett, edited by dirk van hulle, cambridge university press, 2015, pp. 185–199. mccormack, w.j. “seeing darkly: notes on t.w. adorno and samuel beckett.” hermathena, no. 141, 1986, pp. 22–44. jstor, www.jstor.org/stable/23040843. morin, emilie. “endgame and shorter plays: religious, political and other readings.” the new cambridge companion to samuel beckett, edited by dirk van hulle, cambridge university press, 2015, pp. 60–72. percy, walker. lost in the cosmos: the last self-help book. picador, 1983. 111 general introduction francis richard stockton, pen name frank stockton, was an american author who wrote primarily science-fiction and fantasy for children and eventually adult novels and short stories. in a 1920 edition of the sewanee review, edwin bowen states, “stockton shows a delightful quality of humor—not boisterous, irreverent, or exaggerated…but spontaneous and sparkling, bubbling up as if from an inexhaustible fountain” (453). the short biography of stockton in bobby ellen kimbel’s dictionary of literary biography states that stockton worked as the assistant editor for st. nicholas magazine “so diligently that he was forced to take a recuperative vacation... because he had become temporarily blind” (343). this detail from stockton’s biography shows that he knew something of the inescapable and debilitating nature of white collar and office work, and it is this perspective that is partially channeled into his writing of “the transferred ghost.” stockton initially gained popularity for his shorter, comedic stories. bowen suggests that, “the secret of his success with the short story lies in his droll humor” (bowen 462). “the transferred ghost” certainly conveys his brand of humor as the ghost repeatedly appears in inopportune situations between the protagonist and madeline, the woman he is pursuing, which leads to amusing misinterpretations. stockton’s use of humor can be explained by his alleged genial disposition. in henry l. golemba’s study, frank r. stockton, stockton’s wife, marian stockton, is quoted as saying, “he shed happiness all around him, not from conscious effort but out of his own bountiful and loving nature....he usually looked either upon the best or the humorous side of life” (golemba 73). this humor is probably what keeps “the transferred ghost” from seeming too gloomy, despite its haunting idea that even the dead care about the corporate ladder. stockton’s humor, although central to much of his writing, eventually led to a decline in the popularity of his work because, according to kimbel, “he seem[ed] too amused by life for twentieth-century tastes” (kimbel 345). stockton wrote “the transferred ghost” in 1881, at the height of the industrial revolution, a time when his humor and optimistic style could still be appreciated in a nation on the economic rise. like “the transferred ghost,” both of the contextual documents in this edition use a similar tone and humor to discuss ghosts, class, and capitalism. “a new business” was written in 1876, and “a benevolent ghost” was written in 1884, around the same time as “the transferred ghost” and in the same time period in which the decline in popularity of comedy had not yet begun. during the time that stockton wrote, two main cultural and economic issues were at the forefront and are key for understanding “the transferred ghost”: the industrial revolution (along with the rise of the white collar the following critical edition of frank r. stockton’s “the transferred ghost” focuses on the ways in which the rise in spiritualism parallels the emergence of the middle class and white-collar positions in the united states in the late 1800s. by analyzing stockton’s story along with other comedic ghost stories from the period, this edition will show how humor hid deeper anxieties about the era’s economic and social developments. dead end job: a critical edition of “the transferred ghost” by frank stockton edited by jackson eflin, wendy faunce, & brittany means digital literature review, vol. 1 (2014). © ball state university. all rights reserved. please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce this critical edition to dlr@bsu.edu. mailto:dlr%40bsu.edu?subject= worker) and spiritualism. the industrial revolution was a time when “scarcely another cultural phenomenon affected as many people or stimulated as much interest as did spiritualism” (moore 4). this fascination was so widespread that religious philosopher theodore parker stated, “[i]t seems more likely that spiritualism would become the religion of america than in 156 that christianity would be the religion of the roman empire” (qtd. in moore 4). it seemed that everyone from the uneducated to justices of the supreme court participated in pursuits associated with spiritualism. public events such as séances, medium communication, automatic writings, and haunted tours inspired many facets of american imagination, including scientific experiments, attempts to correspond with passed loved ones, religious experiences, and entertainment. in its treatment of ghosts, stockton’s “the transferred ghost” is social satire that is very fitting of the times. another prominent issue that he was responding to was the influx of workers and new technological streamlining of labor, which allowed for a new kind of work, commonly referred to as “the desk job.” “in the heyday of the industrial revolution, during the nineteenth century, the nation moved from a tool-based to a machine-based system of production” (gini 34). these radical changes of the industrial process led to greater need for organization and management. this new managerial work created the white-collar class of jobs: “by the early 20th century, white-collar was growing at a faster rate than industrial labor. whereas in 1870 only 6 percent of the labor force held jobs as managers, salaried professionals, sales-people, and office workers, by 1910 white-collar work encompassed some 13.5 percent of the total workforce” (greenberg and watts 56). this doubling of white-collar workers shows how radically the business world had changed. stockton’s own view of the business world, as portrayed in his story about the war of 1812 called “the great war syndicate,” is that it is devoid of excitement. kimbel says of this story that it suggests that stockton thought that “business consortia” could end war because it would “strip war of all glamour and romance. his war is made to be as dull, mechanical, and unheroic as the filling out of insurance forms” (kimbel 344). just as stockton believed that business could make war void of its allure, in “the transferred ghost” he shows a mundane, bleak, even humdrum afterlife in which souls are transferred in a business-like manner. hinckman’s ghost treats his haunting like a desk job within a capitalist society. he, like the white-collar workers of the time, must compete with other ghosts for employment. the ghostship he gets stuck with, hinckman’s, did not work out as the ghost imagined. he complains about his employment’s redundancy and inconvenience as one would complain about a dead end desk job. this terrifying theme—that we can be forced to keep working awful jobs even after we die—in an otherwise lighthearted story is an example of what henry l. golemba describes as stockton’s habit of “[i]ncluding sinister truths but camouflaging them with pleasantries” (golemba 51). if we follow the idea that the class system is the sinister truth, it is reasonable to assume that stockton was critical of some aspects of the class system but saw no way out of it, hence forcing his ghost character into a dead-end job. while stockton believed in the virtues of business, he saw the worker, not the employer as virtuous. he had a certain distrust of both the upper and lower classes. golemba cites how “in fantasy stories like his still-popular children’s story ‘the griffin and the minor canon’ the lower and upper classes are equally vilified; only children and those in middle-class positions like the minor canon are kind, truthful, and trustworthy” (52). this comes through in his protagonist, an upper-class man who is generally useless and is untruthful to madeline about the ghost. given his affection for the middle class, it is not surprising that stockton’s texts mostly appealed to them. golemba describes “the ‘middle brow’ reader who was stockton’s principal audience” (49). if we ascribe to the ghost in “the transferred ghost” a lower class than the narrator, hence the narrator’s derisive comment about “beings of his class” (stockton 3), it makes sense that it takes his helpful, honest influence to solve the cowardly narrator’s problems. henry canby’s the age of confidence explores this mindset and the idea that the morally upstanding middle class individuals would rise in society, a perspective stockton clearly shared. this edition explores stockton’s as well as wider cultural attitudes towards humor, labor, and capitalism. this edition of “the transferred ghost” investigates the ways in which those themes affect the representation of the ghost of john hinckman and the actions of the story’s protagonist. furthermore, our analysis of the contextual documents included with this critical edition will illuminate the presence of these themes to show their prevalence in the wider literary culture of the era. “the transferred ghost” 112 introduction to “the transferred ghost” “the transferred ghost” by frank r. stockton is a distinct and amusing piece that presents its characters and situations in a humorous, friendly, and familiar style. every character, from the nonchalant ghost to the self-conscious protagonist, are relatable to the audience throughout the piece. this story also provides audiences with a new perspective on ghosts’ roles and way of (after)life, and presents the only frightful idea in an otherwise pleasant story: that even dying does not allow one to escape from the constant struggle of capitalism and office jobs. this sinister theme in an otherwise cheerful story overshadows the comedy, and, once realized, haunts the reader long after the laughter dies. the narrator of stockton’s story is a young man hopelessly in love with madeline, the niece of his close friend, mr. john hinckman. the narrator states that, “this gentleman was a good friend of mine, but it would have required a bolder man than i was at that time to ask him for the gift of his niece.” when mr. hinckman leaves for the far city of bristol, he leaves the care of his country home and madeline to the protagonist. the combination of mr. hinckman’s temper and madeline’s seemingly unsure affection intimidate the protagonist, hampering him from addressing either of them about his affection for her. however, he uses his time alone with madeline talking and eating meals together, gradually growing closer and more familiar with her. one night, while lying in bed contemplating their relationship, the ghost of mr. hinckman enters the room. more frightened of the man than the ghost, the protagonist builds up the courage to question him. the ghost explains that, years before, mr. hinckman was intensely ill and, being an older gentleman, doctors assumed he would not survive. this ghost was hired and took on mr. hinckman’s form, ready to haunt the country estate. unexpectedly, mr. hinckman achieved a sudden recovery. since then, the ghost has been trapped in the house, spending his time hiding from mr. hinckman and keeping quiet because, as he states in the story, “i am [john hinckman’s] ghost...and yet i have no right to be. and this is what makes me so uneasy, and so much afraid of him.” the ghost enjoys talking with the protagonist and promises to speed the pace of his love affair in exchange for assistance in helping him find a new person’s soul to manifest. a series of awkward instances ensue in which the ghost appears while the protagonist tries and fails to confess his feelings to madeline. the next day, while trying to build up the courage to confess his love to madeline, the ghost warns the protagonist when mr. hinckman is approaching the house. in the final scene, the ghost announces that he has found a new position as the ghost of a russian nobleman and will soon leave. the protagonist, despairing that he should ever win madeline’s affection, shouts at the ghost, “oh! i would to heaven you were mine!” madeline, who cannot see or hear the ghost, misunderstands the protagonist’s words to be a declaration of love rather than hopelessness. she finally admits that she cares for the protagonist as well. though light-hearted and whimsical compared to traditional ghost stories, “the transferred ghost” also contains the deadly serious theme of capitalism’s dominating power, a trend that appears in both serious stories such as henry james’s “the turn of the screw” and more light-hearted stories like “the intoxicated ghost” by arlo bates. this theme is most commonly seen in the ghost, the only character actively portrayed as participating in an economy in any manner. the scariest aspect of this story is the supposition that the desk job or “situation,” is necessary even in death. it is made clear that it is essential that the ghost be employed as a means of personal importance and meaning though his insistence that he find a new body to manifest. the ghost states, “now that i have started on my career i have got to be the ghost of somebody….” this statement implies that his work involves a sort of corporate ladder, insinuating that ghostship is a typical white-collar job. this also ties the ghost to the class system since the white-collar job was typical of the middle class. the narrator states that “[the ghost] was an exceptional case and i could not have objections to him which would usually arise with beings of his class.” the ghost is required, whether it be by circumstance or by nature, to hold a job or “situation.” however, while the position as the ghost of hinkman is socially prominent, it is portrayed as a “dead end job.” the situation the ghost finds himself in is an undesirable one, similar to a job without a good status. in fact, he refers to the position as shameful: “my situation was now one of extreme delicacy and embarrassment.” though he never states why one is better than the other, the ghost is excited when he obtains the ghostship of a russian nobleman. he even tells the protagonist that he is “trans“the transferred ghost” 113 ferring”—the same term many workers would use for obtaining a promotion: “you can’t imagine how glad i am to be, at last, the real ghost of somebody.” his escape of this oppression is the climax and turning point of his career. the ghost cannot wait to begin his more permanent and promising situation. the power of the white-collar capitalistic society is also shown in the ghost’s competition for a situation. a sort of independant free-market system is used in which the quickest and most savvy ghosts obtain the best ghostships. when the ghost describes the process to the protagonist, stating, “whenever a vacancy occurs, if i may express myself in that way, there are crowds of applications for the ghostship,” the savvy and quickness of the ghost’s friends come to be of use in this system, and they help their friend find a new situation. the ghost obtained his desired position when “[m]y friends instantly applied for the situation for me, and obtained my transfer.” though the ghost inevitably finds his new “assignment” through a friend, his original plea for help from the protagonist is indicative of his desperation to escape his dead end job. as martin griffin states in frank r. stockton: a critical biography, “stockton’s ghosts are always amiable, frequently they require a mere mortal to extricate them from their predicament.” even in the afterlife, the ghost must overcome the appearance of a ghastly, frightening figure and appear “amiable” in order to impress, essentially, potential employers. and just as employers in real life are mere mortals, often no more and occasionally less qualified or deserving of a job than a potential employee, the ghost must supplicate for a desirable assignment. this story is important in the history of ghost stories and the literature of haunting because it is so remarkably different from our modern conception of ghost stories as horror. stockton’s unconventional sense of humor and almost-human ghosts especially make this story unique. his twist on the traditional ghostly displacement theme also ensures the uniqueness of the piece. “the transferred ghost” is refreshing and novel in the way that it is told, the situations it presents, and in the concepts it offers, as well as in its ability to subvert expectations of a ghost story. “the transferred ghost”1 the country residence2 of mr. john hinckman was a delightful place to me,3 for many reasons. it was the abode of a genial, though somewhat impulsive, hospitality. it had broad, smooth-shaven lawns and towering oaks and elms; there were bosky4 shades at several points, and not far from the house there was a little rill5 spanned by a rustic bridge with the bark on; there were fruits and flowers, pleasant people, chess, billiards, rides, walks, and fishing. these were great attractions, but none of them, nor all of them together, would have been sufficient to hold me to the place very long. i had been invited for the trout season, but should, probably, have finished my visit early in the summer had it not been that upon fair days, when the grass was dry, and the sun not too hot, and there was but little wind, there strolled beneath the lofty elms, or passed lightly through the bosky shades, the form of my madeline. this lady was not, in very truth, my madeline. she had never given herself to me, nor had i, in any way, acquired possession of her. but as i considered her possession the only sufficient reason for the continuance of my existence, i called her, in my reveries, mine. it may have been that i would not have been obliged to confine the use of this possessive pronoun to my reveries had i confessed the state of my feelings to the lady. but this was an unusually difficult thing to do. not only did i dread, as almost all lovers dread, taking the step which would in an instant put an end to that delightful season which may be termed the ante-interrogatory period of love, and which might at the same time terminate all intercourse or connection with the object of my passion; but i was, also, dreadfully afraid of john hinckman. this gentleman was a good friend of mine, but it would have required a bolder man than i was at that time to ask him for the gift of his niece, who was the head of his household, and, according to his own frequent statement, the main prop of his declining years. had madeline acquiesced in my general views on the subject, i might have felt encouraged to open the matter to mr. hinckman, but, as i said before, i had never asked her whether notes 1. this text is found in frank stockton’s the lady, or the tiger? and other stories, pages 11-27. 2. while never specified, it is likely this story takes place in pennsylvania, near philadelphia, where it was written. 3. we never learn what, in this story, the narrator is named; however in the sequel “the spectral mortgage” his sister-in-law refers to him as george. 4. wooded. 5. stream. “the transferred ghost” 114 or not she would be mine. i thought of these things at all hours of the day and night, particularly the latter. it was lying awake one night, in the great bed in my spacious chamber, when, by the dim light of the new moon, which partially filled the room, i saw john hinckman standing by a large chair near the door. i was very much surprised at this for two reasons. in the first place, my host had never before come into my room, and, in the second place, he had gone from home that morning, and had not expected to return for several days. it was for this reason that i had been able that evening to sit much later than usual with madeline on the moonlit porch. the figure was certainly that of john hinckman in his ordinary dress, but there was a vagueness, and indistinctness about it which presently assured me that it was a ghost. had the good old man been murdered? and had his spirit come to tell me of the deed, and to confide to me the protection of his dear? my heart fluttered at what i was about to think, but at this instant the figure spoke. “do you know,” he said, with a countenance that indicated anxiety, “if mr. hinckman will return to-night?” i thought it well to maintain a calm exterior, and i answered: “we do not expect him.” “i am glad of that,” said he, sinking into the chair by which he stood. “during the two years and a half that i have inhabited this house, that man has never before been away for a single night. you can’t imagine the relief it gives me.” and as he spoke he stretched out his legs and leaned back in the chair. his form became less vague, and the colors of his garments more distinct and evident, while an expression of gratified relief succeeded to the anxiety of his countenance. “two years and a half!” i exclaimed. “i don’t understand you.” “it is fully that length of time,” said the ghost, “since i first came here. mine is not an ordinary case. but before i say anything more about it, let me ask you again if you are sure mr. hinckman will not return to-night?” “i am as sure of it as i can be of anything,” i answered. “he left to-day for bristol, two hundred miles away.” “then i will go on,” said the ghost, “for i am glad to have the opportunity of talking to some one who will listen to me; but if john hinckman should come in and catch me here, i should be frightened out of my wits.” “this is all very strange,” i said, greatly puzzled by what i had heard. “are you the ghost of mr. hinckman?” this was a bold question, but my mind was so full of other emotions that there seemed to be no room for that of fear. “yes, i am his ghost,” my companion replied, “and yet i have no right to be. and this is what makes me so uneasy, and so much afraid of him. it is a strange story, and, i truly believe, without precedent. two years and a half ago, john hinckman was dangerously ill in this very room. at one time he was so far gone that he was really believed to be dead. it was in consequence of too precipitate6 a report in regard to this matter that i was, at that time, appointed to be his ghost. imagine my surprise and horror, sir, when, after i had accepted the position and assumed its responsibilities, that old man revived, became convalescent, and eventually regained his usual health. my situation was now one of extreme delicacy and embarrassment. i had no power to return to my original unembodiment, and i had no right to be the ghost of a man who was not dead. i was advised by my friends to quietly maintain my position, and was assured that, as john hinckman was an elderly man, it could not be long before i could rightfully assume the position for which i had been selected. but i tell you, sir,” he continued, with animation, “the old fellow seems as vigorous as ever, and i have no idea how much longer this annoying state of things will continue. i spend my time trying to get out of that old man’s way. i must not leave this house, and he seems to follow me everywhere. i tell you, sir, he haunts me.” “that is truly a queer state of things,” i remarked. “but why are you afraid of him? he couldn’t hurt you.” “of course he couldn’t,” said the ghost. “but his very presence is a shock and terror to me. imagine, sir, how you would feel if my case were yours.” i could not imagine such a thing at all. i simply shuddered. “and if one must be a wrongful ghost at all,” the apparition continued, “it would be much pleasanter to be the ghost of some man other than john hinckman. there is in him an irascibility of temper, accompanied by a facility of invective7, which is seldom met with. and what would happen if he were to see me, and find out, as i am sure he would, how long and why i had inhabited his house, i can scarcely conceive. i have seen him in his notes 6. premature, without careful consideration. 7. insulting, highly critical. “the transferred ghost” 115 bursts of passion, and, although he did not hurt the people he stormed at any more than he would hurt me, they seemed to shrink before him.” all this i knew to be very true. had it not been for this peculiarity of mr. hinckman, i might have been more willing to talk to him about his niece. “i feel sorry for you,” i said, for i really began to have a sympathetic feeling toward this unfortunate apparition. “your case is indeed a hard one. it reminds me of those persons who have had doubles, and i suppose a man would often be very angry indeed when he found that there was another being who was personating himself.” “oh, the cases are not similar at all,” said the ghost. “a double or doppelganger lives on the earth with a man, and, being exactly like him, he makes all sorts of trouble, of course. it is very different with me. i am not here to live with mr. hinckman. i am here to take his place. now, it would make john hinckman very angry if he knew that. don’t you know it would?” i assented promptly. “now that he is away i can be easy for a little while,” continued the ghost, “and l am so glad to have an opportunity of talking to you. i have frequently come into your room, and watched you while you slept, but did not dare to speak to you for fear that if you talked with me mr. hinckman would hear you, and come into the room to know why you were talking to yourself.” “but would he not hear you?” i asked. “oh, no,” said the other, “there are times when any one may see me, but no one hears me except the person to whom i address myself.” “but why did you wish to speak to me?” i asked. “because,” replied the ghost, “i like occasionally to talk to people, and especially to some one like yourself, whose mind is so troubled and perturbed that you are not likely to be frightened by a visit from one of us. but i particularly wanted to ask you to do me a favor. there is every probability, so far as i can see, that john hinckman will live a long time, and my situation is becoming insupportable. my great object at present is to get myself transferred, and i think that you may, perhaps, be of use to me.” “transferred!” i exclaimed. “what do you mean by that?” “what i mean,” said the other, “is this: now that i have started on my career i have got to be the ghost of somebody; and i want to be the ghost of a man who is really dead.” “i should think that would be easy enough,” i said. “opportunities must continually occur.” “not at all! not at all!” said my companion, quickly. “you have no idea what a rush and pressure there is for situations of this kind. whenever a vacancy occurs, if i may express myself in that way, there are crowds of applications for the ghostship.” “i had no idea that such a state of things existed,” i said, becoming quite interested in the matter. “there ought to be some regular system, or order of precedence, by which you could all take your turns like customers in a barber’s shop.” “oh dear, that would never do at all!” said the other. “some of us would have to wait forever. there is always a great rush whenever a good ghostship offers itself— while, as you know, there are some positions that no one would care for. and it was in consequence of my being in too great a hurry on an occasion of the kind that i got myself into my present disagreeable predicament, and i have thought that it might be possible that you would help me out of it. you might know of a case where an opportunity for a ghostship was not generally expected, but which might present itself at any moment. if you would give me a short notice, i know i could arrange for a transfer.” “what do you mean?” i exclaimed. “do you want me to commit suicide? or to undertake a murder for your benefit?” “oh, no, no, no!” said the other, with a vapory smile. “i mean nothing of that kind. to be sure, there are lovers who are watched with considerable interest, such persons having been known, in moments of depression, to offer very desirable ghostships, but i did not think of anything of that kind in connection with you. you were the only person i cared to speak to, and i hoped that you might give me some information that would be of use; and, in return, i shall be very glad to help you in your love affair.” “you seem to know that i have such an affair,” i said. “oh, yes,” replied the other, with a little yawn. “i could not be here so much as i have been without knowing all about that.” there was something horrible in the idea of madeline and myself having been watched by a ghost, even, perhaps, when we wandered together in the most delightful and bosky places. but, then, this was quite an exceptional ghost, and i could not have the objections to him which would ordinarily arise in regard to beings of his class. “i must go now,” said the ghost, rising, “but i will see “the transferred ghost” 116 you somewhere to-morrow night. and remember—you help me, and i’ll help you.” i had doubts the next morning as to the propriety of telling madeline anything about this interview, and soon convinced myself that i must keep silent on the subject. if she knew there was a ghost about the house she would probably leave the place instantly.8 i did not mention the matter, and so regulated my demeanor that i am quite sure madeline never suspected what had taken place. for some time i had wished that mr. hinckman would absent himself, for a day at least, from the premises. in such case i thought i might more easily nerve myself up to the point of speaking to madeline on the subject of our future collateral existence, and, now that the opportunity for such speech had really occurred, i did not feel ready to avail myself of it. what would become of me if she refused me? i had an idea, however, that the lady thought that, if i were going to speak at all, this was the time. she must have known that certain sentiments were afloat within me, and she was not unreasonable in her wish to see the matter settled one way or the other. but i did not feel like taking a bold step in the dark. if she wished me to ask her to give herself to me, she ought to offer me some reason to suppose that she would make the gift. if i saw no probability of such generosity, i would prefer that things should remain as they were. that evening i was sitting with madeline in the moonlit porch. it was nearly ten o’clock, and ever since supper-time i had been working myself up to the point of making an avowal of my sentiments. i had not positively determined to do this, but wished gradually to reach the proper point when, if the prospect looked bright, i might speak. my companion appeared to understand the situation—at least, i imagined that the nearer i came to a proposal the more she seemed to expect it. it was certainly a very critical and important epoch9 in my life. if i spoke, i should make myself happy or miserable forever, and if i did not speak i had every reason to believe that the lady would not give me another chance to do so. sitting thus with madeline, talking a little, and thinking very hard over these momentous matters, i looked up and saw the ghost, not a dozen feet away from us. he was sitting on the railing of the porch, one leg thrown up before him, the other dangling down as he leaned against a post. he was behind madeline, but almost in front of me, as i sat facing the lady. it was fortunate that madeline was looking out over the landscape, for i must have appeared very much startled. the ghost had told me that he would see me some time this night, but i did not think he would make his appearance when i was in the company of madeline. if she should see the spirit of her uncle, i could not answer for the consequences. i made no exclamation, but the ghost evidently saw that i was troubled. “don’t be afraid,” he said—“i shall not let her see me; and she cannot hear me speak unless i address myself to her, which i do not intend to do.” i suppose i looked grateful. “so you need not trouble yourself about that,” the ghost continued; “but it seems to me that you are not getting along very well with your affair. if i were you, i should speak out without waiting any longer. you will never have a better chance. you are not likely to be interrupted; and, so far as i can judge, the lady seems disposed to listen to you favorably; that is, if she ever intends to do so. there is no knowing when john hinckman will go away again; certainly not this summer. if i were in your place, i should never dare to make love10 to hinckman’s niece if he were anywhere about the place. if he should catch any one offering himself to miss madeline, he would then be a terrible man to encounter.” i agreed perfectly to all this. “i cannot bear to think of him!” i ejaculated aloud. “think of whom?” asked madeline, turning quickly toward me. here was an awkward situation. the long speech of the ghost, to which madeline paid no attention, but which i heard with perfect distinctness, had made me forget myself. it was necessary to explain quickly. of course, it would not do to admit that it was of her dear uncle that i was speaking; and so i mentioned hastily the first name i thought of. “mr. vilars,” i said. this statement was entirely correct, for i never could bear to think of mr. vilars, who was a gentleman who had, at various times, paid much attention to madeline. “it is wrong for you to speak in that way of mr. notes 8. the narrator comes clean about the spectral presences to madeline in the sequel, and she takes it in stride. stockton, a noted feminist, clearly wanted to mock the idea of women being fragile, along with the character for thinking it. 9. period of history in which significant events take place. 10. ‘make love’ here being comparable to “flirt,” though the modern use is not impossible. “the transferred ghost” 117 vilars,” she said. “he is a remarkably well educated and sensible young man, and has very pleasant manners. he expects to be elected to the legislature this fall, and i should not be surprised if he made his mark. he will do well in a legislative body, for whenever mr. vilars has anything to say he knows just how and when to say it.” this was spoken very quietly, and without any show of resentment, which was all very natural, for if madeline thought at all favorably of me she could not feel displeased that i should have disagreeable emotions in regard to a possible rival. the concluding words contained a hint which i was not slow to understand. i felt very sure that if mr. vilars were in my present position he would speak quickly enough. “i know it is wrong to have such ideas about a person,” i said, “but i cannot help it.” the lady did not chide me, and after this she seemed even in a softer mood. as for me, i felt considerably annoyed, for i had not wished to admit that any thought of mr. vilars had ever occupied my mind. “you should not speak aloud that way,” said the ghost, “or you may get yourself into trouble. i want to see everything go well with you, because then you may be disposed to help me, especially if i should chance to be of any assistance to you, which i hope i shall be.” i longed to tell him that there was no way in which he could help me so much as by taking his instant departure. to make love to a young lady with a ghost sitting on the railing near by, and that ghost the apparition of a much-dreaded uncle, the very idea of whom in such a position and at such a time made me tremble, was a difficult, if not an impossible, thing to do; but i forbore to speak, although i may have looked my mind. “i suppose,” continued the ghost, “that you have not heard anything that might be of advantage to me. of course, i am very anxious to hear, but if you have anything to tell me, i can wait until you are alone. i will come to you to-night in your room, or i will stay here until the lady goes away.” “you need not wait here,” i said; “i have nothing at all to say to you.” madeline sprang to her feet, her face flushed and her eyes ablaze. “wait here!” she cried. “what do you suppose i am waiting for? nothing to say to me indeed!—i should think so! what should you have to say to me?” “madeline,” i exclaimed, stepping toward her, “let me explain.” but she had gone. here was the end of the world for me! i turned fiercely to the ghost. “wretched existence!” i cried. “you have ruined everything. you have blackened my whole life. had it not been for you” but here my voice faltered. i could say no more. “you wrong me,” said the ghost. “i have not injured you. i have tried only to encourage and assist you, and it is your own folly that has done this mischief. but do not despair. such mistakes as these can be explained. keep up a brave heart. good-by.” and he vanished from the railing like a bursting soap-bubble. i went gloomily to bed, but i saw no apparitions that night except those of despair and misery which my wretched thoughts called up. the words i had uttered had sounded to madeline like the basest insult. of course, there was only one interpretation she could put upon them. as to explaining my ejaculations, that was impossible. i thought the matter over and over again as i lay awake that night, and i determined that i would never tell madeline the facts of the case. it would be better for me to suffer all my life than for her to know that the ghost of her uncle haunted the house. mr. hinckman was away, and if she knew of his ghost she could not be made to believe that he was not dead. she might not survive the shock! no, my heart could bleed, but i would never tell her. the next day was fine, neither too cool nor too warm; the breezes were gentle, and nature smiled. but there were no walks or rides with madeline. she seemed to be much engaged during the day, and i saw but little of her. when we met at meals she was polite, but very quiet and reserved. she had evidently determined on a course of conduct, and had resolved to assume that, although i had been very rude to her, she did not understand the import of my words. it would be quite proper, of course, for her not to know what i meant by my expressions of the night before. i was downcast and wretched, and said but little, and the only bright streak across the black horizon of my woe was the fact that she did not appear to be happy, although she affected an air of unconcern. the moonlit porch was deserted that evening, but wandering about the house i found madeline in the library alone. she was reading, but i went in and sat down near her. i felt that, although i could not do so fully, i must in a measure explain my conduct “the transferred ghost” 118 of the night before. she listened quietly to a somewhat labored apology i made for the words i had used. “i have not the slightest idea what you meant,” she said, “but you were very rude.” i earnestly disclaimed any intention of rudeness, and assured her, with a warmth of speech that must have made some impression upon her, that rudeness to her would be an action impossible to me. i said a great deal upon the subject, and implored her to believe that if it were not for a certain obstacle i could speak to her so plainly that she would understand everything. she was silent for a time, and then she said, rather more kindly, i thought, than she had spoken before: “is that obstacle in any way connected with my uncle?” “yes,” i answered, after a little hesitation, “it is, in a measure, connected with him.” she made no answer to this, and sat looking at her book, but not reading. from the expression of her face, i thought she was somewhat softened toward me. she knew her uncle as well as i did, and she may have been thinking that, if he were the obstacle that prevented my speaking (and there were many ways in which he might be that obstacle), my position would be such a hard one that it would excuse some wildness of speech and eccentricity of manner. i saw, too, that the warmth of my partial explanations had had some effect on her, and i began to believe that it might be a good thing for me to speak my mind without delay. no matter how she should receive my proposition, my relations with her could not be worse than they had been the previous night and day, and there was something in her face which encouraged me to hope that she might forget my foolish exclamations of the evening before if i began to tell her my tale of love. i drew my chair a little nearer to her, and as i did so the ghost burst into the room from the doorway behind her. i say burst, although no door flew open and he made no noise. he was wildly excited, and waved his arms above his head. the moment i saw him, my heart fell within me. with the entrance of that impertinent apparition, every hope fled from me. i could not speak while he was in the room. i must have turned pale, and i gazed steadfastly at the ghost, almost without seeing madeline, who sat between us. “do you know,” he cried, “that john hinckman is coming up the hill? he will be here in fifteen minutes, and if you are doing anything in the way of love-making, you had better hurry it up. but this is not what i came to tell you. i have glorious news! at last i am transferred! not forty minutes ago a russian nobleman was murdered by the nihilists.11 nobody ever thought of him in connection with an immediate ghostship. my friends instantly applied for the situation for me, and obtained my transfer. i am off before that horrid hinckman comes up the hill. the moment i reach my new position, i shall put off this hated semblance. good-by. you can’t imagine how glad i am to be, at last, the real ghost of somebody.” “oh!” i cried, rising to my feet and stretching out my arms in utter wretchedness, “i would to heaven you were mine!” “i am yours,” said madeline, raising to me her tearful eyes. contextual documents two related documents cover multiple themes from “the transferred ghost,” including the humorous potential of ghosts, the class structure of the era, and capitalism. we use each document to place “the transferred ghost” more firmly in its time period by giving examples of the way some of his contemporaries pursued similar themes to stockton by using a humorous ghost story. these humorous themes were popular during the early 1880s when the country seemed to be on the rise in light of the industrial revolution. this so called “age of confidence” was one in which hard work would merit just rewards, and everyone was expected to do their part. in the pieces we include in this edition, we demonstrate that this mentality was playfully extended to include ghosts. “a new business”12 the following article, published in the new york times on april 25, 1884, describes a new business starting in chicago, in which a medium with control of a congress of ghosts is working them to funnel information from the other side and has commercialized this enterprise. it is reasonable to assume this article was satirical, but true or false it still shows a highly capitalistic bent to ghostly phenomena. this proposal puts ghosts in a very strange liminal notes 11. nihilists: the nihilists were a russian political party that advocated the fall of the oppressive government, favoring the people over the rulers. 12. “a new business” was published in the new york times on 25 april 1884. “the transferred ghost” 119 space. they are both being worked by the medium in hordes, and thus would seem to be in a lower, working class space, but at the same time they are being treated with great respect, requiring mollification, like an actor. however, most tellingly, the ghosts are much more of a resource than an actual group of people, which in the end is how the upper class would likely have considered many of the workers in their employ. the reducing of ghosts to a series of numbers and ratings based on highgrade and low-grade ghosts resembles the reduction to numbers and ability to produce product experienced by many workers, and sounds remarkably like the de-indivdualization of servants, possibly even slaves. note that the article states that a medium has “control” of ghosts, not “companionship” or “employ.” it is possible to conclude that the medium can force ghosts to do as ordered, and being ghosts, they have no way to argue, fight back, or escape, as there’s nowhere left to go. this article illustrates the proclivity for a businesslike mind of the times in other ways. it wastes no time wondering about the existence of ghosts. it is of apparently no surprise to the author of the article that ghosts exist, and thus the article spends much more time exploring the lucrative possibilities of a career mining ghostly information. it would apparently be worth a fortune, as a ghost’s messages could sell for $40-$100 dollars per ton. the article does not elaborate on how one weighs ghostly messages, or why they would be weighed in tons, and while it may have simply been a handy unit, it also relates back to the mining theme prevalent through the whole article. this focus on conceptualizing the ghostly world as a place to be mined belies a ruthless, businesslike mentality ready to take advantage of the new options for upward mobility now available to even those not in the upper-class gentry. with all of this in mind, some of the oddities in “the transferred ghost” become more clear. in “the transferred ghost,” the ghost of john hinckman indicates that there are more desirable ghostships, finally taking a role as the ghost of a russian nobleman. however, he never expands on why there are benefits to being the ghost of one person or another. this article offers the idea that the ghosts of someone important, a high-grade ghost, might be more likely to be contacted, more likely to be pampered. in a similar way to “the transferred ghost,” the article frames the other side as a place where ghosts are employed in jobs and are possible targets of labor exploitation. there is no rest from the labor conditions of modern american capitalism, not even after death. our second contextual document is the article “a benevolent ghost,” which was published in the new york times in 1876, and it is similar to both “a new business” and “the transferred ghost” in its use of humor. the article is a satirical piece written about the ghost of a woman residing in st. louis. the author goes on to argue that this ghost stands apart from the average “idle, frivolous, and meddlesome” specter. instead of haunting for her own amusement or for selfish reasons, the specter haunts a woman in order to hold her accountable to a promise made many years before. the article ends happily with the family sending for the little boy, the son of the ghost, who the woman has sworn to care for as her own son. a stock company for working ghosts has been established in chicago. an enterprising person obtained, with the aid of a medium, control of three hundred and ten ghosts. he thereupon organized a stock company for the purpose of obtaining and selling ghostly information, and found no difficulty in selling shares. if his scheme proves successful a new business will have been established and we shall have scores of similar companies. the business of working ghosts by means of stock companies is unlike any other, though in some respects it resembles both mining and theatrical management. the medium who, prospecting for desirable ghosts, finds, let us suppose, a hundred high-grade ghosts each one of which can furnish messages from the other world worth, say, a hundred dollars per ton, cannot develop the whole of his ghostly property for the simple reason that he can “sit” as a medium only a certain number of hours daily, and hence cannot work more than ten or a dozen ghosts to advantage. it is no object to him to hire other mediums to assist him, for that is merely equivalent to giving away his surplus ghosts. if, however, he can induce a number of capitalists to join with him, he can develop all his three hundred and ten ghosts and make for himself and his associates a great deal of money. the method of organizing a stock spiritual company would be as follows: capitalizing the 310 ghosts at $500,000, the medium and his capitalists would sell $400,000 worth of shares; divide $300,000 of the proceeds among them; place $100,000 in the treasury as working capital, and retain for themselves the remaining “the transferred ghost” 120 $100,000 of shares. they would then hire a sufficient force of mediums, paying them salaries large enough to secure their exclusive services, and set them at work. ghosts can be worked day and night, as they require no sleep, and relays of mediums could draw uninterrupted streams of messages from 310 ghosts. the sale of these messages at $100 a ton—supposing the ghosts to be high-grade ghosts—would yield enormous dividends, and even low-grade ghosts, yielding not more than $40 per ton of crude information, could be worked at a handsome profit. so far the business closely resembles silver mining, except in the particular that the stockholders would receive dividends instead of being called upon for assessments. it would, however, be necessary to keep the ghosts in good humor. otherwise they might at any moment refuse to furnish ghostly information, in which case the spiritual stock company would be compelled to announce that, owing to fault in its ghosts, it would be necessary to make a call upon the stockholders for funds with which to prospect for a new vein of ghosts. in other words, the company would be ruined. only an experienced theatrical manager would be able to keep the peace among two or three hundred ghosts of all ages, nationalities, and sexes—whatever may be the number of the latter in the other world. george washington could hardly be expected to work side by side with benedict arnold, and what boston female ghost would feel at ease when working in company with a western mining ghost? it is this great difficulty of inducing ghosts to dwell together that will stand in the way of spiritual stock companies, and it will require the combined abilities of an experienced opera manager and a successful mining expert to work a vein of miscellaneous ghosts successfully. “a benevolent ghost”13 unlike the ghosts in “the transferred ghost,” those in “a benevolent ghost” are not frivolous workers, and do not participate in any sort of economy. however, the way that the narrator views these ghosts reflects the idea that they are still expected to contribute to the economy and be productive. the article states that, “as a class ghosts are idle, frivolous, meddlesome, and apparently wholly devoid of moral sense.” in this way, both stories rely on the humorous and terrifying notion that one must continue to be productive even in the afterlife. the benevolent ghost and the transferred ghost play similar roles within their stories. their ghostly positions in class and labor systems segregate them from people, but bind them to a productive, capitalist society. while humorous, the prevalence of this idea shows capitalism as foreboding and omnipresent. stockton, a man who literally worked himself blind, was able to empathize with the white collar workers who helped create an economy that allowed him the ability to channel his resilient spirit into humorous prose. the increase of white-collar jobs made a contribution to the social fabric of america but also partially unsettled an america resistant to change. stockton used humor as a way to deal with this anxiety and to cope with these transformations in the american economy. all three stories in this edition focus on the ridiculous notion that ghosts must participate in the economic or productive activities of the living world. this stems from the american notion that white-collar workers must always be productive and contribute to the economy. if these stories present the productive or working ghost as a ridiculous and humorous idea, they may speak to a broader anxiety and fear that participation in white-collar work during life is just as ridiculous. in the end, this combination of ghosts and humor relates to issues of the american economy, issues that still haunt us today. it is not often that a modern ghost displays moral qualities which can be honestly approved. as a class ghosts are idle, frivolous, meddlesome, and apparently wholly devoid of moral sense. benjamin franklin, in a ghostly state, does not scruple to tell preposterous lies as to the whereabouts of charlie ross; and john milton, who during his lifetime wrote poetry which even mr. taine does not consider wholly devoid of merit, now perpetuates ghostly verse of the most execrable quality. in consequence, ghosts have fallen into general disrepute among sensible people, and before they can expect to be heard with respect and attention, they must thoroughly change their present objectionable habits. the recent conduct of a st. louis ghost gives us reason to hope that a ghostly reformation has actually begun, and that at least a few of the swarming millions notes 13. “a benevolent ghost” was published in the new york times on 29 april 1876. “the transferred ghost” 121 of hitherto lazy and frivolous ghosts have determined to do something to redeem the damaged reputation of their kind. that a ghost should choose to visit st. louis is not, of course, creditable to ghostly taste, but the individual ghost just referred to went to st. louis exclusively in the interests of humanity. a week or two since a st. louis family were annoyed by the nightly ringing of the front-door bell by invisible hands. the local small boy and the household rats were in turn charged with the offense of malicious bell-ringing, but no proof of their guilt could be obtained. an astute plumber, whose advice was sought, alleged that the bell-ringing was due to electricity, and he accordingly undertook to suppress the nuisance by changing the direction of the bell-wire and putting in new gas-pipes and water-pipes throughout the house. though his bill was of the most formidable proportions, the mysterious bell-ringing was not checked, and the household gradually accepted it as a necessary evil which no earthly remedy could cure. of course, the bell was rung by a ghost, and when the latter found that no further good could be accomplished in that direction, she—for the ghost was of the gentler sex—changed her tactics. she adopted the habit of singing songs in the front parlor, accompanying her voice by playing on a closed and locked piano-forte. after thus opening the evening’s entertainment, she would move pictures, chairs, and bedsteads all over the house, and execute more noisy carpenter-work with an invisible hammer and saw than any live carpenter with a proper sense of loyalty to his carpenters’ union would be willing to do in a week of consecutive labor. her most remarkable feats, however, were performed in connection with small boys, both actual and ghostly. the family were frequently astonished and delighted by seeing their private small boy suddenly raised by the hair two or three feet above the floor, and thus borne kicking and shrieking from the room. unfortunately, the ghost always brought him back again, imbued with a sense of injury which led him to lie down on the floor and howl until his disappointed parents pacified him with the bootjack or other convenient soothing instrument, the ghost’s efforts to drive the family to despair were not, however, successful, until she adopted the plan of causing ghostly small boys to emerge from the fire-place and other unexpected localities. when the persecuted residents of the haunted house found that they could not open a closet or unlock a burglar-proof safe or remove the head of a whiskey-barrel without being shocked at the prompt appearance of a shadowy and unnaturally silent small boy, the became utterly demoralized and sent for a spiritual medium to negotiate terms of peace with their tormentor. now, what is remarkable and unprecedented in ghostly history is the motive assigned by the ghost for her prolonged disturbance of the household. she asserted, though the medium, that the lady of the house had once promised to treat her dead sister’s small boy as her own, and that instead of keeping this promise she had farmed him out to a heartless baby-farmer. the accused woman admitted with tears that such had been her faithless and wicked conduct, and she gladly acceded to the ghostly demand to send for the injured small boy, and to treat him with the utmost kindness. in consideration of this promise the ghost agreed to withdraw from the premises, threatening, however, to return and make things disagreeably lively for the family in case the promise should not be kept. the boy was sent for and the ghost withdrew, and thus the first known philanthropist ghost accomplished her humane purpose. to say that this exceptional ghost deserves the respect and gratitude of all humane people is hardly necessary. it is to be hoped, however, that she will not content herself with having performed one good action. what she ought to do is form a ghostly society for the prevention of cruelty to children. such a society could accomplish far more than any merely human society can hope to do, and all honest and kind-hearted ghosts can rest assured that if they will only enter upon a life of active benevolence, by persecuting cruel parents and guardians, they will soon earn the admiration of mankind, and reinstate themselves in the good opinion of the living. “the transferred ghost” 122 “the transferred ghost” works cited “a benevolent ghost.” new york times april 29, 1876: 4. “a new business.” new york times april 25, 1884: 4. bowen, edwin w. “the fiction of frank stockton.” the sewanee review 28 (july 1920): 452-62. canby, henry. the age of confidence. new york: farrar & rinehart, incorporated, 1934. gini, al. my job, my self: work and the creation of the modern individual. new york: routledge, 2000. golemba, henry l. frank r. stockton. boston: twayne publishers, 1981. greenberg, brian and linda s. watts. social history of the united states vol. 1: the 1900s. santa barbara, ca: abcclio inc., 2009. griffin, martin i. j. frank r. stockton: a critical biography. philadelphia: university of philadelphia press, 1939. kimbel, bobby ellen. dictionary of literary biography, volume seventy-four: american short-story writers before 1880. detroit, michigan: book tower, 1988. moore, r. laurence. in search of white crows: spiritualism, parapsychology, and american culture. new york: oxford university press, 1977. stockton, frank r. “the transferred ghost.” the lady, or the tiger? and other stories. new york: charles scribner’s sons, 1886. 11-27. print. 123 a freak show in district 9: the construction of a freak amongst aliens aliens have descended on johannesburg, and they now live in slums; this would be a fairly accurate summary of neill blomkamp’s 2009 film, district 9. it is a gritty science fiction film that combines the prejudice and violence of south africa’s apartheid with the existential fears inspired by extraterrestrial life. filmed partially in a quasidocumentary style, the movie portrays the downfall and transformation of wikus van de merwe, a rather boring white man who has been put in charge of the city’s alien population through nepotism. as such, district 9 has been called a “violent, racialized revenge fantasy” (rieder 41), and many commentators are divided on its merits. but wikus’s transformation acts as more than just a vehicle to escalate the film’s racial tensions; wikus comes to occupy the role of the freak in the movie as his physical body becomes feared, revered, and commodified. through the positioning of wikus as a freak, the human population is forced to address the socially constructed and arbitrary divide between alien and human. is there room for a freak in a film about aliens? yes, but do not make the mistake of believing aliens and freaks to be entirely separate entities. the two categories are closely related, and they spring up from the same source, the mysterious other. in her book about the archetype of the alien in science fiction, alien theory, patricia monk gives a comprehensive history of the other, which she describes as an unknowable and outside presence jessica carducci, ball state university abstract in district 9, the body of the main character, wikus van de merwe, becomes a battleground for the competing cultures of human and alien. but while it is widely recognized that the film is a science fiction metaphor for the apartheid, less discussed are the parallels between wikus’s story and that of the historical freak. this essay looks at the way in which wikus’s transformation and clashing identities make him the star of johannesburg’s own alien freak show. digital literature review, vol. 3 (2016). © ball state university. all rights reserved. please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce critical edition to dlr@bsu.edu. 136 to ourselves (3). freaks are other when measured against the normative standards of society; they are individuals who have experiences and appearances outside the understanding of someone classified as normate. aliens in science fiction are other as well, though they are considered unknowable to all of humanity instead of one society, culture, or social group. in this way, the normate is defined by the non-normate. rosemarie garland thomson, a prominent scholar in the field of disability studies, describes this usage of opposing categories as part of the “cultural work” of the historical freak show. audiences of the freak show could reaffirm their own understandings of the normate by viewing someone displayed as a freak and subsequently be reassured that they were themselves normates (64-65). as such, these opposing categories each define the other, the normate versus the non-normate. in district 9, this opposition is demonstrated by contrasting the alien prawns with the normate humans, where the category of alien works similarly to the category of freak in the historical freak show. furthermore, aliens and freaks are both constructed categories within society. jeffrey weinstock points out that anyone can become a freak or an alien in theory because there is no single identifier or individual characteristic which defines these categories (329). instead, the forms of alien and freak are defined against the normate of a society so that they embody the other. both aliens and freaks occupy the same liminal space between wonder and logic, which can be seen in the presentation of historical freak show acts. the people being exhibited were displayed and sensationalized with exaggerated origin stories, but at the same time, medical examiners and scientists would be brought in to explain the physical differences these individuals demonstrated and validate public interest in their bodies. the idea of aliens operates similarly, exciting existential and wondrous fantasies while that same attention is given credence by scientific inquiry. the alien and the freak then erupt from this intersection of the aweinspiring and the scientific. prior to the first buddings of modern science, there existed a category of otherness which monk labels “the supernatural other” (7). this is a class of the unknowable that operates without explanation and beyond the limits of physical laws, most often in folklore carducci 137 and theological contexts – for example spirits, demons, or angels. these creatures were believed to exist without the need to be proven or studied, and they often induced awe, wonder, or terror in the cultures from which they had sprung. but with the birth of the sciences came the need to study and classify the world, both known and unknown. this begins, as warren smith notes, in 1832 with teratology – the study of abnormalities in the development of living beings (180). careful observation took away the wonder of earlier belief, replacing it with an interest in clinical pathology that would shape modern medical science. but, though deviation from the normate could be observed and described to the satisfaction of late-nineteenth-century and early-twentieth-century researchers, explanations and “cures” continued to evade their grasp. individuals with physiological differences were left to become medical specimens on public display in freak shows, figures deserving pity for their differences that science could now classify but not truly “fix.” the supernatural other was being pushed out of belief, not fitting within the framework of evolution and biological study (monk 8). this was to be the era of the freak show and, slightly later, the extraterrestrial other. after all, the golden age of science fiction falls amongst the trailing ends of the freak show’s heyday in the 1940s and with good reason: societal change made freak shows problematic and unpalatable to most consumers (weinstock 328). it was no longer acceptable to so openly trade in the display of human bodies as freaks, who were now sad figures inspiring pity and sympathy for their unfortunate circumstances. as such, aliens arose to do the cultural work that human freaks could no longer do. the alien, inherently a fictional creation of an author’s mind, can act as an extension of the freak, a new descriptive container for the racist and xenophobic positions of a society that avoids the criticism garnered by the display of an actual human (weinstock 330). aliens can be publically ogled, dissected, and studied. they can be explained through scientific reasoning in a way that the supernatural other cannot, but they are far enough outside the boundaries of accepted reality so as to not evoke sympathy or pity like a freak, a human other. weinstock perhaps best explains the relative positions of the human freak and the extraterrestrial other by constructing a continuum from completely human to completely nonhuman. instead of trying to create carducci 138 separate categories, he recognizes the overlapping boundaries of the freak, the alien, and the monster as he writes: on a continuum stretching from human to nonhuman, from a mythical conception of a unified, bounded self to an equally mythical notion of an absolute other, the freak remains contiguous with the human, while the monster exists at a farther remove, at a point approaching the unknowable. a gap exists between the monster and the human, a gap problematically occupied by the freak. (328) he places the alien within this gap between human and monster as well, but with far more mobility to move along the continuum than the freak, who must always be at least partially human. the alien can be more human, such as the vulcan people of star trek, or less human, like the creeping xenomorph of the alien franchise. to weinstock, the contemporary alien is the new freak, a figure of otherness that does the same categorical work but with greater flexibility and lacking enough humanity to prevent moral squeamishness. so where in all of this does district 9 reside? humans are easily recognizable as the normates of the film because the film and the quasidocumentary being shown within the film are both shot from the human perspective, calling upon human academics, civilians, and witnesses for interviews. wikus himself, as the main character, embodies the true normate at the beginning – a straight white male in a happy marriage, a desk worker who seems to possess no extraordinary characteristics for good or bad. thomson describes this as the “unmarked norm,” a figure who holds power by being completely unremarkable and seemingly neutral in appearance (40). but, on the other hand, there are the extraterrestrial inhabitants of district 9. the prawns – as they are negatively called in the film – occupy the extreme on the opposite end of the continuum, approaching entirely nonhuman. they are bipedal and recognizably sentient, which gives them some aspect of familiar humanity, but their design is meant to be distinctly other and separate from the humans of the film. blomkamp, the film’s director, is quoted as stating, “the creatures should have tentacled faces and hands, designed with practical creature-suit-wearing human performers in mind, distorting the recognizable human form wherever possible” (hart). carducci 139 the aliens are a distinctly and visibly separate category from the humans. then wikus begins his horrifically vivid transformation from human to alien, sliding from one extreme to the other. for a majority of the film’s action, wikus occupies a middle ground between human and alien, the space given to the freak. the boundaries between human and alien are important within the film district 9, however. labels help clearly organize and quickly sort the information that the mind must process into neat bundles. the edges of these categories define the expectations of society for an individual within that category (thomson 65). a person possesses an expectation for how others will behave based upon their categorization, and they themselves can know the expectations placed on them by others. in district 9, the humans know that they are expected to live in the city or around it, that they should have jobs and families and friends. at the same time, aliens should live in district 9 and bow to the authority of multi-national united (mnu), the shadowy mercenary organization that polices the alien refugees. but such strong, clearly defined borders between social groups allows for alienation. alienation is defined by smith as “the signification of distance or separation between two or more objects” (178). he also calls it a formative part of the human experience, “man’s eternal condition,” and it has existed for as long as people have been labelling and demarcating themselves, their societies, and the surrounding world. this demarcation and alienation is plentiful in district 9, which takes its own title from the physical representation of alienation between the humans and the prawns – district 9, the barricaded and walled-in slums where the prawns live entirely separate from human infrastructure, culture, and society. the social groups of prawn and human are equally demarcated so that there can be no confusion between the two; there are vast differences in culture, appearance, and even language between them. there is no point in district 9 when a human speaks the language of the prawn or when a prawn speaks any human language. this space of alienation, both physical and conceptual, allows for the prawns to be treated as they are. the prawns live in revolting conditions, surrounded entirely by trash in ramshackle huts cobbled together from sheets of ragged metal. they have no governing or agricultural power, and they seem to live almost entirely as scavengers even though they occupy carducci 140 a large area in the heart of the city of johannesburg. but the prawns are not people, and people do not enter district 9. the terrible conditions are allowed to continue because those with the power and resources to make a change, the normate human population, do not view the prawns as sympathetic or familiar creatures at all. for example, one unnamed civilian shown in the documentary portion of the film states that things would be different if the prawns had been humans that he would care if they were members of another race but not if they are just aliens. mnu’s own shoot-first tactics reflect this alienated perspective as well. they don’t shy away from treating the prawns with cruelty and crass indifference, often killing indiscriminately or taking pleasure in the death and torment of the prawns. koobus venter, arguably the villain of the film and part of the normate population as well, is one who delights not only in killing prawns but in hunting wikus in particular. however, even as alienation allows for this lack of sympathy and identification, there also comes a desire to embody the differences of the excluded group. again, this ties back to the cultural work of identification in the historical freak show as described by thomson. historical freak show performers were not just freaks that defied the norms of society, but they were also held up as revered celebrities (66). for americans of the time period, this was largely due to the social value of individuality. belonging to the normate group made a person comfortable, but part of being normate included having a sense of personal uniqueness. there was nothing more unique and still human than the human freak show performer. in district 9, there is a longing for the otherness of the prawns at play. the few humans who willingly enter into the district are from a social group known only as the “nigerians.” it is not made clear where this name comes from or if the group members are even nigerian at all. they are merely identifiable because they have a demonstrated willingness to enter district 9 and barter with the alien population there. however, they not only interact with the prawns but take part in some aspects of the prawns’ culture – specifically, their military technology and physical capabilities. the prawns, though they do not demonstrate a particular willingness to use the power at their hands, possess a scattered cache of advanced military weaponry, and the nigerians often attempt to barter for and possess this technology themselves. the nigerians also view the prawns as being carducci 141 biologically superior, physically stronger and capable of healing from greater damage, traits of which the nigerians are similarly envious. in the middle of these alienated social groups, however, lies wikus. starting as human, wikus begins an unintended and reluctant transformation towards the “monster” end of weinstock’s continuum. this transformation is comparable to the character of the cyborg as described by warren smith, wherein two different, alienated social identities compete within one physical body, challenging the accepted limits of the bounded groups (178-179). with this, some might originally see wikus as a possible utopian bridge between two distinctive cultures. after all, the hybrid nature of wikus’s own body demonstrates that humans and prawns are not as dissimilar as the film had originally portrayed them to be. wikus could be able to unify these groups in a new and universally shared trans-human identity but, instead, like smith’s cyborg, these competing identities drive the hybrid character to seek one over the other. most often, this leads to a nonhuman or trans-human character trying to be more human – for example, spock from star trek learning to embrace the emotions of his human identity over the rational logic of his vulcan identity. in district 9, wikus violently rejects his transformation and the physical changes it brings when he decides to amputate the arm that has become prawn-like. wikus cannot come to terms with being the freak in between, or perhaps transcending these two identities, and instead tries to fit himself into one category through extreme and grotesque measures. wikus’s transformation also inspires a similarly violent rejection from the other human characters. in absorbing the otherness of the prawns – literally embodying the alienation of the film’s society – wikus forces the people around him to consider the normality of their own natures. smith talks about this in the context of his cyborg, quoting michael beehler’s “border patrols”: this then is the alien as freak. a figure which always “positions itself somewhere between pure familiarity and pure otherness… taking its positions on the border between identity and difference, it makes that border, articulating it while at the same time disarticulating and confusing the distinctions the border stands for.” (183) carducci 142 the mnu employees who are aware of what has happened to wikus are unsympathetic, even willing to sacrifice wikus in a gruesome manner for the sake of scientific inquiry and capitalist success. the rest of the human population, made marginally aware of wikus’s transformation through a media smear campaign, are repulsed even without seeing his mutated body. the one attempt wikus makes to live anonymously amongst the human population of johannesburg is the best example of this. in the middle portion of the film, wikus is forced to flee from mnu’s interests after it becomes apparent that they wish to dissect his body. he cannot go home, as the company has already positioned forces there, so wikus robes himself in large clothes and wraps a blanket tightly over his chest to disguise his own mutated arm. this scene is set in a fast-food restaurant shown earlier in the film; the establishment is consistently crowded with customers, and wikus shuffles in as just another person in the mass. but, while he is in the eatery, a television displays a message calling for his capture. the report states that wikus has had sexual interactions with a prawn and is subsequently suffering from some kind of disease. the crowd around him immediately begins to pull away, despite wikus’s protests and before they even have any evidence of his “diseased” state. the mere accusation of such intergroup contact, a violation of accepted social boundaries, is enough to drive them to reject wikus as a freak. the actual and inevitable reveal of his extraterrestrial arm sends the crowd into a panicked frenzy, and many flee the restaurant. wikus himself is forced to leave as mnu’s attention is drawn to the area by this commotion. this scene illustrates wikus’s ostracization from human society, but it also highlights one way that the film district 9 uses the physical body of the human freak to illustrate the conceptual idea of a breakdown in identity. the city of johannesburg itself shows this divide in the clearly defined borders of district 9, which separate it from the human areas of the city. but while the physical boundaries of the city might create the illusion of equally distinct social boundaries, wikus’s presence rejects that notion. van veuren writes about the role of the physical body in “tooth and nail: anxious bodies in neill blomkamp’s district 9,” saying, “once wikus becomes infected with alien dna, he falls outside of this scheme of classification and his body poses a threat to its very order” (576). carducci 143 unlike the prawns or the humans, there is no physical space for wikus to occupy. and because it is the human which is normate – more importantly, because the human normate must be unmarked to give it power – the physically marked and trans-human wikus cannot reside in human spaces. the “loss” of wikus’s humanity coincides with his removal from the physical infrastructure of human life. one scholarly commentator says this in regard to wikus’s exile: the entire world was watching him. he was on every radio station – every image on television. anything you could find, it had his face on it. so he had nowhere else to go. he ended up hiding in the one place he knew no one would ever come looking for him. (district 9) so wikus ends up in district 9, a decidedly non-human space, and finds his only ally in christopher johnson, the extraterrestrial whose attempts to change the fortune of his people started wikus’s transformative process. part of the danger that wikus poses to the human population of the film is related to the fear that he inspires in people, the fear that “this could be me.” a similar fear was often evoked by the historical freak show – audiences would flock to see the exhibition of human beings, both fascinated by the pageantry and fearful that they themselves could be so displayed. in district 9, wikus was a human and part of the normate culture, but that changes rather easily over the course of the film. by the end, he has been exiled to an extraterrestrial space, one that is not up to the human standards of living. the poor treatment of the prawns can be justified because they are not human, but that conviction does not hold when wikus is violating the boundaries between human and alien. in being forced by wikus’s hybrid nature to confront the immaterial reality of their own identities, the human population is forced to address the socially constructed and arbitrary divide between prawn and human. this raises the fear that they might themselves violate the limits of these groups, therein becoming freaks and subsequently forced into a widely despised social class and poorer living conditions. all of these things contribute to the freakish aspects of wikus’s circumstances in the movie, but no less important is the value placed on wikus’s body as a commercial product. the historical freak show commodified human difference, allowing people to control and profit off of carducci 144 these non-normate bodies, often with a lessened regard for the individuals themselves. their bodies were of monetary importance more so than their lives, often resulting in many being autopsied and displayed after their deaths, such as in the case of julia pastrana and saartjie baartman. similar commercial value is assigned to the bodies of the prawns and to wikus in particular. the most subtle yet pervasive example of this commodification is that the prawns are branded by mnu. many throughout the film display the blocky white letters of mnu on their bodies. no explanation is ever given in the film for this branding, but it is present and persistent nonetheless. this draws direct parallels to the idea of branding cattle, marking the prawns as the lawful property of mnu, despite the fact that they are living creatures and demonstrably sentient ones at that. it also detracts from the idea of prawns as individual beings by marking them uniformly under one label. mnu also controls the boundaries of district 9 and acts as the only governing force within the district. they are, in practice, a corporate overlord to the prawn population. much like historical freak show performers as well, value is assigned to the bodies of the prawns instead of their lives. in fact, the prawns are seen as far more valuable after their deaths than before. the nigerians and mnu both demonstrate this; the nigerians actually consume the prawns as folk remedies, hoping to absorb their physical prowess, while mnu runs an underground laboratory for the dissection of the prawns. this is in contrast to the living prawns, who are largely described as a drain on the resources of the government which has poured millions of dollars into refugee efforts. the prawns are also seen as pests to citizens who accuse the prawns of rampant theft and point to them as the cause of an outbreak of riots. some of this value comes from the alien technology, coded to only work while being handled by an individual with prawn dna. mnu hopes to use the bodies of the prawns to access their technology, and they approach the situation with clinical and detached interest. the nigerians approach this same problem more holistically by killing and then eating the bodies of the prawns. it is also reported by unnamed civilians in the documentary scenes of district 9 that one can eat different portions of the prawn body to achieve different healing effects. notably, such consumption is viewed with slight distaste, but it does not bear the same stigma as the act of cannibalism carducci 145 would – again reinforcing that the prawns are not human in the eyes of society. these same values are then assigned to wikus as well. but while the prawns are numerous, present in more than enough numbers to satisfy the nigerians’ hunger and mnu’s interest, wikus is entirely unique. this drives up the value placed on his body, as he is not just another prawn and he is not just another human. his freak status enables him to become a priceless resource to both groups, and they engage in a climactic battle in district 9 as wikus tries to aid christopher johnson in his escape at the end of the film. however, this uniqueness is not the only facet of his increased value. wikus, in enacting his transformation from human to prawn, inadvertently accomplishes what both the nigerians and mnu are hoping to achieve: successful combination of human and prawn features. because of this, wikus is able to use the alien technology and weaponry while other humans cannot, and the value of his physical body is further increased. perhaps most interesting in this is that while wikus’s body is ascribed higher and higher commercial value, he loses his social power as one of the normates. in the beginning of the film, as a member of the unmarked normate, wikus has a good social and economic standing – he is even put in charge of mnu’s efforts to relocate the prawns. but, as wikus is transformed, thereby becoming a marked and non-normate figure, he loses this power even as he is assigned worth as a specimen. with this loss of power comes a loss of agency; wikus loses his ability to move freely in his home city, and his actions are restricted by the fear and desire of the normate. it is a compelling exchange of power that follows wikus from his high-profile corporate position to the obscurity of the prawns’ slums, where he loses most of his identity except for one remaining ‘human’ trait – the desire to make small crafts for the wife he has been forced to leave behind. in many ways, then, wikus’s story in district 9 mirrors the living situations and treatment of many historical freakshow performers. but many critics and viewers of the film are left to question what message district 9 is trying to impart. though the film deliberately parallels the south african apartheid, it is still accused of racist characterization and stereotypical display of both the prawns and the nigerians (van veuren 573). however, the quasi-documentary film style allows for an additional level of self-awareness within the film as commentators can look back on carducci 146 the story of wikus and draw attention to the ways in which his treatment was damaging and negative. district 9 also draws attention to the desperate and desolate living conditions of the subjugated prawns, pushing the uncomfortable story of racial segregation to the forefront unlike other “going native” stories such as james cameron’s avatar (rieder 49). ultimately, while neither flawless nor without problems in its portrayal of non-normate figures, district 9 manages to construct a new breed of science fiction sideshow performer in wikus van de merwe, and the story of his transformation has had a definite impact on audiences. though about aliens, district 9 is inescapably a freak show in and of itself, featuring clashing identities, horrific transformation, and the commodification of physical bodies. it is just as smith concludes in his article, “identification with the alien as freak is always present if, sometimes, sensed only obliquely. this figure exists in a semi-defined space between fear and attraction” (187). the freak show is there in johannesburg with wikus as its star performer, forever immortalized in this film. carducci 147 works cited alien. dir. ridley scott. twentieth century-fox productions, 1979. film. district 9. dir. neill blomkamp. sony pictures, 2009. film. hart, hugh. “art of district 9 illustrates alien freak show.” wired. conde nast, 4 oct. 2010. web. 2 dec. 2015. monk, patricia. alien theory. oxford: scarecrow press, 2006. print. rieder, john. “race and revenge fantasies in avatar, district 9 and inglourious basterds.” science fiction film and television 4.1 (2011): 41-56. project muse. web. 2 dec. 2015. smith, warren. “‘i am a man, and nothing human is alien to me’: alienation and freakishness.’” science fiction and organization. ed. warren smith. new york: routledge, 2001. 177-189. print. star trek. dir. j. j. abrams. paramount pictures, 2009. film. thomson, rosemarie garland. extraordinary bodies: figuring physical disability in american culture and literature. new york: columbia university press, 1997. print. van veuren, mocke j. “tooth and nail: anxious bodies in neill blomkamp’s district 9.” critical arts 26.4 (2012): 570-586. ebsco. web. 4 dec. 2015. weinstock, jeffrey a. “freaks in space: ‘extraterrestrialism’ and ‘deep-space multiculturalism.’” freakery: cultural spectacles of the extraordinary body. ed. rosemarie garland thomson. new york: new york university press, 1996. 327-37. print. carducci 148 villainy and women: a critical edition of james baldwin’s “the quest of medusa’s head” introduction the story of medusa has traveled through centuries of mythology and folklore. numerous versions have appeared over time, with origins in both europe and north america. in 1895, american author james baldwin wrote an anthology of short stories based upon famous greek myths. included in these stories was “the quest of medusa’s head,” a tale recounting perseus’s supposedly heroic quest to slay medusa and claim her head as a prize. baldwin’s recounting of medusa’s death is problematic in many ways. perhaps the most notable problem with baldwin’s tale is his distinct separation of women into two types: the “ideal” or “good” woman, one who will marry well and become a devoted mother, and the “monstrous” or “bad” woman, one who is not respected in society and is exiled due to differences. analyzing this dichotomy reveals the ways in which medusa’s story acts as a vessel for baldwin to perpetuate society’s sexist views, not only through defining specific types of women as monsters, but also through defining some women as good. the most commonly remembered part of medusa’s story is the frightful appearance of medusa: she is “awful to look upon” and has “hair that was full of living serpents” (baldwin, “the quest of medusa’s head” 94). however, baldwin’s version, like many others, overlooks the sympathetic reading of her origin, in spite of the fact that various translations encompass the origin story of medusa. these abstract tales of medusa typically end in her death, but, if all she does is die, why are the stories about her? through analyzing medusa’s story with a feminist lens, readers can see that her life is dictated by the men around her—she is hideous because a man rapes her and is killed because a man desires her head. medusa has become a comparative symbol for women who break from gender roles and defy the patriarchy. this edition analyzes restraints placed upon medusa, and all women, with particular focus on literature from the nineteenth century. cassandra grosh, noah patterson, & maggie weeks-foy, ball state university 1digital literature review, vol. 4 (2017). ball state university. all rights reserved. please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce critical edition to dlr@bsu.edu. versions note that medusa was one of three sisters, but the only one who was mortal. before she became the monstrous figure permeating greek mythology and popular culture, medusa was human. her transformation into a monster actually stems from her rape at the hands of poseidon. in ovid’s metamorphoses, medusa is described as “being a beautiful maiden. her eye caught the eye of poseidon, who desired her and proceeded to ravage her in athena’s shrine” (“the legend of medusa and the gorgons”). athena, enraged by this, turned medusa’s hair into snakes and bestowed on her the infamous curse: anyone she looks upon will turn to stone. through this reading, one that includes details of her rape, medusa becomes a highly sympathetic character rather than a monstrous one. the circumstances leading up to her curse—being punished by athena for being raped at her shrine— frame medusa as a victim who was unjustly cursed for actions forced upon her (“the legend of medusa and the gorgons”). this becomes even more striking when considering the fact that, in baldwin’s tale, athena is one of the two gods who aid perseus in his quest to defeat medusa. baldwin’s neglect of this origin story only perpetuates the continued monsterization of medusa historically, thereby contributing to a patriarchy that preserves harmful rape culture, reinforces gender roles, and silences victims. in spite of medusa’s brutal origin, she has been demonized throughout history, and other powerful women have been demonized in her shadow. in her article, “the original ‘nasty woman,’” primarily about former secretary of state hillary clinton, elizabeth johnston reminds her readers that depictions comparing women in power to medusa can be traced back to marie antoinette, as well as the suffragette movement in the united states. several textual examples are included in the article to illuminate this familiar trend of vilifying powerful women with medusa’s image. first, in “the two are but one (les deux ne font qu’un),” an anonymously drawn political cartoon from the late eighteenth century, marie antoinette is depicted as bestial, having the body of a hyena and a head covered in serpents. johnston also notes that, in 1868, around the same time women were gaining educational autonomy through the opening of the first women’s colleges in the united states, “painter elihu vedder imagined medusa as a self-absorbed woman who petrifies herself by looking into a mirror” ( johnston). even more telling is the prevalence of medusa during the women’s suffrage movement, which held its first conference at seneca falls in 1848 (“seneca falls convention begins”). with this movement in full swing, baldwin, whose collection of stories were released in 1895, would have been well aware of the progressive shift. postcards titled the feminine jekyll and hyde, created by udo j. keppler in 1913, feature triumphant women holding flags brandishing the words “women’s suffrage”; 2grosh, patterson, weeks-foy however, these images are disrupted by a medusa-like monster in the center of the card (keppler). with baldwin reviving such an iconic creature in mythology just years before the creation of these postcards, could it also be possible that he encouraged the misogynistic tradition of portraying women as medusa? when considering the historical trend of portraying powerful women as medusa, the ramifications of telling medusa’s story in a way that demonizes her becomes evident. in the preface to baldwin’s old greek stories, he states that his intention in writing these stories was to bring joy to children. however, he also comments on how children should read these stories: “i have carefully avoided every suggestion of interpretation. attempts at analysis and explanation will always prove fatal to a child’s appreciation and enjoyment of such stories” (baldwin, “preface” 3). through the stereotypical depiction of medusa in these stories, baldwin is continuing a harmful tradition that bestows traditional gender roles and ideals on children subliminally, a direct result of his neglect to analyze these texts and their implications. baldwin makes it clear that children should not scrutinize these stories, but, in order to understand the meaning behind these stories, they must. one illustration of the ways that these subliminal messages affect children can be found in the book woman hating, by andrea dworkin. dworkin defines these fairy tales and stories as “the primary information of the culture. they delineate roles, interactions, and values which are available to us. they are our childhood models, and their fearful, dreadful content terrorizes [women] into submission – if [women] do not become good, then evil will destroy us” (34-35). because these fairy tales act as our cultural guides, they also maintain harmful gender roles that permeate society; for example, in the context of victorian america, when baldwin’s stories were published, there were strict cultural roles defined for men and women. for instance, this is portrayed in the etiquette guide, the bazar book of decorum, written by robert tomes in 1870, in which ways of dress, beauty ideals, hygienic recommendations, poise, expressions, and more are meticulously detailed. women are instructed on anything from how to act to how to maintain the cleanliness of their ears. the beginning of this guide states, “universal cleanliness and good manners are essential to a democracy. this must be generally recognized and acted upon, or the refined will seek in other countries the exclusiveness which will secure for them that nicety of life essential to its enjoyment, and we shall be left alone to wallow in our brutality and foulness” (tomes 13). when comparing these societal ideals to the behaviors of two prominent women in baldwin’s stories, medusa and atalanta—another powerful female character in baldwin’s stories who is forced to conform to societal 3grosh, patterson, weeks-foy pressures—readers can see how these women, through their refusal to conform to the ideals of their society, are made wild, brutal, and foul. furthermore, victorian england’s views of single women as a social problem were echoed by the colonies in the united states. the phenomenon was noticed and described by william rathbone greg, who published the essay “why are women redundant?” in 1862. the author argues with genuine concern that, according to statistics, “there were, in england and wales, in 1851, 1,248,00 women in the prime of their life, i.e. between the ages of twenty and forty years, who were unmarried, out [of ] a total number of rather less than 3,000,000” (greg 12). greg anticipates a “miserable life of celibacy, struggle[,] and privation” to single women and, as a solution, suggests a shipment of thousands of women to the newly formed colonies, as the pickings were slim for the unmarried men across the atlantic ocean (greg 17). much like the women of 1851, medusa, ostracised due to her recent transformation, lives far from society only to be forced back into the role of serving a man, suggesting that even spatial distance from patriarchal society is not always enough to escape its influence. in order to portray the ways in which deadly patriarchy may affect women who live on the fringes, like medusa, dworkin discusses the concept of the female monster defining the prince, who is often the hero of the story. for dworkin, the hero of the story oftentimes resembles someone handsome and heroic. he is a prince, that is, he is powerful, noble, and good. he rides a horse. he travels far and wide. he has a mission, a purpose. inevitably, he fulfills it. he is a person of worth and a worthwhile person. he is strong and true. of course, he is not real, and men do suffer trying to become him. they suffer, and murder, and rape, and plunder. . . . what matters is that he is both powerful and good, and that his power is by definition good. what matters is that he matters, acts, succeeds. (dworkin 43) while the prince may embody these ideals and noble concepts, he is not defined until juxtaposed by a feminine evil. in fact, dworkin states, “the truth of it is that [the prince] is powerful and good when contrasted with [the feminine villain]. the badder she is, the better he is. the deader she is, the better he is. that is one moral of the story, the reason for dual role definition, and the shabby reality of the man as hero” (dworkin 44). perseus encapsulates this hero dworkin defines: he travels a long distance for the purpose of slaying medusa, and he completes this task, but, in doing so, perseus defiles the gray sisters—three haggish women who perseus uses to advance in his quest—threatening to steal the only eye and tooth they share to “see what is going on in the busy world” and “feel young and handsome 4grosh, patterson, weeks-foy again” unless they aid him in his task (baldwin, “the quest of medusa’s head” 98). what is supposed to be seen as perseus being clever is actually more indicative of this “rape” and “plunder” dworkin describes. when considering the origin story of medusa, as well as her rape, perseus becomes even more monstrous in his efforts to confront medusa and defeat a woman who has been made a monster as a result of rape. therefore, perseus becomes a personification of patriarchal society, treating medusa, a woman on the fringes, as “other” and in need of controlling. readers of “the quest of medusa’s head” might be surprised by how little is said of medusa. there is no fight scene, no explanation of medusa’s origin, nor is there any stated reason why she is a monster worth killing besides her appearance. a reader could argue that medusa is a monster simply for having a nontraditional female appearance. similarly, the argument could also be made that, by this time, medusa was already a widely recognized and vilified character in classical tradition. as mentioned previously, she is also a figure that has been historically linked to women in power. furthermore, the women valued most within this story are beautiful, such as danaë, perseus’s mother, and andromeda, perseus’s wife. while athena, the gray sisters, and the maidens are all noted and respected, they are ultimately admired for their usefulness towards perseus. this becomes even more troubling when examining the ways in which the prince or hero is often defined in fairy tales alongside women. the prince is more heroic when contrasted with the wickedness of the female figure he must vanquish. his successes are defined by the women he can use, marry, or rape along the way, with no regard for the women themselves. the existence of these women in the story is solely to further perseus’s journey. “the quest of medusa’s head” by james baldwin, 18951 i. the wooden chest. there was a king of argos who had but one child, and that child was a girl. if he had had a son, he would have trained him up to be a brave man and great king; but he did not know what to do with this fair-haired daughter. when he saw her growing up to be tall and slender and wise, he wondered if, after all, he would have to die some time and leave his lands and his gold and his kingdom to her. so he sent to delphi and asked the pythia about it. the pythia told him that he would not only have to die some time, but that the son of his daughter would cause his 5grosh, patterson, weeks-foy ¹ this story comes from a collection of baldwin stories originally published in 1895, but this text comes from the hathitrust. this text is also accessible through project gutenberg. death. this frightened the king very much, and he tried to think of some plan by which he could keep the pythia’s words from coming true. at last he made up his mind that he would build a prison for his daughter and keep her in it all her life. so he called his workmen and had them dig a deep round hole in the ground, and in this hole they built a house of brass which had but one room and no door at all, but only a small window at the top. when it was finished, the king put the maiden, whose name was danaë, into it; and with her he put her nurse and her toys and her pretty dresses and everything that he thought she would need to make her happy. “now we shall see that the pythia does not always tell the truth,” he said. so danaë was kept shut up in the prison of brass. she had no one to talk to but her old nurse; and she never saw the land or the sea, but only the blue sky above the open window and now and then a white cloud sailing across. day after day she sat under the window and wondered why her father kept her in that lonely place, and whether he would ever come and take her out. i do not know how many years passed by, but danaë grew fairer every day, and by and by she was no longer a child, but a tall and beautiful woman; and jupiter amid the clouds looked down and saw her and loved her. one day it seemed to her that the sky opened and a shower of gold fell through the window into the room; and when the blinding shower had ceased, a noble young man stood smiling before her. she did not know—nor do i—that it was mighty jupiter who had thus come down in the rain; but she thought that he was a brave prince who had come from over the sea to take her out of her prisonhouse. after that he came often, but always as a tall and handsome youth; and by and by they were married, with only the nurse at the wedding feast, and danaë was so happy that she was no longer lonesome even when he was away. but one day when he climbed out through the narrow window there was a great flash of light, and she never saw him again. not long afterwards a babe was born to danaë, a smiling boy whom she named perseus. for four years she and the nurse kept him hidden, and not even the women who brought their food to the window knew about him. but one day the king chanced to be passing by and heard the child’s prattle. when he learned the truth, he was very much alarmed, for he thought that now, in spite of all that he had done, the words of the pythia might come true. the only sure way to save himself would be to put the child to death before he was old enough to do any harm. but when he had taken the little perseus and his mother out of the prison and had seen how helpless the child was, he could 6grosh, patterson, weeks-foy not bear the thought of having him killed outright. for the king, although a great coward, was really a kind-hearted man and did not like to see anything suffer pain. yet something must be done. so he bade his servants make a wooden chest that was roomy and watertight and strong; and when it was done, he put danaë and the child into it and had it taken far out to sea and left there to be tossed about by the waves. he thought that in this way he would rid himself of both daughter and grandson without seeing them die; for surely the chest would sink after a while, or else the winds would cause it to drift to some strange shore so far away that they could never come back to argos again. all day and all night and then another day, fair danaë and her child drifted over the sea. the waves rippled and played before and around the floating chest, the west wind whistled cheerily, and the sea birds circled in the air above; and the child was not afraid, but dipped his hands in the curling waves and laughed at the merry breeze and shouted back at the screaming birds. but on the second night all was changed. a storm arose, the sky was black, the billows were mountain high, the winds roared fearfully; yet through it all the child slept soundly in his mother’s arms. and danaë sang over him this song: “sleep, sleep, dear child, and take your rest upon your troubled mother’s breast; for you can lie without one fear of dreadful danger lurking near. wrapped in soft robes and warmly sleeping, you do not hear your mother weeping; you do not see the mad waves leaping, nor heed the winds their vigils keeping. the stars are hid, the night is drear, the waves beat high, the storm is here; but you can sleep, my darling child, and know naught of the uproar wild.” at last the morning of the third day came, and the chest was tossed upon the sandy shore of a strange island where there were green fields and, beyond them, a little town. a man who happened to be walking near the shore saw it and dragged it far up on the beach. then he looked inside, and there he saw the beautiful lady 7grosh, patterson, weeks-foy and the little boy. he helped them out and led them just as they were to his own house, where he cared for them very kindly. and when danaë had told him her story, he bade her feel no more fear; for they might have a home with him as long as they should choose to stay, and he would be a true friend to them both. ii. the magic slippers. so danaë and her son stayed in the house of the kind man who had saved them from the sea. years passed by, and perseus grew up to be a tall young man, handsome, and brave, and strong. the king of the island, when he saw danaë, was so pleased with her beauty that he wanted her to become his wife. but he was a dark, cruel man, and she did not like him at all; so she told him that she would not marry him. the king thought that perseus was to blame for this, and that if he could find some excuse to send the young man on a far journey, he might force danaë to have him whether she wished or not.2 one day he called all the young men of his country together and told them that he was soon to be wedded to the queen of a certain land beyond the sea. would not each of them bring him a present to be given to her father? for in those times it was the rule, that when any man was about to be married, he must offer costly gifts to the father of the bride. “what kind of presents do you want?” said the young men. “horses,” he answered; for he knew that perseus had no horse. “why don’t you ask for something worth the having?” said perseus; for he was vexed at the way in which the king was treating him. “why don’t you ask for medusa’s head, for example?” “medusa’s head it shall be!” cried the king. “these young men may give me horses, but you shall bring medusa’s3 head.” “i will bring it,” said perseus; and he went away in anger, while his young friends laughed at him because of his foolish words. what was this medusa’s head which he had so rashly promised to bring? his mother had often told him about medusa. far, far away, on the very edge of the world, there lived three strange monsters, sisters, called gorgons. they had 8grosh, patterson, weeks-foy 2 the king does not respect danaë as an equal, so he cannot accept her refusal of him. the king’s denial of danaë’s basic human right to say “no” foreshadows his later attempted kidnapping and potential rape of her. to him, she is simply a beautiful woman, a prize, and a challenge to conquer. 3 it is important to note this is medusa’s first mention in a story about her. the male hero has been the main focus thus far. when medusa is finally mentioned, it is to frame her as a prize worthy only of one who can conquer her. the bodies and faces of women, but they had wings of gold, and terrible claws of brass, and hair that was full of living serpents.4 they were so awful to look upon, that no man could bear the sight of them, but whoever saw their faces was turned to stone. two of these monsters had charmed lives, and no weapon could ever do them harm; but the youngest, whose name was medusa5, might be killed, if indeed anybody could find her and could give the fatal stroke. when perseus went away from the king’s palace, he began to feel sorry that he had spoken so rashly. for how should he ever make good his promise and do the king’s bidding? he did not know which way to go to find the gorgons, and he had no weapon with which to slay the terrible medusa. but at any rate he would never show his face to the king again, unless he could bring the head of terror with him. he went down to the shore and stood looking out over the sea towards argos, his native land; and while he looked, the sun went down, and the moon arose, and a soft wind came blowing from the west. then, all at once, two persons, a man and a woman, stood before him. both were tall and noble. the man looked like a prince; and there were wings on his cap and on his feet, and he carried a winged staff, around which two golden serpents were twined. he asked perseus what was the matter; and the young man told him how the king had treated him, and all about the rash words which he had spoken. then the lady spoke to him very kindly; and he noticed that, although she was not beautiful, she had most wonderful gray eyes, and a stern but lovable face and a queenly form. and she told him not to fear, but to go out boldly in quest of the gorgons; for she would help him obtain the terrible head of medusa. “but i have no ship, and how shall i go?” said perseus. “you shall don my winged slippers,” said the strange prince, “and they will bear you over sea and land.” “shall i go north, or south, or east, or west?” asked perseus. “i will tell you,” said the tall lady. “you must go first to the three gray sisters, who live beyond the frozen sea in the far, far north. they have a secret which nobody knows, and you must force them to tell it to you. ask them where you shall find the three maidens who guard the golden apples of the west; and when they shall have told you, turn about and go straight thither. the maidens will give you 9grosh, patterson, weeks-foy 4 readers should note medusa is the first woman mentioned besides danaë and the nursemaid. danaë is a woman in need of protection from the corruption of man, but, as is evident from her physical description, medusa is clearly not in need of protection from the typical man. she instantly serves as a monster because of her non-traditional feminine form and the power she holds over men. 5 here, medusa is described as grotesque and far from human, and she is the perfect monster for perseus to slay. in order to save his royal and pure mother, he must destroy this abomination of a creature. three things, without which you can never obtain the terrible head; and they will show you how to wing your way across the western ocean to the edge of the world where lies the home of the gorgons.” then the man took off his winged slippers, and put them on the feet of perseus; and the woman whispered to him to be off at once, and to fear nothing, but be bold and true. and perseus knew that she was none other than athena6, the queen of the air, and that her companion was mercury, the lord of the summer clouds. but before he could thank them for their kindness7, they had vanished in the dusky twilight. then he leaped into the air to try the magic slippers. iii. the gray sisters.8 swifter than an eagle, perseus flew up towards the sky. then he turned, and the magic slippers bore him over the sea straight towards the north. on and on he went, and soon the sea was passed; and he came to a famous land, where there were cities and towns and many people. and then he flew over a range of snowy mountains, beyond which were mighty forests and a vast plain where many rivers wandered, seeking for the sea. and farther on was another range of mountains; and then there were frozen marshes and a wilderness of snow, and after all the sea again,--but a sea of ice. on and on he winged his way, among toppling icebergs and over frozen billows and through air which the sun never warmed, and at last he came to the cavern where the three gray sisters dwelt. these three creatures were so old that they had forgotten their own age, and nobody could count the years which they had lived. the long hair which covered their heads had been gray since they were born; and they had among them only a single eye and a single tooth which they passed back and forth from one to another. 10grosh, patterson, weeks-foy 6 it is important to note that, while athena is a goddess, her attributes are not feminine. she is described here as “not beautiful” and “stern.” unlike many women, she is not noticed because of her beauty, a feminine characteristic, but rather because of her wits and intelligence, characteristics that are typically considered more masculine. it is because of these masculine characteristics that athena can be so easily respected and trusted. 7 perseus acknowledges athena’s “kindness” toward him, but it is important to understand athena is not necessarily a kind goddess. as noted in the introduction, she cursed medusa, along with the woman’s sisters, to appear as hideous gorgons. this curse was placed because medusa was raped by poseidon (“the legend of medusa and the gorgons”). knowing this context allows readers to realize athena is not necessarily a benevolent goddess. instead, she is seeking further revenge on medusa, implying that cursing a beautiful woman to become a monster is not enough of a punishment after a woman suffers from sexual assault. 8 these women are also referred to as the graeae and are sisters to the gorgons (“graeae,” “perseus”). perseus heard them mumbling and crooning in their dreary home, and he stood very still and listened. “we know a secret which even the great folk who live on the mountain top can never learn; don’t we, sisters?” said one. “ha! ha! that we do, that we do!” chattered the others. “give me the tooth, sister, that i may feel young and handsome again,” said the one nearest to perseus. “and give me the eye that i may look out and see what is going on in the busy world,” said the sister who sat next to her. “ah, yes, yes, yes, yes!” mumbled the third, as she took the tooth and the eye and reached them blindly towards the others. then, quick as thought, perseus leaped forward and snatched both of the precious things from her hand. “where is the tooth? where is the eye?” screamed the two, reaching out their long arms and groping here and there. “have you dropped them, sister? have you lost them?” perseus laughed as he stood in the door of their cavern and saw their distress and terror. “i have your tooth and your eye,” he said, “and you shall never touch them again until you tell me your secret. where are the maidens who keep the golden apples of the western land? which way shall i go to find them?” “you are young, and we are old,” said the gray sisters; “pray, do not deal so cruelly with us. pity us, and give us our eye.” then they wept and pleaded and coaxed and threatened. but perseus stood a little way off and taunted them; and they moaned and mumbled and shrieked, as they found that their words did not move him. “sisters, we must tell him,” at last said one. “ah, yes, we must tell him,” said the others. “we must part with the secret to save our eye.” and then they told him how he should go to reach the western land, and what road he should follow to find the maidens who kept the golden apples. when they had made everything plain to him perseus gave them back their eye and their tooth. “ha! ha!” they laughed; “now the golden days of youth have come again!” and, from that day to this, no man has ever seen the three gray sisters, nor does any one [sic] know what became of them. but the winds still whistle through their cheerless cave, and the cold waves murmur on the shore of the wintry sea, and the ice mountains topple and crash, and no sound of living creature is heard in all that desolate land. 11grosh, patterson, weeks-foy iv. the western maidens9. as for perseus, he leaped again into the air, and the magic slippers bore him southward with the speed of the wind. very soon he left the frozen sea behind him and came to a sunny land, where there were green forests and flowery meadows and hills and valleys, and at last a pleasant garden where were all kinds of blossoms and fruits. he knew that this was the famous western land, for the gray sisters had told him what he should see there. so he alighted and walked among the trees until he came to the center of the garden. there he saw the three maidens of the west dancing around a tree which was full of golden apples, and singing as they danced. for the wonderful tree with its precious fruit belonged to juno, the queen of earth and sky; it had been given to her as a wedding gift, and it was the duty of the maidens to care for it and see that no one touched the golden apples. perseus stopped and listened to their song: “we sing of the old, we sing of the new,-our joys are many, our sorrows are few; singing, dancing, all hearts entrancing, we wait to welcome the good and the true. the daylight is waning, the evening is here, the sun will soon set, the stars will appear. singing, dancing, all hearts entrancing, we wait for the dawn of a glad new year. the tree shall wither, the apples shall fall, sorrow shall come, and death shall call, alarming, grieving, all hearts deceiving,-but hope shall abide to comfort us all. 12grosh, patterson, weeks-foy 9 while a description of the maidens’ appearance is not provided, readers are led to assume these women must be beautiful. maidenhood was greatly valued in both classical times, when this story is set, and in the nineteenth century, when this version of the story was written. by naming these women simply as “maidens,” they have no identity other than their purity. these women exist as things unattainable, much like the golden apples they protect. soon the tale shall be told, the song shall be sung, the bow shall be broken, the harp unstrung, alarming, grieving, all hearts deceiving, till every joy to the winds shall be flung. but a new tree shall spring from the roots of the old, and many a blossom its leaves shall unfold, cheering, gladdening, with joy maddening,-for its boughs shall be laden with apples of gold.” then perseus went forward and spoke to the maidens. they stopped singing, and stood still as if in alarm. but when they saw the magic slippers on his feet, they ran to him, and welcomed him to the western land and to their garden. “we knew that you were coming,” they said, “for the winds told us. but why do you come?” perseus told them of all that had happened to him since he was a child, and of his quest of medusa’s head; and he said that he had come to ask them to give him three things to help him in his fight with the gorgons. the maidens answered that they would give him not three things, but four. then one of them gave him a sharp sword10, which was crooked like a sickle, and which she fastened to the belt at his waist; and another gave him a shield, which was brighter than any looking-glass you ever saw; and the third gave him a magic pouch, which she hung by a long strap over his shoulder. “these are three things which you must have in order to obtain medusa’s head; and now here is a fourth, for without it your quest must be in vain.” and they gave him a magic cap, the cap of darkness11; and when they had put it upon his head, there was no creature on the earth or in the sky--no, not even the maidens themselves--that could see him. when at last he was arrayed to their liking, they told him where he would find the gorgons, and what he should do to obtain the terrible head and escape alive. then they kissed him and wished him good luck, and bade him hasten to do the dangerous deed. and perseus donned the cap of darkness, and sped away and 13grosh, patterson, weeks-foy 10 some sources claim the sword belonged to the god hephaestus (“the legend of medusa and the gorgons”): the god of blacksmiths, crafts, and volcanoes (“hephaestus”). 11 this cap is typically referred to as a helmet. the helmet of invisibility belongs to hades (“perseus”). away towards the farthermost edge of the earth; and the three maidens went back to their tree to sing and to dance and to guard the golden apples until the old world should become young again. v. the dreadful gorgons. with the sharp sword at his side and the bright shield upon his arm, perseus flew bravely onward in search of the dreadful gorgons; but he had the cap of darkness upon his head, and you could no more have seen him than you can see the wind. he flew so swiftly that it was not long until he had crossed the mighty ocean which encircles the earth, and had come to the sunless land which lies beyond; and then he knew, from what the maidens had told him, that the lair of the gorgons could not be far away. he heard a sound as of some one [sic] breathing heavily, and he looked around sharply to see where it came from. among the foul weeds which grew close to the bank of a muddy river there was something which glittered in the pale light. he flew a little nearer; but he did not dare to look straight forward, lest he should all at once meet the gaze of a gorgon, and be changed into stone. so he turned around, and held the shining shield before him in such a way that by looking into it he could see objects behind him as in a mirror. ah, what a dreadful sight it was! half hidden among the weeds lay the three monsters, fast asleep, with their golden wings folded about them. their brazen claws were stretched out as though ready to seize their prey; and their shoulders were covered with sleeping snakes. the two largest of the gorgons lay with their heads tucked under their wings as birds hide their heads when they go to sleep. but the third, who lay between them, slept with her face turned up towards the sky; and perseus knew that she was medusa. very stealthily he went nearer and nearer, always with his back towards the monsters and always looking into his bright shield to see where to go. then he drew his sharp sword and, dashing quickly downward, struck a back blow, so sure, so swift, that the head of medusa was cut from her shoulders and the black blood gushed like a river from her neck. quick as thought he thrust the terrible head into his magic pouch and leaped again into the air, and flew away with the speed of the wind. then the two older gorgons awoke, and rose with dreadful screams, and spread their great wings, and dashed after him. they could not see him, for the cap of darkness hid him from even their eyes; but they scented the blood of the head which he carried in the pouch, and like hounds in the chase, they followed him, 14grosh, patterson, weeks-foy sniffing the air. and as he flew through the clouds he could hear their dreadful cries and the clatter of their golden wings and the snapping of their horrible jaws. but the magic slippers were faster than any wings, and in a little while the monsters were left far behind, and their cries were heard no more; and perseus flew on alone. vi. the great sea beast. perseus soon crossed the ocean and came again to the land of the west. far below him he could see the three maidens dancing around the golden tree; but he did not stop, for, now that he had the head of medusa safe in the pouch at his side, he must hasten home. straight east he flew over the great sea, and after a time he came to a country where there were palm trees and pyramids and a great river flowing from the south. here, as he looked down, a strange sight met his eyes: he saw a beautiful girl chained to a rock by the seashore, and far away a huge sea beast swimming towards her to devour her. quick as thought, he flew down and spoke to her; but, as she could not see him for the cap of darkness which he wore, his voice only frightened her. then perseus took off his cap, and stood upon the rock; and when the girl saw him with his long hair and wonderful eyes and laughing face, she thought him the handsomest young man in the world. “oh, save me! save me!” she cried as she reached out her arms towards him. perseus drew his sharp sword and cut the chain which held her, and then lifted her high up upon the rock. but by this time the sea monster was close at hand, lashing the water with his tail and opening his wide jaws as though he would swallow not only perseus and the young girl, but even the rock on which they were standing. he was a terrible fellow, and yet not half so terrible as the gorgon. as he came roaring towards the shore, perseus lifted the head of medusa from his pouch and held it up; and when the beast saw the dreadful face he stopped short and was turned into stone; and men say that the stone beast may be seen in that selfsame spot to this day. then perseus slipped the gorgon’s head back into the pouch and hastened to speak with the young girl whom he had saved. she told him that her name was andromeda, and that she was the daughter of the king of that land. she said that her mother, the queen, was very beautiful and very proud of her beauty; and every day she went down to the seashore to look at her face as it was pictured in the quiet water; and she had boasted that not even the nymphs who live in the sea were as handsome as she. when the sea nymphs heard about this, they were very angry and asked great neptune, the king of the sea, to punish the queen for her pride. so 15grosh, patterson, weeks-foy neptune sent a sea monster to crush the king’s ships and kill the cattle along the shore and break down all the fishermen’s huts12. the people were so much distressed that they sent at last to ask the pythia what they should do; and the pythia said that there was only one way to save the land from destruction,--that they must give the king’s daughter, andromeda, to the monster to be devoured. the king and the queen loved their daughter very dearly, for she was their only child; and for a long time they refused to do as the pythia had told them. but day after day the monster laid waste the land, and threatened to destroy not only the farms, but the towns; and so they were forced in the end to give up andromeda to save their country. this, then, was why she had been chained to the rock by the shore and left there to perish in the jaws of the beast. while perseus was yet talking with andromeda, the king and the queen and a great company of people came down the shore, weeping and tearing their hair; for they were sure that by this time the monster had devoured his prey. but when they saw her alive and well, and learned that she had been saved by the handsome young man who stood beside her, they could hardly hold themselves for joy. and perseus was so delighted with andromeda’s beauty that he almost forgot his quest which was not yet finished; and when the king asked him what he should give him as a reward for saving andromeda’s life, he said: “give her to me for my wife.”13 this pleased the king very much; and so, on the seventh day, perseus and andromeda were married, and there was a great feast in the king’s palace, and everybody was merry and glad. and the two young people lived happily for some time in the land of palms and pyramids; and, from the sea to the mountains, nothing was talked about but the courage of perseus and the beauty of andromeda.14 vii. the timely rescue. but perseus had not forgotten his mother; and so, one fine summer day, he and andromeda sailed in a beautiful ship to his own home; for the magic slippers could not carry both him and his bride through the air. the ship came to land at the 16grosh, patterson, weeks-foy 12 hubris, excessive pride that often led mortals to claim they were as good as or better than the gods, was a common cause of conflict in greek tragedy (“hubris, n.”). 13 it is important to note that nothing is told of andromeda besides her beauty. perseus, after only knowing her for a few short minutes, requests to wed her because of her physical appearance. 14 perseus now has two prizes from his quest: a beautiful wife and the head of medusa. he has now proven himself a brave hero and becomes the husband to a beautiful princess. very spot where the wooden chest had been cast so many years before; and perseus and his bride walked through the fields towards the town. now, the wicked king of that land had never ceased trying to persuade danaë to become his wife; but she would not listen to him, and the more he pleaded and threatened, the more she disliked him. at last when he found that she could not be made to have him, he declared that he would kill her; and on this very morning he had started out, sword in hand, to take her life. so, as perseus and andromeda came into the town, whom should they meet but his mother fleeing to the altar of jupiter, and the king following after, intent on killing her? danaë was so frightened that she did not see perseus, but ran right on towards the only place of safety. for it was a law of that land that not even the king should be allowed to harm any one who took refuge on the altar of jupiter.15 when perseus saw the king rushing like a madman after his mother, he threw himself before him and bade him stop. but the king struck at him furiously with his sword. perseus caught the blow on his shield, and at the same moment took the head of medusa16 from his magic pouch. “i promised to bring you a present, and here it is!” he cried. the king saw it, and was turned into stone17, just as he stood, with his sword uplifted and that terrible look of anger and passion in his face. the people of the island were glad when they learned what had happened, for no one loved the wicked king. they were glad, too, because perseus had come home again, and had brought with him his beautiful wife, andromeda. so, after they had talked the matter over among themselves, they went to him and asked him to be their king. but he thanked them, and said that he would rule over them for one day only, and that then he would give the kingdom to another, so that he might take his mother back to her home and her kindred in distant argos. on the morrow therefore, he gave the kingdom to the kind man who had 17grosh, patterson, weeks-foy 15 danaë is continuously shown as the damsel in distress. first, she is held captive by her father; next, she is rescued from the chest by a kind man who takes her in; and, now, she is being chased by the king. while she is a strong woman for raising a son alone, she is shown as a fragile, beautiful women who must be saved and protected, much like andromeda, the women her son chose to marry. 16 this is the last mention of medusa within the story. after perseus’s quest, he gives medusa’s head to athena. the goddess chooses to place the head on her shield, aegis (“medusa”). 17 turning the king into stone makes perseus the true monster of the story. medusa lived far from civilization in a land no one could find without divine help, so she was not hurting or killing anyone. since perseus slayed medusa, he turns both the sea monster and the king to stone. in addition to these two events, perseus also turns the titan, atlas (the man cursed to hold the world on his shoulders), into a stone mountain with the aid of medusa’s head. this occurs on perseus’s journey home when atlas refuses the young man a place to rest (“the legend of medusa and the gorgons”). while on his noble quest, perseus ends four lives, but these stories do not tell of medusa willingly turning any to stone while she was alive. she is a monster because she is a hideous, powerful woman who partook (albeit unwillingly) in sex before marriage. saved his mother and himself from the sea; and then he went on board his ship, with andromeda and danaë, and sailed away across the sea towards argos. viii. the deadly quoit. when danaë’s old father, the king of argos, heard that a strange ship was coming over the sea with his daughter and her son on board, he was in great distress; for he remembered what the pythia had foretold about his death. so, without waiting to see the vessel, he left his palace in great haste and fled out of the country. “my daughter’s son cannot kill me if i will keep out of his way,” he said. but perseus had no wish to harm him; and he was very sad when he learned that his poor grandfather had gone away in fear and without telling any one where he was going. the people of argos welcomed danaë to her old home; and they were very proud of her handsome son, and begged that he would stay in their city, so that he might some time become their king. it happened soon afterwards that the king of a certain country not far away was holding games and giving prizes to the best runners and leapers and quoit throwers. and perseus went thither to try his strength with the other young men of the land; for if he should be able to gain a prize, his name would become known all over the world. no one in that country knew who he was, but all wondered at his noble stature and his strength and skill; and it was easy enough for him to win all the prizes. one day, as he was showing what he could do, he threw a heavy quoit a great deal farther than any had been thrown before. it fell in the crowd of lookers-on, and struck a stranger who was standing there. the stranger threw up his hands and sank upon the ground; and when perseus ran to help him, he saw that he was dead. now this man was none other than danaë’s father, the old king of argos. he had fled from his kingdom to save his life, and in doing so had only met his death. perseus was overcome with grief, and tried in every way to pay honor to the memory of the unhappy king. the kingdom of argos was now rightfully his own, but he could not bear to take it after having killed his grandfather. so he was glad to exchange with another king who ruled over two rich cities, not far away, called mycenae and tiryns. and he and andromeda lived happily in mycenae for many years. james baldwin’s “the story of atalanta” contextualized18 baldwin’s collection, old greek stories, has little focus on strong, independent 18grosh, patterson, weeks-foy women. despite this lack of focus, the story of atalanta, a young woman who is left in the woods for dead as an infant and is then raised by a mother bear, made its way into the collection. atalanta proves herself a brave warrior and is unparalleled in skill by any man. despite her strength and independence, the idea of marriage still looms over her. as a woman, it is atalanta’s role in society to become a wife and mother. while this perception existed during the height of greek civilization, it is well-known that this concept fueled society during the victorian era, the time period in which baldwin published his collection. according to an article by gertrude himmelfarb in the victorian studies reader, “women who were unmarried had failed to fulfill their destiny, both biologically and psychologically” (214). in other words, atalanta, while remaining unmarried, is an incomplete woman. however, atalanta’s flippancy towards marriage only makes her courters want her more, and she goes on to make a game of being husbandless. while she, being an atypical woman due to her independence, might not be devoted to the idea of marriage and motherhood, she finds her own way to attempt conquering the issue: after the death of meleager, atalanta went back to her old home among the mountains of arcadia. she was still the swift-footed huntress, and she was never so happy as when in the green woods wandering among the trees or chasing the wild deer. all the world had heard about her, however; and the young heroes in the lands nearest to arcadia did nothing else but talk about her beauty and her grace and her swiftness of foot and her courage. of course every one of these young fellows wanted her to become his wife; and she might have been a queen any day if she had only said the word, for the richest king in greece would have been glad to marry her. but she cared nothing for any of the young men, and she liked the freedom of the green woods better than all the fine things she might have had in a palace. the young men would not take “no!” for an answer, however. they could not believe that she really meant it, and so they kept coming and staying until the woods of arcadia were full of them, and there was no getting along with them at all. so, when she could think of no other way to get rid of them, atalanta called them together and said: 19grosh, patterson, weeks-foy 18 this story was published in the same james baldwin book, old greek stories, as “the quest of medusa’s head.” the original publication date is 1895, but this text comes from the kindle ebook release of 2004. this text is accessible through project gutenberg. “you want to marry me, do you? well, if any one [sic] of you would like to run a race with me from this mountain to the bank of the river over there, he may do so; and i will be the wife of the one who outruns me.” “agreed! agreed!” cried all the young fellows. “but, listen!” she said. “whoever tries this race must also agree that if i outrun him, he must lose his life.” ah, what long faces they all had then! about half of them drew away and went home. “but won’t you give us the start of you a little?” asked the others. “oh, yes,” she answered. “i will give you the start by a hundred paces. but remember, if i overtake any one before he reaches the river, he shall lose his head that very day.” several others now found that they were in ill health or that business called them home; and when they were next looked for, they were not to be found. but a good many who had had some practice in sprinting across the country stayed and made up their minds to try their luck. could a mere girl outrun such fine fellows as they? nonsense! and so it happened that a race was run almost every day. and almost every day some poor fellow lost his head; for the fleetest-footed sprinter in all greece was overtaken by atalanta long before he could reach the river bank. but other young men kept coming and coming, and no sooner had one been put out of the way than [sic] another took his place. this passage makes it appear as though atalanta has avoided marriage while still opening the gates for potential courtship. by inviting young men to race her in order to win her hand in marriage, atalanta is engaging in a ritual of courtship: she is narrowing the pool of candidates without completely disregarding the idea of marriage as a whole. however, it is still apparent from this seemingly impossible race that atalanta is not interested in marrying any of the men: she is simply humoring them in their quest for her. the continuing strife of these men for atalanta shows they do not respect her decisions or her desire to remain free of marriage. at the end of her tale, despite her efforts to remain an independent woman, atalanta is tricked into marrying one of the suitors: one day there came from a distant town a handsome, tall young man named meilanion. “you’d better not run with me,” said atalanta, “for i shall be sure 20grosh, patterson, weeks-foy to overtake you, and that will be the end of you.” “we’ll see about that,” said meilanion. now meilanion, before coming to try his chance, had talked with venus, the queen of love, who lived with jupiter among the clouds on the mountain top. and he was so handsome and gentle and wise that venus took pity on him, and gave him three golden apples and told him what to do. well, when all was ready for the race, atalanta tried again to persuade meilanion not to run, for she also took pity on him. “i’ll be sure to overtake you,” she said. “all right!” said meilanion, and away he sped; but he had the three golden applies [sic] in his pocket. atalanta gave him a good start, and then she followed after, as swift as an arrow shot from the bow. meilanion was not a very fast runner, and it would not be hard for her to overtake him. she thought that she would let him get almost to the goal, for she really pitied him. he heard her coming close behind him; he heard her quick breath as she gained on him very fast. then he threw one of the golden apples over his shoulder. now, if there was anything in the world that atalanta admired, it was a bright stone or a pretty piece of yellow gold. as the apple fell to the ground she saw how beautiful it was, and she stopped to pick it up; and while she was doing this, meilanion gained a good many paces. but what of that? in a minute she was as close behind him as ever. and yet, she really did pity him. just then meilanion threw the second apple over his shoulder. it was handsomer and larger than the first, and atalanta could not bear the thought of allowing some one [sic] else to get it. so she stopped to pick it up from among the long grass, where it had fallen. it took somewhat longer to find it than she had expected, and when she looked up again meilanion was a hundred feet ahead of her. but that was no matter. she could easily overtake him. and yet, how she did pity the foolish young man! meilanion heard her speeding like the wind behind him. he took the third apple and threw it over to one side of the path where the ground sloped towards the river. atalanta’s quick eye saw that it was far more beautiful than either of the others. if it were not picked up at once it would roll down into the deep water and be lost, and that 21grosh, patterson, weeks-foy would never do. she turned aside from her course and ran after it. it was easy enough to overtake the apple, but while she was doing so meilanion gained upon her again. he was almost to the goal. how she strained every muscle now to overtake him! but, after all, she felt that she did not care very much. he was the handsomest young man that she had ever seen, and he had given her three golden apples. it would be a great pity if he should have to die. and so she let him reach the goal first. after that, of course, atalanta became meilanion’s wife. and he took her with him to his distant home, and there they lived happily together for many, many years. meilanion’s victory is problematic because he distracts atalanta from fully exerting herself in the race. while “she let him reach the goal first,” meilanion still has to have the aid of a goddess before he can stand a chance against atalanta. atalanta concedes to him, but she does not do so out of respect. she considers him “the handsomest young man,” and this artificial description of him shapes her decision to become his bride. even in the conclusion of her own story, atalanta, a strong warrior who seems unconcerned with the trivialities of common life, can only find happiness through marriage. in the end, she is conquered by meilanion and domesticated. eliza leslie’s the ladies’ guide to true politeness and perfect manners contextualized19 over a hundred years after the end of the victorian era, many find the societal expectations outrageous. during the victorian era, women’s suffrage was gaining momentum, america was facing reconstruction after the civil war, and industrialism was influencing the western world. immigration into america and western european countries was also shaping the way culture and class were viewed. all of these events were fashioning the world, but society was not becoming more accepting. as is exhibited in the following excerpt from the ladies’ guide to true politeness and perfect manners, an american guide published in 1864 by t.b. peterson & brothers, rigid structure was still emphasized: when you hear a gentleman speak in praise of a lady whom you do not think deserving of his commendations, you will gain nothing by attempting to undeceive him; particularly if she is handsome. your 22grosh, patterson, weeks-foy 19 the original publication date for this guide is 1864, but this text comes from the kindle ebook release of 2011. this text is accessible through project gutenberg. dissenting from his opinion he will, in all probability, impute to envy, or ill-nature; and therefore the only impression you can make will be against yourself. even if you have reason to dislike the lady, recollect that few are without some good points both of person and character. and it will be much better for you to pass over her faults in silence, and agree with him in commending what is really commendable about her. what he would, perhaps, believe implicitly if told to him by a man, he would attribute entirely to jealousy, or to a love of detraction if related by a woman. above all, if a gentleman descants on the beauty of a lady, and in your own mind you do not coincide with his opinion, refrain, on your part, from criticizing invidiously her face and figure, and do not say that “though her complexion may be fine, her features are not regular;” that “her nose is too small,” or “her eyes too large,” or “her mouth too wide.” still less disclose to him the secret of her wearing false hair, artificial teeth, or tinging her cheeks with rouge. if she is a bold, forward woman, he will find that out as soon as yourself, and sooner too,— and you may be sure that though he may amuse himself by talking and flirting with her, he in reality regards her as she deserves. this excerpt shows that women were expected to behave in specific ways, especially in ways that flattered their sex as a whole. this guide lists behaviors for seemingly every situation: when at dinner, when with female company, when with male company, when at a hotel, when with children, when at church, etc. the ladies’ guide exists to “educate” women on how to behave; it acts as a literary charm school. contemporary readers of “the quest of medusa’s head” can benefit from the ladies’ guide excerpt because it sheds light on what was expected of women during the victorian time period when baldwin published his collection of stories. perhaps the most important thing that can be derived from this excerpt is how women were expected to behave while in the company of men. all thoughts and opinions should be silenced if they disagree with the man’s opinion, especially differing opinions involving women the man admires. if voiced, these opinions will only make the criticized woman discussed a point of disagreement. furthermore, by saying “he would attribute [this opinion] entirely to jealousy,” the ladies’ guide blatantly accuses men of sexism. instead of finding this sexism problematic, the sexism is being pointed out solely to remind women to mind their opinions and comments in order to avoid confrontation with men. this excerpt emphasizes how important it was for women to be liked by 23grosh, patterson, weeks-foy the men with which they keep company, even if the men admired these women for solely physical reasons. however, in addition to implying that men only kept the company of women because of the women’s supposed beauty, this excerpt accuses women of being beautiful due to artificial applications such as false teeth, wigs, and makeup. this snide comment attacks women who have the attention of men. essentially, women can do nothing right in regards to associating with men. if these women have opinions, they can be accused of jealousy; if the women dress to impress, the women will be accused of deceiving those around them. j. roger rees’s “woman—a man’s ideal” contextualized20 a major issue within “the quest of medusa’s head” is the demonization of medusa and the elevation of the devoted, feminine mother/wife figures. this view is appropriate for the time in which the story was published: 1895. during this time, women were expected to marry, raise children, care for the home, and devote themselves to their husbands. today, these expectations are considered sexist, but, during this time period, men based their interests upon whether or not a woman adhered to these ideas. this is best exemplified within the following passage from english author j. roger rees’s article, “woman—a man’s ideal”: nothing more truly reveals a man’s character than the picture he forms of the maiden he would find and win. . . .o maidens! fair to behold, tender and true, see to it then that you maintain yourselves ever worth of this worship we men hunger and thirst to pay you—this devotion of our best thoughts, our choicest imaginings, our highest achievements. by you own priceless truth and purity—your womanhood, in short— continue to hold power over us, as the moon o’er the mighty waters of the deep. this passage reveals the expectations and pressures placed upon women in order for them to embody the ideal of “the perfect woman.” as is evident from the language of this passage, one of the requirements of this ideal is maidenhood and purity, qualifications danaë and andromeda both exemplify. both women are helpless on their own, evidence of their innocence and need for a man such as perseus to care for them. however, it is not enough just for these women to be pure and maidenlike: they must also “maintain” themselves and ensure that they are “ever worth of this worship.” the author of this passage, j. rogers rees, places an unrealistic amount of pressure on women, essentially likening them to the virgin goddesses, such 24grosh, patterson, weeks-foy 20 the original publication date for this article is 1890. it could be originally found in the girl’s own paper. as athena. by idealizing and placing these women on a pedestal reserved nearly exclusively for goddesses, rees explains why perseus is attracted to andromeda and idealizes women like his mother, danaë: these two women are pure, beautiful, helpless, and worthy of worship. their beauty becomes a siren’s song, requiring men to “worship” them, and ultimately, to rescue them. this is yet another narrative trope that feminist theorist andrea dworkin illustrates. andromeda and danaë represent one of “two definitions of women. there is the good woman. she is a victim.” dworkin continues, saying, “the good woman must be possessed [by men]” (dworkin 48). both women need perseus to survive and will worship him for his bravery, but the worship will forever remind him of his debt to athena for aiding him on his quest, essentially guiding him to andromeda and saving his mother’s life. meanwhile, as women rely on men, men find a spiritual purpose in worship too, albeit through the dehumanization and objectification of women. men devote themselves to women not for the woman’s personhood but for her beauty and her need to rely on men to survive within the patriarchy. this begins to foster male ego and pride while simultaneously disenfranchising women in society. similarly, a woman’s dependence on a man prevents her from acting on her own and taking charge of her identity or destiny. therefore, andromeda and danaë foil athena: they embody the purity and beauty the goddess has, but they also highlight athena’s wits and ability to accomplish anything without the aid of man. while athena is untouchable because she is a virgin goddess, she is also untouchable because she will never need to be saved by a man like perseus; she can never stroke and promote his ego like mortal women. to rees, medusa would also become the foil of andromeda and danaë because she lives independently with her sisters. she also would not be worthy of devotion due to her appearance. as the antithesis of a “fair maiden” or a goddess, medusa becomes what dworkin considers “the bad woman. she must be destroyed . . . . the bad woman must be killed, or punished” (dworkin 48). medusa, as someone living on the fringes of society and monsterized for her appearance, would not be presenting the notion of rees’s ideal womanhood. baldwin portrays perseus as doing his part by murdering medusa, ridding the world of a creature that creates a perverse vision of what it means to be a woman. in contrast, andromeda, the “good woman,” is “rewarded” through her marriage with perseus, a mighty hero and king. through the murder of medusa, perseus “rights the wrong” of medusa’s existence, proving dworkin’s analysis of literary tropes surrounding feminine monsters. 25grosh, patterson, weeks-foy conclusion “the quest for medusa’s head” misleads readers into believing the story is about medusa herself. instead, the story focuses on defining perseus as a hero and worthy king. rather than providing an origin story about medusa, the story defines her as a villain and provides andromeda and danaë as medusa’s polar opposites. medusa is portrayed as a villain despite no obvious wrongdoing, while andromeda and danaë are beautiful, good women. andromeda and danaë comply with the standards of perfect women that are described in rees’s article and leslie’s the lady’s guide. through contextualizing rees and leslie, readers of baldwin’s stories can better understand the problematic sexism that plays a key role in how these women are described. andromeda and danaë are good women because they are beautiful and helpless. atalanta, while she is not fully portrayed as a villain like medusa, is neither praised nor admired. a key part of her story is her reckless and unfeminine behavior. it is not until atalanta is tricked into marriage that she becomes an admirable, female figure. with this dichotomy between good and bad women supported through the historical contextualization of rees’s article, the sexism of the eighteenthand nineteenth-century is evident. through the examination of “the story of atalanta” and the reading of “the quest for medusa’s head” provided here, it becomes clear that, although baldwin attempted to present a children’s book of greek tales that avoids interpretation, baldwin has actually compiled a collection of stories that reinforce gender stereotypes, perpetuate rape culture, and contribute to the vilification of women in power. 26grosh, patterson, weeks-foy works cited “athen~e, ~a.” encyclopedia of greco-roman mythology. 1998. baldwin, james. old greek stories. american book company, 1895. hathitrust, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044097075113;view=1up;seq=1. accessed 5 oct. 2016. dworkin, andrea. woman hating. penguin books, 1974. http://www.feministesradicales.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/andrea-dworkin-womanhating-a-radical-look-at-sexuality-1974.pdf. accessed 12 nov. 2016. “graeae.” encyclopedia of greco-roman mythology. 1998. greg, william rathbone. “why are women redundant?” n. tubner & co., 1869. american libraries, https://archive.org/details/whyarewomenredu00greggoog. accessed 10 dec. 2016. “hephaestus.” greekmythology.com, http://www.greekmythology.com/olympians/ hephaestus/hephaestus.html. accessed 8 dec. 2016. himmelfarb, gertrude. “in defense of the victorians.” the victorian studies reader, edited by kelly boyd and rohan mcwilliam, routledge, 2007, pp. 209-220. “hubris, n.” oxford english dictionary. 1933. johnston, elizabeth. “the original ‘nasty woman.’” the atlantic, http://www. theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/11/the-original-nasty-womanof-classical-myth/506591/. accessed 10 nov. 2016. keppler, udo j. the feminine jekyll and hyde. 1913. library of congress, washington d.c. library of congress, http://www.loc.gov/pictures/ item/2011649598/. accessed 28 nov. 2016. “the legend of medusa and the gorgons.” ancient origins, 15 mar. 2015, http:// www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends-europe/legend-medusa-andgorgons-002773?nopaging=1. accessed 6 dec. 2016. 27grosh, patterson, weeks-foy https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044097075113;view=1up;seq=1 http://www.feministes-radicales.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/andrea-dworkin-woman-hating-a-radical-look-at-sexuality-1974.pdf http://www.feministes-radicales.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/andrea-dworkin-woman-hating-a-radical-look-at-sexuality-1974.pdf http://www.feministes-radicales.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/andrea-dworkin-woman-hating-a-radical-look-at-sexuality-1974.pdf https://archive.org/details/whyarewomenredu00greggoog http://www.greekmythology.com/olympians/hephaestus/hephaestus.html http://www.greekmythology.com/olympians/hephaestus/hephaestus.html http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/11/the-original-nasty-woman-of-classical-myth/506591/ http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/11/the-original-nasty-woman-of-classical-myth/506591/ http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/11/the-original-nasty-woman-of-classical-myth/506591/ http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2011649598/ http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2011649598/ http://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends-europe/legend-medusa-and-gorgons-002773?nopaging=1 http://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends-europe/legend-medusa-and-gorgons-002773?nopaging=1 http://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends-europe/legend-medusa-and-gorgons-002773?nopaging=1 leslie, eliza. the ladies’ guide to true politeness and perfect manners, or miss leslie’s behavior book. t. b. peterson & brothers, 2011. “medusa.” encyclopedia of greco-roman mythology. 1998. “perseus.” encyclopedia of greco-roman mythology. 1998. “preface.” baldwin, pp. 3-4. “the quest of medusa’s head.” baldwin, pp. 88-114. “seneca falls convention begins.” history, http://www.history.com/this-day-inhistory/seneca-falls-convention-begins. accessed 6 dec. 2016. “the story of atalanta.” baldwin, pp. 132-136. rees, roger j. “woman a man’s ideal.” the girl ’s own paper, 1890. http://www.victorianvoices.net/articles/gop/women/1890idealwoman.pdf. accessed 23 jan. 2017. tomes, robert. the bazar book of decorum. harper & brothers, 1870. archive.org, https://archive.org/details/bazarbookofdecor00tomerich. accessed 11 nov. 2016. 28grosh, patterson, weeks-foy http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/seneca-falls-convention-begins http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/seneca-falls-convention-begins http://www.victorianvoices.net/articles/gop/women/1890-idealwoman.pdf http://www.victorianvoices.net/articles/gop/women/1890-idealwoman.pdf https://archive.org/details/bazarbookofdecor00tomerich the first of its kind: a cultural history of the village nègre introduction in 1889, all eyes were on the city of paris as it unveiled attractions that would be a part of that year’s world’s fair. among its exhibitions were a nearly fifteen hundred foot-long gallérie de machines; exhibits from europe, the americas, and french colonies; and, of course, the eiffel tower, unveiled in commemoration of the centennial celebration of the french revolution (ibach). one of the fair’s largest exhibits, however, is one that is rarely discussed, and it represents the dark era of colonialism in world history: the village nègre. the village nègre, or negro village, was a large colonial exhibit which displayed over four hundred indigenous people from a host of french colonies. opening on may 5, 1889, the village nègre was one of the fair’s most popular exhibitions, drawing over twenty eight million spectators in the almost six months it was open. the exhibit’s popularity stemmed from its uniqueness as the first of its kind—that is, an ethnological exhibit that showcased more than just a small group of individuals. the likes of it had never been seen in europe or america (dos santos and lewino). throughout this paper, we will argue that the village nègre was used to draw a line between the “civilized” and the “savage,” while it also served as a form of propaganda for colonialism and the establishment of european dominance in the world. the large size of the village made it impossible for it to be in the middle of the fair; rather, the village was found on the esplanade des lauren cross, lauren seitz, and shannon walter, ball state university abstract the village nègre, one of the largest exhibits in the 1889 world’s fair, was home to over four hundred indigenous people from various french colonies. throughout this paper, the authors discuss how the village nègre was used by the french to draw a line between the “civilized” and the “savage.” the village also served as a form of colonialist propaganda while further establishing european dominance. 21 digital literature review, vol. 3 (2016). © ball state university. all rights reserved. please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce critical edition to dlr@bsu.edu. invalides, a short walk from the eiffel tower, around which the majority of the fair was based (zeitoun). though called the village nègre, the exhibit was actually comprised of six smaller “villages” in which people ate, slept, and worked. although the nationalities of every person exhibited are unknown, experts are certain that the exhibit displayed arabs, kanaks (who are the indigenous melanesian people of new caledonia in the southwest pacific), the gabonese, congolese, javanese (from java, indonesia), and senegalese, all of whom were from areas that had been colonized by france. the exhibition, however, was not completely authentic; for example, one of the smaller villages that was named the pahouin village did not even contain pahouin people—they were put in a different area (dos santos and lewino). life in the village included not only performing daily tasks, such as cleaning, eating, and creating art—which was then sold as “authentic” to make a profit—but also giving several theatrical performances. women danced while naked, and men played drums and staged fights, which were extremely popular with spectators. some even performed tribal “rituals,” although experts cannot confirm whether these rituals were actually representative of cultures presented in the village (bancel, blanchard, and lemaire). given the disregard by french officials for the differences between each culture, it is doubtful that these rituals were grounded in any real cultural customs. this disregard demonstrates that the exhibit really was intended to display france’s dominance of the “savage” parts of the world. as they watched these rituals, spectators were fascinated by the people in the village nègre. fairgoers were able to watch exhibited people go about their daily lives, which supposedly gave a glimpse of what was believed to be the true culture of these “savages.” visitors to the village were encouraged to touch the people on display and get up close and personal in order to more fully understand different cultures. in addition to common folks, scientists from all over the world visited the fair in order to observe and study the people exhibited while they carried out their daily tasks (zeitoun). science was one of the main motivations for bringing colonized people to paris to be put on display. because the village nègre was one of the earliest large-scale ethnographic exhibits, people were fascinated with learning about the cultures that the people represented—scientists used the study of these people to form a so-called “race biology,” which aimed to prove “the congenital inferiority of races with ‘depressed or squeezed cross, seitz, walter 22 skulls’” (zeitoun). in other words, the scientific study of ethnographic exhibits, such as the village nègre, permitted scientists to develop the scientific racism that was accepted and supported by public opinion. it was not only the scientists that promoted racism in the village. ordinary visitors also used the exhibit to form their own opinions on where the “savages” fit on the scale of race. historian pascal blanchard and anthropologist gilles boëtsch explain that there is a direct link between the human exhibits and the general public’s prejudices: the shows of anthropological zoology were the essential vehicles of the passage of scientific racism to vulgar colonial racism… for their visitors, seeing populations of people behind bars, real or symbolic, sufficed to explain a hierarchy. they quickly understood where the power was found. (226) the way in which these subjects were exhibited communicated to the predominantly white audience that europeans were the ones in power and that they should look down on different races. these opinions were cemented in the minds of spectators as they visited the village nègre. the village nègre was just one exhibit in a long list of ethnological exhibitions that influenced the larger field of anthropology, which was becoming extremely important at the height of colonialism. while the village nègre was undoubtedly the largest zoo of its kind, human zoos were not new to europe; similar exhibits were common in large cities, including hamburg, barcelona, london, and milan. all of these exhibits shared the common goal of fitting colonized peoples into categories carefully constructed by those responsible for the human zoos. the most important goal of these anthropological exhibitions was attempting to draw the line between “civilized” and “savage.” though the village was promoted as an “authentic” representation of life in “savage” lands, its decorations, costumes, and accessories created caricatures and stereotypes of the people and cultures in the human zoo (dos santos and lewino). therefore, when scholars look back on this exhibit for study, it brings up the issue of cultural appropriation. white europeans, while “repulsed” by the indigenous people, were simultaneously fascinated by the unknown cultures from whence they came. dean maccannell writes that tourists, such as those who visited the village nègre, “are motivated by a desire to see life as it is really lived, even to get in with the natives” (592). cross, seitz, walter 23 maccannell further states, “touristic consciousness is motivated by its desire for authentic experiences” (597). unfortunately, however, the tourists of the world’s fair did not take the time to actually learn about these cultures and instead imposed a culture upon the human exhibits. in fact, according to maccannell, they followed the steps of staged authenticity, as the exhibition was “totally set up in advance for touristic visitation” (597). fair organizers did not actually care about an authentic representation of cultures but rather focused on staging the exhibit so that it would make visitors get the feeling of authenticity. the people within the village nègre performed the culture that europeans thought they should perform. the village nègre was one of the main attractions of the fair, and, while it was intended to dazzle spectators with new and unknown cultures, the french government had other motives. the village also acted as propaganda for french colonialism: “the power of exhibits of ‘the other’ created a strong political context and an historic movement of expansion on an unprecedented scale” (bancel, blanchard, and lemaire 16). each of the four hundred people in the village came from one of france’s many colonies. as european colonialism was at its height at the end of the nineteenth century, france needed a way to show its own people, as well as the world, its colonial prowess and power. not only could the french show that they had a great deal of land, but they also were able to exhibit the people who came from those lands—they used the village nègre to justify their takeover of northern africa and parts of asia by showing the public these “uncultured” and “uncivilized” “savages.” not only were the french showing their power, but the exhibit also encouraged other nations to pursue colonialist conquests. the portrayal of the people in the exhibit as savages created the sense of an urgent need to continue colonization in order to help these people become cultured like their european and american saviors. these “savages” became novelties to their viewers, and they were viewed as uncultured but also delightfully simple creatures. the notion of the “noble savage”—“a mythic conception of people belonging to non-european cultures as having innate natural simplicity and virtue uncorrupted by european civilization” (“noble savage”)—emerged as early as the previous century, and it was one that a great deal of colonizers used to justify their actions. in the colonizers’ eyes, cross, seitz, walter 24 it was up to european nations—those who were truly civilized—to help those from other cultures learn how to fit in to their society. one of the earliest ethnographic human exhibits on a large scale, the village nègre was visited by an enormous amount of people during its time at the 1889 world’s fair, people who were thus forced not only to compare themselves to the culture of the savages but also to contemplate their roles as the “civilized ones.” this exhibit encouraged cultural appropriation and continued colonialism that failed to attempt to understand the cultures which europeans and americans were taking advantage of. though over a century has passed since the end of the exhibit, the dark connotations of the village nègre, in which we were unable and unwilling to learn from the cultures of others, continues to linger throughout society. cultural analysis the display of these human beings in their “savage” habitats served as a way to prove how advanced european cultures were in comparison to their seemingly uncivilized counterparts. but what strategies were used in order to display them in an entertaining fashion? in order to persuade the audience to believe these indigenous people were, in fact, uncivilized, the organizers of the world’s fair disguised themselves as anthropologists and presented these displays in so-called “authentic” settings. while an observer of this tactic may feel appalled, the organizers of the fair felt more credible by telling the public that they were anthropologists who displayed these cultures rather than people whose goals were centered on fiscal prosperity. these displays presented the impression of savagery in exotic nations, and, by juxtaposing the middle-class fair-goers alongside “savage” individuals, the fair organizers were able to emphasize contrast between “civilization and barbarity” as well as “progress and primitivism” (munro 81). by doing so, the so-called “savages” who represented their respective cultures “accentuated” the colonial power of european nations over those deemed more uncivilized. this gave a false depiction of those who were exhibited. while they may have used handcrafted tools in their normal lives, they were not completely incompetent, as the mock anthropologists deemed them to be. as a result of the inaccurate depictions of the indigenous people put on display, the visitors returned to their “normal” lives in their “civilized” communities under the impression that these cross, seitz, walter 25 people lived in a barbaric and crude manner. fair visitors treated the products of these barbaric displays as trophies and souvenirs. the organizers who acted as anthropologists arranged false artifacts around the displays in order to reenact their own vision of the world, and they also explained national histories to suit their political purposes through the use of imposed narrative structures (munro 81). while these artifacts seemed natural to the viewers, many were fictitious depictions of the real artifacts used in their home cultures. yet viewers were given the impression that they could purchase original artifacts from “uncivilized” cultures. human exhibitions largely led to the creation of national museums not only in european countries but in the united states as well. for example, a similar american display occurred shortly after the 1889 world’s fair in paris. at the 1904 world’s fair in st. louis, over one thousand different people from at least ten different countries were put on display (allen). the ethnographic items left behind from these human displays found homes in spectacles within many of the new museums, in which they served to falsely portray the life and cultures of those who were exhibited (munro 81). the problem of false representation lingers today, since these artifacts are still being exhibited in museums. not only can people still see the deceptive relics, but they can also still observe the larger political issues underlying these displays. while audiences could compare their own progress to the barbarity portrayed within such human displays, they also gained a greater sense of their relationship to their own countries. even though the people visiting these exhibits may not have possessed a physical or even mental relationship with one another, the exhibits created an imaginary bond by increasing the spectators’ national identity (munro 82). by accentuating the differences between these “savage” peoples and their viewing counterparts, the organizers were able to emphasize the colonial power of european nations over “uncivilized” colonies (munro 84). the viewers were given the impression that their own countries possessed a greater hold over their international properties than “savages” did. while giving the viewers a chance to witness their own nation’s hold over other countries certainly was a result of the fair, the human exhibits also prompted other realizations. in these displays, a bridge formed cross, seitz, walter 26 between entertainment and conceptions of race based on social darwinism (munro 81). viewers already felt their entitlement magnified by witnessing the false, but seemingly accurate, depictions of other cultures. the exhibits inadvertently unveiled the visions of the elite. they thus brought white privilege to the forefront—all at the expense of the humanity of those from colonized cultures. as the world fair’s popularity increased, so did the prestige of the government of france. this occurred because the village nègre was grounded in assumptions about the correct social order and the distribution of power within society (munro 86). such exhibits made the middle class more aware of how they themselves were perceived in relation to their own societal values. witnessing the seemingly accurate depiction of other cultures could make spectators more conscious of how they themselves were depicted within society. spectators trusted the view of other cultures that they were given by the world’s fair, in part because of its aid in boosting the french economy, which was struggling before the world’s fair began. millions of people constructed and found employment within the world’s fair, while volunteers also spread the word to relatives and friends, resulting in heightened popularity for the fair (munro 81). because of the fair’s popularity, increased job openings allowed those who had been struggling to find work to prosper at the expense of those who remained locked behind bars in human displays. the french world’s fair was not unique in presenting a human zoo; other countries hosted smaller fairs in which they also displayed human exhibits. countries such as australia, brazil, guatemala, indonesia, jamaica, new zealand, and south africa created human exhibitions but did so in ways to suit their own economic needs (munro 87). while france presented their exhibits in ways that showed their dominance over their international colonies, other countries, some the same ones featured in the paris displays, imitated european exhibits in ways that matched their own political, economic, social, and cultural needs. the village nègre explicitly encompassed aspects of colonialism in its exhibits. this allowed fairgoers to leave with the impression that france provided a great deal of help to those who lived in different sectors of the world, when, in reality, the french were colonizing them. the exploitation cross, seitz, walter 27 of the indigenous people at the 1889 paris world’s fair illustrated france’s need for both economic expansion and a sense of entitlement over the “barbaric savages” on display. artifacts exposition poster: this is a poster that was used to advertise the parisian world’s fair in 1889. it does a good job of painting paris in a positive light, with bright colors and a well-executed design, while also communicating important information like ticket prices, times, etc. on the main part of the poster, it reads, “world exposition 1889 of paris: opening of the exposition.” this relates to our argument in that it shows the importance france placed on this exposition. it gives you a great mental image of the parisian streets covered in these posters, advertising this outstanding and monumental event, and allows you to place yourself in that time and feel more a part of that culture. we would also argue that this poster is displaying the exposition as an important cultural event, and, while in many ways it was, the human exhibition that occurred at this exhibition was cruel and inhumane towards all the human beings that were exhibited. the french strove to emphasize growth in technology (i.e., the eiffel tower); the village nègre added to the sense of cultural superiority that came along with that growth. map of villages: this map, much like the exposition poster, allows you to become more acquainted with the actual world’s fair that took place in paris. you can actually see where each exhibition was placed and how a good chunk of the exposition was arranged. we believe that this map lets you place yourself into the fair and cross, seitz, walter 28 https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/17/paris_1889_plakat.jpg http://www.worldfairs.info/paris89/pavillons/bigplanesplanadeinvalides.jpg get a good sense of what it was like to be walking around and witnessing a human zoo firsthand. while it is impossible to fully understand what transpired at this world’s fair, this map gives you a better idea of the exposition itself. this relates to our argument in that it shows how much time and effort went into putting this world exposition together, as is to be expected. but more specifically, it shows how much time went into exhibiting the human beings that were on display in the village nègre. this map is a good example of the manner in which these large quantities of people were exposed for the world to see, touch, and gawk at. the village nègre included: the algerian palace, the tunisian palace, senegalese village; loango (now congo) village, pahouin (central africa) village, tonkin (now vietnam) village, indonesian village, indian village; buildings for annam and tonkin (now vietnam), madagascar, guadeloupe, french guniea, and kanak (now malaysia); the pagoda of tonkin gods, anatomy theater, and multiple bazaars, boutiques, and restaurants. new york times article, “scientific religion”: this newspaper article from the year of the parisian world’s fair discusses st. george mivart, ph. d.’s opposition to charles darwin’s theory of evolution. mivart does not completely oppose darwin’s theory; he adds “certain details which might be used as the basis for important differences from the results otherwise drawn from darwin’s presentment of the question.” specifically, he adds the idea of religion and “divine energy” to darwin’s theory. this article correlates well with our argument by showing the importance of charles darwin even to those scholars still holding firm beliefs in regards to their religious values. by making the statement that “the reconcilement of evolution and religion has been undertaken by many besides dr. mivart, but few have written with such fullness and gone into the question to a like depth,” this article emphasizes the importance and influence of darwin’s writing on the society at this time. this could explain the inherent curiosity about the people believed to be more “primitive” than the citizens of paris at this point in time. we believe this to properly illustrate the allure of human beings who seemed close to the “missing link” side of darwin’s theories to those attending the exhibition. cross, seitz, walter 29 new york times article, “paris and the great show”: this newspaper article discusses the economic unrest that was occurring in paris around the time that the world’s fair was taking place. while france was in the middle of a financial crisis, the headline still read, “a cheerful welcome in spite of the unrest.” the article goes on to discuss the great lengths that the parisian government is willing to go to in order to make the summer of 1889 (beginning of the world expo.) be a “happy” summer by stating, “it must also be thoroughly understood that, in spite of money losses and political apprehension, strangers will not frown on the smiling and welcoming face of their parisienne hostess. the sun will shine and music will play.” this relates to the argument that is threaded throughout our cultural history project because it gives a great tidbit of background information that helps place our research about the 1889 world’s fair and what was happening in paris at the time that this exposition was taking place. this article supports our claims that the village nègre was partially an offensive and exploitative way to generate capital for the parisian economy that was faltering at the time. artifacts works cited “paris 1889”. wikipedia. commons.wikipedia.org, 1889. web. 20 apr. 2016. “paris and the great show.” new york times (1857-1922): 9. 24 mar. 1889. proquest. web. 15 nov. 2015. “plan esplanade des invalides.” world fairs info. worldfairs.info, 2016. web. 20 apr. 2016. “scientific religion.” new york times (1857-1922): 19. 7 apr. 1889. proquest. web. 15 nov. 2015 cross, seitz, walter 30 cross, seitz, walter works cited allen, greg. “‘living exhibits’ at 1904 world’s fair revisited.” national public radio. 31 may 2004. web. 20 mar. 2016. bancel, nicolas, pascal blanchard, and sandrine lemaire. “ces zoos humains de la république coloniale.” le monde diplomatique. aug. 2000: 16-17. web. 15 nov. 2015. 1 blanchard, pascal, and gilles boëtsch. “spectacles ethniques et culture de masse au temps des colonies.” revue d’histoire des sciences humaines, 2.7 (2002): 223-232. web. 15 nov. 2015. dos santos, gwendoline and frédéric lewino. “5 mai 1889. la france expose fièrement ses ‘nègres’, kanaks et annamites à l’expo universelle.” le point. 5 may 2015. web. 15 nov. 2015. ibach, marilyn. “paris exposition of 1889.” prints and photographs division. library of congress, 28 mar. 2011. web. 15 nov. 2015. maccannell, dean. “staged authenticity: arrangements of social space in tourist settings.” american journal of sociology, vol. 79.3. nov. 1973. web. 26 feb. 2016. munro, lisa. “investigating world’s fairs: an histography.” studies in latin american popular culture, vol. 28. 2010. web. 15 nov. 2015. “noble savage.” merriam webster dictionary. encyclopaedia britannica. 2015. web. 15 nov. 2015. zeitoun, charline. “à l’époque des zoos humains.” cnrs le journal. le centre national de la recherche scientifique. 25 aug. 2015. web. 15 nov. 2015. 1 all articles written in french were translated by lauren seitz 31 spells, spirits, and charms in the harlem renaissance jamie battaglia, washington and jefferson college this article analyzes specific examples of magic found in two major artistic outlets of the harlem renaissance, jazz, and literature. characters use voodoo and hoodoo to seek power and revenge, control the supposed stronger party, and give meaning to seemingly insignificant occurrences, thus offering a way for the artists of the harlem renaissance to control their own lives and black aesthetic achievement. the harlem renaissance began in the early 1900s and created a new appreciation for the african-american race and heritage by fostering an emphasis on using history to educate the black population and create a sense of racial pride (giggie 4). one example of using history to unite the african-american race was through voodoo or hoodoo, which derived from traditional african religion. in order to understand what voodoo and hoodoo was to the harlem renaissance, it is important to look at the history of the traditional vodun beliefs and how the great migration brought magic to harlem. besides outlining the history of voodoo, hoodoo, and migration patterns, i will also be looking at specific examples of magic found in two major artistic outlets of the harlem renaissance, jazz and literature. i argue that through these pieces of art, it is evident that voodoo and hoodoo are both used to represent power by seeking revenge, controlling the supposed stronger party, and giving meaning to seemingly insignificant occurrences as a way for the artists of the harlem renaissance to control their own lives and artistic black movement. voodoo and hoodoo derive from the traditional african religion known as vodun, which arrived in america with the settling of jamestown in 1619 and with the slave trade (mulira 112). the white settlers were scared of vodun and did not understand the beliefs or practices; they would often try to suppress it. the forced suppression caused the blending of the traditional vodun beliefs with other religions, such as catholicism, creating an off-shoot of vodun in the caribbean and southern united states known as voodoo (raboteau 115). through the use of voodoo, one could pray to a specific deity with certain dances, offer a particular food or animal to the deity, or dress a specific way in order to receive protection (37). another way to pray for help was by evoking spirits or ancestors, ultimately connecting vodun worshippers with their past (36). calling to ancestors proved to the vodun believers that there were others “in charge” of their well-being besides those suppressing them, like slave masters. one way that the voodoo worshippers were in control over their own lives was through herb concoctions, like potions, that the herb doctor or voodoo queen would create as remedies for certain ailments (37). the invoking of spirits, praying to someone or something other than the christian god, 20 digital literature review, vol. 1 (2014). © ball state university. all rights reserved. please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce article to dlr@bsu.edu. mailto:dlr%40bsu.edu?subject= spells, spirits, and charms in the harlem renaissance, battaglia the wild songs or dances, and the herbal concoctions seemed like dangerous magic to the white slave owners, something that was ultimately against their religion and way of life (raboteau 37). to the voodoo worshippers, their religion was harmless and meant to be peaceful. however, there is a negative component to voodoo referred to as “hoodoo” (“voudooism”). although both traditions look for omens and meaning within ordinary life, hoodoo is harmful in nature, with curses, potions, and charms that are meant to cause physical or mental damage (mulira 114). one aspect of hoodoo is the “fetish” (“voudooism”) that is made of cat or dog teeth, blood, feces of some sort, and is tied with a string. the fetish is left on the property of someone that one wishes to harm without the victim knowing. another way a person can be cursed besides the fetish is through spirit hauntings, which in voodoo was seen as a good thing by making it apparent that ancestors or loved ones were watching over. however, with hoodoo, a spirit could be evoked to harm an individual or family (mulira 114). to protect oneself from these spirits, a charm is needed to ward off evil, such as a rabbit’s foot. the rabbit’s foot and the fetish are two examples of gris-gris (“new orleans”), which is defined as an object that wards off or stirs up magic. another item considered to be gris-gris is the voodoo doll, typically used to inflict physical damage on someone without him or her knowing. in all, african americans during slavery and early american history used hoodoo “to obtain revenge for their injuries, and to discover and punish their enemies” (“voudooism”). both voodoo and hoodoo are found in the harlem renaissance because of the great migration, which took place in the beginning of the twentieth century and until the 1970s in america (gregory 12). during the great migration, eight million african americans traveled from their southern homes and into major northern cities (14). the period of significant demographic change was considered to be “one of the greatest and most rapid internal movements of people in history” (15). the reason behind this “rapid internal movement” (15) was the lack of opportunity and equality for the african-american population in the south, especially with the passing of the jim crow laws, which permitted acts of segregation and hate. besides the inequality the african americans faced, there was little industry because people were still tied to land and agricultural production (23). for african americans without land, there was no way to support a family. however, locations in the north such as harlem were calling their names, and the same goes for african americans from the caribbean islands like barbados and jamaica (23). with the migration northward to places like harlem, african americans brought their culture and traditional voodoo beliefs, songs, and dances with them (23). the influx of african culture in harlem especially led to a new kind of “racial expression” (giggie 132) in art, literature, song, and dance. alain locke in his essay “the new negro,” argues the importance of the new generation of african americans, who were uniting in the artistic center of harlem as well as creating and contributing to the intellectual progress of the race. he writes, …more immediate hope rests in the revaluation by white and black alike of the negro in terms of his artistic endowments and cultural contributions, past and prospective. it must be increasingly recognized that the negro has already made very substantial contributions, not only in his folk-art, music especially, which has always found appreciation…. (15) locke is pointing out the african american appreciation for the past and present forms of art coming out of the harlem renaissance. he argues that the “racial expression” is evident 21 spells, spirits, and charms in the harlem renaissance, battaglia in the folk-art and music and that there is a sense of hope found within the “new negro” who uses his past to contribute to society, thus creating a new racial pride and autonomy. the emphasis on the black culture and race is what led to the harlem renaissance with the publishing of african-american artwork. during the harlem renaissance, there was a new appreciation for the african roots and heritage, which can be seen in jazz and literature. jazz was a major part of the harlem renaissance, and for some artists voodoo or hoodoo was influential to their pieces. jelly roll morton, the “inventor of jazz” (“new orleans”), credits voodoo as one of the main influences to his work. in fact, his godmother, eulalie hécaud was a famous voodoo queen in the south (“new orleans”). one of the biggest stars during the harlem renaissance was louis armstrong, who grew up in new orleans and roamed the streets of storyville, which was a red-light district filled with cabarets, clubs, and shops (“new orleans”). these shops were typically voodoo stores containing charms, potions, or fortune-tellers and were located next to the clubs or cabarets that armstrong would sneak into (underage) in order to learn jazz (“new orleans”). another artist was oscar “papa” celestin, who was a headliner during the early 1900s on bourbon street and openly credited voodoo as the inspiration to his work (“new orleans”). celestin crafted a song entitled “marie laveau,” which was about the most famous voodoo queen in new orleans (“new orleans”). voodoo served not only as the inspiration for jazz musicians but was also the subject of many jazz songs during the harlem renaissance. “hoodoo blues” by bessie brown, published in 1924, was about a woman who steals the singer’s man and who wants to seek revenge through hoodoo curses (brown). bessie sings that she will: “sprinkle ding ’em dust all around her door” (brown line 3) and “burn a candle on her picture” (line 8). one way to curse someone with hoodoo was by taking his or her picture and burning a candle on the face of the photo, as well as spreading ashes or dust on the property of the victim, as brown sings in the song (mulira 114). brown goes further and sings that she is “goin’ ’neath her window, gonna lay a black cat bone” (brown line 6) and that she has “some gris-gris, tote it up in a sack” (line 8) that she’s planning on wearing. again, this ties back to the use of hoodoo objects known as gris-gris that evoke magic, like the sack that she wears to protect herself from curses or the bone that she places under the window of the victim to stir up harmful magic. it is interesting that brown is singing about having power over another woman’s well-being by inconspicuously placing hoodoo charms on the property of the victim. the woman initially had power over brown by taking her man from her but, because of hoodoo, brown has the power over the woman. the roles are reversed. the power struggle shown in “hoodoo blues” can be linked with the white race holding power over the african americans with the jim crow laws and taking away something that they find important: equality and justice. when brown sings about using hoodoo to seek revenge on the “other woman,” she is in control over the one who wronged her, which is paralleled with the idea that the african americans wanted to gain power and control over their own race without white interference or suppression. published four years after bessie brown’s jazz song, ma rainey came out with her song titled “black dust blues,” which dealt with power being exercised over another person using hoodoo. the song is about a woman who is mad at rainey because she feels like her man was stolen by her; it is quite similar to the concept of brown’s earlier song. in order to seek revenge, the woman places black dust around ma rainey’s door. in line fifteen, ma rainey goes on to sing that the “black dust’s got me walking on all fours like a cat.” the woman was mad and wanted revenge for her man leaving her, so hoodoo was the only way 22 spells, spirits, and charms in the harlem renaissance, battaglia for her to get the gratification she sought. for the victim of the curse, the only explanation for why she was walking like a cat was hoodoo. it seems as though hoodoo provides meaning and reason behind these unusual patterns or happenings within the context of the song. in this case, as readers or listeners, we see what hoodoo was like through the eyes of the singer who was the victim. it is evident that the person controlling her has the power and is able to do her harm. ma rainey is used as an example of the supposed stronger party—because she initially stole the woman’s partner—being controlled through hoodoo by the weaker party. voodoo and hoodoo were important to the harlem renaissance because they tied in the traditional african beliefs with the idea of “racial expression” (giggie 132). these songs are mainly about revenge and having the control to inflict harm, which is central to the practice of hoodoo. in some ways, there is an element of control that the believer of hoodoo has over another person. this power struggle can be linked with the idea that voodoo or hoodoo was something that could not be taken away by the white race; african americans had control over it during the harlem renaissance. the writers and artists had the power to make the movement into anything that they wanted, and the renaissance was something they could own and create. in times when they felt like they may not have had the artistic power to create anything they wanted, they yearned or aimed for it. they also looked to control their own race because society in the early 1900s was enforced by white leaders who worked to suppress the black race, which was evident with the jim crow laws. with cases of voodoo and hoodoo in jazz and literature, the weaker of the two parties were able to triumph over the more powerful using the spells, charms, or curses. the use of voodoo or hoodoo is a direct representation of the power that the african-american race yearned for; they wanted to triumph over the white race that worked to suppress them in society. control and power were what the african americans wanted, and magic served as the means to get that message across. jazz music contained copious references to voodoo and hoodoo, but it was not the only artistic outlet mentioning voodoo or hoodoo from the harlem renaissance. during this time of emphasis on black culture and artistry, many pieces of literature also included voodoo or hoodoo as subject matter. one reason behind the presence of magic in literature was because of immigration from the west indies to the united states, namely harlem. the great migration was not only made up of immigrants moving from the south to the north but also from out of the country and into it. for example, albert raboteau points out that during the great migration, “immigrants from puerto rico, cuba, and haiti... introduced the traditional gods of africa to the united states” (105). these immigrants helped to spread traditional voodoo and hoodoo beliefs and customs to the black and hispanic families across the united states during the early 1900s (raboteau 105). in cuba and haiti especially, the believers of voodoo and hoodoo would practice different rituals that involved singing, dancing, and drumming, which ultimately derived from africa and the traditional vodun beliefs (105). these rituals and celebrations of the gods came to america along with the idea that the spirits have control or power over the lives of others. by appeasing the gods, the voodoo worshippers would contract the favor of the gods and would then be healed or given luck (105). there was also a major belief in spirit possessions and the impact that the spirits had on the lives of people. during these spirit possessions, “entranced mediums made personal contact between gods and humans possible by embodying the god for the community” (105). if something may have gone wrong,the voodoo priests would look to the spirits as the cause and prescribe different methods to set things right (105). these voodoo beliefs from the west indies came into the united states during the harlem renaissance, which can be seen with the famous writers who were from these same regions. claude mckay 23 24spells, spirits, and charms in the harlem renaissance, battaglia grew up in sunny ville, jamaica and was familiar with voodoo and hoodoo beliefs, which he brought with him to harlem (“claude mckay: 1889-1948”). the same goes for eric walrond, who was from barbados and also wrote about voodoo and hoodoo (honey and patton 410). when these writers came to the united states, they brought their beliefs with them and incorporated the magic into their work. the same goes for zora neale hurston, who did anthropological research on voodoo in haiti and jamaica, which led to many books and stories related to the voodoo she observed on the islands (322-323). instead of leaving her research on the island, she brought it back to harlem and shared it with the african american community. these writers incorporated voodoo and hoodoo culture into their work in order to display the power that the characters in their stories had over others as well as to show how the voodoo and hoodoo culture was something that was a part of them. one such example is home to harlem by claude mckay, which was published during the harlem renaissance. in the novel, jake is suffering from a painful std, and his landlady is watching over him periodically. at one point, jake decides to go out to a restaurant without telling his landlady, who decides to look for him in his apartment (mckay 118). she went into the kitchen, stumbled, and broke a white bowl, then “made a sign with her rabbit foot, and murmured foggily: ‘theah’s sure a cross coming to thisa house. i wonder it’s foh who?’” (118). following the breaking of the bowl, the answer to her question is given, when jake comes into the room supported by two men (118). first, the rabbit foot in this story represents an example of gris-gris or a protection charm that was important to both voodoo and hoodoo (mulira 114). the breaking of the bowl is seen as some kind of omen, and because of this omen the landlady was able to determine that someone in the house was sick or seriously ill. she is attaching meaning to an insignificant event (the breaking of the bowl) as well as bringing luck and protection to herself by giving meaning to the rabbit’s foot. with the foot in her possession, she can control her own luck and create a power in knowing (through voodoo and hoodoo) that something has gone awry. the idea of power and control is apparent through other works such as zora neale hurston’s “spunk.” hurston was very interested in voodoo in the caribbean and included it in both stories and novels such as their eyes were watching god and tell my horse (honey and patton 322-323). “spunk” is told through the eyes of the townspeople, who gossip about the love triangle between joe, spunk, and lena. spunk has taken joe’s wife, lena, and they walk arm in arm throughout the town. joe finally is fed up with their affair, so he goes with a razor to kill spunk, who is a large and fierce man (hurston 326). spunk ends up killing joe and moving in with lena. however, joe comes back as a spirit and haunts both spunk and lena as a black bobcat. one of the gossiping men, elijah, was reporting to walter about the bobcat when he says, “jus’ as they was goin’ to bed, a big black bobcat, black all over, you hear me, black, walked round and round that house and howled” (328), and when spunk went to shoot it, the bobcat just stared in his eyes. elijah went on, “but spunk says twan’t no bob-cat nohow. he says it was joe done sneaked back from hell!” (328). the gossiping men believe it was the spirit of joe because there are no black bobcats in that area and it was highly symbolic that the bobcat stared at spunk. the appearance of the black bobcat shows how spirits could come back and harm the living, cursing spunk because he stole joe’s wife. the story makes it seem as though some kind of magic or spiritualism is involved to seek revenge. spunk’s luck did not get any better when he felt as though he was continuously being pushed, yet no one was behind him. finally, he was pushed to his death, and his last words were, “[h]e pushed me,’ligeó the dirty hound pushed me in the back” (329). spunk’s final death is similar to how joe anticipated killing 25spells, spirits, and charms in the harlem renaissance, battaglia spunk in the first place, by sneaking up on him from behind with a razor. this relates to voodoo and hoodoo because it shows how the spirits could be present on earth, meddling with living humans. spiritualism was a major belief within the traditional vodun religion and the belief in spirits was evident with joe coming back to earth to haunt spunk (mulira 115). in terms of voodoo, there is no other reason as to why spunk fell; his death was blamed on a spirit, nothing else. this points to the idea of magic providing an explanation for unusual occurrences. joe had the power over spunk in the end because he was able to seek revenge on the man that took his wife. the story also suggests that a weaker person (like joe) can ultimately have power over someone who is perceived to have more control (spunk). the power struggle between the characters in “spunk” is comparable to the harlem renaissance because the african-american artists wanted control over their own movement and conditions in life. they did not feel as though the white race had any right to hold power over them, and, by showing the weaker overcoming the more powerful, hurston is giving hope to the african-american race. she is using voodoo and hoodoo to show the representation of the black race (the weaker) holding power over the white race (more powerful). in the case of “spunk,” voodoo or hoodoo represents spiritualism, power, revenge, and the idea that magic can explain unusual events. these same ideals can be found in another story by hurston called “black death.” the main character was an “excessively black hoodoo man” (hurston) named old man morgan who was well-known by everybody (except for the white people) because he could “kill any person indicated and paid for, without ever leaving his house or even seeing his victim” (hurston). for example, morgan “caused emma taylor’s teeth to drop out,” he “put a sprig of lena merchant’s hair in a bottle, corked it and threw it into a running stream with the neck pointing upstream, and she went crazy,” and “sent old lady crooms [his voodoo rival] to her death in the lake” (hurston). morgan would make concoctions or charms from the woods where he would dig for different roots and herbs (hurston). the story “black death” displays the important aspects of hoodoo culture, including herbal medicine, potions, charms, and curses. old man morgan was able to exert power or exact revenge over others by doing them physical harm. for example, in the text, a man named beau got a woman pregnant. unfortunately, beau refused to marry her and left her with her mother. in order to seek revenge on beau, mrs. boger (the mother of the pregnant woman) awoke in the middle of the night with “all africa” in her blood, “tribal drums beating,” and walked over to morgan’s cabin (hurston). before she knew what she was doing, morgan gave her a gun and put the image of beau onto a mirror. mrs. boger shot the gun, killing beau in the mirror and in reality. his death was pronounced “natural” because it stemmed from a supposed heart attack (hurston). hurston’s last remark in the story was that the white people still had no idea and would not believe this story, but the african americans knew morgan was behind beau’s death. hurston’s story connects africa with hoodoo and hoodoo with the harlem renaissance, showing the power that the hoodoo men had over others by seeking revenge. hoodoo was a source of culture that gave the african americans some sort of autonomy; whites didn’t understand it in the way that they did, and no matter what injustices the white race did to the african americans, they could not take voodoo or hoodoo away from them. the use of magic goes along with the idea of the power struggle as well because beau had power over the boger women by declaring that he wanted nothing to do with the woman he impregnated. beau left her helpless, and one way that the two hurt women sought revenge or power over beau was through the use of hoodoo. the story represents the 26spells, spirits, and charms in the harlem renaissance, battaglia idea of the weak gaining power over the supposedly strong, and the use of hoodoo ties to the african americans in the harlem renaissance wanting control over their own lives and conditions despite their supposed minority race status or weaker position in society. the power struggle between strong and weak is found in eric walrond’s “the voodoo’s revenge.” published in 1925 in a popular magazine during the renaissance, opportunity, the short story was influenced by his childhood in barbados (410). the story is about nestor villaine who lives as an “obeah man” (walrond 412), which was a sacred person who knew and practiced voodoo or hoodoo. it takes place on a caribbean island where shipping was prominent as well as men who sang “voodoo melodies” (411). nestor was unjustly thrown in prison for 60 days, and when he got out, he wanted revenge on the man who put him in jail and caused him the most trouble. he finds a waiter named sambola, who was a young male server at the chess club meetings his victim attended. nestor made sambola drink a potion out of a vial but also gave him a second vial that contained an odorless and colorless concoction to slip into governor manual salzedo’s drink (418). when sambola snuck the vial into the governor’s drink undetected, salzedo promptly died, shocking the people of the island. in fact, “not even the enterprising reporters of the fictional press [knew what happened]—not one of them ever thought of linking the governor’s death with the finding a few days later of a negro’s shark bitten body fished up out of the black lagoon on faulke’s river” (418). it makes the reader come to the conclusion that voodoo or hoodoo occurred and that the narrator knows something that the reader does not. sambola continued to serve drinks at the chess club meetings but, only sometimes, a strange, smoky gleam would creep into his eyes. on nights when he’d go to that brothel on the banks of the river…there were those who couldn’t help compare it with the cat-like light they had often seen in the eyes of the old grouchy trader, nestor villiane. as a matter of fact, folk oftimes, for no reason they could explain, referred to sambola as nestor villiane. (418) the ending of the story points to some kind of body-switching or magic that may have taken place. because nestor was a voodoo man, it is apparent that the vials he gave out were likely potions, and hoodoo was done to seek revenge on the governor. nestor may not have had control over his own life when he was in jail, but once he got out, he took revenge and held power over the governor. “the voodoo’s revenge” represents the power struggle between the weak and the strong. in terms of a racial struggle, nestor villiane represents the african-american race that is being suppressed by the governor, who holds the most political power, much like the white race in the 1900s. the way in which villiane took control was through the use of hoodoo, which allowed him power over the governor. voodoo or hoodoo is linked with the weak having power over the supposed stronger, like the african americans yearning for power over their suppressors, the white race. through these artistic outlets of the harlem renaissance, it is evident that power is what drove the references to magic. voodoo or hoodoo was used as a means to seek revenge, explain unusual occurrences, and most importantly, represent the suppressed african-american race in the struggle for power. racial pride and power fits in with the idea of the new negro, a term used to describe the educated, socially aware, and independent african american. the new negro respects his past but looks to the future. voodoo and hoodoo served as that outlet by allowing the black race to embrace 27spells, spirits, and charms in the harlem renaissance, battaglia their traditional african roots while also looking to empower the race and triumph over suppressors. hoodoo and voodoo were important to the harlem renaissance and the new negro because it served as a way for african americans to look at their past while also embracing the power and control they sought for the future. the harlem renaissance served as a time of artistic growth for the members of the black community. african-american people from the south came to harlem in large numbers for many different reasons, including injustice and lack of opportunity. the period of the great migration added culture to harlem through songs, dance, rituals, and religion. two types of art that took off within the harlem renaissance were jazz and literature, both containing references to vodun, or voodoo and hoodoo. the common denominator found in the jazz and literature pieces is voodoo and hoodoo as a representation of attempting to control one’s own life, which meant seeking revenge on others, providing an explanation for coincidental occurrences, and, most importantly, representing the idea that the minority race wanted power over their own lives. artists from the harlem renaissance looked to voodoo or hoodoo in order to give their characters that same control or power over events or their lives within the stories or songs that they yearned for in the early 1900s. these artists wanted to show the population, white, black, or even any race, that, like the characters that had control in the stories, power could be found in the minority. these stories and songs serve as a representation of the want, need, or acquisition of power during the harlem renaissance. 28spells, spirits, and charms in the harlem renaissance, battaglia works cited brown, bessie. “hoodoo blues.” ed. catherine yronwode. blues lyrics and hoodoo: supplementary transcriptions from hoodoo in theory and practice. 1995. web. 9 nov. 2013. “claude mckay: 1889-1948.” the poetry foundation. 2013. web. 12 nov. 2013. giggie, john m. after redemption: jim crow and the transformation of african american religion in the delta, 1875-1915. new york: oxford university press, 2008. print. gregory, james n. the southern diaspora: how the great migration of black and white southerners transformed america. chapel hill: university of north carolina press, 2005. print. honey, maureen, and venetria k. patton. “eric walrond.” double-take: a revisionist harlem renaissance anthology. ed. maureen honey and venetria k. patton. new brunswick, new jersey: rutgers university press, 2001. 410-411. print. ---. “zora neale hurston.” double-take: a revisionist harlem renaissance anthology. ed. maureen honey and venetria k. patton. new brunswick, new jersey: rutgers university press, 2001. 322-323. print. hurston, zora neale. “black death.” 1925. 9alps. ed. j.e. thurnau, 2011. pdf file. web. ---. “spunk.” double-take: a revisionist harlem renaissance anthology. ed. maureen honey and venetria k. patton. new brunswick, new jersey: rutgers university press, 2001. 325-338. print. locke, alain. “the new negro.” 1925. the new negro. new york: simon & schuster, 1992. 3-16. print. mckay, claude. home to harlem. 1928. boston: northeastern university press, 1987. nook version. mulira, jessie g. “the case of voodoo in new orleans.” africanisms in american culture. 2nd ed. ed. joseph e. holloway. bloomington: indiana university press, 2005. 111-151. print. the new orleans historic voodoo museum. the new orleans historic voodoo museum. 2009. web. 12 nov. 2013. raboteau, albert j. a fire in the bones: reflections on african-american religious history. boston: beacon press, 1995. print. 29spells, spirits, and charms in the harlem renaissance, battaglia works cited rainey, ma. “black dust blues.” ed. catherine yronwode. blues lyrics and hoodoo: supplementary transcriptions from hoodoo in theory and practice. 1995. web. 9 nov. 2013. “voudooism: african fetish worship among the memphis negroes.” weekly georgia telegraph. 13 nov. 1868: e. infotrac. web. 12 nov. 2013. walrond, eric. “the voodoo’s revenge.” double-take: a revisionist harlem renaissance anthology . ed. venetria k. patton and maureen honey. new brunswick, nj: rutgers up, 2001. 411-418. print. much of the critique surrounding the recent film django unchained (2012) has been divisive, to say the least. in this essay, we review the critical conversation about this film and explore the parameters of these discussions. by reviewing these critical dialogues about the film, we can examine whether django unchained successfully and accurately depicted antebellum slavery in the united states, or if the director, quentin tarantino, even intended for the film to do this. by reviewing this critical discussion, we provide the reader with an understanding of django unchained and its social, political, and artistic contexts. depicting the system of slavery in america is a difficult venture. doing so requires filmmakers to balance addressing the violence, brutality, and oppression surrounding slavery, but also keeping in mind the sensitivities of the audience. when django unchained premiered in 2012, it was clear that this film was not like slavery films of the past. the film, set in the late 1850s in the southern u.s., shows a slave who is rescued and trained by a bounty hunter to work for his and his wife’s freedom. django unchained has the characteristics of a traditional tarantino film, and it explores the spaghetti western style with elements of drama and comedy during the protagonist’s journey. as is typical of a tarantino production, the movie was met with controversy: critics and audiences lined up on two sides of the film, with some deriding what they considered a flippant depiction of slavery and with others praising a bold portrayal of a violent system. django unchained follows django, a slave, after he meets dr. king schultz, a german bounty hunter who needs django’s help identifying the wanted men shultz is after. the duo strike a deal in which django will aid schultz in his search, and in which schultz promises to liberate django from his slavery after the bounty has been collected. shultz begins training django to be a bounty hunter, and this begins the pair’s journey. django tells shultz that he wants freedom for his wife broomhilda as well, from whom he was separated after they attempted to run away. this leads the partners on a journey that ends when they find her at calvin candie’s plantation. critics have focused considerably on the fact that tarantino is white. numerous critics have claimed that the film would have been more accurate had a black director created it. in addition, reviewing the critical conversation about django unchained daniel brount, mercadies brown, and alex selvey, ball state university key words: django unchained, slavery, film, criticism, quentin tarantino, representation, historical acccuracy, antebellum south abstract: django unchained takes place in the antebellum south and follows a freed slave on his vengeful journey to free his wife. this essay reviews the critical discussion surrounding django unchained in order to examine the film’s validity both historically and artistically. 7 digital literature review, vol. 2 (2015). © ball state university. all rights reserved. please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce critical edition to dlr@bsu.edu. people like prominent filmmaker spike lee have repeatedly criticized the film for its portrayal of slavery, calling it irresponsible and disrespectful (zakarin). however, in django unchained, most of the black characters are portrayed more positively than the white characters. by the end of the movie, almost every central white character dies, leaving the black characters to tell the end of the story. in their article, “broomhilda unchained: tarantino’s wagner,” adrian daub and elisabeth bronfen point out this twist in traditional storytelling. it is made clear primarily through their perspective on schultz’s death toward the end of the film: “king schultz almost seems aware that he repeats a gesture familiar from classic hollywood, in which all non-white characters conveniently disappear in order to let white folks tend to their narrative business at the end of the story. he does not make his decision for ethical reasons; it is narrative that forces his hand” (daub and bronfen). by flipping this traditional hollywood structure on its head, the film avoids reserving negative portrayals for black characters. instead, it gives the black characters the platform to complete their story. django unchained also makes bold choices in its portrayal of race. in many ways, the film critiques white characters with the portrayal of slave owners as incredibly stupid and/or relentlessly cruel. many white characters act unintelligently in the film, and others are simply blinded by their racism. furthermore, tarantino includes instances such as the comedic proto-ku klux klan scene. a mob of white characters plot to kill django and schultz, and these are gestures resembling those of the ku klux klan. the scene focuses on how their attempt comedically falls apart. this is one of the main instances of comedy in the film, for the klan members spend most of the time arguing about their masks and how the eyeholes were not cut well enough for them to see. some have argued that this comedic portrayal comes at a cost, making slave owners look like a punch line and ignoring the violence of their actions. in ebony’s article, “the price of django,” writer blair kelley says, “the men and women who owned slaves were not bizarre cartoon villains or the bumbling proto-klansmen depicted in django unchained. they were educated. they attended churches. and, they used their education and religion to try to justify the horror that the majority of their wealth was not in land or livestock, but their ownership of other human beings.” according to kelley, this portrayal of some of these white characters diminishes their cruel role into nearly insignificant comedic caricatures. the film devalues their intelligence and manipulation, instead portraying stupidity as the cause of their cruelty. the film not only tests the waters of racial tension with its depiction of white characters, but also with its characterization of black slaves. the film portrays their characters in significantly various ways, and the different races are portrayed on many different levels. black characters range from slaves that work the field, to prominent house slaves, to folk heroes. for example, samuel l. jackson’s character is a slave who holds dominion over other slaves, often violently. the film addresses slave-on-slave violence, not only through mandingo fighting, but also by the inclusion of discussions surrounding black slavers. one cannot talk about a film like django unchained and not talk about race, but it is worth noting that the depictions of race vary widely. in analyzing django unchained, it is important to look for connections to other film genres, as well as to other tarantino films. django’s namesake is from the 1966 spaghetti western, django. tarantino borrows more than just a name from the genre, placing the main characters in a typical spaghetti western world that “is a place of chaos, devastation, racism, and destructive self-interest” (ebiri). django unchained also matches tarantino’s typical themes of revenge and redemption, such as in pulp fiction (1994) and kill bill (2003), along with the need for violence to act out that revenge. django unchained also mirrors the excessive use of the n-word in films like pulp fiction, and debates stand on either side as to whether or not the usage was appropriate. 8 brount, brown, and selvey django unchained also has elements of blaxploitation films, such the 1975 film mandingo. as the name implies, the film explores the concept of mandingo fighting also present in django unchained. the 1975 film influenced the creation of django unchained, with both containing frequent scenes of brutal violence, especially with the focus on mandingo fighting. while most scholars believe that mandingo fighting did not historically exist in american slavery, it has a place in critical discussion of slave films due to its appearance in these two widely debated films (harris). mandingo fighting was not the only element of django unchained that is unconfirmed historically. while some claim it was “profoundly ahistorical,” the film was not meant to be a historical document (kelley). it explores fictional characters in familiar situations and does not claim to be completely accurate. some uses of comedy, such as in the ku klux klan episode, emphasize this point. these instances of comedy give the film a clearly entertainment-based purpose. the film takes place in a historical setting, but that does not mean it has to adhere to historical accuracy in every way. since its release in 2012, django unchained has been rated and reviewed by numerous critics. in his generally scathing review of the film, harvey blume, author of “‘django unchained’ – history dumbed down,” writes, “history seems to dumb tarantino down, dull his imagination. the revenge, unfortunately, is on history, which in the process gets painfully dumbed down.” like blume, blair l.m. kelley suggests that the historical inaccuracies make the film painful. opposing tarantino’s portrayal of slavery in “the price of django,” kelley argues that: in his review, historian jelani cobb wondered if the [n-word] was used more frequently in the film than the words ‘he’ and ‘she.’ ironically in the effort to defend the language, tarantino has clung tightly to claims of historically accuracy. [tarantino] asserted, ‘i don’t think anybody is... saying that we used the word more excessively than it was used in 1858 in mississippi. and if that’s not the case then they can shut up.’…i wished that tarantino sought the same kind of accuracy in his larger depictions of the institution of chattel slavery. kelley goes on to mention that slave owners often used their education and religion as a way to justify slave-owning, and he wishes that topics like these would have been as heavily addressed as others in tarantino’s film. though some suggest that tarantino’s film does lack in accuracy, other critics defend the film, which never claimed to be historically accurate. in her article, “why tarantino is better than spielberg at portraying slavery,” ann hornaday gives credit to django for being able to “demonstrate how a history once grievously distorted by cinematic language can be improbably well-served by its most florid, outlandish vernacular.” those siding with hornaday agree that the lack of accuracy was a small sacrifice to pay to reach the dialogue that was started by tarantino’s decision to portray slavery in such a harsh and violent light. whether critics support tarantino’s style or not, the film did get people talking. in glenda carpio’s piece, “’i like the way you die, boy’: fantasy’s role in django unchained,” the author explains that django is not meant to be understood as a historically accurate work. carpio points out that tarantino is “more concerned about movies than anything else” and that his works of fantasy should not be expected to go hand-in-hand with historical accuracy – after all, hitler was killed by nazi hunters in tarantino’s portrayal of world war ii. without prior knowledge of tarantino’s other films, viewers could be shocked by the director’s portrayal of slavery, but those familiar with tarantino’s stylistic approach could better understand the cinematic value that django holds. when it comes to addressing the overdramatic scenes of violence and gore in django, the audience must remember that this is a style skillfully practiced by tarantino, and it must be examined 9 brount, brown, and selvey with that in mind. like those who dote on the historical inaccuracy of this film, others point out the unrealistic portrayals of slavery, and the overall unnecessary gore and violence that tarantino flaunts throughout the film. david denby, the author of “django unchained: put-on, revenge, and the aesthetics of trash,” feels that tarantino’s film was nothing more than a “big put-on” and claims that an audience should expect nothing else from this director. denby ends his relentlessly harsh article by saying, “django unchained isn’t a guilty pleasure; it’s a squalid pleasure.” though some consider django to be nothing more than a violent, poorly-made gore-fest, there are critics on the other side of the spectrum. candace allen finds humor in tarantino’s references to spaghetti-westerns and calls the whole film “an entertaining hoot.” allen’s article, “django unchained: is its portrayal of slavery too flippant?” boasts her belief that jamie foxx’s character portrays a film hero for the ages. much conversation also surrounds the arguments about the film’s connection to blaxploitation films and spaghetti-westerns. people have often disagreed on what genre django more accurately represents. focusing on this argument, dewayne wickham claims that the film is more of a blaxploitation film than a spaghetti-western. in his article, “‘django unchained’ really about blaxploitation,” wickham addresses why django should be seen as a portrayal of blaxploitation: “the lack of opportunities for black directors to produce films concerning slavery only increases the controversy surrounding django…it is this dearth for opportunities for black directors to do such a major project, as much as tarantino’s treatment of the slavery subject, that fans the flames of the debate over django unchained.” while those like wickham agree that django deals with subject matter unfit to be tackled by a white director, chris vognar praises the work. vognar, author of “he can’t say that, can he?: black, white, and shades of gray in the films of tarantino,” writes: “tarantino has taken more liberties with racial epithets and black idioms, and written more complicated and fully developed black characters, than any white filmmaker before or since” (24). vognar concludes his piece stating that tarantino is being an artist, provoking the audience, and making us ask ourselves tough questions about issues that often get sidelined. similar to vognar, glenda carpio points out that “pop culture” works like those of tarantino are able to more easily access sensitive topics than other cultural forms. django unchained was wrought with criticism and controversy since it first was announced. some labeled django as a glorified story of wish-fulfillment and revenge with clear distinctions between good and evil. however, these descriptions used to criticize django are ones that are the hallmark of stories of heroes. django unchained is not, nor does it pretend to be, historically accurate. instead, django represents a modern-day folk story of a hero that america wishes could have existed. almost all depictions of american slavery show african-americans being denigrated and subjugated. these stories are ones that should be told, as they have their place in modern cinema. django unchained takes a new approach to this topic and sacrifices historical accuracy for empowerment. for django unchained to be understood, it must be seen as a hero’s journey. this classic trope has existed long before the advent of cinema, let alone django. the film has almost all tropes associated with this motif. the hero begins in the ordinary world – a victim of slavery’s oppression. he meets his mentor who trains him (in this case, with a pistol). as stated by kerry washington, a star in the film, the villains django faced in the film are “some really ugly demons. … we had to be willing to show the ugly stuff so that the hero’s journey meant something” (qtd. in weiner). tarantino pulled no punches depicting the villains (slave owners) as violent, racist, and cruel. this moved the story and made the rise of django that more powerful. just as the hero’s journey is not a story unique to the works of tarantino, neither are folk leg10 brount, brown, and selvey ends of slaves avenging their plight at the hands of their masters. in his article about how django unchained is a continuation of the “bad black man” folk hero, scott reynolds nelson writes: such stories go back to immediately after the civil war and are partly meditations about slavery and slavery’s end. in many of these chants and stories, the bad man was insulted, then cursed at, until he finally shot down white men in saloons and back alleys for failing to treat him with respect. the bad man invariably died at the end of the story. … immediately after the civil war, african-american men built these powerful, folkloric characters in a world where slavery had ended but attacks against black men and women had intensified. the stories of quiet, unpredictable, and violent men who were fearless and died at the end could be simultaneously cautionary tales about the dangers of challenging white authority and covert stories about the thrill of resistance. these symbols of black power manifested themselves in legends and songs, later appearing in blaxploitation films. these folk heroes were an inspiration to those who had suffered at the hands of the institution of slavery. instead of proliferating the narrative of the oppressed slave – which is one that is accurate and worthy of telling – tarantino takes a page from these folk stories that served to inspire those who were victims of slavery. the love interest of django is his wife, broomhilda. as the viewer comes to learn, her name comes from a german folk tale of a hero who rescues the damsel in distress. this is a not-so-subtle way of showing the heroic nature of django. on his quest to rescue broomhilda, django takes the path of altruism, one frequently treaded by the hero. django wasn’t without flaws, turning a blind eye to travesties around him, but only doing so to maintain his disguise and save his wife. true to the nature of the hero, django inspired those around him. his mentor, schultz, was a cynical man who, although he claimed to despise slavery, did nothing to end it until his first encounter with django. however, by the end schultz “discovered in himself desires that were greater than material reward. django’s burning desire to rescue his wife [broomhilda] from slavery, at all costs, gave schultz hope in something greater than himself. this is what unchained schultz from a survival of the fittest mentality and allowed him to start living by his deeper principles” (khoshaba). heroes inspire us to be greater than who we are, and on his quest, django spurred that change in his mentor. in most stories of heroes, the hero is measured by their villain. their contrast displays a hero’s true nature. this is no different in django. villains in django are depicted on the evil side of a clearly-defined division of right and wrong. the scene depicting the proto-klan mob attempts to “counter the racist polemic of d. w. griffith’s birth of a nation. hence the scene of buffoonish ku klux klansmen complaining their hoods don’t fit right; they can’t see through the eyeholes. […] tarantino wants to mock its portrayal in the hugely influential d. w. griffith movie, which treated klansmen as heroic, the only force between the south and black savagery” (blume). instead of applauding their machismo and bravado, they are instead depicted as stupid and ignorant. additionally, the main villain in the film, calvin candie, is a vicious slave owner who pits slaves against one another to fight for his amusement. not only is he depicted as cruel, but there is a strong implication of an incestuous nature in his relationship to his sister. once again, the villains are painted as a stark contrast to django’s altruistic nature. the elements listed previously are commonplace in the movies of heroes, but are new to films depicting slavery. in telling the story of the hero, not only is django unchained, but so is the display of violence. the film graphically depicts scenes of whipping, slaves being eaten by dogs, slaves fighting to the death, and explosive gunshot wounds. some have claimed that these depictions of violence cheapen the reality of slavery and that tarantino is capitalizing on the harsh lives 11 brount, brown, and selvey of slaves to make an action movie. others have claimed that the use of comedy in the story is an insult to slaves and those who have ancestors who were enslaved. however, the use of comedy, action, and blood all serve a larger purpose. django unchained doesn’t fit into the existing genres of films depicting slavery. by extension, it reaches audiences that would otherwise not be reached by films such as 12 years a slave. according to bob cesca, “tarantino has duped a lot of movie-goers into seeing a film about the monstrous, cancerous true nature of american slavery, and i’d wager that a considerable number of people who saw django unchained probably didn’t see spielberg’s amistad or the color purple or any other historical drama about slavery, many of which were sanitized for mass appeal.” instead of sanitizing the movie to reach a larger audience, tarantino took the risk on making a film that pushes the envelope and reaches audiences that wouldn’t typically find themselves in a theater for a movie about slavery. the graphic nature of the film is one that attracts some of the most criticism. however, this violence serves a larger purpose: to display the horrific past that america tends to ignore or water-down. as cesca said, even if tarantino exaggerated the horror of slavery and even if it were only half as awful as he portrayed it, shame on the united states and shame on the framers for not eradicating it from the very start when they had the chance. maintaining the institution only pandered to a mentally ill demographic of lazy, cheap, sadistic white aristocrats [who] were mentally deranged serial killers hiding under the threat of secession. and they were allowed to get away with it because no one dared undermine the southern economy. tarantino shone a light on a part of american history that isn’t talked about. the film is bloody, violent, and cruel, but so was slavery. african americans were violently dehumanized and exploited for generations, and a movie that brazenly depicts violence is necessary in telling that story. for all the criticism facing django, no one can say that it didn’t start a dialogue. by reaching audiences that don’t typically watch slavery movies and by depicting the violence in such a graphic nature, it has spurred discussion amongst critics, academics, and viewers alike. in an interview, tarantino explained how he wanted to depart from the cut-and-dry slavery movies he had seen in order to make a film that grabbed the audience’s attention: there hasn’t been that many slave narratives in the last, you know, 40 years of cinema. … and for the most part, most of these tv movies or specials that come out are kind of what i call they’re historical movies; like, history with a capital h. basically, this happened, then this happened, then that happened, then this happened. and that can be fine, well enough, but for the most part i think they keep you at arm’s length dramatically because also there is this kind of level of good taste that they’re trying to deal with about the history of the subject. and frankly oftentimes they just feel like dusty textbooks just barely dramatized. … i wanted to tell the story as a genre movie, as an exciting adventure.” (tarantino) many critics see the value in this approach, as we can see in hornaday’s argument that, in order to “capture the perversity of a system of kidnapped human beings who were routinely bought, sold, raped, maimed and murdered, it takes genre filmmaking at its most graphic and hyperbolic. how else can movies make proper symbolic sense of america’s bloodiest, most shameful chapter?” django unchained may not be a shining example of tastefulness in cinema, but it departs from this for good reason. by showing imagery that is violent and grotesque, it works to accurately depict a time in american history that was also violent and grotesque. 12 brount, brown, and selvey django unchained is certainly one of the most bold, distinct movies about american slavery that has ever been produced. a lot of the points raised against django unchained have some validity to them, but it is important to remember this movie was made with entirely different aims than most movies depicting slavery. the choices that tarantino made in regards to this film were not ones any other filmmaker would have likely ever made. he didn’t make historical accuracy and political correctness the primary focus on the film. claiming that it should defeats the true purposes of the movie, to tell a story and to start a dialogue. by making a slave movie so different than the ones before it, tarantino crafted a film that hits audiences differently, opens new avenues of discussion, brazenly depicts the violence of american slavery, and allows for moviegoers to see a film about an empowered slave character that retakes what is rightfully his. not every film about slavery should be like django unchained, and there certainly will never be another film quite like it. 13 brount, brown, and selvey allen, candace. “django unchained: is its portrayal of slavery too flippant?” the guardian. 10 jan. 2013. web. 16 sept. 2014. blume, harvey. “short fuse: “django unchained” — history dumbed down.” the arts fuse. 1 jan. 2013. web. 14 sept. 2014 carpio, glenda r. “’i like the way you die, boy’: fantasy’s role in django unchained.” transition 112 (2013): iv-12. web. 16 sep. 2014. cesca, bob. “why django unchained is one of the most important movies of the year.” huff post entertainment. 11 jan. 2013. web. 15 sept. 2014. daub, adrian, and elisabeth bronfen. “broomhilda unchained: tarantino’s wagner.” jump cut: a review of contemporary media. fall 2013. web. 15 sept. 2014. denby, david. “‘django unchained’: put-on, revenge, and the aesthetics of trash.” the new yorker. 22 jan. 2013. web. 16 sept. 2014. ebiri, bilge. “why django unchained’s slavery tale had to be a spaghetti western.” vulture. 2 jan. 2013. web. 7 dec. 2014. harris, aisha. “was there really ‘mandingo fighting’ like in django unchained?” slate.com. dec. 24, 2012. web. march 1, 2015. hornaday, ann. “why tarantino is better than spielberg at portraying slavery.” the washington post. 14 feb. 2013. web. 15 sept. 2014 kelley, blair l.m. “the price of ‘django.” ebony. 14 jan. 2013. web. 15 sept. 2014. khoshaba, deborah. “django unchained: a film analysis.” psychology today. 18 jan. 2013. web. 15 sept. 2014. nelson, scott reynolds. “’django’ untangled: the legend of the bad black man.” the chronicle of higher education. 11 jan. 2013. web. 15 sept. 2014. tarantino, quentin. interview by terry gross. “quentin tarantino, ‘unchained’ and unruly.” fresh air. national public radio. 02 jan 2013. radio. 16 jan 2015 vognar, chris. “’he can’t say that, can he?’: black, white, and shades of gray in the films of tarantino.” transition 112 (2013): 23-31. web. 16 sep. 2014. weiner, david. “’django’ ugliness required for hero’s journey.” et online. 18 dec. 2012. web. 15 sept. 2014 wickham, dewayne. “django unchained really about blaxploitation.” usa today [serial online]. n.d.: available from: masterfile premier, ipswich, ma. web. 16 sep. 2014. zakarin, jordan. “spike lee: ‘django unchained’ is ‘disrespectful,’ i will not see it.” the hollywood reporter. 24 dec. 2012. web. 23 mar. 2015. 14 works cited brount, brown, and selvey a s incredible as it may seem, there was a time when we as children were blissfully unaware that slavery existed. whether it was through parents, school, or something we saw on television, we learned that humans exploit and abuse others for their own personal and financial gain. even more upsetting, we eventually learned that this is not an institution of the past. this evil still exists, despite it being so obviously horrendous and wrong. some of us might have felt this injustice and wondered what we could do to stop the abomination. however, with no ready solution and few actual encounters with the institution itself, most accept it as a sad but inevitable evil. if parents, educators, and advocates could prevent this apathy from developing, however, would the problem continue to exist? according to nicolas m. dahan and milton gittens, change can be enacted if advocates are able to frame their case and move the issue from private to public. there are three framings needed to shape a problem into a public ethical issue. first, the activist must use diagnostic framing, which is pointing out the problem, its causes, and its consequences. then, the advocate must come up with a prognostic framing that gives a suggested solution or plan of attack to eliminating the problem. finally, they must use motivational framing, which gives their cause urgency and a rationale as to why their issue must be addressed quickly (230). one popular and effective way to introduce this to the general public is to enlist the help of the media, which “challenge[s] public indifference to... slavery” and “creat[es] the incentives for responsive governments to take remedial action” (van de glind and kooijmans 162). one popular form of media that is already doing this is the sharing of narratives of slaves, both fictional and actual, through literature. these narratives work to make the readers feel and experience the plight of their fellow man in a way that facts and statistics do not because they call the readers to empathize with the victims. countless children’s books also address the issue of slavery and give their readers a historical context that is invaluable for their comprehension of the issue. as the mind grows and taste becomes more sophisticated, children should be challenged to grow in their understanding of books hidden slave narratives: the power of teaching empathy with children’s literature elisabeth wilkes, ball state university key words: children chapter books, historical empathy, teaching empathy, lemony snicket, louis sachar, contemporary slavery, holes, a series of unfortunate events, the miserable mill, a bad beginning, youth advocacy abstract: this essay investigates depictions of slavery in holes (1997) and a series of unfortunate events (1999) to argue that children’s literature can be used to effectively teach empathy and to promote anti-slavery advocacy in children. 94 digital literature review, vol. 2 (2015). © ball state university. all rights reserved. please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce critical edition to dlr@bsu.edu. that are not explicitly about slavery but that include slave-like situations, especially since most of the slavery these readers will encounter in their lifetime will be underground and hard to spot. for this reason, i will examine the work louis sachar is doing with the issue in his book holes and two of the thirteen books in lemony snicket’s the series of unfortunate events: the bad beginning and the miserable mill. teaching empathy through fiction slavery is a difficult subject to teach for many reasons, the main one being the problem of depicting slavery correctly as well as helpfully. for history teachers especially, this issue presents a challenge because they not only need to teach the facts and the context, but also the skill of historical empathy. jeffery nokes defined historical empathy as “the ability to comprehend a historical individual’s actions as a logical effect of his/her worldview” and claims this skill to be “among the most difficult of dispositions to develop, because they require unnatural thinking” (124). historical empathy is unnatural because most concept-building practices take the inward to outward route, where the pupils draw from their own experiences and relate them to what they are trying to learn. historical empathy takes the opposite approach, requiring students to go beyond their own surroundings and understand experiences that they are far removed from, and then relate those experiences to their own personal experience for comprehension. many teachers attempt to remedy this dilemma in their history classes by incorporating historical fiction into their curricula. fiction, more so than textbooks, engulfs the readers into the context and, if done masterfully, encourages the reader to understand perspectives through experiencing what the protagonist is sensing, encountering, and feeling. with proper background information and careful reading selection, fiction has proved to be an effective tool in helping children grow in this empathy to understand past acts of slavery. they might not be able to comprehend all the complexities of the system, but they can start to build a clearer sense of how slavery affects people and why it was historically allowed to exist (field 115). if fiction can be used to educate children about past slavery, then the same genre can help children encounter it in its current form. this can be done by developing a community perspective which teaches children that, as sherry field puts it, “they are not an island” (119). this me-centric logic is the default setting for childrens’ minds due to the underdevelopment of empathy at that age. in her article “transforming status-quo stories: shifting from ‘me’ to ‘we’ consciousness,” analouise keating warns educators and parents against current education practices that perpetuate this dangerous thinking. in american school systems especially, where individualism is highly praised, extreme forms of egoism are teaching children to place the self above others, which “presumes and reinforces a model of domination, scarcity and separation in which intense competition leads to aggressiveness and fear: my growth requires your diminishment” (keating 212). this idea is incredibly detrimental in a public that often allows slavery to exist because it benefits the public economically. keating calls for stories that encourage students to challenge the current status quo and recognize that their reality is interdependent on the existence of others. without this outward awareness, children cannot understand their “accountability to others,” and they can never “recognize that their actions have a profound effect on others” (keating 215). these are the stories that awaken a sense of injustice needed for children to grow into ethically aware adults who desire 95 wilkes to change the world’s wrongs. therefore, narratives need to teach not only how to empathize in general, but also how this empathy can become a call for action. is fiction the answer? while teaching children about slavery at a young age would be the ideal for creating future advocates, educators are concerned with how much can be revealed about the institution. teaching empathy is one thing, but to expose children to the full and accurate reality of slavery in order to create true empathy would require depicting families being ripped apart, traumatizing accounts of deception and abductions, and sexually explicit rape scenes. all these subjects are more than the average child can handle and are, therefore, omitted in children’s literature. the economic, historical, and psychological complexities of slavery needed to fully understand the motivation of both slaveholders and the victims themselves also go well beyond the comprehension levels of children. for all these reasons, any children’s book that does choose to depict slavery must simplify the issue and tone down or ignore some of the more disturbing aspects of the abuse. depicting slavery appropriately is already difficult without having to censor the narrative for children’s eyes, but many authors have tried. john bickford iii and cynthia rich studied many of these attempts through historical fiction and uncovered some of the strengths and weaknesses of the pieces. while many of these depictions help children comprehend slavery, there are misrepresentations of slavery in the writing that educators need to consider before using the books in their curriculum. these misrepresentations occur in the minds of children as they process the story they are reading, giving them an incomplete understanding of slavery, past or present. for example, a logical fallacy labeled presentism occurs when children cannot move past their own viewpoints and try to project their retrospective knowledge onto the characters of a story (bickford iii and rich 68). this becomes problematic in slave narratives, fictional or nonfictional, because children cannot understand how the victims get into the situation or why they cannot leave. the article cites the example of primo levi, who is often asked by children reading his true account in the labor camps during the holocaust why he did not escape. this audience reads his story “not as one of survival but instead as a missed opportunity to escape and seek revenge on the guards” because, in their minds, that is what they believe they would do in the same situation (bickford iii and rich 73). much of this type of thinking cannot be helped because of a child’s limited intellectual maturity. however, authors can find ways around these limitations or can even find ways to teach children to struggle against these logical fallacies. while the article discussed above focuses on teaching children to understand past acts of slavery, any genre of fiction can do the same work to help children grasp and become aware of modern slavery. educators and parents are raising the future generation who has the potential to change the lives of millions by eradicating slavery from every corner of the globe. if these children are led to believe that slavery was just a pre-civil war problem, which unfortunately happens too often with the current model of education, they will not even know that there is a problem to be solved. they might encounter people who are victims of slavery but never label them as such because they have an out-of-date notion of what slavery looks like. historical fiction is limited because it will always have that historical tinge to the reader. other forms of children’s fiction can go beyond facts and context and present students with the structure and attributes of slavery that transcend specific time periods of slavery to show what is universal 96 wilkes throughout all the different types of slavery. to make these depictions as effective as possible, however, children need to be exposed to literature that does not fall into these logical traps. louis sachar’s and lemony snicket’s books are two examples that could be considered by educators to teach students the core structures of slave systems and explain the effects it has on its victims. holes: cover-ups and slavery with the knowledge of what makes a piece of literature effective in teaching slavery, i will now look more closely at the first book, holes, to analyze what a teacher or parent could use to help their children understand slavery. louis sachar’s book captured the imaginations of children and won the national book award for young people’s literature in 1998 and the newbery medal a year later. the story of an innocent but criminally-convicted teenager forced to dig a hole every day with other juvenile delinquents has the distinction of being both offbeat as well as severely dark. it encounters themes of fate, education, and self-improvement, while tackling issues such as persistent racial prejudices, legal corruption, and the exploitation of unprotected classes. at first, it is not overtly obvious that the protagonist and his fellow campers have fallen victim to slavery. while stanley may be wrongly imprisoned, the camp is meant to be a correctional facility. as the narrator explains, “[i]f you take a bad boy and make him dig a hole every day in the hot sun, it will turn him into a good boy” (sachar 5). the camp counselors even attempt to teach the boys that they are not doomed cases and that they have the power to redeem themselves and assimilate back into society. while the boys quickly assume the prison-style life of picking nicknames for each other, mr. pendanski “prefer[s] to use the names their parents gave themthe names that society will recognize them by when they return to become useful and hardworking members of society” (sachar 18). the boys are constantly reminded that their choices led them to digging these holes, so they have no right to complain. people on the outside believe in this model of correction and therefore have no reason to question the admittedly awful, but objectively fair, punishment. on the surface, the camp’s setup seems reasonable. the boys are provided for, though not handsomely, lest they enjoy it better than the broken lives that more often than not led them to the crimes they committed. their punishment has an end date, meaning that the campers always know they will be able to leave. in short, the campers are treated just horribly enough to make them reluctant to commit a crime that would make them come back to the camp. however, stanley soon recognizes that this is not an innocent operation. he finds a lipstick tube, which would eventually be revealed as a clue towards the treasure the camp counselor has set up the camp to find. after the owner of the camp, simply named the warden, enters the scene and insists on making the hole where they find the tube an excavation site, he realizes “[t]hey weren’t just digging to ‘build character.’ they were definitely looking for something” (sachar 71). once this thought is revealed to the reader, the camp begins to show its darker side. they start to move away from their original holes and begin a massive excavation project that progressively becomes more taxing than their previous labor. stanley witnesses brutal abuses between the members of command, such as the warden scratching mr. sir’s face with rattlesnake venom-infused nail polish (sachar 90). the boys fall victim to the warden’s growing agitation from the lack of progress, such as when she “jab[s] at armpit with her pitchfork, knocking him backward into 97 wilkes the big hole,” which “le[aves] three holes in the front of his shirt, and three tiny spots of blood” (sachar 78). something unsettling is buried under the surface of this operation, and the more stanley observes and digs, the more the cover-up begins to unravel. the boys unknowingly begin to loose solidarity and turn on each other instead of against their masters. interestingly enough, the only overt mention of slavery in the book occurs when the boys accuse zero of being stanley’s slave after the two boys make the agreement that stanley would teach zero to read in exchange for zero helping him finish his daily hole. racial tensions begin to flair, enticing x-ray to comment, “same old story, ain’t it … the white boy sits around while the black boy does all the work” (sachar 117). these jabs and remarks escalate over the following days, with zigzag at one point suggesting that stanley “should get a whip. then if your slave doesn’t dig fast enough, you can crack it across his back” (sachar 132). soon, the argument turns into physical fighting, with mr. pendanski egging them on. finally, after zero nearly strangles zigzag to protect stanley and hits mr. pendanski over the head with a shovel, zero runs off into the desert to defy the oppressive system. the most disturbing part of this book surrounds the character of zero. his treatment by the staff of camp green lake shows just how disposable these laborers become when their well-being interferes with the operation’s goals. when he starts running, the only reason the warden stops mr. sir from shooting him is because, “[t]he last thing we need is an investigation” (sachar 139). when the trio is worried about what could happen if someone were to come and ask for him, mr. pendanski assures them that “[h]e had nobody … he was nobody” (sachar 144). mr. pendanski has always treated zero differently from the other boys, even refusing to call him by his actual name, a courtesy he gives all the other campers. he feels that the name suits him because “there’s nothing inside his head” (sachar 19). in mr. pendanski’s eyes, zero is even lower in status than the other boys because he was a nuisance to society who no one would miss. his status as a homeless child makes him so easy to dismiss and also makes it simple to erase him from the records without fear of legal repercussions. in fact, if stanley had not gone out to save zero, no one outside of the system would even be aware that he was missing. zero is a cautionary tale of what can happen when a person is wholly owned by the legal system and unscrupulous power holders use this fact to their advantage. once they enter the penal system for any reason, they are powerless against exploitation. slavery has been tightly wound with the justice system in a twisted way for as long as law has been around. one major example in the last few centuries involved the russian government. starting in the reign of peter the great, criminals who committed capital offenses would be punished with a lifetime of hard labor, as well as loss of property and voidance of marriage (patterson 43). they legally did not exist outside of the system, which gave the legal system the right to exploit them in any way the government saw fit. incarceration necessarily involves convicts losing their rights as a consequence for breaking their social contract; but law enforcement can creep into abuses that toe, and sometimes cross, the line into slavery. america has a particularly dark past with penal slavery due to the colonial transportation and exploitation of british convicts. according to don jordan and michael walsh, these slaves were “the first slaves in america and it was upon their labour, and later that of the african american slaves, that the nation was initially built” (19). during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the problem of overcrowded prisons and a general wish to remove undesirables from the homeland induced britain to create laws that sent these criminals to the colonies. this practice quickly became big business, with merchants claiming the convict trade to 98 wilkes be “twice as profitable as the black slave trade” ( jordan and walsh 248). strangely enough, this system has two disturbing parallels to the fictitious camp green lake. one is that children were the first to be sent away in the purge. in 1618, the authorities “swe[pt] up hundreds of troublesome urchins from the slums… and shipped them to virginia” ( jordan and walsh 12). the government claimed it to be an act of charity by giving the children the chance to live off the rich resources of the colonies that they could not find in the streets of london, but “[i] n fact, they were sold to planters to work in the fields and half of them were dead within the year” ( jordan and walsh 13). these urchins sound similar to some members of the camp, most notably, zero. the other eerie connection between the convict servant trade and the fictional camp’s mission is that advocates for the perpetuation of the transportation claimed that the move and labor was for the “redemption of their souls” ( jordan and walsh 258). this justification sounds dangerously close to the counselors’ assurances that digging holes builds character. so, while holes more directly alludes to the leftover tensions of african-american slavery, it has a closer correlation to this forgotten segment of colonial history. penal slavery in general is a difficult form of slavery because it complicates our view of victimhood. while it is easy to label the act as an injustice for the people who are innocent, such as stanley in holes, it seems more justified for guilty members of society. these victims seem to deserve their lot because they are paying back their debt to society for breaking the law. citizens cannot see the crimes against dignity in labor camps, nor do they feel the need to investigate them to make sure these people are treated fairly. without these investigations, however, more corrupt members of the system with agendas exploit a powerless labor force. these parties work within the system, even redefining laws to ensure that there is a steady flow of workers (patterson 45). in the case of holes, camp green lake came into existence because the warden saw an opportunity to get people to dig holes for her, creating a cover story that digging holes corrects criminal behavior. she connected this to the juvenile correction system so that she would never run out of young fit boys to do her work because “vacancies don’t last long at camp green lake” (sachar 25). this book tries to explain what happens when we allow our sense of justice to be twisted to the point that we lose sight of every person’s right for human dignity. no one “deserves” slavery, and every victim needs champions to challenge corruption and expose their abuses to the public. in a system that often teaches children to trust people of authority, holes encourages children to trust their instincts when they sense that something is off and investigate it to the best of their ability, just as stanley does while in captivity. stanley is not part of the group stereotypically exploited, but he learns to identify with this group through a shared experience. this experience is especially important for changing children’s learned perceptions. for example, mr. pendanski, a seemingly kind and trustworthy adult, tells both stanley and the readers what to believe about zero. as the story progresses, and stanley begins to see his fellow prisoners’ worth, this view is complicated and eventually proven false. once the protagonist’s opinion begins to change, so does the reader’s. stanley’s growth in empathy translates to the reader, not only giving him or her the ability to see this as exploitation and abuse, but also hopefully igniting a growing sense of injustice. this aversion to injustice drives stanley to run after zero, which could spur the readers to similar proactive decisions. if educators were able to harness this energy toward righting wrongs with their pupils, it could be a powerful tool for teaching the readers to grow up into advocates. 99 wilkes a series of unfortunate events: the lot of the powerless our next author presents not only insights on how slavery can exist, but also helpful models for growing in empathy, which can be used to promote activism. lemony snicket published his first book in a thirteen book series two years after sachar published holes and took the children’s literature market by storm. the first book, the bad beginning, won several awards, including the colorado children’s book award, the nevada young readers award, and the nene award. darker in subject than most other children’s books on the shelves, the book begins with a house fire that leaves the protagonists, violet, klaus, and sunny baudelaire, as orphans and records the children’s unfortunate lives through the span of thirteen books. just when the reader thinks their lives cannot possibly become any more tragic, snicket throws another tragedy into the mix. snicket seems to break every rule about what to protect children from, only giving the readers a morsel of hope at the end to keep them going from book to book. it is no wonder that one of the issues he addresses is the cruelty adults can inflict on unprotected people for personal gain. this cruelty crosses the line into slavery more than twice, but i will focus on two prominent examples from the first and fourth installments in the series. the bad beginning represents an unfortunately common glimpse into the life of domestic slavery. after the death of their parents, the baudelaires are sent to live with a distant relative named count olaf. when first meeting him, the children already have an uneasy feeling about their new guardian, but mr. poe, who is in charge of their well-being, does not sense the danger and leaves them to start their new life. olaf takes this opportunity as their new legal guardian to force the children into domestic servitude. every morning, he leaves the children a list of instructions that includes “difficult chores, such as repainting the back porch or repairing the windows” (snicket, bad 30). later, he requests that the children cook dinner for his entire acting troupe, even though the children have no idea how to cook. the children manage somehow, but they make pasta when olaf is expecting roast beef. the scene takes an incredibly dark turn once their guardian finds out. olaf turns to the orphans and says, “‘in agreeing to adopt you,’ he said, ‘i have become your father, and as your father i am not someone to be trifled with. i demand that you serve roast beef to myself and my guests’” (snicket, bad 46). klaus stands up to olaf saying that he is being unreasonable and cruel, to which the count responds with a slap so hard to the boy’s face that he falls to the ground. it becomes obvious to the children that this situation is well beyond just unreasonable parenting and is escalating into an abusive and slave-like situation. when the children go to relate their plight to mr. poe, the readers get a disturbing glimpse at how the law can favor the privileged. mr. poe hears what the children have to say about the situation and responds, “whatever count olaf has done ... he has acted in loco parentis, and there’s nothing i can do about it. your money will be well protected by myself and by the bank, but count olaf ’s parenting techniques are his own business” (snicket, bad 67). essentially, he would do everything to protect their fortune, but because of loco parentis, which snicket defines for the young readers as “in the place of parents,” his hands are tied to protect them from their deplorable conditions. jonathan blagbrough explains that domestic slaves often experience an eerily similar situation because, “[a]s parental substitutes, employers may feel more at liberty physically to punish the child– especially as they interact in the private sphere ... the ambiguity of the relationship of the [child domestic worker] to the employing family puts her in a legal vacuum as regards her care– as she is considered neither a worker nor a family member” (185). olaf ’s actions are protected by 100 wilkes the law because the man in charge of the baudelaires is too busy to ensure they are given a proper home and thinks that their fortune is worth protecting more than the children themselves. olaf uses the loopholes in the law again later on with his plans to marry violet to legally obtain the inheritance. the plan is despicable, forcing the eldest under threat of her baby sister’s life to go on stage and recite wedding vows in the guise of a play. their neighbor, the kind but clueless justice strauss, is unknowingly brought into the plan, making the ceremony binding. what is disturbing, however, is how the adults react to olaf ’s deception being revealed. the law states that this marriage is completely legal and, despite it being incredibly obvious that violet was coerced into signing her name, mr. poe and justice strauss feel powerless to do anything because olaf has followed the letter of the law. only when klaus reveals that the ceremony was voided because of a technicality do the adults think of trying to find a way to punish olaf for his crimes. to understand how these examples relate to modern slavery gives the readers a better understanding of how slavery is still allowed to exist, especially in areas where slavery is officially illegal. the baudelaires almost fall victim to the legal mess that prevents current slave victims from escaping their captors. this is why antislavery advocates, such as hans van de glind and joost kooijmans, argue that “[c]lear, specific and unambiguous national laws against child slavery are crucial if it is to be addressed effectively” (160). the laws must be clear and well known because most victims do not have the same access to resources as the baudelaires and cannot research how to work the system in their favor as klaus does. in this tale, the law only protected the innocents because the innocents learned how to protect themselves. most victims are not so fortunate because they are unaware of their rights in the first place. for example, micheline slattery, who started her journey into slavery in haiti and was transported illegally to the united states, found herself in another slavery situation after she finally broke free. the man she was dating promised her citizenship and legal protection through marriage but then hung that protection over her to make her stay and be his sexual and domestic slave. she felt helpless to go to the police for fear of deportation. eventually, she learned from a relative’s lawyer that what her husband was doing was illegal and that, if she went to the authorities, she would still be allowed to stay in the country. what slattery said about the ordeal was that, while legislatures had laws to protect people from legal repercussions, “few people know about these laws” (37). the baudelaires have to read and study through obscure law books to find out how to escape olaf ’s plan. even so, because of the legal confusion, the adults of the book cannot act quickly enough to capture the count. had the protocol for their situation been less ambiguous, however, the legal system might have been able to stop olaf then and there, saving the children from losing faith in their legal system and entering slavery for a second time. the miserable mill shifts its focus from law to the power of business and money for inflicting the sorrows the orphans endure. mr. poe has dropped the kids off at lucky smells lumbermill, frustrated by how quickly he is running out of convenient guardian options. in his haste, he hands their safekeeping to the owner of the mill, sir, who takes advantage of the baudelaires’ need of protection against olaf. before he even meets the children, they find a memo on the door that reads: “enclosed you will find a map of the lucky smells lumbermill, including the dormitory where the three of you will be staying, free of charge. please report to work the following morning along with the other employees” (snicket, miserable 17). they spend the night with other workers and report for dangerous amounts of labor with heavy machinery, where they are forced to work on a stick of gum for lunch and a communal casserole for dinner. after a morning of this labor, their employer/guardian calls them to meet him. sir’s business partner, 101 wilkes charles, greets them and is the only person truly alarmed to find out that they are working. he believes that there has been a huge misunderstanding and assures them that a meeting with his partner would clear up the confusion. once they meet sir, however, the children find out that he is profiting on their desperation, finding more ways than paying his employees in coupons to avoid labor costs (snicket 42). when charles asks him to clear the apparent misunderstanding about the children’s living arrangements, the businessman admits that there has been no mix up. he turns to the children and says, “the deal is this: i will try to make sure that count olaf and his associates never go anywhere near you, and you will work in my lumbermill until you come of age and get all that money. is that a fair deal?” (snicket, miserable 52). the children are stunned at the proposition, as well as the narrator of the story who explains to his readers that, “a fair deal, as everyone knows, is when both people give something of more or less equal value…. working for years in a lumbermill in exchange for the owner trying to keep count olaf away is an enormously unfair deal” (snicket, miserable 53). this financial exploitation of the unprotected orphans also shows a dark side of business practices that are closer to this seemingly outrageous and fictitious account than we like to think. the most disturbing part of this scene, however, is that charles, who half owns the company, is convinced that sir is asking something reasonable of these children. while he does not agree with his partner, he willingly witnesses this transaction and does nothing to aid the children. in many modern slave narratives, there are many men like charles. these are the people who encounter the victim but, for one reason or another, do not act upon their suspicions. for example, jill leighton talks about how her captor was able to take her to hospitals with clear signs of abuse marking her body, but no one ever questioned his stories about how she obtained the injuries (77). there was even an instance when she saw “a lady getting into her cadillac with her husband” who simply watched as her captor “was tying my hands behind my back and putting me back into the trunk in plain view” (leighton 78). this practice of adults witnessing abuse but turning a blind eye is a common theme in snicket’s tales, revealing an unpleasant but all too common response to people in slave situations. through the example of charles, snicket challenges his readers to see this tendency toward passivity and to fight against it to help those suffering. no one comes to the aid of these orphans, which gives the readers the chance to witness the choices victims have to face when left to their own devices. the siblings feel so trapped that even when they have a chance to escape, klaus stops them by pointing out, “but what if he found us… who would protect us from count olaf, if we were all by ourselves?” (snicket, miserable 104). these orphans have no choice but to accept their slavery because mr. poe is too busy to protect them from not only homelessness, but also from an evil man who had already committed the murder of two of their previous guardians. worse, charles, who could have easily done something to prevent this cruel trade, stands by acting as if his partner is not taking advantage of the orphans’ situation. this story portrays how feeling trapped and vulnerable can lead to people willingly giving up their rights for protection. the baudelaires are especially susceptible to enslavement because “[c]hildren in slavery tend to be from disadvantaged populations.... the situation of such children is compounded by cultural values and practices that rank children low in status, which encourages others to disregard their rights” (van de glind and kooijmans 162). both olaf and sir exploited loopholes and vulnerabilities to ensure that the children ended up in these situations, which mirror the real world of modern slavery all too accurately. 102 wilkes snicket, more so than many children’s authors, does not shy away from dark issues such as death, corruption, and violence. even compared to sachar, snicket does not try to shield his readers from cruelty. from book one, page one, the narrator speaks of this tale as a story of misery and woe, warning people against reading it by stating: if you are interested in stories with happy endings, you would be better off reading some other book. in this book there is no happy ending, there is no happy beginning and very few happy things in the middle….violet, klaus, and sunny baudelaire were … extremely unlucky, and most everything that happened to them was rife with misfortune, misery, and despair. i’m sorry to tell you this, but that is how the story goes. (snicket, bad 1) our eyes naturally avert from suffering, but snicket uses reverse psychology in a strange but effective way to combat that inclination. he is daring children to read it by telling them not to read it. once he has them reading his tale, he is constantly trying to help his readers understand the baudelaires’ suffering by taking the narration out of the scene and addressing the audience directly. for example, after an emotional moment where klaus shouts about his distress over his new living situation and the loss of his parents, his sister agrees softly, which creates a healing moment for the two. the reader might be confused how this made the two feel better because their situation is clearly not fixed. the narrator takes them aside to say, “sometimes, just saying that you hate something, and having someone agree with you can make you feel better about a terrible situation” (snicket, bad 31). children’s literature must teach empathy in this manner when trying to explain slavery because, if the children cannot understand a character’s emotions or actions, the readers are lost. victims of slavery often must do seemingly illogical things to survive for reasons that are beyond many people’s comprehension. the job of any slave narrative, fictional or real, is to explain how they survived and to make the incredible sound reasonable. by properly explaining these extremes, audience members start to realize how desperate slavery makes the victim, and the experience awakens a sense of disgust towards the persecutors that creates a sense of urgency. sachar and snicket: helpful depictions? both of these authors’ works succeed in trying to build empathy and tackle the theme of power abuse that leads to exploitation of children. these depictions, whether intended or not, act as models of slavery that share attributes of both past and present slavery practices. but, are they helpful models that will give the reader a clearer sense of the causes and realities attached to this slavery? or, do these depictions fall into logical traps that block students from understanding the issue of slavery better? to answer this, we must return to some of the misrepresentations outlined in bickford iii and rich’s article that i discussed earlier. both sachar and snicket have a lot to offer children, but they too are not perfect. for holes, this trap is called heroification, which occurs in a narrative “when a lone person seemingly single-handedly transforms history” (bickford iii and rich 69). stanley definitely takes this role in the story because his actions and his insight not only save zero and himself, but also shut the entire operation down. this gives readers the idea that individuals have a lot more agency than most victims of slavery actually have, which might give them the false impression that fighting slavery is only done by hero types who have everything going for them. this can be problematic because slavery can be abolished by ordi103 wilkes nary, everyday people, but it requires working as a team and overcoming roadblocks. a series of unfortunate events also has a misrepresentation. this is villianification, which occurs when an antagonist is “portrayed as only bad and without benefit of others’ aid for misdeeds” (bickford iii and rich 69). snicket represents both count olaf and sir as caricatures, presenting them as over-the-top evil. this actually makes it harder for the readers to identify those responsible for slavery because they assume that people who would be part of this exploitation would be easy to spot from a mile away. a perfect depiction of slavery for children may not be possible, however, because the institution is multifaceted and complicated. parents and educators must always be aware of a book’s limitations and help the students understand what is fictional and what is real. however, just because a book cannot be perfect does not mean that it cannot do important work. both books truly do call the readers to understand the plight of their heroes and lead them, either covertly, as with sachar, or overtly, as with snicket, toward an active understanding of how the protagonists are feeling. readers are called to experience the pain slave systems inflict on their victims in a way that cannot be ignored. if educators can harness the power of this empathy, they can prevent children from falling into eventual apathy for the issue. this could inspire children to grow up and be champions for people who live the actual pain portrayed in these books. if this could happen with enough children, perhaps we would be one step closer to global abolition of slavery. 104 wilkes bickford iii, john h and cynthia w. rich. “examining the representation of slavery within children’s literature.” social studies research and practice 9.1 (spring 2014): 66-94. print. blagbrough, jonathan. “child domestic labour: a modern form of slavery.” children & society 22.3 (2008): 179-190. web. 16 jan. 2015. dahan, nicolas m. and milton gittens. “business and the public affairs of slavery: a discursive approach of an ethical public issue.” journal of business ethics 92.2 (mar., 2010): 227-249. web. 16 jan. 2015. field, sherry l. “perspectives and elementary social studies: practice and promise.” historical empathy and perspective taking in the social studies. lanham: rowman & littlefield, 2001: 115-138. print. jordan, don, and michael walsh. white cargo: the forgotten history of britain’s white slaves in america. washington square, ny: new york up, 2008. print. keating, analouise. “transforming status-quo stories: shifting from ‘me’ to ‘we’ consciousness.” education and hope in troubled times: visions of change for our children’s world. new york: routledge, 2009: 210-222. print. leighton, jill. “my life as a slave in america.” enslaved: true stories of modern slavery. eds. jess sage and liora kasten. new york: palgrave macmillan, 2006: 61-80. print. nokes, jeffery. “developing historical empathy and perspective taking through historical fiction.” building students’ historical literacies. hoboken: taylor and francis, 2013. 118-132. print. patterson, orlando. slavery and social death: a comparative study. cambridge, ma: harvard up, 1982. print. sachar, louis. holes. new york : farrar, straus and giroux, 1998. print. slattery, micheline. “the journey of an orphan: in and out of bondage from haiti to connecticut.” enslaved: true stories of modern slavery. ed. jess sage and liora kasten. new york: palgrave macmillan, 2006: 11-38. print. snicket, lemony. a series of unfortunate events: the bad beginning. new york: harpertrophy, 1999. print. ---. a series of unfortunate events: the miserable mill. new york: harpertrophy, 2000. print. van de glind, hans, and joost kooijmans. “modern-day child slavery.” children & society 22.3 (2008): 150-166. web. 16 jan. 2015. 105 works cited wilkes 41 “except that the haunted, hidden thing was me”: ghostly matters and transsexual haunting esther wolfe, ball state university this paper examines motifs of ghostliness and haunting in representations of transsexuality, both in the violent and oppressive representations of transsexuality within a transphobic culture, and in the self-representation and narration of transsexuals themselves. using scholar avery gordon’s definition of haunting—which characterizes haunting as the “knot” of oppression, self-representation, and knowledge production—this paper argues for the necessity of recognizing transsexual oppression as a form of cultural haunting. “i do not believe in ghosts, although i have seen them with my own eyes. this isn’t so strange, really. a lot of people feel the same way about transsexuals.” –jennifer finney boylan “back then i knew very little for certain about whatever it was that afflicted me, but i did know this much: that in order to survive, i’d have to become something like a ghost myself, and keep the nature of my true self hidden. and so i haunted that young body of mine….” –jennifer finney boylan1 in 2013, nathan verhelst, a 44-year-old transsexual man, applied for euthanasia in belgium after a series of failed transition surgeries. after his death, nathan’s mother, who in interviews refused to call him by his chosen name or use the male pronouns corresponding to his identity, told belgium’s het laatste nieuws, “when i first saw nancy, my dream was shattered. she was so ugly. i had a ghost birth. her death does not bother me” (gayle). in 2011, a transsexual author named coco papy published a blog post called “ghosts of d.c.: violence against trans women in the nation’s capital,” detailing the city’s epidemic of unsolved shooting deaths of trans women. for papy, the d.c. shootings of multiple trans women “[bring] into the light of day” the violence and repression faced by transsexuals. “much like ghosts, these women’s experiences are continually relegated to the realm of make-believe…that these things just aren’t real. it’s all a ghost story.” papy’s post ends with a call to action: “in the wake of what is a shamefully violent time in the city of washington d.c., there is no longer a reason to blindly turn away.” in her book, ghostly matters: haunting and the sociological imagination, author avery gordon theorizes a complex definition of haunting. haunting, gordon claims, is an “experiential modality,” a “sociopolitical-psychological state” characterized by multiple contexts. notes 1. both epigraphs and the quote in the title are taken from jennifer finney boylan’s book, i’m looking through you: growing up haunted: a memoir. the passage in the title appears on page 176; the epigraphs appear on page 107 and page 25. digital literature review, vol. 1 (2014). © ball state university. all rights reserved. please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce critical edition to dlr@bsu.edu. mailto:dlr%40bsu.edu?subject= 42ghostly matters and transsexual haunting, wolfe in one aspect, haunting is “an animated state in which a repressed or unresolved social violence is making itself known” (xvi). analyzing the historical examples of slavery and the argentinian dirty war, gordon posits that haunting is a shared social and historical condition indicative and expressive of the traumatic violence and oppression of institutional or state power. by creating this condition, gordon argues, haunting also becomes a tool of abusive systems of power to maintain oppressive control and manage populations through the circulation of fear. in this way, haunting “always registers the harm inflicted or the loss sustained by a social violence done in the past or in the present” (xvi). this unresolved state of social violence and state power is one aspect that defines and interprets the experience of haunting. however, for gordon, this is not a complete definition. the repressive violence of state power that generates haunting, by “making itself known,” also forces action; it calls us to “see” what has been violently repressed because “the whole essence of a ghost is that it has a real presence, and demands its due, your attention” (xvi). this call to see and act “out of concern for justice” is also an act that defines the experience of haunting. by registering the presence of social violence, “haunting, unlike trauma, is distinctive for producing a ‘something to be done’” (xvi). according to gordon, the presence of both repressive violence and self-representative, resistant action, of “force and meaning,” do not merely exist separately but simultaneously and circularly (xvi). together they form the “knot” or tension that makes up the experience of haunting itself. this “knot” of repression and self-representation, of “force and meaning,” makes the social and cultural experience of haunting intimately tied to the production of knowledge. out of this “knot,” haunting produces “subjugated knowledges” as defined by michel foucault. subjugated knowledge “names on the one hand that which official knowledge represses within its own terms, institutions, and archives,” and on the other hand it also refers to “disqualified, marginalized, fugitive knowledge from below and outside the institutions of official knowledge production” (gordon xvii). haunting, the seething tangle of abusive power and resistance, produces similarly tangled epistemologies that respond to and dynamically create one another. seeing haunting becomes a means by which to access “marginalized, disqualified, denied” and oppressed knowledge forms and also to identify the “modalities of power” of privileged forms of knowledge. “this way of seeing” says gordon, “is transformative, maybe even revolutionary knowledge” (203). in this paper i excavate the intersections of transsexuality and cultural haunting. my goals are multiple. firstly, i address what i have come to view as a critical lack of dialogue between two fields that seem to have quite a lot to say to one another: that of theorizing haunting and theorizing transsexual subjectivity. scholars of haunting as well as trans theorists and activists have moved concentrically for years, circling and overlapping, hearing each other’s echoes without ever being brought into direct conversation. secondly, i argue, using the critical framework laid out by gordon in ghostly matters, for the recognition of the lived experiences of transsexuality as a form of cultural haunting. i will show that a motif of haunting and ghostliness is imbedded in social, political, and psychological representations of transsexuality. ghostliness and spectrality can be found in a “knot” of transsexual haunting in both the abusive systems of power that oppress people who identify as transsexual and in the expressive acts of transsexuals that create a “something to be done,” that force action and make meaning from their lives. finally, i explore the relationship between the “knot” of transsexual oppression and self-representation with new forms of knowledge production. specifically, i illuminate the ways in which transsexual cultural haunting produces “subjugated knowledge” of transsexual subjectivity—both oppressive forms of knowl43ghostly matters and transsexual haunting, wolfe edge production and new epistemologies that exist “outside” of these abusive institutions of epistemic practice. in this vein, this paper will explore the etymological implications of the term trans, the ghostliness of transsexual time and transsexual space, and the language of both transphobic hate speech and transsexual self-ascription. the paper then further emphasizes the paradoxical “knot” of social violence and calls to action by detailing the institutional systems of repression and abuse faced by trans people. this section illuminates the spectral politics of visibility and erasure lived out through police brutality, corrective rapes, through the denial of access to shelter services, and through transsexual relationships to medical and psychiatric practice. the final section of the paper explore the experience of transsexual cultural haunting through its relationship to knowledge production. this section will explore the examples of transsexual transition photography and the emergence of the transsexual autobiography and memoir. reading and writing the transsexual body: transsexual haunting at the site of language “haunting was the language by which i tried to reach an understanding of force and meaning” (gordon xvi). some of the clearest representations of transsexuality as an experience of cultural haunting can be found at the site of language. a motif of ghostliness and haunting can be found in transphobic hate speech, an institutional speech used to define and code transsexuality, and can also be found in the speech of trans people to represent themselves. language is also fundamentally tied to knowledge production, to the way we construct and understand being and the world. in this way, language forms a “knot,” a point of tension like that of haunting. language itself is also profoundly ghostly. as the deconstructionist philosophers jacques derrida and gilles deleuze have noted, language constantly points out the instability of boundaries, doubling, displacing and deferring categories of meaning. what counts as language definition and expression is also bound up in institutions of power. in this way, entering this analysis at the site of language allows us to see the “knot,” to begin to read and write experiences of transsexuality as a form of cultural haunting. the term transsexual fundamentally refers to those whose gender identification does not correspond to their biological or genital sex. the application of this term is also spectral. transsexuality can refer to “a variety of different identities…cross dressers, drag queens, and transsexuals” (namaste 1) and is used both interchangeably and distinctly from the term “transgender.” in addition, some have argued that the term “transsexual” excludes gender non-conforming individuals who don’t identify as trans because of their cultural or economic backgrounds (valentine 4). in addition, it is important to acknowledge that the term transsexual is constituted within western conceptions of gender, performance, and morality, and is not necessarily representative on a global scale. indigenous and south east asian communities, for example, conceptualize gender alterity and non-conformity out of different contexts and specific localities (reddy 10). the prefix transis inherently spectral. transmeans both between and beyond, “to cross” (online etymology dictionary) or “go through,” and also refers to being “on or to the other side of” or “into another state or place” (“etymology trans”). the ghostliness of trans can be found within these etymologies. “to cross” or “go through” implies the destabilization and 44ghostly matters and transsexual haunting, wolfe transgression of a boundary. similarly, to be both between and beyond is a paradoxical, liminal state, disrupting constructed categories of both time and place. to be both “on or to the other side of” and “into another state or place” also describes multiple states of being. to be “on or to the other side of” implies a state of actualization—a cohesive solidified, realized subject. “into another state or place” implies a state of movement, a process of going there and getting to—an unrealized state of fragmentation and dissociation from the self. in this way, the prefix transalludes to a motif of spectrality within experiences of transsexuality. the word trans echoes the way in which transsexual people cross and move through boundaries, destabilizing constructed categories of sex and gender. the prefix transalso hints at embedded paradoxes within trans identification and expression. transsexuality refers both to those whose gender presentation does not align with their biological sex, and to those who undergo a process of transitioning, including hormones and surgeries, to align their gender presentation with their physical bodies. in this way, transsexuality describes both a state of actualization, cohesion, and realization post-operation as well as a state of fragmentation and dissonance from the self—a state of going to and of transition itself. this is further reinforced by the self-ascriptions of many transsexuals post-operation, who often refer to themselves not only as men and women, but also as transsexual men and transsexual women, and as male-tofemale transsexuals and female-to-male transsexuals. here transsexual identification is rooted both in cohesive actualization of bodily identity in the fragmentation and displacement from the self from one’s gender identity. in this way, to be transsexual is to be both “on or to the other side of,” as well as “into another state or place” (“etymology trans”). to be transsexual is to be both between and beyond categories of sex and gender. looking closely at common instances of transphobic hate speech also further reveals a motif of ghosts and haunting. pushing on slurs like “freaks” unpacks a language of spectrality imbedded in their etymologies and use. the slur freak is similarly rooted in spectrality. in its original usage, freak meant a “sudden turn of mind,” to “change [or] distort,” and also “to streak or fleck randomly” (online etymology dictionary). here, the meaning of freak invokes the transgression of a boundary: to change, to distort, to smear and to fleck, all reference distinctions and categories blurring in and out of one another, altering dimensions and lines. even the term randomly relates to spectrality: to be random is to be outside of or disruptive to order. in this way, the slur freak is fundamentally a condemnation of the way transsexuals are perceived to “turn,” “distort,” “change,” and “smear” categories of sex and gender (online etymology dictionary). slurs themselves exist in the realm of spectrality and haunting. to slur refers not only to abuse through language but also to the blurring together of words, the act of passing over something in order to conceal it. to slur speech collapses boundaries of signification; slurring words blurs together and distorts meaning, changing the meaning of what signs are meant to represent. in this way, the act of slurring parallels the spectrality of transsexual relationships to sex and gender. transsexual people blur categories of gender and sex, changing the meaning of the signs that are constructed to correspond to them. in this way, transphobic hate speech refers to the slurring of the transsexual body in multiple forms, unpacking transsexual experiences of cultural haunting. in addition to its presence within transphobic hate speech, a motif of ghostliness and haunting can also be found in the language many transsexuals use to represent themselves and their own lived experiences. perhaps the most literal representation of the ghostly themes within transsexual self-ascription is the autobiography i’m looking through you: growing up haunted: a memoir by transsexual author jennifer finney boylan. in her memoir, boylan 45ghostly matters and transsexual haunting, wolfe uses the memory of a haunted childhood home to parallel and contextualize her experiences of transsexual identity, which she refers to as growing up in a “haunted body,” and being a ghost herself (30). boylan’s better-known memoir, she’s not there: a life in two genders, utilizes a similar language of spectrality. as a transsexual woman, the phrase “she’s not there” dictates and narrates an experience of absent-presence. like boylan, many other transsexual authors describe the experience of transsexual identity using a language of fragmentation, displacement, and dissociation. transsexual author jay prosser, in his book second skins: the body narratives of transsexuality, describes his experience of transsexuality, particularly the process of transitioning, as “a kind of deafening unspoken. in this gendered nonzone, i felt too embodied (only body) yet also disembodied: for what on earth did i embody?” (2). here, prosser’s description is inherently ghostly. “deafening unspoken,” “gendered nonzone,” “too embodied…yet also disembodied” are paradoxes that invoke the collapse of boundaries, of being there and not there, visible and not-visible, being and not-being. this spectrality is also reflected in prosser’s dissociative use of speech. in the sentence, “i felt too embodied (only body) yet also disembodied: for what on earth did i embody?” the presence of the parenthetical “(only body),” the colon, the sudden shift to a question, and the suturing of several sentences, create a sentence that performs the dislocation of the transsexual self from the subject and body. the use of the term embody is also spectral. to embody means both to provide with a physical form and also to symbolize (“etymology embody”). in this way, to embody reflects the paradoxical state of transsexual identification as both an actualized, cohesive state brought into physical form and a state of dissociation and fragmentation—the symbol of that identity. in addition to this spectral language, also common in transsexual representations are descriptions of feeling as if one is in the wrong body. these descriptions are often accompanied by fantasies of excoriation, or to tear off or remove the skin (prosser 68). transsexual author leslie feinberg describes this in her autobiography, saying pre-transition: “i think how nice it would be to unzip my body from forehead to navel and go on vacation. but there is no escaping it” (qtd. in prosser 68). another transsexual author says: “i used to look at my body and think it was a bit like a diver’s suit, it didn’t feel like me inside” (qtd. in prosser 68). here, the language of the wrong body also invokes a theme of spectrality, haunting, and ghostliness. the wrong body narrative designates an inner true body within an outer false one, fundamentally displacing the mythic whole of the self, creating profound dissociation and fragmentation: “i am not me,” “i am inside.” descriptions of the wrong body rupture boundaries of inside and outside, embodied and disembodied, presence and absence, for what does it mean to be in the wrong body? in this way, the common self-representation of the wrong body within transsexual narratives alludes to the haunting of the transsexual body. also prevalent in transsexual autobiographies is the appearance of mirror scenes, which, according to prosser, “perpetuate transsexual narratives with remarkable consistency” (100). in his autobiography, transsexual author mario martino describes: “i saw my life as a series of distorted mirrors…i saw myself in their crazy reflections as a false image of myself. i was a boy!” (qtd. in prosser 100). mirror scenes are also present in growing up haunted, in which boylan describes a life of seeing the “ghost” of a woman in the mirror: “i saw there was someone in the mirror, an older woman with long blonde hair, wearing a white garment like a nightgown. her eyes were a pair of small red stars. she seemed surprised to see me, and raised one hand to her mouth, as if i were the ghost, as if i were the one floating, translucently, in the mirror” (47). these mirror scenes also foreground the motif of ghostliness embedded in transsexual representation. the mirror scenes of transsexual narratives create a subversion of the lacanian mirror stage. rather than feeling united with their image in the mirror, the trans46ghostly matters and transsexual haunting, wolfe sexual person does not recognize their reflected self. instead of a cohesive image, these mirror scenes reflect dissociation and fragmentation, an absent presence. what is seen in the mirror is simultaneously what is not there and what is not meant to be there. mirrors themselves are inherently displacing and paradoxical, doubling and deferring the image, reflecting subject as object. in this way, the spectrality of mirror scenes in transsexual narratives literally mirrors that of the transsexual authors themselves. this is further reinforced by boylan in growing up haunted. at the conclusion of her memoir, she realizes that the ghost of a woman she had seen in the mirror was the image of her own haunted, secret self. these examples break analytic ground by allowing us to begin recognizing the knot of haunting embedded in the ghostly motifs of transsexual subjectivity. entering analysis of transsexual haunting through the site of language also allows us to recognize the structures of institutional power and abuse that further characterize transsexuality as an experience of cultural haunting. invisible lives: transsexual haunting and institutional repression “erasure is a defining condition of how transsexuality is managed in culture and institutions” (namaste 4). erasure through restricted access to social services one important way in which transsexuals experience institutional repression and abuse is through their restricted access to social service resources, particularly homeless shelters and women’s shelters. transsexuals experience some of the highest rates of homelessness, poverty, and domestic abuse, creating an immediate need for homeless and women’s crisis services. however, transsexuals in immediate need of shelter services are often denied (namaste 176). homeless shelters that are willing to accept transsexuals often do so on the basis of the strict enforcement of heteronormative gender codes. access to resources is contingent upon transsexuals conforming to a gender presentation that is out of alignment with their transsexual identity. transsexual women who seek domestic abuse services suffer similar treatment. women’s shelters typically will only accept transsexual women if they are post-operative. non-operative or pre-operative transsexual women are often turned away (namaste 178). the guidelines for admittance into homeless and women’s shelters implicitly point to transsexual spectrality, to the deconstruction of categories and boundaries. by making access to women’s shelters dependent on post-operative status, institutions deny subjectivity to transsexuals who are more transgressive to gender boundaries, granting partial subjectivity only to those who present sex and gender more cohesively within institutional binary. in addition, by making access to homeless shelters dependent on gender conformity, institutions attempt to recode and resolidify destabilized categories of sex and gender. in this way, the restricted access of transsexuals to social and shelter services further emphasizes transsexuality as an experience of cultural haunting. erasure in medical and psychiatric practice transsexuals experience complex forms of erasure within psychological and medical study and methodology. transsexuality is classified within the diagnostic and statistical manual of 47ghostly matters and transsexual haunting, wolfe mental disorders (dsm) as gender identity disorder or gender dysphoria, and is considered a form of mental disorder within the field of psychology. the classification of transsexuality as a mental disorder has subsequently resulted in transsexuals having to submit to a diagnosis in order to begin receiving vital healthcare including hormones and surgeries to meet their health needs. those who submit to a diagnosis in order to obtain vital health care must, according to prosser, match a “master narrative” of transsexuality when talking to their doctors about their transsexual identity (104). even in these cases, doctors will often refuse to administer hormones or will only agree to administer hormones with several documents of authorization from psychiatrists, making them especially difficult to obtain legally. a lack of trans positive physicians also results in many doctors having a limited knowledge of the effects of hormones with relation to transsexual healthcare. as a result, many transsexuals are far more knowledgeable on the effects of hormones on their own bodies than the physicians treating them. because of this, transsexuals “often educate their doctors about hormones at the beginning of the patient-doctor relationship as well as throughout their treatment” (prosser 167). the status of transsexuals within medical and psychiatric institutions of power creates a complex play of oppression and subjectivity. transsexuals are forced to submit to a diagnosis of a mental disorder in order to meet their vital and immediate healthcare needs, must submit to a script of transsexuality in order to receive hormones, and are often treated by physicians who know less about the effects of hormones on their own bodies. these structures objectify trans people and are forms of institutional repression, attempts to control and manage their transgressive destabilization of categories of gender and sex. however, transsexuals carefully anticipate and perform this master narrative in order to actualize themselves, and actively instruct their doctors on their healthcare needs, subtly forming and influencing the oppressive institutional structures they must navigate in order to survive. this complex dynamic of erasure and subjectivity is also imbedded in the term disorder, which refers both to the breakdown of category as well as to the active, constituting act of disordering itself. in this way, the dynamics of psychological and medical practice reveal complex, knotted plays of visibility and erasure, oppression, and subjectivity that further emphasize transsexuality as an experience of cultural haunting as per gordon’s definition. erasure through physical violence perhaps the clearest, most literal examples of transsexuality as a form of cultural haunting can be found in transsexual experiences of violence. information on violence against transsexual people is inherently ghostly. due to the oppressive institutional systems in place, few crimes against transsexuals are reported. this can be practically attributed to the high rates of police harassment and brutality suffered by transsexuals, as well as to the shared fear of being imprisoned in a holding cell that does not correspond to their gender identification. in addition, traditional means of assessing rates of violence often do not account for the unique conditions of transsexuality. surveys of violence against lgbtq persons, for example, disappear the presence of violence against transsexuals within the data of other groups. similarly, theorizations of violence against lgbtq persons, including queerbashing and gaybashing, only take into account motivations for hate crime violence linked to sexual orientation. this also renders violence against transsexuals invisible by not taking into account gender identity and presentation in motivations for hate crimes. however, even with many representations of violence rendered all but invisible, human rights watch estimates that one in twelve transsexuals is murdered, and that other rates of violence, including assaults, rapes, and suicides, are some of 48ghostly matters and transsexual haunting, wolfe the highest of any marginalized group (giovanniello 1). one act of violence that particularly emphasizes transsexual spectrality is that of corrective rape. during hate crimes, corrective rape is often used against female-to-male transsexuals with the intent of “showing them they are women,” such as in the case of transsexual brandon teena (halberstam 66). the heinous violence of corrective rape is a violent solidification of boundaries of sex and gender. the rapist aims to violently impose and reassert categories of sex and gender onto the body (and specifically the female body) that has transgressed and destabilized those boundaries. in this way, corrective rape is a violent, traumatic, and oppressive re-ordering of boundaries of sex and gender that are perceived as having been disordered. in this way, violence against transsexuals exists as a spectral absent-presence with transsexuals literally and figuratively disappearing within the abusive systems that repress them. subjugated knowledge: transsexual haunting and new epistemic forms “the only theory i trust is a story” (boylan 25). having detailed the knot of institutional oppression and self-representation that makes up cultural experiences of transsexual haunting, we now move into the relationship of transsexual haunting to the production of new forms of knowledge. one such knowledge form is the representation of transsexual subjectivity in photography. of particular interest here is the development of transsexual transition photography. in transition photography, the process of physical transitioning is captured in images arranged in sequence. by representing the linear process of transitioning, we recognize the realized transsexual body that emerges post-transition. however, the representation of transsexual identity in transition photography introduces a ghostly paradox. according to prosser, the effect of transition photography “is double: photographs demand that we concede that transsexuality makes a thorough difference to the body and yet…that we discover consistent and continuous identity in that very place of alterity” (75). to recognize the cohesive realization of transsexual subjectivity, we must simultaneously recognize its fragmentation. the temporality of transition photography is similarly paradoxical. to recognize the supposed linearity of transition requires the presence of the sequence and requires the constant, simultaneous presence of the past. to contextualize and recognize the linearity of transition, one must always look back. in this way, to recognize what is requires the constant deferral to what once was but is no longer there. transsexual transition photography captures the simultaneous definitions of transsexual identity, representing both the realized, cohesive, actualized form as well as the fragmented, dissociated self. transsexual transition photography is, in many ways, a method of photographing ghosts, a means of theorizing the ambiguities of transsexual subjectivity. another new form of knowledge production is the rapidly growing genre of transsexual autobiography/memoir. according to prosser—in answer to the question “why do so many transsexuals write autobiographies?”—“autobiography brings into relief the split of the transsexual life…the difference present in all autobiography between the subject of enunciation and the subject of enunciating. i was a woman, i write as a man, how to join this split? precisely through narrative” (102). in this way, autobiography creates a paradox similar to that of transition photography, presenting both the cohesive subject and the object of dissociation and presenting linearity through the simultaneous, constant presence of the past. autobiography itself is a spectral form, blurring categories of fact and fiction, subject and object, past and present and lending itself to the representation of transsexual stories. in many ways, the transsexual 49ghostly matters and transsexual haunting, wolfe autobiography—in the act of memory—is a literal act of “re-membering” the dissociated, displaced self. this is represented almost literally in boylan’s growing up haunted. at the end of her memoir, having completed transition and finally recognized the ghost in the mirror as her own self, she says, “against all odds, i had become solid” (249). although no work has previously been done on the intersections of haunting and transsexuality, a prominent motif of ghostliness in conceptions of transsexual subjectivity suggests the presence of something seething and significant at work. reading transsexual identities and experiences through avery gordon’s definition in ghostly matters as the knot of oppression and self-representation creates new forms of knowledge production; we encounter transsexuality as a form of cultural haunting. there are several reasons why recognizing transsexuality as a form of cultural haunting may be important. recognizing a haunting gives communities another means by which to recognize abusive systems of power in their lives, to suddenly name and identify oppressions against transsexuals they didn’t realize were being felt, and felt deeply. naming haunting, seeing ghosts, also provides another way to force action, to create a “something to be done” for transsexual justice (gordon xvi). in addition, recognizing cultural hauntings creates opportunities for new forms of knowledge production that theorize the complexities of transsexual subjectivity, as well as provide new access to previously existing forms of subjugated knowledge. finally, as gordon points out, “the ghostly aspects of social life are not abberations, but are central to modernity itself” (197). theorizing transsexuality as a form of cultural haunting and recognizing its ghostly aspects is a key part of understanding our contemporary world. ultimately, however, the most necessary reason to continue the work of recognizing transsexuality as a form of cultural haunting can be summarized by gordon herself. it is “because ultimately haunting is about how to transform a shadow of a life into an undiminished life whose shadows touch softly in the spirit of peaceful reconciliation” (208). for transsexuals, the reality of living a shadow of a life is an immediate, violent crisis. the work of creating the means to live an undiminished life is a vital and life-affirming need. 50ghostly matters and transsexual haunting, wolfe works cited boylan, jennifer finney. she’s not there: a life in two genders. new york: broadway books, 2003. print. ---. i’m looking through you: growing up haunted: a memoir. new york: doubleday publishing group, 2008. print. “etymology embody.” google. google, n.d. 1 nov. 2013. “etymology trans.” google. google, n.d. 1 nov. 2013. “freak.” def. 1, 2. online etymology dictionary, douglas harper, n.d. 1 nov. 2013. gayle, damien. “mother of belgian transsexual who chose to die by euthanasia after botched sex-change operation says ‘her death doesn’t bother me.’” mail online. daily mail, 2 oct. 2013. web. 1 nov. 2013. giovanniello, sarah. “ncavp report: 2012 hate violence disproportionately target transgender women of color.” glaad. glaad, 4 june 2013. web. 1 nov. 2013. gordon, avery. ghostly matters: haunting and the sociological imagination. minneapolis: university of minnesota press, 2008. print. halberstam, judith. in a queer time and place: transgender bodies, subcultural lives. new york: new york university press, 2005. print. namaste, viviane k. invisible lives: the erasure of transsexual and transgendered people. chicago: university of chicago press, 2000. print. papy, coco. “ghosts of d.c: violence against trans women in the nation’s capital.” persephone magazine. persephone magazine, 14 sep. 2011. web. 4 oct. 2012. prosser, jay. second skins: the body narratives of transsexuality. new york: columbia university press, 1998. print. reddy, gayatri. with respect to sex: negotiating hijra identity in south india. chicago: university of chicago press, 2005. print. “trans.” def. 1. online etymology dictionary, douglas harper, n.d. 1 nov. 2013. valentine, david. imagining transgender. durham: duke university press, 2007. print. beyond bars: how print and visual media contributed to the exploitation of the dionne quintuplets and the gosselin sextuplets in november 1997, a couple named bobbi and kenny mccaughey from carlisle, iowa gave birth to the first surviving septuplets in recorded history: seven babies born at once. the world was captivated, and a media firestorm ignited during the first months of the children’s lives. then, in the midst of the coverage, time featured an open letter written by three elderly women— surviving members of the same set of quintuplets—to the mccaughey family, pleading with these new parents not to subject their septuplets to the exploitive powers of the media. the following is an excerpt from their letter: dear bobbi and kenny, if we emerge momentarily from the privacy we have sought all our adult lives, it is only to send a message to the mccaughey family. . . multiple births should not be confused with entertainment, nor should they be an opportunity to sell products . . . our lives have been ruined by the exploitation we suffered at the hands of the government of ontario, our place of birth. we were displayed as a curiosity three times a day for millions of tourists. to this day we receive letters from all over amory orchard, ball state university abstract this paper explores the depiction of the historic dionne quintuplets and the modern-day gosselin sextuplets in order to demonstrate how the emergence of mass media (e.g., television, photography, and print) made these children’s likeness into commodities. the author also focuses on consent and freakification of aspects related to the nuclear family and gender roles. digital literature review, vol. 3 (2016). © ball state university. all rights reserved. please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce critical edition to dlr@bsu.edu. 182 the world. to all those who have expressed their support in light of the abuse we have endured, we say thank you. and to those who would seek to exploit the growing fame of these children, we say beware. we sincerely hope a lesson will be learned from examining how our lives were forever altered by our childhood experience. if this letter changes the course of events for these newborns, then perhaps our lives will have served a higher purpose. sincerely, annette, cécile and yvonne dionne (“advice from the dionne quintuplets”) this firm, yet passionate letter was written by the then-surviving dionne quintuplets (sister yvonne died in 2001), who became world-famous in the 1930s and ’40s for being members of a successful multiple birth consisting of five babies. for nine years, they lived in a zoo-like amusement park known as quintland, their images and names splashed across print, film, and merchandise. now, despite approximately seventy years since the dionnes’ release, it is apparent that our society still remains transfixed by the idea of large families, especially multiples. while advances in technology have brought countless advantages to the modern world, mass media production has also become a new mode of othering humans who challenge our assumptions about the world. it has been approximately nineteen years since the dionnes sent their letter, and yet other multiples, such as the gosselin sextuplets of jon and kate plus 8 and nadya “octomom” suleman’s octuplets, have not escaped the media’s eye. the overwhelming primary purpose of this coverage is to entertain, not inform, an audience. while people were once displayed at crowded carnival sideshows and in museums, the more distanced portrayal of human difference in print and film (including television and newsreels) triggers much more distant and less empathetic connections with these subjects, forcing contemporary “human oddities” to become commodities. mediacoined terms such as “octomom” reflect how much these children are romanticized but ultimately dehumanized. what attracts audiences to families with multiples? this reason is closely tied to the freak show: an exaggeration of or juxtaposition with orchard 183 the ordinary. just as the display of giants or little people found at circuses exaggerates size or shows featuring bearded women challenge what it means to be feminine, the dionne quintuplets and gosselin sextuplets ask us to reconsider our perception of the nuclear family, defined as a self-sufficient unit comprised of both a maternal and paternal caregiver and their progeny no other families of multiples have had their personas so widely distributed in the media as these two families. at the height of their popularity, these children—despite the wide generation gap—were so easily exploited because their depiction in both print and visual forms made them into commodities that simultaneously challenged and reaffirmed the values of the nuclear family. this paper will analyze four depictions of the two families’ “everyday” lives: two textual (one from the new york times and another from people magazine) and two filmed (scenes from the 1938 movie five of a kind and episodes from seasons three and four of jon and kate plus 8). i will draw upon media theory, psychology, and rhetorical theory in order to analyze and demonstrate how the media continues to encourage the ideals of the western nuclear family by using the likenesses of vulnerable children. however, before one analyzes these media representations, it is crucial that one first understand the real stories of the children whose likenesses were used to sell an extreme and often idealized depiction of family life. the families the dionne quintuplets—yvonne, annette, cécile, émilie, and marie—were taken from their impoverished biological parents mere months after their 1934 birth and remained separated from them for the first decade of their lives. their parents were deemed unfit after they were caught putting the children on display in a chicago-based exhibit to earn enough money to care for them. the children became wards of the canadian government and were housed in a specialized hospital. unfortunately, their new home became less like a hospital and more like an amusement park, and it was eventually dubbed “quintland.” for the next nine years, the government encouraged an eager audience to pay admission at the gates in order to catch a glimpse of these child oddities playing behind one-way glass. the girls were, for the most part, unaware that they were being watched and were only allowed outside at certain times of the orchard 184 day (royal 442). despite its initial attempts to avoid exploiting the young girls for profit by “saving” them from their parents, canada had ironically put the children on display according to their own terms. the canadian government abused its powers in order to profit from children who could give no consent when they were infants. the gosselins were born seventy years later in 2004. it was jon and kate gosselin’s second pregnancy after years of infertility treatments. as with the mccaughey family, there was a media storm after their birth, and, several months later, a television special from the discovery channel was released. after another successful special appeared on tlc, that network debuted jon and kate plus 8 in 2007. the show featured all ten gosselins: jon, kate, the twins (cara and maddy) and the sextuplets (alexis, hannah, aaden, collin, leah, and joel). the show was a commercial success and spawned a book series written by kate gosselin as well as tabloid media coverage. after it was revealed that husband jon gosselin was involved in an extramarital scandal, the parents divorced. even after an executive decision to continue the series with the twist that kate would now live as a single mom, the reality show was canceled in 2011 (royal 2-3). their show may have been founded on the idea of an unconventional family when it first aired, but it collapsed when the father figure was out of the picture. jon and kate plus 8 had a five-season run from 2007 to 2011, and the dionnes’ history seemed to repeat itself. jon and kate gosselin consented to their children’s appearance in a reality tv show and permitted their children’s faces to appear in magazines and promotional material for the program. the sextuplets were never physically trapped behind glass or steel bars; the evidence of their exploitation is more subtle due to the affordances and constraints associated with print and visual media. in the end, through editing and other persuasive techniques, the directors and writers were handed control of the children’s representation. freak shows, mass media, and commodification humans have been put on display in forms of freak shows and human zoos for centuries. yet what is important to note about the dionnes is that they were born at a time when technology was making monumental strides, particularly in visual mediums such as film. although it may seem unlikely to place news coverage, film, tabloids, and reality television shows in the orchard 185 same category as freak shows, there are many connections between these examples of humans being exploited for capital gain. how that subject is perceived by an audience can be manipulated by whatever media is used to distribute their image. much like a carnival barker’s stories about individual exhibits, the tale becomes a romanticized version of the truth that draws a crowd. when film was introduced in the early twentieth century, the freak show was brought to an audience who was not limited to the physical fair ground, where a traveling human exhibit would normally be displayed. in fact, some of the first films depicted freak shows and other human exhibits on screen (thomson 56). once this technology became more commonplace, the freak show had been transferred to a new medium that continued to encourage the idea that anyone who is not a normate is a source of intrigue and, therefore, entertainment. according to scholar guy debord’s “mass media and commodity fetishism,” “all that was once directly lived has become mere representation” (5). any representation then becomes an object to be bought and sold by distributers. once this happens, the audience’s empathy subsides, unlike if they were to see an exhibit in person at a traveling freak show. disability scholar rosemarie garland thomson attributes this concept to what she deems to be an “ocularcentric era.” she writes that “the rapid flourishing of photography after 1839 provided a new way to stare at disability, [and in] our ocularcentric era, images mediate our desires and the ways we imagine ourselves” (57). the image permits staring more easily and, therefore, enables mass consumption of representations of human subjects like the dionne or the gosselin families. the contrast between quintland and the films in which the dionnes were depicted echoes the evolution of the physical, staged freak show to the big screen. audiences were able to travel to quintland to observe the girls playing in their nursery behind glass as if the children were in a zoo. yet, when they were filmed, their activities eating and playing in the nursery were captured by the camera as it was rolling, edited at a later time, and placed in cinemas across the world. as with their feature film five of a kind—which i will soon discuss and analyze—sometimes the scripted scenes were intercut between scenes in which the children sang, danced, and (often) reinforced traditional gender roles by playing house with their dolls. while these are typical activities in which many children participate, it orchard 186 is important to remember that the editors made conscious decisions about which shots from the hours and days of footage would be used to construct their version of typical childhood. the mass distribution of the dionnes’ images led to movie ticket sales. unlike feature films that have scripts, reality tv enables its subjects to—at least to some degree—interact with the camera by addressing the audience. they can, as jon and kate plus 8 did, reflect on a previous event captured on camera and discuss their feelings about that incident. however, just how real are reality shows? if the genre’s purpose is to show what daily life is like for its subjects who are interacting in an environment they are accustomed to, how could this be harmful for child subjects? the reality television genre is no less exploitive than any other type of visual media. as scholar lucia palmer explains, “reality television is fabricated and packaged as much as any scripted program; its truthfulness is an artifice created to sell its products . . . [i]t is designed for a specific audience with a specific goal motivated by commercial factors” (124). palmer gives examples of some of the ways in which reality television is harmful for teenage and child viewers, including the dangers of mainstream heteronormativity and adult perceptions of beauty (1289). however, palmer also cites a major problem with the way such shows challenge, but ultimately sustain, the cultural perception that large, nuclear families are ideal for western life (125). for viewers of the gosselins’ show, jon and kate plus 8, it may seem at first that reality television provides a means to show the world not simply how hectic life can be with sextuplets but also how many aspects of their life are average. yet, as i will discuss in the next section of this paper, the situations being captured in the early seasons are manipulated by editors to show a slice of life that is entertaining and appeals to the general public’s views on the nuclear family. thus, although the draw for an audience is their one unusual trait (having eight children), to keep an audience invested, the show is built around traditional family values. representations of the dionnes and gosselins: an analysis in this section, i examine the ways print and visual communication mediums—including film, television episodes, tabloids, and newspapers— have been used to sell the dionnes and gosselins to the public. although orchard 187 these four different types are all able to capture the multiples’ “everyday lives,” text and film/modern television convey messages differently and, therefore, display these children in different ways. print mediums as some rhetoricians and media specialists, such as neil postman, assert, print forms of representation in the age of television and film are no more virtuous than others; they simply allow for different types of misuse. according to postman’s renowned 1985 work, amusing ourselves to death: public discourse in the age of show business, textual modes of communication before the age of television were “serious, inclined toward rational argument and presentation, and, therefore, made up of meaningful content” (52). in other words, print before the twentieth century allowed a media consumer to think more critically about what they read. now the most popular print forms mimic television and film’s tendency to entertain rather than inform. while postman never speaks on human exhibits in his work, his piece, “the typographic mind,” explains why the tabloids that cover the dionnes and gosselins read more like vivid scripts about domestic life than journalism. both the print articles recount special occasions in these children’s lives, and both occur within a setting similar to a nuclear family’s home. both pieces feature vivid language and primarily happy details meant to entertain rather than inform. however, the children’s own words are absent, leaving the writers or their guardians to speak for them. the first article is one from the new york times, entitled “dionne girls rouse nursery 3 hours early to investigate pere noel’s bounty,” which is about the quintuplets waking up to a christmas morning. the second article is a publicity article from people, detailing the sextuplets’ circus-themed birthday party. both articles begin the same way: with a lighthearted opening, as in this example from the gosselin article: “raising eight children can be a circus – a comparison kate gosselin took to heart to celebrate her sextuplets’ birthday” (corriston) and this one from the dionnes’: “the dionne quintuplets awoke at 4:30 a.m. today and aroused the nursery to find out what pere noel had left for them. thus began an exciting day of hijinks” (“quintuplets slide all over the place”). what is important to realize here is that the writers’ word choices themselves do not particularly exploit the children; rather, it is the way the articles are clearly meant to orchard 188 be light entertainment. it disguises the fact that these children have little say regarding whether or not they want to be featured in the articles. their guardians (the canadian government and jon and kate gosselin) allow the writers to speak for them. in fact, in people, only kate gosselin speaks: “all nine of us came together – dreamed together, planned together, set up together and enjoyed a huge milestone with tons of our friends” (corriston). their individual voices are lost in this collective “us.” visual mediums print mediums may leave a consumer with a picture of the everyday lives of the gosselin and dionne multiples in their minds, but visual mediums like television and film are more harmful due to the notion that “seeing is believing.” in other words, television is highly selective, controlled by editors and directors to produce the most entertaining viewing experience for the audience as possible. in doing so, an audience may not consider what is occurring off-screen. the children are surrounded by concepts that both reinforce and challenge some of the major constructs of a nuclear family: compliance with traditional gender roles and male/female parental figures. however, i will provide context for these media depictions so that we may better analyze them. both visual mediums starring these families of multiples feature parental figures—but these parental figures do not comply with the traditional mold of a mother or father. we begin with the dionne sisters’ film, five of a kind (1938), a comedy starring the dionne quintuplets as the fictitious “wyatt” quintuplets—yet the characters still bear the real girls’ names: yvonne, annette, cécile, émilie, and marie. the girls were only four-and-a-half at the time of the film’s release. the little girls portrayed as characters in the film are kept in a canadian institution guarded by “kindly” white-uniformed nurses and their “kindly,” fatherly caretaker named dr. john lock (who is based on quintland’s real-life dr. defoe). the plot centers around the competition between two radio journalists (portrayed by cesar romero and claire trevor) to be the first to put the quints’ voices on the radio. intercut between the plot points, the film features long scenes depicting the tiny girls playing with dolls behind glass in a room similar to the one at quintland, meeting puppies, and singing songs in matching dresses and bows (five of a kind 15:00, 17:00, and 41:49). upon its release, orchard 189 culture critic frank s. nugent of the new york times condemned the film, proclaiming that the girls have “become victims of mass production” and deeming the twentieth century fox film as a “factory-made product with a superimposed plot” (qtd. in “five of a kind”). however, in the same article, nugent ironically laments that this film is not as entertaining as the two previous films in which the dionnes starred. in the season three premiere of jon and kate plus 8 entitled “a day in the life,” the episode’s goal is to show the audience what a normal day in the gosselin house typically looks like. the entire twenty-one minutes takes place at the gosselin residence in the fall of 2008 and details what it is like getting the twins out the door to school as well as the antics of the sextuplets’ naptime and playtimes. much like the dionne film’s reels and the scenes from five of a kind, the toddler-aged children are filmed as they play outside, eat snacks, and occasionally smack each other. the gosselins fit the mold of the nuclear family better than the dionnes, who were taken from their biological parents as infants, because the gosselins do have a mother and father present. however, the show is still compliant with the major appeal of human exhibits: it is a nuclear family but taken to the extreme. jon, the father, still leaves for work while kate, the frazzled mother, stays home to send the older kids off to school and then take care of six toddlers. in both instances, the dionnes’ and gosselins’ situation is simultaneously familiar—yet unfamiliar, which is where the intrigue and “entertainment” value comes into play. while it is true that the depiction of the gosselins does not seem to try to be perfect, both representations feature scenes where the female children adopt the roles often associated with their gender: taking care of other children or their toys. here, the filmmakers and television producers have—much like freakshow owners—chosen to include these scenes without much preamble. in jon and kate plus 8’s episode “day in a life,” one of the seven-yearold twins is shown keeping the younger children under control, ordering them around the house to play games upstairs just as her mother, kate, does earlier in the episode (17:00). there is a similar and—rather haunting— scene in the depression-era film five of a kind; in an extended scene, each of the little girls in their matching outfits simultaneously washes her own identical baby doll, then feeds it a plastic toy bottle, scolds it in french, and orchard 190 tucks it into bed. all lined up, an image of an assembly line comes to mind: little girls behind glass learning to obey cultural norms with their imaginary children. these two scenes may seem innocent to an unassuming audience, but it nonetheless remains a conscious choice by the producers to include these particular scenes in order to emphasize the need for traditional roles in nontraditional families. these examples are quite subtle. one particular instance, however, occurs during the first and second episodes of season 4, in which the gosselin family has a “boys’ day out” and a “girls’ day out.” jon takes the four-year-old boys to a golf course and a fitness center, while kate takes the five girls shopping at the grocery store and then to paint pottery (“boys day out,” “girls day out”). in this two-part episode, one of the boys even tries to get in the van with the girls and is carried away kicking and screaming by his father (“girls day out” 10:00). this further highlights the underlying assumption that, even though jon and kate are raising so many children, they will still be raised to comply with dominant gender norms. one question remains, however: given how popular the quints were at the time, why did the filmmakers feel compelled to make a fictionalized film? as popular culture historian paul talbot suggests, quintland could only sustain the public’s attention for so long. as he explains, “when one looked at them for a minute or two, he had seen all there was to see” (talbot 81). film, meanwhile, has the ability to manipulate its subjects to make them more interesting. it can place the girls in situations that they would not ordinarily encounter in the nursery. for instance, one scene shows the doctor presenting the five children with puppies. then the camera rolls and captures the children’s expressions and, in some cases, screams of terror. here, the scene’s entertainment value stems from the audience watching the girls to see how they will react and what cute things they will do, such as hugging a puppy or—as several of them do—running away in fear. except for the scenes in which the dionnes sing and dance, they do not have lines. in this way, it is strikingly similar to modern-day reality shows’ way of placing participants in a situation and letting the cameras roll. then, before releasing this footage to the public, the editors manipulate and rearrange what is captured on film and shrink down the course of a day into an hour or half-an-hour. however, what is particularly significant about this film is that not only does the movie fictionalize the little girls’ lives, orchard 191 but it simultaneously appeals to and challenges early twentieth-century assumptions about domestic life. justice for exploited multiples of course, despite all the injustice these children have faced, not everyone in the public is entranced by the romanticization of multiples. there have, in fact, been questions and controversy regarding whether or not the gosselin parents have violated child labor laws. however, according to one study conducted by the akron law review, the fair labor standards act (flsa) does not protect children depicted on reality shows because “though the flsa governs child labor, it expressly exempts from coverage of children employed as ‘actor or performer’” [sic ] (royal 456). not only does this allow kate’s children to be filmed using her parental consent, but the children do not qualify for protection from the law if any of them should sue their guardians, as the dionnes did in 1998, approximately one year after the mccaughey septuplets were born. fortunately, cécile, annette, and yvonne, the last living dionne sisters, asked that they be compensated for their years in captivity and that they be given what share of the profits they were owed from the canadian trust fund promised to them after they became wards of the state. in the end, they were given a settlement equivalent to 2.8 million dollars (depalma). the women, along with their deceased sisters who never received justice when they were alive, were granted an apology and escaped the public life as best they could, but the gosselins continue to periodically appear in tlc specials and tabloid-publicity magazines. unlike the early nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the general public now condemns the display of human subjects at carnivals or museums. however, this certainly does not mean that the livelihoods of vulnerable populations like children are not distributed for entertainment. they are watched as they grow up into future spouses and parents, completing the cycle of the nuclear family. we are still drawn to individuals who exaggerate, and therefore challenge, our culture’s perceived notions of normal. it is crucial to study all reincarnated forms of the freak show—everything from reality television and film to newspaper and magazine articles—because, in an age when entertainment dominates most forms of communication, it is more difficult to connect “past consequences” with the future (rich 371). the orchard 192 merchandising of the gosselins’ images after the dionnes’ self-proclaimed hellish childhood in the public eye proves this, as laws allow their guardians to continue to speak for the sextuplets. still, there is a silver lining. annette, cécile, and yvonne dionne were granted their wish back in 1997: the mccaughey septuplets were never subjected to the degree of in-person attention or mass media distribution which the dionnes had once endured. now, at nearly nineteen years old, they have escaped a life filled with publicity photographs and merchandising—aside from an occasional interview marking a birthday or milestone. the question remains as to how the gosselins (and any other famous multiples in the future) will fair in a world that still considers them oddities. orchard 193 works cited “boys day out.” jon and kate plus 8: season four. writ. /dir. jennifer stocks and scott enlow. tlc, 2010. dvd. corriston, michelle. “cake, cotton candy & a clown costume: kate gosselin throws the sextuplets a carnival birthday bash.” people magazine. people magazine archives. 18 june 2014. web. 9 dec. 2015. “day in the life.” jon and kate plus 8: season three. writ./dir. jennifer stocks and scott enlow. tlc, 2009. dvd. debord, guy. “mass media and commodity fetishism.” the society of the spectacle. 1st ed. new york: zone, 1967. print. depalma, anthony. “3 dionne survivors accept a $2.8 million settlement.” the new york times. the new york times company, 7 mar. 1998. web. 7 mar. 2016. dionne, annette, cécile dionne, and yvonne dionne. “advice from the dionne quintuplets.” time magazine. time inc., 1 dec. 1997. web. 8 dec. 2015. five of a kind. dir. herbert i. leeds. perf. the dionne quintuplets, jean hersholt, claire trevor, cesar romero. twentieth century fox film corporation, 1938. film. “girls day out.” jon and kate plus 8: season four. writ./dir. jennifer stocks and scott enlow. tlc, 2010. dvd. palmer, lucia. “sluts, brats, and sextuplets: the dangers of reality television for children and teen participants.” popular culture association in the south 36.1 (2013): 123-143. web. 8 dec. 2015. postman, neil. “the typographic mind.” amusing ourselves to death: public discourse in the age of show business. 5th ed. new york: penguin (2005): 44-64. print. orchard 194 “quintuplets slide all over the place as they try out yule gift skates: dionne girls rouse nursery 3 hours early to investigate pere noel’s bounty—they give tony the dog, an oversize bone.” the canadian press. 26. dec. 1939: 21. the new york times. web. 7 dec. 2015. rich, leigh e. “thirty years yet miles of the medium-metaphor to go: jon stewart, neil postman, and understanding the politics and epistemology of media.” bioethical inquiry 12 (2015): 369–375. springer link. web. 4 dec. 2015. royal, dayna b. “jon & kate plus the state: why congress should protect children in reality programming.” akron law review 43.435 (2010): 436-98. print. talbot, paul. “five of a kind.” the films of the dionne quintuplets. 1st ed. albany: bear manor media, 2007. 63-85. print. thomson, rosemarie garland. “the politics of staring: visual rhetorics of disability in popular photography.” disability studies: enabling the humanities (2002): 56-75. print. orchard 195 gender performance: from the freak show to modern drag it is the season six finale of rupaul’s drag race, and the top three queens are waiting to see who will be crowned america’s next drag superstar. the finalists’ bodies exceed our almost unattainable beauty standards, and their hair seems to defy gravity. courtney act, one of the finalists, is a singer from australia; her normally blonde wig has been replaced with a bright pink one, and she’s wearing a technicolor dress that looks like something out of a bowie video. next to her is adore delano, another singer, whose fire red wig hangs down to her ample bosom (thanks to a chest plate), while her black gown screams of sequins. and on the very end is bianca del rio, a comedian queen who specializes in insult comedy and more traditional drag, wearing one of her typical wigs: large, black, and topped with a huge spray of colored fabric. her eyes are made up in her typical fashion, with copious amounts of white eyeliner to feminize her eyes and make them pop. the queens entertain the audience with an opening number, the whole time “serving” face, body, and total drag realness as they try to convince ru that they deserve the crown. in the end, it goes to bianca del rio; as the crowd’s deafening roars fill the award hall, the crown is placed on her head (“the finale”). according to the merriam-webster dictionary, drag or being in drag is defined as “clothing more conventionally worn by the opposite sex, especially women’s clothes worn by a man” (“drag”). while drag has a long history that can be traced back to ancient civilizations, in america drag really got its start in the freak show. in the american freak shows of the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, men would perform in olivia germann, ball state university abstract this paper explores how gender performance in the freak show grew into the modern drag scene as we know it today. by examining some of the modern elements of drag, it is possible to see how these performers circumvented the laws, prejudices, and discrimination aimed towards them to create a booming industry where drag queens appear on national television and are treated with the respect that they had previously been denied. 66 digital literature review, vol. 3 (2016). © ball state university. all rights reserved. please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce critical edition to dlr@bsu.edu. women’s clothes to the accompaniment of jeers and laughter. unlike drag today, which celebrates the men who wield gender as a form of costumed performance, the freak shows used drag as a way to separate the “normal” from the “abnormal” (taylor, rupp, gamson 108). from the ashes of the traditional freak show arose the multi-billion dollar industry of modern american drag, replacing ragged performers with queens. reclaiming the glory and respect that was denied to the drag queens of the freak show, the modern drag scene is a pertinent example of the aftermath of the freak shows as well as a story of reclamation and family for those who partake in it. gender performance formed the basis for many popular attractions in the freak show, drawing crowds full of curiosity and searching for entertainment. while other attractions based on gender roles, such as bearded ladies, called up similar issues, drag was specifically defined as men dressing and performing as women. for freakshow audiences, drag was seen as a form of ritual humiliation (sears 177). it was meant to be so outlandish that the audience could not contain their laughter. thus, when men dressed as women, the audience responded as if it were a farce. the audience’s reaction created a space where the challenging of gendered stereotypes was mocked, therefore reaffirming and solidifying the “acceptable” beliefs of the time. but the real fascination with drag came from the strict crossdressing laws that swept the nation from 1848-1900. these laws banned people from appearing in public wearing clothes not associated with their “natural” sex. the purpose of these laws was to suppress non-normative behavior, but it had the opposite effect. as author claire sears points out: such laws could also incite cultural fascination and the desire to see, which entrepreneurs could exploit. . . another manifestation was the newspaper scandal, which splashed cross-dressing practices across the front page, as local editors ran sensational stories and interviews with those who broke the law. these scandals publicized normative gender boundaries and ridiculed transgressors, representing gender difference as a titillating private eccentricity or individual moral flaw. (177) these laws started a conversation that was fueled by drag, a topic that previously was ignored and considered taboo. drag performers and germann 67 other crossdressers finally had a voice. even though the drag queens were not the only ones affected by these laws, sears argues that “the starkest manifestation of this cultural fascination was the dime museum freak show, which displayed non-normative bodies and cross-gender performances in seeming conflict with the law” (sears 177). but the freak show circumnavigated the law skillfully, taking advantage of a loophole in the law stating crossdressing was not allowed in public. as freak shows were held on private property, indoors, there was implicit consent in buying and attending the freak show (177). drag then began its boom. while these laws were meant to stamp out crossdressers and drag queens, this plan ultimately backfired. yet, while this interest in drag may seem positive, drag queens still faced untold amounts of abuse, mockery, and violence due to the anti-crossdressing laws and the treatment that they faced in the freak shows. american freak shows were infamous for their terrible working conditions and pay. not surprisingly, drag performers were also subjected to these conditions and often forced to live in squalor. according to scholar heath diehl, addictive substances were sometimes used as a way to keep performers effectively caught in the freak show. the owners were able to trap a performer in a low-paying contract by controlling their access to drugs and alcohol (31). with the new anti-crossdressing laws in place, queens finally had audiences that filled tents and sold-out shows, making queens some of the most valuable performers in the show; but outside the tent, in the real world, they were considered public enemies. police would arrest queens out in public and often turned a blind eye to the violence that was afflicted upon them (sears 180). this behavior was nothing new to drag queens. many associated drag with prostitution, filth, and rampant sexual behavior, which went against the dominant religious and moral views. the fear that drag would somehow infect people with immoral thoughts and behaviors or ruin the american lifestyle was prevalent. but the discrimination lasted long past the freak shows and the crossdressing laws. negative attitudes towards drag queens, who were mostly gay men, continued long after the crossdressing laws came and went. drag queens were very visible performers who exemplified queerness and challenged the gender norms on which society was rooted, even after so much “progress.” many queens tell stories upon stories of meeting germann 68 opponents of drag, whether they were morally opposed church groups, violent crowd members, or random perpetrators of violence (sears 181). the aids crisis (which was originally called grid, for gay related immune deficiency) had a hand in increasing the already excessive violence and hatred towards drag queens (taylor, et al. 123). the “gay panic” that reigned from the 1980s through the early 2000s made drag appear dirty and diseased. what is it about drag that creates such a strong backlash and incites such violence? and why does the majority of the violence and hate speech come from men? in a recent online study conducted by a group of researchers, it was found that men who agreed with hyper-masculine statements were more likely to have a negative attitude toward drag. what this suggests is that the uncomfortableness of being confronted with an alternate gender role makes men more likely to try to bolster their sense of masculinity, often resulting in bashing of the “feminine” men involved in drag. it is this fear of compromised manhood that seems to drive men to anger and hatred when confronted with drag, showing just how toxic hypermasculinity can be (bishop, et al. 557). according to judith butler, gender is defined by “the extent that one is not the other gender, a formulation that presupposes and enforces the restriction of gender within that binary pair” (butler 22). what drag does is confront the idea that manhood is defined by the absence of womanhood. drag takes men and puts them in the costume of womanhood and femininity; this then confuses us as to where queens fit within the binary. are they male because they are physically male? are they female because they are in women’s clothes? or are they now something else, something unnamed and unknown? butler also speaks about drag as questioning the idea of a “real” or “natural” gender identity. by existing in this gray area, drag confuses and seems to challenge the very gender binary that many people hold as an integral part of their identity. the violence, then, is an expression of the fear that a spectator’s identity might be in question, that if drag queens do not neatly fit into the gender binary, then maybe spectators do not either (bishop et al. 557). when queens get up on stage and complicate the gender binary, even though the audience is not actively partaking in the complication themselves, they are ultimately implicated and forced to germann 69 acknowledge and think about the confusion and how it could or could not apply to them. this fear was clearly echoed around the country in the form of the anti-crossdressing laws and still affects attitudes towards drag queens today. but now with the success of mainstream television shows like rupaul’s drag race and the more accepting attitudes of the “millennial” generation, drag in america finally exists as a full-fledged art form that is beloved and widely accepted. while there may always be push-back against drag for religious reasons, homophobic reasons, and other factors, we are now entering a golden age of drag. drag today is an example of a group of people who were discriminated against and taken advantage of but who then turned the avenue of their suffering into stunning performance art. they are clearly visible, adopting names that emphasize gender and sexuality, such as “detox icunt” and “alaska thunderfuck 5000,” while sporting wigs and fantastic costumes that rival anything on the runways of paris. although there are many different facets of drag and an incredibly diverse array of talents, there are some aspects of drag performance that still harken back to the days of the freak show. for example, performers have taken the words used to belittle and humiliate them and turned them into a part of the drag vocabulary. according to stephen mann, the language of drag queens is made up of the stereotypical insults the performers hear on a daily basis. words such as “ladyboy,” “pussy,” “sissy,” and “faggot” have been reclaimed by the drag community. these words are now anthems, and the queens embrace them with pride where there once was shame (mann). the term “queen” itself is one of these reclaimed words, one that was a derogatory slur towards gay men (lgbt news) but now is an identifier. another term that the community has reclaimed, harkening directly back to their history in the freak show, is the word “freak” itself. the word “freak” has been applied negatively to drag queens since the beginning; it is meant to be a derogatory and humiliating insult. but what these queens have done is embrace it and claim it as a moniker of positivity and great ability. it is frequently used to describe a performer that is exemplary, and the title is considered a high honor (“definition of freak”). of course the mother of drag queens, rupaul, is a shining example of reclaiming language, especially in her wildly popular music video from germann 70 2014, “sissy that walk.” in the title alone, ru tackles reclaimed language, and flaunts such terms throughout the song. some examples include: “[a]in’t no t, ain’t no shade,” “i’m a femme queen,” and “my pussy game is on fire” (rupaul). this video is an internet sensation with over five million views. the video was created on rupaul’s drag race season six and became an anthem for drag queens everywhere. along with reclaimed language, there is also an original drag vocabulary used by queens. it varies by region but has a core vocabulary and stylization that is found nationwide, tying queens of different walks of life together. much like ebonics functions as a means of subcultural communication in urban black communities, this created language binds queens together (mann 797). looking at rupaul’s drag race, many people scratch their heads at the frequent use of the terms “girl” and “mamma,” in addition to the liberal use of well-known drag phrases such as “no t no shade,” which means that a queen is telling the “t” (or truth) straight up. or “beating my face,” which refers to how heavily drag queens apply their makeup. within the community, these terms create a sense of belonging and a common language, a way to mark oneself as a drag queen. rupaul, as the originator of many of these terms, not only celebrates this language but also works them into the competition on rupaul’s drag race. on the show, ru always says that the four talents needed to be america’s next drag superstar are charisma, uniqueness, nerve, and talent. according to scholar nathaniel simmons, these factors (abbreviated as cunt, a joke that never gets old on the show) also include nailing the speech and language of drag. and that, along with the cunt factors, are what make a true winner, or ideal drag queen. focusing specifically on season four of rupaul’s drag race, simmons says, throughout rpdr season four, contestants’ talk revealed appropriate patterns of behavior which are acceptable and unacceptable for ands (america’s next drag superstar). these culturally specific codes revealed not only what is appropriate for the winner of rpdr, but also what it means to speak, and act, like a drag queen. (simmons 635-636) not only is this reclaimed language a way to find common ground, but it is deemed a necessary part of participation in the drag community for all queens. germann 71 language is only part of someone’s identity as a drag queen. returning back to our working definition of drag, which is wearing “clothing more conventionally worn by the opposite sex, especially women’s clothes worn by a man” (“drag”), the biggest aspect of drag is the look of it, especially since it is primarily a visual art. while there are many different types of queens with different styles, subtlety is not in any drag queen’s vocabulary. from plus-sized queens, pageant queens, comedy queens, fishy queens, and butch queens to all the other personas and aesthetics employed, drag is “screaming vulgarity” (63), as daniel harris puts it. while some queens, such as courtney act, have made their careers on their more “natural” drag looks, much of drag is more concerned with highlighting the illusion of femininity in the extreme. queens pad and cinch their bodies in order to create the ideal feminine shape, tuck their genitalia tightly so no bulges can be seen, and don incredibly realistic breast plates and other breast substitutes. makeup is also a part of the illusion, one that comes with specific expectations. drag queen alaska thunderfuck 5000 famously said in her song “nails,” “if you’re not wearing nails, you’re not doing drag!” (thunderfuck) queens are expected to enter fully into the illusion in order to do “proper drag,” which includes nails, wigs, fake lashes, and pounds upon pounds of makeup. the goal of drag is not to appear like a “real” woman but rather to inflate femininity far beyond what we conceive as normal. this is the power of theatre at work, twisting the perspective of our “normal” world. in the words of scholars verta taylor, leila j. rupp, and joshua gamson, drag is “performing protest” (105) by engaging specifically in “contestation, intentionality, and collective identity.” (105) when queens get up on stage, it may not seem inherently obvious since the performance is so fantastic and over the top, but, by refusing to be demure and quiet, their performance serves as a rallying cry, queens will not let you ignore them and their dresses. yet, the idea that drag is about men “passing” as women is a toxic one. in fact, in july of 2015, the popular gay pride parade in glasgow—free pride glasgow—banned drag queens from participating, claiming not only that drag was offensive to transwomen but that the concept of drag itself holds up strict ideals of femininity and reaffirms the age-old belief that it is only a woman’s job to be pretty (gremore). while this angle on drag can germann 72 certainly bring up some valid points, especially since it is an art obsessed with and focused on beauty, it is an oversimplification. beauty is a concept that we as humans have been obsessed with in multiple forms, from fashion to sculpture, and drag is a modern art form expressing new ideals of beauty while breaking open perceived gender barriers. the idea that drag is offensive to transwomen exposes again how much backlash drag performers receive from people perceived to be part of their “community.” mann brings up the point that drag queens are aware of their status as men and are consciously pushing against it as a means of satire and humor; this is completely different from being a transwoman, which is a matter of being rather than choice. drag queens choose to be drag queens, and, while some drag queens, like carmen carrera and kenya michaels, have come out as trans, drag does not disqualify the existence of transpeople; rather, drag queens offer their voices and support for those fighting against gender stereotypes for men, women, non-binary, and transpeople everywhere. drag scholar daniel harris tackles the argument between drag queens and the trans community in his article, “the aesthetic of drag,” by saying, while many people believe that the primary purpose of drag is to enable men to ‘pass’ as women, verisimilitude has never been the guiding aesthetic principle at work when gay men dress up as bearded nuns on roller skates, topless baton twirlers with rhinestone pasties, or whorish prom queens” (62) again, this scholar emphasizes that drag is not concerned with passing but rather with performance, making the line between being a transperson and a drag queen very clear. the community aspect of drag is just as important as the art form itself. because drag often attracts gay performers, it serves as a haven of support and expression for people that have often been rejected by their families or ostracized by their communities. this connects back to the freakshow roots of drag, as the freak show also provided a form of family to performers when they had none. one way drag creates community is through the time honored tradition of drag families. when entering into drag and joining the community, an older queen who has been in the business takes the new queen under their wing and becomes their “drag mom.” this queen then helps them navigate the world of drag and helps germann 73 introduce the queen to other queens to broaden their own family (for more information on drag families, i recommend looking at the piece “drag orphan” by tom bartolomei). a notable example is famous drag queen alyssa edwards and her drag daughter, laganja estranja, both of who appeared on rupaul’s drag race. by forming these families, queens make their community their home. many queens have been kicked out of their homes, rejected by their families, and suddenly thrown into a world that is both exciting and frightening. these drag families take new queens in and train them, so that, when they retire, their drag daughters are ready to become drag mothers themselves and continue the cycle of love and support. uniting sexuality and theatre, drag queens are the phoenixes that have risen from the ashes. from a long history of suffering comes this bright age where drag performance is prominently featured as a viable and respectable form of both entertainment and performance. while the ties to the freak show can still be seen in multiple aspects of the drag community, it is now a form of art that helps include members of society who have often been shunned. just as the freak show functioned as a safe place for those unwanted by the world, drag works as a modern haven and land of honey for those who dare to live and perform outside the norms of gender and sexuality. germann 74 works cited bishop, cj, mark kiss, todd morrison, damien rushe, and jaqueline specht. “the association between gay men’s stereotypic beliefs about drag queens and their endorsement of hypermasculinity.” journal of homosexuality 61.4 (2014): 554-567. academic search premier. web. 19 oct. 2015. butler, judith. gender trouble. new york: routledge, 1990. print. “definition of freak.” the online slang dictionary. 21 apr. 2013. web. 19 oct. 2015. diehl, heath. wasted: performing addiction in america. surrey: ashgate, 2016. print. “drag.” merriam webster. n.p., n.d. web. 28 jan. 2016. etkin, jaimie. “rupaul’s drag race dictionary.” the daily beast. 24 apr. 2011. web. 15 feb. 2016. gremore, graham. “drag queens officially banned from gay pride event for being ‘offensive’” dragoholic. queer tv, 1 july 2015. web. 19 oct. 2015. harris, daniel. “the aesthetic of drag.” salamangundi 108 (1995): 62-74. jstor. web. 21 oct. 2015. lgbt news. “10 historical photos and stories of drag queens.” huffpost queer voices. 10 feb. 2015. web. 15 feb. 2016. mann, stephen l. “drag queens’ use of language and the performance of blurred gendered and racial identities.” journal of homosexuality 58.6/7 (2011): 793-811. academic search premier. web. 19 oct. 2015. rupaul. “sissy that walk.” youtube. wow presents, 12 may 2014. web. 19 germann 75 oct. 2015. sears, clare. “electric brilliancy: cross-dressing law and freak show displays in nineteenth-century san francisco.” women’s studies quarterly 36.3/4 (2008): 170-187. academic search premier. web. 19 oct. 2015. simmons, nathaniel. “speaking like a queen in rupaul’s drag race: towards a speech code of american drag queens.” sexuality & culture 18.3 (2014): 630-648. academic search premier. web. 19 oct. 2015. taylor, verta, leila j. rupp, and joshua gamson. “ performing protest: drag shows as tactical repertoire of the gay and lesbian movement.” authority in contention 25 (2004): 105-137. web. 15 feb. 2016. “the finale.” rupaul’s drag race season 6. dir. nick murray. logo. 14 may 2014. television. thunderfuck, alaska. “nails.” youtube. 8 dec. 2013. web. 11 dec. 2015. germann 76 princesses or monsters?: an anlysis of the role of the freak show in toddlers & tiaras intoduction fake tans and the smell of hairspray fill the hotel rooms at a glitzy child beauty pageant. mothers yell about being late while their children—the contestants—drink red bull and eat copious amounts of candy to help them stay awake during the grueling day. it all culminates in an hour-long television show called toddlers & tiaras. aired first in january 2009, the show lasted for six seasons with a total of one hundred and seven episodes after it went off the air in october 2013 (miet). one of tlc’s many reality shows, toddlers & tiaras follows three contestants as they prepare for and compete in a child beauty pageant. the pageant upon which each episode focuses and the contestants it follows change with each episode, but there are often contestants who have made several appearances on the show, notably alana thompson, who even inspired the tlc spin-off reality show here comes honey boo boo. in a typical episode of toddlers, which had an average of 1.3 million viewers (miet), half of the episode is spent depicting how each child gets ready for a beauty pageant. this includes interviews with both the child and parent(s) interspersed with footage of contestants practicing routines, getting costumes and dresses ready, getting their nails done, and some even applying spray tans. most of these contestants are between the ages of two and nine. the other half of the episode focuses on the pageant itself: the arrival of the families, the preparation, the competition, and finally, the lauren seitz, ball state university abstract this essay explores a modern-day incarnation of the historical freak show: the child beauty pageant reality show toddlers & tiaras. the author draws connections between both freak shows and toddlers’ use of the concepts of normalcy, display, and consent, which ultimately reveals that shows such as these have a detrimental effect on how audiences view young girls, and the contestants themselves may feel negative about their self-worth and femininity after participating in pageants. digital literature review, vol. 3 (2016). © ball state university. all rights reserved. please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce critical edition to dlr@bsu.edu. 149 results. contestants can win a multitude of awards; the top titles often come with cash or savings bonds as prizes, some up to $10,000. while seen as an entertaining show by many, notably its millions of viewers, toddlers & tiaras has also accumulated a host of critics, many of which note its strong resemblance to the freak show. the historical freak show became popular as the victorian public was fascinated by those who did not fit into the social norms of the time. the so-called “normal folks” were able to compare themselves to the freaks and feel better about the fact that they were not as “abnormal” as those on display. rosemarie garland thomson, a leading scholar in disability studies, writes, “the freak simultaneously testified to the physical and ideological normalcy of the spectator….this determining relation between observer and observed was mutually defining and yet unreciprocal, as it imposed on the freak the silence, anonymity, and passivity characteristic of objectification” while on display (62). while the young girls in toddlers are also being put on display, they are being presented at the other end of the spectrum: the ideal. threeyear-olds wear copious amounts of makeup and fake teeth while eight-yearolds get spray tans and perform “sexy” dance routines in skimpy costumes— all to present themselves as perfect according to societal beauty standards. while this aspect of toddlers may seem to be the opposite of freak shows, lennard davis explains that, when someone is so ideal—or so far on the ideal side of the spectrum—it may actually serve to make them appear freakish to their more normal audiences (4). this aspect of toddlers & tiaras is part of its intense popularity—the audience cannot believe that young girls are able to emulate beauty ideals typically reserved for teenagers and young women. the other popular criticism that the show receives is the argument that it unnecessarily sexualizes young girls. from the contestant wearing julia roberts’s prostitute costume from pretty woman to a three-year-old wearing madonna’s iconic cone bra onstage, the show is no stranger to controversy (“the five biggest controversies to hit ‘toddlers and tiaras’”). in these types of pageants, young girls are expected to embody the same type of sexuality that society expects from twenty-year-olds, which can not only cause psychological damage in the self-esteem of contestants, but also detrimentally influence the way in which society perceives girls (tamer). in order to further explore the attitudes promoted by child beauty seitz 150 pageants—specifically those featured on toddlers and tiaras—i will conduct a close analysis of two toddlers episodes that epitomize the show’s similarities—as well as some differences—to the freak show and draw conclusions about how these attitudes affect the show’s audience and its contestants. i argue that the television show toddlers & tiaras functions similarly to the historical freak show, which influences the audience’s perception of normalcy, while affecting contestants’ self-image with regards to femininity and sexuality. history of the beauty pageant the modern beauty pageant was originally the brainchild of none other than p.t. barnum, considered the father of the american freak show. barnum’s inspiration came from the european medieval may day celebrations, which often included competitions involving the selection of queens who represented the innocence of young girls. the first of barnum’s pageants was held in england in 1881 and was well received in the united states (friedman). the american version of may day involved the selection of “women to serve as symbols of bounty and community ideals” (“people & events: origins of the beauty pageant”). beginning in the 1850s, barnum held “national contests” where “dogs, chickens, flowers, and even children were displayed and judged for paying audiences” (“people & events: origins of the beauty pageant”). baby parades and baby contests grew to be a popular form of entertainment with one parade in 1893 drawing 30,000 spectators. by the 1929 coney island baby parade, the number of spectators had grown to 500,000. however, because of the morals and values of the victorian era, when barnum announced a similar competition to find beautiful women, it was a huge flop—the respectable women of the time would not publicly display themselves (friedman). to combat this problem, barnum pioneered a new system of competition: one of photogenic beauty. women could send in pictures of themselves, which would be displayed in barnum’s museum and voted on by museum-goers. for decades, this type of contest was widely used to boost morale: “civic leaders…held newspaper contests to choose women that represented the spirit of their locales” (“people & events: origins of the beauty pageant”) to incentivize settlers and businesses to come to their cities seitz 151 and towns. as attitudes about female display changed over time, pageants became a more permissible form of entertainment. by the twentieth century, resorts held regular pageants as a type of amusement for the ever-expanding middle class. in “an effort to lure tourists to stay past labor day,” the firstever miss america pageant was held in atlantic city in 1921 (“people & events: origins of the beauty pageant”). fast forward to the 1960s, and the modern child beauty pageant was in full swing. known as “american-style beauty pageants,” the little miss america contest, which searched for “‘the most beautiful girls in the world!’” (miet) was a popular event for over a decade. from the sixties to the eighties, the child competitions focused on natural beauty, adding sub-competitions including categories titled “party wear, photogenic, and talent” (miet). as competitiveness in child beauty pageants and the desire to outdo the other contestants grew, young girls were encouraged to wear caked-on makeup, fake eyelashes, expensive dresses, and hair extensions. when toddlers & tiaras debuted in 2008, this type of “glitz” pageant skyrocketed to an even higher popularity. in 2013, during the sixth season of toddlers, the children’s pageant industry was valued at $5 billion with more than five thousand pageants being held in the u.s. each year (miet). analysis to further understand the connection between beauty pageants and the historical freak show, i analyzed two episodes of toddlers & tiaras. one episode called “starz-n-glitz: stone age” follows two-year-olds charli and maddisyn-rae and three-year-old savannah as they compete in charlotte, north carolina; the other episode on which i focus—“universal royalty: grand nationals”—showcases lola, age three, and hailey and dianely, both age seven, at a national pageant in austin, texas. through these analyses, i hope to illuminate the similarities, as well as some differences, regarding normalcy, display, and consent between freak shows and child “glitz” beauty pageants. normalcy in his essay constructing normalcy, lennard davis writes that “we live in a world of norms” (3), and we are constantly comparing ourselves to seitz 152 others in order to determine if we do indeed fit into the mold of what is considered “normal.” davis argues that the idea of “the norm” first entered american consciousness in the mid-1800s, and thus accompanied the rise of the freak show, which helped the general public to define what was normal. in the 1830s, the concept of the “average man” motivated people to strive for normalcy (fender and muzaffar). this notion is effectively demonstrated by the normalcy bell curve. this bell curve (figure 1) is a symmetrical curve that peaks in the very middle of its variables. the ends of the bell curve represent a trait that occurs very rarely. in other words, when applied to humans, the majority of people fall in the middle—these are who society considers “normal” because they have flaws but are “normal enough” to be accepted, according to societal norms and expectations. on one end of the bell curve, there are the outliers who would be considered “freaks”—those who are considered so abnormal that there is no way they can fit in with those who fall near the middle of the bell curve. the other end of the bell curve encompasses people who are seen as “perfect” or nearly perfect. in other words, the “normal” people are expected to have some flaws, but, when someone looks or acts in a manner that is considered close to perfection—according to societal norms he or she shifts towards the “ideal” end of the bell curve, isolating him or herself from what is considered normal. therefore, there are a large number of people who would be considered “normal” while only a small percentage of the population falls into the categories on either end of the bell curve—freakish or ideal. seitz figure 1: normalcy bell curve 153 davis asserts that, eventually, just being “normal”—that is, falling in the middle of the bell curve—was not good enough for some; rather, they focused on inching further and further towards perfection, towards the “ideal.” this is the notion that is evident in toddlers & tiaras. each episode depicts “glitz” beauty pageants, which means that contestants, no matter the age, often wear fake hair, lots of makeup, fake nails, and extremely expensive outfits and dresses, just so that they can be chosen as the most beautiful and most perfect girl onstage. this notion of what is considered perfection, of course, is largely connected with femininity. because it is hyper-femininity that is valued in american society, these young girls attempt to follow that trend. both episodes of toddlers & tiaras that i examined showed the six contestants’ bedrooms, all of which were bright pink and showcased their crowns and sashes from past wins. this indicates to the girls that, not only is it “correct” to be extremely feminine, but also that pageants—and beauty ideals—are quite important. in fact, the most significant component of a pageant is the beauty competition. both pageant directors described what this competition entailed: a beautiful face, overall great appearance, and a wonderful personality (“starz-n-glitz: stone age”). child beauty pageants are explicit in communicating to their competitors what the ideal notion of beauty is. all the girls in the episodes wear fake hair, lots of makeup, and get manicures or wear fake nails. the older contestants, hailey and dianley, both seven, had their eyebrows shaved and plucked, and dianley’s mom spray tanned her daughter. while she is getting her eyebrows done, hailey says, “if something hurts me, my mom always says, ‘beauty is pain’ because if you want to be beautiful, it has to take pain” (“universal royalty: grand nationals”). unfortunately, this is not a rarity. many young girls who participate in these pageants believe that they must dramatically change their appearances in order to be perfect and thus win the competition. what is important to note, however, is that all the contestants perform as essentially false versions of themselves. in attempting to reach the ideal of beauty, they believe that they must put on fake hair and nails and do their makeup. but because every contestant does this—that is, no competitor is able to win without spending hours getting ready—this also means that the standard of beauty those on toddlers are attempting to reach is unattainable seitz 154 without such props. judges expect a certain “look” that they know is not natural or normal; the ideal of perfection for which the girls strive is an illusion. their outfits are also indicative of this quest for perfection. all the girls’ “beauty dresses” are short, frilly, and sparkly—traits most associated with feminine clothing choices. in “starz-n-glitz: stone age,” a facet of the competition includes “stone age wear.” the judges are looking for “creative costumes, great hair and makeup, and cool routines,” explains pageant director carla smith. two-year-old charli dressed in a pink two-piece outfit as pebbles from the flintstones, and savannah’s costume was that of eve and was a two-piece made of leaves, while maddisyn-rae wore a two-piece dinosaur costume (“starz-n-glitz: stone age”). these “girly” outfits worn by contestants further speak to the norm of femininity that the girls are trying to portray—by showing off skin in small two-piece outfits, the girls are attempting to fit into the feminine role that society has assigned to them. in the other episode analyzed, there were additional talent and swimwear competitions. while lola was fully covered for her talent routine, dianely and hailey both wore two-piece outfits for their performances. the swimsuit competition is perhaps most indicative of the pageant’s emphasis on perfection. though the judges would never take off points for a younger contestant’s body type, the director of the pageant, annetta hill, explained that for contestants ages six and older, “we want them to be more elegant and classy [than the younger girls]” (“universal royalty: grand nationals”). essentially, the six-year-olds are expected to have grace similar to the twenty-year-old women they are competing against. one of the contestants, dianely, has a unique problem when it comes to her body. at the beginning of the episode, dianley explains that she loves to do gymnastics, but her mother, fransoly, says, “her muscles started developing too much and she didn’t look right in a beauty dress… so we’re taking a break from gymnastics, and her body is back to normal” (“universal royalty: grand nationals”). fransoly’s use of the word “normal” while describing her no-longer-muscular child goes to show how pageants encourage a traditionally feminine look from all their competitors. this analysis may seem quite disconnected from the historical freak show: these girls are striving for perfection at the opposite end of the spectrum. however, it is important to note that if a person becomes too seitz 155 ideal, they can still appear freakish, especially to the so-called “normal” people who are passing judgement. those who fall in the middle of the normalcy bell curve continue to judge the outliers, whether they fall on the “freak” or “perfect” ends of the curve. in this case, because such young girls are expected to wear revealing clothing while drastically changing their appearance, they appear to the audience of toddlers & tiaras as not “normal.” joshua gamson writes that many reality shows have this effect on audiences. these types of shows cause spectators to see the subjects of the shows on television as different from the average viewer. this causes the viewers to compare themselves to and simultaneously want to separate themselves from the television subjects. these notions of comparison and separation are what make toddlers & tiaras quite similar to the freak show. in the case of toddlers, however, the show communicates that young girls are expected to look and move like twenty-year-old women, which is what makes them freakish. while freak shows and toddlers are found at opposite ends at the normalcy bell curve, the message received by the middle “normal” viewers is the same: “thank goodness i am not like them!” display it goes without saying that display is a large part of toddlers & tiaras and beauty pageants as a whole. in this case, not only are the contestants and parents on display for the reality show, but the girls are also being put on display to be evaluated by judges and other audience members who attend the pageants. this bears a striking resemblance to the freak show. freaks were historically put on display solely to be examined and judged by members of the community. further, many freaks exaggerated their physical differences or changed their appearances in order to make themselves stand out even more. for example, a group of indigenous filipinos called the igorots were brought to the united states for anthropological purposes. while originally put on display by the american government for educational reasons, the igorots quickly became popular because they were touted as “dog eaters” and “‘true’ savagery, with all the trimmings” (vaughan 226). the appearances and performances of the igorots were altered by their handlers simply to get a crowd in the door rather than to educate spectators. seitz 156 child beauty pageants include immense changes in the children’s appearances as well as a performative aspect: in the starz-n-glitz: stone age pageant, contestants performed dance routines while dressed in “stone age wear,” while at the universal royalty pageant, competitors performed talent and swimwear routines, both of which were highly performative. during all these routines, contestants are expected to smile; hailey’s family constantly yelled “smile!” to her while she was onstage performing. while performing beauty routines, all contestants made gestures that would most likely be described as “cutesy,” such as waving, blowing kisses, and batting their eyelashes. these gestures, as well as constant smiling, have become ways to perform stereotypically feminine behaviors for the judges and show off what they think the people judging them want to see. but these routines do not always go smoothly. though the contestants are young, they are expected to have practiced in order for their routines to go off without a hitch. if this does not happen, it can detrimentally affect the scores of the contestants. maddisyn-rae, for example, did not do her stone age wear routine correctly, and her dad described it as “terrible” while her mom said it was “a definite fail in my book” (“starz-n-glitz: stone age”), showing the emphasis on performative display in beauty pageants. just like historical freak shows, the contestants want to present the best versions of themselves. for those working in the freak show, that meant they needed to be as “abnormal” as possible. for the girls on toddlers, this means they must appear as “perfect” for the judges, who only see a narrow part of who these girls are. while performing the beauty routine, for example, the emcee describes appearance (charli, for example, has “blonde hair and chocolate brown eyes” (“starz-n-glitz: stone age”)), hobbies, and fun facts, such as favorite food. one thing i noticed in the description of dianely is that she was described as enjoying “cheerleading and, of course, makeup and pageants” (“universal royalty: grand nationals”). her love of gymnastics was not mentioned, even though, at the beginning of the episode, she expressed that she would love to be on the olympic gymnastics team. instead, her hobbies were written—most likely by her mother—to reflect interests that are desirable in the pageant world, most likely because they are associated with feminine traits. seitz 157 consent contestants on toddlers & tiaras cannot enter the competition by themselves—rather, they often have a strong driving force in the form of a parent (usually a mother) pushing them to enter in and win pageants. there is no doubt that the pageant world is quite intense, but it brings up a gray area about whether consent by competitors is required to participate in the competitions. many contestants do not really get to have a say in whether or not they want to compete, and there are most likely some competitors who believe that they must compete in pageants, lest they let down their mothers. this gray area of consent is also prevalent in freak shows. one of the most well-known human anomalies, for example, was saartjie baartman, who came from africa and was exhibited in england for her “greatly enlarged rump” typical of san women from the area (lindfors 208). known as the hottentot venus, baartman “testified in [sic] behalf of her managers, saying that she had freely consented to exhibit her person in england, was earning good money, and wanted the show to go on. there was some doubt that she fully understood the nature of the contract she had entered into” (lindfors 210). because baartman was brought to england from africa and did not speak english as her first language, many believe that she was manipulated and told that she was signing a contract with different terms than those that were actually included in the document. these consent issues are evident in my analysis of toddlers. before competitor charli was born, for example, her mother, samantha, would enter their pet dog into dog beauty pageants. she says that “charli was just next in line. she didn’t have a choice” (“starz-n-glitz: stone age”). never during the episode, though, does she actually ask her daughter if she likes or wants to participate in pageants. three-year-old savannah is another story. she does not hold back when talking about her dislike of pageants, saying that she would much rather play hockey with her dad than spend a weekend competing. when her mom, natasha, says, “i thought you wanted to go to the pageant,” savannah replies, “no”; when the producer asks if she is excited to go to the pageant, savannah shakes her head. when she is asked if she would rather go play hockey, savannah nods. though savannah’s mother constantly says things like “[a]s long as she wants to do it, i’ll do whatever it takes,” or “[s]he loves being onstage!,” she does not actually listen seitz 158 to her daughter, who does not want to be a pageant princess (“starz-n-glitz: stone age”). another issue that relates to consent is money. the pageant entry fees are not cheap, nor are the dresses, hair, and makeup. this means that the parents who pay for the competitions put immense pressure on their daughters to perform well, especially considering that there is usually money involved for the winners of the top prizes. savannah’s mother even takes on extra jobs working as a clown in order to pay for pageants and constantly reminds her daughter of this fact, saying, “i didn’t dress up like a clown for a runner-up title” (“starz-n-glitz: stone age”). dianely’s mom confesses, “i’m very competitive. if you’re in it, you have to do anything to win” (“universal royalty: grand nationals”). if anything, it seems as though the parents have more at stake than their children. the parents of competitors act much like the freakshow handlers. they completely control their children’s routines and outfits and dictate that the girls should love pageants—recall that dianely’s mother forced her to quit gymnastics because it was making her body type “not right” for a beauty dress. further, each parent is heavily invested in the competitions— often more so than their daughters—just as freakshow handlers often paid large amounts of money to get the freaks and put them on display in the first place. in baartman’s case, she was made to perform even when she was clearly sick. one observer noted, “she [baartman] was extremely ill, and the man insisted on her dancing...the poor creature pointed to her throat and to her knees as if she felt pain in both, pleading with tears that he would not force her compliance” (qtd. in lindfors 209). if she did not perform, the freakshow handler would lose money, which is why he would force performers to exhibit themselves, regardless of whether or not they wanted it. in their eyes, it was up to the human anomalies to make back the money the handlers had paid for them, or, in the case of toddlers, to win. one difference between freakshow handlers and the mothers on toddlers, however, is the way that they fit into the freak show. handlers presented themselves publicly as “normal” people, just like the spectators coming to see the show. on the other hand, the portrayal of the mothers and their relationships with their daughters on toddlers & tiaras indicates a demonization and, in a sense, freakification of the mothers as well. the stereotypical pageant mom spends large amounts of time and money to seitz 159 drastically change her daughter’s look and put her on stage to be judged nearly solely on appearance, and the moms are portrayed as egotistical and over-the-top. in fact, moms are often depicted in the show as a hindrance “to their daughters’ chance of success” (demanjee 467). the biggest tie between these pageants and the freak show, however, is the issue of consent itself. because parents have the option to make choices for their children, toddlers often emphasizes a case like savannah’s, in which the child does not want to perform, but her mother forces her to. while some performers such as baartman believed that they were freely consenting, many freaks in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries felt as though they had no other choice but to perform in the freak show. this was especially the case for performers who had physical disabilities. brigham fordham explains the traditional freakshow justification for display: “it is assumed that persons with exceptional bodies are destined for disgrace and unemployment due to their unusual physical characteristics. the freak show ‘discovers’ and saves these people by giving them what is assumed to be the only possible kind of productive employment and identity” (12). especially in the victorian era, there were fewer opportunities for those who were physically handicapped, and performing in a freak show seemed to be the only option, which is similar to the young girls on toddlers who are trapped into participating in pageants because they do not think they have any other choice. the fact that toddlers & tiaras is a reality show, though, adds another aspect to the consent issue in the form of exploitation. christopher cianci reports that children who star in reality shows often receive very little legal protection with regards to how much they can work and what they can be made to do. not only does the toddlers crew follow contestants around at the pageant, but they also come into the children’s homes, spending a great deal of time interviewing the family. because of the lack of laws in place protecting children on reality shows, the producers can effectively exploit the drama and tantrums of these children while not technically receiving their consent. implications the real question to ask after analyzing toddlers and tiaras and comparing and contrasting the television program and the freak show is: seitz 160 why does it all matter? clearly, the reality show’s ties to the historical freak show have many implications, the two most important of which are selfimage and sexualization. one could argue that toddlers & tiaras is the result of the world in which we live—that is, the result of a world that is not only grossly mediated, but also one in which media has a large impact on what society sees as acceptable. jessica bennett notes the impact that shows such as toddlers can have on its predominantly female audience: “reared on reality tv and celebrity makeovers, girls as young as marleigh [age 2] are using beauty products earlier, spending more and still feeling worse about themselves.” she goes on to explain that today’s culture has come to make “the girls of toddlers & tiaras look ordinary” (bennett). not only are girls trained to focus on their appearance because of these shows, but they are also expected to do so at an increasingly younger age. instead of taking the time to do what was formerly considered a “normal” activity for a pre-teen—such as playing soccer or going to the mall—the new “normal” is spending countless hours scrutinizing the way they look and the ways that they can change it, including changing hair style and color, getting nails done, and, for some, even surgery. because girls as young as those depicted on toddlers & tiaras are making these major appearance changes, older girls who may watch the show feel as though they must also adhere to that standard of beauty. this effect on the self-worth of young girls is not limited just to the audience of pageants but is often even more manifested in the contestants themselves. because pageants are so involved and contestants often compete for many years, the ideals of beauty can become skewed, starting when pageant princesses are young girls. the so-called “rituals” of female beauty that contestants must undergo “speak to an ideal, heteronormative and consumption-based femininity” (demanjee 465). in other words, the perception of beauty that is held by contestants on toddlers is most likely an idea of femininity that is unattainable. yet, because of the time spent performing in pageants and attempting to attain this ideal beauty, competitors feel as though there is something wrong when they are not able to do so, which harms their self-esteem. the second major implication that stems from the popularity of a show like toddlers & tiaras relates to how society at large perceives seitz 161 young girls. in my analysis of the show, girls were judged heavily on their appearances, and, in competitions other than beauty, they often wore twopiece outfits, and their hair and makeup matched that of a twenty-yearold woman much more than an eight-year-old girl. further, in their quest for beauty, the girls had their eyebrows shaved and were spray tanned to compete with young adults. in fact, in both episodes i have analyzed, the title of ultimate grand supreme—the top title that a contestant can win and one that any age can receive—went to girls who were eighteenand twenty-years-old. this, of course, is not surprising, as the women who won undoubtedly had more experience than the toddlers they were competing against. what is surprising, however, is the fact that the young contestants featured on toddlers would be expected to compete with contestants who were ten years older. this points to the unnecessary sexualization of the girls on the show and in pageants. a major reason that contestants put on the hair and heavy makeup is not only to attempt to attain an ideal of beauty but to attain a beauty that is expected of young women, not young girls. additionally, as demajnee points out, sexuality has become “strategic for contestants, who quickly learn that they are judged positively on their ability to mimic the sexualised [sic], girlish poses in their routines, such as wiggling their hips, flicking up their legs as they strut off stage, blowing kisses and pouting” (465). because of the young age of the girls on the show, this “sexy” behavior coupled with revealing outfits create an unfamiliar dichotomy between childish innocence and intense sexuality. however, as demanjee goes on to explain, “performances [are] dismissed as harmless, fun, part of the normalised [sic] play and mimicry of children, as opposed to alternative readings such as the exploitation and sexualisation [sic] of children” (465). conclusion through my analysis, it is clear that toddlers & tiaras bears a strange and troubling resemblance to the historical freak show. it is evident that the program shares similarities to the historical freak show in terms of normalcy, display, and consent. though the girls displayed on toddlers are seen as freakish because of their quest to become the “ideal woman,” the fact that society ogles, ostracizes, and sexualizes them still presents troubling seitz 162 implications. many would like to think that our society has progressed past the historical freak shows, and the reasons that they existed in the first place. the sad reality, however, is that the freak show has merely been reconfigured to take the form of reality shows such as toddlers & tiaras. while society will always look for a group outside the norm—be they on the grotesque or ideal end of the spectrum—the effects of reality shows are often harmful and long-lasting, whether for the subject of the show or the audience and larger society who pass judgement. reality shows are not going away anytime soon, but it is important to remember that the programs only portray a small sliver of the real lives of contestants. they, too, just want to be accepted. seitz 163 works cited bennett, jessica. “are we turning tweens into generation diva?” newsweek. newsweek, llc., 29 mar. 2009. web. 06 feb. 2016. cianci, christopher c. “entertainment or exploitation?: reality television and the inadequate protection of child participants under the law.” university of southern california gould school of law. 18 feb. 2010. web. 03 feb. 2016. davis, lennard j. “constructing normalcy: the bell curve, the novel, and the invention of the disabled body in the nineteenth century.” the disability studies reader. 2nd ed. ed. lennard j. davis. new york: routledge taylor & francis group, 2006. 3-16. web. 02 feb. 2016. demanjee, tisha. “nursing at the screen: post feminist daughters and demonized mothers on toddlers and tiaras.” feminist media studies 15.3 (2015): 460-473. web. 07 dec. 2015. fender, lynn and irfan muzaffar. “the history of the bell curve: sorting and the idea of normal.” educational theory 58.1 (2008): 63-82. web. 03 feb. 2016. fordham, brigham a. “dangerous bodies: freak shows, expression, and exploitation.” ucla entertainment law review 14.207 (2007). web. 16 mar. 2016. friedman, hilary levey. “the evolution of american-style child beauty pageants.” the huffington post. thehuffingtonpost.com, inc., 10 may 2011. web. 01 feb. 2016. gamson, joshua. “why i love trash.” freaks talk back: tabloid talk shows and sexual nonconformity. chicago: the university of chicago press, 1998. 2-24. web. 06 feb 2016. seitz 164 lindfors, bernth. “ethnological show business: footlighting the dark continent.” freakery: cultural spectacles of the extraordinary body. ed. rosemarie garland thomson. new york: new york university, 1996. 207-218. print. miet, hannah. “how child beauty pageants got weird.” voactiv. voatciv.com, 06 nov. 2013. web. 31 jan. 2016. “people and events: origins of the beauty pageant.” wipb. pbs. 2001. web. 31 jan. 2016. “starz-n-glitz: stone age.” toddlers and tiaras. tlc, silver spring, maryland. 3 july 2013. television. tamer, christine. “toddlers, tiaras, and pedophilia? the ‘borderline child pornography’ embraced by the american public.” texas review of entertainment & sports law 13.1 (2011): 85-101. web. 07 feb. 2016. “the five biggest controversies to hit ‘toddlers and tiaras.’” business insider. business insider, inc., 17 sept. 2012. web. 01 feb. 2016. thomson, rosemarie garland. “the cultural work of american freak shows, 1835-1940.” extraordinary bodies: figuring physical disability in american culture and literature. new york: columbia university press, 1997. 55-80. web. 16 mar. 2016. “universal royalty: grand nationals.” toddlers and tiaras. tlc, silver spring, maryland. 13 july 2011. television. vaughan, christopher a. “ogling igorots: the politics and commerce of exhibiting cultural otherness, 1898-1913.” freakery: cultural spectacles of the extraordinary body. ed. rosemarie garland thomson. new york: new york university, 1996. 219-233. print. seitz 165 monstrous women: exploring historical witchcraft and its presence in the witch in the 1600s, the puritans were still sailing to the united states— to them, the “new world”—in search of religious freedom and new beginnings; however, in their attempt to leave behind england and its influence, the puritans brought with them europe’s archaic views of witchcraft and women as monsters. the puritans projected these fears of witchcraft onto women in a variety of ways: accusations of maleficarum, or the power “to cause harm to others by supernatural means”; disruptions in domestic processes, such as sudden spoiling of beer; healthcare complications; the obstruction of natural processes, like weather changes and crop yield; and more were used as rationales to prosecute women in their communities (karlsen 6-8). witchcraft was also noted as a woman’s crime, with male accusation almost only occurring if the man was married or related to an already accused witch (karlsen 49). this paranoia, largely due to overbearing religious influence, led to estimates of as many as “110,000 people . . . tortured as alleged witches and between 40,000 and 60,000 people . . . executed” worldwide from 1450 to 1750 (russell and brooks 12). highlighting the consequences of religious persecution and female suppression, robert eggers’s the witch masterfully portrays new england witchcraft as it was perceived in the 1600s, realizing societal oppression as a powerful force with many victims. exploring a family crumbling from the influence of maleficarum and the strict abstract accusations of witchcraft in america were often death sentences for women that society considered as acting outside of the norm; however, in robert eggers’s film, the witch, embodying the role of a witch becomes a powerful tool in fighting puritanical social expectations with magic, appearance, and behavior. through the application of monster theory, historical contextualization, and feminist theory, this essay explores the implications of portraying the film’s main villain as a grotesque hag, the meaning behind its use of gory magic, why the protagonist chooses to become a witch herself, and finally, the consequences of othering marginalized groups from society. noah patterson, ball state university 1 digital literature review, vol. 4 (2017). ball state university. all rights reserved. please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce critical edition to dlr@bsu.edu. religious expectations of their time, the witch brings a new eye to new england’s past, inspects its historical relationship with women, and even questions our own societal standards today. through a historical contextualization of the witch, an examination of women as monsters, and the exploration of modern feminist theory, the film’s condemnation of the societal abjection of women who defy their mandated roles and embrace the power within inhabiting liminal spaces is revealed. in order to immediately focus on the authority that religion has in puritanical society, eggers begins the witch with the film’s family being banished from their new england colony. william, the family’s patriarch, has been accused of heresy. the audience only knows that william has been preaching a form of the gospels that the settlement cannot abide by. william’s wife, katherine; their eldest daughter, thomasin; their eldest son, caleb; their twins, jonas and mercy; and their infant son, samuel, are sentenced alongside william. once the family’s fate has been determined, william and his family ride toward the vast wilderness as the gates of their former community close (0:01:08 0:03:19). the new setting of the film, now an open plain and expansive forest, becomes one of its most foreboding characteristics. as the soundtrack of the film builds, the eerie moans of a woman’s soprano pierces the audience alongside cinematography that indicates a threatening presence past the tree line; in this instance, the witch is also introduced to the audience in impressive fashion, constructing a dichotomy in which this deeply religious family must coexist with a creature that is a complete inversion of their ideals. once the existence of the witch has been alluded to in this shot, her status as a malevolent force—rooted in actual historical conceptions of new england witches—is made immediately apparent through the lenses of several theoretical frameworks. the vilification of women as witches in puritan america was based in deep cultural prejudices, perceptions of gender roles, and religiously-influenced societal structuring, creating a monsterization of women. this monsterization as it appears in the witch will be analyzed through jeffrey jerome cohen’s “monster culture (seven theses),” julia kristeva’s work on abjection, mikhail bakhtin’s theory of the grotesque, mary daly’s “hag-ography,” and finally, an inversion of feminist mimesis theory. defining witches through cohen’s “monster culture” jeffrey jerome cohen posits in “monster culture (seven theses)” that monsters generally operate within literary, cultural, and filmic texts in seven different ways. while witches could theoretically fulfill every thesis, the most prominent are: “the monster’s body as a cultural body,” “the monster dwells at 2noah patterson the gates of difference,” “the monster polices the borders of the possible,” and finally, “the monster stands at the threshold . . . of becoming.” cohen states that monsters become cultural bodies through the “embodiment of a certain cultural moment” (4). an application of cohen’s theory to witches reveals that, in their case, witches exist as cultural bodies due to centuries of systematic misogyny. puritanical societies attempted to justify this misogyny because they felt witches “[incorporated] fear, desire, anxiety, and dependency [into their world], giving them life and an uncanny independence” (cohen 4). this created a real perception of women as monsters that resulted in witch-hunts and tireless persecution. as the first thesis, this theory stands as an introduction to the following theses that delve more specifically into the nuances of monsters as cultural symbols. in his next thesis, “the monster dwells at the gates of difference,” cohen states that “monstrous difference tends to be cultural, political, racial, economic, and sexual” (7). carol karlsen confirms that witches faced discrimination at all of these intersections in her book, the devil in the shape of a woman. she states that “the characteristics of the new england witch—the demographic, economic, religious, and sexual—emerge from patterns found in accusations and in the life histories of the accused” (153). for example, on an economic level the accusations reveal that “the poor account for only a minority of the women accused. even without precise economic indicators, it is clear that women from all levels of society were vulnerable to accusation” (karlsen 78-79). therefore, while poor women were often targeted purely based on socioeconomic status, women in positions of economic power were also threatened. although women with better financial means had extensive resources available to them to combat their accusations, as well as developed social reputations to rely on as forms of defense, it becomes apparent that economic and sexual factors still dominated accusations. similarly, “often implicit and seldom measurable, official religious beliefs were nonetheless central in determining who witches were and what witches did” (karlsen 119). per puritan belief, “there were only two kinds of women: godly women and witches,” which means that women who did not adhere to the biblical teachings of their towns were under automatic suspicion (karlsen 251). this created a rigid social structure that kept women complacent under the teachings of their (always male) pastors and religious leaders (karlsen 251). the idea that there were only godly women or witches becomes increasingly important in the witch, as later analysis will reveal that turning to witchcraft and defying these patriarchal structures clearly becomes a source of empowerment for both the film’s protagonist (thomasin) and antagonist (the witch). 3noah patterson before delving into that analysis, though, it is integral to see the ways in which cohen’s fifth thesis, “the monster polices the borders of the possible,” reveals that “the monster prevents mobility (intellectual, geographic, or sexual), delimiting the social spaces through which private bodies may move,” creating further impetus for female defiance (12). cohen elaborates on this thesis, saying that “these borders are in place to control the traffic in women, or more generally establish homosocial bonds, the ties between men that keep a patriarchal society functional” (13). one of the most notable examples of how witchcraft was used to keep systems of patriarchal power in place in the “new world” was women’s foray into medical treatment, especially in the form of midwives. karlsen notes, “midwives and healers, like women accused of abortion and infanticide, could have been likely suspects simply because they were ever-present reminders of the power that resided in women’s life-giving and life-maintaining roles” (144). furthermore, new england was in desperate need of doctors. with increasing numbers of female midwives and healers working alongside the few male physicians in the “new world,” compared to the amount of male doctors involved in witchcraft cases, “one of the unspoken (and probably unacknowledged) functions of new england witchcraft was to discredit women’s medical knowledge in favor of their male competitors” (karlsen 144-145). in other words, for some women, simply ensuring that women in the community have safe, successful childbirths, or are otherwise in good health, could garner accusations from men who felt that women were unfit for medical practice. finally, the last thesis that cohen writes is “the monster stands at the threshold . . . of becoming.” he believes “monsters always return. and when they come back, they bring not just a fuller knowledge of our place in history and the history of knowing our place, but they bear knowledge, human knowledge” (20, emphasis original): “these monsters ask us how we perceive the world . . . they ask us to reevaluate our cultural assumptions about race, gender, sexuality, our perceptions of difference, [and] our tolerance towards its expression” (cohen 20). through the witch, eggers does precisely that. his recreation of the witch as a cultural symbol forces audiences to consider misogyny, media portrayals and expectations of women, and religion as a dominating force of social structuring, both in puritanical america and the modern united states. abjection and magic as sources of power due to the prejudiced nature of puritanical society, women who embodied cohen’s definition of monstrous—women like thomasin and the titular witch— were often banished or accused of being witches, making them human symbols 4noah patterson of the abject. abjection is defined by philosopher and literary critic julia kristeva in her book, powers of horror: an essay on abjection, as a “jettisoned object” that “is radically excluded and draws me toward the place where meaning collapses” (2). she goes on to say that the abject is “a piece of filth, waste, or dung” and “the spasms and vomiting that protect me” (3). these objects, in turn, create a situation in which “i expel myself, i spit myself out, i abject myself within the same motion through which ‘i’ claim to establish myself ” (3). in other words, the abject is typically sourced from our own beings, but, being deemed as other, disturbing, or disgusting, we question whether “i” truly consists of these abjected objects, effectively creating a form of identity crisis. while this concept is typically applied to the individual being, abjection becomes an apt metaphor for puritan america and its relationship to divergent women. when inhabiting the space of other, women become abjections of patriarchal society and powerful reminders of this society’s limitations. therefore, witches are the pinnacle of this abjectness and, as seen through the lens of the witch, become powerful forces that may destroy families, communities, and society’s rules, regardless of the community’s faith in their religion or social constructions. one of the primary ways in which the puritans abjected women who threatened patriarchal society was to make women monstrous through accusations of magic and maleficarum. early modern europe and puritan america believed that witches primarily adhered to three categories of magic, but, in the witch, only “the third category [which includes] such things as transvection (flying through the air), metamorphosis (shifting form), the use of familiars, blighting crops, raising storms, and otherwise controlling the forces of nature” is featured (donovan 58). while the practice of actual magic likely did not occur historically and only existed as a means to justify the abjection of and accusations against puritanical women, the witch’s first physical appearance in the film involves her successfully creating a flying potion, revealing that the witch operates under the pretense that witches did exist in the supernatural sense. this is significant because the antagonist’s magical abilities also reveal that, in the witch, there is real, tangible power in choosing to resist a society built to abject individuals at every othered intersection, driving the film’s message that defiance is empowering. this first display of magic in the film—the witch creating her flying potion—is completed when the witch abducts the family’s infant son samuel while thomasin plays peek-a-boo with him at the edge of the wood. once captured, samuel is laid nude on a cloth in the witch’s lair, depicted as a cave in the woods. in a sudden cut, an old nude woman is seen churning and grinding together samuel’s remains in a bowl. after completing her concoction, the witch exits her lair to 5noah patterson coat herself with the potion under the moonlight. this is coupled with images of her writhing on the forest floor, clutching a branch. finally, we see her take flight on the branch, rising into the frame before the full moon (00:06:27-00:09:31). this corresponds with beliefs surrounding witchcraft in which “witches were widely accused of using blood and parts of the human body—particularly bodies of babies—[in their brews]” (donovan 59-60). in portraying this particularly gruesome form of witchcraft, the witch recalls the aforementioned image of infanticide. magic as infanticide becomes a representation of abjection here. the witch would be demonized by the puritans for breaking the codes of woman as responsible for childcare and, as a result, is literally cast out, explaining the witch’s inhabitation of her cave, a border space away from society. because the witch has already been abjected and accepted her status as demonized, she uses samuel’s sacrifice as a source of power, making his death the catalyst for the remainder of the terror she conducts throughout the film. this sacrifice gives the witch the power to obtain revenge on the society that abjected her, symbolized through william and his family. samuel’s death is able to act as a catalyst due to the fact that the remains of an infant—preferably unbaptized as samuel was—were not only associated with transvection brews but rumored to give witches other powers, such as the ability of metamorphosis. the witch utilizes metamorphosis as a way to display her power and enact revenge for her abjection, which will be elaborated upon throughout this essay. grotesqueness, hag-ography, and its relation to the witch the witch’s historical contextualization and theoretical definition of women as monsters/abjections of patriarchy is able to be further built upon with its display of the grotesque form as a means to find power within an abjected border space. literary theorist mikhail bakhtin defines the grotesque in his book, rabelais and his world, as “the lowering of all that is high, spiritual, ideal, [and] abstract” down to “the material level,” subsequently focusing on the “degradation” of form (19). the body is seen as “extremely exaggerated,” concentrating on the “acts of defecation and copulation, conception, pregnancy, and birth” (18, 21). initially, the notion of the grotesque is interpreted as an obsession with humiliation and matters of form that humans tend to find disgusting (defecation) or inappropriate to discuss (copulation). therefore, this concept, when applied to the female form, appears as the ultimate departure from the feminine body ideal; however, bakhtin asserts that “this exaggeration has a positive, assertive character”; “the leading themes of these images of bodily life are fertility, growth, and a brimming-over abundance,” 6noah patterson resulting in a “triumphant” body that defies the norm, and in turn, is meant to be celebrated (19). that being said, the grotesque body is not typically celebrated by most. in fact, media articles about the witch label the film’s antagonist as “a grotesque creature in the woods” (lee), “absolutely chilling” (chitwood), and “a gnarled hag, framed like the reverse shot of goya’s saturn devouring his son . . . [with] withered flesh” (ehrlich), recalling this conception of grotesqueness as inherently frightening and villainous. therefore, eggers’s witch not only fulfills traditional puritanical codes of witchcraft but also resembles stereotypical portrayals of witches identified by researchers jeffrey b. russell and alexander brooks “as imaginary old hags with warts on their noses, conical hats, broomsticks, black cats, and evil, cackling laughs” (8). the witch herself is an old woman, which russell and brooks consider “a heedless exaggeration and a distortion of the truth . . . [as] many female witches have been quite young—sometimes even children” (12). furthermore, the witch is always depicted as nude, with bruises and other wounds visible on her body. similarly, her hair is thin, her teeth have rotted, her skin sags, and her nose is crooked, fulfilling every stereotypical depiction. even her laugh is the iconic witch’s cackle. the fact that this is the only dialogue she has in the film further dehumanizes her. however, when this departure from the ideal is coupled with theory about the grotesque, the value of the witch as a hag can be uncovered. for example, bakhtin illustrates this idea later in his text when he further explores the grotesque body of the hag through his analysis of the kerch terracotta collection. it is interesting to note that these images portray grotesqueness as revelatory rather than oppressive. the images are specifically figurines of senile pregnant hags. moreover, the old hags are laughing. this is a typical and very strongly expressed grotesque. it is ambivalent. it is pregnant death, a death that gives birth. there is nothing completed, nothing calm and stable in the bodies of these old hags. they combine a senile, decaying and deformed flesh with the flesh of new life, conceived but as yet informed. life is shown in its two-fold contradictory process; it is the epitome of incompleteness. (bakhtin 25-26) kerch’s collection recalls the image of the witch with her “gnarled” (chitwood), “chilling” (ehrlich), and withered appearance. while the witch is not pregnant in the film, she does embody the “life . . . in its two-fold, contradictory process,” presenting as both a young woman and the hag-like witch in the film (bakhtin 26). as a hag, she represents a form of death, senile and decaying. her body shrivels, and she is isolated from society; however, as a young woman, the witch reveals her form as contradictory, one that may also embody the “ideal” and regenerate into 7noah patterson something new and fresh. the witch is not uncomfortable in either form—her power and her fearsomeness depend on both. finally, her default choice to reside as a hag rather than live as her “idealized” form creates the overall impression that the witch’s grotesque appearance is to be relished as powerful, a breakage from repressive norms, and overall, celebratory. this, however, does not mean that the witch cannot be powerful within her “idealized” form. at one point in the film, caleb, the family’s eldest son, is stranded in the woods. he finds himself standing before an ominous cave obviously belonging to the witch. suddenly, a young woman, wearing a red cloak and a low cut dress—who the audience knows is actually the witch—emerges from the cave. although caleb appears frightened, he advances towards her. as the woman leans into caleb’s face, about to kiss him, her haggard hand in its default form clutches the back of his head and violently pulls him into the cave (00:39:12-00:42:11). the witch—using her powers of metamorphosis as a tool to lure caleb—invokes bakhtin’s contradictory process as well as hypersexualized notions of puritanical witchcraft, where it was believed that accused “women had committed or were thought to have committed fornication . . . or other sexual or sexually related offenses” (karlsen 196). the witch’s power is further displayed when caleb mysteriously reappears at the homestead after his kidnapping. he is nude, incoherent, and showing obvious signs of possession. caleb’s possession continues the consistency of puritanical conceptions of witchcraft. the puritans believed that “favorite subjects for possession were children and nuns, both classes of innocents that demons might easily influence” (donovan 67). the symptoms of possession “included writhing and contortions of abdominal origin, vomiting of strange objects, change of voice to deep gruff tones (‘belly speaking’), the incessant use of obscenities and blasphemies, lewd exposure, and acts of abnormal strength” (donovan 66-67). while caleb only exhibits contortions and the vomiting of a whole apple with a single bite in it—simultaneously mocking an edenic biblical symbol, as well as symbolizing a lie caleb told to his mother to cover for a hunting trip he took with william—other instances of maleficarum are present as well. in fact, witches “[were] frequently suspected of causing illness or death, particularly to spouses or infants and young children. typically, an accuser would speak of a ‘thriving child’ who suddenly ‘have a great screech out as if it was greatly hurt,’ after which it did ‘pine away,’ continuing ‘in a sad condition’ until it ‘soe dyed’” (karlsen 6). therefore, while caleb does not experience shifts in vocal tones, nor does he use obscenities, his possession ultimately leads to the aforementioned pining away and death, all brought about by the witch in her “ideal” form (00:54:10-01:00:30). 8noah patterson finally, the rhetorical value in portraying the witch primarily as a hag is further elaborated on by mary daly, a scholar who wrote the book gyn/ecology: the metaethics of radical feminism. in this text, daly uses the term “hag-ography” to describe the act of recovering the overlooked history of women who were either accused of witchcraft and/or coded as hags (15). “hag-ography” concerns itself with celebrating the image of the hag, noting that “the beauty of strong, creative women is ‘ugly’ by misogynistic standards of ‘beauty’” (15). one aspect of this celebration is seen through daly’s reveling in the laughter of the hag. she states that “hags may rage and roar, but they do not titter,” leaving the act of tittering to “[s]elf-loathing ladies” (17). furthermore, daly believes that “there is nothing like the sounds of women really laughing. the roaring laughter of women is like the roaring of the eternal sea. hags can cackle and roar at themselves, but more and more, one hears them roaring at the reversal that is patriarchy” (17). the idea of a hag’s (or witch’s) laugh becomes poignant when considering the witch’s previously mentioned cackle in the film. through the lens of daly’s “hag-ography,” the witch’s cackle serves as another means of empowerment, laughing in the face of a patriarchal society that would rather have women politely “titter” while loathing themselves. through the lens of bakhtin and daly, it becomes clear that the witch utilizes the grotesque and “hag-ography” to show that the life of the hag is not only an empowering one that is relevant to the witch but also to thomasin—the protagonist and eldest daughter of william and katherine—later in the film. together, in rejecting social expectations, thomasin and the witch convey the power found within embodying the hag, turning their titters into cackles through a crucial inversion of mimesis theory. anti-mimesis and its usefulness to the other as the witch becomes an obvious portrayal of the hag and the grotesque, thomasin is realized as a case for anti-mimesis theory. contemporary phenomenologist susan kozel explains the concept of mimesis through her critique of luce irigaray, the originator of this theory in a feminist context, in order to sharpen the use of mimesis. in her essay, “the diabolical strategy of mimesis: luce irigaray’s reading of maurice merleau-ponty,” kozel defines mimesis as: a powerful tool available for women to subvert the social order as it is presently defined and preserved by patriarchal structures. as the phase that aims to bring about the conditions for the possibility of social and cultural change, mimesis involves women consciously stepping into the sexual stereotypes provided for them by men. it thus becomes a process of eroding the stereotypes from within. (116) 9noah patterson in spite of mimesis’s potential as a powerful feminist tool, kozel warns that it “runs the risk of silencing the other”—because oftentimes the other does not have the privilege needed to successfully embody these stereotypes—and thus explores its use in order to “[better situate it] at the root of social and political change” (114, 116). through this further definition of the term, its application to the witch becomes evident: instead of embodying the stereotypes of womanhood to exhibit change from within, the witch as a monster embodies the antithesis of accepted womanhood in order to make a political and empowering statement about rigid conceptions of femininity operating within the patriarchy. this creates an antimimesis that still allows for the puritan woman to erode stereotypes but to do so through resistance rather than adopting these stereotypes herself. before thomasin embodies anti-mimesis theory, she actually represents an embodiment of mimesis in its traditional definition. in fact, thomasin prays to god at the beginning of the film, confessing, “i know i deserve more shame and misery in this life and everlasting hellfire. but i beg thee, for the sake of thy son, forgive me, show me mercy, show me thy light” (00:04:55-00:05:58). thomasin also tends to the animals on the homestead, watches over the younger children, and, finally, obeys her mother’s commands and takes her “father’s rags to the brook and [washes] them” as well as “[brushes] out his woolens” (00:20:30-00:20:57). the expectations thomasin’s mother levies onto her correspond to the puritans’ ideal roles for a wife, which included “‘ordering things within doors,’ by which was meant the day-to-day maintenance of the family and the supervision of young children, older daughters, and female servants” (karlsen 169). as thomasin’s initial conformity to society’s expectations—which are echoed by her mother— are revealed, thomasin’s use of traditional mimesis is shown as a survival tactic rather than a tool for dismantling patriarchy (karlsen 169). therefore, thomasin is presented with two choices: continue down the path of puritanical idealism and use mimesis to merely survive or give in to her rebellious nature and utilize the concepts of anti-mimesis to obtain the power, status, and opportunity of a witch. she selects the latter. thomasin’s decision to utilize anti-mimesis, sign the devil’s book, and become a witch herself is one that maintains narrative coherency within the witch’s feminist theoretical framework. thomasin’s first expression of anti-mimesis theory, though, is less powerful than pledging herself to the devil. as feminist critic andrea dworkin states in her book, woman hating, “women are no less terrified [of the wicked witch], for we know that not to be passive, innocent, and helpless is to be actively evil” (35). thomasin, however, being a sympathetic protagonist, forces the audience to confront a female character that is not passive, innocent, or helpless, 10noah patterson and still relate to her rather than vilify her. for example, thomasin overhears her mother telling william, “our daughter hath begat the sign of her womanhood . . . she’s old enough. she must leave to serve another family” (00:32:20-00:34:27). the parents’ disregard for thomasin, readily sending her away, creates compassion for thomasin. similarly, unhappy with the notion that she may leave, caleb, her brother, concocts a plan to find food for the family and keep thomasin from leaving. instead of allowing caleb to go alone, thomasin forces him to let her join his journey into the woods. her adventurous spirit is therefore in contrast to the expectations dworkin identifies, which are thus reinforced by her parents and puritanical society. this subversion, without adopting expected sexual stereotypes, reveals the ways in which anti-mimesis may work on a smaller scale. in addition to defying societal standards, thomasin also defies her parents on numerous occasions, most notably with her father. after the witch murders caleb, william tells thomasin, “a council will be called . . . caleb disappeared with thee!” (01:01:31-01:01:52). here, william accuses thomasin of being a witch, implying her practice of maleficarum on her brother due to the fact that they went into the woods together and he returned witched. thomasin gives a passionate reply, saying, why have you turned against me? . . . you ask me to speak truth? you and mother are planned to rid the farm of me. aye. i heard you speak of it. is that truth? . . . you are a hypocrite! . . . you took caleb to the wood and let me take the blame of that too. is that truth? you let mother be as thy master! you cannot bring the crops to yield! you cannot hunt! . . . thou canst do nothing save cut wood! and you will not hear me! (01:02:15-01:03:29) this plea for william to listen to her simultaneously reveals her independence and willingness to question norms. she accuses her father of acting outside of the expectations of men just as she is aware she does not conform to the expectations of women. anti-mimesis manifests itself in this exchange, then, through thomasin’s further refusal to be passive; thomasin also embodies anti-mimesis in her ultimate acceptance of her perceived status as a monstrous woman. when thomasin is presented with the opportunity to sign the devil’s book, the allure and power within witchcraft is revealed. at this point in the film, the witch has killed thomasin’s entire family, whether through direct maleficarum or the tangential hysteria the witch has caused: only thomasin remains. the devil— who takes the shape of black phillip, the family’s black billy goat, throughout the movie—approaches thomasin in human-like form and asks a simple question: “wouldst thou like the taste of butter? a pretty dress? wouldst thou like to live deliciously?” she answers, “yes.” the devil continues, “wouldst thou like to see the world? . . . dost thou see a book before thee? remove thy shift.” thomasin, nude 11noah patterson like the original witch of the wood, stands before the devil’s book. “i cannot write my name,” she says. “i will guide thy hand,” the devil assures (01:23:10-01:25:19). this dramatization of signing the devil’s book is again in line with puritanical notions of witchcraft. as karlsen notes, “all of the powers a witch possessed, including maleficarum, were said to have derived from the covenant she had signed with the devil. satan gave her these powers, as well as his promise to satisfy her worldly desires (a promise many people believed he never kept), in return for her allegiance” (9). that being said, there is no indication that the devil does not keep this promise. instead, when thomasin follows him into the wood to a coven of witches dancing and chanting around a fire, thomasin is filled with power. the final shot of the film depicts her ascending into the air, laughing while she basks in the wonder of her newfound life. it is the first time thomasin expresses pure joy, reiterating that there is empowerment in inhabiting a monstrous border space (01:25:30-01:27:40). conclusion once thomasin signs the devil’s book in the witch’s conclusion, a cyclical theme in the film is closed; the creature that pursues thomasin’s family is ultimately what she becomes. there is no presumed glamour in thomasin’s choice. instead, the audience is led to believe that she will now become like the witch that tormented her. dworkin says that “the roles available to women and men are clearly articulated in fairy tales. the characters of each are vividly described, and so are the modes of relationship possible between them. we see that powerful women are bad, and that good women are inert” (45). thomasin, however, rejects the social codes that were forced upon her, choosing to live a life that is free of patriarchal influence, and breaks the narrative coherency that dworkin highlights. she deserts society to live life as a grotesque hag that will revel in her power, her appearance, and her fearsome nature. without a theoretical framework to guide a reading of the witch, thomasin’s choice may seem confusing; she is, after all, a christian girl who was accused of witchcraft, denied it, and is now seen embodying the life of the witch. but, through the exploration of her rebellious nature as well as her condemnation of puritanical societal constructs in her passionate reply to her father, thomasin’s choice to defy patriarchal prescriptions of gender corresponds with the film’s message. the witch, then, acts as a defense of the women who were executed for their perceived crimes as witches. in the end, the life of a witch is one that protests the norm, forces society to see the other, and challenges us to accept their presence or risk the consequences of suppressing them. 12noah patterson works cited bakhtin, mikhail. “introduction.” rabelais and his world, translated by helene iswolsky, m.i.t. press, 1968. chitwood, adam. “‘the witch’ review: one of the scariest horror films in years.” collider, http://collider.com/the-witch-review/. accessed 29 jan. 2017. cohen, jeffrey jerome. “monster culture (seven theses).” monster theory: reading culture, edited by jeffrey jerome cohen, university of minnesota press, 1996, pp. 3-25. daly, mary. “introduction: the metapatriarchal journey of exorcism and ecstasy.” gyn/ecology: the metaethics of radical feminism, beacon press, 1978, pp. 1-34. donovan, frank. “witches’ brews and broomsticks.” never on a broomstick, bell publishing company, 1971, pp. 57-81. dworkin, andrea. woman hating. penguin books, 1974 ehrlich, david. “the witch finds rapture in the darkness.” slate, http://www. slate.com/articles/arts/movies/2016/02/horror_movie_the_witch_reviewed. html. accessed 29 jan. 2017. karlsen, carol f. the devil in the shape of a woman: witchcraft in colonial new england. w.w. norton & company, 1998. kozel, susan. “the diabolical strategy of mimesis: luce irigaray’s reading of maurice merleau-ponty.” hypatia, vol. 11, no. 3, 1996, pp. 114-129. jstor, https://www.jstor.org/stable/3810324?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents. accessed 18 jan. 2017. kristeva, julia. “approaching abjection.” powers of horror: an essay on abjection, translated by leon s. roudiez, columbia university press, 1982, pp.1-31. 13noah patterson http://collider.com/the-witch-review/ http://www. slate.com/articles/arts/movies/2016/02/horror_movie_the_witch_reviewed. html http://www. slate.com/articles/arts/movies/2016/02/horror_movie_the_witch_reviewed. html http://www. slate.com/articles/arts/movies/2016/02/horror_movie_the_witch_reviewed. html https://www.jstor.org/stable/3810324?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents. lee, benjamin. “the witch: the blood, the gore, the goat – discuss the film with spoilers.” the guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2016/ mar/14/the-witch-the-blood-the-gore-the-goat-discuss-the-film-withspoilers. accessed 29 jan. 2017. russell, jeffrey b. and alexander brooks. a history of witchcraft: sorcerers, heretics, and pagans. 2nd ed., thames & hudson, ltd., 2007. the witch. directed by robert eggers, performances by anya taylor-joy, ralph ineson, kate dickie, and harvey scrimshaw, parts and labor, 2016. 14noah patterson https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2016/ mar/14/the-witch-the-blood-the-gore-the-goat-discuss-the-film-with spoilers https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2016/ mar/14/the-witch-the-blood-the-gore-the-goat-discuss-the-film-with spoilers https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2016/ mar/14/the-witch-the-blood-the-gore-the-goat-discuss-the-film-with spoilers 9 digital literature review, vol. 1 (2014). © ball state university. all rights reserved. please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce article to dlr@bsu.edu. incursion into wendigo territory jackson eflin, ball sate university this article explores modern urban legends that appropriate the idea of the wendigo, a spirit from various native american tribal legends. these urban legends are informed by a cultural guilt of the dispossession of native american territories, but the victory of monster over protagonist demonstrates the futility of these attempts to comprehend histories of atrocities. “there are places that can take your memory away.” – jack wawastases much has been taken from the indigenous peoples of the americas: land, history, identity, name, and voice. the colonization of the americas took place on both a physical and cultural level, and so, in the end, even myths were colonized. but as the line of the frontier was pushed westward, a curious legend slipped through the cracks, and the attempts to hunt down and capture this legend go on today. called wendigo, windigo, whitiko, atchen, chenoo, or a host of other names by different peoples, the legend of the cannibal spirit who brings snow and hunger in its cloven gait was just as terrifying to settlers as it was to natives, and so attempts to settle it persist. the people and the places that created the wendigo are colonized now, mapped and measured, a thousand cultures swallowed up by trading posts and concrete roads. but the memory of the wendigo and all it represents haunts the collective unconscious of america, a howling reminder of colonial dispossession. the use of the wendigo in modern urban legends shows how america is wrestling with this guilt. if we accept cynthia landrum’s assertion of “urban legends represented as warnings or cautionary tales” (266), then these narratives can be seen as cautionary tales against forgetting the history of the territories america has colonized. understanding the wendigo’s place in both native and colonial mythology gives a perspective into the larger conflict it represents in the collective unconscious of america as a whole. this paper will examine the original myths of the wendigo and how their use in the lore of modern urban legends circulated on anonymous internet forums represents an ongoing struggle over a stretch of cultural territory by deconstructing the presentation of wendigos in these stories and how the intentional presentation of the monster reflects representations of native americans. before proceeding, it is vital to explore a bit of where the wendigo myth comes from. this is a thorny issue, as these stories are in many ways not mine to tell. deirdre keenan, exploring the difficulties of representing the overlap of her irish ancestral history and the history of native americans asks, “[h]ow can i represent indigenous voices rather than ‘voices that have been ventriloquized’ out of an ‘imperialist nostalgia?’” (186). this essay comes from a similar place as keenan’s, written by a colonizer, not a native, and thus these examinations of traditional myths should not be seen as authoritative recitations but as mailto:dlr%40bsu.edu?subject= 10 notes 1. it should be noted that the lines between these cultures are somewhat fuzzy, and the way they are defined comes from both native and western categorizations. originality of the wendigo myth thus can vary wildly depending on the source of the story. 2. the wendigo is consistently described as possessing, as opposed to the more apt infecting. this repeated use of possession to describe “going wendigo” suggests an unconscious connection between the wendigo and ownership. 3. a religious official doing trance work to facilitate glossolalia. le jeune reinterprets this as demonic possession. 4. “atchen” or “chenoo” is generally accepted to be the montagnais-naskapi word for the wendigo, or at least for a being of such similar mythology that the differences are primarily linguistic. wendigo territory, eflin reflections that show a shape of history, but not the only shape. appearing in myths from the great lakes and regions north and west, told by the cree, algonquin, ojibwe, and mi’kmaq peoples,1 amongst others, the nature of the wendigo varies wildly, but the common threads are of cold and hunger. in the stories, a tribe’s village will often be having trouble feeding itself due to the scarcity of game or other machinations of a wendigo in the area. the wendigo will use a wide repertoire of tricks, from vanishing the meat off of still-living game to mimicking the face or voice of a hunter, to lure prey away from home, where it will eat or possess them, causing them to “go wendigo.”2 usually the wendigo is defeated by destroying its icy heart. in these stories, the death of the wendigo signals the end of starvation, and in some cases the end of winter and the coming of summer. howard norman argues in his introduction to where the chill came from: cree wendigo tales and journeys, that the wendigo upset the “old agreement” of the hunt, that humans hunt and animals are hunted. as part of the arrangement, the cree allow hunting ground to rest and replenish and they tell stories about the slain animals to honor them. the wendigo, however, obstructs hunting, or hunts in the village, where no one is supposed to be prey. wendigos use their tricks to isolate a person, a manifestation of a very real fear of losing your way while hunting, and the danger of a lost hunting party turning to cannibalism if unsuccessful. this taboo against cannibalism is one of the metaphors the wendigo makes material. d. h. turner, in “wendigo mythology and the analysis of cree social structure,” relates a myth in which a man and his son eat their grandchild and wife, respectively. this act of devouring incorporates one into the other, which turner explores as an upsetting of the traditional method of incorporation of others into the family through marriage. he highlights this by referring to the characters as “grandfather/grandson” and “father/mother,” showing how the consumed still have presence in the consumer. he explains that cree tribes space themselves across the landscape to facilitate proper social relations. the transgressing of boundaries, both physical and genealogical, disrupts the natural order of things. in both of these interpretations, the wendigo is responsible for the radical upsetting of properly defined lines, both in landscape and social structure. the wendigo carries the fear of consumption in two ways, both the simple fear of being eaten but also the fear of “going wendigo” yourself, being possessed or infected, the wendigo getting into you. either way, someone is where they do not belong, and this trespass is terrifying. the wendigo’s connection to territory goes back to when colonists first encountered it. the writings of jesuit minister and evangelist paul le jeune, which contain the earliest known reference to the wendigo, also contain a territorial theme: …this devilish woman3 added that [the wendigo] had eaten some attikamegouekhin—these are the tribes that live north of the river which is called the three rivers,—and that he would eat a great many more of them if he were not called elsewhere. but that atchen,4 (a sort of werewolf), would come in his place to devour them, if they made a village, as they had decided 11wendigo territory, eflin to do; that he would come to get them, even up to the french fort; that he would slaughter the french themselves. (le jeune 7) the wording, “even up to the french fort…the french themselves” has a subtle implication of the french being on some higher order. something about their french-ness, their civilized-ness, apparently makes their space better, gives them some inherent guard against the evils of the wild. this establishment of the “better space” is an attempt to reassert colonial power by relegating native space as being in some nebulous way inferior, more prone to predation. the description of the atchen as “some kind of werewolf” is also a colonial move. this changes the threat from a native one, and thus beyond the territory of colonial mythology, to something within european understanding. while there are similarities between the wendigo and the werewolf, both animalistic anthropophages who were once human, the werewolf can become human again, whereas once you “go wendigo” you never go back.5 this subtle move to put down stakes in this unfamiliar territory shows the conqueror’s response to the unknown, to redefine or jettison to a safe distance. even if it isn’t understood, it is at least pushed to the periphery. over the next four hundred years, the wendigo would stalk the edges of american discourse. for native writers it was often used as a metaphorical device, as seen in tracks or solar storms. in tracks: a novel by ojibwe author louise erdrich, the narrator contextualizes the maddening depression brought on by deaths from plague by saying that “we had gone half windigo (6),”6 that is, gone half mad from the extremes of loss and winter. the narrator’s abusive mother in linda hogan’s solar storms is said to be possessed by the wendigo. on the other hand, for colonial writers it was a fertile ground for mining boogeymen. august delerth added it to the canon of the cthulhu mythos in ithaqua. in pet semetery by stephen king, the necromantic properties of the eponymous cemetery are attributed to a wendigo having soured the ground. all of these references draw on the power of a symbol with deep cultural roots, though in hogan’s and erdrich’s cases the invocation of the wendigo integrates the narratorial present with their cultures’ pasts, while delerth’s and king’s invocations attempt to connect their characters’ troubles to a longer narrative that breaches cultural boundaries. the use in ithaqua and pet semetary can be seen as what boyd and thrush call “the settler society’s attempts to make a usable history out of its colonial past” (xxiii). this colonial past is full of ghosts that haunt the colonized present, and the native-born spirit that haunts the americans around king’s cemetery is just another example, the anxieties of colonial guilt refusing to stay buried. this brings the narrative to the modern-day, where the wendigo is quite fashionable on the imageboard. since the story nicknamed “cabin fever,” posted in 2012, started the recent wendigo fad, over fifty wendigo-related stories have become creepypastas. such stories are posted on 4chan, a largely anonymous forum where posts are usually deleted after a few days of inactivity. thus good stories are copied down as text documents, which can be easily copied and pasted into a new thread. this “copy and paste” method of story sharing became abbreviated to copypasta, the subset of horror stories being referred to notes 5. in all fairness to le jeune, explaining the wendigo is rather difficult. it acts a bit like a werewolf in its anthropophagia and living in the woods, but its supernatural powers make it seem like a sorcerer. for this paper i will use a hauntological lens, addressing it like a ghost in order to examine a cultural role it plays. technically the wendigo is a type of manitou, an algonquin word that refers to a variety of spirits. 6. the phrase “going wendigo” or “to go wendigo” is a recurring phrase that indicates a person has been fully possessed and overtaken by the cannibalistic mania of the wendigo. 12wendigo territory, eflin notes 7. i should point out that this isn’t the story’s actual name. all these stories were posted as forum comments, and were thus title-less. for ease of reference i have given them each a name. 8. a couple years ago: here the narrator reveals that this story is not only not recent, but is constructed from information from various points in his life. this ties into my research, especially deirdre keenan’s writing about construction of narratives and histories. the separation from the immediacy of the events brings into question legitimacy of both memory and narrative. 9. menom: a member of the menominee nation, an indigenous tribe native to michigan and wisconsin. as creepypasta. a majority of the wendigo creepypastas follow the same format, with young adults being hunted by some thing in the woods, and so repetitious is the formula that new stories are often met with accusations of unoriginality. i’ll be looking at two of these stories closely, to show how they reflect this pattern of cultural colonization. while there are a variety to choose from, these two have clear and unambiguous links to the wendigo, as opposed to merely a shade bearing its shape without realizing it is doing so. these stories are valuable to examine because they are a snapshot of modern american culture. the wendigo appears in many other stories, both on 4chan and elsewhere, but the stories examined here have the added advantage of being anonymous. unattached to faces and names, each individual post must be read on its own merits, with no history to distort them. and yet despite being free of history, the stories keep circling back to aspects of history that haunt the cultures that created them. the inescapability of the wendigo, even in a space beyond identity, shows how deeply its teeth are dug into the culture of america, thus the stories repeat with only small changes, always trying to grasp the shape of a history that refuses to stay quiet. the story that started the trend, “cabin fever,” was posted some time in summer 2012.7 the narrator, “a city kid from chicago,” goes camping with cousins on their family’s land in alabama. during the first day of camping, the teenagers run into a neighbor, tanner, who joins them. between them, there are five girls and six guys. a typical camping day goes by, and tanner pops home to ask permission to stay the night, two campers going with him as an honor guard. an hour later they come running back into the cabin, followed by everyone else, reporting strange goings on in the woods: someone following them on the path, spasming, back turned the whole time. they assume it’s some mischievous rednecks until one of the cousins begins to panic, “going on about how he went to school with a native kid that was telling him about the goat man.” he is chastised for worrying everyone, but continues, “going on and on about how it’s the goat man ‘and how we’re in his woods.’” the narrator interrupts the narrative for a moment to explain that at the time he had never heard of the goatman: but then a couple years ago8 the year before i graduated from college i had a menom9 for a roommate and i ended up asking him about it. and to sum it up, it’s basically a fucking man with the head of a goat and he can shape shift and he gets among groups of people to terrorize them. it’s also supposed to be kind of like the wendigo and it’s bad mojo to even talk about it and even worse if you see it. they eventually calm down, cooking three sausage packs, each with four sausages in them. an argument breaks out when the narrator is accused of taking two, which he denies, having given one to everyone specifically. about then it dawns on them what is wrong, just as a camper who had accompanied tanner starts screaming for everyone to get out. everyone flees the cabin and, upon counting, realizes that now there are only eleven people where there had been twelve. the narrator 13wendigo territory, eflin realizes that, with so many people who all knew only a few others in the group, it had been easy for the goatman to slip in. the story continues in this vein for quite some time, juggling numbers so that it is easy to lose track of how many people should be there. eventually tanner darts home for a gun. upon returning, he and the narrator realize the goatman slipped in and out again, and the narrator starts to panic: “but at least i feel better because we can be american and shoot the fuck out of whatever it is if it comes back.” terrifying sounds of the goatman trying to get in last through the night, sounding like an animal failing to imitate human speech, until a few shots are fired into the darkness, driving it off. screeching noises persist, echoing in the woods. tanner stays awake through the night and realizes that at some point some one, or some thing, has slipped into the cabin. not wanting to scare anyone he says nothing, watching as it pretends to sleep, standing up occasionally in the dark to jitter and lie down again. they hurry home the next morning and, arriving at the house, the goatman gives tanner a deadeye stare, lags to the back of the group, and then vanishes into the forest. the goatman in this narrative explores the classic idea of haunting that can be described as the “present absence.” avery gordon wrestles with this idea, exploring how absences in narrative, history, and memory can only be reconstructed by examining the shape of the gaps they leave behind. she differentiates the ghost from haunting, defining haunting as “that which appears to not be there, a seething presence, acting on and often meddling with taken-for-granted realities, the ghost is just the sign, or empirical evidence if you like, that tells you that a haunting is taking place” (gordon 8). the ghost, to gordon, is the marker of a gap in history, culture, or memory, “cajoling us to reconsider” (6). this applies significantly to this narrative, which is riddled with absent presences. one of the absent presences is the smell that always seems to signal the coming of the goatman. at the start it smells “like ozone,” but towards the end of the narrative it evolves into “an actual nasty gross blood smell, like cooking blood and singed hair.” the smell comes and goes, but at one point the smell just vanishes. the narrator tells us “usually smells fade away or get less. it just literally was there one second and then not the second.” not only does this underline the supernatural nature of the threat being faced, but it also calls attention to absences. later, when the goatman, in the form of one of the campers, is writhing, as though she were laughing, but silently, causes the narrator to realize that the woods are totally devoid of any sound, no birds or squirrels to be heard. again, the actions of the spectre draw attention to absences, and while this absence is literal, others are less so. the goatman is never given a form or a voice, and is only ever able to imitate, only able to interact with the world in the form of an intruder. the native figure never speaks with its own words; instead the words of the invader are put into its mouth, and it is ventriloquized like a puppet. kathryn shanley explores this idea of ventriloquism as an unvoicing of native peoples, their stories told by people claiming to speak with their voice. the native voice here is removed. shanley states, “[t]he exclusion of indian voices perpetuates the idea that non-indians can speak for indians better than indians can speak for themselves” (688). the unvoicing of natives removes the ability to tell their own story, and thus define themselves. this puts the native in a spectral position, present but unable to affect change, intangible. when the wendigo is given voice, even the voice is spectral as it cannot be defined. in many creepypastas, there will be a moment where the author will try to describe the noises, always failing to properly articulate them, defining them as “not human, not like any animal ever heard.” for the author of “cabin fever,” the creatures trying to imitate human speech sound “like those youtube cats and dogs whose owners teach them how to ‘talk.’” 14wendigo territory, eflin notes 10. from the novel beloved by toni morrison, whose character sethe describes a “rememory” as a memory so powerful that it hangs in the air, and can be encountered by anyone walking through the space. the word is a part of the novel’s running theme of the use of memories to reconstruct the past. the narrator describes the way all people of all languages have a certain cadence, and that this is like none of them. the goatman’s not-quite-human behavior and inability to quite mimic human speech plays on the literary device of the uncanny, that which reveals the strangeness in the familiar. gesa mackenthun states that “the literary mode of the uncanny fulfils a memory function; it brings to light forgotten or subjugated knowledges. the greatest uncanny effect is when a ‘rememory’ (to borrow morrison’s term)10 invades the family home” (98). it is the subjugated knowledge being pushed to the forefront that is more terrifying than the goatman’s physical trespass. the characters put a great deal of effort into keeping the wendigo out of the family’s home, despite its seeming ability to come and go freely. after all, according to one of the panicking campers, these are “his woods.” the fear of these buried memories resurging to recolonize territory from which they had been pushed shines through here in the goatman’s almost casual ability to reinvade spaces thought entirely safe. the goatman literally unsettles, both by being a fearful presence and by uprooting the settler’s assumptions that the settled land is a controlled property, as opposed to an unwilling hostage. the unvoiced monster brings to light the voiceless victims, silenced so that their presence may be ignored or forgotten. another creepypasta dealing with issues of the control over native presence and space, “territories,” was posted on july 23, 2013. posted along with the opening text was a map pointing to a point in the deep canadian wilderness west of the great slave lake. the narrator is in the canadian army, 3rd canadian division, his traveling companion a reservation-born algonquin named pannoowau. they drive off road for a few days and eventually make camp a few miles from their car. in the night they are disturbed by something moving around their campground. pannoowau assists the narrator in trying to track whatever thing is stalking their camp, leaving “kind of ‘morphed’ human footprint[s].” at one point they hear a terrible shriek, “like the sound a pig makes when it’s being butchered while still alive.” pannoowau declares that “bad spirits walk among us,” which the narrator disbelieves. eventually pannoowau convinces him to return to camp. however, their trail back vanishes, and pannoowau, not wanting to worry the narrator, says nothing. this is when a critical portion of the narrative happens. pannoowau is explaining his methods to get unlost: “i figured if we walked in the same direction we came, we would get to the camp. even our own tracks are gone.” “we need to stop now and figure out where in the hell we are.” i took my backpack off and opened it up, searching for my map and compass. while i was busy in my backpack, i saw pannoowau scramble for his rifle from the corner of my eye. he brought it up and fired off three rounds. i looked at him and said “what happened?” i also brought up my rifle, but noticing pannowau’s face was white as the snow on the ground. “weendigo...” he said. the narrator and pannoowau make it back to camp, whereupon the narrator finally sees the wendigo standing there at the edge of the treeline around camp: “it looked so skinny that its bones were almost pushing out of its skin. the eyes appeared so sunken, almost black, and the bony fingers were jagged like twigs. it was just standing there, watching us.” 15wendigo territory, eflin notes 11. trumbull, natick dictionary 12. other indications are present, notably the irregularity of the weather, described at 5°, far colder than it would be in the region in question during hunting season, as well as the nonexistence of the narrator’s military regiment at the time the story took place. the wendigo, while visually frightening due to the uncanniness of its form (close enough to human but far enough to seem wrong) does nothing dangerous. it merely watches. the narrator and pannoowau begin firing on the creature, but when the smoke clears it had vanished without a body. they run for the car, but on the journey pannoowau is separated from the narrator unnoticed. the narrator makes it to his car and starts to drive for the main road when he sees pannoowau in front of him. “i screamed, ‘get in the car!!’ instead of running to the passenger door, he twitched and seemed to float towards the driver’s door. my instincts once again kicked in and i slammed the pedal.” the narrator makes it back to the government roads and contacts the police, telling them that his friend was hurt in a hunting accident. the story ends by informing us, “they still haven’t found him.” pannoowau is a fascinating character in this narrative. the narrator informs us, “he also lives in alberta, but was born on a reservation. his family had taught him all the legends and customs when he was growing up, but he handles modern society well.” this congratulatory nod to pannoowau, who “handles modern society well,” seems to carry a subconscious idea that natives ought not to be able to, relegating the native to an undisclosed past, coming from a reservation, a space removed within popular conception from modern spaces, his ancestry giving him some greater connection to the land. meanwhile the narrator is part of the army, an active, voluntary agent of the colonial government. they come from two different worlds, and their alliance and eventual separation suggests an instability of this arrangement. interestingly, the name the narrator gives to his native companion, “pannoowau,” means “he lies” in algonquin,11 something that wouldn’t be obvious to the common reader but seems to be an in-joke or subtle acknowledgement of the falseness of the story. now, naturally that could be it, a subtle nod to the way a fictional story is being told as truth in the traditional mode of the urban legend, a tacit admission that this story is a fabrication.12 but the connection to lies and storytelling runs deeper. it is through pannoowau that we learn that “bad spirits” are present, that the threat is a “wendigo” that will get them killed. when they are lost, he says nothing until confronted. as they draw closer to the inevitable meeting with the wendigo, he seems to grow stranger, more distant, more connected to the land. this is a recursion of a frequent role that native characters are relegated to, that of the noble savage. according to shanley, “many of the ‘indian’ voices most popular in mainstream america reinscribe nineteenth-century romantic images of noble savages” (677). these “romantic images” assuage a guilty colonial conscience. ascribing nobility to the “savage” is what renato rosaldo describes as “a particular kind of nostalgia, often found under imperialism, where people mourn the passing of what they themselves have transformed” (69). this imperialist nostalgia retells the dispossession of indigenous peoples as an inevitability instead of a crime, suggesting that the conquered savage could never have survived into the modern era and couldn’t help being lost to history. stating that pannoowau “adapts to modern society well” places him in this romanticized past. this justifies his knowledge of tracking and spirits. but in the end, pannoowau goes wendigo. this seems to subvert the idea of the romanticized native, an image meant to assuage a guilty conscience. the monster must be shot, unquestionably, and, if it has no right to life, it certainly has no right to territory. colonialism is thus justified by making the native a monster that needed conquering. but it is not until this attempt to reassert colonial power occurs that the monsters come out. 16wendigo territory, eflin in “territories,” the protagonists don’t encounter any great danger, the wendigo being heard but unseen, an absent presence in the night, until the narrator ceases to trust pannoowau’s sense of direction and connection to the land and utilizes more modern technologies of the map and compass, both used to define space and therefore control territory. it is not until these symbols that force definition onto the land come out that the wendigo comes out as well. the issue of colonial incursion into what was once untamed space is brought to the forefront, the intellectual conflict becoming manifested in a physical danger. however, the danger is still not quite present. pannoowau is the only one able to perceive it at first. the narrator doesn’t see it until he reaches the perceived safe space of the camp. the camp is separated from the wendigo’s space just beyond the tree line, the boundary entirely conceptual and not at all defined. the closeness of the monster has all but broken down the conceptions of territory that are a vital aspect of the colonial process, the establishment of native and non-native territories now shown to be illusory as opposed to intrinsic. the flimsiness of these boundaries shows how the real memories of colonial violence, unfiltered by imperialist nostalgia, can resurface in what richard terdiman calls “the pasts we carry but do not entirely cognize [that] regularly rise to colonize our present” (346). this fear of being incorporated, rather than an incorporator, contributes to the fear of the wendigo, the narrative betraying the narrator as it allows the past to unsettle the present. but the territorial nature of the wendigo goes beyond physical boundaries. the colonization of the new world cannot be total until the natives are pushed out of all of their territories, both physical and cultural. landrum explores how captured lands and objects, “[t] rophies of the indian wars” (272), hold spiritual power, stating that “these ‘vessels’ of power carried the energy of the land and the people that they represented” (273). using the example of trophies taken after the massacre at wounded knee, landrum states that by holding hostage these vessels of spiritual power, “the northern plains people were both militarily and spiritually disarmed” (262). by telling stories of the wendigo, colonial culture can attempt to reassert its ownership of the captured trophy of the wendigo, though the repeated victory of the wendigo in driving the narrators out of its territory suggests that this ownership is highly tenuous, history resisting redefinition. the more that colonial culture tries to mold the wendigo into a useable shape, the more it slips away, leaving the hand trying to grasp it reshaped around its absence, and the words trying to define assert control telling stories of fear and flight. and this brings me back to the issue of stories and who gets to tell them. the act of telling the story is an intently defining act. the words used, portrayals of characters and places, by their very nature define history or culture in some way, even unknowingly. the act of redefining something belonging to someone else is a violent act, a charge into and occupying of cultural territory. but the unsettling nature of the wendigo prevents it from being defined by the colonizer, allowing it to slip into and out of conquered territory. for one, the wendigo can be seen to represent the native, portrayed as a lurking danger in the forest. the auditory difference, especially the narrator of “cabin fever” focusing on the sound of the speech, is noteworthy. the english language has a vast etymological family tree, deriving from both germanic and romantic languages, and can thus find similarity in most european language patterns, whether it be sonically or syntactically. however, languages from tribes in the americas follow different rules and thus sound noticeably different. there are different phonemes and rules for constructing sentences and declining nouns. most european languages decline nouns based on masculine/feminine, where many 17wendigo territory, eflin languages from northern america decline based on animate/inanimate. interestingly, some words like ahsin, stone, decline as animate, suggesting an understanding of the land as having “potential for movement, for speech and volition—for personhood” (smith and fiore 62). the cultural differences runs so deep that even the thought behind the language is changed. the wendigo in these tales triggers all the screen memories of the fear that plagued the colonizers of a people with uncanny faces, of a land with potential to speak. however, another reading interprets the wendigo as the colonizer. this is not an uncommon rhetorical device, seen in many narratives. theresa s. smith and jill m. fiore unpacks one such narrative, linda hogan’s novel solar storms, wherein builders of a hydroelectric dam in once sacred ground are likened to wendigos: “like windigos, the murderers of the land are gluttons who, with greed and trickery, seal their own fates in a landscape that offers no sustenance any more…they can only live by attempting to take life, both literally and figuratively, from others” (smith and fiore 76). in “cabin fever” the wendigo is constantly in amongst the humans, taking on their forms and voices. if read assuming wendigo-as-colonist, the meaning is clear. the wendigo can easily assume the form of the colonist because the colonist has already become the wendigo. this uncanny doubling unsettles both characters and reader, as it shows how flimsy the borderline between colonist and cannibal is. the indecisive quality of the metaphor, whether it makes colonist or native into the monster, indicates the ongoing struggle over the cultural territory in which the wendigo resides. the perpetuation of narratives often so similar that they are rapidly growing unpopular for lack of originality suggests that colonial culture is revisiting the issue over and over, the guilty colonial conscience trying to redefine its past until the monster in colonized territory is no longer in the mirror as well. perhaps this is why posters on an anonymous board find the wendigo so terrifying and yet so enthralling. on an anonymous board, a space without identity, a monster that can be made to look like both native and colonizer carries the weight of both identities and histories, challenging the very idea that an identity can be free of history. 18wendigo territory, eflin works cited anansi. “cabin fever.” 4chan. 4chan, 27 sept. 2012. web. 6 sept. 2013. boyd, colleen, and coll thrush. “introduction: bringing ghosts to ground.” phantom past, indigenous presence. ed. colleen e. boyd and coll thrush. lincoln: university of nebraska press, 2011. vii-xl. print. delerth, august. “ithaqua.” the ithaqua cycle: the wind-walker of the icy wastes. ed. robert m. price. oakland, ca: chaosium, 1998. n.p. print. erdrich, louise. tracks: a novel. new york: henry holt, 1988. print. mackenthun, gesa. “haunted real estate: the occlusion of colonial dispossession and signatures of cultural survival in u.s. horror fiction.” amerikastudien / american studies: media and cultural memory 43.1 (1998): 93-108. print. gordon, avery. ghostly matters: haunting and the sociological imagination. minneapolis: university of minneapolis press, 1997. print. hogan, linda. solar storms: a novel. new york: scribner, 1995. print. keenan, deirdre. “trespassing native ground: american indian studies and problems of non-native work.” the journal of the midwest modern language association, 34.1 (autumn, 2000 – winter, 2001): 179-89. print. king, stephen. pet semetary. new york: doubleday, 1983. print. landrum, cynthia. “shape-shifters, ghosts, and residual power: an examination of northern plans spiritual beliefs, location, objects, and spiritual colonialism.” phantom past, indigenous presence. ed. colleen e. boyd and coll thrush. lincoln: university of nebraska press, 2011. 255-279. print. le jeune, paul. “a sort of werewolf.” windigo: an anthology of fact and fantastic fiction. ed. john robert colombo. lincoln: university of nebraska press, 1982. 7. print. norman, howard a. where the chill came from: cree wendigo tales and journeys. san francisco: north point press, 1982. print rosaldo, renato. culture & truth: the remaking of social analysis. boston: beacon press, 1993. print. 19wendigo territory, eflin works cited smith, theresa s. and jill m. fiore. “landscape as narrative, narrative as landscape.” studies in american indian literatures, 22.4 (winter 2010): 58-61. print. shanley, kathryn w. “the indians america loves to love and read: american indian identify and cultural appropriation.” american indian quarterly, 21.4 (autumn, 1997): 675-702. print. terdiman, richard. present past: modernity and memory crisis. ithaca: cornell university press, 1993. print. “territories.” 4chan. 4chan, 23 july 2013. web. 6 sept. 2013. trumbull, j. hammond. natick dictionary. washington: government printing office 1903. print. turner, d. h. “windigo mythology and the analysis of cree social structure.” athropologica 19.1 (1977): 63-73. print. 51 resurfacing specters in the house of media: the ghosts of columbine in american horror story: murder house jared lynch, ball state university this article explores an aspect of haunting and terror that surfaced after the columbine school shooting, a specter crafted and refined through the journalistic practice of framing. this ghost inhabits the house of media, where it still continues to surface. american horror story: murder house presents an incarnation of this ghost, opening a new way of thinking about both journalistic framing and the specter of mass violence. on april 20, 1999, eric harris and dylan klebold murdered twelve of their fellow students and a teacher and shot 21 other students at columbine high school near littleton, colorado. this tragedy, which they had been planning meticulously for months, came to be referred to as the worst school shooting in u.s. history and resulted in fifteen deaths when it concluded with eric and dylan’s suicides. american horror story: murder house occurs in los angeles in a mirror universe, a double of america. this doubling is subtly enforced by minute details such as a character who smokes pell mell cigarettes instead of pall malls. there is a house in this mirror that inherits the souls of all who die within the house or on the property, and the ghosts are forced to exist eternally within the constraints of the murder house. in the fictionalized 1994 los angeles, tate, a character living in the house, suffers a mental breakdown and goes to his high school, westfield high, and murders fifteen of his fellow classmates. murder house intentionally frames the westfield high shooting to mirror key elements used in the news media’s coverage of columbine, presenting a ghostly double that occurs in 1994 instead of 1999, at a fictionalized westfield high school in los angeles instead of columbine in colorado. the narrative in the show is non-linear, and the shooting is revealed sporadically throughout the season, emphasizing the ghostliness of the specter. each time the event surfaces, a new frame is presented in an attempt to shed more light on the matter, but it is jarring as the viewer continues to encounter the specter of westfield high through the progression of murder house. each frame presents a piece of the fictionalized shooting while also alluding to its internalization of columbine. through the intentional framing of the westfield high massacre in murder house, the show surfaces the societal ghosts of eric harris and dylan klebold and the essence of columbine, illustrates the ghostly qualities of framing through employing the journalistic practice, and exposes a new thread of american horror that is created in the house of media. columbine startled the nation; it disrupted the everyday channel. while the tragedy itself lasted less than an hour, its presence in the news media allowed it to remain on the surface of society’s attention well beyond the constraints of its placement in the nation’s linear timeline. when tragedies like columbine occur, mass media is the initial source of information, and, through framing, news media actively direct the eye of the viewer, emphasizing certain digital literature review, vol. 1 (2014). © ball state university. all rights reserved. please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce article to dlr@bsu.edu. mailto:dlr%40bsu.edu?subject= 52resurfacing specters in the house of media, lynch aspects of the event. in his book comprehending columbine, ralph w. larkin writes, “the columbine massacre was the most important news event in 1999. […] because of the magnitude of the story of the columbine shootings, daily reportage lasted for a full month” (2). the story remained critical through the journalistic practice of framing, in which the salience, or relative importance, of a subject is kindled and perpetuated through persistent refocusing of the key details of a story. the magnitude and ambiguity of the true motives and intentions of columbine fueled the story’s salience, and the consistent reframing of the event allowed it to remain on the surface of the nation’s attention. “during any event’s life span, the news media often reframe the event by emphasizing different attributes of the event—consciously or unconsciously—in order to keep the story alive and fresh” (chyi and mccombs 23). this practice is what caused daily reportage to last a month, as different perspectives were unearthed, and presented society with another piece of the mosaic. when columbine is viewed retrospectively, the salience will forever be filtered through the framed perspectives. murder house uses these tactics to ensnare the essence of this american tragedy, presenting it within a world removed from the actual incident through time and spatial progression. several seeds of the specific frames of columbine were evident in the presentation of news media coverage on april 20, 1999 as the event was unfolding. while coverage was shrouded in a sense of uncertainty, several foundational projections were established in the initial reportage, such as the physical appearance of eric and dylan, which came to be a major identifying point of these two perpetrators of typical society. in a compilation of real-time news footage from that day, a news anchor states, “the first description, by the way, of the suspects is that they were wearing long coats, dark boots” (“1999…”). this established a physical description, which became a centrality when discussing the event. in the same compilation another anchor elaborates, “[t]hese gunmen, wearing the black trench coats may have been in a gang within the school that a lot of witnesses describe as the trench coat mafia” (“1999...”). this element of framing came to embody a physical specter that society could fathom as the perpetrators. in murder house’s 1994 los angeles, when tate decides to murder his fellow classmates, he disregards his typical outfit of jeans and a sweater and dons a pair of black combat boots and a long, dark coat. by dressing in this manner, tate brings forth the physical essence of harris and klebold, dispossessing his actual self, inheriting the spirit of the tragedy. he provides the first physical frame of columbine, internalizing the physicality of the horror, presenting a face of american fear. after violet, tate’s girlfriend, learns of the westfield high shooting, one of the articles in her search presents the subtitle, “westfield wasn’t about jocks, goths, or trenchcoat mafia” (“piggy piggy”). this reference to columbine is subtle in its approach, but it yields power to the material phantom that the news media created through this frame of columbine, which bears an incredible power when resurfaced. it is unnecessary to know the identity of the ghost to still be affected by its visceral symbolism. when tate inherits this corporeal ghoul, he employs the empowering nature of this particular frame. another outlet of the framing that was established in the initial coverage was the targeting of jocks. shortly after reports began emerging of the event, a columbine student was interviewed saying, “they were shooting anyone […] wearing a white hat or playing a sport” (“1999…”). white baseball hats were worn by jocks at columbine high school, a physical differentiation of social structure. this frame, while developed early in the news media’s coverage, helped to craft the perceived progression of events in columbine. it was later established that eric and dylan were victims of bullying. in the documentary colum53resurfacing specters in the house of media, lynch bine killers, brooks brown, a friend of eric and dylan, states in an interview, “they were the bottom two kids in the entire school. not just out of the senior class—the entire school. they were the two uncoolest kids. they were the losers of the losers” (columbine killers). later in the documentary eric is shown in a home video taken at the school, walking with a friend through the hallways a year before the shooting. dylan is holding the camera, and they are approached by a “wall of jocks,” who subsequently run into the boys, elbowing them, nearly knocking the camera out of dylan’s hands. when brooks brown comments on this video he says, “you don’t hear them bitching, because they’re so used to it. they don’t go, ‘what the hell was that?’ they go, ‘uh-huh’ and they just move on because it’s so commonplace” (columbine killers). while the initial frame of the targeting of jocks appears to be a repercussion of the bullying, it does not stand up to the reality of the shooting. larkin writes, “it was clear from the outset that the target for harris and klebold was their peers. it did not matter whether they were innocent or guilty, jocks or nerds, males or females, or evangelicals or atheists. […] [t]hey apparently wanted to target the entire peer structure, in which they were at the very bottom” (63). it later became evident that very few of the victims of the columbine shooting were jocks, or those perceived as responsible for the bullying. the initial news media coverage attempted to supply a more concrete explanation behind the attack, but the actuality of the attack was much darker. this aspect of the initial framing illustrates its equal importance to the overall conception and shaping of columbine, despite its inaccuracy; framing crafts the reality of an event. in murder house, the ghosts are allowed to leave the house every halloween to traverse the larger world. released from his spatial limits, tate walks to the beach with violet, a current resident of the house. they are approached by a group of teenagers who are covered in blood and gore. they are victims of the westfield high massacre, and they demand answers from tate as to why he murdered them. kyle, a football player for the westfield wolverines, says to him, “you owe us an explanation. why did you target the jocks? i never did anything to you” (“halloween (part 2)”). this scene occurs before the viewer is aware of the shooting, and the placement is significant as it correlates with the release of this frame in the news media. before the event was actualized in society’s conception of the event, the intentional targeting of anyone “wearing a white hat” had already received a foundation, providing more reasoning behind the attack. however, when kevin corrects kyle saying, “it wasn’t just the jocks, man” (“halloween (part 2)”), he mirrors the news media’s inability to capture the explicit reasoning behind this particular frame of columbine, alluding to the targeting not just of the jocks but rather the entire peer structure of the school. he alters the viewer’s understanding of the westfield high shooting, illustrating the power of framing; the frame is just as important as the actuality of an event, as they both create reality. columbine inherited strong religious overtones due to the news media’s framing of cassie bernall. it was initially reported that when eric and dylan approached cassie in the library, they asked her if she believed in god before killing her. larkin writes, “perhaps the most celebrated and bizarre aspect of the shootings was the beatification of cassie bernall as a christian martyr who died proclaiming her faith” (39). she became immortalized within the news media. this specific frame of columbine was continued and reinforced when her mother released the book she said yes: the unlikely martyrdom of cassie bernall, which was a biography of cassie highlighting her selfless act of dying to defend her faith. this frame helped to provide existential meaning to the event, as “the evangelical community sought to define the shootings in religious terms, as a manichean struggle between good and evil” (larkin 41). for some it provided a sense of purpose to this terrible attack. 54resurfacing specters in the house of media, lynch this channel of subscription in the news media inherited further attention when it was revealed that this conversation never took place; it occurred between klebold and valeen schnurr, another student who was injured in the shooting. while this revelation slightly discredited the validity of this frame, it still played a vital role in defining columbine. the perceived martyrdom of cassie bernall is still strongly associated with the shooting, its roots deep despite the martyrdom having never occurred. in murder house, when the victims of the westfield high shooting confront tate about his actions, stephanie says to him, “you asked me if i believed in god and you put a gun to my head. i said yes. it wasn’t even true when i said yes. and then you pulled the trigger” (“halloween (part 2)”). this scene aids in the representation of columbine through the westfield high shooting, and it internalizes the religious overtones associated with columbine. there exists another layer of depth within this encounter. when stephanie says, “it wasn’t even true when i said yes” she represents the ambiguity wrapped up in this conversation. the following episode in the series begins with the victims of the library killing in westfield high hearing gunshots down the hallway. this is the most substantial physical allusion to columbine. the worst of the columbine shootings took place in the library, where ten students were murdered and many more were injured. the library became a centrality in the representation and memory of columbine. when tate enters the library at westfield high, he stalks around until he finds where the victims are hiding. when he encounters stephanie, there is no dialogue exchange between them, another nod to the ambiguity of the matter, as it was revealed that that conversation did not occur with cassie bernall, another ghostly presence housed within the news media’s framing. this further emphasizes the power of framing, as it was inaccurate when covering cassie’s martyrdom. that aspect of columbine still represents the shooting in a manner. the frame continues to have placement even though it is not true. perhaps the most surprising frame of the coverage of columbine focused on the media’s influence on eric and dylan, specifically video games, music, and film. eric and dylan both played video games such as doom and quake, violent first-person shooters. the news media attributed the violence in these video games as base inspiration for the two boys, fueling their subsurface violent natures. the news media also targeted music artists such as kmfdm and marilyn manson, claiming that the music promoted violence and aggression. through framing these artists in this negative light, the salience was refueled, and society had another entity in which to project reason, another face in which to project fear. by refocusing the eye, the mosaic looms larger. the representation of this frame within murder house is much more subtle, and it is not revealed until the tenth episode in the season. on the morning of the westfield high shooting, after tate suffers his mental breakdown, he sits on his bed, awake before his alarm clock. the clock goes off briefly, blaring heavy metal music. albeit brief, this reference directly embodies this aspect of framing. the news media would study tate’s habits, and heavy metal music would fall under scrutiny. when discussing the event in their journals, eric and dylan referred to the day as nbk, which stood for natural born killers, a movie that both boys admired (columbine killers). the film focuses on mass murderers mallory and mickey knox, who are idolized by the news media, turning them into superstars. the news media in the film glorify their actions, inherently giving them power and immortality. eric and dylan viewed themselves in the same godlike limelight, foreseeing their preservation within the house of media, capable of resurfacing and disrupting the societal timeline. peter conrad points out that “they were looking forward, they said, to returning as ‘ghosts’ to create ‘flashbacks’ in the minds of 55resurfacing specters in the house of media, lynch survivors: they expected to have an afterlife as celluloid phantoms, images flickering in the collective unconsciousness.” in their minds, the boys already existed as ghosts, immortalized in media. also in their journals the boys wrote that if a movie was made about nbk they wanted it directed by quentin tarantino or steven spielberg (columbine killers). in murder house tate specifically tells violet that he loves quentin tarantino, implying his equal fascination with similar violent media. this explicit connection progresses the viewer along the same avenue, leading eventually to the media-saturated framing of columbine. the news media would cover the westfield high shooting in the same light as columbine, and the influence of media would naturally be brought into focus. although video games wouldn’t be brought into question, violent media would be examined. murder house is a house of media, which houses a room that reflects the internalization of media framing. after tate murders fifteen of his fellow classmates, he returns home to the murder house, where a swat team surrounds him in his room. after reaching for a gun beneath his pillow, he is killed, and the house inherits his soul, therefore inheriting the media-saturated essence of columbine. in his theoretical work the poetics of space, gaston bachelard writes, “[t]hanks to the house, a great many of our memories are housed. […] here space is everything, for time ceases to quicken memory. […] memories are motionless, and the more securely they are fixed in space, the sounder they are” (8-9). media houses memories, fixes them within its spatial confines, solidifies the occurrence of the event within a linear timeline. through the house of media the ghost can inhabit and remain in a perpetual spiral, flickering images in a house of images that create solidity. bachelard dissects the house, writing, “a house constitutes a body of images that give mankind proofs or illusions of stability. we are constantly re-imagining its reality: to distinguish all these images would be to describe the soul of the house” (17). the physicality of the murder house is created through the non-linear storytelling of the show. it is stitched together frame by frame, room by room throughout the season. the images of the house form a mosaic that constitutes stability and substance, but the actuality of the murder house is constantly re-imagined soul by inherited soul, as its reality is reinterpreted. similarly, the house of media is composed of a body of images, the framing of the images provide illusions of stability through providing answers and explanations. in the instance of columbine, the house is composed of news coverage, home video footage, and documentaries, all of which provide proof of stability. when these frames are picked from the mosaic and analyzed, a clearer picture forms of the essence of the house. tate is confined to the spatial limitations of the murder house, just as eric and dylan are confined to the house of media; the specters drift within the house, continuing to resurface. while framing revives and revitalizes a story within the moment, it also fixes the perspective of a story in linearity. “‘space’ and ‘time’ are two of the most important dimensions pertinent to the coverage of any news events. [...] therefore, the proposed measurement scheme for media frames is grounded in the time and space dimensions” (chyi and mccombs 24-25). the columbine school shooting is established and fixed in space and time within the house of media: april 20, 1999, in littleton, colorado. while the frames of the event were also established in the initial coverage of the event, they inherit a ghostly quality since they constantly resurface. it is difficult to discuss a mass shooting, especially a school shooting without associating it with columbine, the most-cited school shooting in the united states. it presented a new fashion by which media could produce its own haunts through framing, in which an event is solidified and grounded in a specific space and time, while the frames in which it is presented perpetuate and resurface in the linear timeline. 56resurfacing specters in the house of media, lynch both the murder house, as well as the larger media house are haunted by spirits that exist in resurgence. the news media still employ the same framing techniques that were established in the coverage of columbine. glenn w. muschert writes, “first, journalists were unable to a draw on previous media frames in covering columbine, and therefore were forced to develop new frames of coverage for this incident” (165). the specific attributes of the ghost were fixed in the initial coverage, and it becomes impossible to view the ghost without relying upon these prescriptive attributes. through media, and news media framing, the abstract attributes are just as powerful as viewing the physical specter; specific frames of columbine are as much a part of the ghost as the physicality of a photo or video of one of the victims or perpetrators. the frames, ghosts, and essence of columbine continuously resurface within the house of media, both physically as well as through the abstract conjuring of framing. documentaries and movies about columbine perpetuate the presence of eric and dylan in the media. home videos and footage of news coverage on april 20, 1999, consistently form the body of documentaries about columbine, such as the columbine killers and zero hour. the boys were interested in video productions and made home movies with their friends. the documentary the columbine killers relies heavily upon media produced by eric and dylan, such as diary entries and home videos, revealing the darkness that lingered below the surface of the boys, using the media to create a more substantial explanation of the reasoning behind the attack. another pivotal scene often used in coverage of columbine is the security footage from the cafeteria, on which viewers witness eric and dylan, carrying their firearms, stride across the screen. this scene is one of the most visceral images related with columbine, as it represents a raw physicality of the event itself. the most notorious videos are much darker though. in a series of videos known as the “basement videotapes,” the boys documented their plans as well as captured the means to carry out their plans, revealing the arsenal of firearms procured and homemade bombs produced with which to set the plan into motion. these particular tapes procure an overwhelming ghostly quality, as they are not available to the public. michael moore’s bowling for columbine takes a different approach, exploring the different frames of columbine, and the perpetuation of those frames, rather than the shooting itself. the film explores gun control issues, as well as the media’s influence on eric and dylan, providing an interview with marilyn manson, who fell under the fire of the news media. this documentary, although not explicitly about the columbine shooting, uses the frames attached to the news media coverage of the event, revealing their ability to conjure the spirit of columbine. murder house is not the first fictionalized media house to present an incarnation of columbine. gus van sant’s elephant presents a dramatized account in which the present manifestations of eric and dylan (one of whom is appropriately named eric) are bullied by their peers and plot to bring guns to their school. in their time outside of class they are shown playing violent first-person shooter video games. the film zero day is told through the home video footage of two boys, who meticulously plan and carry out a mass shooting at their school. the shooting itself is portrayed through the perspective of the school’s security cameras, adding another ghostly layer by furthering the connection between the two events. 2005 saw the release of super columbine massacre rpg!, a role-playing video game that takes place on the day of the shooting, at columbine high school. players are presented with a more visceral manifestation of the ghosts when given the option to play as either eric or dylan, and carry out the shooting through a video game. the physical events of columbine are fixed in the linear timeline on 20 april 1999; the ghosts of the event continue 57resurfacing specters in the house of media, lynch to resurface within the house of media. the boys foresaw their return as “ghosts” to create “flashbacks,” and their doubled selves continue to surface through various incarnations, inheriting uncanny qualities, as they are established, familiar specters wearing new faces. columbine had several societal repercussions outside of the house of media, although the coverage and framing created perspective of the event, and influenced the public’s interpretation. murder house is well aware of the news media coverage that columbine received and forces the viewer to perpetuate this same coverage when examining the westfield high massacre, which would in effect receive the same frames to continue the salience, as well nearly identical societal repercussions. in his book terror post 9/11 and the media, david altheide argues, “[t]he extensive coverage and framing of the columbine shootings contributed to the broad discourse of fear as well as a more specific context for worrying about and protecting children, legitimating the war on terror, and expanding social control” (118). this incident escalated the severity of repercussions and punishments of youth violence and disciplinary problems. it increased the drive for school security through the pursuit of more lock downs, more security surveillance systems, and stricter gun control, while increasing public support of these issues through constant news coverage. the westfield high shooting would naturally bring all of these concerns to the surface, calling forth stronger security in schools across the nation, raising questions concerning stricter gun control, and questioning how tate procured the guns in the first place. when tate murdered his fellow classmates he set into motion the machine of news media coverage and framing, which would frame the attack in a manner that contributed to the discourse of fear. his actions would be viewed as an attack on class structure and religion—american pillars of structure. however, this terrifying act omits an element of columbine that is housed specifically within the america on this side of the mirror. columbine presented society with a new niche of horror—that of a “new breed of killer. armed with a gun, a camera, and a computer, they use dehumanizing technology to turn bedroom cyber fantasies into bloody reality” (conrad). eric and dylan existed in an artificial world, removed from reality through technology and media: reality and fiction blurred together through extensive virtual existence through video games; they saw themselves as mickey and mallory knox, already immortalized in the house of media; they blogged religiously, posting rants and fueling aggression, occasionally posting the plans and intentions of “nbk,” already creating virtual echoes of their existence; when they produced the basement tapes the camera removed them from reality. the entire essence of columbine is documented and captured within media. it lingers and haunts the societal timeline, resurrecting and thriving in the constant resurgence and exposure. the most notable resurfacing of this particular type of specter is seung-hui cho, who murdered 32 people on the virginia tech campus on april 16, 2007. the rampage was broken into two concentrated attacks; in between the outbursts cho visited a post office to send a package to nbc containing a dvd of a long, angry diatribe detailing his motives for the attack, as well as photos of himself posing with weapons. in his tirade he refers to “martyrs like eric and dylan” (abc), which brings about a clear mirror of columbine, bringing about the essence of this particular specter, which the boys foreshadowed and instigated. the video and photos immortalize cho in the house of media, and this physicality was used in the framing of the virginia tech massacre. cho’s video mirrors the basement tapes, as well as the columbine cafeteria security footage, creating a face in which to house the atrocities that were enacted. the documentary virginia tech massacre reveals, “at age 15 he displayed a disturbing new interest. shortly after the columbine shootings he wrote an essay at school that alarmed his 58resurfacing specters in the house of media, lynch teachers. there was no threat against anyone, but he did talk about identifying with [eric and dylan]” (virginia tech massacre). cho was haunted by the specters of columbine, and he perpetuated this thread of horror when he methodically planned the virginia tech shooting and captured his ghost in the video and photos he sent to nbc. when new events and new ghosts present themselves, it is inevitable that they will wear similar faces as those who already resided in the house, especially if the established specters have experienced as consistent resurgence as columbine. murder house was released after the advent of this particular ghost, and it is clearly aware of the specters in the house of media. tate does not inherently fit the american horror that he symbolizes—several studies of school shootings agree that school shootings are not spontaneous events; the perpetrator often announces his intentions. when eric and dylan were planning “columbine” they drew inspiration from the oklahoma city bombing, the westside middle school shooting in jonesboro, arkansas, and the waco siege in texas. the destruction discussed in the original plans of “nbk” in their journals far exceeded the fatality and destruction of the oklahoma city bombing. their intent was to “outdo” that event: they planted three propane bombs in the cafeteria, with a timed detonation intended to explode when the cafeteria would be at its fullest capacity. the explosion was also meant to collapse the roof of the cafeteria, causing the library to fall into the cafeteria. if successful, this plan would have killed close to 500 students. although school shootings and acts of violence in schools had occurred in the past, none of the perpetrators “engaged in long-term planning, collected explosives and weaponry, employed diversionary tactics, reconnoitered their school, tested their weaponry, or thought about killing hundreds of students, devising ways that would maximize destruction” (larkin 155). in murder house, tate acts impulsively, responding to his troubles and frustrations at home with outward violence. the absence of premeditation in the westfield high shooting emphasizes the meticulousness behind the planning of both the columbine and virginia tech shootings. it causes the viewer to focus on the motives behind the shooting, and one is given a glimpse at a much darker picture, emphasizing that tate is merely an incarnation of the ghost, only representing the horror on the surface. what emerges as the true horror is not found within the surface ghost, but within the absence presented in the framing, in which lurks the lingering ghoul, waiting to disrupt the channel. the media-saturated essence of this event presented society with a new niche of terror, and the framing methods set into motion in the coverage of columbine continue to be used as more media-saturated mass murders occur. columbine stands as a tipping point: mass shootings after 1999 are compared to columbine. the house of media is a haunted place, occupied by terrifying figures, entombed forever in the body of images in which the specter resides, more than capable of truly haunting this american society. murder house invokes the specters of eric and dylan and brings them forth from the house of media in which they reside, spatial constraints exhibited through the constant framing/reframing, drawing out the salience of their actions, solidifying their presence and the repercussions caused by their actions. by creating this mirror the show causes the viewer to stumble into a specter within the societal timeline; the reflection causes the viewer to reinterpret the origin of source, as it is both foreign and familiar. perhaps in the mirror america presented in american horror story: murder house there exists an alternate version of american horror story: murder house, in which events from this side of the mirror are presented. the thought is terrifying. 59resurfacing specters in the house of media, lynch works cited altheide, david l. terror post 9/11 and the media. new york: peter lang publishing, 2009. print. bachelard, gaston. the poetics of space. trans. maria jolas. new york: the orion press, 1964. print. chyl, hsiang iris, and maxwell mccombs. “media salience and the process of framing: coverage of the columbine school shootings.” journalism and mass communication quarterly 81.1 (2004): 22-35. web. 27 december 2013. conrad, peter. “misfits on a mission to delete us all: the young finn who last month slaughtered eight people, having first boasted of his plans on youtube, is the latest of a new breed of killer. armed with a gun, a camera and a computer, they use dehumanizing technology to turn bedroom cyber fantasies into bloody reality.” guardian 29 dec. 2007. web. 26 jan. 2014. crimeuncovered. “the columbine killers—mass school shooting crime documentary.” online video clip. youtube. youtube, 4 september 2013. web. 7 january 2014. crimeuncovered. “virginia tech massacre—mass school shooting crime documentary.” online video clip. youtube. youtube, 4 september 2013. web. 13 march 2014. “gunman mailed package between shooting.” abc 11. 19 april 2007. web. 4 february 2014. “halloween (part 2).” american horror story: murder house. writ. tim minear. dir. david semel. fx, 2011. web. 17 september 2013. larkin, ralph w. comprehending columbine. philadelphia: temple university, 2007. print. muschert, glenn w. “frame-changing in the media coverage of a school shooting: the rise of columbine as a national concern.” the social science journal 46 (2009): 164-170. web. 9 march 2014. phillyvideofan. “1999 breaking news: columbine 1 of 5.” online video clip. youtube. youtube, 12 jun 2011. web. 5 january 2014. “piggy piggy.” american horror story: murder house. writ. jessica sharzer. dir. michael uppendahl. fx, 2011. web. 17 september 2013. “pilot.” american horror story: murder house. writ. brad falchuk and ryan murphy. dir. ryan murphy. fx, 2011. web. 12 september 2013. “smoldering children.” american horror story: murder house. writ. james wong. dir. michael lehmann. fx, 2011. web. 22 september 2013. the sociocultural feminist implications of “rumpelstiltskin” by the brothers grimm fairytales are considered a source of joy and inspiration for their audiences, but they can also portray the monsters that lurk within a culture. rumpelstiltskin seems like an unlikely choice for a monster, but, like all literary monsters, he embodies the fears of the time when he was created. while this story was traditionally orally told, we will be using the version by the brothers grimm, based on european folklore and published in 1812. this edition is based on the first english translation by edgar taylor and marian edwardes in 1823. our edition of “rumpelstiltskin” will focus on fears relating to women’s roles in the early nineteenth century, particularly women’s roles in marriage and industry. we will discuss the repercussions and benefits of how “rumpelstiltskin” has evolved to fit into the modern era in the form of television and children’s books. women’s rights at the time of “rumpelstiltskin” this tale has served throughout the decades as a tale of caution for women, in which they are told to behave and to conform to their place in society. however, “rumpelstiltskin” is still shared in the modern era both as a warning and as an abstract for years, the well-known brothers grimm fairytale “rumpelstiltskin” was analyzed through the lens of historical context. however, in this paper the fairytale is analyzed through a sociocultural and feminist lens, regarding topics such as weaving, the industrial revolution, and modern adaptations of the tale. most can agree that rumpelstiltskin is a detestable creature as he attempts to trick a woman into giving him her baby. however, this paper shows how rumpelstiltskin is additionally monstrous because of his desire to wield power over others, which is illustrated through varying portrayals of his character, as well as his character acting as a warning for men invading the domestic sphere during the industrial revolution. emily barsic, emma hartman, & alexis lawhorn, ball state university 1digital literature review, vol. 4 (2017). ball state university. all rights reserved. please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce critical edition to dlr@bsu.edu. example of the progression of women’s rights. according to the article, “placing women in history: definitions and challenges” by gerda lerner, most women within the early nineteenth century were not even perceived to be involved in the important events of history: “the resulting history of ‘notable women’ does not tell us much about those activities in which most women engaged, nor does it tell us about the significance of women’s activities to society as a whole” (5). women’s activities and accomplishments were overshadowed by men’s and deemed irrelevant to history. this was due to the fact that women’s roles were restricted to the domestic sphere. in 1838 sarah stickney ellis stated the gendered expectations for women quite plainly in her work, “the women of england: their social duties and domestic habits.” in the following quote, ellis describes how a domesticated nineteenth-century woman influences her husband: when the snares of the world were around him, and temptations from within and without have bribed over the witness in his own bosom, he has thought of the humble mistress who sat at alone, guarding the fireside comforts of his distant home; and the remembrance of her character, clothed in moral beauty, has scattered the clouds before his mental vision, and sent him back to that beloved home, a wiser and a better man. (1525) according to ellis, it is the woman’s duty to lead her husband back to moral ground, so that even the mere thought of her—as she sits fireside “clothed in moral beauty”—may encourage him to return to his home, in order to become “a wiser and a better man.” the victorian woman is supposed to “guard the hearth” and not exit the domestic sphere. this ensures that she stays pure in order to purify her husband after he returns from his duties within the public sphere, from the “temptations of greed and pride” (ellis 1526). female marriage roles during the time of “rumpelstiltskin” many fairy tales from the nineteenth century concluded with a woman being married, and this remains true for the protagonist in “rumpelstiltskin.” however, in the nineteenth century, men and women held quite different views on marriage than they do today. during this time, many in society believed women should not try too hard to attain a husband, as they thought it was improper to express what was viewed as inappropriate sexual appetite. in fact, such people thought marriage was solely a means for a woman to become a mother and not a way to fulfill her desires. however, it must be noted that not all held this view. mary wollstonecraft defines marriage in “vindication of the rights of women.” she says: to speak disrespectfully of love is, i know, high treason against 2barsic, hartman, lawhorn sentiment and fine feelings; but i wish to speak the simple language of truth, and rather to address the head than the heart. to endeavour to reason love out of the world, would be to out quixote cervantes, and equally offend against common sense; but an endeavour to restrain this tumultuous passion, and to prove that it should not be allowed to dethrone superior powers, or to usurp the sceptre which the understanding should very coolly wield, appears less wild. (299) clearly, not all thought that love was an unnecessary part of the marriage contract. sex, however, was another matter. one who held that women did not experience sexual feeling was the doctor, william acton. he states, “the majority of women (happily for them) are not very much troubled with sexual feeling of any kind” (hume 177). acton and those he influenced did not even believe that women had a sexual drive to begin with. however, not all those considering female sexuality at the time were convinced that women did not have a sexual appetite. elizabeth blackwell, the first licensed female doctor in britain, said, those who deny sexual feeling to women, or consider it so light a thing as hardly to be taken into account in social arrangements, confound appetite and passion; they quite lose sight of this immense spiritual force of attraction, which is distinctly human sexual power, and which exists in so very large a proportion in the womanly nature. (hume 179) blackwell is saying here that women in fact experience sexual feeling, but it is not so much a mere appetite; it is in fact tied to passion and attraction. auguste debay, who published a marriage manual which was best-selling in france during the nineteenth century, admitted that women have sexual desire (hume 176). however, he felt that a woman should regulate her husband’s overzealous appetite, while allowing him to “exercise his rights two to four times a week” at the age of twenty to thirty years, with other intervals suggested at different ages (debay qtd. in hume 177). during this time, women were also not allowed to talk to men unless a married female escort was present (hume 177). the grimms’ story “rumpelstiltskin” exemplifies a woman stepping outside the bounds of acceptability when she commits the taboo act of speaking to rumpelstiltskin, a male stranger, on her own. the story also reflects the way a woman’s sexuality is repressed when the miller and the king strike a deal and exchange the daughter as if she is a piece of property, which she quite literally is. whether the girl would prefer to marry the king, and later conceive a child, is never taken into consideration by the men in “rumpelstiltskin.” before the married property act was passed in 1882 in britain, a woman’s wealth was transferred to her husband. this meant that wives were commodified 3barsic, hartman, lawhorn and value was placed on them based on their personal wealth and possessions. in addition, women were to be under the care of a man at all times, and this duty transferred from father to husband at the point of marriage. a father had to give permission for a man to marry his daughter, and this choice often depended upon whether he thought the man could financially support his daughter. if women were to have a job after they were married, all of their earnings would belong to their husbands, but the husbands were expected to be the sole provider in the household. in “rumpelstiltskin” women are controlled by men; the maid is controlled by the king her future husband and rumpelstiltskin. this feature of control was modeled after events during the time period. chauncey savage discussed the married women’s act of 1870 and how it impacted individuals in his article, “some points of comparison between english and american legislation, as to the married women’s property”: this act gave a married woman her earnings and the right to trade; allowed her ‘to deposit in banks, and to hold and transfer stocks, loans and so forth, as if sole; suffered her to hold to her separate use any property descending to her from an intestate, and money coming to her by deed and will, not exceeding in amount 2001.;1 [sic] and empowered her to sue or be sued alone in matters relating to her separate property. (4) essentially, women were separate financial entities from their husbands. this would have allowed major progress for women’s rights, if the act had not been repealed. similar notions are represented within “rumpelstiltskin,” as the maid is forced to create large sums of gold for the king, while she retains no autonomy or financial separation. savage states that, in reference to england’s legislation: a clause in the matrimonial and divorce causes act of 1857, gave to a woman deserted by or judicially separated from her husband, power to act as a feme sole, obtaining in the former case from a court or magistrate a so-called protection order against her husband’s creditors. a curious statute in 1878 allowed the same privilege in cases of aggravated assault upon her by her husband. (763) this also allowed a woman safety against her husband’s financial status, as she would then be considered financially independent and no longer tied to the consequences of her divorced husband’s fiscal decisions. the later statute detailed that the woman would obtain the same freedoms in a case of abuse from her husband. as women were considered men’s property, these statutes were quite 4barsic, hartman, lawhorn ¹ the punctuation acts as a monetary value, which would be equal to two pounds in 2017. progressive in affording women autonomy. rumpelstiltskin embodies a woman’s fear of being unable to retain her rightfully-owned possessions. he does this by striking up deals in exchange for the miller’s daughter’s jewelry and even her baby. the daughter must comply because her life is under threat by another man, the king. this situation reflects how, during this time, a woman could not be wholly autonomous and perhaps feared losing what little autonomy she already possessed. history of women in the spinning industry at the time of the industrial revolution, literature evolved alongside various forms of industry. one way in which this can be studied is through analyzing the shifts in culture by recognizing shifts in literature. the story of “rumpelstiltskin” is a perfect example of literary transformation because the story evolved to show how the practice of spinning underwent a transformation not only in industry but also in culture, due to industrialization. though “rumpelstiltskin” has been analyzed by various scholars, few have analyzed it with the intent of viewing the story in a sociocultural lens. however, scholar jack zipes analyzes “rumpelstiltskin” in relation to the history of spinning and argues that this story told of the underlying shift from female productivity to the industrial male takeover of the spinning industry. by viewing this story through that lens, readers learn about how the male characters in “rumpelstiltskin” resemble the monstrous way men took over the primarily female-run spinning industry during the industrial revolution. gerbug treush-dieter, professor of sociology at the free university of berlin, relays important background information on the history of spinning when she says, “it is a historical fact that the spindle remained in the hands of women until the invention of the spinning machine. spinning can be considered as the paradigm of female productivity” (qtd. in zipes 50). although the spinning industry was run by women and was the foundation for female productivity, the spinning industry became a double-edged sword for women. on one edge of the sword, women could take their own agency when they worked through spinning. on the other edge, spinning enabled men to participate in monstrous conduct as the spinning industry “enabled men to profit from the surplus production of women that lead to primitive accumulation and also enabled men to deny their dependence on women’s productivity by moving it out of their sight” (zipes 52). the industry of spinning became even more of a tool against women when james hargreaves’ spinning machine was created in 1764. with the rise of this invention, the spinning industry began to be taken over by men. life was not better for those women who were able to work as “in those cases where women remained on the job, the management was predominantly in the hands of men” (zipes 545barsic, hartman, lawhorn 55). over time, as the spinning industry gradually was given over into the hands of men, ramifications showed up in various ways throughout society for women who worked as spinners. one way in which this happened was through the way men changed the definition of spinners, originally known as women who spun, to spinsters, now synonymous with the stereotypes of old maids (“spinsters and spinners”). therefore, readers can see that the character of rumpelstiltskin functions as a monster throughout the story as he is a symbol of the men who took over the primarily female-run industry of spinning at this particular time in history. rumpelstiltskin is a male character who ends up doing the miller’s daughter’s job, similar to how men ended up taking over the spinning industry and taking away female agency, for the monster is “an embodiment of a certain cultural moment” and its body “incorporates fear . . . [and] anxiety” (cohen 4). by viewing rumpelstiltskin through this monster theory lens, readers are able to make connections across the text and history, realizing that rumpelstiltskin embodies the cultural moment of the industrial revolution. the way he is portrayed by storytellers also reflects the anxiety and fear that female spinners experienced during this time. therefore, the character of rumpelstiltskin reflects female spinners’ anxiety and fears regarding the male takeover of the spinning industry in the industrial revolution. adaptations of “rumpelstiltskin” relating to women’s roles—diane stanley’s rumpelstiltskin’s daughter and the television series once upon a time although “rumpelstiltskin” is a well-known and old story, it contains motifs that have evolved over time and are still represented within modern culture, the main motif being that men are superior to women in society and wherever power is paramount. one instance of “rumpelstiltskin” being retold in the modern era is diane stanley’s children’s picture book rumpelstiltskin’s daughter. stanley’s children’s story is heralded as a feminist retelling, utilized to teach and to inspire her audience. within the story, the gold-spinning maid does not marry the king, for he is of unreputable character. instead, she marries rumpelstiltskin, who is portrayed as a reliable, attractive guy a departure from the original tale that makes it more relatable to a modern audience, who would want to see her choose her husband. the maid and rumpelstiltskin conceive a daughter who stumbles into her mother’s footsteps. the young girl is captured by a greedy king and is commanded to spin straw into gold. however, the young damsel outwits the king and utilizes the gold to aid poor families, proving that abysmal situations can become beneficial. afterwards, the maiden convinces the king to share his wealth 6barsic, hartman, lawhorn with the farmers who then grow golden crops (stanley). but, despite the fact that rumpelstiltskin metamorphosed into the proverbial knight in shining armor, he still controls the maiden through his rescuing of her, which is similar to the original rumpelstiltskin, who forced the maiden into a deal where she had little autonomy. albeit, the daughter frees herself from capture and peril through manipulation, much as her father would. despite maintaining some of the characterization from the traditional tale, the children’s book teaches young girls to take back the power that men wield over them. the daughter is empowered through her cleverness and does not allow men to rule over her. this, however, is only one modern version of “rumpelstiltskin,” and not all such stories portray rumpelstiltskin as the hero. in the television series once upon a time, rumpelstiltskin is the beast to belle’s beauty. however, when he is transformed into a being known as the dark one, despite his love for belle, he perpetually abuses her — mainly emotionally, but at times physically as well. the relationship between rumplestiltskin and belle further illustrates that rumpelstiltskin is a representation of men having control over women. however, as rumplestiltskin chose to reject his role as the dark one and become a hero for belle’s safety, there was a belief among the other characters that rumpelstiltskin could represent transformation and hope. this was disproved when he chose to become the dark one again, as, ultimately, for him, power is paramount to everything else. much like the characterization of rumpelstiltskin from the brothers grimm tale, this rumpelstiltskin is focused on maintaining control over others through deception and trickery for his own gain. although the two modern adaptations illustrate different messages, both adaptations are utilized to address gender issues: stanley’s book in order to educate a younger audience about self-empowerment regardless of gender, and once upon a time in order to discuss issues of power and abuse within patriarchal society. “rumpelstiltskin” by brothers grimm2 by the side of a wood, in a country a long way off, ran a fine stream of water; and upon the stream there stood a mill. the miller’s house was close by, and the miller, you must know, had a very beautiful daughter. she was, moreover, very shrewd and clever; and the miller was so proud of her, that he one day told the king 7barsic, hartman, lawhorn 2 the brothers grimm version of “rumpelstiltskin” is an example of a story that was most likely told by female spinners during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, which served simultaneously as a form of entertainment and a warning for female spinners (zipes 43). 3 the king’s action reflects the commodification of women before the married property act was passed. this means that, after marriage, all of the spun gold would become the king’s. of the land, who used to come and hunt in the wood, that his daughter could spin gold out of straw. now this king was very fond of money; and when he heard the miller’s boast his greediness was raised, and he sent for the girl to be brought before him.3 then he led her to a chamber in his palace where there was a great heap of straw, and gave her a spinning-wheel, and said, ‘all this must be spun into gold before morning, as you love your life.’4 it was in vain that the poor maiden said that it was only a silly boast of her father, for that she could do no such thing as spin straw into gold: the chamber door was locked, and she was left alone. she sat down in one corner of the room, and began to bewail her hard fate; when on a sudden the door opened, and a droll-looking little man hobbled in, and said, ‘good morrow to you, my good lass; what are you weeping for?’ ‘alas!’ said she, ‘i must spin this straw into gold, and i know not how.’ ‘what will you give me,’ said the hobgoblin5, ‘to do it for you?’ ‘my necklace,’ replied the maiden. he took her at her word, and sat himself down to the wheel, and whistled and sang: ‘round about, round about, lo and behold! reel away, reel away, straw into gold!’ and round about the wheel went merrily; the work was quickly done, and the straw was all spun into gold. when the king came and saw this, he was greatly astonished and pleased; but his heart grew still more greedy of gain, and he shut up the poor miller’s daughter again with a fresh task. then she knew not what to do, and sat down once more to weep; but the dwarf soon opened the door, and said, ‘what will you give me to do your task?’6 ‘the ring on my finger,’ said she. so her little friend took the ring, and began to work at the wheel again, and whistled and sang: ‘round about, round about, lo and behold! reel away, reel away, straw into gold!’ till, long before morning, all was done again. the king was greatly delighted to see all this glittering treasure; but still he 8barsic, hartman, lawhorn 4 when realizing that the spinning industry was being taken over by males when this story was created, readers can see that the king character represents a male-run industry that employed women but that was managed by males and their greed. 5a hobgoblin is a “mischievous imp or sprite” and a “fearsome mythological creature” (“hobgoblin”). 6 almost all of the versions of “rumpelstiltskin” portray him as making deals that he thinks will benefit him. these characteristics are taken from the brothers grimm “rumpelstiltskin.” had not enough: so he took the miller’s daughter to a yet larger heap, and said, ‘all this must be spun tonight; and if it is, you shall be my queen.’ as soon as she was alone that dwarf came in, and said, ‘what will you give me to spin gold for you this third time?’ ‘i have nothing left,’ said she. ‘then say you will give me,’ said the little man, ‘the first little child that you may have when you are queen.’ ‘that may never be,’ thought the miller’s daughter: and as she knew no other way to get her task done, she said she would do what he asked. round went the wheel again to the old song, and the manikin once more spun the heap into gold. the king came in the morning, and, finding all he wanted, was forced to keep his word; so he married the miller’s daughter, and she really became queen. at the birth of her first little child she was very glad, and forgot the dwarf, and what she had said. but one day he came into her room, where she was sitting playing with her baby, and put her in mind of it. then she grieved sorely at her misfortune, and said she would give him all the wealth of the kingdom if he would let her off, but in vain; till at last her tears softened him, and he said, ‘i will give you three days’ grace, and if during that time you tell me my name, you shall keep your child.’ now the queen lay awake all night, thinking of all the odd names that she had ever heard; and she sent messengers all over the land to find out new ones. the next day the little man came, and she began with timothy, ichabod, benjamin, jeremiah, and all the names she could remember; but to all and each of them he said, ‘madam, that is not my name.’ the second day she began with all the comical names she could hear of, bandy-legs, hunchback, crook-shanks, and so on; but the little gentleman still said to every one of them, ‘madam, that is not my name.’ the third day one of the messengers came back, and said, ‘i have travelled two days without hearing of any other names; but yesterday, as i was climbing a high hill, among the trees of the forest where the fox and the hare bid each other good night, i saw a little hut; and before the hut burnt a fire; and round about the fire a funny little dwarf was dancing upon one leg, and singing: “merrily the feast i’ll make. today i’ll brew, tomorrow bake; merrily i’ll dance and sing, for next day will a stranger bring. little does my lady dream rumpelstiltskin is my name!” when the queen heard this she jumped for joy, and as soon as her little friend came she sat down upon her throne, and called all her court round to 9barsic, hartman, lawhorn enjoy the fun; and the nurse stood by her side with the baby in her arms, as if it was quite ready to be given up. then the little man began to chuckle at the thought of having the poor child, to take home with him to his hut in the woods; and he cried out, ‘now, lady, what is my name?’ ‘is it john?’ asked she. ‘no, madam!’ ‘is it tom?’ ‘no, madam!’ ‘is it jemmy?’ ‘it is not.’ ‘can your name be rumpelstiltskin?’ said the lady slyly. ‘some witch told you that!—some witch told you that!’ cried the little man, and dashed his right foot in a rage so deep into the floor, that he was forced to lay hold of it with both hands to pull it out. then he made the best of his way off, while the nurse laughed and the baby crowed; and all the court jeered at him for having had so much trouble for nothing, and said, ‘we wish you a very good morning, and a merry feast, mr rumplestiltskin!’ excerpt from “a vindication of the rights of woman” published in 1792, mary wollstonecraft’s “a vindication of the rights of woman” argues that, in order to be a man’s equal, a “woman must be educated in order to spread knowledge, virtue, and truth” (210). wollstonecraft’s work is, arguably, some of the first feminist writing in england. as such, wollstonecraft’s beliefs regarding the education of women are reflected in the following statement: women are told from their infancy, and taught by the example of their mothers, that a little knowledge of human weakness, justly termed cunning, softness of temper, outward obedience, and a scrupulous attention to a puerile kind of propriety, will obtain for them the protection of a man; and should they be beautiful, every thing else is needless, for, at least, twenty years of their lives. (295) this indication of the ideology of women’s behavior is well represented within “rumpelstiltskin,” as the miller’s daughter seeks only to obtain the protection of a husband through obedience, thus spinning gold. however, the maid displays only outward obedience towards rumpelstiltskin as she cunningly discovers his name, allowing her to save her firstborn child. the maid is defying gender norms, as she tricks rumpelstiltskin with her cunning and intellect, and thus does not wholly obey his word. however, the miller’s daughter still abides by the rules of rumpelstiltskin’s deal and still marries the man who manipulated her into creating wealth for his use; thus she is still conforming to society’s ideals. wollstonecraft argues against this type of behavior. while “rumpelstiltskin” is an example of how monstrous gender norms can be, “a vindication of the rights of woman” sought to free women from those constricting bonds by spreading education of feminist ideals. 10barsic, hartman, lawhorn excerpt from: “the weaver and the factory maid” before the brothers grimm published “rumpelstiltskin” in 1812, various versions of the story were told orally. songs were another traditional method of oral storytelling. “the weaver and the factory maid” is a broadside by preston harkness. a broadside is “a descriptive or narrative verse or song, commonly in a simple ballad form, on a popular theme, and sung or recited in public places or printed on broadsides for sale in the streets” (“broadside ballad”). these broadsides were paid for and passed on orally, similar to the process by which “rumpelstiltskin” was told and evolved. although the lyrics in the broadside below refer to weaving as opposed to spinning seen in “rumpelstiltskin,” both art forms can be analyzed as industries that historically employed women until the industrial revolution. since the industrial revolution influenced the creation of machine looms at the end of the eighteenth century, many female weavers and spinners were put out of business and replaced by machine loom operators, who were either male or female (gullickson 195). however, females who operated machine looms were seen as monstrous for not fitting into society’s gender roles of domesticity at that time. furthermore, skilled workers were being replaced by unskilled machine workers for lower pay, while rich men still controlled the factories. along with this, since textile work was leaving the domestic sphere in general, women who wanted to engage in those careers now had to work solely for men. in “the weaver and the factory maid” by preston harkness, readers also see how the narrator is treated based on cultural expectations when he reveals his love of a factory maid while he still has a rare job as a hand weaver: i am a hand weaver to my trade, i fell in love with a factory maid; and if i could but her favour win, i’d stand beside her and weave by steam. my father to me scornful said, ‘how could you fancy a factory maid, when you could have girls fine and gay, and dressed like to the queen of may?’ ‘as for your fine girls, i do not care; and could i but enjoy my dear, i’d stand in the factory all the day, and she and i’d keep our shuttles in play.’ (1-12) 11barsic, hartman, lawhorn when the narrator admits he is a hand weaver, readers learn that he is a skilled weaver. he states that “he fell in love with a factory maid,” which is another name for a girl who operates a steam loom in a factory. to say that he “would stand beside her and weave by steam” at the same factory is an abomination to the weaver’s family and other hand weavers, as skilled hand weavers were being replaced by machinery, i.e. steam looms, operated mainly by male workers and other cheap labor. the father in these lyrics represents the revolting working class as those in the working class and other hand weavers would likely ask: ‘how could you fancy a factory maid, when you could have girls fine and gay, and dressed like to the queen of may?’ (harkness 6-8) these lyrics also reveal how the working class viewed the women who worked at steam loom factories as monstrous. as men were traditionally the prime operators of machinery, women were monsterized for not being domestic and submissive. along with this, the skilled male hand weaver in the poem above has been displaced by the cheap labor of the female steam weaver and his father does not approve of him joining her in the factory to work side by side. although not a direct parallel, readers can see how the character of rumpelstiltskin relates to the struggles of the working class in this poem as rumpelstiltskin is a skilled hand weaver who has been displaced by the cheap labor of the maiden. subsequently, readers learn that, although the working class see these factory maids as monstrous, the true monstrosity lies with those like the father who represent the working class as he does not consent for his son, nor his son’s lover, to cross the boundaries of social propriety. excerpt from: “tom tit tot” published in 1898,“tom tit tot,” an english variant of the brothers grimm “rumpelstiltskin,” showcases foundational aspects of the plot and culture that both stories, and other versions of “rumpelstiltskin,” are built upon. for example, in both “tom tit tot” and “rumpelstiltskin,” there are male characters who take advantage of female spinners. one of these characters is the king figure. in “rumpelstiltskin,” the king’s greed compels the king to have the maiden spin straw into gold not once, but three times, with a larger amount of straw being spun each time. as a reward, he tells the maiden that, if she can spin all of the straw in an even larger heap into gold, he will marry her, and she will become queen. here, readers see the similarities between the king in “rumpelstiltskin” mentioned above and the king in 12barsic, hartman, lawhorn “tom tit tot” below: then he said: “look you here, i want a wife, and i’ll marry your darter. but look you here,’ says he, ‘’leven months out o’the year she shall have all the vittles she likes to eat, and all the gownds she likes to git, and all the cumpny she likes to hev; but the last month o’ the year she’ll ha’ to spin five skeins iv’ry day, an’ if she doon’t, i shall kill her.’ (clodd 11) in both versions of the story, the king offers to marry the maiden if she will spin for him. it is important to note that, even though each version has different requirements ordered by the king figure, the concept and symbolism behind each king’s desire is the same. both king characters imply that, during this time, spinning was an industry that employed women but was managed by males and their greed. therefore, this greed makes the king characters seem monstrous to readers in both stories, as the king in “rumpelstiltskin” tells her to spin all the gold before morning “as you love your life,” (the brothers grimm) and the king in “tom tit tot” will kill the maiden if she does not reach the quota of five skeins, or lengths of gold thread, every day for a month (clodd 11). another concept in both “rumpelstiltskin” and “tom tit tot” is that a male creature helps the maiden spin. along with this, in both stories, the maiden has to figure out the creature’s name so that she will not lose vital aspects of her life. in “rumpelstiltskin” the creature is defined as a hobgoblin who gives the maiden three chances to figure out his name. below, readers see how the creature who helps the maiden is portrayed in “tom tit tot”: well, she were that frightened. she’d allus been such a gatless mawther, the she didn’t se much as know how to spin, an’ what were she to dew tomorrer, with no one to come nigh her to help her. she sat down on a stool in the kitchen, and lork! how she did cry! howsivir, all on a sudden she hard a sort of a knockin’ low down on the door. she upped and oped it, an’ what should she see but a small little black thing with a long tail. that looked up at her right kewrious, an’ that she said ‘what are yew a crin’ for?’ ‘wha’s that to yew?’ says she. ‘niver yew mind,’ that said, ‘but tell me what you’re a cryin’ for.’ ‘that oon’t dew me noo good if i dew,’ says she. ‘yew doon’t know that,’ that said an’ twirled that’s tail round. ‘well,’ says she, ‘that oon’t dew no harm, if that doon’t dew no good,’ and she upped and told about the pies an’ the skeins an’ 13barsic, hartman, lawhorn everything. ‘this is what i’ll dew,’ says the little black thing: ‘i’ll come to yar winder iv’ry mornin’ an’ take the flax an’ bring it spun at night.’ ‘what’s your pay?’ says she. that looked out o’ the corners o’ that’s eyes an’ that said: ‘i’ll give you three guesses every night to guess my name, an’ if you hain’t guessed it afore the month’s up, yew shall be mine.’ (clodd 11-12) just as readers saw how the king characters in both stories were different in how they satisfied their greed but similar in their symbolic meaning, the creatures’ physical attributes in both stories are different, though both have the same symbolism. the symbolism of the creatures is defined below: as the old legends show, and as is also manifest in the ‘tom tit tot’ group of stories, he [the creature who assists the maiden in spinning] is the transformed giant or wizard with the superadded features of the fiend whose aim it is to induce the unwary to agree to sell themselves to him at the price of some fleeting advantage. (clodd 48) in this case, although the creature in “tom tit tot” is described as “a black thing” and the creature in “rumpelstiltskin” is described as a “hobgoblin,” both characters symbolize those who take advantage of and manipulate others; as the creatures’ aims are to “induce the unwary to agree to sell themselves to him at the price of some fleeting advantage” (clodd 48). when keeping in mind the historical lenses through which the reader can analyze these stories, readers see that these creatures symbolize men who took over the spinning industry, as the maiden has to rely on the male creatures’ seemingly magical power of spinning when she can either not spin enough or her spinning is not of a high enough quality. excerpts from: “the philosophy of rumpelstilt-skin” a.w.t. and edward clodd’s “philosophy” consists of detailed summaries of each of the fourteen versions of “rumpelstiltskin,” which were told in various regions of europe and other places. this piece was originally read before the folklore society on february 26th, 1889. looking at different versions of the same story is helpful in identifying common themes which present themselves across the variants. those themes, which are common to variants of “rumpelstiltskin,” are about the events of marriage as well as the discovery of the name of the stranger who helps the female protagonist. the general plotline remains the same as well, with a favor offered on the terms of a specified condition, which is foiled only if the woman can discover the name of the helper. after the summary of each story and their respective plotlines, a.w.t. and 14barsic, hartman, lawhorn clodd provide three points from which to view the stories and to explain what is to be gained from their comparison. the first point explains the sacred nature of names in most world religions, including the abrahamic religions: christianity, islam, and judaism. this first point also mentions a similar phenomenon which is apparent in the beliefs of indigenous peoples, who are, in this piece, referred to as “savages,” an outdated term more commonly used during the time it was written. it reads: if we incline to accept the testimony of spiritualists we may find like correspondences between barbarian and civilized in the belief that to name the spirits is to invoke their appearance, an idea surviving in the saying, “talk of the devil and you’ll see his horns,” and illustrated by the legend of the norse witches who tied up wind and foul matter in a bag, and then, undoing the knots, shouted “wind in the devil’s name,” when the hurricane is swept over land or sea….we may not therefore feign surprise when we hear that in borneo, when a child is ill, its name is changed so as to confuse or deceive the bad spirits, to whom all diseases and death, which last is rarely regarded as a natural event by the savage, are ascribed. among some south american tribes, when a man dies, his friends and kinsmen change their names so as to elude death if he comes after them, or to prevent the departed spirits being attracted back to earth by hearing the old name. (a.w.t. and clodd 156) this pattern is relevant to the brother grimm’s “rumpelstiltskin” because of the power that rumpelstiltskin’s name had to free the protagonist from having to give up her first born child. the inspiration for the manner in which the woman is freed must have come from one of the folk beliefs which associate names with power. though where the inspiration originated cannot be confirmed, a.w.t. and clodd provide relevant examples from around the world. the second point illustrated by “the philosophy of rumpelstilt-skin” explains how the reluctance to utter names elevates with the status of the particular person in question. many examples are provided from various cultures at the time. it reads: we find that the australian has a strong reluctance to tell his real name to strangers. so has the kaffir, and among this race no woman may pronounce the names of any of her husband’s male relations in the ascending line, nor even any word in which the principal syllable of the name of her father-in-law occurs. the amazulu woman, when addressing or speaking of her husband, calls him “father of so-andso,” mentioning one of his children, and in like manner a hindoo wife 15barsic, hartman, lawhorn speaks of her husband as “he,” “swamy,” or “the master,” avoiding the mention of his name. dorman says that the new mexican tribes never made known their own names or those of friends to a stranger, lest these should be used in sorcery. among the ojibways husbands and wives never told each others’ names, and the children were warned that if they repeated their own names they would stop growing. (a.w.t. and clodd 159) these various examples illustrate how important and mystical names were in the folklore of the time, and they also show how names were believed to be innately tied to the human to which they were ascribed. the third and final point serves as a conclusion to the article and comments on the piece as a whole: we have scampered across wide areas in our search after ideas common to those which lie at the heart of “tom tit tot,” and we find its variants, and the barbaric notions cognate to those ideas, contributing their evidence to that of the great cloud of witnesses testifying to the like attitude of the mind before like phenomena which frightened and bewildered it, until science created sympathy between man and the objects of his undisciplined fears. (a.w.t. and clodd 161) 16barsic, hartman, lawhorn works cited a. w. t., and edward clodd. “the philosophy of rumpelstilt-skin.” the folklore journal, vol. 7, no. 2, 1889, pp. 135–163. jstor, www.jstor.org/ stable/1252656. accessed 20 feb. 2017. “broadside ballad.” encyclopædia britannica, www.britannica.com/art/broadsideballad. accessed 22 feb. 2017. the brothers grimm. “rumpelstiltskin.” grimms’ fairy tales. translated by edgar taylor and marian edwardes, the project gutenberg, https://www.gutenberg. org/files/2591/2591-h/2591-h.htm#link2h_4_0027. accessed 14 dec. 2016. cohen, jeffrey jerome. “monster culture (seven theses).” monster theory: reading culture, edited by jeffrey jerome cohen, university of minnesota press, 1996, pp. 3-25. clodd, edward. “tom tit tot: an essay on savage philosophy in folk-tale.” duckworth, 1898, pp. 9-48. ellis, sarah stickney. “the women of england: their social duties and domestic habits.” the longman anthology of british literature, edited by david damrosch and kevin j. h. dettmar, pearson, 2012, pp. 1525-1527. gullickson, gay l. spinners and weavers of auffay: rural industry and the sexual division of labor in a french village, 1750-1850. cambridge, cambridge university press, 2002. harkness, preston. “the weaver and the factory maid.” the oxford book of english traditional verse, edited by fred woods, oxford university press, 1983, pp. 303–304. “hobgoblin.” oxford dictionaries, https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/us/ hobgoblin, accessed 22 feb. 2017. hume, p. leslie. victorian women: a documentary account of women’s lives in nineteenth century england, france, and the united states. edited by 17barsic, hartman, lawhorn http://www.jstor.org/stable/1252656 http://www.jstor.org/stable/1252656 http://www.britannica.com/art/broadside-ballad http://www.britannica.com/art/broadside-ballad https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2591/2591-h/2591-h.htm#link2h_4_0027 https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2591/2591-h/2591-h.htm#link2h_4_0027 https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/us/hobgoblin https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/us/hobgoblin hellerstein, erna olafson, et. al. stanford university press, 1981. lerner, gerda. “placing women in history: definitions and challenges.” feminist studies, vol. 3, no. ½, 1975, pp 5-14. jstor,www.jstor.org/stable/ pdf/3518951.pdf?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents. accessed 17 nov. 2016. stauffer, derek. “’once upon a time’: why rumple becoming the dark one again is infuriating.”. buddytv.com, 7 dec. 2015, www.buddytv.com/articles/ once-upon-a-time/once-upon-a-time-why-rumple-bc-58260.aspx. accessed 17 nov. 2016. savage, charles chauncey. “some points of comparison between english and american legislation, as to married women’s property.” the american law register (1852-1891), vol. 31, no. 12, 1883, pp. 761–768. jstor, www.jstor. org/stable/3304576. accessed 6 feb. 2017. “spinsters and spinners.” knights of the pain table , knights of the pain table, 30 may 2011, knightsofthepaintable.com/blog/2011/05/30/medieval-life-106spinsters-and-spinners/. accessed 10 nov. 2016. stanley, diane. rumpelstiltskin’s daughter. harpercollins us, 1997, www. harpercollins.com/web-sampler/9780064410953. accessed 01 dec. 2016. wollstonecraft, mary. “a vindication of the rights of woman.” the longman anthology of british literature, edited by david damrosch and kevin j. h. dettmar, pearson education, 2010, pp. 288-310. zipes, jack. “spinning with fate: rumpelstiltskin and the decline of female productivity.” western folklore, vol. 52, no. 1, 1993, pp. 43–60. jstor, www. jstor.org/stable/1499492. accessed 6 feb. 2017. 18barsic, hartman, lawhorn http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/3518951.pdf?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/3518951.pdf?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents http://www.buddytv.com/articles/once-upon-a-time/once-upon-a-time-why-rumple-bc-58260.aspx http://www.buddytv.com/articles/once-upon-a-time/once-upon-a-time-why-rumple-bc-58260.aspx http://www.jstor.org/stable/3304576 http://www.jstor.org/stable/3304576 http://knightsofthepaintable.com/blog/2011/05/30/medieval-life-106-spinsters-and-spinners/ http://knightsofthepaintable.com/blog/2011/05/30/medieval-life-106-spinsters-and-spinners/ http://www.harpercollins.com/web-sampler/9780064410953 http://www.harpercollins.com/web-sampler/9780064410953 http://www.jstor.org/stable/1499492 http://www.jstor.org/stable/1499492 general introduction there are many well-known authors, like poe and dickens, who contributed to the wide array of ghost stories that emerged from the victorian era. one intriguing motif used by a diverse body of authors involved representing ghosts as hands. henry james’s “the romance of certain old clothes,” the story in focus within this edition, is a prime example of a famous author who utilized ghostly hands within his stories. also included are collected excerpts from other short stories employing the ghostly hand motif by the victorianera authors a. t. quiller-couch, mary e. braddon, and joseph sheridan le fanu. in each of these tales the ghosts are portrayed as hands without bodies, and most of them are violent except for the complacent hands in quillercouch’s story. when looking at the way the hands are represented throughout the narratives and what drives them to haunt and act, we can see how ghostly hands are used to represent social issues and limitations within the victorian era. in her article about w.e. gladstone and spiritualism, ruth clayton windscheffel mentions how spiritualism, the “belief centered on the possibility of contact between the living and the dead,” rose in popularity in all classes during this era while strong religious beliefs waned (3). new attitudes about the dead began to emerge, such as the idea that those who are dead are not controlled by the rules of the living. in victorian literature, death became a way for authors to imagine freedom from societal constraints, and the trope of the ghostly hand allowed for exploration of a more potent, compelling ghost. jennifer bann elaborates on this notion in her article about the change in the portrayal of ghosts in the nineteenth century, explaining that the power given to the dead through spiritualism influenced the authors within literature to give ghosts more “controlling, guiding, or demonstrative” behaviors, which surfaced in part through the ghostly hand motif (664). instead of a ghost, bann continues, that was impotent in compliance with the “tradition of the limited dead,” stories began to feature one who had more power, exercised through the use of its hands within the stories (663). tales with ghostly hands that took property and subverted economic and gender roles became popular as authors critiqued the society around them. the victorian era was a time in which capitalism was truly flourishing. this expansion, in turn, caused many to begin questioning and fearing the capitalist system (nunokawa 3-4). katherine rowe explains that many stories that included the motif of a ghostly hand were seen as marxist critiques in that they looked at the “presence of labor behind the ‘invisible hand’ of the market … in order to probe the uncanny, alienating conditions of labor at home and in the factory” (112). this trope was tied up in class struggles as the victorian era economic system relied on a clear division between the lower, laboring classes and the upper class. another scholar, arlene young, builds on this idea and elaborates that what began to change during this time was the this edition critically analyzes “the romance of certain old clothes” by henry james. it is put in context with three other victorian ghost stories that use the similar trope of ghostly hands. the theme of these ghostly hands is used to explore victorian era issues concerning class, property exchange, and the roles of women. ghostly hands: a critical edition of henry james’s “the romance of certain old clothes” edited by morgan aprill and lauren lutz 167 digital literature review, vol. 1 (2014). © ball state university. all rights reserved. please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce this critical edition to dlr@bsu.edu. mailto:dlr%40bsu.edu?subject= prevalence of the middle class and its attempts to counter the dominance of the upper class (2). indeed, in her book women and marriage in victorian fiction, jenni calder states that authors during this time “were both critical of those institutions and, in varying ways and degrees, trapped in them” (9). bound within these institutions was an anxiety towards property. the products the upper classes consumed were created by the hands of the lower classes. this added a ghostly aspect to class relations and property as the items the upper classes consumed were put together by hands that were not visible, being far removed from the consumer. with the development of a voice for the lower-middle and laboring classes, many upper-class people feared the overthrowing of their power. this anxiety could be seen in some of the stories of the day that related all these ideas together. citing george eliot, katherine rowe explains that servants, as low-class citizens, were seen as unintelligent and difficult to hold a rational conversation with as they were prone to flights of imagination and paranoia (147). this classism within the domestic sphere was probably related to a fear of the lower classes reversing or perverting the order of property distribution. as demonstrated by calder, the class separation allowed for authors of the time to examine marriage and domestic relationships within their work (9). according to ellen plante in her book women at home in victorian america: a social history, in victorian society there were strict roles that each gender was to perform. a woman was not allowed to express her feelings towards a potential suitor until the man professed his own sentiments and proposed, putting her in a distinctly passive position. the man would give her an engagement ring, which was a newly popular gift in this era, then seek family approval, and quickly the couple would become betrothed (21-23). married life became a world divided into two separate spheres of the home and the world outside of it. plante describes guidebooks that advised women that it was their duty to provide a safe, comfortable home for their husbands to retreat to upon leaving the stressful business world in fear of him becoming a “barbarian if left to himself without woman’s influence” (32). apart from the pressure of maintaining a safe haven for their families, women were expected to adhere to a set of behaviors that left them subverted by the authoritative male figure. in other words, a woman was supposed to be the epitome of good grace and dignity as well as to avoid any disagreements (plante 29). acting like a lady entailed, in part, not discussing topics that meddled in the man’s public sphere, but occupying conversation with subjects that had to do with their own roles in the private sphere like crafts and fashion (plante 110). as we examine these stringent aspects of a woman’s life in the victorian era, the inclusion of the subject within literary texts of the period is understandable. with the industrial revolution came a way for power to be obtained by earning money through the capitalist system, which threatened the situation among classes. upper-class people were threatened by the ability of middle-class members to encroach upon their power. they also feared the power the new economic system gave lower-class citizens, who provided goods and services the upper classes used or took for granted. this economic world was seen as harsh and for men only, at least for the middle and upper classes (workingclass women often had no choice but to work outside the home). victorian ideology dictated that it was the woman’s role to create a peaceful haven at home for her husband. but, according to young, this establishment was being questioned as lower-middle-class men built alliances with women in order to try and advance themselves (2-3). victorian literature provided a way for some authors to show how skewed the dynamics were between men and women, and among socioeconomic classes. calder explains, “the egocentric, authoritarian male point of view dominated victorian life[;] what victorian literature demonstrates is both its power and its destructiveness, and the fascinating process of reaction against it” (210). this understanding of how gender relations operated explains why authors often depicted families as perfect on the outside, but full of corrupt members and situations within (calder 95). when put into a spectral context, authors can represent these reactions by giving females more power through their hands, which tie them to the social constructs they belong in. their hands perform domestic work, complete crafts like sewing, and wear the rings that bind them to the husbands who expect those activities from them. the hands are a synecdoche for the women themselves, representing the necessity for women to know the correct role of their hands in the domestic sphere. while their hands directly tie women to the uncompromising private sphere, their hands often 168“the romance of certain old clothes” exert more control in death as represented in the popular ghostly hand motif of the time. the victorian era was full of rules and traditions, but it was also a time of change and questioning, especially when it came to the belief in ghosts. spiritualism allowed people to envision a relationship with the dead as they contemplated how to communicate with them. ghosts were often represented as more powerful beings with human thoughts upon which they acted. this representation in turn created a movement towards more powerful, expressive ghosts in literary texts. ghosts and ghost stories were a means of escaping from the shackles of the victorian era, and the ghostly hands motif was a common theme of the day, representing all of these anxieties and giving power to ghosts who reacted against societal constraints. introduction to henry james’s “the romance of certain old clothes” known for another ghost story—his novel the turn of the screw (1898)—henry james was the second son born to a family of irish americans. born on april 15, 1843, james published his first work, “a tragedy of error,” in 1864 (beidler 5). “the romance of certain old clothes,” published four years later, was henry james’s first work of supernatural fiction. according to t.j. lustig, seeing the critiques of other ghost stories of his day, james wished to write something that connected ghosts with the everyday and ordinary objects (52). john carlos rowe believes most of what james wrote represented the struggles facing “intelligent young women in predominantly patriarchal societies on both sides of the atlantic...” (11). however, it could be argued that his work, including “the romance of certain old clothes,” reveals james’s conservative views about women, portraying them as not quite so intelligent after all. this story reflects social issues in the victorian era both by describing hands in scenes between the living, and by ending with ghostly hands killing the main female character. a close analysis of the scenes where hands are involved reveals the themes represented that were present in many texts of the time period: commentary on victorian-era gender roles, rules of engagement and marriage, anxiety over the acquisition of property and social classes, and the jealousy and greed each of these evokes. the story begins with a focus on social and class struggles as we are introduced to an eligible, wealthy bachelor, mr. lloyd, who must choose to marry one of a pair of sisters, perdita and rosalind. having come back from europe with their brother, bernard, mr. lloyd tells him “that his sisters were fully a match for the most genteel young women in the old country.” this relieves the women, especially their mother, who is very eager to keep up connections with the english class system. mrs. wingrave is also eager to get them married off. the sisters then begin a competition for mr. lloyd’s affections. this competition is hardly mentioned directly between the sisters and is really rather passive as women were not allowed to show their affections or encourage the opposite sex. however, the women fight over possession of traditional gender roles and belongings throughout the entire story, suggesting that the women channel their aggression through materialistic, familial, and intra-gender competition. the actions of the men and women in the story provide an interesting commentary on the expectations of each sex during this time. mr. lloyd appears to be the model gentleman following decorum by asking for perdita’s hand in marriage. however, he later errs in his propriety when he spends excess time with rosalind as his wife is dying. in fact, he ends up marrying rosalind after perdita’s death. although the marriages between mr. lloyd and perdita and then mr. lloyd and rosalind seem to be proper, they are based upon an odd web of love, in which two sisters fall in love with the same man and each have a turn as his object of affection, suggesting the status of “marriage” matters more than the identity of the groom. furthermore, this story includes a less than traditional process of engagement and marriage, especially when one sister marries the widower of her sister in a swift and covert manner. in response to rosalind’s manipulation of mr. lloyd in her attempt to win him over, the narrator slyly states, “it is enough to say that she found means to appear to the very best advantage.” the sisters show the proper restraint of ladies during the time, but we see how this restraint builds up a deadly jealousy between them. additionally, how the sisters fit within the expected female roles of the time period are referenced at the beginning of the story. according to john carlos rowe, james was an author “concerned with the problems facing modern women,” and he chose to write about the “the romance of certain old clothes” 169 issues surrounding women’s lives such as the necessity to obtain a prestigious marriage to ensure their own security (10). james’s portrayal of the women in this story is fairly old-fashioned, however, as he shows them fighting each other over who will fulfill their gendered role as mr. lloyd’s wife and caretaker. this competition is apparent as the narrator references rosalind’s superior domestic skills and modest, subdued personality, her masterful sewing abilities, and demureness in conversation. therefore, she seems to be the superior choice since she exhibits superior femininity. in contrast, perdita is described as a less serious young woman who is not as concerned with domestic duties and who “gave you your choice of a dozen answers before you had uttered half your thought.” their fighting seems to revolve around which sister would be better suited to meet mr. lloyd’s domestic needs in the private sphere as well as more worthy of the possession of clothes and other petty things associated with women gaining property through marriage. rosalind’s desire for the property acquired by becoming a wife plays a huge part in motivating her actions. as perdita is dying from the stress of childbirth, we see hands representing the jealousy between the sisters in the scene where “she lowered her eyes on her white hands, which her husband’s liberality had covered with rings” and holds her husband’s hands tightly within her own. on her deathbed, perdita decides her sister’s intentions are not based on love, and she says, “he’ll [mr. lloyd] never forget me. nor does rosalind truly care for him; she cares only for vanities and finery and jewels.” after perdita dies, rosalind manipulatively works her way into her sister’s old family unit, proving that perdita’s suspicions were correct. at first it seems rosalind is jealous of mr. lloyd’s affection for her sister, but it later seems to be that she was jealous of all perdita possessed through her marriage. this tension shows that the women—especially rosalind—were really more concerned about possessions than love, characterizing the women as superficial and within gender stereotypes. the fact that james portrays women who attack each other over clothes and belongings brings to light his conservative beliefs and shows he was not as forwardthinking as some might claim. the first time rosalind finds out about perdita and mr. lloyd’s relationship is by seeing that perdita has a ring. jealousy between the sisters, then, becomes immediately intertwined with hands, a connection sustained throughout the narrative. when rosalind initially notices the ring, she stares hard at perdita’s hands, grasps the one with the ring, and demands to know who gave her such a nice gift. her jealousy surfaces as she questions perdita’s position as a proper victorian lady upon accepting mr. lloyd’s gift: “‘it means that you are not a modest girl!’ cried rosalind. ‘pray, does your mother know of your intrigue? does bernard?’” later, when she is watching perdita prepare her new bridal wardrobe, james focuses on how rosalind takes the perfectly blue silk in her hands and then, “her fancy [being] stirred,” sets to working on helping perdita sew. instead of rosalind being saddened by not being mr. lloyd’s choice, she focuses on what perdita is gaining through her marriage and seems to mourn what she cannot have: silk clothing. when rosalind and mr. lloyd marry, she is plagued by a yearning to open a chest full of clothes and other nice things perdita had saved for her daughter. mr. lloyd had promised perdita on her deathbed that he would never let anybody open the chest, but after rosalind constantly pressures him to allow her to open it, she gets her way and he gives her the key. however, perdita’s ghost was waiting for rosalind to acquire access to the chest full of possessions she had been jealous of since perdita gained mr. lloyd’s hand in marriage. it is in the story’s final scene that we see the work of the envious hands one last time as rosalind’s “lips were parted in entreaty, in dismay, in agony; and on her blanched brow and cheeks there glowed the marks of ten hideous wounds from two vengeful ghostly hands.” these were perdita’s vengeful hands, seeking to protect her precious clothing from entering the hands of her jealous sister. “the romance of certain old clothes” by henry james, 18851 part i towards the middle of the eighteenth century there lived in the province of massachusetts a widowed gentlewoman, the mother of three children, by name notes 1. this edition was originally printed in 1868 and comes from an anthology of victorian ghost stories, victorian ghost stories: an oxford anthology, which was published in 1991. “the romance of certain old clothes” 170 mrs veronica wingrave. she had lost her husband early in life, and had devoted herself to the care of her progeny. these young persons grew up in a manner to reward her tenderness and to gratify her highest hopes. the first-born was a son, whom she had called bernard, in remembrance of his father. the others were daughters—born at an interval of three years apart. good looks were traditional in the family, and this youthful trio were not likely to allow the tradition to perish. the boy was of that fair and ruddy complexion and that athletic structure which in those days (as in these) were the sign of good english descent—a frank, affectionate young fellow, a deferential son, a patronising brother, a steadfast friend. clever, however, he was not; the wit of the family had been apportioned chiefly to his sisters. the late mr william wingrave had been a great reader of shakespeare, at a time when this pursuit implied more freedom of thought than at the present day, and in a community where it required much courage to patronise the drama even in the closet; and he had wished to call attention to his admiration of the great poet by calling his daughters out of his favourite plays. upon the elder he had bestowed the romantic name of rosalind, and the younger he had called perdita, in memory of a little girl born between them, who had lived but a few weeks. when bernard wingrave came to his sixteenth year his mother put a brave face upon it and prepared to execute her husband’s last injunction. this had been a formal command that, at the proper age, his son should be sent out to england, to complete his education at the university of oxford, where he himself had acquired his taste for elegant literature. it was mrs wingrave’s belief that the lad’s equal was not to be found in the two hemispheres, but she had the old traditions of literal obedience. she swallowed her sobs, and made up her boy’s trunk and his simple provincial outfit, and sent him on his way across the seas. bernard presented himself at his father’s college, and spent five years in england, without great honour, indeed, but with a vast deal of pleasure and no discredit. on leaving the university he made the journey to france. in his twenty-fourth year he took ship for home, prepared to find poor little new england (new england was very small in those days) a very dull, unfashionable residence. but there had been changes at home, as well as in mr bernard’s opinions. he found his mother’s house quite habitable, and his sisters grown into two very charming young ladies, with all the accomplishments and graces of the young women of britain, and a certain native-grown originality and wildness, which, if it was not an accomplishment, was certainly a grace the more. bernard privately assured his mother that his sisters were fully a match for the most genteel young women in the old country; whereupon poor mrs wingrave, you may be sure, bade them hold up their heads. such was bernard’s opinion, and such, in a tenfold higher degree, was the opinion of mr arthur lloyd. this gentleman was a collegemate of mr bernard, a young man of reputable family, of a good person and a handsome inheritance; which latter appurtenance he proposed to invest in trade in the flourishing colony. he and bernard were sworn friends; they had crossed the ocean together, and the young american had lost no time in presenting him at his mother’s house, where he had made quite as good an impression as that which he had received and of which i have just given a hint. the two sisters were at this time in all the freshness of their youthful bloom; each wearing, of course, this natural brilliancy in the manner that became her best. they were equally dissimilar in appearance and character. rosalind, the elder—now in her twentysecond year—was tall and white, with calm gray eyes and auburn tresses; a very faint likeness to the rosalind2 of shakespeare’s comedy, whom i imagine a brunette (if you will), but a slender, airy creature, full of the softest, quickest impulses. miss wingrave, with her slightly lymphatic fairness, her fine arms, her majestic height, her slow utterance, was not cut out for adventures. she would never have put on a man’s jacket and hose; and, indeed, being a very plump beauty, she may have had reasons apart from her natural dignity. perdita, too, might very well have exchanged the sweet melancholy of her name against something more in consonance with her aspect and disposition. she had the cheek of a gipsy3 and the eye of an eager child, as well as the smallest waist and lightest foot in all the country of the puritans. when you spoke to her she never made you wait, as her handsome sister was wont to do (while she looked at notes 2. rosalind is the main character within shakespeare’s play as you like it. she is banished from her father’s court and lives in the forest of arden, disguised as a shepherd named ganymede. 3. since gipsies were known to be wanderers, james could be juxtaposing this comparison with rosalind being “not cut out for adventures” in the same paragraph. “the romance of certain old clothes” 171 you with a cold fine eye), but gave you your choice of a dozen answers before you had uttered half your thought. the young girls were very glad to see their brother once more; but they found themselves quite able to spare part of their attention for their brother’s friend. among the young men their friends and neighbours, the belle jeunesse4 of the colony, there were many excellent fellows, several devoted swains, and some two or three who enjoyed the reputation of universal charmers and conquerors. but the homebred arts and somewhat boisterous gallantry of these honest colonists were completely eclipsed by the good looks, the fine clothes, the punctilious courtesy, the perfect elegance, the immense information, of mr arthur lloyd. he was in reality no paragon; he was a capable, honourable, civil youth, rich in pounds sterling, in his health and complacency and his little capital of uninvested affections. but he was a gentleman; he had a handsome person; he had studied and travelled; he spoke french, he played on the flute, and he read verses aloud with very great taste. there were a dozen reasons why miss wingrave and her sister should have thought their other male acquaintance made but a poor figure before such a perfect man of the world. mr lloyd’s anecdotes told our little new england maidens a great deal more of the ways and means of people of fashion in european capitals than he had any idea of doing. it was delightful to sit by and hear him and bernard talk about the fine people and fine things they had seen. they would all gather round the fire after tea, in the little wainscoted5 parlour, and the two young men would remind each other, across the rug, of this, that and the other adventure. rosalind and perdita would often have given their ears to know exactly what adventure it was, and where it happened, and who was there, and what the ladies had on; but in those days a well-bred young woman was not expected to break into the conversation of her elders, or to ask too many questions; and the poor girls used therefore to sit fluttering behind the more languid—or more discreet—curiosity of their mother. part ii that they were both very fine girls arthur lloyd was not slow to discover; but it took him some time to make up his mind whether he liked the big sister or the little sister best. he had a strong presentiment—an emotion of a nature entirely too cheerful to be called a foreboding— that he was destined to stand up before the parson with one of them; yet he was unable to arrive at a preference, and for such a consummation a preference was certainly necessary, for lloyd had too much young blood in his veins to make a choice by lot and be cheated of the satisfaction of falling in love. he resolved to take things as they came—to let his heart speak. meanwhile he was on a very pleasant footing. mrs wingrave showed a dignified indifference to his ‘intentions’, equally remote from a carelessness of her daughter’s honour and from that sharp alacrity to make him come to the point, which, in his quality of a young man of property, he had too often encountered in the worldly matrons of his native islands. as for bernard, all that he asked was that his friend should treat his sisters as his own; and as for the poor girls themselves, however each may have secretly longed that their visitor should do or say something ‘marked,’ they kept a very modest and contented demeanour. towards each other, however, they were somewhat more on the offensive. they were good friends enough, and accommodating bedfellows (they shared the same four-poster), betwixt whom it would take more than a day for the seeds of jealousy to sprout and bear fruit; but they felt that the seeds had been sown on the day that mr lloyd came into the house. each made up her mind that, if she should be slighted, she would bear her grief in silence, and that no one should be any the wiser; for if they had a great deal of ambition, they had also a large share of pride. but each prayed in secret, nevertheless, that upon her the selection, the distinction, might fall. they had need of a vast deal of patience, of self-control, of dissimulation. in those days a young girl of decent breeding could make no advances whatever, and barely respond, indeed, to those that were made. she was expected to sit still in her chair, with her eyes on the carpet, watching the spot where the mystic handkerchief should fall. poor arthur lloyd was obliged to carry on his wooing in the little wainscoted parlour, before the eyes of mrs wingrave, her son, and his prospective sister-in-law. but youth and love are so cunning that a hundred signs and tokens might travel to and fro, and notes 4. this phrase translates to “beautiful youth” in french. 5. wainscoted here refers to wood paneling lining the lower half of the walls. “the romance of certain old clothes” 172 not one of these three pairs of eyes detect them in their passage. the two maidens were almost always together, and had plenty of chances to betray themselves. that each knew she was being watched, however, made not a grain of difference in the little offices they mutually rendered, or in the various household tasks they performed in common. neither flinched nor fluttered beneath the silent battery of her sister’s eyes. the only apparent change in their habits was that they had less to say to each other. it was impossible to talk about mr lloyd, and it was ridiculous to talk about anything else. by tacit agreement they began to wear all their choice finery, and to devise such little implements of conquest, in the way of ribbons and top-knots and kerchiefs, as were sanctioned by indubitable modesty. they executed in the same inarticulate fashion a contract of fair play in this exciting game. “is it better so?” rosalind would ask, tying a bunch of ribbons on her bosom, and turning about from her glass to her sister. perdita would look up gravely from her work and examine the decoration. “i think you had better give it another loop,” she would say, with great solemnity, looking hard at her sister with eyes that added, ‘upon my honour!’ so they were for ever stitching and trimming their petticoats, and pressing out their muslins, and contriving washes and ointments and cosmetics, like the ladies in the household of the vicar of wakefield.6 some three or four months went by; it grew to be midwinter, and as yet rosalind knew that if perdita had nothing more to boast of than she, there was not much to be feared from her rivalry. but perdita by this time—the charming perdita—felt that her secret had grown to be tenfold more precious than her sister’s. one afternoon miss wingrave sat alone—that was a rare accident—before her toilet-glass, combing out her long hair. it was getting too dark to see; she lit the two candles in their sockets, on the frame of her mirror, and then went to the window to draw her curtains. it was a gray december evening; the landscape was bare and bleak, and the sky heavy with snow-clouds. at the end of the large garden into which her window looked was a wall with a little postern door, opening into a lane. the door stood ajar, as she could vaguely see in the gathering darkness, and moved slowly to and fro, as if someone were swaying it from the lane without. it was doubtless a servant-maid who had been having a tryst with her sweetheart. but as she was about to drop her curtain rosalind saw her sister step into the garden and hurry along the path which led to the house. she dropped the curtain, all save a little crevice for her eyes. as perdita came up the path she seemed to be examining something in her hand, holding it close to her eyes. when she reached the house she stopped a moment, looked intently at the object, and pressed it to her lips. poor rosalind slowly came back to her chair and sat down before her glass, where, if she had looked at it less abstractedly, she would have seen her handsome features sadly disfigured by jealousy. a moment afterwards the door opened behind her and her sister came into the room, out of breath, and her cheeks aglow with the chilly air. perdita started. “ah,” said she, “i thought you were with our mother.” the ladies were to go to a tea-party, and on such occasions it was the habit of one of the young girls to help their mother to dress. instead of coming in, perdita lingered at the door. “come in, come in,” said rosalind. “we have more than an hour yet. i should like you very much to give a few strokes to my hair.” she knew that her sister wished to retreat, and that she could see in the glass all her movements in the room. “nay, just help me with my hair,” she said, “and i will go to mamma.” perdita came reluctantly, and took the brush. she saw her sister’s eyes, in the glass, fastened hard upon her hands. she had not made three passes when rosalind clapped her own right hand upon her sister’s left, and started out of her chair. “whose ring is that?” she cried, passionately, drawing her towards the light. on the young girl’s third finger glistened a little gold ring, adorned with a very small sapphire. perdita felt that she need no longer keep her secret, yet that she must put a bold face on her avowal. “it’s mine,” she said proudly. “who gave it to you?” cried the other. perdita hesitated a moment. “mr lloyd.” “mr lloyd is generous, all of a sudden.” “ah no,” cried perdita, with spirit, “not all of a sudden! he offered it to me a month ago.” “and you needed a month’s begging to take it?” said rosalind, looking at the little trinket, which indeed was not especially elegant, although it was the best that the jeweller of the province could furnish. “i wouldn’t have taken it in less than two.” “it isn’t the ring,” perdita answered, “it’s what it means!” “it means that you are not a modest girl!” cried notes 6. ”wakefield” is a character in the 18th-century novel by oliver goldsmith, the vicar of wakefield. “the romance of certain old clothes” 173 rosalind. “pray, does your mother know of your intrigue? does bernard?” “my mother has approved my ‘intrigue’, as you call it. mr lloyd has asked for my hand, and mamma has given it. would you have had him apply to you, dearest sister?” rosalind gave her companion a long look, full of passionate envy and sorrow. then she dropped her lashes on her pale cheeks and turned away. perdita felt that it had not been a pretty scene; but it was her sister’s fault. however, the elder girl rapidly called back her pride, and turned herself about again. “you have my very best wishes,” she said, with a low curtsey. “i wish you every happiness, and a very long life.” perdita gave a bitter laugh. “don’t speak in that tone!” she cried. “i would rather you should curse me outright. come, rosy,” she added, “he couldn’t marry both of us.” “i wish you very great joy,” rosalind repeated, mechanically, sitting down to her glass again, “and a very long life, and plenty of children.” there was something in the sound of these words not at all to perdita’s taste. “will you give me a year to live at least?” she said. “in a year i can have one little boy— or one little girl at least. if you will give me your brush again i will do your hair.” “thank you,” said rosalind. “you had better go to mamma. it isn’t becoming that a young lady with a promised husband should wait on a girl with none.” “nay,” said perdita, good-humouredly, “i have arthur to wait upon me. you need my service more than i need yours.” but her sister motioned her away, and she left the room. when she had gone poor rosalind fell on her knees before her dressing-table, buried her head in her arms, and poured out a flood of tears and sobs. she felt very much the better for this effusion of sorrow. when her sister came back she insisted upon helping her to dress—on her wearing her prettiest things. she forced upon her acceptance a bit of lace of her own, and declared that now that she was to be married she should do her best to appear worthy of her lover’s choice. she discharged these offices in stern silence; but, such as they were, they had to do duty as an apology and an atonement; she never made any other. now that lloyd was received by the family as an accepted suitor nothing remained but to fix the wedding-day. it was appointed for the following april, and in the interval preparations were diligently made for the marriage. lloyd, on his side, was busy with his commercial arrangements, and with establishing a correspondence with the great mercantile house to which he had attached himself in england. he was therefore not so frequent a visitor at mrs wingrave’s as during the months of his diffidence and irresolution, and poor rosalind had less to suffer than she had feared from the sight of the mutual endearments of the young lovers. touching his future sister-in-law lloyd had a perfectly clear conscience. there had not been a particle of lovemaking between them, and he had not the slightest suspicion that he had dealt her a terrible blow. he was quite at his ease; life promised so well, both domestically and financially. the great revolt of the colonies was not yet in the air, and that his connubial felicity should take a tragic turn it was absurd, it was blasphemous, to apprehend. meanwhile, at mrs wingrave’s, there was a greater rustling of silks, a more rapid clicking of scissors and flying of needles, than ever. the good lady had determined that her daughter should carry from home the genteelest outfit that her money could buy or that the country could furnish. all the sage women in the province were convened, and their united taste was brought to bear on perdita’s wardrobe. rosalind’s situation, at this moment, was assuredly not to be envied. the poor girl had an inordinate love of dress, and the very best taste in the world, as her sister perfectly well knew. rosalind was tall, she was stately and sweeping, she was made to carry stiff brocade and masses of heavy lace, such as belong to the toilet of a rich man’s wife. but rosalind sat aloof, with her beautiful arms folded and her head averted, while her mother and sister and the venerable women aforesaid worried and wondered over their materials, oppressed by the multitude of their resources. one day there came in a beautiful piece of white silk, brocaded with heavenly blue and silver, sent by the bridegroom himself—it not being thought amiss in those days that the husband-elect should contribute to the bride’s trousseau.7 perdita could think of no form or fashion which would do sufficient honour to the splendour of the material. “blue’s your colour, sister, more than mine,” she said, with appealing eyes. “it’s a pity it’s not for you. you would know what to do with it.” notes 7. a trousseau was the collection of clothing and other household items that a soon-to-be-bride would prepare to take with her to her new home upon marriage. “the romance of certain old clothes” 174 rosalind got up from her place and looked at the great shining fabric, as it lay spread over the back of a chair. then she took it up in her hands and felt it—lovingly, as perdita could see—and turned about toward the mirror with it. she let it roll down to her feet, and flung the other end over her shoulder, gathering it in about her waist with her white arm, which was bare to the elbow. she threw back her head, and looked at her image, and a hanging tress of her auburn hair fell upon the gorgeous surface of the silk. it made a dazzling picture. the women standing about uttered a little “look, look!” of admiration. “yes, indeed,” said rosalind, quietly, “blue is my colour.” but perdita could see that her fancy had been stirred, and that she would now fall to work and solve all their silken riddles. and indeed she behaved very well, as perdita, knowing her insatiable love of millinery,8 was quite ready to declare. innumerable yards of lustrous silk and satin, of muslin, velvet and lace, passed through her cunning hands, without a jealous word coming from her lips. thanks to her industry, when the wedding-day came perdita was prepared to espouse more of the vanities of life than any fluttering young bride who had yet received the sacramental blessing of a new england divine. it had been arranged that the young couple should go out and spend the first days of their wedded life at the country-house of an english gentleman—a man of rank and a very kind friend to arthur lloyd. he was a bachelor; he declared he should be delighted to give up the place to the influence of hymen.9 after the ceremony at church—it had been performed by an english clergyman—young mrs lloyd hastened back to her mother’s house to change her nuptial robes for a riding-dress.10 rosalind helped her to effect the change, in the little homely room in which they had spent their undivided younger years. perdita then hurried off to bid farewell to her mother, leaving rosalind to follow. the parting was short; the horses were at the door, and arthur was impatient to start. but rosalind had not followed, and perdita hastened back to her room, opening the door abruptly. rosalind, as usual, was before the glass, but in a position which caused the other to stand still, amazed. she had dressed herself in perdita’s cast-off wedding veil and wreath, and on her neck she had hung the full string of pearls which the young girl had received from her husband as a wedding-gift. these things had been hastily laid aside, to await their possessor’s disposal on her return from the country. bedizened in this unnatural garb rosalind stood before the mirror, plunging a long look into its depths and reading heaven knows what audacious visions. perdita was horrified. it was a hideous image of their old rivalry come to life again. she made a step toward her sister, as if to pull off the veil and the flowers. but catching her eyes in the glass, she stopped. “farewell, sweetheart,” she said. “you might at least have waited till i had got out of the house!” and she hurried away from the room. mr lloyd had purchased in boston a house which to the taste of those days appeared as elegant as it was commodious; and here he very soon established himself with his young wife. he was thus separated by a distance of twenty miles from the residence of his mother-inlaw. twenty miles, in that primitive era of roads and conveyances, were as serious a matter as a hundred at the present day, and mrs wingrave saw but little of her daughter during the first twelvemonth of her marriage. she suffered in no small degree from perdita’s absence; and her affliction was not diminished by the fact that rosalind had fallen into terribly low spirits and was not to be roused or cheered but by change of air and company. the real cause of the young lady’s dejection the reader will not be slow to suspect. mrs wingrave and her gossips, however, deemed her complaint a mere bodily ill, and doubted not that she would obtain relief from the remedy just mentioned. her mother accordingly proposed, on her behalf, a visit to certain relatives on the paternal side, established in new york, who had long complained that they were able to see so little of their new england cousins. rosalind was despatched to these good people, under a suitable escort, and remained with them for several months. in the interval her brother bernard, who had begun the practice of the law, made up his mind to take a wife. rosalind came home to the wedding, apparently cured of her heartache, with bright roses and lilies in her face and a proud smile on her lips. arthur lloyd came over from boston to see his brother-in-law married, but without his wife, who was expecting very soon to present him with an heir. it was notes 8. millinery refers to the design and decoration of women’s hats. 9. hymen is the greek god of marriage ceremonies. 10. the appropriate outfit for women to wear when riding horses; also known as riding habits. “the romance of certain old clothes” 175 nearly a year since rosalind had seen him. she was glad—she hardly knew why—that perdita had stayed at home. arthur looked happy, but he was more grave and important than before his marriage. she thought he looked ‘interesting’—for although the word, in its modern sense, was not then invented, we may be sure that the idea was. the truth is, he was simply anxious about his wife and her coming ordeal. nevertheless, he by no means failed to observe rosalind’s beauty and splendour, and to note how she effaced the poor little bride. the allowance that perdita had enjoyed for her dress had now been transferred to her sister, who turned it to wonderful account. on the morning after the wedding he had a lady’s saddle put on the horse of the servant who had come with him from town, and went out with the young girl for a ride. it was a keen, clear morning in january; the ground was bare and hard, and the horses in good condition—to say nothing of rosalind, who was charming in her hat and plume, and her dark blue riding coat, trimmed with fur. they rode all the morning, they lost their way, and were obliged to stop for dinner at a farm-house. the early winter dusk had fallen when they got home. mrs wingrave met them with a long face. a messenger had arrived at noon from mrs lloyd; she was beginning to be ill, she desired her husband’s immediate return. the young man, at the thought that he had lost several hours, and that by hard riding he might already have been with his wife, uttered a passionate oath. he barely consented to stop for a mouthful of supper, but mounted the messenger’s horse and started off at a gallop. he reached home at midnight. his wife had been delivered of a little girl. “ah, why weren’t you with me?” she said, as he came to her bedside. “i was out of the house when the man came. i was with rosalind,” said lloyd, innocently. mrs lloyd made a little moan, and turned away. but she continued to do very well, and for a week her improvement was uninterrupted. finally, however, through some indiscretion in the way of diet or exposure, it was checked, and the poor lady grew rapidly worse. lloyd was in despair. it very soon became evident that she was breathing her last. mrs lloyd came to a sense of her approaching end, and declared that she was reconciled with death. on the third evening after the change took place she told her husband that she felt she should not get through the night. she dismissed her servants, and also requested her mother to withdraw— mrs wingrave having arrived on the preceding day. she had had her infant placed on the bed beside her, and she lay on her side, with the child against her breast, holding her husband’s hands. the night-lamp was hidden behind the heavy curtains of the bed, but the room was illumined with a red glow from the immense fire of logs on the hearth. “it seems strange not to be warmed into life by such a fire as that,” the young woman said, feebly trying to smile. “if i had but a little of it in my veins! but i have given all my fire to this little spark of mortality.” and she dropped her eyes on her child. then raising them she looked at her husband with a long, penetrating gaze. the last feeling which lingered in her heart was one of suspicion. she had not recovered from the shock which arthur had given her by telling her that in the hour of her agony he had been with rosalind. she trusted her husband very nearly as well as she loved him; but now that she was called away for ever she felt a cold horror of her sister. she felt in her soul that rosalind had never ceased to be jealous of her good fortune; and a year of happy security had not effaced the young girl’s image, dressed in her wedding-garments, and smiling with simulated triumph. now that arthur was to be alone, what might not rosalind attempt? she was beautiful, she was engaging; what arts might she not use, what impression might she not make upon the young man’s saddened heart? mrs lloyd looked at her husband in silence. it seemed hard, after all, to doubt of his constancy. his fine eyes were filled with tears; his face was convulsed with weeping; the clasp of his hands was warm and passionate. how noble he looked, how tender, how faithful and devoted! ‘nay,’ thought perdita, ‘he’s not for such a one as rosalind. he’ll never forget me. nor does rosalind truly care for him; she cares only for vanities and finery and jewels.’ and she lowered her eyes on her white hands, which her husband’s liberality had covered with rings, and on the lace ruffles which trimmed the edge of her night-dress. ‘she covets my rings and my laces more than she covets my husband.’ at this moment the thought of her sister’s rapacity seemed to cast a dark shadow between her and the helpless figure of her little girl. “arthur,” she said, “you must take off my rings. i shall not be buried in them. one of these days my daughter shall wear them—my rings and my laces and silks. i had them all brought out “the romance of certain old clothes” 176 and shown me to-day. it’s a great wardrobe—there’s not such another in the province; i can say it without vanity, now that i have done with it. it will be a great inheritance for my daughter when she grows into a young woman. there are things there that a man never buys twice, and if they are lost you will never again see the like. so you will watch them well. some dozen things i have left to rosalind; i have named them to my mother. i have given her that blue and silver; it was meant for her; i wore it only once, i looked ill in it. but the rest are to be sacredly kept for this little innocent. it’s such a providence that she should be my colour; she can wear my gowns; she has her mother’s eyes. you know the same fashions come back every twenty years. she can wear my gowns as they are. they will lie there quietly waiting till she grows into them—wrapped in camphor11 and rose-leaves, and keeping their colours in the sweetscented darkness. she shall have black hair, she shall wear my carnation satin.12 do you promise me, arthur?” “promise you what, dearest?” “promise me to keep your poor little wife’s old gowns.” “are you afraid i shall sell them?” “no, but that they may get scattered. my mother will have them properly wrapped up, and you shall lay them away under a double-lock. do you know the great chest in the attic, with the iron bands? there is no end to what it will hold. you can put them all there. my mother and the housekeeper will do it, and give you the key. and you will keep the key in your secretary, and never give it to anyone but your child. do you promise me?” “ah, yes, i promise you,” said lloyd, puzzled at the intensity with which his wife appeared to cling to this idea. “will you swear?” repeated perdita. “yes, i swear.” “well—i trust you—i trust you,” said the poor lady, looking into his eyes with eyes in which, if he had suspected her vague apprehensions, he might have read an appeal quite as much as an assurance. lloyd bore his bereavement rationally and manfully. a month after his wife’s death, in the course of business, circumstances arose which offered him an opportunity of going to england. he took advantage of it, to change the current of his thoughts. he was absent nearly a year, during which his little girl was tenderly nursed and guarded by her grandmother. on his return he had his house again thrown open, and announced his intention of keeping the same state as during his wife’s lifetime. it very soon came to be predicted that he would marry again, and there were at least a dozen young women of whom one may say that it was by no fault of theirs that, for six months after his return, the prediction did not come true. during this interval he still left his little daughter in mrs wingrave’s hands, the latter assuring him that a change of residence at so tender an age would be full of danger for her health. finally, however, he declared that his heart longed for his daughter’s presence and that she must be brought up to town. he sent his coach and his housekeeper to fetch her home. mrs wingrave was in terror lest something should befall her on the road; and, in accordance with this feeling, rosalind offered to accompany her. she could return the next day. so she went up to town with her little niece, and mr lloyd met her on the threshold of his house, overcome with her kindness and with paternal joy. instead of returning the next day rosalind stayed out the week; and when at last she reappeared, she had only come for her clothes. arthur would not hear of her coming home, nor would the baby. that little person cried and choked if rosalind left her; and at the sight of her grief arthur lost his wits, and swore that she was going to die. in fine, nothing would suit them but that the aunt should remain until the little niece had grown used to strange faces. it took two months to bring this consummation about; for it was not until this period had elapsed that rosalind took leave of her brother-in-law. mrs wingrave had shaken her head over her daughter’s absence; she had declared that it was not becoming, that it was the talk of the whole country. she had reconciled herself to it only because, during the girl’s visit, the household enjoyed an unwonted term of peace. bernard wingrave had brought his wife home to live, between whom and her sister-in-law there was as little love as you please. rosalind was perhaps no angel; but in the daily practice of life she was a sufficiently good-natured girl, and if she quarrelled with mrs bernard, it was not without provocation. quarrel, however, she did, to the great annoyance not only of her antagonist, but of the two notes 11. camphor is a white, volatile, crystalline substance with an aromatic smell and bitter taste, occurring in certain essential oils; it is used to repel moths, silverfish, and other insects. 12. refers to the color of the satin resembling a carnation, a flower most commonly of a pinkish color. “the romance of certain old clothes” 177 spectators of these constant altercations. her stay in the household of her brother-in-law, therefore, would have been delightful, if only because it removed her from contact with the object of her antipathy at home. it was doubly—it was ten times—delightful, in that it kept her near the object of her early passion. mrs lloyd’s sharp suspicions had fallen very far short of the truth. rosalind’s sentiment had been a passion at first, and a passion it remained—a passion of whose radiant heat, tempered to the delicate state of his feelings, mr lloyd very soon felt the influence. lloyd, as i have hinted, was not a modern petrarch;13 it was not in his nature to practise an ideal constancy. he had not been many days in the house with his sister-in-law before he began to assure himself that she was, in the language of that day, a devilish fine woman. whether rosalind really practised those insidious arts that her sister had been tempted to impute to her it is needless to inquire. it is enough to say that she found means to appear to the very best advantage. she used to seat herself every morning before the big fireplace in the dining-room, at work upon a piece of tapestry, with her little niece disporting herself on the carpet at her feet, or on the train of her dress, and playing with her woollen balls. lloyd would have been a very stupid fellow if he had remained insensible to the rich suggestions of this charming picture. he was exceedingly fond of his little girl, and was never weary of taking her in his arms and tossing her up and down, and making her crow with delight. very often, however, he would venture upon greater liberties than the young lady was yet prepared to allow, and then she would suddenly vociferate her displeasure. rosalind, at this, would drop her tapestry, and put out her handsome hands with the serious smile of the young girl whose virgin fancy has revealed to her all a mother’s healing arts. lloyd would give up the child, their eyes would meet, their hands would touch, and rosalind would extinguish the little girl’s sobs upon the snowy folds of the kerchief that crossed her bosom. her dignity was perfect, and nothing could be more discreet than the manner in which she accepted her brother-in-law’s hospitality. it may almost be said, perhaps, that there was something harsh in her reserve. lloyd had a provoking feeling that she was in the house and yet was unapproachable. half-anhour after supper, at the very outset of the long winter evenings, she would light her candle, make the young man a most respectful curtsey, and march off to bed. if these were arts, rosalind was a great artist. but their effect was so gentle, so gradual, they were calculated to work upon the young widower’s fancy with a crescendo so finely shaded, that, as the reader has seen, several weeks elapsed before rosalind began to feel sure that her returns would cover her outlay. when this became morally certain she packed up her trunk and returned to her mother’s house. for three days she waited; on the fourth mr lloyd made his appearance—a respectful but pressing suitor. rosalind heard him to the end, with great humility, and accepted him with infinite modesty. it is hard to imagine that mrs lloyd would have forgiven her husband; but if anything might have disarmed her resentment it would have been the ceremonious continence of this interview. rosalind imposed upon her lover but a short probation. they were married, as was becoming, with great privacy—almost with secrecy—in the hope perhaps, as was waggishly remarked at the time, that the late mrs lloyd wouldn’t hear of it. the marriage was to all appearance a happy one, and each party obtained what each had desired—lloyd ‘a devilish fine woman’, and rosalind—but rosalind’s desires, as the reader will have observed, had remained a good deal of a mystery. there were, indeed, two blots upon their felicity, but time would perhaps efface them. during the first three years of her marriage mrs lloyd failed to become a mother, and her husband on his side suffered heavy losses of money. this latter circumstance compelled a material retrenchment in his expenditure, and rosalind was perforce less of a fine lady than her sister had been. she contrived, however, to carry it like a woman of considerable fashion. she had long since ascertained that her sister’s copious wardrobe had been sequestrated for the benefit of her daughter, and that it lay languishing in thankless gloom in the dusty attic. it was a revolting thought that these exquisite fabrics should await the good pleasure of a little girl who sat in a high chair and ate bread-and-milk with a wooden spoon. rosalind had the good taste, however, to say nothing about the matter until several months had expired. then, at last, she timidly broached it to her husband. was it not a pity that so much finery should be lost?—for lost it would be, what with colours fading, and moths notes 13. petrarch, an italian poet and predecessor of shakespeare, was known for his use of the courtly love trope as well as for being a humanist, which james is claiming mr. lloyd was not. “the romance of certain old clothes” 178 eating it up, and the change of fashions. but lloyd gave her so abrupt and peremptory a refusal, that she saw, for the present, her attempt was vain. six months went by, however, and brought with them new needs and new visions. rosalind’s thoughts hovered lovingly about her sister’s relics. she went up and looked at the chest in which they lay imprisoned. there was a sullen defiance in its three great padlocks and its iron bands which only quickened her cupidity. there was something exasperating in its incorruptible immobility. it was like a grim and grizzled old household servant, who locks his jaws over a family secret. and then there was a look of capacity in its vast extent, and a sound as of dense fulness, when rosalind knocked its side with the toe of her little shoe, which caused her to flush with baffled longing. “it’s absurd,” she cried; “it’s improper, it’s wicked”; and she forthwith resolved upon another attack upon her husband. on the following day, after dinner, when he had had his wine, she boldly began it. but he cut her short with great sternness. “once for all, rosalind,” said he, “it’s out of the question. i shall be gravely displeased if you return to the matter.” “very good,” said rosalind. “i am glad to learn the esteem in which i am held. gracious heaven,” she cried, “i am a very happy woman! it’s an agreeable thing to feel one’s self sacrificed to a caprice!” and her eyes filled with tears of anger and disappointment. lloyd had a good-natured man’s horror of a woman’s sobs, and he attempted—i may say he condescended— to explain. “it’s not a caprice, dear, it’s a promise,” he said—“an oath.” “an oath? it’s a pretty matter for oaths! and to whom, pray?” “to perdita,” said the young man, raising his eyes for an instant, but immediately dropping them. “perdita—ah, perdita!” and rosalind’s tears broke forth. her bosom heaved with stormy sobs—sobs which were the long-deferred sequel of the violent fit of weeping in which she had indulged herself on the night when she discovered her sister’s betrothal. she had hoped, in her better moments, that she had done with her jealousy; but her temper, on that occasion, had taken an ineffaceable fold. “and pray, what right had perdita to dispose of my future?” she cried. “what right had she to bind you to meanness and cruelty? ah, i occupy a dignified place, and i make a very fine figure! i am welcome to what perdita has left! and what has she left? i never knew till now how little! nothing, nothing, nothing.” this was very poor logic, but it was very good as a ‘scene.’ lloyd put his arm around his wife’s waist and tried to kiss her, but she shook him off with magnificent scorn. poor fellow! he had coveted a ‘devilish fine woman.’ and he had got one. her scorn was intolerable. he walked away with his ears tingling—irresolute, distracted. before him was his secretary, and in it the sacred key which with his own hand he had turned in the triple lock. he marched up and opened it, and took the key from a secret drawer, wrapped in a little packet which he had sealed with his own honest bit of blazonry. je garde, said the motto—‘i keep.’ but he was ashamed to put it back. he flung it upon the table beside his wife. “put it back!” she cried. “i want it not. i hate it!” “i wash my hands of it,” cried her husband. “god forgive me!” mrs lloyd gave an indignant shrug of her shoulders, and swept out of the room, while the young man retreated by another door. ten minutes later mrs lloyd returned, and found the room occupied by her little step-daughter and the nursery-maid. the key was not on the table. she glanced at the child. her little niece was perched on a chair, with the packet in her hands. she had broken the seal with her own small fingers. mrs lloyd hastily took possession of the key. at the habitual supper-hour arthur lloyd came back from his counting-room. it was the month of june, and supper was served by daylight. the meal was placed on the table, but mrs lloyd failed to make her appearance. the servant whom his master sent to call her came back with the assurance that her room was empty, and that the women informed him that she had not been seen since dinner. they had, in truth, observed her to have been in tears, and, supposing her to be shut up in her chamber, had not disturbed her. her husband called her name in various parts of the house, but without response. at last it occurred to him that he might find her by taking the way to the attic. the thought gave him a strange feeling of discomfort, and he bade his servants remain behind, wishing no witness in his quest. he reached the foot of the staircase leading to the topmost flat, and stood with his hand on the banisters, pronouncing his wife’s name. his voice trembled. he called again louder and more firmly. the only sound which disturbed the absolute silence was a faint echo of his own tones, repeating his question under the great eaves. he nevertheless felt “the romance of certain old clothes” 179 irresistibly moved to ascend the staircase. it opened upon a wide hall, lined with wooden closets, and terminating in a window which looked westward, and admitted the last rays of the sun. before the window stood the great chest. before the chest, on her knees, the young man saw with amazement and horror the figure of his wife. in an instant he crossed the interval between them, bereft of utterance. the lid of the chest stood open, exposing, amid their perfumed napkins, its treasure of stuffs and jewels. rosalind had fallen backward from a kneeling posture, with one hand supporting her on the floor and the other pressed to her heart. on her limbs was the stiffness of death, and on her face, in the fading light of the sun, the terror of something more than death. her lips were parted in entreaty, in dismay, in agony; and on her blanched brow and cheeks there glowed the marks of ten hideous wounds from two vengeful ghostly hands. contextual documents excerpts from “a pair of hands” by a. t. quiller-couch14 “a pair of hands,” published within a collection of short stories in 1900 by arthur thomas quillercouch, is another story about ghostly hands. although these hands are not malevolent like the hands that kill rosalind in “the romance of certain old clothes,” they are similarly related to the victorian-era gender roles hinted at in the first half of james’s story. the hands in quiller-couch’s story are helping hands that happen to belong to the ghost of a little girl named margaret. the story begins with an older miss le petyt knitting and lamenting about a time when she lived in a house with a friendly female ghost: “well, my dears, i am not quite the coward you take me for. and, as it happens, mine was the most harmless ghost in the world. in fact”—and here she looked at the fire again— “i was quite sorry to lose her.” “it was a woman, then? now i think,” said miss blanche, “that female ghosts are the horridest of all. they wear little shoes with high red heels, and go about tap, tap, wringing their hands.” “this one wrung her hands, certainly. but i don’t know about the high red heels, for i never saw her feet. perhaps she was like the queen of spain, and hadn’t any. and as for the hands, it all depends how you wring them. there’s an elderly shop-walker at knightsbridge, for instance—” “don’t be prosy, dear, when you know that we’re just dying to hear the story.” miss le petyt turned to me with a small deprecating laugh. “it’s such a little one.” “the story, or the ghost?” “both.” the above passage helps to define what type of female ghost is acceptable or unacceptable based on how they wring their hands. in the eyes of the characters, if a female ghost wrings her hands the wrong way she is horrid. if she wrings them in another way, she could be harmless like the ghost miss le petyt is referring to. also, miss le petyt is using her hands to knit as the story begins, which is a very common, if not expected, activity for a woman to be doing in this era (plante 156). this detail could be an allusion to the proper types of activities, or wringing, a woman’s hands should be doing, setting the tone for the rest of the story. miss le petyt learns in the next passage that a ghostly pair of little girl hands has been doing the housework for her at night: “over the porcelain basin and beneath the water trickling from the tap i saw two hands. that was all— two small hands, a child’s hands. i cannot tell you how they ended. no: they were not cut off. i saw them quite distinctly: just a pair of small hands and the wrists, and after that—nothing. they were moving briskly— washing themselves clean. i saw the water trickle and splash over them—not through them—but just as it would on real hands. they were the hands of a little girl, too. oh, yes, i was sure of that at once. boys and girls wash their hands differently. i can’t just tell you what the difference is, but it’s unmistakable. “i saw all this before my candle slipped and fell with a crash. i had set it down without looking—for my eyes notes 14. this story, originally published within one of the author’s short story collections called old fires and profitable ghosts: a book of stories in 1900, was edited and published by lionel g. sear in 2006 and cataloged by project gutenberg. “the romance of certain old clothes” 180 were fixed on the basin—and had balanced it on the edge of the nest of drawers. after the crash, in the darkness there, with the water running, i suffered some bad moments. oddly enough, the thought uppermost with me was that i must shut off that tap before escaping. i had to. and after a while i picked up all my courage, so to say, between my teeth, and with a little sob thrust out my hand and did it. then i fled.” in the victorian era, a woman’s destiny was to provide the perfect domestic sphere to shelter her family from the harmful world, and housekeeping was a major part of keeping the home running smoothly (plante 35). this theme is evident in both james’s story and quillercouch’s story. a significant question to raise is: why would the ghost of the girl who died in the house only come back as a pair of hands? this question could be partly answered in the explanation of how she is washing her hands: “they were the hands of a little girl, too. oh yes, i was sure of that at once. boys and girls wash their hands differently. i can’t just tell you what the difference is, but it’s unmistakable.” as in “the romance of certain old clothes,” these hands were being used to represent the work women were expected to do in the private sphere. excerpts from “the cold embrace” by mary e. braddon15 mary e. braddon’s story “the cold embrace,” published in 1860, takes on the ghostly hands motif in a similar way to james’s story in that there is a pair of hands that kill someone. braddon’s story is focused on a secret engagement of two cousins, gertrude and an unnamed man, that never results in marriage because of her cousin’s disregard to his initial promise. this engagement is unconventional for the victorian era because gertrude’s father did not consent and because her cousin never followed through with the marriage (plante 23). james’s story is also centered around atypical engagement and marriage processes, apparent in mr. lloyd’s choice between the two sisters and in his allowing rosalind to take over perdita’s private sphere after her death. thus the hands in both these stories are connected to dead females who were wronged within their marital commitments. this excerpt describes the initial engagement of gertrude and her cousin. note the detail of gertrude’s hands in this scene: so they are betrothed; and standing side by side when the dying sun and the pale rising moon divide the heavens, he puts the betrothal ring upon her finger, the white and taper finger whose slender shape he knows so well. this ring is a peculiar one, a massive golden serpent, its tail in its mouth, the symbol of eternity; it had been his mother’s, and he would know it amongst a thousand. if he were to become blind tomorrow, he could select it from amongst a thousand by the touch alone. he places it on her finger, and they swear to be true to each other for ever and ever—through trouble and danger—sorrow and change—in wealth or poverty. her father must needs be won to consent to their union by and by, for they were now betrothed, and death alone could part them. but the young student, the scoffer at revelation, yet the enthusiastic adorer of the mystical, asks: “can death part us? i would return to you from the grave, gertrude. my soul would come back to be near my love. and you—you, if you died before me—the cold earth would not hold you from me; if you loved me, you would return, and again these fair arms would be clasped round my neck as they are now.” but she told him, with a holier light in her deep-blue eyes than had ever shone in his—she told him that the dead who die at peace with god are happy in heaven, and cannot return to the troubled earth; and that it is only the suicide—the lost wretch on whom sorrowful angels shut the door of paradise—whose unholy spirit haunts the footsteps of the living. after making his promise to gertrude, he goes to italy to work as an artist, and his communication with gertrude slowly fades until they lose all contact. gertrude kills herself because of his thoughtless actions and because of her unwillingness to marry another man whom her father has arranged for her to wed. notes 15. this story, originally published in 1860, is from the anthology called victorian ghost stories: by eminent women writers which was edited and published by richard dalby in 1989. “the romance of certain old clothes” 181 according to calder, the “helpless female borne off by the villainous male or, worse, the susceptible female compliant to the false promises of the unscrupulous male” was a common theme in victorian fiction (16). gertrude fits this description, but later in the story her ghostly hands and arms seek vengeance and refuse to be compliant with the transgressions inflicted by her unethical cousin. the hands first appear in both james’ and braddon’s stories when engagement is brought into the plot, and the stories end with the hands killing the betrayer of their marital promise. however, while perdita retaliates against rosalind, gertrude takes her revenge out on the man who was unfaithful to her. in the following scene, gertrude’s suicide leaves her ghost to roam the earth, and she fulfills her cousin’s expressed wish from the first excerpt: “if you loved me, you would return, and again these fair arms would be clasped round my neck as they are now.” he is not thinking of his drowned cousin, for he has forgotten her and is happy. suddenly some one, something from behind him, puts two cold arms round his neck, and clasps its hands on his breast. and yet there is no one behind him, for on the flags bathed in the broad moonlight there are only two shadows, his own and his dog’s. he turns quickly round—there is no one—nothing to be seen in the broad square but himself and his dog; and though he feels, he cannot see the cold arms clasped round his neck. it is not ghostly, this embrace, for it is palpable to the touch—it cannot be real, for it is invisible. he tries to throw off the cold caress. he clasps the hands in his own to tear them asunder, and to cast them off his neck. he can feel the long delicate fingers cold and wet beneath his touch, and on the third finger of the left hand he can feel the ring which was his mother’s— the golden serpent—the ring which he has always said he would know among a thousand by the touch alone. he knows it now! his dead cousin’s cold arms are round his neck—his dead cousin’s wet hands are clasped upon his breast. he asks himself if he is mad. “up, leo!” he shouts. “up, up, boy!” and the newfoundland leaps to his shoulders—the dog’s paws are on the dead hands, and the animal utters a terrific howl, and springs away from his master. the student stands in the moonlight, the dead arms around his neck, and the dog at a little distance moaning piteously. the previous scene marks the first time gertrude’s ghostly embrace haunts and threatens her cousin. she is a ghost enraged by the actions of an ungentlemanly suitor, one who defied the conventions of engagement in the victorian era by not committing properly and by not treating gertrude like a lady because, as plante states, “no true gentleman would pay excessive visits to or shower constant attention upon a lady whom he was not considering for marriage” (20). the ring that bound the couple is on gertrude’s ghostly hands, tormenting her cousin with the reminder of his broken promise, and threatening him for breaking it. the next scene marks the death of gertrude’s cousin through her last angry, ghostly embrace: alone, and, in the terrible silence, he hears the echoes of his own footsteps in that dismal dance which has no music. no music but the beating of his breast. the cold arms are round his neck—they whirl him round, they will not be flung off, or cast away; he can no more escape from their icy grasp than he can escape from death. he looks behind him—there is nothing but himself in the great empty salle; but he can feel—cold, deathlike, but o, how palpable!—the long slender fingers, and the ring which was his mother’s. he tries to shout, but he has no power in his burning throat. the silence of the place is only broken by the echoes of his own footsteps in the dance from which he cannot extricate himself. who says he has no partner? the cold hands are clasped on his breast, and now he does not shun their caress. no! one more polka, if he drops down dead. the lights are all out, and, half an hour after, the gendarmes come in with a lantern to see that the house is empty; they are followed by a great dog that they have found seated howling on the steps of the theatre. near the principal entrance they stumble over— the body of a student, who has died from want of food, exhaustion, and the breaking of a blood-vessel. in james’s story, perdita’s hands kill rosalind, who “the romance of certain old clothes” 182 betrayed her by replacing her in every important aspect of a victorian-era female’s life through taking over her home, husband, and child; mr. lloyd, however, is not physically harmed. braddon’s ghost, by contrast, is less petty than the sisters within james’s story. instead of bickering over possessions or rights to a suitor, braddon’s ghost exacts her revenge upon the man who wrongs her by breaking his promise. braddon’s powerful female ghost, strengthened by spiritualist ideals, makes a commentary on the patriarchal system that entrapped and silenced women from voicing their opinions or grievances. in each case, the hands that bound the women to commitment are the weapons they use against those who wronged them. excerpts from “some odd facts about the tiled house—being an authentic narrative of the ghost of a hand” by j. sheridan le fanu16 in another victorian ghost story concerning hands, we see a house being haunted by a ghostly hand that tries to make its way inside. this chapter, from j. sheridan le fanu’s book the house by the church-yard, later republished in 1863 as “the narrative of a ghost of a hand,” tells a story of a ghostly hand that terrorizes all levels of a household, from the servants to the upperclass family. the family within “the romance of certain old clothes” is very concerned with keeping up with a class system. though they are living in america, they are very concerned with keeping their allegiance with europe. we see a similar kind of class anxiety in le fanu’s story. in this tale, a family, the prossers, rent out a house from mrs. prosser’s father, alderman harper. upon moving in, a mysterious hand begins to haunt the family and their servants. the hand first appears to mrs. prosser one evening as she is sitting in the back parlor of the house, looking out into the garden: “...looking out into the orchard, [she] plainly saw a hand stealthily placed upon the stone window-sill outside, as if by some one beneath the window, at her right side, intending to climb up. there was nothing but the hand, which was rather short but handsomely formed, and white and plump, laid on the edge of the window-sill; and it was not a very young hand, but one aged, somewhere about forty, as she conjectured. it was only a few weeks before that the horrible robbery at clondalkin had taken place, and the lady fancied that the hand was that of one of the miscreants who was now about to scale the windows of the tiled house. she uttered a loud scream and an ejaculation of terror, and at the same moment the hand was quietly withdrawn.” it is important to note the description of the hand as “white and plump . . . . [and] aged.” this description suggests it belongs to someone of higher class as a lower-class person’s hand would be tanned and rough with work. indeed, a discussion on class begins to develop within this story just as it did in “the romance of certain old clothes.” soon the hand begins appearing to the servants, and we realize that the hand desperately wishes to come inside the house. it raps on windows and doors and tries to push its way inside at one point and later succeeds. like the grappling of lower classes for higher status in society, the hand wishes to enter where it has been forbidden to enter. however, the hand seems to be one of an upper-class gentleman, as it is hinted at in the end of the story: the person to whom that hand belonged never once appeared: nor was it a hand separated from a body, but only a hand so manifested and introduced that its owner was always, by some crafty accident, hidden from view. in the year 1819, at a college breakfast, i met a mr. prosser—a thin, grave, but rather chatty old gentleman, with very white hair drawn back into a pigtail—and he told us all, with a concise particularity, a story of his cousin, james prosser, who, when an infant, had slept for some time in what his mother said was a haunted nursery in an old house near chapelizod, and who, whenever he was ill, over-fatigued, or in anywise feverish, suffered all through his life as he had done from a time he could scarce remember, from a vision of a certain gentleman, fat and pale, every curl of whose wig, every button and notes 16. this story is a chapter from a book by le fanu called the house by the church-yard. this particular edition was originally published in 1904 by the macmillan company and was cataloged by project gutenberg in 2006 by ted garvin and janet blenkinship. “the romance of certain old clothes” 183 fold of whose laced clothes, and every feature and line of whose sensual, benignant, and unwholesome face, was as minutely engraven upon his memory as the dress and lineaments of his own grandfather’s portrait, which hung before him every day at breakfast, dinner, and supper.this hand, then, is the ghost of a previous owner, specifically an earl who died with financial troubles. after this incident, the hand is seen at other times by servants, some of whom die of fright or run off. mr. prosser becomes very angry that his servants are acting so foolishly. believing his servants are just acting like normal, lower-class servants, mr. prosser plans an investigation into the origin of a handprint within the kitchen that has frightened many of his servants believing it to be from the ghostly hand. however, as katherine rowe points out, he does not find the owner of the print and soon he and his wife become just as hysterically “imaginative” as their servants, reversing from the higher class to the stereotypes of the lower classes (155). meanwhile, the hand of the owner goes about the house surveying what used to be his property. like the hand of the owner of the house in this story, the hands of perdita in “the romance of certain old clothes,” return to claim what is rightfully hers. “the romance of certain old clothes” 184 works cited bann, jennifer. “ghostly hands and ghostly agency: the changing figure of the nineteenth-century specter.” victorian studies 51.4 (summer 2009): 663-85. jstor. web. 11 nov. 2013. braddon, mary e. “the cold embrace.” victorian ghost stories: by eminent women writers. ed. richard dalby. new york: carroll & graf publishers, inc., 1989. 43-50. print. calder, jenni. women and marriage in victorian fiction. new york: oxford university press, 1976. print. james, henry. “the romance of certain old clothes.” victorian ghost stories: an oxford anthology. ed. michael cox & r.a. gilbert. oxford: oxford university press, 1991. 83-99. print. le fanu, joseph sheridan. “some odd facts about the tiled house—being the authentic narrative of the ghost of a hand.” the house by the church-yard. ed. ted garvin and janet blenkinship. project gutenberg. project gutenberg, 15 feb 2006. web. 12 november 2013. lustig, t. j. henry james and the ghostly. cambridge: cambridge university press, 1994. print. nunokawa, jeff. the afterlife of property. princeton: princeton university press, 1994. print. plante, ellen m. women at home in victorian america: a social history. new york: facts on file, 1997. print. quiller-couch, a. t. “a pair of hands.” old fires and profitable ghosts: a book of stories. ed. lionel g. sear. project gutenberg. project gutenberg, 23 oct. 2006. web. 12 november 2013. rowe, john carlos. the other henry james. durham: duke university press, 1998. print. rowe, katherine. dead hands: fictions of agency, renaissance to modern. stanford: stanford university press, 1999. print. windscheffel, ruth clayton. “politics, religion and text: w.e. gladstone and spiritualism.” journal of victorian culture 11.1 (spring 2006): 1-29. mla international bibliography. web. 12 nov. 2013. young, arlene. culture, class and gender in the victorian novel. new york: st. martin’s press, 1999. print. “the romance of certain old clothes” 185 the unseen fat woman: fatness, stigma, and invisibility in mrs. wolowitz from the big bang theory “difference demands display. display demands difference.” mitchell and snyder, 55 this epigraph strikes at the core of the historical and cultural phenomenon that is the freak show. as an institution that derives its attraction from difference, the freak show displays individuals who are not considered “normal.” but the function of displaying difference goes beyond mere entertainment. freak shows existed as a form of societal self-definition for the people who paid to gain entrance to the shows. society defined itself by projecting upon the freak show all of the undesirable traits and the concerns they had about the ever-changing world. in particular, the exhibition of fat women in the freak show embodied spectators’ fears about losing control of their bodies, represented as gaining weight. by contrasting themselves with the fat women, they were given an opportunity to identify who they were, or as disability studies scholar rosemarie garland thomson calls it, “an opportunity to formulate the self in terms of what it is not” (59). as a result, the freak show codified the idea that fatness was abnormal, unhealthy, and undesirable; and in contrast, it reinforced the notions that thinness was normal, healthy, and ideal. and behind the “unhealthy” nature of the fat body lies a belief that the fat body is out of control as a result of excessive behaviors. bryce longenberger, ball state university abstract in the big bang theory, mrs. wolowitz is the only fat character on the show but is also the only character to never have her entire body shown to viewers. this essay analyzes the implications of removing the fat body from visual displays and how the show situates mrs. wolowitz within the contexts of the freak show, fat stigma, and corrective health narratives, which ultimately demands that fat bodies never be displayed to viewers. digital literature review, vol. 3 (2016). © ball state university. all rights reserved. please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce critical edition to dlr@bsu.edu. 166 in the end, the main attraction is undoubtedly the sight of the fat body. people did not pay to hear a description of a fat person; they came to see the fat person in the flesh. a counterexample of the displaying of fatness occurs in the modern cbs sitcom, the big bang theory. the television show focuses on a group of four nerds who work at caltech: sheldon cooper and leonard hofstadter, two physicists; raj koothrappali, an astrophysicist; and howard wolowitz, an aerospace engineer. the show follows their nerdy lives as they interact with their neighbor, penny, an aspiring actress, and numerous other characters. out of all of the characters in the show, there is only one character who is fat and one character whose body is never shown; that character is howard’s mother, mrs. wolowitz. since, in the freak show, the visual display of the fat body and the denigration of the fat body are indistinguishable, it may seem that intentionally avoiding the display of mrs. wolowitz’s fat body would cease the freakification of fatness. it might seem that the absence of the fat body would provide fat people with more control over the construction of their own identity. however, in this paper i argue that merely not showing the fat body does not accomplish this task. first, in applying research on social stigma and an analysis of the historical context shaping cultural attitudes about fatness, i demonstrate that mrs. wolowitz’s fat body, and fatness in general, is still denigrated despite the absence of a visible fat body. second, by examining narratives in general and the medical narrative within the show, i prove that the show moves beyond merely degrading the fat body and dictates that fatness must be controlled and ultimately corrected. third, by exploring jeannine gailey’s theory of hyper(in)visibility, which is the paradox of the fat body being both metaphorically invisible and actually visible at the same time, i demonstrate that the absence of mrs. wolowitz’s fat body in the show creates a clear message that the fat body is so “unruly” and “ugly” that it does not even deserve to be looked at, that it should be erased from public view. i believe it is impossible to reclaim fat identity when the fat body is not present and when popular sitcoms subtly state that it should not be present. instead, i believe that the only way to celebrate fat identity and critique negative attitudes about fatness is to allow fat individuals to create their own identities and control the display of their bodies on their own conditions. longenberger 167 social attitudes about fatness when a fat lady or man was exhibited in the freak show, his or her body consumed the identity of that person. viewers saw a fat body and the negative characteristics they associated with it. in the big bang theory, despite the absence of mrs. wolowitz’s fat body, her fat identity still consumes her character and makes fatness her defining characteristic. this happens because the social stigma behind fatness is so pervasive that it extends beyond the visual body. according to erving goffman, a stigma is a personal attribute that is “deeply discrediting” due to societal attitudes regarding it, attitudes that can lead to social shunning (257). he states that “an individual who might have been received easily in ordinary social intercourse possesses a trait that can obtrude itself upon attention and turn those of us whom he meets away from him, breaking the claim that his other attributes have on us” (257). he stresses, however, that stigma is created in social interactions, and the stigma itself is created from the attitudes and perceptions of people towards the stigmatized individual and not from the trait itself. among goffman’s three types of stigma, the type that pertains to the fat body is “abominations of the body,” or “various physical deformities” that are visible to others and are difficult to cover up (257). in the case of a fat person, fatness is a physical trait that cannot be disguised; and, according to goffman’s theory, fatness becomes a stigma because of the social attitudes of the people who interact with the fat person. the effect of this on the fat person is insurmountable: the body has the potential to consume the identity of the person, creating a singular identity concentrated on the fat body itself. any interaction with a fat person, then, is tainted by the stigma that others impose upon that person, denying the fat person a chance of cultivating an acceptable position in society. one reason that fatness is so stigmatized is that social attitudes about fatness have long existed in american culture. amy erdman farrell studies postcards from the nineteenth century to determine the social attitudes toward fatness. farrell notices that, in the beginning and middle of that century, fatness was first a positive characteristic. she states that a “hefty body” was a marker of both wealth and health, signifying that a person had the money to feed themselves properly (27). however, she discovers there were other perceptions of fatness. many times, growing businesses and corrupt longenberger 168 politicians would be depicted as fat; but she notes that the fat person was not perceived as a physical or moral threat. instead, the fat body was a way to represent the corruption in the political system; the negative attitudes were directed at the politicians, not the fat body (31). a final depiction of a fat person was a spectacle in the form of an extremely fat person; however, the stigma here was not on the fat person himself but rather on the “uniqueness” of the individual (32). however, starting in the late nineteenth century, farrell notices a shift toward social attitudes that viewed fatness as a negative trait. she believes that there were multiple factors that contributed to this changing viewpoint. on one side, remnants of protestant thinking portrayed fatness as a sign of a “deficient body” resulting from the failure to control one’s desires and appetites (45). on the other side, as theories of evolution began to circulate, ideas about “stages of civilization” cast certain types of bodies as inferior based on multiple criteria – racial difference, gender differences, sexual differences, and differences in body types: thinness vs. fatness (60). by the beginning of the twentieth century, people already believed that fatness was a negative characteristic; within the minds of americans, the “connotations of fatness”—that the fat person was gluttonous, lazy, stupid, and sinful—were already planted (34). today, these attitudes about fatness have become so ingrained in our minds that mrs. wolowitz’s character cannot escape them, even without her body being displayed. throughout the show, the single defining feature of mrs. wolowitz is her fatness. there is emphasis on her eating habits: in one episode we learn that mrs. wolowitz has to eat oreos during her bath (“the staircase implementation”), and in another episode we hear that mrs. wolowitz’s hand is stuck in the garbage disposal because she won’t let go of a “perfectly good chicken leg” (“the habitation configuration”). besides eating, her extreme physical size is stressed so much that it freakifies her. in one episode, after mrs. wolowtiz has been injured, howard jokes about getting a forklift to help his mother get up the stairs (“the gorilla dissolution”). in another episode, mrs. wolowtiz has what is presumably a heart attack while in the bathroom. when howard tells his friends that he lifted her to the car, penny is astounded: “you picked up your mother? her own legs are barely able to do that.” howard, trying to find a plausible explanation, says, “i was filled with adrenaline. it happens to be how women longenberger 169 lift cars off babies.” penny, looking at him incredulously, says that it would be easier to lift a car than lift mrs. wolowitz (“the engagement reaction”). there are countless other episodes in which she is described as being big enough to hide behind her shadow (“the bakersfield expedition”) as well as being so big that she appears in every single picture in howard and bernadette’s wedding album (“the parking spot escalation”). this not only presents fatness as a comedic element, but it also freakifies mrs. wolowitz by reducing her identity into a single issue—her fatness—that marks her as other. when we focus our attention on her, we focus solely on her “abnormal” body size; her humanity has been replaced by the size of her body and food intake. the othering of mrs. wolowitz is so severe that she herself has internalized the idea that fatness is a state of being out-of-control and physically undesirable. in “the hawking excitation,” sheldon is helping mrs. wolowitz try on a dress for howard’s wedding. as he is trying to push her body into the dress and zip her up, sheldon says, “if i squeeze you any tighter, you may turn into a diamond.” mrs. wolowitz responds—one of the only times she actually addresses her large size head on: “you’re right, who am i kidding? you should have seen me when i was young, sheldon. the fellas used to line up and bring me boxes of candy. why did i eat it all?” (“the hawking excitation”). first, this quote from mrs. wolowitz directly links excessiveness and overeating with fatness, drawing a connection between the two and reinforcing the notion that to be fat is to be out of control. second, this quote implies that, once mrs. wolowitz became fat, she no longer had “fellas” lining up with boxes of chocolate. this suggests that fatness marred her character and made her “ugly”; she essentially believes that fatness makes her undesirable. but, most importantly, these ideas are no longer simply social attitudes; they are now intrinsic and reciprocal attitudes that mrs. wolowitz holds about herself. instead of being merely the recipient of social stigma regarding her body, mrs. wolowitz is both the sender and receiver. and so, the absence of her body from the show does nothing to prevent her from being stigmatized and othered. narratives of correction in the big bang theory, there are many narratives introduced in the beginning of the show that get resolved throughout the course of the show. longenberger 170 for example, in the beginning, sheldon, leonard, howard, and raj are all single; currently, in its ninth season, all four of them are in relationships. but, when we consider mrs. wolowitz, her only narrative arc concerns her body size. therefore, the show’s very narrative structure contains a health narrative that dictates that mrs. wolowitz’s fatness must be corrected. narrative hinges upon introducing a form of imbalance – a wrong that needs to be righted, a challenge that needs to be overcome and then subsequently attempting to correct that imbalance and bring it back to equilibrium. however, this imbalance can appear in the form of bodily difference as well. david t. mitchell and sharon l. snyder focus on this exact issue in their book, narrative prosthesis. mitchell and snyder define narrative prosthesis as “the dependency of literary narratives upon disability” (53). they state that narrative is predicated ideologically on the introduction of some conflict or deviance and the subsequent attempt to resolve that deviance. however, they also claim that when narrative specifically focuses on characters with disabilities, “the effort to narrate disability’s myriad deviations is an attempt to bring the body’s unruliness under control” (6). as they later state, rarely is the narrative able to return a character to “normal” status, and thus the character with disabilities is either “left behind or punished for its lack of conformity” (55). while narrative prosthesis focuses on narrative’s reliance on disability in literature, there are also national health narratives that make the same demands on the fat body. in pat lyons’s article in the fat studies reader, she states that the national institutes of health labels “over 60% of americans as ‘overweight or obese’”; this is perceived by nih as a sign of the “obesity epidemic” sweeping the country (75). lyon’s description of this moral panic certainly seems accurate: according to a cbs article written by gina pace, in 2006, the u.s. surgeon general richard carmona said that “obesity is the terror within. unless we do something about it, the magnitude of the dilemma will dwarf 9-11 or any other terrorist attempt.” as the public has come to accept the war on obesity, lyons states that the “diet and weight loss industry has moved from the sidelines to the center of american life” (75). these two industries have remained crucial to shaping attitudes regarding fatness, advertising that the only way to achieve happiness and a healthy lifestyle is by losing weight. this “war on obesity” demands that people labeled as “overweight” and “obese” lose weight so they longenberger 171 can become healthy, even though sustained long-term weight loss has been proven to be ineffective; according to lyons, the “failure rate for sustained weight loss has remained constant at 90-95%” (75). nevertheless, millions of americans continue to believe in the health narrative that dictates weight loss. this practice of introducing disability into narrative and then attempting to “bring the body’s unruliness under control” is highly prevalent in the big bang theory. raj has a psychological inability to talk to women. however, when he wants to talk to women, he drinks alcohol to return himself to “normalcy.” after a significant breakup with a girlfriend, raj eventually finds that he has been cured of his psychological problem and can then talk to women without alcohol. while sheldon never overcomes his ocdlike tendencies, the show is filled with countless instances when his friends attempt to change his behavior. for example, when they eat dinner in their apartment, sheldon always has to sit in ‘his’ spot on the couch. during one episode, leonard buys a dining room table and attempts to force sheldon to alter his routine. but sheldon refuses to eat at it, and the gang eventually returns to their usual dinner schedule. however, most importantly to my argument, the big bang theory also attempts to correct mrs. wolowitz’s body and bring her deviance back to normal. the show states clearly that her weight negatively affects her health; in one episode, mrs. wolowitz takes thirty minutes to walk up two flights of stairs (“the weekend vortex”). in multiple other episodes, she needs howard’s help to put on or take off clothing, to take baths, and to rub lotion on herself. after establishing that mrs. wolowitz’s body is deviant and her weight is having “negative” effects on her health, the show then dictates that she must correct the problem through exercise. in one episode, it is revealed that mrs. wolowitz once attended a weight watchers cruise (“the higgs boson observation”). in another episode, howard says that she goes to a water aerobics class (“the spaghetti catalyst”). and finally, in one episode, howard gets mrs. wolowitz a treadmill because “the doctor says you need to get exercise” even though mrs. wolowitz claims that she already gets enough exercise (“the gorilla dissolution”). this depicts mrs. wolowitz as a person who is out of shape and is experiencing negative consequences from her fatness. thus, as mitchell and snyder suggest, the show attempts to “correct” longenberger 172 mrs. wolowitz by demanding that she exercise in order to lose weight. in the end, this mandate takes mrs. wolowtiz’s life. while the show never states the cause of her death, she is the only main character to die on the show and the only character whose cause of death is not old age. the show is essentially sending the message that fatness must be corrected or it will be removed from the show altogether. the effects of invisibility while mrs. wolowitz’s body from the big bang theory might not be at the forefront of viewers’ minds, the absence of her body from the show is an intentional decision made by its producer. and, when fatness is alluded to or described, it is relegated to stories, fat suits, or words – the actual fat body is never shown. in this manner, the show is effectually erasing and replacing the fat body with the thin body, stating that fatness is so “repellant” that it must not be shown on television. the decision not to show mrs. wolowitz’s body is, at its core, a stylistic choice made by the director of the show. in 2012, mark dawidziak from the plain dealer interviewed carol ann susi, who is the voice of mrs. wolowitz. according to susi, when chuck lorre, the director of the big bang theory, discussed mrs. wolowitz’s role with her, he said, “‘carlton the doorman. that’s the kind of thing we’re going for here.’” dawidziak points out that mrs. wolowitz actually fits into a larger string of characters that are heard but never seen, saying that mrs. wolowitz is a “part of that long tv tradition of equally [invisible] enigmatic characters.” among those other characters, dawidziak mentions carlton the doorman from “rhoda,” orson from “mork and mindy,” the pa announcer from “m*a*s*h,” and robin masters from “magnum, p.i.” it is undeniable that mrs. wolowitz’s absence from the screen is because the director wanted to achieve a certain kind of cinematic effect, a character that is mysterious and enigmatic. from dawidziak’s interview, however, it is also clear the actress was not concerned about the effect that not showing mrs. wolowitz’s body would have. when dawidziak asked her how she responded when lore told her that mrs. wolowitz would be an off-stage character, susi replied: “it didn’t bother me that they’d never show howard’s mother. i absolutely didn’t care. a job’s a job.” it’s clear that lore and susi were not concerned about what kind of message it would send if the only fat woman on the show longenberger 173 was relegated beyond the eyes of the viewer while the (thin) characters onstage constantly made jokes about her weight. an integral concept linked with mrs. wolowitz’s visibility/invisibility is “hyper(in)visibility.” jeannine gailey has coined the term “hyper(in)visibility,” which is a paradoxical state of visibility/invisibility that occurs in relation to the fat individual. she notes that the fat body is hypervisible because it is “highly public, visually inspected, and made into a spectacle” (7). this materializes in the fact that fatness cannot be hidden; fat people cannot go out in public without having their bodies looked at and visually dissected by strangers. however, she also notes that the fat body is hyperinvisible in that it is “marginalized and erased” to the point where it is dismissed altogether (7). this is demonstrated by the fact that desks and seating on public transportation, for example, are made for the “average-sized” person. society treats the fat person as if they do not exist, sending the message to fat people that it is they who have to fit into society, not vice versa. this paradoxical state of hyper(in)visibility – of being simultaneously scrutinized in public and ignored and erased – is a state that fat individuals have to live with. this state of hyper(in)visibility occurs in the big bang theory just as gailey describes. mrs. wolowitz’s identity as a fat person is hypervisible because her body type and life are constantly discussed on the show by the characters. an episode hardly goes by without the characters mentioning her weight, her eating habits, her bathroom habits, or her relationship with howard. without even seeing her in person, her life is publicly dissected and turned into a spectacle for us to laugh at. on the other hand, mrs. wolowitz’s hyperinvisibility has been taken to the extreme: her identity as a fat person has been so erased that her body is not even shown to viewers. she is literally as “invisible” as any character can be without disappearing from the show altogether. the big bang theory does not hide her body entirely, though; instead, it provides us with three brief glimpses of mrs. wolowitz. but these moments merely emphasize her absence and the thin body that fills that absence. the first glimpse we get of her is at howard’s wedding in “the countdown reflection;” but we get an aerial view of the rooftop where the ceremony is taking place, so all we can identify about mrs. wolowitz is that she is larger than the other characters. in the next season, we get a brief glimpse of her as she is walking past an open door; but again, the moment is brief and all we can longenberger 174 make out is a large woman (“the spoiler alert segmentation”). the third and final time we see her body, it is not a real body at all; instead, in “the cooper extraction,” we see a fake scenario where mrs. wolowitz is dead, and so all we see is a skeleton in a large dress. these brief moments where we catch a glimpse of mrs. wolowitz’s body are simply reminders of why the fat body is not visible. this systematic hiding of mrs. wolowtiz’s fat body and the refusal to show her body just reiterates that it is being hidden because, according to the stigma surrounding fatness, it should not be shown, that the only body that should be shown is the thin body. the show continues the erasure of the fat body by highlighting the thin body and celebrating the loss of fatness in other characters. in “the grasshopper experiment,” raj is on a date with an indian woman named lalita gupta. because the two were childhood acquaintances, raj decides to bring up the subject of her weight loss since he knew her before it happened: “you have lost so much weight! that must have been difficult for you because you were so, so fat! do you remember?” lalita confirms that she does remember. raj, too drunk to understand that lalita is uncomfortable with this subject, continues by saying, “of course you do. who could forget being that fat?” lalita blushes and says, “well, i’ve been trying.” later, when raj introduces lalita to all of his friends, he ends with saying, “isn’t it great, she isn’t fat anymore!” (“the grasshopper experiment”). by focusing on the thin body of lalita and contrasting it with the hidden fat body that she used to possess, this scene clearly hides and erases the fat body and the experiences of fat people. and, since lalita’s fat body only exists in the past and the show refuses to show it in the present, this scene reinforces the demands that fatness must be eradicated, that it is a state so “deplorable” that it should not only be forgotten, but its loss should be celebrated. not only is the fat body erased, but when fat suits are used in the show, the thin characters are even given the control over the display and representation of fatness. in “the cooper extraction,” sheldon visits texas over the holidays because his sister is having a baby. while he is absent, the rest of the cast throw a christmas tree decorating party and envision how their lives would be different if they had never met sheldon. when asked why leonard and raj never lived together, raj narrates what would have happened if they had. in the imagined scene, raj prepares dinner for the two of them while leonard is sitting, wearing a fat suit and reading a newspaper. at this point, longenberger 175 leonard interrupts in the present time and asks why he is fat and raj is not. in the next instant, we are transported back to the fake scene, but this time raj is also fat. an instant later, another character from the show also walks in wearing a fat suit, apparently inserting himself into the story and donning an imaginary fat suit because he wanted to be included in someone’s story. the use of fat suits in this episode is extremely problematic because it once again emphasizes the thin body while hiding the fat body. the episode suggests that fat bodies can only be shown if they are not real fat bodies. and even though fake fat bodies are being shown, the emphasis is always on the thin actors who have the power to shed their fat suits and revert to their original (thin) bodies. finally, some of the language in the show even erases the fatness and euphemizes the fat identity. in the “hawking excitation,” mrs. wolowitz refers to stuffing her body into a dress as “folding a sleeping bag.” in another episode, she refers to her body as spilling out of a girdle “like the pillsbury doughboy” (“the hot troll deviation”). and finally, as i have already mentioned, there are several instances where her body is described as being like a car or needing to be lifted by a forklift. even though it is not entirely pervasive throughout the entire show, the repetitive use of euphemisms, used both by the characters and mrs. wolowitz, to describe and replace the fat body serves to further erase the identity of fat individuals. the show’s message remains clear: the fat body is so “abhorrent” that not only should it be hidden from view, but the very word “fat” should never even be uttered. reclaiming fat identity so far, the absence of mrs. wolowitz’s body in the big bang theory has only managed to label her body as deviant and reinforce the societal demand that it be corrected and erased. therefore, i would like to highlight some movements that are rooted in celebrating the fat body and challenging the negative societal attitudes against fat people. within the health industry, there is a movement called health at every size, or haes™, that celebrates the fat body instead of describing it as unhealthy. as deb burgard defines the movement in her article in the fat studies reader, haes™ does not define health “by a certain type of weight for all (such as thinness), but rather it defines the correct weight for a person when they are living a healthy lifestyle” (44). instead of arguing that health will be longenberger 176 achieved when a person reaches a particular weight (thinness), haes™ is built upon the premise that a healthy lifestyle will lead to a healthy weight for that individual. two of the core beliefs of haes™ are that every body type should be celebrated and that weight stigma and prejudice are very harmful to the fat individual (burgard 50). there are also two modern examples of attractions that challenge the superiority of thinness. sharon mazer writes about katy dierlam, who performed as a fat woman at coney island’s sideshow in 1992. her stage name was “helen melon.” in her show, dierlam/melon would display her body for viewers and talk with them about her body. but instead of allowing the sideshow to exploit her, she used her performance to challenge the norms that surrounded her body image. during her performance, dierlam/melon states openly what her audience is thinking about her body. according to mazer, she identifies those thoughts as “cultural stereotypes” and thus “reverses the lens of her performance” onto the audience (260). dierlam/melon is hoping that her audience will confront their own prejudices about the fat body and, in the end, change them. another example of challenging the narrative surrounding fatness is the series of art installations created by rachel herrick, titled the museum for obeast conservation studies. in her travelling museum, herrick displays mannequins that she calls “obeasts;” these mannequins are actually modeled after her own body. by presenting the “obeast” as a wild animal, herrick is directly stating what many people subconsciously believe: that fatness is degrading and somehow animalistic. as people visit her museums, they see these exaggerated social norms and hopefully reexamine their own notions about fatness. if the freak show is any indication, the human tendency is to display difference, not celebrate it. the haes™ movement, dierlam/melon, and herrick have all chosen to counteract the effects of the freak show. they are attempting to foster an environment where difference is celebrated, where fatness is seen as beautiful and normal. they are trying to raise awareness about the consequences of our actions and words on fat people today. perhaps, if their message was more widespread, chuck lorre and carol ann susi would have been troubled by the thought of making mrs. wolowitz a hidden fat character and relegating fat identity to the unseen shadows. unfortunately, their decision can no longer be reversed. during the eighth sealongenberger 177 son of the big bang theory, carol ann susi died, and, with her, the character of mrs. wolowitz disappeared forever from the show. since it is too late to change the big bang theory, our only hope lies in this: celebrating fat identity and eradicating the stigma surrounding it so that the next mrs. wolowitz can stand proudly on that stage for the entire world to see. longenberger 178 works cited primary sources “the bakersfield expedition.” the big bang theory. cbs. warner brother television, new york. 10 jan. 2013. dvd. “the cooper extraction.” the big bang theory. cbs. warner brother television, new york. 12 dec. 2013. dvd. “the countdown reflection.” the big bang theory. cbs. warner brother television, new york. 10 may 2012. dvd. “the engagement reaction.” the big bang theory. cbs. warner brother television, new york. 12 may 2011. dvd. “the gorilla dissolution.” the big bang theory. cbs. warner brother television, new york. 8 may 2014. dvd. “the grasshopper experiment.” the big bang theory. cbs. warner brother television, new york. 12 nov. 2007. dvd. “the habitation configuration.” the big bang theory. cbs. warner brother television, new york. 8 nov. 2012. dvd. “the hawking excitation.” the big bang theory. cbs. warner brother television, new york. 5 apr. 2012. dvd. “the higgs boson observation.” the big bang theory. cbs. warner brother television, new york. 11 oct. 2012. dvd. “the hot troll deviation.” the big bang theory. cbs. warner brother television, new york. 23 sept. 2010. dvd. “the parking spot escalation.” the big bang theory. cbs. warner brother television, new york. 29 nov. 2012. dvd. longenberger 179 “the spaghetti catalyst.” the big bang theory. cbs. warner brother television, new york. 3 may 2010. dvd. “the spoiler alert segmentation.” the big bang theory. cbs. warner brother television, new york. 7 feb. 2013. dvd. “the staircase implementation.” the big bang theory. cbs. warner brother television, new york. 17 may 2010. dvd. “the weekend vortex.” the big bang theory. cbs. warner brother television, new york. 6 mar. 2012. dvd. secondary sources burgard, deb. “what is ‘health at every size’?” fat studies reader. eds. esther rothblum and sondra solovay. new york: new york university press, 2009. print. dawidziak, mark. “‘big bang theory’s’ mrs. wolowitz is the latest in a long line of enigmatic invisible tv characters.” the plain dealer. plain dealer publishing company, 7 dec. 2012. web. 19 jan. 2016. farrell, amy erdman. fat shame: stigma and the fat body in american culture. new york: new york university press, 2011. print. gailey, jeannine a. “hyper(in)visibility and the paradox of fat.” the hyper(in) visible fat woman. new york: palgrave macmillan, 2014. 1-29. print. goffman, erving. “stigma and social identity.” understanding deviance: connecting classical and contemporary perspectives. ed. tammy l. anderson. new york: routledge, 2014. 256-265. print. lyons, pat. “prescription for harm: diet industry influence, public health policy, and the ‘obesity epidemic.’” fat studies reader. eds. esther rothblum and sondra solovay. new york: new york university press, 2009. print. longenberger 180 mazer, sharon. “‘she’s so fat …’ facing the fat lady at coney island’s sideshows by the seashore.” bodies out of bounds: fatness and transgression. eds. jana evans braziel and kathleen lebesco. berkley: university of california press, 2001. 257-267. print. mitchell, david t. and sharon l. snyder. narrative prosthesis: disability and the dependencies of discourse. ann arbor: university of michigan press, 2000. proquest. web. 29 oct. 2015. museum for obeast conservation studies. mocs, 2015. web. 7 nov. 2015. pace, gina. “obesity bigger threat than terrorism?” cbs news. cbs news, 1 mar. 2006. web. 5 feb. 2016. thomson, rosemarie garland. extraordinary bodies: figuring physical disability in american culture and literature. new york: columbia university press, 1997. print. longenberger 181 general introduction in his article “hauntings,” author andrew smith traces the changing trajectory of gothic fictions from the early eighteenth to the late nineteenth centuries, interpreting the gothic motif of ghosts and haunting in terms of two critical historical and cultural themes, those of subjectivity and labor. the work of m.e. braddon perfectly embodies both of these themes, and this is particularly true of her short story, “the shadow in the corner.” smith argues that the motif of ghosts and hauntings in the gothic fiction of the nineteenth century reflected a culture grappling with transforming and increasingly spectral conceptions of subjectivity. the victorian period inherited a host of ideas from the rise of the enlightenment and the scientific revolution, which during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries produced a litany of discoveries and philosophies that contributed to the development of new models for theorizing the self. the transition from a geocentric to a heliocentric model of the universe destabilized subjectivity by disorienting and reordering our understanding of the universe and humanity’s place within it. within philosophy, one of the most significant contributions was the rise of materialism. materialism, in opposition to preceding models of idealism and cosmology, put forth the idea that the self was entirely constructed by material processes and interactions. this philosophy created tension within idealist and cosmological schools of thought, which put emphasis on consciousness and the origins of the universe to structure concepts of existence and the self. during the victorian period itself, the development of atomic theory, in which scientists discovered that matter is made up of discrete units that exist separately from one another, literally fragmented the formulation of the self. thus, scientific advancement contributed to increasingly spectral concepts of subjectivity, and the “whole” of the self became more ghostly. these models of subjectivity were in tension with other models that, according to smith, emerged in the gothic literature of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century and explored the irrational and the supernatural. because gothic literature anticipates psychoanalysis, freud’s models are particularly helpful when analyzing ghost stories from the victorian period. freud’s models merge philosophy with scientific practice and reflect a concept of the self moving more fully into the realm of the mind. with freud’s concept of the unconscious, suddenly, the self was not only immaterial, but unknowable, with parts of it hidden from sight and awareness. freud’s model allows us to see what was ghostly about subjectivity in the victorian period. in freud, the unconscious, the realm of the repressed, was also representative of traumatic memory. in this way, psychoanalysis gives us important tools for analyzing the ways that victorian subjectivity was further fragmented. returning to smith, psychoanalysis introduced a “haunted” conception of this edition provides a critical examination of m.e. braddon’s “the shadow in the corner.” specifically, the authors explore the ways in which themes of haunting in the victorian period and in m.e. braddon’s work are informed by competing notions of subjectivity and the shadowy presence of female working class figures in both the history and fiction of the time. shadows and specters: a critical edition of “the shadow in the corner” by m.e. braddon edited by rachael heffner, elizabeth palmer, malorie palmer, & esther wolfe 146 digital literature review, vol. 1 (2014). © ball state university. all rights reserved. please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce this critical edition to dlr@bsu.edu. mailto:dlr%40bsu.edu?subject= the self (149). we can now see that victorian science and philosophy continually deferred the concept of the self even as it constantly tried to define and “fix” it. the ghosts of early victorian fiction, as literally destabilized subjects, represented the destabilization of subjectivity that occurred with the development of contradictory formulations of the self in the victorian period. further, the gothic fiction of the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, according to smith, referenced the emergence of a new industrial capitalist economy. according to smith, during the 18th century, capital became increasingly spectral. the emergence of the stock exchange, as well as the use of paper money, made “wealth appear intangible, subject to seemingly occult fluctuations in the market” (150). in addition, the rise of commodity fetishism created a sudden dissonance between labor and production. as smith points out, we see the commodity of the table, not the labor that produced it (150). in this way, the specter of the ghost in late victorian fiction represented the spectral, immaterial relationships between money and value, labor and production, that were introduced by an industrial capitalist system. by pushing on the spectral economies introduced by smith, we reveal an additional capitalist haunting. during the industrial revolution, the emergence of a female working class created an additional space of spectrality and anxiety within an already ghostly capitalist system. female labor was embodied in a threshold space of capitalist paradox and temporal anachronism, transgressing and disordering boundaries of gender, race, and class. perhaps the clearest example of the spectrality of the female working class is the contradiction of its existence within capitalism, and the subsequent politics of its visibility. during the victorian period, women were not supposed to work, yet made up a large part of the capitalist labor force. as a result of this contradiction, women’s labor, including the work of female miners and domestic servants, was rendered carefully invisible, relegated to underground mineshafts and within the space of the home, where it would not be seen. female domestic servants were especially subject to this paradoxical politics of invisibility. in her book imperial leather: race, gender, and sexuality in the colonial contest, author anne mcclintock writes (in the aptly titled section, “the invisible servant”), “the housewife’s labor of leisure found its counterpart in the servant’s labor of invisibility. servants were ordered to remain unseen, completing the filthiest work before dawn or at night, dodging their employers, keeping to the labyrinthine back passages, remaining, at all costs, out of sight” (163). it was this relegation of women’s labor to realms of between and below, the result of its paradoxical existence within the victorian capitalist market, that made women’s labor “suffer one of the most successful vanishing acts in modern history” (163). female labor in the victorian period was also spectral in its transgression of boundary. mining women, by performing men’s work in men’s clothing (particularly the phallic work of penetrating the earth), threatened binaries and hierarchies of gender. female miners, blackened by coal dust, also destabilized racial boundaries, and were often referred to as a “race” or “species” apart, who were also “half savage” (115). in this way, female labor also occupied an alternate, ghostly temporal space, relegated via racialization to a “primitive” or “pre-historic” time. in addition, female domestic servants, by being paid for domestic labor, displaced categories of private, domestic space and the public space of capital and exchange. according to mcclintock, by “overtly crossing the thresholds of private and public, home and market, working and middle class, servants brought into the middle class home the whiff of the marketplace, the odor of cash” which “constantly imperiled the ‘natural’ separation of private home and public market” (165). the spectrality and ghostliness of the female working class is also represented in gothic fictions. in the servant’s hand, author bruce robbins describes the depiction of servants in literature as “human blanks” and “signs” who “cannot be represented except as displaced or deferred” (23). robbins also identifies the female laborer as a site of contradiction in literature, as someone who “functions as a sign that carries awareness of the unnaturalness and arbitrariness of signs into a social hierarchy that would like to present itself as natural, rooted, fixed” (23). as in life, the female working class of victorian fictions embodied a space of paradox, destabilization, and transgression within capitalist economies. as robbins notes, victorian fictions commonly referred to servant work as a “situation” or “place,” further emphasizing the spectrality of female labor by making linguistic attempts to “fix” and orient it. in many ways, braddon’s own life and authorship embody these spectral movements of subjectivity and female labor within the victorian period. braddon, who published an incredibly prolific 80 works in her lifetime, “the shadow in the corner” 147 also authored under a gender-neutral pseudonym. braddon’s authorship occupies a ghostly space within capitalism, as a female labor that is not supposed to be there, rendered invisible by an ungendered name. braddon also lived with her long-term partner without marrying him, and bought out his publishing company in order to rescue him from debt. in this way, braddon’s labor was also ghostly in its destabilization of boundary. by supporting her lover financially, braddon transgressed hierarchical categories of gender and power. that the female working class was rendered ghostly within the victorian capitalist system was also reflected in braddon’s personal social reform politics, as well as in her choice of genre. according to eve lynch, braddon “agitated to experiment with fiction that considered more pressing social issues, particularly the problems she saw arising out of victorian reform policies that ignored the private domestic trials of women and the poor” (235). in the use of the ghost story, braddon found a vehicle for communicating her political criticisms; for braddon, ghosts serve “as emblems of what victorian society is unwilling to ‘see’ in its social condition” (238). according to lynch, braddon’s tales “are filled with characters culled from the lower orders, especially servants from the regions ‘below stairs’ whose social position in the house was analogous to the spectral apparition that haunted it” (237). lynch goes on to say that, “like the supernatural influence quietly imposing its own order on the will of the domestic inhabitants, the servant of the house suggested a bilateral, silent estate of discontent and dis-ease cohabiting the same physical space as the family but imagined by the family as immaterial and invisible” (238). in this way, braddon’s use of ghosts and haunting in her body of work commented on the erasure and invisibility of female labor, likening it to the ghost, in order to “repeatedly expose social inequities” (237). braddon’s works are also centrally concerned with issues of subjectivity; as lynch notes, braddon continuously satirized the materialist and individualist philosophy of the economic elite (235). braddon’s works, including “the shadow in the corner,” are littered with affluent, intellectually elitist characters whose materialist philosophies are unable to account for the haunting that takes place in the narrative, unlike their “superstitious” working class counterparts. using these devices, braddon criticizes the way knowledge and education was centralized, often as a strategy for maintaining stratifications and divisions of class power. in this way, braddon’s works also illustrate the ways in which competing notions of subjectivity were intimately bound up in the spectrality of the female working class, informing the structures of class power that contributed to women’s invisibility and erasure. it is also pertinent to note the historical connections between ghost stories and movements of scientific reasoning and social reform in the victorian era. according to lynch, the sudden rise in the popularity of the ghost story form coincided with a period of prolific social reforms, including the reform bill of 1867, which included several education reforms as well as reforms for women’s labor (238). perhaps the most explicit representation of these entangled categories of ghostliness, subjectivity, and capital can be parsed from a popular call to action during the victorian period, which often referenced the “spirit of reform.” here, the word “spirit” invokes both ghostliness and constructions of subjectivity and applies to the social structures of capital and economy. this edition includes several documents that further contextualize these themes in braddon’s work. a diary entry from arthur munby, written in the 1800’s, illustrates the spectrality of the female working class through munby’s erotic obsession with the transgression of categories of race, class, and gender by working class women. in addition, a diary entry from munby’s partner hannah cullwick, herself a member of the female working class, reveals the spectral visibility of working class women by pairing descriptions of erasure with descriptions of labor. finally, an excerpt from lady audley’s secret, also written by braddon, explores the ghostliness of women’s labor using the prominent theme of live burial, alluding to working women’s experiences of confinement and erasure. reading braddon’s story, as well as the life of braddon herself, within these intersections of subjectivity and capital allows us to interpret the cultural “stuff ” that makes up “the shadow in the corner.” introduction to m.e. braddon’s “the shadow in the corner” what is perhaps most striking about m.e. braddon’s ghost story “the shadow in the corner” is how little of the story’s narrative action is devoted to the haunting itself. although braddon’s narrative tells the story of the “shadow in the corner,” descriptions of the “shadow” and its ghostly effects are sparse, scattered and dislocat148“the shadow in the corner” ed throughout the text. rather, what is foregrounded are competing victorian models of subjectivity and the spectral presence of women’s labor. one can therefore interpret the “shadow in the corner” both as a motif of competing conceptions of subjectivity, and as the ghostly existence of the female working class. braddon’s story begins not with a description of a haunting, but with negotiations between the master of wildheath and his butler mr. skeggs over the problem of employing a “maid-of-all-work.” mrs. skeggs, he says, “must have a girl…a girl to trot about and wash up, and help the old lady.” in this opening exchange, braddon’s text emphasizes not only the existence of women’s domestic wage labor, but also its extreme difficulty. descriptions of mrs. skegg’s labor, including “ruling over the kitchen, pantry, and scullery,” as well as cooking, dusting, sweeping, and scrubbing, are coupled with the sympathetic acknowledgment that she “wore her life out” in these tasks. in many ways, by focusing on representations of female labor, as well as the process of employing a female servant, braddon moves the specter of the female working class into sudden visibility. however, this visibility is often tenuous and contradictory within the narrative itself. descriptions of female labor, that which render it visible, are coupled with subtle reinforcements of its invisibility. the female servants are remarked upon for their quietness and status as individuals with whom the master “rarely came in contact.” when the master of the house does encounter a female servant who speaks to him, he “startles” very much as if he had seen a ghost. similarly, mrs. skegg, as the other “maid-of-all-work,” never actually speaks; instead, her speech is mediated and translated by her husband. in this way, braddon’s narrative does not simply make women’s domestic labor visible. rather, braddon’s story constantly moves female servants between the realms of seen and unseen, emphasizing their paradoxical, ghostly status within victorian society. this spectral position is further reinforced by the introduction of maria, who becomes employed at wildheath and is later the unfortunate victim of the “shadow in the corner.” the text often mentions that maria was educated “above her station,” emphasizing the potential of the female working class to transgress different forms of boundary. in addition, it is the presence of maria, who is made to sleep in the haunted attic room, which facilitates the ghostly events of the story. in a fundamental sense, the narrative thrust of braddon’s story is moved not by the ghost, but by these negotiations over female labor and the actions of female servants. just as the female working class acted as a largely invisible force, a “secret pressure” influencing the movement of victorian capitalist markets, female laborers in “the shadow in the corner” are an absent presence that shapes the plot and progression of the narrative, embodying a paradoxical space that is at once central and peripheral. braddon’s tale is also threaded with constant references to competing victorian conceptions of the self. the most prominent of these representations can be found in descriptions of the master of wildheath, for whom “the universe, with all its inhabitants, was a great machine, governed by inexorable laws.” the master responds to the events of the haunting with an inflexible materialist philosophy: “to such a man, the idea of a ghost was simply absurdas absurd as the assertion that two and two make s, or that a circle can be formed of a straight line.” the most literal illustration of the master’s formulations of the concept of self are imbedded in the following line describing his reaction to the ghost: “the subject offered an amusing psychological study.” here, the text subtly engages the historical context of victorian concepts of subjectivity; the “subject” has moved to the realm of the mind. similarly, the act of suicide is often referred to as “self-destruction,” implying (in reverse) the psychoanalytic interpretation of “self ” as something constructed. the master’s materialist and psychoanalytic conceptions of subjectivity are contrasted with descriptions of the “folly” and “superstition” of maria and the “country people,” whose “fancies” must be “conquered by rational treatment.” however, braddon often satirizes the master’s materialist views, particularly in the portrayal of his speech. in addition, the master’s materialism cannot accommodate the “shadow,” which resists his universal laws and ultimately claims the life of maria. in this way, braddon puts competing victorian conceptions of the self into play with one another. along with these direct references, descriptions of ghostly encounters with the “shadow” are often framed using a language of labor and subjectivity. when the master encounters the shadow for the first time, he realizes that “it was not the ghost of the man’s body that returned to the spot where he had suffered and perished, but the ghost of his mindhis very self.” here, the description of the ghost is situated within a psychoanalytic model of subjectivity via the conflation of “mind” and “self.” 149“the shadow in the corner” the “shadow” is also explained in relation to the commodity objects around it. the “shadow” is often attributed to “ the angle of the wardrobe” or to a coat “flung upon a chair.” in a description of the haunted attic room, a lengthy paragraph is devoted to its objects, in which commodities suddenly take on a sinister cast. a wardrobe’s brass handles “gleamed out of the darkness like a pair of diabolical eyes”; a bed is “misshapen and deformed”; a bureau “smelt of secrets.” similarly, this anthropomorphic language is also reversed in passages where people are compared to objects. when mr. skegg first speaks to the master, his sudden “breaking into speech” is described as “almost as startling as if the bust of socrates above the bookcase had burst into human language.” this play of anthropomorphic language, rendering people as objects and objects as people, implies the ghostly dissonance between labor and production. in this way, braddon subtly references the spectral economy of victorian capitalism. in many ways, the title of braddon’s narrative offers the most concise representation of its themes of subjectivity and labor. the “shadow in the corner” echoes with a psychoanalytic motif of repressed trauma and memory, haunting the unconscious “corners” of the mind. “shadows” also symbolically evoke the dirt of labor, and corners resonate with economic context. corners themselves are an important part of economic architectures as the place of exchange where two points meet. corners are also the spaces of “dirty” capital and labor that is meant to be hidden in shadows. such is the case of prostitution, the “dirty” invisible women’s labor, which often takes place on the street corner. in these ways, braddon’s title points to spectral and conflicted subjectivity in the victorian period, and also to an interpretation of the female working class as the “shadow in the corner” of 1800’s capitalism. m.e. braddon’s “the shadow in the corner”1 wildheath grange stood a little way back from the road, with a barren stretch of heath behind it, and a few tall fir-trees, with straggling wind-tossed heads, for its only shelter. it was a lonely house on a lonely road, little better than a lane, leading across a desolate waste of sandy fields to the sea-shore; and it was a house that bore a bad name among the natives of the village of holcroft, which was the nearest place where humanity might be found. it was a good old house, nevertheless, substantially built in the days when there was no stint of stone and timber—a good old grey stone house with many gables, deep window-seats, and a wide staircase, long dark passages, hidden doors in queer corners, closets as large as some modern rooms, and cellars in which a company of soldiers might have lain perdu.2 this spacious old mansion was given over to rats and mice, loneliness, echoes, and the occupation of three elderly people: michael bascom, whose forebears had been landowners of importance in the neighbourhood, and his two servants, daniel skegg and his wife, who had served the owner of that grim old house ever since he left the university, where he had lived fifteen years of his life—five as student, and ten as professor of natural science. at three-and-thirty michael bascom had seemed a middle-aged man; at fifty-six he looked and moved and spoke like an old man. during that interval of twenty-three years he had lived alone in wildheath grange, and the country people told each other that the house had made him what he was. this was a fanciful and superstitious notion on their part, doubtless, yet it would not have been difficult to have traced a certain affinity between the dull grey building and the man who lived in it. both seemed alike remote from the common cares and interests of humanity; both had an air of settled melancholy, engendered by perpetual solitude; both had the same faded complexion, the same look of slow decay. yet lonely as michael bascom’s life was at wildheath grange, he would not on any account have altered its tenor. he had been glad to exchange the comparative seclusion of college rooms for the unbroken solitude of wildheath. he was a fanatic in his love of scientific research, and his quiet days were filled to the brim with labours that seldom failed to interest and satisfy him. there were periods of depression, occasional moments of doubt, when the goal towards which he strove seemed unattainable, and his spirit fainted within him. happily such times were rare with him. he had a dogged power of continuity which ought to have carried him to the highest pinnacle of achievement, and which perhaps notes 1. m.e. braddon. “the shadow in the corner.” all the year round. vol. 23. extra summer number. (london, 1879) 1-11. 2. perdu, meaning hidden or concealed. in latin, perdere means to lose. although it is important to note the now obsolete use of the word as a military phrase that referred to a soldier set on an especially hazardous mission. 150“the shadow in the corner” might ultimately have won for him a grand name and a world-wide renown, but for a catastrophe which burdened the declining years of his harmless life with an unconquerable remorse. one autumn morning—when he had lived just threeand-twenty years at wildheath, and had only lately begun to perceive that his faithful butler and body servant, who was middle-aged when he first employed him, was actually getting old—mr. bascom’s breakfast meditations over the latest treatise on the atomic theory3 were interrupted by an abrupt demand from that very daniel skegg. the man was accustomed to wait upon his master in the most absolute silence, and his sudden breaking out into speech was almost as startling as if the bust of socrates above the bookcase had burst into human language. “it’s no use,” said daniel; “my missus must have a girl!” “a what?” demanded mr. bascom, without taking his eyes from the line he had been reading. “a girl—a girl to trot about and wash up, and help the old lady. she’s getting weak on her legs, poor soul. we’ve none of us grown younger in the last twenty years.” “twenty years!” echoed michael bascom scornfully. “what is twenty years in the formation of a strata—what even in the growth of an oak—the cooling of a volcano!” “not much, perhaps, but it’s apt to tell upon the bones of a human being.” “the manganese4 staining to be seen upon some skulls would certainly indicate—” began the scientist dreamily. “i wish my bones were only as free from rheumatics as they were twenty years ago,” pursued daniel testily; “and then, perhaps, i should make light of twenty years. howsoever, the long and the short of it is, my missus must have a girl. she can’t go on trotting up and down these everlasting passages, and standing in that stone scullery year after year, just as if she was a young woman. she must have a girl to help.” “let her have twenty girls,” said mr. bascom, going back to his book. “what’s the use of talking like that, sir. twenty girls, indeed! we shall have rare work to get one.” “because the neighbourhood is sparsely populated?” interrogated mr. bascom, still reading. “no, sir. because this house is known to be haunted.” michael bascom laid down his book, and turned a look of grave reproach upon his servant. “skegg,” he said in a severe voice, “i thought you had lived long enough with me to be superior to any folly of that kind.” “i don’t say that i believe in ghosts,” answered daniel with a semi-apologetic air; “but the country people do. there’s not a mortal among ‘em that will venture across our threshold after nightfall.” “merely because anthony bascom, who led a wild life in london, and lost his money and land, came home here broken-hearted, and is supposed to have destroyed himself in this house—the only remnant of property that was left him out of a fine estate.” “supposed to have destroyed himself!” cried skegg; “why the fact is as well known as the death of queen elizabeth, or the great fire of london. why, wasn’t he buried at the cross-roads5 between here and holcroft?” “an idle tradition, for which you could produce no substantial proof,” retorted mr. bascom. “i don’t know about proof; but the country people believe it as firmly as they believe their gospel.” “if their faith in the gospel was a little stronger they need not trouble themselves about anthony bascom.” “well,” grumbled daniel, as he began to clear the table, “a girl of some kind we must get, but she’ll have to be a foreigner, or a girl that’s hard driven for a place.” when daniel skegg said a foreigner, he did not mean the native of some distant clime, but a girl who had not been born and bred at holcroft. daniel had been raised and reared in that insignificant hamlet, and, small and dull as it was, he considered the world beyond it only margin. michael bascom was too deep in the atomic theory to give a second thought to the necessities of an old servant. mrs. skegg was an individual with whom he rarely came in contact. she lived for the most part in a gloomy region at the north end of the house, where she ruled over the solitude of a kitchen, that looked like a cathedral, and numerous offices of the sculler, larder, and pantry class, where she carried on a perpetual warfare with spiders and beetles, and wore her old life out in the labour of sweeping and scrubbing. she was a woman of severe aspect, dogmatic piety, and a bitter tongue. she notes 3. atomic theory at this time had advanced only so far as discovering the properties of cathode rays. only ten years earlier, dmitri mendeleev had arranged the elements into seven groups based on their similar properties, a discovery which became known as periodic law. 4. manganese is a natural element discovered in 1774. it is used for industrial alloys, and its ions are used for pigmentation. 5. historically, criminals and those who committed suicide were buried at cross-roads as the “cross” was seen as the next best burial site to consecrated ground. 151“the shadow in the corner” was a good plain cook, and ministered diligently to her master’s wants. he was not an epicure, but liked his life to be smooth and easy, and the equilibrium of his mental power would have been disturbed by a bad dinner. he heard no more about the proposed addition to his household for a space of ten days, when daniel skegg again startled him amidst his studious repose by the abrupt announcement: “i’ve got a girl!” “oh,” said michael bascom; “have you?” and he went on with his book. this time he was reading an essay on phosphorus and its functions in relation to the human brain. “yes,” pursued daniel in his usual grumbling tone; “she was a waif and stray, or i shouldn’t have got her. if she’d been a native she’d never have come to us.” “i hope she’s respectable,” said michael. “respectable! that’s the only fault she has, poor thing. she’s too good for the place. she’s never been in service before, but she says she’s willing to work, and i daresay my old woman will be able to break her in. her father was a small tradesman at yarmouth. he died a month ago, and left this poor thing homeless. mrs. midge, at holcroft, is her aunt, and she said to the girl, come and stay with me till you get a place; and the girl has been staying with mrs. midge for the last three weeks, trying to hear of a place. when mrs. midge heard that my missus wanted a girl to help, she thought it would be the very thing for her niece maria. luckily maria had heard nothing about this house, so the poor innocent dropped me a curtsey, and said she’d be thankful to come, and would do her best to learn her duty. she’d had an easy time of it with her father, who had educated her above her station, like a fool as he was,” growled daniel. “by your own account i’m afraid you’ve made a bad bargain,” said michael. “you don’t want a young lady to clean kettles and pans.” “if she was a young duchess my old woman would make her work,” retorted skegg decisively. “and pray where are you going to put this girl?” asked mr. bascom, rather irritably; “i can’t have a strange young woman tramping up and down the passages outside my room. you know what a wretched sleeper i am, skegg. a mouse behind the wainscot is enough to wake me.” “i’ve thought of that,” answered the butler, with his look of ineffable wisdom. “i’m not going to put her on your floor. she’s to sleep in the attics.” “which room?” “the big one at the north end of the house. that’s the only ceiling that doesn’t let water. she might as well sleep in a shower-bath as in any of the other attics.” “the room at the north end,” repeated mr. bascom thoughtfully; “isn’t that—?” “of course it is,” snapped skegg; “but she doesn’t know anything about it.” mr. bascom went back to his books, and forgot all about the orphan from yarmouth, until one morning on entering his study he was startled by the appearance of a strange girl, in a neat black and white cotton gown, busy dusting the volumes which were stacked in blocks upon his spacious writing-table—and doing it with such deft and careful hands that he had no inclination to be angry at this unwonted liberty. old mrs. skegg had religiously refrained from all such dusting, on the plea that she did not wish to interfere with the master’s ways. one of the master’s ways, therefore, had been to inhale a good deal of dust in the course of his studies. the girl was a slim little thing, with a pale and somewhat old-fashioned face, flaxen hair, braided under a neat muslin cap, a very fair complexion, and light blue eyes. they were the lightest blue eyes michael bascom had ever seen, but there was a sweetness and gentleness in their expression which atoned for their insipid colour. “i hope you do not object to my dusting your books, sir,” she said, dropping a curtsey. she spoke with a quaint precision which struck michael bascom as a pretty thing in its way. “no; i don’t object to cleanliness, so long as my books and papers are not disturbed. if you take a volume off my desk, replace it on the spot you took it from. that’s all i ask.” “i will be very careful, sir.” “when did you come here?” “only this morning, sir.” the student seated himself at his desk, and the girl withdrew, drifting out of the room as noiselessly as a flower blown across the threshold.6 michael bascom looked after her curiously. he had seen very little of youthful womanhood in his dry-as-dust career, and he wondered at this girl as at a creature of a species hitherto unknown to him. how fairly and delicately she was 152“the shadow in the corner” notes 6. servants at the time were expected to be both silent and unseen. this idea even helped mold the construction of houses so that they were built with secret passageways and corridors for the servants to use for the purpose of remaining out of sight. fashioned; what a translucent skin; what soft and pleasing accents issued from those rose-tinted lips. a pretty thing, assuredly, this kitchen wench! a pity that in all this busy world there could be no better work found for her than the scouring of pots and pans. absorbed in considerations about dry bones, mr. bascom thought no more of the pale-faced handmaiden. he saw her no more about his rooms. whatever work she did there was done early in the morning, before the scholar’s breakfast. she had been a week in the house, when he met her one day in the hall. he was struck by the change in her appearance. the girlish lips had lost their rose-bud hue; the pale blue eyes had a frightened look, and there were dark rings round them, as in one whose nights had been sleepless, or troubled by evil dreams. michael bascom was so startled by an undefinable look in the girl’s face that, reserved as he was by habit and nature, he expanded so far as to ask her what ailed her. “there is something amiss, i am sure,” he said. “what is it?” “nothing, sir,” she faltered, looking still more scared at his question. “indeed, it is nothing; or nothing worth troubling you about.” “nonsense. do you suppose, because i live among books, i have no sympathy with my fellow-creatures? tell me what is wrong with you, child. you have been grieving about the father you have lately lost, i suppose.” “no, sir; it is not that. i shall never leave off being sorry for that. it is a grief which will last me all my life.” “what, there is something else then?” asked michael impatiently. “i see; you are not happy here. hard work does not suit you. i thought as much.” “oh, sir, please don’t think that,” cried the girl, very earnestly. “indeed, i am glad to work—glad to be in service; it is only—” she faltered and broke down, the tears rolling slowly from her sorrowful eyes, despite her effort to keep them back. “only what?” cried michael, growing angry. “the girl is full of secrets and mysteries. what do you mean, wench?” “i—i know it is very foolish, sir; but i am afraid of the room where i sleep.” “afraid! why?” “shall i tell you the truth, sir? will you promise not to be angry?” “i will not be angry if you will only speak plainly; but you provoke me by these hesitations and suppressions.” “and please, sir, do not tell mrs. skegg that i have told you. she would scold me; or perhaps even send me away.” “mrs. skegg shall not scold you. go on, child.” “you may not know the room where i sleep, sir; it is a large room at one end of the house, looking towards the sea. i can see the dark line of water from the window, and i wonder sometimes to think that it is the same ocean i used to see when i was a child at yarmouth. it is very lonely, sir, at the top of the house. mr. and mrs. skegg sleep in a little room near the kitchen, you know, sir, and i am quite alone on the top floor.” “skegg told me you had been educated in advance of your position in life, maria. i should have thought the first effect of a good education would have been to make you superior to any foolish fancies about empty rooms.” “oh, pray, sir, do not think it is any fault in my education. father took such pains with me; he spared no expense in giving me as good an education as a tradesman’s daughter need wish for. and he was a religious man, sir. he did not believe”—here she paused, with a suppressed shudder—“in the spirits of the dead appearing to the living, since the days of miracles, when the ghost of samuel appeared to saul.7 he never put any foolish ideas into my head, sir. i hadn’t a thought of fear when i first lay down to rest in the big lonely room upstairs.” “well, what then?” “but on the very first night,” the girl went on breathlessly, “i felt weighed down in my sleep as if there were some heavy burden laid upon my chest. it was not a bad dream, but it was a sense of trouble that followed me all through my sleep; and just at daybreak—it begins to be light a little after six—i woke suddenly, with the cold perspiration pouring down my face, and knew that there was something dreadful in the room.” “what do you mean by something dreadful? did you see anything?” “not much, sir; but it froze the blood in my veins, and i knew it was this that had been following me and weighing upon me all through my sleep. in the corner, between notes 7. in the 1 samuel 28, king saul seeks out a woman who can speak to the spirits of the dead. the woman allows him to speak with samuel, who warns him that the lord will allow saul’s army to be defeated and that he and his sons will die. 153“the shadow in the corner” the fire-place and the wardrobe, i saw a shadow—a dim, shapeless shadow—” “produced by an angle of the wardrobe, i daresay.” “no, sir; i could see the shadow of the wardrobe, distinct and sharp, as if it had been painted on the wall. this shadow was in the corner—a strange, shapeless mass; or, if it had any shape at all, it seemed—” “what?” asked michael eagerly. “the shape of a dead body hanging against the wall!” michael bascom grew strangely pale, yet he affected utter incredulity. “poor child,” he said kindly; “you have been fretting about your father until your nerves are in a weak state, and you are full of fancies. a shadow in the corner, indeed; why, at daybreak, every corner is full of shadows. my old coat, flung upon a chair, will make you as good a ghost as you need care to see.” “oh, sir, i have tried to think it is my fancy. but i have had the same burden weighing me down every night. i have seen the same shadow every morning.” “but when broad daylight comes, can you not see what stuff your shadow is made of?” “no, sir: the shadow goes before it is broad daylight.” “of course, just like other shadows. come, come, get these silly notions out of your head, or you will never do for the work-a-day world. i could easily speak to mrs. skegg, and make her give you another room, if i wanted to encourage you in your folly. but that would be about the worst thing i could do for you. besides, she tells me that all the other rooms on that floor are damp; and, no doubt, if she shifted you into one of them, you would discover another shadow in another corner, and get rheumatism into the bargain. no, my good girl, you must try to prove yourself the better for a superior education.” “i will do my best, sir,” maria answered meekly, dropping a curtsey. maria went back to the kitchen sorely depressed. it was a dreary life she led at wildheath grange—dreary by day, awful by night; for the vague burden and the shapeless shadow, which seemed so slight a matter to the elderly scholar, were unspeakably terrible to her. nobody had told her that the house was haunted, yet she walked about those echoing passages wrapped round with a cloud of fear. she had no pity from daniel skegg and his wife. those two pious souls had made up their minds that the character of the house should be upheld, so far as maria went. to her, as a foreigner, the grange should be maintained to be an immaculate dwelling, tainted by no sulphurous blast8 from the under world. a willing, biddable girl had become a necessary element in the existence of mrs. skegg. that girl had been found, and that girl must be kept. any fancies of a supernatural character must be put down with a high hand. “ghosts, indeed!” cried the amiable skegg. “read your bible, maria, and don’t talk no more about ghosts.” “there are ghosts in the bible,” said maria, with a shiver at the recollection of certain awful passages in the scripture she knew so well. “ah, they was in their right place, or they wouldn’t ha’ been there,” retorted mrs. skegg. “you ain’t agoin’ to pick holes in your bible, i hope, maria, at your time of life.” maria sat down quietly in her corner by the kitchen fire, and turned over the leaves of her dead father’s bible till she came to the chapters they two had loved best and oftenest read together. he had been a simple-minded, straightforward man, the yarmouth cabinet-maker—a man full of aspirations after good, innately refined, instinctively religious. he and his motherless girl had spent their lives alone together, in the neat little home which maria had so soon learnt to cherish and beautify; and they had loved each other with an almost romantic love. they had had the same tastes, the same ideas. very little had sufficed to make them happy. but inexorable death parted father and daughter, in one of those sharp, sudden partings which are like the shock of an earthquake—instantaneous ruin, desolation, and despair. maria’s fragile form had bent before the tempest. she had lived through a trouble that might have crushed a stronger nature. her deep religious convictions, and her belief that this cruel parting would not be for ever, had sustained her. she faced life, and its cares and duties, with a gentle patience which was the noblest form of courage. michael bascom told himself that the servant-girl’s foolish fancy about the room that had been given her was not a matter of serious consideration. yet the idea dwelt in his mind unpleasantly, and disturbed him at his labours. the exact sciences require the complete power of a man’s brain, his utmost attention; and on this particular evening michael found that he was only giving his work a part of his attention. the girl’s pale face, the girl’s tremulous tones, notes 8. in revelation 21:8, hell is described as a lake of fire and burning sulfur or brimstone which will be the “second death” for those who are cowards or disbelievers, murderers, fornicators, sorcerers, idolaters, and liars. 154“the shadow in the corner” thrust themselves into the foreground of his thoughts. he closed his book with a fretful sigh, wheeled his large arm-chair round to the fire, and gave himself up to contemplation. to attempt study with so disturbed a mind was useless. it was a dull grey evening, early in november; the student’s reading-lamp was lighted, but the shutters were not yet shut, nor the curtains drawn. he could see the leaden sky outside his windows, the fir-tree tops tossing in the angry wind. he could hear the wintry blast whistling amidst the gables, before it rushed off seaward with a savage howl that sounded like a war-whoop. michael bascom shivered, and drew nearer the fire. “it’s childish, foolish nonsense,” he said to himself, “yet it’s strange she should have that fancy about the shadow, for they say anthony bascom destroyed himself in that room. i remember hearing it when i was a boy, from an old servant whose mother was housekeeper at the great house in anthony’s time. i never heard how he died, poor fellow—whether he poisoned himself, or shot himself, or cut his throat; but i’ve been told that was the room. old skegg has heard it too. i could see that by his manner when he told me the girl was to sleep there.” he sat for a long time, till the grey of evening outside his study windows changed to the black of night, and the war-whoop of the wind died away to a low complaining murmur. he sat looking into the fire, and letting his thoughts wander back to the past and the traditions he had heard in his boyhood. that was a sad, foolish story of his great-uncle, anthony bascom: the pitiful story of a wasted fortune and a wasted life. a riotous collegiate career at cambridge, a racing-stable at newmarket, an imprudent marriage, a dissipated life in london, a runaway wife; an estate forfeited to jew money-lenders,9 and then the fatal end. michael had often heard that dismal story: how, when anthony bascom’s fair false wife had left him, when his credit was exhausted, and his friends had grown tired of him, and all was gone except wildheath grange, anthony, the broken-down man of fashion, had come to that lonely house unexpectedly one night, and had ordered his bed to be got ready for him in the room where he used to sleep when he came to the place for the wild duck shooting, in his boyhood. his old blunderbuss was still hanging over the mantelpiece, where he had left it when he came into the property, and could afford to buy the newest thing in fowling-pieces. he had not been to wildheath for fifteen years; nay, for a good many of those years he had almost forgotten that the dreary old house belonged to him. the woman who had been housekeeper at bascom park, till house and lands had passed into the hands of the jews, was at this time the sole occupant of wildheath. she cooked some supper for her master, and made him as comfortable as she could in the long untenanted dining-room; but she was distressed to find, when she cleared the table after he had gone upstairs to bed, that he had eaten hardly anything. next morning she got his breakfast ready in the same room, which she managed to make brighter and cheerier than it had looked overnight. brooms, dusting-brushes, and a good fire did much to improve the aspect of things. but the morning wore on to noon, and the old housekeeper listened in vain for her master’s footfall on the stairs. noon waned to late afternoon. she had made no attempt to disturb him, thinking that he had worn himself out by a tedious journey on horseback, and that he was sleeping the sleep of exhaustion. but when the brief november day clouded with the first shadows of twilight, the old woman grew seriously alarmed, and went upstairs to her master’s door, where she waited in vain for any reply to her repeated calls and knockings. the door was locked on the inside, and the housekeeper was not strong enough to break it open. she rushed downstairs again full of fear, and ran bare-headed out into the lonely road. there was no habitation nearer than the turnpike on the old coach road, from which this side road branched off to the sea. there was scanty hope of a chance passer-by. the old woman ran along the road, hardly knowing whither she was going or what she was going to do, but with a vague idea that she must get somebody to help her. chance favoured her. a cart, laden with sea-weed, came lumbering slowly along from the level line of sands yonder where the land melted into water. a heavy lumbering farm-labourer walked beside the cart. “for god’s sake, come in and burst open my master’s door!” she entreated, seizing the man by the arm. “he’s lying dead, or in a fit, and i can’t get to help him.” “all right, missus,” answered the man, as if such an invitation were a matter of daily occurrence. “whoa, notes 9. author m. e. braddon held anti-semitic prejudices, like much of europe at that time. many jewish people experienced prejudice in both secular and religious arenas. 155“the shadow in the corner” dobbin; stond still, horse, and be donged to thee.” dobbin was glad enough to be brought to anchor on the patch of waste grass in front of the grange garden. his master followed the housekeeper upstairs, and shattered the old-fashioned box-lock with one blow of his ponderous fist. the old woman’s worst fear was realised. anthony bascom was dead. but the mode and manner of his death michael had never been able to learn. the housekeeper’s daughter, who told him the story, was an old woman when he was a boy. she had only shaken her head, and looked unutterable things, when he questioned her too closely. she had never even admitted that the old squire had committed suicide. yet the tradition of his self-destruction was rooted in the minds of the natives of holcroft: and there was a settled belief that his ghost, at certain times and seasons, haunted wildheath grange. now michael bascom was a stern materialist. for him the universe with all its inhabitants, was a great machine, governed by inexorable laws. to such a man the idea of a ghost was simply absurd--as absurd as the assertion that two and two make five, or that a circle can be formed of a straight line. yet he had a kind of dilettante interest in the idea of a mind which could believe in ghosts. the subject offered an amusing psychological study. this poor little pale girl, now, had evidently got some supernatural terror into her head, which could only be conquered by rational treatment. “i know what i ought to do,” michael bascom said to himself suddenly. “i’ll occupy that room myself tonight, and demonstrate to this foolish girl that her notion about the shadow is nothing more than a silly fancy, bred of timidity and low spirits. an ounce of proof is better than a pound of argument. if i can prove to her that i have spent a night in the room, and seen no such shadow, she will understand what an idle thing superstition is.” daniel came in presently to shut the shutters. “tell your wife to make up my bed in the room where maria has been sleeping, and to put her into one of the rooms on the first floor for to-night, skegg,” said mr. bascom. “sir?” mr. bascom repeated his order. “that silly wench has been complaining to you about her room,” skegg exclaimed indignantly. “she doesn’t deserve to be well fed and cared for in a comfortable home. she ought to go to the workhouse.” “don’t be angry with the poor girl, skegg. she has taken a foolish fancy into her head, and i want to show her how silly she is,” said mr. bascom. “and you want to sleep in his—in that room yourself,” said the butler. “precisely.” “well,” mused skegg, “if he does walk—which i don’t believe—he was your own flesh and blood; and i don’t suppose he’ll do you any hurt.” when daniel skegg went back to the kitchen he railed mercilessly at poor maria, who sat pale and silent in her corner by the hearth, darning old mrs. skegg’s grey worsted stockings, which were the roughest and harshest armour that ever human foot clothed itself withal. “was there ever such a whimsical, fine, lady-like miss,” demanded daniel, “to come into a gentleman’s house, and drive him out of his own bedroom to sleep in an attic, with her nonsenses and vagaries.” if this was the result of being educated above one’s station, daniel declared that he was thankful he had never got so far in his schooling as to read words of two syllables without spelling. education might be hanged for him, if this was all it led to. “i am very sorry,” faltered maria, weeping silently over her work. “indeed, mr. skegg, i made no complaint. my master questioned me, and i told him the truth. that was all.” “all!” exclaimed mr. skegg irately; “all, indeed! i should think it was enough.” poor maria held her peace. her mind, fluttered by daniel’s unkindness, had wandered away from that bleak big kitchen to the lost home of the past—the snug little parlour where she and her father had sat beside the cosy hearth on such a night as this; she with her smart workbox and her plain sewing, he with the newspaper he loved to read; the petted cat purring on the rug, the kettle singing on the bright brass trivet, the tea-tray pleasantly suggestive of the most comfortable meal in the day. oh, those happy nights, that dear companionship! were they really gone for ever, leaving nothing behind them but unkindness and servitude? michael bascom retired later than usual that night. he was in the habit of sitting at his books long after every other lamp but his own had been extinguished. the skeggs had subsided into silence and darkness in their drear ground-floor bed-chamber. tonight his studies were of a peculiarly interesting kind, and belonged to the order of recreative reading rather than of hard work. he was deep in the history of that mysterious people 156“the shadow in the corner” who had their dwelling-place in the swiss lakes, and was much exercised by certain speculations and theories about them. the old eight-day clock10 on the stairs was striking two as michael slowly ascended, candle in hand, to the hitherto unknown region of the attics. at the top of the staircase he found himself facing a dark narrow passage which led northwards, a passage that was in itself sufficient to strike terror to a superstitious mind, so black and uncanny did it look. “poor child,” mused mr. bascom, thinking of maria; “this attic floor is rather dreary, and for a young mind prone to fancies—” he had opened the door of the north room by this time, and stood looking about him. it was a large room, with a ceiling that sloped on one side, but was fairly lofty upon the other; an old-fashioned room, full of old-fashioned furniture—big, ponderous, clumsy—associated with a day that was gone and people that were dead. a walnut-wood wardrobe stared him in the face—a wardrobe with brass handles, which gleamed out of the darkness like diabolical eyes. there was a tall four-post bedstead, which had been cut down on one side to accommodate the slope of the ceiling, and which had a misshapen and deformed aspect in consequence. there was an old mahogany bureau, that smelt of secrets. there were some heavy old chairs with rush bottoms, mouldy with age, and much worn. there was a corner washstand, with a big basin and a small jug—the odds and ends of past years. carpet there was none, save a narrow strip beside the bed. “it is a dismal room,” mused michael, with the same touch of pity for maria’s weakness which he had felt on the landing just now. to him it mattered nothing where he slept; but having let himself down to a lower level by his interest in the swiss lake-people, he was in a manner humanised by the lightness of his evening’s reading, and was even inclined to compassionate the weaknesses of a foolish girl. he went to bed, determined to sleep his soundest. the bed was comfortable, well supplied with blankets, rather luxurious than otherwise, and the scholar had that agreeable sense of fatigue which promises profound and restful slumber. he dropped off to sleep quickly, but woke with a start ten minutes afterwards. what was this consciousness of a burden of care that had awakened him—this sense of all-pervading trouble that weighed upon his spirits and oppressed his heart—this icy horror of some terrible crisis in life through which he must inevitably pass? to him these feelings were as novel as they were painful. his life had flowed on with smooth and sluggish tide, unbroken by so much as a ripple of sorrow. yet to-night he felt all the pangs of unavailing remorse; the agonising memory of a life wasted; the stings of humiliation and disgrace, shame, ruin; a hideous death, which he had doomed himself to die by his own hand. these were the horrors that pressed him round and weighed him down as he lay in anthony bascom’s room. yes, even he, the man who could recognise nothing in nature, or in nature’s god, better or higher than an irresponsible and invariable machine governed by mechanical laws, was fain to admit that here he found himself face to face with a psychological mystery. this trouble, which came between him and sleep, was the trouble that had pursued anthony bascom on the last night of his life. so had the suicide felt as he lay in that lonely room, perhaps striving to rest his wearied brain with one last earthly sleep before he passed to the unknown intermediate land where all is darkness and slumber. and that troubled mind had haunted the room ever since. it was not the ghost of the man’s body that returned to the spot where he had suffered and perished, but the ghost of his mind—his very self; no meaningless simulacrum of the clothes he were, and the figure that filled them. michael bascom was not the man to abandon his high ground of sceptical philosophy without a struggle. he tried his hardest to conquer this oppression that weighed upon mind and sense. again and again he succeeded in composing himself to sleep, but only to wake again and again to the same torturing thoughts, the same remorse, the same despair. so the night passed in unutterable weariness; for though he told himself that the trouble was not his trouble, that there was no reality in the burden, no reason for the remorse, these vivid fancies were as painful as realities, and took as strong a hold upon him. the first streak of light crept in at the window—dim, and cold, and grey; then came twilight, and he looked at the corner between the wardrobe and the door. yes; there was the shadow: not the shadow of the notes 10. to work properly, most clocks had to be wound by hand before electricity was available. eight-day clocks only had to be wound every eight days. 157“the shadow in the corner” wardrobe only—that was clear enough, but a vague and shapeless something which darkened the dull brown wall; so faint, so shadow, that he could form no conjecture as to its nature, or the thing it represented. he determined to watch this shadow till broad daylight; but the weariness of the night had exhausted him, and before the first dimness of dawn had passed away he had fallen fast asleep, and was tasting the blessed balm of undisturbed slumber. when he woke the winter sun was shining in at the lattice, and the room had lost its gloomy aspect. it looked old-fashioned, and grey, and brown, and shabby; but the depth of its gloom had fled with the shadows and the darkness of night. mr. bascom rose refreshed by a sound sleep, which had lasted nearly three hours. he remembered the wretched feelings which had gone before that renovating slumber; but he recalled his strange sensations only to despise them, and he despised himself for having attached any importance to them. “indigestion very likely,” he told himself; “or perhaps mere fancy, engendered of that foolish girl’s story. the wisest of us is more under the dominion of imagination than he would care to confess. well, maria shall not sleep in this room any more. there is no particular reason why she should, and she shall not be made unhappy to please old skegg and his wife.” when he had dressed himself in his usual leisurely way, mr. bascom walked up to the corner where he had seen or imagined the shadow, and examined the spot carefully. at first sight he could discover nothing of a mysterious character. there was no door in the papered wall, no trace of a door that had been there in the past. there was no trap-door in the worm-eaten boards. there was no dark ineradicable stain to hint at murder. there was not the faintest suggestion of a secret or a mystery. he looked up at the ceiling. that was sound enough, save for a dirty patch here and there where the rain had blistered it. yes; there was something--an insignificant thing, yet with a suggestion of grimness which startled him. about a foot below the ceiling he saw a large iron hook projecting from the wall, just above the spot where he had seen the shadow of a vaguely defined form. he mounted on a chair the better to examine this hook, and to understand, if he could, the purpose for which it had been put there. it was old and rusty. it must have been there for many years. who could have placed it there, and why? it was not the kind of hook upon which one would hang a picture or one’s garments. it was placed in an obscure corner. had anthony bascom put it there on the night he died; or did he find it there ready for a fatal use? “if i were a superstitious man,” thought michael, “i should be inclined to believe that anthony bascom hung himself from that rusty old hook.” “sleep well, sir?” asked daniel, as he waited upon his master at breakfast. “admirably,” answered michael, determined not to gratify the man’s curiosity. he had always resented the idea that wildheath grange was haunted. “oh, indeed, sir. you were so late that i fancied—” “late, yes! i slept so well that i overshot my usual hour for waking. but, by-the-way, skegg, as that poor girl objects to the room, let her sleep somewhere else. it can’t make any difference to us, and it may make some difference to her.” “humph!” muttered daniel in his grumpy way; “you didn’t see anything queer up there, did you?” “see anything? of course not.” “well, then, why should she see things? it’s all her silly fiddle-faddle.” “never mind, let her sleep in another room.” “there ain’t another room on the top floor that’s dry.” “then let her sleep on the floor below. she creeps about quietly enough, poor little timid thing. she won’t disturb me.” daniel grunted, and his master understood the grunt to mean obedient assent; but here mr. bascom was unhappily mistaken. the proverbial obstinacy of the pig family is as nothing compared with the obstinacy of a cross-grained old man, whose narrow mind has never been illuminated by education. daniel was beginning to feel jealous of his master’s compassionate interest in the orphan girl. she was a sort of gentle clinging thing that might creep into an elderly bachelor’s heart unawares, and make herself a comfortable nest there. “we shall have fine carryings-on, and me and my old woman will be nowhere, if i don’t put down my heel pretty strong upon this nonsense,” daniel muttered to himself, as he carried the breakfast-tray to the pantry. maria met him in the passage. “well, mr. skegg, what did my master say?” she asked 158“the shadow in the corner” breathlessly. “did he see anything strange in the room?” “no, girl. what should he see? he said you were a fool.” “nothing disturbed him? and he slept there peacefully?” faltered maria. “never slept better in his life. now don’t you begin to feel ashamed of yourself?” “yes,” she answered meekly; “i am ashamed of being so full of fancies. i will go back to my room tonight, mr. skegg, if you like, and i will never complain of it again.” “i hope you won’t,” snapped skegg; “you’ve given us trouble enough already.” maria sighed, and went about her work in saddest silence. the day wore slowly on, like all other days in that lifeless old house. the scholar sat in his study; maria moved softly from room to room, sweeping and dusting in the cheerless solitude. the mid-day sun faded into the grey of afternoon, and evening came down like a blight upon the dull old house. throughout that day maria and her master never met. anyone who had been so far interested in the girl as to observe her appearance would have seen that she was unusually pale, and that her eyes had a resolute look, as of one who was resolved to face a painful ordeal. she ate hardly anything all day. she was curiously silent. skegg and his wife put down both these symptoms to temper. “she won’t eat and she won’t talk,” said daniel to the partner of his joys. “that means sulkiness, and i never allowed sulkiness to master me when i was a young man, and you tried it on as a young woman, and i’m not going to be conquered by sulkiness in my old age.” bed-time came, and maria bade the skeggs a civil goodnight, and went up to her lonely garret without a murmur. the next morning came, and mrs. skegg looked in vain for her patient hand-maiden, when she wanted maria’s services in preparing the breakfast. “the wench sleeps sound enough this morning,” said the old woman. “go and call her, daniel. my poor legs can’t stand them stairs.” “your poor legs are getting uncommon useless,” muttered daniel testily, as he went to do his wife’s behest. he knocked at the door, and called maria—once, twice, thrice, many times; but there was no reply. he tried the door, and found it locked. he shook the door violently, cold with fear. then he told himself that the girl had played him a trick. she had stolen away before daybreak, and left the door locked to frighten him. but, no; this could not be, for he could see the key in the lock when he knelt down and put his eye to the keyhole. the key prevented his seeing into the room. “she’s in there, laughing in her sleeve at me,” he told himself; “but i’ll soon be even with her.” there was a heavy bar on the staircase, which was intended to secure the shutters of the window that lighted the stairs. it was a detached bar, and always stood in a corner near the window, which it was but rarely employed to fasten. daniel ran down to the landing, and seized upon this massive iron bar, and then ran back to the garret door. one blow from the heavy bar shattered the old lock, which was the same lock the carter had broken with his strong fist seventy years before. the door flew open, and daniel went into the attic which he had chosen for the stranger’s bed-chamber. maria was hanging from the hook in the wall. she had contrived to cover her face decently with her handkerchief. she had hanged herself deliberately about an hour before daniel found her, in the early grey of morning. the doctor, who was summoned from holcroft, was able to declare the time at which she had slain herself, but there was no one who could say what sudden access of terror had impelled her to the desperate act, or under what slow torture of nervous apprehension her mind had given way. the coroner’s jury returned the customary merciful verdict of “temporary insanity.” the girl’s melancholy fate darkened the rest of michael bascom’s life. he fled from wildheath grange as from an accursed spot, and from the skeggs as from the murderers of a harmless innocent girl. he ended his days at oxford, where he found the society of congenial minds, and the books he loved. but the memory of maria’s sad face, and sadder death, was his abiding sorrow. out of that deep shadow his soul was never lifted. contextual documents a journal entry from arthur munby11 arthur munby was born in york in 1828. he was educated at trinity college, in cambridge, graduating with a notes 11. hudson, derek. munby: man of two worlds; the life and diaries of arthur j. munby. (boston: gambit, 1972) 99. 159“the shadow in the corner” bachelor’s of the arts in 1851. he worked as a lawyer, like his father, for some years before becoming a civil servant for the ecclesiastical commissioner’s office from 18581888. during this time, munby was known for his poetry benoni and verses new and old. in 1854, he met his future wife while wandering the streets, hannah cullwick. in 1873, munby wed cullwick, though their relationship was anything but normal. with her working class status in society, she remained a domestic servant while at the same time being married to munby. even though they’d been married for many years, she was still kept in the shadows. no one knew of this intricate relationship until his will was released to his family. in 1877, munby and cullwick separated, but didn’t stop seeing one another until cullwick’s death in 1909. arthur munby became known for his fetishistic obsession with working-class women, particularly those who did hard physical labor. munby’s favorite pastime was to wander the streets, looking for working women to interview and photograph. he asked them about their lives and the details of their work, all the while noting their appearance, such as clothing and dialects. he entered these observations into his journals, in which he was known to describe the women and then draw them. he often depicted them as big, black blobs with coats and trousers, along with large hands (referenced in this entry) and large feet. in this journal entry, we read about munby’s eye for detail as he describes a young milkwoman that is in the market square. he describes her with large hands and glowing red skin. is this munby’s way of saying that these women who do the work of a man are more sexual than those of a woman who stays at home? his obsession with fetishism and dirt carried over into his relationship with cullwick, with whom he had a love affair—but a slightly different love affair for the time. munby is known to have had cullwick as a “domestic servant,” rather than a wife, once they finally married in secret. the two became known for their age-play and infantilism (the sexual role play of a person who acts or is treated like an infant). this entry goes on to speak about a woman that munby is observing, wondering about the reason that she takes such pride in the work she does. he firstly refers to the woman as a wench, who is a woman of the “dirty” working class. the word “wench” refers to the fact that this woman might be doing other work such as sexual favors, besides going to the market for groceries. this references munby’s life because at that same time munby was having cullwick serve him sexually. thus, munby’s use of the word “wench” reflects his sexualization of women’s labor. this obsession with the working class drove munby to study and, thus, to assert power in multiple ways over the working class women that he sought out and coerced. we see in “a shadow in the corner,” a young woman working as a maid in the house of the master. by referencing this journal entry, we see munby’s sexualization of working class women helps us contextualize braddon because his sexualization is fixated on the ghostliness of the female working class—his journal entry is obsessed with the way working class women transgress different forms of category and boundary-like race, class, and gender. tuesday, 11 june . . . in trafalgar square, i noticed a young milkwoman who was just commencing her career under the auspices of an old one, probably her mother. the débutante was standing by the railings of the union club. she was a ruddy blooming wench of eighteen or so, scarcely formed yet, but clean-limbed and muscular. her large hands were in colour a glowing red; the skin coarse and rugged without, showing no vein or dimple, and tough & leathery in the palms, hardening into yellow callosities—corns, she would call them—at the roots of the fingers. can a girl of eighteen possess such hands and have a lover? i should think so! she wore the usual plain straw bonnet, woolen shawl, and clean cotton frock: but her bonnet wanted the thick white cap, her boots were effeminately thin—hardly so strong as a shooting boot—and her frock came down to her ankles! can it be that fashion is infecting the london milkwomen, noblest of conservative caryatides? so she stood, awkward and happy, a picture of ungainly strength. a lady came mincing past at the moment, with tiny hands cased in lavender kid: the contrast was delicious. then her mother returned, and the daughter, with her help, adjusted the yoke upon her own square shoulders. it was a brandnew yoke, with her master’s name in large letters upon it; whereby as she walks all the world may know that she belongs to ‘sims, 122 jermyn st.’ she walked thus away between her heavy cans, the old mentor keeping at her side and guiding her to the next customer’s on the milk walk. doubtless, when she first walked along the streets this afternoon, she felt proud of wearing a new yoke with big letters on it, and clean brown straps and bright 160“the shadow in the corner” hooks and buckles; as proud as a cart horse in his mayday harness. long may she feel such pride! she will work in that year out of doors six hours a day, in all weathers, with never a holiday from year’s end to year’s end: she will nevertheless be as merry as a lark, yet stronger and healthier every year, and marry and breed us sons strong and fullblooded like herself. a journal entry from hannah cullwick12 the following contextual document helps provide insight into the true nature of domestic servitude and the many tasks one was expected to accomplish in a day’s work. while braddon’s narrative does not give much insight into the specific activities maria would have been working on each day in the story itself, this diary entry allows us to understand the nature of the daily chores of a woman in her position. hannah cullwick wrote this entry on her birthday; she details her daily activities, which would be similar to those that maria, the girl in “the shadow in the corner,” would have been expected to complete as well. hannah cullwick was born and raised into a life of domestic servitude. from an early age, she contributed to the family’s income. orphaned by the age of fourteen, along with her four siblings, cullwick had no choice but to carry on in her duties as a housemaid for well-known families of the time. through her service to such a family, she came in contact with arthur munby in 1854, a meeting that would impact her life and aid her in finding her own place in history. their meeting would later lead not only to a relationship but a secret marriage between the two. this relationship was chronicled through her diary, in which she calls him her “massa” and states that she is able to carry him “as if he was a child,” a strength we are told he admired in working-class women. she, though his wife, acted as housemaid of their home, often writing him letters about the details of the work she had done throughout the day. such a letter is provided below. the nature of their relationship also brings to light that cullwick’s position in life kept her in the shadows. though the two married, they did so in secret, and they divorced in 1877 but remained in contact while she continued working as a domestic servant until shortly before hannah’s death in 1909 at the age of 71. friday 26 may my birthday, & it was a fine morning. i got up early & lighted the fire after i’d brush’d the grate. swept the kitchen floor & shook the carpets. did the dining room grate up & laid the fire. swept the carpet. clean’d the front steps on my knees. shook the mats. wash’d me & got our breakfast. receiv’d letters from my two sisters, & two little books as presents. i was just a little disappointed at getting no letter from massa as he’d promised me one, but i thought it’d come early in the day so i wasn’t vex’d & i made myself quite happy – wi’ giving the kitchen an extra scrub on my knees, after i’d clean’d the tables & dresser down, & clean’d the cupboards out. got the dinner by ½ pas 1 & clear’d away after. wash’d up in the scullery, & had our tea at 5 with some seedcake i’d made for my birthday – not so much for myself, but the other servants like cake & puddings so much. they wish’d me the usual wish of many happy returns o’ the day. there was no letter from m, & i couldn’t rest to write or sew, for i was afraid he’d gone to the derby & perhaps something had happen’d. if he’d not promised me a ltter i shd just o’ thought he’d forgot the day, so as i couldn’t sit down i set on & clean’d the kitchen windown outside & in. i had my striped apron & cap on & my cotton frock, & while i was standing up outside i’ the window cleaning it, a lad went by & says, ‘come down, you young hussy.’ i was rather pleas’d at him saying it tho’ he was rude, & i thought, ‘ah, lad, you wouldn’t say that if you knew i’m 38 years old today.’ i was enjoying the work & it was pleasnt out in the air, but a bit draughty being in the ear & one’s apt to catch cold. still i liked it, & i’d no better way to enjoy myself. when the window was done i wash’d my red stuff frock after i picked the body from the skirt, & then it was supper time. i got the beer from the corner public house & laid the cloth. at 9 o’clock a letter came from m., kind but short. it was such a relief, for i’d nearly made my mind up to set off by the train, just there & back in a hurry to see if m. was in or no. after prayers i wrote a short letter to him & posted it by twelve o’clock & to bed soon after. i am 38 years old today, but i don’t feel so old, nor look it – folks generally take me for 28 or 9 – and i’m as strong as ever. i can heave my master easy & carry him as if he was a child nearly, & he’s 11 stone7 lbs. i am thankful to god for my health & strength & the rest of the blessnotes 12. stanley, liz. the diaries of hannah cullwick, victorian maidservant. (new brunswick, n.j.: rutgers university press, 1984) 166-67. 161“the shadow in the corner” ings i have. i feel that i am better servant now nor ever i was, ‘cause i’ve had more experience, & seem to have more sense to see what one is born for, & to be satisfied, & thankful for a home, & pleas’d to have work to do for a living, & of more patience to bear with the different tempers & little things one continually has in life to try one. so when i went to bed i knelt down & prayed that i might go on improving till i was perfect, as far as it’s possible to be perfect, & especially that i may be a comfort to massa, & love him always as i do now, with all my heart & in loving him i should the more love god who made me for him. so i laid me down at rest & felt quite happy. an excerpt from the “buried alive” chapter of “lady audley’s secret”13 mary elizabeth braddon was a praised writer in the mid-to-late 1800’s in england. as her writing career grew, braddon met publisher and editor john maxwell. though maxwell was married, braddon and he had a more than professional relationship. with his wife in an asylum, maxwell allowed his relationship with braddon to grow. after maxwell’s wife died, he and braddon married (tromp, gilber, haynie xxiii). it was through her skills and publications that braddon helped her husband save his floundering publishing company. together, maxwell and braddon published many works, including lady audley’s secret, which was released in parts in maxwell’s sixpenny magazine (tromp, gilber, haynie xxv). much of braddon’s work explored her feminist ideas— specifically the oppression of domestic labor females and married women, sometimes veiled by supernatural themes, as seen in “the shadow in the corner.” one subject braddon was drawn to in particular was that of live burial. according to holly furneaux, braddon was inspired by walter scott, charlotte brontë, and wilkie collins who wrote of live burial before her (426). the social obsession with live burial stemmed from the burial reforms in the 1850s, laws that were “intended not only to protect the living from the unhealthy effects of exposure to dead bodies, but also to protect the dead from desecration” (thorsheim 42). this fear of premature burial resulted in petitions for “waiting mortuaries” who some called “an asylum for doubtful life” (furneaux 426-27). consequently, the fears manifested in multiple literary works of the era. in 1850, edgar allen poe even wrote a short story titled “the premature burial.” while many live burial works were literal, braddon often used the idea and fear in a more metaphorical sense to illustrate the confining and sometimes traumatizing aspects of becoming an invisible specter of a woman in the domestic and working class of the victorian era. in her novel, lady audley’s secret, braddon has an entire chapter titled “buried alive,” yet no burial actually occurs. furneaux argues, “braddon recruits resonant images of live burial to explore and realign relations of gender and power in her society…[s]he draws upon and subverts a long cultural genealogy of live burial narratives in which the victim is invariably gendered female” (427). in many instances in lady audley’s secret, braddon utilizes horrific live burial images to describe the legal coffin of marriage and women’s domestic labor. through this imagery, “braddon rejects the institutionalized expectation that a married woman should suffer the complete obliteration of her individual identity” (furneaux 431). braddon’s writing throughout lady audley’s secret acts as a feminist commentary on marriage and divorce in 19th century england. marriage stripped a woman of her identity and placed blame on her for adultery, and there was no escape from her matrimonial coffin unless she could prove physical harm. braddon’s attraction to the buried alive motif often played a role in other works. in a more abstract, metaphorical sense, “the shadow in the corner” can arguably be labeled as a buried alive story. throughout the story, we see mr. and mrs. skeggs stuck in a home that they have been maintaining for years. mrs. skeggs has spent the last twenty years in her premature grave. when mr. skeggs asks michael for help in maintain the house, he says, they need “‘a girl to trot about and wash up, and help the old lady. she’s getting weak on her legs, poor soul. we’ve none of us grown younger in the last twenty years… my missus must have a girl. she can’t go on trotting up and down these everlasting passages, and standing in that stone scullery year after year, just as if she was a young woman’.” clearly, within the last two decades, mrs. skeggs has become too old to take the stairs of her coffin—the walls of the mansion confining her to her “grave” of domestic duties. in the chapter excerpt from lady audley’s secret that notes 13. braddon, lady audley’s secret. (london: tinsley bros., 1862). 162“the shadow in the corner” follows, braddon equates the institutionalization of lady audley to a live burial punishment for her crimes. in the earlier events of the novel, lady audley is discovered to actually be a woman named helen talboys—the supposed dead wife of sir audley’s friend george who, upon visiting england and meeting lady audley, mysteriously disappears. lady audley, when she was still known as helen, had previously been “buried alive” under the domestic duties and anxiety of debt when george left her for three years in hopes of returning with gold. a captive in her coffin of life as helen talboys, she felt her only escape was to fake her death and find a new husband who could financially support her. the feminist themes and fear of premature burial provide a prime example of braddon’s personal ideals and beliefs. throughout all of her writing, braddon’s commentary is prevalent, and through the veil of horror and supernatural, readers can undeniably see braddon herself. my lady had not spoken during the journey, except to decline some refreshments which robert had offered her at a halting place upon the road. her heart sunk when they left brussels behind, for she had hoped that city might have been the end of her journey, and she had turned with a feeling of sickness and despair from the dull belgian landscape. she looked up at last as the vehicle jolted into a great stony quadrangle, which had been the approach to a monastery once, but which was now the court yard of a dismal hotel, in whose cellars legions of rats skirmished and squeaked even while the broad sunshine was bright in the chambers above. lady audley shuddered as she alighted from the diligence, and found herself in that dreary court yard. robert was surrounded by chattering porters, who clamored for his “baggages,” and disputed among themselves as to the hotel at which he was to rest. one of these men ran away to fetch a hackney-coach at mr. audley’s behest, and reappeared presently, urging on a pair of horses—which were so small as to suggest the idea that they had been made out of one ordinary-sized animal—with wild shrieks and whoops that had a demoniac sound in the darkness. mr. audley left my lady in a dreary coffee-room in the care of a drowsy attendant while he drove away to some distant part of the quiet city. there was official business to be gone through before sir michael’s wife could be quietly put away in the place suggested by dr. mosgrave. robert had to see all manner of important personages; and to take numerous oaths; and to exhibit the english physician’s letter; and to go through much ceremony of signing and countersigning before he could take his lost friend’s cruel wife to the home which was to be her last upon earth. upward of two hours elapsed before all this was arranged, and the young man was free to return to the hotel, where he found his charge staring absently at a pair of wax-candles, with a cup of untasted coffee standing cold and stagnant before her. robert handed my lady into the hired vehicle, and took his seat opposite to her once more. “where are you going to take me?” she asked, at last. “i am tired of being treated like some naughty child, who is put into a dark cellar as a punishment for its offenses. where are you taking me?” “to a place in which you will have ample leisure to repent the past, mrs. talboys,” robert answered, gravely. they had left the paved streets behind them, and had emerged out of a great gaunt square, in which there appeared to be about half a dozen cathedrals, into a small boulevard, a broad lamp-lit road, on which the shadows of the leafless branches went and came tremblingly, like the shadows of a paralytic skeleton. there were houses here and there upon this boulevard; stately houses, entre cour et jardin, and with plaster vases of geraniums on the stone pillars of the ponderous gateways. the rumbling hackney-carriage drove upward of three-quarters of a mile along this smooth roadway before it drew up against a gateway, older and more ponderous than any of those they had passed. my lady gave a little scream as she looked out of the coach-window. the gaunt gateway was lighted by an enormous lamp; a great structure of iron and glass, in which one poor little shivering flame struggled with the march wind. the coachman rang the bell, and a little wooden door at the side of the gate was opened by a gray-haired man, who looked out at the carriage, and then retired. he reappeared three minutes afterward behind the folding iron gates, which he unlocked and threw back to their full extent, revealing a dreary desert of stone-paved courtyard. the coachman led his wretched horses into the courtyard, and piloted the vehicle to the principal doorway of the house, a great mansion of gray stone, with several long ranges of windows, many of which were dimly light163“the shadow in the corner” ed, and looked out like the pale eyes of weary watchers upon the darkness of the night. my lady, watchful and quiet as the cold stars in the wintry sky, looked up at these casements with an earnest and scrutinizing gaze. one of the windows was shrouded by a scanty curtain of faded red; and upon this curtain there went and came a dark shadow, the shadow of a woman with a fantastic head dress, the shadow of a restless creature, who paced perpetually backward and forward before the window. sir michael audley’s wicked wife laid her hand suddenly upon robert’s arm, and pointed with the other hand to this curtained window. “i know where you have brought me,” she said. “this is a mad-house.” mr. audley did not answer her. he had been standing at the door of the coach when she addressed him, and he quietly assisted her to alight, and led her up a couple of shallow stone steps, and into the entrance-hall of the mansion. he handed dr. mosgrave’s letter to a neatly-dressed, cheerful-looking, middle-aged woman, who came tripping out of a little chamber which opened out of the hall, and was very much like the bureau of an hotel. this person smilingly welcome robert and his charge: and after dispatching a servant with the letter, invited them into her pleasant little apartment, which was gayly furnished with bright amber curtains and heated by a tiny stove. “madam finds herself very much fatigued?” the frenchwoman said, interrogatively, with a look of intense sympathy, as she placed an arm-chair for my lady. “madam” shrugged her shoulders wearily, and looked round the little chamber with a sharp glance of scrutiny that betokened no very great favor. “what is this place, robert audley?” she cried fiercely. “do you think i am a baby, that you may juggle with and deceive me—what is it? it is what i said just now, is it not?” “it is a maison de santé, my lady,” the young man answered, gravely. “i have no wish to juggle with or to deceive you.” my lady paused for a few moments, looking reflectively at robert. “a maison de santé,” she repeated. “yes, they manage these things better in france. in england we should call it a madhouse. this is a house for mad people, this, is it not, madam?” she said in french, turning upon the woman, and tapping the polished floor with her foot. “ah, but no, madam,” the woman answered with a shrill scream of protest. “it is an establishment of the most agreeable, where one amuses one’s self—” she was interrupted by the entrance of the principal of this agreeable establishment, who came beaming into the room with a radiant smile illuminating his countenance, and with dr. mosgrave’s letter open in his hand. it was impossible to say how enchanted he was to make the acquaintance of m’sieu. there was nothing upon earth which he was not ready to do for m’sieu in his own person, and nothing under heaven which he would not strive to accomplish for him, as the friend of his acquaintance, so very much distinguished, the english doctor. dr. mosgrave’s letter had given him a brief synopsis of the case, he informed robert, in an undertone, and he was quite prepared to undertake the care of the charming and very interesting “madam—madam—” he rubbed his hands politely, and looked at robert. mr. audley remembered, for the first time, that he had been recommended to introduce his wretched charge under a feigned name. he affected not to hear the proprietor’s question. it might seem a very easy matter to have hit upon a heap of names, any one of which would have answered his purpose; but mr. audley appeared suddenly to have forgotten that he had ever heard any mortal appellation except that of himself and of his lost friend. perhaps the proprietor perceived and understood his embarrassment. he at any rate relieved it by turning to the woman who had received them, and muttering something about no. 14, bis. the woman took a key from a long range of others, that hung over the mantel-piece, and a wax candle from a bracket in a corner of the room, and having lighted the candle, led the way across the stone-paved hall, and up a broad, slippery staircase of polished wood. the english physician had informed his belgian colleague that money would be of minor consequence in any arrangements made for the comfort of the english lady who was to be committed to his care. acting upon this hint, monsieur val opened the outer door of a stately suite of apartments, which included a lobby, paved with alternate diamonds of black and white marble, but of a dismal and cellar-like darkness; a saloon furnished with gloomy velvet draperies, and with a certain funereal splendor which is not peculiarly conducive to the elevation of the spirits; and a bed-chamber, containing a bed 164“the shadow in the corner” so wondrously made, as to appear to have no opening whatever in its coverings, unless the counterpane had been split asunder with a pen-knife. my lady stared dismally round at the range of rooms, which looked dreary enough in the wan light of a single wax-candle. this solitary flame, pale and ghost-like in itself, was multiplied by paler phantoms of its ghostliness, which glimmered everywhere about the rooms; in the shadowy depths of the polished floors and wainscot, or the window-panes, in the looking-glasses, or in those great expanses of glimmering something which adorned the rooms, and which my lady mistook for costly mirrors, but which were in reality wretched mockeries of burnished tin. amid all the faded splendor of shabby velvet, and tarnished gilding, and polished wood, the woman dropped into an arm-chair, and covered her face with her hands. the whiteness of them, and the starry light of diamonds trembling about them, glittered in the dimly-lighted chamber. she sat silent, motionless, despairing, sullen, and angry, while robert and the french doctor retired to an outer chamber, and talked together in undertones. mr. audley had very little to say that had not been already said for him, with a far better grace than he himself could have expressed it, by the english physician. he had, after great trouble of mind, hit upon the name of taylor, as a safe and simple substitute for that other name, to which alone my lady had a right. he told the frenchman that this mrs. taylor was distantly related to him—that she had inherited the seeds of madness from her mother, as indeed dr. mosgrave had informed monsieur val; and that she had shown some fearful tokens of the lurking taint that was latent in her mind; but that she was not to be called “mad.” he begged that she might be treated with all tenderness and compassion; that she might receive all reasonable indulgences; but he impressed upon monsieur val, that under no circumstances was she to be permitted to leave the house and grounds without the protection of some reliable person, who should be answerable for her safe-keeping. he had only one other point to urge, and that was, that monsieur val, who, as he had understood, was himself a protestant—the doctor bowed—would make arrangements with some kind and benevolent protestant clergyman, through whom spiritual advice and consolation might be secured for the invalid lady; who had especial need, robert added, gravely, of such advantages. this—with all necessary arrangements as to pecuniary matters, which were to be settled from time to time between mr. audley and the doctor, unassisted by any agents whatever—was the extent of the conversation between the two men, and occupied about a quarter of an hour. my lady sat in the same attitude when they re-entered the bedchamber in which they had left her, with her ringed hands still clasped over her face. robert bent over to whisper in her ear. “your name is madam taylor here,” he said. “i do not think you would wish to be known by your real name.” she only shook her head in answer to him, and did not even remove her hands from over her face. “madam will have an attendant entirely devoted to her service,” said monsieur val. “madam will have all her wishes obeyed; her reasonable wishes, but that goes without saying,” monsieur adds, with a quaint shrug. “every effort will be made to render madam’s sojourn at villebrumeuse agreeable. the inmates dine together when it is wished. i dine with the inmates sometimes; my subordinate, a clever and a worthy man always. i reside with my wife and children in a little pavilion in the grounds; my subordinate resides in the establishment. madam may rely upon our utmost efforts being exerted to insure her comfort.” monsieur is saying a great deal more to the same effect, rubbing his hands and beaming radiantly upon robert and his charge, when madam rises suddenly, erect and furious, and dropping her jeweled fingers from before her face, tells him to hold his tongue. “leave me alone with the man who has brought me here,” she cried, between her set teeth. “leave me!” she points to the door with a sharp, imperious gesture; so rapid that the silken drapery about her arm makes a swooping sound as she lifts her hand. the sibilant french syllables hiss through her teeth as she utters them, and seem better fitted to her mood and to herself than the familiar english she has spoken hitherto. the french doctor shrugs his shoulders as he goes out into the lobby, and mutters something about a “beautiful devil,” and a gesture worthy of “the mars.” my lady walked with a rapid footstep to the door between the bed-chamber and the saloon; closed it, and with the handle of the door still in her hand, turned and looked at robert audley. “you have brought me to my grave, mr. audley,” she cried; “you have used your power basely and cruelly, and have brought me to a living grave.” 165“the shadow in the corner” “the shadow in the corner” works cited braddon, m.e. lady audley’s secret. london: tinsley bros., 1862. print. ---“the shadow in the corner.” all the year round. vol. 23. extra summer number. london, 1879. 1-11. print. furneaux, holly. “gendered cover-ups: live burial, social death, and coverture in mary braddon’s fiction.” philological quarterly 84.4 (2005): 425-449. print. hudson, derek. munby: man of two worlds; the life and diaries of arthur j. munby. boston: gambit, 1972. print. lynch, eve m. “spectral politics: m.e. braddon and the spirits of social reform.” beyond sensation: mary elizabeth braddon in context. albany: state university of new york press, 2000. 235-253. print. mcclintock, anne. imperial leather: race, gender, and sexuality in the colonial contest. new york: routledge, 1995. print. robbins, bruce. the servant’s hand: english fiction from below. new york: columbia university press, 1986. print. seaton, thomas. the conduct of servants in great families. 1720. new york : garland, 1985. print. smith, andrew. “hauntings.” the routledge companion to gothic. ed. catherine spooner and emma mcevoy. new york: routledge, 2007. 147-54. print. stanley, liz. the diaries of hannah cullwick, victorian maidservant. new brunswick, n.j.: rutgers university press, 1984. print. thorsheim, peter. “the corpse in the garden: burial, health, and the environment in nineteenth-century london.” environmental history 16 (january 2011): 38–68. tromp, marlene, pamela k. gilbert, and aeron haynie. introduction. beyond sensation: mary elizabeth braddon in context. eds. marlene tromp, pamela k. gilbert, and aeron haynie. albany: state university of new york press, 2000. xv-xxviii. 166 in an interview with rick margolis in 2008, suzanne collins explains where she discovered her inspiration to write her best-selling trilogy, the hunger games: one night, i was lying in bed, and i was channel surfing between reality tv programs and actual war coverage. on one channel, there’s a group of young people competing for i don’t even know; and on the next, there’s a group of young people fighting in an actual war. i was really tired, and the lines between these stories started to blur in a very unsettling way … there is so much programming, and i worry that we’re all getting a little desensitized to the images on our televisions. (margolis) the inherent problem that collins saw on her television that night and the backbone of her trilogy is the blurring of reality with fiction, the seeing of something real (such as violence or war) and treating it as something fictitious or dramatized. collins noticed this competition between actual and staged violence, and she used this concept to write a novel series centered on the dramatized and staged fighting of children in an arena. not only does the violence that occurs in the arena include ties to ancient roman gladiator fighting, but it is also reminiscent of modern-day reality television programs. but, this focus on staged violence and the subsequent desensitization to that very same violence is not the only theme that appears in collins’s trilogy. the fighting that appears in the arena of the hunger games is situated in the larger society of panem, which is the country in which the hunger games trilogy takes place. it is in this society where the citizens of the twelve districts are enslaved by the capitol and forced to produce the commodities that are used by the citizens of the capitol as they live their opulent lifestyles. the citizens of the districts are controlled by the capitol and their peacekeepers, who punish anyone who does not comply with the capitol’s orders. despite the desensitization to violence and the perpetuation of oppression and slavery in suzanne collins’s the hunger games trilogy bryce longenberger, ball state university key words: the hunger games, desensitization to violence, roman gladiators, slavery and entertainment abstract: this paper analyzes slavery in suzanne collins’s the hunger games trilogy by contextualizing her works within the history of roman gladiator fighting and by examining the social structures of oppression within the society that collins creates. the essay explores how the trilogy highlights the ways that people can perpetuate systems of slavery within a society when they become desensitized to violence and both benefit from and are entertained by the exploitation of others. 75 digital literature review, vol. 2 (2015). © ball state university. all rights reserved. please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce critical edition to dlr@bsu.edu. the presence of brute force and violence, the actual structure of panem’s society – such as the physical layout of the districts and the role of the reaping and the hunger games – is instrumental in enabling the enslavement of the district citizens to occur. in this way, suzanne collins’s the hunger games trilogy performs two crucial functions in its discourse on slavery. first, the resemblance of roman gladiator fighting inherent in the annual hunger games provides us with a warning about the dangers of becoming desensitized to violence. second, the structure of panem’s society, which i will analyze through the application of theories about slavery, provides us with a second warning about the effects that social structures can have on the existence and perpetuation of slavery. in the end, analyzing these two elements of collins’s trilogy highlights important issues present in modern-day society and its treatment of slavery today. background and definitions before i move on, i believe a brief reprise of the trilogy would aid in a clarification of my argument. the hunger games trilogy is set in a futuristic country called panem that occupies part of north america. seventy-four years before the start of the first book, there existed thirteen districts and a capitol that ruled over them. when the districts rebelled, the capitol subdued twelve of the districts and destroyed the thirteenth. to punish the districts for their rebellion, the capitol created an annual event called the hunger games. every year, a male and a female child between the ages of twelve to eighteen are picked from each district and sent to the capitol as tributes and retribution for the rebellion. those children are then forced to fight to the death in an arena while the entire nation of panem is forced to watch. ever since the rebellion, the citizens of the districts are forced to work in their own districts for all of their lives, while the citizens of the capitol live a luxurious lifestyle where they enjoy the fruits of the districts’ labor. the trilogy is then focused on a girl chosen from district 12, katniss everdeen, and her ensuing fight against the control of the capitol. in this paper i will be exploring how slavery is presented in the trilogy; therefore, i believe it is pertinent to provide a concrete but not exhaustive definition of slavery. sociologist orlando patterson defines slavery in terms of power and domination: “slavery is one of the most extreme forms of the relationship of domination, approaching the limits of total power from the viewpoint of the master, and total powerlessness from the viewpoint of the slave” (1). in his analysis of modern-day slavery, kevin bales describes the system of slavery as “the state of control exercised over the slave based on violence or its threat, a lack of any payment beyond sustenance, and the theft of labor or other qualities of the slave for economic gain” (9). both of these scholars consider slavery in a way that includes a display of complete control and domination of one person over another. this is the definition on which i will base my analysis. ancient roman gladiatorial events and the desensitization to violence the theme of desensitization to violence in the hunger games trilogy centers on the annual hunger games and the arena where the tributes are forced to fight one another. in order to fully understand this theme that suzanne collins presents, we must first examine the hunger games’ resemblance to gladiatorial events in ancient rome. by doing this, we can better understand how the desensitization to violence occurs. the earliest recorded gladiatorial event held in ancient rome occurred in 264 b.c. the early gladiator games were called a munus, or a “duty” or “gift,” which was done in honor of the dead. in 76 longenberger her research on roman gladiators, alison futrell tells us that the early munus was connected with the funerals of deceased and prominent members of roman society (19). but, as roger dunkle explains in his book on gladiatorial spectacles, the games would eventually cease to be associated with funerals and would stand as a spectacle in and of themselves (7). dunkle also points out that we currently hold an incorrect notion that gladiatorial events were an everyday occurrence in roman society. he notes, “in the republic and the imperial period, gladiator games were a relative rarity, even under emperors who were active givers of spectacles, and that rarity was an important factor in the popularity of the games” (72). it stands to reason that the “rarity” of the games built up more hype surrounding the games themselves, which made it more effective and popular among the people. we can see this fact present in the hunger games trilogy as well. the infrequency of the annual hunger games mimics the timing of the roman gladiatorial games, and the popularity of the games among the citizens of the capitol could also be attributed to the rarity of the games. the desensitization to violence originated in ancient rome because of the attitudes of the spectators towards the gladiators themselves. this will become apparent when we examine who the gladiators were. among those fighting in the arena, there were typically two main types of people who became gladiators. the first were people who were forced to train and fight in the arena, usually as a form of punishment. these would consist of slaves, prisoners of war, and criminals convicted of capital crimes (dunkle 30). an interesting fact is that there were also other criminals killed in the arena, but they were not gladiators. the criminals who fought in the arena as gladiators were called damnati ad ladum gladiatorium, but the other criminals were called noxii. instead of fighting, the noxii were killed during the noonday festivities that split the morning and afternoon gladiatorial events. as donald kyle points out in his overview of gladiatorial events, the noxii were “men (and women) sentenced to execution, crucifixion, fire, or the beasts” (91). punished for extreme criminal acts against the state, these criminals were deprived of the rights of roman citizens and were thus given the worst forms of capital punishment. unlike the gladiators who were given a chance to fight and survive, noxii had no chance of surviving the games. the two types of gladiators are also represented in the hunger games trilogy; interestingly enough, the tributes are actually a combination of the gladiators and noxii. they are allowed to fight in the game and thus have a chance of winning, and in that sense they are like gladiators. at the same time, twenty-three of the tributes are destined to die and, thus, have no chance of winning; in that sense, they are like the noxii. the other group of gladiators was formed from people who were not forced to fight; instead, they were volunteers. in his book on the invisible people of ancient rome, robert knapp states that, upon signing up for gladiatorial training, the volunteer “swore he would give up his rights to protection under the law, promising to allow himself to ‘be burned, chained, beaten, or killed’ in his contracted position” (267). in essence, the volunteer lost all of his legal rights in exchange for a chance to fight for fame and fortune. similarly, those who volunteer for the hunger games are also treated in this manner; upon volunteering, they too lose all rights and are forced to fight to the death, just like the tributes who are picked by the reaping. all in all, even though there were both gladiators who were forced to fight and those who volunteered, all of the gladiators were usually viewed as criminals. according to roger dunkle, this meant that spectators inevitably came to one conclusion about gladiators: “the prevailing feeling among romans was that gladiators, given their background of slavery, crime or opposition to the roman state as enemy soldiers, deserved whatever fate they suffered” (18). this feeling was also leveled against the tributes: because the tributes are all from one of the twelve districts, and 77 longenberger because the hunger games is a form of punishment and retribution for the rebellion, the capitol believes all of the tributes, whether they were reaped or volunteered, deserve to die for the crimes their people committed in the past. this level of dislike and contempt for gladiators and tributes also leads to a feeling of apathy toward the wellbeing of the fighters, which can be seen in the lives of the gladiators after they leave the arena. many gladiators seemed to have died in the arena; of those who did not, the remainder of their lives was short-lived and painful (overall gladiators did not normally live past the age of thirty). an excavation of sixty-seven skeletons of gladiators in ephesus, turkey, revealed that most of the skeletons had sustained physical deformities and traumas from fighting in the arena (knapp 277-278). even if a gladiator survived the arena, the injuries he sustained from fighting ailed him for the rest of his short life. not only did gladiators suffer from their fighting, but spectators also did not care what happened to the gladiators; spectators believed that gladiators deserved what they received from fighting, which made them apathetic toward the pain and suffering the gladiators endured. the hunger games also had similar impacts on the tributes. as suzanne collins points out in an interview she gave about the catching fire film in 2013, katniss displays signs of post-traumatic stress disorder at the beginning of the second novel (grossman). with the fact that peeta is given an artificial leg after he left the hunger games in the first novel, even the victors do not escape the games unscathed. and, most importantly, after katniss and peeta win the hunger games, the citizens of the capitol are much more interested in their love life than they are with their physical and emotional suffering. this feeling of apathy toward other human beings is best appreciated when we understand that the gladiator games, and the annual hunger games as well, were about entertainment and “putting on a good show.” in this light, the gladiator’s life, and whether he lived or died, became irrelevant. if a gladiator found that he could no longer fight, he could ask the editor, or the person in charge of the games, for missio, which was basically an honorable discharge from battle. if the editor thought the gladiator had performed excellently, he would grant missio and allow both gladiators to leave the arena alive. if, however, the editor refused to give missio, then the defeated gladiator was instantly killed by his opponent (dunkle 140-141). in this manner, the gladiator’s life was still completely in the hands of the editor; he could be killed or his life could be spared, but both choices were out of his hands. most importantly, the editor often based his decision on the attitude of the crowd or the caesar; the editor’s ultimate goal was to ensure that a good performance and entertainment was provided. katniss and peeta find themselves in the very same situation at the end of the 74th hunger games. the capitol has complete domination over their lives; even though the capitol chooses to let both of them live, it is only because the capitol must put on a good show, and having a hunger games with no survivors would not make that happen. in the end, the fact that the life of a tribute is dependent on providing entertainment, and simultaneously that the citizens of the capitol are only interested in being entertained, is evidence of the apathy and desensitization toward the violence unfolding before them. ultimately, the research into gladiators in ancient rome highlights the desensitization to violence held by the spectators of those violent spectacles. as we’ve seen, when applied to the hunger games trilogy, the context of gladiator history warns us about the dangers of being desensitized to violence. the citizens of the capitol are consumed with the entertainment aspects of the annual hunger games. unlike the people in the districts, who are forced to watch the hunger games, the citizens of the capitol freely choose to indulge in the fighting and suffering in the hunger games. katniss sums up this view of capitol citizens perfectly: “what do they do all day, these people in 78 longenberger the capitol, besides decorating their bodies and waiting around for a new shipment of tributes to roll in and die for their entertainment” (collins, the hunger games 65). the citizens of the capitol are so accustomed to the death in the arena that they no longer care that children are dying. as if that wasn’t terrible enough, the capitol citizens also seem to be extremely oblivious to the plight of all of the other citizens of the districts. according to tom henthorne, the attitudes of the members of the capitol toward the other district citizens is much worse: “[the] citizens are so caught up in the artificial drama that plays out on television that they pay little attention to the fact that their ‘president’ is, in fact, a dictator who attained power by murdering his rivals or that their affluence comes at the cost of great privation elsewhere” (105). the last part is extremely indicative of their knowledge of slavery: the citizens of the capitol are so obsessed with the entertainment the hunger games provides that they are blissfully unaware that the citizens of the districts are being oppressed and enslaved. this type of ignorance is like a veil placed over the capitol’s eyes so that they don’t realize the horrors of the existence of the districts. the societal structure of the hunger games and the perpetuation of oppression and violence we have already seen how the annual hunger games, in its connection to roman gladiatorial events, highlights the dangers of becoming desensitized and apathetic to the suffering of other human beings. in the hunger games trilogy, the social structure of panem also warns us about the dangers that those very same societal structures can have in enabling slavery to occur. in the hunger games trilogy, this manifests itself in the physical layout of the districts, the reaping that chooses the children who will be the tributes, and the socioeconomic inequality among the district citizens. one of the structures of panem’s society is the layout of the districts, which utilizes the ideology of space and place. in the introduction to their book place of public memory: the rhetoric of museums and memorials, greg dickinson et. al. provide a definition for space and place. even though their book focuses on the rhetoric within museums and memorials, their definition and distinction between space and place is, i believe, still relevant to my argument. they state, “space and place [are used] … to emphasize a difference in how physical situatedness is experienced. in such usages, a place that is bordered, specific, and locatable by being named is seen as different from open, undifferentiated, undesignated space” (23). place is seen, then, as that which has a definite shape and border, and space is everything that has a lack thereof. but, i believe we can take this definition even further. we, as humans, build houses, walls, and even national borders; we like to inhabit places because their definite shape provides us with a sense of safety and identity. everything not enclosed in those defined spaces is foreign and, therefore, for the most part, undesirable. in the hunger games, the layout of panem’s society constructs the twelve districts as places and the land outside those districts as merely empty space. the district citizens also seem to associate safety with their own districts. district 12, for example, is surrounded by “a high chain-link fence topped with barbed-wire loops. in theory, it’s supposed to be electrified twenty-four hours a day as a deterrent to the predators that live in the woods – packs of wild dogs, lone cougars, bears – that used to threaten our streets” (collins, the hunger games 4). the fenced-off edges of the district, which also make the district a distinct and safe place, serve to protect the citizens of the district from the “evil” lurking in the space outside their districts. furthermore, this distinction between space and place causes the district citizens to actually desire to take refuge in their own districts. katniss notes that, “in the fall, a few brave souls sneak into the woods to harvest apples. but always in sight of the meadow. always close enough to run back to the safety of district 12 if trouble 79 longenberger arises” (collins, the hunger games 6). the districts have been instilled with the notion that their enclosed district is protecting them from the unidentified space surrounding them. if we examine this structure closely, however, we notice that the citizens prefer to remain in the very places where their enslavement simultaneously occurs. instead of seeking refuge and freedom in the free space outside their districts (which would signify that they would have to leave the “safety” of their districts), the district citizens believe the only safe place for them is in the very site that enables their own enslavement. ultimately, the layout of the entire nation of panem, and the accompanying feelings of the citizens toward that layout, is used by the capitol to perpetuate the enslavement of all of its districts. in the end, the physical layout of the districts does more harm than good. part of the social structure in panem also includes the annual hunger games the capitol puts on. in order to select the children who must fight in the hunger games, the capitol holds a reaping which chooses a boy and a girl at random from each district to be the tributes. but, the reaping itself does more than simply pick the tributes for each district. inherent in the reaping itself are two major facets of slavery that orlando patterson defines, and these help create the enslavement of the districts. these facets are “natal alienation” and “deracination.” patterson describes natal alienation as the “alienation of the slave from all formal, legally enforceable ties of ‘blood’ and from all ‘rights’ or claims of birth” (7). what natal alienation entails is the fact that a slave’s social connection and relationship to the people of his birth and heritage are not constituted as legally binding. being natally alienated means that a parent and child may still have a relationship, but that relationship holds no legal standing or rights. because of this, patterson notes, “the master [has] the power to remove a slave from the local community in which he or she was brought up” (6). patterson labels this action as “deracination,” or the loss of native status for any person by being physically removed from his or her home. in this way, natal alienation provides the threat of separation, and deracination fulfills that threat by physically uprooting slaves from their homes. but even though not all slaves are deracinated, patterson states that the fact that separation is possible was enough to “strike fear in the hearts of all slaves” (6). in the hunger games, the annual reaping enforces the natal alienation and enslavement of all of the district citizens while also providing the threat of deracination. at any moment, a child’s name can be called at the reaping. because the threat of separation is always present in the reaping itself, the citizens’ relationships with their children are not legally enforceable. and, since every citizen is natally alienated, it is at the very moment in the reaping when the child’s name is called when the threat of separation is finally fulfilled and the child, now a tribute, is uprooted from his home and taken to the capitol. even though not all children are deracinated, the possibility of this occurring still has the same effect on all the citizens of the districts. coupled together, the natal alienation of the citizens and the constant threat of deracination subject the citizens of the districts to a constant state of terror and fear, which subjugates them into submission and leaves them completely powerless to control and maintain their own relationships in society. these facets of slavery are created, as i said early, exclusively by the social structure that is the reaping. the final element of the societal structure of panem that perpetuates the cycle of oppression and enslavement in the districts is the presence of poverty and socioeconomic inequality, which leads impoverished citizens of the districts to take actions which put them at more risk of being selected for the annual hunger games. poverty has long intersected with systems of slavery; those who study modern-day slave systems note that poverty often drives people to seek out work opportunities that may seem risky, which lead them to be taken advantage of and eventually, in some cases, to be enslaved. kevin bales notes that “while slavery may be linked to religion in one country, to caste 80 longenberger or ‘race’ in a second country, and to gender in yet another country, it always reflects differences in economic and social power” (10). the fact that poverty and low socioeconomic status drives people to seek opportunities that place them in a position to be enslaved is also present in the novels. this appears in the form of tessera in panem’s society. when a child turns twelve, he or she can sign up for tessera, which is worth “a meager year’s supply of grain and oil for one person.” a person such as katniss can apply for tessera for each of her family members, but each time a person signs up for tessera, their name is entered in the reaping an extra time. people can sign up for tessera each year, but the entries are also cumulative. by the time katniss is sixteen, her name is entered in the reaping twenty times; gale’s name is entered forty-two times (collins, the hunger games 13). at the surface level, this appears like a way for families in poverty to receive extra food throughout the year. another function of tessera is to make the poor more likely to be called for the annual hunger games. children of financially sound families will only have their names entered once because they have no need for extra food. but, since those children in poverty are driven by a need for survival, they place themselves at a higher risk of being sent to the hunger games and, thus, of being subjected to further violence in the arena. another part of low socioeconomic status is the promise and lure to improve one’s circumstances in life. every year after the boy and girl tribute have been selected, there is an option for citizens of the districts to volunteer. in places such as district 12, no one usually volunteers because “the word tribute is pretty much synonymous with the word corpse” (collins, the hunger games 22). in these districts, children hardly ever volunteer because they have almost no chances of winning. in the wealthier districts, such as districts 1 and 2, children train for the hunger games their entire lives and volunteer just so they can win the hunger games. despite their improved lifestyles, even the members of the wealthier districts are still forced to work their entire lives, meaning they too want to escape their lives of enslavement. collins never addresses their desire for volunteering, but one could assume it is driven by the desire to want to live in a life of luxury and pleasure for the rest of their lives. in the end, the volunteering functions as a societal structure that provides a hope of escaping the miserable conditions; coupled with the structure of tessera, which provides relief to struggling families, these two social structures allow the children of the districts to be more susceptible to entering the annual hunger games and enduring further violence and oppression. modern-day implications and importance of the hunger games trilogy some may believe that suzanne collins’s the hunger games trilogy is purely fiction and has no pertinence in our daily lives, but i believe these two themes present in the trilogy inform us greatly about problems in our modern-day society. according to a different interview with suzanne collins, conducted by hannah hudson, collins believes that “watching people being humiliated or brought to tears or suffering physically” has an inherent “voyeuristic thrill,” one that is commonly present in reality television. collins goes on to state that there is a “potential for desensitizing the audience so that when they see real tragedy playing out on the news, it doesn’t have the impact it should. it all just blurs into one program” (hudson). collins is clearly concerned with the fact that viewing dramatized violence and suffering can block out the reality of war and violence in the real world. she is deeply concerned with the fact that seeing fake suffering on reality television shows inhibits our ability to understand and comprehend the actual suffering of human beings in the world today. remembering the way the roman spectators and the citizens of the capitol became desensitized to the violence they were viewing can aid us in remaining aware of 81 longenberger the actual suffering of real people enduring oppression and enslavement around the world. within collins’s novels there rests a second warning about allowing certain structures within society to remain that could lead individuals to be enslaved. as i’ve noted, the layout of the districts made the citizens feel like they needed to stay in their districts in order to survive and remain in safety. this construct was, as we have seen, a manifestation of panem’s society and the ideas instilled upon them, and when it was left intact, it persuaded more district citizens to stay where they could be enslaved rather than seek freedom. the poverty that was rampant in many of the districts also made some of the district citizens at a higher risk of going to the hunger games. if these social structures within the districts had been reformed and improved, those citizens would not have felt the need to place their lives on the line in order to survive. another construct that is quite prevalent in many societies today is the laws that require foreign citizens to have their passport to leave the country. it seems like a harmless law, one that is probably supposed to do more good than harm, but in reality it traps individuals in slavery. in jesse sage and liora kasten’s book enslaved: true stories of modern day slavery, many of the stories feature individuals who were trapped in foreign countries when they were enslaved because their passports were taken away and they could not leave the country. this construct of modern society effectively prevents modern-day slaves from fleeing their employers/captors because it is illegal to do so without a passport. collins’s novel warns us that if we do not change laws such as these that allow systems of oppression and violence to function, then the problem of slavery will not end but will actually continue to exist as long as these constructs are in place. finally, collins’s depiction of the reaping and the annual hunger games, and the fact that the citizens of the capitol were completely oblivious to the suffering of the districts, reminds us of threatening social structures in the past, from the japanese internment camps that were set up across america during world war ii, to the concentration camps established during the nazi holocaust, to the military detention camps like guantanamo bay. these structures of oppression and enslavement are often created and sustained because the societies in which they are created either approve of their creation or are oblivious or unconcerned about their existence. collins reminds us that if we do not recognize these systems of oppression in our world and become aware that a great violence is being committed, then there is no possibility of those systems of oppression and slavery being stopped. thus, they will continue on indefinitely into the future and wreak havoc along the way. conclusion estimates put the current number of slaves in our world today at 30 million worldwide. between sex trafficking and child labor, there are people being enslaved in virtually every country in the world. there are signs of modern-day slavery in every direction we look, including literature. as we have seen throughout this paper, slavery is so prevalent in suzanne collins’s the hunger games trilogy; and, from our analysis, we can see just how devastating it can be to become desensitized to violence and allow oppression to continue through current societal structures. the hunger games trilogy may be fiction and it may not include a story detailing the suffering of actual people in real enslavement, but the oppression they face mirrors that of modern-day slaves. if readers could learn to read literature and examine the systems of slavery in the novels they read, thus taking from them knowledge of the suffering and oppression that any human being can face, then perhaps we might become a generation of educated and insightful human beings who have the desire and will to end slavery in our own lifetime. 82 longenberger bales, kevin. understanding global slavery: a reader. los angeles: university of california press, 2005. print. collins, suzanne. the hunger games. new york: scholastic, 2008. print. ------. catching fire. new york: scholastic, 2009. print. dickinson, greg, carole blair, and brian l. ott. place of public memory: the rhetoric of museums and memorials. tuscaloosa: university of alabama press, 2010. print. dunkle, roger. gladiators: violence and spectacle in ancient rome. harlow, england; new york: pearson/longman, 2008. print. futrell, alison. blood in the arena: the spectacle of roman power. austin: university of texas press, 1997. print. grossman, lev. “katniss is ‘a wreck’: a conversation with suzanne collins and francis lawrence.” time. time, 18 nov. 2013. web. 4 feb. 2015. henthorne, tom. “‘real or non real?’: reality television and the hunger games trilogy.” approaching the hunger games: a literary and cultural analysis. jefferson, nc: mcfarland & company, 2012. 95-107. print. hudson, hannah trierweiler. “q&a with hunger games author suzanne collins.” scholastic. scholastic, n.d. web. 6 mar. 2015. knapp, robert. invisible romans. 1st ed. cambridge, massachusetts: harvard university press, 2011. print. kyle, donald g. spectacles of death in ancient rome. london; new york: routledge, 1998. print. margolis, rick. “a killer story: an interview with suzanne collins, author of ‘the hunger games.’” school library journal. media source, 1 sep. 2008. web. 28 jan. 2015. patterson, orlando. slavery and social death: a comparative study. cambridge, massachusetts: harvard university press, 1982. print. sage, jesse and liora kasten. enslaved: true stories of modern day slavery. new york: palgrave macmillan, 2008. print. 83 works cited longenberger tradition vs. innovation and the creatures in spirited away hayao miyazaki’s spirited away is the highest grossing film in the history of japanese cinema (rekidai rankingu). it depicts the experience of a young girl, chihiro, when she discovers a spirit world and begins to work at a bathhouse where the spirits, or kami, go to relax. there are many different kami that visit and work at the bathhouse in addition to chihiro, who appears to be the only human. certain creatures in the film possess monstrous qualities such as grotesque features, supernatural abilities, and potentially threatening agendas. from a western perspective, and without an understanding of japanese tradition, the kami appear to simply be monsters, secluded from society, who operate and patronize a bathhouse. within the context of japanese mythology and theology, however, the spirits are much more complex. in truth, most of the creatures in spirited away are not actual kami found within japanese religion. however, it is evident that miyazaki was inspired by real kami when he created these creatures. the kami that miyazaki created for spirited away help to illuminate the tension between tradition and innovation within modern japanese society. when miyazaki created these creatures, he enabled traditions not only to be preserved through film, but to also be made relevant for japanese youth, who are often perceived to be slipping away from japanese tradition. abstract japan is perhaps best known for creating the world-famous film style: anime. popular with adults and children alike, anime boasts unfamiliar creatures that are sometimes considered strange or disturbing to the western world. hayao miyazaki, perhaps the most well-known anime director, screenwriter, and animator, presents such fantastical creatures in spirited away. the creatures viewers encounter resemble kami, or spirits, from japanese folklore. this paper explores how these spirits illuminate the tension between tradition and innovation within modern japanese society. traditions are not only preserved through spirited away, but are made relevant for japanese youth, who are often perceived to be slipping away from japanese tradition. emma hartman, ball state university 1digital literature review, vol. 4 (2017). ball state university. all rights reserved. please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce critical edition to dlr@bsu.edu. kami overview the kami in spirited away typically embody an element of the natural world—such as a radish, spider, or river—and this manner of depicting natural spirits ties directly to traditional folk beliefs and one of the major japanese religions—shinto. in shinto, different parts of the natural world are thought to possess spirits, which exist in a separate plane but can interact with humans. in the film, the kami also exist in a world separate from humans, but this world is not completely removed, as humans are prone to sometimes discover the secret bathhouse and its inhabitants. traditionally, as they are divine creatures, some kami can be prayed to for a better harvest, a more plentiful fishing trip, and so forth. some, however, solely intend destruction, and in these we can see the manifestations of more monstrous qualities. miyazaki has taken the propensity for destruction in shinto gods and has applied it to creatures in spirited away, such as no face, who consumes people and spirits alike, and the paper spirits, or shikigami, who attack others with their sharp edges. the intentions of the kami in spirited away at first appear ambiguous, as we do not hear the sentiments of most of the patrons of the business. however, most of the kami are hostile to chihiro, who has invaded their realm. some kami, such as a frog chihiro encounters, even mention a wish to eat her. the kami are not pleased to have chihiro in the bathhouse at first because, to kami, humans are the monsters. jeffrey jerome cohen, a monster scholar, states in “monster culture (seven theses),” “the monster is difference made flesh, come to dwell among us” (cohen 7). ironically, chihiro and the kami can both be related to this description of the other as a monster, as both parties are unsettled by the distinct differences between each other in terms of manners, appearance, and other traits. similarly, tradition and innovation provide a stark, observable contrast when they coexist within a culture. as cohen states, “the monstrous body is pure culture” (4). this implies that monsters represent the attitudes of the culture that created them—in particular, its fears. kami may function as an embodiment of fear, but they also embody a complex web of traditions and mythology, with which viewers may be unfamiliar. when chihiro invades the bathhouse, which is filled with creatures based upon japanese tradition, she represents a dynamic cultural force and insists that those who already live there accept her. chihiro’s invasion of an established society and the kami’s adverse response to her parallel how innovations can challenge the way things operate, which may also incite society’s fear and discomfort. the various creatures chihiro meets in the bathhouse seem to be influenced by characters from traditional folk tales, and spirited away is “[an] exploration of a 2emma hartman contemporary japan that is searching for what might be termed cultural recovery, or perhaps cultural rehabilitation” (napier 289). this cultural recovery includes an emphasis on reestablishing historically important japanese ideals within the contemporary world (289). such ideals, according to susan napier, include moderation versus gluttony, natural versus artificial, and tranquil versus bustling, among others. however, many of the kami who are supposedly “traditional” defy such idealistic categories, favoring excessive consumption and boisterous mannerisms. in addition, their very existence is artificial, as most of the creatures are not actually found in japanese mythology but were adapted by miyazaki’s modern imagination. in this way, spirited away does not completely warn against modern conduct, but it concedes that japanese society is much too complex to be categorized. chihiro’s parents as monsters the first monstrous act in spirited away is when chihiro’s parents, upon reaching the spirit world, behave gluttonously and are punished by the kami who live there. chihiro accidentally stumbles upon this spirit world when her family gets lost as they are moving to a new home. in this fantastical world, the spirits take a corporeal form and can interact with and speak to chihiro, which was not possible in the “real” world in which she had grown up. in this unfamiliar world, chihiro’s parents are enticed by delicious foods and are turned into pigs as punishment for their gluttony. one of the modern expectations in japan is to enjoy things in moderation because resources, especially space, are limited on an island nation. when chihiro’s parents are turned into unclean, gluttonous animals after indulging in the tempting buffet which they stumbled upon, the movie highlights and emphasizes current acceptable social norms in japan. chihiro’s parents function as monsters in this instance, as they cross an unstated cultural boundary and steal from those of an established and elevated society. in “monster culture (seven theses),” cohen states, “the monster of prohibition polices the borders of the possible, interdicting through its grotesque body some behaviors and actions, envaluing others” (13). yubaba, the witch who runs the bathhouse, states later in the film that the food laid out had been made for the gods to consume. when chihiro’s parents transform into pigs after eating the food, it is an obvious warning against selfishness and gluttony, in addition to a lack of respect of those of a higher status. the kami view chihiro’s parents as monsters and treat them as such when the kami turn them into pigs, as they have done to countless other humans who defied them. after her parents are transformed, chihiro’s goal becomes to save her parents and to return them to their original 3emma hartman human state. chihiro must redeem her parents’ breaking of tradition by ironically further challenging the established norms at the bathhouse. to save her parents, chihiro must interact with and challenge a variety of kami, the first of whom is yubaba. yubaba yubaba is a commanding witch who evokes fear due to her cannibalistic tendencies and imposing manner. she is prone to take advantage of those who enter her bathhouse, and she expresses mercy only when she believes a person might be of use to her. the first time chihiro sees yubaba, the witch is flying around the sky with the body of a bird attached to her normal human head. later, she possesses a giant human body, not unlike the giant baby that she uncharacteristically nurtures in her living quarters. dr. noriko t. reider, a distinguished japanese professor at miami university, states in her article “spirited away: film of the fantastic and evolving japanese folk symbols,” that yubaba is often compared to lewis carroll’s queen of hearts (11). yubaba is elderly and rather grotesquely drawn, and she rules her bathhouse employees using magic. yubaba also lives at the top of the bathhouse. as she is the most powerful and important figure at the bathhouse, her physical situation at the top reflects this superiority, which is important to distinguish within traditional as well as modern japanese society. these characteristics, along with others, prompt reider to also observe a similarity between yubaba and the japanese mountain witch, yamauba (11). she states, “to many contemporary japanese, a yamauba conjures up the image of a mountain-dwelling hag who devours unsuspecting humans who happen upon her path . . . . yamauba are almost always endowed with supernatural powers” (11). in the film spirited away, yubaba transforms humans into animals (such as when she turned chihiro’s parents into pigs), and then she devours them, an act that resembles the yamauba’s cannibalism. in this way, yubaba is a modern reimagination of a traditional folk creature and aids in miyazaki’s task of making such folk creatures relevant to a young audience. yubaba’s existence also questions a traditional norm in japanese society— unquestioned obedience to those of a higher social or political status. yubaba utilizes magic to control her employees by causing them to forget their names, and this is also how she is able to keep chihiro within her possession. as long as a guest or employee does not recall his or her name, they must remain in the spirit world, under yubaba’s control. this motif of the power of names is not unique to japanese culture, and it actually spans the globe through various indigenous cultures as well as within almost every ethnic group and belief system (a.w.t. and clodd 4emma hartman 156). cohen states, “monsters must be examined within the intricate matrix of relations (social, cultural, and literary-historical) that generate them” (5). yubaba emerges from a combination of japanese witch folklore, common literary motifs, and the japanese hierarchical system, among many other aspects. she is prone to bursting into rage, making sly deals, and manipulating those around her, and thus she also represents the danger of unquestioned authority. kamaji another creature which chihiro encounters at the bathhouse is kamaji, a human-spider hybrid. he is most likely the spirit of a spider, as illustrated in his eight total appendages. kamaji is elderly, just like yubaba, and he works under her command in the boiler room with the help of animated soot creatures called susuwatari. reider suggests the similarity of kamaji to tsuchigumo, or earth spiders. she states that “tsuchigumo refers to less-cultivated indigenous people who had lived before the heavenly descendents [emperors] claimed [their] authority. specifically termed an earth spider, tsuchigumo is an appellation used derogatorily in ancient japanese literature for those who defied imperial (central) authority” (15, emphasis original). kamaji assumes the lowest status in the bathhouse, and thus he works on the lowest floor: the boiler room. kamaji’s low social status in relation to his low position in the bathhouse reflects the strict japanese hierarchy. this hierarchical aspect of spirited away was most likely not a conscious decision, but a product of the culture from whence it was born. it is an aspect of the culture which has not changed extensively in modern times. haku through chihiro’s main companion, haku, miyazaki highlights the tension between nature and civic advancement. when chihiro first meets him, haku appears to be human, although he can perform spells and enchantments. however, it is revealed at the conclusion of the film that haku is indeed the spirit of a certain river which chihiro crossed on her way to the bathhouse. haku alludes to this when he tells chihiro that he already knows her name because they met once a long time ago. unfortunately, haku is not able to return to the river to which his spirit belongs once his true form is restored because, after the passage of time, the river is no longer there. reider states, “that haku’s river has been reclaimed and he does not have a home to return to leads to miyazaki’s familiar environmental theme: modern technology continues to encroach upon nature, destroying natural habitats” (17). this occurrence reflects a concern within modern japan—that as industry, technology, and population advance, nature tends to diminish. as 5emma hartman shinto beliefs express a reverence for the earth, the trend towards greater cities and advancement sometimes conflicts with the spiritual reverence and respect for the natural landscape. as haku aids the protagonist, chihiro, the film seems to naturally admonish his adversary, which is the tendency for humans to destroy nature. in addition to symbolizing the struggle between advancement and environmental preservation, haku resembles a heavenly deity, nigihayahi, in ancient japanese tales (reider 16). nigihayahi betrayed the one to whom he was supposed to have allegiance in the same way haku betrayed yubaba when he helped chihiro. perhaps by tying various characters to traditional japanese folk tales, miyazaki might have been invoking an element of familiarity within his otherwise abnormal creatures. in “the uncanny,” sigmund freud says, “the uncanny is that species of the frightening that goes back to what was once well known and had long been familiar” (124). but, as the german literary scholar wolfgang kayser explains in the grotesque in art and literature, the uncanny occurs when “‘apparently meaningful things are shown to have no meaning, and familiar objects begin to look strange’” (qtd. in hurley 141). this effect plays a large role in the uncanny nature of spirited away, as these traditional folk characters are warped into completely new characters. when the kami are reimagined, they create an eerie feeling within a japanese viewer as they are reminiscent of potentially familiar kami but are not anything the viewer could have encountered before in a film or within japanese mythology. without any cultural context, the kami still create an uncanny effect. the creatures each have features which remind the viewer of where they originate. for instance, the radish kami vaguely looks like a radish, but it is quite distorted and is combined with human features, such as eyes, arms, and legs. in this way, the kami are reminiscent of familiar objects but begin to look strange as their appearance is warped, and they do not behave in the way which we would expect. when miyazaki ties his creatures to japanese folk tales, he presents them in a fresh way, which keeps viewers interested in traditional japanese culture. professors of anthropology, richard handler and jocelyn linnekin, state in their piece, “tradition, genuine or spurious,” “tradition refers to an interpretive process that embodies both continuity and discontinuity . . . . tradition fails when those who use it are unable to detach it from the implications of western common sense, which presumes that an unchanging core of ideas and customs is always handed down to us from the past” (14). this means that tradition is not something static and unchanging but, instead, is interpreted through the time period in which it is viewed and is thus dynamic. miyazaki’s creatures embody continuity and discontinuity because they stem from unchanging belief, but they are unique creatures in their own right. 6emma hartman no face another creature that combines new and old, and is perhaps the most famous of all in spirited away’s collection of spirits, is no face. he is described as a creature who, “like chihiro, came to the world of the bathhouse from a different realm”: “he is a pathetic creature who does not have self, and he can only communicate through the voice of someone he has swallowed” (qtd. in reider 19). the audience is led to, at first, pity this slightly fearful creature, but after he eats his first spirit, feelings become more complicated. no face appears generous as he gives chihiro many special bath tags and offers a frog gold, but he appeals to the greed of his victims by luring them with gifts before he consumes them. chihiro is able to refuse his gifts, and this is why she never is eaten. with the rise of the “salary-man,” culture, japan is shifting from valuing moderation, which is a traditional japanese virtue, to encouraging consumerism (gordon 8). no face provides an obvious message here that it is commendable to resist greediness in favor of a more noble goal, which for chihiro is saving her parents. unlike other creatures in spirited away, no face does not specifically represent any figure in japanese tradition or folk tales. however, his appearance was inspired by the noh mask. noh is a form of musical theatre in which the main character wears a mask depicting one unchangeable expression (rath 25). no face likewise shows little expression within the film, but miyazaki allowed him slight facial expression, so he seems almost human, but not quite. the mask no face wears evokes in viewers an uncanny effect, in which they “doubt as to whether . . . a lifeless object might perhaps be animate” ( jentsch qtd. in freud 135). it is later revealed in the film that no face’s mouth is not where it appears to be—on the mask. in fact, it is lower, larger, and full of sharp teeth. no face is the only creature described in the film as a monster, and he frightens the kami in the bathhouse. as a monster, no face represents the fear of succumbing to a modern capitalist mindset, like that ascribed to the salary-man. chihiro, however, remains unafraid of him and, eventually, helps him leave the bathhouse, in which his monstrous qualities were able to manifest. because chihiro is able to resist the greed that others experienced when in the presence of no face, chihiro promotes adherence to the japanese tradition of favoring family over finances. chihiro as a monster an unexpected monster in spirited away is chihiro herself. in order for her to gain entry into the bathhouse, haku casts a spell upon chihiro to make her invisible. after she infiltrates the property, her smell pollutes the air, and the kami can recognize her presence without any visual confirmation of her whereabouts. 7emma hartman napier theorizes, “chihiro herself is initially signified as a polluting alien marked by her human stench, but gradually she becomes incorporated into the bathhouse collectivity where she grows in agency and maturity” (290). before chihiro becomes a part of the collectivity, she forces yubaba to give her a job by repeating her request until yubaba can no longer refuse. mere curiosity leads chihiro and her family to the mystical bathhouse, and curiosity causes the family to become trapped in the liminal town, as they do not leave before sunset. napier explains that the world “may be seen as metaphoric of modern japan, a society that, with its fading grip on historic tradition and an ambivalent attitude toward the future, seems to emblemize victor turner’s definition of the liminal as being ‘betwixt and between’” (291). while napier concludes that spirited away attempts to reinforce local culture in resistance to globalization, i propose that the film attempts to bridge the divide between tradition and innovation through the liminal spirit world it portrays. not only is the town in spirited away liminal, or between two realities, but so are children (including chihiro), according to the japanese author, yoshiharu iijima. in his article, “folk culture and the liminality of children,” he explains that, in the past, children were thought to be closer to the gods and the spirit world and that they “played the part of intermediary between man and gods” (iijima 41). children are liminal, perhaps because they exist in the space between adult and baby, but, more specifically, they were not believed to be earthly beings until the age of seven. therefore, children existed in the plane between the spirit world and the mortal world, just as the world chihiro discovers exists between the same two planes. we can see chihiro taking on this liminal role in spirited away when she must save her parents in the spirit world, who are not able to survive there for more than perhaps an hour. iijima continues, “[children] were regarded as incomplete persons. while considered sacred beings different in nature from adults, they were at the same time looked down upon” (41). this cultural attitude is evidenced by the often condescending way chihiro is treated in the bathhouse, but also in the way that she is able to overcome the challenges of the spirit world. iijima also states that children’s very existence is “freakish” (41). children, according to iijima’s philosophy, appear to be monsters in their own right. while, at the beginning of the film, chihiro may be a monster to the inhabitants of the bathhouse, at the end, the kami cheer when chihiro correctly guesses which pigs are her parents, and she is able to return home. chihiro, while remaining a modern japanese girl, represents the ideal blend between respect for traditional kami, the environment, and family. religion scholar s. brent plate states, “films do not merely appear on a 8emma hartman screen; rather, they only exist in any real sense as far as they are watched, becoming part of the fabric of our lives. film viewing is thus a social activity that alters our interactions in the world” (qtd in thomas 78). chihiro embodies a role model to whom young viewers can aspire, and thus she fulfills miyazaki’s goal to potentially alter the interactions of young people in the world so that they are more aware of japanese traditions. izanagi and izanami when chihiro first enters the spirit world, she begins to disappear, and she must eat some food from that world in order to remain there. luckily, haku comes to her aid, and provides her with a berry to eat to prevent her from vanishing. reider states, “the motif of consuming food from the other world in order to stay alive in that realm may remind the audience of a famous japanese mythological story of izanagi and izanami” (5). these two deities are thought to have created japan and all of the gods who influence it. in their story, izanami passes away from giving birth to a fire deity, and izanagi goes to the realm she is in to try and retrieve her. unfortunately, izanami has already consumed the food there, so she cannot be taken out of that world. the magic that food possesses, which can hold a person in a certain realm, bridges the gap between the spirit and the temporal world. in order to remain temporal in a separate realm, chihiro had to invite a part of that world to physically join with her body (through the act of eating). while in this instance chihiro does not encounter a creature from the new world she has discovered, the act she must perform in order to stay a part of it brings to mind the mythological tale of these two important deities. by using this food motif, miyazaki subtly, perhaps unintentionally, acknowledges the japanese creation story and implements a familiar element into the unfamiliar world chihiro has discovered. when chihiro begins to disappear, it also brings to mind a quote by miyazaki which reads, “in this borderless age . . . a man without history or a people that forgot its past will have no choice but to disappear like a shimmer of light” (qtd in napier 292). chihiro disappears in this very same way at the beginning of the movie. however, after she encounters kami and develops a sense of self founded upon an understanding of the workings of the spirit world, she is able to ensure that she will not fade away, as miyazaki suggests. spirited away and globalization miyazaki explains that, within spirited away, he hopes to preserve some of 9emma hartman the japanese traditions in a world filled with modern technology and materialism (reider 8). miyazaki states, “it is a poor idea to push all the traditional things into a small folk-culture world. surrounded by high technology and its flimsy devices, children are more and more losing their roots” (qtd. in reider 8). with this statement, it is evident that miyazaki crafted the film with the intention of reestablishing roots amongst young children. napier suggests that this may be in opposition to globalization. she states that “one of the casualties of globalization . . . is the nature of ‘authenticity,’ producing what [arjun] appadurai [a social-cultural anthropologist] calls the possibility of ‘nostalgia without memory’ in which ‘the past becomes a synchronic warehouse of cultural scenarios’” (289). spirited away perhaps encounters this problem when it references various “authentic” stories, spirits, and creatures from folklore, which children may have never encountered. perhaps the children recognize the reference but see the tales as irrelevant to current japanese culture. napier adds that “more recently, however, an alternative view of globalization has begun to take form in which local culture is seen as reconstructing and reaffirming itself in the face of globalization” (289). with this perspective, spirited away may be functioning to reaffirm traditional japanese culture, and it may be instilling a sense of nationalism or community within the japanese children who view it. napier concludes that spirited away fails at reconstructing a sense of tradition, but i propose that through a creative, modern interpretation of japanese mythology, miyazaki succeeds at connecting viewers with the traditions which make japan so unique. for the purpose of comparing tradition with modern japanese society, it was necessary to establish a dichotomy. however, handler and linnekin point out that “designating any part of culture as old or new, traditional or modern, has two problematic implications. first, this approach encourages us to see culture and tradition naturalistically . . . . second, in this atomistic paradigm we treat culture and its constituents as entities having an essence apart from our interpretation of them” (14). this means that, in fact, culture is not static, and traditions are not simply artifacts which are passed down between generations. when we engage with a tradition or story from the past, we are interpreting it with a modern lens. miyazaki was very aware of this fact in spirited away, and he used this to his advantage to interpret traditional stories in a new and inventive way. by doing so, miyazaki combines modernity with tradition and blurs the very lines of the dichotomy between new and old. 10emma hartman conclusion handler and linnekin state, “we would argue that tradition resembles less an artifactual assemblage than a process of thought—an ongoing interpretation of the past” (15). miyazaki is doing just this within spirited away when he reimagines classic folktales to engage modern audiences. the creatures in spirited away perform this work in a way that no other element of the movie can because each creature embodies a different element of japanese culture or is inspired by a classic folk tale. in his attempt to connect young people with japanese traditions, miyazaki creates a new japanese cornerstone, which is arguably the most famous japanese movie in history: spirited away. 11emma hartman works cited a. w. t. and edward clodd. “the philosophy of rumpelstilt-skin.” the folk-lore journal, vol. 7, no. 2, 1889, pp. 135–163. jstor, www.jstor.org/ stable/1252656. accessed 20 feb. 2017. cohen, jeffrey jerome. “monster culture (seven theses).” monster theory: reading culture, edited by jeffrey jerome cohen. university of minnesota press, 1996. pp. 3-25. freud, sigmund. “the uncanny.” the uncanny. translated by david mclintock, penguin, 2003. pp. 123-162. gordon, andrew d. “consumption, consumerism, and japanese modernity.” the oxford handbook of the history of consumption, edited by frank trentmann, oxford university press, 2012. pp. 485-504. harvard university’s dash, http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul. instrepos:10436348. accessed 17 apr. 2017. handler, richard, and jocelyn linnekin. “tradition, genuine or spurious.” the journal of american folklore, vol. 97, no. 385, 1984, pp. 273–290. jstor, www.jstor.org/stable/540610. accessed 15 feb. 2017. hurley, kelly. “abject and grotesque.” the routledge companion to the gothic, edited by catherine spooner and emma mcevoy, routledge, 2007. pp. 137 146. iijima, yoshiharu. “folk culture and the liminality of children.” current anthropology, vol. 28, no. 4, 1987, pp. s41–s48. jstor, www.jstor.org/ stable/2743429. accessed 2 jan. 2017. rath, eric c. the ethos of noh: actors and their art. cambridge, ma, harvard university press, 2006. rekidai rankingu 歴代ランキング. cinema rankingu tsuushin cinema ラン キング通 信, kogyo tsushinsha, 3 apr. 2017, www.kogyotsushin.com/ archives/alltime/. accessed 5 apr. 2017 12emma hartman http://www.jstor.org/ stable/1252656 http://www.jstor.org/ stable/1252656 http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul. instrepos:10436348 http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul. instrepos:10436348 http://www.jstor.org/stable/540610 http://www.jstor.org/ stable/2743429 http://www.jstor.org/ stable/2743429 http://www.kogyotsushin.com/ archives/alltime/ http://www.kogyotsushin.com/ archives/alltime/ napier, susan j. “matter out of place: carnival, containment, and cultural recovery in miyazaki’s ‘spirited away.’” journal of japanese studies, vol. 32, no. 2, 2006, pp. 287–310. jstor, www.jstor.org/stable/25064646. accessed 2 jan. 2017. reider, noriko t. “spirited away: film of the fantastic and evolving japanese folk symbols.” film criticism, vol. 29, no. 3, 2005, pp. 4-27. academic search premier, http://proxy.bsu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/ login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&an=18274903&site=ehostlive&scope=site. accessed 28 nov. 2016. spirited away. directed by hayao miyazaki. studio ghibli, 2001 thomas, jolyon baraka. “shûkyô asobi and miyazaki hayao’s anime.” nova religio: the journal of alternative and emergent religions, vol. 10, no. 3, 2007, pp. 73–95. jstor, www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/nr.2007.10.3.73. accessed 2 jan. 2017. 13emma hartman http://www.jstor.org/stable/25064646 http://proxy.bsu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/ login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&an=18274903&site=ehost live&scope=site http://proxy.bsu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/ login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&an=18274903&site=ehost live&scope=site http://proxy.bsu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/ login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&an=18274903&site=ehost live&scope=site http:// www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/nr.2007.10.3.73. 60 a place to mourn: why the vietnam veterans memorial is crucial to american healing rebekah hobbs, ball state university all memorials offer solace to those who visit, but the vietnam veterans memorial is particularly suited to this cause because of certain aspects of its design. as this article demonstrates, qualities such as its black reflective surface, its gradual increase in height, and the ordering of the names work to create an emotional connection to the names on the wall, bringing them to life and creating a place for grief, and ultimately healing, to occur. the vietnam war occurred during a time of great unrest in america. the late 1950s through the 70s are considered some of the wildest times in our nation’s history, comprising the struggles for civil rights, women’s rights, and protests for and against the war. the selective service compounded class tensions, as college students and those in certain professions were able to avoid the draft in the early years of the war. jan scruggs served in the war, and when he returned, he determined that a memorial was needed, not just to remember the soldiers who were lost, but also to heal the nation, as he later wrote in his book, to heal a nation. the turmoil was not a mere hardship, but a national trauma, and as horror stories have taught us, a trauma that is not healed will grow to haunt us. all memorials work to release us from our ghosts, but the vietnam veterans memorial is so compelling because of the nature of the conflict and the time period it represents. other than the time of the civil war, the vietnam era was the most divisive in our nation’s history, and can benefit the most from the release of its ghosts. location is central in ghost stories, just as it is crucial for mourning to have a physical presence to associate with the loved one lost. with the vietnam war, this was complicated by the fact that soldiers died in vietnam, and those who returned were buried in their local cemeteries. some who were missing in action still have not been buried. on a national level, there was no place of recognition or mourning until the memorial was built, and the conflict threatened to recede from national memory, back into the realm of suppressed trauma. for scruggs’ idea of healing to occur, the nation would require a single place for mourning. furthermore, the memorial itself played a role in our national turmoil, as the design and the architect caused controversy. maya lin is a chinese-american, and she was a yale undergraduate student when she won the national design competition. many questioned whether someone who was so ambivalent to the vietnam war itself, and a female of asian heritage, could design a fitting memorial for the conflict. the modern design was another point of contention, igniting a national discussion of whether modern, nonrepresentational art was for the masses, or only for the college educated. some americans preferred representational art such as statues and flags, and were affronted by a memorial that was so abstract it appeared to make no statement. the controversy over the memorial reveals the degree to which americans needed a place to mourn together, and the memorial, funded digital literature review, vol. 1 (2014). © ball state university. all rights reserved. please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce article to dlr@bsu.edu. mailto:dlr%40bsu.edu?subject= 61a place to mourn, hobbs entirely by donation, became a national project of unification. the vietnam veterans memorial provides a place to remember the americans we lost, and in so doing, it establishes a place for healing, a place for the nation to confront its ghosts. all memorials are unique as architectural structures, since their job is not to shelter people or corporations, but to provide a space for people to remember their dead, and they often must work to contain the feelings of loss and to help the viewer connect emotionally with those being mourned. the vietnam veterans memorial in particular summons this connection because of the way it was designed, from the chronological ordering of the names, to the reflective quality of the granite, the abstract design, and the angle of the two walls. the design allows it to act as a protection against haunting because it is so adept at incurring those connections for the living through its physical presence. the vietnam veterans memorial has been one of the most frequently visited monuments in washington, d.c. since the site opened (greenspan). one reason the wall remains impactful to so many visitors is because the names are such a central part of the design. when the vietnam veterans memorial fund, the organization that raised funds to build the memorial, released its design competition guidelines, one of the few stipulations it made was that the memorial must include room to inscribe the names of the 57,661 thousand who were killed, and the 2,500 unaccounted (“design competition”). the memorial’s creators sought to create a simple place for veterans and the country to mourn those lost, without a political message, and the best way to do this was by allowing the names speak for themselves. names, more than any other word, have the ability to recall a person, and they have a special significance. many visitors come to the wall to find a specific name, but the sight of all the names amplified along the length of the wall is often sobering. visitors are able for the first time to comprehend exactly how many people had to die for almost 58,000 names to be on the wall. the names reach out to us on a personal level because we identify so closely with our own name. we condense our identity into our names; conversely, we are able to expand the names on the memorial into people. despite the powers of language, however, there are limits. architect ochsner remarks, “language allows us to communicate, but in appropriation of things within language, some reality of things themselves is lost” (162). despite the power of the names, they aren’t fully able to comprise the full impact of the loss that america experienced. although the names are important, other elements of the design of the vietnam veterans memorial play a crucial role in helping visitors conceptualize the loss and value the wall represents. one idea from literary analysis that is relevant to my discussion concerns binaries—our understanding of things in opposites, such as life and death, presence and absence. these boundaries are famously broken in gothic fiction and horror stories, but they apply well to the vietnam veterans memorial as a place for acknowledging and responding to grief. the wall opposes our binary understanding of death and life by bridging the gap between the two, allowing the names and memories of the dead to inhabit the same space as the living. this does not occur passively, but the design of the memorial specifically contributes to the link between the living and the dead. one of the reasons the memorial achieves this link is because we can experience the dead only through our own life experiences. the only way we can relate to them is through our understanding, so we make their lives a part of our experience, whether this is intended or not, and we carry with us parts of everyone who has touched our lives. as jeffrey ochsner states, “we ourselves embody in the shape of our own emotional lives those with whom we have interacted” (163), meaning that those we know become a part of us, and are carried 62a place to mourn, hobbs throughout our lives. the vietnam veterans memorial amplifies this connection, prompting ochsner to call the memorial a “linking object” (156). his idea is that the memorial allows the viewer to identify specifically with the names, to take a more emotional and active role as a viewer. those who gaze upon the wall are allowed to see deeper than the inscribed names and attach meaning to them, connecting on an emotional level, and feeling an emotional presence. a literary scholar also concerned with ghostly presences, christine berthin remarks that “haunting is transgenerational” (4), meaning that the ghosts of any one era continue to have a place in our culture, and that if we refuse to confront the past and reckon with those who were lost from it, the ghosts of our conflicts will not recede. the secrets of the american soldiers who were killed in vietnam become entombed within the memorial unless they are dealt with, and the viewer who wants to understand is tasked with deriving meaning from the names on the wall, ensuring that the soldiers mean more than their names. essentially, readers must bring back the dead to gain meaning from the memorial. the wall provides a voice to the soldiers, allowing our nation to work through the controversy imposed by the conflict on their own terms. part of what makes the vietnam veterans memorial so effective is the fact that it is abstract. although this was the cause of much controversy at the announcement of maya lin’s winning design, something more directly representational would not have been able to accommodate the diverse reactions of americans to the vietnam war and to the soldiers. dolar notes in d. s. friedman that the postmodern experience is distinguished by a “new consciousness about the uncanny as a fundamental dimension of modernity” (64). freud’s idea of the uncanny encompasses a fine border between what is familiar and normal and what is disturbing or unsettling, and this can often occur in subliminal ways. what dolar means is that subjects of the postmodern era (beginning in the 1950s, becoming more popular in the 1970s) were conscious of things hovering at the fringes of what was proper and normal, and artists and creatives sought to include that tension in their work, to force the public to confront things that were beyond the realm of the comfortable in some ways, such as wars and discrimination and change. there are many advantages to the memorial being abstract instead of strictly representational, like many traditional monuments on the national mall. architect friedman notes the memorial’s “sleek, black, half-buried v…inscribes an iconographical symbolism on the surface of the site, but this mark does not transgress or subvert; rather, it is appropriate decoration. its phenomenal effect reduces to several binary, compositional devices, involving its reflective surfaces. it does not recode the mall; it schematizes it and sustains it” (73). although the memorial contrasts in style with the other monuments on the mall, it adds to them as part of a tapestry of our national history, and is a gesture toward the many voices, some dissenting, who have comprised our nation from its inception. the abstract design allows its meaning to transcend words and target directly the human psyche. donald kunze makes the point that “through the use of gesture, the non-present is made present and given a secret status ruled by a non-classical or grotesque order” (28). what the wall communicates is beyond the level of words, except for the names. the abstract qualities break the constraints that are imposed on the other monuments of the classical style, and the monument conjures meanings that are not representationally present, such as what the vietnam deaths say about america, and how those losses have affected us a nation. kunze adds, “gesture, as a silent language, places us between the pure conventionality of known forms and the mute unintelligibility of objects” (28). the vietnam veterans memorial was designed to trigger enough of the war to affect visitors, but not to tell them what to think 63a place to mourn, hobbs about it, and to allow their own experiences to rise to the surface. monuments dedicated to lincoln and jefferson leave little room for any feeling but awe at the men they commemorate, but the wall is a place to grieve and reflect, as well as a tribute to those it honors. by avoiding specific ideals, it allows visitors to have their own ideas about the war and about those who were lost. it facilitates grief and eventual healing by coaxing true feelings to the surface, instead of mass-produced patriotism. one way the memorial achieves this is by using our perception of space and linear time to create a deeper meaning for visitors. kunze notes, “the phenomenon of virtual space is fundamental to the way human beings relate perceptually, behaviorally, existentially, to their world” (28). the arc of the v creates a separate space from the mall, and even the traffic on nearby henry bacon drive fades to a whisper at the site of the wall, creating a peaceful space apart from the busy city. the wall allows us to perceive at a glance the amount of names, based on the sheer size, and a place is created within the arc for reflection. one of the first things visitors will notice as they approach is the memorial’s reflective quality, which allows them to see their own image reflected from behind the names, as if the names rise out to meet them, overtaking their image. this exposes the viewer to lacan’s theories of the mirror and the way humans recognize themselves. lacan proposed that after a human has reached this stage of development, not only can a child recognize himself when reflected in other objects, but the ego, or sense of the self, depends on other objects to provide personality. when visitors stand in front of the wall, they are able to identify more closely with the names engraved upon it because they see themselves reflected inside it. when gazing upon their reflection in the wall’s surface, people will see a different reflection than the one to which they are accustomed, and they will see reflections of those around them differently from the true version, which allows them to relate to the reflection in a new way. as lacan stated, “you never look at me from the place from which i see you” (67). the reflection creates a double of the viewer, one who is “real,” gazing at the wall, and one who appears to be inside the wall, looking out. kunze takes this idea of doubles further when he says, “the unreal presence of the virtual reflections informs us that the real double, always and ever, is that of the living and the dead” (28). this startling image can create a haunting connection, especially for those who served, or were of age to serve, as those names could easily have been theirs. the reflective feature allows the wall to function as a “space of absence,” a site for projection and representation of a person who is not actually there, and a site to access memories (ochsner 162), of either the viewer or something that will bring meaning to them. humans can only relate experiences to their own lives, and to process grief, especially for those they do not know, they must have a way to establish the connection. the vietnam veterans memorial allows the names on the wall to be projected on the viewers, until they must confront the significance of those names. there was some debate at the vietnam veterans memorial foundation about how to present the names on the wall, whether it should be chronological or alphabetical. the final decision to alphabetize by date of death was made in part because there were many doubles of common names, and presenting a long list of “john smith,” for example, would have devalued the men the wall sought to honor. this method would prevent visitors from seeing the names as unique people. the resulting system does not classify the men and women by rank, it merely lists the names, and whether they were killed or missing in action or eventually found. it adds drama by revealing days with higher casualties, some lists continuing for hundreds of names before resuming the top of the alphabet. this listing, however, does not prevent the symbolic and abstract properties of language from being visible. in fact, with 64a place to mourn, hobbs such a long list of names, it is impossible to see all of them at once, so our minds group the names as a whole to better understand them. viewed this way, the names merge to represent something more than each soldier can represent individually; they tell the story of america’s involvement in the conflict, and the loss of american lives. when maya lin designed the memorial, she intended it to slope gently into the ground, to create the illusion of circular time, continuing after the wall slopes into the earth, and allowing the suggestion that america’s involvement extends before and after the first and last deaths. scholars peter buse and andrew stott examine the ideas of linear time, in which time follows a clear line. they argue in “ghosts: deconstruction, psychoanalysis, and history” that ghosts disrupt this idea. indeed, the multiple locations of mourning made possible by the vietnam war interrupt the sense of death in time and space for those left behind, and left loved ones without a place to mourn, until the memorial was created. kunze has noticed another effect of the slope. “the gradual descent into the virtual space created by the wedge allows the discovery of the reflection to creep up on the observer, and in the context of an emotionally charged moment the effect is cleared of all sentimentality and charged with gnostic legibility of what is happening” (28). the names begin about ankle level, increasing slowly, until the wall towers over the visitor at ten feet at the apex. the effect is surprisingly overwhelming in comparison with the lincoln and washington memorials, which the viewer can see at all times by turning to the left or right. while descending to the apex, the names become overwhelming in number, until the height of the wall becomes almost suffocating. as the visitor rises toward the other end of the “v,” the view opens before them to the lush green of the constitution gardens, and the wall ends at ankle level with a single line of names and an inscription. just as there was divisive controversy over the vietnam war, the presence, location, and design of the vietnam veterans memorial created a national stir that lasted until the dedication in 1982. afterwards, people experienced the wall, and most dissent died down. although the site remains popular for tourists, christina schwenkel has some concerns about the wall’s transition from memorial to tourist site. she says, “scholars have identified contradictions and tensions between remembrance and forgetfulness when public memorials and commemorative projects are transformed into historical sites for tourists and other audiences who put such space to alternative social uses” (5). her concern is that the space can become more about the tourist than about remembering those the memorial is intended to commemorate. she need not worry, however, as the reason the vietnam veterans memorial continues to be so frequently visited is the great effect it has for americans, in part because of the design elements mentioned above, and the way those design elements create meaning for visitors. scholar marita sturken argues that memorials are sacred ground, which “is charged with meaning. it implies not daily life but worship, contemplation and a suspension of ordinary activities. in a sacred place, all activities have meaning, all are transformed into rituals” (315). as a tourist attraction, the memorial is a place separate from the daily life of americans and veterans, and making a special trip to the wall, across the nation or across town, is the start of a sacred journey to experience something removed from daily life. in schwenkel’s article on the topic, she introduces recombinant histories, “a term that suggests the interweaving of representation” (5). this idea is that vietnam’s history of the war is interwoven with the american interpretation of it, and vice versa. there is no one vietnam war. ghosts are weaved into the memory of a culture, and that culture dictates their representation. in vietnam, “unofficial knowledge and memories of the past are redirected, reshaped, and revalued to benefit the market and the state as well as the veterans 65a place to mourn, hobbs themselves” (schwenkel 20) in the form of tourism. wartime artifacts like the infamous zippo lighters, often used to identify american dead, are often sold to american tourists, now as symbols of vietnamese adaptability or commodification. although few americans have the chance to experience the spirits of american soldiers in vietnam, there are many legends of them lingering. scholar heonik kwon traveled to vietnam, and he notes, “the vietnamese call what the outside world refers to as the vietnam war ‘the american war,’ and many of them believe that the ghosts of those who died tragic deaths in this war abound in their living environment.” as is often the case with any type of superstition, this belief remains strongest among the elder and more rural populations. aside from that, however, he notes there is some significance to certain places within vietnam. “the places associated with a history of fierce battle or large-scale civilian killing are believed to harbor a mass of grievous and hungry ghosts.” traces of the american dead appear on vietnamese soil, and this relates to the ways americans mourn on their own soil. americans and vietnamese own the ghosts of “the american war,” so our mourning of the war cannot be one-sided. to truly understand and heal from the vietnam war we must think about the war from the standpoint of the vietnamese, in addition to the american story. such broad aims cannot be accomplished by a representational memorial, and the wall is so important because it refuses to force a representational concept of the war on viewers, whether one of glory or sadness. the wall is valuable because it allows the visitor to take and leave whatever is needed. throughout history, humans have used memorials to either encourage a connection to the dead, in a form such as ancestor-worship, or to appease them, to prevent a haunting. the vietnam veterans memorial is both. “the monument is a shared creation that plays a role in group and individual mourning” (ochsner 160). it is also a way to banish the ghosts of the veterans, by creating a space for them to inhabit and to be remembered. another scholar, marita sturken, has studied american memorials and their role in the grieving process. she notes the sacredness of a place of death that is also a place of mourning and remembrance, an example of which is the former world trade tower site. “the discourse of sacred ground at ground zero comes not from the blessings of priests, but, rather, from the loss of life that took place there. traditionally, in us culture, ground has been considered sacred when blood has been spilled on it” (314). of course, the vietnam war is somewhat of an anomaly, as there are several places that can be considered sacred, associated with death. there are some battlefields that are considered sacred, notably gettysburg, but americans recognize that not all battleground is sacred, nor are all places of death, even violent ones. this is, in part, because few of america’s wars were fought on our own soil, but it also reveals that there are other characteristics that mark places of remembrance. the place where the body rests is a common sacred site, and many vietnam veterans have marked graves, suited for mourning on an individual level, but the memorial for any war adds context to the death, most summarizing triumph and victory. the vietnam veterans memorial, however, makes no such pretenses, and remains a blank slate for whatever the viewer saw in the war, and what they see in themselves. that is the source of its power, and why it is such a potent place of remembrance and mourning. “when death is transformed into sacrifice and made sacred, it is almost always deployed with such political intent. thus in us culture, the concept of a sacred place has been almost exclusively secular and national rather than religious” (sturken 314). the vietnam veterans memorial fits this structure, as it was created for national healing and for the healing of the veterans, as well as the memory of those on the wall, both killed and missing. the space seeks to banish the ghosts harbored in the survivors and the nation, to a special place in our national mall. 1 66a place to mourn, hobbs the trend of leaving memorabilia at monuments may not have begun at the wall, but it is one of the memorials that receives the most artifacts, so many that the national park service has built a facility, the museum resource center (mrce) in maryland, where anthropologists archive and store the objects. people leave objects for many reasons, some of which are to connect with those on the wall, or to leave a part of themselves at the wall. “throughout history, when people have mourned in the absence of remains, they have substituted ritualized objects (empty coffins, flags, photographs, or headstones) as touchstones, material artifacts that can provide some kind of corporeal presence to mediate the absence of a loved one” (sturken 313). these are the types of items commonly left at the memorial and private gravesites, demonstrating this most typical form of mourning. visitors connect with the memorial in another unintended way as well: they take rubbings of the names, attempting to take a piece of the wall with them, continuing the process of mourning and healing through artifacts, and seeking physical representation for their memories. the vietnam veterans memorial was created to honor those who died, and it brings about national peace, being in the end a place for the survivors and the ghosts of the soldiers. ochsner notes, “when individuals like these do not find their place in the text of symbolic tradition, they return to haunt the living” (160), while kwon states, “it is against this historical background of generalized destruction and displacement of human lives that people perceive ghosts of war in their environment today.” without the memorial, each soldier may have been mourned, but as a whole, the nation would not have been forced to confront the war itself. the wall serves another purposes as well, uniting past and future. “yet, as reagan has suggested, the force of memory and forgetting that constitute a nation’s history also shape and secure its collective visions of the future” (schwenkel 5). if america had refused to confront its motivations and role in vietnam, we would be a different country today. just as family secrets can be repressed and passed down through generations, haunting the family with ghosts of people and misdeeds, the actions of nations must be brought to light, or the nation will struggle with its past. the vietnam veterans memorial provides such a place for healing of the past, where americans can confront the personal and national trauma they experienced, and the dead can be removed from a place of interference with everyday life into a place of honor. this is exactly the role of the vietnam veterans memorial: to provide a place of honor for the lost, of mourning for the veterans, and healing for the nation. 67a place to mourn, hobbs works cited berthin, christine. gothic hauntings: melancholy crypts and textual ghosts. london: palgrave macmillan, 2007. print. buse, peter and andrew stott. introduction. ghosts: deconstruction, psychoanalysis, history. by buse and stott. new york: st. martin’s press, 1999. print. friedman, d. s. “public things in the modern city: belated notes on the titled arc and the vietnam veterans memorial.” journal of architectural education. 49.2 (1984): 6278. print. greenspan, jesse. “6 things you may not know about the vietnam veterans memorial.” history in the headlines. (fall, 2012): history.com. web. 4 jan. 2014. kunze, donald. “architecture as reading: virtuality, secrecy, monstrosity.” journal of architectural education. 41.4 (1984): 28-37. print. kwon, heonik. “the ghosts of the american war in vietnam.” the asia-pacific journal: japan focus. (2008). web. 12 nov. 2013. ochsner, jeffrey. “space of loss.” journal of architecture education 50.3 (1997): 156171. print. schwenkel, christina. “recombinant history, transnational practices of memory and knowledge production in contemporary vietnam.” cultural anthropology 21.1 (2006): 3-30. web. 8 oct. 2013. sturken, marita. “aesthetics of absence: rebuilding ground zero.” american ethnologist 31.3 (2004): 311-325. the vietnam veterans memorial design competition. washington, district of columbia: vietnam veterans memorial fund, 1980. print. “what am i?”: nineteenthcentury medical science, intersexuality, and freakification in the life of karl hohmann the gender and sex binary have existed in western culture for centuries. western societies attempt to classify biological sex and gender as either male or female. however, this binary does not include any space for people who do not fit, such as a person who has external male genitalia but internal female genitalia. the modern medical term for this phenomenon is “intersex;” before the twentieth century, however, intersex was called “hermaphroditism.” because the current medical term is “intersex,” we will use the term “intersex” instead of “hermaphrodite” where appropriate, unless directly quoting from a text. during the nineteenth century, there was an intense medical examination of intersex individuals. scientists were searching for a physical state they called a “true lateral hermaphrodite,” referring to a person who has intact male reproductive organs on one side of their body and female reproductive organs on the other (munde 615, 629). for many, the fascination of this “true lateral hermaphrodite” was the idea that the intersex individual could maintain both sexes simultaneously, which supported the notions of the gender and sex binary. their search for the “true lateral hermaphrodite” eventually led doctors and scientists to karl hohmann, an intersex man whom doctors endlessly poked, prodded, and examined in an effort to determine whether jessica carducci, allison haste, and bryce longenberger, ball state university abstract this paper explores the life of karl hohmann, an intersex individual who lived in germany in the mid-1800s. hohmann was examined as a medical specimen throughout his adult life as doctors at the time believed he was a “true lateral hermaphrodite.” the authors examine the way that cultural beliefs about gender and sex intersected in the nineteenth century. 32 digital literature review, vol. 3 (2016). © ball state university. all rights reserved. please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce critical edition to dlr@bsu.edu. he had both a testicle and an ovary. because his body was a site of so much medical attention, these scientists eventually turned hohmann into a mere medical specimen and robbed him of his humanity. this essay is divided into three sections. first, it presents the life of karl hohmann and his interactions with nineteenth-century doctors. second, it situates that history within the context of ideas about gender and sex during the same time period. finally, it provides five artifacts from the time period that address both karl hohmann and the cultural context. together, this essay illuminates how karl hohmann’s freakification reinforced the social creation of gender and sex as a binary system and supported the normalcy of heterosexual culture. introduction “what am i? in my life an object of scientific experiment, and after my death an anatomical curiosity?”—karl hohmann before we discuss karl hohmann’s life, we should clarify our references to his gender and the pronouns we use to refer to him. many sources on hohmann refer to him as “kathrina/karl hohmann” and alternate between using masculine and feminine pronouns. in this paper, we will refer to hohmann as karl and use masculine pronouns. although hohmann was designated female at birth and lived most of his life identifying as a female, when he moved to the united states, he legally changed his name to karl. although we do not have much documentation on hohmann’s gender identity, we feel it is best to speak of him with the identity that he chose (to the best of our knowledge) throughout this essay. karl hohmann was born in mellrichstadt, germany in 1824. when he was thirty-nine years old, he visited a doctor because he was experiencing pain from a hernia on his left side. his physician, dr. reder, wished to examine hohmann more thoroughly because he believed that it was possible that hohmann’s hernia actually contained a testicle (mak 65). at this time, hohmann identified as woman, and the presence of a testicle would have placed him outside of the sexual binary. for some time, hohmann resisted being subject to a thorough examination but eventually agreed. hohmann was brought to a hospital where he was observed for two months. the doctors who examined him kept him almost completely isolated from other patients or visitors, and the examinations that hohmann experienced carducci, haste, longenberger 33 were very invasive. measurements were taken of his genitalia, and his bodily fluids were collected and studied as well. in addition to inspecting his body, the physicians examining hohmann asked him invasive questions about his personal life. hohmann admitted to having sexual intercourse with a woman and consequently impregnating her. hohmann’s claim was met with incredulity by several doctors who then requested that hohmann demonstrate how he was able to have intercourse with a woman while a group of physicians observed (munde 624). this clearly shows the lack of privacy that those who were exhibited experienced. not only would people on display lack personal privacy while being exhibited, but they were expected to allow others to observe their private moments. after this initial examination, hohmann was examined by doctors across europe from the 1860s through the 1870s; when he moved to new york, he was inspected by two other physicians (mak 66). because there was so much shame and stigma surrounding intersex individuals, it was difficult for doctors to get people to agree to these medical examinations. hohmann was one of the most famous “hermaphrodites on show” in the medical community (mak 66). as a “true lateral hermaphrodite,” hohmann was especially interesting to the doctors at the time because they believed he had male and female reproductive organs in his body—one type on each side—which would confirm a binary notion of gender. the biggest reason that the doctors believed this was possible was that hohmann appeared to have at least one testicle, but also experience a menstrual-like discharge about once every month (munde 624). because of this, several of the doctors that examined him speculated that hohmann had at least one ovary. this was significant because the doctors felt unable to determine if hohmann was a “true lateral hermaphrodite” without physical evidence of an ovary, which would require an autopsy. the doctors who examined him seemed preoccupied with determining how to categorize hohmann and wanted to find a “true” answer to what his identity was. one physician even noted that his identity could only be discovered “post-mortem” because they would need to do an autopsy in order to determine whether or not he had an ovary (mundé). an autopsy does not allow intersex individuals to define themselves; rather, it only provides physical evidence for a doctor to examine. carducci, haste, longenberger 34 these examinations of karl hohmann brought up many questions that challenged the idea of a gender or sexual binary; as a result, medical categorization and the search for “true lateral hermaphrodite” provided an answer to these challenges. in western culture, the idea of a gender binary is still common today. at the time hohmann was living, this model of sex and gender was even more prevalent than it is today. nevertheless, people had a hard time imagining how someone outside of this rigid binary could exist, and therefore intersex individuals often lived in shame. cultural analysis intersex individuals have long held a strange place in the freakshow culture of the western world. even amongst the types of bodies considered aberrant by mainstream society, the accounts of these individuals are underreported. there is not a wealth of information made widely available about them, and many texts of the nineteenth century that speak of intersexuality are medical texts which examine the bodies of various individuals as specimens to be examined, drawn, photographed, and autopsied. what, then, do these medical reports and papers reveal about the lives of intersex individuals, and what can these individuals’ lives reveal about gender, sex, and sexuality in the nineteenth century? to answer these questions, we must first begin by seeking to define the differences between sex and gender. sex is held to be the biological fact of one’s body determined by several indicators such as chromosomes, internal reproductive organs, and external genitalia (american psychological association 11). gender, however, describes categories of cultural expectations that are constructed around the labels of sex. the traditional labels of western culture in both cases have been the male and the female. it seems like a fairly simple dualism—sex is a scientific and medical fact while gender is a social construction—but these widely held definitions do not address the socially constructed nature of science and therefore of sex. it would be a mistake to say that sex is a purely objective measure of the human body. this is not to say that the human body cannot be measured or physical phenomena observed, but instead that these observations are interpreted through the lens of cultural and historical context. for example, we can safely say that some human bodies possess ovaries while some others possess testicles, but the actual labels of female carducci, haste, longenberger 35 and male are constructed categories that we assign to these different types of individuals. this is why the sex binary we often put faith in— that there are male bodies and female bodies—fails to account for intersex individuals. these labels of male and female are important in western society though. prior to the nineteenth century and its focus on medicine as a science, sex and sexuality were regulated by the prominent religious doctrines of the time. they held that sexual intercourse should only be practiced in an effort to produce children and that any other types of intercourse were sinful (fausto-sterling 11). this produced a need for labels that would reflect the ability to reproduce; the two involved would need to be a man, someone who could sire a child, and a woman, someone who could carry a child. this also explains the importance of heterosexuality as it appeared later; heterosexual intercourse was seen as the only kind which would produce a child, so it became the default and “natural” sexual orientation. then, as medical science developed in the nineteenth century, it sought to provide scientific justifications for these long held ideas of male and female. but this distinction is not so easily made, and through much of the nineteenth century—and even into the present—there is no one characteristic or set of characteristics that is universally held as an indicator of someone’s “real” sex (dreger 16). many point to the external genitalia as a good indicator of sex, the method which is still used to categorize newborn infants by doctors, but this does not account for any number of hormonal disorders or other differences which might occur in the development of the human body (fausto-sterling 45). the several different factors which can be indicators of sex — the number and type of sex chromosomes of an individual, their hormonal profile — do not even have to agree with each other. as a result, the individual in question might never know that their body is intersex, as modern medical practices require the infant to be assigned to a sex category within twenty-four hours of birth. instead, scientists of the nineteenth century worked to understand the human body through the preexisting idea of a gender and sex binary. they confirmed in many cases that women possess a uterus, ovaries, and other physical characteristics, while men have testicles and a penis. but there is a range of difference between individuals in these categories, and there is a range of difference that exists outside them as well—a continuum of human carducci, haste, longenberger 36 difference that does not fit into two separate boxes. those who exist outside the limits of the gender/sex binary are intersex individuals; their bodies cannot be classified as male or female, either because they possess markers of both sexes or because they possess neither. but, when viewed through the idea of a gender/sex binary, the intersex individual becomes inherently abnormal. the idea of the abnormal intersexual is very important at this time period. because human bodies can vary so widely and because medical science cannot neatly divide between male and female, the debate then becomes one of normal versus abnormal. alice dreger notes in her work on nineteenth-century “hermaphrodites” that “we assume that the normal (in this case the ’normal’ sexual anatomy) existed before we encountered the abnormal, but it is really only when we are faced with something that we think is ‘abnormal’ that we find ourselves struggling to articulate what ‘normal’ is” (6). the existence of individuals outside the gender/sex binary— outside the “normal”—forced medical practitioners and scientists of the mid-nineteenth century to question what really defined male and female bodies. but they could not escape the idea of a gender/sex binary, even in their examination of intersex individuals; medical scientists began to look for a “real” lateral hermaphrodite, or an intersex individual who is male on one side of their body and female on the other, such as josephine joseph of the film freaks. this was often labelled a “true” type of hermaphroditism as the individual possessed both male and female reproductive organs (dreger 143). however, the medical finds of the time more often showed a mixed or “false” type of hermaphrodite—an individual who possessed only male or female reproductive organs, even if their outward appearance might be otherwise misleading. for example, notes on guiseppe marzo’s autopsy in 1865 indicate that his feet and hands were feminine while his head and body hair were distinctly masculine in appearance (delle piane 1211). even here, the gender/sex binary is influencing medical practice and observation, though it falls short of actually describing the realities of human variation. there must be significance, then, to the gender/sex binary if scientists continued to cling to it despite its inaccuracy. this ties back to the previctorian religious views on sex — ones that encourage only heterosexual intercourse. the gender/sex binary is necessary to defining heterosexual carducci, haste, longenberger 37 relations versus homosexual relations. sex must exist in order to define these categories of sexuality, and therefore to define the acceptable types of sexual intercourse. the intersex individual is a threat to this system and to heterosexuality itself. in fact, many medical scientists of this time emphasized the need for a clear sex indicator in order to prevent accidental homosexuality and homosexual marriage (dreger 76). it became a noted practice that someone suspected of homosexuality should be examined to ensure that their biological sex was not misdiagnosed (dreger 111). in the middle of the nineteenth century, when the word “homosexual” was first coined (fausto-sterling 13), the most reasonable explanation for this deviant behavior was that it was merely a type of heterosexual intercourse. unfortunately, this works to not only reinforce the gender/sex binary but to also erase the experiences of homosexual individuals of the time. looking at the accounts of many individual cases, there appears to be no actual correlation between biological sex and sexuality, or between the intersexual body and homosexual experience (dreger 126). but, even so, the fear of homosexual intercourse—or any manner of non-heterosexual intercourse—led many people of the nineteenth and early-twentieth century to cling to the gender/sex binary. karl hohmann’s own case falls squarely into the center of this scientific confusion and controversy. his story was especially noted because of the claim that he had impregnated a woman while living as a woman himself—a blurring of not only the biological sex binary but also of heterosexual and homosexual intercourse as well. in this tempestuous cultural climate, hohmann became an item to study and display, subject to aggressive and invasive medical examination, because he defied easy classification by means of biological sex, gender, and sexuality. his life experiences and anatomy fell outside of the defined “normal,” and this condemned him to be an object of speculation before the burgeoning medical community that sought to force the world into matching their own beliefs. today, this need to categorize the sexes into pre-existing categories and to justify those categories with scientific research, has led to a false belief in the absolute “reality” of the male and female bodies as distinct entities. this belief appears in the current discussions on sex and sexuality that pertain to transgender individuals and their rights to use public carducci, haste, longenberger 38 restrooms. many opponents to transgender rights argue that allowing transgender men into women’s restrooms would endanger the women who use them. however, this argument relies on the notion that gender is split between male and female and that biological sex determines a person’s sex at birth and cannot be changed. as the fight over transgender rights demonstrates, there is no more clear distinction between the sexes now than there was during karl hohmann’s lifetime. research into chromosomal sex and hormonal sex has only complicated the factors which medical professionals must observe, while common medical practice still relies upon the visual examination of genitalia to determine an infant’s sex. this belief is misleading and has the potential to distort any situation where the labels of male and female are used, such as scientific studies, the division of male and female sports and public restrooms, or even the laws regarding marriage and identity. the distinction between sexes is a socially organized and constructed line that holds itself up as scientific fact, and the root of this un-truth lies amongst the medical field of the nineteenth century. artifacts artifact 1 this excerpt comes from a scientific encyclopedia, published in 1901, called the anomalies and curiosities of medicine; this encyclopedia discusses a large number of medical “abnormalities.” in this excerpt, the authors, george m. gould and walter l. pyle, discuss the ways in which the sexual attraction experienced carducci, haste, longenberger there is an account of a person in germany who, for the first thirty years of life, was regarded as feminine, and being of loose morals became a mother. at a certain period she began to feel a change in her sexual inclinations; she married and became the father of a family. this is doubtless a distortion of the facts of the case of catherine or charles hoffman, born in 1824, and who was considered a female until the age of forty. at puberty she had the instincts of a woman, and cohabitated with a male lover for twenty years. her breasts were well formed and she menstruated at nineteen. at the age of forty-six her sexual desires changed, and she attempted coitus as a man, with such evident satisfaction that she married a woman soon afterward. (207) 39 by catherine/charles hoffman (or karl hohmann) changed over time. at first, he is described as being female and having “sexual inclinations” toward men early in life. when he is older, they describe his sexual desires as “changing,” which also correlates with a change in his gender and classification from a “mother” to a “father.” because his gender and sexuality change simultaneously, his gender always aligns with his sexuality so as to make him heterosexual and not homosexual. in framing the description of hohmann in this manner, gould and walter reinforce the aversion toward homosexuality and non-heterosexual intercourse at the time. artifact 2 the following excerpt is from a short article published by a. flint in the boston medical and surgical journal in 1840. in flint’s article, he describes a patient who is admitted to an almshouse who had the appearance of an intersex person, but whom he calls a “hermaphrodite.” in this excerpt, flint describes the physical appearance of the supposed hermaphrodite. one significant aspect of the man’s appearance is that, at first sight, his physical characteristics are conflicting enough to hinder the doctors from deciding in which ward (male or female) to place the individual. also, the blend of feminine and masculine physical traits (such as his feminine complexion and hairstyle coupled with masculine feet and a beard on his chin and lips) demonstrates the existence of traits of both genders in the individual’s carducci, haste, longenberger the following curious case of imposture came under my observation in the month of march, 1840. an individual was received into the erie county almshouse, who was represented as being a hermaphrodite. i was requested to examine him, the superintendent being at a loss whether to place him in the male or female department of the institution. his external appearance was as follows. hair, black and long, arranged after the feminine mode. face, having a masculine coarseness, but with a fair, feminine complexion. some beard on the chin and upper lip, which had evidently never been shaven. ear-rings in the ears. hands, delicate but large. feet, large and masculine. he was dressed in pantaloons and a frock coat. his voice and manner of walking resembled those of a female. the former in tone was not peculiarly feminine, but the air and manner of speaking strikingly so. the gait, in walking, was so peculiar, that no one could avoid the suspicion that the individual was a woman in male attire. (145-146) 40 appearance. altogether, this description of this patient’s physical appearance sheds light on the importance of physical characteristics and appearance to the construction of a gender and sex binary in the nineteenth century. artifact 3 this excerpt was published in an article in 1876 in the american journal of obstetrics and diseases of women and children. paul f. mundé, the author of “a case of presumptive true lateral hermaphrodism,” was one of the physicians who examined karl hohmann. in this brief excerpt, mundé claims that hohmann could indeed be a true lateral hermaphrodite. this excerpt demonstrates how ideas of a concrete gender binary were imposed upon the scientific understanding of human bodies. scientists conceived that the hermaphrodisia vera lateralis would have a testical on one side of the body and an ovary on the other side, both separate yet simultaneously existing in the same body. this shows the constricted ways in which the gender and sex binary affected the ways in which scientists viewed the human body. it also explains how scientists resolved the ambiguity of intersex individuals by focusing instead on a “true” form of intersex that fit inside their notions of gender. artifact 4 the following artifact is a brief newspaper article titled “case of hermaphrodism” published in the medical and surgical reporter on december 12, 1868. the subject of the article is catharina hohmann (karl hohmann). the newspaper article demonstrates the extent to which karl and other intersex people sought after medical examinations of their bodies and how they advertised for medical doctors. also, the latter half of the at the meeting of the new york obstetrical society, held october 5th, 1875, i exhibited before the society an individual in male attire, who claims to possess – with what right it is partly the object of this paper to show – the characteristics of both the male and the female sex united in her person, and to be a unique instance of that anomaly known as hermaphrodisia vera lateralis, true lateral hermaphrodism (one lateral half of the body containing the germinal gland of the female, the ovary, and presenting female peculiarities; the other half containing the germinal gland of the male, the testicle, and showing male attributes). (615) carducci, haste, longenberger 41 article represents cultural fears instilled in nineteenth-century society. the tale of loving both sexes but belonging to neither is evidence of the cultural fears of blending genders and sexes. finally, hohmann’s last statement is indicative of the predicament of intersex individuals at the time: their lives were full of scientific inquiry and probing while their deaths were slated for postmortem dissection. artifact 5 the following excerpt is taken from a collection of lectures written by george washington burnap in 1854 concerning the duties and sphere of women. in this excerpt, burnap explains how god’s creation of man and woman as separate entities correlates with the existence of separate spheres for the two sexes. also, the excerpt discusses the existence of a necessity of catharina hohmann, who presents in her (his?) own person a remarkable case of hermaphrodisia vera lateralis, which has been described by prof. rokitansky and others, is on her travels in germany exhibiting her unique malformation. she complains, however, that in vienna the authorities put a stop to her turning an honest penny in this way, ‘aus sittlichkeitsrucksichten.’ so she advertises in the wiener medicinische wochenschrisft that she can be examined at her own rooms by those interested in her case. a journalist who saw her writes to vienna presse: ‘i pitied the poor creature. although in good health, and of robust, and even beautifully shaped form, she sat before me in deep distress and wept. and she has wept already a great deal in her joyless life. she loves a man for twelve years; he loved her, too, and even proposed to her to go with him to america, where nobody would know of her misfortune; he would live with her there and be happy with her. but she refused to accept his generous offer, saying she would not make him unhappy. and then she loved, dreadful to say, for seven months – a young girl. both of them were greatly attached to each other until the young girl finally turned from her and married. ‘form this time for ward,’ says the poor hermaphrodite, ‘i could no longer look at the girl; i hated her.’ the most conflicting feelings always surge in her breast and torment her heart. she feels love for both sexes, and does not belong to either. ‘what shall i do here on earth!’ she exclaimed. ‘what am i? in my life an object of scientific experiment, and after my death, an anatomical curiosity!’ (487) carducci, haste, longenberger 42 two distinct identities in society: “perfect humanity is made up of both the sexes.” this idea demonstrates the nineteenth-century belief that two sexes were integral to the functioning of society. they believed that the mixing and blurring of gender lines would not only go against god’s creation but would also have negative consequences on society. thus, this shows why people in the nineteenth century struggled with conceiving of an intersex identity that was not defined by the male/female binary. carducci, haste, longenberger but whatever may be the original equality of the sexes in intellect and capacity, it is evident that it was intended by god that that they should move in different spheres, and of course that their powers should be developed in different directions. they are created not to be alike but to be different. the bible with a noble simplicity expresses in few words all that can be said upon this subject. “god created man in his own image, in the image of god he created him, male and female created he them.” as much as if the lawgiver of the jews had said; “perfect humanity is made up of both the sexes. one is not complete without the other. they are therefore counterparts of each other.” they must be different, and in many respects the opposites of each other, to fill their different spheres. this difference runs through the whole of their physical, moral, and intellectual constitution. this radical and universal difference points out distinctly a different sphere of action and duty. the god who made them knew the sphere in which each of them was designed to act, and he fitted them for it by their physical frames, by their intellectual susceptibilities, by their tastes and affections. (45-46) 43 works cited primary sources burnap, george washington. the sphere and duties of woman: a course of lectures. baltimore: john murphy, 1854. archive.org. web. 13 nov. 2015. “case of hermaphroditism.” the medical and surgical reporter vol. 19 ( julydec 1868): 487. hathitrust. web. 11 nov. 2015. flint, a. “hermaphroditis.” boston medical and surgical journal. vol 23. ed. j. v. c. smith. boston: n.p., 7 oct. 1840. pp. 145-147. google books. web. 9 nov. 2015. gould, george m. and walter l. pyle. anomalies and curiosities of medicine. philadelphia: w.b. saunders & company, 1901. hathi trust. web. 9 nov. 2015. mundé, paul . “a case of presumptive true lateral hermaphrodism.” the american journal of obstetrics and diseases of women and children vol. 8 (may, aug, nov. 1875 – feb. 1876): 615-629. hathi trust. web. 14 nov. 2015. secondary sources american psychological association. “guidelines for psychological practice with lesbian, gay, and bisexual clients.” american psychologist (2012): 10-42. web. 13 nov. 2015. delle piane, luisa, walter l. miller, and paolo f. rinaudo. “150 years of congenital adrenal hyperplasia: translation and commentary of de crecchio’s classic paper from 1865.” endocrinology 156.4 (2015): 12101217. web. 9 nov. 2015. dreger, alice domurat. hermaphrodites and the medical invention of sex. cambridge: harvard university press, 1998. print. freaks. dir. tod browning. metro-goldwyn-mayer, 1932. film. carducci, haste, longenberger 44 fausto-sterling, anne. sexing the body: gender politics and the construction of sexuality. new york: basic books, 2000. print. mak, geertje. “hermaphrodites on show. the case of katharina/karl hohmann and its use in nineteenth-century medical science.” social history of medicine 25:1(2011): 65-83. web. 12 nov 2015. carducci, haste, longenberger 45 99 abstract introduction to modern zombie comedies zombie comedies are a subgenre of a subgenre of apocalyptic movies. they fit into the zombie apocalypse category for the most part, and yet they also feature a wildly different tone and subject than serious zombie movies. for example, compare shaun of the dead (2004) and world war z (2013). shaun of the dead focuses on average people in modern british life and how they deal with a newly introduced apocalypse. world war z is far more concerned with apocalypse on a global level, with settings all over the world. the zombie genre most notably was introduced to popular culture by george romero in 1968 with his movie night of the living dead, but the genre has since transformed and had many additions. at the beginning of the genre’s prominence, according to david christopher in his article “zombieland and the inversion of the subaltern zombie,” it was easily dismissed as a low form of entertainment, and through that dismissal the genre could “avoid the scrutiny of the cultural censor” (114). as such, this genre flourished in its ability to critique popular culture, consumerism, and patriarchy without being heavy-handed; these early non-blockbuster zombie movies made an art of metaphor and of tackling difficult subjects in an apocalyptic setting. however, as time went on, a new subgenre of the zombie movie was born. referred to by kyle william bishop as a “zomedy,” the zombie comedy is most easily associated with the hit movies shaun of the dead (2004) and zombieland (2009) (24). even though these movies create a site from which to criticize the zombie genre, they have come down under a fire of condemnation for refusing to deal with the issues that original zombie movies examined. this subgenre makes fun of established zombie tropes but, as a whole, refuses to the evolution of modern zombie comedies zombie comedies are a subgenre of a subgenre in the horror film industry, and their prevalence in recent film and television history is unprecedented. this essay explores the beginnings of zombie comedy movies, their evolution throughout the past decade, and the implications of this genre’s new relevance and its politics. included is an examination of a more recent netflix original television show, santa clarita diet. by katie garrett, ball state university 100 contemplate the original critique of modern society that movies like night of the living dead presented. in this vein of thought, the zomedy uses humor and comedy not to inspire genuine thought or add to the zombie genre but to succeed commercially with a wider audience. this zomedy subgenre has flourished and continues to grow today, with new works appearing even as recently as 2017 with the netflix original show santa clarita diet. this more recent addition represents a possibly optimistic outlook for the potential of zombie comedies in the future, as it shows that zombie comedies, despite the original criticism they sustained, can be a powerful vessel for making political statements. they are allowed to stand on the base of romero’s previous work with night of the living dead and expand the conversation in meaningful ways. in this paper, i will provide an overview of opinions on several zombie comedies and on the way these zomedies deal with the original subject matter of zombie movies. while i acknowledge that the zombie comedy subgenre often departs from a place that allows for a critique of society to one of mindless comedy and insensitive violence, especially in blockbuster movies like shaun of the dead and zombieland, i will use the example of santa clarita diet to examine the ways that zombie comedy can be used for both comedy and as a serious form of satire. different views on zombie comedies opinions on the value of zombie comedies vary wildly. kyle bishop argues in his paper, “vacationing in zombieland: the classical functions of the modern zombie,” that movies like zombieland “cleverly [challenge] audience expectations and [offer] viewers a glimpse of how the zomedy subgenre can function as a positive social force within both the comedy and horror traditions” (25). bishop is convinced that the zombie comedy genre is one that is welcome and inviting to modern audiences and that, in addition, its effect is one of positivity and hopefulness. rodger payne says in his article, “laughing off a zombie apocalypse: the value of comedic and satirical narratives,” that “because these popular works infuse comedy into the horror genre, they work effectively as subversive satire, reflecting a critical rather than an entrenched understanding of fear and threats” (222). he claims that the zombie comedy is successful because of its criticism of the zombie genre in general, rather than just as a comedy or a zombie movie. recently, zombie movies give a different treatment of zombies than older movies. one of the reasons zombie films are so acutely horrific is the fact that the sickness is not garrett 101 garrett something that can be seen, at first. it silently occupies the body of our friends, neighbors, and family members and replaces them. in night of the living dead, the horror that zombies inspire is that killing them is painful to the main characters because they still appear as human bodies. for the sake of future humanity, these dead bodies must be stopped. however, in a zombie comedy these figures become little more than “a narrative punching bag” (kelly 86). for example, zombieland takes particular enjoyment in the dispatching of zombies. it even features a “zombie kill of the week.” in zombie comedies, the zombies aren’t “people” to the main characters; they are just something to be avoided and slaughtered en-masse when possible. kelly writes that “not only is the zombie increasingly rendered as funny (a mindless fall guy for violence gags), it is positioned within narratives as a creature that is fun to kill” (85-86). zombies aren’t a sight of fear for the protagonist characters of zombie comedies; rather, they fall more under the category of “object that must be destroyed.” there doesn’t seem to be much rumination beyond it. as kelly puts it, “the zombie has transformed from a device for cultural contemplation to a figure which has become a focal point for bloody fun, a newly justified target of aggression” (84). this trend is particularly ominous when considering what zombies really are. it isn’t hard to tell what inspired the sight of bodies rising from the dead. they are victims of a plague—regular humans who caught a sickness. even within the context of the zombie comedies, zombies aren’t a coherent villain, as they have no consciousness; they are merely dead human bodies. it feels like “zombies in these films seem relatively easy to slay and do not consistently pose an existential threat” (payne 220). at what point in watching zombieland is the audience ever concerned for the lives of the main characters? they always have an arsenal of weapons and take enjoyment in a kind of zombie hunting. characters in shaun of the dead exhibit the same joy in killing zombies. for example, shaun has a daydream where his stepfather phillip gets infected and becomes a zombie. shaun happily kills him outright, annoyed about the part phillip has been playing in his life. this was just in a daydream, but in the reality of shaun of the dead, shaun and his friend ed make a kind of game out of killing zombies in their backyard, throwing records to attempt to hurt them. in this zombie comedy, “to kill a zombified body is not to kill a ‘person’ or ‘hurt anyone’. instead, it is simply enjoying an activity at an amusement park” (payne 99). what does it mean that movies that depict human bodies being decimated in ridiculous and violent ways have become so popular? zombieland is one of the most popular zombie comedies to date, and it is one of the movies guiltiest of using gratuitous violence against zombies. it also includes some intense coded politics about race, gender, and class, which i 102 garrett will now discuss. the only message zombieland gives about race is evident in the complete absence of people of color in the movie. christopher writes that not one person of color appears in this movie as either human or zombie (119). the exclusion of every race but white has to be intentional and plays into christopher’s theory that “zombieland normalizes a number of patriarchal social constructs including capitalist consumerism, the heteronormative bourgeoisie, and whiteness” (118). in watching zombieland critically for indicators of race, gender, and class, it is obvious that the only target consumers of the movie are white, middle class families. this movie’s choices in lack of diversity are exclusionist. its casting says that people of color aren’t main characters, aren’t side characters, and aren’t even zombies. they don’t have a role in this world. in addition, zombieland has some fairly strong politics about gender. the main character, columbus, makes it clear from the beginning that his goal is to have a girl to bring home to his family. from the start, this positions all his potential female companions as a kind of trophy to have and show off. many aspects of patriarchal structures are visible in the narrative. another important character, tallahassee, has a slogan that he yells as he goes to slay zombies: “nut up or shut up” (zombieland 00:20:02). wichita and her sister little rock are underestimated at first by the male characters, using their femininity to rob tallahassee and columbus by surprise; this provides some hope that the movie might not be so patriarchally minded. however, by the end of the movie, the two female characters find themselves stuck motionless on an amusement park ride, reliant on the male protagonists to save them from approaching zombie hoards. this patriarchal gender dynamic does not simply appear in zombieland, either. cady and oates, authors of the article “family splatters,” suggest that “[m]any female main characters in 21st century zombie movies embody physical strength and emotional toughness in the heat of a zombie attack, while happily coupling in domestic tranquility after the threat has passed” (322). this is particularly true of shaun of the dead, where shaun’s girlfriend liz transfers seamlessly from badass zombie killer to domesticated housewife at the end of the movie. in zombieland, wichita loses her ability to defend herself when she teams up with columbus and tallahassee. generally, zombie comedies—up until recently—have focused on the heteronormative, white, middle class perspective while criticizing the standards of the zombie genre. they often center around familial structures and leave behind the valuable critiques on society that made the first zombie movies so popular. is it possible that the 103 garrett zombie comedy genre should be left for dead? or is it possible for the zombie comedy to pull out of its conservative position and into something that is genuinely critical? in the next section, i will be analyzing a new zombie comedy—santa clarita diet, a netflix original that began in 2017—to try to determine whether it fits the trend of previous zombie comedies. my argument unlike zombieland and shaun of the dead, santa clarita diet takes a different approach to the zombie comedy. for example, one of the main characters is a zombie, but it doesn’t seem as though an apocalypse has occurred (yet, at least). i will be looking for instances where the show seems to follow in the steps of the previous zombie comedies and where it deviates from them. santa clarita diet is a story about a family who lives in the suburbs. the main characters are sheila, joel, and abby hammond. sheila and joel are married forty-something real estate agents, and abby is their fifteen-year-old daughter. in their neighborhood, they live at the end of a cul-de-sac and are sandwiched between the family of vigilant la sheriff dan, and the family of rick, a police officer from santa monica. dan and rick have a notso-playful relationship, and the hammonds watch as they constantly bicker about their respective organizations. these three families comprise the main characters of the series. the first episode sets the audience up for the rest of the season by showing sheila’s descent into an odd sickness that eventually kills her. almost as soon as she is dead, she comes back to life with a few differences. zombie sheila is definitely dead: her heart does not beat. however, she does eat. at the beginning, she eats raw beef, but after she has a taste of fresh humans, she can’t seem to go back. in addition, it is established that she doesn’t feel pain anymore, and injuries prove that she has merely black sludge crawling through her veins. however, the physical side effects of her zombie state are just the beginning. before being zombified, sheila is a little timid about life. she says to herself, “am i bold? no, i am not . . . i want to be 20% bolder. no, more, 80%. no, that’s too much” (“so then a bat or a monkey” 00:01:28-00:01:30). the zombie sheila of the rest of the season is at least 80% bolder. joel notices immediately that “[i]t’s not just a physical thing, she’s acting different” (“so then a bat or a monkey” 00:12:50-00:12:54). at the beginning of the episode, it is noted that sheila is a fan of romanticism and is not incredibly sexual. zombie sheila is very sexually demanding and especially requires oral sex from joel twice. in addition, she 104 pursues spontaneous decisions, such as buying a range rover and going out drinking with her friends. it is interesting that sheila can no longer feel pain but seems sensitive to enjoyment instead. at the end of episode one, sheila gets sexually harassed by a co-worker named gary. she repeats her lack of interest in him time after time. eventually she pretends to give in, saying sarcastically, “your unwillingness to take no for an answer has made me feel sexy and desirable” (“so then a bat or a monkey” 00:26:00-00:26:15). sheila goes to lick gary’s fingers. of course, she bites down instead, starting an intense gorefest full of streaming blood and death. the upbeat music in the background of sheila’s mealtime just lends to the atmosphere of vengeance. her murder of gary does not feel like murder; it feels like a powerful move of revenge for his harassment. that is one of the questions the show repeatedly asks its audience: is it okay to kill someone if it seems like it is justified? sheila’s main source of food throughout the show is criminals from wanted lists. sheila and joel get the information about her victims from their neighbor dan, who thinks that it is joel who is carrying out the murders. dan tries to blackmail sheila and joel into killing people who are not actually criminals. therefore, he eventually also meets a grisly end at sheila’s teeth. the basis of the show revolves around two goals: getting a meal for sheila and finding a possible cure for her condition. there are subplots aplenty, including sheila’s physical deterioration, dan’s blackmailing of joel, and abby coming to terms with the death and undeath of her mother. in addition, we see eric, dan’s stepson, helping the hammonds understand sheila’s condition through pop culture knowledge of zombies. eric grows throughout the series as a character—but not as a love interest of abby’s, although they are the same age. it is refreshing to see a girl and boy just being friends and growing individually in a television show. undoubtedly, the set-up of santa clarita diet is quite different from previous zombie comedies, as there is one glaring absence: the apocalypse. zombieland is a complete apocalypse, with no remnant of structured civilization surviving. while shaun of the dead results in the world returning to a world almost identical to the one at the beginning, it also involves an apocalypse. in santa clarita diet, the apocalypse is absolutely missing (though admittedly there is a potential for one if the series continues). in this story, we have zombie sheila and another unfortunate person named loki who sheila tries and fails to eat, but the zombie plague hasn’t spread past those two. additionally, nobody has tried to kill sheila yet: is it possible that the apocalypse was what necessitated brutality against zombies in the two previously discussed zombie comedies? garrett 105 garrett at first glance, santa clarita diet seems posed to be disappointingly conservative in regard to politics surrounding class, race, and gender, as the main characters are middle class and white. however, i found in my analyses that though santa clarita diet’s premise is not so different from those of zombieland and shaun of the dead, the way it handles issues of politics is wildly different. for example, sheila is often the center of attention in the show, and her displays of strength and power could leave joel feeling less “manly.” nevertheless, while it is often discussed that joel is not a fan of the murders that sheila commits, he proves himself committed to his relationship with sheila. he never gets angry at her for her condition, but, rather, he works to understand it. he reaches out to scientists to try to find a cure for her, but when it seems impossible for her to return to her old self, he decides that he loves her enough to accept her for who she is. in terms of race, although people of color are not the main characters, they are not invisible. the hammonds’ neighbors are people of color. rick is a black man, and his wife alondra is asian-american. in fact, most of the characters in the show beyond the hammonds are people of color. just like in zombieland, there is no outright discussion of race; however in santa clarita diet, people of color play important roles and are visible. santa clarita diet is successful in being a funny show that deals with important issues of morality. in addition, it poses a new and interesting perspective in the zombie genre. what does it mean to have a zombie with no apocalypse? it changes the circumstance dramatically and lets us consider what it means to slaughter zombies. eric even asks the hammonds, “i mean, we’re the real so-called zombies, aren’t we? consuming everything we want without regard for consequences?” (“so then a bat or a monkey” 00:16:00-00:16:15). santa clarita diet allows for some critique of society without the plot getting dragged down or becoming too serious. conclusion it is possible for zombie comedies to successfully critique society while still being funny. in the past, even though zombie comedies criticized the unquestioned conventions of zombie movies, they also displayed their potential for presenting lazy, sexist, and racist caricatures of life. however, if zombie comedies are utilized to be genuinely critical of both zombie movies and negative societal trends, they could be powerful tools. maybe that hasn’t happened yet, but santa clarita diet is a good indicator of a possible motion in this direction. hopefully in the upcoming years the success of santa clarita diet will bring positive changes to the genre of zombie comedies. 106 works cited boluk, stephanie, and wylie lenz. “infection, media, and capitalism: from early modern plagues to postmodern zombies.” journal for early modern cultural studies, vol. 10, no. 2, 2010, pp. 126–147. doi:10.1353/jem.2011.0001. berger, james. after the end: representations of post-apocalypse. univ. of minnesota press, 1999. bishop, kyle william. “vacationing in zombieland: the classical functions of the modern zombie comedy.” journal of the fantastic in the arts, vol. 22, no. 1, 1 jan. 2011, pp. 24-38. jstor, www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/24352425ref=searchgateway:d878c659 046f9671d20f5060cd01d2e4. cady, kathryn a., and thomas oates. “family splatters: rescuing heteronormativity from the zombie apocalypse.” women’s studies in communication, vol. 39, no. 3, feb. 2016, pp. 308–325. doi:10.1080/07491409.2016.1194935. christopher, david. “zombieland and the inversion of the subaltern zombie.” horror studies, vol. 7, no. 1, spring 2016, pp. 111–124. doi: 10.1386/host.7.1.111_1. eitzen, dirk. “the nature of film comedy, or why is shaun of the dead funny?” projections, vol. 6, no. 2, jan. 2012, pp. 1–17. doi:10.3167/proj.2012.060202. fleischer, ruben, director. zombieland. sony pictures home entertainment, 2010. fojas, camilla. zombies, migrants, and queers: race and crisis capitalism in pop culture. university of illinois press, 2017. fresco, victor, creator. santa clarita diet. garfield clove productions and kapital entertainment, 2017. “so then a monkey or a bat.” santa clarita diet, season 1, episode 1, netflix original, april 8, 2018. netflix, https://www.netflix.com/watch/80119335?trackid=13752289&tctx =0%2c 0%2c8 08dfd74-2e6d-4a28-8c80-7b7af77d708a-14984115%2c%2c kelly, nicholas m. “zombies go to the amusement park: entertainment, violence, and the 21st century zombie in zombieland and left 4 dead 2.” iowa journal of cultural studies, vol. 14, spring 2013, pp. 83-105. digital commons, digital.lib.uiowa.edu/ijcs/ ijcs14-08.htm. garrett 107 garrett wright, edgar, director. shaun of the dead. universal pictures, 2004. payne, rodger. “laughing off a zombie apocalypse: the value of comedic and satirical narratives.” international studies perspective, vol. 18, no. 2, 1 may 2017, pp. 211–224. the cinematic killer: cameras and peeping tom the history of horror film is the history of fear. the genre examines themes as miniscule as personal repressed anxieties or as massive as an entire culture’s fears. horror has the ability to make its viewers scared of routine activities, such as the infamous shower scene in psycho, or even children’s toys, like chucky in child’s play. the range of iconic horror villains, scenes, and plots proves anything can be designed to be scary. michael powell’s 1960 peeping tom pushes the boundaries of this assertion, that anything can be designated as terrifying, by making a camera its antagonist. the film stars karl boehm as mark lewis, a disturbed photographer and filmmaker with a fetish for filming the beautiful women he murders. in the final moments of peeping tom, mark asks, “do you know what the most frightening thing in the world is?” and ultimately answers his own question: “it’s fear” (01:37:21-01:38:15). by the end of peeping tom, mark’s declaration is confirmed, as director michael powell successfully assigns a camera as an antagonist by showing its victims their own fear through a mirror attached to the camera as the victims are murdered. powell’s depiction of a serial killer filmmaker comes at a time of groundbreaking developments in camera technology, which revolutionized documentary film. further, he allowed the camera to become the antagonist by giving it agency. because of this portrayal, peeping tom has contributed to academic discourses on cinematic representations of voyeurism and psychoanalysis. the camera functions as a monster because it manipulates the portrayal of mark’s victims, making it a killer of reality and the literal and figurative murderer of the victims. the film begins through a camera’s gaze and follows a prostitute up a set of stairs, when she inexplicably screams. the following scene reveals that she has abstract in michael powell’s peeping tom, cameras are delegated the role of antagonist. cameras become the movie’s monsters, murdering women and their identities. these murders reflect flaws of and anxieties preoccupied with technological advancements in documentary film during the middle of the 20th century. the terror cameras cause in peeping tom showcases the danger in believing in an objective lens. madison wilde, florida state university 1 digital literature review, vol. 4 (2017). ball state university. all rights reserved. please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce critical edition to dlr@bsu.edu. been murdered. mark lewis films the aftermath for a personal documentary whose subjects are women that he kills. this is merely his pastime; he formally works as a film crew member and a pin-up photographer. one night, mark meets helen, his tenant and neighbor, and invites her into his apartment upstairs. mark shows helen experimental home videos, filmed by his psychologist father, of mark experiencing trauma as a child. helen is disturbed by this but still likes mark, and they eventually begin dating. still, this does not satisfy mark’s urges. he stays late at the studio one night to film vivian, a stand-in actress on the movie set he is working on. vivian becomes a part of mark’s documentary as he exposes a knife on the leg of a tripod and stabs her throat. he locks her in a trunk, and she is found on set the following day. detectives visit the set to question everyone, and mark films it for his movie. mark repeats the same process with milly, one of his pin-up models. afterward, mark arrives home to find helen watching one of his murder movies. mark explains to helen that he captures ultimate fear by attaching a mirror to his camera so the women he impales must watch their own deaths. the film concludes with mark filming himself committing suicide with the same technique. cameras become their own characters in peeping tom through personification, which is achieved through mark’s relationship with cameras. when referencing them, he uses humanizing language. while interrogating mark, chief inspector gregg asks mark if anyone was with him at a specific time. mark responds, “no sir. just my…just my camera” (00:59:44-00:59:51). when mark is with his camera, he is not alone. mark’s relationship with cameras, and his accompanying violent fetish involving them, has a traumatic foundation. his father, scientist a.n. lewis, put mark in fearful situations and filmed mark’s reaction as a case study on fear and the human nervous system. mark’s childhood was spent as the object of documentation, and cameras were always present in his rearing. even though cameras were a source of discomfort, their critical presence in his upbringing made them sentimental for mark—and even companions. his camera acts as a comfort blanket, reassuring him as he commits the murders. in a moment of apparent anxiety, mark strokes his camera. cameras receive mark’s affection, despite being an accessory to his abuse. in mark’s life, cameras are not purely harmful—they are his guardians. the cameras’ aversive stability forms the basis for an unhealthy relationship between them and mark. the enduring presence of cameras maintains mark’s relationship with them and ruins any development of a sense of privacy, which dr. rosan, psychologist and mark’s late father’s friend, points out. the oversaturation of cameras in mark’s childhood has not only caused him to have an emotional dependence on cameras, but cameras themselves control mark and have changed the way he participates in the world. 2madison wilde through its intricate relationship with mark, the camera becomes a complex character ranging from mark’s friend to a monster. mark’s connection with his camera is very personal, and he is rarely seen without it. his entire identity revolves around cameras. mark’s violent fetish and both his jobs, adult picture photographer and studio camera operator, involve cameras. even when mark is without his camera, like when he is on his date with helen, he surrenders to his voyeuristic urges for any provocative sights. he stares at a kissing couple with an intense, disturbing gaze until helen draws him back in. he is not a casual, passive onlooker. his stares are purposeful and shameless, like a camera’s intentional gaze, because cameras taught mark to view in their remorseless manner. the camera is able to condition mark because powell allows the camera to transcend its human user by depicting it as conscious. from the start, the camera performs menacing actions. in the iconic opening, a camera’s viewfinder gazes on a prostitute named dora as she picks up a customer and they relocate to a room. in the room, dora screams and stares at something horrifying, but viewers do not know what the source of her terror is. film critic catherine zimmer analyzes cameras throughout peeping tom, paying close attention to the opening, in “the camera’s eye: peeping tom and technological perversion.” in the scene when dora screams, “[t]he implication is that the camera is the hidden voyeur, not the man who approaches her” (zimmer 37). the scene is captured through the camera’s perspective, armed with crosshairs evocative of a weapon’s viewfinder, which make the intentions appear malicious. the wicked characterization of cameras continues as the film develops, and they assist mark in all of his murderous escapades. mark lures in women and murders them by impaling his victims with a tripod leg turned knife whilst filming them. the camera has a mirror attached, so victims can see the camera’s perspective on their murder as it happens. the highlighting of the camera’s perspective cultivates its role as humanized character. in the film’s finale, mark references the cameras as if they are his friends, asking helen to, “watch them all say goodbye, one by one” (01:39:23-01:40:17). zimmer argues that in this finale, “the camera has, like mark lewis, become the monster” (48). however, throughout the film, the camera has control over mark. a freudian psychosexual analysis of mark’s traumatic childhood history with cameras, his overpowering need to film murders, and the fact that all his victims are beautiful women suggests a fetish. this is furthered by the phallic imagery insinuated by the murder object, a tripod leg for impalement. a person does not control their fetish; it is their fetish that controls them. mark literally dies for his fetish. the camera is not a monster like mark lewis; the camera is mark lewis’s 3madison wilde monster. independent of its relationship with mark, cameras have monstrous qualities. cameras reduce the world to the confines of its lens, killing reality. it is also as if the camera makes choices when representing reality. in peeping tom, these choices are “constantly highlighted” (zimmer 36). in the beginning moments of the film, the camera’s gaze follows mark as he throws out a packet of film. the shot lingers on the trashcan, as if the trashcan is an imperative element of the unfolding story. the trashcan is not crucial to the purpose of peeping tom, but what the camera must forgo to capture it is. by focusing on one thing, the camera must ignore others. the camera’s inability to divulge all details while being able to select which features are revealed gives it a godlike power. with this power, the camera uses its limited domain and conscious gaze to link “technical and ideological position” (hawthorn 303). peeping tom’s opening has been described as an “ideological establishing shot,” the quick sequence illustrating the main points of the film, exemplifying the camera as a weapon and beginning to provoke questions about viewership (hawthorn 305). a camera’s gaze is influential enough to alter reality and even construct new meaning. despite a filmmaker having positive intentions, the unavoidable visual incompleteness of a camera’s perspective is powerful. a camera’s restricted scope never grants a filmmaker’s wholesome hopes to show cinematic truth. mark’s father, a.n. lewis, hoped his exploitative films would contribute a benefit to the medical community larger than the detriment it would bring to his son. independent of his experiment’s abusive qualities, a.n. lewis’s films had a constructive purpose. still mark is a single person, so this study cannot substitute for the experiences of all people. however, most viewers do not consider the picture as incomplete, so many ethical implications accompany cinematic accounts of the real. a camera’s view has the power to express truth, as passive viewers erroneously consume its images as fact. misperceived truth corrupts reality, with most of this burden placed on recorded subjects. the misconception that a film’s images are irrefutable, reliable sources is a common problem in documentary films. fabricated reality is mistakenly perceived as real, and the identity of its subjects, real people, are murdered. this is expressed in peeping tom through literal killing. mark’s victims in peeping tom are women who, according to distinguished film critic and academic elisabeth bronfen, “believe [they] can control and master the masculine gaze” (bronfen 62). their naïve perception that they can control the camera makes these women vulnerable. these women are too trusting of the camera. vivian goes as far as saying, “i do feel alone in front of it” (00:39:50-00:40:01). their identities are killed as a consequence. peeping tom motivates its viewers to question what happens when people 4madison wilde are turned into commodities. unlike mark’s personal documentary camera, peeping tom’s secondary cameras have a commercial purpose. the photography and studio cameras have the same ultimate objective of transforming subjects into objects by making them a commodity. the stars of these cameras’ gazes are given a new existence, one that aims to be economically desirable. models and actresses agree to abandon their notion of self under contractual stipulations to be compensated, and the assumption that spectators know what they are visually consuming is simulated. an audience may be immersed into the thoughtfully crafted world, but reality is promptly restored when the lights come on and the movie is over. mark’s victims are a prostitute, an actress, and a model. other than being beautiful, the main characteristic that unites mark’s victims is their willingness to sell themselves despite possible consequences. in the film’s beginning seconds, the camera gazes at dora as she stares into a store’s display of dismembered mannequins. completeness cannot be assembled using the mannequin’s fragmented parts. moments later, the same thing will happen to her. her individuality will be dismembered, as she is immortalized as a one-dimensional victim in newspapers and the camera’s film. the lack of complete identity will transform her into a mannequin, an object able to be fashioned to satisfy one’s desires. in contrast, despite being like the rest of his victims—young, beautiful, and powerlessly alone with him—mark spares helen’s life. powell always shows a barefaced helen in great lighting, contrasting her chiaroscuro-lit costars. unlike the film’s victims—dora, vivian, and milly—helen does not attempt to alter her image through makeup or profession, which may be one reason mark pardons her. furthermore, she is not as naïve as mark’s victims and is skeptical of the camera’s gaze. when mark tries to film helen, she appears threatened. she responds to his traumatic home videos with discomfort and questions, demanding, “i like to understand what i’m shown” (00:25:00-00:25:12). she understands the intricacies behind a creative composition because, just like mark, helen creates a fabricated reality. however, unlike mark, helen’s reality is never taken as real as it only exists within the realm of the children’s novels that she writes. mark’s medium is film, a visual surrogate for authentic reality, so it is often mistaken as truth. this unites them; nevertheless, mark’s reality comes with more risks. of the film’s three cameras—mark’s documentary camera, his photography, and the studio’s camera—mark’s 16mm documentary camera is the primary star and subject of a fascinating history. mark’s conscious camera can be considered his costar, assisting him on all of his exploits. the 16mm camera was introduced during world war ii, which lends it a “legacy of violent trauma” (zimmer 47). compared to previous technology, 16mm cameras are small, lightweight, and 5madison wilde portable. this allows them the ability to be at the forefront of action or, in the case of peeping tom, to perform the action. their capabilities extended documentary film techniques. for the first time, documentary films did not have to be staged, as a camera could be brought out in real settings to record real people. still, all genuine elements did not necessarily yield genuine results. around the same time as the advent of synchronized sound cameras and the production of peeping tom, two important documentary techniques were coming to the forefront—direct cinema and cinéma vérité. they both share an aspiration, debatably the goal of all documentary film, to accurately represent truth. however, they go about it in very different ways. direct cinema created the infamous “fly-onthe-wall” technique, in which documentary filmmakers record their surroundings without disturbing them to try to capture a situation as an objective account. direct cinema operates under the assumption that truth can be passively observed without the influence of a camera. explained by bill nichols, documentary film study’s pioneering scholar, where direct cinema tries to portray an “absolute or untampered truth,” cinéma vérité only attempts “the truth of an encounter” (184). cinéma vérité, literally meaning truthful cinema, “reveals the reality of what happens when people interact in the presence of a camera” (184). it acknowledges the relationship of power between people and cameras, so filmmakers try their best to create situations that will draw out truth. brian winston, one of the first british journalists to discuss documentary ethics, once said, “the only thing direct cinema and cinéma vérité have in common is their ‘equipment’” (qtd. in zimmer 40). despite having very different techniques, they face the same issues. both deal with the unavoidable influence of subjectivity, which muddles truth. the problems of both direct cinema and cinéma vérité are illustrated in peeping tom. mark’s documentary lies somewhere in-between the two techniques. sometimes, he adopts a direct cinema approach, passively filming situations around him, like the aftermath of dora the prostitute’s murder. inevitably, mark becomes an active part of his film when someone asks him what paper he is filming for (00:05:19-00:05:30). the camera’s inability to be ignored is where direct cinema fails. usually, mark’s filming serves as a commentary on cinéma vérité. he does not merely reveal how people react in the presence of a camera; he shows their interaction with the camera itself. unlike other documentary techniques, cinéma vérité is very upfront about the unequal distribution of power. however, that does not necessarily make the imbalance any better. in trying to draw out the truth through techniques like the interview, filmmakers sometimes create a truth. interview questions that lead to desired answers is an example of this. no tactic can perfectly construct power equality, as a human will always be doing the strategizing. 6madison wilde in peeping tom, this power imbalance is blatantly demonstrated through mark’s ability to take lives through his filmmaking. the world of a film, documentary film included, is carefully crafted through choices behind the camera, which peeping tom often reminds its audience. while posing for mark, milly asks him if he can hide her bruises in the photograph (00:10:25-00:10:34). a few moments later, the camera shot gazes at a beautiful woman standing by a window sill. the woman turns her head and reveals a facial deformity. prior to her turning her head, the camera could not see the deformity and, therefore, it did not exist in the audience’s universe. in reference to her facial deformity, she jokingly asks mark if he can remove her bruises too. mark is mesmerized by the woman and asks to film her with an obsessive demeanor. when he does film her, the frame only includes her eyes. once again, her deformity is erased by the camera’s limited perspective. nevertheless, both of these instances of incomplete representation are intentional. a moment of the camera’s will to omit can be noticed in mark’s childhood videos, but only on a re-viewing of the film. in these videos, in which mark’s father intentionally imposes fear on his child, a light can be seen. helen questions it: “what’s the light? well i suppose it’s the camera” (00:22:45-00:22:50). this light is familiar to viewers, as it can also be seen in the murder footage. it is not until the final moments of the film that the light’s source is revealed: the mirror. editing is another critical factor in devising the world of a film. a clever sequence in peeping tom that emphasizes editing’s power to make meaning is when a slice of cake is shown as a voice commands, “cut!” the word, “cut” seems to refer to the slice of cake until the scene promptly cuts to the studio, revealing the diegetic source of the commanded “cut” (00:30:11-00:30:15). while a camera limits perspective to select the meaning, editing is the intentional sequence strategized to design meaning. in the editing process, humans are the intelligent creators. in the case of documentary film, ethical filmmakers strive to, as best as possible, recreate a situation without the addition of motivated changes. in the filming process, a person guides a camera’s gaze, but he or she is working within the camera’s world and ultimately under its authority. the camera’s limited scope paired with the assumption that it does not lie is a dangerous combination. a camera is confined to its own frame of view, so it exploits the very concept of reality. because of this, documentary filmmakers will always fail at perfectly representing truth, even when they so desperately attempt it. the literal camera of peeping tom illustrates the danger of representation to its documentary subjects-turned-victims. the camera is a monster that uses mark, the tripod, and a mirror to achieve its goals. the literal murder from the impaling 7madison wilde tripod is a metaphor for the identity slaughter common in cinematic portrayals. the function of a tripod itself is to create a stable frame, akin to the way we actually view the world. steady shots allow film’s viewers to sink into its universe and forget they are watching a fabricated reality or, in the case of documentary film, a mediated reality. in documentary films, stability lends to the illusion of truth. mark’s victims are literally being killed by a tripod, the camera’s tool for delusional truth. the believable feigning of truth makes the accuracy of portrayals more critical, yet the camera’s limited abilities do not allow for the perfect portrayal. the attached mirror is an attempt at transparency between the camera and its victims. the power imbalance is still present, as subjects cannot control their representation. however, it allows for the victims to have a firsthand account of their murder. victims are cursed to see their murder as it occurs without the power to escape it. subjects of cinéma vérité are given the freedom to candidly exhibit their character for a camera, but their domain, the camera’s scope, is limited. as a result, subjects ultimately persist as objects. ultimately, michael powell uses mark’s conscious camera as a platform to point out the problems with representing reality and personal identity in film. when peeping tom concludes, mark’s 16mm camera is the most threatening character. during the film’s climax, one detective comforts the other two by saying, “it’s only a camera.” another detective responds with fear, “only?” (01:38:40-01:38:50). works cited 8madison wilde bronfen, elisabeth. “killing gazes, killing in the gaze: on michael powell’s peeping tom.” gaze and voice as love objects, edited by renata salecl, duke university press books, 1996, pp. 59-89. https:// books.google.com/books?id=zof1cobn_-uc&lpg=pp1&dq=gaze%20 and%20books%20as%20love%20objects&pg=pp1#v=onepage&q=gaze%20 and%20books%20as%20love%20objects&f=false accessed 2 dec. 2016. hawthorn, jeremy. “morality, voyeurism, and ‘point of view’: michael powell’s peeping tom.” nordic journal of english studies, vol. 2, no. 2, 2003, pp. 303–324. http://ojs.ub.gu.se/ojs/index.php/njes/article/view/223. accessed 15 dec. 2016. johnson, william. “‘peeping tom’: a second look.” film quarterly, vol. 33, no. 3, 1980, pp. 2–10. jstor, https://www.jstor.org/stable/1212185. accessed 2 dec. 2016. nichols, bill. “how can we describe the modes of documentary film?” introduction to documentary, 2nd ed., indiana university press, 2010, pp. 179-94. peeping tom. directed by michael powell, anglo-amalgamated film distributors, 16 may 1960. itunes, https://itunes.apple.com/gb/movie/peepi ng-tom-1960/id896112734. zimmer, catherine. “the camera’s eye: peeping tom and technological perversion.” horror film: creating and marketing fear, edited by steffen hantke, university of mississippi press, 2004, pp. 35-51, http://works.bep ress.com/catherinezimmer/1/. accessed 2 dec. 2016. 9madison wilde http://ojs.ub.gu.se/ojs/index.php/njes/article/view/223 https://www.jstor.org/stable/1212185 https://itunes.apple.com/gb/movie/peepi ng-tom-1960/id896112734. https://itunes.apple.com/gb/movie/peepi ng-tom-1960/id896112734. https://works.bep ress.com/catherinezimmer/1/ https://works.bep ress.com/catherinezimmer/1/ introduction henry wadsworth longfellow “the witnesses” oliver wendell holmes sr. “the flower of liberty” john pierpont “the fugitive slave’s apostrophe to the north star” “the slaveholder’s address to the north star” william gilmore simms “billows” “yes, lone were my bosom” conclusion works cited 37 38 38 39 40 41 41 44 46 46 47 47 48 the opposing viewpoints of slavery in nineteenth-century american poetry: an anthology madison yeary, indiana university key words: freedom, slavery, abolition, master, faith abstract: this anthology delves into a critical time period in american history, illustrates various arguments for and against slavery in the nineteenth century, and showcases some of the most powerful and insightful poems of the era. 36 digital literature review, vol. 2 (2015). © ball state university. all rights reserved. please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce critical edition to dlr@bsu.edu. table of contents introduction on april 12, 1861, america entered what would become the deadliest war in its recorded history. fought only on american soil, the civil war nearly split the once “united” states and caused approximately six hundred twenty-five thousand casualties. due to such political and environmental polarities between the quickly industrializing north and the slave owning agricultural south, tensions quickly rose. in 1860, just after the election of abolitionist president abraham lincoln, the rebel states began their secession. as the war continued and more lives were lost, an exponential increase of cultural figures, such as writers and professors, immersed themselves in politics and avidly supported their side, resulting in the rise of influential literature. long after the abolishment of slavery and the end of the war on april 9, 1865, books and poems were still published on the opinions prompting the bloodshed. the contradictory attitudes between the loyal north and rebel south, specifically concerning the issue of slavery, ineludibly manifested themselves through nineteenth-century american poetry. this anthology contains six annotated poems exemplifying specific differences between the northern and southern stance on slavery. arranged according to their respective views regarding the political policy of slavery, the first three pieces include only antislavery poems written by northern abolitionists. these poems particularly reflect the role played by religion and spiritualism in the abolitionist stance against slavery. in contrast, the latter half of the anthology’s poems demonstrates the south’s overpowering ego and sense of entitlement, which resulted in their full support for the use of slaves. the first poem in this anthology – “the witnesses” – was written by fireside poet henry wadsworth longfellow in 1842. this piece depicts the inhumanity of the pre-war slave trade by divulging the harsh reality of slavery’s oppression, which resulted in the loss of so many lives. another fireside poet, oliver wendell holmes sr. in 1861, wrote the anthology’s next poem, titled “the flower of liberty”. this poem epitomizes the symbolic patriotism of the american flag, which the northern soldiers used for motivation to keep fighting for their cause in such a violent and austere civil war. “the last two anti-slavery poems in this anthology that symbolize the northern cause were both written by john pierpont in 1839: the first is titled “the fugitive slave’s apostrophe to the north star” and the second “the slaveholder’s address to the north star.” the first is written from the point of view of a runaway slave and depicts his journey strictly at night, guided by the light of the north star on the underground railroad. pierpont wrote the second from the point of view of a harsh and ignorant slave owner. in this poem, a slave owner mocks the same north star followed so desperately by the fugitive slave. opening with the lines “star of the north, thou art not bigger // than is the diamond in my ring;” pierpont flawlessly exemplifies the arrogance held by many southern slave owners. the people south of the dixie-line defended their use of slaves by claiming that african-americans were nothing more than mere savages who bettered their lives when becoming slaves because it gave them a purpose for living. in the anthology, then, pierpont’s second poem acts as a bridge into the second section, which represents actual pro-slavery poetry.” southern historian and pro-slavery advocate william gilmore simms wrote “billows,” the first poem included in the set of pro-slavery pieces, in 1832. this piece claims with the same unashamed pride as the others that the masters of slaves in the south deserved their slaves just because of the color of their skin. the anthology’s sixth and final poem, titled “yes, lone were my bosom,” was published in 1853 by the same author as the preceding poem – william gilmore simms. yet again written from the viewpoint of a southern slaveholder, this poem egotistically expresses simms’s rationale of and justification for slavery as a positive practice. 37 yeary as clearly seen in the poetry of the time, there were dramatic differences between the nature and politics of a young, split america. the loyalist north supported the abolition of slavery, while the rebel south fought till its death in an attempt to keep it. just four short years, from 1861-1865, caused both the history and literature of the united states to be changed indefinitely. henry wadsworth longfellow (1807-1882) merely three years after his birth in portland, maine on february 7, 1807, legendary poet henry wadsworth longfellow began his formal education comparatively and notably young. nevertheless, because of his early start, longfellow enrolled at bowdoin college by the impressive age of fifteen and subsequently taught modern languages at harvard. distinguished by his understanding that “what a writer asks of his reader is not so much to like as to listen” (wagenknect, henry wadsworth longfellow), longfellow’s poetry revolutionized american culture and thrust him into one of the five figurehead positions of the renowned fireside poets. acclaimed pieces such as “paul revere’s ride” and “songs of hiawatha” inspired writers and composers alike; his poetry flourished and could be heard everywhere from parlors to civic ceremonies, and anywhere in between. however, among his life’s praise and prestige came no shortage of undeserved anguish and despair. in his poem “resignation,” longfellow recounts the feelings and ideals that held him together through those “severe afflictions” caused by the death of his daughter fanny in 1848. shortly after fanny’s death, longfellow’s wife, frances, was sealing an envelope with hot wax when her dress caught fire. although longfellow himself eventually snuffed it out, severe burns had already covered her body and resulted in her death on the morning of july 10, 1861. during his courtship of frances, however, longfellow publicly solidified himself as an abolitionist when his collection, poems on slavery, was published in 1842. his poem, “the witnesses,” found in this collection, describes the undeniable and horrific consequences of the american slave trade. “the witnesses” in ocean’s wide domains, half buried in the sands, lie skeletons in chains, with shackled feet and hands. beyond the fall of dews, deeper than plummet lies, float ships, with all their crews, no more to sink nor rise. there the black slave-ship swims, freighted with human forms, whose fettered, fleshless limbs are not the sport of storms. these are the bones of the slaves; they gleam from the abyss; they cry, from yawning waves, 38 yeary “we are the witnesses!” within earth’s wide domains are markets for men’s lives; their necks are galled with chains, their wrists are cramped with gyves. 1 dead bodies, that the kite in deserts make its prey; murders, that with affright scare school-boys from their play! all evil thoughts and deeds; anger, and lust, and pride; the foulest, rankest weeds, that choke life’s groaning tide! these are the woes of the slaves; they glare from the abyss; they cry, from unknown graves, “we are the witnesses!” oliver wendell holmes sr. (1809-1894) famous for substantially more than coining the term “anesthesia,” fireside poet oliver wendell holmes, sr. was also an american professor, physician, writer, and justice for the american supreme court. he was born in cambridge, massachusetts on august 29, 1809, where he remained until 1830. while living in cambridge, holmes attended harvard college, where he graduated with a degree in classical languages and literature. shortly following graduation, holmes decided to continue his harvard education and enrolled at dane law school in the fall 1829. after only one year, however, holmes left his alma mater in order to study medicine and concentrate on writing. reflecting on this decision, holmes claimed, “the labor which produces an insignificant poem would be enough to master a solid chapter of law” (european graduate school, “oliver wendell holmes”). in 1836 holmes earned his m.d. from harvard with his dissertation on acute pericarditis. however, despite each of holmes’ varying educational interests, his passion for writing never faded. even at his busiest, holmes somehow found time to write. the same year he earned his m.d., he also published his first collection of pieces, which he titled poems. his popularity quickly grew, and as a result, people began asking him to write poems for specific occasions or events. as well as poems of tribute, holmes also notoriously wrote poems about his observations of the world around him. since he lived during the time of slavery and the civil war, holmes witnessed first hand slavery’s many evils and the war it caused. these troubling observations led holmes to side with the northern cause as an abolitionist. consequently, his strong political stances became evident through his writing. one of 39 1 a “gyve” is a fetter or shackle. yeary these poems, “the flower of liberty,” describes the loyal and necessary patriotism found in the american flag. to him, the flag represented all the lives of the american people who sacrificed their lives for freedom, and this freedom was meant for everyone, even slaves. “the flower of liberty” what flower is this that greets the morn, its hues from heaven so freshly born? with burning star and flaming band it kindles all the sunset land: oh tell us what its name may be,- is this the flower of liberty? it is the banner of the free, the starry flower of liberty! in savage nature’s far abode its tender seed our fathers sowed; the storm-winds rocked its swelling bud, its opening leaves were streaked with blood, till lo! earth’s tyrants shook to see the full-blown flower of liberty! then hail the banner of the free, the starry flower of liberty! behold its streaming rays unite, one mingling flood of braided light,-the red that fires the southern rose, with spotless white from northern snows, and, spangled o’er its azure, see the sister stars of liberty! then hail the banner of the free, the starry flower of liberty! the blades of heroes fence it round, where’er it springs is holy ground; from tower and dome its glories spread; it waves where lonely sentries tread; it makes the land as ocean free, and plants an empire on the sea! then hail the banner of the free, the starry flower of liberty! 40 yeary thy sacred leaves, fair freedom’s flower, shall ever float on dome and tower, to all their heavenly colors true, in blackening frost or crimson dew,-and god love us as we love thee, thrice holy flower of liberty! then hail the banner of the free, the starry flower of liberty john pierpont (1785-1866) educator, attorney, minister, politician, and poet, john pierpont is famous for boldly expressing his abolitionist beliefs through his work. born into an illustrious family on april 6, 1785, in litchfield, connecticut, pierpont was destined for a life of achievements. among the first of these famous achievements was the success gained from his book of poetry, airs of palestine, published in 1816. soon after its publication and his resulting new found literary acclaim, pierpont wrote several school readers, such as the american first class book, and published multiple pieces of moral interest. whilst developing his respected authorial standing, he simultaneously earned esteem as a unitarian pastor for hollis street church in boston and again as a seventy-six year old chaplain of the 22nd massachusetts infantry. despite the frequent shifts in career, pierpont held firm to his spiritual convictions and repeatedly shared his anti-slavery ideals, even when they were not well received. recalling the uproar caused by pierpont’s anti-slavery poems published in 1843, the author says: “though some of my friends may grieve, and wish that i had been more prudent than to write the pieces that touch thus upon human liberty, and upon the outrageous wrongs that, in these days and in this our land, it has suffered, their grandchildren will thank me, and may be freer men for them” (antislavery literature project). though written in 1839, his poem titled “the fugitive slave’s apostrophe to the north star” is exactly the type of ‘piece’ his ‘friends [did] grieve.’ written from a slave’s point of view, pierpont describes the hope placed in the god who created the star “over bethlehem’s manger” and their pleas for delivery and his guidance. soon after finishing this poem, pierpont wrote its similarly titled antithesis “slaveholder’s address to the north star.” here, he describes the prideful thoughts and rationale of many slave owners, ultimately portraying them simply as ignorant fools. “the fugitive slave’s apostrophe to the north star” star of the north!2 though night winds drift the fleecy drapery of the sky between thy lamp and me, i lift, yea, lift with hope, my sleepless eye to the blue heights wherein thou dwellest, and of a land of freedom tellest. 41 2 “the star of the north” is referring to the star in matthew 2 of the christian bible, which led the wise men to jesus. 3 this line parallels the slaves’ secret underground railroad to the wise men’s attempt at staying hidden by traveling only at night. yeary star of the north! while blazing day pours round me its full tide of light, and hides thy pale but faithful ray, i, too, lie hid, and long for night:3 for night;—i dare not walk at noon, nor dare i trust the faithless moon,— nor faithless man, whose burning lust for gold hath riveted my chain; nor other leader can i trust, but thee, of even the starry train; for, all the host around thee burning, like faithless man, keep turning, turning. i may not follow where they go: star of the north, i look to thee while on i press; for well i know thy light and truth shall set me free;— thy light, that no poor slave deceiveth; thy truth, that all my soul believeth. they of the east beheld the star that over bethlehem’s manager glowed; with joy they hailed it from afar, and followed where it marked the road, till, where its rays directly fell, they found the hope of israel.4 wise were the men who followed thus the star that sets man free from sin! star of the north! thou art to us,— who’re slaves because we wear a skin dark as is night’s protecting wing,— thou art to us a holy thing. and we are wise to follow thee! i trust thy steady light alone: star of the north! thou seem’st to me to burn before the almighty’s throne, to guide me, through these forests dim and vast, to liberty and him. thy beam is on the glassy breast 42 4 the “hope of israel” refers to god’s promise to the israelites to deliver them from egyptian enslavement in exodus 6:6. yeary of the still spring, upon whose brink i lay my weary limbs to rest, and bow my parching lips to drink. guide of the friendless negro’s way, i bless thee for this quiet ray! in the dark top of southern pines i nestled, when the driver’s horn called to the field, in lengthening lines, my fellows at the break of morn. and there i lay, till thy sweet face looked in upon “my hiding-place.” the tangled cane-brake,—where i crept for shelter from the heat of noon, and where, while others toiled, i slept till wakened by the rising moon,— as its stalks felt the night wind free, gave me to catch a glimpse of thee. star of the north! in bright array the constellations round thee sweep, each holding on its nightly way, rising, or sinking in the deep, and, as it hangs in mid-heaven flaming, the homage of some nation claiming. this nation to the eagle cowers; fit ensign! she’s a bird of spoil; like worships like! for each devours the earnings of another’s toil. i ’ve felt her talons and her beak, and now the gentler lion seek. the lion at the virgin’s feet crouches, and lays his mighty paw into her lap!—an emblem meet of england’s queen and english law:— queen, that hath made her islands free! law, that holds out its shield to me! star of the north! upon that shield thou shinest!—o, forever shine! 43 yeary the negro from the cotton-field shall then beneath its orb recline, and feed the lion couched before it, nor heed the eagle screaming o’er it! “the slaveholder’s address to the north star” star of the north, thou art not bigger than is the diamond in my ring; yet every black, star-gazing nigger stares at thee, as at some great thing! yes, gazes at thee, till the lazy and thankless rascal is half crazy. some quaker scoundrel must have told ‘em that, if they take their flight toward thee, they’d get where ‘massa’ cannot hold ‘em; and, therefore, to the north they flee. fools! to be led off, where they can’t earn their living, by thy lying lantern. thou’rt a cold water star, i reckon, although i’ve never seen thee, yet, when to the bath thy sisters beckon, get even thy golden sandals wet; nor in the wave have known thee dip, in our hot nights, thy finger’s tip. if thou wouldst, nightly, leave the pole, to enjoy a regular ablution in the north sea, or symmes’s hole,5 our ‘patriarchal institution,’ from which thou findest many a ransom, would, doubtless, give thee something handsome. although thou ‘rt a cold water star, as i have said, i think, already, thou ‘rt hailed, by many a tipsy tar, who likes thee just because thou ‘rt steady, and hold’st the candle for the rover, when he is more than ‘half seas over.’ 44 5 symmes’s hole was the hypothesis proposed by edmond halley that the earth was in a hollow shell. 6 in genesis 5:32 of the bible, ham is described as the son of noah, who was the man that built the ark. 7 also a biblical reference to genesis 1:28 where god commands adam and eve to “increase and multiply.” yeary but, while ham’s6 seed, our land to bless, ‘increase and multiply’7 like rabbits, we like thee, yankee star, the less, for thy bright eye, and steady habits. pray waltz with venus, star of love, or take a bout with reeling jove. thou art an abolition star, and to my wench wilt be of use, if her dark eye should find thee, ere the car of our true old slave-catcher, ‘lucifer, star of the morning,’ upward rolls, and, with its light, puts out the pole’s. on our field hands thou lookest, too — a sort of nightly overseer— canst find no other work to do? i tell thee, thou’rt not wanted here; so, pray, shine only on the oceans, thou number one of ‘northern notions.’ yes, northern notions, — northern lights! as hates the devil holy water, so hate i all that rogers writes, or weld, that married grimkè’s daughter:— so hate i all these northern curses, from birney’s prose to whittier’s verses. ‘put out the light!’ exclaimed the moor — i think they call his name othello — when opening his wife’s chamber door to cut her throat — the princely fellow! noblest of all the nigger nation! file leader in amalgamation! ‘put out the light!’ and so say i. could ‘i quench thee, thou flaming minister,’ no longer, in the northern sky, should blaze thy beacon-fire so sinister. north star, thy light’s unwelcome — very — we’ll vote thee ‘an incendiary.’ 45 yeary and, to our ‘natural allies’ — our veteran kinderhook invincibles, who do our bidding, in the guise of ‘northern men, with southern principles, ‘— men who have faces firm as dough, and, as we set their noses, go — to these, we’ll get some scribe to write, and tell them not to let thee shine — excepting of a cloudy night — any where, south of dixon’s line. if, beyond that, thou shin’st, an inch we’ll have thee up before judge lynch:8 — and when, thou abolition star, who preachest freedom, in all weathers, thou hast got on a coat of tar, and, over that, a cloak of feathers, that thou art ‘fixed’ shall none deny, if there’s a fixed star in the sky. william gilmore simms (1806-1870) by the age of eight, renowned author and historian william gilmore simms had already written his first poem. best known for his political writings and pro-slavery arguments, famous poet edgar allen poe described simms as “the best novelist, which this country has, on the whole, produced.” born on april 17, 1806, in charleston, south carolina, simms would grow up to be a prominent voice of antebellum southern literature. although he dedicated most of his life to documenting the culture and history of his beloved south, at age eighteen simms enrolled in law school. after passing the bar exam in 1827, he began to practice in his hometown of charleston. however, soon thereafter simms realized the irritating and unavoidable facets of practicing law and consequently deserted his career to focus on both his love for literature and the southern half of the united states. unsurprisingly, since those were his two greatest passions, nearly all of his writings have southern influence or themes. his book the sword and the distaff is among his most famous pieces, and stems from his clear opposition to harriet beecher stowe’s widespread antislavery novel, uncle tom’s cabin. in addition to his famous novels, however, simms also published works of poetry. in his poem “billows,” simms briefly describes only part of his argument for slavery, which essentially stated that slaves happily and sometimes even willingly served their owners because of their newfound purpose for their otherwise useless lives. simms also wrote the poem “yes, lone where my bosom,” which portrays a conversation between a southerner doubting his faith and the god causing his doubt. “billows” gently, with sweet commotion, 46 8 lynching is the act of murdering someone, usually by hanging, which predominately happened to slaves and post-antebellum freed blacks. yeary sweeping the shore, billows that break from ocean, rush to our feet; slaves that, with fond devotion, prone to adore, seek not to stint with measure service that’s meet;-bearing their liquid treasure, flinging it round, shouting the while the pleasure true service knows, then as if bless’d with leisure, flung on the yellow ground taking repose! “yes, lone were my bosom” yes, lone were my bosom if liken’d to thine, and base were my soul if it knelt at thy shrine; and the heaven we worship were false if it be more true to the spoiler than thou wert to me. if the hope that has cheer’d me through danger and death, be as easily lost as its owner’s frail breath, then ‘twere meet that my heart in its conflict should fly, to the succor of him who decrees it to die. if my hope of the future, as they tell me be vain, thy lures shall not win me to trust it again; and the evening of life were but anguish to me, did i deem its sad sunlight vouchsafed me by thee. thou mayst rule o’er the slaves whom thy fortune has made; i am none, and by me thou canst ne’er be betray’d: i call for no curse on thy head but the one, to trust with my trust, and, like me, be undone. conclusion president abraham lincoln said it best with his foreboding pre-civil war sentiment that “a house divided against itself cannot stand.” as shown through these selected poems, the divisive issue of slavery drove a nearly catastrophic wedge through the american people whether it is politically or poetically. through the poems’ implicit tropes and explicit opinions, one begins to understand the sheer magnitude and polarizing nature of slavery, and also understand why the legacy of slavery persists today. 47 yeary antislavery literature project. “antislavery poems.” antislavery literature. antislavery literature project, 2014. web. 8 may 2014. “biographical notes.” american poetry: the 19th century. new york: first library of america, 1993. 906. print. cox, rob s. “finding aid for john pierpont papers, 1854-1861.” william l. clements library manuscripts division finding aids. university of michigan digital library, n.d. web. 8 may 2014. european graduate school. “henry wadsworth longfellow biography.” henry wadsworth longfellow. the european graduate school: graduate and postgraduate studies, n.d. web. 7 may 2014. ---. “oliver wendell holmes sr biography.” oliver wendell holmes sr. the european graduate school: graduate and postgraduate studies, n.d. web. 8 may 2014. fenster, j.m. “power struggle.” ether day: the strange tale of america’s greatest medical discovery and the haunted men who made it. new york: harpercollins, 2001. 106–16. print. halley, edmond. an account of the cause of the change of the variation of the magnetic needle; with an hypothesis of the structure of the internal parts of the earth. royal society of london, 1692. 563– 578. print. holmes, oliver wendell. “the flower of liberty.” the atlantic. atlantic media company, n.d. web. 8 may 2014. the holy bible, king james version. new york: american bible society, 1999. print. maine historical society. henry wadsworth longfellow. maine historical society, n.d. web. 8 may 2014. mcpherson, james. “a brief overview of the american civil war.” council on foreign relations. civil war trust, n.d. web. 7 may 2014. simms, william gilmore. “billows.” poems: descriptive, dramatic, legendary and contemplative. vol. ii. john russell, 1853. 147. documenting the american south. electronic edition. web. 18 mar. 2015. ---. “yes, lone were my bosom.” poems: descriptive, dramatic, legendary and contemplative. vol. ii. 230. small, miriam rossiter. oliver wendell homes. new york: twayne publishers, 1962. print. wagenknecht, edward. henry wadsworth longfellow: portrait of an american humanist. oxford university press, 1966. google books. web. 8 may 2014. university library. “william gilmore simms, 1806-1870.” documenting the american south. university of north carolina press, 2004. web. 8 may 2014. 48 works cited yeary 186 general introduction | a time to change, a time to mourn christina rossetti was a victorian british poet best known for her fantastical work “goblin market” (1862). however, this poem, recounting the whimsical tale of two sisters and their magical goblin encounter, does not say as much about rossetti’s life as some of her other works. rossetti dealt with substantial personal losses in her lifetime, losses that are expressed in her ghostly poetry. by looking into these poems, especially “the ghost’s petition” (1866), it is possible to gain insight not only into rossetti’s losses but also into the mourning practices common in the victorian era itself. rossetti lived at an age filled with political and social changes, both in her native england and around the world. the victorian era was a time of transition in many walks of life, a time of expanding enlightenment and an increased interest in unfamiliar cultures and ideologies. these sweeping changes affected many details of dayto-day life for citizens, but for rossetti in particular the biggest and most threatening change was public opinion about religion. this was one of the first moments in history when religious doubt became socially acceptable and believers were encouraged to question and examine their faith. rossetti’s increasingly religious writings may have been a reaction to this new environment of religious skepticism, a way of fighting back against what she perceived as religious backsliding (d’amico). for deeply religious individuals such as christina rossetti, this backsliding was nothing short of terrifying. rossetti faced a great deal of uncertainty throughout her life, including failing health, numerous deaths in the family, and unsatisfied love. her protestantism was the one constant in her life, and the climate of religious doubt threatened the only certainty she had. this doubt also lends itself well to the concepts of ghosts and hauntings, as rossetti likely felt very isolated and alone in her steadfast faith. both of her poems that are included in this edition feature a profound sense of loneliness, suggesting that rossetti’s life was similar to the “life” of a ghost frozen in the middle of a transition and isolated even in the company of others. rossetti certainly was not alone in enduring multiple deaths in the family. one particularly telling death was the probable suicide of her older brother gabriel’s romantic interest, elizabeth siddal. he had led her on for years, promising to marry her but never following through with a proposal, until her failing health guilted him into marrying her on the spot. when their first child was born dead, it sent lizzie into a tailspin of depression and psychosis. she died within the year under mysterious circumstances that could easily have pointed to suicide, though all evidence that might have proved it so was destroyed. guilt-ridden and distraught, gabriel buried an irreplaceable collection of poems he had been working on with her (though he later had her coffin secretly exhumed so that he could retrieve the manuscript). later in his life as his health failed him, he became convinced that he had been visited by her spirit. whether this was this critical edition presents christina rossetti’s ghostly poetry, analyzing its overall cultural impact and influence. in addition to her poetry, we have included contextual documents pertaining to mourning, widowhood, and poetic expression. as a whole, this edition gives insight into how and why poetry can be an appropriate method for women to express grief in the victorian era. ghosts of loss: christina rossetti’s haunted poetry edited by ruth weller-passman, mackenzie fluharty, & ashley starling digital literature review, vol. 1 (2014). © ball state university. all rights reserved. please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce this critical edition to dlr@bsu.edu. the result of a guilty conscience, a deterioration of mental health, or a true posthumous visitation, gabriel’s conviction may have struck a chord with rossetti and inspired her to include ghosts and spirits in her own writing.1 victorian society need not look to fiction such as rossetti’s works to find death and its influence. losing a loved one and having to perform the standard mourning rituals was an eventual experience. for the poor in society, death meant being tossed into a large pit and buried with other nameless souls (strange 110). for the middle and upper classes, however, death took on a graceful etiquette. the well-to-do were “sent off ” with beautiful funerals and elaborate burials. cassell’s household guide, a london publication for victorian women, describes various funeral packages that could be purchased, the most grandiose of which included spectacles such as a hearse with four horses, ostrich feather plumes, and fourteen men to serve as pages and coachmen (66). additionally, those who had lost a loved one donned all black and wore these mourning clothes for a year or more. widows were even expected to arrive late for social functions, including church. generally, mourning became not only an emotion but a complete lifestyle for those left behind. at the surface, these mourning practices seem to be a remarkable way in which to honor the dead. all that this etiquette serves to do, however, is to prolong the grieving process. in order to deal with their grief, many women turned to their diaries. however, poetry was also a common outlet for grief and sorrow because of its personal nature. between the feelings of loss and the general desire for the dead to somehow remain, it was only natural for these grief poems to eventually feature ghostly figures. in this critical edition, we will examine the connection between grief and ghost poetry in the primary text, christina rossetti’s “the ghost’s petition.” additionally, a deeper look into rossetti herself, the culture of the time period, and the experience of a victorian widow will be featured in the contextual documents. poem introduction | petitions, promises, and protestantism ghosts are often associated with the terror of the undead: beings that have somehow cheated death to remain on earth for some nefarious or vengeful purpose. yet there is another style of ghost that is often forgotten in the wake of horror stories and haunted houses: the ghost that remains tethered to the mortal world by grief instead of anger. this is the type of ghost to be found in christina rossetti’s poem “the ghost’s petition.” published in her 1866 anthology the prince’s progress and other poems, the poem opens on a recently widowed woman sitting up with her sister and watching for her husband. the bereft wife is convinced that her husband “must keep his word” and return to her from death, and after her skeptical sister has gone to bed for the night, the husband does indeed make a posthumous appearance. it becomes apparent that the wife is inadvertently binding her husband to life: her grief itself is keeping him from peaceful rest. the format of the poem itself bears some analysis. while the version presented here has the poem arranged into triplets, there are some versions of the poem where the stanzas are longer and less broken up. this version is in this edition because its format seems more appropriate for its topic. the triplets allow for the repetitions to stand out, as in the repeated reference to one sleeping and one weeping in stanzas 7, 8 and 17. there is also something to be said for the power of threes: the number three is often associated with mysticism and magic, and additionally the poem features three characters (the wife, her sister jane, and her husband robin). the shorter stanzas also call the reader’s attention to the rhyme structure. lines one and three of each stanza are rhymed, and there is an internal rhyme within the second line of each stanza. this hasty resolution of rhyme structure compels the reader to pick up speed as the poem progresses, giving the poem an urgency that is mirrored by robin’s urgency in pleading for his wife’s help. one of the most noteworthy features of this poem is its lack of narration. only four brief stanzas bridge the dialogue between the sisters and the dialogue between husband and wife. the rest of the piece is conversation— conversation, in fact, that is not even broken up to identify the speakers. the reader is left to deduce what line has been spoken by which character. this, coupled with the fact that the wife’s name is never mentioned, renders the language of the poem as ghostly as the story itself. perhaps rossetti intentionally left the characters unidentified so that readers could imagine themselves within the world of the poem, but she also endowed them with hauntingly familiar themes: the pain of loss, the devotion 187 notes 1. see jones (107-112) for a more detailed account of elizabeth siddal’s death. “the ghost’s petition” of love. the characters are simultaneously familiar and unfamiliar, abstract and literal, and even material and spectral. the husband is unable to hold his wife, as he states in lines 38 and 39. but he cannot be entirely immaterial, as he references lying in his grave multiple times (lines 44 and 48). rossetti could have been implying that robin is still partially bound to his corpse that lies in the grave, despite his spirit’s ability to walk abroad and interact with his living wife. in the 16th stanza he also describes the horror of being unable to shut his ears against his wife’s ceaseless crying. to be bound to life after death as a specter is horrible enough, but to remain tethered to a rotting corpse submerged in the earth is even more ghastly. the reader certainly canot fault robin for seeking an end to that torment. the imagery of the poem is evocative of ghosts and spectrality. in the first stanza, the sister, looking out the window at her sibling’s request, notes the falling leaves and the howling wind. the season is autumn, then—an appropriately liminal setting for a poem about hauntings. the trees are beginning to retreat into a kind of living death for the winter, but have not yet dropped all their leaves. robin also states in line 42 that “no tree can stand” on the hill where he is buried. perhaps he means that the bloom of life may not grow near the tombs of the half-dead, as they are firmly alive while robin is neither wholly dead nor alive. the wind, too, has a spectrality to it: an incorporeal manifestation, it nonetheless has a very physical presence, pulling leaves off the trees and casting a chill over anyone it catches. both these images continue to haunt the narrative: when robin is ascending the staircase and preparing to enter the house, he shakes the door “like a puff of air” (line 27). robin, like the wind, is both present and absent: he can shake the door, but he cannot embrace his wife. later he describes the dead as “trees that have shed their leaves” (line 43). like a tree in autumn, the spirits of the dead have not been exterminated altogether—they remain partially alive, in spite of their physical forms’ demise. something, whether it be the “tender hand” (line 67) of god or the grief of a mourning loved one, keeps them tethered to life in death. there is another specter that haunts this poem: the specter of religious duty. though it isn’t explicitly referenced, a profound belief in the afterlife drives this poem. “tender hand hath made our nest” (line 67), robin tells his wife. it is hard to imagine that this “tender hand” belongs to anyone but god. the only description of the afterlife that the husband offers is that it is a place where mortal fears vanish and only hope remains. in fact, the wife is almost prepared to give up her life and join her husband in the pleasures of death. yet it is clear that this notion is never truly entertained by either robin or his wife: though she is desperately lonely and hungry for the comforting rest of death, the wife knows that her place is on earth. suicide is a sin, after all, and perhaps the wife knows that she could jeopardize her place in the afterlife if she followed robin so prematurely into the grave. this choice between religious duty and love would no doubt have been a familiar one to christina rossetti’s audience—and rossetti herself. twice rossetti turned down marriage proposals because of her suitors’ religious affiliations first from a catholic, and then from an atheist. though she mourned the losses of love and feared a life of solitude, her protestant beliefs were more important to her.2 just as robin’s wife never truly considers following her husband, rossetti would never have truly considered giving up her religious principles for marriage. in a way, “the ghost’s petition” is as much about rossetti’s ghosts as it is about the ghost of robin. the poem also begins and ends with a promise, which is an immaterial specter of sorts whose presence nonetheless can be felt and relied upon. in the third stanza, the wife alludes to a promise that her husband made her to always come home, regardless of the circumstances. the strength of that promise is enough to lift robin from his grave, enough to keep him from whatever pleasures await him beyond death. one could even argue that his promise haunts him in the same way that he is now haunting his wife. by the end of the poem, however, the story comes full circle: though the wife is desperate to rejoin her husband and tempted by the pleasures of the afterlife, she promises to cease her grieving and move on with her life so that her husband may rest in peace. that promise will continue to haunt the wife as she goes about her days, missing her husband but careful not to miss him too deeply for fear of yanking him back from the grave yet again. through a choice use of language, evocative imagery, the employment of religious undertones, and the theme of a promise, christina rossetti creates ghosts that haunt not only the characters of the poem itself, but the poem’s readers (and even its own author). the poem is just as much a ghost as robin is, haunting all those who come into contact with it. notes 2. see jones 2(9-30) and (34-47) for a thorough discussion of rossetti’s first proposal of marriage. 188“the ghost’s petition” notes 3. the text of the poem is taken from the haunted hour: an anthology (1920), compiled by margaret widdemer. 4. a plains, grassland or meadow. 5. the sister being one of only two named characters is significant. rossetti had three older siblings and remained close with them throughout her lifetime. additionally, allocating the name of ‘jane’ to the sister emphasizes the sister’s insignificance to the narrator. ‘jane doe’ was used for anonymity since 1855. 6. a landing is a transitory space between sets of stairs, signifying another threshold that robin has to cross to reach his grieving wife. “the ghost’s petition”3 by christina rossetti ‘there’s a footstep coming: look out and see,’ ‘the leaves are falling, the wind is calling; no one cometh across the lea.’—4 ‘there’s a footstep coming; o sister, look.’— ‘the ripple flashes, the white foam dashes; no one cometh across the brook.’— ‘but he promised that he would come: to-night, to-morrow, in joy or sorrow, he must keep his word, and must come home. ‘for he promised that he would come: his word was given; from earth or heaven, he must keep his word, and must come home. ‘go to sleep, my sweet sister jane;5 you can slumber, who need not number hour after hour, in doubt and pain. ‘i shall sit here awhile, and watch; listening, hoping, for one hand groping in deep shadow to find the latch.’ after the dark, and before the light, one lay sleeping; and one sat weeping, who had watched and wept the weary night. after the night, and before the day, one lay sleeping; and one sat weeping— watching, weeping for one away. there came a footstep climbing the stair; some one standing out on the landing6 shook the door like a puff of air— shook the door, and in he passed. did he enter? in the room centre stood her husband: the door shut fast. 189“the ghost’s petition” chilled with the night-dew: so lily-white you look like a stray lamb from our fold.8 ‘o robin, but you are late: come and sit near me—sit here and cheer me.’— (blue the flame burnt in the grate.) ‘lay not down your head on my breast: i cannot hold you, kind wife, nor fold you in the shelter that you love best. ‘feel not after my clasping hand: i am but a shadow, come from the meadow where many lie, but no tree can stand. ‘we are trees which have shed their leaves: our heads lie low there, but no tears flow there; only i grieve for my wife who grieves. ‘i could rest if you would not moan hour after hour; i have no power to shut my ears where i lie alone. ‘i could rest if you would not cry; but there’s no sleeping while you sit weeping— watching, weeping so bitterly.’— ‘woe’s me! woe’s me! for this i have heard. oh night of sorrow!--oh black to-morrow! is it thus that you keep your word? ‘o you who used so to shelter me warm from the least wind—why, now the east wind9 is warmer than you, whom i quake to see. ‘o my husband of flesh and blood, for whom my mother i left, and brother, and all i had, accounting it good, ‘what do you do there, underground, in the dark hollow?10 i’m fain11 to follow. what do you do there?—what have you found?’— notes 7. robins are symbols of spring, a transitory time of year and also a time of rebirth and renewal. robins are also associated with christ and sacrifice, which was a significant theme in rossetti’s life (she frequently made life decisions based on her faith). 8. the lamb has biblical associations with renewal, growth and even sacrifice—it is seen as the perfect victim for selfless sacrifice for the sake of another, much like the wife’s sacrifice of her grief to allow her husband to move on. 9. the east wind is a biblical harbinger of destruction. also, in england, a southwesterly wind would come from the atlantic and be warm and pleasant; an easterly wind would be coming from the baltic or arctic and would thus be cold and bitter. 10. both a hole or cavity, or to cry out in either anguish or encouragement. 11. to be inclined, willing or desirous. 190“the ghost’s petition” contextual documents excerpts from lady cavendish’s diary: a widow’s grief in victorian britain “the ghost’s petition” tells of an expression of female grief that manifests itself in a ghostly visit. in order to fully understand the mindset of the average mourning widow in the victorian era, one should consider the writings of lady lucy cavendish. lady cavendish kept extensive diaries for the majority of her lifetime, including the duration of her husband’s sudden death and elaborate funeral. these entries not only express her inner mourning but also present the common victorian funeral practices of her time. lady cavendish’s diaries offer a complementary female experience and perspective to that of rossetti’s narrator. lady cavendish was only married to her husband, lord frederick cavendish, for eighteen years before he was assassinated. lord cavendish was appointed chief secretary for ireland on may 6, 1882 but was fatally stabbed that same afternoon by an extreme nationalist group. his wife was informed of her husband’s death via a friend’s telegram. in the following excerpts, we witness cavendish’s reaction to learning about her husband’s death and the way she interacted with her uncle, the prime minister william gladstone (referred to as “uncle w” by lady cavendish), his wife catherine gladstone (“auntie pussy”), and her various close friends. even after two years had passed and lord cavendish’s murderers were punished, her entries show a lingering sadness characteristic to a mourning widow. her diary entries also give insight into the common victorian funeral practices, of which some resemble the customs we observe at funerals today. after her husband’s death, lady cavendish was not expected to attend her normal social functions and was even allowed to enter church at a later part of the service. flowers and crosses adorned the coffin and church where the funeral was held and prayers emphasizing the good of christ were said over the body. overall, lady cavendish’s diaries paint her with an emotional experience quite similar to that of the narrator in rossetti’s “the ghost’s petition.” both experience the loss of their husbands in rather sudden ways and both hold on to their grief for an extended period of time. the primary difference, of course, is that while lady cavendish was able to handle her grief in a healthy manner, rossetti’s narrator needs a ghostly apparition to incite her to move on. excerpts12 from saturday, may 6th, 1882 entry13 “it was very near 3.30 before i cd get out, but i went to the abbey, thinking i shd at all events hear the concluding prayers and cd have a quiet time there for prayer. ‘what i do there i must not tell: but i have plenty: kind wife, content ye: it is well with us—it is well. ‘tender hand hath made our nest; our fear is ended, our hope is blended with present pleasure, and we have rest.’— ‘oh, but robin, i’m fain to come, if your present days are so pleasant; for my days are so wearisome. ‘yet i’ll dry my tears for your sake: why should i tease you, who cannot please you any more with the pains i take?’ notes 12. these excerpts are quoted from the diary of lady frederick cavendish (1927), written by lucy cavendish and published by frederick a. stokes company. 13. this entry is dated for may 6th, 1882, but was actually written on february 9th, 1883. as stated in this entry, lady cavendish felt she could only record the happenings of that day at a time that she could emotionally handle her grief. 191“the ghost’s petition” but i got there while they were singing the anthem “in that day”—at the passage “thou shalt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee.” these words were sung first by one voice, then by another, then a third, then in chorus, with the most lovely harmony and sweetness; and i thought, “0, these are the very words for my fred”; during the final chorus i knelt down and prayed for him with my whole heart, but not that he might be saved from peril—(a mere idle thought crossed me oncewhat if the steamer shd go down on the passage?)—that i never thought of—but that he might have wisdom and strength and help... ...i was not left alone till near 12. i sat down at my writing-table and wrote 2 notes, one to the little sisters to ask them to tea on monday; another to the byng girls, to propose their coming at 5 on sunday for some reading. then i took the paper off a set of beautifully bound little books (his “gleanings”), which uncle william had sent over in the course of the day, with a most affectionate little letter to me, begging me to ask freddy to give them a place on his shelves “in memory—in grateful memory on my part-of what he has been to me these past 2 years.” i was just writing to thank him, and had begun, “dear uncle william, i must write one line (though how unnecessary)” when the door opened and lou came in. no thought of fear struck me at first; i knew she wished for a talk, and i only thought that on her way home from the admiralty she had looked in so as to find me alone. but as soon as i saw her face, the terror seized me, and i knew something must have happened to my darling. she had the dreadful telegram in her hand—but it said “dangerously wounded,” and i clung to the hope he wd get over it. she could not tell me, but i felt that she did not say a word of hope. then meriel came in, and then the whole anguish fell upon me. all my blessed joy of many years wrecked in the darkness. in the midst of the black storm a confused feeling came over me that it wd kill uncle w. who had sent him out in such hope—as indeed a “son of his right hand.” but then uncle w. himself came in with atie. pussy—i saw his face, pale, sorrow-stricken, but like a prophet’s in its look of faith and strength. he came up and almost took me in his arms, and his first words were, “father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” then he said to me, “be assured it will not be in vain,” and across all my agony there fell a bright ray of hope, and i saw in a vision ireland at peace, and my darling’s life-blood accepted as a sacrifice for christ’s sake, to help to bring this to pass. i write these words at holker, feb. 9, 1883, having only been able to write the whole history bit by bit as i could bear it. this my 1st ray of hope has never entirely forsaken me, through all the dark, blank months emptied of joy. i said to him as he was leaving me, “uncle wm., you must never blame yourself for sending him.” he said, “o no, there can be no question of that.” once he said, “poor forster!”... ...god be thanked for his wonderful teaching, when he sent upon me the terrible blow, that took away the desire of my eyes with a stroke. no word or presentiment of warning was granted me: one minute i was crowned with the fulness of earthly joy and love—my life full to the brim of hope and interest—the next, all lay shattered around me in one dark wreck, and with what circumstances of horror and fear! how was it that reason and faith and nerves did not give way: how was it that i did not sink down into despair?... ...all the attendant circumstances were most tenderly ordered for me, so that i had round me all loving human help, and was at home among his dear ones and mine. only by an “accident” was i prevented, at the last moment, from keeping an engagement out of town; which would have taken me among comparative strangers. by another “accident” i did not go out that very saturday evening. it was without my arranging it that dear lou, and meriel, and alfred were all with me at dinner and afterwards. (in the same “chance” way eddy happened to be with his father at chatsworth.) other things there were to bring me help beforehand; most especially the anthem at evensong on saturday at the abbey. i could only go very late to the service, and only expected to come in for the concluding prayers; but the anthem was being sung as i came in, and the blessed divine promise came over and over, in lovely pathetic harmonies. “thou shalt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee.” thus in minute and tender ways did he care for me “more than a mother doth.” “he remembereth that we are but dust.” but now let me turn to the greater miracles of mercy, whereby alone i was saved from sinking in the deep waters. in the first hour of darkness god sent uncle william with a message straight from him, which alone at that moment could give me strength, and which still abides with me, though so often i can but feebly cling to it: the assurance that my darling’s life was not given in vain. in 192“the ghost’s petition” the midst of the storm, the vision was granted me of my darling called to that highest honour, of being allowed to die, guiltless (most guiltless, as regards ireland), and thereby good to come, and peace, and better days: that thus his death, and my sorrow, might, for christ’s sake, be accepted as a sacrifice, and ascend to god in union with the one great sacrifice. later, i had the thought sent to me how earnestly i ought to try and not spoil my share in the sacrifice by any repining or want of resignation; but offer up my will with the same single heart as my darling did.” sunday, may 7th, 1882 “...i sat all day in our dear, dear house, full of familiar things, and thought i realised that all was shattered and gone from me, but did not: hardly yet can i do it. it was about dawn i think that lou (who never went home all night) came gently into my room where my darling old meriel had spent the night with me. lou had a little kind smile on her face, and for one second i thought “she has come to tell me it is not true.” but the hope vanished. messages had come during the night saying charlotte and i were not to go to dublin; that i shd be able to see my fred’s face placid and beautiful at chatsworth. my darling alfred came upstairs soon afterwards, and it was while he was with me that i thought of the victorious sufferings of christ...” monday, may 8th, 1882 “...lou and i, nevy and alfred, went down to chatsworth together and i went straight to the duke’s room. he had written me a few words of heartbroken sorrow. eddy had had to tell him, and said that he fell on his knees. he looked piteously shattered and stricken. i tried to say to him how i hoped he wd never think it had been wrong for him to go; and he said no, he knew it was his duty. he said, “he was the best son, and i do believe the best man.” i sat in lou’s little room, and masses of beautiful flowers kept arriving. my own darling was laid in the chapel. his face beautiful and serene and pure, like sleep, only more tranquil: the lines smoothed away. no sign of hurt except a little scratch on the bridge of the nose. his look, as althorp wrote to me, “as if no shadow of sin or suffering had ever come near him.” his soft hair falling back from his forehead as it used to do. i put on his breast the little locket with my hair which i gave him in the “golden days.” mary gladstone made a long beautiful cross of white flowers and ferns to lay on the coffin, and we covered the floor of the chapel round him with wreaths and crosses. edward talbot and arthur came from oxford and said prayers with me in my room every day. nevy or alfred went out with me a little in the garden. all was lovely, outbreaking spring and bright sunshine, speaking to me of the eternal joy and brightness… ...the way to the church was one great concourse of people ; but there was no disorder. the little half-sisters sent me a wreath of roses with a card “for dear brother freddy,” and i took it with me and dropped it into the grave. the grey-coat hospital sent a wreath of dark-red roses, with the words, “the noble army of martyrs praise thee,” and this was laid on the coffin, on the transverse of the cross. edward talbot read the service beautifully, so as to be heard far round, and said at the end, “give peace in our time, o lord.”...” october 23rd, 1884 “. . . the trials lasted through long and terrible weeks. four were executed: brady, kelly, curley, and fagan; others were imprisoned for life. people wrote full of sorrow for me, thinking it must “reopen my grief,” but how should that be, when it had never, never for an hour closed. there was no reopening of grief, but it became a long pain to me that my own darling, so gentle and loving-hearted, and so full of faith and hope for ireland— so tender-hearted for others tho’ so strong to endure hardness himself—should be, with mr. burke, the most innocent cause of all this ghastly bloodshed and have his death associated with such terrible wickedness. o, how cd i ever bear it, but for that one death of him who met it at the hands of wicked men…” “at home” 1862 | rossetti’s ghosts “the ghost’s petition” covers many of the themes and concepts that christina rossetti loved to explore in her writing. rossetti spent a great deal of her life struggling to reconcile her intense religious faithfulness with her desperate loneliness. twice in her life rossetti ended romantic relationships because the man in question was 193“the ghost’s petition” not a protestant. although her feelings of isolation frequently manifested in her poetry, her deep-seated religiosity was always more formative in her decision-making. both “the ghost’s petition” and “at home” deal with both an unquestioning belief in life after death (in these cases, taking the form of a ghost) and with a sense of isolation and loss. while “the ghost’s petition” focuses on a romantic relationship torn asunder by death, “at home” deals with a ghost looking in on her still-living friends and feeling forgotten. a noteworthy parallel between the two poems is that “the ghost’s petition” is written from the perspective of the bereaved wife as she is visited by the ghost of her former husband, while “at home” is written from the ghost’s point of view. the former was written a decade or so after rossetti’s first failed engagement, and reflects both a fear of abandonment and a profound belief in and longing for love. though characters in “the ghost’s petition” are separated by the husband’s death, their devotion to each other is so strong that the wife’s grief has actually bound her husband to life, keeping him from the “plenty” that he may receive in the afterlife. “at home,” however, was written right around the same time that rossetti was rejecting her second proposal of marriage for religious reasons. older, unhealthier and perhaps more bitter, rossetti had watched her three siblings going through their own romantic entanglements. “at home” illustrates the way that rossetti’s understanding of ghosts evolved. the “petition” ghost was tethered to life by love and a sense of duty to his grieving wife. perhaps it is meant to comfort the grieving by reminding them that their love means something even after they have left this world. the “at home” ghost remains behind to look for some sign or symptom of this meaning, but instead she finds herself spying on her friends’ merriment and wondering why they are not more saddened by her loss. this is not a ghost meant to comfort. perhaps this is a ghost meant to warn against finding meaning on earth instead of in heaven. on their own, the ghosts from both poems provide insight into both the characters in their own narratives and rossetti herself. but when compared to one another, the progression of rossetti’s opinions and beliefs truly becomes apparent. “at home”14 by christina rossetti when i was dead, my spirit turned to seek the much-frequented house: i passed the door, and saw my friends feasting beneath green orange boughs; from hand to hand they pushed the wine, they sucked the pulp of plum and peach; they sang, they jested, and they laughed, for each was loved of each. i listened to their honest chat: said one: “to-morrow we shall be plod plod along the featureless sands, and coasting miles and miles of sea.” said one: “before the turn of tide we will achieve the eyrie-seat.” said one: “to-morrow shall be like to-day, but much more sweet.” notes 14. the text of the poem was taken from the haunted hour: an anthology (1920), compiled by margaret widdemer. 194“the ghost’s petition” “to-morrow,” said they, strong with hope, and dwelt upon the pleasant way: “to-morrow,” cried they, one and all, while no one spoke of yesterday. their life stood full at blessed noon; i, only i, had passed away: “to-morrow and to-day,” they cried; i was of yesterday. i shivered comfortless, but cast no chill across the table-cloth; i, all-forgotten, shivered, sad to stay, and yet to part how loth: i passed from the familiar room, i who from love had passed away, like the remembrance of a guest that tarrieth but a day. “the dying widow” (1851) | gender issues in ghost poetry this poem, written by thomas miller, was published in 1851 in the london journal. it recounts a woman’s grief over her deceased husband and son. whereas in rossetti’s poem, the ghost of the husband comes to the narrator to request that she let go of her grief and mourning for him so that he may rest, miller’s poem fixates on the wife’s mourning and grief being so great that it actually leads to her death. the narrator also seems to see letting herself die as part of her role as a wife, saying “i have faithfully kept my vow/and feel not an accusing sting” (line 51-52). this is a stark contrast to that of rossetti’s poem that calls for a continuation of life beyond grief and mourning. rossetti’s more hopeful outlook might be due to her deeply rooted religious beliefs, particularly the aversion of letting a grief becoming so all consuming that it leads to a death, suicide or otherwise. this is exemplified by rossetti’s use of the husband in “the ghost’s petition” who comes to his grieving wife and asks for her to grieve for him, yes, but to also move on with her life. miller, on the other hand, seems to romanticize the concept of the grieving widow. in “the dying widow,” we are told that her son had died five months prior to the present of the poem, and also that her husband died one month before; these two people would be viewed as the only reasons that this woman had to be alive. miller’s poem exemplified the fact that men dictated the patterns of female mourning; he is expressing the ideal of how women should grieve based on the typical male view of female grief in victorian society. these two poems provide the two different views of how grieving practices should have been viewed. miller’s representation in the poem may hint at an underlying male perspective that their passing from a woman’s life was meant to be so devastating that women should want to die with, if not shortly after, them. rossetti, offering a different and decidedly female view, seems to be indicating that men should be grateful for the grieving period women will go through, but that it should not mean the end of the end of women’s lives. 195“the ghost’s petition” the dying widow15 by thomas miller those cold white curtain-folds displace— that form i would no longer see: they have assumed my husband’s face, and all night long it looked at me. i wished it not to go away, yet trembled while it did remain; i closed my eyes, and tried to pray— alas! i tried in vain. i know my head is very weak; i’ve seen what fancy can create; i long have felt too low to speak: oh! i have thought too much of late! i have a few requests to make— just wipe these blinding tears away— i know your love and for my sake you will them all obey. my child has scarce a month been dead, my husband has been dead but five; what dreary hours since that have fled! i wonder i am yet alive. my child, through him death aimed the blow, and from that hour i did decline; his coffin, when my head lies low, i would have placed on mine. those letters which my husband sent before he perished in the deep— what hours in reading them i’ve spent! whole nights, in which i could not sleep. oh! they are worn with many a tear, scarce fit for other eyes to see, but oft, when sad, they did me cheer: pray, bury them with me. this little cap my henry wore the very day before he died; and i shall never kiss it more— when deal, you’ll place it by my side. i know these thoughts are weak, but, oh! what will a vacant heart not crave? and, as none else can love them so, i’ll bear them to my grave. notes 15.this text of this poem was taken from the september 16, 1848, issue of the london journal. 196“the ghost’s petition” the miniature that i still wear, when dead, i would not have removed: ‘tis on my heart—oh! leave it there, to find its way to where i loved! my husband threw it round my neck, long, long before he called me bride; and i was told, amidst the wreck, he kissed mine ere he died. there’s little that i care for now, except this simple wedding-ring: i faithfully have kept my vow, and feel not an accusing sting. i never yet have laid it by a moment, since my bridal day: where he first placed it let it lie— oh, take it not away! now wrap me in my wedding-gown,— you scarce can think how cold i feel,— and smooth my ruffled pillow down. oh! how my clouded senses reel! great god! support me to the last!— oh, let more air into the room— the struggle now is nearly past— husband and child, i come! 197“the ghost’s petition” works cited cassell’s household guide: being a complete encyclopaedia of domestic and social economy and forming a guide to every department of practical life. london: cassell, petter, and galpin, 1869. print. cavendish, lucy caroline lyttelton. the diary of lady frederick cavendish. new york: frederick a. stokes, 1927. print. d’amico, diane. christina rossetti: faith, gender and time. baton rouge: louisiana state university press, 1999. print. harrison, antony h. christina rossetti in context. chapel hill and london: university of north carolina press, 1998. print. jones, cathleen. learning not to be first: the life of christina rossetti. new york: st. martin’s press, 1991. print. miller, thomas. “the dying widow.” london journal 16 sept. 1848: 23. microfilm. rossetti, christina. “at home.” the haunted hour: an anthology. ed. margaret widdemer. new york: harcourt, brace and howe, inc., 1920. 142-143. project gutenberg. web. 18 nov 2013. <http://www.gutenberg.org/files/17229/17229-h/17229-h.htm#page_142> ----. “the ghost’s petition.” the haunted hour: an anthology. ed. margaret widdemer. new york: harcourt, brace and howe, inc., 1920. 166-169. project gutenberg. web. 18 nov 2013. <http://www.gutenberg.org/files/17229/17229-h/17229-h.htm#page_66> 198“the ghost’s petition” digital literature review 1 65 american culture, framed in its most widely understood definition, is a culmination of the traditions, ideals, and behaviors of the people who live there. naturally, the movies which are produced there are direct representations of the current social and political environments. this paper analyzes how political polarization presents itself within film representations of demonic possession through natural opposites such as good and evil, traditionalism and modernism, and conventional and unconventional definitions of femininity. works analyzed within include annabelle: creation, the conjuring, the evil dead, the exorcism of emily rose, and the exorcist. the infiltration of political polarization into a typically unpolitical genre such as horror suggests that it not only culturally haunts the politics of america, but every other facet of american life. ashley burns, ball state university political polarization and demonic possession: how american culture is haunted by its own fascination with good and evil american culture, framed in its most widely understood definition, is a culmination of the traditions, ideals, and behaviors of the people who live here. those who consume pop culture with an intuitive eye understand that media directly reflects the political climate in america, including even those which claim no intended bias. one specific aspect of american politics that significantly impacts american culture and the media it produces is the concept of political polarization, or the divergence of political attitudes to ideological extremes. in fact, political polarization haunts pop culture, as its consequential ideas and concepts infest and control the framework of what becomes popular, going beyond being simply influential in it. for example, as a result of political polarization, countless decisions about what and how concepts are presented in pop culture must be immensely considerate of how audiences digital literature review 2 66 will perceive them as a result of their conservative or liberal alignment, especially when it comes to what will be promoted and displayed in movie theatres across the country. interestingly, the impact these ideological extremes hold on american culture resulting from political polarization extends its haunting influence into the horror genre, specifically in the form of depictions of demonic possession. historically, the polarization of politics means that the separation of two main parties becomes more concrete over time as the ideals held by both cement within the two sides, creating two naturally opposing teams. research collected about the polarization of politics, as well as the ways in which pop culture reflects this polarization within the horror genre, suggest that the fascination with demonic possession held by americans stems from the growing separation of core ideologies. the resulting reflection of political polarization in media depicting demonic possession functions as a cultural haunting. the ways in which the film industry depicts certain situations in the horror genre during specific periods of american political history, however, in fact highlights how america culture perceives its own political atmosphere. the concept of a cultural haunting in america as a result of this phenomenon is especially evident due to the fact that everyday interactions between american citizens are steadily more affected as polarization increases, and more movies depicting demonic possession and introducing politically polarized metaphors are created and consumed. many studies on political polarization have proven that americans no longer view politics as a large intermixing ideas and beliefs, a shift which has become steadily more concrete since the 1970’s (abramowitz and saunders 542). there have always been separated parties with contradictory plans for the betterment of america, but never before has the way that americans think about their opposing parties been so directly oppositional. this ideological shift alters the way americans create, share, and consume pop culture. as previously mentioned, however, political polarization does not appear exclusively in political themed dramas and contemporary storylines. as far as horror on the big screen, directly opposing groups find their representation in the everlasting oppositional archetype depicting the fight between good and evil through demonic possession. the 1973 film the exorcist was arguably one of the first widely viewed american-produced movies depicting the grotesque and terrifying battle between supernatural good and evil, and the reaction from the public showed their shock and awe. according to a new york times article by roy meacham, reports of younger audience members being removed from theaters and taken to hospitals were made within hours of its release, and many people left early with assertions that the film caused them to gag and vomit. in fact, critiques of the film described it as “obscene” due digital literature review 3 67 to its language, violence, and satanic content; a term which used specifically in the time frame of its release further explains the backlash it received (meacham). the movie’s catastrophic release and eventual switch from an r to an x rating, however, clearly did not curb the american fascination with demonic possession. as the political climate continued to separate and ideological beliefs became more decentralized, more movies depicting their own interpretations of demonic possession hit the box office. films such as the evil dead (1983), the exorcism of emily rose (2005), the conjuring (2013), and annabelle: creation (2017) would arguably still fall under the category of “obscene” in the 70’s, and yet such films are watched by millions of americans over time. as a result of this increased depiction of demonic possessions, the themes which are presented in these movies—including the unyielding fight against a perceived evil, the contradicting motives of traditionalism and modernism within society, and the inversion of the traditional definition of femininity—create the metaphor of a possessed society. political polarization haunts pop culture, even within genres that are not expected to be political. consequently, repeated depictions of demonic possessions mimicking political themes further cement the american fascination with polarized ideologies. the good and the evil in america in order to consider the ways in which polarization is demonstrated through pop culture representations of demonic possession, we must define what is considered “good” and “evil” in each pop culture representation. good, in the context of the traditional teachings of the catholic church on demonic possession, is the fight for freedom from evil. freedom in this context means possessing the ability to choose good or evil. evil, conversely, is having the ability to choose—and using that ability to choose—to be controlled by a force which exists only to negate and degrade god, or from a more general understanding, whatever is a constant “good” in a given situation. good and evil, however, do not have to be considered through the lens of the church, though the inclusion of catholic priests as main characters in movies such as the exorcist and the exorcism of emily rose leads to this assumption. for the sake of considering depictions of possessions as metaphors for political polarization, however, it is more apt to consider good and evil from their philosophical definitions, which present them simply as natural opposites. even in a movie like the exorcist, “good” and “evil” are more accurately defined as two independent forces fighting for their own intentions. both still directly oppose each other while remaining fully independent of the other force because neither one depends on the other’s existence. in fact, philosopher friedrich schelling, who considered the definitions of good and evil as being completely independent digital literature review 4 68 of religion and rather something more accurately aligned with the concepts of ethics and morality, argued that “evil is not simply a privation boni (omission or negation of the good), but an independent power,” and furthermore asserted that evil “exists as a conditio sine qua non (unalterable presupposition) of human freedom” (naegeli-osjord 21). of course, this is not to say that those who visit the movie theatre to enjoy a scary movie about demonic possession consciously decide that their political party aligns with the all-knowing good and that those who disagree might as well be from hell. “good” and “evil” in a horror movie, however, can mimic the experience of a viewer living in a polarized culture since polarization creates a culture where ideologies present as opposites. furthermore, “evil,” in this case those who align with ideologies opposite of the viewer’s, has its own independent reasons for its choices, hence the continuously ongoing battle that symbolizes the political opposition in a polarized society. what is enticing about the fight between good and evil in movies like the exorcist, the evil dead, the conjuring, etc., is that what an audience deems as “the good” always conquers what they decide is “evil.” in other words, metaphors for whatever represents the opposite view from their own in the films is always defeated by the time the credits roll. the turning tide of tradition to accurately represent both sides simultaneously, these films need to contain certain aspects that align with both sides of the political sphere. traditionalism and modernism as they are represented in movies such as the exorcist, the exorcism of emily rose, and the conjuring are examples of the powers of metaphor in pop culture, as they stand in for the polarizing groups of conservative and liberal-aligned citizens. as bodo winter explains, “cultural representations may strengthen metaphors in the minds of the people who witness these representations, which helps to keep metaphors alive” and furthermore, “cultural representations may elaborate on existing metaphors, enriching them with specific examples” (164). the “hero priests” and performing exorcists in these movies, whether they align with liberalism or conservativism, or modernists or traditionalists, in the minds of viewers, serve as metaphors for the continually polarized opinions on these concepts, and viewing these pop culture representations further cements the sense of polarization in those who consume them. in the case of the exorcist, the conflict between traditionalist and modernistic ideals contradict each other throughout the movie, mimicking polarized american ideologies. in the film, two priests are enlisted to cure the possessed young regan, who exhibits behaviors that are complete departures from her norm. regan, formally a sweet and well-behaved daughter living digital literature review 5 69 a well-provided life, now curses, threatens, fights, and even urinates on herself due to a self-proclaimed infestation of demons. despite the title of the movie, her mother and other close family friends consult psychiatrists first, including father damien karras, who, contrary to his own title, not only separated from his former training and catholic beliefs, but approaches regan’s actions with the idea that they should hold an exorcism not to actually expel the demons, but in the hopes that playing along with her delusions will lead her to accept that she has been cured by the end of it. this ritual is handled with the utmost caution by bringing in the traditional priest father lankester merrin, an experienced exorcist, who actually believes that regan is possessed by the demons she claims inhabit her body. the film itself makes this possession hard to deny, especially when the words “help me” rise from within the girl and become etched on her stomach (1:31:40). both priests, however—psychiatrist and exorcist—hold firm to their individual trainings in order to save the girl; traditionalist father merrin eventually dies from a stress-induced heart-attack before completing the exorcism, and modernist father karras dies in an act of self-sacrifice in which he demands the demon leave regan and enter his own soul before jumping out the two-story window. these representations are confusing yet apt, as it is natural for the audience to be unsure of who to “root for.” regan’s actions, such as floating above her bed as if being carried by an invisible force (1:50:23), the words which appear on her abdomen (1:31:40), and the unbelievable transformation of her face from innocent child to milky-eyed mutation, lead the audience to understand that the traditionalist is correct in his understanding of regan’s possession. yet, it is only through a suspension of disbelief that the viewers forget that, in any other situation, regan’s actions are more than likely a result of a psychological imbalance. both priests are “heroes” in this movie, called in to fight the true evil, yet both cannot be simultaneously correct in their approach at conquering said evil. ultimately, father merrin is revealed to be the “correct” hero, approaching the situation with seasoned understanding and little time to explain to the lesser informed father karras. it is karras, however, who eventually prevails in saving regan, and through the most untraditional and sacrilegious, methods of accepting evil into his soul and then choosing to commit suicide. these contradictory characteristics represent the political climate at the time. in the years surrounding 1973, leadership and foreign policy become controversial topics between liberal and conservative-aligned citizens. specifically, longstanding core values concerning nationalism and what it means to be a “good american” start to clash with modern political issues. those who watched the exorcist the year it was released would not have been surprised by the early scene which showed that the movie regan’s mother starred in depicted scenes of student protests digital literature review 6 70 (14:02), reflecting similar, real-life early 1970s student protests—this time against war. at this time, public opinion turned resolutely against american participation in the vietnam war, but those with friends and family still fighting overseas faced the burden of remaining proud of their sacrifice and harboring hate for both the war they fought in and those who stand in protest of said sacrifice. father merrin thus serves as a metaphor for these individuals clinging to the traditional idea of nationalism in america, while simultaneously being challenged by the character of father karras, whose unconventional methods and eventual victory in the war against evil in the end of the exorcist seems to foreshadow the political directions of the country. president nixon haunted the minds of americans at this time, causing an influx of distrust and paranoia among citizens concerning power positions in the presidential office. nixon still remained in the office despite the watergate scandal, and mixed views as to whether he eventually should leave resulted in a ripple effect of the same distrust and paranoia in everyday interactions between american citizens. both priests in the exorcist, backed by the power of the catholic church, act as metaphors for the confusing reliability of leadership during the years of its release. the catholic church relies heavily on tradition, and the eventual failure of father merrin calls to mind the question prevalent in the minds of many americans at the time of nixon’s presidency as to actual reliability of leadership, especially in the traditional definition of it, in the changing country. as american politics continues to become more contradictory, the production and distribution of movies involves current representation of the country’s polarization through depictions of traditionalist and modernist ideas. the exorcism of emily rose, produced in 2005, brings the american court system into play as the same government declares a war on terror, highlighting specific areas considered an “axis of evil.” in the movie, young emily rose, previously heavily guarded by a faith-based upbringing and traditionalist family, enters college as a freshman and faces life away from her family’s secluded farm for the first time. this exposure eventually leads to her possession by demons, and, as a result of an exorcism enacted by the family and performed by father richard moore, she dies of exposure and malnutrition. father moore gets arrested and sent to court. he pleads not guilty and accepts the help of ambitious lawyer erin bruner under the assumption that his explanation of what happened during the exorcism proves he was in fact not the evil entity which caused her death but rather the person trying to prevent it. what are deemed threats to american citizens during the making of the exorcism of emily rose become more concrete as the war on terror creates a monolithic enemy. typical in a polarized society, however, not all of its citizens support this approach. critics of the war on terror digital literature review 7 71 at this time claim that it foments an ideology of fear and repression that creates more enemies than what already existed for the country previously and promotes more violence than morally supportable by the country. this critique goes against the government’s position that their plan mitigates the acts of terror and strengthens security. the exorcism of emily rose mimics the disputation that the “axis of evil” poses a concrete threat to the country. by the end of the film, the perception that a demonic presence indeed controlled emily rose and that father moore simply could not both expel the evil from the family and save the life of the girl is as equally disputed as the war on terror. father moore stays true to the claim that demons possessed emily rose, but he is left with a guilt-ridden conscience and the question of whether he needed assistance from a medical professional during the exorcism, rather than staying true to the traditional faith-only ritualistic practice. the disparity lies in whether the “evil” was a real as father moore deemed it to be, shadowing the doubts of american perception of what threatened them at the time. a few years later, 2011 brought about the movie the conjuring, as well as a new wave of distrust in politicians, the immoral use of money in politics, and the blatant income inequality with the protest to occupy wall street. the movie’s plot mimics the simmering anger in americans at rampant economic inequality, and its release during the same year as the occupation led it to become one of the most popular horror movies of the year due to its representation of the economic status of the average american family. the middle-class family in the conjuring gets monetarily trapped in a house haunted by the demonic presence of a devil-worshipping witch who once lived on the property. traditional systems of power fail both american viewers (resulting in the march on wall street) and the family in the film as the catholic church responds to the possession of the mother, carolyn perrin, too late, and an un-ordained paranormal investigator must perform the exorcism in order to save her from murdering her own children. in the conjuring, the traditional teaching that only an ordained minister of god can perform an exorcism is challenged when the lagging response from the vatican, or the seat of power in the catholic church, forces ed warren to perform an exorcism himself for the first time. the warrens eventually save carolyn perrin through this exorcism without the help from an ordained priest, suggesting that modern thinking and action outside the traditionalist catholic church, which firmly discourages un-ordained individuals from performing an exorcism, not only saved her from the demon, but also that the traditionalist approach would have been too slow to save her. yet despite the fact that an unconventional decision saved carolyn perrin, ed and lorraine warren remain steady in their beliefs and continual practices of the more traditional views of the catholic church throughout the length of the movie, and ultimately claim that an act of god digital literature review 8 72 saved them all. hence the conjuring seems to please both sides of the political spectrum, modernists and traditionalists alike. waves of feminism and possession the years between 1973 and the late 2010’s continued to reflect the polarization brought by the second and third waves of feminism. despite the fact that what people usually highlight about these waves is the success that feminism provides women with over time, it would not have been a fight if there were not polarized ideas concerning whether or not feminism improved society. during these waves, movies depicting demonic possession mirror what feminism fought to change about society, as well as those who considered said fight to actually degrade what it means to be a woman. movies such as the exorcist (1973), the evil dead (1983), and annabelle: creation (2017) highlight that what others consider “evil” inverts what is traditionally “feminine” as well as anything which tries to take the control a woman has over her own body away. in the case of the exorcist, the specific attentions put on regan’s bodily functions and movements, as well as the fact that regan is a young innocent girl, portray second-wave feminism in specifically obscene and polarizing ways. arguably the most memorable scene from the movie is when the demon possessing regan forces her to masturbate with a crucifix as a way of taunting her mother (1:18:34-1:19:34). the bloody, violent, and shocking scene shocked theater audiences. what made viewers so deterred, however, can be hard to pinpoint as the emphasis on polarization lies more in why the audience reacts so adversely to the scene rather than what the scene tries to convey. the polarization shown through the famous crucifix scene depends on where “evil” lies within the scene for the viewer beyond the obvious demonic presence. does “evil” reside in the notion that regan’s masturbation and foul language directly opposed the designated proper topics concerning the female body, or in the fact that a natural part of the female body is being used against the young girl’s will? feminism at the time of the exorcist’s theatrical release was focused on what it meant for a woman to have control over her own body. during the “second wave,” feminist supporters worked to outlaw marital rape, built shelters for survivors of domestic violence and rape, and worked to raise awareness of—and put policies into place to stop—sexual harassment in the workplace. this wave also fought to eradicate widespread use of the term “girl” and replaced it with “woman,” emphasizing the power of terminology and labeling in situations concerning unequal treatment of the sexes. feminism between the 1960s and the 1980s focused on these issues because the main concern for eradicating inequality between the sexes lay within digital literature review 9 73 the ways in which femininity, including but not limited to the physicality of the female body, can be taken away, withheld, and controlled. the attention focused on regan’s body, as in the crucifix scene, the writhing motions during the possession, and the words rising from within her gut, mimics american culture’s own fixation on the female body because it portrays the lack of control many women feel they maintain over their own rights to their bodies, as well as the lack of control traditionalists feel they possess over the changing ideas of what “feminine” means. special attention to the female body continues within movies containing demonic possession, continuing to represent the second and third waves of feminism present in american politics between the years of 1983 with the making of the evil dead and 2017 with annabelle: creation. during these years, the transition between the second and third waves of feminism meant that the same core issues addressed are readdressed with more tactical moves. in other words, “third-wavers,” as described by writer r. claire snyder, “embrace multivocality over synthesis and action over theoretical justification” (1). progressively more evident in the years 1973, 1981, and 2017, feminists develop more tactical measures rather than theoretical arguments to approach the same problems. through this, the act of being a feminist becomes an even more polarizing label, as the subject of feminism becomes both more mundane and more confrontational. the evil dead, for example, is far less subtle in its symbolism over loss of control. as objections to rape and sexual harassment become more outspoken and frequent, the evil dead reflects the second-wave drive to recognize the brutality of rape, but also insists on displaying that brutality on the big screen. in the movie, a group of college kids are trapped in the middle of the woods. possessed trees violently rape cheryl, one of these college kids, in a horrific scene (24:4129:33). the film does little to hide the terribly horrific experience of rape, the action taken by trees rather than another human adding a terrifying and animalistic element to the act that caused many audiences to become sick in much the same way as the exorcist. upon its release, the film was given an x rating and deemed a “video nasty” for its violent depictions and pornographic elements (kermode 65-67). despite predictions of a horrified first reaction, director sam raimi stated that he wanted both the scene and the movie as gruesome as possible with little interest in fear or censorship. this approach, in turn, caused the film to be even more polarizing. although the director made the scene as horrifying as possible in order to mimic the fear of women at the time and cause outrage by the thought that terrible people carry out such actions, many reactions to the movie deemed the scene more outrageous for its nonsensical nature and subsequently deemed offensive. the call for censorship, driven by both feminists and traditionalists alike, of the rape scene, as well as of many other scenes in the movie, reinforced the idea that society needed digital literature review 10 74 to avoid discussing, displaying, or worst of all, reimagining such topics in a public setting (kermode 66). despite this attitude, viewers continued to flock to the movie once word of its infamy spread, regardless of its lack of sensitivity to traditionally unspoken rules about appropriate topics to discuss concerning treatment of the female body, and film industries continued to create more movies that disregarded these rules. like in the evil dead and the exorcist, annabelle: creation portrays unyielding examples of issues presented by feminism at the time of its release, this time with more focus on the inversion of innocence and traditional femininity. made over three decades later in 2017, annabelle: creation portrays another young girl of whom evil takes advantage. evil, however, no longer masquerades as the traditional demon nor as a group of possessed tree limbs. in this film, the demon pretends to be the ghost of the lost daughter of a couple, samuel and esther mullins, who recently opened their home to six orphans and their guardian sister charlotte. in this movie, evil hides behind the face of innocence and works to possess only young girls. the inversion of femininity is depicted through the way in which the demon pretends to be a young innocent girl and later a porcelain doll, as well as in the way that it focuses on tormenting and controlling other young girls. by taking classic symbols of innocence and young femininity, like the doll and the little girl, and turning them ugly and evil, the movie comments on the fear that feminism eradicates what femininity truly means. just like in 1981, polarizing ideas on what feminism really means were alive in 2017. the third wave of feminism continued to find more ways to boldly present the motives of second wave feminists, and the objections stayed the same despite vastly changing tactics. in annabelle: creation, the young females fall prey to evil, and what makes them innocent and “feminine” is destroyed and replaced by a mirror opposite creature of evil and ill-intent. the girls, however, eventually save themselves from the possessed doll, but not by behaving helplessly or innocently. when janice, one of the orphans, becomes possessed, the girls react violently in order to save themselves. for example, another orphan, linda, whom the demon also torments, throws the porcelain doll down the well (1:12:25-1:12:37), and sister janet saves the girls by locking young janice, the doll, and the demon in a closet until the police arrive (1:31:17). meanwhile, samuel mullins, previously expected to pull his weight in saving the girls, ends up defeated by the demons. the added fact that the girls must go against the traditional idea of innocence and femininity to survive contrasts the idea that feminism is attempting to destroy what it means to have femininity. digital literature review 11 75 infestation, oppression, and possession of the american culture ed warren, the un-ordained exorcist in the movie the conjuring, describes the process of possession as occurring in three stages: infestation, oppression, and possession (44:37-45:07). the first stage, he explains, consists of subtle evidences of the coming evil. “that’s the whispering,” he states. “the footsteps, the feeling of another presence which ultimately grows into oppression” (44:41). oppression continues the process as the stage in which the external force begins to target and affect certain members of the household more strongly, while others continue to notice its impending presence. finally, possession occurs, the stage where the force ingrains itself not only in those it previously oppressed, but also in the household itself. through these stages, the metaphor of a possessed society becomes fully illuminated. political polarization did not happen overnight, and it changed forms, tactics, and motives throughout the years between the making of the exorcist to the release of the conjuring. polarization became stronger and ingrained itself further in society, resulting in more outward representations of its effect within “the household”—in this case, the united states. these outward representations, as is the natural process within a society, became the pop culture we consume, the continuing circulation of politically themed metaphors further cementing american fascination with polarized ideologies. indeed, the political climate has always haunted pop culture, resulting in a society where we feel its presence in every aspect of our lives. american society is possessed by the concept of political polarization. the possession continues to seep more deeply into the foundation of american society: gradually with continual reinterpretations of the same ideas and the same citizens which flock to consume them. digital literature review 12 76 works cited abramowitz, alan i., and kyle l. saunders. “is polarization a myth?” journal of politics, vol. 70, no. 2, apr. 2008, pp. 542–555. ebscohost, doi:10.1017/s0022381608080493. annabelle: creation (blu-ray). directed by peter safran, et al. warner bros. entertainment, 2017. the conjuring. directed by james wan, new line cinema, 2013. the evil dead (1983 release). directed by bruce campbell, et al., elite entertainment, 1983. the exorcist. directed by william friedkin and william peter blatty, warner bros, 1973. the exorcism of emily rose. directed by scott derrikson et al., sony pictures home entertainment, 2008. meacham, roy. “how did ‘the exorcist’ escape an x rating.” new york times, proquest historical newspapers, 3 feb., 1974, p. 109. naegeli-osjord, hans. possession & exorcism. oregon, new frontiers center, 1988. snyder, r. claire. “what is third‐wave feminism? a new directions essay.” signs, vol. 34, no. 1, 2008, pp. 175–196. jstor, www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/588436. accessed 6 feb. 2020. winter, b, and bodo winter. “horror movies and the cognitive ecology of primary meta phors.” metaphor and symbol., vol. 29, no. 3, 2014, pp. 151–170., doi:10.1080/10926488.2 014.924280. digital literature review issue 6 spring 2019 abstract 32 by ben sapet ayn rand's utopian visions in theory and realization ayn rand sought to reframe the world around a distinctly utopian sense of domineering individualism. her philosophy vilified altruism and extolled selfishness in the name of her human ideal. with its unwavering faith in the free market and adoration of industrial magnates, rand’s often problematic philosophy has gone on to shape american economic and political models. this essay explores how rand’s philosophy manifested in her fiction and, in turn, in american culture. 33 sapet to seriously study ayn rand is a political, often taboo, act. philosophers rarely take time to refute her ideas and critics rarely analyze her work. perhaps rightly, there is a certain stigma attached to rand scholarship. that stigma comes from the idea that, regardless of the scholar’s stance, bringing rand into critical conversation condones her philosophy by legitimizing it. this reservation comes, in part, from a fear of being associated with rand’s fervid defenders and from the iconoclastic power of her ideas. ayn rand wrote in the tradition of philosophical fiction, also known as the novel of ideas. in philosophical fiction, authors use storytelling rather than discursive philosophy to convey an ideology or a way of seeing the world. rand’s novels the fountainhead and atlas shrugged follow this convention as they seek to situate and demonstrate a guiding ethic for the world. rand’s ethic came to be known as objectivism. at its core, objectivism sought to re-center philosophy and policy around the individual—the antithesis to the collectivist movements she saw forming around the world. these ideas took hold in the contemporary american society as they interwove with the national myths of meritocracy, earning one’s place, and rugged individualism. not only do rand and her philosophy maintain a devout following, but her books continue to sell extraordinarily well and spread to new audiences. as rand’s ideas merged with conservatism in the reagan era and more recently with the tea party movement, her philosophy has come “to live just as much in the real world as in her fictional worlds.” analyzing rand’s ideas and methods through the lens of utopian thinking offers insights as to how her utopian view of america inspired conservative-libertarian economic and political movements with far-reaching influence. studying the appeal of these guiding utopian ethics and ideals offers an opportunity to study how they have been realized and systematized. writing in such a contentious area, i (like many others who write about rand) feel it’s best that i acknowledge my personal stance. i find her beliefs—in unfettered, laissez-faire capitalism, and placing the self above others—problematic and often destructive. at the same time, however, these beliefs have a distinct power—especially given her ability to situate them in vivid fictional, utopian/dystopian worlds and characters. as her ideas have leaked out from static literary worlds and nonfiction essays into real-world policy and attitudes, scholars have a profound opportunity to better understand the now foundational political and economic beliefs of the modern world by studying 34 sapet rand and her impact. what is objectivism? rand grounded her philosophy in the idea that an objective reality carries on apart from human consciousness—hence the name, “objectivism.” given this reality, rand places the onus of pursuing knowledge and satisfaction on humans. she lionizes this pursuit alongside humans with the hunger to take what they want from that reality. in that sense, rand divides people into the earned and unearned, the creators and consumers. as they appear in her literature, the “earned” are often the titans of industry who take what they want and innovate to get there. these movers and shakers are what we might call “the one-percent,” the ones whose relentless self-interest leads them to innovate and shape the landscape of reality. rand’s first major novel, the fountainhead, depicts the struggle of an ambitious architect whose innovative designs draw the ire of critics, writers, publishers, and other architects who disparage the change. the hero-protagonist, howard roark, must resist the overwhelming pressures of conformity and push back against this “unearned” established mindset to make his mark on reality. for rand, the “unearned” are those who leech off others’ innovation and progress. relying on others to prop oneself up is a cardinal sin in objectivism. rand identifies and detests the sort of passiveness of every day monotonous life. the heroes are those who bend reality around themselves, while the villains are the majority who coast through that reality untroubled by the valiant efforts of those who create. alongside self-interest and taking lies the randian value of creation. with the objectivist view of an immutable reality lies the foundation for those “earned” and “unearned” in terms of how they relate to that reality, whether they are a participant in it who makes their mark or a person buffeted by that reality. she sees the ultimate human heroism as creating and negotiating the trappings of that reality. as an author, rand follows this spirit of creativity and negotiation in her work. existing social structures, such as socialism and religion, that oppose her view of human nature become targets in fiction. she seeks to advance her own philosophy while breaking down collectivism and the “flock” mentality. to do this, she opts to create utopian worlds conceived of as an idealized conflict between her heroic innovators and the sheep who follow in tow. 35 sapet the worlds in rand’s works of fiction serve to establish her philosophy in the context of imagined, exaggerated worlds where character tension and ideological clashes are elevated to a dramatic, worldshaking level. rand creates some of this tension by placing utopia inside and alongside dystopia, such as capitalist havens inside increasingly collectivist societies. the utopian communities are treated as the last bastion of human heroism in the face of systems and trends that lead people to a passive life of impeding progress. this stands in stark contrast to many dystopias in which progress and the people who strive for it are the ones who endanger society. like many utopian thinkers, rand’s utopian leanings center on idolizing an extreme reversal of the status quo. for rand, that extreme reversal involves shedding the government incentives and nationwide social programs that characterized the american government in the 1940s and 50s. she saw taxation to benefit society as theft that facilitated leeching from the most productive members of society. with the looming growth of socialism and communism, rand’s utopias sought to reinforce the promises of capitalism and the american ideals that brought her to america from her native russia. utopia in rand's literature rand’s first mainstream novel, the fountainhead, reflects the early stages of objectivism. it focuses on her ethic of heroic creativity in the face of an objective reality populated by collectivists, who push down individualism in favor of unchallenging mediocrity. this focus on individualism and ferocious creativity came to rand after spending fifteen years in the united states, a country with values and systems that aligned with her ambition and iconoclastic thinking. given her exposure to freedom and the opportunity to pursue her desire, she explores the motivation to do so and separate oneself from “the masses.” in his essay “the basic motivation of the creators and the masses in the fountainhead,” onkar ghate (a member of the ayn rand institute) articulates the kind of motivation rand sees guiding the metaphorical architects of her utopia: the root is that roark’s basic motivation in life is completely unconcerned with and unaffected by other people. his goal and his pursuit of it are purely independent and selfish…roark’s goal is to build. he wants to transform, for himself, the earth into his vision of a more uplifting, more human place. this desire would remain even on a desert island; only its implementation 36 sapet would change: he would not build gas stations or skyscrapers but, say, a hut or a cabin (245). through roark, her model of the ideal creative spirit, rand aligns her utopian vision of the creative spirit with a state of internal, deeply resolute motivation. traditionally utopias are considered imagined ideal communities, but rand’s creative ideal is a solitary state of mind unburdened by others’ expectations. atlas shrugged, rand’s next novel (released in 1957), continues to push on the utopian creative solitude of her heroes but introduces higher stakes as those internal utopian states of mind clash with a world leaning toward a dystopia for thinkers like rand and her characters. the premise of atlas shrugged is that the world’s tide shifts in the direction of nationalizing industry and redistributing wealth—a trend no doubt inspired by the spread of socialism and communism in the 1950s. as protagonist and railroad tycoon dagny taggart watches the mines becoming nationalized and innovative inventions destroyed, the world’s moguls and innovators begin to vanish. taggart continues resisting collectivization until she receives an invitation from the mysterious john galt, a pioneer of individualism and reason, who has been persuading innovators to go on strike. taggart joins galt and the major composers, inventors, and industrialists in their utopian colony, watching as the collectivists languish and flail without guidance from the randian-capitalist heroes. while the fountainhead addresses the world and the masses in terms of a hypothetical, stiflingly mediocre form of groupthinking, the world of atlas shrugged places her philosophy and her heroes solidly in a context akin to her experience as a member of the russian bourgeoisie, where the bolsheviks’ utopian, collectivist goals spelled dystopia and ruin for her family. every detail through the eyes of the main character, dagny taggart, paints the dystopian world as one fading to gray with only echoes of the innovators who once shaped the world. once dagny is accepted to join galt’s gulch, the self-sustained, laissez-faire utopia to which all the innovators have disappeared, she and the reader are introduced to the book’s essence, an enormous 30,000-word speech by john glad, spoken almost directly to the reader, about what would formally become objectivism. in the extensive, exploratory biography, ayn rand and the worlds she made, anne heller recounts a story from the editing process for atlas shrugged: 37 sapet pursuing what he thought was his editorial duty, [her editor], too, suggested a number of cuts, including cuts in john galt’s speech. when rand refused, he appealed to bennett cerf [the firm’s founding editor]. the high-spirited founding editor met with the author. “nobody’s going to read that,” he told her. “you’ve said it all three or four times before…you’ve got to cut it.” answering with a comment that became publishing legend, she said, “would you cut the bible?” (282) like many others, rand saw atlas shrugged as her magnum opus, but it was also much more than a work of literature to her. it was written as a living narrative of her philosophy, one in which the highs of her utopian visions could be realized and her brushes with dystopian soviet collectivism could be weaponized in favor of her ideal brand of individualism and capitalism. galt’s speech, specifically, served a sort of objectivist manifesto, with decrees of radical individualism and rationality such as the following: the most depraved sentence you can now utter is to ask: whose reason? the answer is: yours. no matter how vast your knowledge or how modest, it is your own mind that has to acquire it. it is only with your own knowledge that you can deal. it is only your own knowledge that you can claim to possess or ask others to consider. your mind is your only judge of truth—and if others dissent from your verdict, reality is the court of final appeal. nothing but a man’s mind can perform that complex, delicate, crucial process of identification which is thinking. nothing can direct the process but his own judgment. nothing can direct his judgment but his moral integrity. (rand, atlas shrugged 935) as a sum of her experience and philosophy and as an ode to the industrious spirits of her father and grandfather, atlas shrugged is inseparable from its author. rand and atlas shrugged mirror one another as rand’s striving to articulate a utopian state of being was, itself, living by that utopian ethic. manifesting this utopian thought at the center of her narratives, rand saw an ultimate purpose of worshipping the heroic ideal of man. that is, someone who embodies her ethics of internal motivation, unbridled creativity, and ruthless pursuit of his goals. rand’s goal, then, is to create a path to living like the ideal by first 38 sapet espousing it in her fiction. many religious texts use the life and teachings of a central figure to model an ideal path and inspire a change in individuals’ values—the buddha and jesus are good examples of such figures. rand essentially uses that same, demonstrably powerful technique to present an antithesis to the messages of humility and altruism in these religious texts. rand’s ideal resonated enough to elevate her to a sort of guru at the head of a movement. her often conservative, libertarian followers clamored for her treatises on the value of selfishness and evils of living for others. in placing utopian ideals on the individual in her fiction, she created a space for a “movement of individuals,” itself a real-life utopian thought community, one that has grown over time and even been institutionalized with the ayn rand institute and other, similar endeavors. even with the formal establishments to advance it, objectivism first gained most of its converts and influence through rand’s novels. despite its impact on the spread of her ideology, rand had decidedly mixed and sometimes contradictory thoughts on the persuasive powers of literature. in her fiction, rand often depicts literature as a tool to manipulate the weak-minded. she addresses this specifically in the critically-celebrated, yet unpopular author, lois cook from the fountainhead. cook’s work, and literature in general, is hardly on randian protagonist howard roark’s radar: he is the self-driven man with little need for the outside guidance of literature. on the other hand, peter keating, one of roark’s dull, unambitious contemporaries, loves cook’s work precisely because he does not understand it: simply absorbing it makes him feel superior to others. to rand, such literature written and read in bad faith; and the “it was profound, because he didn’t understand it” attitude relies on a mutualistic relationship in which little-to-no meaning is made (qtd. in brühwiler 6). the author earns praise by instilling in the reader a sense of inferiority and the reader feels unduly enlightened. rand levies a similar criticism against “propagandist” literature in support of socialist regimes portrayed in her fiction. according to political scientist claudia brühwiler, “the communist regime, as rand depicts it, obviously subscribes to the idea of literature’s transformative power; otherwise, it would not censor individualistic novels and promote tales acting out marxist clichés” (walker 5). rand derides “regime literature” for its use of hammy tragedy and unilateral thinking to create scenarios in which capitalists are unquestionably evil and, in turn, agitate the people against them. 39 sapet at the same time, however, rand’s literature champions the individual just as unambiguously as those communist tales of “a poor, honest worker” battered by capitalism. her utopias are almost entirely black-and-white. the heroes are the earned, individualistic creators and the villains are unearned moochers and collectivists of the masses. rand’s interpretation of aristotle’s poetics is telling of her own approach to persuasive literature: “aristotle argues that ‘fiction was more important than history’ since fiction presents things ‘as they might be and ought to be’” (podritske and schwartz 128). rand uses wholly unambiguous worlds and characters to create the illusion that her utopia (whether it is a state of being or a world of laissez-faire capitalism) can be the only real option. as she divides, categorizes, and judges what ought to be (much like aristotle), she makes truth claims that appeal only to one side of rationality, calling a different (probably equally rational) approach unfair and irrational. this unambiguous thinking carries a definite allure: one can simply defer to the richly depicted truth in the novel. brühwiler describes rand’s ideal role for readers, saying they “should not surrender to a plot and its heroines, but rather find a means to express themselves and resist whatever might lead them astray” (9). the critics and scholars who did express themselves and resist her sway were rand’s enemies because they subscribed to “non-objectivist thought.” meanwhile her other enemies, the passive readers who came with the sweeping popularity of her fiction, would go on—in the spirit of deference to a powerful idea—to bring her utopian worlds into the real one. the paradox of rand’s utopian manifestations lies in the way the conquering power of her ideas creates devotees who, by becoming followers, immediately break with the spirit of rand’s utopian individualism. with her literature, rand attempted to manifest a utopian ethic that would oppose a status quo she felt had harmed her. despite her fervent defenses stating otherwise, she dealt in the methods of conversion she sought to diagnose—those with the black-and-white, see-the-world-through-my-fictional-one types of literature used in the religious and collectivist movements she so opposed. the conquering power of rand’s fiction is best embodied by a scene from her own fiction. rand’s heroine dominque francon is perpetually downtrodden by seeing evil, anti-objectivist people of the world win out over the heroes who earn their place. when she first sees howard roark—the rugged randian hero of the story—she describes him as “the abstraction of strength made visible,” 40 sapet before beginning her assertive days-long effort to seduce him (rand, the fountainhead, 247). then, in one of the most notorious moments in the fountainhead, howard, after having learned of her desire, comes in uninvited and rapes her, despite her attempts to resist. rand’s camp often describes this scene as a forceful realization of her unconscious desire to be conquered by powerful individualism (mayhew 206). setting aside the horrible implications and rape apologetics involved in this interpretation, it offers an insight into the randian view of their own objectivist philosophy: that the beginning of a journey toward becoming a true individual starts with encountering the dominating force of an individual who lives for himself and is prepared to take what he wants. rand and her utopian heroes strive to act as that dominating force and, in large part, they have. politicians and economists have gobbled up her works, finding affirmation and a guiding ethic for their conservative and libertarian views—and, in turn, cementing rand’s utopian narratives into crucial discussions about social security, welfare, and american capitalism as a whole. in a sense, rand’s unambiguous, convincing narratives of individualism and opportunity to stand out and earn one’s place in the world helped systematize and engrain the very myths that drew her to the united states. in a 1991 library of congress survey, americans named atlas shrugged the second most influential book in their lives, with the first being the bible (heller xii). we see the power of her utopian vision carry on today in an america in which billionaire moguls and the top one percent of society have been moralized to the point that one has been elected president. her work’s legacy carries on with continued high readership and a playing field of modern politics and economics run by people who look to rand’s ideal men as inspiration. as her legacy continues to stretch and become entrenched in american systems, looking to the utopian foundations of her thinking presents a distinct opportunity to unpack the motivations behind decades of rand-inspired anti-socialist stigma, reaganomics, tea party conservatism, and unwavering faith in capitalism. 41 works cited brühwiler, claudia. “‘prospector and jeweler’: ayn rand on the relationship between politics and literature.” journal of american studies, vol. 49, no. 1, feb. 2015, pp. 143–158. ebscohost, doi:10.1017/s0021875814001820. ghate, onkar. “the basic motivation of the creators and the masses in the fountainhead.” essays on ayn rand’s the fountainhead, edited by robert mayhew, lexington books, 2007. heller, anne. ayn rand and the world she made. random house, 2009. podritske, marlene & schwartz, peter, editors. objectively speaking: ayn rand interviewed. lexington books, 2009. rand, ayn. atlas shrugged. 1957. penguin group, 1992. rand, ayn. the fountainhead. 1943. signet, 1996. walker, jeff. the ayn rand cult. open court publishing, 1999. works consulted bell-villada, gene h. “who was ayn rand?” salmagundi, no. 141/142, 2004, pp. 227–242. jstor, www.jstor.org/stable/40549561. clardy, alan. “galt's gulch: ayn rand's utopian delusion.” utopian studies, vol. 23, no. 1, 2012, pp. 238–262. jstor, www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/utopianstudies.23.1.0238. hull, gary, editor. the ayn rand reader. penguin books, 1999. machan, tibor. ayn rand. peter lang publishing, 1999. sapet under the fragmented conditions of modernity, the means of industrialized production are hidden and instead food is associated with a neatly separated domesticity. this paper considers how ruth ozeki’s novel my year of meats resists this exclusionary logic as part of the novel’s wider concern for disrupting normative binaries that separate self from other—woman from man, animal from human, inside from outside. while this concern operates on many levels in the novel, this paper focuses on how this notion of distinct categories and boundaries which uphold patriarchal, capitalist violence, coalesce at the level of the body, particularly women’s and animal’s bodies. the related, but divergent, processes of embodied abjection and toxic contamination, are two ways ozeki conceptualizes how eating meat draws the body into a social and material entanglement with that previously occluded in a way that troubles our understanding of cleanly distinct categories. instead, the abject and the toxic make clear the messy entanglements at the heart of modern meat. in ruth ozeki’s novel my year of meats (1998), meat is so much more than what’s for dinner. the novel traces the story of jane takagi-little, a japanese-american filmmaker hired to make a documentary entitled “my american wife!.” the documentary is sponsored by the united states’s beef export and trade syndicate, beef-ex, with the goal of drumming up beef sales in japan by depicting various wives sharing family recipes based around beef. this mission is overseen by joichi ueno, the japanese producer of the documentary, characterized as a vile misogynist and abuser of his wife akiko, who suffers bulimia and as such is currently infertile. sell the american dream, sell more meat in asia, or so the logic goes. yet, through the unfolding layers of the narrative, my year of meats shifts drastically from this tidy image of food as connected to culture and domesticity. by the novel’s close, jane creates an exposé of the profit driven, exploitative and violent processes of meat production, exposing the violence of factory abattoirs and the use of dangerous hormones like des in animal feed for cost-cutting and profit-maximization. the novel makes clear the modern dissonance between food production and consumption symptomatic of the fragmented conditions of a globalized, capitalistic world. this distinction is figured within a wider logic of a world predicated on a system of binaries, which inevitably lead to exclusion, such as inside-outside; private-public; self-other; safety-threat. in this paper, i examine how these concerns coalesce and flow through the body in the novel through the material and conceptual processes of abjection and toxicity. thinking with abject bodies and toxic flows radically disrupts the material and conceptual borders of bodies and showcases how the novel makes us think critically about a world characterized by such simplistic binaries, including the way we think and consume food. “things that give an unclean feeling” (shōnagon): meat consumption, abject bodies, and toxic flows in ruth ozeki’s my year of meats hannah salih, university of amsterdam essay salih | 18 my year of meats critically exposes a world characterized by these boundaries that separate what is allowed in from what is not. for environmental philosopher timothy morton, this “inside-outside manifold is fundamental for thinking the environment as a metaphysical, closed system” (274). morton’s view is echoed widely within the realm of the environmental humanities and stems from the european enlightenment. it is highly relevant here because it demonstrates a wider system of thought, which privileges a way of being in the world that is contained and clean, and which sees the human in fundamentally the same way—autonomous and sovereign. in this system, the processes of mass meat production are cast to an outside, an elsewhere meant to stay hidden from the consumer and the public. it is also this very notion that leads to oppressive, hierarchical systems of society, excluding those deemed “other” racially, sexually, or on a more planetary scale of the environment. as we hurtle to the cliff edge of climate catastrophe, any discussion of cultural reimagining of these reified binaries is important as it allows us to think differently about how we might exist in and relate to the world. i first briefly trace how the novel formulates cleanliness as a trope that tries to maintain normative order and resist anything that troubles the narrative, the body, or the world. the prologue of my year of meats depicts suzie flowers, the first american wife and the supposed epitome of white, middle-class, heteronormative america sat in her immaculately clean home. anything that troubles the neat definitions and the border of the home is framed as dangerous because it troubles the idea of uncontaminated, bounded categories, which are necessary for upholding systems of oppression. this is most clear when jane recalls the true case of yoshihiro hattori, a sixteen-year-old shot by the butcher rodney peairs, who was then acquitted on the grounds of defending his home. jane adds that “in america, we fancy ours a frontier culture, where our homes must be defended by deadly force from people who look different” (107). this is intimately bound with the novels view of “hearth and home” (12) and the domestic, which is framed as contained and closed. as the novel progresses, i argue that ozeki strives to demonstrate that the reality is far messier and that such a closed system is a fallacy. the framing of cleanliness thus becomes the backdrop against which the messy, abject, toxic flows and connections are rendered both disruptive and demonstrative of wider systems of violence. as laid out in two lists from shonagon—“things that give a clean feeling” (48) and the reverse “things that give an unclean feeling” (49)—cleansing is inextricably bound in abjection. if a home or a body is to be clean, something must be purged and forced outside. at the most explicit level, what is purged and abjected in the novel is women and animals and through that the discrepancy between the production and consumption of meat. following the ideas of carol j. adams in her landmark book the sexual politics of meat (1990), women’s studies scholar laura anh williams conceptualizes this in her article “gender, race, and an epistemology of the abattoir in my year of meats.” williams puts forward the notion of an epistemology of the abattoir, a structure of thinking food production that “occludes images of violence, of killing, or even of animals is the most direct product of an epistemology of the abattoir,” which, following adams, keeps “our ‘meat’ separate from any idea that she or he was once an animal who was butchered […] a subject” (adams qtd. in williams 253). this idea of separation is critical. in some sense, the equivalencies between female and animal bodies in the novel begins to trouble normative boundaries by framing the animals in a less hierarchical relation to the human, whereby both are caught in the systemic hierarchies of masculine-capitalist violence. the initial aim of “my american essay 19 | salih wife!” is “explicitly gastropornographic; the program’s celebration of meat, ‘climaxing’ in its consumption, suggests both the gastronomic and sexualized consumption of the attractive wife. woman is rendered as meat, and vice versa” (williams 255). this ethical, political equivalency essentially connects eating meat with patriarchal virility and a heavily gendered mode of oppression. in many ways, my year of meats narrativizes adams’s argument. jane describes a moment in a bar with the japanese producer of the documentary, joichi. in the bar, a group of “texas beauties” “[straddle] his tenderloin and offer[s] up her round rump for inspection” (54). there is, however, something overly on-the-nose about this line. how easily this comparison can be made makes it tempting to uncritically accept this as ozeki’s main political message. indeed, this comparison is crucial to much of the scholarship engaging with this novel, reading the narrative and thematic equivalencies ozeki draws in portraying her message. certainly, jane’s own uncovering of the “truth” of global meat production is largely based on revealing equivalences, on lifting the veil and exposing the structures beneath. what interests me, however, is not this operation of revelation but rather how the novel tackles this separation between meat consumption and production not just as an epistemological delineation but also as a material, ontological one. food also functions within this visceral, embodied space in the novel, not just as a signifier for contemporary systems. thinking in this way allows us to understand both the equivalencies and the messy in-betweens, the process of transgression that disrupts the notion of sovereign human/hegemonic subjects and not just the revelation of previously “occlude[d] images of violence” (williams 253). however, framing relationality as itself predicated on the very globalized systems that have led to the oppression of all those deemed “other,” ensures that it is not effectively transgressive or radically troubling these binaries. this is, in my view, somewhat fundamental to both adams and williams’s work. even after jane learns of the conditions of production, she still says she “craves the taste and texture of animal between my teeth” (246). the focus here on the visceral materiality of eating meat is just as critical to the novel’s treatment of food. through food, the systems of capital and violence are inevitably brought into the home and into the body. this demonstrates that such an easy mental occlusion is especially flawed in relation to meat consumption because we are so materially entangled in these networks through food. through ozeki’s material, corporeal handling of meat is how we can trace our entanglements in a manner outside global flows of capital and which helps us think beyond identarian categories of male-female or animal-human, although as i shall show, this is not unproblematic in the novel. given how concerned the novel is not just with meat production, but with its consumption too, i argue that thinking about bodies not just as signifiers of wider social systems but as bodies which bleed, vomit, digest, eat, have sex, morph and move is critical to this novel’s desire to transgress normative boundaries and disrupt hegemony. turning back to abjection here, but as an embodied process, is critical to how the novel conceptualizes this concern. for julia kristeva, abjection is a process of becoming, which comes into being between the subject and object. the abject is of the subject, “i,” yet because it is expelled from the self, it’s never fully assimilated into the subject. it is also not fully other or object because it “does not cease challenging its master” (kristeva 2). in this sense, abjection unsettles and transgresses the strict boundary of self and other. it is both horrifying through its association with the “annihilation” of the self and a “safeguard” essay salih | 20 (kristeva 2). akiko, as joichi’s wife, is made to cook and eat every meaty meal on the documentary in an attempt to restore her fertility. her visceral reaction to the american meat dishes she cooks evokes the abject: “she’d start to feel the meat. it began in her stomach, like an animal alive, and would climb its way back up her gullet, until it burst from the back of her throat. she could not contain it. she could not keep any life down inside her” (48). akiko’s body becomes the agent of containment in this section, but in her failure to be the perfect vessel for life, her need to vomit and reject the meat results in an image of overflow and ejection. by describing the meat as being alive, it essentially resurrects the animal and seemingly grants the food a sense of agency. in his phenomenological study of the anorexic subject, fredrik svenaeus identifies how anorexia is often experienced as an uncanny condition, as it is triggered by and manifests as “bodily alienation in which the body is perceived to be foreign” (81). the image of the animal climbing out of her body is a similarly alien experience, which dissociates her act of vomiting from the physicality of her body. it is only later in the novel when akiko sees with absolute clarity the insemination of her egg, following her rape by her husband, that her sense of her embodiment returns. akiko expresses this through the poetic form: “my pretty / gash. / run, / river run” (206). the enjambment creates a transgressive and unstoppable flow of energy. in comparison, while abject, the absolute rejection of the meat she eats seems almost clean. akiko’s body refuses to digest the meat and assimilate it into her body. on the one hand, this suggests a sense of resistance to the oppressive structures in which the meat is bound. on the other, it evokes other moments where abject bodily processes are figured within the language of cleanliness that leaves no traces. for example, jane’s mother states, “better you throw his baby away” (188), and jane’s doctor makes a flippant comment that her post-miscarriage womb is “spick-and-span” (351) with nothing left behind. this deviates from kristeva’s conceptualization of the abject. if the process is so clean, what boundaries are being troubled? i would suggest then that abject processes do not inherently present as dissolving the boundaries they move across. instead, ozeki uses the abject to highlight the power structures that benefit from there being a delineation between, for example, inside and outside. by frequently occluding the messiness of these material, embodied experiences, the abject is not consistently radically transgressive within the novel. it’s in the portrayal of akiko’s rape and the abattoir that the most grotesquely abject moments occur. as part of the exposé, jane and her crew visit an abattoir where we witness the killing of a cow: “the cow was breathing hard, raspy breath […] and from time to time she let out a strangled cry” (332). further, “he bent down and looked straight into her bugging eye […] he used the upward movement of his body to sink the knife deep into her throat […] the blood gushes out in rhythmic spurts” (333). this is mirrored in the descriptions of the bodily harm inflicted on akiko by joichi after he discovers akiko has been in touch with jane, mentioning his abuse, that her periods have restarted, and her love for the lesbian couple jane shows in one episode. in response, he viciously anally rapes akiko: “he lifted her by the shoulders and pounded her against the floor, over and over” (282), causing her severe damage and the novel describes her bleeding, ruptured, and violated body in painful detail. unlike the portrayal of akiko’s rejection of the meat, these moments seem like pure horror. in this moment, both the cow and akiko are objects of consumption for men and their agencies are stripped in the most horrifying ways. both akiko and the cow are captured in the violent shift from being (semi) agential subjects to meat/food 21 | salih essay through the application of violence. this is not food that nourishes, but “food” that is ravenously and pornographically consumed. monica chiu highlights this stating, “the novel advocates a growing awareness in the two female protagonists of the inextricability of men and meat and how this culturally sanctioned alliance often marginalizes women and the poor, instigating a feminist bent from the novel’s very masculine connotations of meat” (112). the explicitly, bodily descriptions in both these moments also pertains to the notion of the abject as their incredibly “unclean” nature makes it far more difficult to uphold the strict boundaries of the body. jane, after being knocked out by a stunned cow in the abattoir, finds herself questioning on her way to the hospital whether she is covered in her blood or the blood of a cow. in that moment human and animal, typically distinct beings, are brought together in the shared violence inflicted upon them. this is a dynamic that laura williams raises, but her argument lands more strongly on the ideological and structural similarities between women and meat. in this vein, monica chiu offers more of a critique of the novel as she identifies an essential circularity to the manner in which jane’s documentarian practices trouble the normativity she supposedly resists. chiu argues: the text’s irony lies between rejecting joichi’s ridiculous allusions to a so-called american dream and accepting jane’s multicultural, nonhegemonic re-visions, invested with an american-style romance with difference, of which the nation’s primary acceptance has arisen through ethnic food. such a flattening and homogenizing of difference veers little from joichi’s approach. thus, jane can be accused, like joichi, of cleansing her images. (120) i agree with chiu’s assertion here that at the level of the narrative, the novel is less transgressive than it appears. as i argued earlier in my reading of akiko’s bulimia, the force with which that image of the meat clawing its way out is so charged with a socio-political symbolism that it negates the food from being just that—a material thing consumed through a body. chiu highlights how the novel struggles to escape the frameworks it seeks to resist; however, i argue that focusing on the moments of embodied consumption of food, and not just on food as a cultural symbol, reveals a more fully actualized imagining of a messy, unclean entanglement, which forces us to think not just about connections to food through the circulatory objects of capital (meat, food, and, in the novel, women) but in physical, material connections, which challenges our understandings of closed binaries more radically. thus, we begin to move towards the way ozeki imagines human and non-human entanglements as ontological that is as a way of being both materially and existentially in the world. however, in my year of meats, even in those most abject moments, there is still some sense that we could return to a clean state: jane can wash off the blood and akiko can re-envision the pregnancy that stems from her rape as being instead “conceived, in her mind” and “not necessarily through sexual relations with joichi” (chiu 118). to be sure, i’m not suggesting these are not necessary trauma responses, more that they are typical of a will in the novel, which chiu also identifies, to tidy things up. in this sense, the abject moments of consumption reveal equivalencies between human and animal at the same time that they transgress bodily borders. however, there is still a sense of reversibility, which offers a way to separate into distinct categories once more by casting out the other. turning instead to the novel’s salih | 22 essay depiction of toxicity, we can see a more radical dissolution of reifying boundaries between normative binaries, disrupting the idea of the impermeable human further. within the new materialist school of thought, there is a group of work that deeply considers the bodily connections to the material world. for feminist scholar stacy alaimo, she distils this idea into the concept of trans-corporeality, which is predicated on the fact that as “flesh, substance, matter, we are permeable and, in fact, require the continual input of other forms of matter— air, water, food” (78). in ozeki’s novel, this unfortunately extends to the consumption of toxic substances via food. the consumption of food becomes bound to not just harmful social structures but to a physical harm caused by hormones given to animals in the u.s. the purcell family, one of jane’s subjects, jokingly note that “‘some medicines they was usin’ in the chickens that got into the necks that we was eatin’…. an’ that medicine, well, if it didn’t start to make me sound just like a woman!’” (139). ozeki shows how toxicity radically dissolves the boundaries of the body and draws people into an entanglement of matter. mr. purcell’s body has physically changed, who he becomes is now inseparably connected to what he consumes. jane is similarly entangled with the toxic. following the purcell’s revelation, jane shares with the reader reams of information about des, a growth hormone used in american meat production and prescribed to pregnant women, once again drawing the two together under the industrial pharma-meat complex. yet, unlike thinking the abject, or thinking about the epistemological and social connections, jane confronts the fact that the toxic is inextricably part of her sense of self, of “me.” we can read this as embodying alaimo’s notion of trans-corporeality as it places jane in a web of “intra-active agencies” (127) that flow through and transgresses the body, ultimately “dissolving the outline of the subject” (112) in a far more complex way than abject flows. the dissolving nature of toxicity also shapes the narrative. jane spends much of the novel trying to piece together the chronology of her exposure to des. toxicity also dissolves temporal boundaries in the novel as past events only materialize at a later date. after jane loses her baby, she says it was “maybe not one thing, but a combination” (347). try as she might, she cannot pinpoint the single cause or exact moment of loss, so we can see how the toxic is always deferred. thinking about food, this again becomes a matter of consumption because it is distinctly and specifically an embodied entanglement, but it also shows how this concern fundamentally presses upon the novel’s narrative form as well as its thematic concerns. gender scholar mel chen’s reading of toxicity neatly summarizes how the toxic queers (hetero)normative bounds and animates non-human and human agents through the “[collapse of] object distinctions between animate and inanimate” (209). this is evidently the case in my year of meats, as meat in all its toxic contamination becomes intimately entangled with the novel’s own form, animating and shaping it. this disrupts those binaries even further than williams first articulates. jane ultimately realizes she is unable to unravel herself from the toxic and so is unable to unravel herself fully from the processes of industrialized meat production. as such, through meat consumption within the home, ozeki’s novel constructs the notion that food consumption inevitably brings the fragmented processes of modern, globalized, industrial capitalism and exploitation to bear on our embodied experiences. in one moment of the novel, jane reads from fry’s geography book, pondering the book’s intention “to present the earth as the home of man” (185) in an essential man versus nature type battle. it’s essay 23 | salih clear that this viewpoint delineates and abjects nature from man. it is this system of thought which allows for the awful treatment of both women and cows in the novel. abjection and toxicity are related but divergent embodied experiences in the novel that reveal how american food production and consumption contaminates across the scales of the environment, the transnational and the body, disrupting our understanding of closed-systems and a distinction between woman and nature on the way. moments of bodily abjection do offer a transgression of these idealized notions of a bounded body. however, their repeated association with cleanliness shows its limitations. toxins in the body are dangerous and ozeki works to expose this. yet, by showing how jane’s material body is so deeply enmeshed with the toxic, it doesn’t just transgress but radically dissolves the distinction between her and her environment. perhaps we might then see toxicity as a mode of thinking within the novel, which allows ozeki to more effectively confront this problem of man versus nature. as the meat is consumed, it brings us into contact with categories, ideas and, materials, which have been cast out. the damage caused by meat production is typically occluded, but by tracing the processes of abjection and toxicity in the novel, i hope to have shown how thinking about the embodied consumption of meat as realized in the novel makes visible the multifarious connections that mean meat is, under the conditions of globalized modernity, never simply what’s for dinner. essay salih | 24 works cited alaimo, stacy. exposed: environmental politics and pleasures in posthuman times. university of minnesota press, 2016. chen, mel. animacies: biopolitics, racial mattering, and queer affect. duke university press, 2012. chiu, monica. “postnational globalization and (en) gendered meat production in ruth l. ozeki’s my year of meats.” lit: literature interpretation theory, vol. 12, no. 1, 2001, pp. 99-128. kristeva, julia and leon samuel roudiez. powers of horror: an essay on abjection. columbia university press, 1982. morton, timothy. “guest column: queer ecology.” pmla, vol. 125, no. 2, 2010, pp. 273-282. svenaeus, fredrik. “anorexia nervosa and the body uncanny: a phenomenological approach.” philosophy, psychiatry, & psychology, vol. 20 no. 1, 2013, pp. 81-91. ozeki, ruth. my year of meats. canongate, 2013. williams, laura anh. “gender, race, and an epistemology of the abattoir in my year of meats.” feminist studies, vol. 40, no. 2, 2014, pp. 244-272. essay 25 | salih dlr journal with typos fixed again 2 abstract by natalie kuss family and feminism in ursula k. le guin's the dispossessed the current american familial structure consists of a mother who serves as the housewife and a father who serves as the breadwinner. although american society is breaking away from this norm, the nuclear family structure is still idealized, causing women to struggle against the patriarchal confines of this structure as they choose to remain single, enter the workforce, and refuse to reproduce. ursula k. le guin’s the dispossessed utilizes the utopia genre to explore a fictional planet, anarres, that values collectivism over individualism in an attempt to become truly egalitarian. this essay analyzes the egalitarian structure of anarres through the experiences of the main character, shevek, and uses it to examine the anti-feminist issues of the current familial structure of america. 63 64 kuss introduction the stereotypical, idealized version of the american family includes a mother who remains inside of the home and a father who acts as the sole “breadwinner.” this romanticized idea of the american family has prevented and discouraged women from pursuing their desires outside of the home for centuries. although many americans boast about the gender equality of the united states, others believe america must continue to develop as a society before it can be considered truly egalitarian, due to the patriarchal structure of the country that still exists today. the long-held belief that the stereotypical nuclear family structure must prevail continues to make real gender equality impossible. the struggle between following the status quo of forming the traditional family and the desire to break free from the pressures of society is reflected within current utopian literature and film. consequently, theories about what changing this structure would do to a society continue to develop. ursula k. le guin utilizes the utopian narrative of her novel the dispossessed to promote collectivism over traditional familial bonds as a model to achieve an egalitarian, feminist society. the anarchical structure of le guin’s fictional planet anarres helps the reader imagine how society would change and evolve if the current ideal family structure was removed and replaced with an egalitarian, collectivist model. by creating a world where men and women are truly equal, she creates a blueprint for how feminism can emerge and thrive in a new social structure unlike our own and imagines how this change affects traditional familial structures. the dispossessed challenges the ideal american family and proposes that its current structure prevents the formation of an egalitarian society. life of anarresa brief summary of the dispossessed anarres is a unique planet within the world ursula k. le guin constructs in the dispossessed. we discover more about anarres from the experiences of the main character of the novel, shevek. shevek is a physicist who travels from his home planet of anarres to urras in order to complete his theory on a device that would allow for instant communication between planets. anarres was founded by odo, a woman who was imprisoned on urras for her radical ideas of collectivism until her eventual 65 kuss release. this division between urras and anarres has created tension between the two planets to the point that only one port exists to allow the entry and exit of goods shared between them. in comparison to the individualistic nature of urras, the anarresti value collectivism and have structured their society around the idea that everyone must work together towards the betterment of the planet as a whole. this has drastically affected the way their government and laws are structured. in her article “mapping the walls of the dispossessed,” sandra lindow describes the judicial system of anarres as “a loose system of committees based on a kind of town hall democracy where individuals must state their cases and convince others of the validity of their needs” (175). anarresti are free from the confines of law and government. shevek himself provides evidence of this structure during a conversation with one of his childhood friends, tirin. he states: are we kept here by force? what force—what laws, governments, police? none. simply our own being, our nature as odonians. it’s your nature to be tirin, and my nature to be shevek, and our common nature to be odonians, responsible to one another. and that responsibility is our freedom. to avoid it, would be to lose our freedom. (le guin 40) this quotation further indicates that anarres is structured as a collectivist, egalitarian, and anarchical society. the anarresti value freedom above all, allowing them to act in accordance with their own wills. through anarres’ efforts to become more egalitarian, women are treated equally to men and, therefore, the structure of anarres supports the concepts of feminism as well. this is also evidenced by shevek during a conversation he has on his trip to urras with his guide, dr. kimoe. shevek is told that there are no women on the ship because that type of employment is not considered “women’s work” on urras. dr. kimoe proceeds to question the roles of men and women on anarres in response to shevek: kimoe tried to explain status, failed, and went back to the first topic. “is there really no distinction between men’s work and women’s work?” “well, no, it seems a very mechanical basis for the division of labor, doesn’t it? a person chooses work according to interest, talent, strength—what has the sex to do with that?” “men are physically stronger,” the doctor asserted with professional finality. 66 kuss “yes, often, and larger, but what does that matter when we have machines? and even when we don’t have machines, when we must dig with the shovel or carry on the back, the men maybe work faster—the big ones— but the women work longer. . . . often i have wished i was as tough as a woman.” (le guin 20) shevek’s explanation shows that all genders are valued on anarres because they are judged on their ability to help the planet, not whether or not they are male or female. as long as they can provide beneficial support to the planet, they are considered equal. family on anarres in their efforts to collectivize, the anarresti have redefined the concept of family, creating an opposition to the traditional familial structure of american society. the community raises each child through various institutions created with the aim to better the society as a whole, which leaves both men and women free to pursue their own interests outside of the home. the reader is introduced to these organizations through flashbacks to shevek’s childhood. in one flashback, shevek is left by his father, palat, to be raised in a nursery when his mother, rulag, is given a job in a distant location. when palat drops shevek off at the nursery, the following dialogue occurs between him and a nurse: “the mother’s been posted to abbenay,” the man says. “she wants him to stay here.” “shall we take him into the nursery full-time, then, palat?” “yes. i’ll be moving back into a dorm.” “don’t worry, he knows us all here! but surely divlab will send you along after rulag soon? since you’re partners, and both engineers?” “yes, but she’s . . . it’s the central institute of engineering that wants her, see. i’m not that good. rulag has a great work to do” (le guin 27) this conversation reveals that rulag’s work, which is implied to be important to anarres by palat’s response, takes precedence over raising shevek. shevek is “taken full-time,” suggesting that he will no longer be raised by his parents. the anarresti have attempted to remove the need for parents to remain with their children and replace it with a collective responsibility of the society to raise them instead. by doing so, the people of anarres free women from the confines of the traditional american 67 kuss family structure, where they would be pressured to remain in the home to raise their child. the removal of the traditional american maternal figure in the family may bring about questions of how this may affect the child. many who support women remaining in the home believe that without a mother present, the child’s mental and emotional health may be negatively impacted. in opposition to the argument that children require a mother figure to properly function and mature, kathleen gerson, in her article, “resolving family dilemmas and conflicts: beyond utopia,” states that “decades of research have shown consistently that employed mothers pose no harm to their children and, to the contrary, offer significant benefits” (182). gerson supports the idea that children who are separated from their mothers actually benefit from this separation instead of being harmed by it. her argument provides opposition to the strongly held american belief that a maternal figure is necessary to produce successful individuals. the idea that maternal figures are not necessary to raise successful children is also promoted by the dispossessed. shevek leads a generally fulfilling life, even after being raised without his parents’ presence. he forms friendships with tirin and bedap during his time at school that last for the duration of the novel. shevek finds a life partner, takver, and they have children, further exemplifying his ability to form lasting relationships and properly convey affection towards others. he is able to travel to urras and complete his communication device, proving his ability to be successful and make an impact on not only the society of anarres, but also on the entire universe within the novel. although shevek struggles to find his place within his own society, he eventually finds a path to happiness and fulfillment. the structure of anarres continues to break down the traditional stereotypes of the american family by promoting non-traditional relationships. instead of marrying and forming nuclear families, most citizens of anarres do not commit themselves to one person for their entire life. they are free to “copulate,” as they call it on anarres, with whomever they want, whenever they want. this concept frees women from the idea that they must be partnered to one man to form a family and commit themselves to the role of housewife to ensure the success of the nuclear family and society as a whole. anarresti women are removed from the typical judgement that women currently face in american society for being too promiscuous, as anarres is more focused on the betterment of the society than 68 kuss the individual. this idea is reflected in rulag’s own success away from her family. when shevek finally encounters her again as an adult, she is part of the pdc, one of the most influential institutions on anarres. rulag makes a name for herself away from her family, becoming one of bedap’s (a colleague and friend of shevek’s) and shevek’s toughest opponents when they want to travel to urras. the narrator states: somebody had told bedap that rulag was an engineer, and he had found in her the engineer’s clarity and pragmatism of mind, plus the mechanist’s hatred of complexity and irregularity. she opposed the syndicate of initiative on every issue, including that of its right to exist. her arguments were good, and bedap respected her. sometimes when she spoke of the strength of urras, and the danger of bargaining with the strong from a position of weakness, he believed her. (le guin 263) rulag holds respect within anarresti society, thus exemplifying women’s success when not held back by the sexism that prevents them from advancement in american society today. rulag’s pursuit of power is supported by the people of anarres because her efforts benefit the society as a whole. without the belief that the betterment of society is more important than one’s own pursuits, women like rulag would possibly be confined to the home to raise their children instead of being allowed to enter the workforce to help improve life on anarres. anarresti women are free to pursue their own success as opposed to feeling obligated to ensure the success of their family. le guin breaks down gender norms promoted through the traditional american family structure by showing that pursuit of bettering a society does not discriminate based on gender. support for familial bonds within collectivist societies despite the benefits ascribed to a rejection of traditional family bonds in the dispossessed, collectivism might also signal a loss in the form of the nuclear family and the potential loss of individual desires and pursuits for the cause of the collective. in this collective process, the role of the family unit within a society can become lost and misconstrued as it seems less important. le guin may show the benefits of collectivism for certain oppressed groups within american society, such as women and homosexuals, but leaves the reader questioning whether or not societies can be both 69 kuss collectivist and still maintain traditional familial structures that we are accustomed to today. i in an effort to answer this question, other, we might turn to real world examples. in christoph brumann’s article “all the flesh kindred that ever i see,” the author examines societies that removed familial bonds entirely in favor of collectivism and compared them to societies that were both collectivist while promoting the formation of traditional families. his study directly correlates to le guin’s own exploration of the effects of removing familial bonds in the dispossessed. he analyzed the shakers, a communal sect that developed from a quaker splinter group that promoted collectivism through the weakening of familial bonds. he then compared them to other utopian communities, including the hutterite colonies, the kibbutzim, and the bruderhof, who promoted both collectivism and the traditional family structure. (brumann). instead of weakening familial ties in hopes of strengthening the society as a whole, the other communities studied by brumann did both instead and were successful. he concludes his study by stating: when it comes to active long-term survival . . . communes built on monogamous marriage have proved more successful, and it is the three most impressive present-day communes— the hutterite colonies, the kibbutzim, and the bruderhof communities—that show the strongest sense of family and kinship. moreover, the most promising alternative family policies are pursued by those contemporary groups that—owing to the influence of alternative culture— leave the question of partnership and family up to the members, and refrain from enforcing any unusual arrangements, but are still mainly monogamous. (417) the combination of family and collectivism creating a positive impact is also seen within the dispossessed through shevek’s own efforts to break free from the collectivist nature of his home planet and to form his own family. his long-term relationship with takver causes him to strive for greatness throughout his life as she supports his endeavors, including his trip to urras. when discussing the possibility of shevek leaving anarres for urras, takver states “go to urras . . . . why not? they want you there. they don’t here! maybe they’ll begin to see what they’ve lost, when you’re gone. and you want to go. i saw that tonight. i never thought of it before, but when we talked about the prize, at dinner, i saw it, the way you laughed” (le guin 278). takver’s desire to assist shevek in his decision and her support of his idea, even at the cost of never seeing him again, shows how the 70 kuss familial bonds shevek has formed help to promote the creation of his communication device, which proves to be collectivist itself as it would benefit all planets. without the strong familial bond between shevek and takver, shevek may not have been able to convince himself to leave anarres. collectivism and familial bonds work together within shevek’s narrative, showing that neither one nor the other can exist on its own and be successful. american society currently promotes the traditional family structure over a more collectivist way of life, blind to the idea that incorporating both could be beneficial. contemporary implications the dispossessed directly challenges the notion that feminism means the end to familial values as we know them. through shevek’s story, le guin shows how both men and women alike can pursue endeavors outside of the home without the collapse of both families and society as a whole. the success of both rulag and shevek serve as an example of how the traditional familial structure can be altered and still provide positive results. currently, american society holds that someone, mainly the mother, must remain in the home in order for children to be raised successfully. with a lack of funding for proper childcare and the negative stereotype of the “stay-at-home dad,” america gives women little choice other than to remain at home with their children or face the scrutiny that comes with entering the workforce. if american society promoted the success of both men and women based on their ability to help the country, as shown by the collectivist example of anarres, it would benefit greatly from their combined efforts. in order for this to occur, america would have to abandon the widely-held belief that a mother must remain in the home to raise her child or else the child will be at risk. although the dispossessed is a fictional story, it redefines family by providing an alternative to the traditional american family structure that many defend to this day as the most effective way to raise children. utopias like anarres are expected to be “perfect” for their inhabitants, but in this pursuit, there will always be someone that suffers for the benefit of the society. in the dispossessed, it can be easy to assume that there must be some victims of the collectivist, egalitarian societal structure of anarres, and that these victims are the children who are raised by institutions as opposed to parents. instead, le guin depicts success stories of both men and women who were raised through 71 kuss this structure. as feminism continues to force societies to change their ingrained social norms, novels such as the dispossessed create an important representation of how societies might promote both familial values and feminist pursuits. readers should not expect to find their ideas supported by literature; instead, they should expect to be challenged and ready to assess their own implicit biases and stereotypes. one can only hope that stories such as the dispossessed continue to inspire readers to fight for the equality of all citizens and improve the quality of life of men and women alike. 72 works cited brenner, johanna. “utopian families.” necessary and unnecessary utopias, vol. 36, 2000, pp. 1-11. socialist register, https://socialistregister.com/index.php/srv/article/view/5738/2633. brumann, christoph. “all the flesh kindred that ever i see”: a reconsideration of family and kinship in utopian communes.” comparative studies in society and history, vol. 45, no. 2, april 2003, pp. 395-421. cambridgecore, https://doiorg.proxy.bsu.edu/10.1017/s0010 417503000197. gerson, kathleen. “resolving family dilemmas and conflicts: beyond utopia.” contemporary sociology, vol. 29, no. 1, jan. 2000, pp 180-187. jstor, doi: 10.2307/2654942. lindow, sandra j. “mapping the walls of the dispossessed.” extrapolation, vol. 52, no. 2, 2011, pp. 174-191. ebscohost, https://bsu.alma.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/openurl? institution=01bsu_inst&vid=01bsu_inst:services&%3fctx_ver=z39.882004&ctx_ enc=info:ofi%2fenc:utf8&rfr_id=info:sid%2fsummon.serialssolutions.com&rft_val_ fmt=info:ofi%2ffmt:kev:mtx:journal&rft.genre=article&rft.atitle=mapping%20the%20 walls%2oof%2othe%2odispossessed&rft.jtitle=extrapolation&rft.au=lindow,%20sandra%20 j&rft.date=2011&rft.issn=0014-5483&rft.eissn=20477708&rft.volume=52&rft. issue=2&rft. spage=174&rft.externaldocid=r04533482&paramdict=en-us. le guin, ursula k. the dispossessed. harpercollins e-books, 1991. kuss abstract 24 post-apocalyptic fiction has often been criticized as a source of fear mongering and of dangerous fantasization about the end of the world. critics such as james berger have argued that this imagining of the end times diverts too much attention towards the perceived horrors of an uncertain future rather than focusing on the real problems of the present. as berger states in after the end, “the most dystopic visions of science fiction can do no more than replicate the actual historical catastrophes of the twentieth century” (xiii). though this argument definitely highlights the importance of actually taking action once a real threat has been understood, it fails to recognize the important role that narratives— particularly fiction narratives—play in developing a person’s perception of the apocalypse and of the empathy required to prevent it. the ability to empathize with other people is critical for an individual’s motivation to take action in correcting societal problems. in this paper, i examine the sight, a young adult novel by david clement-davies, and its themes of empathy and apocalyptic thinking. in essence, the sight presents a powerful message on how stories construct the future. i will explore how post-apocalyptic fiction can help inspire empathy and bridge the gap between understanding and activism. in addition, i will emphasize the importance of moving the focus of post-apocalyptic fiction away from messages of inevitable catastrophe and towards opportunities for social change. in post-apocalyptic fiction, the concept of empathy often is depicted as a weakness that the characters cannot afford if they hope to survive. this depiction leads to harmful perceptions on the value of empathy and its ability to avert apocalyptic catastrophes. by examining david clement-davies young adult novel the sight through theories of narrative empathy and through james berger’s theories of post-apocalyptic representation, this essay argues that by representing empathic understanding, fiction writers have the power to influence positive changes in real world situations. by representing the need to teach empathy for all people, regardless of their differences, and the harm a lack of empathy can cause on both a personal level and on a large societal scale, this novel encourages future generations to seek peaceful and empathic solutions instead of repeating the cataclysmic mistakes of their forebearers. by tynan drake, ball state university change the narrative: empathy in post-apocalyptic fiction 25 in most post-apocalyptic fiction, the story is based around the struggles for survival after a cataclysmic event, but the reality of apocalyptic events is that they have already occurred all around us. from the holocaust to natural disasters, large-scale wars, and devastating plagues, our world has already seen one apocalyptic event after another, many of which have served as the inspiration for these after-the-end kind of stories (berger, after the end xii-xiii). the sight presents a sort of paradox among post-apocalyptic fiction as its own story touches on the repetitive history of apocalyptic events, dipping even into a near-metafictional narrative at times as it contemplates the driving social forces behind apocalyptic events and their recurrence throughout history. during the whole of the novel, the characters question whether the story’s central prophecy is really a prediction of the future or if it is a memory of the past repeating itself, bringing out an apocalyptic event that has been seen before and has been passed down through the generations as story and legend. many people think of the apocalypse as a single destructive event that overshadows all the horrors of before—a true end of the world and all we know—but as james berger states in after the end, “very few apocalyptic representations end with the end. there is always some remainder, some post-apocalyptic debris, or the transformation into paradise” (34). in essence, for the post-apocalypse to exist, the world must continue to exist even after the cataclysmic event, and therefore it is in the real world history of horrors that we find the true “world ending” events of post-apocalyptic fiction. the irony about these kinds of events is that no matter how horrifying or eyeopening they are at the time of their occurrence, the human race has the remarkable, and often detrimental, ability to erase the evidence of what happened. cities that were bombed in warfare are rebuilt and made to look exactly as they had before the destructive event (berger, after the end 20). genocides are quickly forgotten within a few generations, either being covered up or justified as a necessity, often by some nationalistic or religious agenda. manifest destiny was a common excuse for the genocide of native americans, and as the last of the holocaust survivors pass away, we are already beginning to forget the stories they’ve told, the agony of the horrors they faced, and the dangers of allowing a prejudiced tyrant to seize control. in trauma and memory, dennis a. foster’s review of berger’s after the end, foster states, “what berger wants to produce, and what he wants other historians to produce, is ultimately not the meaning or significance of the apocalyptic event—such terms displace the event and lead to its forgetting—but its continued presence as the most true thing in our drake 26 world” (740-741). though critics and writers of post-apocalyptic fiction differ in opinions on what this genre actually accomplishes, these scholars essentially want the same thing: to see our world turn away from the harmful paths it has taken so far and to avoid the terrible futures many have grown to fear. not heeding the warnings of authors and critics would, in itself, be a dangerous path towards the ever-present threat of an apocalyptic future, but the line between bringing the horrors of real apocalyptic events to light and indulging in the fantasy of wiping the slate clean is a fine one to tread; however, this is a line that i believe david clement-davies’ the sight balances with thoughtful precision. in this paper, i am arguing that the sight deviates from traditional apocalyptic fiction by focusing on the social forces that build up to the inciting cataclysm rather than on the consequences and hardships of the post-cataclysm world. the sight represents an optimistic perspective of how empathic understanding can be used to avert apocalypse rather than relying on the traditional scare tactics that many post-apocalyptic stories seem to employ in the hopes of avoiding catastrophe. within this paper i will discuss how post-apocalyptic fiction can motivate readers to take action against dangerous potential futures, but i will take it a step further by arguing that this fiction has a responsibility to advocate for change and to provide guidance for the proposed action. in the first section of this paper, i will introduce the plot, the key characters, and the major themes within the sight, and i will examine how it both fits within and deviates from typical apocalyptic literature. the second section will discuss representations of empathy in the sight and the potential that narrative empathy possesses for inspiring social activism. finally, i will conclude the essay with a suggestion for how authors of post-apocalyptic fiction can work to change the future by redirecting the focus of the narratives they tell. the story of the sight the story of the sight follows larka and her family, a pack of intelligent wolves caught up in the middle of a brutal period of civil war. on one side, larka’s aunt morgra, the main antagonist, is trying to fulfill a world-ending prophecy. the prophecy can only be fulfilled by an individual who wields the psychic powers of the sight. whoever fulfills the prophecy and claims the ultimate power of the sight will gain the power to control others in mind and body and will also release the vision for all living creatures to see, a knowledge that all need to possess. on the other side of the conflict, the rebels band together in opposition of morgra, proclaiming that all who believe in or speak about the superstitions of the sight are enemies of the wolves and should be treated as allies to morgra. for the drake 27 drake purposes of this paper, i will be focusing on the stories of larka and morgra and the ways their two stories intertwine. each of them faces violence and persecution at the hands of others, and both are born into a world that fears, and doesn’t understand, the powers of the sight that they are born with. their stories parallel each other in many ways, and at times it appears that their worldviews are very similar, but there is one key difference that changes the course of their stories: while morgra is always forced to suffer alone, denied the basic need of all social creatures to be accepted, understood, and shown empathy, larka is always surrounded by friends, family, and allies. even as larka is violently ripped away from her companions, she is never alone, immediately being enveloped into the comfort and support of new allies or else being reunited with old friends and family. the differences in their stories can be seen in the opportunities they are given to heal from the traumas they faced, and in turn this show of empathy (or lack of it) influences the ways they treat others. the sight itself is a psychic ability that certain individuals are born with, and the truths surrounding its existence are steeped in controversy, misinformation, and distress. while many fearful rumors circulate among the wolves about what the sight is actually capable of, the confirmed powers of the sight include the ability to see through the eyes of other animals; the capacity to view distant realities of the past, present, and future in reflective surfaces such as water; and the power to heal the minds and bodies of others. in some legends, those possessing the sight are said to have the power to call spirits of the dead from an alternate world and the ability to travel to that other world themselves, as well as the capacity to curse and even control other living creatures. the sight is viewed by some as mystical or even evil, while others view it as natural and believe that long ago all living creatures could harness its powers. as james berger states in after the end, “trauma is the psychoanalytical form of apocalypse, its temporal inversion. trauma produces symptoms in its wake, after the event, and we reconstruct trauma by interpreting its symptoms, reading back in time” (20). larka and morgra both are exposed to traumatic events that shape their future personalities. for larka, the formative events of trauma, loss, and sorrow lead her to seek an understanding of others and drive her to show mercy and forgiveness even towards those who consider her an enemy. morgra, on the other hand, grows bitter and resentful from her experiences, which in time turns her towards a destructive path as she seeks revenge in her pursuit to fulfill the prophecy of the sight. this show of empathy and compassion is denied to morgra from the time of her birth. her abilities with the sight are feared by her pack, eventually leading to the false accusations that cause her banishment and her first steps towards seeking the 28 drake fulfillment of an apocalyptic end. larka often questions what the purpose of the sight really is and what the responsibilities of wielding its power are. she discovers the wonderful ways it can be used to communicate with others, from seeing through the eyes of a bird and experiencing their way of life, to seeing into the hearts of others to understand—and even try to heal—their pain. ultimately the sight itself is determined as neither evil nor good but simply as a source of knowledge, and therefore of power, to be used however the wielder chooses. morgra also is forced to undertake this journey to discover the meaning of the sight, but her experiences lead her to a different conclusion. because she is cast out from her pack and banished for a crime she doesn’t commit, she harbors much bitterness. in the first scene from morgra’s point of view, clement-davies says, resentment was her birthright. long before she had been driven out they had feared her for her strange ways, even as a cub. how she had yearned for affection, and as she grew, she had craved cubs of her own. she had ached to share so much with others, to be a pack wolf and share the secrets she was learning about the sight. about life. she had ached to be allowed to love something. (184) though morgra craves connection with others, she often suffers great pain and injustice instead. instead of being shown empathy in the critical moments, she is treated with fear, resentment, and hatred. the pain and isolation she feels as a child, knowing that her family views her as strange, even dangerous, is devastating to her perception of self. as morgra’s anger and bitterness grow from the betrayals that follow her throughout her life, she begins to accept the only identity that is allowed her. as such, the fear and resentment she feels transform into malignant anger, until the only thing she believes in anymore is the power to control and manipulate others, hoping that at least in this she can’t be hurt again. these feelings drive her to seek the fulfillment of the prophecy, an act which in itself is a final, misguided, and desperate attempt to obtain the empathy she craves. like many who are denied empathy when they need it most, she lashes out at those who she perceives to have hurt her, feeling that if they won’t share love with her, then she will make them all feel her pain. the prophecy that the sight revolves around is closely related to concepts of memory and empathy, and to the power both have to change the course of history and, by extension, the world itself. the prophecy itself talks about empathy and understanding as a means to overcome fear, hatred, and despair. some of the most critical lines of the prophecy say, “and only a family both loving and true, / may conquer the evil, so ancient, so new. / as they fight 29 drake to uncover what secrets they share / and see in their journey how painful is care” (clement-davies 175). these lines specifically speak of the need for empathy and for the understanding of the traumas others have experienced in order to conquer the true evil which the next line speaks of: “beware the betrayer, whose meaning is strife” (clementdavies 175). the betrayer becomes a source of anxiety throughout the novel, always coming up at critical turns as the characters each fearfully wonder who will betray them. in the end, larka says to morgra, “don’t you know yet who the betrayer really is? hate is the betrayer, morgra, for it feeds on itself. hate and its mother, fear” (clement-davies 446). the presence of the prophecy in the story functions as a symbol of how the stories and knowledge passed down from one generation to the next influence the actions of future generations and how, in turn, those future generations impact the world. ironically, though morgra is presented as a true believer in the sight and in the prophecy connected to it, she also presents a bit of a paradox, actively scorning the family for believing in her curse and claiming they have become the curators of their own demise through their fear of it. she also scorns those who believe in a literal interpretation of the foretold events, openly acknowledging to her closest conspirator that even a symbolic representation of many of the required signs is enough to drive the course of history towards very real, and often deadly, consequences. as she actively pursues the prophecy, she makes use of the fear and superstition among the wolves to manipulate events behind the scenes, exploiting these legends, even though she does not believe in them, as she drives the world towards a terrible end in which, as the prophecy claims, “[n]one shall be free” (clementdavies 207). empathy and the apocalypse the sight is told from the viewpoint of intelligent wolves who live in an imagined civilization that mirrors various dominant human cultures and religions. the wolves’ civilization lives alongside real historical humans of transylvania and the surrounding areas, but their civilization is unknown to the humans, who are too preoccupied with their own conflicts to recognize the value in the lives of others. to the humans, the wolves are mere animals, and the events of the sight, with its world-ending prophecy, pass by unbeknownst to the human world, just as many human apocalypses pass by unbeknownst to people who are not directly affected by the atrocities committed against people of other cultures or in other places of the world. though the story of the sight does include humans in specific key instances, the 30 majority of the action and plot is performed by the wolves themselves and centers around their conflicts with one another. the sight works as a commentary upon human catastrophes by creating a story that parallels these real world histories. the narrative of real world atrocities is repeated in the story of the wolves as they turn on one another in a brutal civil war that is born from nationalistic pride, which is itself a fearful response to a worldending prophecy. in his essay, “introduction: twentieth-century apocalypse: forecasts and aftermaths,” james berger says, in representations after the second world war, the apocalypse became, to a greater degree, a matter of retrospection. it had already happened. the world, whether it knew it or not, was a ruin, a remnant. more destruction could occur, but it could only be more of the same. nothing more could be revealed. all subsequent, post-apocalyptic destruction would be absolutely without meaning, mere repetition. (390) the flaw i see in this representation of apocalypse is the concept that it is the destruction that creates or inspires meaning and revelation. the sight, by contrast, counters this concept by suggesting that it isn’t the pain, trauma, or destruction of apocalyptic events that gives it meaning but rather the ways in which people respond to that trauma. the choices people make in how they treat one another—friends, loved ones, enemies—define what future generations will learn from the experience and whether or not the mistakes of the past will be repeated once more. the lessons people learn from apocalypse can be ones of fear and anger, or they can be ones of empathy and understanding. reading fiction has long been credited with the ability to instill empathy in readers, and by extension, to motivate change in how they view the world, themselves, and others. these changes in view influence readers’ actions and choices and can make a lasting impact on how they interact with the world around them. according to suzanne keen, narrative empathy means feeling with fiction. a common experience of immersion readers, a frequently, though not universally, cultivated effect of fictions, and a desired outcome of many novelists, filmmakers, and storytellers, narrative empathy features in accounts both of emotional triggers in imaginative experiences of reading and of empirical studies of shifts in readers’ feelings while encountering literary texts. (296) a book like the sight, which follows the narrative of multiple characters, provides an opportunity for a wide range of narrative empathy. because the story closely follows characters on all sides of the conflict, it allows readers to see from different perspectives drake 31 and creates an opportunity through which they can understand the thoughts, emotions, and motivations of each character. these individual representations help readers to understand each character on a more rounded level than many narratives provide, encouraging readers to feel empathy for the pain or love the characters feel and encouraging an understanding of character motives, even when readers don’t agree with their actions. according to p. matthijs bal and martijn veltkamp in “how does fiction reading influence empathy,” reading fiction that inspires an empathic response (known as narrative empathy) can have a longer-lasting impact on the thoughts and views of readers than many other kinds of writing, including non-fiction accounts of real events. often the impact doesn’t manifest immediately after the reading occurs, but emerges later in a phenomena known as the “absolute sleeper effect” (bal and veltkamp 3). the absolute sleeper effect occurs when the mind has time to mull something over in its subconscious, and it is the reason why walking away from a difficult problem for a time helps many people solve it with ease once they return (bal and veltkamp 3-4). when applying the theory of the absolute sleeper effect to the influences of reading fiction, bal and veltkamp believe that “the effects of fiction reading on empathy will increase over time rather than present itself directly after the experience” (3). as bal and veltkamp say, “when people are transported into fictional narratives, they are better in remembering the story, because they were more intensely involved in reading the story, which enables mental representations afterwards. hence, fictional narratives as mental simulation of real world events deepen the readers’ general tendencies to feel empathy with other people” (3). when a story like the sight, in which the core message is to learn and express empathy for others, succeeds in transporting the reader into the narrative, it provides an opportunity to create a message in readers’ minds that they are more likely to carry into their daily lives. it is this concern that causes some people to view apocalyptic literature as a negative influence, fearing that the representation of world-ending conflicts represents an underlying desire for such events (berger, after the end xiii). suzanne keen cautions in “readers’ temperaments and fictional character” that “failing to confront the potentially negative effects of vicious or machiavellian applications of narrative empathy” could potentially lead to readers identifying with the justifications of conflict (297). i think it is worth acknowledging that if the sight were written in a way that glorified its conflict or morgra’s violent and manipulative behavior, it very well could create an opportunity for readers to draw a harmful message from their reading. however, i believe there is immense value in drake 32 showing even antagonists as victims and in telling the story from their perspective, not to justify their actions, but to show the real pain and suffering they experienced. through this understanding, i believe people can learn from the mistakes of the past by better understanding the impact their own actions have on others. in the sight, the perspective of morgra, among other antagonistic characters, shows the cultural and historical hurts that have been passed down to her, and it highlights the empathy she should have been offered in order to prevent her sorrow and bitterness. this representation neither glorifies nor condemns her for what she suffers but instead demonstrates that, while the way she is treated is wrong, her suffering does not excuse her actions in hurting others. morgra never should have to suffer the way she does, but like real apocalyptic events, her trauma is not inevitable. it is made possible because of other people’s choices, which are influenced by cultural fear. james berger addresses the idea that no historical event is inevitable. on this subject he states in his book after the end that “no event can be understood on the basis of prophetic signs and portents, and that history moves on the basis of contingencies, choices, accidents, and possibilities” (21). the term that berger gives to this phenomenon is “sideshadowing,” which refers to “the description of historical alternatives, the other things that could have happened but did not, and an empirical—not a retrospectively prophetic—analysis of why the catastrophe occurred” (after the end 21). the stories of larka and morgra demonstrate sideshadowing, for the story of each parallels that of the other as an alternate possibility and shows numerous moments when the story could have changed as their individual choices— and the choices of others—alter the course of history. when it comes down to the final deciding moment—when it is certain that one way or another the prophecy will be fulfilled—larka steps in to claim the sight’s ultimate power before morgra can, and she discovers that it is not at all what the wolves had expected. the truth of the ultimate power was knowledge of the world itself, from the moment the planet was formed to the evolution of life, and the knowledge that humans are animals too. the vision continues to show how one day, human ingenuity would create wondrous creations but how it would also make weapons of mass destruction. the vision shows the horrors of future conflicts from genocides to nuclear warfare and the ways in which humans have already begun to destroy the world around them. the vision ends with a total destruction of the world’s environments as the planet floods and freezes, leaving the world covered in ice. in this moment, morgra tempts larka to use the power and knowledge she’s acquired to control all of nature so that she might wipe out the human race before it can destroy the drake 33 world. her aunt challenges her to use the powers of the sight for destruction and violence, claiming that it is the only choice left to save all of life. for a despairing moment, larka truly considers the option her aunt presents, but it is in another way of thinking that larka finds the solution. all throughout the novel, larka has sought an answer to what the purpose of the sight really is, and in this moment she knows. the sight is the ability to see the truth of the world in all its horrors and beauty. when larka’s closest friend, kar, despairs in the knowledge that everyone dies one day, she consoles him by saying, “perhaps only when we know that can we truly begin to live. to see the wonder of it all, not the darkness” (clement-davies 458-459). larka shows that it is the ability to empathize that has the true capacity to change history. by seeing through the eyes of others and learning compassion for them, she learns that all life is worth valuing. the sight is the power to use knowledge and compassion to change the future for the better, and it is in this that she places her faith. after seeing the vision and the destructive power of humans, larka proclaims, “if this is their freedom, i do not want it” (clement-davies 442). in this moment she realizes how terrible a responsibility it is to have the power to alter the world and to control the lives of others, and so she accepts the knowledge that the vision has given her but refuses to use the final power to control other living creatures, even when doing so would have saved her own life in a final tragedy that claims both her and morgra. though the story of the sight follows the concept of an end-of-the-world prophecy, even this prophecy is revealed to not be what it seems. the message that the sight presents is that there is no predetermined future. instead, it is the choices made by each person, their actions, and how they choose to treat others that shape the future. the future can be apocalyptic or peaceful, but no matter what happens, there is still hope. no matter how bad things get, the world can still change and recover. life can go on. the sight shows that it is never too late to make the right choice: a person can choose to change their path if they let go of their fear and anger and learn to accept help and empathy when it is offered, and by doing so, people can learn to empathize with others, to forgive instead of hate, and to overcome their fear of difference. some, like morgra, never break the cycle, their fear driving them to reject the empathy that is shown them, as they have forgotten how to have empathy for others. morgra’s path is not a set or predetermined one, but it is one that she walks for so long that she no longer feels that she has the power to change her view of the world. the sight presents our worldview as the place where our actions start, determining how we treat others, ourselves, and the world around us. additionally, it is through our worldviews that drake 34 drake we pass on values to the next generation. through our stories, actions, and words, we leave an impact on the world and on the future generations who inherit it. that impact in turn influences how each successive generation will shape the next, stretching indefinitely into the future. changing the narrative throughout history it has become easy, and even encouraged politically and socially, to retell stories of violence, anger, and fear in a concept known as “conflict-supporting narratives.” according to daniel bar-tal et al., who are scholars of social psychology, “conflict-supporting narratives play a major role not only in the eruption of conflicts, but especially in their persistence—as well as in the use of violent means that often violate moral codes of conduct, and in the difficulty in resolving them peacefully” (662-663). bartal et al. describe these narratives as a means to justify the conflict by dehumanizing and delegitimizing the rival group, glorifying the “image of the in-group” while also presenting the in-group as the sole victims of the situation (665). all of this is done to create a justification in the minds of the in-group for the conflict that “serves as a psychological permit to harm the rival group” (665). reasonably, if narratives for supporting a conflict employ methods of dehumanizing and therefore reducing empathy and understanding for the rival group, then the attempts to prevent future conflicts must include a desire to tell stories that facilitate an understanding of and empathy with others, even when their goals, values, or way of life may seem in opposition to that of the audience and storyteller. in the author’s note that david clement-davies wrote for the sight, he states that the story’s dark progression was inspired by the war-torn history of romania and surrounding lands, particularly the war that erupted in yugoslavia at the end of the twentieth century. in relation to this, clement-davies says, “it was a war in which so many symbols of the past were used to manipulate and destroy, so a major theme became how all of us are bound up in the past, not only in terms of family myths but the stories we tell to interpret the world, and how that can keep us in negative cycles. how, too, so many of the borders of fear we erect between one another are about competing narratives” (555). these competing narratives are often the sources of the uncertainty that generate doubt and fear in conflicting cultures; from that doubt and fear stems a driving need to reestablish a feeling of certainty in one’s own beliefs, culture, and way of life, often to the detriment and destruction of cultures and peoples whose worldviews contradict or even slightly deviate from their own. much like clement-davies’ own message in the sight, berger concludes the 35 introduction to after the end with the following message: “i hope . . . not only to describe the overwhelming, often denied traumatic presences of the past that characterize our postapocalyptic/‘postmodern’ present but also to suggest ways for ‘coming to terms’ with the past, for moving toward a future with moderate hopefulness, yet without amnesia” (xx). the final power of the sight is tied to the idea of memory, a power that the novel often acknowledges as serving humans better than the animals, which in itself is an ironic concept given the final revelation that humans are animals too. it is forgetfulness that is said to hamper the animals, and it is the power of memory that gives humans the greatest ability to alter the world around them. the need to remember history is the need to remember the stories of pain, injustice, and wrongdoing so that future generations can learn empathy for those who have been made to suffer in the past. the hope is that, through remembering these stories, future generations will be able to move forward in a way that teaches people to be conscious to not hurt others in the way those of the past were hurt. the final message which the realization of the prophecy brings is this: if humans can’t curb their destructive ways and learn to empathize with and understand one another, then they will surely bring about their own destruction as they destroy the world around them. in order to move towards a different future, one in which humans can avoid foreseeable catastrophes, people will have to learn to move past their own fear and the hatred it inspires and will have to learn to find ways to work together and to value and preserve all life. david clement-davies presents a hopeful view of the future in the sight, one that shows a possibility frozen in time, like algae waiting for the ice to thaw after an icy apocalypse so that life could begin again (443). even when the path ahead seems to grow too narrow, leaving no other way out, it is never too late to change course. the choices that people make every single day about how they treat others and how they accept the kindness of others in return dictate the future. in the conclusion of the story, david clement-davies leaves the reader with two final messages in an attempt to provide direction from which to break the cycle of violence and avoid an apocalyptic future. the first is when larka speaks to one of her family, kar, in a dream after her death, saying, “i did not escape the legend . . . for it was its own kind of trap, as man’s freedom will be if he doesn’t learn. but life is not a legend or a story. reality is far more precious than a story. and to love one another we must begin to see one another properly” (clement-davies 547). in this passage, larka seems to be saying that by pursuing the prophecy, whether with the intent to fulfill it or in fearful desperation to stop it, she became entrapped by it. this moment seems to convey that, by the wolves allowing drake 36 themselves to get trapped within these stories and fearful predictions of the future, they had allowed themselves only one path forward, one that would lead to the death and destruction they feared and yet were trying so desperately to avoid. the only way out was to learn compassion and to start viewing each other in a way that promotes understanding instead of fear. only then could they escape the trap of these apocalyptic stories repeating themselves time and time again, and all of it began with the final message: that the stories people tell now will influence the future. after larka appears in the dream, kar begins to view the world in a different way, and through that new worldview, he learns to heal the sorrow and pain within himself. the final pages of the story end with the telling of stories and legends to a new generation of young wolves, but as the young ones ask to be told the stories that had contributed to the widespread fear and ignorance surrounding the prophecy, kar pauses and thinks better of it. these were the stories that had bred hatred among the wolves and that had spurred on the violent conflicts of the novel, and so he tells them, “no . . . but i will tell you a better story” (clement-davies 464). he begins a story about the world at its very beginning, before there was life or conflict, and how its very existence was important and should be valued. he changes the stories from ones that spread fear to ones that encourage the new generation to look around them with wonder and to value all that they see in the world, both living and not. i hold the belief that writers of post-apocalyptic fiction, like kar, also have a responsibility to change the narratives they tell. post-apocalyptic authors can continue to spread tales of fear and hatred, or they can change the focus. like the sight, they can still tell tales warning about dangers in our future, but like james berger and david clement-davies both suggest, these stories need to be told without forgetting what has already happened. berger’s conclusion to after the end emphasizes the need to “[m]ake the perception new, but recognize that damage is long-standing, symptomatic, haunting, and historical” (218) and that [t]o see a world as post-apocalyptic is to recognize its formative catastrophes and their symptoms, and to identify the ideological sutures that hide the damages and repetitions. it is also, finally, to recognize and create narratives that work through these symptoms and return to the apocalyptic moments that traumatize and reveal. at that point, new—more healthy and more truthful—histories and futures may be possible. (219) the message of the sight is that the traumas of the past can’t be undone, but that this fact drake 37 doesn’t mean it is ever too late to change course, to choose a different path and work towards making the future better. there is no changing what has already come to pass, but that doesn’t mean that people have to keep making the same disastrous decisions. learning to value the diversity in the world, and teaching future generations to value it too, is the path that will help this world avoid the catastrophic futures so many fear. individuals and cultures alike have to learn to show empathy towards others and to try to understand people who lead different lives or who have had different experiences than their own, because it is only by being shown empathy that others learn to do the same. writers should tell apocalyptic stories, but they should also remember they aren’t just writing about what they fear the future could become. they are writing a history that has already been, and with that in mind, they should remember that what they write now, the stories they pass on, will live on long beyond the memory of the actual writing. the ideas and themes presented in post-apocalyptic stories will be remembered even when future generations have never laid eyes on the pages of their origin. so ask yourself this as you build the stories of the future: what do you want the future to remember? works cited bal, p. matthijs, and martijn veltkamp. “how does fiction reading influence empathy? an experimental investigation on the role of emotional transportation.” plos one, vol. 8, no. 1, jan. 2013, pp. 1-12. ebscohost, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0055341. bar-tal, daniel, et al. “sociopsychological analysis of conflict-supporting narratives: a general framework.” journal of peace research, vol. 51, no. 5, 2014, pp. 662–675. jstor, www.jstor.org/stable/24557448. berger, james. after the end: representations of post-apocalypse. university of minnesota press, 1999. ---. “introduction: twentieth-century apocalypse: forecasts and aftermaths.” twentieth century literature, vol. 46, no. 4, 2000, pp. 387–395. jstor, www.jstor.org/ stable/827838 clement-davies, david. the sight. firebird, 2002. drake 38 foster, dennis a. “trauma and memory.” review of after the end: representations of post-apocalypse, by james berger. contemporary literature, vol. 41, no. 4, 2000, pp. 740–747. jstor, www.jstor.org/stable/1209010. keen, suzanne. “readers’ temperaments and fictional character.” new literary history, vol. 42, no. 2, 2011, pp. 295–314. jstor, www.jstor.org/stable/23012545. drake 88 the spirit of a thought in a fictional world: summoning ghosts to the stage ruth weller-passman, ball state university works of art are inherently spectral in that they are fictional representations of life and reality, particularly theatre, which brings a nonexistent world to life by creating layers of performance between audience and actors, and even the characters of the play. through a close reading of both the text and performance of henrik ibsen’s tragedy ghosts, this paper explores the relationship between theatre and hauntings, unpacking the layers of spectrality of stage props and the employment of silence onstage. “theatre, in all of its aspects, uniquely insists on the reality of ghosts,” claims alice rayner (introduction). though ghosts defy definition and encompass a diverse range of beings and concepts, most share one feature: having a foot in each of two worlds, a liminal existence that hovers between opposites and which is sometimes referred to as “spectral.” theatre operates in a similar threshold between past and present, reality and illusion, literalism and symbolism. visual arts such as paintings and sculptures lack the immediacy of live creation that theatre relies upon, and other performance arts such as dance lack the concrete narrative that plays provide. no other art form summons such a tactile, animate story on command. this world is self-contained by the so-called fourth wall that separates audiences from actors. yet this fourth wall is easily perforated, as theatre provides a uniquely accessible and relatable experience by using human performers as its canvas—it seems to invite audience members to imagine themselves in the place of the characters. these few juxtapositions are just the tip of the iceberg and provide a basic justification for further inquiry into the relationship between theatre and ghosts. entire books have been devoted to this subject, so this essay will be focusing on two specific facets of theatre that can be probed for spectrality. one is the employment of props: the way that objects—in and of themselves—embody a tactile link between past and present, and the additional ghostliness that objects take on when they are used in theatrical productions. the second is the unique immediacy of silence onstage. it is utterly unlike silence in cinema, as it is live and present and instantly engages the audience with the performance in a new and spectral manner by demanding that the audience play an active role in determining the meaning and weight of the silence. these two subjects are ideal for a brief but thorough examination of theatre’s relationship with ghosts and hauntings, in part because they are easily recognizable to anyone who has ever attended a theatrical event. little technical knowledge of the theatre’s inner workings is necessary for a cursory understanding of props and dramatic pauses onstage. in addition, these two themes dovetail nicely with each other, because they both rely upon audience engagement to form meaning and symbolism within the story of a play. the focus of this paper is the spectrality in an audience’s unique interacdigital literature review, vol. 1 (2014). © ball state university. all rights reserved. please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce article to dlr@bsu.edu. mailto:dlr%40bsu.edu?subject= 89spirit of a thought, weller-passman tions with theatrical performances. these two themes, props and silence, provide a familiar foothold to facilitate an in-depth and accessible analysis of this broad and abstract concept. in order to ground this conceptual discussion in a concrete theatrical example, the aptly named play ghosts by henrik ibsen will be used as a lens through which to explore the themes of this paper. though it has been speculated that all plays could bear this title due to their repetition and reliance upon memory, ibsen’s plays in particular deal with the past’s intrusion upon the present and the return of people and memories thought dead (carlson 1). there is no better example of these themes than ghosts itself. the characters of ibsen’s piece are not haunted by corporeal apparitions in their attic; no actor is employed to portray the role of the protagonist’s deceased husband. instead, these are ghosts of lies, suppressed desires, and even concepts such as duty. actors cast in ghosts must summon to life that which never lived in the first place: the spirit of a thought within a fictional world. additionally, it is partly through the use of props and carefully timed silences that this theatrical sleight of hand is accomplished. before considering the spectrality of a specific prop in ghosts, the question must first be posed: what makes any object ghostly? objects are, after all, inanimate—lifeless and devoid of meaning in and of themselves. yet, as alice rayner points out, objects often become extensions of the humans who use them (chapter three). there is nothing intrinsically alive or meaningful about a cane, for example. yet when it is employed to help a person walk, it takes on the role of a third limb for that individual—a phantom limb of sorts. does that association not breathe life into that inanimate cane in some way, granting it a spectrality that a cane tucked away in an attic cannot possess? consider, too, the way that possessions inherited from a deceased relative take on significance that would mean nothing to a stranger. not only are these objects’ sentimental values disconnected from their intended uses, but they seem infused with the presence and very life of their original owners. spectral and liminal, these objects hover somewhere between their practical everyday function and their newly-endowed spiritual symbolism. a prop that is employed early in ghosts will provide an ideal starting place to discuss the ghostliness of props. the play begins with the protagonist, mrs. alving, entertaining old friend and religious authority pastor manders. her son, oswald, has recently returned home to take a break from his career as an artist. while pastor manders and mrs. alving are talking, oswald appears in the doorway smoking a pipe. the following conversation takes place: oswald. i found my father’s pipe in my room— manders. aha—then that accounts for it! mrs. alving. for what? manders. when oswald appeared there, in the doorway, with the pipe in his mouth, i could have sworn i saw his father, large as life. oswald. no, really? mrs. alving. oh, how can you say so? oswald takes after me. manders. yes, but there is an expression about the corners of the mouth, something about the lips—that reminds one exactly of alving: at any rate, now that he is smoking. (ghosts act 1) the pipe that belonged to oswald’s father, then, has a double meaning for the characters 90 within the narrative. the pipe is nothing more than a pipe; there is nothing particularly special or interesting about it. but because of its place in the alving family history, it is able to evoke the memory of mrs. alving’s husband so completely that manders actually mistakes the son for the father. the pipe is also a tactile remnant of a lost family member. it is inscribed with the spiritual memory of its owner, yet it also has a physical presence (both within the world of the play and within the performance). it, like a ghost, hovers between the physical and the spiritual world, unable to singularly inhabit either. the pipe takes on further spectrality when the subtext of the above excerpt is layered into the performance. mr. alving had a reputation as a noble man, but that reputation was a fabrication invented by his wife, in part to protect her son from the knowledge of what his father really was. the mr. alving that oswald and pastor manders envision is incongruent with the mr. alving that mrs. alving knew. no wonder mrs. alving protests at the assertion that oswald looks like his father—she has spent her whole life trying to ensure that oswald grows up to be nothing like him. later in the play she specifically mentions to manders that she “was determined that oswald, my own boy, should inherit nothing whatever from his father….my son shall have everything from me—everything” (ghosts act 1). even something as innocuous as a pipe becomes laden with meaning. for manders and oswald, it is a remnant of an upstanding and noble father figure. for mrs. alving, it is a reminder of the lies she has told and the sacrifices she has made to protect her son from his own father. but before the pipe can even make its appearance onstage, it must occupy a peculiar stopping place: the props table, organized carefully backstage so that each performer and crew member knows just where to locate each critical prop night after night. “especially when they are simply sitting backstage or in the prop room prior to their uses in a performance, bereft of both text and performance, prop objects can seem suspended between both worldly and fictional uses,” says rayner (chapter three). in terms of the narrative, the props are indeed suspended between use and neglect, between reality and fiction. but for the performers that will bring the story to life, the props can be infused with a further level of spectral meaning available only to those who might have worked with this particular theatre company before. most theatres maintain collections of props that they can pull from for multiple productions. since actors often return to the same theatres again and again to participate in productions, their relationship with props that have been reused can be as complicated and multifaceted as a character’s relationship with an object within a play. the actor who will portray oswald in a production of ghosts, for example, may have been in an earlier production of a stage adaptation of sherlock holmes. the pipe that he will soon clamp between his teeth may once have played a role in the story of that famous detective. indeed, the pipe may have collected stories and meanings from dozens of actors, designers, and directors over the years. “while objects are mastered by (and master) actors in performance, they also function as secret talismans in systems of superstition and familial inheritance on and off the stage,” notes aoife monks (150). therefore, when an actor steps onstage as oswald with his pipe in a production of ghosts, he is accompanied by myriad symbols and meanings. the pipe may contain countless stories from other productions, the ghosts of which will follow the actor onstage into an entirely new story, past invading present, memory invading immediacy. within this new world that he and his prop currently inhabit, the pipe carries the added weight of the dead father his character never knew. it also carries the ghosts of his mother’s lies and omissions of truth, embodying her memory of who mr. alving truly was and the way that she has erased that truth from her son’s life. spirit of a thought, weller-passman 91 yet we have so far failed to discuss one group of people who have the power to assign meaning to props (or any part of a production): the audience itself. as is the case when viewing any piece of art, every individual’s interpretation will be unique and specific, influenced by a host of personal factors that the artist has no control over. but in this case, the audience is in a unique position: viewers have the power to affect the art they are viewing directly. in many ways, the audience is just as responsible for the creation and meaning of the performance as the actors, director, and designers. erica fischer-lichte describes this effect as “atmosphere”—something that cannot be summoned by the presence of any single element on or offstage, but arises from the unique interactions of many individual factors, such as the interaction between the audience and the performers (70-71). and the actors are engaged in an incredible sleight of hand as they actively reveal secrets about their character to the audience that the character is not even aware of yet, implicating the audience in unraveling the meaning behind the dialogue before the story itself does (whitaker 711). because of the immediacy of live performance, the audience’s interaction with the narrative plays as important a role as any of the performers. few conditions can affect a production more than the condition of an audience: a restless audience can alter the energy in the performance space so dramatically that it may utterly transform the tone of that night’s show. the quality of a performance often hinges on the willingness of an audience to laugh at appropriate moments or maintain silence during others. as peter malekin and ralph yarrow claim: theatre…is potentially a living communion based on the bonds of sympathy, a kind of direct magnetic sensing, a ‘being with’ other beings and other modes of being. a ‘dead’ audience receives information and, perhaps, changes its ideas; a ‘live’ audience potentially transmutes being and consciousness—not merely the content or objects of consciousness (59). for example, a dead audience might not engage with the multitude of questions that the pipe raises or the layers of meaning it holds for every person on and offstage. although not everyone has performed in a stage play, almost all of us can relate to the sinking feeling of addressing a crowd that is disengaged from the subject at hand, and how difficult it is to keep that uncomfortable knowledge from impacting your performance. while the performance might not be utterly derailed, the actors in a production of ghosts would almost certainly recognize the symptoms of a disengaged audience, and they might struggle to give a performance identical to one in which the audience is actively taking part in the creation of meaning in the play. silence is a key barometer for judging how engaged an audience is with a story being portrayed onstage. silence is one of the very building blocks of theatre: without it, the audience would be chattering over the actors’ lines. in a way, the audience is spectralizing itself for the purposes of the production, silencing its own voice to allow the world of the play to overtake it. this peculiar unspoken agreement between cast and audience can be broken with something as simple as a poorly timed sneeze during a crucial moment in the play. yet the play goes on, only momentarily wrenched out of the moment. for a moment, the illusion hovers on the cusp of actualization as the audience reconnects with the story and once again willingly forgets that it is an audience and not a part of the play’s world. in cinema, too, the audience is expected to break the silence only when appropriate, such as after laugh lines. but there is also a clear difference in the natures of these two silences: in cinema, an inappropriate breach of silence is disruptive only to the audience. in theatre, it is spirit of a thought, weller-passman 92 disruptive to the performance as well. in no other art form can the audience so immediately and so effectively engage with a concrete narrative as it is created before their eyes. though the audience is not present in the world of the play, its ability to affect the story promotes it to an active player in the way that the story is told. the audience as at once present and absent in the narrative. malekin and yarrow explain, “theatre is a communal event…both performers and receivers are affected; both individual and shared experience occurs; what occurs involves at least a crossing of borders—borders between self and other, life and death, between ‘reality’ (itself largely imagined) and imagination, the entry into different parameters of existence” (62). to reverse the perspective for a moment, this breakdown of borders is just as crucial to the actors as it is to the audience. as in the case of an audience unwilling to participate in developing the layers of meaning of the pipe, the actors rely on an audience’s engagement with their narrative, even as they must deny this reliance for the purposes of maintaining the conceptual fourth wall. they feed off the audience’s reactions, however microscopic, even though according to the narrative they are telling, the audience does not exist (and in most cases, must not exist for the purposes of storytelling). the performers hover somewhere between acknowledging and ignoring the audience’s presence—putting the audience in a spectral and liminal position of half-existence within the story. one of the ways that this peculiar relationship between audience and actor is felt is when an actor takes a pause onstage. silences in cinema exist in an utterly different world, because they are timed to the millisecond and tell the same story every time. though it is obviously up to each audience member to determine the meaning of the pause, any single interpretation is not going to influence the tone of the film or the length of the silence. in theatre, however, the silence is immediate. the actors onstage are responsible for recreating a specific moment of silence at every performance, though of course that silence will never exist precisely the same way twice. even if the actor were capable of perfectly recreating an exactly timed pause, the audience’s interpretation and interaction with the performance would render the silence utterly different each night. speaking of the immediacy of space in the theatre, malekin and yarrow note, “i cannot enter this space if i am walled off in habit or in ego. performers need to cross these boundaries, to interact and interfuse, to be open and available to each other and to the audience. i have to flow. i have to lose ‘myself’” (60). the myriad of meanings that the audience members assign to every pause influences the way they watch the play, which affects the energy between the stage and the audience, which can affect the length, tone, and intensity of the pause. and this creation of meaning can be achieved not only with dialogue, but also with silence—not the presence of spoken words, but the absence of them. yet that absence has a tangible presence of its own as it draws the audience in and engages them with a fictional world that they do not inhabit. once again, the world of ibsen’s ghosts provides an ideal jumping-off place for discussing the spectrality of theatrical silence. whether they are pauses written into the stage directions or characters deliberately omitting some portion of the truth, the silences in ghosts are just as important as the dialogue and sometimes even more so. aristotle posited that attending a play is an act of catharsis. the audience members are not only escaping the reality of their own lives but vicariously experiencing a fictional character’s problems and thus feeling more capable of handling their own. theatre is meant to help make sense of a chaotic world (pizatto 176-177). but ibsen was not in the business of comforting his audiences by providing them with easy answers. instead, his plays posed questions. his aim was to stage something closer to real life, where answers are not as clear-cut as they often are in spirit of a thought, weller-passman 93 the stories we tell (durbach 124). this withholding of answers is reflected not only in the ambiguous conclusions that ibsen’s plays are known for, but in the subtext-laden dialogue that often layers more meaning into what isn’t said than into what is. take, for instance, the following exchange in act two. oswald has just revealed to mrs. alving that he is suffering from syphilis. his doctor has informed him that this disease is generally inherited from a licentious parent, but since oswald is still submersed in the illusion of his father’s morality—the illusion that mrs. alving herself has instilled in his mind—he has come to believe that he somehow brought this disease upon himself. oswald. …if it had only been something inherited—something one wasn’t responsible for! but this! to have thrown away so shamefully, thoughtlessly, recklessly, one’s own happiness, one’s own health, everything in the world—one’s future, one’s very life—! mrs. alving. no, no, my dear, darling boy; this is impossible! [bends over him.] things are not so desperate as you think. (ghosts act 2) here again, the “ghosts” of the narrative exist in the truths that each character is trying to subvert. the audience is aware by now of mrs. alving’s secret (the true nature of her departed husband) and so the subtext in her dialogue is distinct and immediately recognizable. oswald is almost begging for mrs. alving to reveal the truth to him, yet mrs. alving is still dancing around the truth. she could alleviate his fears with a few words, but she still opts for mollifying platitudes that only hint at the truth. as in the case of the dual meaning of the pipe, the two versions of mr. alving that exist in the characters’ minds—the saintly father and the degenerate husband—seem to hover over the text, ghosts in their own right. but there is another unspoken truth beginning to insert itself into the narrative. later in the script, oswald will reveal that his disease will eventually rob him of his mental acuity, leaving him with the intellect of an infant. the prospect of losing his mind so terrifies oswald that he will eventually extract a dangerous promise from his mother: that when the time comes, she will help him take his own life rather than living out the rest of his days with the mind of an infant. long before the disease itself is acknowledged onstage, the audience should feel the presence of something haunting that hides between the lines of oswald’s dialogue—just as it should sense the contradiction between different characters’ perceptions of the late mr. alving long before mrs. alving verbally acknowledges the untruths she has spread about him. this urgent, desperate terror that oswald refers to as “this killing dread” (ghosts act 3) is a specter that follows him onstage at his very first entrance and never leaves his side. it should also be noted that though it represents one of the major conflicts of the play, the word syphilis is never used in the dialogue—an intentional omission indicative of the way that ibsen layers his silences with meaning (vardoulakis 52). beyond the subtext, there are also silences written into ibsen’s script. there is, of course, a great scope for silences to be added in by directors and actors; but when a pause is literally written into the text of a play, it cannot be deviated from because it is just as significant as any line of dialogue. consider the following excerpt (which takes place just before mrs. alving reveals the truth about her husband to pastor manders): manders. …verily, mrs. alving, you are a guilt-laden mother! this i have thought it my duty to say to you. spirit of a thought, weller-passman 94 [silence.] mrs. alving. [slowly and with self-control] you have now spoken out, pastor manders; and to-morrow you are to speak publicly in memory of my husband. i shall not speak to-morrow. but now i will speak frankly to you, as you have spoken to me. (ghosts act 1) imagine these lines being spoken without observing the bracketed stage directions. imagine depriving the audience of the opportunity to engage with that haunting silence. by now it is obvious that mrs. alving has been keeping secrets from the pastor, and during the silence the audience is grappling with the same question as mrs. alving: is this the moment she will reveal her great secret? without the pause, this moment would seem flat and predictable because it would seem that mrs. alving had already made up her mind to tell manders, and the audience might disengage from the tension of the scene altogether. this silence is also indicative of another specter that haunts all the characters of the play: the specter of duty. no matter what each character resorts to in the name of personal freedom (such as oswald pursuing a career in the arts or mrs. alving taking her son’s upbringing into her own hands), they cannot escape the haunting of society’s expectations and restrictions (tabasum and khalid 4). therefore, the silences and subtext become as necessary as oswald’s pipe in act one; without them, the story could not be effectively told. silences, like props, are methods of inviting audiences to engage with a performance and take part in ascribing meaning to its story. both allow audiences’ interpretations and layers of meaning to interact with actors’ (and characters’) in the immediacy of a live performance. without the pacing of a silence, the story might as well be told in the form of a novel; without the immediacy of the silence onstage and its unique ability to engage with the live audience, the story could be told through the medium of film. it is this in-the-moment engagement between audience, actors, and characters that makes theatre so spectral. similarly, without a physical pipe in oswald’s hand, the audience might spend more effort on imagining a nonexistent object than it would on unpacking the symbolism of the object itself. the audience (which cannot be acknowledged by the characters within the play) is actively participating in the storytelling by interpreting symbols such as pipes and pauses. they themselves are ghosts that intrude upon the insulated world of the story, yet their presence and engagement with the narrative is crucial to the very telling of that story. “even the theater’s most ‘realistic’ images are shared illusions,” thomas whitaker points out (701). and those illusions cannot exist without the participation of the spectators. the actors could be putting on the most riveting performance of their lives, but without an audience to imagine those opposing versions of mr. alving, his ghosts would exist only in the minds of the performers. with it, the ghosts become a dynamic intersection of the imaginations of both audience members and actors. theatre provides a liminal space where fiction is alive and real (if only for the span of a single evening’s performance) and the combined efforts of spectator and artist can summon a ghost on command. spirit of a thought, weller-passman 95spirit of a thought, weller-passman works cited buse, peter, and andrew stott. “introduction: a future for haunting.” ghosts: deconstruction, psychoanalysis, history. ed. peter buse and andrew stott. new york city: st. martin’s press inc., 1999. 1-20. print. carlson, marvin. the haunted stage. ann arbor: university of michigan press, 2001.print. durbach, errol. “ibsen and the dramaturgy of uncertainty.” ibsen studies 6.2 (2006): 124-138. web. 9 feb. 2014. fischer-lichte, erika. “ibsen’s ghosts – a play for all theatre concepts? some remarks on its performance history in germany.” ibsen studies 7.1 (2007): 61-83. web. 9 feb. 2014. ibsen, henrik. ghosts. trans. william archer. kindle file. malekin, peter, and ralph yarrow. “imagination, consciousness, and theatre.” studies in the literary imagination 34.2 (2001): 55. web. 9 feb. 2014. monks, aoife. “collecting ghosts: actors, anecdotes and objects at the theatre.” contemporary theatre review 23.2 (2013): 146-162. web. 9 feb. 2014. pizzato, mark. ghosts of theatre and cinema in the brain. new york: palgrave macmillan, 2006. print. rayner, alice. ghosts: death’s double and the phenomena of theatre. university of minnesota press: minneapolis, 2006. kindle file. tabasum, irshad ahmad, and khalid, saman. “personal freedom in conflict with social forces: henerick ibsen’s ghosts.” english language and literary forum annual research journal 13 (2011): 1-9. web. 4 feb. 2014. vardoulakis, dimitris. “spectres of duty: silence in ibsen’s ghosts.” orbis litterarum 64.1 (2009): 50-74. web. 9 feb. 2014. whitaker, thomas r. “holding up the mirror: deception as revelation in the theater.” social research 63.3 (1996): 701-730. web. 9 feb. 2014. zombies say more than “uungh”: a walker’s social commentary from 1975 on, there has been a significant spike in the production of zombie films. annalee newitz, an american author and journalist, used her in-depth research to create a graph illustrating the correlation of this trend with the rise in violence and social anxiety in our current society. in short, the graph makes the statement that, throughout the last 50 years, zombie cinema has both reflected and commented upon the cultural anxieties of the time. most recently, the television series the walking dead (twd) has drawn attention to the current violent state of society and to how our society reacts to this new societal norm. jeffrey jerome cohen’s article, “monster culture (seven theses)” delves into an exploration of what does, and does not, define a monster. while all seven of cohen’s theses provide useful insights, this paper will focus on the two theses, “the monster’s body is a cultural body” and “the monster dwells at the gates of difference.” these theses explore the idea that monsters both embody “pure culture” (cohen 4) as well as the idea that monsters “call horrid attention to the borders that cannot – must not – be crossed” (cohen 13, emphasis original). the characters in twd, particularly the prominent villains, each provide an accurate illustration of both theses explored by cohen. this paper focuses specifically on how the directors and writers address to what degree evil can emerge from new social norms through their development of violent, malicious villains, how our society is reflected in these reactions, how these villains dwell on the border of human and monster, and what that means in regards to our current societal state. abstract the spike in zombie cinema in recent years is thought to be due to the fact that cultural and social anxieties are on the rise. this paper explores how zombie film and television comments on these anxieties and forces its audience to think about the world around them. it specifically focuses on the walking dead and how this famous television show utilizes villains and villainous behaviors to comment on our current, violent, and desensitized state of society. shannon walter, ball state university 1digital literature review, vol. 4 (2017). ball state university. all rights reserved. please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce critical edition to dlr@bsu.edu. a history of the living dead to best understand the commentary provided by zombie cinema, it is important to first understand under what context the “living dead” came to be. zombie culture can be dated back to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, deriving specifically from haitian culture. at this point in history, haiti was under french rule and was inhabited by african slaves working on sugar plantations. the idea of the zombie originated from the combination of slavery, haitian culture, and the accompanying casualties: the original brains-eating fiend was a slave not to the flesh of others but to his own. the zombie archetype, as it appeared in haiti and mirrored the inhumanity that existed there from 1625 to around 1800, was a projection of the african slaves’ relentless misery and subjugation . . . . after the haitian revolution of 1804 and the end of french colonialism, the zombie became a part of haiti’s folklore. the myth evolved slightly and was folded into the voodoo religion, with haitians believing zombies were corpses reanimated by shamans and voodoo priests. (mariani) while zombie culture began in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, it became popular in america beginning in 1932 with victor and edward halperin’s white zombie and continued with iconic zombie films such as george romero’s night of the living dead and dawn of the dead. throughout the years, and with the slew of zombie cinema that has been written and produced, the spike in production of these films correlates with times of high social anxiety such as the vietnam war or the events of september 11, 2001, among others (dendle 50, 54). these correlations are important to note because they point directly at cohen’s first thesis, that a monster is born from a cultural moment (4). zombie cinema not only aims to thrill and frighten but also to provide its audience with a horrific reimagining of the society in which they reside. kyle bishop, author of american zombie gothic: the rise and fall (and rise) of the walking dead in popular culture, observes that “since the terrorist attacks of september 11, 2001, zombie movies have become more popular than ever, with multiple remakes, parodies, and sequels. the renaissance of the subgenre reveals a connection between zombie cinema and post-9/11 cultural consciousness” (17). while the idea of the “living dead” has been around for centuries, so has the connection between zombie commentary on societal happenings and the anxieties that accompany them. these connections begin with the projection of misery in haitian slaves and continue on to the acceptance of violence in our media and the desensitization to violence in everyday life that is reflected in today’s zombie cinema. 2shannon walter social commentary & zombie cinema throughout the years while there is a vast inventory of zombie film and television to explore, two specific works are the best representation of zombie commentary in relation to this argument: 28 days later (2002) and night of the living dead (1968). these two films provide an abundance of social commentary and illustrations of societal fears during the timeframe each film was written and produced. to understand where twd fits into this conversation, it is important to first understand what has already been contributed to zombie commentaries. to begin, romero’s choice of an african american protagonist, ben huss, for night of the living dead provides a crucial example of the use of zombies as social commentary in relation to race: the originality of this movie . . . is correlated precisely with the absence of any explicit reference to ben’s race in the course of the film. the absence does not of course mean that night of the living dead escapes in any sense the imaginative constraints of contemporary racism. rather, the zombie-image opens onto racism’s genocidal violence in its own terms. (mcfarland 24, emphasis original) this movie provides its audience with the original zombie trope, without explicitly referring to the films’ monsters as “zombies.” night of the living dead has a stronger, subtler theme of the effects of violence and racism in the context of the vietnam war, which took place during both the production and debut of this film. this theme further illustrates cohen’s first theory, in that the monster is a projection of its cultural surroundings (4). the societal anxieties during the timeframe of this film accurately depict the “monstrosity” that is racism in this wartime era. the most obvious aspect of racial commentary in the film is the ending, in which ben, after surviving a hoard of zombies and watching the rest of his group perish, is killed by a group of all white men that closely resembles a lynch mob. this not-so-subtle ending hints at a racist society and forces the audience of the film to consider the inherent racism in the film as well as the world that they live in. while night of the living dead has a strong focus on the racism in and around the vietnam war era, 28 days later focuses on the effects of violence on a more current society. this film addresses the idea of a “zombie” in a unique fashion. they are represented as being infected with what is described as a “ragevirus” and are therefore not, for all intents and purposes, dead but are still defined as a “living dead” character. thus, embodying cohen’s second thesis, the monster walks the line of what is possible (5). the “monsters” defined in this film walk the border between what it means to be alive and what it means to be dead, causing the audience to question what it means to truly be a monster and, in the case of this 3shannon walter film, how violence plays into that definition. the opening scene of 28 days later is a collection of violent video clips from across the globe being played on an endless film loop, depicting the chaos and brutal state of society. the overarching theme of this film is the correlation between violence and its influence on the masses through the idea of the “rage-virus” that overcomes the globe. this film provides the most direct relationship between the use of rage-infected zombies in the film and their commentary on our violent society. as in many zombie films, as well as twd, the villain in 28 days later is revealed, to be not the zombies, but the human beings who rise to power in the new world order set by the “zombie apocalypse.” in the case of 28 days later, the villain is none other than the country’s own military, the very people employed to protect the country and the citizens residing in it. this “villain” plays into societal anxieties surrounding war and military presence itself. this film was released in 2003, only two years after the 9/11 terrorist attack in new york city, while tensions were running high over the war in iraq, happening across seas. this is not the first, or the last, commentary on the correlation between war, violence, and society’s reaction to the chaos of its surroundings. the walking dead whereas night of the living dead and 28 days later each put forth important commentaries on the state of society as well as the people who make it up, the walking dead provides a current perspective on how the undead are used to force audiences to question society and their reactions to it. twd has taken the american society’s pop culture by storm through its engaging characters and continuous commentary on violence, specifically through the increase in brutality with each subsequent villain introduced throughout the past seven seasons. while the two previous examples of zombie film and their corresponding social commentary had only a few hours to make a point, twd has aired 99 episodes as of april 2, 2017, each of which work to touch on various societal happenings, and has had the opportunity to grow alongside our society and culture. the writers have reflected the growing unrest in our society through the villains introduced throughout the course of the series over the last seven years of production. although both the academic and popular culture realms have conversed over the social commentaries put forth by the abundance of zombie cinema, twd has not been added to the ongoing conversation in a significant and meaningful way. it is important for twd to be addressed as valuable cinematic work. the show provides an ongoing commentary on the state of violence and unrest in our society using a “zombie apocalypse.” the depiction of a zombie apocalypse 4shannon walter highlights the effect of this event on the characters throughout the series because it provides the american people with a chance to question why our society is violent and why we have become desensitized to violence. while many aspects of the show provide a commentary, the villains in the series contribute the most controversial commentary on violence throughout the series. in addition, twd and its accompanying villainous characters provide a detailed and exemplary example of cohen’s two theses that have been previously discussed. the walking dead television series is based upon an ongoing series of graphic novels created by robert kirkman. in the introduction of the graphic novel series, robert kirkman, who is also a writer and producer of the show, makes the statement, “[g]ood zombie movies show us how messed up we are, they make us question our station in society and our society’s station in the world. they show us gore and violence and all of that cool stuff too but there’s always an undercurrent of social commentary and thoughtfulness” (the walking dead, vol. 1: days gone by). this insight from the creator of the walking dead depicts the importance he puts on illustrating the problems in our society through this apocalyptic zombie television series. keeping the underlying commentary on our society’s faults in mind, the three most important villains to touch on throughout this series are as follows: shane, the governor, and, finally, negan. each villain gains relentless, vile behaviors and an indifference towards cold-blooded murder. when this show began, the 2010 murder statistics were cited by the federal bureau of investigation at 14,748 and have now risen to 15,696 (“crime in the u.s.”). this data further illustrates the corresponding increase of violence in our society alongside the increase in violent villains introduced throughout the series. each character, with their own specific attributes and villainous tendencies, works to illustrate the frightening realities of our society and how its members react to societal change. the first villain, shane, did not begin as a villain at all but as protagonist rick grimes’s deputy and best friend. he was an upstanding citizen and a law enforcement official, and was presented as a character with strong morals. he protected rick’s family when the world as they knew it fell apart and protected carol, a member of their post-apocalyptic group, from her violent husband. while shane begins the series as an arguably decent human being, he does not remain that way for long. in the third episode of the second season, “save the last one,” shane takes a very clear turn to the dark side when he shoots an innocent man in the leg to save himself (“save the last one”). this moment is a turning point in the series, as it is the first instance of a character being overcome by this new world order. in an interview with the hollywood reporter, robert kirkman defends shane by saying, “he is one of the most nuanced characters on the show. it’s really a 5shannon walter tragic story for him because he really is trying to do good every single time he does something that seems to be crazy and irrational. he is really just a scared individual trying to feel his way through this insane world” (goldberg). through kirkman’s thoughts on shane and the struggle shane goes through, it is clear to see the show’s commentary on the effect a major societal change has on a human being. kirkman’s words regarding shane’s complexity and terror imply that his reactions are natural and that shane is simply succumbing to the pressures of the new world order. in direct relation to cohen’s theory regarding a monster representing a cultural moment (4), shane’s reaction to this major societal change reflects the effect on our population due to dramatic changes, such as terrorist attacks like 9/11 or natural disasters like hurricane katrina. upon discussing his thesis further, cohen states, “[t]he monster is born only . . . as an embodiment of a certain cultural moment – of a time, a feeling, and a place . . . . like a letter on the page, the monster signifies something other than itself ” (4). these dramatic events in our society, much like what happens to shane, cause people to think, feel, and act differently, thus creating a monster such as shane, who transforms into a cold-blooded killer because of his new surroundings. he is a representation of the monster that comes from a significant cultural moment, one that elicits fear from those affected and one that has the potential to create cruel, destructive monsters in its wake. we now move down the apocalyptic road to woodbury, where the audience is introduced to philip blake, more commonly referred to as the governor. at first, he seems like a normal human being, as he is the leader of a sort of “safe haven” in this apocalyptic new world and introduced as a fair leader, a widower, and a father. the audience soon comes to realize that woodbury is anything but a safe haven. the audience’s hopes and dreams of the governor being a kind-hearted new character come crashing down when he shows his true colors, i.e., keeping severed heads in fish tanks stowed away in his closet, hosting gladiator-esque battles with walkers pitted against human beings, and two main characters being held captive and tortured in the depths of this so-called “safe haven.” the governor works to represent cohen’s thesis regarding monsters “dwelling at the gates of difference” (7). as the audience is initially introduced to the governor as a “good” character and soon finds out that he is anything but “good,” the connection is then made with the fine line between human and monster. cohen states that a villain “moves between monster and man, [and] the disturbing suggestion arises that this incoherent body, denaturalized and always in peril of disaggregation, may well be our own” (9). this idea that a human being has the potential to constantly walk the line of good and evil, monstrous versus human, is well represented through the governor throughout his time on twd. 6shannon walter for example, in the final episode of season three, “welcome to the tombs,” the governor commits what is, arguably, his worst villainous act: the brutal massacre of his own people. this act of brutality illustrates the rising acts of violence in our society. just three months before this episode aired, twenty-seven people were killed in newtown, connecticut, in the tragic mass murder of multiple children and teachers. this connection between the mass slaughter conducted by the governor and the murderous rampages happening in our own society folds seamlessly into the research exploring the correlation between zombie cinema and moments in history that create chaotic, societal anxiety, as well as cohen’s thesis that human beings will always have the capability to walk the line of monster versus man (9). finally, the most recent, and villainous, character is introduced to the world of twd – negan. this barbed-wire-covered, bat-toting sociopath enters the show in a manner described by slate magazine as “remarkably gory – the bloodiest deaths in the show’s history and perhaps television’s as well” (adams). in his grand entrance, negan dismantles the skulls of two beloved characters on the show with a baseball bat, and what is more disturbing is his lack of remorse or even secondthoughts for his incredibly violent actions. upon bashing the skull of a major character, glen rhee, negan states, “buddy, are you still there? i just don’t know. it seems like you’re trying to speak but you just took a hell of a hit! i just popped your skull so hard your eyeball just popped out… and it is gross as shit!” (“the day will come when you won’t be”). this brutal villain jests at the horrific death he produced, putting forth the implication that he feels no sympathy or remorse for his murderous actions. the overwhelming violence portrayed in this episode of the walking dead ties frighteningly well into the current state of society today – a society in which its inhabitants have become numb to violence in an incredibly appalling way. our society is suffering from a lack of compassion due to the mass amounts of violence we see each day, and the writers and directors, of the walking dead are working to show our society the ever-growing level of inhumanity towards violence, death, and cold-blooded murder through characters such as negan. he works to provide a social commentary on the violence that is displayed non-stop in our realworld media, which has been found to desensitize our population. in a study done by craig anderson and brad bushman, they found that, “violent media make[s] people comfortably numb to the pain and suffering of others” (273). this research further illustrates the mirrored implications between twd and our society today. in twd, we are shown a society in which its inhabitants are challenged with a new world order that is extremely and necessarily violent at times. the audience witnesses the rise in violence among the living characters, but it is not until 7shannon walter negan arrives that we get a strong taste of the desensitization that has occurred throughout the series thus far. much like twd, our society has been changing drastically. while we have progressed in some ways, we have regressed in other, very important aspects such as the aforementioned desensitization to violence. we see our society mirrored in that of twd through negan. he is a distinct representation of the outcome of a drastic change in the societal norm – namely that of our increasingly violent society and our growing lack of empathy towards the violence. while audience members were shocked to witness the extreme violence occur in negan’s grand entrance, they should be just as shocked when watching the evening news and hearing about the endless shootings and other acts of violence that are happening across our country at an alarming rate. the brutality portrayed by negan is a direct, albeit extreme, outcome of how desensitized a person can become when exposed to a new world order. conclusion the greater implications of the social commentary put forth by the creators, directors and writers of the walking dead insinuate that our society is heading down a violent, inhumane road. through the growing brutality with each succeeding villain throughout the series, we are shown a new perspective on the society that we are residing in. through both an over-dramatization as well as, at times, an extremely accurate depiction of the violence and desensitization in our society today, the walking dead forces its audiences to reconsider their perceptions of violence and our society’s treatment of human beings. the ongoing commentary regarding american society through the use of zombie cinema provides our population with a new viewpoint with which to view our current station in society. while there are ample amounts of specific correlations between zombie films and moments of cultural anxiety, the overarching theme is that, through zombie cinema, audiences are able to grasp that zombies are not the true monsters: human beings are. as a whole, the zombie is only a representation of a drastic change in society, such as a terrorist attack, natural disaster, or tragic mass murder, and the true monsters rise from this overwhelming change, or new world order. as jeffrey cohen stated, “a monster’s body quite literally incorporates fear, desire, anxiety, and fantasy” (4); therefore, the “living dead” are a physical representation of our cultural fears and anxieties, and the characters living in these apocalyptic worlds are portrayals of every human being that walks the earth. cohen’s theses are accurately exemplified when villainous characters of twd are closely analyzed. the writers of twd further support the theses that monsters both represent cultural anxieties 8shannon walter as well as walk a fine line between man and monster through characters such as shane, the governor, and negan. using these characters and ideas, the directors and writers address to what degree evil can emerge from cultural anxieties and grand societal changes, how these villains, and consequently our society, react to these fears and transformations, and what this means for our society’s future. 9shannon walter works cited adams, sam. “in its season premiere, the walking dead’s brutal violence finally went too far.” slate, 24 oct. 2016, www.slate.com/blogs/ browbeat/2016/10/24/in_its_season_premiere_the_walking_dead_s_brutal_ violence_finally_went_too.html. accessed on 24 jan. 2017. dendle, peter. “the zombie as barometer for cultural anxiety.” monsters and the monstrous: myths and metaphors of enduring evil, edited by niall scott, editions rodopi b.v., 2007, pp. 45-57. goldberg, lesley. “’the walking dead’ dissection: robert kirkman says shane isn’t a ‘dastardly villain’.” the hollywood reporter, 19, feb. 2012, www. hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/walking-dead-dissection-robert-kirkmantriggerfinger-spoilers-292648. accessed on 18 jan. 2017. mariani, mike. “the tragic, forgotten history of zombies.” the atlantic, 28 oct. 2015, https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/10/howamerica-erased-the-tragic-history-of-the-zombie/412264/. accessed on 18 jan. 2017. mcfarland, james. “philosophy of the living dead: at the origin of the zombieimage.” cultural critique, vol. 90, university of minnesota press, 2015, pp.22-63. jstor, doi:10.5749/culturalcritique.90.2015.0022. newitz, annalee. “war and social upheaval cause spikes in zombie movie production.” gizmodo, october 29, 2008. io9.gizmodo.com/5070243/warand-social-upheaval-cause-spikes-in-zombie-movie-production. accessed on 24 jan. 2017. night of the living dead. directed by george romero, image ten, 1968. “save the last one.” the walking dead, created by frank darabont and robert kirkman, performance by justin bertha, season 2, episode 3, american movie classics, 2011. 10shannon walter http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2016/10/24/in_its_season_premiere_the_walking_dead_s_brutal_violence_finally_went_too.html http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2016/10/24/in_its_season_premiere_the_walking_dead_s_brutal_violence_finally_went_too.html http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2016/10/24/in_its_season_premiere_the_walking_dead_s_brutal_violence_finally_went_too.html http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/walking-dead-dissection-robert-kirkman-triggerfinger-spoilers-292648 http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/walking-dead-dissection-robert-kirkman-triggerfinger-spoilers-292648 http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/walking-dead-dissection-robert-kirkman-triggerfinger-spoilers-292648 https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/10/how-america-erased-the-tragic-history-of-the-zombie/412264/ https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/10/how-america-erased-the-tragic-history-of-the-zombie/412264/ “the day will come when you won’t be.” the walking dead, created by frank darabont and robert kirkman, performance by jeffery dean morgan, season 7, episode 1, american movie classics, 2016. “welcome to the tombs.” the walking dead, created by frank darabont and robert kirkman, performance by david morrissey, season 3, episode 16, american movie classics, 2013. 28 days later. directed by danny boyle, dna films, 2003. 11shannon walter 108 abstract the four horsemen in popular culture this paper examines the popularity of the four horsemen within media today by looking at the television shows supernatural and sleepy hollow. these two examples of four horsemen portrayals allow viewers to imagine a hopeful victory over the apocalypse that other depictions of apocalyptic events don’t allow for. this paper studies the history of the book of revelation and its depiction in popular culture to better understand the importance of these optimistic outcomes in which apocalypse is averted. introduction the book of revelation has always been a controversial text of the bible. many churches don’t teach it, or they skim over it. in his book, approaching hoofbeats: the four horsemen of the apocalypse, billy graham states, “often in the history of the church the book of revelation has been neglected, misunderstood, or misinterpreted by far too many christians” (18). churches, while thoroughly examining much of the bible, seem to ignore or put aside this specific book: throughout my research on this topic, i have talked to multiple churchgoers who do not know much about the book of revelation. so why does it play such a huge role in popular culture? i have encountered countless television shows, movies, books, and other forms of contemporary media that portray this biblical apocalypse in some way, and while revelation has plenty to offer, much of the media focuses on only one of its key aspects: the four horsemen of the apocalypse. in portrayals of the four horsemen, screenwriters often depict them as tangible people, who are a main, if not the sole, cause of the apocalypse. in these interpretations, the main characters tend to have to fight the four horsemen and defeat them to stop the apocalypse. i believe the four horsemen are not only popular due to the prevalence of christianity in the united states but also due to the fact that they are represented as a power that can be defeated. in other media about the apocalypse, the cause of the apocalypse tends to be actions that are difficult to prevent, such as global warming or incurable diseases. in the shows i examine in this paper, the four horsemen offer a chance by taylor baugh, ball state university 109 baugh for victory and a physical end to an apocalypse. in essence, popular depictions of four horsemen give our society a narrative hope that we need, which other forms of fictional apocalypse do not provide. with much of our media being infused with negative stories about potentially apocalyptic terrors like nuclear war or climate change, this interpretation of the four horsemen creates optimism for our future. however, this may seem paradoxical, as our society doesn’t want the events in the book of revelation to actually happen. it’s something that frightens most people. many churches don’t focus on the book because it is such a negative text to study in comparison to many of the other books of the bible, which offer a more positive message of forgiveness, hope, and joy. however, throughout time, various groups have read the book of revelation differently. each denomination has their own insight into what the book is and how important it is to their followers. according to robin barnes, “catholics generally accepted the book’s canonicity but distrusted it, whereas protestants were more actively devoted to defending it as a source of prophetic insight” (266). as we can see from these particular groups, the opinion on the book of revelation has always varied from one group to another. with these opinions being so different, it is easy to see the ways that different denominations may apply the book of revelation and the four horsemen to their lives and the world around them. these opinions on the book of revelation have not gone away and can be seen in the ways we address the book in our popular media today. however, contemporary media looks at the book of revelation from a different, more secular, perspective and with different expectations, both of which can facilitate a positive end to an apocalypse. the actual book of revelation doesn’t end with a seed of hope for our current world; rather, the book is filled with complete despair for the future of most of humanity. the current world we live in is completely destroyed, and the only hope left is in a place called new jerusalem, a city where god has brought all of his faithful followers (king james version, rev. 21). there is so much destruction and despair in revelation’s apocalyptic world that it is not something that people would want to endure, and the focus of the text revolves closely around these horrors that humanity experiences. however, when revelation’s apocalypse is depicted within more secular shows like supernatural and sleepy hollow, the focus is rather on preventing the destruction of our current world. with christianity being so prevalent in american culture, it makes sense that shows like these would feature many depictions of and references from the bible, but these portrayals of revelation on television do not truly match those of the bible, as these new portrayals, rather than stressing the terrors of an 110 baugh apocalyptic future, suggest that we shouldn’t take such a gloomy view of the future too seriously. as these shows’ apocalyptic interpretations demonstrate, people seem to be pushing against the gloomy biblical idea of apocalypse, wanting to believe instead that there is a way to survive. the screenwriters for these shows seem to be critiquing the book of revelation and those that take it too seriously by creating fantastical stories for their characters to fight through, and one way in which these screenwriters accomplish this is by humanizing the four horsemen. in essence, popular media is giving us an outlet to imagine a way out of such a terrifying end by depicting the four horsemen as conquerable beings. by looking at the history of the book of revelation and at the ways pop culture affects our society, as well as at examples of the four horsemen from supernatural and sleepy hollow, i will be discussing this hope for human victory and survival that these depictions of the four horsemen provide. history of the book of revelation and the four horsemen when thinking about the book of revelation, it’s important to note its origin and the origin of the four horsemen. according to revelation itself, the book came about when john the apostle recorded a vision given to him by god, upon which he sent the book to the seven churches of god (graham 17-18). the four horsemen of the apocalypse are introduced in revelation 6:1-8, when the first four seals of the apocalypse are broken by the lamb. the four horsemen each have their own significance and name: famine, war, pestilence or conquest, and death. the four horsemen ride out one-by-one as they are called by “the four living creatures” and as their respective seal is broken (king james version, rev. 6). the first horseman carries a bow, wears a crown and is on a white horse; he is generally seen as conquest, though some interpretations give him the name pestilence. the second horseman rides a red horse and represents war. the third rides a black horse and carries a pair of balances; he is given the name famine. the final horseman rides a pale horse and is given the name death. this final horseman is most popular within the television shows i analyze. in the book of revelation, there is no escape from the four horsemen. they are beings who cannot be stopped, and they will bring about the end of the world. however, in the television shows, they become physical beings who can be defeated in some way, the conquering of whom will stop the apocalypse from happening. while the four horsemen have been around for a very long time, they gained popularity around the reformation era in europe (c. 1517 – 1648) due to their adaptability 111 baugh to the times. according to barnes, the four horsemen were “popularized by durer and especially lucas cranach in martin luther’s german bible” (263). one reason for their popularity is that the story of the horsemen lends itself to much interpretation: people in the reformation were able to take what the four horsemen represent and apply it to what was happening at that specific time. for example, some people of the reformation believed that “[t]he white horse with its conquering rider stood for the second coming itself, and thus for the explosion of prophetic awareness and religious conflict sparked by the reformation” (barnes 263). essentially, people during the reformation era believed that the second coming of christ was upon them and that the white horse represented this event. over time, the use of the horsemen’s adaptability has not changed. much of graham’s book, which was written in 1985, is a call to action for christians, and he uses the four horsemen as a way of explaining the things that will come if the world does not change. for example, when discussing the horseman named war, graham states: this heavenly vision is god’s way of showing us our folly and warning us of its consequences. just as harry truman would not obey the warnings before mount st. helens erupted, so all of mankind through history has refused to listen to the warnings of god. (122) graham uses current events in tandem with interpretations of heavenly wrath as a way of influencing change among his readers. these are easy links to make: when reading the book of revelation, it is hard not to draw connections to current world problems, such as nuclear threats, global warming, and many pressing issues. this adaptability of revelation and of the four horsemen allows readers and writers to apply these beings into stories easily. however, it is not just in religious contexts that the four horsemen display their remarkable adaptability. in today’s media, writers not only integrate the four horsemen into problems we are currently facing but also present them as conquerable forces. the four horsemen become physical beings with whom characters are able to interact and against whom they may eventually emerge victorious. the four horsemen in supernatural and sleepy hollow have weaknesses—such as the ability to be injured by sunlight or the need for a ring to keep them in their physical form on earth—that they don’t have within the original text of the bible. these weaknesses give humans a way to stop them from destroying the world. unlike other types of apocalyptic threats depicted within popular media—threats such as plagues, zombies, and climate change, against which human survivors are struggling and lonely—the popularized depictions of the four horsemen allows for a more hopeful representation of apocalypse. other apocalypses cannot be easily defeated, and many of 112 baugh them have become overwhelmingly real threats that our society could potentially face in the future. however, the four horsemen allow for a type of apocalypse that creates a more hopeful feeling in the end. in shows like supernatural and sleepy hollow, the audience is better able to envision a future in which the apocalypse and the evil in the world have been stopped. we are given an opportunity to be more optimistic while watching the four horsemen’s depictions in these shows than when we contemplate the frightening future the bible provides us. with so much of our media obsessing over the horrors of our present world, this optimistic portrayal of the four horsemen offers viewers the chance to imagine a positive future, which creates the kind of hope our society needs. if viewers are shown the end to an apocalypse, this could potentially encourage them to have confidence in our world and to want to work to fix the problems we are facing. by giving us hope within a television show, the positive apocalyptic story of the defeat of the four horsemen has the potential to give us faith within our reality as well. in a society that obsesses over the myriad of awful potential futures we face, such a positive apocalyptic story is rare. revelation and popular cuture popular culture is deeply influential to society. in his book pop culture wars: religion & the role of entertainment in american life, william romanowski recalls a time when he was on a trip in philadelphia with a youth group just after the release of the first rocky balboa film. the students he was with were not as interested in the normal tourist sights but rather the places seen in the film. romanowski states: most of all, they wanted to visit the philadelphia museum of art. they were not, however, the least bit interested in the museum’s striking greek revival architecture or the priceless collection of art housed inside. what they wanted to see was the museum’s steps – all seventy-two of them. when we arrived at this major artistic institution, these young people jumped out of the vans and raced up the huge stone steps, their own personal recreation of rocky’s energizing run as he prepared to fight for the heavyweight championship of the world. (9-10) this story shows how pop culture can influence a person’s view of the world around them. the museum’s meaning completely changed for the fans of this movie. the steps became an iconic place to visit and see just what rocky saw as he prepared for the championship. this shows how pop culture exerts a very strong force upon our minds. this is no different when it comes to the apocalyptic thought surrounding our pop culture. many scholars have attempted to classify the different futures contemporary media 113 baugh portray. one scholar, alan clardy, states that there are six types of futures that we imagine within pop culture. as clardy says, “indeed, as argued here, six visions of the future can be found in popular culture, and each one presents a fundamentally distinctive conception of the world to come” (37). these six futures include: progress and utopia, the anti-utopian nightmare, dystopia, conflict and resolution, collapse, and apocalypse. clardy states there have been previous attempts at categorizing these futures; however, the ones clardy delinieates are separated even further into smaller categories. each of these categories has specific histories and characteristics that define them. while many people use the term apocalypse to classify anything dealing with the potential end of the world, clardy has a very specific definition. clardy states: “in all of these manifestations, the paradigm of apocalypse shares several defining features. first, the end of this mortal world is ordained to arrive soon, often at a time predicted in great detail. second, knowledge of this inevitable future has been obtained from extra-human, archaic, or divine sources and the prophecy revealed is doom” (44). with this sort of thinking, an apocalyptic future in pop culture becomes much more limited in its definition. while there are quite a few shows, books, and movies that discuss the end of the world, clardy’s definition of apocalypse changes just how many can be classified as apocalyptic. however, this narrower definition does not change the fact that our society is very focused on the destruction of our world. in fact, the classifications of futures that clardy presents show just how prominently current media is fixated on the future and the end of the world, and it undoubtedly can be discouraging for viewers to see these constant depictions of destruction without a type of buffer. however, modern depictions of the four horsemen offer a refreshingly hopeful alternative to this constant barrage of future negativity. while other apocalyptic narratives seem hopeless, these portrayals of four horsemen offer the chance for victory and survival. the popularity of the four horsemen is understandable when looking at the different types of futures clardy describes, as, within his definition of the term apocalypse, the book of revelation is one of the few depictions that still fits the definition. however, the four horsemen are also popular because they offer viewers something that many other apocalypses do not: a way out. clardy is not the only scholar to point out how much of our media deals with potential futures; james berger also discusses our society’s attachment to apocalyptic depiction, and he too offers potential insight into why our society might enjoy our modern depictions of the four horsemen. when talking about the apocalypse, berger states: to think that everything really is over would be a great relief, and a positive satisfaction. so many self-righteous and complacent individuals and institutions 114 baugh would get their comeuppance in a hurry. except that it has already happened. what will happen has happened, is happening. but the world is still here exactly as it was: that is what is intolerable. and therein lies the pleasure in imagining its destruction, and the horror and confusion in reflecting that such enormous, such definitive catastrophes have actually and in the flesh taken place. (32) berger is explaining that there is a pleasure in imagining the end of the world because at the end of the apocalypse there would be no more responsibility, and everything and everyone that had ever done something wrong to a person would be gone or would have gotten its punishment. however, i believe that, while people do enjoy imagining the apocalypse to a certain extent, there comes a point where people may want to think of a future without a destructive end. it begins to weigh on viewers’ shoulders just how real these potential futures may be. here too, the modern apocalypse of the four horsemen can offer a tantalizing alternative: while it gives viewers a chance to contemplate the end of the world, it also allows for the world to be saved. we want to imagine the end but we don’t really want the world to end. the book of revelation doesn’t offer believers much chance for optimism about our future in this world; however, this story has shifted within popular media to illustrate a way out. with christianity being so prevalent in our society, we want to address this terrifying prophecy but shift it in a way that gives us an opportunity for more optimism. since christianity plays such a large role in our culture, it can be easy to see why a book like revelation would largely influence different media. according to ericka engstrom in the book television, religion, and supernatural: hunting monsters, finding gods, [w]hen one considers the religious identification of the u.s. population, u.s. census bureau figures illustrate that most adults self-identify as christian, and of those, most report describing themselves as protestant. the latest census figures, from 2008, show that among some 228 million adults, more than 173 million (75%) identified themselves as belonging to some form of christian religious group. (6) this shows just how prominent the christian religion is within america, and this has a large impact on the pop culture of america. however, there are many cultures fascinated by religion and apocalypse in addition to america; in the article, “apocalypticism and popular culture in south africa: an overview and update,” margaret mollet argues that the reason millennial dispensationalism (belief that scripture is prophecy and is used to decide where a person is within the timetable of the bible) is so embedded within people’s minds is because of the influence pop culture has on its audience. this argument could also be made for apocalyptic thought being so prominent in american society today. there seems to be a 115 baugh cyclical pattern of apocalyptic thought and of pop culture’s use of the apocalypse. with each wave, the apocalypse becomes more and more embedded into our society. the role of the four horsemen within pop culture today is much the same of apocalypse as a whole. with religion being such a strong force in america, it makes sense that it would influence our popular culture to some degree. this influence can be seen in our continuous representations of the future. with popular culture having such an influence over us, screenwriters of shows like supernatural and sleepy hollow may be attempting to influence viewers to be more proactive in confronting the often-immobilizing threats against our world. these shows, while they are more unrealistic, seem to be calling viewers to act upon their fears of the world ending. the screenwriters want us to fight the “four horsemen,” or our potential future apocalypses, just as their characters do. there are quite a few mentions of the four horsemen in pop culture through songs, movies, books, and television shows. the television shows supernatural and sleepy hollow are just a couple examples of the utilization of the four horsemen in pop culture. both of these contain the four horsemen in different interpretations, but the horsemen are still contributing to the apocalypse in some way. by looking at both of these representations, we can see how the four horsemen are used in pop culture, and we can understand the sense of hope they create for the audience. supernatural and sleepy hollow analysis supernatural, a cw television show that is currently in its thirteenth season, follows two brothers, sam and dean, on their journey fighting monsters of all kinds, including vampires, wendigos, demons, ghosts, angels, and even lucifer himself. while the four horsemen don’t appear until season five, their story arc begins at the end of season four, where the show leaves off with sam and dean inadvertently breaking the last of the show’s 66 apocalyptic seals by killing the demon, lilith, an action that starts the apocalypse by allowing lucifer to rise from his cage. as the apocalypse begins in season five, sam and dean are told that they are to become the vessels of lucifer and the archangel michael, entities who will ultimately fight to decide the fate of the world. throughout the season, dean refuses to allow michael to use him as a vessel, and lucifer begins to use the four horsemen to destroy the world. the four horsemen, who are shown without horses and as older men, show up one by one just as they do in the book of revelation: first war, then famine, pestilence, and, finally, death. sam and dean learn that, in order to stop lucifer, they need the ring of each horseman to open lucifer’s cage again and trap him once more. 116 baugh throughout the season, they encounter and fight war, famine, and pestilence and get their rings. (in the show, the horsemen are unable to be killed, but without their respective rings, they cannot manifest a physical form on earth or use their power). finally, dean makes a deal with death and receives the final ring needed to carry out the plan to stop lucifer and the apocalypse. when talking to death, dean learns that death is enslaved to lucifer and wants to be free, a situation that prompts the horseman to help sam and dean defeat lucifer and stop the apocalypse. while dean does have to make a false promise to death, saying that he will do whatever it takes to put lucifer in his cage, even allowing sam to fall into the cage as lucifer’s vessel, there is an expectation within this scene that they will be able to stop the apocalypse from happening. throughout the fifth season of supernatural, sam and dean face all four horsemen and defeat or work with them one by one. this sort of story creates a hope that they will stop the apocalypse and put lucifer back in his cage before the world ends. even at the end of the season when sam falls into lucifer’s cage with him in order to stop him, sam and dean’s strong, brotherly bond constantly promises viewers that there is always a chance of bringing the other back when it seems impossible. in the next season, dean visits death again and asks him to bring sam back from lucifer’s cage. death agrees to do this if dean retrieves his ring, which dean did not return after borrowing, and wears it for a day to see what it is like being death. he does this to show dean just how hard his job is and how much it takes out of him. this shows the audience that death isn’t necessarily all bad and has a conscience just as we do—in this interpretation at least. while watching this unfold, the audience is able to see the four horsemen as not only conquerable but also as beings who have feelings like ours. it humanizes the entire storyline and allows for the audience to imagine the end of the world while still imagining ways to prevent this disaster from actually happening. the physical beings of the four horsemen offer a more positive ending to the apocalypse. another example of the four horsemen within pop culture is in the television show sleepy hollow. season one opens in 1781 with ichabod crane on a mission for george washington to kill a hessian soldier with a bow and arrow tattoo on his hand. ichabod finds the hessian and, upon fighting him, is fatally injured; however, he is able to decapitate the soldier just before he dies. in the next scene, ichabod wakes up in the year 2013, close to the same time the headless horseman does. the horseman begins to kill throughout the town of sleepy hollow, and ichabod is brought in by the police as a suspect. at the police station, ichabod tries to explain who he is, and who the horseman is, but no one takes him seriously 117 baugh except one person—lieutenant abbie mills. her partner was killed by the horseman, and after ichabod describes the horseman perfectly to her, she decides to listen to him. soon the two begin to work together to figure out how to stop the horseman. as the show progresses, the two learn that the horseman is actually the horseman of death from the book of revelation and that he plans on raising the other three horsemen to begin the apocalypse. abbie and ichabod learn that they are the two witnesses that the bible describes and are destined to stop the apocalypse and protect sleepy hollow. throughout the show, ichabod and abbie begin to learn more about who the horseman is and how to stop him. in the end, they realize that the horseman has a weakness to sunlight or uv lights, and, by exploiting this weakness, they are able to take the horseman prisoner so that he can no longer try to raise the other three horsemen. just like in supernatural, the audience is able to picture an oncoming apocalypse while still entertaining the possibility of victory and of a happy ending. both of these shows offer viewers more than just the chance to imagine the apocalypse; they offer the chance to hope for the world. the four horsemen in each of these examples are physical beings, able to be defeated by humans. the physical manifestation of the apocalypse allows for the audience to better visualize an actual end to the potential of apocalypse. these shows seem to be a call to action for viewers, for even if these are not realistic visions of our future, the four horsemen are a symbol for more realistic threats to humanity. the writers are calling for viewers to want a future for our world through these shows and their depiction of defeating the four horsemen. supernatural and sleepy hollow give viewers an opportunity to envision a future that they have control over. the writers for these shows seem to be offering the audience the chance to see their agency in the future of their world by depicting humans as the ones defeating the apocalypse. the four horsemen are a prominent cause of the apocalypse in media, but their role differs from other apocalyptic figures presented by the media. while much of contemporary media does deal with potential futures of our world, these futures tend to be more pessimistic with no way to stop the apocalypse from happening. in many of these portrayals, there are few survivors and little confidence of bringing the world back to what it once was. within supernatural and sleepy hollow, however, we are able to experience a different type of future. these shows offer a different telling of this story, one in which the human characters are able to defeat the four horsemen and stop the apocalypse. these television shows change the book of revelation to offer a more optimistic conclusion, which gives the viewers hope for their future. while christianity being popular in the united 118 baugh states plays a large role in the reasoning behind our portrayals of the four horsemen, i believe that our wish for a better future plays an even bigger role in the popularity of these interpretations, as media like sleepy hollow and supernatural gives the audience a chance to envision a future that is no longer being plagued by the thought of impending doom. i believe these shows are asking viewers to see that humans are the ones who can stop the apocalypse; we just have to acknowledge this responsibility and work toward a better future. rather than presenting apocalypses that seem unstoppable and give viewers a pessimistic view of the future, viewers are given a reason to hope. this want for a better future is what our society needs, and that is what makes these types of depictions so important. works cited barnes, robin b. “varieties of apocalyptic experience in reformation europe.” journal of interdisciplinary history, vol. 33, no. 2, sept. 2002, pp. 261-274. ebsco host, doi:10.1162/00221950260208706. berger, james. after the end: representations of post-apocalypse. university of minnesota press, 1999. clardy, alan. “six worlds of tomorrow.” world future review (world future society), vol. 3, no. 2, summer 2011, pp. 37-48. ebscohost, proxy.bsu.edu/login?url=http://search. ebscoho st.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&an=69646036&site=ehost-live& scope=site. engstrom, erika. television, religion, and supernatural. lexington books, 2014. graham, billy. approaching hoofbeats: the four horsemen of the apocalypse. word books, 1985. iscove, phillip, et al., creators. sleepy hollow. sketch films, k/o paper products, and twentieth century fox television, 2013. kripke, eric, creator. supernatural. kripke enterprises and warner bros. television, 2005. mollett, margaret. “apocalypticism and popular culture in south africa: an overview and update.” religion & theology, vol. 19, no. 3-4, sept. 2012, pp. 219-236. ebscohost, doi:10.1163/15743012-12341240. 119 baugh romanowski, william d. pop culture wars: religion & the role of entertainment in american life. intervarsity press, 1996. the holy bible. king james version, zondervan, 2002. in 2013, director steve mcqueen released 12 years a slave, his film adaptation of solomon northup’s 19th century slave narrative of the same name. however, in spite of overwhelming public response and widespread critical acclaim, currently the film has received very little attention within academia, and has yet to be made a significant subject of critical scholarship and discussion. in response, this collection addresses what the authors view as a critical lack of contextualization of the film within a larger body of theory and critical analysis. interpreting mcqueen’s film within analytic frameworks including comparative slavery studies, trauma studies, feminist theory, film theory, and the rhetoric of visual cultures, the authors create a wide range of analyses that address several critical questions. in the article “violent instability: images of the violence of slavery in 12 years a slave and visual cultures,” author esther wolfe examines the inherent ambiguity of mcqueen’s realist style, contextualizing this ambiguity within a larger critical discussion of the instability of images of slavery in visual culture and its relation to the paradox of bearing witness to atrocity. deepening this conversation on images of the violence of slavery, author kathryn hampshire, in “on cinematography and discomfort in 12 years a a critical introduction to 12 years a slave kathryn hampshire, bryce longenberger, ramona simmons, and esther wolfe, ball state university key words: 12 years a slave, steve mcqueen, slavery, violence, visual culture, cinematography, mistresses, suicide abstract: in this critical anthology of essays, the authors examine steve mcqueen’s 12 years a slave from a variety of analytic frameworks, including feminist theory, trauma studies, film theory, and deconstruction. the authors explore critical questions concerning the politics of representing trauma and violence, the politics of slave suicide, and the intersections of race and gender in the experiences of slave women. 15 digital literature review, vol. 2 (2015). © ball state university. all rights reserved. please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce critical edition to dlr@bsu.edu. “violent instability”: images of the violence of slavery in 12 years a slave and visual culture esther wolfe on cinematography and discomfort in 12 years a slave kathryn hampshire scoured souls: the imbalance between mistresses and female slaves ramona simmons the inability to commit suicide: an analysis of steve mcqueen’s 12 years a slave bryce longenberger 17 22 27 31 table of contents slave,” analyzes mcqueen’s film in the context of its cinematography, examining the political power of discomfort brought about by the lingering cinematic gaze. the last two articles in this collection focus this discussion of violence further by unpacking specific dynamics of slave experiences. in “scoured souls: the imbalance between mistresses and female slaves,” author ramona simmons interprets the film within the context of gender power and feminist analysis, examining the relative positions of female slave and plantation wife within interconnected systems of slavery and patriarchal oppressions. finally, specifying this context of gender violence, in “the inability of committing suicide: an analysis of steve mcqueen’s 12 years a slave,” author bryce longenberger examines the nature of suicide within slave systems, exploring interpretations of suicide as resistance and degradation from the position of patsey. in presenting this collection, the authors hope to break important analytic ground, contributing to the current body of critical work while opening up space for continued study. it is also the hope of the authors that analysis of mcqueen’s film will bring to bear the ways in which the issues raised in this collection continue to be present and relevant in our contemporary world—in the forms of modern slave systems and interconnected legacies of racist violence and oppression. 16 hampshire, longenberger, simmons, and wolfe “violent instability”: images of the violence of slavery in 12 years a slave and visual culture esther wolfe of the critical conversations surrounding steve mcqueen’s 12 years a slave, perhaps the most pervasive revolves around the film’s realism, specifically its realistic portrayal of the violence and trauma of slavery and the image of the tortured slave body. using his trademark realist cinematographic style, mcqueen creates prolonged, unflinching images of slave torture and suffering, lingering on graphic scenes of brutality, including whipping, hanging, beatings, and rape. realist cinematography, by attempting to replicate and recreate the real, can be seen as an attempt to create a pure representation of experience, to bypass instability and get outside interpretation. however, realist images also contain an imbedded ambiguity at the very site of their realism. in replicating and recreating the real, realist images are framed constantly by what they are not; they are defined continuously and simultaneously by what is not there and could not be represented. realism, it would appear, cannot get around this fundamental split. in this way, by representing the real, by recreating experience in order to capture meaning, what is instead represented is the very politics of “seeing” itself. the paradoxical ambiguity of realism has specific implications with regards to mcqueen’s realist images, and to the visual representation of slavery. what does it mean, then, to portray slavery “realistically,” and how can we locate this representation? by confronting the viewer with the image of the tortured slave body, by attempting to recreate the violence and trauma of slavery, mcqueen’s images occupy a fundamental split. framed constantly by what is not there, by what can never be represented, mcqueen’s images perform the politics of “seeing,” the instability of representation, and the impossibility of recreating the historical trauma and lived experience of slavery. this inherent ambiguity, the instability and impossibility of mcqueen’s images paradoxically imbedded at the very site of realism, is performed and in a sense “played out” by the critical response to the film. response to the film’s realist images of slave suffering and torture, of the violence and trauma of slavery, has elicited a competing discourse. although the film’s depiction of the violence and trauma of slavery has prompted widespread and important dialogue, individual critical conversations have been largely devoted to an implicit project of resolving these images, of framing and containing them by arguing for and against what they are believed to engage. as a result, little has been done to examine the politics and implications of this ambiguity itself, and what it might perform. in fact, in the very act of attempting to resolve the ambiguity of mcqueen’s images, this competing discourse strangely repeats and performs the very paradox of realism itself. by attempting to capture meaning and exclude other interpretations, these discourses must constantly frame and define themselves based on what is inherently not there, against the very ambiguity they mean to exclude. in this way, the discourse surrounding mcqueen’s realist images of the trauma and violence of slavery perform a fundamental split that continuously reflects and implicates the images themselves. this analysis contextualizes the paradoxical instability of mcqueen’s realist images of the trauma and violence of slavery and the discourse that surrounds them within a larger lineage of the history and politics imbedded in the depiction of slavery within visual culture. taking the 17 wolfe ambiguity of mcqueen’s realist depiction as its own political site, where the audience is confronted simultaneously with the violence of slavery as well as with the inherent impossibility of its representation, this analysis probes the ways in which mcqueen’s realist images actively resist and exceed the historical frame, getting at fundamental questions of trauma and representation in relation to the violence and collective memory of slavery. much theoretical work has been devoted to the visual representation of the transatlantic slave trade, particularly to images of the tortured slave body. several questions are of critical concern to theorists who study these representations, among them, how can we orient and understand depictions of slavery in visual culture? how do we “read” images of slavery? what implications do these readings have on whether the memory of slavery can ever be excavated and represented? these difficult questions have prompted a range of critical interpretations of images of slavery in visual culture, a discourse that is directly engaged by the critical response to mcqueen’s film. in one framing of this discourse, scholars of comparative slavery and visual culture have argued that graphic depictions of slave torture and abuse challenge and interrogate persuasive, insidious histories of the romanticization of slavery via the production and consumption of images, particularly the image of the “happy slave” and the “good master.” part of the “western myths devoted to the memory of slavery,” these romanticized images are indicative of a profound inability within european and north american cultural consciousness to cope with the memory of slavery and its place within the national imaginary, instead subjecting it to further management and containment through appropriation and erasure. as a result, argues natalie zemon davis, non-romanticized depictions of slavery in visual culture, particularly images of the suffering, tortured slave body, “can bring to life a person on the boundaries of historical possibility” (136). in this vein, graphic images of slavery can be read as an important form of resistance and counter-speech to violent modes of erasure through romanticized cultural and visual production. this reading of images of the tortured slave body as resistant and confronting is echoed in kendra james’s review of mcqueen’s 12 years a slave, published in the online blog racialicious. in her review, james argues that the film’s depiction of violence, particularly its depictions of slave tortures such as rape, beatings, lynching and whipping, is “necessary” in order to confront the viewer with the reality of slavery; to facilitate a “looking at the truth of our own past.” according to james, the images of violence and slave torture in mcqueen’s 12 years a slave “do not assuage the viewer’s sense of comfort. bluntly, this was not made taking the sensibilities of a white american audience into consideration.” in this way, by reading mcqueen’s images as a political departure from palatability that confronts viewers with the reality of slavery, james’s review implicitly engages a larger discourse on images of slavery in visual culture, in which images of slave torture are interpreted as a form of political resistance to romanticization and erasure. this critical framing is further expanded by scholars who work the intersections of trauma studies and image culture. exploring the relationship between trauma and visual media, scholars have argued that the inherent nature of film itself creates a particularly effective medium for representing the individual, lived experience and transhistorical trauma of slavery. according to trauma studies scholars, film becomes an effective means of representation because the medium performs and mimics the metaphysical experience of trauma. according to fryd, “video is an appropriate medium…for it easily conveys fragmentary images and narratives, fantasy, 18 wolfe and unspeakable acts” (148). the inherent estrangement and strangeness of film as media, the dissociation between subject and image, its imbedded discontinuity and nonlinearity, embodies “the trauma victim’s sense of disruption in lived experience and psychic coherence” (fryd, 148). in this way, graphic images of slavery can be read as performing both the act of witnessing and the experience of trauma via the medium of film itself. this interpretation is also echoed within james’s racialicious review of mcqueen’s 12 years a slave. in her review, james notes that the film’s cinematographic aspects often collapse and displace linear temporality, mimicking the disorientation and discontinuity of the trauma of slave life. as james notes, at any point in the film “this could be 12 months, 12 weeks or 12 years and we wouldn’t have known; i even lost track of how long i’d been in the theater.” james goes on to say that, “there’s no clear changing of the seasons; no transition from spring to summer to fall.” rather, “time is marked by the passing of violence rather than the passing of the seasons, and it blurs and stretches and bunches together in places.” here, james directly engages a larger discourse on depictions of slavery, in which the medium of film itself mimics the trauma of slavery, its confusion and dissociation. these particular framings of the relationship between slavery and visual culture have also been strongly challenged within contemporary discourse. in slavery, empathy, and pornography, marcus wood argues that the rhetorical framing of images of slave punishment and suffering reveals a pornographic impulse bound up in the act of sympathetic viewing. according to wood, sympathetic images of slave torture and abuse “treat the slave body…as punishment object or fetish in directly exploitative and eroticized ways which are blatantly pornographic” (93). in these images, argues wood, the slave body is rhetorically commodified and objectified for sympathetic consumption by a voyeuristic white audience. in viewing these images of slave punishment, the white audience is invited to “fantasize his/her own fictions of torture” (93), to imagine themselves in both the position of torturer and tortured. in this way, the image of the punished slave body is rhetorically commodifed as fetish object for the erotic pleasure of sympathetic white fantasy. according to wood, this “auto-erotics of sympathy” incorporates both a possessive and competitive action on behalf of the viewer. the image of the tortured slave in sympathetic fantasy creates a perverse comparative ground in which the audience is “vying to see who can suffer more, the victim in her tortured state, or the sympathetic voyeur in his ability to think himself into her pain” (131). the rhetorical competition imbedded in the sympathetic viewing of the image of the tortured slave also creates a form of possession and exertion over the slave body that disturbingly mimics the dynamics of slavery—the viewer can “can come back to and ‘enjoy’ the suffering of the fantasy slave at any time, and in any way he likes. this act of imaginative possession exists in troubled relation to the manner in which a real slave owner can use the slave’s body at any time, in any way” (16). the commodification and objectification of the image of the punished slave body via sympathetic framing, the competition and possession imbedded in sympathetic fantasy, suggests that these images “are not about black slave lives and black slave suffering, but about white fantasies of black slave lives and black slave suffering” (21). as a result, wood’s analysis radically interrogates a reading of images of slave suffering as resistant to histories of romanticization, instead framing them as their own form of romanticization and erasure. wood’s interrogation of the rhetorical objectification, commodification, and fetishization of the image of the tortured slave body is echoed in several reviews of mcqueen’s 12 years a slave. in a review titled “where are the serious movies about non-suffering black people?”, author 19 wolfe roxanne gay argues that hollywood has a particular fetish for depicting the torture and subjugation of the enslaved black body, and that this fetish, rather than depicting the reality of slavery, often works to specifically limit and erase representation. according to gay, “hollywood has very specific notions about how they want to see black people on the silver screen….all too often, critical acclaim for black films is built upon the alter of black suffering or subjugation.” here, echoing wood, gay identifies the ways in which the tortured black body is fetishized and romanticized through sympathetic consumption, as well as how the cultural investment in these images controls and contains narratives of black experience and life. in this way, gay engages in a larger discourse interrogating the rhetorical performance of images of the tortured slave body, ultimately reading the ways in which these images implicitly engage and reaffirm the structures of power they claim to challenge and subvert. the ambiguity of mcqueen’s images of slavery, particularly the image of the tortured slave body, is reflected in the ambiguity of discourse surrounding images of slavery in visual culture. this ambiguity is indicative of what marcus wood calls “the violent instability of the slavery archive,” its seemingly endless capacity for appropriation and refraction (slavery, empathy and pornography, 7). wood, along with many trauma studies scholars, also questions to what degree the lived experience and transhistorical memory of slavery may be inaccessible and unreachable. for wood, “the images reproduced mimic the experience…yet for each slave the experience was unrepeatable, irreducible, and irreproducible, all human suffering exists beyond the vulgarity of the simulacrum” (7). in this way, according to wood, the images of slavery call us “to be witness to the unrepresentable.” in remnants of aushwitz: the witness and the archive, author giorgio agamben argues that testimony and bearing witness to atrocity occupies a particular hinge: “on the one hand, what happened….appears to the survivors as the only true thing and, as such, absolutely unforgettable; on the other hand, this truth is to the same degree unimaginable, that is, irreducible to the real events that constitute it.” (12). this hinge of the unimaginable and the incomprehensible, the unforgettable and the inarticulateable, is indicative of a “lacuna” specifically imbedded in the nature of testimony itself. however, the paradoxical ambiguity that makes up the lacuna of testimony is not something to be resolved; it is not through a process of resolving the lacuna of witnessing that one locates the nature of testimony. rather, the author argues that the lacuna of witnessing points to the very structure of testimony; that inherent to and imbedded in the nature of testimony is the simultaneous impossibility of bearing witness. this analysis of testimony has specific implications with regard to the instability and ambiguity of mcqueen’s images of the violence of slavery, the discourse on images of slavery in visual culture, and the very nature of representation itself. rather than view the instability of images of slavery in mcqueen’s 12 years a slave, and within the larger body of visual culture, as something to be deciphered and resolved in order to locate the memory of slavery and its representation, it is possible that something like the memory of slavery lies in this paradox and inherent impossibility of “realism” itself. if the memory of slavery is irrecoverable, if trauma is defined by what is not there and cannot be represented, then perhaps imbedded within the paradox of the real, framed and defined always by what is not real and not there, is something close to the meaning and memory of slavery and its violence. 20 wolfe agamben, giorgio. remnants of auschwitz: the witness and the archive. new york: zone, 2002. print. davis, natalie zemon. slaves on screen: film and historical vision. cambridge: harvard university press, 2000. print. fryd, vivien green. “bearing witness to the trauma of slavery in kara walker’s videos: testimony, eight possible beginnings, and i was transported.” continuum: journal of media and cultural studies 24.1 (2010): 145-159. print. gay, roxanne. “where are the serious movies about non-suffering black people?”. vulture. 6 nov. 2013. web, 9 sept. 2014. james, kendra. “the racialicious review of 12 years a slave.” racialicious. 21 oct. 2013. web. 9 sept. 2014. wood, marcus. blind memory: visual representations of slavery in england and america 17801865. manchester: manchester university press, 2000. print. wood, marcus. slavery, empathy and pornography. new york: oxford university press, 2002. print. 21 works cited wolfe on cinematography and discomfort in 12 years a slave kathryn hampshire slavery is violent by its very nature. from the physical brutality to the psychological damage enslavement inflicts, a discussion of violence is vital for any conversation surrounding the subject of this institution. in 12 years a slave, the director, cinematographer, and actors present viewers with a disturbing and uncomfortable final product in what cultural historian dr. thomas doherty says “has already been called the most searing depiction of slavery ever projected on the american screen” (5). by lingering on scenes a bit longer (sometimes a lot longer) and providing stark contrasts that highlight the horrors of the narrative, the film forces audience members to confront their own discomfort about the subject head on. “[r]elentless cinematic intensity” is prevalent from the very beginning when the camera pushes its way through leaves in the field “closing in like vegetative shackles he [solomon] cannot hack away” (doherty 5). this scene creates a claustrophobic feeling which sets viewers up for the discomfort to follow. several times, director steve mcqueen utilizes his actors’ faces to further the themes of distress and pain. according to scholar deborah e. mcdowell, “in giving so much visual and sonic space to the mournful and melancholic—forlorn looks, grieving eyes, audible sobs—mcqueen allows us to consider slavery’s devastating hold on the emotional lives of the enslaved” (379), a concept which i find most evident in a scene toward the end of the film. this nearly silent (minus a storm brewing in the distance) extended shot of solomon’s angst-ridden face includes a full 14 seconds of direct eye contact. this scene has not received much attention thus far, but i propose that it is one of the most powerful in the film. according to director of photography and camera operator sean bobbitt in an interview with time lightbox, this is exactly what he was going for in what he attests is his favorite scene: “his face isn’t moving, and yet we see the whole of his life written in his eyes, the compassion and the horror and the dignity all welled up inside him,” he said, “and then he does that little glance into the camera, it was like a physical blow to the chest. it’s so simple and powerful, and for me that’s what cinematography should be” (qtd. in moakley). extended eye contact can be uncomfortable enough in person since, as dr. gwyneth doherty-sneddon points out, “looking at faces is quite mentally demanding [especially] when we are trying to concentrate and process something else that’s mentally demanding” (qtd. in bbc). from a film with so much difficult material for viewers to process already, these moments are all the more disconcerting. solomon forces the audience to acknowledge his tortured, hollow eyes, empty yet full of pain—so telling of slavery’s inherent nature—in such an uncomfortable, unsanitized, and unashamed way as to show slavery for what it is. two scenes in particular receive the most attention within critical conversations about the film: the hanging of northup and the whipping of patsey. the incredible violence and inhumanity depicted in these moments certainly render them memorable, but the more subtle aspects of the cinematography are what truly make them stand out from the rest of the film. with the hanging scene, bobbitt was not about to let the audience off easy. in an interview with the hollywood reporter, he said, “each of the [hanging scene] shots is held for a long period of time, specifically to make the audience as uncomfortable as possible and to force them to reflect on what was happening to solomon and how terrifying that must have been” 22 hampshire (qtd. in giardina). capping off at 1:26 of uncut footage, the film forces the audience to watch as northup balances on his toes in the mud to prevent his suffocating in the noose. with little action on screen except for a few slaves going about their business in the background and hardly any noise but the sickly squishing of sludge beneath his toes, this scene is purposefully brutal to watch. when the camera finally breaks from this angle, viewers get a moment of respite. the film’s next two minutes of northup’s struggling to stay alive represent the hours he had to wait for his own relief (which, notably, must come at the hands of his master) by showing the daylight changing and other slaves going about their daily activities in the background. “what was very important is that the audience gets a sense of the passage of time, and sense the length of the shots, that feeling of the duration of the day,” said bobbitt (qtd. in moakley). it is important here to reference how this theme of relief without resolution continues through to the end of the film when solomon is finally rescued from slavery. in that moment, though relieved for his salvation, the audience also experiences unfulfilled yearning for a happy ending to patsey’s story too as she only fades further into the background, a lingering message of slavery’s still unresolved legacy in both history and modern times alike. the suffering solomon faces in his hanging contrasts with the anguish he is forced to inflict on a fellow slave in the other highly-discussed scene: patsey’s whipping. continuous shooting was important to the crew to depict this extreme inhumanity. bobbitt said to the hollywood reporter: [t]hat was always going to be one continuous shot…. the audience is given no relief. once you put a cut in, then subconsciously everyone is aware that they are watching a film, and it lets them off the hook…. particularly for a scene like that, with the complexity of the emotions and the violence going on, it really acts to heighten the drama and the performance of the actors. (qtd. in giardina) in this continuous shot totaling a whopping 6:21, the camera includes “multiple perspectives of victim, perpetrator, unwilling participant, and enthusiastic onlooker” (doherty 7). this observation is certainly important; thus, i wish to delve further into its implications. the cinematography avoids jump cuts between perspectives since these leaps tend to give viewers the sense of “jumping” into individual characters’ heads for certain moments of a narrative. instead, the film opts for an omniscient, authentic, and continuous shot which shows the events and the various people involved blatantly as they are. one significant element of this scene has gone generally unnoticed, but i wish to draw attention to it here. it is only after following the soap—the small, pure, innocent cause of so much violence, wretchedness, and suffering—fall gently to the ground from patsey’s hands that the camera finally breaks. but, instead of offering a moment of relief to the audience, it does the opposite: the screen goes straight to a shocking shot of patsey’s lacerated back, “the most extreme and horrid of the many images of bodily harm in 12 years a slave” (doherty 7). by doing so, i propose that the film demonstrates how even something—or someone—innocent, clean of any stain of guilt, can be twisted and warped through the violence of slavery. the break between the scenes also shows how, in the life of a slave, there are no moments of relief; even when one expects a reprieve, she may only face further suffering. by imposing this feeling of hopelessness and apprehension on the audience, these scenes force viewers to experience and confront their discomfort with the violence of slavery. by making the audience uncomfortable instead of opting for a more sanitized version of the story, this film draws attention to the twisted nature of slavery through these unrelenting depictions of depravity. 23 hampshire in addition to these scenes of violence, i would also like to emphasize how this film’s cinematography provides stark contrasts which make the audience view these events in a different light than they may have without these contrasts. first, we will examine solomon’s transition from loving to loathing his one source of solace—his violin. at 6:30, viewers receive close-up footage of him taking care of his beloved instrument, which directly contrasts a scene nearly two hours later when he destroys one. the camera zooms in on the violin like the previous scene, only now depicting pain instead of care. whereas in the beginning solomon carefully tunes his instrument, now he tightens each string until it snaps, then breaks the neck in half. i find the fact that the latter of the two scenes follows patsey’s whipping to be significant: it shows how this act has forced him over the edge to the point where something which once brought him solace is now symbolic of suffering. several times, setting itself provides contrast. toward the beginning, the camera focuses on patriotic symbols. when solomon is beaten and held in a cell, the camera pans from the barred window up to a picturesque view of the capitol building and other easily-recognizable d.c. landmarks. harvard professor john stauffer points out how, later in the film, one can see the washington monument through a spinning paddle-wheel of the ship taking solomon south which “zooms toward us, filling the screen, suggesting the closed society in which it heads” (318). in addition to his observation, i would like to elaborate by saying that these juxtapositions of the institution of slavery with contemporary symbols of patriotism serve an additional purpose: they force the audience to the uncomfortable acknowledgement of the horrors in the country’s history and their reverberations into the present. setting the rest of the film in louisiana gave the crew the opportunity to present visuals as “an ironic compensation during all the human misery” since “all would be beautiful were not the impenetrable landscape a natural penitentiary” (doherty 7). i find a prime example of doherty’s point at 33:00, when the camera shows silhouettes of nature and then pans to a line-up of slaves. later, when solomon is whipping the overseer tibeats, the wide camera angle shows the violence of the act juxtaposed with the calm of the scenery. in my critical analysis, i also observe how the use of dark versus light conveys disparity by allowing viewers to experience despair along with solomon. when he first finds himself a captive, the scene sharply breaks from the brightness of his last meal as a free man to the pitch blackness of his cell. his flashbacks to the night before are increasingly darker as they progress, symbolizing his descent into a living hell. at the night’s close, the men blow out a candle as they also blow the life and hope from his existence for the 12 years to follow. later, when a fellow laborer betrays solomon’s trust, light from a lantern goes away, leaving him in the pitch black with only his despair. he throws his letter into the fire, and viewers watch as the embers slowly fade away, creating a growing sense of hopelessness as solomon’s hope dies along with them. cinematographic temporality also aids in this depiction of contrasts while also contributing to our discussion of discomfort. by using combinations of long takes and close-ups, bobbitt creates a sense of “slow-as-molasses meteorology” (doherty 7). even when the camera does move unencumbered, the freedom it depicts is contrary to the subjects it captures. according to doherty, in order “[t]o evoke solomon’s stranded and locked-up condition, mcqueen keeps his camera horizontal and close to the ground, taking his time to look straight at a vista or a face, with a minimum of non-diegetic music” (7). indeed, along with emphasizing solomon’s lack of freedom, the film also demonstrates how his relativity in regards to time is completely dependent on his master. according to mcdowell, “at every level of 12 years a slave, mcqueen 24 hampshire meditates on time and measures progress in painfully incremental steps and stages.… for solomon, as for the viewer, time passes all too slowly” (376). whether it be progress on solomon’s difficult road to freedom or his daily labors at the hands of his abusers, the painstakingly slow pace forces viewers to look at suffering far longer than they would wish. through these cinematographic strategies of temporality and disparity, we can come to a further appreciation for what this film accomplishes in terms of its depiction of slavery. along with adding emphasis to their respective moments, these techniques also aid in the overall depiction of this brutal institution’s violent nature. 12 years a slave presents audiences with such difficult viewing material that is free of sanitization. by doing so, it puts the audience members in a situation where they must either turn their eyes from the violence before them (as we so often do) or face that brutality and what it means that we are so disconcerted by it. however much we might want slavery to be the straightforward, sanitized problem of the past that so many films make it out to be, 12 years a slave forces us to face the fact that this peculiar institution still has reverberations into the present. 25 hampshire 12 years a slave. dir. steve mcqueen. perf. chiwetel ejiofor, michael kenneth williams, michael fassbender, and adepero oduye. regency enterprises, 2013. film. bbc. “pupils ‘must look away to think.’” bbc news. 11 january 2006. web. 20 november 2014. doherty, thomas. “bringing the slave narrative to screen: steve mcqueen and john ridley’s searing depiction of america’s ‘peculiar institution.’” cineaste: america’s leading magazine on the art and politics of the cinema 39.1 (2013): 4-8. giardina, carolyn. “’12 years a slave’ cinematographer sean bobbitt: not letting the audience off the hook.” the hollywood reporter. 17 october 2013. web. 14 september 2014. mcdowell, debora e. “how long?—not long.” american literature history 26.2 (2014): 374-384. moakley, paul. “behind the moving image: the cinematography of 12 years a slave.” time lightbox, 27 february 2014. web. 14 september 2014. stauffer, john. “12 years between life and death.” american literature history 26.2 (2014): 317-325. 26 works cited hampshire scoured souls: the imbalance between mistresses and female slaves ramona simmons in examining slavery, the focus on the cycle of abuse tends to remain on the interaction between female slaves and their male masters. any relationships existing between the mistress and female slaves were often overlooked, or downplayed as being friendly or even familial. as shown in popular slavery films like django unchained, and even mildly in 12 years a slave, female slaves were often depicted as being workers within the home who fulfilled many of the roles a traditional homemaker would, from cooking to cleaning. in contrast, because the domestic tasks were well-taken care of, mistresses developed relationships with these slave women in a quasi-friendly nature, as displayed in works like gone with the wind. in the duration of the margaret mitchel novel-based film, the bond between scarlett o’hara and mammy is portrayed as more of a maternal disposition where the slave acted as a nanny for a young woman until she grew older. 12 years a slave shatters this serene portrait by deploying characters such as mistress epps and patsey, showing the darker side of the mistress-female slave interactions as being one of hatred and jealousy. to fully understand this shift in presentation of women in slavery, it is important to understand the false mutual oppression of both women in slavery. often, it seems that both sets of women were subjected to dominance by the slave master, leading to both groups being viewed as victims. although this is true, we less often examine how this can lead to the mistress’s abuse of the female slave to empower herself. lastly, it is equally important to expose the clash between the women’s roles in slavery that transformed into a relation of violence from a mistress towards a slave. upon looking at slavery witnessed in 12 years a slave, it could be argued that mistresses and female slaves were found in the same predicament in their oppression within patriarchy. master epps belittles patsey, a female slave that is highlighted as his favorite for the amount of work she can accomplish in comparison to the other slaves. this earns her the title of “queen of the fields,” which in turn captures the plantation mistress’ attention. outraged by the energy master epps places in praising and eyeing patsey, mistress epps demands for her husband to end his improved attitude towards and treatment of patsey. master epps refuses, for he thinks of himself as the ruler of the entire plantation, his wife unequal to his status, and blatantly ignores her requests, leaving the audience a glimpse of how mistresses were oppressed by their husbands. although the mistress was ranked higher in the social hierarchy, both the mistress and the female slave answered to the male master of the land. mistresses were viewed as psychological slaves to their husbands through their lack of equality in status. within her essay charlotte arbogast goes into the shared “property” state of both women saying, “the confines of gender for white women in southern society also meant that upon getting married, white women turned into a form of ‘property’ for their new husbands” (arbogast 1). this reality was showcased in several ways that dominated a mistress’ typical life. she was expected to serve as a child bearer, maiden of the household, devout christian, and entertainer, everything that comprised the picture of domesticity. typically, the slaves belonged to the master. as a result, oftentimes there would be a power struggle between a mistress and her husband, as any orders from the husband would override requests by the mistress. an imbalance in slave control between mas27 simmons ter and mistress could thereby be attributed to the gender-specific roles within the community in which slavery occurred. buhle, murphy, and gerhard, american historians and professors at assorted u.s. universities, explain the lack of feminine power due to her domination in the private circles (i.e. household function concerns), whereas her husband was within the public circles (associated with politics and economy) (xx). with his role being the financial provider, this introduces another layer of complexity of reliance that the slaves and mistress both had concerning the master. without the men to supply money and conduct business, the mistress and slaves were thought to be lost, as the mistress held little social standing; meanwhile the slave held none at all. for example, both women and slaves did not have a voice within politics to interject their own opinions for change, which speaks to the mistress’ near-nonexistence and the slaves’ nonexistence in the realm of politics. mistresses themselves were still involved in social networks more so than slaves, as they did have certain rights and were active in engagements with other society members, which were key rights that slaves were deprived of. when considering the mistreatment of female slaves at the hands of their mistresses, the physical harm is what comes to mind primarily. even women who did not own slaves themselves sought out slaves as the gateway for them to achieve true housewife status. within his study, soul by soul: life inside the antebellum slave market, harvard university professor william johnson develops the idea that if a mistress was to have house slaves, they would clear her of having to perform the physical labor of being a housewife. she would still be credited as being responsible for a successful domestic life without having to endure the physical labors of doing so, fulfilling her time leisurely with her family and hosting acquaintances (79-162). the abuse of power over house slaves was something that seduced many mistresses and led to violence as a possible coercion tactic to encourage obedience. despite domination being necessary in order to secure social status, others have shined a light on the emotion aspects of producing such violence. conflict would arise in that “many incidents involving the cruelty of a mistress also involved a female slave’s alleged intimacy with the master” (reilly 52). arguably, the free women who committed these infractions against slaves felt threatened by slaves who were supposed to be of a lower social standing than them. the mistresses’ real anger stemmed directly from the very system in which they found themselves. michaela davis discusses the challenge to their position that the mistresses felt and the inability they had to confront their husbands about the white male supremacy that prevented them from advancing on in the hierarchy (davis). thereafter, the mistresses would oppress any slaves that had relations (unwanted or not) with her husband in order to deprive him of one avenue of pleasure he sought out (davis). within the movie, the compliance of mistress epps with the slave system is appalling and one that makes the audience root against her. her use of violence towards patsey was a theme throughout the movie that was sickening, a derivative of the grotesque animalistic advances of master epps on patsey. as patsey improves throughout her time at the epps’ plantation, this awards her the attention of master epps. while he takes a greater notice of her, mistress epps is in the wings, watching exactly how far master epps will take his taboo relationship with patsey. soon enough, mistress epps notices that master epps finds attraction in the qualities she does not possess herself, such as extreme physical labor productivity. a particular scene that draws attention to the attraction master epps carelessly displays is one in which he wakes all of the slaves up in the dead of night to make them dance within his home. solomon plays the violin while his fellow slaves follow suit after an intoxicated master 28 simmons epps and his chosen partner, patsey. during this parade of lunacy on behalf of master epps, mistress epps enters the scene to investigate what it is the slaves are performing. this is when her eyes are set on patsey, with whom master epps has taken the liberty to dance. upon doing so, she disrupts them and comes face-to-face with patsey. she finds herself torn because she has been beaten out socially by an individual who is supposed to be inferior to her status. once she realizes this, she confronts patsey by shattering a glass and raking it down her face. screaming in agony, a confused patsey has blood rush profusely from her face and is taken away to be cared for. the scene illustrated above refers to many reasons why white slave women were active participants in the cruelty against their slaves. if it did not scare obedience into the slave, the purpose was then to find a way to disrupt any relationship between the slave (patsey) and master (master epps). collectively as females, both sets of women were subjected to mental abuse from a typically controlling and overbearing white male master, admittedly. despite this similarity in circumstance, female slaves emerged as the individuals suffering the most abuse, becoming sexual objects for masters to prey upon. alongside, they became victims of the mistress’ violence for these unwanted sexual advances from the master. although the scarlett o’hara’s and mammy’s of the film industry would have consumers think otherwise, there was a much darker side to the relationship between the two women who held the master’s attention, unwanted (by the slave) or yearned for (by the mistress). this dimension of the mistress-female slave relationship is a side often kept within the darkness of the same shadows that conceal the painful truth of being a female of color in the confederate south. 29 simmons arbogast, charlotte e. “perceptions of white mistresses: the ‘mistress’ and the ‘dear white mother.’” lynchburg college. web. 14 sept. 2014. buhle, mari jo, teresa murphy, and jane gerhard. women and the making of america. upper saddle river: pearson, 2008. print. davis, michaela angela. “12 years a slave: rage, privilege, black women and white women.” jezebel. gawker media. 28 oct. 2013. web. 14 sept. 2014. johnson, william. soul by soul: life inside the antebellum slave market. cambridge: harvard university press, 1990. print. reilly, elizabeth lauren. the “scab” of slavery: interracial female solidarity in literature about the antebellum south. m.a. thesis. vanderbilt university, 2008. print. white, deborah gray. ar’n’ i a woman?: female slaves in the plantation south. new york: w. w. norton & company, 1999. print. 30 works cited simmons the inability to commit suicide: an analysis of steve mcqueen’s 12 years a slave bryce longenberger suicide is destructive in its very nature. the act of suicide ends the life of a person, which is accomplished intentionally and purposefully by the hand of that very individual. it is not shocking that a system such as slavery, which is inherently violent and degrading in nature, would drive a person to desire and succeed in taking his or her own life. in this essay, i will explore the way in which steve mcqueen utilizes the idea of suicide in his film 12 years a slave to highlight the extent to which slavery can degrade a human being and shape his or her life into a zombie-like state of existence. and it is at this point where he or she does not even possess the capability of taking his or her own life. before i examine the role of suicide and slavery in the film itself, i want to outline the history and theories behind suicide and slavery throughout history. the scholarship on this intersection has been scarce throughout the decades since slavery’s end. terry l. snyder indicates that the nature of self-destruction among slaves has been largely overlooked because, during the time of slavery, it was difficult to determine the number of slaves who committed suicide versus slaves who died of other causes (40). however, some research does exist, and snyder states that the research that has been done concludes that slaves who committed suicide often acted in defiance of and in resistance to their masters. one of the earliest pieces of research on suicide as a form of resistance appeared in the 1940’s when raymond and alice bauer described the various ways in which slaves resisted their masters, including feigning illness and inflicting pain upon themselves. they noted, however, that in extreme cases, slaves would commit suicide as “an indirect means of retaliation” (418). although this research is over half a century old, this view has not subsided in recent years. snyder also states in her 2010 article that “slave suicide often has been rightly perceived as a form of defiance” and that it can indeed be seen as “‘the ultimate form of resistance’” that a slave can perform (42). suicide here allowed a slave to resist his circumstances and ultimately the master who enslaved him. surprisingly enough, suicide serves a dual purpose beyond mere resistance. linda kay kneeland explains that slaves would choose suicide as a form of retaliation when they “determined that they were unwilling to exist under the only choices they could perceive, and when they saw only more pain in their future” (9). it seems that despair and surrender were incredibly significant in a slave’s decision to end his or her own life. and so, suicide in slavery has been seen to be both a form of resistance to the master’s authority and an act of escape and release from the pain the slave has endured. as we now move our attention to an analysis of the film, i would first like to describe the ways in which suicide appears in both solomon’s narrative and the film. in solomon’s narrative, he dwelt on the thought of suicide in multiple places in his novel. the prospect of death was always on his mind, and he was constantly thinking that “death was far less terrible than the living prospect that was before” him (northup 40). but even more striking than his obsession with death are his thoughts of regret and jealousy for not being dead himself. in his narrative, after robert is killed on the steamboat heading south to louisiana, solomon muses, “there was a feeling of utter desolation in my heart, filling it with a despairing and regretful sense, that 31 longenberger i had not gone down with robert to the bottom of the sea” (northup 44). solomon clearly believed at times in his enslavement that it would be much better, even beneficial, for him to end his life and be done with all of the violence and suffering that life as a slave had to offer him. for the most part, the theme of suicide is mirrored in mcqueen’s film version of 12 years a slave. the most prominent parallel between the book and the film appears again during the ride on the steamboat to louisiana. the day after robert is killed while trying to resist a white man who is taking eliza away in the night, solomon and another black man are disposing of robert’s body. after they dump his body overboard, solomon stares at the body floating away and appears to be mourning the loss of robert’s life. but solomon’s companion breaks the silence, turning to solomon and saying, “[he’s] better off; better than us.” even though solomon never expresses suicidal thoughts in the film, here again we see this idea that death is preferable to life. even though they do not mention suicide, the act hangs as a constant possibility and a chance to join the dead man who is “better off ” than the living slave. the second appearance of suicide in the film is actually a major deviation from solomon’s narrative, and it is on this deviation that our analysis of the film will rest. this is the scene where patsey asks solomon to kill her. in solomon’s narrative, we see that patsey never expresses an interest in ending her life. she may have thought about it on countless occasions, but she never expresses the actual desire to end her life, at least according to solomon. in the film, however, mcqueen chose to have patsey attempt to kill herself even though she never actually follows through. toward the end of the film, before patsey is brutally whipped, patsey approaches solomon in the dead of night and asks solomon the following in a pleading voice with great conviction and determination: “all i ask: end my life. take my body to the margin of the swamp … take me by the throat, hold me low in the water until i am still and without life.” solomon immediately becomes appalled by the fact that patsey has fallen into such despair. when he pleads with her, she claims passionately, “i ain’t got no comfort in this life.” when solomon still resists her pleas, she begs with him, asking him to “do what i ain’t got the strength to do myself ” (mcqueen). overall, scholars have discussed the issue of suicide in the film quite extensively, just not the reasons why patsey was unable to end her own life. john stauffer discusses the film through the framework of survivalism, which he argues plays a huge role in slaves’ lives, until the point where they “perceive living in slavery as worse than death, and it is at this point that they rebel” (319). as we’ve already seen, this rebellion often occurs in the form of suicide. but scholars also stress the fact that this rebellion is still fueled by a desire for release from this life. in analyzing the importance of patsey in the film and her role in gaining narrative authority, salamishah tillet concludes in her paper that the experiences of “solomon’s fellow slaves are so abject” that they believe “death, by suicide or murder, might be [a] viable alternative” (359). what tillet and stauffer are suggesting is the inescapable fact that slaves who commit suicide are reacting to the “abject” circumstances of their lives by choosing to both rebel against their master and release themselves from their miserable lives. as we can clearly see, this matches the research done on suicide and slavery throughout history. even though scholars have discussed why slaves might want to commit suicide, they have not touched on the reason why patsey does not commit suicide. if patsey had committed suicide, it would indeed have allowed her to resist the “rape by her master” and the “odium of mistress epps” (stauffer 320). by committing suicide, she would have been able to resist her master and release herself from a life full of violence. but patsey does not do this. we must 32 longenberger then ask two major questions: why does patsey not commit suicide, and why does mcqueen add the scene where patsey expresses a desire to commit suicide when it was not even mentioned in solomon’s narrative? to answer these questions, i believe that mcqueen represents patsey as having endured so much pain in her life that she has resigned herself to merely surviving instead of living. in this zombie-like state, i believe that patsey is incapable of taking her life with her own two hands. i also believe mcqueen added this scene not to comment on what suicide allows a slave to do but rather to comment on a system of oppression that is so degrading that it can cause a person to fall into such a wretched state of existence based solely on surviving instead of living. the idea of survivalism is introduced in john stauffer’s article where he defines the life of a slave as existing in a “state of war” between life and death itself, which results from the “extreme power imbalance between master and slave” (317). he focuses his attention on solomon northup; he states that solomon is forcibly kept alive so that he may labor for his master, but then he is simultaneously subjected to extreme violence and brutality that threatens him with death. in this way, stauffer argues that solomon, and slaves in general, constantly dangle between life and death, touching both at the same time yet never staying on a definitive side. because of this, many slaves resort to merely surviving instead of living or dying. in the film, when solomon is whisked away to be enslaved in the south, a fellow slave tells him that he must be quiet about his identity in order to survive. solomon retorts in disbelief and rage, saying, “i don’t want to survive; i want to live.” but after solomon has been subjected to the demoralizing violence of slavery, eliza asks solomon how he can bear the loss of his children so well. solomon screams back at her in desperation: “i survive!” solomon has been exposed to such extreme forms of violence and degradation that he is no longer fully able or willing to live or die; he has instead been forced to resign himself to a structuralized state of survival and mere existence. we can see here that the oppression slaves are subjected to renders them into a system that places them into a structure that resembles that of mindless zombies, people who are neither truly dead nor alive but merely existing and unable to change the circumstances of their own lives. in the film, patsey’s life is very much centered on survivalism—between death and truly being alive—as well. when master epps discovers that she left the plantation for a bar of soap, patsey cries, “i stink so much i make myself gag … and for that i will be clean. that is all i ask” (mcqueen). this desire to be clean, to merely cease the stench that is emanating from her body, is clearly a desire grounded in a person who is merely trying to survive life, to get through a single day at a time. we also see the ways in which patsey is unable to help herself. after her brutal beating towards the end of the film, her lacerated back is being cleaned, and she looks up at solomon and a tear slides down her face (mcqueen). she is silently asking solomon why he did not end her life; she is asking him why he did not do what she did not have the power or strength to do herself. because patsey has been subjected to more violence and brutality than any human being can conceivably live through, she is enduring the violence because she can do nothing to stop it herself. the fact still remains that mcqueen could have had patsey end her own life; it would have been a deviation from the book and would have altered the effect of the film dramatically. if mcqueen had wanted to comment on the atrocities of slavery by having patsey actually end her life, he could have done so. instead, mcqueen chose to insert this instance of not being able to commit suicide. i believe mcqueen intentionally included a scene where patsey expresses a desire to commit suicide because he wanted to introduce the idea of a system of 33 longenberger oppression that alters the human condition in a way where suicide becomes impossible. by including this scene, mcqueen stresses the dehumanization of slaves like patsey who have been rendered into zombies who can merely exist and survive. at the end of the film, solomon is taken back to his family in the north. he has been given back his life and can live out the remainder of his life with his family away from the constant presence of the whip. but as the carriage carrying solomon from epps’s plantation continues moving toward us on the screen, the background becomes fuzzy, and we see patsey fall to the ground in a miserable heap. in this hazy backdrop, which blurs not only the scenery but patsey herself, mcqueen reminds us once again of the extremity of violence that is inherent in slavery. as the movie ends, we cannot forget patsey and her zombie-like state. despite solomon’s relatively happy ending, patsey will always haunt us and remind us of the degrading essence of slavery and its power to make some humans into beings that can merely exist, beings who may desire to live or die but are nevertheless powerless to change their fate either way. 34 longenberger bauer, raymond a. and alice h. bauer. “day to day resistance to slavery.” the journal of negro history 27.4 (1942): 388-419. jstor. web. 23 september 2014. kneeland, linda kay. “african american suffering and suicide under slavery.” ma thesis. montana state university, 2006. web. 22 september 2014. mcqueen, steve, dir. 12 years a slave. regency enterprises, 2013. film. northup, solomon. twelve years a slave. 1853. ed. henry louis gates, jr. new york: penguin, 2012. print. snyder, terry l. “suicide, slavery and memory in north america.” journal of american history 97.1 (2010): 39-62. web. 23 september 2014. stauffer, john. “12 years between life and death.” american literary history 26.2 (2014): 317325. project muse. web. 8 september 2014. tillet, salamishah. “‘i got no comfort in this life’: the increasing importance of patsey in 12 years a slave.” american literary history 26.2 (2014): 354-361. project muse. web. 8 september 2014. 35 works cited longenberger digital literature review 1 7 “what is even worse, our lack of insight deprives us of the capacity to deal with evil.” —carl jung, pp. 53 we are a culture of fear. since our inception (and i use the collective deliberately), the united states has equipped this useful system of fear to control, suppress, influence, and protect. the failure of reconstruction, for example, and the subsequent rise of jim crow tyranny were not the products of white fear over the fabricated mythos of innate black male violence because, of course, that was a narrative constructed to justify white acts of terrorism against black communities and life. no, jim crow was instead an outgrowth of white fear over the possibility of losing white hegemony. by indulging in this heinous narrative, white america asserted aggressive force to suppress black success and equality while protecting white control through the use of fear. our culture has not changed, as evidenced by the propagation of a narrative of urban danger and resultant avoidance (“make sure to stay away from that neighborhood!”), the continuous acquittals of individuals committing acts of police brutality (“i feared for my life”—even when the innocent victim was unarmed), and fear itself, or fearing ourselves: the literature of ghosts and cultural hauntings dillon o’nail, editor in chief digital literature review 2 8 the backlash against the obama era manifested through the trump administration. perhaps the clearest expression of fear can be found in the war on terror and the surrounding discourse created to justify the invasions of afghanistan and iraq and to garner support for those campaigns. fear controls us. the global pandemic of covid-19 in which we all currently live perfectly demonstrates these enduring ghosts of fear and hatred. the fear i speak of when i mention covid-19 is not our worry about leaving our homes. instead, i mean the resurgence of xenophobia against chinese people. the emergence of this lethal, frankly terrifying disease has provided the perfect excuse for racist individuals to justify their hatred for chinese citizens and anyone who appears asian more generally. people are afraid of covid-19, and they utilize that fear to their racial benefit. simply look at the films and literature we enjoy. a plethora of horror films about ghosts and hauntings maintain their vast audience, from the timeless legacy of ghostbusters (1984) to the immense success of the conjuring (2013-2020) series. simply put, we love to be scared. some films, such as a ghost story (2017), accomplish similar work to this year’s edition of the digital literature review, elevating a simple haunting to a profound position that sentimentally explores love, loss, reconciliation, and, perhaps most iconic of all ghost stories, peace. novels such as shirley jackson’s 1959 the haunting of hill house have enjoyed a resurgence of cultural relevancy as a result of mike flanagan’s 2018 reimagined netflix series, and stephen king’s 1977 the shining dares audiences to wonder what is truly more frightening: strange apparitions of twins at the end of hotel corridors or the gripping, destructive ghost of alcoholism? apparently, ghost stories are more than jump-scares and ensuring the audience cannot sleep at night. like any tale, ghost stories offer an intimate meditation on culture and the individual. the digital literature review has thus turned our focus towards the paranormal this year. literature of ghosts and hauntings offers a medium through which we can better understand ourselves, our culture, and our experiences. ghosts can remind us of past injustices by blurring the division between history and the present, such as in leanne howe’s shell shaker (2001) when auda billy, through the influence of her ghostly ancestor shakbatina, repeats history by planning to murder the choctaw chief redford mcalester for corruption and greed. ghosts can comfort, as we can see in tony kushner’s angels in america (1991), when ethel rosenberg’s ghost sings roy cohn a lullaby on his deathbed or the titular angel helps prior walter find solace as he struggles with hiv. ghosts can disturb, like those in the aforementioned the haunting of hill house, when eleanor vance, a woman desperate for affection and community, believes herself to be holding a hand in the isolating darkness—only to find no one was there. some ghosts, such as the titular digital literature review 3 9 one that haunts the residents of 124 bluestone in toni morrison’s magnum opus beloved (1987), can accomplish all three. while encountering sethe, denver, and paul d’s traumatic experiences with slavery and its aftermath, everyone—character and reader alike—finds remembrance, disturbance, and somehow, despite it all, comfort by the end of the novel. ghosts are manifold, and to neglect serious academic inquiry into the genre is to neglect the deepest aspects of human existence. tales of ghosts and cultural hauntings force us to face our nightmares head on, offering insights into past and current evils. through these insights, we gain the ability to exorcise and lay to rest that which haunts us—whether it be colonization, the aids crisis, familial trauma, or slavery. as carl jung implies, these evils persist until we finally engage in serious, critical reflection with them and their legacies. to help break ground into this excavation, the digital literature review spent ample time studying useful theories that help us understand the world of ghosts and cultural hauntings. sigmund freud’s conception of the uncanny offers perhaps the most direct entrance into understanding our fascination with fear, ghosts, and hauntings. freud describes the uncanny as an overlapping of heimlich and unheimlich, which translates to homey, or familiar, and strange, or unfamiliar, respectively. we experience animated dolls like chucky, for example, or déjà vu as uncanny because something about these instances ring as simultaneously familiar and strange. we know dolls are not human, of course, but they sure do look like humans, and their movements at least mimic those of humans; we see ourselves within them but know they are not us and we are not them. likewise, déjà vu leaves a person confidently aware they have never experienced this moment before yet equally as confident that the moment is familiar—too familiar. ghosts and hauntings often embody the uncanny, as some of the essays within this edition discuss, and to understand why these apparitions are strange we must understand why they are simultaneously familiar and vice versa. the uncanny allows us to understand not only why we are drawn to ghosts and hauntings, but what they reveal about us—even though we may not be ghosts, we see ourselves in them. as avery gordon posits in her essay “her shape and his hand,” “the ghost or the apparition is one form by which something lost, or barely visible, or seemingly not there to our supposedly well-trained eyes, makes itself known or apparent to us, in its own way, of course” (8). ghost stories and hauntings humble us, revealing just how little we truly know about ourselves; our “well-trained eyes” are not as vigilant as we would like. ghosts also, however, imbue people, places, and events with the dignity and agency they were denied in life, now able to assert their undeniable presence “in [their] own way.” in these ways, ghosts are educational, ghosts are healing, and ghosts are respectful in ways the living often is not. digital literature review 4 10 a discussion of ghosts and cultural hauntings must not neglect an inclusion of trauma. ghosts are perfect embodiments of trauma, physically symbolizing the ways in which past people and experiences linger on in the present. like trauma, ghosts make peaceful living an impossibility. they throw pots and pans, stare back from a darkened room, and hide under your bed. ghosts invade the home. trauma likewise invades the home, or the self. healing remains a disembodied goal until trauma has been laid to a peaceful rest. the literary analysis of ghosts and cultural hauntings thus offers practice in addressing and handling trauma, culturally or personally. in sum, ghosts are an intimate, yet terrifying, relationship between the self and the community, between how we construct our own fantasies and the reality in which we live. to tie these ghosts back to freud, “the uncanny effect often arises when the boundary between fantasy and reality is blurred” (150). ghosts bring us closer to and makes us more aware of ourselves and our nation. starting this edition of the digital literature review is eliza o’donnell’s essay, “hauntings of bodies, selves, and houses: a comparative reading of three of emily carroll’s short horror comic series.” instead of exploring how ghosts are disconnected from the body, the author understands them as predatory forces attempting to reconnect with the body. through analyzing several of emily carroll’s publications, o’donnell’s essay ties the cultural to the personal, exploring how cultural ideologies of femininity and domesticity entrap women in carroll’s texts. addison paul’s “haunting the body: an exploration of scars as ghosts” that further grounds us within the embodied self by exploring the physical impact of trauma. the author analyzes gillian flynn’s sharp objects (2006) and the hbo 2018 miniseries adaptation to understand how self-harm, trauma, and hauntings all are interconnected, while also questioning the exploitative representations of female self-harm in entertainment. paul’s essay leads us directly to the next couple essays, written by isabel parham and me, respectively. parham’s essay, “peace at last: grappling with ghosts and the family structure in the sixth sense and the haunting of hill house,” furthers our study of the self’s response to trauma and gender by connecting ghosts and hauntings to the heterosexual family. the author analyzes the main characters of the primary sources to better understand how the characters embrace the uncanny to defy or accept nuclear family structures, ultimately allowing them to reconcile with their traumas and find peace at last. my essay, “‘outside the gate’: family, selfhood, and post-traumatic growth in shirley jackson’s the haunting of hill house,” unites the previous themes of selfhood, trauma, and cultural issues of familial structures to illuminate the complexities of familial trauma as well as the nuances of post-traumatic growth (ptg). with these two essays, our journal shifts focus from the self back to the culture. digital literature review 5 11 ashley burns’s “political polarization and demonic possession: how american culture is haunted by its own fascination with good and evil” explores how films about possession and exorcism reflect political polarization. the author provides a critical framework with which to understand how cultures become possessed. the following four essays analyze various facets of cultural hauntings more broadly. clare nee’s “the haunt of injustice: exploring homophobia in vampire literature” looks at le fanu’s novella carmilla (1872) and bram stoker’s dracula (1897) to analyze the ways in which homophobic violence haunts societies past and present. jacob garrett, in “taking a look in the mirror: the inversion of middle-class fears of urban decay and the representation of racial violence and in bernard rose’s candyman,” posits that rose subverts horror film tropes to force audiences to grapple with the enduring presence of classism and racism. “stolen spirits: the appropriation of the wendigo spirit in horror literature,” by kallie hunchman, reads stephen king’s pet sematary (1983) and algernon blackwood’s “the wendigo” (1910) to demonstrate how native american culture—and the windigo figure in particular—faces continuous exploitation and appropriation by anglo-americans. adam ladner’s “the american midwestern haunting: the asylum lives on” explores the histories, similarities, and differences in stories of “haunted” midwestern asylums to elucidate fears of mental health patients, gradually bringing the journal back to the focus on the individual. from these, we move to the last set of essays, beginning with brooke lilek’s “horrors of society: the reflection of societal fears in american horror films.” the author argues that poltergeist reflects how technology haunts us, using the differences between the original film (1982) and its recent remake (2015) to demonstrate how our relationship with technology has (and had not) evolved over time. this edition of the digital literature review concludes with erin goff’s “death in the digital world,” bringing us back to modern day and the self. goff explores a new, unique phenomenon deserving of attention: how technology such as social media morphs our individual ability to grieve and mourn. the structure of the journal intends to guide you, the reader, through that back-and-forth relationship between the self and the community. by beginning with a focus on the self, evolving into an exploration of culture at large, and eventually returning to the self, this journal’s structure is intended to leave you with a better understanding of how we all are haunted, personally and culturally, and how our ghosts influence one another; we are haunted because of society, and society is haunted because of us. literature of ghosts and cultural hauntings helps us see clearly, even if we must peer past shimmery, translucent specters to reach these revelations. do not be afraid. look under your bed. you will be amazed by what you find. digital literature review 6 12 works cited freud, sigmund. the uncanny. 1919. translated by david mcclintock, penguin books, 2003. gordon, avery. “her shape and his hand.” in ghostly matters: haunting and the sociological imagination, u. of minnesota p, 1997, pp. 3-28. jung, carl. the undiscovered self: with symbols and the interpretation of dreams. translated by r. f. c. hull, princeton university press, 1990. digital literature review 1 125 the foundation of the hollywood horror film industry has always included metaphors of what haunts american society. this industry capitalized on these fears in movies such as poltergeist (1982) and the 2015 remake of the same film. these two films worked to represent current issues regarding technology in society while also predicting what america would become if these issues were not properly resolved. analyzing the two films reveals the fears of past decades, how those fears have evolved in contemporary american culture, and where these representations of cultural fears will lead us next. brooke lilek, ball state university horrors of society: the reflection of societal fears in american horror films american ghost stories, although often not considered to be seeded in legitimate historical evidence, are paramount in representing, expanding, and building upon the framework of american culture. in recent decades, hollywood manifested the concept of hauntings and various supernatural phenomena to elaborately explain and dissect cultural anxieties which, despite many americans turning a blind eye, still haunt a majority of the american population. hollywood largely relies on the increasing complexity of these anxieties, which scare people with haunted ideas, such as a demon possessing a loved one or something taking up residency in a home without the owner’s consent. in the past, the fears that circulated through american culture were concrete and visible, thus prompting horror films starring monsters such as vampires, werewolves, and zombies. american horror films, however, took a sharp turn into the realm of ghosts and demons as society’s fears of enemies and threats we could tangibly identify and see warped into fears of terrorism, mental illness, and technology. one of the subcategories of ghosts is the poltergeist, which is a spirit that typically attaches to a person, not just a place. poltergeist (1982) and poltergeist (2015) offer deep insights into the representation of societal fears—more specifically, into america’s fear of lack of privacy and control as a result of technological advancements. digital literature review 2 126 both poltergeist films represent one of the widest spread fears of the american culture: the fear of technology. the newer poltergeist (2015) serves as a reminder of the original film’s warning: if we bring more technology into our homes it will consume our lives. in the first poltergeist (1982), the fear of a technological invasion in the late 1970s and early 1980s provides americans with the nuances of modern horror through the depiction of a young girl trapped in a tv void. this depiction perpetuated the growing fear that children would be “lost” in television programming and created a long-lasting fear of someone or something watching from the other side of a screen. this fear only intensified as cameras became commonplace on phones and computers, leaving the fear of having nowhere to hide. looking through the lens of poltergeist (1982) and poltergeist (2015) reveals the fears of past decades, how those fears have developed in 2010s american culture, and where these representations of cultural fears may lead society next. depictions of cultural hauntings demonstrate how it is not the ghosts or hauntings that conjure societal fears, but rather what manifested those ghosts and hauntings that conjure true fright. bodo winter, author of “horror movies and the cognitive ecology of primary metaphors,” argues that all horror movies are largely, if not entirely, composed of longstanding metaphors for fear that may stretch as far back as humans’ primitive states of hunters and gatherers living in the wild. winter states that metaphors for fear are strengthened “in the minds of the people who witness these representations, which helps to keep the metaphors alive” (164). more specifically, winter asserts, horror films have three main effects of metaphors on culture: elaborating, reinforcing/maintaining, and creating/re-creating metaphors (164). these effects have infiltrated almost every horror movie the film industry has produced in the last five to six decades. in both versions of poltergeist, the plots are anchored in the metaphor that the poltergeist itself is a manifestation of a repressed fear of technology, the unknown, or financial instability brought into the home. many of the scariest aspects of movies may not have originated in the human mind as “scary.” when moving away from monsters towards ghosts and hauntings, the american film industry had to create these new metaphors for fear to pass down through the generations. in fact, winter also states that “cultural representations may create new metaphors... in the minds of new generations” (164). the instinct to fear werewolves and vampires stems from early humans’ fear of predators, since people did not always live indoors with large semi-automatic weapons to protect them from the beasts of the wild. older “monster movies” more directly played on the instinct to avoid animalistic predators; newer horror films still play this “monster” angle to some degree. jonathon norman, author of “personality types and the enjoyment of horror movies,” states that “horror movies portray [ghosts and monsters] as very strong, incessantly hungry, and unstopdigital literature review 3 127 pable…,” and he suggests that these traits “…would somehow trigger in humans their very basic survival instincts” (60). of course, these survival instincts are still imbedded in humans’ biological make-up, but the reality of an animal attacking people in the wilderness is no longer a common fear in society. as a result, horror movies needed some new tactics to represent this fear and keep it alive in american culture. the most prominent expression of this fear in the poltergeist movies is when carol ann and maddy, the two poltergeist victims, are speaking to tvs. from the static, viewers can hear growling noises masked by the static buzzing of the televisions; where carol ann and maddy seem to hear a voice speaking to them, viewers hear malicious animalistic intent. poltergeists are not simply spirits that have been introduced into the realm of horror in the last few decades, but rather phenomena occurring for centuries. poltergeists are most literally classified as “noisy spirits,” which captures exactly how they operate (bynum 222). these spirits typically attach to young children, most often girls, and cause mayhem for several days or weeks. most people will never experience poltergeist activity as these spirits rarely manifest. as knowledge of this phenomenon has grown, however, it opened the door for hollywood to utilize its unique markers of a haunting, including objects or people being moved, loud noises, shaking furniture, or even sounds that mimic human voices (bynum 222). according to joyce bynum, author of “poltergeists—a phenomenon worthy of serious study,” “poltergeist activity may represent the repressed feelings and fears that find expression in interaction with the outside world” (225). poltergeist (1982) invokes american parents’ brewing repression of technological fears and the impact these fears have on children who watch too much tv, whereas poltergeist (2015) uses repressed fears of financial instability in an economy recovering from a recession to conjure the poltergeist figure. the original 1982 release of the film centered around the freeling family which includes three children (dana, robbie, and carol ann) and their parents (diane and steve) who “are in their 30’s, happily married, and doing all right financially” (canby 6). the family’s financial situation allows for steve to be the sole bread winner and for the family to live in a newly developed neighborhood in california. the opening scene in the film depicts carol ann, the youngest daughter, speaking to the living room tv just after midnight programming has ended. she asks questions such as “what do you look like?” (0:03:46) to the static, but she also seems to answer questions we cannot hear with a simple “yes” (0:04:21-0:04:25). this occurrence happens a second time, but with the tv in her parents’ bedroom, which happens to be when the spirits emerge from the tv. the following morning, the spirits begin interacting with the whole house (i.e., moving chairs, bending silverware, and playfully sliding diane and carol ann across the kitchen floor). the family does digital literature review 4 128 not know their neighborhood has been built on the grounds of a cemetery from which the bodies were never moved. the decision to build on top of the graves prompted spirits to communicate with carol ann and even to open a portal to the “other side” through her bedroom closet. as the movie progresses, carol ann is pulled through her closet to the “other side,” leaving her family with no way to communicate with her other than through open channels on their television set. it is not difficult to see the significance of the family’s predicament in the 1980s. not only was it more common for families to own one or more television sets in their homes than ever before (the freelings have multiple sets), but stations knew exactly what times of the day to draw in different audiences. according to a television schedule published in the new york times in the mid-1970s, the bulk of children’s television shows were broadcast between 7am-8am and 3:30pm8pm (“television”). these would be the most common times for school-attending children to be home. these would also be the common times that parents would have to spend with their children. with tv to occupy children, however, they spent less time with their parents, reading, or activities and more time devoted to television programming. around the time the movie was released, worldly news started becoming more widely available as cable tv became commonplace. according to martin bass’s article “television’s day in court” published in the new york times (1981), the concept of putting cameras in courtrooms was beginning to be seen as “a rational adaptation to an era in which most americans get much of their news from television” (bass). the newspapers were no longer a fast enough or convenient enough means to receive news. although many parents purchased tvs because news and information grew more accessible via tv, it was not the only purpose they ultimately served in the household (mccoy). an increasing number of the population craved easy access to entertainment and news. it appears that adults never assumed children might choose a broadcast of the brady bunch over interacting with their parents or friends. elin mccoy published the article “limiting children’s tv habits” just a year before poltergeist (1982) was released. this article states that, in 1981, “the average child between the ages 2 and 11 watches [television] for about three and a half to four hours a day.” mccoy goes on to discuss the lack of interest children had for other activities such as reading and playing outside when television programming became an option. with tvs in the living room, kitchen, and master bedroom, watching was always an option for the freeling children. even after the spirits exit the tv in the master bedroom, carol ann turns the tv in the kitchen on to an “empty” channel hoping to find her friends in the static instead of playing or helping her mother clean up breakfast. diane doesn’t suggest carol ann go and play either; she simply makes a comment on how the static will hurt her eyes and changes the channel to a war digital literature review 5 129 show/movie. even the parents only interact with their neighbor when it’s a matter of their tv remotes being on the same frequency and accidentally changing each other’s channels. between the 1980s and mid 2000s, there was an economic boom in which inflation rates were incredibly low, thus giving money more purchasing power (samuelson 21). as americans began spending more money purchasing homes and acquiring mortgages, overspending became more widespread. this mode of thinking resulted in the great recession, from which the american economy took almost 10 years to recover. during this recovery, the bowen family finds themselves down on their financial luck. in the 2015 remake of poltergeist, the family is not as financially stable as they were in 1982. the father, eric bowen, has lost his job and their mother, amy, does not work. the family loses their home because of their employment statuses and must look at a new house in a neighborhood built on a former cemetery from which, unbeknownst to them, the bodies were never moved. since money is so tight, the deciding factor in purchasing their house in this neighborhood is the realtor who informs them, “foreclosures have hit this neighborhood really hard. there’s some wiggle room on the price” (0:06:46-0:06:50). thus, from the first 10 minutes of the film, gil kenan, director of poltergeist (2015), reflects america’s established overwhelming fear of financial instability in the plot’s framework. in the five years leading up to the release of poltergeist (2015), the ipad was released, artificial intelligence was being developed (i.e., siri, alexa, google home), and larger portions of americans owned iphones or androids, etc. if “alexa” is always listening and cameras on our phones and laptops are always watching, people may as well pull out a ouiji board and invite ghosts into their home—exemplifying the modern collective lack of privacy. kenan gives us this reality in his film on several counts. one of the first “selling points” the realtor mentions about the house is, pointing to a security system panel, “that security system works. the owner was a bit of a technophile, so this house is wired for whatever you might need” (0:03:25-0:03:28). essentially, the entire house is one big gadget. while programming the security system, the bowens’ son, griffin, asks eric countless questions about how “bad guys” could cut the security system wires and break in. eric responds to these questions by saying they would die of electrocution and “if they’re dead then they can’t get in the house” (0:10:12-0:10:13). through this dialogue, kenan establishes a false sense of security for the family; they believe their home is protected from any intruders by the technology. later that same night the house experiences what kenan refers to as an “electrical awakening” in an interview with brendon connelly. as maddy begins speaking to the spirits through the tv in the living room, lamps, phones, ipads, and toys begin turning on and off on their own. just as carol ann does in the 1982 film, maddy begins speaking to a static tv channel. when griffin finds digital literature review 6 130 her speaking to the tv and asks what is happening, maddy replies, “they’re coming” (0:25:45). the house is thrown into an electrical fit immediately after; all devices and electronics are sent into a frenzy, including the security system. when the parents rush downstairs as the alarm goes off in the house, maddy informs everyone, “they’re here” (0:26:25). thus, eric’s earlier statement that a dead person cannot get past the security system is quite literally disproven. no matter how many new devices humans surround themselves with, people have a natural instinct to survive by either fleeing or fighting. horror movies provide a buffer for looking at what truly haunts our thoughts and culture. jonathon norman suggests that “…the cross-cultural appeal for horror movies provides useful insights into understanding human evolutionary psychology processes” (59). essentially, what scares people on the screen may also comfort them because the conflicts are almost always resolved in the end; the “good guys” win, the evil is sent away, or a majority of people escape to safety. poltergeist (1982 and 2015) both provide that cushion when forcing viewers to face the horrors of their technological surroundings which are primarily represented through the abduction of carol ann (1982) and maddy (2015) through their closets and into the “other side.” by the end, the freelings’ and bowens’ houses may have been destroyed, but the families escape the horrors within. the depiction of a relatively happy ending for main characters gives americans a false sense of security that the fears of what society is becoming and the technological advancements that have haunted american culture since before the release of poltergeist (1982) can simply be walked away from or, in the case of the films, driven away from. the infestation of technology in homes and relationships, however, did not end in the 1980s; instead, it grew into something unrulier than spielberg’s spirits could have mustered in the original film. the 2015 remake of poltergeist takes america’s original fears of the invasion of technology into their families and homes to a new level. spielberg may have created and established the metaphor of poltergeists or hauntings in relation to the invasion of technology, but gil kenan’s remake reinforces this fear in american society. though both the freelings and the bowens escape from their haunted homes in the end, the bowens are not given the satisfactory ending of rolling a television set out of a hotel room symbolizing an escape from the sole cause of their torment like the freelings. in the final scene of the 2015 movie, eric bowen is depicted as being employed as a high school baseball coach, and the family is going to look at a new house. instead of boasting about technological capabilities of the house, the realtor mentions that “…the place is just swimming in closet space” (1:34:08), which prompts young maddy to say, “our last closet ate me” (1:34:13). when the realtor moves into the house to show them around, the camera pans back digital literature review 7 131 outside to show the bowens driving away, presumably because of the abundance of closet space in that prospective home. they clearly still value technology and see a closet as the cause of their previous problems, not technology. the freelings could recognize the tvs as their main problem, which is why removing the tv was their first thought when arriving at the motel, not worrying how much closet space the room had. despite escaping their home, however, the bowens do not escape the horrors of technology and, thus, neither has the rest of america. a constant example of winter’s created and reinforced metaphor is the appearance of gothic architecture in many representations of the horror genre. in fact, these ever-present structures “entertain [people’s] imagination[s] given that the thought of an old and dark castle would bring to people’s mind the idea of secret passages, dungeons, and gloomy forests” (norman 58). the bowens’ house is a modern interpretation of this architecture in the sense that the home’s exterior consists of grey siding surrounded by dying trees and a flower garden that won’t stay alive. even the attic houses a secret compartment of creepy clown toys left by a previous owner. this automatically invokes more fear in viewers than the original film because people innately recognize similar structures with scary stories. kenan’s remake exemplifies winter’s main effects of metaphors on culture. while the film was not considered as nightmarish as the original, it still holds the originality of the metaphor while adding a few new twists. aside from the obvious updates to the plot, such as the family names and the lack of landline phones in the house, kenan elaborates on spielberg’s metaphors by adding nuanced details. the most notable of these details is how the characters describe what is after carol ann and maddy once they are pulled to the “other side.” in 1982, the clairvoyant the freelings use to rescue carol ann, tangina, claims there is a “terrible presence” with carol ann and refers to it as “the beast.” this beast is a singular entity that represents television and its ability to pull children away from their families. in 2015, kenan alters this detail when carrigan burke, the bowens’ clairvoyant, claims they’re all around her (1:11:22-1:11:31). even though there were multiple spirits on the “other side” with carol ann in the original film, the significance of this detail lies in the fact that the singular “beast” was the one who wouldn’t let carol ann go, but none of the spirits in 2015 would let maddy go. these malicious spirits represent all the forms of technology that withdraw people from society in the 2015 film: phones, tablets, laptops, tvs, and even the speakers and wired walls throughout the bowens’ house. another detail kenan alters in the 2015 film lies within the fear of clowns. in the original film, carol ann and her brother robbie have a clown doll that attacks robbie in the end of the movie. in 2015, griffin finds multiple old clown toys in a hidden compartment of his attic bedroom. clowns “have the capacity to provoke fear and horror given that their digital literature review 8 132 make-up can conceal their true facial expressions, thus triggering people’s instinctual need and desire to understand others through their facial expressions” (schmidt and cohn, qtd. in norman 60). as the aforementioned “beast” represents the fear of television and the spirits represent the fear of all forms of technology, the clown dolls represent not just technology but what consumers cannot see behind it. in both films, neither the families nor the audience get to see the faces behind the screens until the end of the films, and american citizens never see what’s behind the screens in their living rooms or the phones in their pockets. having only one clown doll in the original film represented the singular fear of what hid behind the screen. kenan, however, utilizes multiple clown dolls to symbolize all the forms of technology that people feared in the 2010s because they could not understand them. as we fear what we cannot see behind a clown’s makeup, we fear what we cannot see behind the screen. unfortunately for american culture, kenan points out in poltergeist (2015) that technology is not the only issue facing the bowen family. the entire premise of the movie is based on the fact that their father, eric, has lost his job due to the de-unionization of skilled workers. this perspective seems to contribute to the lukewarm responses to the remake of the film. since the reviewers failed to detect this financial struggle as a form of haunting upon the family, their reviews reflected an inaccurate representation of the film’s nuances. neil genzlinger, in his new york times review “they’re baaack, with tech upgrades,” writes, “… parents might find it an enjoyable trip down memory lane, even if they do now recognize it as largely a well-served collection of horror-movie tropes.” seeing the films as a collection of horror tropes is valid in its own right, but closer analysis reveals that the tropes morph into metaphors that will force viewers and the next generations to wonder if the phones they keep in their pockets or the tvs in their rooms are something to fear rather than lull people to sleep. critic david blaustein states on abc news radio that he viewed the film as “a remake that lacks creativity, hoping to trade on an established brand,” but he is wrong on each account. kenan connects the hardships of unemployment and exacerbated debt due to a need for constant technological advancements in their lives directly to poltergeist encounters. after the electrical awakening of the house, kendra claims that her phone is “fried.” in response to being told they can’t afford a new phone, kendra says, “this isn’t a luxury item, dad. it’s a necessity. what if you need to reach me in an emergency?” (0:27:20-0:27:24). kenan is making a statement that americans view the ability to be constantly connected to everyone and everything as a necessity; calling friends or checking the news channel at the end of the day simply isn’t enough. even though eric can barely afford to buy squirrel traps for the squirrel living in his son’s room, he still buys his daughter a new iphone and his son a drone. he buys into the idea digital literature review 9 133 that in order to be happy and fit in, they need to have new technology because the fear of living without it was greater than the fear of what bringing it into the house could invoke. naturally, as the collection of technology within the household grows, so does the poltergeist activity. working from bynum’s earlier mentioned theory that “poltergeist activity may represent the repressed feelings and fears that find expression in interaction with the outside world” (225), the connection of unemployment and debt-induced stress to the bowens’ poltergeist problem is clear. the bowen family not only suffered the financial consequences of having no working parents, but they also suffered supernatural consequences that they could not escape because of the weight of their debt. culturally informed viewers of poltergeist (1982 and 2015) are left wondering; what’s next? the original film predicted the chaos of technology would continue to ensue over generations if people did not restrict their technological access, and the remake demonstrates the horrors of ignoring that warning along with how the need for technological updates inflames financial struggles affecting many lower to middle class american families today. americans are always seeking the “next best thing,” but at a quite literal cost. elin mccoy discusses the effects of peer pressure on the youth of the country to be “up to date” on the latest tech. in her 1981 article mccoy states, “many parents cite peer pressure, when many other children are watching particular programs and their child would feel left out if he or she could not watch too, as one reason they do not throw out the [television] set altogether.” the fear of being less connected to the world than everyone else has survived from the original release of poltergeist to the present day. even if someone cannot afford the newest iphone or google home mini for each room in their house, they want them so that at least their children can “fit in” with the rest of society. the bowens suffered this dilemma and ultimately caved into reaching for a “higher standard” of living even if they could not afford the standard of living in which they already lived. looking back at bodo winter’s concept of how “horror movies play a role in maintaining and potentiating metaphor within the larger cultural system,” american horror movies clearly serve as warnings to human error and guides to what we fear most in america. from poltergeist (2015), we can see how cultural fears developed from a fear of television taking over children to a fear of technological advancements taking over everyone’s lives. following this pattern, america is headed down a path that will end in fears of spending money on any luxury, especially technological luxuries. both poltergeist films are comprised of more than horror tropes; they are built by america’s cultural fears which make them scarier than the harmless nightmares they seem to be. if we are not careful, the long-perpetuated fear of technology truly ruling us will one day come to fruition. digital literature review 10 134 works cited blaustein, david. “‘poltergeist’ movie review.” abc news, abc news network, 22 may 2015, abcnews.go.com/entertainment/poltergeist-movie-review/story?id=31241365. bynum, joyce. “poltergeists-a phenomenon worthy of serious study.” etc.: a review of general semantics., vol. 50, no. 2, institute of general semantics, 1993. https://go-gale-com.proxy.bsu. edu/ps/i.do?p=litrc&u=munc80314&id=gale|a14124663&v=2.1&it=r&sid=summon. accessed march 22, 2020. canby, vincent. “film: ‘poltergeist’ from spielberg.” new york times (1923-current file), jun 04, 1982, pp. 1. proquest, https://search-proquest-com.proxy.bsu.edu/hnpnewyorktimes/ docview/122084619/335dca0fdbd344fepq/1?accountid=8483. accessed march 22, 2020. connelly, brendon. “poltergeist: director gil kenan interview.” den of geek, 22 may 2015, www.denofgeek.com/movies/gil-kenan/35487/poltergeist-director-gil-kenan-interview. kenan, gil, director. poltergeist. 20th century fox. metro-goldwyn-mayer, 2015. martin, clark b. “television’s day in court.” new york times (1923-current file), 15 feb, 1981, pp. 6. proquest, https://search-proquest-com.proxy.bsu.edu/hnpnewyorktimes/docview/121478105 /9b82f0231566467fpq/1?accountid=8483. accessed march 22, 2020. mccoy, ellen. “limiting children’s tv habits.” the new york times, 30 july 1981, pp. 1–3, https://advance-lexis-com.proxy.bsu.edu/document/?pdmfid=1516831&crid=4afc9e9a55ef-4f97-9285afe08c9cfe2c&pddocfullpath=/shared/document/news/urn:contenti tem:3s8g-f7x0-000b-y190-00000-00&pddocid=urn:contentitem:3s8g-f7x0-000b -y190-0000000&pdcontentcomponentid=6742&pdteaserkey=sr0&pditab=allpods&ecomp=sp79k&earg=sr0&prid=aea99c82-f0c1-4568-8c38-679c4035a71f. accessed february 6, 2020. norman, jonathan. “personality types and the enjoyment of horror movies.” journal of social and psychological sciences, vol. 11, no. 1, 2018, p. 56+. gale onefile: health and medicine, https://go-gale.com.proxy.bsu.edu/ps/i.do?p=hrca&u=munc80314&id=gale%7ca523795291&v=.1&it=r&sid=summon. accessed 7 nov. 2019. samuelson, robert j. “rethinking the great recession.” the wilson quarterly (1976-), vol. 35, no. 1, 2011, pp. 16–24. jstor, https://www-jstor-org.proxy.bsu.edu/stable/41001064?pq-origsite=summon&seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents. accessed 21 feb. 2020. spielberg, steven, director. poltergeist. metro--goldwyn--mayer, 1982. “television.” new york times (1923-current file), 6 may, 1976, pp. 59. proquest, https://search-proquest-com.proxy.bsu.edu/docview/122640371?accountid=8483. digital literature review 11 135 winter, bodo. “horror movies and the cognitive ecology of primary metaphors.” metaphor and symbol, vol. 29, no. 3, lawrence erlbaum associates, 2014. http://web.b.ebscohost.com. proxy.bsu.edu/ehost/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=02e52eff-b3d1-4e30-823b-ca10d3301fce%40pdc-v-sessmgr03&bdata=jnnpdgu9zwhvc3qtbgl2zszzy29wzt1zaxrl#an=96869107&db=aph. accessed march 22, 2020. in june of 1991, a young jaycee dugard was taken off the street of her hometown neighborhood and forced into sexual slavery. she was only eleven years old. for years, jaycee dugard lived in the backyard of phillip and nancy garrido’s property, forced to spend her days in a system of tents and small buildings somehow concealed from the neighbors in a california town and raped repeatedly by phillip. her book explains how phillip exploited and abused her, kept her locked up naked in a room alone in order to break down her will, used words to beat down her spirit, and slowly integrated her into his and his wife’s lives as a part of a highly dysfunctional family. jaycee’s memoir details her strange day-to-day captivity as she gradually gained permission to leave the house and even use a computer. many would wonder why jaycee had not tried to escape sooner as her allowances increased, but by analyzing her thoughts and narration, we can better understand the debilitating brainwashing and psychological abuse that kept her from seeking an escape sooner. the narratives that come from survivors about their experiences are essential tools in helping victims in the future, understanding the tactics of victimizers and how their abuse works on victims, and putting an end to sexual slavery and abuse of children. detailing her captivity for eighteen years, jaycee’s book is full of insights into the perceived experience of an abused child, the ease with which her captors kept and abused her, and how cathartic the writing process is for victims of trauma. it is important to think about how we can look at trauma and the literature created through and surrounding it in discussions about some of the world’s most awful subjects. jaycee’s experience is one that should never happen to any child. yet millions of children, the overwhelming majority being females, are sexually abused and still kept as slaves today. the power of language in and following moments of trauma: an analysis of a stolen life morgan aprill, ball state university key words: child sexual slavery, sexual slavery, memoir, trauma, jaycee dugard abstract: this paper examines the memoir of jaycee dugard, a woman who was kidnapped as a child and kept as a sexual slave for much of her life. her work demonstrates how language is blocked in times of trauma but also how writing is an essential tool for victims to use to sort through their experiences. this paper also looks at the ways in which her captor kept her under his control through physical and verbal threat to show how language can help keep someone imprisoned. by looking more closely at stories like jaycee’s, people can better understand the experience of the victim and the tactics of the abuser, and people can more effectively help victims of sexual slavery and abuse. 84 digital literature review, vol. 2 (2015). © ball state university. all rights reserved. please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce critical edition to dlr@bsu.edu. slavery today as much as we would like to deny it, the number of abducted children who are forced into slavery is immense. according to a recent fact sheet from the international labour organization, almost 21 million people are living in slavery across the globe, with 11.4 million of these victims being women or girls and 9.5 million being men and boys. four and a half million of these are forced into sexual slavery, meaning millions of children are still being exploited daily. a report in the huffington post from 2013 stated that two children are sold for sex every minute across the globe (harden). any child in slavery is one too many, and it should be everyone’s concern that these numbers are erased as more children are brought home safely and those responsible for their exploitation are put behind bars. another essential part of this course of rescue and reunion is the therapy and processing for the victims. many therapists realize the necessity of writing in dealing with victims of ptsd, as the memories and their effects can be very confusing. authors crystal park and carol blumberg note this finding, explaining that “asking people to write on consecutive days about a previously experienced traumatic event … is associated with better subsequent health as reflected by a number of different health indicators” (597-598). they then attempt in their article to look at what research has been done on “the potential underlying mechanism of meaning-making” by survivors of trauma through writing their experiences (park and blumberg 598). indeed, many literary scholars of trauma theory have worked to look at how the psychological effects of trauma can cause trouble for a survivor who wants to narrate his or her experience. this, of course, has a scientific neurological basis, but it is theorists like cathy caruth who have helped us realize just how delicate the connection between language, memory, and mental health can be. trauma is personal and many times indescribable and unrecountable. james berger puts it well in his article: “trauma theory is another such discourse of the unrepresentable, of the event or object that destabilizes language and demands a vocabulary and syntax in some sense incommensurable with what went before” (573). berger’s article outlines the work of caruth’s book trauma: explorations in memory, as well as work by other literary trauma theorists. in her book, caruth explains that trauma writing is a recounting of “a history that literally has no place, neither in the past, in which it was not fully experienced, nor in the present, in which its precise images and enactments are not fully understood” (353). she quotes schreiber weitz who explains how difficult it is to study the events of people who, for them, never began or ended due to the imprinting and time displacements involved in trauma: “what do we do? do we not talk about it? ... to speak is impossible, and not to speak is impossible” (qtd. in caruth 354). in other words, he asks what is to be done to help those suffering from experiences that are unspeakable yet must be spoken about. those who write about their traumatic experiences are taking control of times when they felt completely helpless, which is a way of bringing about mental processing and healing. elissa marder also looks at the history of trauma theory, specifically shoshana felman and dori laub’s influential book testimony. marder explains that felman and her colleague laub importantly stated that “even though we do not ‘recover’ from our traumatic past, nor can we ‘cure’ it, ‘overcome’ it, or even fully understand it, we can and we must listen to it and survive it by listening to its effects as they are transmitted to us through the voices of its witnesses and survivors” (marder 4). this is exactly what we must do with the stories of survivors of child sexual slavery such as jaycee dugard. in the introduction of her book, jaycee explains the two reasons she decided to write her book. she says those reasons are “that phillip garrido believes no one should find out what he did to 85 aprill an eleven-year-old girl” and that she wishes “that it will be of help to someone going through, hopefully not similar conditions, but someone facing a difficult situation of their own” (dugard ix). she outlines the initial days of her captivity in detail and provides snapshots into what she can remember of the years she spent as phillip’s slave. though she does not overtly say it, we can see how she also uses the book to help her sort through what has happened to her. jaycee writes in present tense when she writes about the events she shares, but she follows many of these with present-day commentary, sometimes saying how she is feeling in that moment as she is writing the memoir. though she has moments where she says she does not know if she can go on, she does. through her memoir, we get a glimpse into the mind of a child who is suffering from abuse and manipulation. the brain of a child is not as developed as an adult’s, and to grow up in an environment of constant fear must have had an impact on her development in some way. this article will analyze how language is used within jaycee’s memoir—how she perceives her experience now with the help of authoring her trauma, how language was used by her captors to keep her enslaved, and how she processes her experience during her time in captivity. all of these are examples of how powerful words are as they empower and disempower jaycee throughout her book. to understand how this could be, let us look at some scientific research into the brain and how it reacts to and processes prolonged trauma. the science behind stress research has shown that certain chemicals flood the body when the brain is presented with life-threatening situations. you are probably familiar with the brain’s release of adrenaline when we find ourselves in thrilling situations like in a fast-moving roller coaster or running from something we find frightening. the brain also releases other chemicals that change our neurological chemistry in times of prolonged fear or stress. according to an article by elizabeth hopper and josé hidalgo, there are “neurological and neuroanatomical changes that are associated with exposure to traumatic stress. the perception of threat leads to a biologically-based fear response, causing the body to enter an instinctive survival mode with specific neurobiological changes” (201). hopper and hidalgo go on to explain in detail just what kinds of hormones are released during the human body’s response to stress and threats, including descriptions of how cognitive thinking becomes impaired: there is decreased activity in the cortical system, particularly within the frontal cortex. with this decrease in frontal lobe activity, cognitive functions such as abstract thinking, problem-solving, planning, and impulse control are temporarily inhibited. therefore … people may experience impaired ability in effective planning and problem-solving. (203) similar descriptions of the brain’s functioning under stress can be found in sandra bloom’s article “trauma theory abbreviated.” bloom explains that our ability to think clearly is impaired by stress and that long-term effects can be found in victims in regards to how they think: “an intolerance of mistakes, denial of personal difficulties, anger as a problem-solving strategy, hypervigilance, and absolutistic thinking are other problematic thought patterns that have been identified” (5). there are also issues that arise in memory. how we process new memories and recall old ones is affected under stress. according to bloom, “there are actually two different memory systems in the brain – one for normal learning and remembering that is based on words and another that is largely nonverbal” (5). when we are under high levels of stress, we lose some ability to 86 aprill access our verbal memory and, in this way, “problems may arise later [for victims of trauma] because the memory of the events that occurred under severe stress are not put into words and are not remembered in the normal way we remember other things” (bloom 6). this is why, during flashbacks of traumatic experiences, victims often act out the previous event as their memory has been imprinted differently than normal, and sometimes their only way of accessing it, due to repression and other wonders of the brain, is through their physical memory. this is why it is especially hard for victims of trauma to put words to their past experiences. as bloom explains, “for healing to occur, we know that people often need to put the experience into a narrative, give it words, and share it with themselves and others. words allow us to put things into a time sequence—past, present, future.… words allow us to put the past more safely in the past where it belongs” (7). this makes dugard’s book that much more important as her authorship allows her to process and put words to the events she remembers from her childhood though she may not have complete verbal memory of them. children are especially vulnerable to exploitation and psychological confusion when it comes to stress and abuse situations. children who are traumatized can have undeveloped coping skills, self-relation to others, or a sense of self (bloom 10). trauma interferes with normal development of senses of right and wrong and social skills. children who grow up in these environments can become accustomed to the unhealthiness and then be unable to have fulfilling relationships with others because of this. often, they are the kids who cause trouble as they try to sort out their trauma in ways that often go against social convention (bloom 10). bloom also explains that this can be due to a child’s increased exposure to the endorphins released from stress in his or her home, leading to an addiction to stress and a need to disrupt calm. additionally, “children who suffer disrupted attachments may suffer from damage to all of their developmental systems, including their brains, and we are particularly ill-suited to having the people we are attached to also be the people who are violating us” (bloom 2). this explains a lot of what jaycee struggles with throughout her time in captivity. she is confused, torn, and ultimately psychologically enslaved because of the way that the garridos show her comfort and provide for her but also horribly abuse her. the brain of a child becomes damaged, making it harder and harder for them to see a way out of the situation or understand what a healthy familial relationship would actually look like. it is in the memoir that we can see into the mind of not only jaycee but also into that of her abusers and how this noxious situation ate away at her being and further incapacitated her. for example, she mentions how she became trained to not show her feelings or to not ask too many questions because of how guilty and shameful phillip would make her feel for speaking up. he would talk and talk and explain just how wrong she was. he would also provide her with conflicting comfort such as hugs and presents. by analyzing phillip’s actions and words, we gain further knowledge into the psychological nature of abuse. the tactics of the abuser this book also gives us a way to understand how abusers manipulate their victims. phillip uses depravation, conflicting treatment, and—most interestingly—his words to degrade jaycee into what she becomes. in fact, he maintains most of his manipulation through his conversations with her, which made her feel guilty and hopeless. slowly, she gains more privileges but never truly has a normal life while in captivity, though she seems to feel compassion for her captors. the garridos even create a fake family of sorts, further entrapping jaycee by providing something, though in a very twisted manner, that she so longs for and misses. it is important to understand just how 87 aprill the abuser works to help us comprehend jaycee’s actions and emotions and to help others like her in the future. the deprivation of simple freedom of movement is just one of the ways the garridos mold jaycee and how she was slowly broken down. we see in jaycee’s narrations of her start in captivity of how she lost track of time and days— something that worked to break her will. soon after being locked up in the music room, jaycee writes that she begins to wonder how long she has been there, though she feels like she has been there forever: “this room is getting hot when i wake up the next morning; at least i think it is morning. there is really no way to tell … [sic] how much time has passed?” (dugard 25). being stuck in this room, chained up, she admits that she began to depend on phillip for everything: “he became my entire world” (dugard 26). in addition to suffering from sensory deprivation that could easily make someone start to go crazy, she also was kept in handcuffs for a good amount of time before phillip would let her be in her cell without being further incapacitated: “he says he has to put handcuffs on me, but that they have fur on them so they won’t hurt too much. i shake my head no and say that i won’t try to get away. he says he has to because he doesn’t trust me yet” (dugard 21). suffering in a hot room with no food, water, or toilet and not being able to use her hands, she admits she looked forward to him visiting her: “i depended on him.… he was my only source of amusement. i craved human contact so much by then that i actually looked forward to him coming to see me; it felt like he was bestowing a gift to me … [sic] his presence” (26). this is a common practice in grooming someone for slavery. it is a form of torture to remove necessities like a place to go to the bathroom or a source of water or amusement from someone. jaycee writes of how she survived having only a bucket to relieve herself, which phillip would dump in the backyard after it had already needed to be dumped for quite a while. slowly, she gained privileges like a tv, video games, even magazines and toys, but she still remained confined to the buildings in the back lot of the garridos’ property until late into her captivity; she eventually became so beaten down by phillip’s treatment that she was allowed outside of the house and still never dared speak up to anyone. one of the most sickening ways phillip abused and manipulated jaycee was through his portrayals of shame and caring between his episodes of sexual assault on her. one of the first times we see this odd contradiction of comforting the person to whom you are causing pain is when she is first at the garridos’ house. when phillip first captures jaycee, he forces her to take a shower with him and asks her to touch his genitals. she complies, but soon after she is lying on the bathroom floor wrapped in a towel. she has just been taken from her family and been forced to do something very confusing to her. crying because of his odd and confusing behavior, she is then presented with conflicting treatment as “the man takes [her] in his arms and offers comfort” (dugard 19). she explains that she saw little choice and was just a scared child: “i do not want comfort from this awful man, but there is no one else here and i reluctantly lean into what comfort he gives.… now i feel like a rabbit being comforted by a lion. i am so scared” (dugard 19). it is difficult and heartbreaking to read this child’s story and her emotions, but we can see here how horribly wrenching it is for a child to have to navigate her abuser being her only comfort and provider. this continues throughout the memoir. one of the most gut-wrenchingly vivid scenes in the book comes early on with jaycee’s narration of phillip’s first rape of her in the small room he is keeping her. we can see the way he calculated his actions with her, thinking if he explained what he was about to do, then it would not be so bad for her—that if he asked her if she was okay afterwards, then it would be enough to make up for how he would be sexually abusing her for the following years. her narration goes right back 88 aprill into the terrified, confused mind of the young girl she was when this first began: “he lies on top of me. he is so heavy. i can’t stop crying.… why is he doing this? is this normal?” (dugard 31). the rest of the rape is described by her in what way she can understand, which is hardly at all. but immediately afterwards he asked her if she was okay: “in my mind i am screaming no i am not okay … [sic] get off of me! why are you doing this? what does it mean?” (dugard 32). we see he does this a lot after he rapes her, another incident coming on page 54: “he takes me in his arms and says it’s okay, that he is done.… he won’t bother me like this for a while. i am so scared i don’t know what to think. i want to believe him.” phillip mixed this abuse in with his poor caretaking of jaycee, making her more and more vulnerable, manipulated, and confused. she also says that she would wish for the good man to come back during the times he raped her: “everything will be okay i tell myself. he will be the nice person soon” (dugard 54). phillip combined this caring with a false sense of familial relationships that further entrapped jaycee as the years went on. as a child, jaycee was extra vulnerable to the manipulation of an adult who would act like her father, especially when that child had always felt rejected by her fathers in the past. jaycee explains she never knew her biological father and that her step-father seemed to not care for her much. it is easy to understand why she is so eager to grasp onto the moments when phillip seemed to act like a caring father to her. he provided her with toys, became her sole source of comfort and affection, and maintained her physical needs like hunger (albeit extremely poorly). but after being locked up and unable to move during her first weeks in captivity, she is eager to accept whatever he gives her, quickly learning that it is best to take what little she can get rather than risk having nothing again. slowly, the garridos became like a small family, as jaycee gave birth to phillip’s children and his wife nancy became a regular visitor to jaycee’s prison in the backyard. phillip used his words also to urge jaycee that trying to escape would be futile and that outside there were many people that would hurt her, as if she was not being hurt enough by him. but jaycee writes, “he always took care of everything. he always had an answer for everything. if i ever questioned him, yes, he would listen, but then he would tell me why i was wrong and why only his way would work” (dugard 143). his use of language was just as powerful a tool to enslave her as was the abuse and deprivation. the language he used kept her entrapped and also made her believe she was part of a family. in one of her chapter reflections, jaycee explains, “phillip’s verbal abuse was very effective. although i would have liked some direct answers to my questions, i learned to not question too much because the answer i got would be lengthy and in the end make me forget the question in the first place” (dugard 106). his words scared her about the outside world and his deprivation of her education; she felt as if she was still a little girl even when she was the mother to two children. she felt like she would never make it outside the garrido’s home. she stayed with them out of fear for her ability to provide for her children. as her captivity went on, nancy would become the person the children saw as their mother, making jaycee’s isolation and the false family façade more complete. jaycee would not be allowed to tell the children the truth and was forced to go by a different name. this was a further extension of how she had been forbidden by phillip from writing her name in a journal she had once kept for one of her many pet cats. after she created the journal, she felt very proud of it and showed it to phillip: “he preached to me for i think an hour about how i really didn’t want to write my name, and how dangerous that could be if anyone else ever read it.… so i tore out the corners with my name” (dugard 79). her confusion about how phillip acted toward her continues to be something that she explores throughout the memoir. in a 89 aprill journal entry she wrote in 1998 while in captivity, she writes: “i tell myself he is not touching me in a sexual way; it is more a fatherly way now. not that i would know what that is like” (dugard 169). she had voiced this confusion about the affection he showed her earlier in the memoir as well: “he gives me hugs sometimes and makes me feel loved. but am i really?”(dugard 73). of course we know that he did not truly love her and that he is actually an evil man, but the feelings of family are powerful tactics slavers use to make their slaves even more loyal and dependent. indeed, jaycee notes her feelings of utter dependence on and faux familial ties with the garridos: “i feel i am bound to these people—my captors—by invisible bonds instead of constant handcuffs” (dugard 130). orlando patterson, in his book slavery and social death, describes how the system of fictive kinship is an integral part of slavery. since slavery’s inception, slaves have been referred to as “sons” or “daughters” and treated almost as family (patterson 62-63). but those relations had a clear difference between those of actual adoption and what meyer fortes calls “quasi-filial” relationships of the slave and the master (qtd. in patterson 63). jaycee’s actions near the end of her time in captivity further show her utter reliance on the garridos as she worries even in the police office that she will somehow ruin phillip’s plan of escape. throughout the book, jaycee felt as if she had to keep her feelings and concerns to herself in order to keep phillip and nancy from getting upset. she still feels, even with police in front of her, that she must minimize the anger of her captors by keeping herself quiet. there are scenes in the book which appear very familial, as when the garridos, along with jaycee and her children, sit around the television eating fast food, or when jaycee and nancy go and get their nails done and go shopping. jaycee sometimes seems confused about the nature of the relationship, but her fear is always constant. after years of hiding and playing the role of allissa, she shakily writes her name on a piece of paper at the police department, and the process of reclaiming her life through language and writing begins. jaycee’s use of language after narrating her memories of being given a kitten and then it being taken away for the first time by phillip, jaycee shows her first complete acknowledgment of her pain and struggle to author her experience. on page 42 she states, “it hurts to write about this part. this has turned out to be a very hard book to write. part of me does not want to continue. to reenter the state of mind i was at that age is difficult and twists my insides.” she ends this short reflection by finally deciding she will continue, though the difficulty is overwhelming to her. this glimpse into her thought process is one of many that we get in this memoir, which has a wealth of ways we can see into the experience of the traumatized sorting through their own trauma through language. her writing comes in three forms: her narration of events during her captivity as if they were happening in real time, her many reflections on these events as she works through her memories in her own timeline of events, and the snapshots into actual words from her past through journal entries, which show the manipulation and the experience that is not often so vivid for us. most of the memoir is written in present tense. as she works through what she remembers of her time enslaved by the garridos, she takes herself and the reader back into the mindset of the young girl who was trying so hard to survive. many times in the book, she says she was just doing what she had to in order to survive. she acknowledges many times that her reactions to situations can seem difficult for readers outside of the situation to understand. why did she not constantly fight to escape? why did she not take every chance she could to make it difficult for the garridos to enslave her? a lot of this has to do with the treatment she received from phillip when she was first captured. a lot of this also has to do with the treatment she continued to receive as she was 90 aprill emotionally, verbally, and physically abused. some of this also has to do with her age when she was captured. being eleven and being kidnapped and abused leaves one extremely helpless. her schooling was stopped, and she had little ability to control her day-to-day life. by writing her story in present tense, she steps back into those moments when she was a scared and confused little girl and reclaims them. she relives them, and we get to watch as this process occurs. many times, however, she must stop and take breaks to reflect on what she has been writing. moments occur when things become too real and perhaps seem to be happening all over again to her. as theorists and scientists have explained, the memory of someone who has suffered prolonged stress can become blurred into a constant reality that never truly leaves. it is beautiful, then, that jaycee allows us to see her therapeutic process of meaning-making and processing so vividly. as stated before, jaycee breaks up her reliving of her time in captivity with reflections. on page 110, after narrating the birth of her first child, jaycee says, “how do you get through things you don’t want to? you just do.” this attitude of perseverance at whatever cost is essential to the portrait that jaycee paints. we see a young girl holding onto hope that she will someday see her mother again and escape, as well as the reflections of a woman looking back at these experiences. hope and the inner strength to persevere through horrible situations become the core of the self we see in our narrator. she speaks of how hard the process is for her: “this has turned out to be a very hard book to write, … this is something i have worked hard to put behind me and to write about it in such detail years later is difficult. to get inside my head and relive all this stuff that happened back then is terribly hard for me … [sic] i want to go on and i will finish it” (dugard 42). pages later, she describes the first time phillip took her on what he would call a run, which were hours and hours of sexual abuse that he subjected jaycee to as he was high on drugs. these were the worst moments of her life, and she notes that, as she writes, she finds herself sabotaging her process: “i just noticed i was trying to distract myself from writing this part…. my mind knows that what comes next is not easy for me. i am finding ways to avoid it” (49). what follows is a vivid description of the horrible things he would subject her to, including brutal rape in which he would call her by derogatory names. she writes, “i want to be somewhere else, but i am here and i must not panic” (53-54). in her reflections, she explains how he told her she was helping him not hurt other girls, how if she slacked off he would threaten to sell her, how “he would cry after he was done fucking me and beg my forgiveness” (57). her reflections explain how confused this would make her, and how she now realizes how awful and selfish of a man he really is. shortly after this episode, jaycee tells us about the first cat that the garridos allowed her to have after complaining about how lonely she was. but it was not long before the cat became an object of shaming for jaycee. she states how she “[began] to feel guilty for asking for her in the first place” (41). this is just one of many ways that phillip shamed jaycee, including in the previous page, how phillip would explain to her that she was “helping him with his sex problem…. i think that sounds really weird, but i also don’t want him to do what he is doing to me to someone else” (40). philip always found a way to make sure jaycee felt guilty and in the wrong for anything that happened while she was his slave. she explains the strength of his manipulation but also how she still felt anger deep down. she now can look back at things and make more sense of them. phillip garrido kept her imprisoned in the mind of a confused 11-year-old girl even as she grew up. her journals, which begin on page 165, let us see into her mind as she lives through these things. she often talks about her feelings of not being in control of her life and her longing for her mother. jaycee writes about trying desperately to actually squash her longings to escape out of fear for her children. what is most beautiful is how she can continue to remain optimistic, telling 91 aprill herself she has things to be thankful for and writing affirmations in her journals to cope. her strength shines through in her journals and her reflections as she explains how she has moved on. conclusion to understand the healing power of writing one’s trauma, one needs simply to look at the beautiful work that jaycee dugard, the young girl imprisoned for years and now mother of two, wrote. words hold so much meaning even though they are seemingly arbitrary collections of sounds we humans have put together. talk to any literary theorist, and you will definitely learn that words are so much more. read the work of any survivor of trauma, and you will see the power of words. during traumatic situations, our bodies react in ways that promote our survival but that can limit our brain functioning. this can lead to events that become timeless, constantly there but also impossible to name. this paper has worked to analyze the real therapeutic process of making meaning of a traumatic event by writing. jaycee dugard is living a free and private life with her two children and is the founder of an organization aimed at helping families dealing with reunification after abductions. her story is inspiring and important, as it provides theorists and therapists with many ways of looking at the processing of trauma by a survivor through language. it is also important because, by sharing her story, jaycee helps put a voice to the millions of children suffering in sexual slavery still today. the human brain is a remarkable thing that can dream and make meaning. it can contemplate the meaning of the words it uses to make meaning as well. even while still in captivity, jaycee showed how writing aided her and how she saw the power of words: “so many people do not listen to their soul. i know it’s just a word, but that’s how we have learned to communicate with words and through behavior. it’s only human to use words to describe what can never be touched” (171). indeed, through her words, we can see more clearly what is impossible to understand, to touch, or to know—the individual experience of a sufferer of trauma. 92 aprill berger, james. “trauma and literary theory.” contemporary literature 38.3 (1997): 562-582. web. 27 nov. 2014. bloom, sandra l. “trauma theory abbreviated.” from the family action plan: a coordinated community response to family violence (1999): 1-17. web. 30 dec. 2014. caruth, cathy. trauma: explorations in memory. baltimore: the john hopkins university press, 1995. pdf. 4 jan. 2015. dugard, jaycee. a stolen life: a memoir. new york: simon & schuster paperbacks, 2011. print. harden, nathan. “eight facts you didn’t know about child sex trafficking.” huff post. thehuffingtonpost.com, inc., 11 nov. 2013. web. 4 feb. 2015. hopper, elizabeth and josé hidalgo. “invisible chains: psychological coercion of human trafficking victims.” international human rights law review 1.1 (2006): 185-209. web. 13 oct. 2014. “ilo global estimate of forced labour: results and methodology.” fact sheet. international labour organization. geneva, switzerland. 2012. web. 4 feb. 2015. marder, elissa. “trauma and literary studies: some ‘enabling questions.’” reading on : a journal of theory and criticism 1.1 (2006): no. pg. web. 27 dec. 2014. park, crystal l., and carol joyce blumberg. “disclosing trauma through writing: testing the meaning-making hypothesis.” cognitive therapy and research 26.5 (2002): 597-616. web. 28 nov. 2014. patterson, orlando. slavery and social death: a comparative study. cambridge: harvard university press, 1982. pdf. 19 aug. 2014. 93 works cited aprill toxicity in themes of control: an analysis of the anglo-western cancer rhetoric in a monster calls in anglo-western literature, most monsters are portrayed as conscious, tangible beings. whether one believes that werewolves, cyborgs, and murderous serial killers could be even considered human, or that vampires and zombies count as being alive, usually the monsters audiences encounter are seen as cognizant, thinking, physical beings, meant to match the human (or human-like) heroes in wit, strength, and will. still, we often confront monsters that are not considered cognizant or thinking that are just as complex and dangerous; while one might not immediately consider a disease to be a monster, how we respond to disease is similar to how we portray cognizant monsters. we see disease as an invader of the body, and it evokes terror and panic; for example, it is rare to find someone in modern anglowestern society who does not have some reaction to the word “cancer.” many attend and host charity events and marathons fighting to find a cure, and several write books, create art, and film movies about how the disease affects lives. rarely, though, do we think about how and why we monstrify cancer in pop culture. but patrick ness’s 2011 young adult novel, a monster calls, attempts to address these questions through its reflection of anglo-western cultural values of control in various characters; it seems that a monster calls is not merely a story of coping and grief, but also of how the anglo-western obsession with control and frequent refusal to accept complexity turns toxic, how it influences our lives, and how we can abstract while infection has always haunted civilizations around the world, there are very few diseases that have had as much of an impact on western culture as cancer has. the abundance of bereavement literature about characters with cancer begs the question; why cancer? this paper discusses ways in which cancer narratives reinforce western obsession with control, through the lens of rhetoric and narrative structure. the author will specifically discuss how patrick ness’ 2011 novel, a monster calls, combats modern illness and cancer narratives and challenges themes of control threaded into western culture. natali cavanagh, ball state university 1digital literature review, vol. 4 (2017). ball state university. all rights reserved. please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce critical edition to dlr@bsu.edu. learn to overcome it. using the lens of a monster calls, we can learn and understand more about anglo-western culture and how it is reflected in our rhetoric of cancer. first, this paper will analyze the rhetoric of cancer and illness narratives outside of a monster calls and draw conclusions from this research. in the next sections, the paper will discuss the main monsters of the story (the cancer, the monster, the nightmare vortex, and conor as a monster), explaining their literary relationship with the story and how they converse within our culture’s current cancer narratives and rhetoric. bereavement literature, cancer narratives, and their cultural significance while it might be assumed that death is a subject too serious and dark for children and young adults, giskin day notes that within the past decade there has been a rise in the western young adult (ya) book market in what is called “bereavement literature,” or books about death and grief (1). a monster calls falls under this category and fits the genre conventions; the novel is a harrowing story that follows conor o’malley, a thirteen-year-old boy living in modern day england, as he learns how to process his mother’s cancer and his own grief. the book opens when conor is summoned by a humanoid-tree monster: a walking, talking, surprisingly witty creature that takes the form of the yew tree in conor’s backyard. still, this monster (the character) is not the monster that conor has been expecting; it is not the monster that has been haunting him for months in his nightmares. even though conor is unfazed by the monster’s menacing qualities (his mystical powers, his strength, his unpredictability), the monster states that he has come walking to tell conor three stories, and, in return for those stories, conor will tell him the “truth.” ultimately, the monster and his stories become a metaphor for the difficulties and complexities of conor’s life in the real world as he balances his relationships, from his dying mother, to his chilly grandmother, to the teachers and bullies at his school. along with the external monsters conor is fighting, conor also sees the cancer itself as a monster. and through his perception of his mother’s cancer, audiences can begin to understand the methods conor uses to cope with his grief and why. along with a monster calls, popular books like john green’s the fault in our stars, jodi picoult’s my sister’s keeper, nicholas sparks’s a walk to remember, and jesse andrews’s me and earl and the dying girl all discuss characters dying of cancer and how they, their families, and their friends deal with the disease. ya bereavement literature has taken its place in anglo-western society, and, just as any works of art would, it speaks volumes about the people that consume 2natali cavanagh it, their interpretations of it, and the culture that produces it. so why cancer? cancer survival (or non-survival) stories are a prevalent and common trend in popular culture narratives, but why is cancer such a common antagonist in these contemporary narratives? is it because it is one of the leading causes of death? according to the national cancer institute, in 2012, 8.2 million people died cancer-related deaths worldwide (“cancer statistics”). is it because we have not found a successful and consistent cure? perhaps the abundance of cancerrelated narratives is due, in part, to these reasons, but the nature of these stories also highlights a specific characteristic common to western cultures: the fear of weakness and loss of control. in keywords for disability studies, eva feder kittay writes, “what undermines the ability of disabled people to flourish is the view that being self-sufficient, selfreliant, and self-determining is the norm and the only desirable state of persons in a liberal society” (54). from this perspective, independence is the epitome of western culture. in her book, extraordinary bodies, rosemarie garland thomson relates what liberal individualists call the “american ideal” to the disabled body, writing, “such a self image parallels the national ideal in an individualist egalitarian democracy that each citizen is a microcosm of the nation as a whole. a wellregulated self thus contributes to a well-regulated nation. however, these four principles depend upon a body that is a stable, neutral instrument of the individual will” (42). our society equates self-sufficiency and control with health and power, and we believe that every person is responsible for contributing to the improvement of the community. dependency, then, is a sign of weakness. weakness is, then, vulnerability and loss of control, and it is the vulnerable who suffer most in our society and are at risk of destruction. unsurprisingly, these fears are translated in the way we interpret illness narratives, or stories (fictional and nonfictional) about people coping with disease in an attempt to understand their traumatic experiences. the need for human stories in the face of inhuman diseases is vital in the road to healing; g. thomas couser notes in his article, “critical conditions: teaching illness narrative,” “the more serious an illness the more it demands to be interpreted as a life event, and western medicine does not concern itself with that demand. illness narrative is often a way, then, of reclaiming one’s story, of re-siting one’s illness in the context of one’s whole life” (286). experiencing a disease like cancer can be traumatic for the patient when they feel like they are the victims of their own bodies. anglowestern illness narratives, from personal survival anecdotes to fictional prose, give the patient power over how they are represented and portrayed. still, these illness narrative characteristics (regaining power) can go too far, feeding into our desire 3natali cavanagh and obsession with control. both the benefits and dangers of ideas of power and control can be seen most clearly in the “restitution and recovery” narrative structure, most commonly seen in cancer narratives. in “the cultural construction of risk understandings through narrative illness,” nancy wong and tracey king note that the dominant illness narrative of restitution and recovery in anglo-western culture emphasizes “personal agency, control, and survival” (wong). in these types of narratives, the patient is in charge of their health and their disease. even though the journey to recovery may be long and painful, the patient is optimistic, strong, and brave in their fight against their cancer, victorious and superior to their disease in their success. curiously, there is an emphasis placed on the cancer as a war, a physical opponent separate from the patient’s body; in clive seale’s book, media and health, susan sontag notes the frequent use of military language to describe cancer, that cancer is “experienced as a ruthless, secret invasion . . . the disease itself is conceived as the enemy on which society wages war” and as “an evil, invincible predator” (qtd. in seale 173). through this language, the disease is seen as a tangible enemy that the patient must overcome to regain what is being threatened: bodily autonomy, past identity, independence, and selfhood. even when the patient is failing, when it is clear that the patient will acquiesce to their illness, the patient is still expected to literally and metaphorically fight to the death, “consistent with the belief in anglo-western societies that acquiescence, fear, and denial (i.e., chaos stories) are not socially acceptable ways of dealing with disease” (wong). surrender is not an option, no matter what. according to restitution illness narratives, there is always something the patient can do. this speaks, again, to the idea in western society that we believe “we can exert control over each and every experience, including death itself ” (wong). so it makes sense that the narratives we choose to focus on are ones of struggle but, ultimately, triumph. describing cancer as a physical monster implies the power of the individual; the situation is not hopeless, and the thought of suffering through the disease becomes a little more bearable. but through the lens of monster theory, the need to give cancer a physical body is more reflective of anglo-western culture than one might expect. in jeffrey jerome cohen’s article, “monster culture (seven theses),” he notes, “the monster is born only at this metaphoric crossroads, as an embodiment of a certain cultural movement . . . . the monstrous body is pure culture. a construct and a projection, the monster exists only to be read” (cohen 4). while cancer itself is not fictional and its existence is not based on the fears of society, the rhetoric we use when talking about cancer in popular culture gives the disease a body, thereby creating a physical monster. our monstrous interpretation 4natali cavanagh of cancer is the cultural construct and not necessarily the cancer itself. wong and king note that we typically ascribe to cancer “feral personalities,” using words like “savage,” “lawless,” and “relentless” (wong). we can battle the cancer. we can fight the cancer. the cancer is an invisible opponent that we must destroy. and it is this desire to give cancer a body that, again, highlights our cultural resistance to the elements out of our control. we would like to imagine cancer as a physical monster because we can fight physical monsters. if we give cancer a face and a sword, then it is possible to imagine that by doing something (battling the monster) we can change our current situation. we monstrify cancer because, by doing so, it defines our agency and confirms our humanity (our desire to fight and find the will to live). because without a body or a physical form, the disease becomes something that kills mindlessly. cohen notes that a monster is “that which questions binary thinking and introduces a crisis” (6). if anglo-western culture tells us that we are in complete control of our bodies (that we either choose to be healthy or not), cancer and other diseases question that and challenge us to redefine the meaning of control. perhaps we are not only afraid of dying from disease and losing control over our bodies because of it, but we fear the lack of reason or logic behind it. a disease does not care whether or not someone is a good person or if they deserve to have that disease. in our culture saturated with ideas of complete control over our lives, perhaps giving cancer a body makes cancer less monstrous than a formless, invisible thing that we simply cannot control. the real monster that we are avoiding is perhaps the idea that complete agency is a lie. there is power in having control over a narrative; if we have power, then we have the ability to dictate our futures, reduce pain, and guarantee the safety of those we love. therefore, applying these thought processes in situations of dire hopelessness can give strength. still, this ableist belief in self-sufficiency and our ability to exert power over anything can be dangerous, causing more harm than good to our psyches. the way this belief turns toxic will be explored in this paper through the themes and characters of a monster calls. a monster calls highlights the problems associated with modern cancer narratives and the consequences of our obsession with control: a refusal to accept complexity, vulnerability, and powerlessness as natural and normal parts to being human. the cancer as a monster one of the central questions of a monster calls is, “who is the real monster of the story?” there are four perceived or potential antagonists of the story, and the uncertainty of their roles emphasizes a primary theme of the book. these perceived antagonists — the monster (the character), the nightmare vortex (the monster 5natali cavanagh from conor’s dreams), conor himself, and the cancer — create the complexity and confusion that conor needs to acknowledge and understand in order to begin to heal. the cancer (and the rhetoric surrounding the cancer) functions as a monster in the story in how conor perceives it as an enemy, waging war on his mother’s body. again, although cohen’s research identifies mainly fictional monsters, the way that conor interprets his mother’s cancer is not unlike how the other monsters of the story function; the cancer is a representation of conor’s powerlessness to the natural forces of the world (“the monster signifies something other than itself ” [cohen 4]), it forces conor to question his previous definitions and perceptions of the world (“they demand a radical rethinking of boundary and normality” [cohen 6]), and it calls conor to address his own fears and desires (“we distrust and loathe the monster at the same time we envy its freedom, and perhaps its sublime despair” [cohen 17]). similar to the functioning of cancer rhetoric on a larger scale in anglo-western cultures, conor also perceives the cancer as something that he is physically fighting and waging war against. toward the beginning of the book, conor’s grandmother attempts to discuss his living situation and implies that he will live with her after his mother dies. he says, “i’m never going to live with you,” to which his grandmother replies, “i’m sorry, but you are. and i know she’s trying to protect you, but i think it’s vitally important for you to know that when this is all over, you’ve got a home”: “‘when all of this is over,’ conor said, with fury in his voice, ‘you’ll leave and we’ll be fine’” (ness 43). conor’s belief in his mother’s recovery is persistent throughout almost the entire novel. when his mother tells him that the next treatment will work or that a new medication is available, he believes that her health is improving. they are doing everything they can to “fight” the cancer, and the cancer must not win. while the cancer is not a traditional monster, conor sees it as the main antagonist he is battling. still, the underlying conflict that runs through conor’s actions is the belief that he deserves to be punished. what he truly desires is his mother’s death and therefore the end of her drawn out suffering. but he believes that this desire is wrong and is then laden with guilt. because of this desire, he wants to be reprimanded for his transgressions; he has done wrong because he wants his mother to succumb to her cancer. he wants the “enemy” to win, and how could a hero ever want the villain to win? this is translated most outwardly in the way that he interacts with his peers and teachers, enticing responses from bullies and almost encouraging his teachers to punish him. in general, it is a natural instinct to want to comfort someone who is grieving or suffering, and the adults in conor’s life perceive his situation to be distressing 6natali cavanagh and absolutely devastating. when someone is grappling with the illness of a loved one, one would want to do anything they could to help that person, and the way that conor’s teachers and peers do this is by giving him “space.” when he does not want to speak in class, teachers politely glance over him and ignore his lack of participation. they let him pass on assignments without punishment and go out of their way to single him out and show their support and kindness. his peers look at him differently, treating him “like he was the one who was ill,” skirting around him, afraid to approach or hurt him (ness 69, emphasis original). these actions are well intentioned and are not meant to be tactless, yet these are the actions that hurt conor the most and the ones that haunt him. when conor’s teacher, miss kwan, pardons him from a school fight, ness writes, “and for a moment, conor was entirely alone. he knew right then he could probably stay out there all day and no one would punish him for it. which somehow made him feel even worse” (ness 73). in the same scene with miss kwan, ness writes, “conor said nothing, and the silence took on a particular quality, one he was familiar with . . . . he knew what was coming. he knew and he hated it . . . . he couldn’t look at her, couldn’t see the care there, couldn’t bear to hear it in her voice. (because he didn’t deserve it.)” (ness 72-73, emphasis original). what conor wants is for the world to be simple. he wants his actions to be placed in tidy categories because it gives him a sense of control in the world, but perhaps also because it gives him a better sense of understanding in a world that refuses to make sense to him. why do good people die pointless deaths? why do wellintentioned people make bad decisions? if conor is punished for his perceived transgressions (desiring his mother’s death) in the real world, then it reassures him that justice exists, and, if it exists for him, perhaps it exists for his mother. what conor fears is that his “bad” actions will go unpunished and that he, a villain, will walk throughout the world unharmed. while conor seems to outwardly insist that the real monster is the cancer, the audience begins to see that the monster conor is grappling with is himself. conor believes that the cancer is a monster but that he is the worse monster. perhaps this is what also drives his relationship with harry, the blondehaired, blue-eyed, charming, but vicious, schoolyard bully. conor relishes the fights goaded on by harry, which are not so much fights as they are conor permitting harry to hit him. it is as if harry somehow understands that what conor wants is to be seen, not necessarily in a good or bad way, but truly seen for what he is. conor does not think the other peers and teachers see who he is on the inside (a monster), essentially invisible to the outside world. but harry continues to see conor, and it is only harry that understands what conor wants. at the climax of 7natali cavanagh their relationship, and when harry finally understands what will hurt conor most, he states, “‘here is the hardest hit of all, o’malley,’ . . . ‘here is the very worse thing i can do to you . . . .good-bye, o’malley,’ harry said, looking into conor’s eyes. ‘i no longer see you.’” (ness 144-145). what drives conor is guilt, but what hurts conor is injustice. what hurts him is becoming invisible, his feelings, thoughts, and actions becoming irrelevant to everyone around him. after harry leaves conor, the monster appears, stating, “it was not that he was actually invisible . . . . it was that people had become used to not seeing him . . . . and if no one really sees you . . . are you really there at all?” (ness 146, emphasis original). what conor wants is for his actions to have consequences; if he perceives his “evil” thoughts to be harmful, then maybe, if he is punished, justice will be restored. conor mistakenly believes that he is responsible for his mother’s suffering (because he wishes for her death, because he does not believe in her recovery) and that his thoughts and beliefs have more power than they actually do (“i didn’t mean to let her go! and now it’s for real! now she’s going to die and it’s my fault!” [ness 190]). conor cannot control his mother’s cancer, but his belief that he actually can control the cancer and her suffering through his thoughts and actions is what gives him the illusion of power. conor fears the meaninglessness of his actions because it forces him to recognize that his power and control are, in fact, illusions; there is nothing he can do to help his mother. this deep repression of fear causes conor to act rashly and violently toward his friends and family, in the verbal abuse of his best friend (ness 25-26), the almost self-inflicted punishments from harry (ness 18-22), and the physical destruction of his grandmother’s living room (ness 110-114) and the school cafeteria (ness 146-152). an understandable desire to help his mother and control her disease turns into obsessive and harmful thoughts and actions. ultimately, this belief (that her suffering is his fault) prevents him from grieving properly, causing psychological and emotional stress. so while the cancer is not a thinking, tangible monster that fights the protagonist, the cancer forces conor to analyze his perceptions of right and wrong and the extent of his control over his situations. this conflict of interest thus rises from conor’s subconscious in the forms of tangible monsters. the monster (the character) as a representation of complexity and powerlessness one of these monsters is the monster (the character); he is the main “monster” that conor directly interacts with and the one that the audience sees most in the story. it is through the monster and his stories that conor begins to 8natali cavanagh understand that the reason he feels so vulnerable and powerless is because of the complexity and ambiguity of his emotions; cohen mentions in his research that monsters resist easy categorization, but through ness’s description and portrayal of the monster, it seems that the monster and the stories he tells conor represent complexity itself. in the novel, conor struggles to define who the monster is and what his purpose in conor’s life is; the monster insists that conor is the one who called for him and that conor is the one who wants his help, but it is not clear how the monster is supposed to be helping him. the monster is not necessarily evil because he does not encourage conor’s self-destruction; however, he threatens conor’s demise by forcing him to recognize his vulnerability. he encourages conor to tear apart his grandmother’s living room and violently attack harry as destructive ways to express his pain, but he also encourages conor to find peace within the world and rehabilitate. this ambiguity can be seen through the monster’s physical traits as well; the monster describes himself as wild and untamable (“i am this wild earth” and “i am everything untamed and untamable!” [ness 34]). interestingly, wong and king note in their research that cancer tends to be described with words like “insidious,” “mysterious,” “lawless,” and “savage” (wong). the monster has ancient magic, the power to destroy buildings, and the power to move across time and space; he is not bound to the logic and reality of the world. but while the monster seems chaotic and destructive, he also physically represents hope and recovery. in the story, conor’s mother begins a new drug therapy in a final attempt toward improvement; one of the ingredients in the drug is yew bark (from the same type of tree that the monster has chosen as a body). as conor and the audience discover the monster’s character throughout the book, it becomes harder to classify him as an actual monster, or at least what conor perceives monsters are supposed to be (evil, villainous, antagonistic) when he also symbolizes hope in conor’s, and his mother’s, rehabilitation. even though the monster himself is a complex beast, it is his stories that force conor to acknowledge ambiguity. the monster is aware that his stories and his motives bring pain and alleviation together. he gives conor stories that do not make sense to conor; while each of the three stories he tells are set in different times and places, they all emphasize complexity within morality. the characters of the monster’s stories do not fit into clear categories (hero, villain, victim, etc.). for example, in the first, a right-thinking prince performs evil actions with good intentions, and the evil witch is not necessarily the enemy. in the second, a goodhearted priest creates destruction through unintended selfishness, and the monster portrays a purposely selfish, bitter apothecary as the victim. in the third, the 9natali cavanagh line between reality and fantasy blurs when the monster makes conor the main character and harry the villain, making the actions performed by conor in the story become real. when conor confronts the monster about the ambiguity of these stories, he asks, “i don’t understand. who’s the good guy here?” (ness 63). the monster then replies, “there is not always a good guy. nor is there always a bad one. most people are somewhere in between” (ness 64). conor wants a moral to the monster’s stories and the knowledge that goodness triumphs over evil in the end. still, the monster makes a point that the purpose of his stories is not meant to be clear; he states, “you think i tell you stories to teach you lessons? . . . you think i have come walking out of time and earth itself to teach you a lesson in niceness?” (ness 63, emphasis original). the monster is not inherently good or evil, just as his stories, motives, and actions are not clear or straightforward. what makes this monster particularly compelling is that he specifically symbolizes complexity; he does not simply represent complexity in a certain societal norm or cultural trend, but he embodies the nature and fear of complexity itself. what conor fears is the complexity and the indefinable sources of his problems; he does not understand how he can want his mother to survive and so desperately wish for the end of her suffering at the same time. what the monster forces him to confront is the idea that his mother’s cancer, his thoughts, and his entire world cannot be clearly defined and are, therefore, uncontrollable. just as the monster and his stories are not things conor can control, his life and his mind cannot be controlled either. through the monster’s character, conor and the audience are invited to think critically about how we define villains and heroes, and how much influence we actually have over those definitions (and consequently ourselves). most importantly, though, the monster and his stories prepare conor for the ultimate test of his strength: confronting his own fears of becoming a monster. the nightmare vortex and conor as monster the monster that conor must face in order to overcome his fears (the nightmare vortex) appears finally at the end of the novel, after the monster has told the three tales. at the climax of the story, the monster brings conor to the source of his nightmare; in the scene, a swirling, black, powerful vacuum begins to pull conor’s mother off a cliff, threatening to eat her alive. the audience assumes that this vortex is the monster that conor refers to at the beginning of the story, and the connection to his mother’s cancer is clear; ness writes, “cloud and ash and dark flames, but with real muscle, real strength, real red eyes that glared back at him and flashing teeth that would eat his mother alive” (ness 179). the impossibly powerful 10natali cavanagh monster that is eating his mother away in real life is here to eat her in his dreams, and this monster seems to be a personification of the cancer. still, as the nightmare scene continues, the audience sees that conor is more afraid of himself than the vortex around him. as he catches his mother moments before she falls, he finds her growing heavier and heavier, until he cannot bear the weight of her and lets her plummet to her death. what conor cannot admit, cannot even utter, is that he wanted her to fall because she was too heavy to carry by himself. this truth is what conor is ultimately afraid of: that he himself is the monster because he is the one that causes her death. this moment is the climax of the story, but it is also an essential comingof-age point for conor. as the nightmare vortex begins to consume conor, the monster says, “you must tell the truth or you will never leave this nightmare . . . .you will be trapped here alone for the rest of your life” (ness 185). in both a literal and metaphorical sense, this monster (the belief that conor is the cause of his mother’s suffering) will kill conor. the ugliness of the truth, represented through the way the “nightmare’s tendrils were binding him now,” will suffocate him; the longer he stays silent, the farther he pushes his words down his throat (ness 186). conor’s grief and guilt overwhelm him, so much that they make him incapable of processing life normally (“conor’s grief was a physical thing, gripping him like a clamp, clenching him tight as a muscle” [ness 190]). interestingly, though, the monster (the character) says specifically that conor must say the truth in order to be able to move on. what destroys conor even more than his guilt is a lack of expression of that guilt and an inability to say what makes him vulnerable and afraid. the words themselves have more power than anything else; the monster notes, “you were willing to die rather than speak [the truth]” (ness 192). conor believes that he has control over his emotions and that he has the ability to make his complex situations simple. he is evil because he desires his mother’s death. so if he denies this desire and instead tells himself to believe in a cure for her cancer, then he can find redemption. these are, then, attempts to try and control his feelings through self-inflicted punishment, anger, physical violence, and denial of his emotions. he believes he has the power to control how he feels about his mother’s illness, and so his inability to control his complex and ambiguous emotions makes him a monster. but as the monster and the nightmare vortex show conor, we do not have the ability to pick and choose what we control. conor does not overcome the nightmare vortex by changing his thought process, but by admitting a truth that he does not want to speak; he must admit that he does not have complete control over how he thinks and feels and that he does not have control over his 11natali cavanagh mother’s cancer. there is no concrete reason why conor’s mother has cancer, and conor has no physical way to save her. believing that he has control and that there is something he can do is what nearly destroys him. in the end, the only way conor can overcome his grief and his guilt is by physically speaking the truth and acknowledging his vulnerability and powerlessness to the monster and, consequently, to himself. the complexities of conor’s situation will always remain complex, and he may not understand why exactly he feels certain ways. but conor’s ambiguity and lack of control do not make him inherently evil, nor do they make him inherently good. our inability to control everything does not make us monsters, but is, instead, something that makes us human. conclusion as a story of grief and coping, a monster calls seems to be a novel about ways we can understand the death and suffering of those closest to us. but, as a story that also participates in a larger conversation involving how anglo-western cultures perceive cancer, illness, and disease, it is also a story about our inevitable powerlessness to the forces beyond us. we cannot always anticipate and prevent diseases like cancer, and we cannot always save the people that deserve saving. we cannot always control the ambiguity and complexity in our lives. we do have a choice in whether or not we let that fear consume us. the monstrous antagonist of a monster calls, then, is not even the nightmare vortex or the cancer itself, but the dangerous illusion of control that we have infused in anglo-western culture and cancer restoration narratives. what conor’s story warns us about is the way that persistence and relentlessness can turn toxic, resisting that which makes us human. 12natali cavanagh works cited “cancer statistics.” national cancer institute, national cancer institute at the national institutes of health, www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/understanding/ statistics. accessed 14 mar. 2016. cohen, jeffrey jerome. “monster culture (seven theses).” monster theory: reading culture. edited by jeffrey jerome cohen, regents of the university of minnesota, 1996, pp. 3-25. couser, g. thomas. “critical conditions: teaching illness narrative.” teaching literature and medicine, edited by anne hunsaker hawkins and marilyn chandler mcentyre, modern language association of america, 2000, pp. 282–288. day, giskin. “good grief: bereavement literature for young adults and a monster calls.” medical humanities, vol. 38, no. 2, 29 nov. 2012, pp. 115–119. feder kittay, eva. “dependency.” keywords for disability studies, edited by rachel adams et al., new york university press, 2015, pp. 54–58. ness, patrick, et al. a monster calls. somerville, ma, candlewick press, 2011. seale, clive. media & health. sage publications, 2002. thomson, rosemarie garland. extraordinary bodies: figuring physical disability in american culture and literature.columbia university press, 1997. wong, nancy and tracey king.“ the cultural construction of risk understandings through illness narratives.” journal of consumer science, vol. 34, no. 5, feb. 2008, pp. 579–594. jstor, doi:10.1086/520078. accessed 7 jan. 2017. 13natali cavanagh http:// www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/understanding/ statistics. http:// www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/understanding/ statistics. dlr journal 20 abstract many science fiction novels discuss either utopian or dystopian ideas. h.g. wells’s novel, the food of the gods, is unique in that it addresses both. this paper argues that h.g. wells’ s use of tonal shifts in the food of the gods signals a change from a dystopian society to a utopian one. human refusal to adopt inevitable evolutionary change creates the former, while a superior race’s acceptance of it promises hope for an ever-improving future. by katie patyk from dystopia to utopia: tonal shifts and perspective change in h. g. wells's the food of the gods 21 one of the questions that h.g. wells pursued throughout his life was “how will humans exist?” this is addressed in many of his novels, including a little-known work titled the food of the gods. the food of the gods is a speculation on human evolution, which occurs as different forms of herakleophorbia (the food of the gods) spreads across britain. the novel is divided into three subsections, referred to as books one, two, and three. while the first book is nearly comedic in its description of giant chickens plaguing the town of hickleybrow, books two and three take on a much more serious tone in which the children of the food strive for acceptance in a world where they are rejected. wells’s tonal shift between the first two subsections of the food of the gods demonstrates his belief that human resistance to evolutionary change creates dystopia, while a superior race’s acceptance of it creates a utopia that promotes growth and change. whether or not something is utopian or dystopian all depends on one’s positioning. gregory claeys, in “the origins of dystopia,” claims, “…the socialist engineering of human behaviour via the reconstruction of society; and the eugenic engineering of human behaviour via biological manipulation, were viewed widely as both positive and negative developments” (109). the reconstruction of a socialist society and the eugenic engineering of human behavior present in the food of the gods clearly favors the children of the food while presenting a disadvantage to humanity. the transition from dystopia to utopia occurs after book one, once the children of the food gain agency. wells use of dystopian elements demonstrates the folly of humans attempting to avoid evolutionary progress. michael page, in the literary imagination from erasmus darwin to h.g. wells, states, “the food of the gods…suggest[s] that as technological changes occur, human consciousness must grow along with it” (187). the world becomes a dark place for humanity because of its refusal to adapt to the changes their world is undergoing. dr. winkles notes, “everybody can see that you [bensington and redwood] are up to a disturbing thing. and the human instinct is all against disturbance, you know” (wells 545). humanity does its best to resist all variants of bigness that become a part of the world that they inhabit. one of the first ways humanity attempts to resist evolutionary change is simply through attacking any of the animals that become big due to outbreaks of the food. outbreaks occur patyk 22 patyk constantly, though they start with a man named godfrey and his encounter with a giant wasp. though godfrey manages to kill the wasp and remain unscathed, the same cannot be said for others who encounter giant wasps. the narrator explains, “there was one victim, a grocer, who discovered one of these monsters in a sugar cask…he struck it to the ground for a moment, and it stung him through the boot…he was first dead of the two” (509). deaths continue to occur as giant chickens and rats plague the town of hickleybrow and its surrounding villages. in every account of these attacks, humans claim that they are the victims. despite their claims of victimization, however, the humans are always the first to open fire. when humans choose to leave the giant-sized animals alone, there are only “…reports…of mere passings or descents” (509). clearly, leaving the animals alone would have caused less destruction. the narrative suggests this during the giant chickens’ descent upon hickleybrow. after one of the hens grabs a child in its beak, the narrator states, “. . . [the curate] hurled his mallet with all his might and main…it frightened the hen. it might have frightened anyone” (514). it is only after it is attacked that the hen causes some sort of destruction by putting a foot through a weak place in the tiles of fulcher’s roof. the narrator’s attitude as well as the results of these attacks suggests that trying to rid the world of bigness may not be effective. the result of humans attacking the giant animals usually comes at a cost to them instead of the animals they want to kill. another way in which humanity attempts to evade evolutionary change is through political opposition to bigness. dr. winkles notes, “. . . the society for the total suppression of boomfood claims to have several thousands of members” (545). the society finds caterham, a politician, to help them attempt to make it punishable by law to make and store the food of the gods without special permission for anyone under the age of twenty-one. other societies spring up as a result of the creation of the society for the total suppression of boomfood as well, such as the society for the preservation of ancient statures. because of all the political societies forming around the issue of boomfood, the prime minister decides upon a royal commission on boomfood. humanity seems to assume that if the food of the gods is put under restrictions by the government that it will cease to produce evolutionary change. it quickly becomes clear how foolish is the thought that political organizations can stop 23 patyk evolutionary change. the narrator states “. . . so soon as the plant or animal was fully adult, it became altogether independent of any further supply of food” (552). stopping the creation and storage of the food of the gods might be effective in stopping outbreaks; however, it is too late to quell the spread from the plants already affected and mature. the beginning of book two also demonstrates how futile is any political attempt to control the spread of the food of the gods. the narrator explains, “in spite of prejudice, in spite of law and regulation, in spite of all that obstinate conservatism that lies at the base of the formal order of mankind, the food of the gods, once it had been set going, pursued its subtle and invincible process” (563). the narrator tells readers outright that none of humanity’s attempts at resistance, pursued in book one, will succeed by the time readers reach the first page of book two. the story of the released convict epitomizes humanity’s loss of control of bigness. the convict was imprisoned before the creation of the food of the gods and not released until 20 years after the food has been altering the landscape of britain. the narrator explains, “to most men the new things came little by little and day by day, remarkably enough, but not so abruptly as to overwhelm. but to one man at least the full accumulation of those two decades of the food’s work was to be revealed suddenly and amazingly in one day” (585). wells’s inclusion of the convict’s view of the world serves to demonstrate just how much the world has changed since the beginning of the novel, which none of the main characters would have noticed since it was a gradual change for them. the convict’s astonishment at how the world looks demonstrates how the world is changing to fit the children of the food’s needs instead of the needs of humanity. book two of the food of the gods marks where the tone changes from humans comedically failing to prevent their dystopian world from changing, to one where more utopian hopes are introduced through the children of the food. however, conditions do not improve for humanity. in fact, humanity’s dystopian environment loses comedic value and gains more of a foreboding sense of dark consequences. humans continue to perish in attempts to stop outbreaks and ultimately begin war with the children of the foods over reproductive rights. there is no opposition to the opinions of humanity until book two because the humans who had eaten and would become children of the food were children with no agency. however, by book 24 patyk two, the children of the food inherit agency from their parents and use their own voices as they become agents in their own right. the narrator explains, “. . . the children of the food, growing into a world that changed to receive them, gathered strength and stature and knowledge, became individual and purposeful, rose slowly towards the dimensions of their destiny” (564). the narrator implies that the children of the food are meant to be in charge of the world, that it is their destiny to become the rulers of mankind. the counter perspective of the children of the food that begins to be offered in book two contributes to the change in perspective that is noticed between book one and further subsections. in order to fully understand the change in tone, one must understand what wells’s position regarding the issues of “. . . the socialist engineering of human behaviour via the reconstruction of society; and the eugenic engineering of human behaviour via biological manipulation . . .” (claeys 109). wells is a promoter of eugenics and socialism, and therefore would have found the horror of humanity at the transition of their society purely foolish and comedic. jerry bergman, in h.g. wells: darwin’s disciple and eugenicist extraordinare, claims that “. . . eugenics became for wells, as well as for many other darwinians of his time, a key to human salvation” (117). darwin’s theory of evolution left open the possibility that evolution could lead to “stagnation and regression” instead of advancement (bergman 117). wells’s way of preventing regression and stagnation was to have an oligarchy picking the best and the brightest of humanity. bergman notes, “wells believed that evolution, operating on its own, was not ‘progressive,’ but needed to be ‘directed’ by the educated elite” (118). wells feared that without some kind of control over evolution that humanity would fail to improve and start to regress. wells developed his opinions regarding socialism and eugenics from t.h. huxley, his professor and a fellow darwinian. ken davis, in “the shape of things to come: h.g. wells and the rhetoric of proteus,” notes, “. . . [huxley] made a profound impact on wells and provided the paradigm for his entire personal, political, and literary life” (111). huxley, like darwin, believed that humans descended from animals and that humanity is no less susceptible to acting instinctually or barbarically. huxley also believed that the human conscience was the result of evolution and that it could be developed even more. as davis writes, “. . . we may just be able to transcend our animal origins, and replace 25 patyk biological evolution with social evolution” (111). it was through huxley that wells became interested in using eugenics to improve society and to form a more perfect state through socialism. consistent with his belief in socialism, wells’s conditions for utopias follow the vision of the marxist theorist ernst bloch. according to bloch, “. . . all art is in essence utopian, since it provides an image of the world as it might be if it were improved” (james 125). food of the gods exemplifies utopian thinking by imagining an improved world consisting of human giants. furthermore, bloch claims that utopias “. . . must remain fragmentary, dialectical, partially unfinished: the work of art does not satisfy in its autarkical self-completion, but as becoming” (james 126). if a society is perfect and has no room for improvement, it is easily destroyed because it will no longer evolve. instead, the society must be continually self-improving, always on the brink of perfection. the food of the gods maintains the idea that the first generation of the children of the food is only the beginning of an idyllic structure. cossar’s son proclaims, “we fight not for ourselves but for growth-growth that goes on forever. tomorrow, whether we live or die, growth will conquer through us” (wells 639). the children recognize that their generation will not be the best generation of children of the food. they will fight against humanity to ensure a better future for those who will follow them. they are fighting for “growth,” for the evolution and betterment of humanity (639). in the food of the gods, the future always promises to be better than the present, a clear tenant of bloch’s rules for utopia. the food of the gods ends on the promise that humanity will be forced to evolve, but gives readers no real sense of a conclusion. one never finds out how the great battle between the humans and the children of the food ends, but one can assume that it ends with the triumph of progress. however, society can never be perfected because of the implication that it is through continued “growth” that improvement, and thus utopia, endure (639). if the novel had a firm conclusion, the possibility of utopia would cease to exist. in books two and three of the food of the gods, wells’s utopian vision is visible through the children of the food. simon james, in maps of utopia: h.g. wells, modernity, and the end of culture, explains that “wells’s utopias are . . . in dialogue with . . . previous literary utopias: plato, in particular is a constant point of reference” (127). throughout their childhood, the children of the food display different kinds of platonic requirements for utopia that the regular humans fail to do. 26 patyk the children of the food are not restricted by the laws and rules that govern humanity and are therefore able to see what would be best for the world. one of plato’s requirements for utopia that wells incorporates in the food of the gods is a want to do work. james states, “individuals in utopia should not labour from compulsion, but from accurate platonic recognition of the common good, and because their labour is a type for which they are well fitted, and for which they have been adequately trained” (131). cossar’s giant sons are invested in doing labor for the common good when they are young. for example, they attempt to build a road that would be much more efficient than the current road system. the narrator explains, “. . . one morning about dawn…[they] had set to work to make a road about the world…driving that road straight as a bullet toward the english channel . . . ” (wells 591). the lawyer who tells cossar’s sons that they cannot build straight through so much privately owned property even admits that having a straight road might be more advantageous to everyone as opposed to the lanes that currently exist; however, he is too bound by human laws to allow cossar’s sons to continue their project. after being deterred from building one road to go around the entire world, cossar’s sons move to a different project that they believe will better life for regular humanity: building a giant house for many people to live in. one of the sons states, “lots of them [humans] haven’t houses fit to live in… let’s go and build ‘em a house close up to london, that will hold heaps and heaps of them and be ever so comfortable and nice….” (592). the boys legitimately want to make the society they live in better and more pleasant for everyone, but once again, humans prevent them from doing so. after these two attempts, the giant children begin to recognize that the world as it is does not allow for progress toward the common good. this realization ultimately leads them to realize that they must be in control of humanity in order to be constantly progressing towards utopia. the children of the food are more fit to survive in the new world that the food of the gods has created. however, this is not simply based upon the fact that they are the immune to attacks from giant rodents, which to them are merely normal sized rodents, nor is it based upon the fact that they are simply stronger than regular humans. james reminds us that another component of plato’s utopia is education. he states, “in plato’s republic, the purpose of education is to enable its recipients to know good, and thus to do good . . . . for wells . . . scientific education is the essential foundation of 27 patyk the ideal society” (129). therefore, it is not good enough for the children of the food to simply be more physically fit to survive in their environment. they must also be well-educated. the importance of education in the lives of the children of the food becomes particularly obvious when the lives of cossar’s sons are juxtaposed with the life of caddles. cossar’s sons are well-educated. the narrator recounts, “cossar…[did] get building…a comfortable well-lit playground, schoolroom, and nursery for their four boys . . . ” (wells 552). cossar’s sons are provided with an area that is meant to help fill them with all the knowledge that they will need to be well-educated adults later in life. compare this to caddles, whose education lies in the hands of the vicar of cheasing eyebright. of his education, it is said that, “he [the vicar] never taught the monster to readit was not needed; but he taught him the more important points of the catechism . . . ” (577). compared to cossar’s sons, caddles’s education is barely existent, putting him at an immediate disadvantage. it is caddles’s lack of education that ultimately results in his death. james explains, “. . . the fate of caddles . . . proves that size and strength alone are not sufficient for evolutionary security” (james 151). caddles is not equipped with the tools that would allow him to live. he has the potential to live up to the standards set for the cossar brothers, but he is consistently treated as though his giantness is a disability. as caddles begins to enter puberty, he is thought of as ugly by the vicar, who explains his looks as, “. . . the degenerate strain coming out in him . . . ” (wells 575). he is viewed as a burden by lady wondershoot and the rest of cheasing eyebright. yet, caddles shows an immense capacity for intellectual thought. the narrator explains, “in spite of the simple instructions of the vicar…he [caddles] began to ask questions, to inquire things, to think. as he grew from boyhood to adolescence it became increasingly evident that his mind had processes of its own-out of the vicar’s control” (581). caddles, despite being treated as though he were a degenerate, is capable of intellectual thought. it is the townspeople of cheasing eyebright who keep this possibility from him. caddles attempts to escape the town that is holding him back from his full intellectual potential, but this only leads to his demise. the narrator asks, “what was he seeking? he wanted something the pigmy world would not give, some end which the pigmy prevented his attaining, prevented even his seeing clearly, which he was never to see clearly” (613). humans, the pigmies, do not want to educate someone who presents a threat to their existence. for the humans of the novel, 28 patyk exempting those who are related to them, educating the children of the food will only allow them to slowly wipe out humanity as they know and understand it. because the vicar and the rest of the population of cheasing eyebright refuse to educate caddles, he does not understand the consequences of resisting arrest when he is in london. he does not even understand what blood is. the narrator states, “he was stung and wrenched by pain. what was this, warm and wet, on his hand?” (617). caddles grasps for understanding and knowledge of the world around him, but he attempts to get it from the people who view him as a problem instead of those who will fight to protect him. this is not a disadvantage that redwood and cossar’s sons face. they have their parents to defend them. caddles is utterly isolated, while cossar’s sons thrive and live to see the beginning of what will be the replacement of humans with the children of the food. that the food of the gods is distributed to certain children, and ultimately removed from the giant children who are deemed unfit to have it, suggests that the existence of the children of the food is controlled through eugenics. wells himself “. . . loathed ‘the masses’ and believed that birth control was crucial to ensuring a brighter human future . . . a small elite would control such decisions. . . ” (herrick 107). bensington and redwood in many ways make up this small elite in their distribution by deciding which children will receive the food of the gods to and which ones will not. the children that they choose tend to be upper or upper-middle class, such as the princess or one of their own children. meanwhile, mrs. skinner manages to distribute some of the food to caddles, who is very much lower class. because he is lower class and cannot ensure “a brighter human future” with his lack of education, caddles must die (herrick 107). survival of the fittest is an ever-present idea in the food of the gods. james herrick, in scientific mythologies: how science and science fiction forge new religious beliefs, explains, “wells’s vision of the humanity to come is perhaps most passionately presented in a little-known book titled the food of the gods (1904)” (106). wells was a huge promoter of the eugenics movement and believed in friedrich nietzsche’s idea of the übermensch or “overman.” herrick explains that the overman is “the idea of a superhuman . . . the person of superior intellectual, spiritual, or physical capacity. . . the individual who rises above the run of ordinary humanity” (102). the children of the food have risen above ordinary humanity simply through their physical traits. the ones that survive 29 patyk are also well-educated, perhaps even beyond the humans in the novel. wells, through his narrator, suggests throughout the novel that the children of the food are to be the overman. when describing redwood’s child, the narrator states, “. . . presently little redwood, pioneer of the new race, first child who ate the food, was crawling about his nursery . . .” (552). already in book one, there is foreshadowing of what is to come. redwood’s child is a “pioneer of the new race” (552). he is what humanity is going to become: bigger, better, stronger. compared to ordinary humans, these giant children can do extraordinary things. they are humanity’s next evolutionary step, which is why at the end of the novel all humans seem likely to be exterminated. humans would not allow this new race, the children of the food, to progress. by the end of the novel, redwood (father) has fully come to terms with the fact that humanity must be abolished. he tells cossar, “it isn’t our youth…they are taking things over. they are beginning upon their own emotions, their own experiences, their own way. we have made a new world, and it isn’t ours. it isn’t even sympathetic . . . ” (634). redwood is cognizant that the children of the food are the next stage in the growth of humanity. he recognizes that it was his job to start this race by feeding his son the food of the gods, but he now sees that this was the only part he was meant to play. he knows he must step back and let the overman take control. herrick explains, “science fiction has a long history with such ‘progressive’ understanding of human evolution, often portraying the current human race as but a step along the way to something grander” (101). redwood seems to be the face of this progressive understanding in the food of the gods. while redwood seems to be one of the only members of humanity that understands they must cease to exist to allow for progression and growth, the children of the food themselves all seem aware of this by the end of the novel. one of them states, “. . . you cannot have pigmies and giants in one world together…it is for the little people to eat the food” (wells). the children of the food choose to turn to ecological warfare in order to remove humanity from existence. they plan to force all of humanity to become giants by spreading the food in the air, making all of those who are still growing susceptible to its effects. eventually, there will be no humans left, at least as they are originally understood in the novel. in order to continue the advancement of the human race, the children of the food are forced to begin war with humanity. 30 patyk by the end of the food of the gods, wells has shifted from a completely dystopian world to one of a hope for utopia through the newly emergent overmen. page notes that when “the novel shows the fathers protecting the children against the prejudices of the ‘little people’ and educating them for the future…[it] shifts from being a novel of giant menace, to something different: a utopian novel …” (188). the change that page refers to occurs after book one. it is through this change that wells demonstrates the folly of trying to escape evolutionary progress and how, in attempting to escape that, humanity will probably be destroyed. it is those who accept progress and growth, such as redwood and the children of the food, who will inherit the earth, not those who oppose it. 31 patyk works cited bergman, jerry. “h.g. wells: darwin’s disciple and eugenicist extraordinaire.” journal of creation, vol. 18, no. 3, 2004, pp. 106-110. claeys, gregory. “the origins of dystopia: wells, huxley and orwell.” the cambridge companion to utopian literature, edited by gregory claeys, university of cambridge press, 2010, pp. 107-134. davis, ken. “the shape of things to come: h.g. wells and the rhetoric or proteus.” no place else: explorations in utopian and dystopian fiction, edited by eric s. rabkin, martin h. greenburg, and joseph d. olander, southern illinois university press, 1983, pp. 110-124. herrick, james a. scientific mythologies: how science and science fiction forge new religious beliefs. intervarsity press, 2008. james, simon. maps of utopia: h.g. wells, modernity, and the end of culture. oxford university press, 2012. page, michael r. the literary imagination from erasmus darwin to h.g. wells: science, evolution, and ecology. routledge, 2012. wells, h.g. “the food of the gods.” h.g. wells: six novels. canterbury classics, 2012, pp. 493-693. 96 edited by shelby hatfield, rebekah hobbs, & jared lynch multilayered specter, multifaceted presence: a critical edition of h.p. lovecraft’s “the tomb” this edition examines “the tomb” in depth, including the historical context in which lovecraft was writing, as well as the social and technological changes that occurred. it exposes multilayered ghosts housed within the text. it also examines lovecraft’s fascination with the supernatural and the development of the horror genre, which he modeled after poe’s work. general introduction during the time h.p. lovecraft was writing his essays and short stories (“the tomb” was written in 1917 and published in 1922), 20th century america was experiencing changes in the political and social realms, the result of an influx of old world immigrants and technological changes such as the railroad, telegraph, and telephone. as robert macdougall states, “the pace of technological and economic change was indeed violent and wrenching to many americans. each advance in the technology of communication and transportation gave new powers to its users, yet it also compounded the ability of distant people and events to affect those users’ lives” (717). things outside americans’ immediate arc of influence—events, peoples, and ideas—from across the country could change their lives at any moment, thanks to these new technologies. many americans found something unnerving in this new ability to travel more quickly than before because it seemed as if there was no transition from place to place. the telephone, whose name means literally “sound over distance,” seemed even more ghostly. to talk with someone you could not physically see, especially someone on another continent, would have been barely fathomable to most consumers. indeed, early at&t advertisements rarely described in detail what their customers were buying, preferring instead to leave the information as indecipherable as a tangle of wires. few members of the public had a working grasp of the technology that was invading their homes. the public’s inability to understand the technologies of their everyday life compounded the knowledge gap between the educated few able to develop these new technologies, and those who merely existed around them. this resulting inequality and anxiety about the unknown was a common topic for gothic writers, whose texts often featured a mysterious object or a system of magic that could be wielded by only a single or select few individuals. the tomb in lovecraft’s story of the same name provides a perfect example of such an object, as it holds a mysterious power over the protagonist, with its allusion to dark histories and rituals that the narrator insists he comprehends. readers are unable to understand the ghostly technologies presented to them, creating a chilling effect that mirrors the effects of technology they cannot understand. although the settings might seem to allude to vastly different times, gothic stories exist to capture the terror of the incomprehensible, and suggest that times can never change enough to alter our perception of what is scary. these new technologies changed the american landscape in more nuanced ways as well. because the telephone reached into the home, it affected the “separate spheres” ideology of the victorian world (macdougall 717). men were able to “enter” the home, a woman’s domain, with their voices if not their presence. women’s voices were allowed outside the home as well, raising questions about presence and absence and what digital literature review, vol. 1 (2014). © ball state university. all rights reserved. please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce this critical edition to dlr@bsu.edu. mailto:dlr%40bsu.edu?subject= 97“the tomb” was proper in society. new tensions further blurred the boundaries between the male and female worlds, and gothic fiction reminded readers of the consequences when proper roles were not observed. for example, lovecraft and poe’s stories both feature protagonists who are secluded from other male society, often choosing to self-educate and spend a majority of their time indoors reading or wandering fields and forests, behavior very similar to what was expected in the leisure time of wealthy young ladies. lovecraft’s narrator in “the tomb,” jervas dudley, spends copious amounts of time at the door of the tomb, sleeping alone in the woods and wandering about a charred mansion. his education concerns ancient and obscure texts, no doubt too expensive to be accessible to the masses. dudley’s function in the story adds little value to regular society, as he does not contribute to the economy or the public sphere through his presence, his time, money, or effort. in fact, dudley functions as an aristocrat, contributing nothing, believing he has no need of society. lovecraft uses his story “the tomb” to comment on the dangers of men stepping outside their traditional gender and economic roles, and ultimately his protagonist is destroyed by this behavior. america became increasingly concerned with the “politics of masculinity and transformation in child rearing, gender socialization, and the new sciences of human development” (grant 829) in the late 19th century, and the majority of this concern was directed towards effeminate or “sissy” boys. when a boy was judged to be too close to his mother or sickly, his masculinity or lack thereof became a problem for society, not merely a concern for the parents. men like theodore roosevelt, who practically “cured” himself of polio and allergies, were heroes, while “sissies bore a clinical and social stigma” (grant 829). this trend coincided with general upheaval in the roles of adult men and women as a result of feminism, industrialization, and urbanization. it is interesting to note that h.p. lovecraft himself may have fit the “sissy” mold, as he battled moderate illnesses throughout his adult life, one of the reasons he was able to read and enjoy movies so frequently. he mirrors his protagonist in “the tomb” who also spends much of his developmental childhood and early adult years reading in seclusion. this story amplifies a common tension of the time, emphasizing the gap between those like lovecraft in a more aristocratic position—able to create content, and the common members of society who read that content. there was another reason for change in the late 1800s and early 1900s, as large floods of immigrants from eastern and southern europe arrived to america. newcomers had very little power as they mixed with more established immigrants who were already adjusted to american culture and secure in the industrial system and jobs. scholar john bukowczyk remarks on this struggle for assimilation and cultural identity. “the struggle between popular belief and orthodoxy nonetheless represents an important moment in immigrant social history as it opens a window on class and power relations within the immigrant world and also between that world and the larger american society” (22). while immigrants were adjusting to an industrial economy, lovecraft presented a character that held himself completely apart from that system, reviving old world sentiments of entitlement, classicism, and aristocracy. in addition to class, family name also became a source of contention for immigrants. the workplace forced immigrant communities to interact with other groups and encouraged them to reach outside their own ethnic community for spouses. this allowed names and family lineage to blend, and families were no longer homogeneously italian or german, for example. through the archaic presence of jervas dudley, lovecraft internalizes anxieties concerning societal changes resulting from the influx of immigration, and the increasingly blurred lines of familial lineage. his old world character becomes obsessed with the grand old family of hyde, holding onto a lineage that is extinct. he reacts with the fresh immigrant attitude to create tension in an america that supposedly no longer subscribed to class ideals. with all the uncertainty immigrants experienced, religion was a way to explain and control some part of life. threats of witchcraft and hexes were used to threaten, especially when actions were inconsistent with the values of the immigrant group or the new american culture. groups such as the kashubs (from northern poland) “used their belief in unnatural beings to single out—and stigmatize—those who seemed out of the ordinary” (bukowczyk 26), giving rise to legends such as the succubae, dwarves, and vampires. for example, in many european societies, it was common for a widowed woman to cede her house to her children when they married. in america, however, this practice became less common. tensions ran high between the generations in the struggle for property and rightful ownership, and younger generations often reacted by suggesting that the older women, stubbornly 98“the tomb” refusing to make way for them, were involved in witchcraft or other unsavory activities to punish what they did not like or understand. lovecraft makes a connection between generations and property through his character jervas dudley, who is caught in the ancient magic of his books and the old hyde mansion. the tension his character experiences between his time and that of the ancient hyde mirrors the tensions americans experienced as they reconciled customs of the newcomers. at the same time, however, old religious customs were being challenged by new science and technology. secularization gained ground, and religion and superstition became less powerful as life events like births and deaths occurred in hospitals instead of the home. with science, human health could be explained, and both religion and superstition were called upon less frequently. as religious divisions between immigrant groups decreased, they were less divided by regional superstitions and became united by american values of class and gender equality and politics. cultural upheaval created many opportunities for writers of gothic fiction like h.p. lovecraft. the culture brought over by immigrants clashed with the culture america was trying to name its own, creating spaces of uncertainty that were ripe fodder for gothic minds like lovecraft. the narrator of “the tomb” is retreating from the increasingly complex new america, into anachronism and an unnatural relation to the past, examining the ghostly consequences of not moving with time. introduction to “the tomb” born in 1890 in providence, rhode island, h.p. lovecraft was a prolific writer of supernatural fiction. aside from his poetry and fiction, lovecraft was also known for his letter writing, through which he captured in great detail his views on science, history, philosophy or any other subject which intrigued him. these letters are essential in chronicling the persona of the author, and the working force and creative being of the man behind the weird tales. in the introduction to lord of a visible world: an autobiography in letters, a collection of letters written by lovecraft, editors s.t. joshi and david e. schultz reveal that the author inherited several intellectual and artistic interests early in life such as, “a natural sense of meter at the age of two; reading at the age of four; enthusiasm for the arabian nights at five, for classical myth at six, for music at seven, for chemistry at eight, and for astronomy at eleven” (viii). lovecraft possessed a creative instinct, which led him to write his first stories at the age of six. this inherent creativity continued throughout his life, fueling his poetry, letters, and fiction. in commenting on the author’s work in his article “a literary copernicus,” fritz leiber, jr., a correspondent of lovecraft’s, writes that he “shifted the focus of supernatural dread from man and his little world and his gods, to the stars and the black and unplumbed gulfs of intergalactic space…. when he completed the body of his writings, he had firmly attached the emotion of spectral dread to such concepts of outer space, the rim of the cosmos, alien beings, unsuspected dimensions, and the conceivable universes lying outside our own space-time continuum” (50). while this overarching theme of otherworldly supernatural terror isn’t explicitly present within “the tomb” (which was written in 1917, early in lovecraft’s writing career), there are subtle glimpses of these larger concepts. at the beginning of the story the narrator states, “it is an unfortunate fact that the bulk of humanity is too limited in its mental vision to weigh with patience and intelligence those isolated phenomena, seen and felt only by a psychologically sensitive few, which lie outside its common experience.” in “the tomb” lovecraft begins to explore the worlds he believed lay beyond our visible world. “the tomb” marked h.p. lovecraft’s return to fiction after a nine-year absence. it details the story of jervas dudley, who discovers a tomb that belonged to the hydes, an ancient family whose last descendant was buried decades before jervas’s birth. he becomes fascinated with the tomb, haunting the doors of the vault with a repetitive obsession, even though he finds his admittance barred, the doors chained. eventually he gains entrance, and he discovers the tomb filled with coffins, all occupied save one with the name “jervas” written upon its lid. he lingers in the vault night after night, and he slowly begins to exhibit a new demeanor and manner of speech. jervas tells us, “i suddenly acquired archaism of diction was soon remarked upon…. i unconsciously grew to possess the bearing of a man of the world despite my lifelong seclusion.” jervas dudley comes to believe that he has been possessed by jervas hyde, the last remaining member of the hyde family, who perished in the fire that destroyed the hyde estate. his body was burned to ashes. unable to lie in the tomb that was prepared for him, his spirit was forced to seek “through the ages for 99“the tomb” another corporeal tenement to represent it on that vacant slab in the alcove of the vault.” this possession of jervas hyde is the most obvious specter within the story, but the true ghostliness of the “the tomb” is multilayered and multifaceted, represented in the several doublings present within the “corporeal tenement” of jervas dudley. through jervas’s inheritance of the archaic demeanor of jervas hyde, lovecraft was attempting to actualize and symbolize the essence of his own wandering spirit. in a letter to a friend, the author mused: “i am really a relic left over from queen anne’s age… from the time of my earliest recollection, i have seemed to fall into the mental habits of two centuries ago. my constitutional feebleness kept me from regular attendance at school, so that i acquired what little knowledge i possess from a rather indiscriminate perusal of the volumes of the family library…i never felt at home save with the writers of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries…in this manner my style was formed; not as a conscious archaism, but as though i had actually been born in 1690 instead of 1890” (64). this short excerpt aids in examining a particular layer of ghostliness and doubling of jervas dudley/hyde by illustrating lovecraft’s sense of fitting into an older time period. this character duality emphasizes the presence of the author within the story because it can be posited that lovecraft is modeling dudley’s character after himself. just as lovecraft wishes he had been born centuries earlier, dudley integrates himself into an ancient family, the hydes, from many years before. lovecraft himself had an upbringing similar to that of his protagonist. due to high-strung nerves and other ailments, lovecraft was unable to attend grammar school until he was eight, and even then his attendance was greatly affected by his prevailing illnesses, a consistent pattern throughout the remainder of his school career. lovecraft led a solitary childhood, housed largely within books from his family library. this solitude is reflected in jervas who, although not physically ill, remains distant from society, enveloped within volumes from the family library when not haunting the tomb. as jervas hyde begins to materialize, the reader is presented with a symbolic entity representing the author’s self-realized archaic presence. through the creation and metamorphosis of the surface ghost, lovecraft actualizes his own wandering spirit. lovecraft was also fascinated with genealogy, and wanted to discover and chronicle both his paternal and maternal lines (joshi and schultz 3). in a letter to a friend, lovecraft detailed his disappointment in his genealogical exploration of his paternal line. although the line was respectable and filled with well-to-do individuals, the author failed to discover “a damn thing to indicate a revolt against commonplace unintelligence or a taste for the weird and the cosmic. no philosophers—no artists—no writers—not a cursed soul i could possibly talk to without getting a pain in the neck” (joshi and schultz 4). his maternal line was filled largely with small, rural gentry. a similar fascination with genealogy is present within “the tomb.” after jervas encounters the story of theseus, his drive and longing to enter the tomb dissipate, as he realizes that his time is not yet ripe. his thoughts never drift far from the vault, however, and his desire is rekindled when he stumbles across an “unexpected genealogical discovery that my own maternal ancestry possessed at least a slight link with the supposedly extinct family of the hydes. last of my paternal race, i was likewise the last of this older and more mysterious line.” this passage from the story reflects the author’s disappointment in his genealogical lines. through jervas he attempts to create an interesting point to counter the dullness of his paternal and maternal lines, and to discover a sense of belonging within the horizontal progression of his familial timeline. jervas dudley is thus a representation of the disconnection experienced by the author himself, solidifying lovecraft’s ghostly presence within “the tomb.” another presence entombed in the story is edgar allan poe, by whom h.p. lovecraft was conceptually, stylistically, and characteristically influenced. robert bloch, another of lovecraft’s correspondents, commented on the similarities between poe and lovecraft, writing that they “deliberately chose to turn their backs on contemporary style and subject-matter and create their own individual worlds of fantasy. in this above all else they were similar” (160). in our contextual documents, we have included an excerpt from lovecraft’s essay “supernatural horror in fiction,” in which he dedicates an entire section to the analysis and discussion of edgar allan poe and his influence on the world of supernatural fiction. in the essay, lovecraft analyzes the mold of poe’s typical protagonists, and it becomes apparent that jervas dudley fits perfectly into this mold: “more particular qualities appear to be derived from the psychology of poe himself, who certainly possessed much of the depression, 100“the tomb” sensitiveness, mad aspiration, loneliness, and extravagant freakishness which he attributes to his haughty and solitary victims of fate.” our last contextual document is an excerpt from “ligeia,” a story by edgar allan poe that lovecraft discusses in “supernatural horror in fiction.” when he summarizes his perspective on the story, it becomes apparent that he has captured the spirit of ligeia and reflected her within jervas dudley in “the tomb.” through jervas dudley, lovecraft embodies his own archaic presence while capturing echoes of poe’s essence, specifically that of ligeia. the ghost within “the tomb” is multifaceted, representing the author and his desire to emulate poe. through the juxtaposition of new and old, lovecraft creates a specter that extends far beyond linear placement of the tomb, and the spatial limits of the page. “the tomb”1 in relating the circumstances, which have led to my confinement within this refuge for the demented, i am aware that my present position will create a natural doubt of the authenticity of my narrative. it is an unfortunate fact that the bulk of humanity is too limited in its mental vision to weigh with patience and intelligence those isolated phenomena, seen and felt only by a psychologically sensitive few, which lie outside its common experience. men of broader intellect know that there is no sharp distinction betwixt the real and the unreal; that all things appear as they do only by virtue of the delicate individual physical and mental media through which we are made conscious of them; but the prosaic materialism of the majority condemns as madness the flashes of supersite which penetrate the common veil of obvious empiricism. my name is jervas dudley, and from earliest childhood i have been a dreamer and a visionary. wealthy beyond the necessity of a commercial life, and temperamentally unfitted for the formal studies and social recreation of my acquaintances, i have dwelt ever in realms apart from the visible world; spending my youth and adolescence in ancient and little known books, and in roaming the fields and groves of the region near my ancestral home. i do not think that what i read in these books or saw in these fields and groves was exactly what other boys read and saw there; but of this i must say little, since detailed speech would but confirm those cruel slanders upon my intellect which i sometimes overhear from the whispers of the stealthy attendants around me. it is sufficient for me to relate events without analyzing causes. i have said that i dwelt apart from the visible world, but i have not said that i dwelt alone. this no human creature may do; for lacking the fellowship of the living, he inevitably draws upon the companionship of things that are not, or are no longer, living. close by my home there lies a singular wooded hollow, in whose twilight deeps i spent most of my time; reading, thinking, and dreaming. down its moss-covered slopes my first steps of infancy were taken, and around its grotesquely gnarled oak trees my first fancies of boyhood were woven. well did i come to know the presiding dryads2 of those trees, and often have i watched their wild dances in the struggling beams of a waning moon but of these things i must not now speak. i will tell only of the lone tomb in the darkest of the hillside thickets; the deserted tomb of the hydes,3 an old and exalted family whose last direct descendant had been laid within its black recesses many decades before my birth. the vault to which i refer is of ancient granite, weathered and discolored by the mists and dampness of generations. excavated back into the hillside, the structure is visible only at the entrance. the door, a ponderous and forbidding slab of stone, hangs upon rusted iron hinges, and is fastened ajar in a queerly sinister way by means of heavy iron chains and padlocks, according to a gruesome fashion of half a century ago. the abode of the race whose scions are here inurned had once crowned the declivity which holds the tomb, but had long since fallen victim to the flames which sprang up from a stroke of lightning. of the midnight storm which destroyed this gloomy mansion, the older inhabitants of the region sometimes speak in hushed and uneasy voices; alluding to what they call ‘divine wrath’ in a manner that in later years vaguely increased the always strong fascination which i had felt for the forest-darkened sepulcher. one man only had perished in the fire. when the last of the hydes was buried in this place of shade and stillness, the sad urnful of ashes had come from a distant land, to which the family had repaired when the mansion burned down. no one notes 1. this edition of this text was found in the vagrant. the issue of the magazine was published in 1922. 2. a deity or nymph of the woods. 3. lovecraft chose this name as an allusion to the novel dr. jekyll and mr. hyde (joshi and schultz 182). 101“the tomb” remains to lay flowers before the granite portal, and few care to brave the depressing shadows which seem to linger strangely about the water-worn stones. i shall never forget the afternoon when first i stumbled upon the half-hidden house of death. it was in midsummer, when the alchemy of nature transmutes the sylvan landscape to one vivid and almost homogeneous mass of green; when the senses are well-nigh intoxicated with the surging seas of moist verdure and the subtly indefinable odors of the soil and the vegetation. in such surroundings the mind loses its perspective; time and space become trivial and unreal, and echoes of a forgotten prehistoric past beat insistently upon the enthralled consciousness. all day i had been wandering through the mystic groves of the hollow; thinking thoughts i need not discuss, and conversing with things i need not name. in years a child of ten, i had seen and heard many wonders unknown to the throng; and was oddly aged in certain respects. when, upon forcing my way between two savage clumps of briars, i suddenly encountered the entrance of the vault, i had no knowledge of what i had discovered. the dark blocks of granite, the door so curiously ajar, and the funeral carvings above the arch, aroused in me no associations of mournful or terrible character. of graves and tombs i knew and imagined much, but had on account of my peculiar temperament been kept from all personal contact with churchyards and cemeteries. the strange stone house on the woodland slope was to me only a source of interest and speculation; and its cold, damp interior, into which i vainly peered through the aperture so tantalizingly left, contained for me no hint of death or decay. but in that instant of curiosity was born the madly unreasoning desire which has brought me to this hell of confinement. spurred on by a voice which must have come from the hideous soul of the forest, i resolved to enter the beckoning gloom in spite of the ponderous chains which barred my passage. in the waning light of day i alternately rattled the rusty impediments with a view to throwing wide the stone door, and essayed to squeeze my slight form through the space already provided; but neither plan met with success. at first curious, i was now frantic; and when in the thickening twilight i returned to my home, i had sworn to the hundred gods of the grove that at any cost i would some day force an entrance to the black, chilly depths that seemed calling out to me. the physician with the iron-grey beard who comes each day to my room, once told a visitor that this decision marked the beginning of a pitiful monomania;4 but i will leave final judgment to my readers when they shall have learnt all. the months following my discovery were spent in futile attempts to force the complicated padlock of the slightly open vault, and in carefully guarded inquiries regarding the nature and history of the structure. with the traditionally receptive ears of the small boy, i learned much; though a habitual secretiveness caused me to tell no one of my information or my resolve. it is perhaps worth mentioning that i was not at all surprised or terrified on learning of the nature of the vault. my rather original ideas regarding life and death had caused me to associate the cold clay with the breathing body in a vague fashion; and i felt that the great and sinister family of the burned-down mansion was in some way represented within the stone space i sought to explore. mumbled tales of the weird rites and godless revels of bygone years in the ancient hall gave to me a new and potent interest in the tomb, before whose door i would sit for hours at a time each day. once i thrust a candle within the nearly closed entrance, but could see nothing save a flight of damp stone steps leading downward. the odor of the place repelled yet bewitched me. i felt i had known it before, in a past remote beyond all recollection; beyond even my tenancy of the body i now possess. the year after i first beheld the tomb, i stumbled upon a worm-eaten translation of plutarch’s lives5 in the book-filled attic of my home. reading the life of theseus,6 i was much impressed by that passage telling of the great stone beneath which the boyish hero was to find his tokens of destiny whenever he should become old enough to lift its enormous weight. the legend had the effect of dispelling my keenest impatience to enter the vault, for it made me feel that the time was not yet ripe. later, i told myself, i should grow to a strength and ingenuity which might enable me to unfasten the heavily chained door with ease; but until then i would do better by conforming to what seemed the will of fate. accordingly my watches by the dank portal became less persistent, and much of my time was spent in other notes 4. an inordinate or obsessive zeal for or interest in a single thing, idea, or subject. 5. a series of books written in the 1st century that are biographies of famous greek and roman nobles; also called parallel lives. 6. one of the most famous biographies in plutarch’s lives: theseus was a hero of athens. 102“the tomb” though equally strange pursuits. i would sometimes rise very quietly in the night, stealing out to walk in those churchyards and places of burial from which i had been kept by my parents. what i did there i may not say, for i am not now sure of the reality of certain things; but i know that on the day after such a nocturnal ramble i would often astonish those about me with my knowledge of topics almost forgotten for many generations. it was after a night like this that i shocked the community with a queer conceit about the burial of the rich and celebrated squire brewster, a maker of local history who was interred in 1711, and whose slate headstone, bearing a graven skull and crossbones, was slowly crumbling to powder. in a moment of childish imagination i vowed not only that the undertaker, goodman7 simpson, had stolen the silver-buckled shoes, silken hose, and satin smallclothes8 of the deceased before burial; but that the squire himself, not fully inanimate, had turned twice in his mound-covered coffin on the day after interment. but the idea of entering the tomb never left my thoughts; being indeed stimulated by the unexpected genealogical discovery that my own maternal ancestry possessed at least a slight link with the supposedly extinct family of the hydes. last of my paternal race, i was likewise the last of this older and more mysterious line. i began to feel that the tomb was mine, and to look forward with hot eagerness to the time when i might pass within that stone door and down those slimy stone steps in the dark. i now formed the habit of listening very intently at the slightly open portal, choosing my favorite hours of midnight stillness for the odd vigil. by the time i came of age, i had made a small clearing in the thicket before the mold-stained facade of the hillside, allowing the surrounding vegetation to encircle and overhang the space like the walls and roof of a sylvan bower. this bower was my temple, the fastened door my shrine, and here i would lie outstretched on the mossy ground, thinking strange thoughts and dreaming strange dreams. the night of the first revelation was a sultry one. i must have fallen asleep from fatigue, for it was with a distinct sense of awakening that i heard the voices. of these tones and accents i hesitate to speak; of their quality i will not speak; but i may say that they presented certain uncanny differences in vocabulary, pronunciation, and mode of utterance. every shade of new england dialect, from the uncouth syllables of the puritan colonists to the precise rhetoric of fifty years ago, seemed represented in that shadowy colloquy, though it was only later that i noticed the fact. at the time, indeed, my attention was distracted from this matter by another phenomenon; a phenomenon so fleeting that i could not take oath upon its reality. i barely fancied that as i awoke, a light had been hurriedly extinguished within the sunken sepulcher. i do not think i was either astounded or panic-stricken, but i know that i was greatly and permanently changed that night. upon returning home i went with much directness to a rotting chest in the attic, wherein i found the key which next day unlocked with ease the barrier i had so long stormed in vain. it was in the soft glow of late afternoon that i first entered the vault on the abandoned slope. a spell was upon me, and my heart leaped with an exultation i can but ill describe. as i closed the door behind me and descended the dripping steps by the light of my lone candle, i seemed to know the way; and though the candle sputtered with the stifling reek of the place, i felt singularly at home in the musty, charnel-house air. looking about me, i beheld many marble slabs bearing coffins, or the remains of coffins. some of these were sealed and intact, but others had nearly vanished, leaving the silver handles and plates isolated amidst certain curious heaps of whitish dust. upon one plate i read the name of sir geoffrey hyde, who had come from sussex9 in 1640 and died here a few years later. in a conspicuous alcove was one fairly well preserved and untenanted casket, adorned with a single name which brought me both a smile and a shudder. an odd impulse caused me to climb upon the broad slab, extinguish my candle, and lie down within the vacant box. in the gray light of dawn i staggered from the vault and locked the chain of the door behind me. i was no longer a young man, though but twenty-one winters had chilled my bodily frame. early-rising villagers who observed my homeward progress looked at me strangely, and marveled at the signs of ribald revelry which they saw in one whose life was known to be sober and solitary. i did not appear before my parents till after a long and refreshing sleep. notes 7. goodman or goody refers to pilgrims and is a way to say mr. or mrs. 8. undergarments. 9. a county in england. 103“the tomb” henceforward i haunted the tomb each night; seeing, hearing, and doing things i must never recall. my speech, always susceptible to environmental influences, was the first thing to succumb to the change; and my suddenly acquired archaism of diction was soon remarked upon. later a queer boldness and recklessness came into my demeanor, till i unconsciously grew to possess the bearing of a man of the world despite my lifelong seclusion. my formerly silent tongue waxed voluble with the easy grace of a chesterfield or the godless cynicism of a rochester. i displayed a peculiar erudition utterly unlike the fantastic, monkish lore over which i had pored in youth; and covered the fly-leaves of my books with facile impromptu epigrams which brought up suggestions of gay, prior,10 and the sprightliest of the augustan wits and rimesters.11 one morning at breakfast i came close to disaster by declaiming in palpably liquorish accents an effusion of eighteenth century bacchanalian12 mirth, a bit of georgian playfulness never recorded in a book, which ran something like this: come hither, my lads, with your tankards of ale, and drink to the present before it shall fail; pile each on your platter a mountain of beef, for ‘tis eating and drinking that bring us relief: so fill up your glass, for life will soon pass; when you’re dead ye’ll ne’er drink to your king or your lass! anacreon13 had a red nose, so they say; but what’s a red nose if ye’re happy and gay? gad split me! i’d rather be red whilst i’m here, than white as a lily and dead half a year! so betty, my miss, come give me a kiss; in hell there’s no innkeeper’s daughter like this! young harry, propp’d up just as straight as he’s able, will soon lose his wig and slip under the table, but fill up your goblets and pass ‘em around better under the table than under the ground! so revel and chaff as ye thirstily quaff: under six feet of dirt ‘tis less easy to laugh! the fiend strike me blue! l’m scarce able to walk, and damn me if i can stand upright or talk! here, landlord, bid betty to summon a chair; i’ll try home for a while, for my wife is not there! so lend me a hand; i’m not able to stand, but i’m gay whilst i linger on top of the land!14 notes 10. philip stanhope, lord chesterfield (1694-1773), john wilmot, 2nd earl of rochester (1647-1680), john gay (1685-1732), and mathew prior ( 16641721) are all 18th-century poets who are known for the witty style. 11. poets. 12. a festival in honor of bacchus; a drunken feast; an orgy. 13. a famous greek poet. 14. this is a poem titled “gaudeamus” that lovecraft used for a previous story and later added to “the tomb” (joshi 127). “gaudeamus,” also known as “gaudeamus igitur,” is a poem that was written in the 13th century and is known as the “student song,” which was commonly sung by college students at their graduations (“gaudeamus igitur” n.p.). 104“the tomb” about this time i conceived my present fear of fire and thunderstorms. previously indifferent to such things, i had now an unspeakable horror of them; and would retire to the innermost recesses of the house whenever the heavens threatened an electrical display. a favorite haunt of mine during the day was the ruined cellar of the mansion that had burned down, and in fancy i would picture the structure as it had been in its prime. on one occasion i startled a villager by leading him confidently to a shallow subcellar, of whose existence i seemed to know in spite of the fact that it had been unseen and forgotten for many generations. at last came that which i had long feared. my parents, alarmed at the altered manner and appearance of their only son, commenced to exert over my movements a kindly espionage which threatened to result in disaster. i had told no one of my visits to the tomb, having guarded my secret purpose with religious zeal since childhood; but now i was forced to exercise care in threading the mazes of the wooded hollow, that i might throw off a possible pursuer. my key to the vault i kept suspended from a cord about my neck, its presence known only to me. i never carried out of the sepulcher any of the things i came upon whilst within its walls. one morning as i emerged from the damp tomb and fastened the chain of the portal with none too steady hand, i beheld in an adjacent thicket the dreaded face of a watcher. surely the end was near; for my bower was discovered, and the objective of my nocturnal journeys revealed. the man did not accost me, so i hastened home in an effort to overhear what he might report to my careworn father. were my sojourns beyond the chained door about to be proclaimed to the world? imagine my delighted astonishment on hearing the spy inform my parent in a cautious whisper that i had spent the night in the bower outside the tomb; my sleep-filmed eyes fixed upon the crevice where the padlocked portal stood ajar! by what miracle had the watcher been thus deluded? i was now convinced that a supernatural agency protected me. made bold by this heaven-sent circumstance, i began to resume perfect openness in going to the vault; confident that no one could witness my entrance. for a week i tasted to the full joys of that charnel conviviality which i must not describe, when the thing happened, and i was borne away to this accursed abode of sorrow and monotony. i should not have ventured out that night; for the taint of thunder was in the clouds, and a hellish phosphorescence rose from the rank swamp at the bottom of the hollow. the call of the dead, too, was different. instead of the hillside tomb, it was the charred cellar on the crest of the slope whose presiding demon beckoned to me with unseen fingers. as i emerged from an intervening grove upon the plain before the ruin, i beheld in the misty moonlight a thing i had always vaguely expected. the mansion, gone for a century, once more reared its stately height to the raptured vision; every window ablaze with the splendor of many candles. up the long drive rolled the coaches of the boston gentry, whilst on foot came a numerous assemblage of powdered exquisites from the neighboring mansions. with this throng i mingled, though i knew i belonged with the hosts rather than with the guests. inside the hall were music, laughter, and wine on every hand. several faces i recognized; though i should have known them better had they been shriveled or eaten away by death and decomposition. amidst a wild and reckless throng i was the wildest and most abandoned. gay blasphemy poured in torrents from my lips, and in shocking sallies i heeded no law of god, or nature. suddenly a peal of thunder, resonant even above the din of the swinish revelry, clave the very roof and laid a hush of fear upon the boisterous company. red tongues of flame and searing gusts of heat engulfed the house; and the roysterers,15 struck with terror at the descent of a calamity, which seemed to transcend the bounds of unguided nature, fled shrieking into the night. i alone remained, riveted to my seat by a groveling fear which i had never felt before. and then a second horror took possession of my soul. burnt alive to ashes, my body dispersed by the four winds, i might never lie in the tomb of the hydes! was not my coffin prepared for me? had i not a right to rest till eternity amongst the descendants of sir geoffrey hyde? aye! i would claim my heritage of death, even though my soul go seeking through the ages for another corporeal tenement to represent it on that vacant slab in the alcove of the vault. jervas hyde should never share the sad fate of palinurus!16 as the phantom of the burning house faded, i found myself screaming and struggling madly in the arms of notes 15. one who partakes in merry-making. 16. a person in roman mythology, in virgil’s aeneid, who was the helmsmen of the ship and was to to sleep by a god so that he would fall overboard and be sacrificed to neptune, god of the sea 105“the tomb” two men, one of whom was the spy who had followed me to the tomb. rain was pouring down in torrents, and upon the southern horizon were flashes of lightning that had so lately passed over our heads. my father, his face lined with sorrow, stood by as i shouted my demands to be laid within the tomb, frequently admonishing my captors to treat me as gently as they could. a blackened circle on the floor of the ruined cellar told of a violent stroke from the heavens; and from this spot a group of curious villagers with lanterns were prying a small box of antique workmanship, which the thunderbolt had brought to light. ceasing my futile and now objectless writhing, i watched the spectators as they viewed the treasure-trove, and was permitted to share in their discoveries. the box, whose fastenings were broken by the stroke, which had unearthed it, contained many papers and objects of value, but i had eyes for one thing alone. it was the porcelain miniature of a young man in a smartly curled bag-wig,17 and bore the initials ‘j. h.’ the face was such that as i gazed, i might well have been studying my mirror. on the following day i was brought to this room with the barred windows, but i have been kept informed of certain things through an aged and simple-minded servitor, for whom i bore a fondness in infancy, and who, like me, loves the churchyard. what i have dared relate of my experiences within the vault has brought me only pitying smiles. my father, who visits me frequently, declares that at no time did i pass the chained portal, and swears that the rusted padlock had not been touched for fifty years when he examined it. he even says that all the village knew of my journeys to the tomb, and that i was often watched as i slept in the bower outside the grim facade, my half-open eyes fixed on the crevice that leads to the interior. against these assertions i have no tangible proof to offer, since my key to the padlock was lost in the struggle on that night of horrors. the strange things of the past which i have learned during those nocturnal meetings with the dead he dismisses as the fruits of my lifelong and omnivorous browsing amongst the ancient volumes of the family library. had it not been for my old servant hiram, i should have by this time become quite convinced of my madness. but hiram, loyal to the last, has held faith in me, and has done that which impels me to make public at least part of my story. a week ago he burst open the lock which chains the door of the tomb perpetually ajar, and descended with a lantern into the murky depths. on a slab in an alcove he found an old but empty coffin whose tarnished plate bears the single word: jervas. in that coffin and in that vault they have promised me i shall be buried. contextual documents excerpt from a letter18 from h.p. lovecraft to the gallomo19 in this letter addressed to the gallomo, lovecraft discusses his inspiration for writing “the tomb.” the letter sheds light upon some of the layers of ghostliness within the story, specifically lovecraft’s presence in jervas dudley/jervas hyde and poe’s presence within “the tomb.” the scene depicted in the letter—lovecraft encountering a gravestone from 1711, through which he discovers a mental doorway to his “favourite era of periwigs” (and ultimately his chosen age)—is reflected eerily within “the tomb” in the scene in which jervas recovers an antique porcelain figure from the ruins of the hyde mansion and, upon examining it, decides he “might well have been studying [his] mirror” (14). when these two scenes are juxtaposed, the latter inherits an uncanny eeriness, and the ghostly presence of jervas hyde further serves as a manifestation of lovecraft’s antiquated spirit. in a separate letter addressed to an unrelated correspondent, lovecraft explains, “at length i wrote only as a means of re-creating around me the atmosphere of my 18th century favourites…everything succumbed to my one intense purpose of thinking and dreaming myself back into that world of periwigs and long s’s which for some odd reason seemed to me the normal world. thus was formed a habit of imitativeness which i can never wholly shake off. even when i break away, it is generally only through imitating something else! there are my ‘poe’ pieces and my ‘dunsany’ pieces— but alas—where are any lovecraft pieces?” (65-66). when lovecraft wrote “the tomb” he fueled the story with his inspiration from poe, and he filled the tale with his presence. through channeling this style of the past lovecraft attempted to inhabit that space in time, which notes 17. an 18th-century man’s wig. 18. lovecraft, h.p. lord of a visible world: an autobiography in letters. ed. s.t. joshi and david e. schultz. athens: ohio university press, 2000. 63-67. print. 19. the gallomo was a circle of literary correspondents composed of alfred galpin, h.p. lovecraft, and maurice w. moe. the name is composed of the first syllable of each last member’s last name (joshi and schultz). 106“the tomb” is also expressed multiple times throughout “the tomb” (most notably the inheritance of jervas hyde’s demeanor). the archaic language of the letter was commonplace for lovecraft, an attempt to inherit his chosen age. the dated diction further emphasizes the presence of his wandering, out-of-time spirit. t’anks fer de remarks on “dagon,” kid! i rather liked that thing myself. it was written in 1917, and is the second tale i wrote after resuming my fictional pen after a nine years’ lapse. i think i told youse ginks that i quit writing fiction in 1908, despairing of my ability to shape anything with the grace of a poe…for a long time i was too indolent to do anything, but one june day in 1917 i was walking through swan point cemetery with my aunt and saw a crumbling tombstone with a skull and crossbones dimly traced upon its slaty surface; the date, 1711, still plainly visible. it set me thinking. here was a link with my favourite aera of periwigs—the body of a man who had worn a full-bottom’d wig and had perhaps read the original sheets of the spectator. here lay a man who had lived in mr. addison’s day, and who might easily have seen mr. dryden had he been in the right part of london at the right time! why could i not talk with him, and enter more intimately into the life of my chosen age? what had left his body, that it could no longer converse with me? i looked long at the grave, and the night after i returned home i began my first story in the new series—“the tomb.” my narrative pen was very rusty— believe me, boys, very rusty indeed! to drop back into the forms of fiction was exceedingly hard after nine quiescent years, and i feared that the result would be the limit of absurdity. but the spell of the gruesome was upon my, and i finally hammered out the hideous tale of jervas dudley. at last—a poe again! excerpt from “supernatural horror in literature” 20 in the 1920’s, h. p. lovecraft composed a lengthy essay explaining why we need horror. his book is dedicated to the history of horror stories and why we love them, and to the authors who embodied this genre of literature. in this chapter, titled “edgar allan poe,” lovecraft argues that poe is among the principal and most influential horror writers. specifically, he discusses poe’s story “ligeia,” an excerpt from which is also included further on. lovecraft considered poe as a literary role model, which is why he dedicated an entire chapter to him in this essay. “supernatural in literature” is a first-hand account to lovecraft’s idea of what horror is. certain of poe’s tales possess an almost absolute perfection of artistic form, which makes them veritable beacon-lights in the province of the short story. poe could, when he wished, give to his prose a richly poetic cast; employing that archaic and orientalized style with jeweled phrase, quasi-biblical repetition, and recurrent burthen so successfully used by later writers like oscar wilde and lord dunsany; and in the cases where he has done this we have an effect of lyrical phantasy almost narcotic in essence—an opium pageant of dream in the language of dream, with every unnatural colour and grotesque image bodied forth in a symphony of corresponding sound. the masque of the red death, silence, a fable, and shadow, a parable, are assuredly poems in every sense of the word save the metrical one, and owe as much of their power to aural cadence as to visual imagery. but it is in two of the less openly poetic tales, ligeia and the fall of the house of usher—especially the latter—that one finds those very summits of artistry whereby poe takes his place at the head of fictional miniaturists. simple and straightforward in plot, both of these tales owe their supreme magic to the cunning development which appears in the selection and collocation of every least incident. ligeia tells of a first wife of lofty and mysterious origin, who after death returns through a preternatural force of will to take possession of the body of a second wife; imposing even her physical appearance on the temporary reanimated corpse of her victim at the last moment. despite a suspicion of prolixity and top heaviness, the narrative reaches its terrific climax with relentless power. usher, whose superiority in detail and proportion is very marked, hints shudderingly of obscure life in inorganic things, and displays an abnormally linked trinity of entities at the end of a long and isolated family history—a brother, his twin sister, and their incredibly ancient house all sharing a single soul and meeting one common dissolution at the same moment. these bizarre conceptions, so awkward in unskillful notes 20. this portion of text was taken from the book supernatural horror in literature, written by h.p. lovecraft 107“the tomb” hands, become under poe’s spell living and convincing terrors to haunt our nights; and all because the author understood so perfectly the very mechanics and physiology of fear and strangeness—the essential details to emphasise, the precise incongruities and conceits to select as preliminaries or concomitants to horror, the exact incidents and allusions to throw out innocently in advance as symbols or prefigurings of each major step toward the hideous dénouement to come, the nice adjustments of cumulative force and the unerring accuracy in linkage of parts which make for faultless unity throughout and thunderous effectiveness at the climactic moment, the delicate nuances of scenic and landscape value to select in establishing and sustaining the desired mood and vitalising the desired illusion—principles of this kind, and dozens of obscurer ones too elusive to be described or even fully comprehended by any ordinary commentator. melodrama and unsophistication there may be—we are told of one fastidious frenchman who could not bear to read poe except in baudelaire’s urbane and gallically modulated translation—but all traces of such things are wholly overshadowed by a potent and inborn sense of the spectral, the morbid, and the horrible which gushed forth from every cell of the artist’s creative mentality and stamped his macabre work with the ineffaceable mark of supreme genius. poe’s weird tales are alive in a manner that few others can ever hope to be. like most fantasists, poe excels in incidents and broad narrative effects rather than in character drawing. his typical protagonist is generally a dark, handsome, proud, melancholy, intellectual, highly sensitive, capricious, introspective, isolated, and sometimes slightly mad gentleman of ancient family and opulent circumstances; usually deeply learned in strange lore, and darkly ambitious of penetrating to forbidden secrets of the universe. aside from a high-sounding name, this character obviously derives little from the early gothic novel; for he is clearly neither the wooden hero nor the diabolical villain of radcliffian or ludovician21 romance. indirectly, however, he does possess a sort of genealogical connection; since his gloomy, ambitious and anti-social qualities savour strongly of the typical byronic22 hero, who in turn is definitely an offspring of the gothic manfreds, montonis, and ambrosios.23 more particular qualities appear to be derived from the psychology of poe himself, who certainly possessed much of the depression, sensitiveness, mad aspiration, loneliness, and extravagant freakishness, which he attributes to his haughty and solitary victims of fate. excerpt from “ligeia” by edgar allan poe24 “ligeia” was published in 1838, and it details the tragic story of the narrator and his betrothed ligeia, who died shortly after their marriage. he remarries, but he is enamored with ligeia, and he is haunted by her presence; he finds no joy in his second marriage to lady rowena trevanion, of tremaine. shortly after they are married, rowena becomes terribly ill, and dies, and the narrator is left grieving for both of his lost brides. on the night of her death, the narrator mourns rowena, and sits by her body, “when a sob, low, gentle, but very distinct, startled me from my revery… at length it became evident that a…barely noticeable tinge of color had flushed up within the cheeks….[it appeared] that rowena still lived...in a short period it was certain, however, that a relapse had taken place; the color disappeared from both eyelid and cheek.” the narrator settles again into his mourning, until he notices movement again. there are definite parallels between “ligeia” by edgar allan poe and “the tomb,” and the influence of poe’s work on lovecraft’s is evident. when jervas dudley exclaims, “i would claim my heritage of death, even though my soul go seeking through the ages for another corporeal tenement to represent it on that vacant slab in the alcove of the vault,” he eerily echoes the conclusion of “ligeia,” in which the narrator’s deceased first wife inherits her proper representation as his betrothed on the deathbed of his second wife. in both stories the specters become mirrors of their original physical embodiments. ligeia wanders until she can return to the living, but the spirit of jervas hyde wanders until he can properly cross over into death. structurally, there is further evidence alluding to the influence of “ligeia” on “the tomb.” shortly before her death, ligeia asks the narrator to recite a string of verses she has composed, which begins: notes 21. reference to anne radcliffe (1764-1823) and anthony ludovici (1882-1971), both authors known for their romantic style of writing 22. lord george byron (1788-1824), a poet known for romantic plays and writing styles. 23. all characters from plays and poems; “manfred” is a poem written by aforementioned lord byron, montoni is a character from the play the mysteries of udolpho, written by aforementioned anne radcliffe, and ambrosios from the play the monk, written by matthew lewis. 24. this excerpt came from the anthology of work by edgar allan poe, titled the essential poe: tales of horror and mystery. 108“the tomb” lo! ‘tis a gala night within the lonesome latter years! an angel throng, bewinged, bedight in veils, and drowned in tears, sit in a theatre, to see a play of hopes and fears, while the orchestra breathes fitfully the music of the spheres. jervas dudley also channels a fit of verse (“the gaudeamus”), shortly before he uncovers what he believes to be the actuality of his existence. while both instances deal with the transition from life to death, they each exhibit a very different voice. ligeia is melancholy, aware of the differing spheres of existence, although unaware of her impending return to the living. jervas dudley, unaware that he is a wandering spirit, makes light of his perceived totality of death, reciting, “so fill up your glass /for life will soon pass /when you’re dead ye’ll ne’er drink to your king or your lass!” an hour thus elapsed when (could it be possible?) i was a second time aware of some vague sound issuing from the region of the bed. i listened—in extremity of horror. the sound came again—it was a sigh. rushing to the corpse, i saw—distinctly saw—a tremor upon the lips. in a minute afterward they relaxed, disclosing a bright line of the pearly teeth. amazement now struggled in my bosom with the profound awe which had hitherto reigned there alone. i felt that my vision grew dim, that my reason wandered; and it was only by a violent effort that i at length succeeded in nerving myself to the task which duty thus once more had pointed out. there was now a partial glow upon the forehead and upon the cheek and throat; perceptible warmth pervaded the whole frame; there was even a slight pulsation at the heart. the lady lived; and with redoubled ardor i betook myself to the task of restoration. i chafed and bathed the temples and the hands, and used every exertion which experience, and no little medical reading, could suggest. but in vain. suddenly, the color fled, the pulsation ceased, the lips resumed the expression of the dead, and, in an instant afterward, the whole body took upon itself the icy chilliness, the livid hue, the intense rigidity, the sunken outline, and all the loathsome peculiarities of that which has been, for many days, a tenant of the tomb. and again i sunk into visions of ligeia—and again, (what marvel that i shudder while i write,) again there reached my ears a low sob from the region of the ebony bed. but why shall i minutely detail the unspeakable horrors of that night? why shall i pause to relate how, time after time, until near the period of the gray dawn, this hideous drama of revivification was repeated; how each terrific relapse was only into a sterner and apparently more irredeemable death; how each agony wore the aspect of a struggle with some invisible foe; and how each struggle was succeeded by i know not what of wild change in the personal appearance of the corpse? let me hurry to a conclusion. the greater part of the fearful night had worn away, and she who had been dead, once again stirred—and now more vigorously than hitherto, although arousing from a dissolution more appalling in its utter hopelessness than any. i had long ceased to struggle or to move, and remained sitting rigidly upon the ottoman, a helpless prey to a whirl of violent emotions, of which extreme awe was perhaps the least terrible, the least consuming. the corpse, i repeat, stirred, and now more vigorously than before. the hues of life flushed up with unwonted energy into the countenance—the limbs relaxed—and, save that the eyelids were yet pressed heavily together, and that the bandages and draperies of the grave still imparted their charnel character to the figure, i might have dreamed that rowena had indeed shaken off, utterly, the fetters of death. but if this idea was not, even then, altogether adopted, i could at least doubt no longer, when, arising from the bed, tottering, with feeble steps, with closed eyes, and with the manner of one bewildered in a dream, the thing that was enshrouded advanced boldly and palpably into the middle of the apartment. i trembled not—i stirred not—for a crowd of unutterable fancies connected with the air, the stature, the demeanor of the figure, rushing hurriedly through my brain, had paralyzed—had chilled me into stone. i stirred not— but gazed upon the apparition. there was a mad disorder in my thoughts—a tumult unappeasable. could it, indeed, be the living rowena who confronted me? could it indeed be rowena at all—the fair-haired, the blue-eyed lady rowena trevanion of tremaine? why, why should i doubt it? the bandage lay heavily about the mouth— but then might it not be the mouth of the breathing lady of tremaine? and the cheeks-there were the roses as 109“the tomb” in her noon of life—yes, these might indeed be the fair cheeks of the living lady of tremaine. and the chin, with its dimples, as in health, might it not be hers?— but had she then grown taller since her malady? what inexpressible madness seized me with that thought? one bound, and i had reached her feet! shrinking from my touch, she let fall from her head, unloosened, the ghastly cerements which had confined it, and there streamed forth, into the rushing atmosphere of the chamber, huge masses of long and disheveled hair; it was blacker than the raven wings of the midnight! and now slowly opened the eyes of the figure which stood before me. “here then, at least,” i shrieked aloud, “can i never—can i never be mistaken –these are the full, and the black, and the wild eyes—of my lost love—of the lady—of the lady ligeia.” “the tomb” works cited bukowczyk, john j. “the transforming power of the machine: popular religion, ideology, and secularization among polish immigrant workers in the united states, 1880-1940.” international labor and working-class history 34.1 (1988): 22-38. web. bloch, robert. “poe and lovecraft.” h.p. lovecraft, four decades of criticism. ed. s.t. joshi. athens: ohio university press, 1980. 158-160. print. “gaudeamus igitur.” weilersteublingen, n.d. web. 7 dec. 2013. grant, julia. “ a ‘real boy’ and not a sissy: gender, childhood, and masculinity, 1890-1940.” journal of social history 37.4 (2004): 829-51. web. joshi, s.t., and david e. schultz. an h.p. lovecraft encyclopedia. westport: greenwood press, 2001. print. leiber, fritz, jr. “a literary copernicus.” h.p. lovecraft, four decades of criticism. ed. s.t. joshi. athens: ohio university press, 1980. 50-62. print. lovecraft, h.p. lord of a visible world: an autobiography in letters. ed. s.t. joshi and david e. schultz. athens: ohio university press, 2000. 63-67. print. ---. supernatural horror in literature. new york: profile press, 1927. print. ---. “the tomb.” the vagrant, march 1922: 50–64. print. macdougall, robert. “the wire devils: pulp thrillers, the telephone, and action at a distance in the wiring of a nation.” american quarterly 38.3 (2006): 715-741. web. poe, edgar allan. “ligeia.” the essential poe: tales of horror and mystery. mt. vernon: lantern press, 1988. 85-88. print. 110 abstract 39 gender roles in post-apocalyptic literature often represent both progress and a return to traditional stereotypes. james berger’s after the end states that “the study of postapocalypse is a study of what disappears and what remains, and of how the remainder has been transformed” (7). after the destruction of an apocalypse, traditional patriarchal systems that were present before the disaster routinely dominate the rebuilding process. often in post-apocalyptic stories, gender roles are a reflection of the society that remains. while the last of us, a 2013 video game, does follow this formula to a certain extent, i will argue that it ultimately takes steps towards transforming what remains by imagining different gender roles in the post-apocalypse. while the majority of other post-apocalyptic narratives do not portray progress in gender roles, this game opens up a comparatively large space for gender equality. it exposes the consequences of a stereotypical view of masculinity while providing an opportunity to consider what a strong female character looks like in the post-apocalypse. if the greek word that apocalypse comes from means a “lifting of the veil,” this game uncovers gender stereotypes. it portrays a future where the present does not have to repeat itself, where breaking down gender norms is beneficial, and where there is opportunity for change. the last of us is set in the aftermath of a virus that turns people into zombies, or “the infected.” individuals play as the protagonist, joel, whose daughter has been killed—not by the infected but by the soldiers trying to keep order in the initial chaos. however, the main storyline doesn’t start until joel accepts a job to smuggle a girl, ellie, out of the quarantine this paper explores the portrayal of gender in the post-apocalypse by looking at the postapocalyptic video game the last of us. the paper uses scholarship on apocalypse, video games, and gender to show that while the game adheres to some gender stereotypes it ultimately represents progress in its representation of gender roles. the paper uses examples of the game’s portrayal of its characters and its depiction of the consequences of violent masculinity in a zombie apocalypse to illustrate how a post-apocalyptic video game can take steps towards imagining new gender roles in the post-apocalypse. by bethany benkert, ball state university hope for change in the post-apocalypse: gender roles in the last of us 40 zone to the capitol building for undefined reasons. as the game progresses, their relationship begins to change towards something more familial, and the reason for their journey is revealed: ellie is immune to the virus and may hold the key to developing a vaccine against it. for this purpose, joel ends up taking her all the way across the country, a journey in which they must fight and kill not only infected but healthy humans as well. before i begin analyzing the last of us, i am going to examine what other critics have said about the gender dynamics in the game. in contrast to many other games in the postapocalyptic video game industry, the last of us has received positive reviews. the guardian calls it daring and brave, ign compliments ellie’s personality and sense of wonder, and the new york times praises the game’s indirect characterization and moral ambiguity. however, the game is not wholly without criticism. the new york times and the guardian, apart from bestowing compliments, also raise concerns over gender roles. the guardian argues that while the story presents itself as developing equal representation of both genders, having the majority of the gameplay from joel’s perspective ensures that it is joel’s story told— not ellie’s. keith stuart of the guardian says that ellie and other characters like her are “effectively the manic pixie dream girls of dystopian gaming; they exist as testing boards for their male counterparts—strong yet vulnerable, belligerent yet loyal—they’re there to provide the beats in the hero’s journey from sociopath to rounded adult male” (stuart). chris suellentrop of the new york times criticizes the lack of opportunity to play as ellie, saying the game casts her “in a secondary, subordinate role” (suellentrop). there is some validity to their claims, as the last of us does indeed follow many of the same old tropes and ideas seen in other post-apocalyptic video games. however, i argue that this post-apocalyptic game ultimately represents progress in its portrayal of gender roles because of ellie’s overall role in the game and because of its depiction of the consequences of violent masculinity in a zombie apocalypse. i will do this by providing an overview of gender roles in post-apocalyptic media and video games. then i will analyze the game itself. to illustrate the show’s more progressive gender dynamics, i will examine ellie’s role in the cover art of the game, the conceptualization of the story, and the portrayal of the consequences of joel’s violent actions. post-apocalyptic stories often portray gender roles as a return to traditional norms disguised as progress. by examining the characters of the last of us, it is evident how the post-apocalypse serves to reinforce traditional gender roles; however, this game also provides an opportunity for recognizing the consequences of such a portrayal. additionally, there is hope for the portrayal of gender in video games, in general, because people have a benkert 41 chance to play and understand different gender roles. this representation of gender allows people to better identify with characters. it allows different stories to be told and experienced. ellie and joel’s story is not just one of survival in the post-apocalypse, but it is also a story of loss, comfort, family, and wonder. it is a story of a fierce, optimistic girl and a man learning to embrace hope in the face of the post-apocalypse. their story makes the players themselves question gameplay in terms of gender roles, which could lead them to question their own views on gender. the post-apocalyptic setting opens up an awareness of possibilities of what could be: if something could change in the post-apocalypse, it could change in reality as well. often, post-apocalyptic fiction portrays gender roles as traditional. keith booker, who studies the history of dystopias written by women, finds that even in works written by feminists, there was mostly a return to traditional gender roles. the “major works of the genre have done relatively little to challenge conventional notions of gender roles. despite giving frequent lip service to equality of the genders, literary dystopias (and utopias, for that matter) have typically been places where men are men and women are women, and in relatively conventional ways” (booker 337). the authors that booker studies find it difficult to imagine an equal society, and their utopian communities fall back into patriarchal structures. one would expect that everything should be equal in a society where everyone is just trying to survive; the apocalypse should level the playing field. however, power structures quickly arise again as conventional gender roles reassert their authority. fiction offers a way to explore our hopes and fears as a society. as scholar james berger says in his book after the end, “the post-apocalypse in fiction provides an occasion to go ‘back to basics’ and to reveal what the writer considers to be truly of value” (8). consequently, fiction created by society reflects the ideals and values that the society itself holds. this holds true in both literature and video games. it especially holds true in post-apocalyptic stories that promise the audience an eventual simplification out of the chaos of both the apocalypse and of current life. because the superfluous is destroyed, only what is supposedly necessary remains. in some post-apocalyptic stories, the men who write them value a complete destruction of female empowerment: “there is an important strand of apocalyptic imagining that seeks to destroy the world expressly in order to eliminate female sexuality. in the postapocalypse, desire and fear find their true objects; we see what we most want and most abhor. and these objects frequently are the same object—some instrument of universal annihilation” (berger 11). females with agency and authority are deemed superfluous in this benkert 42 model. men both desire women sexually and fear a world where women would have any sort of power. gender norms such as this one, combined with the apocalypse, cause views of females as being other and lesser in the post-apocalypse. lina rahm describes a study she conducted on members of an online forum who compared women in an apocalyptic situation to either threatening “mama bears” or victims who should be helped in exchange for sex. these members of the forum felt a moral obligation most of the time to help women but were full of a condescending patriarchal attitude. rahm concludes that the way these forum members view women in the imagined apocalypse is a reflection of how they view women in real life (78). just as post-apocalyptic literature can reveal what people value, even an imagined apocalypse can reveal people’s true ideals and opinions. as such, a game where one of the main characters is a strong female lead challenges the forum members’ view of individuals’ roles in the post-apocalypse. however, their view is not the only one that people hold. the members of the forum’s ideas about gender roles were fairly outspoken. others may not be as apparent in their distrust of female power but may view the apocalypse as a way to return to the “good old days.” katherine sugg compares the post-apocalypse with the traditionally male-dominated frontier myth or western. the return of the frontier myth is reflected in many aspects of culture, for as mainstream culture progresses, men can sometimes feel lost. jackson katz, the author and presenter of tough guise 2: violence, manhood, and american culture, says, “again and again, at key moments in american history, you see men reacting to change in just this way—by retreating into a hyper-masculine fantasy world” (00:43:55-00:44:05). as society changes and threatens traditional male control, men hold onto the past even tighter. sugg also suggests that the post-apocalyptic frontier myth has roots in the recession and its impact on men and masculinity (797). while the last of us was released in 2013, it was developed for several years earlier, and a lasting consciousness of masculinity in the face of the economic recession could have certainly influenced the game. the apocalypse restores individual agency, as there is no government or larger society; all people have to care about are the effects of their individual choices. as men feel lack of control in real life, apocalyptic fiction gives them power. katz says, “we’re witnessing a culture in retreat—a narrative that tells men that the best way to respond to change is not to adapt, but to reclaim traditional masculine control and dominance from the forces of feminization” (00:40:4700:40:53). men are facing what they deem to be an apocalyptic situation. however, the men who are embroiled with a fight for masculinity do not see after the end, where society has benkert 43 been transformed. they simply see the destruction of masculine control and attempt to hold on to their control no matter what it takes. in some ways this attempt to reclaim masculine control takes the form of destroying femininity completely. other times, this desperate grasp for the past takes the form of violence, as some men feel that this is the only control they have left. post-apocalyptic media enables violent scenarios to be more removed from the present day, thus facilitating the development of unchecked violent masculinity. today’s culture teaches men that masculinity is linked to violence and that they must reject emotions at all costs. katz says, speaking for men, we can’t show any emotion except anger. we can’t think too much or seem too intellectual. we can’t back down when someone disrespects us. we have to show we’re tough enough to inflict physical pain and take it in turn. we’re supposed to be sexually aggressive with women. and then we’re taught that if we step out of this box, we risk being seen as soft, weak, feminine, or gay. (00:14:25-00:14:45) video games and post-apocalyptic fiction allow for these norms to be reinforced. in many of these narratives, life is portrayed as the survival of the fittest. characters must be the toughest to survive the story or game, and any weakness results in failure. other norms perpetuate the idea of sexual conquest through violence. katz makes the point that violence is almost always perpetrated by men, but that gender and gender norms are never discussed when talking about the problem (00:02:56-00:06:00). the postapocalypse is violent. it is hard to look at progress in gender when everything is wrapped up in bloodshed. video games also have a reputation of being violent. however, violence has consequences, even if some narratives portray otherwise. george gerbner, a scholar who studies fear, talks about the routine of violence or “happy” violence—violence that is portrayed without consequences. violence is often a fundamental facet of storytelling; however, in current media, it is frequently portrayed not as a vehicle with emotions and grief attached but instead as a mode of release with no consequences for the perpetrator or for the victim (gerbner 00:08:30-00:10:20). this happens often in video games, where violence is usually just a game mechanism and a way to progress the storyline without any focus on what the consequences would be—emotional or otherwise—for the characters. in video games, happy violence is especially potent because the interaction is entrusted more to the intended audience. instead of just watching the action passively, the player actively controls the characters and feels the consequences, or lack thereof, of violence more intimately. video games do not just deal with violence, however. as stated previously, in postbenkert 44 apocalyptic fiction there is often a return to traditional gender roles, and video games also often address these traditional gender roles: gender roles within video games and within the video game community are often critiqued as exclusionary and sexist. looking at the video game industry overall shows how the last of us changes the conversation about gender, not only in the post-apocalypse, but also in video games and in post-apocalyptic video games. the last of us shows how video games can portray gender roles as something complicated and nuanced without relying solely on stereotypes. this game opens up different roles, not just for gender in the apocalypse but for gender in video games as well. in an analysis of video game studies, benjamin paaßen et al. claim that while men and women play video games in almost equal numbers, the stereotype of the male gamer still exists (426). if women are acknowledged as players, they are scorned as being less legitimate or successful. because of this stereotype, the video game industry is geared towards men. therefore, many games involve heroic male protagonists and hyper-sexualized damsels in distress. the men who play these games also buy into the stereotype that games are just for men and therefore see any female presence as an invasion. the consequences of this system include: harsher environments for females, lack of good representation of female characters, and some games specified as “girl games” only (benjamin paaßen et al. 429). with these constraints there are few popular girl gamers: despite the number of girls playing, most of the celebrities of the gaming world are male. this only serves to perpetuate the stereotype of a male-dominated industry and removes motivation for change. now that i have examined gender norms in post-apocalyptic media and in video games, i will move on to analyze the gender politics of the last of us. i will discuss why, despite some retreading of clichés, this game represents progress. i will look at how ellie’s portrayal in the cover art and within the story allows people to experience gender roles they might not otherwise understand. i will also look at how joel’s interaction with others and how his choices point to the consequences of violent masculinity. the last of us does fall into some of the same gender tropes as stories with stereotypical masculine leads. in the last of us, there is a complex system of military, smugglers, rebels called fireflies, and those living outside the walls of the quarantine zones. these structures take on a patriarchal role in joel and ellie’s life while the characters are in the quarantine zone, but even in communities outside the walls that joel and ellie find, the gender roles fall right back into patriarchy. they almost always encounter male enemies, while women and children—for the most part—are presented as background characters or not mentioned at all. there also is a definite sense of the western and frontier myth in the benkert 45 last of us, as ellie and joel journey across the land, fighting against the wilderness and others to survive. they even ride a horse. additionally, joel definitely hits all of the hypermasculine qualities in the face of the apocalypse. joel uses the terminology of surviving. the player does not know much about the twenty-year gap between his daughter’s death and the plot starting with ellie, but a conversation with joel’s brother tommy shows they did everything that they could to survive: joel: for all those goddamn years i took care of us. tommy: took care? that’s what you call it? i got nothing but nightmares from those years. joel: you survived because of me. tommy: it wasn’t worth it. (the last of us, “tommy’s dam”) joel has used whatever violent means available to him to survive in the post-apocalypse but has somehow become less of what he was before. joel has survived something horrible that is hard for anyone else to comprehend, which reflects berger’s claims that “the survivor has seen, and knows, what no one else could see and know” (48). to deal with his knowledge and pain, and because of his loss, joel has retreated into a hyper-masculine shell that rejects any sort of emotion. the apocalypse has left him without control, and he attempts to compensate. he follows the cultural narrative that emotions are a weakness. this sentiment is also reinforced by others in the game. joel is told that caring is a detriment and that it’s better just to survive on his own. bill, a slightly paranoid, antagonistic man they borrow a car from tells joel to send ellie “packing, let her find her own way. let me tell you a story. once upon a time i had someone i cared about. it was a partner. somebody i had to look after. and in this world that sort of shit is good for one thing: gettin’ ya killed. so, you know what i did? i wisened the fuck up. and i realized it’s gotta be just me” (the last of us, “bill’s town”). however, joel doesn’t listen. he has already decided that he is going to look after ellie and protect her. he rejects bill’s advice, as he struggles not to lose his protective masculine guise, a struggle that occurs because he has begun to care for ellie. ellie, however, is not so sure that she wants protection. she is grateful for joel’s company but does not like the way that he sometimes dismisses her or his initial refusal to let her take an active part in their mutual protection. the post-apocalypse provides the perfect stage for a hyper-masculine hero to come in and constantly save the day. in any other game, the hero would have followed violent archetypes and come to restore everything to how it was before. the difference in this game, however, is ellie. first i am going to look at ellie’s portrayal on the cover of the game. melinda burgess benkert 46 et al. did a study examining over two hundred video game covers to analyze the trends of gender representation, and they conclude that video game covers show prevailing patterns in the portrayal of gender in video games, most of them negative. the cover includes the characters the developers deem relevant to the game and establish a player’s first impression of the game (burgess et al. 421). for the last of us, it is a little complicated because there are two covers: one cover is for the playstation 3 version of the game, and the other is for the remastered playstation 4 version. normally on video game covers, males are portrayed as violent, while females are sexualized or nonexistent. while joel is ready for action with a gun in his hand on both covers, ellie is actively holding a gun on the second cover. neither of the covers show ellie in a sexualized manner. she is not objectified or idealized but portrayed as an important character in her own right. males are normally more prominent on covers, but ellie is more the focus on the first cover. on the second cover, she is as important as joel. while only the cover, it shows how the developers decided to market and present the game. it shows what they believe about the game, which is that ellie is a strong character, equal or even more primary than joel. however, the covers are not the only place where there is a difference in gender portrayal. to demonstrate this, i will also look at ellie’s portrayal within the actual story. in the last of us there are cut scenes, which show emotion and character development, and gameplay, which involves both fighting enemies and secondary dialogue. in both the cut scenes and the gameplay, ellie is portrayed as a strong, complex character. she has never been outside the quarantine walls before and is extremely curious about the world around her. she admits fears of being left alone. she cracks jokes and teases joel. she is portrayed as having her own thoughts, feelings, and motivations. she is her own individual character who people really enjoy. this is not common in video games, as burgess et al. also found that only 21.4% of characters in their game sample were female (424). ellie opens up new opportunities for gender roles, proving that a game with a strong female leading character can be successful. within the story ellie is also portrayed as important. however, there is criticism from both the new york times and the guardian about the lack of time with her as a playable character. sullentrop in the new york times claims that the game handles the female characters with “depressing sameness” (sullentrop). stuart in the guardian says that “in terms of identification and raw experience, we’re with joel all the way” (stuart). i think that it is important to address this criticism. alessandro gabbiadini et al., in a study about empathy, masculinity, and video games, found that in a story-based game such as the last of benkert 47 benkert us “the assigned role fosters a sense of ‘vicarious self-perception’” (11). identifying vicariously through a character allows the player to more easily adopt their point of view. this means that play time is important. there is some validity to the criticism that the new york times and the guardian offer; however, there is more to the story. video games are also different than other forms of media because they are interactive. when someone takes control of a character, do they describe themselves as enacting the actions, or do they talk about the characters doing the action? in my experience, at least during the actual gameplay, people are more likely to say things such as “i just shot that guy” or “oh no, i have to hide” than to describe the actions from a third person perspective. because they view the game from the character’s point of view, the player begins to share the character’s feelings and goals. this means even the short time individuals get to play as ellie allows them glimpses and insight into an experience of gender that they may not have had the opportunity to empathize with before. at one point in the game, ellie is almost a victim of sexual violence while looking for medicine for joel, which will be discussed later in this paper. gabbiadnini et al. claim that playing some video games “increases masculine beliefs and decreases empathy for female violence victims, especially for boys and young men who highly identified with the male game character” (10). joel is the main playable character for the majority of the game and is highly identifiable with masculine self-identity. gabbiadnini et al. also refer to sexual violence in video games, writing, “because they are forced to adopt the visual perspective of the perpetrator, it is difficult for players to put themselves in the shoes of the victim” (10). in contrast, when the sexual violence is shown in this game, players do not play from the perspective of the perpetrator, but from that of the victim. a fire traps ellie with a man, david, who is threatening sexual violence. the fire adds to the atmosphere of terror and may symbolize the power that david has over ellie in that moment. however, ellie is fairly collected as she determinedly tries to get the keys to the door for her escape from david. it is not until she is able to kill david as he tries to force himself on her that the player is really able feel the desperation of the scene. the player has no choice but to acknowledge the horror of what happened and what almost happened. they empathize with ellie and feel the injustice of the situation. this perspective, combined with ellie’s previous character development and her resolve to save joel by finding medicine despite danger, open up new opportunities for gender role exploration. many of the men who play these games would not have had the opportunity to identify with a female character in this way before, and the game sends a powerful message with that 48 identification. it forces them to look at themselves and their own attitudes and actions, which may otherwise have gone unchecked. i will also discuss ellie as a contrast to joel. one could argue that violent masculinity is necessary in a post-apocalyptic world. joel definitely agrees that violence is the only way to survive. he has built up reasoning and excuses for his violent actions in his head as a defense mechanism to justify what he has actually done. in the game, the player sees him kill indiscriminately, torture others for information, and smuggle things on a strictly needto-know basis. he defends himself from his smuggling partner tess as she says, “really? guess what, we’re shitty people, joel. it’s been that way for a long time” by replying, “no, we are survivors!” (the last of us, “the outskirts”). joel justifies his violence as a means to survive and to protect others around him. violence may or may not be necessary in a post-apocalyptic situation, but ellie serves as a reminder of the consequences when violence is highly tied to gender roles. near the end of the game, joel is injured, and the player gets to control ellie. throughout the game, joel becomes a father figure for ellie, but in this instance, she is his caretaker. mark pajor comments on the rise of fatherhood in popular video games and notes that the fathers are often made to prove their love for their child (or child surrogate) through violence. this is what he describes as parental masculinity, a type of masculinity that frames violence as existing for the sake of protection (pajor 129). joel’s entire storyline is defined by his desire to protect ellie. he begins by behaving antagonistically towards her, or, at least indifferent, but comes to care about her. with that care comes his increasing desire to protect her however necessary. while the formation of this parental relationship makes for an interesting story told by the cut scenes and dialogue, it does take away some of ellie’s agency and leaves her as somewhat of a plot device, at least in the combat gameplay. she is sometimes left to the side as joel fights as the controllable character. other times she does fight back, but it leads into a cut scene which has less impact on a player’s identifying vicariously with the character than gameplay does. however, pajor also looks at ellie as a parental figure. while joel is hurt, ellie takes on the role of protector. she hunts for food and bargains for medicine with dangerous men, one of whom, david, seems reluctant to kill her. when the men ultimately chase her, she leads them purposefully away from joel in an attempt to protect him. all of these things work to reduce the stereotype of ellie as the damsel in distress. when ellie is eventually captured by these men, she finds out that they have resorted to cannibalism and is almost raped by david. pajor points out that the player alternates control between joel and ellie benkert 49 at this point as ellie temporarily escapes her trap by tricking david and as joel struggles through the snow (140). this builds up the false expectation that joel will arrive in the vital moment to save ellie. it also builds a comparison of both joel and ellie. the game portrays them both as competent. joel is able to struggle through the snow and search through the town, but ellie also has the aptitude to escape repeatedly. ellie turns a stereotype on its head by showing she does not need rescuing, and the game helps show this by portraying her as equal to joel. as this game compares ellie and joel, it also contrasts joel and david. both david and joel believe that violence is inevitable in the post-apocalypse, illustrated in a conversation ellie has with david while she is his prisoner: david: oh . . . you’re awfully quick to judgment. considering you and your friend killed how many men? ellie: they didn’t give us a choice. david: and you think we have a choice? is that it? you kill to survive . . . and so do we. we have to take care of our own. by any means necessary. (the last of us, “lakeside resort”) both men fit the mentality of what sugg calls “savage war” (804). in the postapocalypse, leadership is tied with ruthlessness. brutality proves someone is fit for leadership. even ellie is only recognized as able to hold her own after she kills a man attacking joel; she does not initially kill within the storyline. it is only after her kill that joel trusts her with a gun because her brutality has proven that she is capable of new responsibility and leadership. joel and david are brutal and violent almost as a default, but ellie has to prove herself. while ellie’s violence may be tied to protection and responsibility, david and joel’s is also tied to masculinity. joel’s blame is not absolved. indeed, he only sighs when ellie asks if he has killed a lot of innocent people. however, as the game shows joel killing more and more people to rescue ellie, david takes a different idea of any means necessary. a man calls ellie david’s “newest pet” (the last of us, “lakeside resort”). david’s masculinity and leadership are tied to sexual conquest and to violence against ellie. both men are just trying to survive the apocalypse, but both have different ideas of what it means to just survive. ellie fights back against david and against the idea that she is just an object to be used or a trophy to be won to prove someone’s leadership or manhood. if the last of us were playing into traditional gender tropes, joel would heroically get there just in time to save ellie. however, he gets there just as ellie saves herself by killing david. ellie is almost a victim of sexual violence perpetrated by someone who believes he benkert 50 could find his masculinity in that act. therefore, this post-apocalypse allows us to see the consequences of violent masculinity. in another game, joel would have been a hero, but here he does not get to fulfill this traditionally masculine role. here he takes on the more feminine role of comforter. he takes on a parental role that is not violent. he stops, and he comforts ellie. he holds her when she cries. he does not prove his masculinity through violence, but rather he proves his fatherhood through comfort. in the game, violence has consequences. michael goerger, in a paper about ethics in gaming, argues that this is what makes the last of us as a game different from other violent video games such as the grand theft auto series, in which an individual plays as a violent criminal (104). while in the last of us there is almost always someone getting stabbed, shot, or strangled, individuals also see the consequences of the actions. ellie, for instance, almost gets sick after she has to shoot someone holding joel underwater. at another point, she kills someone and feels sick to her stomach. joel has been hardened by years of violence. he has become deadened towards it to survive, but it affects his character. ellie mourns the death of two brothers who momentarily join them even when joel does not want to talk about it. the game even opens with the despair joel feels after losing his daughter, her dying in his arms. in the last of us, there is grief felt over death. in grand theft auto, everything is just treated trivially. within the story there are consequences, and then there are consequences from the perspective of the player. people may not always like the actions of the character with whom they are identifying. some may not like joel’s two instances of torturing others for information about ellie’s whereabouts. others may be uncomfortable at his callous acceptance of a double-crosser’s death at the very beginning of the game. there are many occasions where a traditional male, heroic, violent act that joel performs is not presented as the right thing to do but is questioned, in-game and by the player. in the same way, the end of the game leaves us wondering about the consequences of traditional gender roles. joel is the protector throughout the game, and this can take away ellie’s agency. however, at the end, he takes away the ultimate choice from ellie—the choice to live or die. ellie is the supposed key to finding a cure for the virus. however, when they finally reach the end of their journey, joel finds out that the surgery they need to do will end up killing ellie. with ellie already unconscious, he decides that he must save her and shoots his way out of the building while carrying her. later, ellie asks about what had happened, but joel lies and says that they stopped looking for a cure. joel realizes that if given a choice, benkert 51 ellie probably would have sacrificed herself. however, he cannot let her make that decision. in the post-apocalypse, he reclaims his power as the masculine figure by taking away ellie’s power. he has come to care for her, but he also cannot give up his role as father and guardian. this decision at the end of the game is, at least in part, because of the consequences of gender norms. joel still sees himself as a masculine protector and ellie as needing protecting, as incapable of making the choice for herself. they travel back to the settlement of joel’s brother tommy. ellie confronts joel, telling him about all the people who she has lost to the virus. when she was bitten, she was not alone and had to watch her friend turn into one of the infected. as joel tries to offer platitudes, ellie demands of him, “swear to me. swear to me that everything you said about the fireflies is true.” there is a short pause here, and players can feel joel’s split second hesitation. then he lies, “i swear.” the pause is a lot longer now, and players can see ellie’s eyes move, searching joel’s face. the players know it is a lie, joel knows it is a lie, and ellie suspects it is a lie. individuals see so many emotions playing out across her face. she finally says, “okay” (the last of us, “jackson”). then the credits roll. it is an unsettling ending. joel lies to ellie because he took away her decision. however, the game does not present joel’s actions as heroic. it leaves the ending morally ambiguous. as the player identifies with joel, they are uncomfortable with ellie demanding answers and are left wondering if they did the right thing. lindsey joyce, in an essay about the game, says that “responses to the game’s ending have been mixed, but the ending has surprised the majority of players as it breaks convention by denying a ‘happy’ finish. in doing so, naughty dog reveals how broken the conventions and tropes used in the game were all along” (joyce). in another game or another post-apocalyptic narrative, the male hero would have been presented as unquestionably right no matter what, always acting in the best interests of his inferior female companions. in the post-apocalypse especially, female lack of agency is portrayed as the default, and gender roles fall along conventional lines. in this game, however, gender roles are far more open to new imagination and interpretation because, here, joel’s motives and actions are questioned. ellie as a female character has developed such an identity that the players feel uncomfortable not only with joel taking away her agency but with him lying to her as well. joel has shed his violent masculinity enough for us to understand his emotions and motives for his actions but not enough for him to avoid still being morally ambiguous. the game critiques toxic masculinity by showing the players how joel’s actions affect someone he cares about—ellie. the characters make their decisions in a post-apocalyptic society because, as berger benkert 52 states, “the end is never the end” (5). for a post-apocalyptic story to exist, there must be something remaining after the supposed apocalypse or end of the world. for joel, the original apocalyptic event may not have been the viral outbreak but the death of his daughter. joel faces the decision between a personal new beginning with ellie or a new beginning for society. he could take ellie, go back to tommy’s settlement, and stick with the gender roles and norms that he knows. or he could give up ellie, whom he has come to love and care for, and face change. with his identity tied so strongly to first violent masculinity and then to protection, it is easier for him to choose to protect ellie and in turn protect his own gender identity. however, the game does not present that choice as right or wrong but simply as a choice. this is how this post-apocalyptic game opens up gender roles. the new york times argues that ellie’s lack of playtime is problematic (suellentrop). while it may appear this way, i believe that the time we do get to play as her is one of the crucial reasons why this game represents progress in gender roles in the post-apocalypse. it is here where ellie refuses objectification and where joel first does not get to fulfill the role of violent masculine hero. ellie fights back against sexual violence, and joel does not use violence typical of a post-apocalyptic video game to help; rather, he uses empathy and comfort. the guardian also criticizes ellie’s lack of play time and says that she is simply a “manic pixie dream girl” (stuart). while ellie does help further joel’s storyline, in doing so she develops into a full-fledged character in her own right. part of the reason why the ending is so unsettling is because the player has come to care about ellie as a character. the player knows her motivations and realizes that the choice that joel makes for her is not one that she would want for herself. this strength of character makes the consequences of joel’s choices even more evident. while the new york times and the guardian offer some valid criticism, the portrayal of ellie and the game’s critique of joel’s violent masculinity ultimately show progress in imagining new roles in the post-apocalypse. the ambiguous ending leaves players questioning their own motives and choices in relation to the characters. showing the character of ellie and the consequences of joel’s actions allow for new stories of gender roles to develop. the post-apocalypse reflects values of our own world and is a reflection of the future. ellie’s overall role in the game, as well as its portrayal of the consequences of violent masculinity, represents a step towards the imagining of new gender roles in the postapocalypse and in the player’s real life. it allows the future to be one of hope for the strength that is found in equality. benkert 53 works cited berger, james. after the end: representations of the post-apocalypse. university of minnesota press, 1999. booker, keith. “woman on the edge of a genre: the feminist dystopias of marge piercy.” science fiction studies, vol. 21, no. 3, 1994, pp. 337-350. jstor, http://www.jstor.org/st able/4240370. burgess, melinda, et al. “sex, lies, and video games: the portrayal of male and female characters on video game covers.” sex roles, vol. 57, no. 5-6, 2007, pp. 419 433. springerlink, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-007-9250-0. gabbiadini, alessandro, et al. “acting like a tough guy: violent-sexist video games, identification with game characters, masculine beliefs, & empathy for female violence victims.” plos one, vol. 11, no. 4, 2016, pp. 1-14. ebscohost, doi:10.1371/ journal.po ne.015212. gerbner, george. “the mean world syndrome: media violence & the cultivation of fear.” kanopy, media education foundation, 2010, https://bsu.kanopystreaming.com/video/ mean-world-syndrome. goerger, michael, “value, violence, and the ethics of gaming.” ethics and information technology, vol. 19, no. 2, 2017, pp. 95–105. springerlink, https://link.springer.com/ content/pdf/10.1007%2fs10676 -017-9417-5.pdf. joyce, lindsey. “an uneven partnership: representations of gender in the last of us.” first person scholar, 19 july 2014, http://www.firstpersonscholar.com/an-uneven-partner ship/. katz, jackson. “tough guise 2: violence, manhood, and american culture.” kanopy, media education foundation, 2013, https://bsu.kanopystreaming.com/video/tough-guise-2. moriarty, colin. “the last of us review.” ign.com, 5 june 2013, http://www.ign.com/articles/2 013/06/05/the-last-of-us-review. naughty dog. the last of us. sony computer entertainment, 2013. playstation 3. paaßen, benjamin, et al. “what is a true gamer? the male gamer stereotype and the marginalization of women in video game culture.” sex roles, vol. 76, no. 7-8, 2017, pp. 421-435. ebscohost, doi: 10.1007/s11199-016-0678-y. benkert 54 pajor, mark. “stay close to me: performing paternal masculinity in videogames.” the undergraduate literacy criticism journal at the university of illinois, vol. 1, no. 1, 2014, pp. 126-145, https://ugresearchjournals.illinois.edu/index.php/ujlc/article/view/18/10. rahm, lina. “who will survive? on bodies and boundaries after the apocalypse.” gender forum: an internet journal for gender studies, vol. 45, no. 45, 2013, pp. 72-83, http://gen derforum.org/wpcontent/uploads/2017/02/042013_ecr_i_complete.pdf. stuart, keith. “the last of us, bioshock: infinite and why all video game dystopias work the same way.” the guardian, 1 july 2013, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ games blog/2013/jul/01/last-of-us-bioshock-infinite-male-view. suellentrop, chris. “in the same boat, but not equals in the video game the last of us, survival favors the man.” the new york times, 14 june 2013, http://www.nytimes.com/ 2013/06/14/arts/video-games/in-the-video-game-the-last-of-us-survival-favors-the man.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0. sugg, katherine. “the walking dead: late liberalism and masculine subjection in apocalypse fictions.” journal of american studies, vol. 49, no. 4, 2015, pp. 793-811. cambridge university press and british association for american studies, doi: 10.1017/ s002187581 5001723. benkert with brett bailey’s modern re-creation of early nineteenth-century human zoos, many have engaged in public critiques of the colonial practice of putting humans on display. exhibit b, bailey’s installation, is meant to spread awareness of the widely popular human zoos of the past. audiences stand on both sides of exhibit b—some protesting the “otherness” of hired actors and some praising the risks bailey takes by creating such an exploitative performance. my essay investigates whether or not re-creating scenes of slavery does more harm than good. in order to spread awareness of early nineteenth and late twentieth-century human zoos, bailey subjugates non-white actors to portray performances similar to those from these previous periods. is there an effective way to recreate scenes of slavery and oppression? does exhibit b provide a critique of racism and colonialism? or, could exhibit b be another instance of racism? in this paper, i am going to argue that brett bailey’s exhibit b is a poor attempt to provide an artistic critique of nineteenth and twentieth-century colonialism and racism in the practice of the human zoo. i will do this by examining the history of the human zoo and recounting the story of the real-life hottentot venus. this will help us understand how the human zoo is historically tied up with colonialism and racism. i will then look at bailey’s own views surrounding exhibit b and, lastly, i will provide an analysis of why exhibit b is not a proper representation of the history of american and european ethnological enlightenment. i will also discuss why bailey’s intentions cannot overcome the colonialism and racism that lingers around his modern re-creation of the human zoo. if you think the human zoo is a thing of the past, you may want to reconsider. south african artist brett bailey has created a modern representation of the human zoo called exhibit b. in his exhibit, actors portray nineteenth-century human zoos in scenes that have been historically re-created. in one such scene, titled “civilizing the natives: herero prisoners cleaning herero skulls for european museums,” two african-american women hold human skulls and pieces of glass. the plaque next to this display explains the history of african women being forced to clean skulls that were meant to be sent to germany for “pseudoscientific examination” in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century (carvajal). in bailey’s rendition, the women are enclosed the human zoo: a critique of brett bailey’s exhibit b mercadies brown, ball state university key words: brett bailey, human zoo, slavery, exhibit b, critique, colonial practice abstract: this essay examines exhibit b, a controversial art installation by south african artist brett bailey in which actors portray historical scenes of colonialism and slavery. exhibit b is meant to spread awareness of the widely popular human zoos of the past. brown’s essay investigates whether or not recreating scenes of slavery does more harm than good. 106 digital literature review, vol. 2 (2015). © ball state university. all rights reserved. please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce critical edition to dlr@bsu.edu. in a small area, fenced off by barbed wire. a large cooking pot sits upon a stack of wood between the women. hanging from the barbed wire are what look to be pieces of flesh. the entire display is placed behind four pedestals, and on these pedestals are four skulls enclosed in glass cases. a backlight causes the faces of the women to be lost in shadows—the darkness of the exhibit further dimming their already dark skin. spotlights draw attention to the hands of the actresses, causing the audience to focus on the actions taking place, as described by the plaque. also featured in exhibit b is “a place in the sun: quarters of an officer of the german colonial forces, windhoek 1906.” this scene involves a woman with an iron chain around her neck. in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and even early twentieth century, it was common practice for european colonists to chain up an african woman and allow her access to food in exchange for sexual services. this type of action sought to demean the women to little more than poorly treated house pets. as an african-american actress sits on a bed inside bailey’s “a place in the sun” exhibit, she stares into a mirror hung on the wall. with her back to the audience, the only sight of this woman’s face is whatever glimpse of reflection you may catch in the mirror. clothed in only a bed sheet, emphasis is placed on the chain collar around her neck. on the walls hang animal furs and heads, as well as framed photos of indigenous tribes. the woman is not given a name, but instead a piece of paper scribbled with a series of numbers is attached to the sheet that she wears in lieu of a nametag. a man’s clothing and belongings are scattered about the room. his pants lie across the bed and his boots are thrown about the floor. a rifle is propped against the bedpost should the woman get any ideas about escaping her chain collar. the exhibit has caused such uproar that change.org features a petition to have the london showing cancelled. protestors did end up with a victory, as this particular london theatre, the barbican, withdrew its showing of exhibit b. responding to the cancellation, bailey wrote an article featured in the guardian which included the following: the intention of exhibit b was never hatred, fear, or prejudice. it is about love, respect, and outrage. those who have caused exhibit b to be shut down brand the work as racist. they have challenged 107 brown civilizing the natives: herero prisoners cleaning herero skulls for european museums © brett bailey a place in the sun: quarters of an officer of the german colonial forces, windhoek 1906 © brett bailey my right, as a white south african, to speak about racism the way i do. they accuse me of exploiting my performers. they insist that my critique of human zoos and the objectifying, dehumanizing colonial/racist gaze is nothing more than a recreation of those spectacles of humiliation and control. the vast majority of them have not attended the work… i do not portray the world in the binaries of black and white, wrong and right, good and evil. i am an artist who works with colours and shades. (bailey, “yes, exhibit b is challenging”) with thirty-eight tour dates scheduled for the 2014 calendar year, bailey’s exhibit has been able to spread awareness regarding european and american history of “ethnological enlightenment” (“the human zoo” 3). the question remains, however, if awareness was spread in a manner deemed appropriate. before further examining exhibit b, we first need to look at the long history of the human zoo in order to understand the importance of the racial ties that continue to be present in bailey’s modern re-creation. zoos have been a large part of human history. once entrepreneurs figured out that an audience would pay to see unique and exotic animals brought to nearby cities, zoos rapidly became popular. lydia kallipoliti recounts historical zoological events in her article, “evolution of the zoo: an overview of significant zoological developments spanning from biblical times through to contemporary proposals.” she describes the pre-modern zoos as such: these aristocratic ménageries—including the tower of london and the vincennes ménagerie— were founded and owned by said aristocrats whose primary intentions were not scientific or educational but rather illustrated their established power and wealth as it required both of those conditions to acquire exotic animals. by the late seventeenth century, ménageries had developed into places where wild animals were kept and trained for the purpose of exhibition. animals were objectified—collected and displayed in a similar manner to the cabinet of curiosities of renaissance europe in which rulers and aristocrats would showcase their personal collections (3). kallipoliti’s description of pre-modern zoos provides a basis upon which we are able to associate the first animal zoos. it is not until later, around the nineteenth century, that zookeepers begin displaying humans alongside animals. as kallipoliti notes, the age of enlightenment largely influenced the changes to zoos and what became known as the “modern” zoos: “thus the symbolic use of animals began to merge with notions of a well-ordered universe, leading to the collection of live specimens for study rather than amusement and ultimately to the development of the first scientifically established zoos of the modern world” (9). with this shift to science-focused zoos, it would not be long before zookeepers began expanding their search of “live specimens” to include humans. in the late 1800’s, cities such as paris, hamburg, barcelona, and milan were home to human zoos. even some american cities, such as new york, hosted the human exhibits. m.b. david notes in the article “deep racism: the forgotten history of human zoos,” that some 200,000 to 300,000 people visited these zoos collectively. the human zoos consisted of public exhibits of mostly non-european people. these people were often considered different and unusual to what europeans were used to seeing. as part of the exhibit, the humans on display would be placed inside a habitat. these constructed habitats often offered ideas of where these people might naturally exist. carl hagenbeck, considered to be a german entrepreneur of human zoos, exhibited nubian people in 1876. while working with a collaborator for the nubian exhibit, hagenbeck requested “wild beasts” be placed in the exhibit. hagenbeck considered his exhibits of human beings to be “savages in a natural state” (ames 27). beginning in 1874, hagenbeck critiqued and perfected zoo exhibits, for humans and animals alike. in one such show called “the savages from the land 108 brown of fire,” hagenbeck displayed a group of kaweskars, people native to the tierra del fuego area of the south american chilean patagonia. hagenbeck’s expedition captured the kaweskars and displayed them to an audience of half a million visitors in paris alone (“europe’s ‘human zoos’”). human zoos had gained so much popularity that the 1889 world’s fair featured an exhibit with four hundred indigenous people (david). by the early twentieth century, human zoos had sprung up across germany. with big names like hagenbeck, germany helped human zoos, or “peoples show,” to gain popularity throughout the western world. a congolese pygmy called ota benga was displayed in a primate exhibit at the bronx zoo in new york city from 1906 until 1910. a plaque outside benga’s exhibit labeled him as, “the missing link” (david). a zoo in france continued to display an ivory coast village as part of an african safari up through 1994, as well as a london zoo including an exhibit depicting the earliest homo sapiens in 2005 (david). in a document titled the human zoo: science’s dirty secret, channel four television corporation investigates late nineteenth and early twentieth-century cultural practices regarding indigenous peoples. the document states, “scientists were so fascinated by race that thousands of indigenous people from all over the world were put on display in human zoos in pseudo-scientific demonstrations of ‘racial difference’” (“the human zoo” 3). though the concept of a zoo began with animals, it quickly incorporated human specimens. just as the animals had been captured from their homelands and objectified for visitors to gawk at, the same ended up happening to people. perhaps the most famous story involving the human zoo is that of saartjie baartman. baartman’s story describes the life of an indigenous woman captured for display in a human zoo. baartman was deceived by european explorers and kidnapped from her home. like other performers, baartman was taken because of her unusual appearance. human zoos, and their audiences, thrived off of exotic specimens. if white europeans had not seen something before, it was sure to be a hit at a freak show carnival. baartman became known as “the hottentot venus,” and from that point on, she wouldn’t be known by any other name. tortured and inspected, baartman’s story is one of few historical accounts of human zoo captivity that was ever recorded. born in the eastern cape of south africa in 1789, saartjie baartman would be taken from her homeland and eventually brought to england to be displayed in a collection of human spectacles (holmes). baartman agreed to venture to london, reassured by an exotic animal dealer that she would gain fame and wealth. human zoo exhibits often sent scouts to find recruits with aesthetic qualities “that either coin109 portrait of saartjie baartman, naked © british museum brown cided with the european beauty ideal or offered unexpected novelty” (david). baartman lived in europe from 1810 until 1815. she was placed on stage in london amongst other members of the human freak show. displayed for her genetic condition, steatopygia, baartman had protuberant buttocks and elongated labia (david). clifton crais, history professor at emory university, writes “for a little extra, you could poke her with your fingers or a stick” (qtd. in firth). in searching for sara baartman, susan firth notes: “since her death, the hottentot venus has appeared in the writings of william makepeace thackeray, victor hugo, charles darwin, stephen jay gould, even barack obama’s inaugural poet, elizabeth alexander. these days, activists and academics claim her as a symbol of western exploitation and racism” (firth). baartman died in 1815 and continued to be displayed to the public (davie). as recently as 1974, the remains of baartman, along with her genitalia, were displayed in france’s musée de l’homme, which translates to museum of man. ridiculed and pestered for five and a half years of her life, baartman continued to be taunted after death. in 1994, president nelson mandela formally requested that baartman’s remains be returned to cape town. baartman was not returned to south africa until 2002, 187 years after leaving for europe (davie). her story provides us with a glimpse into the life of a human zoo specimen. by understanding baartman’s account, we can better relate to what is going on in exhibit b. baartman’s experience tells us that the nature of human zoos was one of cruelty, torture, and inhumanity. her story helps me shape an analysis for bailey’s exhibit by giving me an inkling of an idea about how these zoos worked. for someone like bailey to re-create an environment like this, it not only creates a controversial endorsement of racism, but it also negates and dishonors any humanity that baartman, and others like her, had left. to take non-white volunteers and place them into a historical depiction to the liking of what baartman suffered is to strip these people of their humanity and makes them pawns in a game of objectification. 110 brett bailey with a performer from exhibit b © pascal gely brown as i was reading through the tour dates of exhibit b, i began to look up the venues that would be hosting bailey’s show. i located web pages of four venues on the touring list. of these four venues, two charged admission (poitiers—tap, moscow—museum of modern art) and two appeared to be free to the audience (paris—theatre gerard philipe de saint-denis, edinburgh international festival). because we have been presented with venues that charge and venues that do not, we can address both sides of this matter and how it may complicate bailey’s installation. on one hand, we must consider what it means to have humans on display like animals and to charge an audience an admission fee to see these spectacles. while bailey argues that he is attempting to make a point with his artistic abilities, we are left wondering how much compensation he could be making from admission fees, and further, whether or not his live displays are being paid justly, or at all, for their time. is exhibit b able to send a message about the horrible acts of racism and colonialism committed in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries while still profiting from spectators, just as the original human zoo did? knowing baartman’s history, are we able to comfortably allow bailey to objectify actors—be it at their own will? we know that human zoos of the past charged an audience to view the humans on display. one may consider that bailey has crossed a line by displaying his exhibit in a venue that charges admission. can we then argue that admission-free venues showing exhibit b are more successful in spreading awareness about the human zoo? if an audience sees that show, and has not spent money on it, are they more likely to see the atrocities of these historical acts? or perhaps, because they have not invested money, they may care less about what the exhibit is trying to show? these questions help determine the lack of critique that exhibit b provides. human zoos are not a modern-day practice because humans have realized the cruelty and objectification that takes place within these settings. though bailey promotes exhibit b as an artistic journey through ethnological enlightenment, this show does not totally eliminate the racism involved. bailey’s exhibit b does not properly critique historical racism and colonialism because he has not drawn a line thick enough between what happened in the past and what he is doing now. to an audience with little to no knowledge of european and american human zoos, exhibit b simply looks like a racist white man decided to morph his superiority complex into a live display. even for those who are fully aware of what happened regarding human zoos, bailey’s comparison comes too close to the real thing. though collections like exhibit b provide the audience with informative scenes about slavery and racism, these pieces still objectify the actors performing within the art. by using actors to recreate nineteenth-century human zoos, bailey is, in turn, exerting power over other humans. it also does not help matters that bailey is not a man of color. to have a white man create exhibits of colonial slavery drudges up ideas of superiority that some would much rather leave in the past. equality has become more widespread in today’s culture. we are much farther along as a species than we were in the times of the human zoo. objectification is a sensitive subject and must be addressed in a sensitive and respectful manner. exhibit b transports the audience back to centuries when racial intolerance was at large. rather than painting a scene from a human zoo exhibit, or sculpting a statue of the hottentot venus, bailey uses real, live people in an attempt to show his stance on racism and colonialism. where that failed, however, is in his execution. bailey’s exhibit allows current spectators to place themselves in an actual human zoo. exhibit b is no different than hagenbeck’s zoo. by understanding the cruel history of saartjie baartman, hagenbeck’s nubian captives, ota benga, and other humans put on display, we gain 111 brown perspective about this modern recreation. visitors obviously know that these people are not being held against their will, but the visitors are still doing the same thing that was done hundreds of years ago: observing humans in an unnatural state. since he began touring exhibit b in 2013, bailey’s work has engaged many people in public critiques of historical human zoos. by examining the history of the human zoo, we can better understand the racial ties that bailey’s show carries along. we are able to recognize the underlying trend of superiority and objectification that allowed human zoos to thrive in the past. the story of saartjie baartman gives us evidence that the practice of human zoos involved people being captured and displayed like wild animals. by creating exhibit b, bailey has tried to spread awareness about the pseudo-scientific enlightenment that took place in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, but his exhibit does not totally eliminate racism. it seems that no matter how carefully recreations are handled, people still end up being objectified. ultimately, there are costs to recreating scenes of slavery. our world already has a hard time honoring equality to all humans. no matter how good artistic intentions may be, any performance that objectifies other human beings is not worth the cost. though we constantly strive to gain understanding of past events, it could be possible that our continuous efforts are not bringing us any closer. it does not matter how hard we try; we will never know what it is like to be in another person’s situation. bailey, and numerous others, attempt to bring understanding to viewers, but what is lost in the process? i believe it is time to approach historical slavery and colonialism in a new way. that could mean many things. it may involve us reevaluating how we think about these situations, or it could possibly encourage us to change how we teach future generations about these atrocities. whatever the solution is, we have not yet reached it. 112 brown ames, eric. carl hagenbeck’s empire of entertainments. seattle: u of washington, 2009. print. bailey, brett. “yes, exhibit b is challenging – but i never sought to alienate or offend.” the guardian. guardian news and media limited, 24 sept. 2014. web. 13 jan. 2015. ---. “exhibit a b and c.” third world bunfight. third world bunfight, 26 sept. 2014. web. 7 jan. 2015. carvajal, doreen. “on display, and on a hot seat: ‘exhibit b,’ a work about human zoos, stirs protests.” the new york times. the new york times company, 25 nov. 2014. web. 13 jan. 2015. david, m.b. “deep racism: the forgotten history of human zoos.” popular resistance. popularresistance.org, 18 feb. 2014. web. 30 dec. 2014. davie, lucille. “sarah baartman, at rest at last.” southafrica.info. south africa, 14 may 2012. web. 16 mar. 2015. “europe’s ‘human zoos’: remains of indigenous abductees back home after 130 years.” spiegel online international. ergo direckt, 13 jan. 2010. web. 4 feb. 2015. firth, susan. “searching for sara baartman.” john hopkins magazine. the john hopkins magazine, 1 june 2009. web. 28 dec. 2014. holmes, rachel. african queen: the real life of the hottentot venus. new york: random house, 2007. print. kallipoliti, lydia. “evolution of the zoo: an overview of significant zoological developments spanning from biblical times through to contemporary proposals.” wordpress. terra incognita, 6 july 2014. pdf. 28 jan. 2015. “the human zoo: science’s dirty secret.” race: science’s last taboo. channel four television corporation, 1 jan. 2009. pdf. 27 dec. 2015. bailey, brett. civilizing the natives: herero prisoners cleaning herero skulls for european museums, 2014. digital file. copyright brett bailey. bailey, brett. a place in the sun: quarters of an officer of the german colonial forces, windhoek 1906, 2014. digital file. copyright brett bailey. gely, pascal. brett bailey with a performer from exhibit b, 2014. digital file. copyright pascal gely. unknown. portrait of saartjie baartman, naked, 1810. digital file. copyright british museum. 113 works cited list of illustrations brown in remnants of auschwitz: the witness and the archive, georgio agamben uses the framework of the holocaust, specifically the auschwitz death camp, to interrogate the very nature of testimony and the position of the witness. according to agamben, witness testimony to the holocaust from survivors of the camp occupies a particular hinge: “on the one hand, what happened in the camps appears to the survivors as the only true thing and, as such, absolutely unforgettable; on the other hand, this truth is to the same degree unimaginable, that is, irreducible to the real events that constitute it” (12). this hinge of the unimaginable and the incomprehensible, the unforgettable and the inarticulateable, is characteristic of “the aporia of auschwitz,” “a reality that necessarily exceeds its factual elements.” however, this aporia is also indicative of a “lacuna” specifically imbedded in the nature of testimony itself. according to agamben, “at a certain point, it became clear that testimony contained at its core an essential lacuna; in other words, the survivors bore witness to something it is impossible to bear witness to” (12). this zone of indistinction between the knowable and unknowable, of meaning that can never be externalized but exists only in retreat, makes up the “lacuna” of witnessing, the inherent impossibility of bearing witness that characterizes the act of witnessing itself. agamben’s theory of the “lacuna” of witnessing, by dealing exclusively with the writing and speaking subject, appears to engage only literary and witness forms of testimony. however, the “lacuna” of testimony contains an inherent material, spatial, and forensic dimension imbedded at the site of its etymology. the term “lacuna” means “a missing portion in a manuscript,” as well as both “an unfilled space or gap” and “a cavity or depression, especially in bone.” while the “lacuna” of agamben’s definition is applied explicitly to witness testimony in his work, the etymology of the term implicitly includes other testimonial forms. by referencing “a missing portion in a manuscript,” alongside “an unfilled space or gap” and “a cavity or depression, especially in bone,” the speaking the lacuna: the archaeology of plantation slavery as testimony esther wolfe, ball state university key words: slavery, archaeology, forensics, anthropology, trauma studies, shoshana felman, giorgio agamben, eyal weizman abstract: this paper examines plantation archaeology as a form of material testimony and bearing witness to the historical trauma of slavery. exploring intersections of literary and spatial analysis, and using a critical framework that combines agamben, weizman, and felman, the author argues that the material testimony of plantation archaeology embodies a “lacuna” of witnessing, and may even replicate historical dynamics of violence. 63 digital literature review, vol. 2 (2015). © ball state university. all rights reserved. please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce critical edition to dlr@bsu.edu. etymology of “lacuna” alludes to an unexplored and fundamental relationship between witness and literary testimonies and the material testimony of objects and spaces. in this way, the etymology of “lacuna” also hints at the ways in which material, forensic, and archaeological forms of testimony may also embody the crisis and inherent impossibility of bearing witness. in its contemporary context, forensic archaeology has become increasingly utilized as a method to structure political interventions on behalf of victims of atrocity, to investigate and expose violence, to commemorate its events, to recognize the presence of historical trauma in contemporary life, and to pursue a project of collective healing. according to keenan and weizman, the advent of forensic aesthetics fundamentally shifted the privileging of witness testimony to that of the material testimony of objects. as weizman also points out, this critical shift in the aesthetics of public truth-construction is fundamentally rooted in the desire to resolve the instability of witness testimony (keenan and weizman, 23). in this way, by privileging material, forensic, and archaeological methods of representation over witness testimony, it could be argued that this shift engages a belief in the ability of these methods to resolve the “lacuna” of testimony by extracting and representing a pure externalization, an objective reality of the memory and experience of trauma. this belief is reflected in the methods of the archaeology of slavery. according to archaeologist scholar patricia samford, “[t]he lives of slaves, in many respects, are shadowy and inaccessible. because most of the enslaved were kept from learning to read and write, their thoughts and emotions come to us only indirectly” (2). in an apparent parallel to this perceived inadequacy, samford argues that the past of enslaved africans are “visible now only to archaeologists, who carefully record and excavate the soil stains and brick foundations and preserve the thousands of artifacts revealed by digging” (3). in this way, samford’s scholarship communicates a critical shift: a privileging of material, forensic, and archaeological testimony over witness testimony, rooted in the belief that these methods allow us to excavate and represent the memory and objective reality of slavery. however, plantation archaeology embodies a fundamental site of paradox. according to samford, “just as historians make it possible for the words written by long-dead individuals to come to life, so too a skilled archaeologist can coax silent objects to speak” (3). here, samford’s language reveals a site of rupture and collapse within the supposed objectivity of material, forensic, and archaeological testimony. for, if plantation archaeology is meant to resolve the inherent “lacuna” of slave witness and literary testimony by recovering an objective reality of slavery, what then does it mean to make objects “speak” if the act of speech and the position of the speaking subject is rendered unstable and impossible via testimony? within plantation archaeology, what is the relationship between witness/literary testimony and the testimony of objects and space? and, in what ways does the material testimony of plantation archaeology embody the “lacuna” of literary and witness testimony? this analysis enacts multiple analytic processes to examine plantation archaeology as a form of testimony and bearing witness to the atrocity of slavery. by applying literary analysis to material testimony of slavery and by exploring representation of material testimonies in the literature of slavery, this paper aims to open up the relationship between literary and material testimonies of slavery. using a critical framework that synthesizes agamben’s theory of the “lacuna” of testimony, shoshanna felman’s concept of the “irreducibility” of literature, and eyal weizman’s concept of critical forensic practice, i examine the relationship between the literary and material testimony of slavery, as well as the forensic methods and digital archives of plantation archaeology. using this framework, i aim to address what i have come to view as critical gaps in dialogue and application within intersections of mainstream trauma studies, comparative slavery studies, and the field 64 wolfe of critical forensic practice. first, while agamben’s theory of the “lacuna” of witnessing and testimony has been historically important to the development of mainstream trauma studies, many have also noted the conspicuous absence of slavery from this framing. similarly, while felman has famously explored the relationship between literature and testimony, particularly the inherent “irreducibility” of literature and the inability of literary analysis to go “outside itself ” in order to produce a pure externalization of meaning, the implications of this relationship to material forms of testimony, particularly the material testimony of slavery, remains obscured (felman, writing and madness: literature/philosophy/psychoanalysis). in addition, while weizman and other theorists within the field of critical forensics have analyzed the archaeology of many sites of historical atrocity and the relationship of these methods to knowledge production and the management of cultural trauma (including holocaust concentration camps, bosnian death camps, genocides in south america, and the colonial archaeology of israel in the palestinian territories), as of yet this critical forensic framework has not been used to analyze the archaeology of the transatlantic slave trade in the u.s. in an effort to address these identified gaps, this paper makes several arguments. in the first section, i present an analysis of a section from toni morrison’s novel a mercy. in this section of analysis, i identify the material and spatial dimensions of morrison’s literary testimony and bearing witness to the atrocity of slavery. here, i argue that there is a fundamental relationship between literary and material testimonies of slavery and that the study of witness and literary testimony of slavery also inevitably illuminates these material forms. analyzing the material testimony of morrison’s literary witnessing allows us to begin identifying the ways in which the material testimony of slavery is implicated in the “lacuna” of literary forms of bearing witness. in this way, the inseparable folding of the material and literary testimony of slavery in a mercy allows us to identify the relationship between literary and material testimony within the archaeology of plantation slavery and frame an analysis of the particular “lacuna” of plantation archaeology. in the proceeding sections, i apply felman’s literary theory to the methodology of plantation archaeology as a form of testimony and ,specifically, to the archaeological methods of forensic osteological analysis and digital object archives. here, i argue that the forensic methodology and digital archives of plantation archaeology, rather than resolve the “lacuna” of slave testimony by excavating and representing a purely externalized memory of slavery, instead are tainted always by their own processes of meaning-making. by analyzing the forensic methodology of osteological analysis, as well as the digital archives of the digital archive of comparative slavery, i will show that these methods, rather than recover the traumatic memory of slavery and enact an intervention against its violence, instead work to erase the historical trauma of slavery and rhetorically repeat the very structures of the violence of slavery itself. in this way, i argue that the “lacuna” of plantation archaeology ultimately further emphasizes that the traumatic memory and experience of slavery exists outside the possibility of excavation. literature and trauma: the material testimony of florens’s “telling” in a mercy the ending of a mercy, toni morrison’s devastating novel exploring intersecting systems of slavery, violence, and trauma in colonial america, contains a pivotal scene. in the text, the character florens, a young, enslaved black woman, is subjected to compounded structural and interpersonal violence and abuse. born into slavery, rejected by her mother and sold to a new master (to “save” her from sexual abuse from her previous master, unbeknownst to florens), and 65 wolfe later violently rejected by the older, free black man who takes her as a lover, florens ultimately returns to the farm she left, where her master has since died. each night, in his room, on the walls of her master’s house, florens carves her “telling,” her understanding of what has happened to her, her representation of her own trauma. “i am holding light in one hand and carving letters by the other. my arms ache but i have need to tell you this” (189). here, florens’s “telling” (“i am holding light in one hand and carving letters by the other”), as well as her expressed need to tell (“my arms ache but i have need to tell you this”), reveals her “telling” as a form of testimony, a method of bearing witness to the memory and violence of slavery. but what manner of testimony is florens’s telling? probing this question reveals an inherent doubling of testimony, an inseparable folding between witness, literary, and material testimonial forms. florens’s “telling” is, fundamentally, a witness testimony: she wishes to speak her understanding of her traumatic experience, to externalize the internal truth of what has happened to her. however, the act of externalization that transforms florens into a speaking subject in order to bear witness also orients her “telling” within the realm of literary testimony. “if you never read this, no one will. these careful words…” (188). in the act of externalization, by becoming “letters of talk,” and “careful words,” florens’s “telling” undergoes an inevitable process of translation, a passing from language into discourse that can now be “read” and interpreted as text. however, in this very act of externalization, in the passage of language into discourse, florens’s “telling” folds again into another realm of testimony via the method of telling itself. “there is no more room in this room. these careful words cover the floor ... round and round, side to side, bottom to top, top to bottom all across the room” (189). in the act of carving the “careful words” into the wall, florens’s witness and literary testimony also becomes material testimony. carved into the wall, her “telling” becomes image and object, space and architecture. in this way, florens’s “telling” also takes on a forensic and archaeological dimension which is left behind where she hopes her traumatic memory and meaning of the experience of slavery will be excavated and unearthed. this doubling and slippage between witness, literary, and material forms of testimony in morrison’s work points to a fundamental relationship, a simultaneous blurring, between testimonial forms. florens’s “telling” reveals that witness, literary, and material testimony of slavery, rather than falling into separable hierarchy, continuously folds and refolds, passing into and out of one another, leaving behind and mingling with the residue of other forms. in this way, morrison implicitly destabilizes hierarchies of witnessing that privilege material testimony. forens’s “telling” reveals that the material testimony of slavery always contains a trace of the literary, while literary testimony is revealed as material. the slippage between witness, literary, and material testimony in morrison’s novel also reveals the ways in which the material testimony of florens’s “telling” embodies the “lacuna” of bearing witness. florens’s “telling” literalizes an inherent blurring of subject and object imbedded within testimony; in the act of carving her “telling” into the wall, florens’s enunciation as subject is literally objectified. similarly, in the act of being carved into, the object of the wall becomes subjectified, as the “talking room” is literally made to “speak.” however, florens’s “telling,” in the attempt to purely externalize and capture meaning, is soon revealed as a further deferral and alienation of representation. as she carves her “telling,” florens realizes that the one she leaves it for will never understand it. “sudden i am remembering. you won’t read my telling. you read the world but not the letters of talk. you don’t know how to” (188). her telling is untranslatable and unrepresentable, and its meaning cannot be extracted, instead existing always in deferral and retreat. this inaccessibility, the unrepresentable nature of her testimony, the inherent impossibility of externalizing her experience, is doubled by the 66 wolfe reader as audience. although we are told of florens’s “telling,” it is only described to us—we have no access to the “letters of talk” themselves. they are never revealed to us; as a result, we cannot read them, only about them. this perpetual deferral of meaning is further performed by the text itself, particularly in the lexical disjuncture of the speaking “i,” as well as the text’s use of metaphor and simile. in the text, florens as speaking subject, articulated in “i,” is often out of joint with grammatical structure. “sudden i am remembering,” “i am become wilderness…” (188-189). here, the lexical disjuncture of the “i” of testimony performs the impossibility of bearing witness. florens’s speaking subject, always out of joint, cannot externalize and articulate itself; thus, the meaning of her testimony is always displaced and alienated by the very act of externalization undertaken. the meaning of her testimony, its representation, cannot be purely extracted; rather, the act of testimony becomes another deferral of meaning. this impossibility of testimony, its perpetual deferral of meaning, is also performed by the use of metaphor and simile within the text. “perhaps these words need the air that is out in the world. need to fly up then fall, fall like ash over acres of primrose and mallow” (188). florens, speaking on her own testimony, describes it in terms of simile and metaphor. here, via the function of metaphor, florens’s testimony, the meaning of her experience, is again inherently displaced by the very attempt to externalize it. in metaphor, what is described is framed not in terms of what it is, but specifically as what it is not. in this way, florens’s use of metaphor again performs the impossibility of testimony—rather than creating a pure externalization of experience, the act of “telling” creates a further deferral of meaning and representation. similarly, with the use of simile, what is being described is framed as “like” something but is also fundamentally not that thing. in this way, florens’s “telling,” her representation of experience, exists always in this in-between space of inarticulation. through the use of simile and metaphor, florens’s testimony is defined always in terms of absences and gaps, its meaning perpetually deferred, impossible to truly externalize. florens’s “telling,” in the act of being self-reflexively described, in the act of being read “about” by the audience, performs a testimony of testimony, the readers ultimately bearing witness to the act of bearing witness. like the “letters of talk” circling her master’s room, florens’s “telling,” as witness, literary, and material testimony, exists always in excess of its framing. florens’s “telling” reveals a fundamental slippage between witness, literary, and material testimony of slavery. as a result, florens’s material testimony also embodies an endless deferral of meaning and externalization, performing the impossibility of bearing witness. morrison’s framing allows us to identify similar slippage within the testimony of plantation archaeology, as well as the ways in which the material testimony of plantation archaeology, in the form of osteological analysis and digital object archives, also embodies a “lacuna” of bearing witness. methodologies of violence and erasure: an examination of osteological analysis within archaeological practice, osteological analysis refers to the forensic examination of human remains. examining bones and tissues, including skeletal structure, microbone morphology, disease pathology, ossification, and biophysics, is used to verify the identity of the deceased, as well as to reconstruct the circumstances of their deaths and recover the history and memory of former life. according to weizman and thomas keenan, osteological analysis allows us to recover and represent “not just the moment of death but the entire history of a lifea sequence of illnesses, incidents, and accidents, along with conditions of nutrition, labor, and habitthat is fossilized into the morphology and texture of bones” (19). the authors goes on to say that “the bones of the skeleton are exposed to 67 wolfe life in a similar way that photographic film is exposed to light. a life, understood as an extended set of exposures to a myriad of forces (labor, location, nutrition, violence, and so on) is projected onto a moving, growing, and contracting negative, which is the body in life” (20). as a result, osteological analysis has become particularly important to the archaeology of genocide and other forms of cultural violence and atrocity. through the forensic examination of victim remains, the archaeology of atrocity seeks to restore a sense of political subjectivity to victims who have been utterly desubjectified by genocidal violence. in this context, osteological analysis is particularly important within plantation archaeology. according to samford, osteological analysis is often utilized within plantation archaeologies as a method of representing the trauma and violence of slavery. the “photographic film” of bones and tissues can indicate overt physical trauma, as well as sustained patterns of abuse: “studies focusing on the dentition of skeletons…have shown, for example, very severe growth arrest lines (hypoplasia) indicative of extreme dietary deficiency or starvation; various types of malocclusion also reflect conditions of malnutrition” (20). the use of osteological analysis to represent the violence and trauma of slavery is also intended to supplement the perceived instability, ambiguity, or unreliability of witness and literary testimony in the form of documentary evidence. according to samford, “osteological and pathological conditions not addressed in the documents have been observed on skeletal material from newton and elsewhere” (26). as a result, “the skeletal data, in short, provides an independent data source and expansion or verification of narrative or literary sources” (26). in this way, by privileging the forensic testimony of osteological analysis over the witness testimony of documentary or narrative evidence, plantation archaeologists engage the belief that osteological analysis allows us to recover an “objective” reality and representation of slavery, to externalize its traumatic memory and meaning. however, osteological analysis also inhabits a site of slippage and paradox. “osteological,” from the root “osteon” meaning bone, and “logia” meaning to speak, gestures at an etymological point of rupture, as does another term often used to refer to osteological analysis: “osteobiography.” “to speak” and the term “biography” infer both witness and literary testimony. if osteological analysis is intended to subvert the ambiguity of the narrative and speech of the witness as subject, what does it mean to make bones “speak,” to “write” and “read” them as text, as biography? in this way, osteological analysis hints at a fundamental relationship between testimonial forms: a destabilization of hierarchy at the site of etymology. this inherent, etymological rupture between testimonial forms is further repeated within the practice of osteological analysis itself. although osteological analysis is meant to resolve the ambiguity of witness and literary testimony, the process of supposedly recovering an “objective” re-creation and externalization of traumatic memory via material evidence inevitably requires a process of inscription, presentation, interpretation, and translation by a speaking and literary subject. in order to construct the testimony of material evidence, someone must translate the “speech” of the object and speak for it. as a result, “the predicament that characterizes the witness, for better or worse (faulty memory and ambiguity, for example) now appears as the state of the material object as well” (23). in this way, osteological analysis, by attempting to re-subjectify victim remains, also moves through witness testimony. as a result, something of the “residue” of ambiguity and impossibility that characterizes witness testimony is transferred and replicated by the material testimony of bones. in addition, by constructing a “biography” of bones, in a sense “inscribing” bones with meaning and signification, the material testimony of osteological analysis passes into and out of the realm of literary testimony, with victim remains being “written” and “read” as texts. in 68 wolfe this way, while osteological analysis is intended as a means by which to externalize the traumatic memory and meaning of slavery, its meaning cannot be purely extracted from its own context of meaning-making—something of the “residue” or trace of interpretation, translation, and analysis taints its meaning via the very process of extraction. osteological analysis, rather than interpreting the “sign” and signification of bones, instead renders bones another sign in a further deferral of meaning. here, rather than resolve the ambiguity and impossibility of witness and literary testimony in order to externalize memory and meaning, we see that osteological analysis folds and refolds into the testimonial realms of the literary and the witness, destabilizing hierarchies of testimony. in this way, osteological analysis also embodies a “lacuna” of bearing witness. this “lacuna,” the inherent rupture and impossibility of osteological analysis, has specific implications to its practice in the plantation archeology of slavery. osteological analysis, through the forensic analysis of victim remains to verify identity and reconstruct traumatic memory and meaning, attempts to return victims to subjectivity, to resubjectify what was stripped away by the inherent objectification, commodification, and fetishization of slavery. however, the methods and practice of the osteological analysis of slave remains constantly undercut their own project and even repeat the dynamics of violence inherent to slavery. although osteological analysis aims to “resubjectify” victim remains via identification, in order to enact identification, all of these instruments and objects become commingled with traces of the human: something must be put into the dna amplifier, the blood card, the centrifuge; the plastic boxes do not remain empty. yet in the process, these traces of the individual, the subject, the missing person, are effectively annulled, flattened out into the very same equipment or instrumental level as every other item on the list, the human remains losing their remaining identity to the very tools and objects meant to identify them. (172) mapping this analysis specifically onto the osteological analysis of plantation archaeology, victim remains of slaves, in the process of resubjectification, mingle with the material instruments of osteological identification. pressed between slides, passing into and out of centrifuge and microscope, victim remains slip into and out of material and witness testimony, subject and object, phasing between them, undergoing a continuous and simultaneous process of subjectification and desubjectification. as a result, the remains of slaves are again subjected to further abstraction, objectification, and commodification via the very processes intended to restore subjectivity. in this way, osteological analysis of plantation archaeology repeats the dynamics of violent erasure and desubjectification it aims to subvert. rather than resolve the “lacuna” of witnessing via the material testimony of osteological analysis, plantation archaeology further illustrates the ways in which the testimony of slavery, its traumatic memory and meaning, cannot be purely extracted and externalized, instead existing always in retreat. traumatic object archives: analysis of material testimony and ethnohistoric approaches in the digital archaeological archive of plantation slavery the digital archaeological archive of comparative slavery, established by a team based within the department of archaeology of monticello, is a complete digital archive of “artifact, context, spatial, image, and map data from excavated sites of plantation slavery” (1). the archive contains interactive, image-laden media representing archaeological sites in chesapeake, jamaica, nevis, and st. kitts, south carolina, and tennessee. each archival representation of an individual plantation slavery site contains documentary evidence, a comprehensive excavation history, an outline 69 wolfe of archaeological procedures, and a methods summary of research and analysis. in addition, the archive also contains image-laden object galleries highlighting artifacts, documents, and maps from each of the individual archaeological sites. as a result, the content of the digital archaeological archive combines images of objects with the presence of accompanying texts. the digital archaeological archive incorporates several methods characteristic of plantation archaeology. within plantation archaeology, and demonstrated within the digital archaeological archive, the presence of material culture is used to establish and verify “slave status,” an archaeological term indicating the presence of slaves at a site. in addition, material culture is used to reconstruct the experience of slave life, to excavate and externalize the memory of slavery. according to frederick w. lange and jerome s. handler, patterns in the presence of material culture can establish and verify slave status of a site and represent the experience of slave life at a site where documentary evidence is seen as ambiguous or inadequate. “documentary sources have generally been vague on slave material culture … material culture is very unevenly reported in most documents” (28). as a result, material evidence supplements this perceived inadequacy. “for example, artifact remains within the identified areas have shown what the domestic kits of plantation sites consisted of … remains of cooking and eating dishes, food processing equipment, and faunal and floral remains have provided some hard data on what slaves ate … a point that was ambiguous in the documentation” (27). in this way, plantation archaeology presents material evidence as a means by which to fill the “gaps” in documentary evidence in order to produce a pure externalization of the memory of slavery. the use of material culture as evidence to supplement the instability and inadequacy of documentary evidence is further reflected within ethnohistorical archaeology approaches, which are favored within plantation archaeology and replicated within the textual and material interplay of the digital archaeological archive. within ethnohistorical approaches, an interplay of documentary and material evidence is favored in order to verify slave status and reconstruct slave life. however, the interplay of documentary and material evidence within ethnohistorical approaches also implicitly privileges material evidence within this archaeological framing. descriptions of ethnohistorical models within the scholarship of plantation archaeology emphasize the ways in which the interplay of material and documentary evidence is utilized specifically to supplement textual inadequacy. “historic sites of archaeologyusing an ethnohistoric methodology emphasizing an interplay between the documentary and archaeological data basesoffers the potential to develop quantifiable patterns … the delineation of patterns with a high probability of indicating plantation slavery conditions will allow us to search for these patterns in undocumented sites or, by extension, to search for evidence in preliterate sites as well” (28, emphasis mine). as a result, “there is a much higher probability than there was 10 years ago that slavery can be defined from purely archaeological data” (28). here, the interplay between material and documentary evidence within ethnohistorical methods in plantation archaeology is revealed as a means by which to supplement the ambiguity of the textual via the introduction of the material in order to establish slave status and reconstruct the experience of slave life. in this way, both the use of material culture and ethnohistorical approaches within plantation archaeology can be understood as forms of material testimony intended to resolve the “lacuna” of literary and witness testimonies in order to externalize the traumatic memory of slavery. however, the use of material culture and ethnohistorical methodology also embodies a site of profound rupture and slippage, as illustrated in the digital archaeological archive. within the digital archaeological archive, images of excavated objects are presented alongside accompanying 70 wolfe textual descriptions and documentation intended to contextualize the material culture of slavery, to capture and externalize its memory and meaning. however, this interplay of the material and textual automatically problematizes its own project and points to a constant dehierarchization and slippage between testimonial forms. texts that accompany images of objects in the archive describe the object itself, as well as speculate on how the object would have been used in the material culture of slave life. by describing excavated objects and speculating on their use, the digital archaeological archive enacts an inevitable and simultaneous process of subjectification and narrativization in which objects are translated, interpreted, and implicitly fictionalized. in order for the traumatic memory of slavery to be excavated and externialized via material testimony, objects must be made to “speak” as subjects, as well as “written” and “read” as “texts.” this interplay of documentary and material evidence within the digital archaeological archive reveals a fundamental slippage between testimonies; in order to extract material testimony from excavated objects, the objects of the digital archaeological archive must pass into and out of witness and literary dimensions of testimony. in addition, rather than extracting a pure externalization of meaning and memory, material testimony becomes always implicated in the process of its own extraction—it can never get outside itself. instead of extracting a pure externalization of memory from the testimony of excavated objects, the digital archaeological archive reveals the objects themselves as another sign, enacting an endless deferral of meaning in which what is analyzed contains always the residue of its own interpretation. in this way, rather than resolve the ambiguity of literary and witness testimony, the digital archaeological archives embody the same “lacuna” of testimony, the inherent impossibility of bearing witness. this “lacuna” of material testimony within the digital archaeological archive has specific implications to the field of plantation archaeology. the interplay of object and text within the digital archaeological archive, in the very process of verifying slave status and reconstructing the memory of slavery, also participates in erasure and rhetorically replicates the dynamics of the violence of slavery itself. within plantation archaeology and the digital archaeological archive, the verification of slave status and reconstructing the lives of slaves via material testimony is supposedly intended to subvert the violence and erasure of slavery, memorializing memory and returning slaves to subjectification. however, in the process of verifying the presence of slaves at a site via material culture, the bodies and lives of slaves are represented by and reduced to objects. in this way, the extraction and exteriorization of the traumatic memory of slavery requires that the slave be made object, the process of subjectification engaging a simultaneous desubjectification. in this way, in the process of verifying slave status based on material evidence, the digital archaeological archive repeats the objectification and commodification of slave bodies and lives inherent to the violence of slavery itself. in a similar vein, while the interplay between documentary and material evidence in the digital archaeological archive is intended to externalize the memory of slavery by recreating and representing the lives of slaves, slaves themselves are strangely absent from the archive. slaves are rarely mentioned; the few mentions of slaves within the archive rhetorically repeat dynamics of violence and erasure. only three slaves are mentioned and given biographies in the archive. the biographies of the slaves little george, isaac jefferson, and joe fossett can be found in the documentary evidence section of an archaeological site at monticello called building d/j, which functioned as a blacksmith’s and nailer’s shop. the biographies are presented alongside images of excavated objects from the site, as well as maps and images of the excavated site itself. the biography of little george, a mere four sentences, includes that george “…ran monticello’s blacksmith 71 wolfe shop from 1783 to his death in 1799 … george was selected to be the first manager of jefferson’s nail-making business in 1794 and even received a small portion of its profits” (1). similarly, the five-sentence biography of isaac jefferson includes that he “studied tinsmithing during an apprenticeship in philadelphia” and “became one of the most productive nail-makers in jefferson’s nail-manufacturing shop” (1). finally, the 4 sentence biography of joe fossett emphasizes that “[a]s a blacksmith, joe was allowed to keep one-sixth of the blacksmith’s shop’s profits” and that “joe was one of five slaves freed in jefferson’s will” (1). the selective inclusion and framing of slave biography subtly erases and romanticizes slave labor and is invested in reproducing the a historical idea of the “benevolent/kind master” in thomas jefferson. rather than excavate and represent the cultural memory and experience of slavery, the ethnohistorical use of biography in the digital archaeological archive rhetorically commodifies the lives and bodies of slaves in service of a perpetual, coerced production of white guilt and benevolent fantasy. slaves are objectified and erased in biography, forced to perform a continuing ideological labor even in death. in this way, the ethnohistorical use of biography in the digital archaeological archive rhetorically repeats the violence of slavery. the material testimony and ethnohistorical methods of the digital archaeological archive, rather than externalize the traumatic memory of slavery and interpret its meaning, instead constantly undercuts its own project. the digital archaeological archive illustrate again that plantation archaeology cannot speak outside of itself. the process of extracting the memory of slavery is always tainted by the very process of its extraction, endlessly deferring meaning and representation. rather than resolve the “lacuna” of witnessing, plantation archaeology exists always within its impossibility. concluding summary, paths of intervention, and collective healing this analysis enacted multiple analytic processes to examine plantation archaeology as a form of testimony and bearing witness to the atrocity of slavery. by applying literary analysis to material testimony of slavery, and by exploring representation of material testimonies in the literature of slavery, this paper aims to open up the relationship between literary and material testimonies of slavery and allow them to “speak” to one another. analyzing the representation of florens’s “telling” in toni morrison’s a mercy reveals a fundamental slippage and dehierchization of witness, literary, and material forms of testimony that allows us to think toward the ways in which plantation archaeology also embodies a “lacuna” of bearing witness. the rhetoric of osteological analysis and the digital archaeological archive of comparative slavery reveals that the methods and practice of plantation archaeology, rather than resolve the “lacuna” of testimony by recovering an “objective” memory of slavery, instead embodies a site of paradox and traumatic rupture. applying felman’s concept of the “irreducibility” of literature to plantation archaeology reveals that its material testimony cannot be purely extracted and exteriorized but is always tainted by the very methods of its analysis. in addition, this critical examination reveals that the archaeology of plantation slavery often rhetorically repeats the violence of slavery itself. i wish to gesture at potential paths to address these sites of rupture within plantation archaeology and pursue both intervention and collective healing. here, we return again to agamben’s theory of the “lacuna” in which he says that this inherent crisis of testimony is not to be resolved in order to achieve representation. the location of testimony cannot be found by resolving its “lacuna”; rather, testimony can be understood as its inherent “lacuna” itself. similarly, in her concept of the “irreducibility” of literature, felman argues that this irreducibility is in fact the essence of literary testimony, embodying what she calls “the literary thing.” any method of investigation and 72 wolfe commemoration of the cultural trauma and violence of slavery will therefore be called to acknowledge the inherent inability of testimony to “say itself,” to be extracted without being tainted by its very methods of externalization. weizman puts forth his concept of “forensis” as means of intervening in the rhetorical violence and erasure of forensic archaeological practice. the term “forensis” refers to a critical process in which the methods of archaeological analysis are subjected to simultaneous critique; “forensis” therefore combines forensic methods of research and investigation, as well as simultaneous critical analysis of these practices, in order to interrogate their epistemologies, assumptions, protocols, and politics of knowledge production” (4). in this way, forensis opens potential for harnessing forensic practice as a method of intervention via a turning of the forensic gaze. in testimony: the crises of witnessing in literature, psychoanalysis, and history, felman and laub engage with the importance of examining the relationship between literature and testimony to understand the position of bearing witness within history and contemporary life. in addition, felman argues that acknowledging and “claiming” the “irreducibility” of literature, the impossibility of testimony, enacts a form of “radical loss.” enacting a claiming and recognition of this “loss” of meaning, according to felman, “is the only way one has of winning it” (127). by presenting a “forensis” and literary critique of the methods of plantation archaeology, this paper is intended to model the very paradigms of critical intervention and healing it pursues. in addition, the author of this paper wishes to recognize that, in an attempt to externalize the meaning of the testimony of plantation archaeology, this paper is further implicated in the deferral of meaning it attempts to orient and fix. by claiming the irreducibility of our own analysis, this paper also attempts to enact a form of “radical loss.” to end our analysis, we again return to florens’s testimony in a mercy. upon carving her “telling” into the walls, rendering it as image and object, florens realizes her testimony cannot be extracted. “these careful words, closed up and wide open, will talk only to themselves” (188). here, morrison pushes us to realize that the unexcavateable testimony of slavery, including its material testimonies, cannot be said outside its own methods of saying. 73 wolfe agamben, georgio. remnants of auschwitz: the witness and the archive. new york: zone, 2002. print. n.p. digital archeological archive of comparative slavery. department of archaeology at monticello, n.d. web. 9 sept. 2014. felman, shoshanna, and dori laub. testimony: crises of witnessing literature, psychoanalysis, and history. new york: routledge, 1992. print. felman, shoshanna. writing and madness: literature/philosophy/psychoanalysis. palo alto: stanford university press, 2003. print. keenan, thomas, and eyal weizman. mengele’s skull: the advent of forensic aesthetics. london: sternberg press, 2012. 9-84. print. lange, frederick w., and jerome s. handler. “the ethnohistorical approach to slavery.” the archaeology of slavery and plantation life. ed. theresa a. singleton. new york: academic press, 1985. print. morrison, toni. a mercy. new york: vintage international, 2008. print. saltzman, lisa, and eric rosenberg, eds. trauma and visuality in modernity. new hampshire: dartmouth college press, 2006. print. samford, patricia. subfloor pits and the archaeology of slavery in colonial virginia. tuscaloosa: university of alabama press, 2007. print. sheikh, shela. “forensic theater: grupa spomenik’s pythagorean lecture: mathemes of re-association.” forensis: the architecture of public truth. ed. eyal weizman. london: stenberg up, 2014. 166-186. print. weizman, eyal. introduction. forensis: the architecture of public truth. by weizman. london: stenberg up, 2014. print. 74 works cited wolfe 69 abstract post-apocalyptic literature has shown time and time again that whenever a cataclysm is on the rise, a hero is never far behind. for most of history—and for most of apocalyptic literature—that hero has been male. however, recent additions to the post-apocalyptic genre have introduced female protagonists who help fight off the end of the world. one example of such an addition is the shatter me series by tahereh mafi, which features a female posthuman as the apocalypse-preventing hero. i am arguing that the shatter me books are important to apocalyptic literature because they take a traditionally male-dominated genre and give readers a strong and capable female posthuman, one who can help prevent apocalypse through her self-actualized powers. by doing this, these books show the up-andcoming generations that both men and women are equally endowed with the ability to right the wrongs in their world and prevent apocalypses. to fully explain why having a female lead in these books is so important, i will be showing why and how a female protagonist is part of a shifting, posthuman gender dynamic within the apocalyptic genre. i will do this by first looking at the history of the apocalypse through a study of events that helped shape and mold our current definition of apocalypse into what it is today. i will outline the evolving definitions regarding apocalypse from the biblical connotation up through the modern idea of apocalypse. the biblical idea of apocalypse had a tone of hope; it was to be a moment of reunion with providence. however, as wars and disease ravaged the globe, the meaning of apocalypse shifted until it was just definable as an end of the world. it is important to look at the historical evolution of the definition of apocalypse because of how it relates to gender by megan schillereff, ball state university the post is female this paper examines the long-standing post-apocalyptic tradition of male posthuman representation throughout the timeline of the apocalyptic genre, from the time of the medieval knight up to the age of the modern superhero. as this paper argues, the gender dynamics in most posthuman fictions traditionally emphasizes male ability and female inability. despite this, there is emerging contemporary young adult literature that is giving voice to the self-actualized—instead of the sexually awakened—female posthuman. in doing so, this young adult series explores the importance of representing the genders equally in terms of their ability to prevent apocalypse and fight to save their world. 70 schillereff dynamics. in the beginning, the apocalypse was tied to religious ideas, and most religious texts—especially in the western world—heavily favor males over females as the heroes of their tales. during the various wars men were fighting throughout history, the male dominance of the apocalyptic genre remained. even as the idea of apocalypse evolved, men continued to be the ones who fought to change their world, while, historically, women were not often granted that same opportunity. one source that reflects this example of a male-centered tradition of war and apocalypse is the book of revelation. revelation is one of the oldest, and most canonized, examples of apocalypse that we have in the western world. it is also a text full of gender dichotomies and violence. by looking at the far-reaching implications that these aspects of revelation have had on contemporary society, the current impacts on our gendered worldview become exceedingly clear. if one of the most formative apocalyptic narratives of our time features only male protagonists as being capable of saving the world, is it a surprise that our contemporary literature still doesn’t give true credence to capable female posthumans? secondly, i will examine the gendering of posthumans throughout history by looking at chronological examples of posthumans, dating from medieval times to the age of the superhero and up into contemporary literature. as defined by mads rosendahl thomsen in his essay, “posthuman scale,” a posthuman “constitute[s] a species developed from humanity” (32). a posthuman is a form of humanity that has been forced, most commonly by a cataclysmic event, to evolve beyond the limitations of their previous humanness. the existence of a posthuman is apocalyptic in nature because posthumans are a side effect of the apocalypse. the humans that survive the apocalyptic event become posthuman because they have adapted enough by evolving from their original form of humanity. as such, examining posthuman representation within the apocalyptic cannon is crucial because it shows the type of people society sees as capable and empowered. knights in shining armor (a male occupation) are one of the first functioning examples of a posthuman. they helped to protect their countries and kings from a myriad of apocalypse-like scenarios, both offensively and defensively. after the knights, the timeline then progresses into the representation and implementation of superheroes, also a traditionally male genre. superheroes are probably one of the best examples of the posthuman in our media today, as they all are humans gifted with abilities that render them capable of saving their world. the purpose behind discussing these points on the posthuman timeline is to 71 schillereff establish both chronological and historical examples of male representation as posthuman characters and to show that, while males have been presented as capable of preventing the apocalypse for centuries, it’s only recently that female posthumans have entered the equation. contemporary female posthuman representation within apocalyptic literature today is a bit of a gray area. even though writers are employing females, they often only operate in roles of sex appeal, or they are reliant on a form of sexual awakening to become empowered. both these scenarios are problematic applications of the female posthuman because showing female characters in this way creates a precedent where females can only function in an apocalyptic environment as a sexual body, not as a self-actualized, autonomous one. this current view of the posthuman is why i will be taking a closer look at the importance of shatter me’s use of juliette, a female posthuman. juliette is a protagonist who achieves her true power and potential not through sexual awakening but rather through a moment of self-actualization, brought on by her grasping the true extent of her autonomy. while looking at shatter me, i will be addressing why juliette is a crucial addendum to the post-apocalyptic tradition. she is a strong female character capable of changing her world, and she does it not by employing her sexuality but rather through a realization of self. history of the apocalypse in order to discuss the gendered representation of the posthuman throughout history, i first need to explain some of the background of the apocalyptic genre. to grasp some of the history that has impacted our societal viewpoint of apocalypse, it is paramount to understand where these views originated and to look at the moment in time in which the apocalypse (in the current and modern understanding of the word) began to appear within literature. in her article “apocalypse not quite: romanticism and the post-human world,” olivia murphey looks at the cultural moments that brought us to our current understanding about apocalypse. she opens her paper stating that “[t]he word apocalypse seems largely to have shrugged off its ancient meaning of ‘revelation’ and now stands in for any end-of-theworld scenario; the oxford english dictionary has, as its most recent definition, ‘a disaster resulting in drastic, irreversible damage to human society or the environment, esp[ecially] on a global scale’” (245). as murphey states, this current definition is not the only version of apocalypse to have ever existed; it is merely the most recent version of apocalypse to which our society subscribes. the current definition comes from a few different moments in history. for example, 72 schillereff murphey cites the book of revelation as having a cultural impact on the definition of apocalypse, as it is one of the most influential apocalyptic texts in the western world. additionally, the book of revelation has had undeniable influence on the gender roles of apocalypse, as it was one of the first canonized apocalyptic texts, and it features males as being the ones capable of impacting the apocalypse. murphey then goes on to explain that it was around 1790, with “the unprecedented upheaval of the french revolution,” that many mindsets shifted to the idea of “apocalyptic destruction” instead of the godly revelation they had all been previously hoping for (245). generations of wars ravaged countries, plagues destroyed cities, and disasters kept happening, all leading up to the “gaining traction [of] the nuclear age” (murphey 245). this combination of events had lasting impacts on how we currently view apocalypse. the seeds of the modern mentality regarding apocalypse were sown in the late eighteenth century, and the idea of the apocalypse as the disastrous end of the world became firmly cemented within the minds and fears of the general population with the onset of the nineteenth century. as murphey explains, it was “after 1815, that our contemporary, negative definition of apocalypse was first theorized” (246). yet, even as the definition of apocalypse shifted away from biblical connotation, the masculine tradition laid out in the book of revelation remained. men continued to be the bodies able to fight for the change they wanted to see in their worlds, whereas women rarely had the same abilities. the book of revelation is responsible for some of the most far-reaching impacts within the apocalyptic genre, especially in regards to society’s inherent gendering of who is perceived as capable of preventing apocalypse. mary wilson carpenter introduces this argument in her article, “representing apocalypse: sexual politics and the violence of revelation,” saying, “i will argue that revelation’s violence is a representation of a continuing power dynamic of gender and sexuality in western culture” (110). carpenter’s main question throughout the piece is “[w]hat were the effects of power generated by what was said [in revelation]?” (110). i think the answer to carpenter’s question can be clearly seen in the narratives about posthumans and apocalypse that we have been telling each other throughout time. this is a key point of my argument, that the stories we’ve been telling ourselves for millennia all look eerily similar in regard to their long-standing male traditions, whether it be a knight in shining armor, a superhero, or—in the case of revelation— angels. all these heroes share two common traits: their masculinity and their ability to save the world. given the social impact that revelation has had on our world, it’s not surprising that carpenter questioned whether a female apocalypse was a “textual/ sexual impossibility given . . . the 73 schillereff culture” (111). the influence that the book of revelation has had on apocalyptic gender roles cannot be overlooked; this discourse has shown that the gender politics coined in revelation have been carried-out through our society. evidence of this can be seen both in the way we talk about the apocalypse and the way we talk about who has the power to prevent it. the timeline of the posthuman now that i have shown some of the formative impacts within the apocalyptic genre, i can begin to discuss the character who is often endowed with the ability to save the world from apocalypse, the posthuman savior. to reach the ultimate goal of discussing why juliette is so impressive as a female posthuman protagonist, i am first going to outline the gender timeline of the posthuman character within post-apocalyptic literature so that the masculine history of the genre is visible. to fully grasp the relevance of the posthuman, we must first understand what a posthuman is. to restate the explanation offered in the beginning of the paper, a posthuman is any human who has progressed and evolved in their humanity to a point where they are no longer like the original form of humanity. mads rosendahl thomsen explains in his essay on posthuman scale that “[a] very simple classification would be that posthumans constitute a species developed from humanity” (32). while he lists several different classifications that could be used to identify a posthuman, such as lifespan or size, he notes that the basic identification of a posthuman will be their normalcy—or lack thereof. as he explains, “humans have a strong sense of normality . . . it is clear that . . . what is normal and what is not . . . [will] determine whether a new era has arrived that can no longer be called human but should be called posthuman instead” (32). with that working definition of posthumanism, we can begin to look at one of the earliest examples of operating posthuman bodies: medieval knights in armor. raymund papica introduces this example of one of the first posthumans in his article, “the armor network: medieval prostheses and degenerative posthuman bodies.” in this work, papica presents “the armored knight, as a representation of the hyper masculine chivalric ideal” (1). papica sets up the connection between the inherent masculinity of the posthuman as he goes on to explain the link between knights and posthumans, stating that “the concept of the posthuman . . . finds its beginnings in the premodern period, and specifically, in the nexus of knight and armor” (2). the concept of knights as some of the first posthumans can be easily seen by looking back to thomsen’s definition of the posthuman: a human who exists outside the realm of the human “normal.” knights were far 74 schillereff from normal in comparison to most of the plebeian humanity of the medieval era. they were supposed to be morally, and physically, superior to their fellow man. their elevated morality can be seen in the code of chivalry that they were expected to uphold, a code that operated outside the norm, as it wasn’t a lifestyle ascribed to by the majority of the population; and their physical superiority can be seen by their use of armor. papica’s support for the idea that knights are posthumans consists of the fact that they use metal armor to improve their humanity. they are one of the first examples of humans using technology to upgrade their bodies. as he explains, “the trope of armor [can] trace and unravel the intersecting relationships between the . . . posthuman body . . . [by] reading armor . . . [as a] posthuman body” (9). by wearing armor to enhance and improve their bodies—and by extension, their humanity—knights became some of the first posthumans. knights used their armor to advance themselves above and beyond the “normal” realms of their fellow humans and, in doing so, cemented their place as one of the first examples of posthumans operating within our world. the idea of knights in shining armor as the first posthumans helps to make clear the connection to the male tradition of the posthuman. however, the reign of the knight didn’t come to an end in the medieval ages; rather it has been carried into the twentieth and twenty-first centuries—in the form of a cyborg. just as a knight was one of the first posthumans, it is also one of the earliest versions of a cyborg. as steve dixon, a professor at university of salford, uk, explains “cyborgian performances include human bodies and metal prostheses” (papica 4). so, arguably, where there is a human body using metal or technology as an enhancement, there is a type of cyborg. today, cyborgs are most commonly seen in superhero culture. in a similar way to how cyborgs are comparable to the modern version of knights in shining armor, superheroes are one of the best versions of posthumans that can be seen in our world today, metahumans who have progressed beyond the previous bounds of humanity to become something more: normally they complete this evolution as an answer to a cultural need of that era. scott jeffery addresses this connection between the posthuman and the superhuman in his book, the posthuman body in superhero comics: human, superhuman, transhuman, post/human. within this book, jeffery gives his own working definition of a posthuman, saying that a posthuman “would almost certainly hinge upon just such a blurring of categorical boundaries, whether between the natural and the artificial, [or] the human and the machine” (11). this definition still works with thomsen’s idea of “normalcy:” a superhuman—by the very aspect of existing—is outside the realm of normalcy because of 75 schillereff their incredible physical abilities. the blurring of boundaries and the existence outside the norm work hand-in-hand to show a more comprehensive picture of superheroes fitting as posthumans. superheroes represent an important segment on the posthuman timeline because they serve as the answer to a societal need. in the same way that a posthuman protagonist is called into existence to prevent the apocalypse, the superhero is called into existence to help save their respective world or city from cataclysm, while at the same time they help to create “new conceptual spaces and metaphors adequate to our current . . . society” (jeffery 12). in this way, they answer a cultural need by being an outlet for the expression of current societal emotions. this is identical to the function of a posthuman protagonist within apocalyptic literature, where the protagonist arises to help prevent the apocalypse. with the understanding that posthumans serve to answer a societal call, the danger of contemporary culture only acknowledging male bodies as capable of helping becomes ever clearer. if men are repeatedly represented as the majority of superheroes and posthumans, then we are reinforcing the mentality laid in revelation that men are the only ones qualified to prevent apocalypse. the male superhero body and the male posthuman body exist and operate in very similar ways; as such, it comes as no surprise that jeffery also presents superheroes as a way to read the timeline of posthumans by following the male tradition, saying, “[i]n many respects this is what the history of the comic book posthuman offers; an unbroken chain of posthuman representations put to very different uses and given different meanings at certain times” (17). and, remaining true to the connection between posthumans and superheroes, jeffery nods his hat to the male tradition within the superhero field, saying that “the comic book posthuman body still regularly manifests itself as a white, male, muscular body” (17). just as the posthuman protagonist within apocalyptic literature is populated by a male majority, so too is the superhero field. and while there have always been some female superheroes, it is only in recent years that they have evolved past the point of only existing as plot points in their male counterparts’ storylines. the same can be said of the female posthuman. it is only within recent years that post-apocalyptic literature has moved into a place where it has begun to incorporate female protagonists. however, this improvement doesn’t mean that they have been implemented flawlessly into the apocalyptic field. there are still some issues with the representation of the female posthumans, as the gendered view of apocalypse, dating all the way back to revelation, continues to have impacts on the genre. in “docile bodies, 76 schillereff dangerous bodies: sexual awakening and social resistance in young adult dystopian novels,” sara k. day explores some of these contemporary issues surrounding female protagonists within apocalyptic stories, including the “problematic treatment of adolescent’s women’s sexual awakening as impetus for social resistance in dystopian novels for young adults” (76). it is a common occurrence within apocalyptic literature to feature a female protagonist, give her a love interest, and have her moment of empowerment be focused around her sexual awakening or around her sexual acceptance of said male love interest. day is able to list several young adult novels that involve such a plot, including “scott westerfelds’s uglies, julianna baggott’s pure . . . veronica roth’s divergent,” and she even notes it as a force at work in suzanne collins’ hunger games (76). i would like to take a small step back to clarify that i am not here to argue that women shouldn’t be allowed sexual autonomy. however, i am arguing that sexual awakening shouldn’t repeatedly be sourced as the catalyst for a female character discovering her strength. an awakening—of any kind—can be a very empowering moment. restricting the moment of that awakening to a sexual encounter shows the gender corruption embedded within the apocalyptic genre. day explains that “[b]y removing adolescent women to potential dystopian futures, authors complicate the question of sexual awakening as empowerment, as their novels both reflect contemporary western culture and anticipate futures in which young women’s bodies continue to be treated as contested and contestable spaces” (79). by setting up female protagonists to receive their moment of empowerment through a sexual awakening, apocalyptic stories simultaneously create an environment where a female’s bodily autonomy is presented as possible, while—in the same breath— reminding women that their bodies are objects and spaces that can be up for debate and possession. this problematic mentality is a situation that still permeates our contemporary representations of gender: if a female protagonist is only able to become fully actualized as a posthuman through a sexual awakening of some sort, then her powers don’t truly come from her own body but rather from the undercurrent of male necessity. as there is also a very limited amount of homosexual representation within the apocalyptic field, a female character is almost always reliant on a male counterpart to achieve her true potential as a posthuman. it’s easy to see how this is a problematic way of presenting female posthumans within the apocalyptic genre, as it creates a societal norm for women needing men to become empowered instead of creating a narrative where it is a norm for a female to become empowered through self-actualization. 77 schillereff shatter me by understanding the long male tradition of the posthuman, as well by looking at some of the problematic representations of female posthumans, we have arrived at the novels i am examining: shatter me and ignite me, by taherah mafi. some may try to argue that my use of these books is hypocritical, as they feature a rather complex love story, but i am not focusing on juliette’s love interests. i am instead focusing on her moments of empowerment as a fully realized posthuman, moments that came separate from a sexual awakening. as i begin to discuss why juliette is a such an important example of posthuman female representation, i am going to outline the plot of these books so the implementation and execution of juliette as a posthuman character becomes visible. as the book opens, we meet our protagonist, juliette, who is locked away in an underground prison. she is being entrapped there by the dictatorial government power known as the reestablishment, which has taken over her world. after explaining what her post-apocalyptic world looks like, juliette begins to delve deeper into her particular form of posthumanism—her lethal touch. she explains, i don’t know when it started. i don’t know why it started. i don’t know anything about anything except for the screaming. my mother screaming when she realized she could no longer touch me. my father screaming when he realized what i’d done to my mother. my parents screaming when they’d lock me in my room and tell me i should be grateful . . . for their humane treatment of this thing that could not possibly be their daughter. (mafi 25) her posthuman abilities seemingly came from nowhere. they were unprecedented and unforeseen, her powers simply manifesting as a symptom of the growing apocalyptic conditions within her world. because of her powers, her parents saw her as a monster and grew to hate her. her parent’s disdain of her grew along with their fear of her abilities. it’s like thomsen said: the posthuman exists outside the realm of the normal. their daughter was no longer a normal human, so their fear turned into hate. they began to tell her that she “ruined their lives . . . stole their happiness . . . ruined everything” (mafi 26). and then, the final straw that broke the camel’s back: juliette accidently killed a young boy. she had been in a supermarket, where a young mother had her son on a leash. the child kept pulling at the leash and ended up falling and hurting himself. juliette, feeling for this boy who was being neglected by his mother, went to pick him up, saying as she remembers the incident, “i thought my hands were helping” (mafi 130). but instead, her touch killed him. after that, 78 schillereff her parents handed her over to the reestablishment, which, after running her through multiple asylums and testing facilities, placed her in the prison. and while trapped there, juliette’s self-loathing and fear of herself continued to fester and grow. juliette’s power is consistently presented back to her in such a negative light throughout the course of the book that there is almost no way for her to see her powers as anything but a curse. while she may not have started out seeing herself as a monster, it was said to her enough that she eventually began to believe it. and after killing a small boy—even accidently—it is easy to see how she came to feel this way about her abilities. her revulsion at her powers is part of the reason that it is so important for her awakening to be one of self-actualization instead of one that is derived from her sexuality. juliette hates and fears her own self for so long: what better way for her to become truly empowered than to accept and find power within herself? her perception of herself and her powers is what keeps her functioning at a lesser capacity; while she is subjected to the opinions and voices of outside forces, her true problems with her powers come from her own view of them, which is why her moment of empowerment needs to also come from within, not without. moving away from juliette’s internal struggle and circling back to the main plot line of the story, juliette is given a cellmate—an old friend from her childhood, adam. and then, a short while later, the reestablishment comes, breaks her cell door down, and drags juliette out of the prison to the main compound of sector 45, which functions as the capital of the reestablishment. once in the capital, it is revealed that adam is actually a soldier of the reestablishment, and he was sent to her as a guinea pig to see whether or not she was insane. juliette’s mental status was a bit of a question mark; since she had lethal touch and had been locked away for years, they feared she might not be fit to be around other humans. and so, when she didn’t kill adam, the reestablishment ruled that she was stable enough to take in for experimentation. while in the compound, she meets the leader of sector 45, warner. warner tells her his reasoning for dragging her out of the prison and bringing her to the surface. he wants her to be a weapon. he wants to use her to torture information out of people, saying, “inflicting pain . . . is an incredibly efficient method of getting information out of anyone. and with you? . . . well it’s cheap. fast. effective” (mafi 134). juliette rejects warner, exclaiming, “you think that because i can inflict pain, that i should? . . . you think i’m a monster . . . i value human life a lot more than you do, warner” (mafi 136). 79 schillereff this facet of juliette’s character is also important to her impending self-actualization. she doesn’t want to be a monster, she doesn’t want to be used, and she doesn’t want to be what other people want her to be. she wants to be her own person, not the monster her parents—or society—see her as and not the monster that she has grown to see within herself. her desire to be more than the role that society has cast her in shows one of the defining moments that will carry her toward becoming a self-actualized posthuman. this mentality didn’t really work with warner’s plans, however, so he proceeds to manipulate her into several situations where she is forced to use her powers. the most drastic of these situations is when he brings her into a room where metal spikes pierce the floor, ceiling, and side walls every few seconds, and then he sends in a waddling toddler, wearing only a diaper. he watches from behind a concrete wall, lined with two-way glass, as juliette becomes panicked that the baby could be impaled. torn between the fear of touching him and the fear of him being injured or killed by a spike, juliette finally scoops him off the floor and runs to perch on a safe spot of ground. the position warner has placed her in begins to enrage her, as she just wants to be able to help this child, and yet she knows “it will never be possible” (mafi 169). she becomes furious: “and suddenly the world shifts out of focus . . . i’m overcome by rage . . . i don’t even understand how my feet move in the next instant. i don’t understand my hands and what they’re doing or how they decided to fly forward . . . i only know . . . i want [warner] to experience the same terror he just inflicted . . . i catapult through the concrete walls” (mafi 169-170). in this moment, juliette takes her first step in progressing beyond her old capabilities. and she does it through no sexual channels but all through the desire to not be the monster warner was trying to force her to be. she reacts in a way that warner doesn’t anticipate: instead of panicking and shutting down, or letting the child die, she bursts through a concrete wall, grabs warner, and forces him to end his sick test. in doing so, she not only exercises her own autonomous will over her body, but she also discovers a new facet of her powers: super strength. seeing the small boy in danger reminds her of the boy she killed in the supermarket, and through her desire to not be like her past self, she is able to evolve to a new level in her posthuman powers. this is a part of her self-actualization; she doesn’t tap into her superpowers via a sexual awakening, but rather via a moment of strength in which she realizes she doesn’t want to be the monster people see her as. with mounting pressure from warner, juliette decides she has to escape from the compound. adam reenters the story here, apologizing to juliette and promising he never 80 schillereff wanted to hurt her. adam explains that he actually was a double agent, joining the reestablishment. together, they manage to make it to a hideout that adam has been maintaining for years, where he helps keep his younger brother safe. the two are able to stay hidden for a short time before the reestablishment comes knocking, and they have to flee again, taking adam’s little brother and another double agent with them. the quartet makes it to an underground resistance cell known as omega point. it is revealed that the other double agent, kenji, is a high-ranking member of omega point, and he was sent to work in sector 45 as a spy on warner. it is also revealed that kenji is a posthuman, like juliette, and that he has the power to turn himself invisible. upon meeting with castle, the leader of omega point, it is revealed to juliette that about half of the residents of omega point “have some kind of gift” (mafi 309), including castle himself, who is capable of an “impossibly advanced level of psychokinesis” (mafi 311). it is among the people of omega point that juliette first begins to accept her powers as a gift and not a curse. she is surrounded by other people like herself, and castle tells her, “[y]ou are not alone” (mafi 309). for the first time in her life, she is not a monster or a killer: she is a posthuman surrounded by other posthumans. it is around this time that castle reveals the purpose of omega point. omega point serves as the gathering place for some of the last people free of the reestablishment’s control, people who plan to fight back against the reestablishment and regain power and a voice in their own world. castle calls omega point “the only hope [their] civilization has left,” showing how this underground community of rebels is lining up to be the new civilization of the post-apocalyptic world (mafi 306). between the realization that she is not alone as a posthuman and the realization that standing against the reestablishment is possible, juliette decides to join omega point in their battle against the reestablishment. she wants to fight to help right the wrongs in her world and to help prevent the apocalypse that the reestablishment is bringing down on their heads. through castle, it is revealed that their world isn’t as bad off as it looks. the reestablishment is the true cause of many of the issues, hiding livestock and growing crops in secret, which they then refuse to share with the starving population. castle confirms that the damage to the environment is “probably [their] only real problem” (mafi 307). but everything else can be fixed with the overthrow of the reestablishment. all this information just cements juliette’s decision to fight alongside omega point, and so she begins training. it is through this training that she begins to unlock more and more facets of her 81 schillereff power. she learns that her lethal touch is really a highly concentrated field of energy around her skin and that when she projects that power outward, it can shape itself in the form of super strength, granting her the power to hurl rocks or to create earthquake-force tremors. it can even manifest as a bulletproof shield around her body. all of these powers are uncovered not through a sexual awakening but rather through her own desire to improve her body and grow stronger so that she can be a reckonable force in righting the wrongs of her world. additionally, in tandem with the growing range of her abilities, her acceptance of herself also grows. she begins to see her powers not as a monstrosity but as a strength. this metamorphosis of thought is captured perfectly on the back cover of the shatter me book, as it highlights contrasting thoughts that juliette has along the course of the book: “i have a curse” becomes “i have a gift” (mafi). “i am a monster” switches to “i’m more than human” (mafi). the back of the book also says, “my touch is lethal/ my touch is power . . . i am their weapon/ i will fight back” (mafi). these juxtaposed thoughts show the evolution of juliette’s view about herself as she becomes actualized with her powers. her mental image of herself switches from seeing herself as a monster to being more than human—a posthuman. this realization is directly linked to the empowerment she achieves through the actualization about the extent of her powers. here, we can circle back around to discussing juliette’s place at the end of the posthuman timeline. we have reached a literary moment where a female posthuman character is in the process of achieving the full potential of her power not through a sexual awakening, but rather through a self-actualization of her own powers as an independent entity. as she discovers the true depths of her powers throughout the course of the books, she realizes that her touch’s power to suck away someone’s life force is no longer her only ability. she learns how to manifest her powers into super-strength and the ability to shield herself—and even others—from harm. however, the true moment of her empowerment comes slightly later, in the book ignite me. this moment comes not when she realizes the depth of her abilities but rather when she realizes that she can turn her lethal touch off and on. before, she only has the option of living in fear of human contact. her interactions are regulated to posthumans who have the ability to mute or disable her power, or she has to wear a specialized suit that covers her from head to toe, for other people’s safety. she has always “assumed [she is] fated to this life, to an existence in which [her] hands—[her] skin—[will] always, always keep [her] from others” (mafi 312). her realization that she could turn her power off and on opens her 82 schillereff eyes to the fact that she is now fully realized as a posthuman. her powers can no longer limit or constrict her life. she has the ability to control her powers, and with that ability she can never again be forced into a life she doesn’t want. she exalts her discovery, saying, “i can do anything i want now. be . . . anyone i want. and it’ll be my choice” (mafi 313). this moment is when she becomes truly self-actualized and secure as a posthuman. she isn’t reliant on any outside force to empower her: she is completely self-fulfilling. with this discovery fueling her on, she leads the attack against the reestablishment and wins, not through the power of love or through a sexual awakening, but through the realization that she is in control of her own body and that she can live the life she wants to. her powers cannot limit her autonomy as she is now in full control of her incredible physical abilities. she has become a fully realized posthuman. in conclusion, after examining the long-standing masculine tradition within postapocalyptic literature, the true value of the shatter me books can be seen. these books present a posthuman female capable of preventing apocalypse through becoming self-actualized, not sexually awakened. so, circling back to mary wilson carpenter’s question: is a female apocalypse a textual or sexual impossibility? i think it safe to say that, while there is a lengthy historical timeline saying it is improbable, it is no longer impossible. women, both as protagonists and as people, gain more voice and representation every day. shatter me’s juliette is by no means the only female, or the last female, to grace the pages of post-apocalyptic literature. female representation on the apocalyptic timeline is increasing. a prime example of this shifting dynamic can be seen in young adult literature— like the shatter me series—which continues to employ female posthumans in their texts. these applications may not be without flaws, however, as some of these female posthumans continue to be represented problematically. in addition to that, many scholars worry that the apocalyptic genre is inherently structured to subjugate females. however, while that has been true for the majority of the apocalyptic tradition, characters like juliette show that for every female protagonist who achieves empowerment through her own autonomy, we as a culture are able to take one step closer to a post-apocalyptic world where both males and females can see themselves being equally endowed with the power to change the world and prevent apocalypse. 83 schillereff works cited carpenter, mary wilson. “representing apocalypse: sexual politics and the violence of revelation.” postmodern apocalypse: theory and cultural practice at the end, edited by richard dellamora, university of pennsylvania press, 1995, pp. 105-115. day, sara k. “docile bodies, dangerous bodies: sexual awakening and social resistance in young adult dystopian novels.” female rebellion in young adult dystopian fiction, edited by sara k. day, miranda a. green-barteet, and amy l. montz, routledge, taylor & francis group, 2016, pp. 75-92. jeffery, scott. the posthuman body in superhero comics: human, superhuman, transhuman, post/human. palgrave macmillan, 2016. mafi, tahereh. ignite me. harper, 2014. mafi, tahereh. shatter me. harperteen, 2011. murphy, olivia. “apocalypse not quite: romanticism and the post-human world.” romantic sustainability: endurance and the natural world, 1780-1830, edited by ben p. robertson, lexington, 2016, pp. 245-259. papica, raymund. “the armor network: medieval prostheses and degenerative posthuman bodies.” dissertation abstracts international, vol. 78, no. 1, july 2017, pp. 1-10. rabkin, eric s. “the remaking of zero: beginning at the end.” the end of the world, edited by eric s. rabkin, martin h. greenburg, and joseph d. olander, southern illinois university press, 1983, pp 1-19. thomsen, mads rosendahl. “posthuman scale.” countertext, vol. 2, no. 1, 2016, pp. 31–43. this paper compares the whistle stop café in fanny flagg’s novel fried green tomatoes at the whistle stop café (1987) to luke’s diner in amy sherman-palladino’s television show gilmore girls (2000-2007). these fictional restaurants complicate traditional binaries of male/female, public/private and domestic/commercial, which creates utopian spaces where women exert power and agency. the utopian inclusivity of these spaces is limited, however. only white, privileged, educated, slender women enjoy them. using close reading and theory from food and beverage studies, i analyze how the consumption of food and beverages helps construct the gendered identity of the characters that have access to and power in these fictional cafés, and how gendered power dynamics have changed over time. i also outline directions for future research, arguing that cultural objects including literature and television illuminate the gendered power dynamics of real-world public spaces in ways that are relevant to contemporary society. introduction this essay compares the whistle stop café in fanny flagg’s 1987 novel fried green tomatoes at the whistle stop café (1987) to luke’s diner in amy sherman-palladino’s television show gilmore girls, which aired between 2000 and 2007. i argue that the two cafés are similar in that they both offer a utopian space where women can be themselves, enact their desires, and speak their minds without fear of judgement or violence. through a comparison of these two fictional cafés, i show the ways in which gendered power dynamics have changed over time from formal to informal modes of power. both spaces, as i will show, are inclusive, but their inclusivity is limited. they offer utopian spaces for the gendered other but not the racialized other, and they perpetuate unrealistic ideas about women’s bodies. additionally, both spaces face a constant struggle to maintain their utopian status. throughout the essay, i also analyze the way that consumption of food and beverages helps construct the gendered identity of the characters frequenting these fictional cafés. first, i define my conceptualization of a utopian space for women. second, i analyze the significance of the fictional restaurant space in relation to gender and power. these two steps function to lay out a theoretical framework for the essay. third, i explain, through selective close readings of my two cultural objects, how utopian spaces for women are constructed in the two narratives, and i examine the representation of gendered identity through the consumption of food and beverages. i also discuss some of the limitations of the two utopian spaces. finally, i outline possible directions for future research by exploring the ways in which the fictional cafés can help researchers theorize the gendered power the whistle stop café and luke’s diner: the village café as utopian space for women in fried green tomatoes at the whistle stop café and gilmore girls julia neugarten, university of amsterdam essay 71 | neugarten dynamics of real-world spaces. theoretical framework: defining a utopian space for women within the context of this essay, i conceptualize a utopian space for women as a space where women are safe from physical and verbal violence. i base this definition on the observation that real-world spaces are often rife with threats for women. research in urban studies has shown that “fear of potential unwanted interactions [limits] women’s access to urban space” (beebeejaun 6). thus, a utopian space for women is one where women need not fear unwanted interactions. additionally, i define utopian spaces for women as free from the confinement imposed by cultural or societal expectations of femininity, including the pressure to be demure, submissive, conventionally attractive, and heterosexual. in line with the work of susan brownmiller, who describes femininity as a “tradition of imposed limitations” (10), i consider these societal expectations or constraints as constitutive of femininity. within the context of this essay, a utopian space for women is one in which the limitations imposed by femininity do not limit or constrain women. further, vulnerability, one of the traits culturally associated with femininity, is not a weakness within these spaces. brownmiller notes that “the feminine principle is composed of vulnerability” (15), or, in other words, that to be feminine is to be vulnerable. by contrast, this essay understands a utopian space for women as one in which vulnerability is not exploited or even perceived as a weakness but instead perceived as a strength. societal expectations of femininity also relate to food and the body, two concepts that are relevant to the ways that women inhabit culinary spaces. these expectations placed on women and their bodies are summarized by giovanelli and ostertag who observe that “fat women are . . . the antithesis of what it means to be appropriately feminine” (290). while the culinary spaces analyzed in this essay are utopian in some ways, they nonetheless do not feature fat bodies. this suggests that they are not accessible, and therefore not utopian, to women whose bodies do not look as slender as society deems appropriate for women. theoretical framework: representations of the culinary space i compare the whistle stop café to luke’s diner because both illustrate an interesting dynamic of gender, power, and a set of cultural ideas surrounding the culinary. culinary spaces bring the domestic sphere, where food is traditionally prepared and is often associated with femininity, into contact with the public and commercial sphere, which is often associated with masculinity. as alice mclean notes: feminist food studies has locked onto the domestic sphere as a conflicted site, one that simultaneously reproduces patriarchal values and, hence, the physical, intellectual, and ideological subordination of women and that serves as a space where women enjoy an amount of power and control far surpassing that which they exert over the public and political realms. (250) mclean outlines the cultural binary that associates femininity with the domestic sphere and masculinity with the public and political sphere. she also identifies the contradiction that characterizes the domestic essay neugarten | 72 sphere: it is simultaneously the realm of women’s subordination, because it is permeated with patriarchal values, and the space where women are most powerful. historically, these two separate spheres have been constructed discursively to argue that “men and women have different relationships to the world based on their dominance of distinct social and economic arenas” (julier 169). women and men were thought to be different because women exert influence only in the private household sphere while men dominate the public, commercial sphere. this cultural binary generates a sense of ambiguity with regards to cooking, as observed by angeline godwin dvorak in her analysis of southern cooking in literature. according to dvorak, cooking can be construed as a “patriarchally imposed, gender-designated task”, but also as a means for women to strengthen social ties, overcome hardship, and exert agency, thereby escaping patriarchal control (96). this essay explores the ambiguity identified by dvorak and critiques the understanding of society as divided into separate gendered spheres that mclean and julier identify by analyzing the commercial culinary establishment—the café—a space that blends the separate spheres and thereby undermines their binary opposition. commercial culinary establishments bring the feminine domestic sphere into contact with the masculine public sphere by commercializing food. food preparation, traditionally a private and feminine endeavor, is exploited for commercial gain, entering the realm of commerce that is traditionally associated with the public and masculine. commercial culinary establishments like diners and cafés embody a blend of the traditionally masculine and feminine spheres and thereby undermine their distinction. as my analysis will show, this blend lends women a measure of agency. fried green tomatoes at the whistle stop café i describe the whistle stop café from fannie flagg’s novel fried green tomatoes at the whistle stop café as a utopian space for women primarily because, in the novel, the café offers one of the main characters, ruth, a refuge from domestic violence. ruth’s friend and later romantic partner, idgie threadgoode, starts the café after taking ruth away from her abusive husband when ruth’s son is born. in the novel’s second timeline, the older ms. threadgoode narrates these events: “poppa threadgoode sat idgie down and told her that now that she was going to be responsible for ruth and a baby, she’d better figure out what she wanted to do, and gave her five hundred dollars to start a business with. that’s what she bought the café with” (flagg 245-46). with a loan from her father, idgie starts the café to provide a safe space to have a family with ruth in, to provide herself with employment and responsibilities, to provide ruth with a friendly environment, and to ensure the financial security of her family. ms. threadgoode’s choice of words describes the shift of patriarchal power from idgie’s father to idgie herself. first, the patriarchal figure, poppa threadgoode, “sat idgie down,” which indicates his authority over her. he then tells her she is “going to be responsible for ruth and a baby.” by saying this, he transfers the patriarchal authority that he has over idgie to her, encouraging his daughter to assume authority and responsibility over her family, which will now consist of ruth and her baby. previous research has argued that idgie is a character who “denounces femininity” (dvorak 93); within the system of binary opposition that structures our understanding of gender, this also means to a certain extent that she embraces masculinity. by opening the café, idgie is placed in a traditionally masculine and patriarchal role—she provides both a safe space and a measure of financial security for her essay 73 | neugarten family. yet, idgie is not a man, which makes the café she opens a utopian space for women. while idgie displays some of the characteristics associated with masculinity in this scene and throughout the novel, such as financial and social responsibility for her partner and child, she lacks the characteristics that made ruth’s previous domestic space unsafe: unlike ruth’s ex-husband, idgie is not authoritative or violent. it is idgie’s dual role as protector, traditionally masculine, and caregiver, traditionally feminine, that makes the café into a utopian safe space for women. the female-dominated domestic space of the café replaces the male-dominated domestic space that ruth had hitherto inhabited with her husband. the café’s utopian nature is also evident in other ways: it lacks the societal pressures of heteronormativity as well as economic struggles. within the sphere of the café, ruth and idgie do not need to enact conventional, heterosexual femininity. instead, they are free to have a romantic lesbian relationship, because the café is a space where women have the agency to act on their desires. the narrative relays that “idgie and ruth bought the café in 1929, right in the height of the depression, but i don’t think we ever had margarine there” (flagg 313); thus, the café is described as a refuge from scarcity. the café is a place of plenty, where even the homeless, like the character smokey lonesome, are fed. within the novel, food functions primarily as a source of emotional nurturance and a way to combat social inequality. however, the utopian nature of the whistle stop café has its limits: it is not entirely racially inclusive. black people are not permitted to eat inside to avoid giving the violent klansmen a reason to enter and disturb the protective space. at the same time, the café food is cooked and prepared by the same african americans who are prevented from enjoying it as customers, a division of labor that echoes the historical situation in which “african american women [work] in the kitchens of white plantation owners” (byrd 104). while the café offers a utopia for white women, black women are still in an inferior position, similar to that of slaves. black women thus become accomplices to their own exclusion through their work as cooks. the safety of the café for women comes at the expense of racial others as its utopian inclusivity does not extend to them. gilmore girls in the television series gilmore girls, luke’s diner offers a utopian space for women. gilmore girls is situated in a town called star’s hollow, and it follows the lives of mother and daughter lorelai and rory gilmore. luke’s diner is star’s hollow’s only café, and it is run by luke danes. the main characters, lorelai and rory, visit the diner in almost every episode to escape the difficulties of their romantic and social lives, including lorelai’s demanding mother and rory’s eccentric and difficult boyfriends. luke’s diner is not the same type of utopian space for women as the whistle stop café, primarily because the diner is managed by luke, a man. luke inherited it from his father, who owned a hardware store in the same location—the door of the diner is still adorned with the signage of a hardware store so that the diner’s history as a male-dominated space is still explicitly remembered. yet, by turning his father’s hardware store into a diner, luke has made the location accessible and welcoming to people of all genders. the show’s opening scene illustrates that luke’s diner is no longer male-dominated by presenting lorelai gilmore as its real sovereign and resident coffee fiend. luke knows this and wants to make sure essay neugarten | 74 lorelai does not have too much; yet lorelai persuades him to serve her coffee anyway, which shows her ability to exert power over luke using language. through luke and lorelai’s exchange, their banter shows that they are talking as equals, regardless of their different genders. while, in a sense, luke holds the power because he controls lorelai’s supply of coffee, in a different sense, lorelai shows that she holds the power over luke because she is able to persuade him to supply her with the coffee. throughout gilmore girls, the gilmores’ love for coffee is a recurring theme. when demanding coffee, lorelai is neither patient nor polite. in season five, for example, lorelai brushes off luke’s friendly greeting by demanding coffee: “i need caffeine. whatever form you’ve got, i haven’t had any all day. i’ll drink it, shoot it, eat it, snort it, whatever form it’s in, gimme” (20:09-20:18 “women of questionable morals”). in this scene, and in the many other scenes in which she forcefully orders coffee, lorelai undermines some of the expectations of demureness often culturally associated with femininity (brownmiller 10). rather than asking nicely, lorelai demands coffee from luke, subverting the traditional gendered dynamic in which men demand food or drink and women provide it. throughout the show, luke’s role in the diner as manager, chef, and busboy also subverts traditional expectations of gender roles in which “women are credited with control over the purchasing, storing, cooking, and serving of food” (mcintosh and zey 132). because of these gendered expectations about who controls, prepares, and distributes food, luke’s presence behind the counter indicates the utopian, inclusive nature of the space as one not governed by traditional gender roles or hierarchies. the gilmores’ love for coffee also has significant cultural implications for the protagonists’ social identity as white women. in their extensive and sometimes gluttonous consumption of coffee, the gilmores appear unaware of the beverage’s history as a colonial commodity: “[the] history of coffee is indefeasibly bound up with the rise of capitalism and the overseas expansion of european colonialism, establishing relations of domination and dependency both between europe and its (ex-)colonies and within them” (smith 512). keeping in mind coffee’s role in global inequality and post-colonial exploitation as described by smith, the gilmores’ carefree consumption of coffee is a sign of their implicit perpetuation of the exploitative hierarchies established by white western patriarchy. furthermore, coffee contains caffeine, a stimulant culturally associated with increased alertness and productivity, as well as with intellectual activities like writing and academic study. coffee has been culturally perceived as “a soberer to spark intellectual clarity and creativity” (topik 84). the gilmores’ excessive coffee consumption aligns them with the upper-middle class and its intellectual academic pursuits, as well as its privileged carelessness about where commodity goods like coffee come from and whose labor is exploited to bring coffee to american consumers. as bryant simon writes in everything but the coffee: learning about america from starbucks: “we buy things to say something about ourselves” (7), and buying large quantities of coffee like the gilmores do indicates privilege, intellectualism and education, as well as the aforementioned complicity in global inequalities. another defining feature of gilmore girls is the protagonists’ preoccupation with food, and the show’s frequent representation of the spaces where food is served and consumed. in the show: “interior shots of diners, kitchen nooks, dining rooms, and banquet halls depict eating as a classand race-inflected activity . . . [w]here and what one eats mark socioeconomic status” (mintz and mintz 235). for example, luke’s diner is the lower class, low-culture counterpart to the stately dining room in lorelai’s essay 75 | neugarten parental home, where she received a constrained, upper-class upbringing. at luke’s diner, by contrast, lorelai can eat what she wants and love who she wants (mintz and mintz 240). lorelai frequently visits luke’s diner late at night after an uncomfortable visit to her parents in order to escape her mother’s judgements and, by extension, the societal judgements placed on her as a single teen mother. in offering this freedom, luke’s diner is a utopian space for lorelai. lorelai is at the diner during the pilot episode to meet with her daughter rory, but she is first approached by a guy named joey who tries to hit on her. lorelai politely and wittily rebuffs his advances. once rory enters luke’s diner, lorelai goes to get her daughter a cup of coffee, and joey takes advantage of lorelai’s absence to hit on rory instead. the following dialogue occurs: [behind lorelai, joey approaches rory’s table. lorelai sees joey talking to her.] lorelai: ah. he’s got quite a pair, this guy. [lorelai goes back to the table.] (…) joey: oh, hi. lorelai: oh, hi. you really like my table, don’t you? joey: i was just, uh. . . lorelai: getting to know my daughter. joey: your… rory: are you my new daddy? joey: wow. you do not look old enough to have a daughter. no, i mean it. and you do not look like a daughter. lorelai: that’s possibly very sweet of you. thanks. joey: so. . . daughter. you know, i am traveling with a friend. lorelai: she’s sixteen. (…) [joey and his friend exit the diner] (2:34-3:19 “pilot”). in this scene, lorelai and rory are accosted by joey’s unwanted advances. it becomes clear in the show’s opening scene that luke’s diner is not devoid of male aggression, even within the illustrated utopian safe space. lorelai and rory are able to rebuke joey using three verbal tactics. the first is the element of surprise: lorelai makes joey profoundly uncomfortable by revealing that rory is her daughter and that she is sixteen; the second tactic is wit: “are you my new daddy?”; the third is mild condescension: “that is possibly very sweet of you. thanks.” in the face of this verbal hostility, the men quickly leave the gilmores’ domain. this scene establishes that the gilmores are verbally skilled, which is a recurring source of comedy throughout the show and another indicator of their educated, privileged background. comparing luke’s diner to the whistle stop café the gilmores’ control over luke’s diner as a utopian space for women does not lie in any ritualized exchange of power or money, such as idgie’s power over the whistle stop café does. when idgie is essay neugarten | 76 endowed with responsibility by her father and by the financial means to materially possess the café space, she gains power by entering the bureaucratic patriarchal sphere of commerce. to have power over a space, idgie has to become more like a man, such as her father. by contrast, the gilmores exert their power over luke’s diner through informal speech—for example, when lorelai convinces luke to serve her an eighth cup of coffee, or when mother and daughter fend off unwanted male advances using verbal skills, as demonstrated in my analysis of the pilot episode. the less formalized, less patriarchally sanctioned power that the gilmores hold over luke’s diner is ultimately less powerful than idgie’s inherited power through masculine responsibility and wealth. if luke decides to lock the diner up, the women cannot access it. as its manager and cook, luke remains the most formally powerful character in the diner space, and in this sense, patriarchal power is not subverted or even evaded. at the same time, the gilmores exert power in luke’s diner which luke condones because he likes them; even if he did not, their power to talk to him and about him would still exert a great deal of sway in the small, close-knit community of star’s hollow. the power of women’s speech and the threat of gossip that the gilmores’ hold, while less formalized, is more difficult to completely exclude from the community. the gilmores’ informal, insidious mode of power is also successful in ruling luke’s diner because the kind of male threat that they encounter is different from the one that ruth experiences in flagg’s novel. in gilmore girls, male aggression is only verbal, while in flagg’s fried green tomatoes at the whistle stop café (1987), male violence, such as the domestic abuse ruth is subjected to, is physical and, at times, sexual. in the peaceful world of gilmore girls, speech and gossip are the greatest weapons. in luke’s diner, lorelai and rory enjoy the freedom to speak their mind, which they sometimes lack when encountering the patriarchal structures of school, work or lorelai’s family. this freedom of speech is what makes luke’s diner a utopian space. however, luke’s diner does not meet all of the criteria for a utopian space for women outlined earlier in this essay. while lorelai and rory are free to be their witty, outspoken selves in the diner without worrying about the societal expectations of femininity, they do encounter an unwanted interaction when joey hits on them. in this situation, the gilmores have the weapon of their verbal skills at their disposal. arguably, this ability to defend oneself against unwanted interactions is a greater source of agency than the ability to take refuge in a utopian space where male threats are excluded, such as ruth does in the whistle stop café. the gilmores’ ability to fend off unwanted interactions creates the possibility that every space could be equally safe, welcoming, and accessible to women, provided all women possess the verbal skills to defend themselves. yet this prerequisite of dexterous verbal skills places the onus on women to ensure their own safety. put another way, women can be free to navigate any public space, provided they possess the skill to defend themselves against unwanted attention. my comparison of the whistle stop café and luke’s diner also brings to light one similarity: in both spaces, food is never scarce. both spaces enable and encourage gluttony. in relation to this essay’s main topic of utopian spaces for women, this emphasis on plenty can be interpreted as subversive on the one hand and as indicative of societal pressures placed on women on the other. women eating as much as they want of whatever they want may be read as a liberating act in a society that stigmatizes female pleasure. at the same time, because in both restaurants women are depicted eating endlessly without 77 | neugarten essay ever gaining weight, these representations contribute to the societal pressure on women to be effortlessly thin, as well as to embody the aforementioned beauty standards of skinniness identified by giovanelli and ostertag without ever dieting. the gilmores, for example, “are able to be gluttonous without ever having to cope with the consequences of uninhibited eating” (diffrient xxx). in flagg’s fried green tomatoes at the whistle stop café, food is linked to emotional nurturance, and those who do not indulge in excessive eating are depicted as emotionally cold. while the cafés analyzed in this essay offer fictional women a place to eat as much as they want unashamedly, they simultaneously perpetuate unrealistic expectations for women regarding eating and body image. ultimately, this comparison of the whistle stop café and luke’s diner shows a development from spaces where women can take refuge to spaces where women can exert agency, each of these two types of spaces has its benefits and drawbacks. conclusion in this essay, i have illustrated through select examples from both fried green tomatoes in the whistle stop café and gilmore girls how gendered power dynamics work in fictional restaurant spaces. in the whistle stop café, idgie’s power is absolute and formalized by her ownership of the café, creating a space where women like ruth can feel safe from the threat of male violence and where idgie and ruth can be themselves without feeling the pressure to adhere to societal expectations of heteronormative femininity. by contrast, in luke’s diner, the gilmores’ power is contested, informal, and exercised primarily through speech. the women do not experience the societal pressure to be demure and defer to men. while their witty, clever speech enables them to exert agency and express individuality, not only within the diner but also in other public spaces, this use of speech as armor means that the responsibility for keeping unwanted male attention at bay lies with the women themselves. these different power dynamics reflect a change in real-world gendered power dynamics. while in idgie’s depression-era women could only obtain power by enacting a masculine part, entering into patriarchal structures and co-opting masculine public spaces, in the early 2000s of gilmore girls, approximately seventy years later, women access power using language and take charge of public spaces themselves. in a sense, then, in the contemporary era, language enables women to exert power that escapes patriarchal bureaucracy. both the whistle stop café and luke’s diner are also limited in the kind of refuge they offer from the social constructs of femininity. while idgie and ruth freely express their same-sex love for one another in the café and offer safety to economically disadvantaged characters, racial others are excluded from their utopian restaurant space. in gilmore girls, lorelai finds comfort in luke’s diner because of its distinction from the stifled upper-class environment in which she grew up. at the same time, the gilmores embody white, educated, upper-middle class femininity, and thin privilege. they also experience the leisure and pleasure of almost endless supplies of food and coffee because they benefit from global inequalities—their carefree attitude towards consumerist consumption in general and coffee in particular illustrate this. furthermore, the gilmores’ protection from unwanted male advances lies in their exceptional verbal skill, which depends on their whiteness, class background, and education for its success. in this essay, i have shown that cultural objects including literature and television can illuminate the gendered power dynamics of public spaces, with a focus on the culinary space, in ways that are neugarten | 78 essay relevant to contemporary society. whether the shift from formalized bureaucratic power to informal rhetorical power in these two cultural objects is indicative of a historical shift in power dynamics between genders, and whether this shift can be observed elsewhere in popular culture and perhaps in reality, are all questions for future research. i have also argued that, while the whistle stop café and luke’s diner offer utopian spaces to some women, women of color and fat women are excluded from their welcoming embrace. the ways that gender, class, race, and body shape intersect with regard to the accessibility of utopian spaces for women are another potential avenue for future research. essay 79 | neugarten works cited beebeejaun, yasminah. “gender, urban space, and the right to everyday life.” journal of urban affairs, vol. 39, no. 3, 2017, pp. 323–334. doi:10.1080/07352166.2016.1255526. brownmiller, susan. femininity. open road integrated media, 2013. byrd, kaitland m. “modern southern food: an examination of the intersection of place, race, class, and gender in the quest for authenticity.” a place-based perspective of food in society, edited by kevin m. fitzpatrick and don willis, palgrave macmillan, 2015, pp. 103-119. diffrient, david scott. “introduction: you’re about to be gilmored.” screwball television: critical perspectives on gilmore girls, edited by david scott diffrient and david lavery, syracuse university press, 2010, pp. xv–xxxvi. dvorak, angeline godwin. “cooking as mission and ministry in southern culture: the nurturers of clyde edgerton’s ‘walking across egypt’, fannie flagg’s ‘fried green tomatoes at the whistle stop café’, and anne tyler’s ‘dinner at the homesick restaurant.’” the southern quarterly, vol. 30, no. 2, university of southern mississippi, college of arts and letters, 1992, pp. 90-98. flagg, fannie. fried green tomatoes at the whistle stop cafe. vintage books, 2012. giovanelli, dina, and stephen ostertag. “controlling the body: media representations, body size and self-discipline.” the fat studies reader, edited by esther d. rothblum and sondra solovay, new york university press, 2009, pp. 289–296. julier, alice p. “hiding gender and race in the discourse of commercial food consumption.” from betty crocker to feminist food studies: critical perspectives on women and food, edited by arlene voski avakian and barbara haber, university of massachusetts press, 2005, pp. 163-184. mcintosh, alex, and mary zey. “women as gatekeepers.” food and gender, identity and power, edited by carole m. counihan and steven l. kaplan, harwood academic publishers, 2005, pp. 132–153. mclean, alice. “the intersection of gender and food studies.” routledge international handbook of food studies, edited by ken albala, routledge, 2013, pp. 250-264. mintz, susannah b., and leah e. mintz. m.d. “pass the pop-tarts: the gilmore girls’ perpetual hunger.” screwball television: critical perspectives on gilmore girls, edited by david scott diffrient and david lavery, syracuse university press, 2010, pp. 235–256. essay neugarten | 80 “pilot.” gilmore girls: season one, written by amy sherman-palladino, directed by lesli linka glatter, warner brothers, 2000. simon, bryant. everything but the coffee: learning about america from starbucks. university of california press, 2009. smith, michael d. “the empire filters back: consumption, production and the politics of starbucks coffee.” urban geography, vol. 17, no. 6, 1996, pp. 502-525. doi: 10.2747/0272-3638.17.6.502 topik, steven. “coffee as a social drug.” cultural critique, vol. 71, no. 71, 2009, pp. 81–106, doi:10.1353/cul.0.0027. “women of questionable morals.” gilmore girls: season five, written by amy sherman-palladino and daniel palladino, directed by matthew diamond, warner brothers, 2005. essay 81 | neugarten this paper is a critical examination of the gazes that fall on food and on those who eat in j.m. coetzee’s in the heart of the country (1977) and waiting for the barbarians (1980). i refer to this phenomenon as ‘food witnessing’ and posit that they occur out of curiosity in ‘the other’ or in attempt to consolidate or wield power. the paper argues that these gazes originate from violent impulses within a complex racial and gendered setting, and mimic a cannibalistic desire to consume the other. it further explores questions about the body and senses that arise from watching someone eat, and complicates ideas of familiarity and distance between ‘the self’ and ‘the other’ as they occur in the novels. introduction there is a common saying that one eats with the eyes first. this paper takes the saying literally as it tries to read the act of gazing as a kind of symbolic consumption through the respective protagonists of j.m. coetzee’s waiting for the barbarians (1980) and in the heart of the country (1977). both novels are a first-person account of institutional violence and torture committed in historical and geographical obscurity and ambiguity. the narrative frame of both novels is set up through the reference of a protagonist who watches, observes, and tries to archive or convey their experiences through writing. with the advent of food photography in advertisements and social media, food has become a sensuous object that first and foremost appeals to the gaze that holds the desire to ultimately own and consume the food item (roland barthes, signe rousseau, carolyn korsmeyer). in coetzee, however, the food-related gaze falls on a person eating as a way to ultimately create distance from them, or to define “the self” in opposition to them, or to absorb knowledge about “the other”. if we understand consumption as a form of assimilation and absorption, gazing becomes a kind of consumption too, where the goal is to conquer, absorb, and obliterate ‘‘the other”. this paper examines the gaze of the respective narrators of the novels, the magistrate and magda, specifically through instances of looking at food, watching others eat, or using metaphors and images of consumption in the novels. food is one of the more accessible modes of expression of violence in coetzee. while forced hunger and starvation are common ways to inflict and read torture, this paper looks at violence inflicted in the presence of food. food is a universally identifiable object and signifier that usually occupies the ‘background’ of a narrative in literature. for example, it is the central element of the magistrate’s relationship with the prisoners in waiting for the barbarians. since he does not directly intervene to stop colonel joll’s atrocities, food becomes a significant way in which he is able to extend his humanity and the hope in the empire to the natives. magda, on the other hand, lives a life of domestic servitude and her vocabulary, therefore, consists of food objects, family meals, and the contents of “i see what i have been dreading”: witnessing food and violence in waiting for the barbarians and in the heart of the country nimisha sinha, university of hyderabad essay 27 | sinha the kitchen. food and its metaphors are essential to her narrative imagination. food, then, becomes an easily available and manipulable signifier while depicting violence in both texts. this paper looks at the protagonists’ relationship with food through the idea of ‘food witnessing’. ‘food witnessing’ refers to the symbolic violence that the witnessers commit on the objects of their gaze. the magistrate and magda are separated by their desires, power, and motivations and possess an uneasy relationship with authority. they watch people eat and describe it in their tales, both out of curiosity and as a way of gaining knowledge about “the other.” this paper will examine related issues of body, violence, and voyeurism by locating food within troubled colonial, racial, and gendered gazes. jacques derrida, in an interview with jean-luc nancy, talks of the inevitability of consuming “the other”: “the so called nonanthropophagic cultures practice symbolic anthropophagy and even construct their most elevated socius, indeed the sublimity of their morality, their politics, and their right, on this anthropophagy” (114). the following section will shed light on how food is implicated by coetzee very deliberately and very intricately into these numerous gazes, and that violence and metaphoric consumption are woven into it. violence is an essential part of the act of food witnessing. food witnessing: food and consumption related gazes the agential choice to not look in waiting for the barbarians stands in stark contrast with the other abundant scenes of looking, watching, observing (and consequently, reading or interpreting) with wonder, discomfort, and disgust. in giving importance to the non-performance of an action, compelling us to critically examine the magistrate’s difficulty with looking at and recording torture: the magistrate struggles to look at physical violence when colonel joll brings local people “roped together neck to neck” (29) and confines himself to his room to escape the sights and sounds of violence (31). while joll deprives the prisoners of food, the magistrate constantly tries to ensure their basic nourishment. in this indirect relationship with food, we can see the contradictions in the empire and its many agents’ relationship with the natives. it is a nonlinear, oppressive relationship that the empire forces upon the natives. feeding the other, disrupting food chains, and legitimizing consumption become some of the ways in which this dynamic relationship is established. magda’s story, by design, is not palatable or even believable: the false stories, the dream-like sequence of events, and frequent inconsistencies make her tales suspect. through the longwinded stories of her lonely life, surrounded only by three other people, she lurks and spies, watching through windows, “through the chink in the curtain” (9), “by the light of the storm lantern i see…” (25). when she cannot look, she employs her imagination to paint a vivid picture of the going-ons in the house. magda is possessed by an obsessive desire to look and observe, to know, and confront things that exclude her—and food is an essential item in this quest. she imagines a shift in power hierarchies through ideas of food service: “soon i will be bringing my father and my maid breakfast in bed while hendrick sounds in the kitchen eating biscuits” (49); and she comprehends her denial of family privileges through the ‘noble’ family meal: “i should have been invited too. i should be seated at that table” (52). magda continuously uses vocabularies of food to imagine desires, materiality, and even to confirm her own bodily existence, “i think of tea and rusks and my saliva flows. there is no doubt about it, i am not pure spirit” (36). essay sinha | 28 the possibility of violence in watching people eat watching other people eat can entice us, be an act of acquiring familiarity, and in waiting for the barbarians, it can even be an act of creating distance—of defining oneself against “the other.” in the earliest instances of looking at prisoners, the magistrate notes their hunger, their fancy for ‘civilized foods’ like bread and tea, and most importantly, how they eat. he is aware of the innocence, helplessness, and hunger of the first set of prisoners. he asks the guards to give them food—using the biblical word ‘manna’ for it—and writes: the old man accepts the bread reverentially in both hands, sniffs it, breaks it, passes the lumps around. they stuff their mouths with this manna, chewing fast, not raising their eyes. a woman spits masticated bread into her palm and feeds her baby. i motion for more bread. we stand watching them eat as though they are strange animals. (26) these descriptions of others eating are impersonal and dehumanizing: those eating are others to the witness. he cannot see their interiority—and so we get descriptions of external physiognomic and anatomical features like hands, mouths, and eyes. they do not seem to be eating like animals, but people look on as if they were. his account restricts description to the corporal-material. the difference in magda’s descriptions of the “new wife” (1) and her dead mother in her first (false) story suggest that an eating body can be weaponized into a monstrous other. in paragraphs numbered 2 and 4, we get a description of the “new wife,” who she falsely claims her father has brought home, and of magda’s dead mother (2) respectively. both of these are part of her imaginations; at this point in the narrative, it is impossible to verify any of these stories as true or false through our own reading: 2. the new wife. the new wife is a lazy big-boned voluptuous feline woman with a wide slow-smiling mouth. her eyes are black and shrewd like two berries, like two shrewd berries. she is a big woman with fine wrists and long plump tapering fingers. she eats her food with relish. she sleeps and eats and lazes. she sticks out her red tongue and licks the sweet mutton-fat, from her lips. “ah, i like that!” she says, and smiles and rolls her eyes. i watch her mouth, mesmerized. (1) the imagery of a woman with berries for eyes could be read as an evocation of the non-human/ demonic or of a desirable, consumable object. magda ascribes shrewdness to the berry-eyes. most of the description is based upon watching her eat and enjoy flesh; the “new wife” is made into a gluttonous, villainous woman because she consumes and relishes food. martha’s imagined gaze falls directly on her eyes and mouth, and is fixated on this woman who eats — “i watch the full lips of this glutted woman” (4). the mother, on the other hand, is described as “a frail gentle loving woman” who, even as she was dying, was “patient, bloodless, apologetic” (2). blood is an interesting symbol; while the new wife relishes a dead, now bloodless being, that is mutton, the mother is the bloodless being. the new wife is not only a replacement to her mother, but shall also devour magda. magda later tells us that there never was a new wife (16). she is the literal imagined other. essay 29 | sinha the narrative frames of both texts ensure that descriptions remain corporeal, even visceral. in both magda and the magistrate, we see the desire to comprehend the other—to read and interpret them—before they reject the idea, and the desire is transformed into violence, as seen in the above analysis. sheila roberts argues that in the heart of the country looks like magda’s personal locked diary—one that she writes in to “rediscover her possible ‘mothers’” (23) as an ironic or temporary subversion of the electra plot. magda, writes roberts, like most women and unlike the colonized, has no memory of “any utopian existence of living in equality side by side with men” (23), and so the images she uses typically come not from memory but fiction. familiarity and distance play a fundamental role in how one imagines interpersonal relations with the other, but is complicated by the consequences of the desire to watch the other eat. it suggests an irreducible distance between the witnesser and the witnessed distant familiarity with the eating other coetzee constructs a paternal, pitiful, and enquiring gaze in waiting for the barbarians that gradually turns destructive with increasing self-awareness. one could posit that the bodily familiarity it provides is what later fuels the desire to reinforce distance. this is most clearly seen in people’s reactions to the prisoners: what starts with wonder and curiosity in the barbarians—the others—eating civilized food finally ends in it becoming another nuisance: “for a few days the fisherfolk are a diversion with their strange gabbling, their vast appetites, their animal shamelessness, their volatile tempers. . . . i stare down, invisible behind the glass. then, all together, we lose sympathy with them. the filth, the smell, the noise of their quarrelling and coughing become too much” (28). the ‘distant familiarity’ of watching the other eat sublimates into violent desires and brutal prejudices for the magistrate, and the next section shows its transformation into the need to punish, erase, and obliterate the other. the magistrate’s gaze is shrouded in the violent language of the empire. in one scene, he partakes in gazing and staring at the prisoners along with a big group of people who watch the natives with lecherous intentions, perverted desires, or an idle curiosity. he “spend[s] hours watching them from the upstairs window (other idlers have to watch through the gate)” (27). he seems to always be watching them from his window above, even watching the other onlookers, and observing their food choices, appetites and other private rituals. curiosity combines with surveillance as these displaced natives are displayed in the yard. a similar fixation on watching and trying to comprehend is repeated in his relationship with the barbarian girl. he obsessively tries to decipher the marks on her body, trying to recreate and imagine the brute force on her feet, her eyes, and her sense of self. in his many nights with her, he cleans and massages her feet and falls into a torpor, reflecting on his declining sexual desires and prowess. despite living in proximity, she remains an other that he simply cannot comprehend. the magistrate writes, “but with this woman it as if there is no interior, only a surface across which i hunt . . . how natural a mistake to believe that you can burn or tear or hack your way into the secret of body of the other” (59). the desire to burn or tear or hack into her body to discover some secret is not very different from joll’s belief in some truth hidden to be forced out of the barbarians. eating is largely considered to be a personal experience because it uses the relatively private senses of taste and smell, making it difficult to hold stable universal standards for it. in our contemporary world of food tourism and social media, the sense of sight has been implicated in a new form of essay sinha | 30 consumption via extravagant images of food and consumption. watching someone eat is much like an inquisition into the other’s interiority and culture; following from derrida, we can insist that the food-related gaze also assimilates and consumes the other. however, in the texts before us, we see that food witnessing is ultimately a limiting exercise in knowing the other. what one eats does not always tells us who they are: sundown after sundown, we have faced each other over the mutton, the potatoes, the pumpkin, dull food cooked by dull hands. is it possible that we spoke? no, we could not have spoken, we must have fronted each other in silence and chewed our way through, time, our eyes, his black eyes and my black eyes inherited from him, roaming blank across their fields of vision. (3) the word “fronted” is interesting. “we must have fronted each other” means that they have faced each other every day, and made themselves visible to each other. however, to put up a front also means to conceal the reality behind appearances. food becomes a medium which transforms confrontation into a fronting: the possibility of action is substituted by chewing, which is an infinite repetition through time. the gaze ‘roams blank’ in the face of irreducible distance. the family meal is not a ritual of love or care; in in the heart of the country, the family meal is the performance of duty and subservience of brutal coexistence. magda’s gaze is effectively piercing. she is able to find the truths about others through her own private surveillance efforts, or at least the truths that are good enough for her narrative. she keeps a watchful eye over everyone in the house, their routines and rituals, comings and goings. in describing her father’s routine, she writes about his mealtime, “before meals he washes his hands with soap. he drinks his brandy ceremonially, by himself, from a brandy-glass, of which he has four, by lamplight, sitting in an armchair” (31). this routine and its knowledge are important to her, because it is deviations in these everyday behaviors that alert her to his deviancy. she quickly catches digressions from these observances, for example, when he when he pushes his food away, asks her to leave during the meal, or makes his tea himself. she is able to confirm his “guilty thoughts” about anna when he breaks his private ceremony, and “pecks his glass of brandy not sitting in his armchair but pacing about the yard in the moonlight” (33). changing expressions of consumption in waiting for the barbarians, consumption is linked more closely with bodily reactions rather than sensory experiences. for example, the magistrate watches the blind barbarian girl eat, and writes, “i watch her eat. she eats like a blind person, gazing into the distance, working by touch. she has a good appetite, the appetite of a robust young countrywoman” (41). watching her eat becomes a feeble attempt to gain access into her interiority. watching someone, especially watching someone eat, can be an act of familiarizing ourselves with them through the recreation of visceral reactions in our own bodies. in arguing for the aesthetics of food, scholars such as kevin sweeney, carolyn korsmeyer, and emily brady have noted the difference in treatment of the more objective and universal senses of sight, sound, and touch as opposed to the more personal senses of smell and taste. in sweeney’s “can a soup be essay 31 | sinha beautiful?” (2009), he argues that this is one of the reasons why food has been denied the category of the beautiful in eighteenth century aesthetic traditions. the focus of these arguments has generally been on the divide between the universal and personal senses in creating complex aesthetic experiences, but i wish to point to the use of sight and touch by coetzee in describing consumption. the first-person narrative of waiting for the barbarians implies that the magistrate can write only about the sensory experiences that he can look at in others when they eat. therefore, sight and touch are used almost exclusively to represent consumption of food. in a peculiar teasing of the senses, coetzee complicates and contorts the familiar idea of consumption through the narrative framing of the text. even when consumption is defined first-hand, the text shifts attention to the bodily reaction to food rather than the taste and smell of food. in in the heart of the country, there is a suggestion of a more complex notion of consumption that suggests an aesthetic of eating, “the sun is setting, the sky is a tumult of oranges and reds and violets. up and down the stoep struts klein-anna mastering the shoes. if only we could eat our sunsets, i say, we would all be full” (85). the bright colors in the scenic image excites the eye, and consumption of beauty is compared to a metaphoric eating of a sunset. gaze, consumption and/of the other: obliterating the other finally, i want to talk about how the gaze, in both texts, exploits food to successfully obliterate the other. the magistrate, earlier, only “[passes his] his gaze over their surface absently, with reluctance” (34) but when the girl lives in close proximity with him, the surface of the barbarian body becomes reflective, “when she looks at me i am a blur, a voice, a smell, a centre of energy” (41). the blind barbarian girl cannot return his gaze. but when his own gaze reflects and falls back on him, it begins to diminish him. he begins to avoid the girl, and soon after, passes the girl when crossing over the kitchen: through wraiths of steam i see a stocky girl seated at a table preparing food. “i know who that is,” i think to myself with surprise nevertheless, the image that persists in my memory as i cross the yard is of the pile of green marrows on the table in front of her. deliberately i try to shift my mind’s gaze from the marrows on the table in front of her. deliberately i try to shift my mind’s gaze from the marrows back to the hands that slice them, and from the hands to the face. i detect in myself a reluctance, a resistance. my regard remains dazedly fixed on the marrows, on the gleam of light on their wet skins. as if with a will of its own, it does not move. so i begin to face the truth of what i am trying to do: to obliterate the girl. (64) the green marrows become a substitute for the girl, a way to shift gaze; this is a tacit acceptance of the fact that looking away is marked by brutality, not least the brutality of indifference. he does not wish to see the girl, because now his gaze falls back on him. the girl is stocky but when he looks at her, he only sees her hands or her face at a time, already fragmenting her body. the gleam of the skin of the marrows also strangely mirrors her skin, possibly gleaming from the wraiths of steam. the series of events leading up to and following magda shooting her father are intricately linked with items and vocabularies of the kitchen. she holds her gun “like a tray”; this innocuous metaphor forces a reconciliation of the image of a serving dish and of a weapon. she decides to kill her father after a essay sinha | 32 dramatic night of violence and abuse, “[she] has had enough, tonight, of listening to the sounds that other people make” at the kitchen table and in their bedrooms. while shooting her father, she shuts her eyes to avoid not the sight of her patricide but “to keep me from seeing my father’s nakedness” (63). she continues to describe him, his movements, his stupor in vivid detail as narrative time slows down. standing over him, she describes the scene as follows: 125. the cups have not been washed. 126. there are flies in my father’s room. the air is heavy with their buzzing. they crawl on his face and he does not brush them away, he who has always been a fastidious man. they cluster on his hands, which are red with blood. there are splashes of dried blood on the floor and the curtain is caked with blood. i am not squeamish about blood, i have made blood-sausage on occasion, but in this case i am not sure it would not be better to leave the room for a while, to take a stroll, to clear my head. however, i stay, i am held here. (65) she stands over his dead body and describes in detail his room and body, and the surfaces where the blood has begun to dry. the image of blood returns, but this time she is responsible for it. she is surrounded, perhaps even covered in her father’s blood, which she compares with blood sausages. blood sausages are usually made from pork, dried pig’s blood, and suet. while the odd and unsettling comparison between human and pig blood made through the example of food does not suggest a cannibalistic desire in magda to literally consume him, but it points the reader towards a much more complex web of metaphoric relations of consumption in the novel. conclusion images of food or metaphors of consumption are strategically placed in the narratives to help express non-food related desires. the idea of consumption also includes the possibility of consuming the other, thus, making the other into a consumable object that can be conquered and absorbed. to consume also means to use up a resource. if derrida says that consuming the other is inevitable, this paper has tried to examine the processes and consequences of this kind of assimilation and appropriation of the other. shifting gazes between people and food, the subsequent conflation, and the borrowed language allows the protagonists to successfully consume the other. food in literature has a dynamic presence. it is not limited by issues of survival or nourishment, and it does not serve the function of realistic embellishment alone. the meaning of food may differ for readers across the world, through space and time. it is impossible to fix a single allegorical meaning for food. in this paper, i have tried to demonstrate a food-related gaze in coetzee that falls on an eating other. the motivations for watching people eat are numerous: it is a curiosity in the other, a way to create both bodily familiarity and distance, a way to distinguish ourselves from the other, and a way to consolidate power. the racial/colonial/patriarchal gaze falls on the eating body to create otherness and monstrosity, and coetzee uses this to portray complex ideas of consumption. the violence of food witnessing vaguely mimics a cannibalistic desire to consume the other: erase them, destroy them, or inflict brutalities on them. the impossibility of returning the gaze and the irreducible distance between the essay 33 | sinha witnesser and the one being witnessed is testament to the imbalance in power between the two parties. finally, i tried to show that the food-related gaze does not excuse itself, and gradually turns inwards to look back at itself in obsessive and futile attempts to confirm one’s own materiality. essay sinha | 34 works cited barthes, r., and a. lavers. “ornamental cookery.” mythologies. vintage, 1993. brady, emily. “smells, tastes, and everyday aesthetics.” the philosophy of food. university of california press, 2012. cadava, e., p. connor, and j.l. nancy. “‘eating well,’ or the calculation of the subject: an interview with jacques derrida.” who comes after the subject? routledge, 1991, pp. 96-119. coetzee, john maxwell. in the heart of the country. penguin books, 1977. ---. waiting for the barbarians. penguin books, 1999. korsmeyer, carolyn. “aesthetic value, art, and food.” encyclopedia of food and agricultural ethics, edited by paul b. thompson and david m. kaplan. springer netherlands, 2013, pp. 1-8. monroe, dave. “can food be art? the problem of consumption.” food and philosophy: eat, think, and be merry. wiley, 2009, pp. 133-144. roberts, sheila. “cinderella’s mothers: j. m. coetzee’s ‘in the heart of the country.’” english in africa, vol., 19, no. 1, 1992, pp. 21–33. rousseau, signe. “food ‘porn’ in media.” encyclopedia of food and agricultural ethics, edited by paul b. thompson and david m. kaplan. springer netherlands, 2013, pp. 1-8. sweeney, kevin w. “can a soup be beautiful? the rise of gastronomy and the aesthetics of food.” food and philosophy: eat, think, and be merry. wiley, 2009, pp. 117–132. sweeney, k.w. the aesthetics of food: the philosophical debate about what we eat and drink. rowman & littlefield, 2017. ---. “can a soup be beautiful? the rise of gastronomy and the aesthetics of food.” food and philosophy: eat, think, and be merry, edited by f. allhoff and d. monroe, wiley, 2009, pp. 117 32, https://books.google.co.in/books?id=h49zm4fko2kc. essay 35 | sinha dlr journal 73 abstract by marlee jacocks while ursula le guin’s novel the dispossessed has been categorized as a science fiction and utopian novel, i argue that it should also be considered a feminist utopia. with influences from feminism and marxism, le guin uses both theories to create a comparison between two political systems— anarchy and democracy—to ultimately reveal that anarchy is more conducive for feminism. the anarchic system of government provides women with more agency than capitalism, because women are free from class and gender oppression. theorists such as lewis call and daniel jaeckle define the anarchy that is established in the dispossessed. the distinct female characters in the dispossessed demonstrate the clear differences between the two political systems. additionally, i argue that the dispossessed is a feminist text with the ultimate purpose of demonstrating how women can reach equality and ultimate agency in an anarchic state due to le guin's example. a feminist's call for anarchy 74 jacocks “a woman’s place is in the house” flashes in bold, black font as the newly elected congresswomen of 2019 scroll across the screen each standing confidently and proudly. these women represent an important statistic for all women in the united states; they are the 35 women who make up the most diverse class of congress in terms of race and gender (filipovic). despite this progress, equal representation of women in the united states is still shockingly behind in both politics and the private sector. furthermore, despite the continuously growing number of women who have declared a presidential run in 2020, there has still never been a female president. in any given political system, there are distinct differences and disparities between the roles of men and women. often times women are marginalized, particularly in cultures dominated by a patriarchal system and a long-standing history of male governmental rule, as is the case in the united states. in response, feminism has moved through multiple waves over time to focus on different needs for women and other marginalized groups. given this current context within the united states, and being a woman in leadership positions myself, i still cannot help but ask: where are the women? even in utopian fiction, where gender equality might be expected in an imagined perfect society, the question still stands. feminist utopias specifically provide an image of what an ideal world would look like in which women are actually equal to men, or in some cases a satirical perspective of a world where women are superior to men. according to william marcellino, “feminist utopian works critique dominant male power and focus and offer some kind of imagined, idealized society that is not characterized by male power and focus” (203). ursula k. le guin takes up this call in several of her novels and essays, but explicitly in the dispossessed, in which she creates a feminist utopian society that not only emphasizes the roles of women, but also challenges the traditional conventions of a feminist utopia with a male protagonist. by comparing the role that women play in a utopian political system with their role in a traditional western political system, le guin evokes a clear distinction between women’s current situation and the potential for a better future. the comparison of a woman’s role on the two different planets le guin portrays have led many scholars to read the text as a feminist utopia. the dynamics of le guin’s ambiguous utopia allow the reader to consider women’s places within different institutions, such as the anarchic state on anarres and the capitalist society on urras. combining these portrayals of women and politics, i argue that capitalism fails to recognize the work 75 jacocks of women and the equality they deserve, while the anarchic system of government in ursula le guin’s the dispossessed fantasizes about a dissolution of patriarchal and capitalist oppression that allows for the incorporation of feminist forms of government and therefore establishes anarchy as an agential system for women while also proving that feminism is a cause for all. the setting of the dispossessed alternates between life on the planet anarres and life on the planet urras. the alternation between planets also creates a relationship between an anarchic and democratic political system that puts the two systems in constant comparison. life first began on urras, but the world became a dystopian society when revolutionaries began to challenge the system. urras is a democracy that reflects the governmental system of the western world. a woman named odo was the leader of the revolution on urras, and she began to form her own society. it is not just a coincidence that this society was founded by a woman, especially once more female characters are introduced to the story. takver and rulag are the two main female characters who guide the consideration of a feminist utopia while representing what life is like for women on anarres, with odo setting the foundation. after a revolution, the odonians left urras to form their new society on what is technically the moon of urras. this moon became anarres and they became the odonian society. this process is what establishes the utopian context of the dispossessed. the cause for revolution pushed odonians to think about a more ideal world, and when given the chance to start a new society, they created a utopia. anarres is the planet on which the protagonist, shevek, lives with his partner takver and their two children. their way of life is defined by the anarchic system that dominates anarres. lewis call categorizes both anarres and le guin herself as proponents of anarchy. in the simplest terms, anarchy is often defined as a system with no government. there are no laws and no overarching institution of power which governs society. anarchy as a political and philosophical theory began around the early nineteenth century and challenged the oppression from capital and the state (call 87). as the definition of anarchy evolved through the twentieth century, ethnic power and gender power were added to the forms of oppression that anarchy sought to dispel (call 87). the dispossessed is categorized as an anarchist state because the people of anarres are “free of the inequalities of capitalism and the injustices of state power” (call 88). for example, there is no 76 jacocks distinction between male or female names, which helps to eliminate any gender bias or prejudice that might normally exist. there is no way to tell, based off of a name, whether a character is a man or a woman. furthermore, there is freedom from class oppression because labor is assigned randomly through the means of a computer system in order to ensure there is no distinction of class. le guin creates a utopian society on the foundational elements of anarchy—no central government and freedom from oppression. the form of anarchy le guin creates is considered by daniel jaeckle to be “a highly traditional anarchist society” (75). this includes freedom from the state as call identifies, but jaeckle also defines anarchy in terms of freedom from “organized religion, and private property” (75). on anarres, there is both a sense of individuality as the people exercise their own free will, but also a great sense of responsibility to maintain a functioning society without an overarching form of government. social and political power are neither desired nor valued on anarres, because they are considered repressive rather than agential. as jaeckle claims, anarres functions with “no government, church, or ruling class” (76). to the western reader who is accustomed to a highly systematic form of government and way of life, the utopian anarchy seems initially difficult to imagine. despite this claim of difficulty, le guin provides copious details to help the audience understand life on anarres, and more specifically, how a society can still function effectively and efficiently with no government through decentralization. odo’s main goal when starting a new society on anarres was decentralization—to move away from large or central governments to smaller organizations. furthermore, shevek describes how “the network was not to be run from the top down. there was to be no controlling center, no capital, no establishment for the self-perpetuating machinery of bureaucracy” (le guin 95). the people of anarres were successful in fulfilling odo’s plans for society. there is no form of currency on anarres and society is largely communal. if an anarresti is not copulating or partnering, then they sleep in dormitories. meals are served in dining courts and each territory receives the “same share and share alike for food” mentality (le guin 111). this communal style of living is maintained through education. it is ingrained in the minds of children at a young age that, “nothing is yours. it is to use. it is to share. if you will not share it, you cannot use it” (le guin 27). the emphasis on sharing is what allows anarres to maintain an anarchic 77 jacocks system. the lessons taught to children are determined and administered by the single challenge to le guin’s anarchic state—the production and distribution coordination (pdc). this is the only system on anarres that would closely relate to any form of government. the pdc is a “network of administration and management” that functions for the purpose of assigning jobs (76). even though the pdc seems to resemble a type of government, shevek makes it clear that the pdc “do not govern persons; they administer production” (76). in this sense, le guin is successful in creating and establishing an anarchic system. le guin, in essence, offers an alternative to the capitalism that permeates every aspect of western government. tim libretti argues that le guin’s portrayal of a utopian society is “radically different from contemporary u.s. capitalist society” so that le guin is able to fully address “the question of human nature” as a means to represent a utopian society as a possibility (308). in other words, le guin recognizes human nature, with an influence from marxism, as being characterized “by an imaginative drive to create” rather than to work or make a profit (306). this is evident from le guin’s own writing in her article “why are americans afraid of dragons?” which explains how “work” is defined in the u.s. capitalist society. “dragons,” in the context of le guin’s article, represent fantasy and imagination. to answer the question in her title, le guin argues that americans are afraid of these “dragons,” because they fear the pleasure that fantasy and imagination provide, because this pleasure takes away from the focus and emphasis on work (“dragons”). in capitalism, life is defined by work. anarchy is defined by its contrast with capitalism because of its opposition to the capitalist mindset that prevents people from freedom. marxism influences this definition of anarchy to set the foundation for a life that is not entirely determined by work. according to le guin, freedom comes with imagination, which she defines as “the free play of the mind, both intellectual and sensory” (“dragons”). essentially, creativity and unrestraint are what provide freedom, but these elements cannot be found in capitalism, thus le guin turns to anarchy as a utopian model. the anarchic system that le guin creates in the dispossessed not only creates a society with more freedom, but it also especially provides women with more freedom and agency. according to le guin, the inability to employ imagination in the context of capitalism is a challenge for men. many men in america have “learned to repress their imagination” and “to fear it," which has consequently 78 jacocks prevented them from experiencing pleasure and delight (le guin “dragons”). this lack of pleasure and delight is one of the ways in which the capitalist society in the united states is persistently supported and maintained. anarchy in the dispossessed calls into question these elements of capitalism and reveals their harmful nature to women, while providing a better alternative. le guin’s text ultimately becomes a feminist piece as she provides women with the utmost agency by dispelling and eliminating capitalist barriers in an anarchic system. the system of capitalism is riddled with faults that have proven to create lasting disparities, especially in regard to gender. the system infringes upon multiple individual freedoms, but the greatest discrepancy lies in the treatment of more than half the population—women. capitalism was created by men to be implemented in a patriarchal society. it fails to take into consideration the work of women publicly and privately, while providing them with little to no agency to receive the same freedoms that men experience. essentially, capitalism forgets women, especially when considering reproduction. the most glaring fault of capitalism is that it does not recognize the fact that through the means of reproduction women are responsible for supplying the laborers who produce and create capital. even more, reproduction in and of itself is a form of labor, but capitalism does not acknowledge this significant and necessary work on the part of women. with influence from marxism and the 1970s “women in work” movement, le guin is provided a platform to challenge capitalism’s oppression of class and gender. erik wright defines marxist theory, as well as feminist theory, as “emancipatory theoretical traditions in that they envision the possibility of eliminating certain forms of oppression from social life” (39). in relation to the dispossessed, marxism is the first step to anarchy because it identifies anarchy as the end goal. in order to be liberated, the people must first reject capitalism, then enter a state of socialism that eventually gives way to an anarchic system. anarchy is the goal because, according to marxism, it allows for the most freedom. marxist theory focuses specifically on freedom from class oppression and envisions a classless society, but it fails to take into consideration the place of women when envisioning this ideal society. marxist feminist movements have realized this discrepancy and the “wages for housework” movement started the demand for women to be paid in the workplace as well as for their labor in the home in terms of “child care, cleaning, emotional support, even sex” (jaffe). 79 jacocks le guin manages to do what capitalism and marxism fail to do for women and provides the “wages for housework” movement with a model society in her depiction of the anarchist anarres. the dispossessed provides an alternative reality with perceived feminist ideals, but le guin puts pressure on the common notions of a utopia by subtitling her novel an “ambiguous utopia.” the power is thus placed in the hands of the readers as le guin experiments with what really constitutes a utopia. she envisions “what an inhabitable, ideal society might look like,” according to jim jose, as is usually the utopian process (180). jose describes le guin’s ideal society as consisting of “a political life based upon consent” and a “non-sexist and non-racist, essentially egalitarian” society (180). the anarchic system on anarres establishes a political life based upon consent by allowing individuals to govern themselves rather than be governed. jobs are considered work assignments, and they are determined by pdc based on the need and benefit to society (le guin 48). work is not defined in terms of gender either, as women and men are assigned to jobs alike. this is most evident in the way in which takver, shevek’s partner, and rulag, shevek’s mother, treat their work. traditional roles in patriarchal society determine that the man works to support the family while the woman stays home to care for the children and do domestic work. le guin directly challenges these traditional gender roles. when shevek is finishing school, he notices that the girls in his class “wanted to complete their training and start their research or find a post they liked” (le guin 55). takver is one of these girls and is studying biology. when she and shevek begin their partnership, takver works as a “fish geneticist,” essentially researching ways of increasing fish for food (le guin 185). not only does takver have a job she is passionate about, but she excels at it. she runs her own research projects, and contrary to traditional gender roles, takver is the one who often works more hours and spends more time at the office for her work when compared to shevek’s posting assignment (le guin 187). this only occurs, however, because of the anarchic system, which provides women with more freedom to work as they wish. takver does not have to fill the traditional role of a woman staying at home to clean and raise their children, because these tasks are eliminated by the anarchic system. on anarres children are raised in a communal setting where it is someone’s job to teach and care for the children. thus, takver is able to work without the burden of domesticity, because the anarchic system eliminates the traditional roles of the patriarchal system. 80 jacocks le guin also portrays the increased freedom of women in an anarchic system in terms of work through the character rulag. growing up on anarres, children are sent to school where they learn with other children their age. they sleep in dormitories and spend all their days in these schools, because under anarchy, there is no concept of individual possession, even in the sense that birth parents are not responsible for raising their own children. partners have the option of keeping their children at home when they are young, but by a certain age, partners are no longer the main caregivers for their children. this familial system is particularly freeing for women. shevek’s mother left at an early age, and while this caused some abandonment issues for shevek, it was perfectly normal and expected in society on anarres. for the western reader, though, shevek’s abandonment issues work to set-up a critique of our own gendered proprietary assumptions about child rearing. this system of anarchy, in comparison to the patriarchal and capitalist system, reveal how women do not have to be responsible for the traditional child rearing roles. instead, women are provided with every opportunity to focus on their work and not be solely responsible to care for their children. for rulag, “work comes first … it has always come first” and anarchy is what made this possible for rulag to do just that (le guin 123). the communal, anarchical system on anarres provides women with more agency than the patriarchal, democratic system of the united states. le guin makes this distinction between the two systems most obvious with shevek’s visit to urras, the neighboring planet of anarres. susan benfield claims that “through shevek’s observations of urras, le guin paints a vivid picture of the abuses and inequities to which centralized government that is based on the protection of property is prone” (128). urras is everything that anarres is not. the political system on urras closely relates to the democratic and capitalistic system of the united states. as shevek travels around urras and meets more people, the true distinction between women on urras and anarres is evidently presented. on urras, women have little to no freedom or agency. when shevek arrives on urras, he asks the same question proposed at the beginning of this paper: where are the women? more specifically, shevek asks “why there were no women on the ship” used to travel from planet to planet, and the response is that “running a space freighter was not women’s work” (le guin 16). the comparison is obvious then, that work on urras is far different than work on anarres. the distinction becomes even clearer when the man from urras asks shevek, "is it 81 jacocks true, dr. shevek, that women in your society [anarres] are treated exactly like men?” (le guin 16). such a question defines the perception and treatment of women on urras. on anarres, shevek worked alongside other scientists who were women, but on urras there are no female scientists or teachers (le guin 73). in fact, women rarely work on urras, which fulfills the standard established by both capitalism and the patriarchy. the capitalist expectation of women is defined and surrounded by domesticity, with no actual expectation of work or power, whereas women on anarres are expected to do their fair share of the work. while on urras, shevek meets vea, and she becomes the main representation of women on urras, just as takver and rulag are the representation of women on anarres. vea is married to a wealthy man who travels regularly for work. with her husband’s money and his regular absences, and without having to work herself, it initially appears as though vea possesses a sense of freedom. this appearance is merely an illusion, though. as shevek attempts to learn from vea about the position of women, vea challenges the notion that women on urras are inferior to men. she claims that she is able to do what she likes to do, and more specifically, that the women actually run the men on urras (le guin 215). while vea may think she influences the men, it is clear that she does not, and her perceived freedom on urras is misperceived. she does not actually possess any agency and is instead limited by the political system dominated by men. furthermore, unlike the women on anarres, vea is entirely characterized and defined by her role as a woman. this is represented by the focus on vea’s physical appearance. shevek introduces vea by describing how “her breasts, shoulders, and arms were round, soft, and very white” (le guin 196). when shevek sees vea again in another interaction, he notices “vea’s slender feet, decorated with little white shoes on very high heels” (le guin 212). each description of vea resembles the literary device called a blazon – where the female body is compartmentalized in terms of its description. the female body is catalogued to redefine her as a material object that is the sum of her parts. takver recognizes this characterization of women on urras and sees them as “women who used their sexuality as a weapon in a power struggle with men” (le guin 212-213). as shevek goes on to describe vea, he says that “she was so elaborately and ostentatiously a female body that she seemed scarcely to be a human being” (le guin 213). shevek’s thoughts reveal how women like vea on urras 82 jacocks are treated like objects. there is no description of their mind and their capabilities, rather these women are broken into pieces based off of over-sexualized descriptions from men. vea is merely a body, and as shevek reveals, it is difficult to see vea for the human she is. essentially, as a woman on urras, vea is a piece of property and an object to be owned by men. shevek recognizes this, as he reminds vea that “you know that in the eyes of men you are a thing, a thing owned, bought, sold” (le guin 215). with his anarres background, shevek is able to clearly see through the illusion of vea’s self-proclaimed agency. through shevek’s bluntly honest reflections of women on urras, le guin characterizes urras as a planet dominated by men with a political system also focused on men. vea then serves to highlight the stark contrast between women on anarres and urras. while vea is under the false impression that she possesses agency and freedom as a woman of urras, her message is significant to establishing the dispossessed as a feminist text. shevek asks what it is vea does and she replies, “why, run the men, of course!” (le guin 215). the significance in this quotation lies in the challenge it presents to the patriarchal society on urras. according to the men, they are in power and rule the women, but unbeknownst to them, there are women willing to challenge their power. in the dispossessed, this woman was odo, but outside of the utopian realm, this woman is ursula le guin herself. the contrast between takver on anarres and vea on urras represents the exact elements and goals of a feminist utopia according to carol pearson in that “feminist utopian fiction usually begins by showing how women are profoundly alienated and limited by patriarchal society; they then go on to acquaint the reader with an alternative potential” (50). vea, and the few other women shevek interacts with on urras, appear largely alienated and ultimately dispossessed when compared to the inclusive society that consists solely of men. in contrast, the position of takver on anarres seems far more freeing and appealing for women, especially in terms of an alternative to urras. the chapters of the dispossessed alternate between shevek describing urras then anarres, and thus the narrative constantly shifts from a society in which women are inferior, to the alternative society where women are equal. this organization has the effect of creating an obvious comparison between how the world is and how the world could be. the male narration of this story, then, supports the claim that feminism is not just a cause for 83 jacocks women, by women. while this initially proposes a critique of the feminist attempt from le guin herself as she recognizes that, “the utopia was (both in fact and fiction) founded by a woman [i.e. odo], the protagonist is a man; and he dominates it in…a very masculine fashion” (jose 183). while the protagonist is indeed a man and the majority of the narrative revolves around his complicated temporal theory of time, i believe that shevek dominates in a masculine way with the purpose of further benefiting feminism. on anarres, there is no need to defend the role of women and their equality, but on urras, it is necessary to challenge and question the inferiority of women. considering the status of women on urras, though, it would be nearly impossible for a woman to go to urras and be taken seriously for her work in science, to be treated as an equal, and to consider equality for women. shevek is able to do so, however, because he is a man in a man’s world. shevek is not just any man, though. before even stepping foot on urras, shevek confronts the urrasti on their notions of women. when discussing work, shevek explains that, “a person chooses work according to interest, talent, strength—what has sex to do with that?” (le guin 17). immediately, shevek challenges the idea that women should not work certain jobs, by asking a very simple, yet revealing question. shevek asks a question that provokes thought in the real world, not just the fictitious dystopian world of urras. for the most part, work in the twenty-first-century united states is still defined by traditional gender stereotypes, such as nursing and teaching being femaledominated fields and business and sales being male-dominated fields. shevek has to be the character to ask this question, because on urras he is perceived to have the authority and credibility to present such an idea to other men. shevek is also a man who would not be the same without the women in his life. he makes it clear that he has been influenced by intellectual and inspiring women, and this gives a specific power to women. the senior physicist at the institute where shevek studies physics is a woman, and shevek claims that she “had the best mind among them”—them being women and men (le guin 56). furthermore, shevek defends the women in his life in front of the other physicists on urras. one of the physicists ask, “do you find any women capable of original intellectual work, dr. shevek?” and he responds by telling them, “well, it was more that they found me. mitis, in northsetting, was my teacher. also, gvarab; you know of her, i think” (le guin 74). this exchange is significant in that first 84 jacocks shevek recognizes that it was women who played an integral role in shaping him into the physicist he is and the theories he establishes. shevek gives credit to women, when women on urras receive chastisement and belittlement for their forced role of inferiority. secondly, shevek reveals to the urrasti physicists that one of the anarresti physicists they worked with was a woman. all along, they were unable to tell because of the lack of distinction between male and female names on anarres. knowing that a woman was writing and proving complex physics theories forces the urrasti men to confront their belief that women are incapable of “original intellectual work” (le guin 74). before learning of her gender, oiie, a urrasti physicist, believed that gvarab was capable of producing intellectual work, and now that he knows gvarab is a woman, oiie can no longer confidently uphold his claim that women are incapable and deserve to be inferior. this one instance has the potential to critique other notions of women’s incapacities harbored by the men on urras. in his role as protagonist, shevek provokes such critiques and provides a platform for feminism in a system dominated by male power. le guin furthers shevek’s feminist platform by describing an instance of gender role reversal. takver’s job is intense, and many others are not able to do the work that she does. shevek teaches classes and works on his theories, among a multitude of colleagues. as per the protocol on anarres, people are required to work and complete their assignments but not to over-work themselves. takver works outside of the home, while shevek would often times work in the home. sometimes shevek would work himself to the point of fatigue, and when takver “saw how hard shevek was used she protested. she would have cried out as odo’s husband, asieo, did once, ‘for god’s sake, girl, can’t you serve truth a little at a time?’—except that she was the girl and was unacquainted with god” (le guin 188). in this instance, there is a very clear gender role reversal as shevek compares his partner to odo’s husband while also comparing himself to odo, a woman. in doing so, shevek is provided with an even stronger platform for feminism, because he himself has been in the position of the wife, at least metaphorically speaking. comparing shevek to the role of odo allows him to use this freedom to reveal the agency women deserve and respond to the oppression women face. to put this feminist reading in context with anarchy, then, it is the anarchic state that provides le guin with the freedom and flexibility to write a feminist utopia. in her article “is gender 85 jacocks necessary?” le guin says, “to me the ‘female principle’ is, or at least historically has been, anarchic” (qtd. in pearson 54). she goes on to say about the dispossessed that “i think men mostly have to learn to be anarchists. women don’t have to learn” (qtd. in pearson 54). to put this in context with the conversation pertaining to anarchy, capitalism, and marxism, men have to learn to be anarchists because they are accustomed to creating and implementing laws. these laws are what guide and dictate men, whereas women can separate themselves from the law because for so long they have been separated from the world of capitalism and politics. only until recently have women truly become part of the conversation when it comes to writing and passing laws. pearson suggests in her analysis of women and politics in utopian texts that anarchy is potentially the result of a feminist utopia. this is to say that a feminist utopia functions best when there are no laws and no form of government to enforce any form of oppression. according to pearson, this is the case because for women, “the socialization to serve and to sacrifice one’s own needs for those of others makes it possible for women to envision a society in which people cooperate, instead of competing, and nurture instead of dominate one another” (54). this has been proven outside of utopian worlds as well. u.s. congresswoman, and current speaker of the house, nancy pelosi served on the foreign affairs committee during the kosovo war in the later 1990s. when reconstruction began after the war, pelosi recognized the importance of including women who were survivors of rape and abuse during the war. she recognized that by strengthening the women, the family becomes stronger as a whole and is better equipped for developing a society. it took a woman to focus on cooperation and nurturing a community back to prosperity, rather than implementing competition or domination. feminist utopias provide an example and image of what a world would look like with more female leaders. perhaps, it would look more like anarchy on anarres. society would function under the priorities of equality and cooperation. government would not enforce laws that create divisiveness or oppress marginalized groups; rather, government would only exist in the form of a computerized system that assigns jobs. women, and men, would be free from domestic restrictions, if they so choose, to pursue a career and focus on work. anarchy is often times a political system that evokes sensations of fear and extreme hesitancy, but when anarchy functions successfully in its true form, 86 jacocks as it is represented in the dispossessed, then it erases images of arbitrary chaos and instead evokes a desire for freedom from oppression and the ability to live according to one’s own personal rule. 87 works cited benfield, susan storing. “the interplanetary dialectic: freedom and equality in ursula le guin’s the dispossessed.” perspectives on political science, vol. 35, no. 3, summer 2006, pp. 128– 134. ebscohost, proxy.bsu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=tru e&db=aph&an=23155585&site=ehost-live&scope=site. call, lewis. “postmodern anarchism in the novels of ursula k. le guin.” substance, vol. 36, no. 2, 2007, pp. 87–105. jstor, www.jstor.org/stable/25195127. “history of women governors.” rutgers center for american women and politics, 2019, http:// www.cawp.rutgers.edu/history-women-governors. accessed 14 january 2019. donawerth, jane. “utopian science: contemporary feminist science theory and science fiction by women.” nwsa journal, vol. 2, no. 4, 1990, pp. 535–557. jstor, www.jstor.org/ stable/4316070. filipovic, jill. “a woman’s place is in the house.” elle, 4 december 2018, https://www.elle.com/ culture/career-politics/a25310446/congresswomen-2018/. accessed 14 january 2019. jaeckle, daniel p. “embodied anarchy in ursula k. le guin’s: the dispossessed.” utopian studies, vol. 20, no. 1, mar. 2009, pp. 75–95. ebscohost, proxy.bsu.edu/login?url=http://search. ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&an=44266973&site=ehost-live&scope=site. jaffe, sarah. “the factory in the family.” the nation, 9 april 2018, https://www.thenation.com/ article/wages-for-houseworks-radical-vision/. accessed 11 february 2019. jose, jim. “reflections on the politics of le guin's narrative shifts (réflexions concernant la politique des variations narratives de le leguin).” science fiction studies, vol. 18, no. 2, 1991, pp. 180–197. jstor, www.jstor.org/stable/4240058. le guin, ursula. “why are americans afraid of dragons?” the language of the night, edited by susan woods, g.p. putnam’s sons, 1979, pp 39-46. libretti, tim. “dispossession and disalienation: the fulfillment of life in ursula leguin’s the dispossessed.” contemporary justice review, vol. 7, no. 3, sept. 2004, pp. 305–320. ebsco jacocks 88 works cited host, doi:10.1080/1028258042000266022. marcellino, william. “shadows to walk: ursula le guin’s transgressions in utopia.” journal of american culture, vol. 32, no. 3, sept. 2009, pp. 203–213. ebscohost, doi:10.1111/j.1542 734x.2009.00711.x. pearson, carol. “women's fantasies and feminist utopias.” frontiers: a journal of women studies, vol. 2, no. 3, 1977, pp. 50–61. jstor, www.jstor.org/stable/3346349. wright, erik olin. “explanation and emancipation in marxism and feminism.” sociological theory, vol. 11, no. 1, 1993, pp. 39-54. jstor, https://www.jstor.org/stable/201979. jacocks the “perfect” latte, according to a benumbed barista andrea mohler arabica beans milk of any variety flavoring syrup or flavor sauce of choice 7-9 grams per shot 12 oz 5 pumps 2 1/2 pumps pour at least 15 grams of the arabica beans into a coffee grinder and grind until the beans are reduced to a smooth, sand-like texture. deposit the grounds into a portafilter. use a tamper to press the grounds to a level surface. use exactly 25 lbs. of pressure. lock the portafilter into the filterhead, and set two shot glasses underneath the filterhead. flip on the filterhead and mop up the spill beneath the third filterhead on the right. remind your coworker to let jim know the machine is leaking again. wait exactly 27 seconds after pulling the shot to flip the head off. anywhere between 25 and 30 seconds should be viable for a shot. the machine is old, though, and sometimes that number is off. and sometimes it’s humid, which creates another variable. and sometimes the customer is an asshole, which means the shots do not have to be perfect. a lot of things can throw off the timing for shots. while the shot is pulling, fill your cup with 2 ½ pumps of flavored sauce or five pumps of flavored syrup. while this number seems excessive, the syrup is about the only way the general public can find a latte palatable. don’t question the proportions. photo by tyler nix on unsplash recipe mohler | 14 description: two mugs with frothed milk on a counter top. pour approximately 300 ml of whatever milk you’re using into the steaming cup. begin frothing the milk: hold the cup at the bottom of the cup until you start to feel a small amount of warmth at the bottom of the cup. pull the cup downward so the frothing wand skims the surface of the milk. pull the cup back up again so the frothing wand is submerged. slowly repeat the process until the frothing wand atoms are screaming at you. tap the cup against the counter to knock out any bubbles. have a customer yell at you to not make their latte too hot; they burnt their tongue last time. dump out the milk and repeat the process, this time only allowing the milk to get to “kid’s temperature.” pour the espresso shots over the syrup/sauce in the cup and mix together until homogenous. begin pouring the milk. do not waste time with a fancy design, they do not check and they do not care. place the lid and the sleeve onto the cup and call out the flavor of the latte, setting it down on the outgoing counter. get tipped 50 cents. if you’re lucky. recipe 15 | mohler 130 by marisa sloan abstract the text never let me go envisions dystopianism through the eyes of a group that is simultaneously subjugated and compensated by class structures. due to the synchronous glorification and euphemization of their oppression, the fate of these characters ties historical threads to the livelihoods of yoshiwara courtesans in edo japan. these parallels are drawn from historical and sociological lenses, inspired by scholars cecilia segawa seigle and kelly rich on courtesan life and environmental influence.this dichotomy between perception and reality is born from the subjective nature of what it means to be educated and cultured. the relativity of privilege is then is weaponized by those in power, who ensure that both marginalized groups internalize their class and grow complicit in their own exploitation. in light of these parallels, the fluidity between utopian and dystopian livelihoods manifests, and therein seeps beyond the literary realm. donors of the floating world: the dystopian livelihoods of ishiguro's clones and yoshiwara courtesans 131 sloan it is almost instinctual to think of utopian and dystopian societies dichotomously; the conditions for anyone affiliated with the government is elysian while everyone else is either subject to dehumanization or brainwashing. note the subjugation of individuals in canonical dystopian works such as 1984, brave new world, and the handmaid’s tale. the degree to which a group is exposed to the beneficial or noxious aspects of their society is dictated by class. while it would be counterintuitive to assert that the lower classes would not be subjugated to the worst of a society’s dystopian conditions, it is too simplistic to think that a certain class will always be influenced in the same way, or that those of the lower classes necessarily perceive their bondage as dystopian. kazuo ishiguro ponders this disjunctive relationship between the perception and reality of oppressed groups in dystopian and utopian societies in his seminal work never let me go. this story details the life of kathy h., who embodies how a group internalizes being contained, nurtured, and compensated by class structures, which are subsumed within a dystopian framework. kathy h. has neither a last name nor parents because she is a clone. due to the method of her birth, her destiny is dictated by her obligations as a second-class citizen. in her early twenties, kathy must become a “carer,” someone who eases the physical and psychological pain of “donors,” clones who are set to die within a few years. carers tend to donors during rounds of “donations,” the surgical removal of organs. the health of the donors declines until their third or fourth donation. then the donors die, or more euphemistically, “complete.” the cycle repeats as droves of clones are raised in isolated institutions and brought, willingly, to donation centers. recoiling at the notion of anyone agreeing to organ removal is expected, but disregarding the clones’ rationale is missing ishiguro’s commentary on class. although current discourse and criticism of never let me go often focuses on the ethics of cloning or the importance of memory, what is paramount to the novel is the psychosocial factors that bind the clones together to form their sense of social class. the socialization and collectivist culture that is impressed upon the clones within their contained environment explains why the clones not only submit to their suicidal trajectory, but also later enforce the stipulations imposed on them. consequently, it is a small wonder that kathy’s perspective portrays the seemingly positive effects of the system; kathy’s childhood is utopian in comparison to the upbringing of other clone groups. 132 sloan as imaginative as ishiguro is for constructing a convincing perspective of the educated, cultured slave, there is an equally intriguing historical figure that embodies utopian and dystopian conditions within slave systems: the edo courtesan. within the grounds of yoshiwara, the licensed red-light district of edo japan (1603-1868), indentured prostitution was not only legalized, but a keystone of ukiyo (floating world) culture. the floating world was a district immortalized for its ribald theater and pleasure quarters: a utopia for the upper echelons of society. when one thinks of the floating world, the elegant and fashionable courtesan comes to mind as seen in ukiyo-e (woodblock prints). the splendor of a courtesan’s intricate kimono and pristine makeup thus obscures the reality of her servitude. in order to understand the psychosocial factors influencing the clones and the courtesans, a historical and sociological approach is needed to examine the physical and sociocultural environment that influences and perpetuates such exploitative systems. delving into the headspace of the ostensibly content groups in both narratives not only mitigates the reader’s horror, but also illuminates the subjectivity of utopian and dystopian conditions in the context of an oppressed group’s limited history. therefore, while the two groups might initially seem disparate, the forced prostitution system in yoshiwara parallels the lives of the clones in never let me go closely, almost blurring the distinction between reality and fiction. both narratives demonstrate not only the fluidity between utopian and dystopian livelihoods, but also how class structures can enmesh individuals within both extremes. the foundations of yoshiwara after years of civil unrest, the unification of japan under the tokugawa administration, the last dynasty of feudal japan, ushered in an era of peace. beginning in the order of highest prestige, the shogunate enforced the stratification of society into the following classes: samurai, farmer, artisan, and merchant. this rigid social system was also steeped in neo-confucian ideals, characterized by moralism and an adherence to traditional social roles, which were tools for securing political hegemony. a key example of government incentivization for adhering to class-based norms was the promotion of the official records of filial piety by the shogunate. essentially, the record 133 sloan “documented monetary rewards issued by the shogunate and the daimyo (feudal lords) to lowranking warriors and commoners who had shown exemplary virtuous conduct and could thus serve as role models for their fellow commoners” (ambros 105). this methodology was effective because it inflated lower classes with an artificial sense of superiority; it provided people whose lives were submitted to backbreaking work in rice fields “with an ideological rationale for enduring their own hardships” (fukushima 91). as will be demonstrated later, this incentivization for adhering to ideological systems imposed by higher institutions influences the clones in multiple ways. considering that the hedonistic zeitgeist of the edo period is almost diametrically opposed to such social stringency imposed by the shogunate, it is apparent that ieyasu’s administrative controls had weaknesses. samurai, so valued during the warring years, became displaced in a society that was steering away from militarism. additionally, as japan’s rice-based economy shifted to mercantilism, merchants became among the wealthiest members of society, despite their lack of social prestige. samurai and the nouveau riche merchants became privy to literary and artistic circles, which broadened the market for the world’s oldest profession. once they acquired licensing, bordello operators were able to advertise the services of courtesans within the context of the already glamorous and sybaritic yoshiwara. now that yoshiwara history has been established, it can be made apparent how the courtesans’ experience reflected that of ishiguro's clones. class divisions kathy h. is a product of the hailsham estate, an isolated institution in the english countryside that echoes a boarding school. hailsham students cannot leave the premises, but because there have been stories manufactured that students who leave the hailsham gates never return, the students are not apt to run away. this geographic restriction is ignored in light of how idyllic their childhood seems otherwise. some hailsham privileges include the following: each week the students are monitored by nurses to ensure optimal health, there is a sports pavilion in which to exercise, no student ever goes hungry, and the teachers, referred to as “guardians,” provide a humanities education. in this alternative english society, hailsham students do not have a conception of how comfortable their 134 sloan upbringing is in comparison to non-hailsham clones. of course, hailsham students pay for this picturesque childhood at the cost of their lives. while kathy and her classmates are imbued with their own sense of privilege throughout their lives, one can detect the cracks in hailsham’s utopian mirror beginning in kathy’s childhood. one of kathy’s earliest memories of developing a sense of class with her fellow clones is when she and her classmates walk past madame, a woman who visits the hailsham estate to take the students’ best artwork and add it to her gallery. to the students’ surprise, when they walk alongside her, madame is repulsed by them. when reflecting on that experience, kathy states that in life there comes “the moment when you realize that you really are different from them,” meaning original humans (ishiguro 36). kathy says this in her characteristically prosaic voice, which indicates both her internalization as a second-class citizen, and her normalization of such treatment. this sense of being different from people in the outside world is also communicated through various aspects of hailsham education and culture. for example, the lessons that students receive about sex education is a clear indication for them to stay within their class, since kathy speaks about the world outside as if the people in it are from a culture far removed. this division between herself and original humans is made particularly apparent by her continuous reference to original humans as “them” and clones as “us.” in regard to assimilating to the norms of original humans, kathy explains to the reader, “we had to behave like them. we had to respect the rules and treat sex as something pretty special” (63). clone assimilation also manifests itself in the classes the clones have to take, one of which is referred to as culture briefing. the sessions involve students role playing various professions in the outside world, such as servers or police, so that they understand how to interact with people in roles they will never fill themselves. another keystone of hailsham culture is the sales, which is a place where students exchange tokens for items they want, often the artwork of classmates. this miniature economy is part of the reason that the other students bully tommy, one of kathy’s best friends, and later her lover, so harshly. since tommy is not good at art, he can cannot contribute to the sales and is like a waste on the clone bartering system; it is a troubling utilitarian philosophy for the children to develop at such a young age. granted, being primed to give away their art and function within an economic system 135 sloan primes the clones to give away their organs later in life. one of the most chilling moments in the novel is when the guardian miss lucy, who seems to be having a crisis of conscience, tells the students that their destinies are predetermined as donors. none of the students raise any objection in response because they have already accepted their roles in life. oddly enough, tommy finds it more distressing for miss lucy to rescind her claim that he need not be good at art than to tell him that his life is controlled by a system that she operates within and benefits from. of course, tommy's distress over being a poor artist is intimately linked with his feeling of being unable to perform properly in society. tommy’s later remorse over not having anything in madame's gallery aptly reveals how difficult it has been for him to try to fit within a certain sphere (i.e. art), which in turn serves as a microcosm of the pain the clones, estranged from greater english society, experience by committing themselves to the donation system. in her essay comparing the text to the film adaptation of never let me go, hatice yurttas cites ishiguro, stating that “the reason for the clones’ willing submission to the system is the social codes and their sense of belonging to a class” (yurttas 10). indeed, the clones place their social codes before their own agency. when kathy takes ruth, her other childhood friend who ails from a poor donation, and tommy to see an abandoned ship, ruth reinforces her identity as a clone by insisting that her purpose in life is to donate. she says to tommy, “after all, it’s what we’re supposed to be doing, isn't it?” as an indication of her complete acceptance of the system that has already physically entrenched her within its clutches (ishiguro 223). once separated from wider society, the clones divide themselves further via arbitrary differences, which are embedded in the mythologies of the hailsham privilege. for example, ruth’s distress over not being able to find her “possible,” the human that she is grafted from, in the town of norfolk unearths tension between kathy’s friend group and the couple chrissie and rodney, who are non-hailsham graduates. the two groups experience an emotional distance as the couple seems to disingenuously console ruth, who believes that her “possible” is the key to her identity. while reliving that moment, kathy concludes that the couple was in fact “relieved that things had turned out the way they had” to avoid grappling with “this notion of theirs that there were all kinds of possibilities that were open to us hailsham students that weren’t open to them” (163). it crystallizes in that moment 136 sloan that the search for ruth’s “possible” is just a way for chrissie and rodney to get information about “deferrals,” which are rumored postponements, apparently exclusive to hailsham students, to becoming a carer for couples who are properly in love. this internalization of class, while leading the clones to assist with their subjugation in the system by becoming carers, becomes even more toxic when they adopt the mentality of their oppressors. for example, kathy looks down on carers who are not as successful as she is, such as when she refers to one carer as “a waste of space” (3). she finds comfort in the praise of guardians and hospital staff. additionally, her complacency is strengthened by the clone equivalent of a promotion at work, which is being able to choose her own donors. kathy quickly explains to readers, who she believes are non-hailsham students, that “it’s only for the last six years they’ve let me choose” to quell potential resentment and dispel the assumption that her choice in donors is derived from her hailsham roots (4). the clones never acknowledge that these small acts of favoritism segregate them from one another socially, which is part of what prevents them from rebelling. within the confines of yoshiwara, the courtesans developed their own sense of belonging to a class as well. as a world of its own, yoshiwara had its own customs, language, and traditions that served to solidify the connections between its inhabitants. for example, the brothels were clearly influenced by imperial traditions; yoshiwara was referred to as ‘arinsu-koku’ (country of the arinsu language) because the courtesan’s dialect had a “distinctive sentence-ending” (segawa 9). the hierarchical system of the courtesans was also complex, and orchestrated as such in order for “its denizens [to be] self-complacent with their value system” (segawa 7). at the top of the social order was the seasoned and most esteemed courtesan: the tayū. the tayū of yoshiwara were like hailsham students: the most ostensibly privileged class. more accurately, the tayū suffered fewer indignities than the average courtesan. a distinct benefit of being a tayū was that she did not have to sit in a lattice parlor during the day and be ogled by passerby through a screen in order to acquire clients (fig. 1). the structure that separated courtesans from men walking the streets resembled the bars of animal cages, which fit the lens in which clients viewed them. a tayū could also reject clients by refusing a cup of sake at their initial meeting. the opportunity to accept or reject clients, like kathy’s opportunity to select donors, might 137 sloan initially incline one to diminish the harsh realities of the tayū’s life. however, such a status was not concrete. courtesans had to visit the ageya (house of assignation) each day to meet with a client, and if no one showed, she would be at risk for demotion. this situation was known euphemistically as “grinding tea,” which required her to pay out of her own funds on a clientless day (segawa 80). additionally, similarly to a hailsham student, becoming a tayū was like winning a genetic lottery. a kamuro (teenager) would debut as a tayu upon becoming a full-fledged courtesan, and there was little chance for mobility for those who were not chosen. in addition to those hurdles, the tayū had to climb her way up the ranks for years in order to choose her own clients. it was also well-known that many of the courtesans came from impoverished peasant families, who sold them in order to pay off debts to a daimyo (feudal lord). thus, daughters might enter the bordellos as young as six years old, starting as attendants to sister courtesans, in order to learn their craft. the child’s contract entailed ten years of indentured servitude, but due to the debt policies of yoshiwara, most contracts carried on for many years afterward, and in some rare but tragic cases there were courtesans who were indebted for their entire lives. additionally, it should be noted that courtesans had to pay part of their debt every single day and double on holidays known as monbi. a courtesan had to pay out of her own funds for her retinue and clothing as well. in essence, yoshiwara women were irrevocably affected by the class in which they were born. panopticism while thinking about her early days at the cottages, the transitional space between hailsham and donation centers, kathy testifies to her isolated and confined upbringing by commenting, “if you’d told me that within a year, i’d not only develop a habit of taking long solitary walks, but that i’d start learning to drive a car, i’d have thought you were mad” ( ishiguro 116). that sentiment should strike most readers as odd, considering that most people do such activities as adolescents and certainly find nothing radical about the experience. additionally, when recounting the experience of madame finding her alone in her room at hailsham, kathy comments as an aside, “it was a sort of rule we couldn’t close dorm doors completely except when we were sleeping,” indicating that surveillance is embedded in her conscientiousness as a backdrop to everyday life (71). sloan in regard to how the repetition of environment fosters normalization, kelly rich frames the influence of hailsham on its graduates as its “poetics of space,” which is essentially the physical and psychological infrastructure of hailsham itself (638). hailsham’s infrastructure is defined by the guardians’ strategic divulgence of information to students over time, the parental role the guardians assume to prevent the clones from distressing over their origins, the superficially comforting boarding school environment, an apparent advocacy of the arts, and encouragement to minimize contact with the outside world. these qualities thus form kathy’s “infrastructural consciousness,” or overall perception of hailsham (rich 634). rich also argues for the potency of hailsham’s marketing, claiming that “hailsham’s emphasis on a kind, beautiful environment plays an even stronger role in [the clones’] repression than the euphemistic language” (633). this sentiment rings true in light of the fact that kathy still considers herself to have been lucky as a hailsham student after she has lost both ruth and tommy to donations. similarly, there was an infrastructural consciousness embedded in the everyday lives of yoshiwara courtesans. by virtue of making their appointments at ageyas and entertaining high clientele, courtesans were already considered more privileged than the cheaper, unlicensed prostitutes. additionally, in some cases, tayū had a one-room “suite,” an artificial display of prestige that inevitably invoked jealousy and competitiveness from lower-ranking courtesans. that is not to imply that the courtesans, particularly the kamuro, did not at times look to each other for support, since like the clones they had to forge familial ties with each other. nevertheless, the system was inherently designed to create divisions that would incentivize each woman to work as hard as she could to climb the bordello ladder. yoshiwara courtesans and hailsham students also parallel each other in terms of their long-term connections to their roots. a primary method through which the yoshiwara recycled its workers was by former courtesans becoming yarite (retired courtesan). essentially, yarite worked in conjunction with the operators in teahouses to supervise current courtesans. they were like carers with a guardian’s mindset. yarite instructed the most promising kamuro, inculcating in her the social codes of yoshiwara by teaching her in ways of deception and advising her against falling in love (segawa 43). the yarite possessed a room at the top of the staircase where she could monitor the 138 139 sloan activity below, which was quite a panoptical arrangement. admittedly, the courtesans were accustomed to that heightened sense of surveillance in between their proprietors knowing all of their business and being merchandised to clients and passerby on a daily basis. as a testament to the courtesans’ sense of isolation, the yoshiwara district was surrounded by a moat and could only be accessed via the “bridge of hesitation,” which came to be known as such because potential clients would wait at the entrance, contemplating whether or not they wanted to spend hundreds of dollars for one night in the pleasure districts. courtesans were also not allowed to leave the premises without accompaniment, which enforced their sense of belonging to the bordellos. while the courtesans arguably had a greater desire to leave their spaces than the clones, most of them became resigned to their fate, just as tommy quelled his childhood outbursts. the cultured slave a significant talking point for miss emily, the former headmistress of hailsham, in justifying the plight of the clones is that the clones have been able to produce art and learn about the literary canon, albeit they can never apply their knowledge outside of their circles. during kathy and tommy’s visit to miss emily and madame for a deferral request, miss emily insists, “you’ve had good lives. you’re cultured” as condolence and encouragement (ishiguro 256). yet is being cultured enough to justify whether one’s life is good or bad, especially when “cultured” is subjective? another key element of rich’s essay is that ishiguro’s work is a “deliberation over the meaning-making potential of state infrastructures and whether their promises of cultural value actually sustain those whose lives are thoroughly instrumentalized” (633). indeed, the pseudo-comfort that the english state aims to produce with its art initiative is certainly a failure in terms of emotional fulfillment for the clones past their childhoods. the argument of an arts education has also been used in an attempt to glamorize courtesan livelihoods. the tayū were renowned for their adroitness in various art forms, including calligraphy, poetry, painting, music, and tea rituals. however, the courtesans learned these arts as a means to accentuate their charms and further appeal to clientele. the bordellos were not teaching these crafts because of a proto-feminist initiative to educate women, by any means. additionally, within the realm 140 sloan of yoshiwara, the literary and artistic genres of sharebon (humorous stories), senryū (human haiku), and kibyōshi (picture-books) flourished among the literati. these works were born from men in artistic circles drinking sake and amusing themselves with music and other forms of entertainment. none of these art forms were a direct result of courtesan involvement, although a large portion of edo works would later feature the courtesans. when education is a byproduct rather than a goal, it becomes even more difficult to justify the plight of both parties. public consciousness miss emily’s rationale to kathy about the acquiescence of english society to this clone-slave system is that “however uncomfortable people were about your existence, their overwhelming concern was for their own children” (258). thus, the clones do not have proper representation in english society because they have been pushed to the back of public consciousness. this sentiment also suggests an inverse relationship between compassion and proximity in terms of human empathy. karl shaddox argues that the empathy kathy cultivates through her direct address to the reader is a state that must be achieved individually, and he goes on to suggest that such a reason is why the guardians’ attempt to evoke public sympathy has failed (14). this claim applies to madame’s revulsion at the sight of the clones, and her concession to kathy that “we’re all afraid of you,” (264). this confession indicates that despite her sympathetic, humanitarian actions, madame views the clones collectively rather than resonating with them on an intimate, personal level. moreover, madame’s discrimination, which is initially softened by her activism, also leads the reader to question her and miss emily’s intentions. since kathy and tommy only receive information through the filter of the guardians’ supposed goodwill, perhaps miss emily and madame were never interested in having the clones be treated as equal to english citizens but rather less harshly than in their current state. if english society othered the clones in such a way, then what was the public’s consciousness in regard to yoshiwara? one mode is which to consider this question is the ukiyo-e (woodblock print), championed by renowned commercial artist kitagawa utamaro. the yoshiwara was rife with directories providing advertisements of courtesans, which would include a woodblock print along with a description of each woman. these prints detailed each courtesan's skillset and also made the viewer 141 sloan privy to a bit of her personality as well. although it would be exhaustive to detail each series of bijinga (pictures of beautiful women), utamaro contributed heavily to the floating world heritage. a notable series that he created was five shades of ink in the northern quarter, which includes women from the whole spectrum of the sex industry using clothing, hairstyle, and expression to denote their rank (nelson 40). the women are stereotyped in form; the highest-ranking courtesan studies as a means to communicate her intelligence and refinement. her eyes are intent, her hair flows down her back, and she is fully clothed (fig. 2). in contrast, the lowest-ranking teppō (moatside) prostitute looks nonchalantly at the ground with her breasts exposed (fig. 3). the teppō would have had at least a few clients a night in comparison to the tayu’s one, and her services were much cheaper. additionally, teppō were believed to be much more likely than tayu to harbor venereal diseases. while the physiognomic representations might be considered reductive and misleading to the modern viewer, david bell argues that “[w]hile utamaro’s representations of the women of the yoshiwara seem idealized, and perhaps rather sanitized, they are consistent with what he would have encountered there” (277). considering that utamaro was among the literati, he benefited from the illusion of yoshiwara. as a visitor, he was paying for the ritualized glamour of the bordellos. consequently, neither he nor his fellow artists were obligated to rip any seams as courtesans were reduced to sex objects within the fabric of edo culture. conclusion: donations to the red-light district the literary and historical examples of romanticized slavery serve as a microcosm for how oppressive systems can be reinforced and perpetuated in the modern day. in never let me go, the privileged ones are english citizens, refusing to slack their grip on their advantage. this reluctance to alter the system then devolves into trying to justify the subjugation of other groups, as illustrated by how the hailsham clones had a physically comfortable upbringing, and the courtesans in their cultural prestige had objectively nicer living quarters than that of the impoverished family that sold them. the cost of these perceived advantages, orchestrated lives, was of course much too high, but these factors do muddle the division between utopian and dystopian livelihoods. similar to how the 142 sloan the clones repress their dread over their impending doom through making art, the artists of the floating world found a respite from the mundanity and social conservatism of everyday life by obscuring the darkness of forced prostitution through alluring prints. as demonstrated here, the relativity of privilege and freedom can inadvertently strengthen oppressive systems, such as the hailsham graduates internalizing themselves as lucky for their upbringing, and former courtesans often becoming yarite. the use of incentives can be weaponized to quell public objection as well, as noted by the guardians’ self-satisfaction with providing hailsham students with an education, and the glorification of courtesan beauties in edo works. the perceptions of each group’s situation are also subsumed within a lattice of social and cultural norms, and in the case of the courtesans, politics and economics as well. all of those aforementioned factors, while serving to normalize the plight of each group, thus become pillars for the exploitative systems that entrap each party. when considering that dystopianism is a continuous preoccupation for the advantaged and a reality for the disadvantaged, readers will find modern donors operating within the ideological systems that they contribute to, or worse, benefit from. even in the wake of technological advancement, society will likely continue to harbor its feudalistic tendency to segregate and subjugate some groups for the benefit of others. the propensity for slavery to move fluidly between physical and psychological states, exacerbated by class divisions, makes it difficult to peel back its veneer of beauty and cultivation when such a form arises. in light of this, utopianism and dystopianism should not be viewed through dichotomous lenses, but rather as multidimensional entities working in tandem with one another through the lives of those they encompass past, present, and future. 143 sloan works cited ambros, barbra r. “the edo period: confucianism, nativism, and popular religion.” women in japanese religions. nyu press, 2015 bell, david. ukiyo-e explained. global oriental, 2004. davis, julie nelson. utamaro and the spectacle of beauty. university of hawai’i press, 2007. fukushima, nahoko. sharebon and the courtesans: a phase of edo aesthetics as the dispersal of ideology. dissertation, university of michigan, 2011. ishiguro, kazuo. never let me go. faber and faber, 2005. rich, kelly. "‘look in the gutter’: infrastructural interiority in never let me go." modern fiction studies, vol. 61, no. 4, 2015, pp. 631-651. seigle, cecilia segawa. a courtesan’s day: hour by hour. hotei, 2004. the glittering world of the japanese courtesan. university of hawaii press, 1993. shaddox, karl. "generic considerations in ishiguro's never let me go." human rights quarterly, vol. 35, no. 2, 2013, pp. 448-469. yurttaş, hatice. "an original copy: the film adaptation of kazuo ishiguro’s never let me go. selcuk university faculty of letters journal, no. 36, 2016, pp. 189-210. 144 sloan appendix fig. 1. utamaro, kitagawa. yoshiwara picture book: annual events. museum of fine arts, boston, mfa.org/collections/object/seir%c3%b4-ehon-nenj%c3%bb-gy%c3%b4ji-yoshiwara-picture book-annual-events-4989781800, museo del prado, madrid. 145 sloan fig. 2. utamaro, kitagawa. high-ranked courtesan, from the series five shades of ink in the northern quarter (hokkoku goshiki-zumi) (oiran)1789–1800. art institute of chicago. artic. edu/artworks/89354/high-ranked-courtesan-from-the-series-five-shades-of-ink-in-the northern-quarter-hokkoku-goshiki-zumi-oiran. 146 sloan fig. 3. utamaro, kitagawa. a low-class prostitute (gun [teppo]), from the series “five shades of ink in the northern quarter" ("hokkoku goshiki-zumi").1789–1800. art institute of chicago. artic. edu/artworks/89356/a-low-class-prostitute-gun-teppo-from-the-series-five-shades-of-ink-in-thenorthern-quarter-hokkoku-goshiki-zumi. this essay analyzes the ways in which food throughout the film parasite symbolizes the divide between rich and poor, using contemporary research to further build on how food is a signifier of class and wealth. from the less wealthy eating prepackaged foods, to using a fruit allergy as a weapon against someone, there is a clear indication throughout the film of food as a signifier of status and class. i take this divide and analyze its significance to the modern culture and society of south korea, then further apply this to its relevancy in a modern united states. parasite flourished in american society—both are countries wherein a capitalist ‘meritocracy’ rules for the most part, and an analysis of the culture around the film will show the ways in which the cultures that consumed this media are similar in their class divides. bong joon-ho’s parasite received numerous awards and much critical acclaim at the 2020 academy awards, a remarkable feat in general, let alone for a foreign film. the film was also the first non-english production in the oscar’s history to take home the award for best picture. joon-ho, however, is neither new to the directorial world, nor to the theme of class and division. unfortunately, because of its recency, having only debuted in cinemas a little over a year ago, parasite has not yet received much scholarly criticism. however, there is no shortage of critique on class structures in the u.s., as well as in south korea, and enough film commentary exists to suggest a viable popular opinion regarding the film. the division between classes and the difference in opportunity and accessibility as exemplified through the kim and park families is a consistent and prominent theme throughout the film, and thus can easily be intuited to show the ways food studies further complicate this class divide. utilizing contemporary research and commentary, this essay will analyze the ways in which class divide is represented in the film through the lens of food studies and consumption, including poverty as demonstrated through food insecurity, an ignorance on the part of upper classes, and food used as a physical conduit for violence and aggression. parasite was a film that was very well-received internationally, and its many awards and acknowledgements are proof of this. as already noted, it was the first non-english film to receive best picture, among several other academy awards, as well as being featured and receiving recognition at the cannes film festival in france. the film follows the kim family, who live in a small basement apartment in seoul, south korea. the family is visibly poor, until they are presented with the opportunity to find work with the park family, who are visibly wealthy. obtaining these jobs, however, requires lying about their identities and creating false personas more qualified and educated than the kims really are, as well food for the dogs: consumption and wealth inequality in bong joon-ho’s parasite tauri hagemann, ball state university essay hagemann | 96 as spreading lies about the others already employed by the parks to garner mistrust and get them fired to open more opportunities for the kims. all of these lies and cutthroat tactics to achieve financial prosperity end up catching up to the kims, and the final arc of the movie results in intense violence and bloodshed. the main theme or premise behind this film is the unbridgeable gap between the poor and the wealthy elite, and this is a notion that people internationally, especially in the united states, understand to an extensive degree. we are told that we live in a meritocracy wherein all one must do to become successful is put in hard work. at the same time, the rich keep getting richer and the poor remain poor, showing that there must be a flaw in this ideology. the covid crisis and the quarantine of the last year have been clear contributors to furthering this class divide. over the course of around three months of shutdown of everything non-essential, many people were unable to work and therefore unable to bring home a paycheck for their families. after some businesses started reopening, many remained closed or were forced to permanently shut down because of financial losses from three months with no business. a cnbc article from mid-october found that at that time over 100,000 small businesses had already been forced to permanently close their doors because of an inability to keep up revenue while complying with new covid guidelines and regulations (adamczyk). the government did send out a stimulus check, but many people either did not receive any stimulus or the small amount they received did not compensate for their loss of employment. now, a year since the united states’ official lockdown, the covid crisis is finally beginning to push through more stimulus aid and work on making vaccinations and treatments more readily accessible. not everyone faced these struggles during the quarantine, though; because of in-person retailers and shopping options being closed for so long, many people took to shopping from online sources like amazon. over the course of the quarantine and the pandemic, jeff bezos, the ceo of amazon, continued to grow richer and amass a greater net worth. over a roughly seven-month period, bezos’s wealth growth was over $90 billion, bringing his total net worth to over $200 billion (stebbins). in a time where people in our nation were struggling to even put food on the table, bezos continued growing richer and richer and nearly doubled his net worth. this ties directly into the idea of food security—bezos and others like him had no worries for their families or their own well-being financially, whereas those 100,000 small businesses that were forced to close have resulted in an even larger number of people now unemployed and afraid if they will even be able to afford to put food on the table for their families with what little income they may have. in an interview with the atlantic, joon-ho discussed this wealth gap internationally, saying, “i think the state of polarization applies not only to korea but anywhere across the world. [south] korea has achieved a lot of development, and now it’s a fairly wealthy country, but the richer a country gets, the more relative this gap becomes” (sims). marcus noland remarks how “south korea’s development over the last half century has been nothing short of spectacular. . . .[yet] still needs to fix a labor market in which some workers have extensive benefits and job protection and others do not” (17, 20-21). the south korean education system has also played into this increasing class divide and polarization. in south korea, as in other countries including the united states, “higher education has been transformed from an elite system to a mass system” (doo hwan kim 436-437). university education is essay 97 | hagemann no longer something that puts a person a step ahead in the workforce as much as it is something that is expected and seen as necessary to find sustainable work. however, despite this ideal, income and class status in south korea still heavily impact available opportunities: “they view expansion of higher education as a process of diversion, which reserves higher-status opportunities for the elite by channeling children of the working class to low-status post-secondary opportunities” (doo hwan kim 437). we can also see this phenomenon clearly reflected in joon-ho’s parasite. kim ki-woo has a long-time friend named min who connects him with his job with the park family in the first place. min is university educated, and this is what helped him find his position tutoring for the wealthy family—his education has provided him with opportunity. education brings opportunity, opportunity brings financial stability, and financial stability brings food security—all things of which the kim family were lacking at the start of the film. as has been referenced several times throughout this essay, money and food are inherently related in that money is needed to obtain food. this is made very clear in one of the first scenes of the film, wherein we see the poorer kim family sitting around their small kitchen table eating food that looks— and sounds—like it is coming out of plastic packaging. we also see them all with the same canned beverage, though whether it is soda or beer or an alcoholic beverage is unclear (parasite). they’re eating cheap, packaged, processed foods like one would buy from a vending machine because this is what their family is able to afford on the small income they make folding pizza boxes. according to barbara briers and sandra laporte, “financially dissatisfied people may try to replenish their need for financial resources by consuming caloric resources or food energy because money and food are closely related, exchangeable resources” (767). briers and laporte also posit that because of this increased value assigned to food energy, those who are financially dissatisfied also tend to consume food in larger quantities and higher caloric contents. going from the vending machine assumption, this would make perfect sense of the kim family. prepackaged snacks and beverages tend to be high in calories and cheap to acquire, while also being alarmingly lacking in nutrient or vitamin contents. another study also found that the amount of people who are financially dissatisfied, particularly in developing asia, is startlingly large: “around 560 million people lived in slums in asia and the pacific in 2014, which corresponds to about 30 percent of the population.” while the percentage has fallen year to year, “the absolute number has risen . . . due to overall population growth” (aizawa 28). looking at the kim’s basement apartment and the small table they crowd around in their center room to eat, it is not too out of bounds to assume that they would fall into this category of financially dissatisfied people. this wealth divide becomes more apparent once the kim family becomes employed by the parks. the parks are a family that live a life drastically different from the kims—they employ several personal assistants and tutors, they live in a sizable house with a lavish and manicured lawn, and they can do so off of the patriarch’s salary with the mother and children of the house not having to work at all. one scene that is particularly striking in showing this wealth divide is when the park family decides to go on a camping trip for their son’s birthday and leave kim chung-sook, their caretaker and the mother of the kim family, to stay in the house and look after their dogs. the matriarch of the park family goes into extensive detail on each of the dog’s diets, explaining how one of them eats differently from the others and has food that is made from crab legs (parasite). she seems completely oblivious to the extent of luxury and comfort this exemplifies in her family, ignorant and unappreciative of just how prosperous they essay hagemann | 98 really are. for the kims, who can only afford to get themselves a pizza after several of them have been working for the parks for a few weeks, seeing dogs who eat fancier ingredients than them is very unsettling. this dichotomy is especially seen after the parks have left and the kim family have made themselves comfortable, taking advantage of a space and a prosperity that at any other time is unavailable to them. while the parks are aware that chung-sook is in the house, they are unaware that any of their other employees are related and therefore do not know that the family is all present in their absence. while the kims are lounging around the house enjoying the parks’ food and drink, daughter ki-jung inspects this package of dog food and scoffs upon seeing what it is composed of. one scholar argues that this idea of “upward comparison to those with more income generally leads people to feel they need more to be satisfied” and how this “perceived need has a precise relationship to risk taking” (payne 4643). comparing what the parks have to their own resources, the kims develop a feeling that they need more to be happy, which causes them to take greater risks in order to achieve this wealth and satisfaction. they feel a sense of injustice at the wealth gap they are experiencing firsthand and decide to take matters into their own hands to level this gap as much as possible. what serves to make matters even worse for the kims is that the parks, who have the wealth and prosperity to eat basically whatever they want, also seem to have a strange affinity for cheap and easy food. when a storm starts and the park camping trip eventually turns into a bust, the mother of the family calls kim chung-sook on their way home and asks her to prepare their son, da-song, his favorite meal for when they return. this favorite meal? ramdon, a combination of packaged ramen and udon noodles (parasite). for a family that is so well off, it comes as somewhat strange that da-song’s absolute favorite food is comprised of pre-packaged noodles that are affordable even to poorer families like the kims. it is not only da-song who enjoys the cheap and easy meal, though—when the park family returns home, da-song is upset and angry and retreats to his room without eating. the family matriarch offers the food to her husband but, upon his declination, eats the ramdon instead. not only does she eat it, she eats quickly, signifying either an intense hunger, a deep love for the dish, or a combination of both (parasite). it’s not just their young son who enjoys cheap food—it’s the adults in the house as well who supposedly have an appreciation for the ‘finer things in life’ that would exclude something this simple. this serves to emphasize a very important point in the film: while the parks have the means to obtain practically anything, they are not necessarily appreciative of this fact. this is the same idea emphasized through the image of the crab leg dog food; the family is completely oblivious to their own wealth and prosperity and therefore do not appropriately acknowledge their privilege. the kim family, on the other hand, knows that they are not at all considered wealthy, but, in contrast to the parks, they are willing to do nearly anything to find a way to obtain the means to that wealth and prosperity, even if it takes lying about their lives and identities to do so. another very interesting yet less obvious way in which food comes to play a role in the significance of class divide in parasite is through smell and connotation. when the park family returns home from their failed camping trip, the kims have not yet had time or opportunity to leave without being seen, and as such end up hiding under the table in the main living room area. while here, the parks can be overheard talking, and at one point the patriarch of the household can be heard saying that kim kitaek, the kim father who at this point works as the parks’s chauffeur, smells badly—specifically, he says essay 99 | hagemann that he smells like radishes (parasite). this is a comment that strikes ki-taek much more deeply than one would anticipate and plays a very large role in the climactic final events of the film. while the parks are out the old housekeeper returns, and conflict ensues between the old and new help of the park family. the old housekeeper had been working in that house since the previous owner, and it is revealed that she had been hiding her husband in a nuclear cellar underneath the house that the parks were unaware of, allowing him to live there for free and providing him with food. when he was much younger, park son da-song saw this man coming up the stairs late at night and was so frightened that he had a seizure. in the climax of the film, more conflict embroils between the parks and the old help, all hidden underneath the parks’s elaborate picnic party for da-song. eventually, this man leaves the basement and grabs a knife as he passes on his way to the yard, where he attacks the kim family and gravely injures the daughter ki-jung in front of a crowd of people. upon seeing this terror from his past resurface, park son da-song has another seizure and needs to be taken to the hospital. his father yells for kim ki-taek to get the car ready and go, not knowing that the body ki-taek is cradling is that of his daughter. instead, he throws the keys towards the parks, and they land in the grass and end up under the body of the previous housekeeper’s husband who has been physically struggling with the mother kim chung-sook most of this time. when mr. park goes to retrieve the keys, he recoils for a moment and holds his nose before grabbing them. this is the action that ultimately makes ki-taek snap as he rises, grabs the knife previously used to hurt his daughter, and drives it into the chest of mr. park. ki-taek’s daughter is about to die, bleeding out on the grass in his arms, and mr. park has the audacity to think his bodily odor lingering on the car keys is repulsive enough to take pause in acting to help his own son. there are several places where food makes itself present in the carnage of this final scene—the smell of radishes lingering on these car keys, mrs. kim taking down the man who killed her daughter by stabbing him with a sausage skewer, and the whole scene centering around da-song’s birthday and beginning while kim ki-jung was bringing out his birthday cake. this is perhaps the most extreme, and yet the most clear and significant, example throughout the film of this disparity between the families and the gap between their lives that they will simply never be able to bridge. there is also another very direct tie between food and violence in this film, specifically with peaches. the park’s old housekeeper, who gets fired and replaced by chung-sook, has an intense and dangerous allergy to peaches. the children in the house enjoy the fruit, but never have it because of their housekeeper’s allergy. when trying to get rid of the housekeeper, the kim children who are employed in the house already use this allergy to their advantage and spread the fibers off the skin of peaches in the air around her, making her cough and react aggressively. upon these reactions happening increasingly frequently, the housekeeper goes to see a doctor and is spotted there by kim ki-taek, who takes a selfie with her in the background and later expresses concerns to mrs. park, saying he overheard the housekeeper talking about tuberculosis. this is ultimately what ends up getting the housekeeper fired—a fabricated sense of secrecy surrounding her health and a perceived endangerment of the park family. later, when she comes back for her husband while the parks are away and the kims are relaxing around the house, the peach becomes used as a more literal weapon against her, shoved in her face and rubbed against her skin to cause a reaction. in bong joon-ho’s words, “peaches are so pretty to look at, but you can attack someone with them” (murray). beyond just the physical representation of the food, essay hagemann | 100 this further exemplifies how food and consumption are used throughout the film as signs of aggression and class divide. the kims use the peaches as a weapon against the housekeeper to secure their jobs with the parks and obtain a better financial standing, thus pushing the poor housekeeper down into unemployment and poverty. through these given examples, food and consumption clearly play a major role in the way that class and social status are portrayed throughout parasite, being so vital as to be the conduit for the final moments of violence and bloodshed within the film. one’s means of obtaining food and for consumption are inherently tied to their social and financial standing, and this is clear to see in the divide between the food and consumption habits of the parks and the kims. this is not just an issue that exists within the screen either—wealth gaps in south korea as well as the united states are an ever-present issue as the rich grow richer and the poor stay poor, and this film is an exemplary demonstration of the destructive nature of this social structure. while parasite is unarguably a dramatized representation of the consequences of this divide, it brings about some very important points and one essential question for us to consider: who is really the parasite of the film? is it the rich who rely on the services of the poor to thrive without being appreciative of these services or the privilege that they themselves have? or is it the poor who sap money and resources from the rich in hopes of financial ascension? essay 101 | hagemann works cited adamczyk, alicia. 7 months into the pandemic, small business owners don’t know how much longer they can hold on: ‘we are in survival mode.’ 15 oct. 2020, www.cnbc.com/2020/10/15/small-businesses-are-in-survival-mode-as-the-covid-pandemic drags-on.html. aizawa, toshiaki, et al. “housing inequality in developing asia and the united states: will common problems mean common solutions?” cityscape, vol. 22, no. 2, 2020, pp. 23-60. briers, barbara, and sandra laporte. “a wallet full of calories: the effect of financial dissatisfaction on the desire for food energy.” journal of marketing research, vol. 50, no. 6, 2013, pp. 767-781. doo hwan kim, and yool choi. “the irony of the unchecked growth of higher education in south korea: crystallization of class cleavages and intensifying status competition.” development and society, vol. 44, no. 3, 2015, pp. 435–463. murray, iana. “how peaches went from sexual innuendo to symbol of doom on screen.” them., them., 5 oct. 2020, www.them.us/story/peach-danger-call-me-by-your-name ratched-parasite. noland, marcus. “south korea: the backwater that boomed.” foreign affairs, vol. 93, no. 1, 2014, pp. 17-22. parasite. directed by bong joon-ho, cj entertainment, 2019. payne, b. keith, et al. “economic inequality increases risk taking.” proceedings of the national academy of sciences of the united states of america, vol. 114, no. 18, 2017, pp. 4643–4648. sims, david. “how bong joon ho invented the weird world of ‘parasite.’” the atlantic, atlantic media company, 10 feb. 2020, www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2019/10/ bong-joon-ho-parasite-interview/600007/. stebbins, samuel, and grant suneson. “jeff bezos, elon musk among us billionaires getting richer during coronavirus pandemic.” usa today, gannett satellite information network, 1 dec. 2020, www.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/12/01/american-billionaires-that got-richer-during-covid/43205617/. essay hagemann | 102 digital literature review 1 77 the vampire figure is used within gothic literature tradition as a metaphorical representation of the unknown, encapsulating the fears of the given society from which the piece of literature derives. this essay investigates the connections between the evolution of the vampire, more specifically in le fanu’s novella carmilla and bram stoker’s dracula, both of which depict the violent hunt of the homosexual, vampiric figure within society. this piece exposes the gothic depictions of homophobic societies and reveals the ways in which homophobic violence still remains a prevalent issue within the contemporary world. clare nee, siena college the haunt of injustice: exploring homophobia in vampire literature vampire literature uses the terrifying, superhuman creature as a fictional means to build upon the very human quality of anxiety. the vampire is a literary metaphor of the unknown, a force that has the ability to consume mortal lives and create immortal beings. since the beginning of time, humans have thought themselves to be superior to their surroundings: to animals, the environment, etc. in a fictional world in which vampires exist, however, the human is no longer the dominant, most powerful being. thus, the concept inflicts fear which permits the construction of the hunt in vampire literature. the classic texts of joseph sheridan le fanu’s carmilla and bram stoker’s dracula reinforce the notion that the vampire encapsulates societal anxieties about the “uncontrollable,” one that pertains to sexuality and transforms these narratives into cultural hauntings. while some people may believe that vampire literature are composed of merely silly, “make believe” stories, the truth is that they act as platforms to address serious social issues—such as homophobia—that still haunt our society. carmilla and dracula portray the hunts for and violent deaths of homosexual vampires to underscore the normalized marginalization of homosexuals, a cultural haunting that extends into modern society. this essay seeks to expose the gothic depictions of homophobic societies to reflect the ways in which people have viewed digital literature review 2 78 homosexuality as something dangerous which threatens the power of the heteronormative hierarchy. the textual analysis of the history of this narrative begins with the examination of le fanu’s carmilla then transitions into stoker’s dracula to unveil the disturbing cultural haunt of the homophobic brutality inflicted upon the lgbtq community within society even still today. carmilla presents the taboo topic of female desire through the fluidity of the homosocial and homosexual nature of the relationship between carmilla and laura that deviates from the heteronormative society. these desires seamlessly unravel throughout the story without much verbal discussion since they were not socially permissible during this time period. adrienne antrim major supports this sentiment in her article “other love: le fanu’s carmilla as lesbian gothic.” she unpacks the depiction of love within this novella and the anticipated social response to the women’s relationship. major writes, “... it poses a paradigm of feminine power and lesbian love that might well create terror in the hearts of his contemporaries…” (151). major emphasizes the problematic response of society to homosexuality and later describes the public’s perception of queer desire as perversion, which encapsulates the demonization of homosexual individuals and sets the stage for the homophobic cultural hauntings. major also addresses the portrayal of love within carmilla as malevolent, yet argues that carmilla and laura’s relationship offers laura a position of power because it deviates from the traditional structure of relationships in which women were inferior. one particular scene that shows this within the novella is when laura and carmilla discuss the human fear of death, which laura recognizes as universal to all humans. carmilla responds, “but to die as lovers may—to die together so that they may live together. girls are caterpillars while they live in the world, to be finally butterflies when summer comes; but in the meantime there are grubs and larvae…” (27). this quote exemplifies the sinister tone that the character of carmilla adopts because it shows death in the context of lovers as a state that is embraced, or rather idolized. it is important to note that death as lovers is the only true way that this lesbian couple would be able to be together during the 19th century since openly homosexual relationships were not permitted. the comparison of women to insects metaphorically represents the lack of power that women have within society. carmilla advocates, in a rather dark way, for laura to die with her because the choice of death would be a final assertion of agency and power through their refusal to conform to the heteronormative society around them. thus, the notion of sexuality transforms into a supernatural context as the heteronormative society haunts these individuals with torment and suppression to conceal this part of their identity. digital literature review 3 79 further addressing gender and sexual agency, vampire literature works with familial structures to reflect cultural hauntings. the incorporation of the familial structure enforces the cruciality of power dynamics within the microcosm of the private sphere to reflect the larger macrocosm of disparity between male and female power. in the article “repossessing the body: transgressive desire in ‘carmilla’ and dracula,” elizabeth signorotti compiles the variation of interpretations that scholars have formed regarding sexuality within carmilla and dracula. signorotti further describes the implications of homosexual relationships within a heterosexually dominated society. she explores the notion of power dynamics within the family, particularly between laura and her father. signorotti states that the “... lesbian relationship defies the traditional structures of kinship by which men regulate the exchange of women to promote male bonding” (607). this quote reinforces the objectification of the female within the heteronormative society, which gave males the familial power to control women through marriage. as with sexual dynamics, gender dynamics further exemplify the social haunting of marginalized people. the relationship that is created between these two women threatens the very reassurance of male power within this traditional scope. this is particularly evident within the novella when laura’s father and the general reflect upon the death of his daughter. the general proclaims, “... inveighing against the ‘hellish arts’ to which she had fallen victim… and his wonder that heaven should tolerate so monstrous an indulgence of the lusts and malignity of hell” (49). the use of religion permits the general to invalidate the relationship of laura and carmilla by denoting it to an “indulgence of the lusts.” he regards female desire as something that detracts from the normality of human beings. moreover, he portrays the homosexual vampire, carmilla, as an evil “other” that corrupts the conditions of society and robs him of his own power. this displays another instance in which homophobic beliefs haunt the society in which these relationships exist and, furthermore, causes these individuals to suffer in turn. after carmilla is demonized for her sexuality and involvement with the daughters of these men, she is hunted by the male alliance who seek vengeance and the restoration of their own power and control within the world. they claim that an eye for an eye is the only true way to restore justice, or at least what they believe is a just society. the notion of justice, however, is skewed by the homophobic undertones that haunt these individuals. some critics argue whether the general’s daughter even died, or if this is merely symbolic of the death of her purity. signorotti quotes sian macfie’s perspective regarding lesbian relationships and blood in her article, arguing that it is not death that takes the general’s daughter away from him but rather the notion of the “psychic sponge” and lesbianism as a consumption of her youth and purity (610). moreover, she digital literature review 4 80 loses all value within society, ultimately leaving her undesirable by men. macfie states that “... close female bonding and lesbianism are conflated with notions of the unhealthy draining of female vitality” (qtd. in signorotti 610). critics argue that lesbianism threatens the very nature of the social exchange of women, which gave men power over their daughters. the metaphor of vampirism in relation to lesbianism unveils the homophobic perspective of same-sex relationships producing an impurity of blood. this belief echoes the homophobic presumptions and beliefs that have haunted our society, which was particularly evident during the aids crisis within america during the 1980s. furthermore, the relationship between the society in which this text was written and our modern world reflects the homophobic trepidations regarding same-sex relationships and the purification of the body, as well as the cultural haunting that these beliefs constructed. despite how much power has been attributed to carmilla and her ability to steal all of laura’s vitality, the hunt ends with the sacrificial persecution of this homosexual vampire. it becomes abundantly clear, however, through le fanu’s description of carmilla’s death that there are some overlaps between carmilla as a vampire and as a human being. in the final scene of her life, le fanu writes, “... a sharp stake driven through the heart of the vampire, who uttered a piercing shriek at the moment, in all respects such as might escape from a living person in the last agony” (70). in this final scene, the end of carmilla’s life emphasizes her human-like qualities, such as the ability to feel pain. le fanu contrasts the characters of laura and carmilla to depict the two binary identities that women could obtain within this society: the victim or the monster. in julie miess’ article entitled “celebrating the female monster: undead housewife and likeable lamia,” she expresses that women had the scarce options of either being “... the passive victim or, if she chooses not to inhabit that role, she is figured as the inhuman mythological female monster” (236). moreover, le fanu intentionally creates the dichotomy between laura and carmilla to construct a cautionary tale. in this sense, if one chooses to be a “monster” through the embracement of one’s own lesbian sexuality, that person will face marginalization and social death. whether the woman’s death comes figuratively or literally, men remain in power within the heteronormative patriarchy, a haunting reality that still exists in today’s world. twenty-six years after carmilla was published, bram stoker’s dracula evolved and added to the genre of vampire literature. stoker continues with the concept of “otherness” in society within vampire literature by approaching the topic of homosexuality in a drastically different way than le fanu. many scholars critique this novel for being stoker’s way of reinstating the heteronormative beliefs of europe during this time period, especially since it was published merely two years after stoker’s close friend, oscar wilde, was persecuted for being a homosexual (clark 167-68). this is digital literature review 5 81 particularly evident throughout the novel with stoker’s incorporation of female dialogue in the form of letters. mina and lucy share a homosocial bond, emphasizing their intimate connection, in which they often forcefully convey that their only purpose as women is to serve the men within a marriage. in a letter to mina, lucy writes, “my dear mina, why are men so noble when we women are so little worthy of them?” (stoker 73). this quote speaks volumes to the societal perception of women as inferior to men within the public and domestic spheres, and it also illumines the enforced heterosexual nature of relationships, which persists as a cultural haunting. the examination of this text raises questions about bram stoker’s own sexuality, suggesting that he hid behind these traditional structures in order to hide his homosexual relationship with henry irving (primuth 17). in the article “vampires are us,” richard s. primuth explores not only the sexuality of the character dracula, but also of stoker. the author argues that stoker used oscar wilde’s letters to lord alfred douglas as a means of inspiration for his unconventional style of text. primuth explains that, “at a time of extreme repression and fear for gay people, using their characters as a metaphor for their own hidden sexuality was an outlet for self-expression” (17). with that being said, whether or not stoker himself was gay is left unknown. it is apparent, however, that he used his knowledge of heteronormative structures to create a homosexual vampire as the demonized “other” within the novel. stoker writes dracula as an exotic being who lives in complete and utter isolation to reflect the haunting marginalization of the lgbtq community within society. dracula traps jonathan harker merely to have connection with other human beings; however, stoker’s tainted description of dracula portrays him as predatory rather than lonely. stoker describes dracula’s hands as “... rather coarse—broad, with squat fingers. strange to say, there were thin hairs in the center of his palm… nails were long and fine and cut to a sharp point” (25). this quote highlights the dramatic dehumanization of dracula as the “other,” attributing animalesque qualities to him to emphasize his predatory nature. this description creates a notion of disgust and repulsion within the readers at the sight of dracula, exploiting the uncanny resonance connects the human world to the supernatural. as the text continues, harker discovers that there are sexy female vampires who live within the shadows of dracula’s castle, and they try to seduce him. dracula bursts into the room and exclaims, “how dare you touch him, any of you… this man belongs to me! beware how you meddle with him, or you’ll have to deal with me” (stoker 50). this shows his intense level of infatuation with harker and is the first example in which he establishes sexual ownership over him. dracula also claims that he has the ability to love, which directly implies his homosexual intentions withdigital literature review 6 82 in his relationship with harker. the article “metaphor into metonymy: the vampire next door,” written by jules zanger, explores the function of the female vampires within dracula’s castle as a haunting of the european past traditions. zanger asserts that they serve no purpose except to exist as symbols of “... proper victorian ladies, remaining properly at home while the master of the house goes forth to do solitary battle against the forces of virtue” (18). he argues that the women are merely objects of past traditional images of the heteronormative household. thus, there emerges a familial dynamic of power within the household similar to the one that is established within carmilla. it differs, however, in the sense that this structure actually favors the homosexual vampire. the women are necessary to the plotline of the story and act as “mediators” to the homosexual undertones that stoker intends to convey (craft qtd. in schopp 235). with that being said, the women exist simply to make the homoerotic undertones less abrasive within the text, since that would have been socially unacceptable during the turn of the 19th century. the heteronormative frame within this story uses the binary contrast of gender to make the homosexuality less explicit between the men. andrew schopp’s article “cruising the alternatives: homoeroticism and the contemporary vampire” explores the transformative evolution of the vampire and the ways in which its purpose changes to reflect the cultural anxieties and hauntings (231). many scholars, like schopp, believe that “the vampire product creates a space for performing alternatives to social/cultural mandates, and the act of reading allows the reader to participate in, and contribute to, the use of the space” (235). in the case of dracula, however, this belief does not apply. while some critics argue that the importance of vampire literature is the product of fictional space created to address social injustices, the space created within dracula reveals the reinforcement of homophobic perceptions. thus, while more modern-day literature reflects progression towards the use of fiction as a means to right the wrongs within society, it is evident through the animalistic depiction of the “other” within european society that homosexuality will result in the marginalization and cultural haunting to which dracula is subjected. after jonathan escapes from dracula’s castle and returns home, the homosocial group of men—van helsing, seward, morris, and arthur—make it their conquest to track dracula down and slay him. with the assistance of mina, they are successful in this endeavor. they have condemned dracula as an evil monster and refuse to allow him to assimilate into their traditional english culture due to his foreign origins and sexuality. this condemnation leaves him susceptible to being pushed out on the margins of society. the group, however, does not even allow him to exist on the margins of society, because they will not stop until the hunt is completed and dracula is dead. nina auerbach’s our vampires, ourselves describes the complex relationship between this digital literature review 7 83 overarching group of men. she argues that dracula solely preys on the important women within jonathan’s social group because “... mina is only a pawn in his battle against the men. stripped of his power of combination, catalyzing homoerotic relationships in which he cannot participate, this vampire loses his story, for he has no confidante willing to hear it” (82). this shows the deep level of isolation inflicted upon dracula, which subsequently results in the unfortunate deaths of many individuals within this social group. dracula goes against the traditional nature of homosocial relationships because he seeks to pursue a homosexual relationship with jonathan harker. what is also important to draw from this quote is auerbach’s acknowledgement of the lack of a narrative that we, as readers, receive from dracula. thus, the reader is simply left with the tale that is told through the homophobic perspectives of the men, who are too afraid to go against the societal norms to allow themselves to view dracula not as an “other” haunted by societal anxieties, but as a man. in the context of society, vampire literature reflects the current conditions and injustices that haunt our society. through the literary examples of le fanu’s carmilla and bram stoker’s dracula, the social injustices regarding homosexuality and homophobia within society prevail. what is particularly interesting about both works is the lack of narrative of the homosexual vampires. carmilla never has the opportunity to tell her story, and neither does dracula. one can infer that these narratives would have constructed a more empathetic and sympathetic view of these characters as a way to re-humanize them. but alas, the world may never know. one critique claims that internal vampiric dialogue “... described from within is transformed from a code of hegemonic anxiety to a signifier of cultural change” (miess 235). these narratives, however, are intentionally left out to reflect the cultural hauntings and oppression via silence of the marginalized “other” within society: those belonging to the lgbtq community. while it is true that western society has moved in a more progressive direction towards equality of lgbtq rights, the unfortunate reality for many of these individuals is that they are still greatly oppressed. the homophobic hunt that continues today and haunts our world exemplifies this oppression and can be seen in incidents like the pulse nightclub massacre where 49 individuals lost their lives. unfortunately, this is merely one example within the american society of mass murder that was targeted at the lgbtq community. the fbi revealed that there has been a steady incline of hate crimes against this community over the past fifty years, with a specific emphasis on the years of 2014-2017 in which the hate crimes against this community of individuals rose approximately 3% (hauck 1). in 2017, the fbi reports that there were 1,130 incidents of hate crimes reported against the lgbtq community, a majority of which were targeted at gay men digital literature review 8 84 (hauck 1). these are solely the incidents that are reported and documented, which is indicative that there are likely to be even more incidents of violence that go unreported. fear, violence, and hatred are perpetuated within these tragic events of the modern world and accentuate the cultural haunting of homophobia. the increase in violence and marginalization against the lgbtq community urgently calls for societal action and expulsion of these homophobic mindsets that infect our society and culture. both carmilla and dracula remind readers of the homophobic mindset that haunts our society and create a linear history of the transgressive marginalization against homosexuals within society. the power of these works derives not from what they lack, but rather what they stand for: an acknowledgement of the history of violence and hatred towards these individuals. they manifest these notions in terms of vampire literature to create a response of resistance towards these mentalities and a deconstruction of the injustice that continues to haunt our world. digital literature review 9 85 works cited auerbach, nina. “dracula: a vampire of our own.” our vampires, ourselves, the university of chicago press, 2006, pp. 61–94. hauck, grace. “anti-lgbt hate crimes are rising, the fbi says. but it gets worse.” usa today, gannett satellite information network, 1 july 2019, www.usatoday.com/story news/2019/06/28/anti-gay-hate-crimes-rise-fbi-says-and-they-likely-under count/1582614001/. lark, damion. “preying on the pervert: the uses of homosexual panic in bram stoker’s dracula.” horrifying sex: essays on sexual difference in gothic literature, edited by ruth bienstock anolik, mcfarland & company inc., 2007, pp.151-166. le fanu, joseph s. carmilla. 1872. anodos books, 2017. major, adrienne a.“other love: le fanu’s carmilla as lesbian gothic.” horrifying sex: essays on sexual difference in gothic literature, edited by ruth bienstock anolik, mcfarland & company inc., 2007, pp.151-166. miess, julie. “another ‘gendered other’?: the female monster-hero.” horrifying sex: essays on sexual difference in gothic literature, edited by ruth bienstock anolik, mcfarland & company inc., 2007, pp. 233-247. primuth richard s. “vampires are us.” the gay & lesbian review worldwide, no. 2, 2014, p. 17. ebscohost, ezproxy.siena.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost. com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsgao&an=edsgcl.363792542&site=eds-live. schopp, andrew. “cruising the alternatives: homoeroticism and the contemporary vampire.” journal of popular culture, vol. 30, no. 4, 1997, pp. 231–43. ebscohost, ezproxy. siena.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=mlf&an=1998076518&site=eds-live. signorotti, elizabeth. “repossessing the body: transgressive desire in ‘carmilla’ and dracula.” criticism: a quarterly for literature and the arts, vol. 38, no. 4, 1996, pp. 607–32. ebscohost,ezproxy.siena.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login. aspx?direct=true&db=mlf&an=1996067329&site=eds-live. stoker, bram. dracula. 1897. barnes & noble books, 2003. digital literature review 10 86 zanger, jules. “metaphor into metonymy: the vampire next door.” blood read: the vampire as metaphor in contemporary culture, edited by joan gordon and veronica hollinger, university of pennsylvania press, 1997, pp.17-26. dlr journal 119 by grace goze abstract offred versus june: the purpose of the protagonist in the handmaid's tale margaret atwood's the handmaid's tale has recently made its way back into popular culture and media. this is a consequence of the streaming service hulu launching a web television series based on the novel. the protagonist, offred, plays a crucial role in both tellings of the story, but that role shifts depending on the medium. within the novel, offred lacks the characteristics of a hero, demonstrating complacency in her tortured position. meanwhile, the offred of the hulu series is a rebel, an empowered woman who refuses oppression. these intentional portrayals of offred speak to the inevitable distinctions between visual and written storytelling. 120 goze as screen adaptations of books continue to flourish, it is no surprise that margaret atwood’s politically charged novel, the handmaid’s tale, has become an award-winning hulu exclusive series. the series, which shares the name of its inspiration, was an instant hit among viewers who praised its relevancy to today’s political and social issues, especially those surrounding women’s rights. the dystopian plot of the show and novel are essentially the same; offred shares her day-to-day life as a handmaid in the nation of gilead. gilead, which was formerly the united states, is undergoing a fertility crisis, forcing them to adopt polyamorous relationships modeled after the bible story of rachel and jacob. as a handmaid, offred is forced to carry a child for a powerful family in gilead. the nature of this dystopian ritual is a paradox, for handmaids are exalted for their fertility but slaves to a system with particularly cruel and unusual punishments. however, one could certainly say the offred that lives between the pages of atwood’s novel and the offred that is brought to life on screen by actress elisabeth moss are two different characters. within the 1985 novel, offred’s resistance towards the government is very subtle, leaving her status as a hero debatable. on screen, offred is shown as a rebel, overtly committing transgressions against the republic of gilead. this stark contrast leads one to question why atwood’s original offred acts the way she does and how these actions contribute to the themes of the novel as a whole. while she is the main character of the handmaid’s tale, offred is not its hero. she carries potential for heroism, as amplified and utilized in the hulu series by the same name, but ultimately, atwood choses to keep her indifferent and complicit, which both strengthens the realism and warning within the novel. further, offred’s complacency highlights the grueling nature of dystopias and their ability to strip an individual of identity due to totalitarian rule. the debate over offred’s heroism within the handmaid’s tale is not a new one. for as long as the book has been in print, scholars have argued over offred’s role in her own story and what that implies about the rest of the novel’s messages. when analyzing the textual evidence, it is clear she is not the story’s hero. the first place a reader can see this is offred’s complicity in the republic of gilead. this society thrives on the oppression of women. offred lives in this world not reading, not writing, and not making her own choices because its leaders have an overly conservative outlook on the role of women. while it can be agreed that offred’s values do not necessarily match those of 121 goze gilead’s, she still voluntarily acts according to those values. looking at her position as a handmaid, offred does not feel as if she was forced into this position. she describes the ceremony by saying it is far from “making love”; however, she reflects, “nor does rape cover it: nothing is going on here that i haven’t signed up for. there wasn’t a lot of choice but there was some, and this is what i chose” (atwood 94). although all her options contained unfavorable consequences, offred recognizes she was still able to choose a different fate. it is true that her chances of survival are highest as a handmaid, but in making herself one, offred willingly gives up the rights to her body and her identity, a consequence that is common in dystopian novels. by choosing to be a handmaid, offred “fails to maintain her identity . . . because in gilead even apparent forms of resistance or attempts to create, maintain, or grasp an identity frequently turn into complicity with the regime” (stillman and johnson 75). understanding this helps deconstruct the obvious counterargument that offred participates in transgressions against gilead, particularly by having a relationship with nick. while this relationship is illegal and offred risks her life by pursuing it, the very existence of it has offred fulfilling gilead’s expectations of her as a woman. she enters the relationship to satisfy her desire to be touched, which “directly enmesh[es] her into the system of sex, power, and corruption that characterizes the actual workings of gilead and powerfully construct her as a being who defines herself by her body” (stillman and johnson 76). this exemplifies the dystopia’s control over offred. it is built to put her in a box she cannot escape. instead of strengthening her sense of self, this relationship buries offred’s motivation to escape. she decides, “i no longer want to leave, escape, cross the border to freedom. i want to be here, with nick, where i can get at him” (atwood 271). it is here the true colors of offred’s illegal relationship show themselves; it is not a rebellious act, but rather one of desperation, showing that offred, like the rest of her society, is satisfied by a few compensations. her environment is successfully working to melt her personal goal of freedom by making her one with its corruption. although these actions can clearly classify offred as less than heroic, it is also often argued that offred is incapable of rebelling. the restraints of her position force her into a victim role she is unable to shake. along these lines, scholars have claimed that as a victim, the fact that offred’s story exists is resistance enough; “the handmaid’s voice breaks silence, for she is heard. [they] can finally neither 122 goze appropriate nor invalidate her voice” (jones 11). offred’s position as a handmaid forces her into a life of silence. the totalitarian government censors her from expressing criticism of their rule. figures, such as aunt lydia, work to reshape her mind and doubt her identity, leading some to believe “her individual speech produces a profusion of words and desires that are not allowed . . . . she revives the capacity for individual and spiritual emotional life” (staels 49). this interpretation is important to consider. offred’s narration is a significant tool used by atwood to deliver the story with a more humanizing touch as opposed to having an omniscient, outside narrator. the survival of her story allows her to exist, yet the survival of her story reveals “that offred has played a role in her own oppression, whether or not she can do anything about it” because as with most dystopias, the continuation of the undesirable society comes from a failure to act (weiss 122). memories narrated by offred of the time before the coup illustrate how complicity and complacency have always been a part of her identity. although it can be argued that offred’s “memory of the past brings back to life the excluded pole in gilead, such as the existence of love and humanity,” more prominently the memories display how offred favors inaction (staels 49). her inaction in the time before diminishes her claim to victimhood because this is what ultimately led to the existence of gilead. throughout the entirety of the novel, offred overtly comments on her political and social indifference concerning her rights. profound but chilling, offred notes, we lived by ignoring . . . . there were stories in the newspapers, of course, corpses in ditches or the woods, bludgeoned to death or mutilated, interfered with, as they used to say, but they were about other women, and the men who did such things were other men . . . . we were the people who were not in the papers. we lived in the blank white spaces at the edges of the print. it gave us more freedom. (56-57) it cannot be an accident how closely this quote mirrors the famous german lutheran pastor martin niemöller’s response concerning the nazi’s rise to power. addressing the cowardice of bystanders, neimöller warned: first they came for the socialists, and i did not speak out – because i was not a socialist. then they came for the trade unionists, and i did not speak out – because i was not a trade unionist. then they came for the jews, and i did not speak out – because i was not a jew. then they 123 goze came for me – and there was no one left to speak for me. the connection between the two sends a powerful message to the reader. it is possible atwood wants her audience to see the reality of choosing to ignore major societal issues like pollution of the environment and discrimination. incidentally, both of these contribute to the fall of the united states in this novel: pollution causing the fertility crisis and inequality of women leading to their purely domestic lives. offred’s attitude towards the persecution of others prior to the coup directly impacts where she ends up. some have gone as far as to say offred “is more like a ‘good german’ than a freedom fighter” (greene 311). mimicking the creation of nazi germany, gilead was birthed out of many people sharing offred’s view: if the issue does not directly involve me, i can ignore it, and it will go away. the problem with this logic, of course, is that the issue does not go away – it only grows. this fault of offred is highlighted by the juxtaposition between she and the other women in her life, specifically moira and her mother. where offred “lacks courage [and] is too apolitical to take a stand as her right are being abolished,” the audience sees moira and her mother taking a strong stance against the patriarchal society (weiss 134). focusing on moira, her resistance and awareness are easily noted. she not only is brave enough to attempt an escape, but she also is able to maintain her wit and humor after being condemned to jezebel’s. before gilead, offred remembers moira addressing the dominating nature of men in the context of sex; “the balance of power was equal between women so sex was an even-steven transaction” (atwood 172). as a response to this, offred mocks moira and trivializes the issue she was trying to comment on. similarly, when offred recalls her mother, an active feminist, her tone is not one of admiration or interest. in fact, she thinks critically of her mother remembering, “they ignored me, and i resented them. my mother and her rowdy friends. i didn’t see why she had to dress that way . . . or to swear so much” (180). it is evident that offred has lived her whole life uninterested in taking a stance on anything. choosing to only be concerned with her personal life, offred fails to see how these issues directly affect her ability to live the life she holds so dearly. in writing offred this way, atwood hammers home the nature of dystopian societies. atwood is choosing to focus on the average person’s response to oppression rather than making offred the savior of the situation. 124 goze there is evidence to support that offred can recognize the mistakes of her past and regrets not acting sooner, but ultimately, these feelings are not enough to motivate her to change her ways. instead, offred often resorts to denial or romanticizes that someone else will act on her behalf. during her conversation with moira at jezebel’s, offred is disappointed that moira’s attitude towards gilead reflects her own: “i don’t want her to be like me. give in, go along, save her skin. that is what it comes down to. i want gallantry from her, swashbuckling, heroism, single-handed combat. something i lack” (249). comments like this drive home the complacency of offred. she continues to wait for change to come about without contributing because “knowing that she herself cannot commit such unlikely heroics, offred also fails to think about undertaking the single, specific actions that could aid resistance to gilead (both before and after the coup)” (stillman and johnson 80). further, as the novel draws to a close, offred gives into this reality. she acknowledges what she has become, and no longer works to fight it. following the death of ofglen, she laments, “everything i’ve resisted, comes flooding in . . . . i want to keep on living, in any form. i resign my body freely, to the use of others. they can do what they like with me. i am abject.” most disturbingly, she adds, “i feel, for the first time, their true power” (286). in this atwood creates another undeniably famous parallel; this time to well-known dystopian novel, 1984. offred’s surrender of herself to the regime mirrors winston’s final moments of “re-education,” resulting in his love for big brother. similarly, offred has been broken to the point where she resigns her ability to fight back. the government’s presence at this point is too overwhelming, highlighting how dystopias function on their people’s hopelessness. as a reader, one must wonder what atwood’s purpose was in centering her novel around such a weak protagonist. for in the end, albeit offred does presumably escape, in more ways than one, gilead has won the battle of offred’s will. before getting in the van, offred is fully willing to continue her life as a handmaid, resigning her body to the use of gilead and her relationship with nick. offred is not a hero and not legitimately a victim; she is just an average person, which is exactly who she is supposed to be. the weaknesses of offred reflect the weaknesses of the average person. it is unlikely that the audience of the novel would survive any better than offred does, which highlights the cautionary part of this cautionary tale. it has been written that “our own cowardice or selfishness 125 goze does not excuse offred’s; instead, her cowardice and complicity convict us all, because we share it” (stillman and johnson 137). this is what makes offred and her world so real; it is grounded in history and the most common faults among all humans. likewise, her lack of rebellion is a characteristic of the dystopian genre, for “dystopian regimes are then kept in place by the acquiescence of a complacent citizenry that accepts and may even enjoy its comforting oppression. the common image of a dystopian society is that it is the exact opposite of a utopia; in the latter, people are generally happy, while in the former, they are miserable” (weiss 134). offred is no more than an example of how dystopian regimes keep their power. while dystopias are characterized by the misery of their people and utopias the happiness of their people, “the two genres mirror each other in many ways, particularly in that most residents of dystopias are happy or at the very least satisfied, and the (supposed) rebels are anomalies in their societies” (wiess 134). arguably, atwood does not want to write the story of an anomaly. the story of the rebel is often one where good triumphs over evil, but the overall message can appear weak. the fear evoked from the reader that they will become offred, a woman trapped in hero-less situation, is far more motivating than believing every seemingly doomed society has a secret, unstoppable rebel in its midst. it can be said, then, that offred’s purpose is that of a “reverse role model.” readers are meant to criticize her actions and hopefully be inspired not to follow them. the book thrives on offred’s indifference because the reader is inside her head. she paints her world bleakly, sharing the injustices of her society. her narrated thoughts are not only extraoardinarly detailed, but they are the strongest things characterizing offred since she so rarely speaks. this, of course, leads to the discussion of why an on-screen offred departs so much from novel offred. while all types of story-telling are built on the same concepts, visual story-telling and written story-telling are very different beasts. that being said, visually, offred must be a hero. the most obvious reasoning being that a rebellious protagonist is inherently more interesting to watch. undoubtedly, the stakes in atwood’s novel are high, but they do not necessarily rely on heavy action from any of the characters. conflict and tension are created from the paranoia inside offred’s head. for example, when offred’s commander, the man whose child she must carry, asks her to break several rules by playing scrabble with him, offred’s narration lasts for pages; whereas, on screen, there is less time dedicated to this act 126 goze simply because offred does not need to describe the commander, his office, and the way she is feeling. the dystopia is shown through set and acting. the many elements of production work to create its tone, mood, and appearance. although the hulu series does utilize voiceover to share some of offred’s inner thoughts, the show is not reliant on it, relying more on physical movement, vocal inflection, and facials to communicate offred’s state of mind. these techniques are privileges only granted to visualstorytelling. in this case, showing offred as a hero has more effect than leaving her complicit. where the novel forces the audience to confront their complacency, the show forces the audience to admire a strong woman who speaks out against injustice. the hulu series makes offred easy to admire. right from the start, they establish the strength in her character by directly departing from the novel. at the end of the first episode, the viewer learns that offred’s real name is “june,” a name that is used in the novel, but is never confirmed as offred’s true identity. june declares her name while staring right at the viewer (moss). this scene frames the tone for the rest of the season. already, in the very beginnings of the show, june is defeating an obstacle offred could never overcome — holding on to an identity that is completely her own, unshaped by her life in gilead. furthermore, june acts in situations a closer reader knows offred would never participate in. later in the season, june openly rebels against aunt lydia during a ritualized event much like the book’s salvaging, an event where the handmaids are ordered to stone a rapist to death. in this scene, aunt lydia commands the handmaids to stone janine to death because of a crime she has committed. june refuses and inspires the rest of the handmaids to follow suit. she acts fearlessly (moss). this attitude contradicts a timid offred who upon hearing of ofglen’s suicide thinks, “i’ll say anything they like, i’ll incriminate anyone. . . . i’ll confess to any crime, i’ll end up hanging from a hook on the wall” (atwood 285). while the context of the world remains the same, the way june interacts with it is starkly different. alongside the need for more action, it is possible the hulu series cashes in on offred’s potential to be a hero to enhance the show’s attempt to be relevant in today’s political and social climate. in order to play up its renewed relevancy, the show utilizes modern day technology and concepts, such as smartphones and uber, in june’s flashbacks. it takes atwood’s dystopian world and puts it in today's terms. today, for lack of better phrasing, the strong woman is “in.” with social movements like the 127 goze women’s march and the #metoo movement, the portrayal of women in media has become more important than ever. despite what an indifferent offred teaches the audience in the pages of the handmaid’s tale, it very well could not translate to screen. given the time and the medium for retelling this story, it is far more resonant for the audience to see a rebellious june. atwood’s original themes and messages remain the same; they are just reframed through a protagonist that takes action and inspires the audience to do the same. being that offred is the story’s narrator and sole voice, it is crucial to examine her role in the larger themes the novel addresses. no matter the lens, historical, feminist, or political, offred’s interpretation of the dystopian world around her impacts any literary analysis of the handmaid’s tale. as mentioned above, offred is the narrator; she is the story’s protagonist, but she is not its hero. after closely examining the text, it is clear to see that offred’s potential for heroism is never reached within the pages of atwood’s novel. despite her ability to narrator her story to the reader, offred’s complicity and complacency within gilead, and before gilead, proves her to be playing a part in her own oppression. she plays this part to the point that she can barely be considered a victim, especially when compared to the resistance of her mother, moira, and ofglen. as the story is retold via hulu, the character of offred is in many ways reformed. to reiterate, hulu’s offred is rebellious and not easily silenced. this offred is better known as june, and her characterization inspires viewers to rally behind her in her fight to change gilead. meanwhile, atwood’s offred forces readers to confront their own sense of indifference and ignorance when it comes to politics and their basic rights. this evolution of offred’s character and the plot of the handmaid’s tale forces one to consider the role of the story as time passes and old issues show themselves with new faces. although these two versions of offred contradict one another, neither are wrong. it can be argued that offred’s purpose is to explore dystopian literary tradition and teach the audience about awareness. the novel offred demonstrates the consequences of choosing to ignore our surroundings while on-screen offred shows us the rewards of becoming aware. regardless of the tactics, both the original medium and the renewed medium successfully work to spread atwood’s commentary and cautionary tale. they use a dystopian environment to elicit responses from two different minded characters. simultaneously, as the story continues to spread, interpretations of 128 goze offred will always continue to emerge and evolve. 129 goze works cited atwood, margaret. the handmaid’s tale. anchor books, a division of penguin random house llc, 1998. greene, gayle. “choice of evils.” the women's review of books, vol. 3, no. 10, 1986, pp. 14–15. jstor, www.jstor.org/stable/4019952. howells, coral ann. "science fiction in the feminine: the handmaid's tale." contemporary literary criticism, edited by jeffrey w. hunter, vol. 135, gale, 2001. literature criticism online, http:// link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/ogcuvs874920094/lco?u=munc80314&sid=loc&xid=cfffd 8de. jones, libby falk. “breaking silences in feminist dystopias.” utopian studies, no. 3, 1991, pp. 7–11. jstor, www.jstor.org/stable/20718920. moss, elisabeth, performer. the handmaid’s tale. hulu, 2017-2018. staels, hilde. "margaret atwood's the handmaid's tale: resistance through narrating.” contemporary literary criticism, edited by jeffrey w. hunter, vol. 135, gale, 2001. literature criticism online, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/qcgzkr24428 9243lco?u=munc 80314&sid=lco&xid=48e60018. stillman, peter g., and s. anne johnson. “identity, complicity, and resistance in the handmaid's tale.” utopian studies, vol. 5, no. 2, 1994, pp. 70–86. jstor, www.jstor.org/stable/20719314. weiss, allan. “offred’s complicity and dystopian tradition in margaret atwood’s the handmaid’s tale.” studies in canadian literature., vol. 34, no. 1, jan. 2009, pp. 120–41. 77 at home in babel: the language of hyperreality in the immigrant narrative abigail shachar, vanderbilt university complicated by issues of identity, the immigrant experience is fraught with trauma. as such, authors engage with this theme by manipulating time and setting. these themes reimagine ghosts in hyperreal forms distorted by memories and perceptions. this article investigates hyperreality in the context of immigrant literature, this paper will introduce its audience to the ghosts haunting our muddled realities. (sharp) digital literature review, vol. 1 (2014). © ball state university. all rights reserved. please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce this critical edition to dlr@bsu.edu. mailto:dlr%40bsu.edu?subject= at home in babel, shachar an artifice of the hyperreal the statue of liberty has served as the iconic representation of the american ideal of freedom since its transportation from france to america in 1886. positioned a few miles from the auspicious shores of ellis island, the statue is the country’s symbolic guiding light, ushering immigrants through uncharted waters towards the unknown of their new land. as such, lady liberty has been the conventional muse of american romanticism and patriotic nostalgia. fittingly, the u.s. postal service spotlighted the statue as the signature symbol on one of its stamps. yet this image was not of the actual statue. instead, the design depicted an imitative replica from the new york city hotel and casino on the las vegas strip (sharp). reproduced, replicated, and resold, the archetypal representation of the immigrant’s dream became an artifice of the hyperreal. hyperreality is the existence in which the real and its symbol have become indistinguishable from each other. it is also a significant prism through which to explore current cultural constructions of immigration and polyethnicity in america. within american discourse, metaphors such as “the belonging,” “the roots,” and “journey” are used commonly to describe the immigrant experience. yet these comparisons are generalized and oversimplified, symbolizing an american immigrant experience based on a false reality. these metaphors distort the truth by reframing it, shaping the actual experiences of the foreign-born and the nonwhite. without truth, immigrants must cling to a hyperreal alternative, filled by ghostly hauntings and sorrowful specters of their unique cultural past. in particular, ethnic literature serves as a compelling medium to witness the effects of the hyperreal on the immigrant story. while most of these texts are written by and deal with immigrants, they address hyperreality by two simultaneous yet divergent approaches: acceptance and resistance of hyperreal symbolism. in this self-reflexive process, ethnic american artists such as junot díaz, chang-rae lee, and alex rivera reconstruct reality and reimagine identity, while emphasizing the power of language to shape our consciousness. a real without origin or reality published in 1981, simulacra and simulation is a philosophical treatise by jean baudrillard seeking to disentangle the relationships among reality, symbols, and society. according to the text, these associations have been distorted by the condition of postmodernity. reality has been exchanged for meaning for symbols and signs, since “[w]e live in a world where there is more and more symbol and less and less meaning” (79). through a progression of repeated replication, chimerical perceptions give way to create a proliferation of symbolic simulacra, or copies without true original sources. our society facilitates this destructive process. society is an authentic fake as it pursues reality in the artificial. to demonstrate his claim, baudrillard offers the paradigm of the map, the world, and the society. geography itself has begun merely to imitate the map, which now determines the organization of the real world, while “[t]he territory no longer precedes the map, nor does it survive it. it is nevertheless the map that precedes the territory” (121). meaning and symbol become inverted, obliterating reality and authenticating the fake. hyperreality plays a similar role in our conception of history. in a hyperreal world, the present day is an imitation of history. yet, the cyclic nature of history is an artifice. specters of our past pervade our current moment, clouding our ability to distinguish the real from its simulation. yet, postmodern culture is not merely artificial since the notion of artificiality requires 78 at home in babel, shachar some sense of reality against which to recognize the artifice. postmodernity is void of any semblance of the real. for baudrillard, postmodernity “is no longer a question of imitation, nor duplication, nor even parody. it is a question of substituting the signs of the real for the real” (3). this shallowness typifies a world in which the distinctions between signified and signifier have all but disappeared through successive reproductions of previous reproductions of reality. in the hyperreal, there is no longer any distinction between reality and its representation; there is only simulation. in the hyperreal world, our consciousness struggles to define differences between the past and the present, recreating memory in the form of ghosts and hauntings. baudrillard identifies a number of cultural phenomena to explain the postmodern conflation of reality with hyperreality. for one, contemporary media including television, film, and the internet blur the line between reality and fiction. for example, in war films, the media shapes reality in its own image when “[t]he war became film, the film becomes war, the two are joined by their common hemorrhage into technology” (60). our consciousness mimics this hyperreal process of imitation, allowing pretend ghosts to linger in real life. similarly, the consumerism of postmodernity forges an alternate and imitated realm of reality. consumer culture confounds the products that are needed to sustain life with the products for which a need is created by commercial images. with these distinctions muddled, society is detached from the basic ontological inherency necessary to decipher what is needed and what is wanted. reality is thus destroyed, as consumerism acts as “a kind of genetic code that directs the mutation of the real into the hyperreal” (33). further, the pervasiveness of the media and consumer culture imposes and reinforces hyperreality in the consciousness of society. language controls the frame of reality by giving structure to perception. for baudrillard, metaphors, images, and other rhetorical devices are the focus of language’s power, as “metaphor is a ‘game’ played with truth” (122). in the depthless postmodern condition, language’s exploitative nature is realized in its contribution to hyperreality since “[t]here is a proliferation of myths of origin and signs of reality: of secondhand truth, objectivity, and authenticity. there is an escalation of the true, of lived experience, a resurrection of the figurative where the object and substance have disappeared” (96). by masking truth and hiding meaning, language instigates a distortive hyperreality hard to resist. baudrillard’s language-driven hyperreality emphasizes the proliferation of symbolism in the postmodern condition. this excess of images and metaphors dulls our ability to discern the real from the artificial. for dr. eugene arva, this hyperreal process of desensitization causes a tangible shift in the way we communicate since, as baudrillard writes, “caught in the web of a myriad of images, people no longer tell or listen to stories—the traditional carriers of meaning—nor seem to distinguish between reliable and unreliable media” (6). as simulation and simulacra dominate our collective societal consciousness, modes of personal expression and storytelling change. for fiction writer lorraine lópez, this hyperreality “spells death to the imagination by shrinking all possibilities to one. these generalizations encourage us to stop considering what can be” (2). these transformative changes to language and its representation also cause shifts in our consciousness, inviting the ghosts of our past to our present reality. hyperreality and the immigrant narrative the effects of a language-driven hyperreality on imagination and storytelling become particularly potent in the context of the immigrant narrative and ethnic literature. immi79 at home in babel, shachar gration and ethnic otherness has been metaphorized and signified for so long, rendering these experiences susceptible to the distortive agents of hyperreal metaphors and simulated symbolism. struggling to express an authentic reality in lieu of distortive symbolism, modern ethnic american writers must spin hyperrealism on its head to show truth. alex rivera, junot díaz, and chang-rae lee recognize the depthlessness of the postmodern condition, and allow hyperreality to mold the milieus of their immigrant protagonists. media, technology, and consumerism are the contextual forces by which hyperreality is embedded in the immigrant milieu. as such, oversimplified and overgeneralized terms, such as the “belonging,” “the roots,” and “the journey,” serve as metaphors to frame the ethnic american experience. these terms distort the truth and strip immigrants of their ability to express themselves. to resist this coercive power and give meaning to their protagonists’ experiences, rivera and díaz dismantle these symbols and criticize hyperreality. in rivera’s film sleep dealer, baudrillard’s hyperbolized map paradigm becomes a reality. the film surveys the complicated identities of the immigrant self in a hyperreal and global society. the protagonist, memo, is held back behind the border separating mexico and california. operating futuristic technology, memo uses his mind to maneuver machinery across the fence on the border and into the united states. although physically impermeable, the border is porous to psychological forces. in this setting, memo’s body becomes a ghost, haunting his working mind. purposefully, to demonstrate the artificiality of borders and their limits, rivera exposes his audience to his creation of hyperreality. the disingenuous dispositions of rivera’s hyperreality are given a mouthpiece in the form of the media. memo’s world exists as a series of technological symbols and industrial signifiers, mimicking and distorting the semblances of the protagonist’s realities. the media proves to be the chief method of propagation of these technological symbols and virtual signs. for example, the trunode reality trade platform allows consumers to inhabit representations of worlds that are not their own. advertised relentlessly on television, members of this society are encouraged to claim someone else’s reality for their own. in the sleep dealer’s hyperreality, the truth is disguised in television commercials, or tangled between the wires and heavy machinery hookups. the media-obsessed and technologically-driven hyperreality problematizes the sense of “belonging” in the immigrant narrative. creating a hyperreal system for pseudo-immigration, the nodes enable workers to live in mexico while working in the united states. for memo, “belonging” becomes a complicated social construct since he lives and works in two different countries. he cannot belong to one country or one identity, as the border divides his nationhood and personhood. without a basis in reality, “belonging” becomes a hyperreal term, obligating memo to form arbitrary and rigid distinctions of his existence here and there. junot díaz focuses on another aspect of the postmodern condition. in his novel the brief and wondrous life of oscar wao, he examines latino identities and narratives and the ways in which both are affected and informed by consumer culture. this consumerism is enacted through institutions like the state and the media, and by the very nature of the postmodern age. set in the urban sprawl of new jersey, the story of oscar is dominated by simulation and a consumer-driven hyperreality. indeed, the consumerism of oscar’s world creates an alternate realm of reality, visible only among the “colors and shapes” of the mall and the industrial waste of new jersey (19). meaningless consumerism destroys reality and, instead, invites hyperreality in which race and consumer culture are inter80 at home in babel, shachar changeable. consumer culture has engaged oscar with the hyperreal, conflating aspects of the material with identity. oscar himself is consumed by a world obsessed with media, technology, and commercial products. he lives in a replicated virtual world taken up with comic books and video games and excessively preoccupied with “role-playing games, comic books, and japanese animation” (266). oscar exists among the signs and symbols of the postmodern age. so intrinsic are these symbols and images to oscar’s perception of the world around him that they become part of his identity. as such, díaz constructs oscar’s identity in the context of comic-book heroes, as he addresses the reader: “you really want to know what being an x-man feels like? just be a smart bookish boy of color in a contemporary u.s. ghetto. mamma mia! like having bat wings or a pair of tentacles growing out of your chest” (17). plagued by the hyperreality of “the jersey malaise,” oscar must negotiate the complexity of self-definition in a distortive contemporary age (191). bonding questions of identity and the emptiness of metaphors such as the “journey” and “roots,” díaz shifts questions of the self from reality to the hyperreality. while oscar struggles to decipher reality from fiction, his sister lola is confronted with the “metaphor du jour” of ethnic experience: the journey. she gives into the symbolism, traveling to the dominican republic in search of her roots, determined to begin “her journey, a first step taken, the beginning of something big” (239). however, lola’s comfort in these experiences is fleeting as she gets back to new jersey, without a heightened self-awareness or answers. for lola and oscar, these metaphors are empty artifice, instigating a sense of a longing for something unreal. similarly, the formidable materialism in chang-rae lee’s novel a gesture life suggests a cosmos entirely devoted to the worship of the material. the materialism of the novel’s hometown of bedley run is represented by the blatant affluence of the protagonist doc hata. a korean immigrant, hata is the owner of a successful local business, sunny medical supply, earning notoriety and respect for his prosperity. like a more subtle version of gatsby, hata builds an elaborate house, complete with an “impressive flower and herb garden, and a flagstone swimming pool, and leaded glass and wrought iron conservatory” (16). the details of his house captivate his field of perception and mediate his reality in a distortive way. hata’s house is a chimerical and imitative symbol of his superficial identity. interestingly, hata creates his own hyperreality through his “gestures,” as he defines himself through his polite motions to others. yet these gestures are merely a hyperreal ruse, as hata constantly performs these acts without any deeper meaning. hata’s “gesture life,” a false reality, leads to an interesting discussion about belonging in the immigrant context. eager to assimilate to bedley run and earn the town’s respect, hata longs for a sense of belonging in america. these longings distort hata’s reality and divert his attention from the more pressing issues of belonging within his family and the deterioration of his relationship with his daughter. hyperreality, trauma, and reconstruction the immigrant narrative is subject to the forces of an exterior hyperreality. acting through the simulated channels of media and consumer culture, the omnipresence of a language-driven hyperreality changes the truth and meaning for rivera, díaz, and lee’s protagonists. although these artists challenge the hyperreal of the current condition, 81 at home in babel, shachar rivera and díaz also self-reflexively employ elements of the hyperreal to imaginatively reframe their protagonists’ realities. arva describes this new form of hyperreality as an exceedingly harsh experiment since “[p]ostmodernist fiction does not stop at only dismantling the signifiers, but also engages in frankensteinian experiments of creating new ones” (63). spinning hyperreality on its head, rivera, lee, and díaz reconstruct meaning and reclaim agency in the aftermath of personal trauma and generational tragedy. the immigrant experience is fraught with trauma; as jolie sheffer explains, at the heart of the immigrant trauma, the very relationship between trauma and the immigrant experience, lies the idea of “time rupture.” she argues the immigrant reality is split into two: “before immigration” and “after immigration” (7). it is this rip in reality that is the critical cause of trauma. ethnic literature also locates trauma in the pain of the chaotic disruption of immigration. caught in the liminality of virtual immigration, memo’s health and consciousness deteriorates with each cybernetic journey to work on the other side of the border. he is forced to relive the traumatic rupture caused by immigration on a daily basis, losing touch with his family and the reality of his physical existence. trauma operates in a different and more enduring form in oscar wao. it is oscar’s mother beli who immigrates to new jersey, splitting her reality into life in the dominican republic and survival in america. beli’s personal trauma sets off a multigenerational suffering, affecting lola and oscar. díaz focuses on the transgenerational nature of the immigrant trauma as he writes, “there is within the family a silence that stands monument to the generations, that sphinxes all attempts at narrative reconstruction” (571). similarly, doc hata is plagued by the trauma of a distant war and expatriate migration, passing pain and sadness to his daughter sunny. unable to reconcile the gulf between his present and past experiences, hata grows estranged from sunny. the experience of trauma brings about interesting effects on personal reality and the landscape of the imagination. trauma is a dogging ghost, bringing to the surface raw recollections of a bruised history. for literary theorist kathleen brogan, contemporary concepts of haunting memories and relived nightmares within immigrant narratives serve as greater discourses about ethnicity, race, and identity in a postmodern america. she argues the hauntings are guised vestiges of a contentious historical past and manifest in literature as reoccurring memories of loss and desolation. in ethnic literature, she writes, “the hauntings that these texts deal with communal memory, cultural transmission, and group inheritance of a traumatic past” (12). rivera’s memo must confront enduring and harsh social and economic circumstances. similarly, díaz’s lola is haunted by the traumas of her ancestry while lee’s doc hata is plagued by memories of a distant war. revisiting memories of the past and communing with hauntings of the present, immigrants reconstruct reality in order to claim agency over their experiences and to resist the distortive symbolism of their new milieus. arva believes that through the immigrant process of hyperreal reclamation, “traumatic imagination, traumatic memories are turned into narrative memory and alternate reality” (61). this new form of self-created hyperreality reinvents ethnic identity by imaginatively piecing together history and memory that in many cases have been fragmented, erased, or ignored. sleep dealer and a gesture life subtly accept hyperreality to reform the existence of its protagonists in novel ways. for rivera, the technological hyperreality introduces depthlessness into the pseudo-immigration experience of memo. although the film resists this hyperreality, it puts forth a new form of simulation. utilizing the nodes to be intimate 82 at home in babel, shachar with his girlfriend, luz, memo uses the hyperreal to gain meaning and authenticate interaction in the throes of trauma. similarly, lee critiques the materialist hyperreality perpetuating the falseness of doc hata’s gestures. yet, the structure of hata’s narrative abandons convention to express an experienced ontology instead of a literal reality. weaving in and out of memory, reflection, and narration, hata’s story is a distorted simulation of reality, articulating the truth of the immigrant experience through the hyperreal. further, junot díaz rhetorically plays with hyperreality, forcing sign and signifier to coexist in the brief and wondrous life of oscar wao. in his portrayal of oscar’s existent dystopia, díaz acknowledges that both consumer-driven hyperrealites and archetypal metaphors contribute to falsification of the immigrant experience. díaz’s fukú curse is an example of a metaphor that plagues the protagonists of oscar wao. the curse is used to explain the misery of the colonial past, bleak present, and hopeless future of dominican immigrants. to describe the curse, díaz writes, “fukú americanus, or more colloquially fukú—generally a cure or a doom of some kind; specifically the curse and the doom of the new world” (17). fukú is an important example of “cultural hauntings,” as it operates on a trans-generational and trans-continental scale. literary critic anne mahler argues fukú is the mythological and volatile representation of the specter of immigration. the curse is a lightning-bolt term, as it “attracts all the complicated and problematic meanings affecting the immigrant reality” (121). fukú is about tragedy, rupture, and trauma. yet, díaz teaches us that the curse can take on different meanings and different contexts. as such, fukú is also a reconstructive paradoxical, as it is both a cause of the hyperreal and the solution for trauma. fukú gives symbol to an experienced reality, imposing a metaphoric narrative on the unarticulated immigrant narrative. the fukú is an imagined paradigm of the immigrant hyperreal, as it is constructed to both explain and cope with the realities of a painful existence. cured by a cultural counter spell known as zafa, fukú is both the traumatic inheritance and recreated legacy of the american dominican people. díaz blurs the line between curse and counterspell, asking his readership: “zafa or fukú? you tell me” (568). lacking any roots in a true and definable reality, the fukú is the ultimate hyperreal force, restructuring our consciousness to cope with destructive circumstance. at home in babel in judeo-christian mythology, the tower of babel is the quintessential paradigm of the hyperreal. according to the story, a united community attempted to construct a tower to reach the heavens. to punish the greedy, god confuses people’s languages, so that they would not be able to return to each other. in a world full of excess language, and thus symbols, god’s people lost their means to communicate. baudrillard’s hyperreality operates under the same premise. in the symbolic postmodern condition we have lost the ability to decipher meaning and express truth. like babel, america, a land of immigrants, is a transnational environment. shaped by the threatening forces of postmodernity, the language-driven hyperreality promotes the proliferation of metaphor, specifically emphasizing the belonging, roots, and the journey of the immigrant experience. in this symbolic age, cultural ghosts and individuals’ memories haunt the experiences of immigrants. to authenticate the immigrant stories of their protagonists, ethnic american writers both resist and manipulate hyperreality. rivera, lee, and díaz challenge the function of meaning in a distorted reality to reframe the truth of immigration and to confront the ghosts of the past; meaning is a creation and reality is a fake. 83 at home in babel, shachar the creative process in thinking about hyperreality in the immigrant narrative, the significance of language to its employment becomes increasingly evident. language is an intrinsic trope, linking the immigrant experience to the signs and symbols of its milieu. as such, the content and form of this project are preoccupied with language and its effects. in its form my project uses different types of language—analysis and creative writing—to discuss reality in multiple dimensions. the following is a short story, chronicling the beginnings of an immigrant narrative. the narrative’s intention is not to create a synthetic plot for the purposes of modeling hyperreality—for that would be too symbolic in and hyperreal in and of itself. instead, the narrative presents the immigrant experience in its nakedness. inspired by díaz and his tendency to integrate narration and dialogue, the story confounds its storytelling perspective and speaking voice. the text offers more at the beginning than at the end, ironically emphasizing the brevity of the journey rather than the long-term aftermath. ultimately, through the medium of narrative, this story hopes to show the larger question of this project: how do words and symbols mediate our lived realities? return to source who am i? where am i from? the airplane crumbled into pieces, a winded mountain peak spilling its pebbles, a broken vase scattering its contents. one woman, layla al-awsat, fell like flecks of spices from a broken used tea bag. above, behind, and below her in the in between suspended in-flight amenities, stereo headphones, overhead storage bins, cabin lights, fresh passports, trademarked paper cups and blankets, duty-free chocolate, hazard-yellow life vests, and exhausted personal television sets. she hung in the ironic tangle of her seatbelt and oxygen mask, struggling to find air in the clarity of the atmosphere. there were other immigrants aboard flight 237 from rabat. these people dangled an intangible distance from layla—coalescing with the falling remnants of the plane, unevenly disjointed, unevenly bizarre. in the mix of broken machine and broken people was suspended the debris of the self, fragmented memories, threadbare ghosts, split mother tongues, violated spaces, untranslatable idioms, smothered secrets, ephemeral loves, deceased futures, and the disregarded meanings of empty, vacant, words, roots, belonging, journey. cushioned by the clouds, layla plummeted gradually like a heavy suitcase dropped down stairs. after hours of stumbling downward steadily, she tightened her muscles to prepare to hit the water below her. green and even, the expansive chasm of the atlantic ocean opened smoothly to uncover the slippery depths of her rebirth. which side of the atlantic is this? she wondered. i’m so sorry about that, ma’am. turbulence. can i get you anything else? she asked. the flight attendant widened her eyes to smile, as she patted the paper on layla’s tray with a napkin. no, she said. still very much in the throes of a proverbial nightmare, layla couldn’t find the words in english, and her voice sounded waterlogged and brackish. layla listened to the clicking wheels of the refreshment cart traverse down the cabin, as the echo of the toilet 84 at home in babel, shachar flushing reverberated from the nearby bathroom while she traced the jagged lines of her the wet mark on her letter. she had written poetry on the plane, chronicling her forward journey for the people of her past. layla closed her eyes once more, navigating through landing blind. circling the runway at a slow altitude, the plane veered from the trajectory of her balance and forced her arms against the seat. in a series of loud bangs, she was reborn in the new york, arriving feet first—an improper orientation for entering the world. beneath her, the cosmos has collided, making one of earth and machine. the friction sparks blazed in the aftermath of exertion. reality imploded, and the distance between what was and what is collapsed. ladies and gentlemen, welcome to john f. kennedy airport. local time is 5:36 pm, and the temperature is 45 degrees. for your safety and comfort, we ask that you please remain seated with your seat belt fastened until the captain turns off the “fasten seat belt” sign. this will indicate that we have parked at the gate and that it is safe for you to move about. belonging in the absence of movement, layla grabbed her belongings from the overhead space and walked towards the exit. in the drab and drafty jet bridge, she took her first steps on american soil, on future’s path. armed with two worn bags, layla hastened through security towards the exit of the airport. she had grown accustomed to the stifling of pressurized air and fluorescent lighting. upon escaping the liminality of the jfk airport, she reclaimed her perceptions. on the side of the new york city highway, she was immediately bombarded with a myriad of sounds, sights, and smells. as she waited, the odor of gas infected her street corner, shifting layla’s senses from a rural existence to an urban reality. climbing into the back of a cab, layla noticed the slickness of the city streets. the roads of her past were paved with cobble and brine, saturated with generations of history. hello. 92 amsterdam avenue, please, she said. the english words twirled around in her mouth before they escaped. it was if her speech was dancing in a linguistic game of musical chairs, pirouetting between the harshness of an infant english and the simplicity of a dutiful arabic. she knew the lilt in her voice had betrayed her. ‘min aiynah anti?’ asked the taxi driver. stunned to hear arabic so far from home, layla paused. marrakesh, she said. for the duration of the twenty-minute drive, layla and the taxi driver conversed in a familiar and unfamiliar dialect—a merger of his egyptian arabic and her berber colloquialism. a language neither could claim agency over nor cast off wholeheartedly. it was the hybridized linguistics of rupture, of loss. the cabdriver refused to take her fare, as if taking her money was to be a betrayal of their fabricated collective experience. thank you, she whispered and closed the door behind her. turning attention to her worn walkup apartment, she stood outside to observe its city aesthetics. a cigarette butt, a faded flyer, and a soda can littered the steps to her door. she grabbed the key from under the mat—an arrangement she made with the super through a misinterpreted e-mail correspondence. she dropped her bags to stare properly at her new abode. exhaling the staleness of the past, she inhaled the new air of her new home. after throwing her body on her new sofa, she sifted through her bags to find her passport, wallet, and the letters. tomorrow i’ll mail the letter home. 85 at home in babel, shachar roots in the following week, layla pieced together the beginnings of a new future, while clinging to the vestiges of a broken past. one morning, she journeyed uptown to the university, staring wild-eyed at the city people—the actors in her rebirth. layla al-awsat there it stood in a sea of forms and papers. her name stretched enigmatically across the generics of the mundane. signing her name on the class rosters, she grabbed her books and started off homeward. on the subway, layla studied her new milieu; the sea of colorful faces—ranging from the whitest of whites to the blackest of blacks, the buzz of different languages—forming a new and collective buzz. ¿qué hora es? asked the man sitting next to her. short and dark, he smelled of sweat and rubber. i’m moroccan, she said. layla buried her eyes in her hands, studying their color for answers. retreating out of the confines of his seat, the man peered over her shoulder at her watch. keeping her eyes on the door, layla tepidly stood up at her stop. on her walk home, layla thumbed the inside of her jacket, humming the tune of a television jingle of which she couldn’t remember any of the related lyrics. layla arrived at her stoop, brushed the mist droplets off the mail, and let herself in. sorting through the mail, she noticed the familiar icon of the statue of liberty. six stamps of lady liberty lined the outer rim of a water-stained letter. she stared hard at the green of the statue’s face, remembering that green from her plummet to the atlantic ocean. distinguishing the stamps and the curvature of her arabic penmanship, layla recognized the letter as her own. it hadn’t made its way homeward after all. 86 at home in babel, shachar works cited arva, eugene. “writing the vanishing real: hyperreality and magical realism.” journal of narrative theory 38.1 (2008): 60-85. web. 1 dec. 2013. baudrillard, jean. simulation and simulacra. trans. sheila glaser. michigan: university of michigan press, 1994. brogan, kathleen. cultural haunting: ghosts and ethnicity in recent american literature. charlottesville: university of virgina press, 1998. print. díaz, junot. the brief wondrous life of oscar wao. new york: riverhead, 2007. print. falconer, blass, and lorraine lópez. “introduction.” the other latin@: writing against a singular identity. tuscon: university of arizona press, 2011. 1-9. print. lee, chang-rae. a gesture life. new york: riverhead, 1999. print. mahler, anne. “the writer as superhero: fighting the colonial curse in junot díaz’s the brief wondrous life of oscar wao.” journal of latin american cultural studies 19 (2010): 119-140. web. 1 dec. 2013. sheffer, jolie. “recollecting, repeating, and walking through: immigration, trauma, and space in mary antin’s the promised land.” journal of multi-ethnic literature 35 (2010): 141-166. web. 1 dec. 2013. sharp, gwen. “hyperreality and the new statue of liberty stamp.” the society pages. w.w. norton & company, inc., 19 aug. 2011. web. 1 dec. 2013. sleep dealer. dir. alex rivera. perf. luis fernando peña, leonor varela, and jacob vergas. maya entertainment, 2008. dvd. 87 dlr journal 54 by mikayla davis abstract in an analysis of mary shelley’s the last man, this essay focuses on the impact of the plague on society's mentality and function. the plague, explained as a manifestation of the “primitive” and the abject—based on the concepts of douglas and kristeva—leads to social separatism, dystopia, and moral regression. paired with analysis of language and the character adrian, the essay concludes that shelley’s greatest warning is against the objectifying of humanity as potential abjections. the formation of separatism in shelley's the last man: a struggle to overcome the "primitive" and live in a world of the abject 55 davis the romantics were a group intent on pouring forth their emotions, all the while falling victim to the idealizing of the world. one of the great sources of their fancies was nature and all its reverential beauty and abundance of life. yet, romantic author mary shelley blurs this assumed dichotomy—in which beautiful life and nature are united as one in opposition to death and destruction—in her novel the last man. the last man is an apocalyptic plague novel that chronicles the life of lionel verney and his extended family as they attempt to survive in dwindling numbers. although fantastical, the last man portrays a more honest sense of the world than other romantics texts by portraying all the ways in which the good and bad, life and death, are two sides of the same coin. expanding on this image, shelley’s novel displays the consequences of paying attention to only death, or the bad side of the coin. shelley depicts this by creating the plague—a picture of nature and death as a united pair—and focusing on society’s ability to treat the clean versus the unclean. with the theories of mary douglas and julia kristeva as a foundation, readers can see how the plague, which succinctly provides shelley’s characters and their community with a clear example of “death infecting life,” represents the ultimate form of the primitive and the abject (kristeva 4). by using the ultimate form of the primitive and abject, shelley reveals the human tendency to fear the reality of death in life so much so as to regress in societal values and morality. this regression manifests through a separatist mentality. shelley ultimately provides hope and a way out of this regression into separatism by creating a character who models how to live compassionately toward humanity, despite the constant shadow of death and disease that are the great abjections of our lives. in this context, we can see that shelley marks separatism as leading to dystopia. similarly, the intensity of such a dystopia is increased by the failure to accept that the abject is a part of life. the plague in the last man, more than threatening society with disease, threatens society’s system of values and its desire to ignore life’s abjections. the spreading of the plague in shelley’s novel is not wholly physical—that is, not clearly defined as contagious via bodily contact—but its consequences are. no matter how the plague is caught, the disease shows itself in a physical taint of the body. this physical taint draws forth images of what douglas calls “the primitive.” the idea of the primitive is characterized by an emphasis on the state of material items. physical uncleanliness, such as “contact with corpses, blood or spittle” trumps any spiritual concept of uncleanliness within society 56 davis (douglas 13). the state of the soul and spirituality is acknowledged less, in terms of cleanliness, than contact with a physical object that is unclean. note that douglas uses the word “primitive” in order to describe the secularist understanding of the past’s treatment of the unclean. douglas does not mean “primitive” to be a description of the reality of the past, but as a description of how secular culture frames the past’s customs in comparison to its own. that is, secular culture views itself and its understanding of the unclean as advanced and logical by contrast to the past. i will use “primitive” not for its negative connotations, but in the sense that it is the belief that the material and the physical constitute the distinction between what is clean and unclean. douglas next asserts that all understandings of dirt are merely a product of categorization. this claim is an important one for understanding shelley’s argument regarding a regression of values within the last man. douglas explains the relativity of the unclean through the idea that “shoes are not dirty in themselves, but it is dirty to place them on the dining-table; food is not dirty in itself, but it is dirty to leave cooking utensils in the bedroom”(45). thus, any society’s perspective of the physically unclean thing is actually a matter of categorization and context. from here, any behavior against an unclean thing is revealed to just be “the reaction which condemns any object or idea likely to confuse or contradict cherished classifications” (douglas 45). this last statement is essential to shelley’s novel because of its characterization of the unclean as a threat to “cherished classifications.” the plague is the ultimate destroyer of classification within the last man; it blurs all lines and thoughts of borders or rank. shelley’s narrator at one point acknowledges that “all the world has the plague” (193) and that “one beggar had become of more worth than a national peerage of dead lords” (234). the narrator recognizes that no one category of social class or worldly identification prevents disease from affecting a person. in many ways, this makes the plague the abject writ large. the abject, more than just an “other,” is that which “disturbs identity, system, order” and that which “does not respect borders, positions, rules” (kristeva 4). the plague certainly has no respect for borders within shelley’s novel, nor does it fail to disturb the identity of individuals and nations. shelley’s plague is the fullest form of abjection, because it not only disturbs identity and systems of order but accomplishes this through the spreading of corpses and death. as kristeva points out, “the corpse, seen without god and outside of science, is the utmost of abjection. it is death infecting life. . . . it is something rejected 57 davis from which one does not part” (4). the plague is certainly the purveyor of corpses within shelley’s novel and thus the purveyor of the abject. in one scene, shelley’s narrator describes that “every day a frightful gap was made in [his] troop—they died by the tens, by fifties, by hundreds” (326). such an increase in the plague signifies an increase in society’s saturation and confrontation of corpses and the abject. the plague and its great distribution of corpses is therefore a twofold image, reflecting both the “primitive” fear of the physically unclean and the ultimate abjection. shelley develops this twofold image within the last man and demonstrates how a society that focuses on the physically unclean as the ultimate threat will regress in its values and ability to cherish human life. essentially, the focused opposition to that which is physically tainted creates large-scale separatism and morally tainted communities. there are several instances in the novel in which shelley argues against a separatist nature, and its role as a response to the endemic abject, by eliminating individual autonomy and developing exclusive collectives. as mark canuel provocatively suggests during his analysis of agency within the last man, shelley appears to implement the idea that “an argument about . . . agency can be made by eliminating agents” (150). her examples of the separation of communities into group identities is described through a language of tribalism. that is, shelley uses descriptions that connote tribal behavior when presenting a people’s division into exclusive groups. tribal, in this case, reflects shelley’s sense of the word. as part of the 19th-century british empire, in which there was imperialism and the subjugation of communities deemed less civilized, shelley frames tribes as groups that necessarily and inherently participate in pillaging, fighting, and nomadism. although these are narrow definitions about the constitution of a tribe and carry misconceptions, they serve to overtly portray a divided people within the novel. as such, i will use the idea of tribalism only when demonstrating how shelley’s language works to emphasize a division between communities. aside from demonstrating her demarcation of divisions, i will use the term “separatism.” separatism more accurately portrays shelley’s underlying argument, which is aimed against the division of a community into exclusive groups. this division, caused particularly by the fear of the abject, is what reflects a communities’ regression in values and morals. shelley describes several instances in which, amidst the plague-ridden world where national 58 davis boundaries have withered, a group will form and take to regional domination. in one such scene, shelley writes: “a number of people from north america…had set sail for the east …several hundreds landed in ireland…and took possession of such vacant habitations as they could find…as they exhausted the produce of one spot, they went on to another. at length they began to interfere with the inhabitants, and strong in their concentrated numbers, ejected the natives from their dwellings, and robbed them of their winter store. a few events of this kind roused the fiery nature of the irish; and they attacked the invaders” (235). the separatism in this scene is clearly marked by shelley’s identification of two groups: one as “invaders” and the other as “natives.” she creates a scene in which people have decided to disregard other communal life, through “interfering” and “ejecting” inhabitants, so as to benefit themselves. with material danger, uncleanliness, and the abject at the forefront of their minds thanks to the plague, which is reflective of the “primitive” mindset, the invading separatists—or tribe—treat the other communities more like objects and less like human lives. shelley describes this as a case in which “human beings, unwithheld by shame… ventured on deeds of greater wickedness, or gave way more readily to their abject fears” (213). thus, in order to deal with the plague—that is, their abject fears—the group has decided to see humans as potential corpses and the potential abject; if humans are potential threats, even when not yet contaminated by the plague, then they are essentially objects to be repressed and rejected. here, the primitive mindset tackles the issue of uncleanliness preemptively and, under this fear-ridden and regressive belief, the separatists can set aside any moral quandary when pillaging and fighting other communities. shelley further suggests this is the case when she writes that the tribe from north america actually “took delight in thrusting the possessors from their houses” (237). their actions are not simply survival based in this moment. by calling the inhabitants “possessors,” the invader’s motivation more clearly becomes driven by a desire to overcome other groups, who they necessarily see as the opposition. this divisive perspective only builds off of itself, as céline kermisch’s conceptual exploration of risk and virtue-responsibility will imply. the ethics explored in kermisch’s article suggest that, by “concentrate[ing] rather on ‘outsiders’ in order to increase the loyalty to the group,” these tribes end up focusing "on the 59 davis reinforcement of the social cohesion” (96). this cohesion, though, is exclusive to the “tribe.” therefore, the reinforcement only promotes more opposition to those on the outside than it does a kind of unity. as one group builds its exclusivity, a sort of ripple effect begins to occur. shelley demonstrates this with her increasing examples of separatism. shelley’s next example of a separatism in response to the abject comes when a group, once united as one, now finds itself separated into three: “the more numerous division of emigrants… assumed a superiority of rank and power; the second party asserted their independence. a third was formed by a sectarian” (300). the three groups, once united by the commonality of being humans all threatened by the abject plague, now cling to selfish divisions. during one tense moment between the three factions, a “contest arose concerning the distribution of the pillage; the chiefs of the first division demanded that the whole should be placed at their disposal” (shelley 301). the way that the groups designate “chiefs,” call themselves “divisions,” and begin to fight over “pillage” is a clear example of shelley’s tribalism and a separatist nature. once again, such separatism is made all the more justified by the tribes in light of their “primitive” perspective, when each groups’ people simply represent the potential abject meant to be overcome. the natural consequence of such division, though, is strife: “the three divisions, armed, met in the place vendome, each resolved to subdue by force the resistance of its adversaries” (shelley 301). just as the first example of separatist behavior ended in fighting between the tribe from north america and the irish, so too does this example culminate on the battlefield with the intent to “subdue” one’s “adversaries.” by repeating the acts of separatism, shelley shows how the objectification of humans as potential abjections can only lead to more division and strife. to rebuke this regressed behavior into a focus on the physical taint, shelley develops in contrast a character of spiritual and moral purity: adrian. adrian confronts each of the previous divided groups and acts as a model for how to live a life of love despite having the knowledge that humans are the potential abject and physically tainted. when the opposing groups face each other on the battlefield, adrian rises up to quell the impending fight using specifically christian, spiritual language: “as you worship god, in whose image those also are created…shed not a drop of precious human blood” (shelley 240). he calls upon the tribes to recognize the human body as precious because of its spiritual significance and not to see their fellow 60 davis humans as reminders of death or objects with which to defeat. he continues, sermon-like, shouting that “pardon, succor, and brotherly love await your repentance. you are dear to us, because you wear the frail shape of humanity” (shelley 240). adrian recalls not only the values of spiritual cleanliness, but the worth of human life and “precious… humanity.” he does not deny the reality of death but focuses on life and its value above all the physical risks surrounding him. in another instance, when the three tribes are about to strike one another, adrian rises as a model of “love, unmingled with fear” (shelley 304). he is described as someone who “never flinched from danger, nor was actuated by other motives than care for the general welfare” (shelley 304). he is a purveyor of moral purity. he is also an advocate for human worth and compassion because he is motivated by “love” and “care for the general welfare.” although afflicted by the knowledge of the plague and the pervasive abject around him, just as his comrades are, adrian does not let the “primitive” mentality direct his actions or lead him into separatism. as such, adrian demonstrates what humanity can be in spite of a world engulfed by the plague—indeed, the abject. shelley ends her argument with the idea that separatism will retreat through the demonstration of unity. she argues this during one scene in which adrian arrives and “the late adversaries” are said to have “warmed to affection at the sight of him” (shelley 303). they pause their objectifying of the other groups and recall a sense of affection for the individual when he walks in the space between their three divisions. as adrian draws attention away from separatism, he reminds the tribes how morally pure “agency” is both an individual and communal responsibility (canuel 150). a few sentences later, shelley writes how “no distinction was now visible between the two parties, late ready to shed each other’s blood” (304). adrian’s character changes the discourse between the separate groups and inspires unity under the name of love for humanity. his cherishment of human life, rather than treatment of humans as objects, leads the people groups out of their regression— characterized by the “primitive” perspective, by their tainted morals, and by a separatist behavior— back towards valuing humans as individuals. the juxtaposition of separatist language with that of adrian’s language regarding moral purity, reveals shelley’s argument that society and humanity need to cherish life, demonstrate compassion, and live in unity. since humans live with two sides of the same coin, life and death, the novel teaches 61 davis that to reject one side of life out of fear is to reject the other. shelley may use the most extreme, pervasive example of the abject and its most extreme, divisive consequences, but in doing so she effectively reveals society’s deeper struggle to act compassionately as it copes with life in death. just as shelley exposes her characters to this reality, so too does she assert that all of humanity ought to be “suddenly seized with the conviction, that love [is] the only good in life” (308). shelley’s greatest warning, then, is that to just focus on potential threats and let oneself objectify humanity is to reject the coin of life itself. essentially, “to avoid” encountering death and abjection, shelley acknowledges that we would have to “quit the world” (193). yet, in doing so, we achieve neither a life of true community and compassion nor peace until death has come. it is only by accepting the coin as it is and knowing that in “human nature…beauty and deformity are often closely linked” that society can begin to act with compassion and spiritual reverence for humanity, no matter the physical threat or “abject fears” they may face (shelley 213). 62 works cited canuel, mark. “acts, rules, and the last man.” nineteenth-century literature, vol. 53, no. 2, 1998, pp. 147–170. jstor, www.jstor.org/stable/2902981. douglas, mary. purity and danger: an analysis of concept of pollution and taboo. routledge classics, 2002. kermisch, céline. "risk and responsibility: a complex and evolving relationship." science and engineering ethics, vol. 18, no. 1, 2012, pp. 91-102. proquest, https://librarysftp.whitworth. edu:2443/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/920397462?accountid=1149, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11948-010-9246-y. kristeva, julia. powers of horror: an essay on abjection. columbia university press, 1982. shelley, mary. the last man. wordsworth editions limited, 2004. davis digital literature review 1 101 although well-documented in western literature, the windigo spirits present in stories like stephen king’s pet sematary and algernon blackwood’s “the wendigo” are stripped of their original context and reduced to mere stereotypes of the cultures from which they originate. by looking at the depictions of windigo in specific western stories and native beliefs, the ways in which appropriation has long-lasting effects on the perceptions of native american cultures by the average consumer and even scientific communities becomes apparent. ultimately, this paper argues that native american spirits should belong to the cultures from which they originate. kallie hunchman, ball state university stolen spirits: the appropriation of the windigo spirit in horror literature his most vulnerable points, moreover, are said to be the feet and the eyes; the feet, you see, for the lust of wandering, and the eyes for the lust of beauty. the poor beggar goes at such a dreadful speed that he bleeds beneath the eyes, and his feet burn. algernon blackwood, “the wendigo” (1910) its eyes, tilted up like the eyes in a classical chinese painting, were a rich yellowish-gray, sunken, gleaming. the mouth was drawn down in a rictus; the lower lip was turned out, revealing teeth stained black-ish brown and worn down almost to nubs. but what struck louis were the ears, which were not ears at all but curving horns… they were not like devil’s horns; they were ram’s horns. stephen king, pet sematary (1983) digital literature review 2 102 introduction the idea of the windigo is not entirely unfamiliar to western readers, even if the windigo itself is not always referred to by name. a woods-dwelling, human-like, cannibalistic, horned figure— the common depiction of the windigo in television, books, and film—is visible in books by margaret atwood and stephen king and shows like supernatural1 and even my little pony: friendship is magic.2 while the spirit itself comes from native american beliefs, the common visual depiction of the windigo does not. in most native american beliefs, the windigo greatly resembles the human being it used to be except for tiny features that give it away as a shell of what it once was. the image of the windigo as seen in non-native literature is recognizable as a native american spirit in its use of exaggerated and stereotypical native american characteristics created by capitalism. the windigo of pop culture is wild. it often has antlers and haunts forests and cemeteries, cursing the people who enter and eating the ones who do not leave. this horned depiction of the windigo appears in movies like wendigo (2001), the last winter (2006), and devil in the dark (2017) and shows like hannibal (2013-2015)3 and over the garden wall (2014). in other western depictions, the windigo takes on some remarkably werewolf-esque traits: pointy ears, sharp claws and teeth, howling, and frantic wandering through the woods (desanti 192), traits that can be seen in episodes of supernatural (2005-2020) and charmed (1998-2006).4 it exists in the realm of horror tropes of curses and “indian burial grounds.” none of these representations, however, reflect the true nature of windigo myths. in the recreating of spirits that do not belong to them, euro-american writers warp and decontextualize the windigo from its original contexts. the windigo is an important symbol in the many native beliefs it inhabits, but the decontextualized western windigo does not tell you what it symbolizes. severing the windigo from its context allows western authors to create a literary way of invoking spirituality and magic by drawing on their created stereotypical native american themes: antlers, wilderness, spirits, and other aspects created to “other” native american communities and create a marketable genre of native american spirituality. native american spirituality, in its romanticization as the purest, most natural way of being american, is extremely marketable. native american cultures are often commodified in western culture—sold through dreamcatchers, feathers, masks, designs, tattoos, and halloween cos1 season 1, episode 2 2 season 2, episodes 1 & 2 3 various appearances throughout seasons 1, 2, 3. 4 season 1, episode 12 digital literature review 3 103 tumes—and this commodification does not end with material culture. spirits, stories, music, and general cultural characteristics are prime targets for western creators. native cultures have already proved to be marketable, and using stereotypes in horror literature quickly and easily lends an air of spiritualism and natural wildness to stories in ways appealing to american consumers. windigo spirits have existed in the oral traditions of many algonquian native american cultures long before they ever appeared in stories by horror authors like stephen king and algernon blackwood. in the oral traditions of the cree and ojibwe, the windigo are important cultural spirits, each with individual histories, personal attachments, and reasons for being. windigo stories serve as moral foundations, warnings, and histories of the communities in which they are told. without the context of native stories, the windigo is simply a cannibalistic monster. in euro-american literature, they haunt white people and are separated—both physically and metaphorically—from the communities in which they are born. western stories have appropriated the concept of the windigo, but they have changed it into a more marketable monster. the windigo is a personal spirit that still belongs to the native american cultures from which it has been taken, and the appropriation of this spirit harms native american communities by poorly representing their beliefs for a marketable gain. by looking at two stories, the 1983 novel pet sematary by american author stephen king and the 1910 work “the wendigo” by english author algernon blackwood, we see similar misrepresentations of the windigo by western authors and how, despite the seventy year gap between the publication of the two stories, the windigo is still prominent in western literature as a symbol of horror and fear of the wilderness. pet sematary is an important cultural artifact thanks to king’s widespread popularity and recognition as a horror writer. the book’s cultural importance granted it not one, but two movie adaptations, the first in 1989 and the second in 2019. on the other hand, “the wendigo” is one of the first representations of the windigo by a western writer and served as a foundation for the image many people attribute to windigos as horrific creatures. by analyzing the representations of the original western-shaped windigo created by blackwood and the contemporary version that lives on in one of king’s most recognizable stories, it is possible to distinguish the native windigo from the western imitation and recognize the harm the latter puts on algonquian communities. windigos in native american belief systems before analyzing the western literature in which windigos often reside, it is important to understand the cultural origins and context of these spirits. beliefs about the actions and appearances of windigos vary from culture to culture, but the basic principles remain consistent. the digital literature review 4 104 windigo is a native american spirit who was once human but has since been transformed into a cannibalistic spirit. it belongs to the algonquian tribes that spread across the northeastern united states and canada, including the cree, ojibwe (chippewa), delaware, arapaho, cheyenne, illinois, fow, kickapoo and many more. among these tribes, the windigo goes by many names depending on the linguistic differences among the tribes. for example, the cree refer to them as witiko or wihtikow and the ojibwe refer to them as wintiko or wiindiigo. in light of the many spellings among the many tribes of the algonquian peoples, i have chosen to use the spelling “windigo,” one of the standard english spellings of the word for clarity and uniformity throughout. among the cree, there are two distinctive types of windigo: one type is a supernatural cannibal being with anthropomorphic characteristics that demonstrates quite a bit of power, and the other type refers to humans who develop cannibalistic cravings and slowly transform into windigos. the supernatural windigo has terrifying characteristics, enormous strength, and powers that allow it to paralyze and transform mortals into cannibals, while the previously human windigos appear dirty and unkempt, but are otherwise nearly indistinguishable from their mortal counterparts (flannery, chambers, and jehle 57-58). for the cree, the windigo is a symbol of failing social relations, when the relationship between individuality and cooperation with the larger group becomes unbalanced. the transformation into a windigo is representative of the final shift from human to greedy cannibalistic creature (turner 64). typically, a windigo goes after the people closest to it: children, spouses, and close friends (68). many accounts of the windigo from other algonquian groups, such as those presented in ojibwa texts collected by william jones, show the windigo going after their families or fixating on children (brightman 347-48). as with most depictions of the windigo in native stories, the windigo of the ojibwe has a heart of ice and cannibalistic tendencies. it is voracious, and its hunger is physically present, as the windigo is consistently emaciated (desanti 188). presenting itself as a kind of psychological impairment, with the inability to control selfish desires and impulses, the windigo appears as a result of resource scarcity (paredes 339-40) and an imbalance in the two souls that inhabit the body (desanti 196). while the accounts of windigos vary slightly across algonquian cultures, they all have essentially the same characteristics. they are mostly the spirits of people who were once human, but no longer are, transformed into windigos as a result of either famine-induced cannibalism or possession by larger, supernatural windigo spirits (ferrara and lanoue 78). the transformation from human into windigo is typically a gradual one, characterized by violence and selfishness (79). digital literature review 5 105 windigos have hearts encased in ice that must be melted to either cure or kill the windigo. they mostly appear in the winter, and they always appear alone (78). manifestations of the windigo are responses to environmental and cultural stresses—like isolation and starvation in harsh winter environments and outside colonial factors—as a way of explaining and taking control of stresses (ferrara and lanoue 76). windigos haunt their local communities by facing them with prevalent issues of isolation, starvation, and selfishness. separation from the community, either physically or emotionally, is detrimental to both the individual and the community, and windigo spirits serve as guardians of the community by protecting and enforcing the cooperative values of the community. windigos in western literature while traditional stories of windigos have a long history within algonquian tribal history, non-native representations of the windigo date back to the 18th century, though the better known versions are more recent. one of the most popular and well-known of these was published in 1910. algernon blackwood’s “the wendigo” is one of the most prominent short stories about windigos in western literature, as it is the inspiration for larry fessenden’s wendigo (2001) and the last winter (2006) and has been recreated in an abbreviated form in scary stories to tell in the dark (1981). blackwood’s windigo has little physical presence; it is instead characterized through storytelling around a campfire and the way it affects the people and environment around it. the footsteps it leaves behind reveal a long stride and huge physicality, and it is consistently described as having a hideous odor. the speed at which it runs after its victims causes its feet to catch fire and burn. in comparison to native american representations, this windigo has many similar characteristics, but the way in which it is discussed and stripped of meaning and context is very different. in blackwood’s short story, the windigo appears as a way to contribute to the western dehumanization of native americans. the windigo in blackwood’s story shows the racist attitudes that underpin blackwood’s perspective of native cultures and, ultimately, his writing itself. in writing about a spirit that does not belong to him, blackwood has created a different kind of windigo, one that is but a racist depiction of the culture from which it stems. the ways in which blackwood discusses the windigo—and aboriginal peoples themselves—contribute to racist stereotypes and creates a biased and ethnocentric perspective of native spirits. in the story, two scottish travelers are led through the canadian wilderness by indigenous canadian guides who warn them of the windigo, a “sort of great animal that lives up yon digital literature review 6 106 der” (504). throughout the story, native americans as a people are also depicted as animal-like and wild with greater senses. in the darkness, they can see and hear like animals, and they move quietly “as only indian blood can move” (495). blackwood specifically describes the actions of one of the native american characters in the story, défago, as “like a dog sniffing game” (501). défago later walks slowly into the woods and is described as being absorbed into the forest. the windigo of pet sematary also makes few physical appearances, but its presence is blamed for many of the events in the book; it exerts its power over the people of ludlow, inciting them to awful, macabre actions. it wants people to come to the local native american burial grounds to resurrect their pets and loved ones and ultimately bring more people to their untimely and gruesome deaths. king depicts the windigo in pet sematary as an absolutely huge creature with ram’s horns that can turn people into windigos by merely touching them. any animal or person buried in the pet cemetery loses the essence that makes them unique and lively, and while this change does not seem to concern the characters when they consider resurrecting animals, it is a huge concern when thinking about their loved ones. resurrecting a human is highly discouraged, as they will lose their humanity in the process, becoming what is essentially a wild animal seeking to destroy and cause harm. throughout the story, judson crandall refers to the micmac tribe—properly spelled mi’kmaq—in ways that associate them with wildness and the western fear of the unknown that masquerades itself as a fear of the wilderness. the wilderness is a constant threat to survival in comparison to the paradise of civilization romanticized by western societies (nash 8-9). especially in christocentric societies, the wilderness stands in stark contrast to the garden of eden man was cast out of (15). stephen king uses this fear of the wilderness to his advantage, making it the center of mystery and terror in pet sematary. the forest behind the creeds’ house has “a charm that was not christian, but pagan” (42), and can be related to an “almost instinctive fear of woods” (37) that manifests itself in human beings, especially in euro-american cultures that are more disconnected from the natural world. louis is warned against entering “the indian woods” just beyond the pet cemetery in another association between native americans and the wilderness that is so familiar to western societies (104). through its association with the pet cemetery and the resurrection of children’s beloved pets, the windigo is dehumanized by being associated with a place where animals are buried and anything that is reincarnated is no longer human—and in most cases, never was. this suggests that the windigo itself is animalistic in its association with the pet cemetery. digital literature review 7 107 the connection between windigos, native americans, and animals appears in king’s book in much the same way as in blackwood’s story. while blackwood connects native peoples and animals through metaphors and animalistic actions and characteristics, king connects them through the tangible metaphor of the pet cemetery. anything that is buried there, be it human or pet, is not human. the people who are buried there and brought back to life only resemble human beings. their actions are murderous, dangerous, and animalistic, insinuating that the native people who originally occupied the land and buried their dead in the cemetery are also murderous, dangerous, and animalistic. king’s version of the windigo, while physically and partially behaviorally similar to traditional cree depictions of the supernatural windigo, does not fully represent the holistic idea of the windigo. king’s version is tailored to dehumanize the windigo, making it an inhuman monster in a novel about the loss of humanity after death. depicting the windigo as a supernatural monster targeting white people in maine misrepresents the purpose and existence of the windigo, as it is no longer representative of the native environmental and cultural struggles it stems from. instead, it is a depiction of the wild, animalistic stereotype of native americans often used by western writers to instill fear and distrust in their readers. in the same vein, blackwood’s version is harmful to native american communities in its stereotyping and romanticizing of native peoples’ association with nature and the wilderness. it also draws on the idea that a cultural spirit is little more than a manifestation of “when an indian goes crazy” (blackwood 519), contributing to academic misunderstandings of cultural beliefs as psychological issues. the effects of appropriation appropriation appears in many forms. the common idea of appropriation is the use of a specific group’s cultural expressions by people from another culture without explicit permission, but many other things—unethical research, unauthorized collection and sale of cultural art and depictions, and the use of cultural aspects to appear “exotic,” “spiritual,” or “authentic”—fall under the umbrella of appropriation (mathiesen 462). unethical research and the collection and sale of stories, art, and music are two major issues that crop up when discussing the idea of the windigo. appropriation creates a disconnection between western depictions and native realities that ultimately harms native peoples. western depictions of native spirits serve to disconnect the spirits from their culture. both “the wendigo” and pet sematary show this, as their authors weave in stories about the windigo while barely including the native americans to whom the windigos belong. the mi’kmaqs, aldigital literature review 8 108 though mentioned quite a few times by jud in pet sematary, are not physically included in the story. their stories are told by a white man, who learned about them from another white man, who in turn learned it from a long line of white men with little to no connection to the tribe. in “the wendigo,” the stories of the windigo are told by a native american character, but the depiction of this man is problematic as it contributes to harmful stereotypes. this disconnection between spirit and culture is partially ignorance on the part of the writers, but it is also part of a long history of disconnection that rends culture from people, an unwillingness to include native american cultures in stories that center on their beliefs as an important plotline of stories. the long history of colonial deculturalization of native communities has been spurred on by commodification, romanticizing, and the splitting of ideas from their original cultures. taking something like the windigo from its native contexts renders it less real, and the culture it comes from becomes less real for the consumer, making native peoples and beliefs into something they can read and be scared of, but then something they can safely close and put on their bookshelf, never to be thought of again. by appropriating native themes without including accurate depictions of native americans, western authors play an important role in a capitalist and colonialist economy. cultural artifacts and stories are distorted to fit into a capitalistic mold, becoming commodities that can be easily sold to non-native consumers (kulchyski 605). through the exaggeration of traits western audiences deem more “native,” authors are able to sell and play to their public’s wants and fears. the idea of native american culture in media is largely based on the idea of “savage” vs. “civilized” and the romanticizing of the proximity to nature. by creating a romanticized and exaggerated idea of native americans, “non-indian people ‘feel more american’” by identifying with native ideas, but without acknowledging the results of this appropriation (shanley 678). equating native americans with wild, cold-hearted, greedy monsters makes them scarier, and authors can use that fear of the “uncivilized” peoples to create more frightening horror. the capitalistic molding of cultural commodities fundamentally changes those cultural artifacts in harmful ways. it skews understanding and perceptions of cultures, creating negative biases toward communities and their beliefs (kulchyski 612). the appropriation of the windigo, like the appropriation of many native american cultural ideas, is driven by a capitalistic appetite for money and fame. the irony of the appropriation of the windigo lies in the deep significance it holds in its native communities as a warning against harmful and selfish appetites. while western horror authors have appropriated the windigo as a scary, animalistic, wild monster seeking to kill white men and reacting in a rage to colonialism, windigo stories have digital literature review 9 109 important moral meanings and implications. they teach cultural values and morals to young members of the community through the important themes of the stories (ferrara and lanoue 77). stories like these influence the development of morals important to the functioning and continued success of the community: the importance of self-balance, cooperation, collaboration, and family (79). windigos function as a guide to psychological repair, reinforcing stories and beliefs in response to european colonialism and intrusion. continued appropriation of these stories and myths further detriments this process of cultural reestablishment (ferrara and lanoue 70). in museums, libraries, and archives, there are protocols in place for dealing with wrongfully gained native american artifacts, like the native american graves protection and repatriation act (nagpra). in many cases, the artifacts they have in their possession have been taken without permission and, although rights to these cultural artifacts are often not encoded in law or are vague and easily misused declarations of right, archivists must acknowledge their moral and historical rights of cultures to their own artifacts (mathiesen 457). the people working in these professions are recommended to recognize that native american communities have the right to limit or deny access to certain stories, ideas, information, etc. (458). basically, the groups in question determine what archivists can have, know, and share about their culture. if native americans demonstrate the right to own their culture and refuse access to researchers, they reserve the right to limit the general public’s access and use of their cultural ideas. by this reasoning, western authors have no moral right to claim or disseminate ideas about algonquian spirits. in writing stories about windigo, especially those which are stripped of context and without proper understanding and credit, western authors are committing an act of cultural theft. theft, however, is not the only issue with appropriation. appropriation can lead to misinformation that can influence the thoughts of not only the general public, but researchers and scientific communities as well. many anthropological and medical texts refer to a psychiatric phenomenon known as the “windigo psychosis,” an “environmentally induced cannibalism” (ferrara and lanoue 77). in the creation of this phenomenon, researchers drew on native ideas of windigos, citing cultural stories and myths that do not match up with historic, literal cases of cannibalism. by creating this cannibalistic persona of algonquian peoples, they misrepresent these tribes, making them seem cannibalistic and harsh and, ultimately, dehumanize the tribe by creating an animalistic view of them (ferrara and lanoue 77). media unwittingly creates biases that influence research and study, and misrepresentations in media create a cycle of misunderstandings that perpetuate racial stereotypes of native american peoples. digital literature review 10 110 conclusion in both western and native depictions, the windigo is haunting someone or something, but the reasons for haunting differ. for native americans, the hauntings are personal, familial, communal. westerners tend to conceive a windigo haunting as something directed at white people in general, in a fit of anger against colonial forces, connected to a specific place. this distinction between the focus of hauntings shows differences in community values that are lost in the appropriation of native stories. losing vital cultural context creates a misrepresentation of native communities that has had immensely harmful effects on the people within those tribes, creating negative ideas about populations that create and perpetuate negative stigmas and racist ideologies. in both western and native depictions of the windigo as a haunting, the windigo is a spirit representing the pains and sufferings of the past, a tangible, malevolent spirit coming back to bring light on the issues of inappropriate appetites and selfishness. what is distinctly different about these windigos is how they represent the issue. the native american windigo depicts the selfish person as the one becoming the ice-hearted monster, while the western windigo depicts the selfish monster as being attacked by the monster, creating a very clear idea of the cultural values involved. western depictions misinterpret the purpose of the windigo as a vengeful spirit, while native depictions use it more to show how individual selfishness impacts and harms others. this western depiction shows how cultural hauntings are perceived differently in cross-cultural situations. even though it is completely natural to use one’s own cultural understanding of the world to interpret unfamiliar ideas and beliefs, the issues lie in the reproduction of those beliefs by people with no emic perspective. in the reproduction of beliefs, culture is lost or, at the very least, disfigured for the personal gain of the reproducer. this appetite for money and fame on the part of western writers is ironic in its use of the windigo as a featured monster in horror, as it depicts a similar selfishness as that in native american stories of the windigo. the popularization of windigo in horror genres involves capitalistic gain on the part of western writers, and the cultural owners of windigo spirits are left with nothing but stigmatization, misunderstanding, and stereotypes. even the romanticized notions of native cultures as being spiritual and close to nature that seem beneficial or kind have negative impacts on communities by masking real issues and distorting the perceptions of native cultures. these romanticizations also function as part of a long history of cultures being stripped from their communities to lessen the connection between real, living native american cultures and communities and the spiritual and natural native american that can be put back on a shelf digital literature review 11 111 when the book is done. writing about the windigo in non-native contexts is a type of cultural theft that presents itself not as a legal issue, but as a moral one, perpetuating the cannibalization of native american belief systems. digital literature review 12 112 works cited blackwood, algernon. “the wendigo.” classic horror stories, edited by stefan dziemianowicz. new york, barnes & noble, 2015, pp. 491-529. brightman, robert a. “the windigo in the material world.” ethnohistory, vol. 35, no. 4, fall 1988, pp. 337-79. jstor,  https://www.jstor.org/stable/482140. desanti, brady. “the cannibal talking head: the portrayal of the windigo ‘monster’ in popular culture and ojibwe traditions.” journal of religion and popular culture, vol. 27, no. 3, fall 2015, pp. 186-201. project muse, https://muse.jhu.edu/article/617446. ferrara, nadia and guy lanoue. “the self in northern canadian hunting societies: ‘cannibals’ and other ‘monsters’ as agents of healing.” anthropologica, vol. 46, no. 1, 2004, pp. 69-83. jstor,  https://www.jstor.org/stable/25606169 . flannery, regina, mary elizabeth chambers, and patricia a. jehle. “witiko accounts from the james bay cree.” arctic anthropology, vol. 18, no. 1, 1981, pp. 57-77. jstor,  https://www.jstor. org/stable/40315990. jones, william. ojibwa texts. new york, g. e. stechert & co., 1919. king, stephen. pet sematary. new york, simon & schuster, 1983. kulchyski, peter. “from appropriation to subversion: aboriginal cultural production in the age of postmodernism.” american indian quarterly, vol. 21, no. 4, fall 1997, pp. 605-20. jstor,  https://www.jstor.org/stable/1185715. mathiesen, kay. “a defense of native americans’ rights over their traditional cultural expressions.” the american archivist, vol. 75, no. 2, fall/winter 2012, pp. 456-81. jstor,  https://www. jstor.org/stable/43489632.  nash, roderick. wilderness and the american mind. new haven, yale university press, 1965. paredes, anthony j. “a case study of ‘normal’ windigo.” anthropologica, vol. 14, no. 2, 1972, pp. 97116. jstor, https://www.jstor.org/stable/25604874. shanley, kathryn w. “the indians america loves to love and read: american indian identity and cultural appropriation.” american indian quarterly, vol. 21, no. 4, fall 1997, pp. 675-702. jstor,  https://www.jstor.org/stable/1185719. turner, d. h. “windigo mythology and the analysis of cree social structure.” anthropologica, vol. 19, no. 1, 1977, pp. 63-73. jstor,  https://www.jstor.org/stable/25604977. digital literature review issue 6 spring 2019 abstract dystopian novels have been topping best-seller lists for nearly a hundred years, but not many people have examined why this is the case or what makes them so effective at warning readers about what we could become in a not too distant future. perhaps it is these texts’ connection to the real world that plays into our fascination with the genre. this paper establishes this connection by examining the worlds of three popular dystopian novels and the ways in which they support louis althusser’s theory of ideological state apparatuses. this study will ideally enable readers to recognize the tools and real-life strategies that structure dystopian fictional worlds. 8 by kory wise ideological state apparatuses in dystopian novels 9 for roughly a century, dystopian novels have been a popular genre of literature among people of all ages. there is something about them that captures our imagination, makes us fear the worlds they construct, and forces us to ask probing questions about our own lives and societies. their ongoing popularity begs readers to ask whether there is a common element to these novels that keeps people coming back for more. what are the overarching themes or ideas that make them effective at warning humanity of what it could become? what are some of the tools they use to do this? one answer to these questions lies in louis althusser’s theory of ideological state apparatuses and the ways in which dystopian novels throughout the last century illustrate his ideas. this study will examine fahrenheit 451 by ray bradbury (1953), the handmaid’s tale by margaret atwood (1985), and the circle by dave eggers (2013). in “ideology and ideological state apparatuses,” althusser examines the ways in which a state asserts power over its subjects and controls them for the purpose of reproducing labor power. he sees this happening in two ways. the first is directly through repressive state apparatuses, or “rsas,” a “hard power” which belong entirely to the public domain (althusser). these are controlled directly by the state and act as agents enforcing the state’s will in an obvious manner, predominantly by repression (althusser). this includes such things as the police, army, prison system, judiciary— anything that is state-controlled. althusser believes this apparatus operates primarily through both mental and physical coercion and violence. the ideological state apparatuses, or “isas,” meanwhile, are part of the private domain and are controlled or influenced by the subjects within the apparatus (althusser). this “soft power” includes things like churches, schools, families, culture (literature, fashion, sports, technology, etc.), and tools of communication (press, radio, television, etc.) that create an ideology, or “a system of the ideas and representations (images, myths, ideas or concepts, according to the case) which dominate the mind of a man or a social group” (althusser; lin). the goal of the isa is to brainwash people into accepting the state’s ideology not through violence but through the desire to avoid scorn and humiliation. authors of dystopian literature fear isas the most because they enable the state to maintain its power, force a loss of identity among individuals, and strip subjects of the knowledge and ability they would need to easily go against the state. wise 10 wise it is important to note that these apparatuses do not need to be born of malicious intentions or some “evil empire” seeking to take control of a people for its own benefit. on the contrary, they are often the result of good intentions that yield negative results. after all, the etymological definition of “dystopia” is “bad utopia”—a utopia that has failed or gone horribly wrong (“dystopia”). this is certainly true of the dystopian societies found in the circle, the handmaid’s tale, and fahrenheit 451, worlds in which people have given up their freedoms and liberties for the sake of the greater good or are in the process of doing so. whether born of good intentions or not, though, the isas althusser wrote about are on full display in these dystopian novels, all of which show, in a grotesque way, how isas can be used to oppress the individual. perhaps the most important ideological state apparatus to althusser is the educational isa, or the system of different public and private “schools” through which “students” learn the rules of good behavior, develop their civic conscience, and learn to respect the rules of order that enforce their inferiority (althusser). atwood uses this idea to form the foundation of her fictional society, gilead, in the handmaid’s tale. in the book, the women of gilead are forced to enroll at the rachel and leah re-education centers to learn lessons of sexual morality, the importance (or mission) of childbearing, and obedience to god (atwood 88). the handmaids are inferior to their teachers, the “aunts,” whose job is to train the maids and transfer the ideology of the state unconsciously. the aunts justify the young women’s situation by telling them to “think of it as being in the army” (atwood 7). they are also told that, as time passes by, their situation will become more ordinary and they will grow used to it (moradi and azizmohammadi 80). re-education does not take place solely at the rachel and leah centers, though. it also occurs all throughout the women’s lives as handmaids. anytime they go against the law or show disobedience toward the marthas, their superiors, or their commanders’ wives, they are reprimanded and punished (atwood 16). the women are also prevented from being able to educate themselves. tools for self-education, like books, are restricted in gilead. typically, they are kept out of sight and locked away in boxes (atwood 137). the reason for this is that books hold promise within their pages. as offred says, they dealt in transformations; they suggested an endless series of possibilities...they suggested 11 wise one adventure after another, one wardrobe after another, one improvement after another, one one man after another. they suggested rejuvenation, pain overcome and transcended, endless love. the real promise in them was immortality. (atwood 157) books would offer too much hope to the handmaids who read them, giving them the idea that perhaps, if they all stood as one, they would have enough power to overthrow their oppressive society. gilead could not afford for this to happen, so these educational tools were restricted. ray bradbury uses the educational isa in a similar way in his novel fahrenheit 451. in his futuristic american society, books are banned and “firemen” hunt down and destroy any book that remains in the country. people can be arrested or killed for reading or owning books of any kind, because, much like in gilead, books can lead people to ponder issues such as freedom and happiness. having non-questioning, non-reading citizens on its hands allows the government to enforce its own will much more easily. one way in which it does this is evident when the young clarisse tells protagonist guy montag about a typical school day. important social and educational activities like talking or asking questions are not encouraged (bradbury 27). instead, students are subjected to “an hour of tv class, an hour of basketball or baseball or running, another hour of transcription history or painting pictures, and more sports” (bradbury 27). when they are in class, there is no teacher-student interaction, because students are fed information by a film-teacher for hours at a time (bradbury 27). captain beatty of the fire department also provides detail about how the school system has been changed in this futuristic society: “school is shortened, discipline relaxed, philosophies, histories, languages dropped, english and spelling gradually neglected, finally almost completely ignored” (bradbury 53). in her article, “subject and state: ideology, state apparatuses and interpellation in fahrenheit 451,’’ evrim koç says that, without classes like science, mathematics, ethics, etc., students are not taught to think or question as they should, which is exactly what the ruling ideology desires (117). instead, intellectuals become the outsiders, ignorant individuals become the norm, liberal arts colleges shut down, and the educational isa maintains an easily controlled society that is unfriendly to reading, thinking, and questioning. in the circle, dave eggers shows how the educational ideological state apparatus can be used to produce a society that celebrates education and knowledge but still has a similar effect on its people 12 wise as the world of fahrenheit 451. one of the eponymous technology company’s mottos is “all that happens must be known,” and knowledge is celebrated as a fundamental human right (eggers 68, 303). in fact, to withhold knowledge from somebody, to deprive them of something to which they have a right, is viewed as stealing from them (eggers 303). as a result, the circle works to create a collective record of everything that happens in the world, giving people the tools they need to know everything. it begins with seechange cameras being placed around the world to “know the previously unknown” and allow people to tune in to live video streams from any location in the world (eggers 63). not long after, people are willing to “go transparent” and wear a camera around their neck to broadcast every event of their day to day lives (eggers 210). the result of this ideology on the circle’s customers is similar to that of the educational isa in the handmaid’s tale and fahrenheit 451. while the company’s actions are veiled as promotion of individuals’ rights and education, they only serve to promote the knowledge of the collective or the company as a whole. no individual can truly access all the information available to them at once, and as the novel demonstrates, when they do, it has adverse effects on them. the main character mae’s exboyfriend mercer is driven to commit suicide after he can no longer handle the harassment of people across the world, and her close friend annie, an executive at the circle, has a mental breakdown when information concerning her family’s history is made public (eggers 466, 495). the rapid pace at which these feeds are updated, as well as the large amount of information for people to consume, creates a knowledge overload that individuals are not able to sift through. they are unable to be free-thinking individuals that stop and consider the information being presented to them. much like in fahrenheit 451, they consume whatever they can without giving it much thought, making them easy to control. as a result, only the rsa, in this case the circle, is able to benefit from the educational ideology that they have forced upon the society. according to althusser, another ideological state apparatus that is vital to a state’s survival is the communications isa, because it crams messages of “nationalism, chauvinism, liberalism, moralism, etc.” into people's lives every day (althusser). this isa involves a manipulation of the tools of communication that are widely available to the public, such as television, technology, or even talking face to face. in fahrenheit 451, the dominant tool of communication is the television. large 13 wise large tvs cover all four walls of people’s living rooms, and even when people are not watching them, they have their “ears plugged with electronic bees that...[hum] the hour away” (bradbury 16). citizens are tuned in to the entertainment industry at all times, especially in their private spaces, and this provides the ideal opportunity for it to reinforce the state’s ideology as if they were in the public space. according to joseph hurtgen, from his article, “archival domination in fahrenheit 451,” because all their time is consumed by this media, people have no time or ability to actually communicate with one another, and they just become reflections of what they see and hear on the screens (38). this is most evident in montag’s wife, mildred, who comes to reflect the pacing of television shows in her bodily movements: the door to the parlor opened and mildred stood there looking in at them, looking at beatty and then at montag. behind her the walls of the room were flooded with green and yellow and orange fireworks sizzling and bursting to some music composed almost completely of trap drums, tom-toms, and cymbals. her mouth moved and she was saying something but the sound covered it . . . the fireworks died in the parlor behind mildred. she had stopped talking at the same time. (bradbury 56-7) not only has the television stopped mildred from being able to effectively communicate, hurtgen argues, but it has also “colonized” her speech, as seen in the fact that she stops speaking when the sounds from the television cease (41). this also symbolizes her closer relationship to the television than her own husband (41). because of people’s close bonds to their televisions, the only conversations that take place in these households are between the state and the private citizen, not between living, breathing people (44). the state is then able to deliberately manipulate this television-centered society by broadcasting things that suit its political agenda. for example, when montag is being chased by a mechanical hound near the end of the novel, it is broadcast on every tv screen across the country, turning it into a show that encourages people to tune in and do their part in stopping this “criminal” (bradbury 141). when montag manages to escape, the broadcasters show the hound catching a different individual who they claim is montag, but they do not show the individual’s face clearly (bradbury 143). people are just expected to believe that the government did its job and caught the 14 wise traitor who went against the societal norm. hurtgen says that this type of broadcast, while providing entertainment to its viewers, also ensures that the public is aware of the state’s power, producing obedience and conformity in those who watch (39). in this case, the state uses the communications isa to secure its authority, keep its citizens in line, and form their mindsets according to its own will. the circle utilizes the communications isa in a similar way. much like with bradbury, the apparatus in eggers’s novel seemingly celebrates communication by doing everything it can to foster communication between people and provide the tools needed to make it easier, but the end result is actually much different. the circle encourages relationships among people and participation in events and activities by assigning each of its employees a “partirank” (participation rank) that reflects their level of engagement with the company and the people who work there (eggers 101). when people do not respond to one another’s invitations or messages, their partirank goes down, and this reflects the way they are perceived at the company. this creates a society in which everyone believes that everyone else needs to be responded to, taken seriously, and given time and attention. this emphasis on everybody’s voice mattering eventually creates a world in which no one can really be heard, thereby effectively silencing communication. as mercer tells mae, “the tools you guys create actually manufacture unnaturally extreme social needs” that eliminate one’s ability to effectively communicate (eggers 134). it is impossible for anyone to respond to the thousands of “zings,” texts, and phone calls they receive in one day, but when they do not, friendships end and people are offended, as was the case when mae was unable to answer attempts to communicate with her in a “timely” manner of a few minutes (eggers 114). it also allows the state to drown out the voices of dissenters, or at least ignore them until tragedy occurs, as it does when mercer commits suicide (eggers 466). in place of critical thought and opinions, the circle reinforces its company mantra hundreds of times a second, and because people are unable to process all of the messages they are taking in, the products that constitute the communications isa really only benefit the circle itself. because both fahrenheit 451 and the circle warn about the use of technology to oppress people, as do other dystopian novels such as brave new world by aldous huxley, 1984 by george orwell, and we by yevgeny zamyatin, it is necessary to draw an explicit connection between the two novels and consider why this is the case. to start, one must reflect on the idea of a dystopia as a “bad 15 wise utopia.” utopian visions imagine the perfect human society as something that exists in the future, hopefully to be achieved after we make even more technological advancements that will help us achieve harmony. this is true even of thomas more’s utopia, the first of such books to be written. dystopian novels tell stories in which this does not end up being the case. if a utopia were to fail, it is logical that technology would be one of the direct causes, especially since it is still new to us in scope of human history. we cannot predict where it will take us next or assume that we totally understand its role in our lives. it is understandable, then, that dystopian authors would have so many anxieties about the role of technology. bradbury was certainly fearful of the role that he saw television playing in the future, as well as the prominence people gave it in their lives, and eggers is apprehensive of twenty-first century technology like the internet, mobile phones, and social media. while there is great potential for technology to improve the lives of mankind, as we have seen in our own present age, there is an equal potential that it can be taken too far and used for control, surveillance, and oppression, as seen in fahrenheit 451 and the circle. finally, althusser writes about the religious isa and the ways in which it can be a powerful tool for the state’s advantage. this frequently involves the perversion, manipulation, or all-out destruction of a particular religion, or all religious faith, in a society. this is most evident in the handmaid’s tale, in which the state participates in the cherry-picking of christian scriptures to suit its needs and agenda. specific verses that extol the value of marriage, emphasize meekness and humility, and absolve men of adultery, as long as its purpose was for childbirth, while condemning women for the same crime are used to construct the laws of gilead. other verses that are central to the christian faith, but would contradict the religion and morality the state is trying to construct, such as jesus’ command to “do to others as you would have them do to you,” are conveniently overlooked or ignored (new american bible, luke 6:31). it is this “scriptural precedent” that allows the state to justify its behavior (atwood 16). most of the authorities’ usages of scripture, however, are inaccurate interpretations or just plain lies. once again, offred’s incorrect recollection partway through the novel of a phrase allegedly from “st. paul in acts” illustrates this fact (atwood 117). christian tradition, of course, holds that st. luke wrote the acts of the apostles. it was certainly not st. paul, whose epistles predate the gospel of luke and the book of acts. offred is unable to recognize this, though, because 16 wise of the education she received at the rachel and leah centers, so she must take the authorities at their word. this demonstrates the state’s manipulation and perversion of the actual christian faith to suit its political needs. the religious lessons in gilead are not solely enforced at the rachel and leah re-education centers. religious imagery and slogans can be found all throughout the society, constantly reinforcing the importance religion should hold in one’s life and its value to the world as a whole. this can especially be seen in the names of places and propaganda. first of all, there is the name of “gilead” itself, a place mentioned multiple times in the bible (genesis 31:25, numbers 32:1, and judges 10:4). within gilead, though, all the stores the handmaids visit also have biblical names. for instance, there is “loaves and fishes,” a reference to jesus’ miraculous feeding of the five thousand; “milk and honey,” a reference to canaan, the ancient israelites’ long-awaited promised land; “all flesh,” possibly drawn from jesus’ bread of life discourse in the gospel according to john; and “lilies,” a reference to a line from jesus’ sermon on the mount in the gospel according to matthew. all these things are undoubtedly meant to be subconscious reminders of the handmaids’ place in gilead and the lessons they were taught early in their re-education. unlike gilead, the apparatus in the circle does not use religion to further its agenda. on the contrary, the circle is intent on superseding religion to become the people’s sole source of inner enlightenment. the company’s ideological mantra, “secrets are lies / sharing is caring / privacy is theft,” almost acts as a religious creed or profession of faith (eggers 305). it is this mantra that the circle hopes will inform their customers’ code of ethics, not traditional religion. it is through following this code of ethics and using the products that the circle provides that people will be able to reach enlightenment and become, like god himself, “all-seeing, all-knowing,” and all-powerful (eggers 71). traditional morals and ethics will no longer be necessary, because the people can police themselves using their technology. religion itself, therefore, will eventually become obsolete, finding itself replaced by the circle. in many ways, eggers does try to draw connections between the circle and religion, using traditional religious ideas and imagery to show how the circle is the fulfillment of everything religion had been trying to do over the millennia. the three founders of the company, for instance, eamon 17 wise bailey, ty gospodinov, and tom stenton, are known throughout the world as the three wise men, a reference to the three foreigners who followed a star to find the newborn jesus and brought gifts to him (eggers 19). in a way, these three men can also be seen as a symbol of the holy trinity, the god at the head of this particular religion. each man has a unique role he plays in the company and a specific face he shows to the public. mae almost deifies them at the beginning of the novel, considering herself unworthy, or at least extremely lucky, to be in their presence (eggers 27). religion is also used to emphasize the cult-like nature of the devotion and idealism that believers in the circle have placed in its rise to power. eggers introduces an unknown man, a former priesthood candidate who left the seminary to pursue a career in technology, to deliver the message he wants his audience to hear: where religion and faith have failed, the circle will succeed (398). in his eyes, the company is a fulfillment of everything religion has been striving for, of everything god has wanted humanity to become (eggers 399). mae and her friend francis, though, are so blinded by their faith in the circle that they laugh in the man’s face, showing they have already abandoned god to follow the religion of the circle (eggers 399). the futuristic united states in fahrenheit 451, meanwhile, has largely set out to destroy anything that remains of religion by burning religious texts and everything they represent. the scriptures that gave rise to the religion of the world have almost entirely been wiped out. according to montag, the old and new testament that he steals “might be the last copy in this part of the world,” showing that the jewish and christian religions have also disappeared from the world, or at least montag’s part of it (bradbury 72). this is logical, because religion does not fit well with the materialistic, self-centered society this apparatus has constructed. faith and spirituality are not necessarily “fun,” so there would be no need to hang on to them. additionally, religion and religious belief lead individuals to ask philosophical questions about their state in life and give them an option for faith, hope, freedom, intellectualism, etc. this, of course, would pose a threat to the state’s security, so it has been deemed evil and removed from society. this does not mean that the state never uses religious ideas or imagery to suit its own needs. they can still be a powerful tool in a world that might have fond memories or affections toward the religious belief of the past. as a result, religious figures like jesus christ have been changed from 18 wise loving, liberating teachers to simple members of the family. as professor faber tells montag, “christ is one of the 'family' now. i often wonder if god recognizes his own son the way we've dressed him up, or is it dressed him down? he's a regular peppermint stick now, all sugar-crystal and saccharine when he isn't making veiled references to certain commercial products that every worshipper absolutely needs” (bradbury 77). citizens, especially older ones, may remember jesus as a person who is supposed to be trusted, a man whose word is honest and believable. why then would he lie to you while making a commercial pitch on tv? this example shows how the repressive state apparatus deliberately manipulates the religious isa for its own ends, to reinforce its ideals and consumerist culture. any religion in this society has been stripped of what it originally meant or intended for its people. louis althusser’s theory of repressive and ideological state apparatuses clearly provides an effective way to examine the worlds of dystopian literature and learn why they are so potent at warning their readers of what the world could become. this is an important conversation to have, because reading this type of literature and trying to make connections enables us to recognize these things in our own lives. while many of us will never encounter an evil empire that suppresses its own people just to maintain its power, we will still encounter something similar on a smaller scale. perhaps it will be a minority group whose civil rights are being infringed upon, or a government whose policies could open the door to misfortune in the future. that is why we read these novels in the first place. they touch on our fears, but they also enable us to open our eyes and recognize these things before they happen to us. 19 wise works cited althusser, louis. “ideology and ideological state apparatuses.” marxists internet archive, www. marxists.org/reference/archive/althusser/1970/ideology.htm. accessed 11 february 2018. atwood, margaret. the handmaid’s tale. anchor books, 1998. bradbury, ray. fahrenheit 451. simon and schuster, 2013. “dystopia.” new oxford american dictionary, 2018, en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/dystopia. accessed 27 january 2018. eggers, dave. the circle. vintage books, 2014. hurtgen, joseph. “archival domination in fahrenheit 451.” journal of science fiction, vol. 1, no. 2, may 2016, pp. 36-46. koç, evrim ersöz. “subject and state: ideology, state apparatuses and interpellation in fahrenheit 451.” belgrade english language and literature studies, vol. 7, 2015, pp. 107-133. lin, ethan. “louis althusser: ‘ideology and ideological state apparatus’ & overdetermination.” fu jen university, english.fju.edu.tw/lctd/asp/theory/theory_works/23/study.htm. accessed 15 march 2018. moradi, maryam, and fatemeh azizmohammadi. “the study of ideology in the handmaid’s tale based on althusser’s view.” international letters of social and humanistic sciences, vol. 49, 2015, pp. 75-82. the bible. new american bible, united states conference of catholic bishops, 1970. the dinner scene in the first act of caryl churchill’s post-wwii play top girls enables us to examine the individual subjectivities and collective consciousness of the iconic woman charac-ters. churchill, by creating a dinner scene in the first act of her play, explores the inequalities faced by women across centuries and allows her characters to resist a system that creates certain types of gender identities. this essay highlights how the dinner scene and the increased appetite of woman characters at the dinner table in top girls function as a bakhtinian “carnivalesque” that creates a topsy-turvy showing the reader the symbolic essence of food, the act of consump-tion, and their complex and dynamic relation with gender norms and identities. caryl churchill’s most celebrated play, top girls, begins with a remarkable dinner scene, where various women from history, literature and art come together to dine, celebrate, and share stories. marlene, the play’s central character, assumes the role of a party-giver, celebrating a recent promotion in the top girls employment agency with her friends. the dinner party consists of various women from fictional works or different time periods in history: isabella bird; a victorian traveler, lady nijo; a thirteenth-century japanese courtesan; joan gret, a ninth-century pope; dull gret from brueghel’s painting; and griselda, a fictional character from geoffrey chaucer’s the canterbury tales. the dinner party creates a carnival sense of the world where patriarchal structures and conventions are challenged through the end of the act. such an impossible gathering of women in the first act of top girls makes it possible to explore the female experience, femininity, and their dynamic relation with food and festivity across centuries. through the dinner party, churchill offers her characters an alternative life in which they are in a state of becoming. however, in a world turned upside down, these female characters are still haunted by the patriarchal system and male domination that culturally traumatized them. churchill, who was heavily influenced by the social and political transformations of her decade, wrote top girls to critically examine the situation of women and their struggle to gain economic independence in post-war britain. i argue that russian literary critic and author mikhail bakhtin’s theory of carnivalesque provides a conceptual vocabulary to explore and analyze the remarkable supper scene in churchill’s post-war play top girls. my aim in this essay is to illustrate how the dinner scene in the first act of the play functions women dined well: bakhtinian carnivalesque in caryl churchill’s top girls dilayda tülübaş, humboldt university of berlin “the human frame being what it is, heart, body and brain all mixed together, and not contained in separate compartments . . . a good dinner is of great importance to good talk. one cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” —virginia woolf, a room of one’s own (18) essay tülübaş | 52 as a “carnivalesque” that shows us the symbolic essence of food, the act of consumption and its complex and dynamic relation with gender norms and identities. the carnivalesque, first described in bakhtin’s rabelais and his world (1965), is a social institution where life is turned inside out and all sorts of eccentric behavior are accepted. bakhtin, who saw carnivals of the medieval and renaissance period as being anarchic in nature, acknowledged that the carnival breaks apart rules and beliefs to make room for fresh and new beginnings. he describes the carnival sense of the world with five essences: “(1) it has a reversed life; (2) the participants have free and familiar contact; (3) it is replete with carnivalistic mésalliances; (4) it is infused with profanation; (5) it has crowning/decrowning acts; and (6) it parodies everything” (yilmaz 51). by taking his inspiration from the folk festivals of medieval and renaissance cultures, bakhtin conceptualizes a gateway to an egalitarian society since carnival and its suspension of hierarchical norms can make a “man renounce his official state as monk, cleric, scholar, and perceive the world in its laughing aspect” (bakhtin 13). the carnival as described by bakhtin rejects the hierarchical structures and all sorts of inequalities. it is a topsy-turvy, utopian beginning that mocks the official systems and establishments and exposes the grotesque images of the body. in his rabelais and his world, bakhtin highlights the grotesque body and how it is not separated from the rest of the world: it is not a closed, completed unit; it is unfinished, outgrows itself, transgresses its own limits. the stress is laid on those parts of the body that are open to the outside world, that is, the parts through which the world enters the body or emerges from it, or through which the body itself goes out to meet the world. this means that the emphasis is on the apertures or the convexities, or on various ramifications and offshoots: the open mouth, the genital organs, the breasts, the phallus, the potbelly, the nose. the body discloses its essence as a principle of growth which exceeds its own limits only in copulation, preg-nancy, childbirth, the throes of death, eating, drinking, or defecation. (bakhtin 26) moreover, mouths in a carnival “are always open, eating and drinking, laughing, shouting: they take in and commune with the outer world and never shut it out, [which] corresponds to a cosmic openness” (elliot 130). the open mouth as well as the act of consumption signifies the spirit of constant change and renewal. the collectivist spirit of the carnivalesque and popular banquets, according to bakhtin, “shakes up the authoritative version of language and values, making room for a multiplicity of voices and meanings” (elliot 130). the trans-cultural and trans-historical nature of the dinner scene in churchill’s top girls presents us with challenging and complex questions about the class consciousness among women across centuries and their victimization caused by the system. such an impossible gathering of women in a contemporary situation “constructs the present as just one of history’s many time periods” that helps create a diversity of voices, which is particularly abundant in carnivalesque (yi 43). food in top girls functions both as a unifier and a divider that makes the experience of these women visible. through their act of communal eating, these characters embark on a journey between the outer and the inner world. theatre critic kenneth jones observes that marlene in top girls creates a dinner party with people she does not essay 53 | tülübaş even know, for she has no close friends of her own for the sake of rising in the job market, which is essentially led by her male counterparts (qtd. in bastan 165). furthermore, sharon ammen sees this scene in top girls as being initially utopic as five legendary figures show up to a contemporary woman’s fantasy party to dine and celebrate (86). i argue that this gathering is a great example of bakhtinian carnivalesque as it provides an alternative life, whereby women share their experiences of male domination and patriarchal authority accompanied by all sorts of food and drink. this gathering allows them to explore the exploitation of women across centuries, which produces certain types of gender identities. in fact, when the unnamed waitress makes an appearance with the wine bottle, marlene and nijo engage in a conversation that indicates the beginning of a bakhtinian carnivalesque: marlene: i think a drink while we wait for the others. i think a drink anyway. what a week. the waitress pours wine. nijo: it was always the men who used to get so drunk. i’d be one of the maidens, passing the sake. (churchill 128) as margaret visser puts it: “food is never just something to eat” (qtd. in jones 133). from identity to social status, food, and the way it is consumed is loaded with meanings. therefore, it will be useful to focus on the food consumption of these characters at the dinner table as “food has a constant tendency to transform itself into situation” (barthes 171). moreover, “the communicative value of food lies in its appearance, preparation methods, eating habits, sensory perceptions, and eating contexts, which are all part of a system of differences in signification” (qtd. in counihan and van esterik 24-25). as mentioned, the influence of patriarchal figures on the lives of these female characters dominates discussion throughout the party. while ordering her chicken and soup, isabella recounts how she was so grieved when her father passed away. similarly, lady nijo starts telling the guests about the death of her father while simultaneously ordering a waldorf salad. marlene, on the other hand, orders two rare steaks, lots of potatoes, and a few bottles of italian white wine while casually listening to her guests (churchill 134-135). in this instance, food works as a motif that highlights the different ways in which these female characters ingest and take nourishment. marlene’s choice of food, which in this scene is a “rare” steak “has been associated with strength, power, aggression, and sexuality” for decades. (qtd. in jones 139). unlike isabella and nijo, marlene is portrayed as a hungry and demanding consumer; a character representative of her age. churchill uses food in this scene as a highly effective motif to explore the gender roles that shape the experiences of women across centuries as the food preferences of these transcultural women heavily reflect complex cultural, social, and hierarchical structures that they had to abide by throughout their lives. having come from a working-class background, marlene has achieved to find herself a place in the job market as a woman by internalizing and adapting to the patriarchal and capitalist norms of twentieth-century britain. by throwing this dinner party, marlene not only celebrates her promotion but also facilitates an opportunity for her fantasy female friends to create a new outlook essay tülübaş | 54 through which they can connect with the outer world as never before. by constantly encouraging her guests to consume more food and drink more wine, marlene seeks to regenerate a new order where everything is in a state of becoming. she achieves this as the carnival essence pro-liferates and characters get drunker. lady nijo’s excitement upon being offered an alcoholic beverage for the first time in her life at the beginning of the supper party is an indicator of her social status at the emperor’s court (churchill 128). in this carnivalesque, she is no longer a concubine that passes the sake for men. instead, she is a woman who drinks as heavily as her male counterparts and enters into a realm of possibilities. this dinner offers nijo the chance to leave her previous and only role as a concubine, experience life, evaluate her potential, and exist as herself without having to behave in compliance with the rules of patriarchal authority. isabella bird, who is the first guest to arrive at marlene’s dinner party, mentions in turn to nijo how she has tried the japanese sake and how she has found it “fortifying after a day in the wet” (churchill 128). isabella is a victorian-era world traveler who has lived an independent life engaging in male endeavors, unlike lady nijo. in the nineteenth century, a period in british history when women were seen merely as the “angel in the house,” isabella bird traveled the world extensively and chose not to get married. instead, she has tried the sake, had an adventurous life, and wrote a book. her familiarity with and consumption of sake, which is considered as a highly masculine libation in japan, indicates her masculine traits which contradicts the traditional portrayal of women of the victorian era. in this era, many women “rejected meat associating a carnivorous diet with sexual precocity, abundant menstrual flow, and even nymphomania and insanity” (andrievskik 142). therefore, “denial of appetite expressed an ideal of female perfec-tion and moral superiority,” something which isabella lacks as she freely enjoys the food and drink at the dinner table (andrievskik 142). furthermore, one of the most remarkable characters at the dinner table, pope joan, gets drunker and recounts freely how she enjoyed her life as a man in italy until it was revealed that she was a woman. she hid the fact that she is a woman for so long that she came to a point where she could not recognize her womanhood anymore and was alienated from her female body. in fact, she could not recognize that she was pregnant with one of her chamberlains until she had to give birth in the street during a religious procession. only by disguising herself as a man and using her “male” privileges, she could achieve her goals and live a life full of freedom and comfort. the moment she stopped disguising her true gender, that is when she becomes a mother, she is stoned to death and murdered (churchill 160). the stage direction as joan tells her story to the dinner guests carries a significance in the play. churchill, by acknowledging that “the waitress brings more wine,” aims to draw attention to the role of alcohol in removing the inhibitions and fears of the characters and en-couraging them to speak more frankly. as put by gaston bachelard, who focused on the significance of alcoholic unconsciousness in his works, alcohol “incorporates itself, so to speak, with that which is striving to express itself. it appears evident that alcohol is a creator of language. it enriches the vocabulary and frees the syntax” (qtd in chimisso 206). similarly, marlene’s dinner guests do not refrain from sharing the sensational and adventurous stories they have had as women living in different centuries as alcohol becomes a creator of language in the party: essay 55 | tülübaş nijo: what was he like, the chamberlain? gret: big cock. isabella: oh gret. marlene: did he fancy you when he thought you were a fella? nijo: what was he like? joan: he could keep a secret. (churchill 154) marlene, by ordering more wine and encouraging her guests to drink more, aims at creating an untrammeled vision for the legendary guests, who according to rebecca cameron “remain locked in their own, singular perspectives” (qtd in in cameron 156). on the one hand, drinking alcohol accelerates these women’s desire to have a frank discussion and “makes accessible once again sources of pleasure which were under the weight of suppression” (qtd in holowchak 85). on the other hand, their act of communal eating and increased appetite works as a tool that con-tributes to the creation of carnivalesque allowing the women to unite and create a resistance against patriarchy and established gender norms and etiquettes. dull gret, who rarely speaks except for ordering more food, is also a remarkable character that churchill has involved in this dinner party to highlight the sexist portrayal of women in sixteenth-century europe. as painted in bruegel’s painting, dull gret, also known as mad meg, is a peasant woman, descending to hell while leading a troop of other peasant women. in this apocalyptic painting, gret is seen wearing a military costume, armed with a sword gathering up cutlery. in the making of this painting, bruegel is thought to have been inspired by a famous misogynistic flemish proverb: “she could plunder in front of hell and return unscathed.” gret’s occasional monosyllabic contributions to the conversation and her sudden and sharp remarks throughout the dinner such as “big cock” and “bastards” indicates her social position as a peas-ant woman. unlike other women at the dinner table, gret has little idea of how to communicate with others around her. her silence makes it obvious that gret is not used to an environment where she can have a voice of her own and express herself. she is mostly mute constantly asking for more bread and potatoes. her constant appetite carries a significance throughout the play as “eating without constraint certainly repre-sents refusal to conform to socially determined gender behavior marked by moderation and constant worry about body image” (andrievskikh 141). at the very end of the play, we learn that gret’s fight against devils in hell actually represents her vengeance against the spanish ar-my, who murdered her children. by involving gret at the dinner table, “churchill endows [her] with a biography of oppression and a spirit of rebellion” (cohn 115). her lack of “feminine” manners and her constant appetite signify her stereotypically masculine characteristics—something she might have developed as a defense mechanism to fight her maternal instincts. food representations and “symbolism carries a particular importance for women due to the cul-turally determined association of women with cooking and nourishment” (andrievskikh 137). food and the dining scene in top girls, therefore, serves as a tool that helps us explore the female experience, femininity, and its constant and dynamic relation with food and festivity across centuries. the women at the dinner party, who are only connected to each other by their oppression under patriarchy, are offered by churchill a transformative journey that ends with a moment of epiphany. food in this work acts as a essay tülübaş | 56 “system of language” that helps create a reversed life that challenges all social and patriarchal hierarchies that have previously traumatized the legendary characters (qtd in counihan and van esterik 24). the stage direction through the end of the act shows us how the carnival essence in this act has proliferated as the communal eating and drinking of the characters contributed to the creation of carnivalesque, where the grotesque body “outgrows itself, transgresses its own lim-its” (bakhtin 26): nijo is laughing and crying. joan gets up and is sick in a corner. marlene is drinking isabella’s brandy. (churchill 182) all of the women start reflecting on their past as a product of a system that oppresses women so much so that they do not realize they have a voice of their own. they enter a completely new stage of their life through this dinner that contributes to their sense of belonging and shared womanhood. their performative manner at the dinner table as well as the kinds of food and drink they choose to consume gives us insight into the roles they take in order to create new social constructions that are stripped off all sorts of hierarchical rules. churchill utilizes food and the act of consumption to explore these characters’ individual subjectivities and collective consciousness. by creating a carnival sense of the world through the dinner scene, churchill proves the dominance of men in all sorts of social and trans cultural systems. the legendary characters’ increased appetites work as a tool that contributes to the creation of carnivalesque allowing the women to unite and foment resistance to patriarchy and all sorts of established gender norms and etiquettes. in this carnivalesque, the women no longer restrict their appetites. instead, they think well, dine well and challenge the rules of patriarchal establishment. churchill ends the act with isabella saying, “i knew my return of vigour was only temporary, but how marvellous while it lasted” (churchill 183), which signifies “any temporary triumph of top girls, especially since church-ill’s characters have lapsed into laughing, crying, vomiting, stealing drinks” (cohn 115). this temporary triumph as described by cohn is achieved through the carnivalesque, which creates a diversity of voices as the women begin to challenge the patriarchal establishment and toast to their success and “extraordinary achievements”: isabella: to marlene. marlene: and all of us. joan: marlene. nijo: marlene. gret: marlene. marlene: we’ve all come a long way. to our courage and the way we changed our lives and our extraordinary achievements. they laugh and drink a toast. (churchill 182) essay 57 | tülübaş works cited ammen, sharon. “feminist vision and audience response: tracing the absent utopia in caryl churchill’s top girls.” utopian studies, vol. 7, no. 1, 1996, pp. 86–102. andrievskikh, natalia. “food symbolism, sexuality, and gender identity in fairy tales and modern women’s bestsellers.” studies in popular culture, vol. 37, no. 1, 2014, pp. 137–153. bakhtin, mikhail. rabelais and his world. translated by hélène iswolsky, indiana university press,1984. barthes, roland. toward a psychosociology of contemporary food consumption in food and drink in history: selections from the annales economies, societies, civilizations. ed. r. forster and o. ranum, trans. elborg forster and patricia m. ranum,. baltimore, md: johns hopkins university press. 1979. bastan, ajda. “the memories of women in caryl churchill’s top girls”. turkish studies, vol. 13, no. 20, 2018, pp. 165. cameron, rebecca. “from great women to top girls: pageants of sisterhood in british feminist theater.” comparative drama, vol. 43, no. 2, 2009, pp. 143–166. chimisso, cristina. gaston bachelard: critic of science and the imagination. routledge, 2001. churchill, caryl. plays: 2 softcops, top girls, fen, serious money. bloomsbury, 1990. cohn, ruby. anglo-american interplay in recent drama. cambridge university press, 1995. counihan, carole, et al. food and culture: a reader. routledge, 2013. elliot, shanti. carnival and dialogue in bakhtin’s poetics of folklore. folklore forum. 1999. holowchak, mark. freud: from individual psychology to group psychology. the rowman and littlefield publishing group, 2012. jones, michael owen. “food choice, symbolism, and identity: bread-and-butter issues for folkloristics and nutrition studies (american folklore society presidential address, october 2005).” the journal of american folklore, vol. 120, no. 476, 2007, pp. 139. woolf, virginia. a room of one’s own and three guineas. 1957. oxford university press, 1992. essay tülübaş | 58 yilmaz, victoria bilge. carnivalization of gender hierarchies in virginia woolf’s fiction. diss. middle east technical university, 2016. web. 08.09.2020. ying, chris, ed. you and i eat the same: on the countless ways food and cooking connect us to one another. artisan, 2018. essay 59 | tülübaş predator vs. prey: the human monstrosity in attack on titan the latest phenomenon in the anime world, attack on titan, takes a turn away from the cute, kawaii1 essence that japan is known for and plunges into a dark, fantasy-like war setting, in which human existence is challenged. the fascination with this anime certainly did not stop in japan. instead, it became a worldwide obsession: memorabilia is sold in stores across the east and west, a two-part liveaction film was produced, and netflix, one of the most popular streaming services on the market, added the anime to its queue. but what most fans might not realize is that attack on titan, while a uniquely contemporary entertainment series, also represents classic gothic techniques. rebecca silverman, a renowned anime critic, says in a review for anime news network: “it’s actually an excellent mix of what 18th century [sic] gothic novelist ann radcliffe defined as horror versus terror: the one is physical, making you want to look away, and the other is intellectual, making you want to know what’s going to happen next.” although the series strays from the typical ghost stories and creepy castles of the classic eighteenth-century gothic that silverman references in this quote, it employs gothic undertones as it delves into the very core of death and survival. specifically, attack on titan2 depicts the predatory titan race in a manner that suggests humanity itself is monstrous. the titans, with their eerie human-likeness, are the literal representation of this repressed fear. attack on titan tells the story of a post-apocalyptic society, set hundreds of years in the past. humanity is at war with humanoid monstrosities known as titans – giant creatures that share cosmetic similarities to humans but appear to lack a human level of intelligence. the titans mysteriously appeared approximately 107 years previous to the time in which the story takes place (“to you, after 2,000 years”). humans are the titans’ sole source of food, which results in the titans annihilating a majority of the human race. the remaining portion of humanity manages to build a system of settlements within massive walls to protect themselves from the titans. within the walls, humans are able to enjoy 100 years emily griffis, ball state university 1digital literature review, vol. 4 (2017). ball state university. all rights reserved. please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce critical edition to dlr@bsu.edu. of peace until suddenly everything goes awry, and the first wall is infiltrated by titans. the anime follows the story of eren yeager3 and his friends, armin arlert and mikasa ackerman, who are just children when their home, the shiganshina district on the edge of the outer wall, is destroyed by titans and evacuated. eren says, “humanity was reminded that day of the terror of being at their mercy and the humiliation of being trapped inside a cage” (“wall: raid on stohess”). the first episode of the series sets the tone surrounding a desperate society depleted by fear before it skips five years into the future: the titans are on the move again, eren and his friends have completed military4 training, and the divide between titan and human blurs when eren unknowingly reveals his ability to transform into one of the monstrous creatures. the divide becomes more muddled when the audience discovers that annie, a soldier in eren’s graduating class, can also transform into a titan, and she works to destroy the human race from the inside. by the end of the season, the divide between human and titan seems to shatter, leaving characters and audience questioning what it means to be human and how different titans are from themselves. although attack on titan is a series silverman praises for its use of gothic tropes, stating, “the violence is intense and the monsters are terrifying,” anime horror is unique from the gothic form. anime has created a sub-genre over time, which anime scholar rayna denison describes in a chapter of her book, titled anime: a critical introduction, as “body horror,” involving grotesque transformations and mutations of the human body. the titans are representative of this theory and work to challenge the societal boundaries and expectations of the culture they are present in, which makes them a perfect contemporary representation of the gothic theory of monsters. in the first chapter of his book titled monster theory: reading culture, jeffery jerome cohen develops seven theses on monster representations in the gothic. four of these theses can be applied directly to the titans. let us start with cohen’s first thesis: the “monster’s body 2griffis 1 kawaii means “cute” in japanese, but it is also used to refer to a segment of japanese culture that celebrates “cuteness.” the kawaii culture swept the nation with characters, such as hello kitty and rilakkuma, led to the rise of maid cafes and cat cafes and became so well-known that disney world’s epcot featured an exhibit on it in japan’s pavilion. you can see a virtual tour of japan’s exhibit here: https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=lfuntokqpxo. 2 please note: this study focuses solely on the anime of attack on titan and only includes the story as told in funimation’s adaptation. the manga series was not referenced for this paper. citations attributed to the anime are based on the netflix translation, and it is important to note that exact quotes may differ in other translations. 3 depending on the translation, “yeager” is also spelled “jeager.” 4 the military is structured in three subcategories: the military police brigade is the most coveted branch for its safe location positioned within the walls; the survey corps conducts missions outside the walls and comes into contact with titans more often than the other branches, and the garrison regiment works between the two, keeping order within the walls and confronting titans when required. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfuntokqpxo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfuntokqpxo is a cultural body” (cohen 4). attack on titan is a japanese creation and must be evaluated for what the existence of titans might say about the country’s repressed communal fears. cohen states “the monster is born . . . as an embodiment of a certain cultural moment–of a time, a feeling, and a place” (4). attack on titan specifically elicits fear and a thirst for survival. cohen’s theory suggests that the fears and upsets present in attack on titan were created by and within japan’s post-war culture. denison has her own idea that nearly matches cohen’s theory but addresses the genre of anime more specifically. she states that “anime horror, by extension, is . . . linked to traditions within japanese culture as a means of explaining the overt sense of cultural difference” (155). both theories seem to suggest that most anime is created based on a time, event, place, or communal difference associated with japan. given attack on titan’s war plot and the feeling of impending doom for the human race, many scholars have linked this particular anime to world war ii, specifically the bombing of hiroshima. but what most scholars have not explored is the idea that the humans can be either the victim or the opposition. thus, the titans can also be placed in both roles: the attacked and the attacker. let us start by considering titans as representative of the bombs, or the opposition itself, which means the struggling human race featured in the series may be synonymous to the victims in the city of hiroshima. this particular reading makes the anime unique. we are accustomed to hearing history recounted from the victor, but attack on titan is told through the eyes of the defeated. in her article, titled “what does ‘attack on titan’ really mean?,” published at the artifice, sara roncero-mendez writes, “titans, in this light, can be viewed as the enemy occupation, who are stronger and more well-equipped than humans, who consume their lives for no good reason – not for hunger (need of resources) but for the seemingly mindless consumption of a people hopelessly outmatched.” regarding the titans as the enemy in a setting similar to the bombing of hiroshima prompts the audience to evaluate their own monstrous tendencies in the act of war by looking through the eyes of the attacked, rather than the attacker. this is even more influential if we consider how popular the series has become in the united states. however, if we allow titans and humans to switch roles, naming titans as the victims of hiroshima post-bombing and humanity as the opposition, the dynamic shifts. g.e. gallas, a writer and scholar of cross-cultural storytelling, writes in a blog post that the titans’ excessively high-temperature bodies, which give off steam as they heal themselves, might be a parallel to how the bombed victims’ skin “melted off ” from the radiation. the main issue with this theory, one that many tend to actively resist, is that considering titans as victims calls 3griffis for sympathy from the audience. but if we attempt to visualize the titans as the japanese nation, as gallas suggests, we must consider the act that initially led to the bombing of hiroshima; many think it was the united states revenge for japan’s attack on pearl harbor. in this case, that means the hunted versus hunter dynamic in attack on titan is actually the exploration of what it means to be the bombed versus the bomber. the humans in the anime are the titans’ prey, but humans are also the titans’ predators, in the same way that japan was both enemy of and victim to the u.s. in the anime, jean5, a fellow soldier, says “if he [eren] wipes out the titans by turning into a monster like that, is that really a victory for humankind?” (“wall: raid on stohess”). jean effectively names revenge as a monstrous quality. the commander of the garrison regiment, general dot pyxis6, comments, “if humankind perishes, it won’t be because titans devoured us. we will perish because we annihilated one another” (“icon: battle of trost”). while there is speculation surrounding both of these theories, cohen makes it clear that “the monster signifies the gap between the time of upheaval that created it and the moment into which it is received, to be born again” (4). the titans are created around sixty-five years post-bombing, which suggests that japan is still attempting to recreate the sense of national identity that it lost in the aftermath. attack on titan narrates this with the lack of racial representation in the series. in fact, it is explained that most races were wiped out when the titans first appeared, which accounts for the lack of african, indian, or asian characters, among others (“the world she saw”). most characters are european, and due to the wild success of the series, fans around the world have attempted to trace the ethnicity of different characters. based on names and appearances, twelve of the fifteen main characters are thought to be german (al-ani) while mikasa is known as the last character of asian descent left in the world (“the world she saw”). it is significant that mikasa is the only surviving asian in a world dominated by the white race, since japan would have felt alone and secluded after the hiroshima bombing. but it is also significant that most of the caucasians in the show are thought to be german. germany was one of japan’s allies in wwii. the bond between the two countries solidifies the relationship between mikasa and eren. as a child, mikasa’s parents were murdered before she was kidnapped and forced to be sex slave (“the world she saw”). eren rescues her, murders her capturers, and accepts her as a surrogate sister (“the world she saw”). since that day, the two share a bond that prompts them to fight for and protect one another. 4griffis 5 depending on the translation, “jean” is also known as “john.” 6 depending on the translation, “pyxis” is also “pixis.” there are multiple times in the anime in which mikasa or eren fail to save each other. their relationship is indicative of japan’s struggle to regain a cultural identity among failed allies post-bombing. the titans are not just monsters manifested from a cultural fear but also monsters that can be representative of fears worldwide, and the rest of cohen’s theses explore this theory, starting with his second: the “monster always escapes” (4). this theory can be applied to the titans in two different ways; the first is their implied immortality. titans are so formidable because they are nearly impossible to kill. cohen states, “no monster tastes of death but once,” and the titans are no exception (5). they “completely ignore all other lifeforms” (“first battle”) and show no interest in livestock or wildlife, but since they were able to survive 100 years without feeding on humans, it is determined that they don’t need to eat, drink, or even breathe to survive (“special operations squad”). this is further supported when it is discovered “they don’t have a digestive track, so once they’ve eaten their fill of humans, they vomit them out” (“primal desires”). the only known way to kill the monsters is to do severe damage to the napes of their necks (“first battle”). the soldiers are trained to take slices out of the neck at a certain depth and size with special flesh-slicing blades, but coming so close to the titans’ mouths is almost never worth the risk and results in many soldiers’ deaths. with no other weaknesses, the titans tower over the humans with insurmountable power. as cohen suggests, they always escape, and they always come out ahead (4). the other, simpler way of viewing cohen’s second thesis lays in the colossal, armored, and female titans. all three of these titans are unique and separate from normal titans. they are all skinless, intelligent, and unbelievably strong. after eren shows intelligence and unusual strength as a titan, it’s speculated that all three special titans are also humans in a monstrous form (“female titan: 57th expedition”). cohen believes, “we see the damage that the monster wreaks, the material remains, but the monster itself turns immaterial and vanishes, to reappear someplace else” (4). this is important in the case of these three special titans because each of them exhibits intelligence and war strategy equal to or greater than that of the human race. each of these three titans help the rest of the mindless titan race reach the human population. for example, normal titans are not able to breach the walls erected around the human settlements, but the colossal and armored titans destroy them and then disappear (“to you, after 2000 years”). next is cohen’s sixth thesis: “fear of the monster is really a kind of desire” (14). while monsters are dangerous and feared, they might also “evoke escapist fantasies” (cohen 14-15). the humans in attack on titan harbor an unfathomable hatred for the titans, especially the unknown colossal and armored titans, but 5griffis we must question whether this hatred is manifested by the pain they cause or the power and strength they hold compared to human vulnerability. “we distrust and loathe the monster at the same time we envy its freedom,” cohen explains (15). this rings true in eren’s character, who exclaims that “anyone who’s seen the outside will have achieved the greatest freedom in the world” (“primal desires”). he either envies the titans for making the outside their home or despises them for preventing him from doing the same. their desire for the titans’ strength might reflect humanity’s mindless desire to be able to control nearly everything that happens to them and others, as well as the monstrous techniques used to achieve this goal as a way to compensate for their physical weakness. however, out of all seven theses, the fifth, that the “monster polices the borders of the possible,” is the most applicable to the situation narrated in attack on titan (cohen 12). as mentioned above, the remaining portion of humanity has enclosed themselves within walls in order to survive. the system consists of three different walls; the outer wall is known as wall maria, which falls to the titans at the beginning of the series. the second layer is wall rose, which is evacuated after a second titan attack later in the series, and the innermost wall, the most coveted location, is known as wall sina and serves as a home for the rich and noble. cohen theorizes that “the monster prevents mobility, delimiting the social spaces through which private bodies may move . . . . to step outside this official geography is to risk attack by some monstrous border patrol or to become monstrous oneself ” (12). the titans are a literal representation of keeping humanity within walls, limiting the geographical area that they can populate, and they continue to limit it each time the titans attack because a wall must be evacuated. the citizens find themselves working to keep each other inside the walls, even after a century of peace. thus, the boundary limits set by the titans are enforced by the humans themselves. for example, when the survey corps returns from an unsuccessful mission, a bystander comments “that’s what they get for going outside the walls” (“the defeated: 57th expedition”). the walls start to become not just a necessity for survival but a sense of comfort and security. the world outside the walls is a mystery to most of humanity, and it is illegal for a citizen to leave the walled-in settlements or even possess knowledge of what lays outside them (“first battle”). armin’s grandpa has a secret book about the outside world that once belonged to armin’s parents. eren and armin find themselves reading through the book frequently as children, planning their future adventures outside the wall (“first battle”). although it is never stated why armin was raised by his grandpa, it is hinted that his parents were slaughtered by the government for owning the book. armin and eren have to hide their own desire to 6griffis see the outside world for fear of being discovered, and armin even compares living inside the walls to “living like cattle” (“to you, after 2000 years”). but one question still stands, and the idea of the outside world being “illegal” only sparks more curiosity: where did the titans come from? as of this writing, the anime is just beginning its second season, so many questions raised by fans are still open-ended, including the question of the titans’ sudden and mysterious appearance. but, throughout the twenty-five episodes of the show, viewers might develop a complicated distrust for the government. the structure of the leading force is not explained, but it is clear that there is a class of nobility and a king that lives in the interior of wall sina. when eren first meets general pyxis, the commander tells him a story, beginning with, “before the land was controlled by titans, it [was] said that humankind fought endless ethnic and ideological wars,” and then goes on to suggest that someone of power proposed the idea of a natural predator of humans so that the human race might unite as a common force and cease fighting among one another (“icon: battle of trost”). eren seems to understand the story better than armin and mikasa and explains, “the titans are not our only enemy” (“icon: battle of trost”). this suggests that the titans were created by someone of power for the purpose of controlling the humans and uniting them, instead of appearing naturally like the characters originally believed. given the near extinction of humanity, the titans might have backfired against their creators, or the endangerment of the human race might have been the plan all along. assuming the armored titan and the colossal titan are actually humans in the same way that eren and annie are, these titans must be people of power that have the ability and the desire to control the titans’ actions against humanity. normal titans are not able to breach the walls surrounding the human settlements and only capture wall maria and wall rose when the armored and colossal titans use their intelligence and strength to target and destroy the mounted cannons as well as the entry gates on the walls. every time these two special titans help the other titans attack, it seems to serve as a warning against transgression in human society; the first attack of the series serves as a warning against exploration outside the wall after humans got too comfortable with 100 years of peace. after the attack, wall maria was evacuated, placing hundreds of citizens inside wall rose with little provisions. pyxis again suggests the government played a part in the attack, stating, “calling it an ‘operation to reclaim [wall maria]’ sounds well and good, but in essence, it was the government’s way of cutting down the large numbers of unemployed people that it couldn’t support” (“icon: battle of trost”). the audience is left with the dreaded expectation that this will not be the last time the government interferes in society. if we accept cohen’s 7griffis thesis that the monster polices boundaries, and if we believe that the government is behind the titan attacks, then the government, by definition, is the real monster. but this theory only raises more questions: how were the titans created and, aside from their appearance, how human are they? this is not explained in the anime, but assuming that the titans are representative of the fear of humanity’s monstrous tendencies, and given the newly discovered ability of humans to transform into titans, it makes sense that all titans may be former humans. the most eerie evidence of this is that titans are all shapes, sizes, and ages, and they differ in appearance from one another, just as humans do. they even possess an impossibly light weight given their size (“special operations squad”), and they have no reproductive organs, making it unclear how new titans are produced (“first battle”). if we believe that something cannot be created from nothing, we need to consider that all titans might once have been humans, either devoured humans transformed or former humans that forgot their sense of humanity. armin insists, “there’s one thing i’m convinced of. a person who can bring about change is a person who is willing to give up something precious. someone who, when faced with having to overcome a monster, is willing to abandon even his own humanity. a person who cannot give up anything can change nothing” (“erwin smith: 57th expedition”) but the main force that drives this theory is that the only known weakness of titans is located in the same place in which eren and annie control their own titan forms – the nape of the neck. in fact, the only two known humans who are able to transform, eren and annie, seem like the only two characters who choose to confront their fears instead of repressing them, which might explain why they are able to transform and maintain control of their titan forms. hange zoe7, a squad leader of the survey corps, sheds some light on the obvious similarities between titans and humans and prompts the audience to read into them. she tells the story of a tribe of cannibalistic humans that came before the titans and highlights the main difference between the two: the humans took the time to cook their prey and enjoy it, while the titans devour mindlessly (“special operations squad”). it is interesting that hange draws this connection because it suggests that the human consumption of humans is worse than the titans’, even though the titans consume more in an extremely short amount of time. but the humans knew what they were doing, and they took extra care to make sure they enjoyed it. the titans seem to have no other nature than bloodlust. although they have shown the ability to learn new physical skills, they cannot make emotional connections and show no remorse at the many deaths they cause 8griffis 7 depending on the translation, “hange” is also known as “hanji.” (“erwin smith: 57th expedition”). hange’s story compromises the monstrosity of the titan race and instead demonizes the tribe of cannibals. nevertheless, the comparison between the two groups is inescapable, and the titans might be a result of the mindset of the cannibalistic tribe taken to the extreme. either way, hange’s story suggest that every individual may have a repressed titan within them. hange is one of the most interesting characters because she continues to raise questions about humanity in terms of titans. she even captures titans and studies them, continually asking the audience to juxtapose the two races and consider who is really the monster: humans or titans. the study of the titans themselves is a monstrous act correlated with the sort of experimentation you would find in a classic eighteenth-century gothic novel like frankenstein, with the titans pinned to the ground by massive nails driven through their bodies and ropes wrapped around their necks working to restrain them (“special operations squad”). hange conducts studies to find their weaknesses, determines that they can feel pain, and even attempts to communicate with them, constantly speaking to them, touching them, and telling stories like one would with a child (“special operations squad”). but hange does connect to her subjects on a deeper level. although it is hard to determine whether the titans also connect to her, hange repeatedly treats her subjects like children by mourning their deaths when experiments go wrong and even naming them; the most recent ones are known as sonny and bean (“special operations squad”). she tells eren, “they have such cute smiles. i really did them wrong” (“special operations squad”). if hange can see them and accept them in ways she would also accept a human, what does this mean for the rest of humanity and humans’ ability to become titans? when eren reveals his ability to transform into a titan, hange is one of the first to accept him for who he is. other humans fear that eren is a traitor or spy for the titan race, but mikasa still trusts him and says of eren’s titan form, “what i saw appeared like the manifest anger of humankind,” suggesting that no matter the form, eren has the good of humankind on his mind (“the small blade”). eren holds a bloodlust for titans that other soldiers around him cannot match. he first discovered his ability to transform through his will to live; wasting away inside of a titan’s stomach, he realizes, “i refuse to die here. i have to see it…the outside world” (“night of the graduation ceremony: humanity rises again, part 2”). he transgresses the borders of the expected, but, instead of succumbing to the punishment of monstrosity like others before him, he embraces humanity’s natural, monstrous tendencies and uses them for good to ensure the survival of his race and to make his dreams come true. as silverman eloquently states, attack on titan is “both gorgeous and 9griffis appalling in its visuals, juxtaposing idyllic pastoral landscapes with scenes of unimaginable cruelty and bloodshed.” but the anime is anything but simply a means of entertainment. it uses gothic elements to address the monstrous tendencies of humankind, forcing the audience to sympathize with literal monsters while simultaneously envisioning themselves as one. we must look below surface level and consider what makes a monster a monster; the appearance of a monster and the acts of a monster are separate. eren may take on the form of a monster, but his actions while in that form are anything but monstrous. on the other hand, many humans who do not even have the ability to transform into a literal monster spit out monstrous words or act in monstrous ways. eren realizes that the survival of the human race is impossible without the eradication of the titans, but the titans will never disappear without first accepting the monstrous as part of a constructed self. the first step to the human society accepting a monster within is to accept eren and his half-monster status. ian, a squad leader in the survey corps, defends eren, stating, “tell me then, how the hell do we defeat the titans?! what other way do we have to change the situation? what other way can we preserve what makes us human and still win against the titans [sic] mind-boggling power?” (“wound: battle of trost”). but another fellow soldier questions, “it’s not that i wasn’t ready to give my life…but, what is it that i’m dying for?” (“the small blade”). the titans, as well as the inner monstrosities of the human race within attack on titan, cannot be defeated until every human is able to answer, “what is it that i’m dying for?” 10griffis works cited al-ani, maysam. “attack on titan: fan reception of religion and race.” the artifice, 4 nov. 2015, https://the-artifice.com/attack-on-titan-fan-receptionreligion-race/. accessed 23 nov. 2015. cohen, jeffery jerome. “monster culture (seven theses).” monster theory: reading culture, edited by jerrery gerome cohen, university of minnesota press, 1996, pp. 3-25. “the defeated: 57th expedition beyond the walls, part 6.” attack on titan, season 1, episode 22, funimation, 11 oct. 2014. netflix, https://www.netflix.com/ watch/70298575?trackid=200257859. accessed 31 aug. 2015. denison, rayna. anime: a critical introduction. bloomsbury, 2015. “erwin smith: 57th expedition beyond the walls, part 4.” attack on titan, season 1, episode 20, funimation, 27 sept. 2014. netflix, https://www.netflix.com/ watch/70298573?trackid=200257859. accessed 31 aug. 2015. “female titan: 57th expedition beyond the walls, part 1.” attack on titan, season 1, episode 17, funimation, 6 sept. 2014. netflix, https://www.netflix.com/ watch/70298570?trackid=200257859. accessed 30 aug. 2015. “first battle: battle of trost district, part 1” attack on titan, season 1, episode 5, funimation, 31 may 2014. netflix, https://www.netflix.com/ watch/70298558?trackid=200257859. accessed 29 aug. 2015. gallas, g.e. “attack on titan: analogy to world war ii.” g.e. gallas blog, 30 sept. 2013, https://gegallas.wordpress.com/2013/09/30/attack-on-titananalogy-to-world-war-ii/. accessed 23 oct. 2015. “icon: battle of trost district, part 7.” attack on titan, season 1, episode 11, funimation, 19 july 2014. netflix, https://www.netflix.com/ watch/70298564?trackid=200257859. accessed 30 aug. 2015. 11griffis https://the-artifice.com/attack-on-titan-fan-reception-religion-race/ https://the-artifice.com/attack-on-titan-fan-reception-religion-race/ https://www.netflix.com/watch/70298575?trackid=200257859 https://www.netflix.com/watch/70298575?trackid=200257859 https://www.netflix.com/watch/70298573?trackid=200257859 https://www.netflix.com/watch/70298573?trackid=200257859 https://www.netflix.com/watch/70298570?trackid=200257859 https://www.netflix.com/watch/70298570?trackid=200257859 https://www.netflix.com/watch/70298558?trackid=200257859 https://www.netflix.com/watch/70298558?trackid=200257859 https://gegallas.wordpress.com/2013/09/30/attack-on-titan-analogy-to-world-war-ii/ https://gegallas.wordpress.com/2013/09/30/attack-on-titan-analogy-to-world-war-ii/ https://www.netflix.com/watch/70298564?trackid=200257859 https://www.netflix.com/watch/70298564?trackid=200257859 “kawaii cute culture new exhibit at epcot’s japan pavilion.” youtube, uploaded by mousesteps/jwl media, 21 oct. 2015, https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=lfuntokqpxo. accessed 19 april 2017. “night of the graduation ceremony: humanity rises again, part 2.” attack on titan, season 1, episode 4, funimation, 24 may 2014. netflix, https://www. netflix.com/watch/70298557?trackid=200257859. accessed 29 aug. 2015. “primal desires: battle of trost district, part 9.” attack on titan, season 1, episode 13, funimation, 2 aug. 2014. netflix, https://www.netflix.com/ watch/70298566?trackid=200257859. accessed 30 aug. 2015. “special operations squad: prelude to the counterattack, part 2.” attack on titan, season 1, episode 15, funimation, 16 aug. 2014. netflix, https://www.netflix. com/watch/70298568?trackid=200257859. accessed 30 aug. 2015. roncero-menendez, sara. “what does ‘attack on titan’ really mean?” the artifice, 15 aug. 2013. https://the-artifice.com/what-does-attack-on-titan-mean/. accessed 16 oct. 2015. silverman, rebecca. “the spring 2013 anime preview guide” anime news network, 3 apr. 2013, http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/previewguide/2013/the-spring-anime/rebecca. accessed 15 oct. 2015. “the small blade: battle of trost district, part 3.” attack on titan, season 1, episode 7, funimation, 14 june 2014. netflix, https://www.netflix.com/ watch/70298560?trackid=200257859. accessed 29 aug. 2015. “to you, after 2000 years: the fall of shiganshina, part 1.” attack on titan, season 1, episode 1, funimation, 3 may 2014. netflix, https://www.netflix.com/ watch/70298554?trackid=200257859. accessed 29 aug. 2015. “wall: raid on stohess district, part 3.” attack on titan, season 1, episode 25, funimation, 1 nov. 2014. netflix, https://www.netflix.com/ watch/70298578?trackid=200257859. 12griffis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfuntokqpxo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfuntokqpxo https://www.netflix.com/watch/70298557?trackid=200257859 https://www.netflix.com/watch/70298557?trackid=200257859 https://www.netflix.com/watch/70298566?trackid=200257859 https://www.netflix.com/watch/70298566?trackid=200257859 https://www.netflix.com/watch/70298568?trackid=200257859 https://www.netflix.com/watch/70298568?trackid=200257859 https://the-artifice.com/what-does-attack-on-titan-mean/ http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/preview-guide/2013/the-spring-anime/rebecca http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/preview-guide/2013/the-spring-anime/rebecca https://www.netflix.com/watch/70298560?trackid=200257859 https://www.netflix.com/watch/70298560?trackid=200257859 https://www.netflix.com/watch/70298554?trackid=200257859 https://www.netflix.com/watch/70298554?trackid=200257859 https://www.netflix.com/watch/70298578?trackid=200257859 https://www.netflix.com/watch/70298578?trackid=200257859 “the world she saw: battle of trost district, part 2.” attack on titan, season 1, episode 6, funimation, 7 june 2014. netflix, https://www.netflix.com/ watch/70298559?trackid=200257859. accessed 29 aug. 2015. “wound: battle of trost district, part 8.” attack on titan, season 1, episode 12, funimation, 26 july 2014. netflix, https://www.netflix.com/ watch/70298565?trackid=200257859. accessed 30 aug. 2015. 13griffis https://www.netflix.com/watch/70298559?trackid=200257859 https://www.netflix.com/watch/70298559?trackid=200257859 https://www.netflix.com/watch/70298565?trackid=200257859 https://www.netflix.com/watch/70298565?trackid=200257859 abstract 55 introduction women’s bodies have long been “the battlegrounds” on which and for which men fight, as ketu karak explains in his article, “‘stripping women of their wombs’: active witnessing of performances of violence” (43). as he goes on to say, women’s rights, voices, and reproductive capabilities are commonly held hostage in times of social upset. this oppression of women, their bodies, and their rights proves no different in dystopian and apocalyptic representations of modern social upset and proves especially true in bruce miller’s award-winning television adaptation of margaret atwood’s novel, the handmaid’s tale. the post-apocalyptic narrative follows a young woman named june as she navigates the new and strange world that has taken the place of the united states of america. nuclear contamination and widespread infertility plague this new nation, the republic of gilead, which results in a fertile womb becoming the most precious commodity. all women are enslaved, and those potentially capable of reproduction become known as handmaids and begin new lives as “two-legged wombs” (atwood 256). in discussing atwood’s novel, david hogsette sums up june’s new world well when he says, “women become nonpersons—individuals who lack the rights and opportunities that might enable them to counter openly society’s construction of them . . . the republic of gilead defines handmaids solely in terms of the condition of their ovaries, commodifying them as objectified livestock with the sole purpose of repopulating north america” (263264). while hogsette addresses the novel, i would extend his arguments to bruce miller’s using the scholarship of james berger, david hogsettte, and other academics, this paper explores various contemporary issues seen throughout bruce miller’s tv adaptation of margaret atwood’s 1985 novel, the handmaid’s tale. investigating the hulu series through the lens of postapocalyptic and feminist theory, this paper examines the way that the series portrays female oppression, focuses on the power of storytelling in resistance struggles, and acts as a call for action to modern society to end the oppression of women. examining the relevance of the handmaid’s tale in the time of the #timesup and #metoo movements, the essay provides a new context in which to view women’s oppression in modern society. by olivia hershman, ball state university oppression, storytelling, and resistance in hulu’s the handmaid’s tale 56 tv adaptation of the handmaid’s tale and argue that the modern adaptation gives voice to current feminist issues and dramatizes an unsettling future that most women find oddly familiar. ultimately, miller’s adaptation of the handmaid’s tale is both a moving and cautionary one. yet, while it models the familiar oppression of women and the battles for their bodies, i believe that miller uses this platform to demonstrate the post-apocalyptic role feminine storytelling has in resistance and encourages audience members to take action against the kind of oppression seen in the handmaid’s tale. post-apocalyptic significance i will first be discussing the ways miller discusses female oppression and the role storytelling has in resisting such post-apocalyptic oppression. the first tactic miller uses to display feminine oppression and the role of storytelling in resistance is by playing with the temporal reality his characters experience. the disorienting temporal frames the characters find themselves in serve to provide them with clearly defined “befores” and “afters.” they each clearly remember events before the onset of the post-apocalyptic world they now find themselves in. james berger, in his book after the end, says, the apocalypse as eschaton is just as importantly a vehicle for clearing away the world as it is and making possible the post-apocalyptic paradise or wasteland. temporal sequence becomes confused. apocalyptic writing takes us after the end, shows the signs prefiguring the end, the moment of obliteration, and the aftermath. the writer and reader must be in both places at once, imagining the post apocalyptic world and then paradoxically “remembering” the world as it was, as it is . . . every action before the apocalypse is simultaneously an action after the apocalypse, and the event itself exists as a monstrous possibility made more or less likely by actions that, if it occurs, will never happen. (6) the befores and afters of the characters in the show become confused and often intermingle, each interacting with the other. for example, june remembers specific moments of her before; moments such as attending a feminist rally, writing a college paper on date rape, and the birth of her daughter. while she sometimes is unable to differentiate between her before and her after, ultimately, these before moments provide the lens through which june sees, and can contextualize, her after moments. further, june’s after experiences give her context to understand her experiences in the before and how they brought her to her present situation. it is because june remembers what freedom felt like, what it was to hold a job, to exercise sexual agency, or be with her family in her before that hershman 57 she establishes a lens through which she is able to find the courage for resistance in her after. while her befores and afters may often get confused or impede upon each other, miller ultimately uses this confused temporal sequencing to “take us after the end, show the signs prefiguring the end, the moment of obliteration, and the aftermath” (berger 6). as berger says, the writer, the reader, or, in our case, the audience, must also be in or understand one temporal time frame in order to understand the other, just as june does throughout the narrative. the audience must comprehend the befores of the handmaid’s tale in order to grasp the meaning and significance of the afters that they are seeing on the screen. this temporally confused post-apocalyptic world that miller creates in his television adaptation is one in which the past often piggybacks on the present, while the present can only be understood by remembering the past. as berger continues, “everything after the end, in order to gain or borrow meaning, must point back, lead back to that time; and everything before that beginning (seen as the ‘beginning of the end’) reconfigures itself into prologue and premonition” (xi). throughout the handmaid’s tale, june must recognize her clear before and her clear after and must use one to survive and resist the other. this temporal confusion is one way miller uses elements of post-apocalyptic literature to further exemplify feminine oppression throughout the handmaid’s tale. miller’s adaptation now that i have discussed how miller plays with the post-apocalyptic temporality of the handmaid’s tale, i will touch on how miller’s adaptation differs from atwood’s original novel, as it makes room within june’s story for hope and resistance, another important element of post-apocalyptic literature. while miller does utilize the temporal confusion common in post-apocalyptic literature, his television adaptation further contrasts margaret atwood’s 1985 novel by showcasing a post-apocalyptic world in which there is hope for oppressed peoples and a space for those oppressed peoples to resist their oppressors. while the television adaptation brings atwood’s characters to life, the space miller creates for hope and resistance greatly differs from that within the 1985 novel. miller elaborates on the story of june’s husband, luke, and allows audience members to follow luke as he travels to a refugee camp in canada and continues to search for june and their daughter. luke’s character serves to captivate much of june’s memory and provides audience members a tangible link to the time before gilead, while providing glimpses of the hope and freedom that may be possible in the after. luke’s survival and escape to canada hershman 58 gives audience members the sometimes unrealistic hope that june and luke may be able to return to a time resembling the before or at least create a new after for their family. another hope-inducing addition to miller’s adaptation is the survival and ultimate escape of june’s best friend, moira, who not only escapes her bondage as a handmaid but also life as an enslaved prostitute at a popular club and brothel called jezebel’s. while margaret atwood ambiguously ends moira’s narrative at jezebel’s and includes no such happy ending, miller again gives audience members hope that the feminine resilience and grit we see in moira can indeed deliver an enslaved character to freedom. one of the last obvious differences between atwood’s novel and miller’s television adaptation is in the storyline of another handmaid, ofglen. after she is discovered as a member of the resistance group in gilead, ofglen faces her end. atwood mercifully ends ofglen’s life by suicide. however, miller is not so kind and instead uses ofglen’s story to reiterate how women’s bodies become the battleground in the fight for the future and how these women bear the cost of resisting their post-apocalyptic world of domination and oppression. when ofglen is discovered to be a member of an underground resistance group, as well as a lesbian, she is tried and convicted of being a “gender traitor.” she is then forced to witness the death of her lover and undergo a clitoridectomy before being sent back to the republic of gilead to resume her life as a handmaid. after everything she goes through, ofglen comes back to the republic and continues to push back against her oppressors and remind those around her that there is still hope. ofglen’s character is the ultimate example of grit and resilience. ultimately, miller gives each character an ending with far more finality, but also uses their stories to promote resilience, grit, and hope. while atwood leaves many endings up for discussion, miller’s adaptation inspires audience members to resist the unjust and remain hopeful that the future can change for the better. current scholarship & relevance now that i have briefly discussed how miller plays with temporal confusion—such as is common in post-apocalyptic writing—and how miller’s adaptation differs from atwood’s original novel, i will begin analyzing the scholarship on the handmaid’s tale. while atwood’s novel has inspired much academic scholarship, there is no such scholarship on miller’s recent and award-winning adaptation of the novel. thus, i will be taking the theories and comments on atwood’s novel and directly applying them to current feminist issues and miller’s modern dramatization of june’s story. for example, shirley neuman, in her article, “‘just a backlash’: margaret atwood, feminism, and the handmaid’s tale,” says, hershman 59 “june, in short, is a fictional product of 1970s feminism, and she finds herself in a situation that is a fictional realization of the backlash against women’s rights that gathered force during the early 1980s” (858). while i agree with neuman that atwood’s original novel is a product of 1980’s feminism and women’s rights issues, i believe that the re-adaptation of june’s story and the creation of miller’s television series is the timely result of modern feminism. it not only serves to reanimate atwood’s original creation but also speaks to issues that twenty-first century women are currently confronting, such as social and sexual oppression. miller’s adaptation also explores the role storytelling has in resisting such social and sexual oppression, just as storytelling has become an important part in resisting social and sexual oppression in modern feminist movements. these modern movements have been gaining speed throughout the united states, such as the #metoo and #timesup movements. the frontrunners of the #metoo movement and those involved with the campaign to raise awareness and encourage solidarity against sexual violence and harassment were recently featured as time magazine’s persons of the year. millions of tweets and hashtags showed up just hours after the campaign’s worldwide relaunch. the movement included people from every demographic. since then, the #timesup movement has swept through hollywood, and hundreds have come forward with their narratives of sexual assault, harassment, and inequality in the workplace. for the men and women involved in these situations, there is a clear before and a clear after in which things will never be the same. just as berger says regarding apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic events, “everything after the end, in order to gain or borrow meaning, must point back, lead back to that time; and everything before that beginning (seen as the ‘beginning of the end’) reconfigures itself into prologue and premonition” (xi). these survivors of sexual oppression have faced their own apocalypses yet seemingly have found support and the courage to resist by telling their stories. much like the characters of the handmaid’s tale, they must also use their befores to help create their afters. however, if we look at such media as miller’s the handmaid’s tale, in which there is also a clear before and after, we understand that even though there may be a clear divide from which there is no going back, there is also room for hope, a chance to fight back, and a way to recreate an after. it is clear from even these few contemporary examples that miller’s the handmaid’s tale speaks to current issues and provides audience members with the reassurance that, even though an apocalyptic event has occurred, there is still hope and room for resistance, as i will discuss later. in addition to writings by james berger regarding post-apocalyptic literature and the hershman 60 genre’s temporal confusion and ambiguity, i will be referencing work by such scholars as elisabeth hansot, david hogsette, and karen magro. i will ultimately discuss how bruce miller’s adaptation of the handmaid’s tale not only exemplifies the familiar oppression of women but also how it explores the role of post-apocalyptic storytelling in resistance and how it remains a powerful call for modern social reform. oppression while i have briefly touched on how miller adopts pieces of apocalyptic theory, such as berger’s, to show oppression in the handmaid’s tale, i will be taking a closer look at exactly how this feminine oppression is exemplified in the show. like many postapocalyptic work that seeks to draw a strong emotional response from audience members, the handmaid’s tale depicts very intense and disconcerting oppression. while this oppression is startling, upon further examination, it is not too different from what modern women are familiar with and experience on a daily basis. to repeat a quote from hogsette: “women become nonpersons—individuals who lack the rights and opportunities that might enable them to counter openly society’s construction of them” (263). while this illustration of women may seem exclusive to the confines of atwood’s novel and miller’s adaptation, i would argue that this view of female oppression is also applicable to modern women. the fact that women are portrayed as such “nonpersons” in the narrative as well as in our current society is what, i believe, makes miller’s adaptation so relevant to today’s society, as i will discuss later. in miller’s adaptation, no woman is excused from the oppression enacted by the republic of gilead. even the elite women of society and infertile wives of influential government officials are barred from reading, writing, or speaking out of turn. this is exactly, as shirley neuman describes, the ideal “post-feminism” woman of the 1980s: “[they should be] submissive and more abnegating than any wife this side of the orient” (860). this is precisely how the women in miller’s gilead are seen. again, these parallels are what make miller’s adaptation so relevant. all women of gilead are commodified based on the reproductive capabilities of their wombs. however, the handmaids of gilead are treated as slaves; they have absolutely no rights, no voice, and no freedoms. they are physically abused, sexually assaulted, and mentally manipulated. they are stripped of everything that previously defined them as human, separated from their innate “personhood,” and “render[ed] non-human,” all of which succeeds to make these incredible acts of oppression possible (katrak 41). hershman 61 in exploring how apocalypse intersects with this female oppression, i will be using james berger’s definition of apocalypse as events that function as “definitive historical divides, as ruptures, pivots, fulcrums separating what comes before from what comes after . . . all preceding history seems to lead up to and set the stage for such events, and all that follows emerges out of that central cataclysm” (5). according to this definition, the dystopian world presented in the handmaid’s tale most definitely qualifies as an apocalypse, especially for any female character. miller presents a clear before and a clear after in which june finds herself, which acts as a historical divide between the then and the now. again, we see miller playing with june and the audience’s sense of post-apocalyptic temporal reality. everything that came in the before allowed for the republic of gilead to emerge in the after. both june and the audience must understand one to create a frame for the other. for example, in the before, june was a book editor and was free to practice her literacy at any time. however, literacy and free thought were some of the first things to disappear in the after. women are banned from and severely punished for reading in gilead. yet, june encounters several instances of literacy in the after: playing scrabble with the commander and reading the message scratched into her closet. in order to understand why june is so fascinated with and encouraged by these chances at literacy and reading, the audience must understand her before and the very literate world june experienced in the before. in order to understand the magnitude of the freedoms june experienced in the before, we must understand the oppression she, and every other woman of gilead, is currently experiencing in the after. this is just one example of how berger’s theory of the before, after, and a dividing apocalyptic event play a role in the handmaid’s tale and in june’s narrative account. storytelling complementing june’s interaction with literacy throughout her after, we see her exercising the storytelling skills she possesses by, quite obviously, telling her story to audience members. despite the horrendous oppression and suffocating slavery she experiences, june finds a way to tell her story, and through her rebellious narrative acts, she retains her identity and her sense of hope. identity and use of language are closely linked throughout june’s tale. handmaids are not allowed to read, write, or speak out of turn. they are given new names that signify their “masters” and to whom they belong. this lack of literacy and restricted speech keeps them within the realm of gilead-acceptable identities hershman 62 and does not give them the power to recreate their own identities. regarding atwood’s novel, david hogsette says, “[the handmaid’s tale] examines the political, social, and sexual dimensions of discourse, focusing specifically on oppression enforced by institutionalized control of acquiring knowledge and using language and on the self-liberating potential of an individual’s act of storytelling” (263). applying this scholarship to miller’s television adaptation, we clearly see the control of literacy and language, as discussed previously. throughout the show, we see june navigate the political, social, and sexual “dimensions of discourse,” yet she lacks the language to participate fully and establish her identity as a participant in such discourse (hogsette 263). by restricting the language use of women, gilead ultimately silences and excludes them from almost all social dialogue. this repression of language serves only to make the language and storytelling that is available even more powerful because it is so controlled. in episode four, june finds the words “nolite te bastardes carborundorum” carved into her closet wall. “don’t let the bastards grind you down” has since become a war cry for many feminist issues and a running theme of june’s story. she says, “there was an offred before me. she helped me find my way out. she is dead. she is alive. she is me. we are handmaids. nolite te bastardes carborundorum, bitches” (“nolite te bastardes carborundorum”). this act of storytelling by a former offred simultaneously establishes her own identity and passes along the message that she existed, that she believed in the person who would come after her, and that she ultimately believed in the hope that her written resistance provides. like the woman who left the message in the closet, june and the other handmaids find ways to tell their stories as well and, ultimately, find ways to retain or recreate their identities through their storytelling abilities. while it is obvious that june is eventually able to use her voice and tell her story, her act of storytelling throughout her experience serves to both remind june of her former identity and to help her create a new one. the act of storytelling is what i believe gives june the strength to resist. throughout her experiences, she frequently flashes back to her past and tells herself, and her audiences, stories from her life before. we travel with her into memories from her past: the day her daughter was born, times with her best friend moira, and conversations she had with her husband luke. as elisabeth hansot says regarding the novel, “[these stories] reestablish some continuity with her discredited past and give amplitude to her impoverished present” (57). june’s act of storytelling gives her a way to not only connect herself with her before, but provides a way for june to use her before to understand and resist her present self and the post-apocalyptic after in which she finds herself. hershman 63 these memories are what help june revisit her previous identity as a wife, a mother, a friend, and a free person. they help her to form a new identity in the strange context of her present situation. her memories and stories are how she remembers a time before and a time when things were different. they, along with her act of storytelling, are what bring her back to the realization that life can and should be different and that she does have the power to fight back. addressing june’s capacity to fight back against her oppression, scholar david hogsette says, [the handmaid’s tale] demonstrates through june that women, able to take risks and tell their stories, may transcend their conditioning, establish their identity, joyfully reclaim their bodies, find their voices, and reconstruct social order . . . language use is both politically oppressive and, ultimately for june, self-liberating . . . writing, or in her case speaking out, validates an individual’s existence; it proves that writer speaker was, at some point, or still may be, alive . . . someone was present to write it . . . by creating her own text, her own narrative, june similarly creates and validates her existence, her humanity, and her vision of reality and preserves her experience for future audiences . . . (264, 269) while this theory was written in regards to atwood’s novel, it is easily applicable to the television show, as well as to modern instances of oppression in which women used their linguistic and storytelling abilities to resist their oppressors. gilead thinks that by restricting women’s uses of language and literature, it will be able to suppress their voices and their identities as well. however, it only strengthens the power of their stories and the power of the limited words they have access to. it also proves that they have hope in not only an audience to listen to their stories but also in a future in which such an audience would be free to hear their stories. action june’s narrative thus acts to both startle audience members and move them to recognize the similarities between gilead and our current social climate. when atwood originally penned june’s story, it was seen as “a fictional product of 1970s feminism, [where june] finds herself in a situation that is a fictional realization of the backlash against women’s rights that gathered force in the early 1980s” (neuman 858). while i agree that this may have been the case of atwood’s novel, i would add that miller’s recent adaptation of the handmaid’s tale is a product of twenty-first century feminism and ultimately serves as a cautionary tale and as a call to action for our current society. the show clearly depicts hershman 64 many of the issues that second-wave feminists faced, yet the issues presented are all eerily familiar to women of the twenty-first century. it makes audience members wonder if any positive strides have been taken in women’s rights in the past forty years. shirley neuman expands on what the handmaid’s tale shows us about this time before, the time members of the republic of gilead use to condone their behavior. i believe that the things she mentions are the very issues that miller’s adaptation also strives to address. she says, [the time before] also tells us that it was not safe for a woman to go for a run or into a laundromat at night, to open a door to a stranger, to help a stranded motorist; that women didn’t walk in certain places, locked doors and windows, drew curtains, left lights on as precautions or perhaps “prayers”; that women needed to “take back the night” and to replace kitchen table abortions with legal freedom of choice; that date rape was common enough to be an accepted subject for a term paper; that pornography . . . was a fact of life; that women were “found” . . . in ditches or forests or refrigerators in abandoned rented rooms . . . ; that one did not allow one’s children to walk alone to school because too many disappeared; that less terminally lethal circumstances included singles bars, blind dates, the terrible gap between the ones who could get a man easily and the ones who couldn’t as well as a dedication to anorexia, silicone implants, and cosmetic surgery as a means to realize “possibilities” proffered by fashion magazines; that fathers left without paying child support, mothers wound up on welfare, and the wretched little paychecks of women would have to stretch to unsubsidized daycare . . . (neuman 866) it is clear that these things are widely seen in both our current society and the time before gilead. this causes me to wonder if our society, left unchecked, could, or maybe has, turned into a narrative like the handmaid’s tale. lgbtq and women’s rights, poverty, literacy, sexual slavery, war, toxic pollution, political conflict, “sexual politics, a woman’s decision to bear children, her access to power, and her ability to determine her own destiny” are all still issues at the forefront of our current political climate as karen magro discusses in her article, “gender matters: revisiting margaret atwood’s the handmaid’s tale and the penelopiad through the lens of social justice” (20). miller utilizes and manipulates atwood’s original story to draw attention to these issues, which we still need to address and solve or otherwise risk our world completely turning into one like the republic of gilead. perhaps the most frightening part of the handmaid’s tale is that these eerily familiar changes didn’t happen all at once. as june says, “when they slaughtered congress, we didn’t wake up. when they blamed terrorists and suspended the constitution, we didn’t hershman 65 wake up then either . . . they said it would be temporary. nothing changes instantaneously. in a gradually heating bathtub, you’d be boiled to death before you knew it” (“late”). and, like a gradually heating bathtub, the united states depicted in the show only makes small changes at first. this should make us, as an audience and as committed members of society, jump up and call out these injustices that we see. in the beginning of gilead, women slowly lose their rights, their jobs, their money, and their independence, and people don’t say much about it. america’s democracy is gradually taken over by a militaristic christian government and almost all personal freedoms are eradicated. while this totalitarian way of life greatly contrasts with the democracy that americans formerly prided themselves on, like june says, things changed slowly, but eventually things changed completely. furthermore, we are currently seeing issues of women’s rights and oppression in our current world, such as those that inspired the #metoo and #timesup movements. while there are so many uncanny similarities between our world and gilead, the handmaid’s tale shows us that there is a way to resist and that not only recognizing this oppression but sharing personal narratives of oppression is a large step in the direction of resistance and justice. by showing this violence against women and this incredibly unjust society, miller succeeds in “involve[ing] and affect[ing] audiences as active witnesses” and works to trigger a sense of social justice that “they take outside the theatre” (katrak 31-32). miller’s adaptation of margaret atwood’s the handmaid’s tale should not only serve to dramatize oppression against women, but it demonstrates the role storytelling has in fighting and surviving such oppression. ultimately, it should motivate audience members to notice and take action against the oppression and human rights issues that we easily see in our own world. works cited atwood, margaret. the handmaid’s tale. houghton mifflin harcourt, 1985. berger, james. after the end: representations of post-apocalypse. university of minnesota press, 1999. hansot, elisabeth. “selves, survival, and resistance in the handmaid’s tale.” utopian studies: journal of the society for utopian studies, vol. 5, no. 2, 1994, pp. 56-69. ebscohost, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20719313. hershman 66 hogsette, david s. “margaret atwood’s rhetorical epilogue in the handmaid’s tale: the reader’s role in empowering june’s speech act.” critique: studies in contemporary fiction, vol. 38, no. 4, 1997, pp. 262–278. ebscohost, doi:10.1080/00111619.1997.105431 80. katrak, ketu h. “‘stripping women of their wombs’: active witnessing of performances of violence.” theatre research international, vol. 39, no. 1, oct. 2014, pp. 31–46. ebscohost, doi:10.1017/s0307883313000539. “late.” the handmaid’s tale, season 1, episode 3, hulu, 29 apr. 2010. netflix, www.hulu.com. magro, karen. “gender matters: revisiting margaret atwood’s the handmaid’s tale and the penelopiad through the lens of social justice.” notes on american literature, vol. 22, 2013, pp. 20-28. ebscohost, proxy.bsu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/log in.aspx?direct=true&db=lkh&an=90667091&site=ehost-live&scope=site. miller, bruce, creator. the handmaid’s tale. daniel wilson productions inc., 2017. neuman, shirley. “‘just a backlash’: margaret atwood, feminism, and the handmaid’s tale.” university of toronto quarterly, vol. 75, no. 3, 2006, pp. 857–868. ebscohost, doi:10.3138/utq.75.3.857. “nolite te bastardes carborundom.” the handmaid’s tale, season 1, episode 4, hulu, 29 apr. 2010. netflix, www.hulu.com. hershman filipino turon (fried plantain!) kaila henkin 5 plantain bananas 1 cup of brown sugar 0.25 cup of white sugar 10 eggroll wrappers 1 cup cooking oil turon is an easy, sugary, classic fried filipino dessert that my mother, who immigrated from the philippines, taught me and my sister as we were growing up. today, we still make this simple and sweet dessert at the kitchen table with the guests we bring home, from close friends to significant others. we demonstrate and teach our guests how to make the dessert while bonding over sharing a small part of our filipino culture with those outside of it. turon is a plantain, a starchier banana more commonly eaten in the philippines, wrapped in sugar and an eggroll wrapper then fried on a pan, making a delicious crunchy outside and a soft, sugary inside. to make turon, you first mix 1 cup of brown sugar and 0.25 cup of white sugar in its own bowl. next, you take the plantains and cut them halfway length wise and then horizontally, turning a single plantain into four parts. once you put an eggroll wrapper on a plate, lightly wet the wrapper with water and spread some of the sugar mix on to the surface. then, take a single part of plantain and roll it in the sugar, making sure it’s completely covered. place the plantain on to the wrapper so that a corner of the wrapper is facing you and the plantain is horizontal to you and that corner. next, roll the wrapper with the plantain the way that you would roll a burrito, folding the edges inward to keep the plantain in place. repeat this process until you run out of plantains. finally, you place the rolled plantains into a layer of cooking oil on a frying pan, cooking each side evenly until it is a golden brown and crispy. now you have the classic filipino dessert of turon, enjoy! recipe henkin | 92 spanning nearly forty years, the mad max film saga follows max rockatansky, a lone warrior struggling against the monstrous manifestations of masculinity that have ripped his family, and society as a whole, to shreds. a postapocalyptic narrative, “mad max portrays a society disintegrating into two groups, hunters and hunted” (morris 92). from rogue motorcycle gangs to violence-based legal systems, the mad max franchise depicts a world in which the most toxic aspects of masculinity have poisoned civilization, mutating into something far more dangerous: monstrous masculinity. examining these forces at work on screen has roots in contemporary studies on violence and masculinity, which focus “on the multiple and complex ways that different masculinities become linked with, constituted by, and expressed through violence” (arellano 133). this field, called critical studies of men and masculinities, “was designed to consolidate and extend feminism’s critical focus onto the terrain of masculinities by theorizing masculinities as historical, context-dependent, shifting, and multi-faceted identities” (ashe and harland 749). thus, feminist theory can be extended and complicated by interrogating the diverse embodiments of masculinity and the degree to which violence plays a role in these manifestations. in particular, the idea of analyzing mad max in this light has gained abstract in a futuristic, dystopian australia, max rockatansky is a lone warrior struggling against the forces that have ripped his family, and society as a whole, to shreds. from rogue motorcycle gangs to violencebased legal systems, the mad max films depict a world in which the most toxic aspects of masculinity have poisoned society, mutating into something far more dangerous — something monstrous. the series presents a version of monstrosity that has sunk its claws into the very masculinity it usually serves to validate; in light of these subversions, this analysis utilizes monster theory in conjunction with gender studies to examine toxic masculinity in the mad max franchise. 1digital literature review, vol. 4 (2017). ball state university. all rights reserved. please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce critical edition to dlr@bsu.edu. “who killed the world?”: monstrous masculinity and mad max kathryn hampshire, ball state university import since the 2015 release of the fourth installment, fury road. since then, scholars have studied reactions to its feminist themes; alexis de coning’s article, “recouping masculinity: men’s rights activists’ responses to mad max: fury road,” is a prime example. according to de coning, men’s rights activists (mras) attempted “a full-scale boycott” of fury road, while simultaneously “defending it, downplaying and critiquing its feminist stance” (174-175). aaron clary of the mra blog return of kings called it a movie that “trojan horse feminists and hollywood leftists will use to insist on the trope women are equal to men in all things” (qtd. in maza). melissa bell and nichole bayliss offer a potential explanation of this phenomenon in their article from the sex roles journal: “when men, particularly white men, experience job insecurity, a perceived loss of control, and a rise of income inequality, they tend to celebrate a nostalgic version of manhood. white men then see themselves as victims of feminists or the advancement of minorities, not of circumstances of society” (567). this could explain why mras were primed to respond violently to fury road’s feminist themes, especially as the film goes further than just empowering female characters with its men who embody differing forms of masculinity than the traditional dominant archetype. while the mad max franchise displays complex messages about gender, it also pushes against the usual construction of the monster: jeffrey jerome cohen, one of the leading scholars in the field of monstrosity, asserts that “[g]iven that the recorders of the history of the west have been mainly european and male, women (she) and nonwhites (them!) have found themselves repeatedly transformed into monsters, whether to validate specific alignments of masculinity and whiteness, or simply to be pushed from its realm of thought” (15, emphasis original). instead of framing female and minority characters as the monsters, though, mad max presents a version of monstrosity that has sunk its claws into the very masculinity it usually serves to validate. in light of these subversions, this analysis will utilize monster theory in conjunction with gender studies to examine the monstrous nature of toxic masculinity in the mad max franchise. the world of mad max in mad max (1979), the title character (played by mel gibson) is a police officer patrolling the roads where gangs run rampant in a society whose foundation progressively leans toward violence, a predominant trait of toxic masculinity. this first film supplies an introduction to the franchise’s harsh landscape; australia’s barren desert, now called the wasteland, provides an environment conducive to the development of the monstrous: this locale evokes the sublime in that “[a]ll general 2kathryn hampshire privations are great, because they are all terrible; vacuity, darkness, solitude and silence” (burke 65, emphasis original). here, “privation” refers to “[t]he condition of being deprived of or lacking an attribute or quality formerly or properly possessed,” or “[t]he state in which food and other essentials for well-being are lacking; . . . an extreme hardship” (“privation”). devoid of water, vegetation, and fuel, the wasteland chokes the life out of anything that tries to grow there and suffocates the humanity out of its inhabitants. at first, max seems to be one of the few to retain his humanity: he protects people and maintains order in what is left of a crumbling society, and he has a loving wife, jessie ( joanne samuel), and son, sprog (brendan heath). but, violence tears this family apart when toecutter (hugh keays-byrne) and his gang brutally murder them: as jessie tries to escape with sprog in her arms, the men run them over repeatedly with their motorcycles, leaving sprog dead on arrival and jessie in critical condition with no hope of recovery (01:14:00). now, the once-heroic figure turns from enforcing the law to exacting revenge on everyone who had a hand in his family’s deaths. in a moment when vengeful violence blurs the line dividing max’s usual characterization from the forces of toxic masculinity, this first film concludes when he handcuffs a gang member to a car set to explode and presents him with a saw and a brutal decision: “the chain in those handcuffs is high-tensile steel. it’d take you ten minutes to hack through it with this. now, if you’re lucky, you could hack through your ankle in five minutes. go” (01:29:40). his revenge complete, max then sets out into the wasteland alone. the road warrior (1981) takes place five years afterwards and follows the broken, empty shell of a man that max has become. as he wanders the wasteland, max encounters a small group of people living in a gasoline refinery. in this series, society has fallen in part due to an extreme fuel shortage that brings violence to anyone possessing this treasured resource; here, a gang of motorcyclists “mad with the smell of gasoline” (00:14:40) led by humungus (kjell nilsson) terrorizes the survivors, seeking to drive them away from the refinery. usually, monsters lie within the liminal space between the familiar and the other on the outskirts of society, but here we find monsters that more closely match david punter and glennis byron’s definition: that which “is explicitly identified as that society’s logical and inevitable product: society, rather than the individual, becomes a primary site of horror” (266). in the road warrior, a feral child (emil minty), although only around ten years old, displays joy at the sight of violence (01:20:40), and he even participates in it with his razor-sharp boomerang (00:30:55). this boy’s twisted nature demonstrates that society has devolved dramatically since the toddler sprog’s death, warping the innocence out of childhood. additionally, as 3kathryn hampshire with toecutter’s gang, humungus’s crew demonstrates an increasing reliance on communities of violence. not wanting to play the hero, max reluctantly agrees to help the group of survivors escape. while monstrous killers produced by their societies “are rarely made accountable” for their crimes (punter and byron 266), max’s initial quest for revenge and his subsequent resistance toward establishment inadvertently serve as a method of justice. while he consistently insists that he does not want to be a hero, his existence on the fringes of a society gone wrong and conflict with its violent inhabitants put him in that role, nonetheless, and he becomes integral to the survivors’ success over humungus’s gang. but when they set off to join the northern tribe, instead of going with them, max returns to the emptiness of the wasteland alone. fifteen years later, max finds himself beyond thunderdome (1985). despite the time lapse, he is in nearly the same condition as before, isolated in the desert, until he discovers bartertown. with jobs, food, laws, and leadership, this community could even be called civilized, if not for the thunderdome (and the fact that its fuel comes from pig manure). a formidable woman named aunty entity (played by tina turner) rules the town above, and master blaster (two characters working as one: the master, played by angelo rossitto; and the blaster, paul larsson) runs the underworld. now, the series complicates its focus on monstrous men. according to punter and byron, societies that produce monsters ask us to turn our “attention . . . as much to the institutions that created such monsters as to the killers themselves” (266); the violence-based communities we saw developing in the earlier films have become better defined, along with their connection to socially produced monstrosity. bartertown may seem idyllic amidst its dystopian surroundings; however, it is anything but. what allows the town to flourish is a monstrously inhuman underground manure farm, and aboveground, aunty maintains order through violence and deadly fights in the thunderdome. when max faces blaster in the ring, though, he breaks the only rule, “[t]wo men enter, one man leaves,” by refusing to continue upon discovering that his formidable opponent’s mask hides a mental disability (00:37:10). aunty then enforces another brutal law: “bust deal, face wheel” (00:37:50), referring to a wheel of (mis)fortune that decides penalties via fate, with outcomes like death, hard labor, life imprisonment, amputation, and aunty’s choice. after being banished, max wanders yet again through the wasteland until he encounters an oasis community of children, leads them in a coup that spells the end of bartertown, and again returns to the wasteland. unlike the other three, fury road does not follow the same timeline as the 4kathryn hampshire rest of the saga or serve as a sequel to beyond thunderdome; instead, many interpret it as a reboot of the original. however, film analyst ryan matsunaga observes that instead of a series of sequels, it is better to look at these movies “as an anthology of stories centering around a particular character. both the second and third films are implied to be stories told decades after they happened, long after max has faded from memory into myth.” he explains that the latest film exemplifies this aspect of the series best as it is not a sequel, prequel, reboot, or remake: “it’s simply one more legend of the ‘road warrior,’ and his journey through the wasteland” (matsunaga). as we follow this myth, it becomes apparent that the monstrous masculinity motif transcends the originals and continues through the entire series. in this film, tom hardy replaces gibson as max, a damaged loner haunted by those he could not save, while keays-byrne returns as a new villain, the tyrant immortan joe. if one film in the series epitomizes monstrous masculinity, it would be fury road, in which joe and his war boys seem to have lost their humanity entirely. the first shot of joe displays his rotting, boil-covered back, and the face that follows is even less human: with stark white skin and blackened eye sockets, he is only able to breathe with the assistance of a mask made of a real human jaw bone and horse teeth (00:06:55). fury road’s society literally produces monstrous men in the form of war boys. these humanoid creatures have a genetic defect that results in shortened lifespans (called half-lives) due to a phenomenon similar to radioactive decay; one way to treat their condition is via blood transfusions from healthy humans, or “blood bags” (matsunaga). war boys look less than human with their pallid complexions and emaciated features, and their behavior at times also seems more akin to that of animals than of men: the first time we see them in action is when max attempts to break free, and they swarm en masse after him into a sewer, clawing at him, climbing over each other, attacking more like a homogenous herd than an army of individual warriors (00:04:35). this aspect of their appearance evokes the sublime in that their uniformity serves as a “kind of artificial infinity” (burke 68), making it seem as though they are all part of one collective, limitless whole. according to cohen, monsters often “refuse . . . easy categorization,” frequently taking the form of “disturbing hybrids whose externally incoherent bodies resist attempts to include them in any systematic structuration” (6), highlighting their liminal positions between individual and whole, living and dead, human and animal. even though most of the monstrous men in mad max still appear human, their physical form is not as important as the function they serve: a monster, at its very essence is “something that serves to demonstrate (latin, monstrare: to demonstrate) and to warn (latin, monere: to warn)” (punter and byron 264, 5kathryn hampshire emphasis original). cohen observes, “monstrous bod[ies] . . . [are] pure culture. a construct and a projection, the monster exists only to be read” (4). if we read, then, the bodies of these monstrous men as texts that both demonstrate and warn, we can see the devastating effects of violence, unfettered masculinity, and out-of-control consumption. through these monstrous characters and their violent culture, fury road portrays a society that has finally fallen prey to masculinity’s savage hunger. as a war boy named nux (nicholas hoult) makes max his “blood bag,” imperator furiosa (charlize theronis) smuggles joe’s five captive wives out of the city. while joe and his men try to recapture the women from furiosa, nux and max become stranded and join furiosa on a quest for the mythic “green place.” after they defeat joe and the women gain control of the citadel, max once again fades into the landscape, this time losing himself in a crowd instead of the desert’s emptiness. looking back on the series, it becomes clear that monstrosity transcends any one installment. every film depicts different dominant monsters, each worse than the one before: in mad max, toecutter; the road warrior, humungus; beyond thunderdome, aunty entity and master blaster; and fury road, immortan joe and the war boys. although they are each defeated by the time the credits roll, a new, more monstrous embodiment of violent masculinity always manifests in the subsequent installment. according to cohen, “the monster itself turns immaterial and vanishes, to reappear someplace else” (4). although the monsters in mad max may take on different forms, they all point to an underlying motif of monstrosity that, though it may leave one host, will always find another. masculinity in mad max one of the more subtle thematic through-lines in the mad max films is the varying forms that masculinity can take. lisa arellano, a scholar of women’s, gender, and sexuality studies, explores the concept of differing embodiments of masculinity: “the dynamic of multiple masculinities . . . [can] demonstrate how representations of dominant . . . masculinity serves as the ideal in the presence of subordinate (or complicit) forms of masculinity” (134). in the mad max films, this tension lies between the dominant monstrous masculinity and humane forms of manhood that are going extinct. one of max’s primary challenges is to resist succumbing to this dominant, destructive force. meaghan morris observes that max’s struggle is “to not-become [sic] another crazy in a violently male, indivisibly anarchic world” (82, emphasis original). fury road in particular focuses on showing diverse ways of embodying masculinity. de coning points out that max’s “masculinity is rarely played up 6kathryn hampshire in the film, and is hardly in crisis. he exhibits traditional masculinity insofar as he is strong and determined, but so too does furiosa—arguably the film’s real protagonist. in an inversion of the typical male action hero, max features as a sidekick to the female characters who drive the action” (175). in one scene, max recognizes that furiosa is a better shot than he is and hands over his gun, an act of female empowerment that toxic masculinity would not allow (01:09:30). although max participates in the film’s most violent scenes, he takes no pleasure in it, only doing what is necessary to get them through this situation alive; he even apologizes to furiosa for the pain he has to inflict on her to save her life (01:48:14). thus, fury road highlights max’s recognition that masculinity’s violent domination is the problem, not the solution. although men as a collective run this society, many individual males also suffer at the hands of monstrous masculinity. in her article’s footnotes, de coning states, “nux is also an important character in the reconfiguring of masculinity in the film and deserves further study” (176); nux undeniably serves as an integral part of understanding the complexity of monstrous masculinity in fury road. it is important to look at the hierarchy within this world because “the intersectionality of masculinities results in relationships of power and subordination between groups of men . . . . [w]hile men as a group benefit from the social organization of gender, particular groups of men are located in socially subordinated positions due to, for example, their ethnicity or social class” (ashe and harland 750). as one of immortan joe’s war boys, nux belongs to a lower class. he is young and has been brainwashed into dedication to a regime that has exterminated his individual identity and instilled in him a blind willingness to sacrifice his life for joe. but, after furiosa and the wives show him sympathy and care, his allegiance quickly shifts and he develops agency to make his own decisions. in his final, self-sacrificing moment, nux proves himself when he gives his life for them willingly (01:46:00), an inversion of his previous blind desire to die in battle for joe in order to gain eternal glory. earlier when furiosa locates women from her former clan, they inherently distrust nux and max, revealing how toxic masculinity has permeated society so deeply that a trustworthy man is the rare exception, not the rule. while the clanswomen seem to automatically trust the women, upon seeing the men exit the war rig, they look startled and ask furiosa, “the men—who are they?” she replies, “they’re reliable. they helped us get here.” still unsure, they look at her skeptically, and she nods (01:21:00). this scene demonstrates how all men are automatically distrusted in a way that female strangers are not since monstrous masculinity has so deeply permeated society. max and nux represent the potential for masculinity to 7kathryn hampshire detox into forms that not only resist monstrosity, but also help dismantle it. these varied embodiments of masculinity have the potential to do productive work off-screen as well. bell and bayliss’s article in sex roles analyzes the documentary tough guise 2: violence, manhood and american culture, observing that this second installment provides less “examples of men who reveal vulnerability or challenge hyper-masculinity” than the first tough guise, and they emphasize that “we need to see more diversified images of masculinity and male vulnerability” (567). in mad max, male characters choose to “be a man” in ways other than violent monstrosity; through this contrast, we can recognize the problematic nature of the latter. women in mad max in addition to the ways that these films portray monstrous masculinity, they also show how it affects women through diverse female characters. the first two films show women in a limited and more traditional light. the first main female, jessie, is the victim of a violent crime, setting up the prevalence of gendered violence in this series since nearly every installment includes instances of or references to rape. more women appear in the road warrior where they serve as voices of reason and formidable forces in combat. when humungus demands that the survivors either abandon the refinery or face death, the women beseech everyone to walk away with their lives (00:35:40), but the men insist on fighting. although a woman is on the high council and female warriors fight alongside men, they either attempt to erase gender by taking on a masculine demeanor, or they mostly occupy the same positions as in the prior film. the real shift in the series’ portrayal of female characters occurs in beyond thunderdome, with aunty entity in particular. her name has the phonetic similarity to “anti-entity,” inviting a closer reading of what this might say about aunty and her role in the narrative. in the film, no one ever actually says her full name out loud; in fact, if we were to go solely based on the evidence on screen, her name would just be aunty. the fact that she has this full name in the credits, though, implies a purposeful removal from one’s immediate viewing of the film, which instead invites us to retrospectively look closer at aunty’s part in this story and what her name could possibly mean. according to the oxford english dictionary, an “entity” is a “[b]eing, existence, as opposed to non-existence; the existence, as distinguished from the qualities or relations, of anything” or “[t]hat which constitutes the being of a thing; essence, essential nature” (“entity, n.”). because the prefix “anti” means “opposed to,” this frames aunty entity as “against existence/essence.” but what is she actually opposing, if not the violent 8kathryn hampshire masculinity she so clearly adopts? one possible answer to this question is reading aunty as an inversion of other female characters who instead choose to disrupt toxic masculinity; thus, aunty entity serves as an antithesis to productive femininity and healthy masculinity, while showing just how pervasive this form of monstrosity has become. through her adoption of monstrous masculinity as a source of power, aunty falls in line with historic examples of monstrous leadership. according to morris, aunty “is styled here as ‘cleopatra-esque,’ and thus is coded . . . as an oriental woman of beauty, ferocity and power; ruling by public rituals of punishment (‘the law’) and behind-the-scenes intrigue, aunty uses a deft combination of forced labour and environmentally sustainable technology to build bartertown on a pharaonic scale” (94). here, morris’s analysis alludes to the way that a female character can display a complicit form of masculinity; by calling up the image of a monstrously malevolent pharaoh enforcing ritualistic punishment and slave labor, she frames aunty as an authoritarian ruler with absolute power. aunty reinforces this dictatorial image throughout the film by subjecting max to a violent “audition” (00:13:00), ordering the assassination of her rivals (00:13:40), being the sole voice for law and justice in bartertown (00:25:40), only following laws she wrote herself (00:37:50), and insisting on a “no mercy” policy (01:22:05). her revealing attire and hypersexualized portrayal also demonstrate how aunty functions as an object of the male gaze in this society, one whom men can fantasize about dominating, while she dominates them in reality through her position of power in bartertown. though her sexy attire could be read as empowering, the context frames her body as a site of sexualization, objectification, and domination, upon which the ever-ravenous monster of masculinity feeds. although she is clearly a strong female character, aunty’s existence in a society so thoroughly permeated with monstrous masculinity has led her to indulge, perpetuate, and participate in that toxicity in order to survive and thrive in it. unlike the previous three films, fury road highlights strong female characters who do not need to display a masculine demeanor to be taken seriously. from the beginning, it is apparent that this male-dominated society thoroughly abuses and uses women: one of the first scenes to include females shows them hooked up to milking machines like cattle (00:12:50). in such a world where women are valued only for their reproductive and sexual potential, furiosa stands out as an independent, resilient character who uses her position as a commander in joe’s military to fight the power instead of to perpetuate it or to submit to it. despite her shaven head, androgynous clothing, and mechanical know-how, furiosa also exhibits many more traditionally “feminine” traits, like compassion for 9kathryn hampshire the wives, sentimentality toward her long-lost “green place” home (01:21:00), and democratic decision-making: instead of dictating the group’s actions, furiosa and the women make decisions as a community in which everyone gives their input (01:27:30). women pay the price for masculinity’s rampant hunger as joe enslaves five beautiful females as his “breeders.” the “breeders” are a cadre of women joe sets apart and locks up for his own sexual and reproductive gratification: toast the knowing (played by zoë kravitz), the splendid angharad (rosie huntingtonwhiteley), capable (riley keough), the dag (abbey lee), and cheedo the fragile (courtney eaton). the first introduction we receive to these characters is when max stumbles upon them as they bathe from a hose: all of them wear thin, revealing white clothing, and one is clearly pregnant (00:33:05). still wearing the metal facemask the war boys had affixed to his skull, max threatens them with a gun, demanding that they bring him water and sever the chain binding him to nux. however, his first impression that they fulfill the classic “damsel in distress” motif is anything but the truth. when combat breaks out, these women—even the one who is the most far along in her pregnancy— fight hard alongside furiosa to subdue max (00:35:50), volunteer for dangerous responsibilities, and turn their objectification back on their captors. the women know that joe views them as property, and they use this fact to their advantage: because joe wants his “treasures” back in one piece, he and his war boys are reluctant to risk damaging them, which offers the women some measure of protection while they fight to escape. as the film works to dismantle the image of the fragile female, a group of elderly women, who often get grouped with pregnant woman in stereotypes of feminine weakness, prove to be skilled with guns, and their fierce determination to survive is equaled only by furiosa herself. yet, even in a world poisoned by toxic masculinity, these groups of women still maintain respect for life: one of the women is known as keeper of the seeds (played by melissa jaffer) because she holds onto countless seeds that she saved from before the earth turned into the wasteland, planting them every chance she gets in hopes that one will take root (01:23:00). when the wives find nux aboard the rig, they make it clear that they don’t support unnecessary killing (00:45:40). this inherent respect for life stands in direct opposition with the monstrous masculine destruction that is so pervasive in the wasteland. 10kathryn hampshire conclusion anti-violence educator jackson katz states that “senseless violence will continue until we challenge and change these cultural belief systems—that men must be hyper masculine and that aggression and violence are the only methods to handle bullying, marital issues, employment disputes, and other forms of conflict” (qtd. in bell 567). this aligns directly with cohen’s thesis that monsters always come back; however, with the return of the monster comes the reemergence of the hero, even if that hero comes in an unexpected form. arellano observes, “within a representational world where dominant masculinity is synonymous with violence (and particularly violence toward women), this opens a space for . . . unusual heroism” (143). in analyzing mad max, we can see how this same concept applies to its protagonist. although max might at first seem to be an unlikely hero due to his isolationist nature and the fact that he repeatedly pushes against the dominant forces that define his society, it is actually because of these characteristics that he is able to make a difference in the wasteland. by portraying max as the antithesis to monstrous masculinity, the mad max franchise identifies the havoc that such a toxic force can take on society. in the final moments of fury road, max demonstrates his defiance of the monstrous masculinity that created this dystopia. after max and the women successfully kill joe and take the citadel, the people would have readily accepted max as their savior and new leader—the next reincarnation of the wasteland’s ever-present monstrous masculine force. however, this is neither the way to heal the society, nor is it what max even wants. instead of joining the celebration, max disappears into the crowd, only looking back to acknowledge furiosa as the citadel’s rightful leader, the one person with the potential to bring this broken world back to life. 11kathryn hampshire works cited arellano, lisa. “the heroic monster: dexter, masculinity, and violence.” television & new media, vol. 16, no. 2, 2015, pp. 131-147. ebsco host: academic search premier, doi: 10.1177/1527476412450192. accessed 18 jan. 2017. ashe, fidelma and ken harland. “troubling masculinities: changing patterns of violent masculinities in a society emerging from political conflict.” studies in conflict & terrorism, vol. 37, no. 9, 2014, pp. 747-762. ebsco host: academic search premier, doi: 10.1080/1057610x.2014.931210. accessed 17 jan. 2017. bell, melissa and nichole bayliss. “the tough guise: teaching violent masculinity as the only way to be a man.” sex roles, vol. 72, no. 11-12, 2015, pp. 566568, ebsco host: academic search premier, doi: 10.1007/s11199-015-04798. accessed 17 jan. 2017. burke, edmund. “a philosophical inquiry into the origin of our ideas of the sublime and beautiful with several other additions.” harvard classics, vol. 24, no. 2, p.f. collier & son company, 1909-14, pp. 53-74 and 117-123. www.bartleby.com/24/2/. accessed 2 feb. 2017. cohen, jeffrey jerome. “monster culture (seven theses).” monster theory: reading culture, edited by jeffrey jerome cohen, university of minnesota press, 1996, pp. 3-25. coning, alexis de. “recouping masculinity: men’s rights activists’ responses to mad max: fury road.” feminist media studies, vol. 16, no. 1, 2016, pp. 174-176. ebsco host: academic search premier, doi: 10.1080/14680777.2016.1120491. accessed 17 jan. 2017. “entity, n.” oxford english dictionary online. oxford university press, 2016, www. oed.com/view/entry/62904?redirectedfrom=entity&. accessed 13 march 2017. mad max. directed by george miller, performances by mel gibson, joanne samuel, and hugh keays-byrne, kennedy miller productions, 1979. 12kathryn hampshire http://www.bartleby.com/24/2/ http://www.oed.com/view/entry/62904?redirectedfrom=entity& http://www.oed.com/view/entry/62904?redirectedfrom=entity& mad max ii: the road warrior. directed by george miller, performances by mel gibson, bruce spence, and michael preston, kennedy miller productions, 1981. mad max iii: beyond thunderdome. directed by george miller, performances by mel gibson, tina turner, and bruce spence, kennedy miller productions, 1985. mad max: fury road. directed by george miller, performances by charlize theron, tom hardy, nicholas hoult, and hugh keays-byrne, warner bros. pictures, 2015. matsunaga, ryan. “mad max: fury road explained—a guide to george miller’s wasteland insanity.” overmental, 16 may 2015, www,overmental. com/content/mad-max-fury-road-explained-a-guide-to-george-millerswasteland-insanity-19827. accessed 1 feb. 2017. maza, cristina. “mad max: fury road: why are men’s rights activists so angry about action film?” christian science monitor, 14 may 2015. ebsco host: academic search premier, proxy.bsu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost. com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&an=102651723&site=ehostlive&scope=site. accessed 4 feb. 2017. morris, meaghan. “white panic or, mad max and the sublime.” senses of cinema: an online film journal devoted to the serious and eclectic discussion of cinema, vol. 18, 2002, pp. 80-104. ebsco host: mla international bibliography, proxy.bsu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.as px?direct=true&db=mzh&an=2002360027&site=ehost-live&scope=site. accessed 2 feb. 2017. “privation, n.” oxford english dictionary online. oxford university press, 2016, www.oed.com/view/entry/151613?redirectedfrom=privation&. accessed 2 feb. 2017. punter, david and glennis byron. “the monster.” the gothic, wiley-blackwell, 2005, pp. 263-267. 13kathryn hampshire http://www,overmental.com/content/mad-max-fury-road-explained-a-guide-to-george-millers-wasteland-insanity-19827 http://www,overmental.com/content/mad-max-fury-road-explained-a-guide-to-george-millers-wasteland-insanity-19827 http://www,overmental.com/content/mad-max-fury-road-explained-a-guide-to-george-millers-wasteland-insanity-19827 http://proxy.bsu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&an=102651723&site=ehost-live&scope=site http://proxy.bsu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&an=102651723&site=ehost-live&scope=site http://proxy.bsu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&an=102651723&site=ehost-live&scope=site http://proxy.bsu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=mzh&an=2002360027&site=ehost-live&scope=site http://proxy.bsu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=mzh&an=2002360027&site=ehost-live&scope=site http://www.oed.com/view/entry/151613?redirectedfrom=privation& digital literature review 1 87 jacob garrett, ball state university taking a look in the mirror: the inversion of middle-class fears of urban decay and the representation of racial violence in bernard rose’s candyman horror fiction has often utilized urban settings, specifically spaces plagued by urban decay, as tools to inspire fear in the middleand upper-class readers who devour these stories. authors and directors exploit these people’s anxieties about falling into a lower economic class and their determination to ignore the twisted, horrible history of racial violence and discrimination that contribute to the conditions that people in such neighborhoods would live in. this paper seeks to illustrate how, in the 1992 film candyman, director bernard rose turns these tropes on their heads to terrify his audiences in an entirely different way. in the american cultural consciousness, the city has always carried with it an element of sinister foreboding. major metropoles like new york city and los angeles have, in recent decades, taken on an aura of fantastical fascination, viewed as places where people from all walks of life can make something of themselves and become the person that they are meant to be. this perception, however, is fairly new compared to the association of both physical and moral decay with the nation’s cities, which goes back to the foundation of the united states itself: “thomas jefferson, for instance, viewed giant urban centers such as new york as ‘cancers’ on the body politic and as potential dangers to democracy” (macek 82). this view has made its way into every facet of american culture through the centuries, and literature is no exception to this rule. horror literature dating all the way back to h. p. lovecraft presents a link “between urban decay and digital literature review 2 88 immigration, and by implication historic preservation and anti-immigrant sentiment” (evans 109). in thrillers, film noir, and modern horror movies in particular, this association is made even more prominent by the union of these films’ prime villains or antagonists with the cities in which these movies take place. in david fincher’s seven, for example, the unnamed city in which the murders take place is “a thoroughly noxious, menacing place, an allegorical hell as full of suffering and anguish as the inferno of dante on which it appears to have been modeled” (macek 83). writer-directors such as bernard rose, however, while tapping into this collective societal fear of the inner city, go beyond simply playing off of instinctual white, middle-class anxiety and revulsion. in the 1992 film candyman, rose exploits both the white middle-class fear of urban decay and ignorance about the pervasiveness of racial violence in the united states, turning these ideas on their heads and forcing the viewer to reckon with the unacknowledged history that haunts the back of their minds. in the 1990s, there was no more potent invocation of urban decay, inner-city violence, and the general fear of housing projects in the eyes of the public than the cabrini-green homes development in chicago. situated near the gold coast neighborhood—which was and still is one of the richest in the united states—cabrini-green “stood as the symbol of every troubled housing project—a bogeyman that conjured fears of violence, poverty, and racial antagonism” (austen). it became especially notorious during the decade leading up to candyman, during which there were “eleven murders and thirty-seven gun injuries reported in the first two months of 1981,” as well as an incident just before the film came out where a young boy was killed by a sniper (briefel and ngai 76). high rates of crime, however, were not all of what put this area in the center of the media’s focus during this period: “other public housing developments in the city were larger, poorer and had higher rates of crime. but in the extreme segregation of chicago, cabrini-green… remained that uncommon frontier where whites still crossed paths with poor blacks” (austen). since cabrini-green stared the gold coast in the face, it was impossible for the almost completely white and upper-class population of the gold coast to ignore it, as they did with other housing projects in and around chicago. the entire development was eventually destroyed, with demolition commencing three years after candyman was released and the last high-rise being torn down in 2011, but that did not stop the endemic poverty that plagued the residents of the development. even though all the people living in cabrini-green were relocated, “the demolitions didn’t do away with the poverty and isolation of public housing; these problems were moved elsewhere, becoming less visible and no longer literally owned by the state” (austen). they were simply put out of sight, which was enough for the people of chicago and the gold coast to digital literature review 3 89 consider the issue “solved.” the cabrini-green that viewers are shown in candyman seems to be exactly like this stereotype on the outside: all the plant life around the complex is dead; the walls are covered in graffiti ranging from complex murals to unintelligible scribbles, and they are often shown to be crumbling; trash and discarded furniture is scattered everywhere; and any bit of exposed metal exhibits flecks of rust. many shots of the complex also show the high-rises of downtown chicago, particularly the former sears tower, looming over the neighborhood in the distance; the viewer knows that they are relatively close, but every shot that includes these buildings makes them seem impossibly far away. the housing project is visually separated from the famous skyline that so many americans associate with chicago, and the sheer height of these buildings compared to the apartment complexes of cabrini-green make it seem as though the rest of the city is looking down upon the people that live there. it is this pervasive disdain for cabrini-green and its residents among the people of chicago and the united states at large that sets the stage for candyman. while conducting a graduate thesis on urban legends, helen lyle, a well-to-do white woman and the wife of a professor at the university of illinois in chicago, and her best friend bernadette walsh, a black woman of similar economic status, decide to pursue the story of candyman, a ghostly figure who appears and murders you with a hook if you say his name five times in a mirror. when a janitor at the university tells helen that her cousin’s friend was murdered by candyman at the cabrini-green development, helen decides to investigate further, taking bernadette with her. while helen’s determination to get to the bottom of the story outweighs any fear she might have about visiting this part of town, bernadette is not so unwary: she packs mace and a taser in her purse, warns helen that their conservative dress will make them look like cops to the residents, and briefly implores her friend to abandon the trip altogether. the visuals during this part of the movie seem to confirm her worries: the camera follows their car on the way to cabrini-green from a birds-eye view, making them look tiny and fragile on the very highway that keeps cabrini-green cordoned off from the rest of chicago. even though bernadette finally agrees to come in when they arrive, she is constantly on edge. she appears to be more at ease when invited into the apartment of a single mother named anne-marie, who assures the two women that “we ain’t all like them assholes downstairs” (candyman 26:27–26:30), referring to a group of young men that harassed bernadette and helen, but this rapprochement comes only after anne-marie provides a jump scare by showing up with her chained rottweiler and interrogating them. bernadette sees anne-marie as a threat until she digital literature review 4 90 invites them into her apartment, where her child is also present, and tells them all the ways in which the people that tend to visit cabrini-green only do so to disparage the neighborhood and its residents. even though she is willing to recognize that she was wrong about this person in particular, bernadette cannot shake off her ingrained class prejudices. bernadette is self-aware enough to point out the important fact that they will not be seen as benevolent intellectuals while they are in the projects, since their “vestmental code could be received suspiciously by a different community of readers, as a marker of intrusive authority rather than anonymity,” but this first visit to cabrini-green also puts her own biases on full display (briefel and ngai 78). helen’s character, however, acts against bernadette’s class prejudice, downplaying her friend’s fears about the people living there and saying, when she sees her friend’s mace and taser, “what’s with the arsenal, bernadette? we’re only going eight blocks” (candyman 16:59–17:01). helen doesn’t buy the idea that there is a significant difference between her circle of friends and the people at cabrini-green, telling bernadette that her upscale condo used to be part of a housing project: “once it was finished, the city soon realized that there was no barrier between here and the gold coast….so they made some minor alterations. they covered the cinder block in plaster, and they sold the lot off as condos” (13:41–13:58). she hammers home the truth of this fact by going to her bathroom mirror, pulling it out, and pushing the slab of plastic behind it out of the wall, revealing that the only thing separating her apartment from the one next door is the thin protection of two mirrors that come right out if any force is applied to them. this detail is revisited when helen and bernadette are exploring cabrini-green, where helen crawls through a hole where a mirror used to be to find a shrine to candyman hidden in a rotting apartment. helen is willing to admit that she is not so far from the people of cabrini-green as some might like to think; without fear, she acknowledges the permeability of class distinctions, which many middleand upper-class americans might like to consider as more rigid. unlike bernadette, she is perfectly at ease walking through the projects and crawling through walls to enter vacant apartments that bernadette warns her might be occupied by drug dealers. in a way, she is at home there. the fact that helen accepts cabrini-green, lives in an extremely well-furnished apartment that was once just like it, and willingly crosses between the two with seemingly no concern for her own safety deliberately plays on traditional middleand upper-middle-class fears about economic divisions and the “dangers” of urban squalor to those who have a higher socioeconomic status. in his discussion of so-called “yuppie horror,” film critic barry keith grant says, “in an economy characterized by economic polarization and spreading poverty, these scenes of crossing into the nether world of urban decay exude the manichaean, middle-class paranoia…that once digital literature review 5 91 you leave a bourgeois life, you’re immediately prey to crime, madness, squalor, and poverty” (5). these are exactly the fears that rose interacts with in the film, deliberately making the viewer confront these worries within themselves. he forces them to realize that the projects aren’t one dark, terrifying, unified organism of terror, but are filled with diverse groups of people who have fallen on hard times, shoved to the side by the american public as murderers, drug dealers, and rapists without grounds. such criminals were of course present in the projects, but they were a minority who were looked down upon by their neighbors rather than accepted as the norm, just like everywhere else. the terror of the middle-class general public of possibly falling victim to the same processes that doomed the projects haunts them and makes them unable to see the truth. furthermore, as funds for housing projects across the country were slashed during the tenures of the reagan and bush administrations and more and more people were forced to relocate, horror films in the years leading up to the release of candyman embodied yet another terror affecting the white middle class: “an irrational fear of infiltration from those evicted from subsidized housing,” exemplified by the “insistence [of pre-candyman slasher films] on preserving the intactness of [their] middle-class control group[s] of victims” (briefel and ngai 74). the fact that helen is white also forces both the characters and the viewer to reckon with the history of racial oppression and violence that is attached to the legend of candyman and the projects themselves. candyman, according to legend, was originally daniel robitaille, the son of a former slave. his father became rich, and robitaille himself became a skilled and highly respected portrait painter. when he fell in love with and impregnated the daughter of a wealthy white landowner, however, he was lynched in gruesome fashion. the hand he painted with was cut off with a rusty saw, his naked body was smeared with honey, and an angry swarm of bees was released upon him, leading to his death from blood loss and bee stings. lynching was one of the most brutal, hate-filled, and pervasive types of racial violence after the civil war, and this instance in particular is extremely horrifying and spiteful. rather than hanging and burning him, as was typical of a lynching, they took the time to eliminate his connection to white society (his painting hand) and to kill him with a symbol of the very sweetness that appealed to his lover in the first place (the honey). the extreme malice that the people of reconstruction-era chicago showed toward robitaille likely stemmed from the contemporary fear among middleand upper-class white americans of interracial couples and biracial children, whom they saw as “impure” and as a “corruption” of whiteness. it was not primarily the fact that robitaille was well-to-do that sent these people after him (although his wealth was likely a factor), but that he and his lover would have created a digital literature review 6 92 biracial child who, to their even greater fear, may have passed for white, that caused them to react in so visceral and sadistic a fashion. this is what sets this lynching apart from many others, aside from the physical details of the incident; it was not just the punishment of a black man for having sex with a white woman, but for conceiving a child with said white woman who could completely defy and eliminate the traditional idea that the white middle and upper classes were “pure.” it is in cabrini-green that this legacy of horrific violence, prejudice, and american anxieties about racial divides are on full display. in her essay about the role of the urban gothic in slasher films, author stacey abbot links cabrini-green to traditional conceptions of the “terrible place” in urban gothic, which can be described as needing “a concentration of memories and historical associations” which “would [ideally] be expressed in an extant architectural or topographical heritage, as these areas provide for ghostly presences of imagined/projected meanings” (70). the fact that cabrini-green was built upon the same site as that of robitaille’s lynching and exhibits the systematic economic oppression and unofficial segregation of african americans in the united states—bernadette explicitly describes it as a ghetto at one point—means that the housing project fits into this description perfectly. we are given inklings of the complex racial dynamics at play there during the first half of the movie, such as when anne-marie says, “you know, whites don’t ever come here, except to cause us a problem” (candyman 25:48–25:50). helen, unbeknownst to herself, has become “a perpetrator of white colonial aggression. although several black women characters advise her against intruding on community spaces and disrespecting sites of death, she pushes forward with her research agenda in hopes of publication” (kee 52). she is well-intentioned in her investigation and does not mean to cause any trouble or harm, but she is still participating in the cultural norms that have oppressed cabrini-green by treating it merely as a space in which to freely conduct her research, rather than as a place filled with real people who are living in very real homes (52). the racial dynamics in the film come to a head with the appearance of candyman, who in fact takes two forms. the first form that we see is the leader of a gang, the overlords, who calls himself candyman and carries a hook around with him. this first version of candyman has taken on the persona of the legendary ghost to inspire fear in the residents of cabrini-green and to create a near-mythical status for himself within the neighborhood. this candyman is almost a specter unto himself, invisible until helen visits the project alone to interview anne-marie a second time. when she arrives, she meets a young boy called jake who tells her that he can lead her to candyman. he takes her to a public restroom outside the building where he says candyman can be found before telling her a story about a child being horribly mutilated by candyman in that very bathroom. digital literature review 7 93 when helen enters, she checks all of the stalls and, in the last one, finds a colony of bees nesting inside the toilet bowl. she slams it shut and turns to leave when a young man walks in, who, as four other men follow him, pulls a hook from behind his back. when she tries to leave, they restrain her and he says, “i hear you’re looking for candyman, bitch. well, you found him” (candyman 38:57–39:01), before hitting her over the head with the hook. helen is in genuine danger during this scene, and everything about the environment in which it takes place heightens this feeling. there is graffiti and grime all over the walls, and all the toilets, excepting the one filled with bees, are smashed to pieces. spread over the wall and door of the stall with the bee toilet, in what appears to be human feces, is the phrase “sweets to the sweet,” which appeared near the aforementioned shrine to candyman and marked the locations where candyman murdered people. the scene also seems to suggest the potential for sexual assault; the bathroom is a space of extreme vulnerability, and the disgusting nature of this one has already set the viewer on edge. this sense of unease heightens when one of the overlords restrains her and their leader gets very close to her, grabbing her neck before hitting her with the hook. it is a nightmare scenario for a white middle-class intellectual woman in this situation, and, while they leave her in the bathroom after hitting her in the head a few more times (enough to leave a pool of blood beneath her), rose deliberately constructed this scene to play off of every stereotype that people had of cabrini-green in this time period and that the white middle and upper classes would have had of areas suffering from urban decay in general. this fact is only compounded by multiple characters expressing their fear for helen’s safety and her good fortune at being alive after this incident. to helen, the mystique and legend surrounding the gang leader iteration of candyman falls apart after this incident. he is quickly arrested, and when helen sees jake at the police station, she assures him, against his protestations that candyman will come for him, that “candyman” was never real: it was only a bad man wearing the name like a cloak. at this point in the film, the gang leader can be seen as emblematic of the perception that most americans had of cabrini-green: violent, coarse, and mired in crime, inspiring fear and whispers. he doesn’t even have a name; his persona begins and ends with his role as the head of the overlords and someone who adopts the persona of candyman. helen and the police think that, by rooting him out and bringing him into custody, they have solved the mystery of candyman and put a stop to a major blight on the area; however, it is soon after this incident that the actual ghost of candyman appears to helen in a parking garage, proving them dead wrong. when helen enters the garage, she sees a dark figure standing at the other end of the digital literature review 8 94 building; he is covered by a long, flowing black coat, and his right hand is replaced by an enormous, bloody hook. helen tries to leave, but she is hypnotized, unable to break free from the spell of the true and undeniable candyman, who proclaims to her, “i am the writing on the wall, the whisper in the classroom. without these things, i am nothing. so now, i must shed innocent blood. come with me” (53:29-53:12). this language is different from the more direct language of the gang leader and the tag associated with him, “sweets to the sweet,” immediately signifying the divide between himself and who helen thought to be candyman in the first place. helen faints, only to wake up on the floor of a bathroom as someone wails nearby. she is covered by a long black coat and pulls it back to reveal a huge pool of blood on her stomach and the floor around her. when she opens the door, she discovers the severed head of a rottweiler lying on the floor of a hallway, a meat cleaver lying beside it. she takes the knife and emerges to find anne-marie, standing over her son’s empty, gore-soaked crib, screams of grief and sorrow tearing from her lungs. when anne-marie sees helen standing there holding the still-bloody knife, she lunges, demanding that helen tell her where her baby is as she tackles her and slams her head into the floor. helen manages to get the upper hand, but that’s when the police burst in, finding a white woman kneeling over a black woman holding a meat cleaver, the white woman’s shirt and the apartment around them already covered in blood, and an empty crib so saturated with crimson that it seems no child that lay within could still be alive. this is the moment that the racial dynamics that rose has been hinting at finally burst onto the screen. while we assume that helen had nothing but the best of intentions when talking to anne-marie earlier in the film, the fact that she has been caught in this situation seems to confirm anne-marie’s prior statement that white people only come to cabrini-green to cause trouble. we would like to think that helen is innocent in all this, framed for the murder by a vengeful ghost, but it is impossible for the viewer to be sure at this point that helen did not kill the dog and commit infanticide. furthermore, when helen is brought to the police station where she originally reported the gang leader and is asked to take off her clothes, this act covers the entirety of her upper body in blood, a visual which tacitly compounds the fact that she might be guilty. the veracity of her own account is also thrown into question by the fact that she so recently sustained a head trauma severe enough to leave a sizable pool of blood on the ground, meaning that her vision in the garage could have been a hallucination (kee 53). the ghostly candyman, as opposed to the gang leader, embodies not society’s perceptions of the housing projects, but the horrible history of racial violence that has soaked the pages of the history in the united states. helen and the police were perfectly willing to accept the reality of the digital literature review 9 95 fake candyman, but it isn’t until the real candyman stares her in the face that helen admits that he exists and still has the power to hurt people in the modern world. his appearance also puts the death of a child on the hands of a white woman in both a mirror image of his own gruesome end (since the blood that has soaked helen’s sweater when she wakes up only covers her stomach, an apparent callback to the fact that candyman was murdered for impregnating a white woman) and in a resurrection of that very event at the site upon which his death occurred. in fact, “helen’s subjection by the history she seeks is signaled throughout candyman by the repetition of mirror images. on a basic psychoanalytic level, staring into a mirror to summon candyman (who then will burst through the mirror and wreak havoc) indicates that candyman dwells in the desiring subject’s unconscious,” and this moment is where rose masterfully uses helen’s being framed to scare the white middle class (wyrick 95). anyone who grows up in the united states is aware of the brutal oppression and pain that people of color faced throughout the nation’s history; however, there are those who would like to believe that this inequality is all in the past, part of a bygone era that has no bearing on today’s reality, relegating it to what candyman calls himself: a whisper in the classroom. the ghost of daniel robitaille, functioning as a stand-in for that very history that haunts the american consciousness, forces the viewer to reckon with the fact that it is not so far behind them as they might like to think and that it still has the power to hurt people in the modern day. for all her education and good will, helen (and, by extension, the white middle-class viewer prior to this point) has been unable to see the power that racism and racial violence hold over the american consciousness because of her white privilege until she is literally paralyzed from fear of this power. then, just after recognizing it as real and tangible, she opens her eyes again on a world turned on its head and drenched in blood and despair. when candyman was just an idea to her, anne-marie’s apartment seemed almost untouched by the violence that permeated that spot a century before; after he became real to her, helen herself became mired in the very history of death and gore to which she had, until now, been blissfully blind. this idea is compounded by the fact that the characters treat candyman as just another horror-themed urban legend during the first half of the movie, thinking him similar to bloody mary. the bloody mary legend has been normalized in western culture, and even though it is a terrifying concept, nobody actually thinks of it as real or dangerous because, as children, everybody is told that it is just a story. similarly, while the history of racial injustice in the united states is extremely horrific and deplorable, white people frequently talk of it in the modern age as though it is just a story, rather than as a force that can genuinely harm people. digital literature review 10 96 the importance of bathrooms in the film is further evidence of this interpretation of candyman. bathrooms tend to have two different associations: that of filth and unpleasant bodily functions and that of relaxation, peace, and cleanliness. the fact that candyman appears to someone when they look in a mirror tacitly associates him with the act that would take place most often when someone is looking in a mirror: washing hands. the washing of hands symbolically means the elimination of one’s guilt about something they witnessed or took part in, and candyman’s modus operandi means that this act is no longer enough. the people summoning him as a game in their bathrooms can no longer just wash their hands of the history that he represents and leave it behind when they lose interest; they have to deal with the consequences. the two bathrooms at cabrini-green, in turn, show how this violence and dirty national history cannot be avoided there. the bathroom that helen awakens in is splattered with blood and is never shown to be cleaned up, and the bathroom in which she is assaulted is covered with grime and literal feces, and its sinks and toilets are all smashed to pieces. no relief or cleanliness can be found in these bathrooms; the horrid, reeking, poisonous filth that covers those bathrooms, just like the horrid, reeking, poisonous murder that infected that property, can never be washed away. the murder of candyman’s second victim, bernadette, cements this line of thinking. when candyman appears to helen this time, it is first by shoving his bloody hook through the mirror at her, both compounding the emphasis on mirror images and reminding the viewer of helen’s earlier story about the apartment being a former housing project. he then traps her in her kitchen, where she grabs a knife, and paralyzes her once again. this time, however, he is interrupted by bernadette, who came to check up on helen. bernadette enters only to have the door swing shut behind her. when she turns around, she sees candyman standing there, slowly raising his hook. this moment is significant because bernadette is the only character aside from helen herself who sees candyman at any point during the movie. while candyman claims another victim later in the film, this third victim doesn’t see him coming at all, as candyman kills him from behind. everyone else is unable to see him, even if helen claims he is right in the room with them, leading them to believe her insane. bernadette, however, sees him immediately. as a black woman, bernadette would have been far more aware of the ways that the racial violence and hatred that has saturated american history still affects the modern world than her white associates and friends. she is therefore able to see candyman the second that she encounters him, almost seeming to recognize him for who he is in the few seconds before he kills her. after she has been murdered, helen’s husband trevor returns to find helen unconscious in the kitchen, holding a knife and covered in blood, with bernadette’s eviscerated body lying a few feet away. digital literature review 11 97 this intersection between the past and present in candyman culminates at the climax of the film, in which helen, who has escaped from a psychiatric ward and returned to cabrini-green, discovers a hook dangling from the ceiling and candyman asleep on a slab of rock. she plunges the hook deep into his neck in an attempt to kill him, embracing candyman’s modus operandi. it doesn’t work, however, and she surrenders herself to him in exchange for anne-marie’s child, whom he kept alive. as she does this, candyman says, “our names will be written on a thousand walls, our crimes told and retold by our faithful believers. we shall die together in front of their very eyes and give them something to be haunted by” (1:22:20–1:22:37). candyman then embraces helen and kisses her with a mouth filled with bees, causing her to faint once again. this scene, in which she is laid out on the slab of stone upon which candyman had been lying and takes on the visual role of the sacrifice she has made of herself, also fits into rose’s technique of inverting traditional racial stereotypes to elicit fear from the audience and make them confront this within themselves. here, rose uses “[a trope] used much earlier in birth of a nation or king kong: the ritual sacrifice of a virgin to a black potent male” (hoeveler 99). while some, such as diane hoeveler, a professor at marquette university, argue that candyman simply replicates the stereotypes that they are supposedly speaking against, this scene in fact does the opposite. helen’s surrender to candyman, rather than just playing into traditional tableaus of white fear about the corruption of white women by black men, represents helen’s acceptance of the raw power of the brutal history of repression that candyman symbolizes and shows that she is willing to allow herself to be crushed by it if it means saving an innocent member of the next generation raised on the site of such atrocities. when helen awakes, she sees a mural depicting candyman’s former lover, who is an exact mirror image of her, and then hears the cries of a child, which draw her out of the building to a large pile of broken furniture that the residents of the building were planning to use for a bonfire that night. as she slips into the pile to find the source of the cries, the young boy that she had so recently consoled in the police station, jake, sees her and whispers, “he’s here” (1:26:23–1:26:24), before gathering the residents of cabrini-green and telling them to set fire to the pile of furniture because he saw candyman go in there, which they do almost immediately. in this scene, the fact that these people are so quick to light the fire exhibits their intense hatred of the figure they know as candyman: the gang leader. it is people like him that have given cabrini-green such a deplorable and negative reputation, and, given the chance, they do not hesitate to set that image ablaze. the fierceness and ferocity with which they set fire to the furniture also echoes the lynching that happened there centuries ago, only this time it is the black digital literature review 12 98 residents of cabrini-green taking revenge against injustice rather than an injustice being intentionally committed. helen is able to save the baby, but she, along with the ghostly candyman, perish in the flames. at helen’s funeral, a procession of the residents of cabrini-green walks through the graveyard in silence, and jake, wearing a coat that looks like a much brighter and bloodless version of candyman’s, casts the very hook that helen used to try to kill candyman into her open grave. in this moment, helen takes on the haunting mantle of candyman for these people. the gang leader has been removed from the area, and the ghost of daniel robitaille was shown to be truly gone when the camera zoomed in on what looked like a charred corpse in the bonfire, so there is no one left that this role could be placed upon but her. the fact that this tableau cuts away immediately to helen’s funeral only compounds this transition, and her new identity is confirmed at the end of the movie. when trevor says “helen” five times in the bathroom mirror while grieving, she appears to him as she looked in death, the skin on her head burned and scarred, holding the hook that was cast into her grave. when trevor’s girlfriend, who he had been seeing secretly while married to helen, opens the bathroom door, she finds him split open from his waist to his ribs and screams, standing over him holding a kitchen knife that she had been using to make dinner. the final shots of the movie then cut to and zoom in on a new mural in cabrini-green: helen rising from the bonfire in a swirl of flame, her head surrounded in a fiery corona, looming above the terrified people below like a vengeful spirit or god. by taking on the mantle of candyman, helen reversed the traditional perceptions of the history of racial violence in the united states. instead of the original candyman, who represented the idea of this racial violence being ignored as a serious presence by the white middleand upper-class intellectuals of the university and yet instilling great fear in the hearts of the mainly african american residents of cabrini-green, the movie now has helen, who, as a well-to-do white intellectual, is emblematic of the very people who have incited or tacitly perpetuated the racial violence that has plagued american history. now, instead of hurting the people who have suffered from this abuse for so long, helen is killing people like trevor, the very individuals who denied the power of racial violence to haunt and inflict pain upon modern america and who, just one hundred years ago, may have personally murdered daniel robitaille. there are some, however, who do not take the story beats of candyman to be so self-aware and critical of traditional american attitudes toward history. author michael blouin, for example, sees candyman’s interpretation of and attention to race as too generalizing and bland, saying, “when candyman moves to diminish divisions between a black man and a white woman, casting digital literature review 13 99 these differences as ‘merely superficial,’ it willfully overlooks crucial distinctions between the material circumstances of these groups” (87). this is an understandable interpretation; however, the film not only acknowledges the difference in circumstances between candyman and helen but uses this gap deliberately to enhance the meaning of helen’s replacement of him. as an emblem of death and reversal of fortune to white intellectuals in the modern age, she will become a fearful tale to haunt the consciousnesses of people like trevor, just as candyman haunted the minds of the black residents of cabrini-green. this haunting also forces the white intellectuals who will whisper helen’s name and spread her story to reckon with the fact that the homes they thought were so secure and separate from places like cabrini-green may no longer be so safe. perhaps they never were. the mirror images and doubling that have been on display so explicitly throughout the film are exactly what allows this fear to manifest: they blur the lines between helen and candyman’s roles as victim and monster and similarly blur the lines between the safety of white privilege and ignorance and the dirty realities of places like cabrini-green (kee 52-53). just like in helen’s apartment, which was only one shiny veneer away from being a housing project, the pervasive fear that the white middle and upper classes have of places suffering from urban decay has been turned on its head: it’s not the projects where they can’t feel safe anymore, but their own homes. the very people who would be so quick to deny that candyman even existed will now be forced to reckon with the prejudices and histories that they have for so long ignored or risk ending up like helen and becoming a whisper in the classroom, the writing on the wall. digital literature review 14 100 works cited abbot, stacey. “candyman and saw: reimagining the slasher film through urban gothic.” style and form in the hollywood slasher film, edited by wickham clayton, palgrave macmillan, 2015, pp. 67-78. austen, ben. “cabrini-green and a horror film that captured the fears of public housing.” chicago tribune, 16 aug. 2018, https://www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/commentary/ct-perspecflashback-cabrini-green-candyman-public-housing-austen-0819-20180815-story.html blouin, michael j. “candyman and neoliberal racism.” magical thinking, fantastic film, and the illusions of neoliberalism, palgrave macmillan, 2016, pp. 81-108. briefel, aviva and sianne ngai. “‘how much did you pay for this place?’ fear, entitlement, and urban space in bernard rose’s candyman.” camera obscura, vol. 13, no. 1, 1996, pp. 69-91. https://doi.org/10.1215/02705346-13-1_37-69. candyman. directed by bernard rose, tristar pictures, 1992. evans, timothy h. “a last defense against the dark: folklore, horror, and the uses of tradition in the works of h. p. lovecraft.” journal of folklore research, vol. 42, no. 1, january-april 2005, pp. 99-135. jstor, https://www.jstor.org/stable/3814792. grant, barry keith. “rich and strange: the yuppie horror film.” journal of film and video, vol. 48, no. 1/2, spring-summer 1996, pp. 4-16. jstor, https://www.jstor.org/stable/ 20688090. hoeveler, diane. “the postfeminist filmic female gothic detective: reading the bodily text in candyman.” postfeminist gothic, edited by benjamin a. brabon and stéphanie genz, palgrave macmillan, 2007, pp. 91-113. kee, jessica baker. “black masculinities and postmodern horror: race, gender, and abjection.” visual culture and gender, vol. 10, 2015, pp. 47-56. macek, steve. “places of horror: fincher’s ‘seven’ and fear of the city in recent hollywood film.” college literature, vol. 26, no. 1, winter 1999, pp. 80-97. jstor, https://www. jstor.org/stable/25112430. wyrick, laura. “summoning candyman: the cultural production of history.” arizona quarterly: a journal of american literature, culture, and theory, vol. 54, no. 3, autumn 1998, pp. 89-117. project muse, doi:10.1315/arq.1998.0003. digital literature review 1 39 sigmund freud describes the uncanny as an unwilling revelation of what is private and hidden. the haunting of hill house novel and the sixth sense film both exhibit many aspects of the uncanny, but their main characters end up embracing this uncanniness to defy haunting narrative norms by accepting, in different ways, the ghosts that plague them. to this end, the characters either adhere to (in the case of the sixth sense) or diverge from (in the case of the haunting of hill house) the nuclear family structure. isabel parham, ball state university peace at last: grappling with ghosts and the family structure in the sixth sense and the haunting of hill house when reading, listening to, or watching ghost stories, an unexplainable feeling overcomes us. it is not fear or disgust outright, but instead has some unique, innate quality. sigmund freud describes this feeling as “the uncanny.” the uncanny exists as a crossroads of familiar and unfamiliar, or, in german, heimlich and unhemlich. heimlich means homey or familiar, but it also means private and hidden. in freud’s interpretation, if something is heimlich, it can also be hidden from the self. unheimlich means strange or unfamiliar but can also be defined as “the name for everything that ought to have remained… hidden and secret but has become visible” (freud 4). the uncanny combines these interpretations as an unwilling revelation of what is private and hidden, despite our desire to keep that revelation hidden. the haunting of hill house novel and the sixth sense movie both exhibit many aspects of the uncanny, but their main characters end up embracing this uncanniness, defying haunting narrative norms by accepting the ghosts that plague them, and do so by adhering to (in the case of the sixth sense) or diverging from (in the case of the haunting of hill house) the nuclear family structure. digital literature review 2 40 in the haunting of hill house, eleanor vance, the main character, embraces ambiguity by becoming the haunting, blurring the line between living and dead, just as she occupies an ambiguous space in society, not having a solid home, family, or role in the world. the sixth sense, however, rejects this ambiguity as cole helps ghosts come to terms with their death and resolves their trauma so they can move out of the transitional space. this mirrors the story’s adherence to structure ideas of gender roles and family structures, shying away from ambiguity. to prove these points, a deeper analysis of family dynamics and its connection to ghosts and the uncanny in both narratives proves necessary. the uncanny and ghosts a variety of images evoke a feeling of the uncanny, including gouged-out eyes, disembodied limbs, doubling, and repetition. an aspect of the uncanny that is particularly relevant to ghost stories, however, is uncertainty. freud posits that uncertainty drives uncanniness, especially in literature. since fairy tales exist in a clearly fictional world removed from reality, the idea of uncanny does not apply to them. a sense of the uncanny, however, creeps in when the fictional world begins to mimic our own without showing signs of “normalcy.” when a story does this, it settles in that uncertain space of familiar but also unfamiliar, which seems similar to the world we live in but also strangely foreign. the haunting of hill house and the sixth sense exist in worlds that seem quite similar to our own until we begin to notice aspects of these worlds that diverge from what we expect. this deviation is made apparent when automatons conjure a sense of the uncanny and uncertainty about the animation of objects. they appear “normal,” giving us a sense of familiarity, but that familiar feeling is undermined by a sense of strangeness or wrongness—this is the uncanny. ghost stories evoke a sense of the uncanny because spirits reside in a liminal space, a space of uncertainty. ghosts are neither fully dead or alive. they manifest themselves in the physical forms of their once-living selves, such as in the sixth sense, or they imitate human voices and mannerisms (like knocking or writing) as seen in the haunting of hill house. in this way, they remind us of humans—of ourselves, even—and so they bring us a sense of familiarity and perhaps even comfort. because ghosts are not fully living humans, however, they reside in a space of uncertainty where they mimic humanity, but cannot fully be human, and are therefore uncanny. as julia kristeva establishes, abjection comes into play when we want to protect ourselves from the uncanny and things that make us uncomfortable. she further specifies that abjection can be prompted by “[w]hat does not respect borders, positions, rules. the in-between, the ambiguous, digital literature review 3 41 the composite” (4). abjection is important in the case of ghosts because it allows us to solidify boundaries between what we are and what we are not. if ghosts are dead, unreal, and separate from us, then we can be sure that we ourselves are real, alive, and separate from them. as previously mentioned, ghosts disrespect borders—they shift between life and death while occupying an ambiguous space that scares us. because this ability is unsettling, characters want to abject ghosts and distance themselves from both the uncertainty of ghostly existence and the cold reality of mortality. in fact, noël carroll writes in “the nature of horror” that “[i]n works of horror, the humans regard the monsters that they encounter as abnormal, as disturbances of the natural order,” and even react with “revulsion, nausea, and disgust” (52-53). this reaction is consistent with many examples of ghost stories in popular media, where main characters often feel the need to run from a haunted house or exorcise the ghost that plagues them. in some unique stories, however, characters learn to accept and even embrace ghosts rather than run from them. in these cases, we must ask what compels these characters to overcome their natural urge to abject. the two main examples discussed here are shirley jackson’s 1959 novel the haunting of hill house and m. night shyamalan’s 1999 film the sixth sense. while these stories appear to have little in common on the surface, as they are more closely examined, it becomes apparent that the characters in both stories embrace hauntings and ghosts in unique ways in order to grapple with gender roles and the structure of the nuclear family. the haunting of hill house features eleanor vance, who eventually descends into madness and becomes part of the haunting in hill house after the house goads her to insanity by referencing her unstable place in the family structure and society as a whole. in the sixth sense, cole is a young boy haunted by violent visions of dead people and an unstable family unit in the wake of his father’s leaving. cole becomes a shepherd for ghosts, guiding them into the afterlife and out of the uncanny liminal space of ghostliness. eleanor, alternatively, embraces the haunting by becoming it, occupying the uncertain space between human and inhuman herself. elements of the uncanny exist in both the haunting of hill house and the sixth sense, but rather than abject the hauntings to distance themselves from the uncanny, eleanor and cole embrace them. from the beginning of the novel, the haunting of hill house evokes the uncanny by describing the house in a lifelike manner. the uncanny can be evoked by blurring the line between animate and inanimate, creating a sense of uncertain reality, and jackson’s description of the house certainly does this. the first page of the novel describes the house as “not sane,” and later eleanor describes it as “vile” and “diseased,” words befitting a person rather than a house digital literature review 4 42 (jackson 1, 23). when she enters the house, she notes that it feels as though the house was “waiting” for her, “evil, but patient” (25). making the house’s animacy uncertain puts the reader in an uncomfortable position as the house—typically an inanimate entity—comes alive to torment eleanor and the other house guests. the book later describes the house as maternal or motherly, further giving it human characteristics. this observation becomes particularly chilling when we consider eleanor’s fraught past with her own mother. this evil, almost human house should drive eleanor out, but we ultimately see her fighting to stay there despite the house’s horrifying and uncanny elements. moreover, these examples show us the essential role that uncertainty and its connection with the uncanny play in eleanor’s experience at hill house. the sixth sense also features uncanny elements throughout. although set in a world that seems similar to our own, in the story strange events keep occurring around the main character, cole sear, causing our sense of reality to become more and more precarious. toward the beginning of the film, cole eats breakfast with his mother in the kitchen. his mother leaves briefly and returns only a few moments later to opened cabinets and pulled-out drawers, even though it appears cole never moved. this odd occurrence plants the idea in the audience’s minds that something uncanny exists in this universe. as the line between reality and fantasy blurs, we are launched into a realm of uncertainty. once cole reveals to malcolm that he “see[s] dead people,” the sense of the uncanny grows even stronger (the sixth sense [1999], 0:20-0:21). the ghosts fail to understand that they are dead despite the graphic and horrifying wounds that many of them sustained. this puts the ghosts in a liminal space, making them neither dead or alive, human or inhuman. based on this evidence, we cannot argue that a lack of the uncanny is the reason that the characters in both stories eventually accept the ghosts. in fact, the haunting of hill house and the sixth sense link uncertainty and the uncanny, and eleanor and cole’s negotiations with these elements reflects a larger struggle with their own uncertain places in society. based on this assertion, eleanor and cole see that ghosts are strongly linked to familial structure, family bonds, and familial trauma. the main characters in both narratives defy their urge to abject instead accept their respective ghosts, choices that are inextricably tied to their own roles in the family structure and society at large. the sixth sense conservatively advocates for adherence to the traditional family structure, whereas the haunting of hill house radically asserts that those who refuse to adhere to gender roles and the “correct” familial structure, like eleanor, possess no defined place in the family or in society. jackson is not placing blame on eleanor for not conforming to these standards, but rather criticizing society for not creating spaces for those who dislike conforming to social norms. to further support these claims, these next sections will digital literature review 5 43 analyze each narrative for themes about the family and its structure, gender roles, and uncertainty. ghosts in the sixth sense in the sixth sense, ghosts haunt cole and drive him away from his mother, peers, and child psychologist malcolm crowe, but the absence of his biological father haunts cole the most. he clings to memories of his father (and perhaps the hope of his father’s return) by wearing his father’s overly-large glasses and watch. we see the connection between ghosts and the family structure in coral houtman’s article “questions of unreliable narration in the sixth sense,” in which she views the film through a lacanian framework, reinterpreting the oedipus complex through a slightly more modern lens. houtman argues cole misses the “structural intervention” of the father figure because of his father’s absence, which prevents cole from accepting the loss of his absolute relationship with his mother and keeps him from moving successfully into society (5). houtman describes cole as suffering from “telepathic conversion hysteria,” which essentially means that “his symptoms of distress and anxiety” caused by the oedipus complex “are expressed through him seeing real ghosts” (6). the ghosts, according to houtman, embody the “unconscious hostile wishes of the adult world,” which cole cannot interpret because of his improper development (6). here, then, we see how “improper” development and a “broken” family structure directly connect to ghosts and hauntings. ironically, cole is stuck in a transitional stage just like the ghosts he fears. he oscillates between acting as an adult, as when he visits his mother “during her nightmare,” and acting as a child, as when he “sleep[s] in her bed” (houtman 6). in this narrative, cole occupies an uncertain, transitional space stuck between child and adult, unknowingly mimicking the ghosts that terrify him. this struggle sends a message to the viewer that they, too, should be scared of occupying this uncertain space where difficult definitions of gender roles and family exist. after all, cole is so affected by his family trauma that child psychologist malcolm crowe makes it his personal mission to help cole. everything begins to change, however, when cole meets malcolm, who “provides the surrogate father figure that cole has been lacking” in order to interpret those enigmatic messages (houtman 6). houtman argues that when they play a game where malcolm must guess things about cole, cole sees how malcolm accepts his own fallibility or “symbolic castration,” which makes cole less terrified of malcolm (6). though cole hesitates to trust malcolm at first, he eventually divulges his secret that he sees dead people. because malcolm himself is dead, it is even more telling that cole shares this information, as it shows how cole overcame his revulsion digital literature review 6 44 to ghosts enough to trust a ghost with this secret, something he never shared with his mother. cole even goes so far as to take malcolm’s advice about listening to the ghosts and trying to help them. once he receives the advice from malcolm and confides in him like a father figure, cole assumes his “place” in the family and acts as a shepherd for ghosts to help them cross the line into the afterlife. he completes his own transition and now helps ghosts complete their own, including malcolm. the sixth sense conservatively adheres to ideas about what constitutes a “proper” family. the story promotes the idea that if you develop “properly” and have the “proper” family structure—in this case, one with a strong father figure—you can pull yourself out of the transitional space and help others as well, just like cole. this is especially striking considering cole, a child, helps adults through their transitions to the afterlife. cole even helps malcolm, a child psychologist and someone who helped him through his own development, to transition out of the uncertain realm of ghostliness. the moral of the story, then, is that we can only make peace with our ghosts—literal or metaphorical—if we adhere to the process of proper development. further, the story argues that we can only fully integrate into society if we follow these same guidelines; essentially that normalcy becomes achievable and people become happy, integrated citizens of society only when they adhere to these specific guidelines. it is important to note that both main characters—cole and malcolm—are white, presumably straight men. perhaps this formula only works so effectively for these characters because of positions of privilege. it begs the question: would this method work as well for someone not occupying that status? ultimately, however, cole only accepts ghosts in order to push them out of their uncanny transitional space and into one of certainty in the afterlife, effectively abjecting them in that way. the article “the mourning of loss in the sixth sense” by marguerite la caze takes a slightly different stance on the situation, proposing that cole cannot make peace with the ghosts until he resolves his personal grief. being suspended in grief resembles being stuck in a transitional space; cole is again trapped in limbo, unable to transition properly. la caze writes, “on freud’s account, the work of mourning cannot be finished until reality is accepted,” so if “[t]here has been no proper grief or recognition of the wrong that was done,” then the reality of the death is not accepted. here, the “death” that la caze speaks of represents a few possibilities: cole’s father’s absence in his life and/or the deaths of the ghosts that haunt him, and the trauma surrounding these hauntings. essentially, peace cannot come about until the pain and grief are acknowledged, but as we see from earlier in the movie, cole chooses to ignore pain and suffering (both his own and that of the ghosts), instead running into churches for protection because the ghosts are digital literature review 7 45 unable to torment him there. cole, however, eventually reveals his secret to malcolm and acknowledges the trauma his “sixth sense” caused him. opening up to malcolm allows cole to finally begin the healing process and help the ghosts and his mother heal as well. just as malcolm helps cole transition into adulthood in the lacanian reading, in la caze’s reading malcolm helps cole transition out of grief and into a space of healing. in that way, this reading still ends up reinforcing the idea that cole needs a fatherly figure to confide in. cole relies on malcolm to act as a guide so that he can then replicate that role and act as a guide for ghosts. this reading still adheres to lacanian ideas about cole attempting to be like the father (or in this case, his surrogate father malcolm), by trying to replicate his actions. ultimately, the sixth sense confirms gender roles and a heteronormative, patriarchal family structure; by adhering to these norms, the story insists, one can transition out of an uncanny, uncertain space and assume a traditional, stable role in society. ghosts in the haunting of hill house in the haunting of hill house, ghosts and familial trauma also haunt eleanor vance, but her uncertainty is not so easily resolved. eleanor comes to hill house as part of a study conducted by doctor montague, who specially chose eleanor because of her past experiences with the paranormal, though she seems to repress these memories. when she arrives at hill house, she flees the overbearing grasp of her older sister as well as her deceased mother who, though dead, “continues to haunt eleanor” (evans 5). eleanor seeks her unexperienced freedom, romance, and an agency over her own life. as lynne evans notes in “‘help eleanor come home’: monstrous maternity in shirley jackson’s the haunting of hill house,” “eleanor’s entrance into the realm of sexual maturity has been delayed by the eleven years she spent tending to her invalid mother” (2). similarly to cole, eleanor suffered delayed development due to an unbalanced family structure and therefore never properly developed, leaving her unwilling to fulfill the role of a heterosexual adult woman. like cole, eleanor suffers from a variation of the oedipal complex, due to her relationship with her overbearing mother. evans points out that when eleanor fantasizes a scenario of grandeur as she drives to hill house, she imagines herself as a princess “who discovers a magic garden in which a ‘queen waits, weeping, for the princess to return’” (4). here, eleanor desires a loving mother heartbroken over her missing daughter, rather than a prince coming to sweep her off of her feet. eleanor’s longing for a healthy, stable, loving family becomes apparent through this daydream. we can see how eleanor’s traumatic family situation has stunted her development—she cannot yet move into the digital literature review 8 46 realm of romance (heterosexual or not) because she is missing essential support and love from her own family. just like cole, eleanor is trapped between child and adult because of this “improper” development, not fully one or the other. eleanor has been unable to establish appropriate boundaries within her own family, especially with her mother, meaning that she feels uncertain of her family role as well as her role in larger society. we see how hill house manipulates those issues as we move further into the story. as tricia lootens notes in “‘whose hand was i holding?’ familial and sexual politics in shirley jackson’s the haunting of hill house,” the house is a “vicious travesty of a family home,” and a “nightmare embodiment of the nuclear family” (175). by mimicking the nuclear family structure, hill house cruelly and crudely preys on eleanor’s own familial trauma, making her more susceptible to the haunting and later drives her to madness at the end of the novel. because eleanor wants desperately to attain the family she never had, she is more susceptible to the house’s predations, and ultimately more willing to accept the haunting. it is important to note that lootens classifies hill house as a “brutal parody of a family home,” so none of the other houseguests actually constitute a healthy family dynamic for eleanor (175). we can contrast this to cole’s situation in the sixth sense where malcolm crowe genuinely wants to help cole and act as a guide and father figure for him. eleanor has no such support system in the house. richard pascal echoes this sentiment in his reading of the story in the article, “walking alone together: family monsters in the haunting of hill house,” noting that “the allure of the house, and also its horror, is bound up with the sense that it wishes to envelop [eleanor] in a maternal embrace so comprehensive that her newly won independence and all vestiges of her individuality will be subsumed utterly” (469). eleanor, like cole, is trapped in a sort of pre-pubescent state due to her lack of “proper” development and perhaps also her struggle with her own sexuality. it is important to note, however, that eleanor is actually older than cole. cole is still a child when he is led through his transition into adulthood, whereas eleanor, despite her sometimes child-like behavior, is an adult. she struggles to transition into her place in adulthood because she has somehow missed an essential threshold and is now too far out of the window of development to make this essential transition. we see this struggle in the scene where theodora paints eleanor’s nails red. eleanor at first seems to enjoy the interaction, almost falling asleep, but when theodora points out her feet are “dirty,” eleanor flies into a panic, exclaiming, “‘it’s horrible,’” and “‘it’s wicked’” (jackson 85). painted nails point to a mature woman, and the red color specifically calls to mind passion and sensuality. eleanor’s horror is brought on by seeing herself as a mature, sexual woman when she feels so underdeveloped in this area. she cannot fully occupy this role, as digital literature review 9 47 she has not moved through the essential earlier stages of development, leaving her trapped in an uncertain, uncanny space, just like cole. as a physically mature woman, eleanor feels as though she should fit a certain role, perhaps being more like theo, the single, beautiful houseguest who wears trousers that scandalize eleanor. as an adult woman, eleanor feels as though she has no place in a family, in a home, or in society as she struggles to fit any of the roles deemed appropriate by society. when she tries to convince theo to live with her after they leave the house, theo brushes her off. eleanor is trapped in an uncertain space between childhood and adulthood, unsure of her place in the world—a space occupied by the uncanny. it thus makes sense that the house’s “maternal embrace,” which she sees as a promise of certainty and family, draws eleanor to it. it also makes sense for eleanor to embrace the haunting to the point of becoming part of it. lootens writes, “…ultimately, in a sort of reverse birthing, eleanor is absorbed into hill house” (158). when eleanor chooses to become a part of the haunting at the end of the book, she begins to occupy the same uncertain, transitional space that the ghosts in the sixth sense occupy. when she enters the library, she experiences it as being “deliciously warm,” like the womb, despite it often smelling like decay and rotting to her before (jackson 171). the center of the house has both qualities of life and death, and eleanor occupies this uncertain, uncanny space as she enacts the haunting in the library, climbing the rickety staircase. eleanor feels as though her place in the family structure and society is uncertain, and she physically enacts this by becoming a part of the house’s haunting—becoming a part of the thing that terrified her. she is no longer scared, repeating over and over “i am home,” even as she endangers her life climbing the staircase (171). this is the only place eleanor feels at home because it is such an uncertain contradictory space—it embodies the uncertainty that she feels in her own life. at the same time, the library’s maternal environment assuages her fears of never having a family or the trauma of never having a “proper” mother. this is why she chose to climb the rickety stairs in the library—to return to the womb by ending her own life. though the library represents both life and death, eleanor finds this uncertain space comforting; she feels like it is the only place she can properly exist. the library also provides the essential maternal “love” that she never received from her own family. she does not actually go through with this self-destructive impulse, of course, as she is interrupted by luke and the other house guests and coaxed down from her own peril. after this near disaster, dr. montague reveals to eleanor that they are planning on sending her away from the house to live with her sister. whereas in the sixth sense, malcolm’s character only leaves the narrative when cole successfully transitions into the world and develops properly, digital literature review 10 48 eleanor is being sent away still damaged, back out into a world where she feels she does not fit. dr. montague is not a loving father looking out for a child. rather, he tries forcing eleanor back into society, into a role she is unwilling or unable to occupy. she is being sent away from the only place she ever felt home in, causing her to feel devastated, despite the fact that living in the house often makes her miserable and terrified. the house plays to eleanor’s weaknesses and trauma so well that she therefore feels she only exists in this space of transition and uncertainty because she is metaphorically stuck in that same space herself in society. this drives eleanor to crash her car into the tree rather than leave hill house, pointing to the fact that she believes she cannot exist anywhere else besides hill house. she makes the final statement she tried to make in the library—a return to the womb, a sign that she cannot exist in society as an adult or at all. we can contrast this tragic ending to that of cole’s, where he makes peace with his gift, malcolm, and mother. with eleanor’s tragic demise, jackson insinuates that eleanor is unable to reenter society because she does not adhere to the ideas of the heterosexual, nuclear family prescribed by society. she did not have the advantage of having a loving mother as cole did, nor did she have a father figure, like cole eventually has with malcolm. by giving eleanor this ending, jackson comments on the fact that society rejects people who do not follow the “proper form” of development, a criticism of societal expectations rather than eleanor’s inability to fill certain roles and experience “proper” development. jackson shows how these societal pressures eat away at eleanor because she knows that she either cannot fulfill them or does not want to fulfill them, ultimately forcing her to remain in the uncertain, transitional space of hill house because she feels society has no concrete space for her. eleanor regresses back into the womb where she does not have to play a role which she feels doesn’t fit, embracing ambiguity by becoming the haunting, blurring the line between living and dead, just as she occupies an ambiguous space in society. it’s equally important to note that this ambiguity is rejected in the sixth sense—cole helps ghosts come to terms with their death and resolves their trauma that forces them to remain in this transitional space. i argue that cole abjects the ghosts as he ushers them into the afterlife by bringing them close only to then send them back to where they “belong.” this mirrors the story’s adherence to structure ideas of gender roles and the family structure, as it shies away from spaces of ambiguity and uncertainty. it seems that the narrative of the sixth sense demands a certain answer: that ghosts are dead and should stay that way, that families are nuclear and need to remain that way, and that only traditional gender roles and a traditional family structure can bring us peace. digital literature review 11 49 conclusion the protagonists of both the haunting of hill house and the sixth sense grapple with family trauma, which leaves them developmentally stunted and feeling lost, unsure, and unable to occupy a defined place in society. both characters are unable to let go of the past, with cole keeping his father’s watch and glasses and eleanor feeling as though the house brings up memories of her mother to haunt her. additionally, both protagonists defy genre norms to accept the ghosts that plague them. with the help of malcolm and “proper” development, cole becomes a shepherd/guide to listen to the ghosts and bring them out of a transitional state. alternatively, eleanor embraces the ambiguity of the hunting by becoming a part of it, effectively blurring the line between living and dead. these outcomes speak to larger societal issues that structured gender norms and the effects of those norms are a haunting that plagues our culture. cole occupies a defined space in society because he adheres to traditional gender norms and ideas about family. eleanor, however, occupies a liminal space of uncertainty when she becomes the haunting because she does not adhere to these same norms and therefore feels as though she does not have a place in society— she must retreat into the house because she feels she has nowhere else to go. she ultimately commits suicide because she feels as though she cannot return to society since she is either unwilling or unable to fill the role it has created for her. jackson’s story, therefore, is a more radical critique of how limiting ideas about “proper” gender roles, development, and family can be. the sixth sense is much more conservative in the fact that it shows the protagonist prospering because those rules were adhered to and led to “proper” development. what do these stories tell us, then, about gender roles, the development process, and the restrictions of society? the sixth sense prescribes certain roles to its viewers, encouraging them to constrain themselves to traditional ideas of gender, family, and development in order to be successful in society. while the movie does eventually humanize its ghosts, it still portrays cole doing the “good work” of sending ghosts into the afterlife to find peace, reinforcing the idea that uncertainty, ambiguity, and the uncanny are ultimately things to abject (and reject). this message may drive people who do not fit these roles to make choices that ultimately do not make them happy, simply because they feel they must fit a certain mold. the haunting of hill house, on the other hand, does much more complex and interesting work, as it portrays the challenges (and, perhaps, consequences) of not occupying a defined, traditional space in society. eleanor’s descent into madness and eventual suicide is a warning for us not to conform, but rather to challenge the ideas about gender and family that, especially in 1959, digital literature review 12 50 seem so set in stone. jackson is calling us to think critically about what the family, gender roles, and relationships “should” be; why conform to roles and ideas that are not authentic to our lives? the lesson here is not that there is a right way and a wrong way to exist—dead or alive, single or married, mother or barren—but rather that we should explore those spaces of uncertainty further, and dive into what makes us uncomfortable. perhaps embracing our ghosts means embracing the uncertain, no longer limiting ourselves to what we have been told is right. maybe then, we can find peace. digital literature review 13 51 works cited carroll, noël. “the nature of horror.” the journal of aesthetics and art criticism, vol. 46, no. 1, 1987, pp. 51–59. evans, lynne. “‘help eleanor come home’: monstrous maternity in shirley jackson’s the haunting of hill house.” canadian review of american studies, project muse muse.jhu.edu/article/724556. freud, sigmund. “the uncanny,” the standard edition of the complete psychological works of sigmund freud. translated by james strachey, the hogarth press, 1925. houtman, coral. “questions of unreliable narration in the sixth sense.” scope: an online journal of film studies, nov. 2004. ebscohost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=mzh&an=2005443451&site=ehost-live&scope=site. jackson, shirley. the haunting of hill house. penguin books, 1959. kristeva, julia. the powers of horror: an essay on abjection. translated by leon s. roudiez, colombia university press, 1982. la caze, marguerite. “the mourning of loss in the sixth sense.” post script, vol. 21, iss. 3, 2002, pp. 111+. gale in context: biography, https://link-gale-com.proxy.bsu.edu/apps/doc/a95501722/ bic?u=munc80314&sid=bic&xid=a1391b20. lootens, tricia. “‘whose hand was i holding?’ familial and sexual politics in shirley jackson’s the haunting of hill house.” haunting the house of fiction: feminist perspectives on ghost stories by american women, edited by lynette carpenter and wendy k. kolmar, university of tennessee press, 1991, pp. 167-91. pascal, richard. “walking alone together: family monsters in the haunting of hill house.” studies in the novel, vol. 46, no. 4, 2014, pp. 464-85. the sixth sense. m. night shyamalan, hollywood pictures, 1999. “the sixth sense (1999) – official trailer.” youtube, uploaded by thecultbox. 24 apr. 2011, https:// youtu.be/lxo0he1wjyw. spam fried rice ian roesler spam white rice sesame oil or vegetable oil soy sauce oyster sauce sambal oelek or chili garlic sauce (green lid with a rooster on the bottle is optional) snow peas 1. put a skillet on medium-high heat. whilst it warms up begin removing the spam from its can and cut into bitesize cubes. when skillet is ready add enough sesame oil to cover bottom of pan then add spam. add soy and oyster sauces then cook until spam is crispy. when done, remove spam to a plate. 2. cook snow peas in a similar manner with oil and sauces. however, any vegetable can be used. cook until done. i cook the snow peas to where they still retain their crunch. remove snow peas to a plate after done. 3. take cooked white rice and add it in chunks. turn up the heat to hot. cook with oil and sauces. constantly move rice around until done. it turns brown. if one desires, they may add their chili sauce now. when rice is done add back spam and snow peas. stir. eat. i like spam. i like fried rice. so why not combine them? this recipe is a variation of a recipe that i got from a deck of playing cards with spam recipes on them. i just eyeball the sauces. and i prepare twoand-a-half cups of dried basmati rice beforehand. recipe roesler | 70 allen warren super or extra firm tofu carrots (baby carrots may be easier to peel) bok choy leaves hoisin sauce soy sauce black pepper eggs water 3-oz. ramen packets 1/2 lb. 1/2 c. 3-5 (1/3 c.) 2 tbsp. 1 tbsp. 1/4 tsp. 2 4 c. 2 1. dry tofu until no longer sopping. cut into ¼to ½-in. cubes. coat a deep pan or pot with butter or cooking spray and begin cooking the tofu over low-medium heat, stirring occasionally. 2. peel the carrots and add them to the pot. 3. rip the bok choy leaves into ¼-in. pieces and add them to the pot. mix the vegetables in with the tofu while adding the hoisin and soy sauces as well as the pepper. 4. once the tofu is firm or appears golden-brown, add the eggs and fry them. continue mixing. 5. add the water slowly, then insert the ramen. make sure the water covers the ramen. cook everything together until ramen is tender and water boils. 6. remove from heat and serve while hot. add hoisin or soy sauce to taste. keeps three to five days when refrigerated. a friend of mine served a variation of this dish to me earlier this year. we adapted it to be meat-free and both agreed it added a lot to the ubiquitous student staple of ramen. try this affordable recipe to add some heartiness to your midnight meal and make you run for your maruchan! two hoosiers’ ramen photo by deniz on unsplash recipe warren | 60 description: two chopsticks in a full bowl of ramen and vegetables. dummy’s guide to stir-fry jules steele 1. some type of noodles. preferaby lo mein, or udon. you can also use pad thai noodles. a. don’t do what i did. spaghetti noodles are not a good replacement. 2. some kind of protein. chicken, tofu, pork, eggs, beef [don’t use ground beef unless your goal is failure] are all good options. 3. oil with a high smoke point. peanut, vegetable, soybean, canola, etc. 4. lots of veggies. mushrooms, carrots, broccoli, brussel sprouts, green beans, baby corn cobs, onions, garlic – honestly the beauty of stir fry is that you can pretty much include or exclude whatever you want. a. (if you’re gonna use peppers, start frying them first even before your meat because they’re gonna take three times longer than you’d reasonably expect, it’s honestly ridiculous.) 5. some kind of sauce. soy sauce is a good starter. so is teriyaki. go wild. 6. lots of salt if you’re okay with being as unhealthy as i am. steele | 50 recipe 1. start boiling a pot of water for your noodles. while you’re waiting, wash and chop your chosen vegetables and meat. size is up to you, but keep in mind that smaller pieces will cook faster. ideally, you’ll want a wok. i do not own one, so i just use my biggest frying pan and suffer. while your water is heating up, sprinkle in a small amount of oil to your wok and start adding the ingredients that will take the longest to cook. (peppers and meat, usually.) 2. as you go, continue adding vegetables. keep your wok at a lower temperature until you add your noodles to the boiling water, then raise the temperature of your stir fry to medium. 3. add your preferred amount of salt to the stir fry as you go. you can also add other spices such as black pepper, garlic, or whatever you have that you feel good about. adobe stock by andy description: flying wok with chicken, noodles, and spices. concept of food preparation in low gravity mode, food levitation. separated on black background. i typically stick to salt and pepper. when the noodles are done, drain the water and then add them to the wok and stir them in with the vegetables, lowering the temperature back down to low. 4. add your sauce. it’s up to you how much you add. keep in mind that you may not be able to taste much if you aren’t liberal with it. keep stirring it around until it’s all mixed together well. this is where your life becomes much harder if you choose a frying pan. 5. serve and enjoy! recipe 51| steele digital literature review 1 137 erin goff, ball state university death in the digital world the ghosts of lost loved ones have always haunted us, but the undefined role of the dead, the dying, and the grieving in the digital world is an ever-growing cultural haunting. this paper explores how memories of the dead are shifted and changed in the deceased’s lingering digital presence, how grief is altered by the digital world, and the uncertainties that arise with no etiquette book to guide us through death in the digital world. as this new phenomenon encroaches on our lives, where does technological innovation used to remember the dead meet an attempt to resurrect them? death and grief are everlasting parts of life, bringing their own types of haunting within different cultures and experiences. as they naturally invade our ever-growing digital lives, however, these processes morph and change. “anthropological research has long established that the dead in many cultural contexts have social lives,” which has now emerged into a perhaps more puzzling idea that the dead have social media accounts (mitchell et al. 413). considering the social media accounts of the deceased, virtual memorials, and the expanding real and imagined technologies to continue life after death can enhance our interaction with these ghosts of death and grief in our increasingly digital society. this phenomenon that occurs at the intersection between death and the digital world has created a cultural haunting due to our lack of norms regarding it and the undefined lines in what is considered acceptable within the dead, the grieving, and the digital. the dead have social media accounts the deceased of today’s world leave ghostly traces of themselves in our minds, in photo albums, and in personal belongings, as they always have. as those who die leave behind their facebook, twitter, and instagram accounts, however, they are ever-present in the pulse of the internet. consider facebook with “over one billion users, and yet, more than 10,000 of them die every day” and they do not just delete themselves (hiscock). these accounts linger on facebook and the internet because these technologies do not have the ability to understand the difference between when a user has simply not logged in and when they have died. the magnitude of digital literature review 2 138 deceased people with facebook accounts continues to expand by the second: “in fact, 428 [users] die every hour, so they’re practically dropping like flies. and every day, these dormant accounts receive friend requests, get tagged in photos, and sometimes, they’re even wished a happy birthday” (hiscock). recognition that these accounts do not simply remain, but are interacted with, reveal their deeper reach into our culture from beyond the grave. the remaining posts and automated messages connected to a dormant account act as interaction on the part of the dead—a haunting from the ghost trapped in cyberspace. naturally, it cannot be expected that new posts will magically be made from the beyond, but the previous comments, likes, and pictures will eerily remain. the old friend from high school that passed away will pop up on your feed as someone who still follows a suggested page. the retired teacher who has been dead for months will still appear in comments and suggested friends. these traces seem as though they will always remain as this relatively new cultural haunting has yet to identify itself as either a friendly or malignant spirit. cyberanthropology expert michaelanne dye goes as far as to theorize a possible change in identities of the dead: “today, identities are co-constructed through social media interactions. therefore, the deceased’s online identity not only continues in the virtual space; it can also evolve and adapt as others continue to interact with the dead person’s profile” (qtd. in buck). the idea that a person’s online identity continues beyond death suggests that these ghosts are not limited to a person’s authentic character. when posts to these accounts become an inaccurate representation of the dead, it changes their online identity. morphing an openly sarcastic and honest individual into a saint of compassion after death is more than an interaction with an account—it is a rewriting of their digital mark. if these accounts remain, they are forever present and if they become untrue to the person that once owned them, their loved ones can be haunted by the ghost of what once was an active online connection. these remnants of a person’s digital presence, however, were once created by the living body, whether that is an accurate representation of our memory of them or not. we must consider the opposing remaining images of a loved one as their online presence, the entity created by digital memory, and the ever-present memory we create through our grief. in lieu of flowers: virtual memorials the dead are not only present online through traditional user accounts. virtual memorials transform the quiet and private gravestone visit to a public and endless forum for remembrance where the living feed into a digital haunted house. it is important to consider the scope of these digital literature review 3 139 online apparatuses: what is a virtual or on-line memorial? they are found on the internet in a number of forms: on social networking sites such as myspace and facebook, in slideshows of the deceased set to music and uploaded onto youtube, and on specialized memorial hosting websites created by charities, funeral homes, bereaved individuals, associations connected with specific illnesses, and notably in profit-based internet sites which provide web-space at a cost to the bereaved individual (mitchell et al. 415). the variety in virtual memorial options are differing in scope and intimacy. while some act as simply a method of remembering through images, others are designed for interaction between grievers. creating these digital spaces shifts traditional grieving to be considerably more public and practically boundless. posts to memorial websites have the potential to reach other people who are hurt by a death. this public aspect allows for connection and joint healing. this approach also allows for personal trauma to be shared with strangers and future generations. the virtual memorials are not limited to a period of time; the painful lamenting of someone in grief enters cyberspace forever, and those in grief are able to dwell in these spaces indefinitely. just as the dormant account, these resources push the dead into a never-ending preoccupation and changing online identity. virtual memorials often contain information both basic and intimate: obituaries, funeral information, pictures of the deceased, remaining pieces of their online presence, shared stories by internet users, and posts of expressed grief. the appropriateness of varying posts in these spaces have no societal norms and thus fall on each individual’s judgement. every citizen in our growing digital world should understand and consider the use of virtual memorials. are they a source of comfort or a new way for our grief to linger and the pain of memory to haunt us? not only are we trapped within our own pain but the moaning ghost of widespread grief and the phantom of cheerful memories slip into facebook feeds and linger in twitter timelines. our choice in how to grieve may be limited or even removed by the virtual hauntings inflicted through new phenomena such as these virtual memorials. pages that display both the pain and positive memory of the dead expand the impact of both their living presences and their absences. it can make the single pain of one person—whether they themselves decide to post their grief—feel as public and endless as the page for virtual memorial itself. virtual memorials, however, do provide options for handling memories of the dead online that better control the haunting of online grieving. facebook allows accounts of the dead to be turned into virtual memorials. these “memorialized profiles don’t appear in public spaces such digital literature review 4 140 as in suggestions for people you may know, ads or birthday reminders” (facebook). this removes some of the pain of active accounts such as receiving a birthday reminder for someone who no longer ages. the intent, and in some cases, the reality, is that memorialized profiles and virtual memorials confine the online presence of the dead and grieving to one location like a gravestone. people can join and post in these online places as they choose. they also provide the possibility of finding comfort in the posts of family and friends that knew the deceased. virtual memorials magnify the visitation of a gravesite. the abilities of these online tools can be used to amplify the positives or escalate the difficulties of online grieving, which leaves us to navigate them thoughtfully. one of the gravest dangers of this new digital element of death is that there is no etiquette book to guide us as we decipher for ourselves if the lingering online ghosts of our loved ones and public forums for grievers are a blessing or a curse. where is the line between using technology to better remember the dead and trying to resurrect them? moonwalking from the beyond: recreation of the famous dead the exceptionally talented and now well-known vincent van gogh, franz kafka, and emily dickinson only gained their fame after death. the way we remember famous individuals has always been focused on their talent and keeping that talent alive. technology allows us to recreate the art of deceased famous people, which has gone to an extent worthy of ethical reflection. we have kept celebrities alive through social media hashtags and online song purchasing, but a line was perhaps crossed when remembering michael jackson and tupac shakur. digital creations of these artists (often simply referred to as holograms) were designed to perform at the billboard music awards and coachella, respectively. technology allows us to see these artists perform from beyond the grave as phantoms of their past performances. we have engineered pixelated ghosts to continue a legacy or perhaps to further economic gain. the question we must ask is where we should draw the line. we have gone from expecting a right to continue the release of music, with or without the consent of the dead, to a digital violation of their very bodies. one instance has gone as far as hologram usa suing the late whitney houston’s estate after the estate backed out of a hologram performance agreement (toto). this lawsuit implies a sense of entitlement to the voice, music, and image of the dead. digital advances reduce the memory of famous people to a shallow copy of the person that disrespects the dead and disarms the living in the pursuit of turning out money-making holographic ghosts for public viewing. we must be aware of the liberties being taken with deceased celebrities through these cultural hauntings. we should question if technology is being used to abuse the dead as a contindigital literature review 5 141 ued source of money or respect the dead in an effort to enhance their memory. these technological advances will continue and could easily become a normal occurrence. digitally created stars such as peter crushing’s digitally resurrected appearances in rogue one: a star wars story may have us questioning if we could know the difference between a digital recreation and a real human being (toto). as these occurrences become more common and more vivid, we may begin to question the value of talent and life when it can merely be recreated. could celebrities never die in the eyes of users of film, television, and music? this possibility would leave the family members with only superficial digital remains of their loved ones. could we one day never need living actors when we could create actions and images with technology? we need to consider what it means to recreate the famous dead and how far we should be willing to go. the tech of frankenstein’s monster as our world is constantly technologically advancing, the shift in how we handle death may be too much to bear. the netflix series black mirror explores society and technology in alternative and future worlds. the episode titled “be right back” follows the life of a woman, martha, when she turns to a new software to cope with the death of her significant other, ash. the pain of learning she is pregnant combined with simple curiosity quickly causes martha to use software that analyzes ash’s online presence. this software replicates a dead person’s personality in text message conversations. a strong essence of who we are is left in our digital mark and this technology capitalizes on the lingering traces. today, or in the near future, computer programmers may very well be able to create text responses that sound like the language used in online profiles. with these types of technologies, there is a risk of companies abusing grief for profit. in the black mirror episode, martha is tempted by the “new ash” to provide video and audio footage of ash so that the software would have the ability to talk on the phone. her doing so could result in added charges or even a security risk. in her fragile state, martha, as many of us might, took this opportunity instantly, without consideration for cost or risk. though her spirits begin to rise, we are encouraged to ask if her fixation on recreating ash digitally is psychologically healthy. martha soon spends the vast majority of her time talking to the replication of a dead person—a ghost. she begins to ignore her living loved ones, even ignoring a phone call from her sister to speak to the digital doppelganger of her boyfriend. this type of technology could very well only delay the grieving process and create further controversy where remembering the dead meets disrespecting them. digital literature review 6 142 the aspect of this episode that truly tests the ethics of technology and the dead is when this “new ash” suggests the third level of this software. “ash” tells martha that there is a service that is still in the testing phases that she could try, but at a high cost. martha agrees to the incredibly expensive service to give her new computer-based ash a body. after a blank body is mailed to her home, martha follows the steps to sync the digitally created consciousness of ash to this new body that is also meant to look and sound like her lost love. it can seem easy to judge this character’s choices, to dismiss this action as simply too creepy, and to claim that “i could never do this.” the problem is that we all have known, or will someday know, the loneliness and pain from losing a loved one. it is important to protect people from technologies and companies that might take advantage of grieving people. companies have already set up paid websites to house virtual memories and sued estates of the famous to make money off of holograms. we must be aware of evolving innovations as they are more haunting than helpful, and judge if software like the creators of black mirror have imagined have a place in our world. for martha, this defiance of death was not the “re-do button” she had hoped it to be. slowly, but surely, her interactions with the reincarnate ash are inconsistent with the man himself. she notes that the body looks like ash “on a good day” due to our tendency to post mainly flattering pictures online. he is a man-made ghost of his digital remains. our digital identities are a part of who we are, but they are only a part. martha’s experience displays how our online selves do not know the moles beneath our shirts, the way we make love to our significant others, or the tone in which we have our lovers’ quarrels. simply, our online selves are not enough. when the character of martha finally has a breakdown, she says to this digital imposter of her lover, “you’re just a few ripples of you. there’s no history to you. you’re just a performance of stuff that he performed, without thinking, and it’s not enough” (“be right back”). since human beings feel, love, and hurt in human ways, it is natural to wish for our deceased loved ones back often at any cost. through this fictional story, however, we are warned of the repercussions of crossing the unclear lines within the overlapping of technology and grief. social media and the like are shifting the memory of the death and crafting dangerous patterns in grieving that have facilitated an uncertainty and lack of societal norms that feed into this new cultural haunting. we have no guidelines to navigate the ghosts on our social media feeds, let alone the possibilities of resurrecting the dead as technological advancement continues pushing towards boundaries that we have not yet made. it is both the uncertainty and the possibility that haunt us. finally, technologies and online interactions can make grieving easier, but to properly use these and future technologies we must remember that death is a universal inevitability digital literature review 7 143 we all share and those who are lost cannot be recreated in the digital mark they leave behind. otherwise, we risk being haunted by the ghosts we helped create. digital literature review 8 works cited “be right back.” black mirror, season 2, episode 1, 11 feb. 2013. netflix, https://www.netflix.com/watch/70279173?trackid=13752289&tctx=0%2c0%2c7f97a8b9-5bb8-4289-9d06-eeadbd41e139-46239795. bisceglio, paul. “how social media is changing the way we approach death.” the atlantic, 20 august 2013. buck, stephanie. “how 1 billion people are coping with death and facebook.” mashable, 13 feb. 2013, http://mashable.com/2013/02/13/facebook-after-death/#r48xeiafz8qy. accessed 29 nov. 2017. facebook. 2004, https://www.facebook.com/. accessed 1 dec. 2017. hiscock, michael. “dead facebook users will soon outnumber the living.” the loop, 26 jan. 2017, http://www.theloop.ca/dead-facebook-users-will-soon-outnumber-the-living/. accessed 29 nov. 2017. hiss, kimberly. “11 etiquette rules you need for dealing with death on social media.” reader’s digest, https://www.rd.com/advice/relationships/death-on-social-media/. accessed 28 nov. 2017. mitchell, lisa, et al. “death and grief on-line: virtual memorialization and changing concepts of childhood death and parental bereavement on the internet.” health sociology review. vol. 21, no. 4, 2012, pp. 413-43. accessed 27 nov. 2017. osakwe, michael. “your digital inheritance: what happens to your social media accounts when you die?”, next advisor, 12 jan. 2017, https://www.nextadvisor.com/blog/2017/01/12/digital-inheritance-social-media-when-you-die/. accessed nov. 28 2017. toto, christian. “michael jackson and the dead celebrity problem.” acculturated, 7 aug. 2017, https://acculturated.com/michael-jackson-and-the-dead-celebrity-problem/. accessed 1 dec. 2017. “what will happen to my facebook account if i pass away?.” facebook, https://www.facebook.com/help/103897939701143?helpref=faq_content. accessed 29 nov. 2017. wilmot, claire. “the space between mourning and grieving.” the atlantic, 8 jun. 2016, https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/06/internet-grief/485864/. accessed 1 dec. 2017. abstract 84 there is a sense in which the zombie-apocalypse genre feels well trodden. scenes of crumbling cities, makeshift weapons, tenacious survivors, and hoards of rotting undead have journeyed deep into the cultural consciousness of the western world; and, similar to the myths of ancient greece, zombie narratives—and indeed apocalypse narratives in a broader sense—are often a conservative holdout in a relatively more progressive culture, particularly in relation to issues of gender. the patterns are old, beginning with some of the earliest apocalyptic texts in the western world. mary wilson carpenter, in her studies on the book of revelation, even asks whether or not a feminist apocalypse is a “textual/sexual impossibility given not only the existence but the canonized status” of revelation and its patriarchal gender dynamics (111). however, a new trend has risen in the zombie genre, one in which undead literature has begun to investigate its more conservative habits. one such investigative book is m.r. carey’s 2014 novel, the girl with all the gifts. set in a post-apocalyptic world of military bases, wild anarchists, and a zombifying fungal infection, the girl with all the gifts has all the trappings of any other run-of-the-mill zombie-apocalypse novel. however, carey’s novel, as one cover declares, is “the most original thriller you will read all year,” firmly setting itself apart from other zombie-apocalypse novels; this separation is partly by virtue of its main character: not the stereotypical action hero, but rather a sweet little girl named melanie who loves reading greek myths, spending time with her teacher miss justineau, and eating human flesh. melanie is a zombie, a “hungry,” though she doesn’t know it at first, and after on fungi, future, and feminism: an ecofeminist analysis of m.r. carey’s the girl with all the gifts this paper examines m.r. carey’s fascinating zombie novel, the girl with all the gifts. while scholars question whether or not a female-oriented apocalypse narrative can exist, as the genre is essentially rooted in imbalanced gender dynamics of ancient texts, this paper uses an ecofeminist critique to posit that the zombie apocalypse represented by carey is a challenge toward the patriarchal values running rampant in the genre. this ecofeminist critique, while superficially offering a comforting message about female empowerment, actually offers a serious warning in regards to the insidious patriarchal structures that facilitate apocalypses. by leah heim, ball state university 85 heim the military base she lives on is attacked, she must travel with her beloved teacher miss justineau to safety, avoiding the lethal curiosity of the scientist dr. caldwell, struggling to control her cravings for flesh, and learning what it means to be a cognizant, human-like hungry in a world of animosity and distrust. while one must recognize that the zombie genre has challenged these conservative values before (george romero’s hallmark 1968 movie night of the living dead depends upon strong metaphors of racial unease and othering), carey’s novel creates an entire world in which conservative—specifically, patriarchal—values are constantly called into question. while this novel’s subjects of post-apocalypse, zombie infection, and environmental disaster might at first seem hopelessly disparate in an analytical sense, my investigation reveals a common ground in which these large ideas can take root—ecofeminism. carey’s novel, in a way, is an attempt to craft a zombie narrative that breaks away from the conservative, patriarchal values running rampant in the genre, and it does this by way of a strong ecofeminist critique, ecofeminism here being the idea that the oppression of women and the oppression of nature are connected within patriarchal systems. while the outlook of the ecofeminist critique may not always be optimistic, it effectively serves as a refutation of and a warning against the patriarchal structures that brought the novel’s world to the apocalypse. progressive, conservative, zombie: the undead body politick to label m.r. carey’s book as an ecofeminist novel is a decision that may find little intellectual sympathy in the present cultural moment, for indeed the term “ecofeminist” itself has fallen out of grace in the eye of third-wave feminism. while the juncture of feminism and environmental studies certainly still continues into the postmodern age, ecofeminism by name has become the subject of much derision. as researcher and activist greta gaard claims, “after the charges of gender essentialism—accurately leveled at cultural feminism, a branch of thought in both feminist and ecofeminist theory—most feminists working on the intersections of feminism and the environment thought it better to rename their approach to distinguish it from essentialist feminists and thereby gain a wider audience” (27). it is this “gender essentialism” that vilifies ecofeminism with third-wave, postmodern feminism, as ecofeminism’s history of ascribing a universal truth to the female sex—specifically, the idea that women inherently share a closer bond with nature than men—grates heavily against postmodernity’s insistence upon subjective truth—specifically, 86 heim in feminism’s case, the idea that each human being of any sex or gender is an individual with his/her/their own truth, a truth which cannot be covered under umbrella statements like “women inherently do this” or “men inherently do that.” gaard recognizes this contention, and she condemns ecofeminism’s former gender essentialism, saying that it “[discredits] ecofeminism’s diversity of arguments and standpoints”(31) and “[marginalizes] feminism’s relevance” (32). however, she also casts doubt upon thought that would condemn ecofeminism to obsolescence, saying that certain types of backlash to ecofeminism is “antifeminist” (41). essentially, gaard calls for a revitalization of ecofeminist thought, minus the gender essentialism, because “an intersectional ecological-feminist approach frames” contemporary issues of resource disparity, healthcare access, and many other forms of worldwide inequality “in such a way that people can recognize common cause across boundaries of race, class, gender, sexuality, species, age, ability, nation—and affords a basis for engaged theory, education, and activism” (44). while such a discussion about ecofeminism might appear to be a digression from inquiries into the girl with all the gifts, it is through an ecofeminist approach that the book breaks away from the zombie genre’s conservatism; therefore, to defend such a theory is to defend the validity of the novel’s feminist approach to apocalypse. this paper does not operate under the gender essentialist assumption that all women share a connection to nature that is closer than that between nature and men, an assumption that gaard firmly disapproves. rather, this paper operates under the gaard-approved and third-wave feminist-friendly assertion that, in patriarchies, the oppression of women and the oppression of nature share a common cause—the patriarchal habit of domination. this paper will call such a mentality ecofeminism. here, another aside must be made: while the zombie genre has conservative traditions, it would be a mistake to label it as a mouthpiece for any one ideology or political position. while conservative traditions are strong and most obvious, counter-currents do indeed run beneath the surface, as counter-cultures thrive beneath their oppressive mainstreams. this should not be surprising. according to jeffery jerome cohen, a prominent scholar of monster theory, “the monstrous body is pure culture,” existing “as an embodiment of a certain cultural moment—of a time, a feeling, and a place” (4). the monster of the zombie is no different, except perhaps for the fact that the monstrous body of the zombie isn’t only pure culture; it is an immensely broad reflection of pure culture. stephanie boluk and wylie lenz, in their introduction to generation zombie, claim that the zombie is 87 heim “a privileged object of cultural studies,” one with a “far more flexible metaphoricity” than other monsters of the western world (12). throughout its literary career, the zombie has been everything: a haitian slave created by a witch doctor, a lurching night walker in capitalist america, a disease-stricken cannibal with super strength and speed, etc. the zombie exists in “low culture” forms like comics and in “high culture” forms like the jane austen-inspired pride and prejudice and zombies (2009). the horrifying mob sameness of the zombie hoard in night of the living dead can be a critique on communism or on capitalism, depending on the reading. in this vein, boluk and lenz affirm such a thematic universality by saying that zombies are used as “vehicles for expressing anxieties surrounding class, race, gender, and sexuality;” in other words, zombies have the honor of being locales of terror for just about everything (12). the conservative nature of zombie literature becomes most apparent when the genre borrows conventions from its cousin and literary partner-in-crime—the well-loved tradition of post-apocalyptic narratives. the appearance of the zombie regularly, if not implicitly, occurs in tandem with themes of societal collapse and of civilization’s end, and civilization’s end is seldom associated with the type of world that upholds progressive ideals. specifically, societal collapse often marks a return to patriarchal paradigms that social structures have presumably tamed heretofore. violence and power are once again the measure of worth. most importantly in the conversation about ecofeminism, “the problematic position of sex, and particularly of women’s sexuality, is an enduring feature of apocalyptic discourse” (berger 11). james berger, in his book after the end, even goes so far as to say that “there is an important strand of apocalyptic imagining that seeks to destroy the world expressly in order to eliminate female sexuality” (11). in this sense, berger’s statements are reminiscent of carpenter’s: both acknowledge the misogyny present in apocalyptic culture. it is this misogyny that the girl with all the gifts must face while establishing itself as an ecofeminist piece. so why is it that zombie culture and post-apocalyptic narratives find so much common ground thematically? the easiest answer is that patterns found in the threat of an imagined, fictional zombie outbreak closely mirror patterns that would appear during a serious apocalyptic scenario. zombies wreak havoc on the power of governmental systems, causing societal breakdown; zombies create unstable food lines; zombies drive rooted human beings out of their comfortable homes and into urban and natural wildernesses. how different are these zombie-related hazards from the dangers posed by real apocalyptic situations like civil war, foreign invasion, climate change, or epidemic? 88 heim the last threat of this list is perhaps the apocalyptic scenario most closely related to the narrative of zombie outbreak. while boluk and lenz profess that “the zombie threat did not always rely on anxiety generated by viral outbreak,” much of the undead literature in the past century has indeed reflected that anxiety (3). this fear becomes most blatant in more modern iterations of the zombie. as boluk and lenz say, “while lumbering, romero-style zombies effectively tapped into mid-twentieth-century contagion paranoia, the apocalyptic terror of the living dead was replaced in films such as 28 days later (2002) and resident evil (2002) with a more explicitly biological model of viral infection” (6). in other words, zombies that were once mere metaphors for plague became plague themselves, and with this evolution of zombie as supernatural to zombie as natural, the zombie-apocalypse narrative became readily positioned to question its more conservative values. the genre itself was primed for an ideological transformation—or, more thematically appropriate, an ideological mutation. the girl with all the gifts, with its heavy ecofeminist subtexts, stands inevitably as the culmination of these shifts and the offspring of this mutation. biopunk: the ecofeminist connection how does a zombie plague begin? how does any apocalyptic plague begin? with human technology so advanced as to stifle the apocalyptic glory of our species’ old microbiological boogeymen, there seems to be only a few options left for the diligent authors of zombie and plague literatures: one, have the plague be an ancient or unfamiliar disease (risen perhaps from the melting permafrost in siberia) to which our modern human bodies have absolutely no resistance; or two, have the plague be a vicious mutation of one of humanity’s familiar, formerly contained diseases. it is with this second plague option that the ecofeminist tendencies of zombie literature become most apparent. it should come as no surprise that humanity has long used natural frameworks to inflict harm upon itself, and plague is a well-loved weapon of this tradition: invading europeans gave smallpox blankets to indigenous peoples in order to weaken their societies, and medieval history shows examples of invading armies hurling severed heads over castle walls in order to inflict disease upon the besieged people. in modern times, however, the ability of humanity to manipulate the natural framework of disease has reached shocking and terrifying levels. with the advent of biotechnology, humanity now has the power to create its final, ultimate microbiological boogeyman: a plague strong and vicious enough to wipe out all human life on the earth. why humanity would do this to itself is a matter for philosophy, but it is an incontestable fact that such 89 heim apocalyptic power has been created and employed before, as evidenced by the united states’ use of the atom bomb on hiroshima and nagasaki. just as atomic technology became a twentieth-century bogey, so has biotechnology become a twenty-first-century bogey. it just has yet to be used—publicly, at least. zombie literature of recent years expertly taps into this anxiety toward biotechnology. in the chapter “9/11 and the wasted lives of posthuman zombies” in his book biopunk dystopias, lars schmeink claims that whereas most zombies of the twentieth century were what kevin boon has termed either “zombie drones” (the haitian zombie) or “zombie ghouls” (romero’s creation), many new millennial zombies such as those discussed here fall into the category of the ‘bio zombie’ . . . who turn into zombies through some biological agent (virus, bacteria, disease, chemical) and are thus a variant of biopunk’s representation of genetics as potentially reality-changing scientific progress. (207) biopunk, in the sense that shmeink uses the term, is a particular type of science fiction that imagines the world reworked under the premise of advances in biotechnology (just as biopunk’s cousin, steampunk, reimagines the world reworked under the premise of advances in victorian-era steam technology). in the above excerpt, he clearly tracks the progression of the zombie from its more supernatural origins to its modern, scientifically based iteration. his chapter additionally discusses the films resident evil and 28 days later, both of which have a genetically-engineered virus as the cause of zombiism; the fungal infection in the girl with all the gifts is also implicitly stated as having been genetically engineered. by labeling the modern zombie as biopunk, schmeink acknowledges the zombie genre as a vessel for expressing anxieties about modern biotechnology; in essence, the zombie genre has become a troubled rumination on what happens when humanity manipulates nature and produces far-reaching, unintended consequences. and, according to the ecofeminst premise described previously, where there is the manipulation of nature, there is the manipulation of women. because of the modern zombie genre’s decision to make zombiism the result of genetically-engineered plagues, it has opened itself to the full range of ecofeminist criticism. under this context, it is easy to read ecofeminism into any zombie literature that uses genetically engineered plagues to explain the appearance of the zombie itself. such a reading, however, doesn’t necessarily make any particular novel an ecofeminst text. what, then, sets the girl with all the gifts apart from other works within the genre? essentially, it is not merely its conductivity for ecofeminist criticism that makes it an ecofeminist piece; 90 heim rather, it is the text’s use of these ecofeminist themes that sets the book up for such a conversation. let’s destroy the world, or happy ecofeminism post-apocalyptic literature, including that of zombie apocalypse, has a longstanding custom of being demonstratively punitive; that is, writers of the genre often make examples of their imagined humanity by depicting the terror and sorrow that could be unleashed if a particular immoral societal bugaboo is allowed to snowball. “the study of the post apocalypse,” berger says, “is a study of what disappears and what remains, and of how the remainder has been transformed” (7). authors can make large statements about morality by choosing who or what survives the apocalypse. for example, in the book of revelation, what disappears is all that christianity deems evil, and what remains are the beloved people of god; and this remainder has been transformed into perfect humanity, united forever in bliss with the creator. while the book of revelation gathers a wide variation of opinions to itself, in one line of thinking, god destroys the world because humanity has become too evil to permit its further propagation; by this refinement through holy wrath, the text clearly shows what it perceives as evil and what it perceives as good. so too can the girl with all the gifts be read as such a moral winnowing. for the beginning portion of the book, the action happens at a military base called hotel echo, where scientists are conducting experiments on highly-functioning child zombies—zombies here being called “hungries”—in order to find a cure that will save the human population. melanie is one of these child hungries, living out her life in a predictable pattern of nights spent alone in her cell, her weekly feedings, and her daily classes, one of which is taught by her favorite teacher, who she loves with near-adoration—miss justineau. one eventful day, dr. caldwell, the lead scientist at the base, takes melanie into her laboratory and intends to dissect her; while miss justineau is making an attempt to rescue melanie from dr. caldwell, a group of anarchists called “junkers” attacks the military base, using hungries as a siege weapon. melanie, miss justineau, dr. caldwell, experienced soldier sergeant parks, and young soldier private gallagher all survive the attack and start toward beacon, a large military base where they hope to find safety. but to find safety, they must cross a wasteland of junkers and hungries. under this plot framework, carey begins to insert criticism on the militarized world that humanity has created for itself, a world that, while nominally necessary for survival, has not functioned in the wisest or the most humane ways. at first, 91 heim the critiques come very subtly. for example, while journeying through the wasteland, sergeant parks contemplates some of the ways in which authorities tried to contain the zombie during the early days of societal collapse: in the first days and weeks after the breakdown, the uk government, like a whole lot of others, thought they could contain the infection by locking down the civilian population. not surprisingly, this didn’t stop people running like rats when they saw what was happening. thousands, maybe millions, tried to get out of london along the north-south arteries, the a1 and the m1. the authorities responded ruthlessly, first with military roadblocks and then with targeted airstrikes. (carey 167) while this is a fairly bleak recollection, sergeant parks’ reflections don’t offer much judgment; these, for him, seem to be sad but necessary measures the government took in an effort to contain the worst of the zombie plague. not every character possesses the same mentality toward these actions, however; later in the novel, miss justineau, who has spent much of the novel defending melanie’s personhood to the rest of the survival party, unashamedly offers her opinions on the government’s past actions: they’re moving now through a burn shadow, another artifact of the breakdown. before the government fell apart entirely, it passed a whole series of badly thought-out emergency orders, one of which involved chemical incendiaries sprayed from helicopter gunships to created cauterised [sic] zones that were guaranteed free from hungries. uninfected civilians were warned in advance by sirens and looped messages, but a lot of them died anyway, because they weren’t free to move when the choppers flew in. the hungries, though, they ran ahead of the flame-throwers like roaches when the light goes on . . . it’s more than twenty years on, and still nothing grows here, not even the hardiest and most bad-ass of weeds. nature’s way of saying she’s not stupid enough to be caught like that twice over . . . parks hears [melanie] asking justineau what happened here. justineau makes heavy weather of the question, even though it’s an easy one. we couldn’t kill the hungries, so we killed ourselves. that was always our favourite [sic] party trick. (carey 239-240) this passage, while long, offers much insight into how ecofeminist themes are being handled in carey’s novel. for one, miss justineau is completely disapproving of the violence that the military used in the early days of societal collapse; to her, it seems to be an extension of the suspicious, hateful tendencies that characterized human relationships on the societal level before the breakdown. this militarized world is something she completely damns. interestingly enough, it is not only the human that this militarized world has 92 heim destroyed in this passage: the violence has also destroyed wide swaths of nature, so that even weeds are no longer able to grow in these sites of destruction. while nature and humanity are often seen as separate entities, this passage delineates clear connections between the abolition of one and the abolition of the other. further ecofeminist themes are developed when carey chooses to gender nature as female. the feminization of nature is something that ecofeminists have long found problematic, as cynthia belmont details in her article, “ecofeminism and the natural disaster heroine”: “disaster films often envision nature as female, as a mother—in this case, not a loving one who deserves our love in return, but rather an alienated adversary in a battle of good and evil” (358). as such, disaster narratives in which nature is considered female can be interpreted as metaphors in which the female is hated, feared, and ultimately mastered. the most shockingly misogynistic disaster-narrative metaphor that belmont describes is that of the destruction of the earth-threatening asteroid (which is at one point gendered as female) in armageddon (1998): the asteroid is drilled and implanted with a phallic nuclear warhead (which is at one point mounted by a crew member who spent his last night on earth in a strip joint and who says, upon being disciplined, “i just wanted to feel the power between my legs”), and the drilling scenes are characterized by passionate resistance on the part of the asteroid. in one scene, the men are struggling to bore into a composite of iron and a recalcitrant mystery-metal never seen on earth; the asteroid protests by roaring angrily, howling like an animal in pain, shooting hot gas at them through vents as they plunge nearer the core, and showering them with flying debris once they reach it. the drillers’ victory is sweetened by the asteroid’s putting up a good fight. (360) this scene—while easily characterized as noble on a literal level—is, when taken in the context of the asteroid as feminine, an alarming metaphor of rape. and what’s more, “nature is a ‘bitch’ because she is angry at us for attempting to master her” (belmont 359). the girl with all the gifts, while it seems to originally play into these misogynistic trends offered by the traditional natural-disaster narrative (for the zombie-plague narrative is essentially a natural-disaster narrative), turns the trope on its head. the militarized world, which rests upon that patriarchal habit of domination, and the zombie plague, which comes under the jurisdiction of feminized nature, are at war, and the female is winning. not only is feminized nature slowly destroying the military complex; it is also pointing out the fundamental flaws of this patriarchal system by showing how quickly it turns to massacring 93 heim the innocent as soon as pressure is applied. in this vein, the end of the girl with all the gifts is the most telling development in this particular ecofeminist reading. upon having found a group of intelligent hungries like herself and having learned that these intelligent hungries were second generation, produced by the mating of first generation hungries, melanie convinces sergeant parks to set the seedpods of the zombie fungus ablaze. the seedpods, which can only release their spores under the heat of flame, erupt, and humanity, in the sense of homo sapiens sapiens, ends. mother nature wins. melanie’s justification for this decision is telling: by releasing the fungus, she has sacrificed the current generation of humanity for the next generation—the intelligent hungries who will be produced by their zombified parents. this, in a paradoxical way, was the only way to save humanity. in her own words: if you keep shooting [the hungries] and cutting them up into pieces and throwing them into pits, nobody will be left to make a new world. your people and the junker people will keep killing each other, and you’ll both kill the hungries wherever you find them, and in the end the world will be empty. this way is better . . . the children will grow up, and they won’t be the old kind of people but they won’t be hungries . . . they’ll be the next people. the ones who make everything okay again. (399) melanie ushers in the next wave of humanity, and she has high hopes for a more peaceful, utopian world. the only way humanity has hope, in the end, is by abandoning patriarchal systems of militarized violence and by allowing feminized nature to win and have her way. we can further see the ecofeminist implications of this circumstance in the final scene of the novel: miss justineau, the only survivor from old humanity, comes before a classroom of formerly feral, intelligent child hungries—which melanie has rounded up and which she now leads—and begins to teach the children the alphabet. with such an ending, the girl with all the gifts potentially marks itself as an incredibly empowering ecofeminist piece: women destroy the world’s violent patriarchal structures, and women recreate the world’s structures anew. however, while it would be easy and pleasant to end the ecofeminist conversation on an empowering note, such a discussion does not take all angles into account, particularly where the main character, melanie, is involved. apart from being the protagonist, melanie is arguably the most interesting person in the entire novel—an object of attraction and disgust, of affection and terror. and, sadly, once the character of melanie is fully analyzed, the ecofeminist reading becomes less of an inspiration and more of a horror story. 94 heim the world has already ended, or pessimistic ecofeminism the study of melanie’s character best begins with a discussion about james berger’s conception of how time works in post-apocalyptic narratives. according to berger, the genre is a place where “[t]emporal sequence becomes confused” (6). he goes on to say that “[a]pocalyptic writing takes us after the end, shows the signs prefiguring the end, the moment of obliteration, and the aftermath. the writer and the reader must be in both places at once, imagining the post-apocalyptic world and then paradoxically ‘remembering the world as it was, as it is’” (6). a great example of this temporality bending, berger claims, is the terminator movie series, in which “[e]very action before the apocalypse is simultaneously an action after the apocalypse” (6). when john connor’s father embarks on a mission from the future to save sarah connor, he makes love to her and conceives john connor, without whom the human race is doomed. such a situation clearly shows the dependency that the post-apocalypse has on the pre-apocalypse. berger’s argument about the temporality of the post-apocalypse goes further, however: “the narrative logic of apocalyptic writing is that post-apocalypse precede [sic] the apocalypse. this is also the logic of prophecy. the events envisioned have already occurred, have as good as occurred. once the prophecy is uttered, all the rest is post-apocalypse” (6). what this means in relation to this paper is that in many apocalyptic narratives the prophecy of the apocalypse, in a way, is the beginning of the post-apocalypse, for once the prophecy is uttered, the world is effectively destroyed. the prophecy sets the world on a certain trajectory, and though the actual death wrought by the apocalyptic event in question has not yet occurred, humanity is as hopeless as it will be after the apocalypse: the same panic, pain, and despondency exist on both sides of doomsday. in perfect relation to berger’s theories are the writings of rebekah sheldon in her book the child to come. in the book, sheldon claims that “the future is the provenance of the child,” and that the child is “freighted with expectations and anxieties about the future” after having been “tethered to a future that can no longer be taken for granted” (3). most tellingly, sheldon calls the child a societal resource and analyzes the “figurative and literal uses to which we put her in an age riven between unprecedented technoscientific control and equally unprecedented ecological disaster” (2-3). essentially, sheldon emphasizes the massive symbolic currency that the image of the child possesses in discussions about science, the environment, and the future. for an ecofeminist reading of carey’s the girl with all the gifts, both berger and 95 heim sheldon’s theories are indispensable. if the child represents anxiety over the environmental conditions of the future, as sheldon says, then in some ways the child is a prophecy. and if the prophecy has been spoken, then according to berger, the events that the prophecy foretells have already occurred. this has far-reaching implications for the girl with all the gifts, in particular in the character of melanie, a child zombie: she is a subconscious reflection of environmental dread, a prophecy of doom for humanity’s future. with this in mind, the character of melanie becomes a central point of interest for an ecofeminist critique of the girl with all the gifts. it is hard to think of a way in which melanie could be a more appropriate symbolic manifestation of environmental dread. while the earlier ecofeminist analysis of the text compared the zombie plague to feminized nature, there is another way of approaching the plague analytically—as a feminized nature invaded by patriarchal systems and manipulated for their own benefit. after all, this zombie plague was genetically engineered, and ecofeminist theory posits that the domination over nature is an extension of the patriarchal habits of domination existing in modern society. what, then, is the decision of melanie in the end? what is the victory of nature over humanity? instead of an empowering dissolution of patriarchal structures and establishment of female community, the victory of nature represents the sweeping power of these patriarchal structures: melanie, who is infected by a patriarchally manipulated plague, unleashes the patriarchally manipulated plague onto the world, dooming the original, feminized nature—of which humanity is often unwillingly and unknowingly a part—to deep, permanent change. and this permanent change, while being presented hopefully on melanie’s part, is ambiguous at best. yes, the second-generation hungries will continue humanity, but innumerable human lives have been lost because of it. and yes, the second-generation hungries will continue humanity, but what will the nature of this continuation be? will these hungries reproduce? if so, what will the population eat, now that there are no more humans? melanie eats wild animal flesh, but can there possibly be enough animal flesh to go around? will these undead denizens be immortal? immortality is, after all, a mixed bag. this pessimistic narrative about patriarchally modified nature finds a parallel in the behaviors of women throughout the novel. the most obvious example of this comes from dr. caldwell, a female scientist who wants to kill melanie and run experiments on her in order to find a cure for the zombie plague. to make dr. caldwell a female emphasizes two very important points: one, that men and patriarchy are not synonyms; and two, that women can be carriers of patriarchal habits just as easily as men. with this in mind, it is important once 96 heim more to turn attention back to the character of melanie. in the beginning of the novel, the girl writes a story that expresses her willingness to fight and kill monsters to save miss justineau if the need arose; while fighting and killing monsters to save a loved one is admirable in a way, there are heavy patriarchal subtexts in such a narrative. such subtexts carry through to the end of the novel, where melanie has become the leader of the group of second-generation hungries; she becomes this leader not through generosity or diplomacy, but rather through killing these hungries’ former leader and scaring the rest of them into submission. were these actions necessary? perhaps, but that does not make them any less violent. melanie has established her leadership through the same patriarchal habit of domination. like melanie brings the patriarchally manipulated zombie plague into the new world, so too does she carry certain habits of patriarchy with her, therefore casting the end’s inspiring female leadership into serious doubt: perhaps the female leadership will resume patriarchal habits; it just won’t be called patriarchy. perhaps the evils of the old system will merely get a female paint job and continue on as usual. what is melanie, then, as a representative of cultural anxiety? as a character, she is lovable, but as a symbol, she is horrific. she is berger’s prophecy of post-apocalypse, and that prophecy is one which proclaims that humanity and nature both have already become too affected by unhealthy patriarchal habits to ever live in a world without them. she is sheldon’s future child, and that future is one with irreparable scarring inflicted by the manipulation of nature and by the forces of violence. melanie is inconceivably durable radioactive waste. melanie is the suspicion and fear that insists upon human competition instead of human cooperation. while carey’s the girl with all the gifts seems at first to have created an inspiring vision of a more progressive apocalypse, the experiment becomes a pessimistic rumination on whether or not such an apocalypse could potentially occur. however, even these pessimistic ruminations are important conversations in the novel’s ecofeminist critique, as they serve as negative examples of our potential future world and offer a startling wake-up call. the girl with all the gifts: an ecofeminist call to action to repeat a quote by greta gaard: “an intersectional ecological-feminist approach frames” contemporary issues of resource disparity, healthcare access, and many other forms of worldwide inequality “in such a way that people can recognize common cause across boundaries of race, class, gender, sexuality, species, age, ability, nation—and affords a basis 97 heim for engaged theory, education, and activism” (44). it is difficult, if not impossible, to find a unified theory in any field of study. this is ridiculously true for the humanities. finding connections between large ideas like race, class, gender, sexuality, species, age, ability, and nation would daunt even the most eager of scholars. the theory of ecofeminism, however, claims to perform this task. in the way marxism posits that inequalities are an issue of class, ecofeminism claims that inequalities are an issue of patriarchy. there are certain groups that would label such mentality as so-called “feminazism.” why denounce men as the cause of all the world’s problems? however, patriarchy is not men, and men are not patriarchy, and this is not a blame game. ecofeminism only finds a pattern of oppression, and ecofeminism “affords a basis for engaged theory, education, and activism” (gaard 44). this is good news. but it comes with a heavy sense of responsibility: if such a unified theory about inequality exists, then scholars and activists must begin to use that theory for change. and change is vital, as illustrated by the girl with all the gifts. while carey’s novel begins as an experiment to create a more progressive apocalypse, its story is essentially a demonstration of how patriarchal constructs collapse in on themselves again, and again, and again, harming and killing human beings with every structural tremor. this is demonstrated through the character of melanie, who represents a dire prophecy about what could happen to humanity if such constructs are not abolished. under ecofeminist analysis, which superficially offers inspiration while really offering unease, the text becomes a severe warning about the dangers of the patriarchal habits of domination over both nature and women. for if the threats posed to modern civilization are to be overcome, they will not be overcome by domination. rather, they will be overcome by collaboration: males working with females, and humanity working with nature. 98 heim works cited belmont, cynthia. “ecofeminism and the natural disaster heroine.” women’s studies: an interdisciplinary journal, vol. 36, no. 5, july 2007, pp. 349-372. ebscohost, doi:10.1080/00497870701420230. berger, james. after the end: representations of post-apocalypse. university of minnesota press, 1999. boluk, stephanie, and wylie lenz. introduction. generation zombie, edited by stephanie boluk and wylie lenz, mcfarland, 2011, pp. 1-17. carey, m.r. the girl with all the gifts. orbit, 2014. carpenter, mary wilson. “representing apocalypse: sexual politics and the violence of revelation.” postmodern apocalypse: theory and cultural practice at the end, university of pennsylvania press, 1995, pp. 105-115. cohen, jeffery jerome. monster theory: reading culture. university of minnesota press, 1996. gaard, greta. “ecofeminism revisited: rejecting essentialism and re-placing species in a material feminist environmentalism.” feminist formations, vol. 23, no. 2, 2011, pp. 26–53. jstor, www.jstor.org/stable/41301655. schmeink, lars. “9/11 and the wasted lives of posthuman zombies.” biopunk dystopias: genetic engineering, society and science fiction, liverpool university press, 2016, pp. 200-236. jstor, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1ps33cv.10. sheldon, rebekah. the child to come: life after the human catastrophe. university of minnesota press, 2016 67 in this post-apocalyptic world, shih tzus are apex predators, and humans are their main prey. i think that post-apocalyptic narratives are often too antropocentric—sometimes even devoid of any living beings besides humans. as such they often also rely on cannibalism and murder to epitomize the status of morals in a new, lawless world. shih tzus have always been lawless creatures, though we see them as not the predator animals they are, but rather our adorable and lovable companions. there is absolutely an expected dissonance between seeing their cute, dopey faces covered in blood and human remains. featured artist: gabriella marcarelli new college of florida we are thrilled to share five pieces of art by the talented gabriella marcarelli, as well as her artistic rationale for her work. “treat” “people food” 68 marcarelli often stories of the post-apocalypse center on a dilapidated american landscape that is void of life and morals. however, for these three pieces, i tried to imagine how the mining town of la rinconada, peru would look in a post-apocalyptic setting. the present-day, economic climate of peru forces its citizens, mainly its indigenous citizens, to seek work in the inhumane and inhospitable gold mines of la rinconada. currently, the exploitation of miners and land at the hands of the gold industry has led this town to become nearly postapocalyptic. so perhaps the death of the gold industry via the apocalypse would allow for a sort of rebirth; through a collective effort, the town could abandon the mines and foster plant life and agriculture to sustain themselves and live on for themselves and those lost to the apocalypse. “pallaqueras” “mamacha” “el despertar” dlr journal 42 abstract historically, western white society has portrayed native american societies as utopias that we can look to for political, spiritual, and artistic inspiration. for example, columbus’s original “letters of discovery” began this tradition by writing the natives as a primitive, pure, communal society, and montaigne’s “of the cannibals” continued this tradition with his similar portrayal of native peoples. such portrayals ultimately lead to harmful stereotypes, expectations, and marginalization of native american people by white society. with the aid of robert berkhofer jr’s the white man’s indian, this essay explores the idea of the noble savage in conjunction with utopian ideals and breaks down the process by which native ways of life have been falsely portrayed as utopias. additionally, it explores the consequences of such stereotypical depictions and looks at attempts to dispel such utopian myths. katrina brown native american stereotypes in literature: the noble savage, the utopian man 43 brown humanity has always been dreaming of utopia: a better, easier way of life could always be imagined, hoped for, perhaps even pursued. religious utopias such as christianity’s heaven and the garden of eden are just two pieces of evidence, along with greek classics like plato’s republic and plutarch’s lycurgus. it is a part of being human: utopian visions represent humanity’s potential for good taken to the extreme, whereas dystopias represent humanity’s potential for extreme evil. it should be no wonder then that utopian ideas existed long before thomas more coined the term in 1516. these ideas, developed in the petri dish of western thought, before the discovery of the americas, later became a cultural reference point that new world colonizers used to frame their interactions with native peoples. ideas about the inherent goodness of nature versus the corruption of civilization, mixed with the natives’ perceived naivety, culminated in a tradition of portraying native american culture as utopias—one which still stands today. this stereotype began with columbus and the concept of the “noble savage” but can be traced through history and is still visible in the ways native people are written and conceptualized by some present-day thinkers. ultimately, such stereotypes have been and continue to be harmful to native people, refusing to afford them full humanity or modernity. limited to what mainstream white society allows them to be, natives continue to be othered by these harmful stereotypes despite contemporary efforts to change the narrative through both political and literary movements. beginning of the "noble savage" images of native societies as utopian began with the first european colonizers who stepped foot on american soil. in his book, the white man’s indian, robert berkhofer jr. explains that as the first spanish, french, and english explorers came across native societies and people, they made sense of the american natives through two distinctly european cultural frameworks: christianity and civilization, two ideologies so intertwined that they were assumed to be one and the same. in the process of making sense of the natives, the colonizers tended to fall on one side of a cultural interpretation or the other: that the natives were a gentle and naive people or they were savage cannibals. berkhofer summarizes the process which ultimately resulted in these two european conceptualizations of the native, writing, 44 brown spaniards debated what means were necessary to bring the indian in line with their ideals of christian civilization according to european criteria. was the nature of the indian so bestial as to demand force and ultimately enslavement to accomplish his conversion to christ and spanish ways, or was the indian sufficiently rational and human to achieve these goals through peace and example alone? (11) in the end, this debate was never exactly solved so much as responsible for the image of the native as either savage—murderers and cannibals outside the realm of god, morality, and civilization—or as noble—like adam and eve in the garden of eden, naive and simplistic, children of god who live as nature intended. european culture had, at least until that point, imagined that the biblical garden of eden or some utopic paradise lay to the west, and such imagination overlaid the way european colonizers viewed and wrote back to europe about the natives. this explains, then, the origin of the mystery and conflicting ideas surrounding the native—ideas still found in the american subconscious today. it is because of these two interpretations, and their dual longevity, that western culture for so long performed the cognitive dissonance necessary to conceptualize the pre-colonial native as gentle, sentimental, living in some ways in an elevated society, but at the same time the ferocious, subhuman savage who must be subdued. columbus and later colonizers often meshed these two extreme visions of natives into what later came to be called the “noble savage”: people who were uncivilized, yet represented the natural good in humanity, untouched by modernity, preserved as adam and eve had been before taking a bite of the apple. though the natives practiced habits of “savagery” as well, which many condemned, those who were proponents of the goodness of the natives dismissed these as a result of not knowing better. their societies were described as utopias, or at least having utopian values, though it is important to note that they were never considered better than european societies and “always stood in christian error and deficient in civilization according to spanish standards of measurement” (berkhofer 11). christopher columbus wrote of the natives and their utopic societies in his 1493 letter: “all go naked…they have no iron or steel or weapons…well-built and of handsome stature… they refuse nothing they possess… content with whatever may be given to them” (60). in mundus novus, amerigo vespucci wrote “…all things are held in common. they live together without king, without government, and each is his own master…they live according to nature…they live one 45 brown and each is his own master…they live according to nature…they live one hundred and fifty years and rarely fall ill” (6). here, these colonizers set the tone for the noble savage tradition, and it is important to recognize the utopic values they associate with native societies: social equality, collectivism, care for the earth, innocence and inherent goodness, physical superiority, and living as nature intended. such ideals are tropes of the utopian genre still today and have followed white society’s conceptualization of the native as well. why it worked: the pathology of utopian thought the concept of the noble savage was especially useful to white society because of its theoretical implications and was utilized within literature and political/ philosophical arguments. berkhofer writes, whether employed in political and philosophical treatise or play, novel, satirical essay, or imaginary voyage, the noble american indian scored specific points against religious beliefs and institutions, the nature of education, the organization of government and codes of laws, the prevalence of commerce and the organization of the economy, the general social system and social inequality, and the very complexity of life and corruption of civilized and sophisticated customs in general. (76-77) in other words, the supposed existence of natives’ utopian lifestyles in many ways challenged the legitimacy of european institutions and cultural norms. however, these utopian lifestyles were ones that existed only in writing; explorers documenting their travels, the natives, and their lifestyles approached them with preconceived notions of what was desirable, good, and normal, as well as the prevalent european science and religion. columbus and vespucci, among all the other european explorers, therefore judged the natives by how they did not conform to european standards (demonization of the savage) or how they fit into preexisting european narratives and myths (the garden of eden to the western horizon). in other words, native customs and society were always being taken out of context by europeans and were judged by european norms and ways of thinking. in the end, the concept of the “native” and their society as imagined by europeans was more of a european invention than anything representing the reality of the natives. 46 brown one of the most notable examples of natives used as tool for european education is michel de montaigne’s fictional essay, of the cannibals, which presents natives as noble savages from which much can be learned. written in 1580, almost 100 years after european exploration of the new world had begun, montaigne takes full advantage of the noble savage image, using it to critique european lifestyles for being artificial and far from what nature intended. at the heart of his essay is his opinion of the natives—that they are not savage for not being civilized under a european definition, only different. he writes: [i] find that there is nothing barbarous and savage in this nation, by anything that i can gather, excepting, that every one gives the title of barbarism to everything that is not in use in his own country. as, indeed, we have no other level of truth and reason than the example and idea of the opinions and customs of the place wherein we live: there is always the perfect religion, there the perfect government, there the most exact and accomplished usage of all things. they are savages at the same rate that we say fruits are wild, which nature produces of herself and by her own ordinary progress; whereas, in truth, we ought rather to call those wild whose natures we have changed by our artifice and diverted from the common order. (montaigne, 115; emphasis added) here, not only does the narrator argue that natives are not savage, he employs the noble savage trope by arguing that civilization corrupts men and that the lack of such corruption reveals humanity’s original “good” nature. even the imagery of the wild fruit as the most good and natural form furthers the idea that natives were (and are) spontaneous objects produced by nature, presented for consumption by those who were willing to take advantage of them. in this way, the utopian, or noble, native was useful when critiquing the institutions and norms of the time, and, at the same time, was used as a static specimen, dehumanized and used as a tool to analyze western culture. if native americans as individuals have been portrayed as noble savages, native american societies have been portrayed as utopias. but why do the two go hand in hand? the very origin of the utopian name and genre can help answer this question. thomas more, in naming his work utopia, created a phrase that simultaneously meant a “good place” and “no place.” utopia then, is inherently a place that exists in the mind, in the imagination, even as a collective social dream of some society 47 brown where something or everything is somehow better than in the dreamer’s society. nonetheless, utopia cannot exist outside of this dream. but why? this question answers itself: a society made up of imperfect people cannot be perfect. human nature is a mysterious mixture of good and evil, and society is a reflection of this mixture on a grand scale. therefore, a perfect society cannot be achieved until a perfect set of people emerge. such a theme is common in utopian societies: inherently better citizens must be present in order for an inherently better society. such a theme is found in early works such as lycurgus and plato’s the republic. it can be traced through karl marx’s the communist manifesto; and it continues into contemporary works such as ursula le guin’s the disposessed. even in works where the general public is not perfect, a utopian work can still make the statement that at least some inherently better people must exist in a utopia, through works where an extrinsic social structure is in place to provide or even control the common people. though the better nature of all people in a utopia is not implied in such cases, they do imply the existence of at least some better people who run the government and must keep the others in check. such ideas can be seen in evie shockley’s “separation anxiety” as well as h.g. wells’s a modern utopia. where, then, do native americans and the noble savage fit in? the short answer becomes that the creation of the noble savage myth was so effective—and to some degree still is today—because it provided the missing link that “allowed” utopias to be possible. in other words, if native americans were portrayed as noble savages, a people who are inherently better by virtue of being uncivilized (think adam and eve), then native american societies were simultaneously portrayed as inherently utopian. the portrayal of the noble savage was so useful for western society because it supposedly allowed them a way to gain knowledge of how to create a better society through contact with a better people. this habit of white society looking to native culture for wisdom is a trope that is still here today—with harmful effects on native people. the noble savage today today, the savage portrayal of the native american has fallen out of fashion, as it is the more obviously dehumanizing and harmful of the two extremes. yet, many make the mistake of thinking 48 brown that the noble, or utopian, portrayal of the native american is a way of elevating and paying homage to native culture. however, the utopian vision of the native american is harmful in ways that are less visible but which are, in the long run, just as destructive. such idealized visions of native people have stuck around to the modern day and are present everywhere—from sports team logos to commercials to children’s books and movies. the image of the native american as being in touch with the earth, as living in a communal society with little organized government or laws, and as possessing an inherent superiority or goodness is one that is familiar to the average american. such imagery is harmful as it does not accord native americans full humanity, and it is not historically truthful; rather it idealizes, objectifies, and attempts to mold indigenous peoples into the white idea of what a native american should be. berkhofer observes that the modern vision of native americans allows no room for an actual modern native american, as “[i]n spite of centuries of contact and the changed conditions of native american lives, whites picture the ‘real’ indian as the one before contact or during the early period of that contact” (28). he goes on to point out the cognitive dissonance performed by white society: “if whites do not conceive of themselves still living as anglo-saxons, gauls, or teutons, then why should they expect indians to be unchanged from aboriginal times, native americans ask of their white peers?” (29). such a condition is evident in, for example, the objectification of native americans through their use as sports mascots. names such as “chiefs,” “redskins,” or “braves,” along with some form of accompanying “native” imagery are common and are even used by national teams. a headdress, tomahawk, or chief in profile are all examples of this cultural phenomenon which reduces the “native” to a thing of the past, a caricature of no higher significance than the animals and objects that comprise the majority of mascots. such a conception ignores the reality of present-day native americans and does not allow them to simultaneously sustain a contemporary identity and their heritage. for, “[i]f the indian changed through the adoption of civilization as defined by whites, then he was no longer truly indian according to the image, because the indian was judged by what whites were not” (berkhofer 29). another example of the modern portrayal of the noble savage, or the idealized native, is within the realm of children’s books and stories. two prominent native american depictions are disney’s 1995 pocahontas, and the american girl doll, kaya, along with her accessories and book set. 49 brown pocahontas features pocahontas as the noble, romantic savage—innocent, one with nature, and inherently good—while pocahontas’s betrothed, kocoum, is the perfect savage, attacking john smith with a tomahawk and consequently dying from john’s musket. kaya’s books feature a representation of nez perce life (northwestern native american tribe) that is utopian on further investigation: although the book takes place in a seasonal gathering of upwards of 1,000 people, everyone communally shares the harvest of salmon from the river, work is done equally, and there is no hard and fast government or set of laws. the image of the native american as an in-tune steward of the earth is also prominent in this children’s work: on the american girl doll website, kaya’s catchphrase is “respect and protect the earth because we are all connected” (kaya). not surprisingly, kaya is the only native american doll, her story set in 1764. she is among ten other historical dolls: six white dolls from different periods, two african american dolls, one latina doll, and one pacific islander doll. it is clear from a glance at this single cultural artifact what effect the eurocentric gaze has: the dolls representing minority groups are all represented as whites see them and represented in periods where they historically were relevant to whites. kaya is a “traditional” nez perce girl from 1764, and her existence as the only native american doll plays a role in perpetuating the image of the utopian native american. the african american dolls are representative of the two historical images whites have of that minority—slavery and the civil rights movement. the pacific islander doll from hawaii is representative of pearl harbor, and the latina doll representative of mexico’s independence. the white dolls, on the other hand, represent different “mainstream” time periods during which all of the above minorities were present or had their own movements and history but were not considered relevant by white society. all in all, the kaya doll, though it may have been created with the purpose of educating young people and paying tribute to native americans, simply solidifies the single image mainstream society has of natives as gentle, traditional, and stuck in the past. the noble savage stereotype is present in modern media as well, for example through the native’s portrayal in the 1971 crying indian advertisement by keep america beautiful—an ad that is well remembered today, produced by an organization that is still active. this ad, which keep america beautiful’s website proclaims an “iconic symbol of environmental responsibility and one of the most successful psa campaigns in history,” is a one-minute clip showing traditionally dressed native 50 brown americans paddling down a river past waste and pollution, cars and littering, with one native man finally looking at the camera and shedding a single, solitary tear (mission and history). such an image was so successful precisely because it played off of white america’s ideas of what natives were— stewards of the land, stoic, a thing of the past. even the attire—buckskin garments, headdresses, and embellishments of beads, quills, and feathers—plays into the native american as a concept. native americans existed in the 1970s, just not in the minds of the american public. to them, the native american ceased to exist after they were relegated to their reservations—after settlers had pushed as far west as they could. here is the result of the native and modern civilization when posed as diametrically opposite—when there is no room for a modern native american and he is sequestered to the past, used as a symbol, a token, and ultimately as a fantasy to market to the white public. cumulatively, this compilation of images and narratives whites have constructed surrounding what a native american looks and behaves like creates a cultural constraint on what they are allowed to be. if they are too modern, they cease to be native; too traditional and they become stuck in the past. if contemporary groups are too vocal about their condition, the rhetoric becomes “it happened a long time ago and doesn’t matter now;” if they are too quiet they are complicit in their own destruction, loss of land, and loss of heritage. in the long run, the narrative whites have constructed around native americans has become a trap, one which constricts the agency of natives and which has historically shaped america’s policies and histories concerning them. a culture which eternally confines a group to one set of expected actions, customs, and traditions more or less forces native americans to be a sort of living museum. here, native american customs of antiquity (as whites imagine them) are expected to be practiced, and if they are not, native americans are seen as not being true to their heritage. often, dystopian literature can come eerily close to the issues of everyday life, and this topic is no different. evie shockley writes about the concept of a living museum in her short work “separation anxiety.” set about 100 years into the american future, it portrays a dystopia where african americans and whites are separated: more specifically, african americans are separated into “ghettos” in order to preserve black culture. meanwhile, it is assumed that other minority groups are also sequestered into their own camps. the main character, a dancer, must perform traditional dances that cannot be changed or modified, and 51 brown every aspect of daily life is studied and monitored, again in order to preserve the culture. in this context, shockley’s work creates an uneasy comparison when juxtaposed with whites’ conceptualizations and subsequent expectations of native americans. in shockley’s work, the concentration of a minority into its own community and its forced atrophy closely mirrors the real life fate of the native american. such portrayals however, as seen in history and contemporary works, are harmful, and the flattening out of natives into the noble savage figure allowed for their historical oppression. the perpetuation of such myths continues to be harmful today through the same “flattening out” process, which creates expectations for contemporary native american societies, expecting them to conform to western expectations about what is “native enough”. these myths are perpetuated through pop culture so seemingly benign that to see them as harmful is almost counterintuitive; such is true of the story of pocahontas, which later became a disney movie, or of the keep america beautiful campaign commercial, which featured a crying native american as he looked upon a littered urban landscape. such portrayals of natives in modern culture create expectations that become ingrained in the everyday american, limiting what american culture allows natives to be. deconstructing myths about natives in the end, harmful native stereotypes permeate american culture, and though the stereotype itself and the harm it brings is being recognized more and more, addressing the issue comes with its own challenges. pushback against this harmful rhetoric has come in the form of native american writers reclaiming their stories and the way in which indigenous people and culture are presented. native stories such as ceremony by leslie silko, the birchbark house by louise erdrich, and house made of dawn by n. scott momaday exemplify native american authors rejecting the flatness of earlier native american characters and choosing to write complex tales with complex characters who deal with day-to-day contemporary struggles within the context of their native identity. such stories are so important, because, in these stories, native characters are given full humanity, in which they are allowed to have flaws, and need not be simply the wise stoic character the whites can learn from. by recentering the stories on native people and their complexity, and especially on the modern 52 brown challenges they face between their american and native identities, these authors create narratives in which natives are allowed to be dynamic and where natives’ lifestyles are authentic to the natives of today. in telling native stories, these authors are able to expand readers’ ideas of how a native person can experience life. the native american struggle for recognition, sovereignty, respect, and the fulfillment of the promise to “life, liberty, and the pursuit to happiness” is much larger than what can be captured in an article or in any book. however, mining into the collective american subconscious, understanding how we as a society have created certain meanings, and being socially conscious of how we think about native americans and why, are small steps toward changing for the better. such a goal is utopian in nature, for in its constant yearning to be perfect it makes us better, allowing for a better world than what we had before. 53 works cited berkhofer jr., robert f. the white man’s indian. random house, february 1979. colombus, christopher. “letter of discovery.” the norton anthology of american literature, edited by robert s. levine and sandra m. gustafson, 9th ed, vol. a, w.w. norton & company, 2017, pp. 58-65. erdrich, louise. the birchbark house. scholastic, new york, 2000. “kaya.” kaya | historical character | american girl, www.americangirl.com/shop/ag/kaya. “mission & history.” keep america beautiful, www.kab.org/about-us/mission-history. le guin, ursula k. the dispossessed: an ambiguous utopia. new york: harper & row, 1974. print. marx, karl. “the communist manifesto”. the utopia reader. edited by gregory claeys and lyman tower sargent, new york: new york university press, 1999, pp. 268-269. “mission & history.” keep america beautiful, www.kab.org/about-us/mission-history. momaday, n. s. house made of dawn. harper & row, new york, 1968. montaigne, michel de. “of the cannibals”. the utopia reader, edited by gregory claeys and lyman tower sargent, new york university press, 1999, pp. 115-118. plato. “republic”. the utopia reader. edited by gregory claeys and lyman tower sargent, new york: new york university press, 1999, pp.39-67 plutarch. “lycurgus”. the utopia reader. edited by gregory claeys and lyman tower sargent, new york: new york university press, 1999, pp. 28-38. pocahontas. directed by mike gabriel and eric goldberg, performances by irene bedard, mel gibson, david ogden stiers, john kassir, russell means, christian bale, linda hunt, danny mann, billy connolly, and frank welker, walt disney pictures, 1995. shockley, evie. “separation anxiety.” the utopia reader, edited by gregory claeys and lyman tower sargent, new york university press, 1999, pp. 509-524. silko, leslie m. ceremony. viking press, new york, 1977. vespucci, amerigo. mundus novus. translated by george tyler northup, encyclopedia virginia, 18 march 2013, https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/mundus_novus_1503. accessed 25 march 2019. wells, h.g. “a modern utopia”. the utopia reader. edited by gregory claeys and lyman tower sargent, new york: new york university press, 1999, pp.371-377. brown digital literature review 1 13 eliza o’donnell, loyola university this essay examines how the themes of domesticity, gender, and the function of bodies within the horrific realms of haunted domiciles function in three of comic and graphic novel author emily carroll’s short graphic horror stories. the essay discusses the short digital horror comic “all along the wall” (2014), as well as the short horror comics “a lady’s hands are cold” and “the nesting place,” both published in carroll’s 2014 collection through the woods. each of these stories presents the reader with a ghost and/or haunting that has an unconventional relationship to corporeality, as well as with a female protagonist who is preyed upon in a domestic setting. hauntings of bodies, selves, and houses: a comparative reading of three of emily carroll’s short horror comic stories definitions of ghosts vary widely across cultures, epochs, and scholastic theorizations, but the basis of these definitions and the pursuits of categorization they entail identify that ghosts are entities without bodies, and moreover, that ghosts often covet a corporeal form in some way. the severing of the connection between the spirit and the flesh begets ghosts—but what comes about when that connection is not quietly severed by death, but is instead shaped and consumed by desire and monstrosity? comic artist and graphic novelist emily carroll explores the ghastly possibilities of corporeal existence for ghosts in many of her comics, in both digital and print media. her 2014 digital horror comic “all along the wall” presents a metanarrative of an adolescent girl telling a child a scary story with an unsatisfying (but implicitly sinister) ending while they both hide away from a christmas party in the adolescent’s english country home. the story and characters in this short story comic digital literature review 2 14 precede those of the final comic in carroll’s original short horror comic collection through the woods (2014), titled “the nesting place.” “the nesting place” follows a teenage girl who, shortly after her mother’s death, visits her older brother in his fiancée’s country home and quickly becomes embroiled in a game of cat and mouse with an eldritch body-snatching parasite. the themes of preyed-upon bodies and the ghosts of the past selves they produce also direct the plot of another story in through the woods, “a lady’s hands are cold.” carroll’s aptitude for troping fairy tale motifs shines in this story of a young aristocratic woman whose male-dictated marriage to a rich widower leads to a deadly discovery when she acts upon the pleas of the mournful song that she hears from the walls of her new home each night. here i argue that each of these works presents the reader with a haunting by a ghost defined not by a broken connection to body and place, but by a corrupting usurpation of that connection by predatory forces that share a home with the ghost in bodily and architectural domiciles. carroll’s use of domesticity guides this predatory, corrupted ghostliness, and also makes space in her stories’ houses for a transformative characteristic of ephemerality present in not only the ghostly subject of each of the three stories’ hauntings, but also the object(s) of the hauntings—which, of course, share domestic space with that which haunts them. understanding the nature and function of the type of ghosts that define the hauntings in these three stories prompts an exploration of the presence of more traditionally defined ghosts, as well as how each of them expresses and incorporates the quality of ephemerality. ghosts that are spirits dispossessed of bodies come up explicitly only in “all along the wall,” wherein a child frames the metanarrative by asking for a ghost story and noting the distinct absence of ghosts in the story told to her. while the other two stories do not outright mention or depict ghosts of this type, both contain qualities of haunting and spiritual presences. “the nesting place” brings in a variety of supernatural and/or paranormal creatures, the most relevant of which certainly possess haunting qualities and distinctly bring up the question of how spirits or souls figure into their existence. the feature creature of “a lady’s hands are cold” seems at first to be a ghostly presence, and although the twist reveal of the story complicates that, the creature and the girl it desires both retain a certain ghostly ephemerality. while identifying the presence of more conventional ghosts in these stories is a complex endeavor, each story plays upon aspects and ideas central to ghosts and ghostliness in order to present its own ideas on hauntings and monstrosity. with “all along the wall,” carroll constructs a textual entry point for these three stories of domestically twisted hauntings, succinctly tying her ghostly monster to the characters’ domestic interior. the three-page digital comic follows lottie, a child of about ten, as she sneaks upstairs digital literature review 3 15 from a christmas party hosted in a lavish countryside house. she steps curiously into a darkened bedroom, and its owner—rebecca, the young teenage daughter of the party’s hostess—soon discovers her. lottie promptly requests a ghost story, a christmas eve tradition, and rebecca gladly tells her a “just like you/[…] just like this one” story of a girl in a house frightened at night by a crawling, scuttling creature that creeps along her bedroom walls, ending with the reveal that the creature took over the girl’s body from right under her mother’s nose (1-2). the story dissatisfies lottie, who says it was not truly scary and asks, “where was the ghost?” to which rebecca calmly replies, “there was no ghost” (3). both girls are correct in the absence of the traditional type of ghost lottie visualizes, but as lottie tells rebecca that she knows she went missing last summer, getting lost in a cave in the nearby woods for three days—“your mother told [my mother] all about it”—carroll makes only the reader aware that the enfleshed, ephemeral being from rebecca’s story took over her body (3). rebecca is the girl who has been preyed upon in her own bedroom, under her mother’s not-watchful-enough eye, but what made rebecca’s body its home is not even human. moreover, the way carroll depicts this creature unfurling and arching over lottie’s cross-legged form in a stretching web of red threads indicates its predatory intentions, showing that it now wants to extend that home into another girl’s body (3). the presentation of the scary story narrative and its metanarrative twin, the twist reveal of what truly happened to rebecca, both integrate an element of domestic horror, tinged with simultaneous ephemerality and ghastly realness, into the story. as with all three of these stories, this first of two narratives to feature the creature to which carroll gives no name but which can accurately be called the “red-thread creature” contains numerous layers of domestic, feminized, bodily, and ghostly horror. each of these elements operates with a strength of its own in “all along the wall,” but they are all contained within, and therefore tie in with and play into, the horror of the domestic sphere. the narrative and illustrations do not demarcate a specific time setting for this story, but, judging from the domestic trappings and the characters’ dress, it is within a decade or two of the turn of the twentieth century that lottie has this near-fateful visit during a christmas celebration. writing on the use of the emblematic haunted house in media, elizabeth wilson finds that “fear has a location and, in a newly urban society, fear migrated to the built environment” (113). though this story exists far from a city environment, the active horror that takes place within it is contained neatly within the bedroom walls of a stately country manor—a place of safety for the preyed-upon human inhabitants and domestic guests, as well as the creature trying to establish its existence in its own carved-out space. in line with the expectations and potential subversions of her genre, carroll chooses well digital literature review 4 16 in selecting a young adolescent girl as the avatar that the red-thread creature uses to create its own domicile within its prey’s domicile. in jeffrey andrew weinstock’s extensive analysis of how and why women tell and continue telling ghost stories, he notes that 19th-century gothic women’s ghost stories attribute a transgressive function to “what gets ‘ghosted’—what tries to present itself but can only achieve a half-life existence” (138). in constructing the human-housed monster that drives the plot of “all along the wall,” carroll doubly ghosts rebecca and the red-thread creature that made a home of her body. it is pertinent to note, though, that this ghosting does not denote loss of material power, at least for the red-thread creature. weinstock extends his notion of “ghosting” with terry castle’s queered analysis of the storytelling strategy, which, when lesbian and queer writers use it, becomes “the very trope that evaporates [… that] can also solidify” (castle qtd. in weinstock 139). though carroll has not publicly disclosed her exact sexuality1, her marriage with a woman proves that she is certainly queer. carroll’s perspective as a queer woman is accordingly present throughout her work, particularly here, wherein she employs the twin ghosting of rebecca and the red-thread creature as a force that simultaneously manifests ephemerality and materiality. while rebecca’s body is intact, able to be rapidly deand reconstructed at the red-thread creature’s whim, rebecca’s spirit is no longer intact, if it remains at all. her positioning as a teenage girl is also pertinent here: particularly in her early-twentieth-century hetero-patriarchal family home, rebecca’s body and existence are caught between girlhood and womanhood, rendering her a uniquely existentially uncertain status as a household member, and as a horror character archetype. the vitality and shifting existence of young women have long been vilified and feared, and carroll is drawing that out in rebecca as a perversion of in-between states in young women. as for the red-thread creature, its existence falls right on the mark of weinstock’s notion of “half-life existence”: for whatever bodily vitality it may possess, the creature cannot fully exist socially or, arguably, even domestically. revealing itself would mean loss of its domesticated human flesh and human house, not to mention that these constructed domiciles have necessitated its move away from its original home in the cave where rebecca’s body was lost for three days and where her spirit was likely lost for good. carroll even textually constructs a half-life for the creature’s origins: the panel in which the creature enters and teems within rebecca’s limp body, her face hollowed, eyeless and blue, from a pool of underground standing water is only visible when the reader mouses over the panel in which lottie asks if rebecca was mute for a week after returning home from the woods “because you saw something very frightening?” (3). these varied and interconnected layers of half-alive ephemerality ultimately function as a critique of how hetero-patriarchal domestic spheres twist 1 at least, not in any sources that can be readily found on the internet in a diligent search. digital literature review 5 17 and use female bodies. carroll extends and multiplies the horrors of the red-thread creature and its carving out of feminine domiciles in her longer-form short comic story, “the nesting place.” in “the nesting place,” carroll reopens the door to the country house that the red-thread creature occupies the human inhabitant of—but now, rebecca’s rehomed body is the head of the household, with a fiancé who brings his sullen teenage sister home to the rural estate on her summer holiday from boarding school. the story is the longest one in through the woods, and carroll’s narrative once again follows a young, dark-haired girl who contemptuously wanders off from most social conventions. this time, the new player in the domicile is an adolescent, bell, whose storyline is not marked by curiosity and ignorance but by grief, resentment, and the ultimate horrifying discovery of what she actually shares domestic space with. as she is leaving her boarding school to meet her brother, clarence, bell recalls the stories of monsters that her recently deceased mother always asserted the existence of, particularly “the burrowing kind. the sort that crawled into you and made a home there. […] the monster that ate you alive from the inside out” (loc. 70, panel 2). not long into her stay at rebecca’s house, bell has her disbelief in these stories turned on its head. about a week of increasingly strange and unsettling occurrences around the house passes—rebecca’s teeth clicking and wiggling in her mouth while she eats dinner; the housekeeper, madame beauchamp, ominously warning bell against venturing into the woods as rebecca did several years before; mme. beauchamp disappearing after behaving strangely that evening and late that night; and all the while, clarence acting cheerful and flippant as ever, with rebecca mirroring his attitude and trying to engage bell in gender normative activities that she is patently uninterested in, such as makeup and shopping. the day after mme. beauchamp supposedly voluntarily leaves the house, bell spends an idyllic day in the woods before falling into the cave just as rebecca had, and discovering that it was not rebecca that had come out of the cave, but the red-thread creature wearing her skin. bell wakes up in the house, having been rescued from the cave, and the red-thread creature reveals its methods and intentions to her: it has babies in the pool in the cave, and bell’s skin will be perfect for them. bell manages to convince the creature that its plan of taking her skin and going to london with its babies and clarence will ultimately thwart the creature’s reproductive aims because of london’s hostile, polluted environment, after which clarence arrives to take bell to the doctor, which makes “rebecca” happy. as the siblings drive into the open countryside, bell hands clarence an apple—and his teeth click and wiggle against it. bell’s eyes open wide in horror as she realizes she is in a car, alone, with more of the red threads wearing her brother’s skin. carroll closes the story there. digital literature review 6 18 this longer-form narrative of the domestic horrors of girlhood and ghosts housed in corrupted flesh and convention extends many of the themes of “all along the wall,” while also drawing upon new ones borne from the connections and growth of those themes. carroll’s work with the conventions of her genre once again comes out here in modes that critique gender, social, and familial norms as they manifest in the domicile. queer literature scholar ardel haefele-thomas comments on the phenomenon of the gothic genre as “a proverbial safe space” for women writers, and especially queer women writers, who find that “writing within a liminal genre like gothic has enabled them to more honestly and thoroughly critique restrictive social and cultural conventions such as,” in the case of carroll’s writing of bell, how young women ought to handle themselves and their emotions socially, as well as how non-normative female bodies signify socially (169). bell’s health status as a depressed, stocky teenage girl who wears a leg brace and often uses a cane sets her apart from her peers and family at best; at worst, the red-thread creature pathologizes her body’s build and capability. the creature rebuts bell’s protests that someone at school or in her family would notice if the creature expelled her spirit from her body by pointing out that clarence would “be so thrilled you’re no longer sullen and depressed he’ll never question the change!” and also targets bell’s body with an assertion that her peers “will much prefer you once my babies stretch you into something tall, slim, and pretty” as the red threads have with rebecca’s figure, which is unnaturally lithe and rosy throughout the story (loc. 94, panels 1, 2). while horrifying in a uniquely gendered way, carroll plays this dynamic as a subversion of the usual handling of disability in not only horror but also in comics. aidan diamond and lauren poharec write on how comics present and perpetuate othered bodies and othering of various kinds, specifically exploring stereotypes of characters and bodies with disabilities and/or medicalized conditions. carroll’s characterization of bell and of her enemy as explicitly trying to form her into a normalized social body directly subverts the trope in the comic genre of making “stereotypical representations [of disabled people that] respond to and reinforce an ideology of ability: the essentialist assumption that able-bodiedness must be preferred in all circumstances,” even the circumstance of a predatory parasitic creature supplanting a spirit from a body, which bell’s peers and social circles would gladly, if unknowingly, accept (406). setting this interaction between bell and the red-thread creature, and their conversation’s underlying implications, in a simultaneously domestic and alienating physical space—a guest bedroom of an estate house whose mistress has been made herself a home for a predatory, ghostly and ghosting being—keeps this horror of hetero-patriarchal standards firmly housed within the horror of the domestic. digital literature review 7 19 adding to the horror and corrupting, haunting force of the red-thread creature is its status as mother. female characters and figures drive the plots of both “the nesting place” and “all along the wall,” whose protagonists have relationships with their respective mothers that, while complex, are not particularly unexpected for children of their ages carrying out a relationship with a mother who shares and perpetuates hetero-patriarchal domestic space and norms with her daughter. mothers and motherhood make for arguably freudian horror material, as gina wisker discusses in her analytical review of horror stories and tropes with a focus on domestic horror. “mothers in horror are often engulfing and entrapping” to their children, especially their female ones, and “monstrous and surrogate mothers [who] desire to kill off children to preserve themselves and their own offspring” are a particular kind of threat that carroll, with her penchant for folklore and fairytale, creates in her red-thread rebecca (5). carroll tropes domestic horror to have the red threads puppet rebecca’s skin to be kind and nurturing to the red-thread babies, and extend her maternal engulfing entrapment to bell, whose personage and personhood it hopes to supplant for its babies’ sake. the ghostly creature’s folkloric attributes extend further in that the red-thread creature’s motherhood comes to narratively function as both its seeming downfall and its greatest strength: bell seems to wrest power for herself in pointing out red-thread rebecca’s vulnerability as a mother. “you claim to be such a good mother,” bell accuses the creature with regard to her babies’ probable fate in london, “but what kind of heartless beast would chance their lives like this?” (loc. 97, panel 3). whatever red-thread rebecca’s true feelings are, bell’s argument seems to have cowed her into submission, and bell is free and safe—until the reveal that red-thread rebecca’s maternal workings have long since hollowed her brother’s skin to make room for a paternal, monstrous counterpart. red-thread rebecca’s motherhood has proven to be truly horrifying, operating in these manners and corrupting living beings into half-existent ghosts within its appropriated domiciles. carroll continues to trope folklore archetypes with similar effectiveness and to the ends of critiquing hetero-patriarchal norms in a domestic horror setting in her fairytale-style narrative, “a lady’s hands are cold.” “a lady’s hands are cold” is not connected to “all along the wall” and “the nesting place” by recurring characters or settings, but it undoubtedly exists on the same thematic axis as these two stories: namely, if there is an archetypal “haunted house” story in through the woods, it is this one. folklore scholar christina dokou describes through the woods as a collection that epitomizes the “fruitful threesome” of the gothic, the fairy tale, and comic books. dokou further characterizes “carroll’s gothic play with tradition [… as] a palimpsestic reading that shows traces of the text that her own piece of literature has devoured to sustain itself,” an analysis digital literature review 8 20 that serves as both an apt description of this story and an uncanny precursor to how ghosts and haunting function within it (572, 576). the horror of “a lady’s hands are cold” is put front and center from the outset, with the first page featuring the eerily short and apt lyrical description of the heteronormative patriarchal workings that shape the frame of this story and its characters. “there was a girl,” carroll begins this lurid tale, “& there was a man/and there was the girl’s father/who said, ‘you will marry this man,’” utilizing the narration to frame illustrations of said girl and man in profile, casting their relationship, individual selves, and wedding with airs of half-alive material ephemerality, as well as menace and suffering (loc. 21, panels 1-3). the narration follows the newly wed girl as she travels through the woods from her father’s house to her new husband’s manor. in this new domicile, she leads an existence evidently so bereft of her husband’s presence that he becomes something of a menacing ghostly presence himself, particularly during the lavish dinners they are seated at together each night, where his predatory air intensifies. rather than her husband having her share a marriage bed with him, the girl sleeps alone in her own bedroom, where each night she begins to hear a song seeping mournfully out from the very walls of the house, sung as follows: i married my love in the springtime, but by summer he’d locked me away. he’d murdered me dead by the autumn, & by winter i was naught but decay. it’s cold where i am and so lonely, but in loneliness will i remain, unloved, unavenged, & forgotten, until i am whole once again. (loc. 25, panels 1-5). after many nights of this, the girl’s husband leaves for a hunting trip. now the sole living being in the manor who holds domestic power, the girl dismisses the maids and uses a hatchet to cut open the wall, where she finds a shriveled pair of hands. the girl moves throughout the house, chopping and digging until she finds the entirety of her husband’s murdered first wife, dismembered and scattered throughout, her ghostly white head singing its song once more to the girl when she discovers it. the girl gathers up the desiccated corpse pieces, brings them to her murderous husband’s bedroom, and reassembles her predecessor’s body on the floor, tying the enfleshed wraith together with bits of red ribbon. the corpse reanimates—and vows to rip the girl to pieces for having usurped her role as lady of the manor. the girl flees the bedroom, then the manor altogether as her husband returns from his hunt, and continues running until she finds herself deep into the woods. of the three stories discussed in this essay, “a lady’s hands are cold” is the one whose function and actors of the domestic horror are the most emblematic of the notion of the ghostdigital literature review 9 21 liness of these stories as predatory corruption of the body-spirit connection. in examining queer gothicism, haefele-thomas observes, “as a genre, gothic thrives on complications and constantly throws what we think we know and believe into confusion, often with subversive and disturbing results,” and carroll creates some truly viscerally disturbing results in her formulation of the being that haunts this story’s protagonist and massive manor home (170). with regards to the husband’s first wife, the original mistress of the manor, the narrative sets up key expectations for the reader and for the protagonist within the framing of the story and the house it takes place in, only to devastatingly complicate and subvert them. the dead wife’s song emanates from varying places throughout the manor as “a low keening that seeped […] from the house’s very bones,” very much in the manner of a ghost of the type that is simply spirit bereft of body (loc. 25, panels 5, 13). this typical ghostliness extends into the song’s almost possessive influence on the living wife, even as her maids, more fixtures of the house than people, tell her not to worry about the ballad that has “settled into her bones […] until the girl’s insides [became] clotted with heartache” as, night after night, she is forced to lay and listen to a song that seems almost to exist only to her (loc. 28, panel 1). with this seemingly traditional haunting as disturbing as it already is, carroll then hacks into and takes apart the protagonist’s and the reader’s presumptions of what haunting being occupies this house with the reveal of the desiccated body parts spread throughout the house. the girl finds her predecessor’s hands, arms, legs, feet, torso, and head in all of the places from which she heard the song originate, thus attributing the dead wife’s body, not her spirit, with the ethereal power to have sung this song (loc. 30-32). this wrathful, decaying wraith is all but impossible to definitively classify as a being who haunts within the bounds of horror tradition: she could possibly be called a ghoul, but to do so would deny her the totality of her spiritual power. this elision of classification is clearly in line with what queer women do with horror, per the writings of the scholars discussed throughout this essay, as well as exemplifying the true nature and horror of this story as one of a house haunted by the subduing and murder of women in domestic space and convention. the themes present in “a lady’s hands” continue to spin off of and multiply upon themselves as discourse goes on, but the most pertinent aspect of this story’s domestic, ghostly horror is its sharp critique of how women’s bodies and agency function within the domiciles that house the hetero-patriarchal system of marriage. this manor house is not haunted only by the wraith wife’s song of her demise; her husband’s ruthlessly hungry predation upon each wife, as well as the selves, lives and bodies each wife has lost, also haunt the enormous white manor and its surrounding lurid red gardens. the forces that operate within and through the physicality of the digital literature review 10 22 manor work well in the terms of wilson’s citation of vidler’s notion of seeing romantically sublime buildings “as objectifying the various states of the body, physical and mental,” which wilson ties to her observation that “it is invariably women who activate the fear and the malice of the dwelling or who project it onto the house” (118). both the wraith wife and the girl wife are activators and objects of this house and its malice, which is really the husband’s hungering malice that has destroyed both his wives. herein also lies carroll’s final subversion: in her fairy tale, a genre wherein the woods are where women are eaten, the girl wife must flee to the woods to escape being rent and consumed by either one of the manor’s occupants: a lavish mansion has become and has always been more terrifying and threatening than any wild place. carroll makes all sorts of disturbing twists in these three stories to draw out the horror of being female in domestic spaces; her complex formulations of hauntings and troping of ghost and haunted house folklore serve only to produce more ghosts. the corrupted, ghostly predators of each story ultimately narratively consume the objects of their respective hauntings. each one ends up transformed and ephemeral on the same level as that which plagues her, confined in domesticity: lottie is left alone and confused in a dark bedroom that is not hers; bell is trapped in a small space with something hungry that wears her brother’s skin; and the girl is utterly wrecked, her eyes nothing but hollow blackness, looking as dead as the wraith wife that chased her from the house. the comic homes of carroll’s richly woven stories are replete with the terror of occupying a domestic space, especially as a non-normative girl or woman. naturally, they all must occupy such a space, because per the title of through the woods, it is unwise to linger in a space outside of a domicile—not that residing within one bodes well either. digital literature review 11 23 works cited carroll, emily. “all along the wall.” digital comic. emcarroll.com, 2014. “a lady’s hands are cold.” through the woods, margaret k. mcelderry books. loc. 20-38 in kindle digital edition. 2014, new york. “the nesting place.” through the woods, margaret k. mcelderry books, loc. 68-99 in kindle digital edition. 2014, new york. diamond, aidan, and lauren poharec. “introduction: freaked and othered bodies in comics.” journal of graphic novels and comics, vol. 8, no. 5, 2017, pp. 402-16. dokou, christina. “un(th)inkable tales: unimaginable folklore horror in emily carroll’s through the woods.” journal of graphic novels and comics, vol. 8, no. 6, 2017, pp. 527-87. haefele-thomas, ardel. “queering the female gothic.” women and the gothic, edited by avril horner and sue zlosnik. edinburgh university press, 2017, pp. 169-83. weinstock, jeffrey andrew. “ghosts of desire: rose terry cooke, alice brown, elizabeth stuart phelps, and helen hull.” scare tactics: supernatural fiction by american women. fordham university press, 2008, pp. 136-71. wilson, elizabeth. “haunted houses.” aa files, no. 67, 2013, pp. 113-118. wisker, gina. “‘honey, i’m home!’ splintering the fabrication in domestic horror.” femspec, vol. 4, no. 1, 2002, p. 108. espresso brownies jianni adams 1. box of desired brownie mix 2. water source 3. vegetable oil 4. an egg (or two) 5. rusty kitchen scissors (to open the bagged mix) 6. starbucks via packets desired result: a delicious homemade (kind of? no? okay.) treat with hints oft he façade of domesticity ... and coffee. description: stack of three chocolate brownies on white table. brown crumbs are scattered on the table. background is of a white curtain. photo by manny nb on unsplash for trying to be impressive at parties recipe 17 | adams dlr journal 147 abstract this paper analyzes second episode of the popular dystopian sci-fi show black mirror, “fifteen million merits,” as a utopia for the capitalists that are in charge of the commune in which the episode’s characters live. through comparisons to american company towns and an analysis of the psychology that these capitalists employ, i come to the conclusion that, while a dystopia for the citizens that the episode follows, this society is a utopia for those in charge. furthermore, i posit that, even though the community we see is set far in the future and seems very removed from our own world, it may not be as far away as we may like to think. pay-to-play: the utopia for capitalists in black mirror's "fifteen million merits" by jacob garrett 148 garrett in 2018, a major controversy in the world of video games was that of microtransactions. in such popular games as fortnite and star wars battlefront ii, users were able to use real-world currency to purchase items and advantages in-game. some of those items were simply cosmetic in nature, such as camouflage for guns and unique outfits for characters, but others granted richer players an advantage over their competition, essentially boiling the stakes of these games down to whomever had the most money rather than whomever had the greatest amount of skill. the latter issue often came in the form of “loot boxes,” slot machines in which players would stand a randomized chance of gaining everything from a few units of in-game currency to new weapons and abilities that would ordinarily take a long time to unlock. the problem of loot boxes became clear in games like star wars battlefront ii and call of duty: black ops iii, in which some players who had very little experience and a great deal of money to spend were granted powerful advantages over people that had invested a great deal of time into trying to unlock weapons and abilities the old-fashioned way. players aren’t forced to purchase anything in the game, but they stand the chance of being left at a disadvantage if they don’t. even though there was a massive backlash against this practice from gamers in late 2017 and into 2018, it has not met much prolonged resistance beyond the cases that the media focused on: “very few players like the microtransaction system but a large majority think its ok as long as the upgrades are just cosmetic” (anderton). while some of the worst offenders in this controversy backtracked and removed microtransactions from their games (or just confined them to cosmetic items), for better or worse, microtransactions are here to stay. microtransactions don’t currently affect anyone who doesn’t play video games (or who doesn’t have children that play them), but what would happen if this concept were applied to our lives in general? this idea of microtransactions becoming a part of daily life is taken to the extreme in “fifteen million merits,” the second episode of british writer charlie brooker’s dystopian science fiction series black mirror. in this episode, the characters are trapped in some sort of commune in which they are constantly surrounded by screens built into the walls of their rooms and hallways. the residents of the commune are made to spend long hours at exercise bikes during the day, ostensibly to provide power to the commune (though the use of these bikes is never shown), earning a virtual currency called “merits” as they pedal. these merits are required for everything from purchasing food 149 garrett in the commissary and skipping ads that pop up on the omnipresent screens to getting toothpaste to brush their teeth in the morning. there are only two ways for people to escape the bikes: they can either become a member of the commune’s oft-mocked janitorial staff, or they can enter a talent contest known as hot shot, an x factor-esque talent show in which the contestants could win the opportunity to host own programs (if they’re well-received) or be cast in the commune’s constantly advertised pornography channel, wraithbabes. the society in which the characters of “fifteen million merits” live is a monotonous hell plagued by constant stimulation, whether they want it or not: if they close their eyes during an advertisement that they didn’t skip, the screens turn red and tell them to resume watching while emitting high-frequency whines that grow more painful the longer that the individual refrains from opening their eyes. while it may be a horrible existence for the residents of the commune, this society is a prime example of a capitalist utopia. brooker, who co-wrote the episode with his wife, konnie huq, confirms this: “there was something that appealed to me about the idea of an incredibly reductive…version of capitalism, with the whole of society peddling desperately on… bikes for some coins to spend” (brooker 32). everything that takes place within the commune is based upon a system of labor and exchange of currency: those who feed their labor into the system by riding the exercise bikes are rewarded with merits, which they get to spend within the system for both necessities and luxuries. if anyone is not on the bikes, then they are set to work doing other tasks that benefit the commune’s economy, either cleaning up the messes of the bikers or producing entertainment for the residents. this same entertainment creates even more spending within the commune’s economy: the residents have to either pay for the programming itself or shell out merits to skip advertisements. the setup of this community resembles the american “company towns” that emerged during the industrial revolution. established by different companies across the united states as living spaces for their workers that would allow them to stay close to work and buy company products, these company towns would sometimes emerge as pleasant places to live, such as in hershey, pennsylvania, where workers were provided with “well-planned avenues that were lined with rows of shade trees,” “homes with spacious lawns, surrounded with shrubbery and flowers,” and working utilities, 150 garrett telephone lines, and a post office (coyle). often, however, these towns would be quite unpleasant, if not downright awful. according to author and journalist michele hirsch, during the boom in textile, coal, steel and other industries, [workers] often earned what’s called scrip instead of real money: a kind of credit they couldn’t spend anywhere but the company store, where prices were often higher than elsewhere. companies in these places often required that workers live in barebones company housing and send their kids to company-built schools, where the boss’s perspective was king. (hirsch) one of the most famous examples of these substandard company towns was pullman, illinois, founded by the industrialist george pullman in 1880. pullman “attempted to create a model company town that focused not only on design and planning but the regulation of public behavior . . . creating a model town that would protect the interests of capitalists and alleviate concerns of working class uprisings was likely one of the most powerful motivations for pullman’s visionary community” (baxter 653-654). even though there had been utopian experiments in the united states before, many of them had been unpalatable to middleand upper-class americans either because they were based upon socialist principles (like new harmony, indiana) or a religion other than protestant christianity (such as the mormons’ attempts at utopia in both the east and the west). pullman’s community specifically appealed to this demographic because while “most utopian communities were established with the goals of eliminating the social structures that informed an increasingly corporate, capitalist industrial system,” pullman’s explicit goal was to perfect these structures (baxter 654-655). pullman’s utopia, which is now a neighborhood of chicago, was originally fairly isolated from the rest of the world, the only major connection to chicago being a passenger railway. there were myriad amenities in the city: markets, theaters, libraries, parks, banks, and a non-denominational church—which could be rented out by anyone—were available for all to use (baxter 655-656). the catch, however, was that the skilled workers and executive personnel were given better homes and better locations, living much closer to all of these perks of the town and the eyes of visitors, while the unskilled workers were relegated to the fringes of the city (baxter 656). the services that the town provided also came with the caveat that everything was regulated by pullman and his company: liquor stores were illegal, the books in the library were chosen according to pullman's discretion, and the 151 garrett company was always the one to arrange which performances were allowed to take place in the theater (baxter 656). to keep the town profitable, pullman set very high rents to both compete with those of chicago and to fold the town’s costs into the workers’ bills (baxter 656). everyone in the town was technically working for the good of the community, but at great personal cost to themselves. this system was tolerated for fourteen years, but the company eventually overstepped its bounds: “pullman lowered wages in 1894 in the wake of an economic depression, but refused to lower rents and other charges at the same time. workers rose up, leading to a strike and boycott that eventually involved as many as 250,000 workers in 27 states, resulting in up to 30 deaths, millions of dollars lost and months of disrupted rail traffic” (hirsch). the government eventually sent troops in to break up the strike, effectively ending the capitalist experiment. pullman’s utopia failed because he refused to take into consideration the needs of his lower-class workers; he didn’t realize that it wasn’t a utopia for everyone and paid the price for his ignorance. despite being set over a century in the future, the world of “fifteen million merits” is incredibly similar to communities like pullman’s. just like the workers in company towns were only paid with scrip that was good at the local store, the merits that the people in black mirror are paid with are (as far as the viewer can tell) only good for purchasing items within the commune itself. furthermore, everything is regulated and priced; even the smallest drop of toothpaste squeezed out of a dispenser or a pump of soap after going to the bathroom will cost you merits in this world. the products that they serve to the workers for merits are also marked up in cost, just like the items that would be for sale in company towns. while there are no outside prices to compare the merit totals to, when the main character, bing madsen, is getting lunch early in the episode, a woman who rides a bike near his helps him to get an apple out of the vending machine in the commissary. when she pulls it out of the machine, she says, “almost the only real thing in there, and even that’s grown in a petri dish” (“fifteen million merits” 00:05:48-00:05:50). if that’s the case—if the food that is being sold in the commissary really is grown from petri dishes—then that means that it was likely produced at very little cost to those that run the commune. for bing, meanwhile, that apple and an energy drink cost 5,500 merits. by creating the products that they give the residents at such low costs and charging them exorbitant amounts of merits, the leaders of the commune in which bing lives are able to reap 152 garrett great rewards, if not in cash, then in the energy that is ostensibly being created by the bikes. furthermore, the very fact that the merits are digital rather than physical makes it that much easier for these people to flagrantly spend their money. since everything costs so much and everyone willingly buys into the system, the residents are forced to ride their bikes for long hours of the day if they hope to keep living in relative comfort. yet another way that the leaders of this community keep people sedate and compliant is by blurring the lines between “reality” and what is truly “real.” while those terms may seem to mean the same thing, that is not the case for bing and his coworkers. for them, “reality” is a constructed existence that takes place both within and in tandem with the computer systems installed throughout the building. when they use the computers for tangible rewards, they are given artificially grown food and opportunities to compete in contests that only codify the system further. all other rewards are digital; these people are obsessed with getting new accessories (similar to “skins” from video games) for their avatars, even though these digital characters aren’t real and have no bearing on the daily functions of their lives. even though the products they buy both in and out of the computers aren’t really “real,” they are part of the reality that the leaders of this commune have carefully built to sustain the illusion of self-determination and choice. as if the exceedingly high prices and deliberate obfuscation of reality weren’t enough, the people living in this community are constantly reminded of the merits that they spend. there is a small counter with everyone’s current merit totals at the bottom of every screen, and whenever anyone buys something, the total immediately drops to account for the purchase. while this seems like a handy way to keep track of one’s money, almost like an ever-present banking app, the merit counter is, in fact, reinforcing the economy as it stands. in an article in the harvard business review, professors john t. gourville and dilip soman provide an example of this phenomenon using gym memberships: if one person pays $600 up front for a year of membership, while a second person pays $50 a month for a year, the second person will, in fact, use the gym more. even though they’re paying the same cost for the membership, the first customer will see their “drive [to exercise] lessen as the pain of his $600 payment fades into the past. [the second customer], on the other hand, will be steadily reminded of the cost of her membership because she makes payments every month. she will 153 garrett feel the need to get her money’s worth throughout the year and will workout more regularly,” and, because of this, “[the second customer] will be far more likely to renew her membership when the year is over” (gourville and soman). just like the second customer, the people in “fifteen million merits” are constantly “renewing their membership,” so to speak; they spend money on food, toothpaste, television programs, and everything else, and each time they do this, their merit counts fall right before their eyes. these people, therefore, are induced to enjoy and use everything that they buy, giving them the idea that they are benefitting from this society and keeping them coming back for more. despite the lack of meaning and obsession with consumption that dictate the lives of the people living in the commune of “fifteen million merits,” these residents still believe that they are living in a utopia. many of them are shown to be happy with the lives they are given, gleefully going along with the lewd and disgusting programming that is shown (programming based largely upon sexual harassment and fat-shaming) and spending their money on outfits for their virtual avatars or programs to hypnotize them into having pleasant dreams or eating healthier. they even compete to be the most productive in this system, with leaderboards keeping track of who has pedaled the most on a given day being used as “another way to reinforce the behavior…and it fosters that competitive spirit, makes [them] want to be the best,” factoring into the capitalist ideal of being rewarded for greater contributions to society and the economy (“the psychology of black mirror” 00:24:3500:24:45). aside from minor complaints from various characters, there are only two instances of public resistance to the amorphous regime in place. the first comes when bing donates fifteen million merits, which he received from his deceased brother, to a woman he has a crush on, abi. bing gives her this money to get her a spot on hot shot, hoping that she may escape the mechanical drudgery of everyday life if she wins. before she goes onstage, the crew gives her a mandatory juice box filled with a drink called “cuppliance,” and she immediately feels as though “everything just went wider apart” (“fifteen million merits” 00:30:07-00:30:08). after she sings, the judges admit that she is a good singer, but say that she doesn’t have what it takes to be a stand-out contestant and urge her to become an actress on wraithbabes. she initially resists, but the drug that she ingested before the performance makes her confused and more pliable to both the suggestions of the judges and the jeers 154 garrett of the crowd watching behind them; as bing realizes what’s about to happen, he calls her name and starts to run onstage but is immediately seized by the crew and dragged away. here we see society being kept in line by themselves once again; however, the root cause this time is not capitalist principles, but mob mentality. during screenings of hot shot, the audience isn’t actually at the show; rather, they are viewing it in their cells or on their televisions and their avatar becomes part of a virtual crowd behind the judges. this physical disconnect and anonymity allows the viewers to emotionally detach themselves from what they see onstage. even if these people have worked with abi in the bike rooms, she turns into just a character on the television. this makes it easier for a herd mentality to take over when the judges send people like abi into the pornography industry; without an emotional connection to abi anymore, these people are willing to follow the whims of the most authoritative figures on the show, those being the judges. in creating such a dynamic between the powerful members of this society and the everyday workers, the leaders of this commune have turned the residents into their own oppressors. as psychotherapist michael drane says, “even though they’re all part of the system, they’re all just as screwed as she is. they are a necessary tool of influence” (“the psychology of black mirror” 00:56:23-00:56:33). when abi agrees to become a porn star, the rage and remorse that bing feels drives him to exhibit the second example of resistance to the regime in this episode. he saves up another fifteen million merits and goes on the show himself, smuggling in abi’s empty cuppliance cup to trick the crew into letting him go on without having had a drink. he starts by performing a short dance routine before pulling out a large shard of glass and threatening to cut his throat unless they allow him to say what he wants to say. he goes on to eviscerate the judges, the system they stand for, and the way that all the citizens of the commune are living: all we know is fake fodder and buying shit! it’s how we speak to each other. how we speak to each other, how we express ourselves, is buying shit. what, i have a dream? the peak of our dreams is a hat for our doppel. a hat doesn’t exist! it’s not even there! we buy shit that’s not even there! show us something real and free and beautiful, you couldn’t. it’d break us. we’re too numb for it. our minds will wonder whatsoever, you dole it out in meager portions, and only then till its augmented and packaged and pumped through ten thousand pre-assigned 155 garrett filters, till it’s nothing more than a meaningless series of lights, while we ride, day in, day out, going where? powering what? all tiny cells and tiny screens, and bigger cells and bigger screens… (“fifteen million merits” 00:52:56-00:53:42) the crowd watching hot shot is silent until one of the judges praises bing’s tirade as “the most heartfelt thing [he’s] seen on this stage since hot shot began and offers bing a deal: he can get off the bikes if he live streams two such rants for a half hour every week for entertainment. after some hesitation, bing takes the deal. the society in which they live even finds ways to make protests part of the machine: if they can’t silence a dissenter, then they convince him to prostitute his rants for his own profit. just as they do with everything else, the leaders of this society take anything that even approaches being real—such as bing’s tirade—and funnel it into the reality that they want their workers to believe in. where george pullman was ignorant of the desires of his workers and used force to keep them in check when his carefully regulated media didn’t work, the leaders of the community in “fifteen million merits” instead cater to what their residents desire and use underhanded means such as drugs and bribes to stop anyone who isn’t lulled into a consumptive coma by the constant deluge of stimulation. all of the capitalistic elements of this society aside, it also seems as though it could be a spin on a socialist utopia. even though individuals are given the opportunity to stand out on hot shot, homogeneity is for the most part praised above all else. all of the rooms in the complex look almost exactly the same; the residents all wear the same blank, gray outfits; they are all expected to be updating their online counterparts to supposedly express their individuality, even though they’re forsaking their independence from the rest of the commune in doing so; and those that do not conform to this society’s ideal of the perfect worker (namely, those who are not fit enough to be constantly riding the bikes) are shamed for their “deficiency.” personal possessions are also not allowed for those that are not given special privilege by winning their own program on hot shot; abi is fond of making origami animals out of waste paper before she is forced into pornography, but they always have to be thrown out at the end of the day. furthermore, if the bikes are in fact powering the installation in which they live, then they are all implicitly working for the common good by riding 156 garrett them all day long; without the power from those bikes, the entire community would cease to function correctly. its barter economy shows that it can’t be an all-out communist society, but it could easily be a socialist one where everyone is working together for the good of the group. as professor james brennan writes in why not capitalism?, however, “there is an essential asymmetry in the capitalist and socialist versions of utopia… capitalists allow socialism, but socialists forbid capitalism….a capitalist utopia would allow people to form communes, but a socialist utopia would forbid [one] from owning a factory by [themself]” (case). applying this statement to “fifteen million merits” shows that this society must be a capitalist utopia rather than a socialist one. there are qualities of both capitalism and socialism in the community, but since capitalism can allow socialism but socialism can’t allow capitalism, that means that a capitalist utopia must be the correct designation for this establishment. the society in which bing and abi live, while unsettling, may still seem quite out of reach. even though many of the concepts used by brooker are part of modern society, the extent to which this world has gone appears to be far beyond the realm of possibility. in daily life, however, we can see aspects of it creeping in. in games with microtransactions, the companies that produce them are able to rake in large profits with very little effort by creating the illusion that their system is unavoidable if one wants to compete with other players in both the actual gameplay and the visual appeal of the gaming experience. we also see this business model in luxury hotels: you have the base charge for the room, and you aren’t required to pay for anything else; however, if you wish to enjoy the services of the pool, the snacks and drinks in the room, or even the convenience of a wifi password, you’re forced to pay more. when this same idea is applied to somewhere in which residents are not able to leave by choice, such as in private, for-profit prisons, the owners of such complexes are able to make a fortune. beyond microtransactions, there are numerous other examples of how modern society is already showing characteristics of brooker’s dystopia. streaming services offer constant entertainment for those willing to pay, and customers can pay even more to bypass ads in their programming, just like the citizens in “fifteen million merits.” citizens are expected to go to their jobs and “contribute to society” every single day, whether they enjoy their jobs or not, and often have 157 garrett to pay exorbitant prices at company cafeterias quite similar to that in which bing eats. increasing numbers of people, especially children, are perfectly willing to spend real-world currency on virtual perks and cosmetics, things which don’t really exist and which don’t enhance one’s life in any way, like a new piece of armor for a character or the ability to perform a specific dance move or say a line of dialogue known as an “emote” to gloat after defeating an enemy. a study of 1,000 players of fortnite showed that almost 70% of players had spent money on the game, and the average amount spent among those players was about $85 (tassi). the game itself, at least in its beta form, is completely free. talent shows like the x factor and american idol are also dangled over our heads as ways to escape from day-to-day drudgery, and those that don’t make the cut for a so-called “good” job (either because of a lack of experience or higher education or for another reason) are relegated to positions such as janitorial staff and looked down upon by those who work in the same building. those that genuinely start out to criticize the institutions of modern society can end up becoming pr giants and becoming focused on their own popularity rather than the cause in which they may have initially believed. on both social media and online gaming platforms, people are exposed to constructed realities everyday, with amorphous algorithms determining what they are or are not exposed to at any given moment. these environments also create vicious instances of mob mentality, which in the worst cases have lead to suicides and accidental deaths, such as when gamers have emergency services to a location where they are not needed and have inadvertently caused people’s deaths. the only things missing are the claustrophobic living quarters and ubiquitous wall screens, and those are both not out of the realm of possibility. just because a place is considered a utopia by some doesn’t mean that it is indeed a perfect society. just as the soviet union was intended to be a communist utopia but devolved into a socialist dictatorship, so can a capitalist utopia begun with either the best or worst of intentions become a center of exploitation that uses competition and isolation to drive its residents to fuel the machine that controls the community, be that machine an industrial-era company or an invisible leadership, as is the case in “fifteen million merits.” it may be a utopia for those in charge and for those that are willing to submit to a life that consists of only work and meaningless entertainment, but for people 158 garrett like abi and bing, the system is an intolerable and unstoppable behemoth that quashes any resistance that by manipulating them into taking jobs in self-destructive programming to escape the daily slog of riding the bikes. even though the ultra-confined society present in the second episode of black mirror may seem as though it is far from the current reality, a closer look seems to signal that it could arrive much sooner than one might think. in the blink of an eye, everyone may be scrambling to earn their fifteen million merits. 159 garrett works cited anderton, kevin. “the ongoing controversy of microtransactions [infographic].” forbes, 7 mar. 2018, https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinanderton/2018/03/07/the-on-going-controversy of-microtransactions-in-gaming-infographic/#235a0d3e1d9c. accessed 16. jan 2019. baxter, jane eva. “the paradox of a capitalist utopia: visionary ideals and lived experience in the pullman community 1880—1900.” international journal of historical archaeology, vol. 16, no. 4, december 2012, pp. 651-665. springer link, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/ s10761-012-0196-8. accessed 16 jan. 2019. brooker, charlie, et al. inside black mirror. crown archetype, 2018. case, spencer. “capitalist utopia: a review of why not capitalism? by jason brennan.” national review, 4 sept. 2014, https://www.nationalreview.com/2014/09/capitalist-utopia-spencer case/. accessed 16 jan. 2019. coyle, millie landis. “the town.” hershey-derry historical society, 2016, http://www. org/library /hershey/96-the-town. accessed 19 feb. 2019. “fifteen million merits.” black mirror, series 1, episode 2, channel 4, 11 dec. 2011. netflix, https:// www.netflix.com/watch/70264858?trackid=200254291&tctx=0%2c1%2cc280edcc-ba68-4c6 9-98e8-b25ab5a4e2ff-94045603%2c6c1e2199-babc-4725-b868-504624ad4da7_30054600x6 xx1547734021931%2c6c1e2199-babc-4725-b868-504624ad4da7_root. gourville, john t. and dilip soman. “pricing and the psychology of consumption.” harvard business review, september 2000, https://hbr.org/2002/09/pricing-and-the-psychology-of-consumpti n. accessed 18 feb. 2019. hirsch, michele lent. “america’s company towns, then and now.” smithsonian.com, 4 sept. 2015, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/americas-company-towns-then-and-now-18095638 2/. accessed 16 jan. 2019. tassi, paul. “study says 69% of ‘fortnite’ players spend money on the game, $85 spent on average.” forbes, 26 june 2018, https://www.forbes.com/sites/ insertcoin/2018/06/26/ 160 garrett works cited study-says-69-of-fortnite-players-spend-money-on-the-game-85-spent-on-average/#7c54e0702060. accessed 17 jan. 2019. “the psychology of black mirror—episode 2: “fifteen million merits.”” v, uploaded by unpopular culture podcast, 19 mar. 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_ continue=2&v=e5ak0u5i2_i. introduction 6 mind the gap: an analysis of the construction and cultural function of borders in media grace babcock, cara walsh, cali fehr, aurora hibbert, sam scoma, calvin sheinfeld, digital literature review editorial team borders confine and divide; they keep “us” in and “them” out–what was fruitful coexistence yesterday could become a turbulent division tomorrow. yet the borders raised up out of these shifting relationships remain subject to the constraints of the people who build them, the places and realms they divide, and, ultimately, time itself. just as a physical wall may be built brick-by-brick, a border is raised gradually, often secretly, as the temperature of the sociopolitical climate rises. these physical walls are often built from the bricks of metaphysical borders, laid on the foundation of power and fortified by majority acceptance of a border’s reality. a prototypical example of a border both physical and metaphysical is brexit, the united kingdom’s vote to withdraw from the european union in 2016. the repercussions of brexit are still echoing throughout the world, just as how brexit itself took decades to develop. as in the case of northern ireland, brexit drew new lines over ancient maps. these revised borders were enforced by those in power, their force exerted over those who walked where fences now lie. in her essay “fences: a brexit diary,” zadie smith reveals first-hand how perceptions of social attitudes create a veil that can hide conflicting views, especially from those living within the same community. she notices how brexit revealed not only the split in political views in her community, but the flawed democratic system that spurred britain’s departure. although the question of whether ‘to leave or stay’ was posed as a binary, the network of consequences that would ensue prompted complex reasoning among citizens. two years later, borders that have been rising slowly now stand jagged and sharp in the forefront of a political climate wrought with fear. at the time of writing, the world watches russia dispute the borders of ukraine, still reeling from the outbreak of a global pandemic where friend and enemy; life and death; hope and reality itself are thinly veiled. psychologically, humans are social creatures who possess a deep-rooted desire to protect our kind. in the modern world’s sea of ever-changing diversity, however, everyone must constantly seek out ways to differentiate between friend and foe. therefore, we establish an increasing number of physical borders every day to divide groups which possess distinct social traits. prison yards separate law-abiders and law-breakers, lima’s wall of shame carves out the rich and poor neighborhoods, belfast’s peace walls separate catholics and protestants. yet oftentimes, citizens cross these borders by uniting through a common identity. china’s great wall once kept out invading nomads but quickly became a walkable symbol of regional pride, while east and west berlin came together to tear down the berlin wall. as identity fluctuates, borders come in and out of relevance; they are built and destroyed in a constant battle to define identity. but not all borders are so easily identified—metaphysical borders also determine who belongs within a group and who is worthy of protection, such as race, nationality, sexuality, religion, and identity. they can invisibly divide one’s internal life from their external, their real feelings from their overt expression. borders are simultaneously concrete and abstract, inter-and-intrapersonal, social and individual. many pieces of literature focus on challenging a character’s sense of identity, either to strengthen their sense of self-worth or to rebuild their selfhood entirely. this phenomenon occurs in countless ways, from inward reflection to peer-led awakenings, from minor accidents to world upheavals. real and fictional characters across both geography and history traverse borders in both physical and mental space in order to overcome confining, borderlike circumstances and discover what lies across the fence. it is because of the diverse, continuously shifting nature of borders across time, introduction 7 belfast’s wall of separation serves as a physical border between catholics and protestants (image via grace babcock) lima’s wall of shame contains the poor community (left) to keep them from mixing with the rich community (right) (robinson) regional space, and personal experience that the digital literature review felt compelled to explore them. when considering how borders continue to affect global sociopolitical relationships, our team began to centrally question how we can best define our observation of and connection to our own experience of culture, those of our authors, and those detailed in texts. the theoretical framework under which we operated was outlined by homi k. bhabha in his introduction to the location of culture. our frame of reference for captivating culture became a multifaceted exploration of the “past and present, inside and outside” of any of our conceptions of what culture “meant” (bhabha 2). this edition of our journal attempts to understand how the construction, destruction, and redefinition of the borders around us (established both physically and through the media we consume) reflect the “cultural hybridities that emerge in moments of historical transformation;” it is our version of a project that attempts to encapsulate “ambivalencies and ambiguities enacted in the house of fiction” (bhabha 3; 27). the digital literature review wanted to provide another space to create cultural conversations between texts, between authors, and between critical perspectives. in doing so, then, we must confront the real dangers that strict border-making has on global politics and on human life. in gloria anzaldúa ‘s borderlands/la frontera: the new mestiza, she utilizes a mixture of spanish and english to reveal how culture can divide and limit self-identity. she examines how culture has both expanded and confined her own identity as a lesbian chicano, and illustrates her struggle to break out of a cultural narrative that rejects her sexuality, her ambition, and her mixed racial background. anzaldúa takes the position that the conscious and unconscious fear of rejection creates feelings of unease with the inner self, the parts of the soul that are deemed unsavory, which she refers to as the “shadow-beast”(anzaldúa 38). she discusses growing up in america and experiencing prejudice against spanish and her accent, uncovering how chicano spanish, a dialect which she calls a “border-tongue,” was a part of her expression of culture and heritage (anzaldúa 77). similarly, in her speech “grievability and resistance,” feminist theorist judith butler reminds her audience of the necessity to bring “intellectual resources to bear” on the damage that artificially constructed borders across europe, and to consider how borders like those which separate countries are “determined and interpreted.” butler states that the enforcement of borders and the cementation of isolationist policies continue to redefine “who is considered living;” borders, then, take on a “lethal power” to dictate who is assigned dignity and who is not. in many of our selected essays, there is a marked recentralization of human dignity and a deep exploration of the many “forms by which grievability is asserted” by refugees, by survivors, and by the artists who encapsulate these experiences (butler, “grievability and resistance”). one of the biggest barriers for the expression of selfhood, autonomy, and culture introduction 8 are those constructed by the institutions of the global community and authors themselves. the threats to refugees outlined in butler’s speech are made manifest in riley ellis’s essay “stranger danger: the imperialist tendencies of peacemakers.” ellis discusses how abusive patterns of peacekeeping organizations, namely the united nations, affect the creation and enforcement of physical borders. through her analysis of the novels girl at war by sara nović and exit west by mohsin hamid, ellis details the experiences of three unique victims of war. she illustrates how peacekeeping institutions like the united nations reinforce geographical borders and endanger the people on either side, often stripping them of their humanity in exchange for the enforcement of their policy. ellis cultivates an in-depth look into imperialism to explain how the peacekeeping organizations’ invasion of privacy and repeated violation of human rights in war-torn countries leads to desperate, often treacherous border crossings like those shown in nović’s and hamid’s texts. delving further into the discussion of the social institutions that provoke protagonists to cross institutional borders, author erin mckee continues analyzing nović and hamid’s novels in her essay “currency and border crossings: the role of social class in exit west and girl at war.” mckee details how access to money correlates with access to and through borders. her essay picks up the economic threads woven through ellis’s discussion of geographical borders, but focuses further on how immigration is primarily hindered or bolstered by the institution of social class. finally, mckee argues that even when people such as the refugees in girl at war and exit west successfully cross geographical borders, they are still bound by physical borders which encircle them. social class limits access to currency, which mckee argues reinforces physical borders like food security, xenophobic racism, and other barriers low-income immigrants face on either side of the geographic borders between their countries. class and financial stability are often weaponized by border agents and wielded against the most vulnerable. labor, the primary asset of the working class, is rarely protected by profit-driven capitalists and frequently contributes to the abuse of employees. the government of the uk, with its decision to secede from the european union, made physical the preexisting economic and social borders between demographic groups. as explored in natalie fulghum’s essay, “my neighbor is lesser: a look at xenophobic social borders that would lead to brexit,” the underlying, dangerous xenophobia hurt recent migrant families and festered in the uk before the government’s official decision to “brexit.” through her analysis of kazuo ishiguro’s never let me go and steven frears’ss dirty pretty things, fulghum illustrates the multiple ways that xenophobic ideology violates immigrants’ sense of bodily autonomy and often dehumanizes them to capitalize off of the labor they produce without guilt. work becomes more essential than personhood, while the borders that slice through britain’s population continue to divide its population into those who “fit” introduction 9 and those who do not. access to reliable transportation, too, is an inherent luxury of middle-to-upper class life. the two road narratives included in the digital literature review simultaneously provide an exploration of moving through, across, and over regional space while detailing the effects that these travels have on the arc of the narrative’s characters. like the works which preceded it, cassidy forbing’s essay, “an exploration of the ford within the remains of the day,” details the way social and economic class affect the perception individual characters have of one another. stevens, an english butler hired in service of a newmoney american entrepreneur, navigates both the countryside of his homeland and the social expectations of the evolving elite class as he drives across england in an expensive ford and encounters new acquaintances and old friends. in eden fowler’s analysis of the multiple borders in the film little miss sunshine, the vehicle the hoover family uses to cross state lines is far less glamorous: a barely-functional volkswagen van. as the family struggles (both financially and logistically) to get their daughter olive to her dream beauty pageant, each member experiences embarrassment, discomfort, companionship, and contentment at different points throughout their story. both stevens and the hoovers experience substantial individual development as they move across their native territories and transgress both physical and emotional borders; they gain an understanding of their own personal experience, their connections with those they meet and love, and finally their place in the world that surrounds them. at this point, the editors of the digital literature review noticed a distinct evolution of argumentative focus away from a discussion of the constructions, institutions, and physical borders that fracture our society and towards those which explore the effects of metaphysical, psychological, or social borders. the throughline, however, was evidently the fact that the borders identified by our authors still had similar effects on the narrative outcomes and character trajectories in-text. in her essay “dreams, doors, and death: exploring liminal space and mortality in exit west and the farming of bones,” grace babcock explores the ways in which constructed space can affect growth. however, babcock explores not physical spaces, but rather the liminal spaces present in danticat’s the farming of bones and hamid’s exit west and their contrasting effects on emotional healing. it is the crossing into these intangible spaces that amabelle in the farming of bones and nadia and saeed in exit west are confronted with the borders they construct within themselves. brigid maguire similarly centers her discussion on the novel’s exploration of mortality. rather than turn her attention to the internal borders discussed by babcock, maguire focuses on the other moments in the texts that mirror the border of death for liesel and amabelle. death, as the character that appears in the book thief, and death, as the concept and the border between life and the absence of it, interact with the main characters of the book introduction 10 thief and the farming of bones in intimate, heartbreaking ways. these essays do not navigate geographical space, but detail borders’ effects on the characters’ own internal lives, lived experience, and responses to traumatic events. metaphysical borders are complicated still through olivia grenier’s analysis of the multitude of ways that language and culture define the ways that both authors and readers understand the experiences of a narrative’s characters. in grenier’s essay, “confronting potential cultural barriers in translated works,” she discusses the impact of the linguistic and cultural translation present in the short stories “no name woman” and “woman hollering creek,” by maxine hong kingston and sandra cisneros. grenier notes that translation occurs when cisneros provides both english and spanish phrases in her writing to make it accessible for the monolingual reader while kingston retells the story of her aunt living in china for an audience unfamiliar with chinese social expectations.grenier’s analysis digs into the question of whether the continued crossing of the border of translation is one that benefits the reader and respects the culture of the author. in discussing the impact of translation on literature, readers are introduced to a metaphysical border that is not so finite as the border of death discussed in the previous papers. rather, we interact with a border that can be crossed and recrossed repeatedly for different purposes and to different effects. cultural expectations have perhaps the most influence on the construction of social borders. kingston’s exploration of behavioral expectations as dictators of gender performance are further examined throughout the conclusion of this edition of the digital literature review. specifically, media and popular culture shackle and restrain identity by laying out limits on how different genders should behave. specifically, superhero film culture continues to engage itself in a battle to depict toxic masculinity as either favorable or disdainful through the character arcs of popular superheroes and supervillains. in the dlr’s penultimate essay, “borders of masculinity: the hero’s journey in the marvel cinematic universe,” cara walsh argues that the mcu illustrates masculinity as a border to emotional and character growth in relation to the hero’s journey. walsh bases her argument on the mcu’s three foundational heroes—iron man, captain america, and thor—to analyze the ways in which toxic masculinity manifests in their identities to create roadblocks for their personal lives and progression along the hero’s journey. walsh claims that sociocultural notions of masculinity influence not only their self identity but also the way in which they attempt to fulfill the hero archetype. though iron man, captain america, and thor demonstrate these effects in ways distinct to their character, the conflicts they face are rooted in toxic masculinity and halt their growth as heroes. sam scoma’s essay, “it’s all about the punch(line): the crossing of masculinity’s border as portrayed in todd phillips’s joker” analyzes the character arc of awkward, isolationist party clown arthur fleck. fleck initially has no access to social status, wealth, or confidence due to his unmasculine introduction 11 appearance and temperament, but is able to gain social acclaim, newfound happiness, and confidence once he adopts the toxic masculine traits of physical violence, emotional suppression, and sexual dominance. scoma argues that young men who are still developing their identity see themselves in fleck the underdog, and are thus susceptible to mirroring his toxic behaviors to gain similar social acclaim. both walsh and scoma’s essays rely on the theoretical framework of hegemonic masculinity, a hierarchical social structure which allows men who adopt harmful traits to hold the most power in society. this theory emphasizes the social act of grooming men, which can occur through watching films and participating in pop culture. the world of literature is rife with examples of borders, both physical and metaphysical. these works featured in the following journal are ordered intentionally to guide the audience through the ways in which our institutions, our perceptions, our relationships, our language, and our culture simultaneously construct intimidating barriers and provide avenues for personal and collective growth. we encourage both personal reflection and critical engagement with these essays, and aim to provide the space for the analysis which identifies the dangers, the luxuries, and the lasting effects of the many borders which influence identities. the turn of each page, the click of each link, and the inspiration behind each assertion is a border-crossing itself; we urge you to recognize, to notice, and to consider the borders which influence your own understanding of this work. thank you, and see you on the other side, grace babcock, cali fehr, aurora hibbert, sam scoma, calvin sheinfeld, and cara walsh. introduction 12 works cited anzaldúa, gloria. borderlands, la frontera: the new mestiza. aunt lute books, 1987. bhabha, homi k. the location of culture. routledge, 1994. butler, judith. “grievability and resistance.” borders and the politics of mourning, the zolberg institute on migration and mobility, 2016, the new school, new york city, ny. keynote address. robinson, julian. “divide: pictures show peru’s ten-foot high wall of shame topped with razor wire which divides the rich and poor to stop the less well-off stealing from the wealthy.” daily mail, associated newspapers ltd, 22 dec. 2018, https://www. dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3370316/peru-s-ten-foot-high-wall-shame-topped-razor-wire-divides-rich-poor-stop-stealing-wealthy.html. smith, zadie. “fences: a brexit diary.” the new york review of books, 18 august 2016, https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2016/08/18/fences-brexit-diary/. introduction 13 food studies in media provide complex layers to the films that viewers quite literally consume, a fact complicated depending on how one analyzes food. different theories, lenses, and contexts can change how food is used in film, much like how using different ingredients in a recipe can alter the final product. but why does food matter in film, and how do directors use food to create meaning? food is often employed to symbolize greater significance or to prove a point that a director wants to assert in their film. for example, bong joon-ho’s film parasite (2019) utilizes food to symbolize social class: food is a vehicle in this film to show both the stark divide between the upper and lower classes and how such economic disparity can be perilous for society. bong does this to warn viewers that class inequality is unjust by demonstrating how greed within different social classes warrants grave consequences. ultimately, parasite concludes with the patriarch of the ultra-wealthy park family deceased while the extremely impoverished kim family is divided, still dangerously poor, and suffering the death of their daughter/sister. while these may be extreme conclusions to draw from the film, parasite aims to warn its viewers of the greed between social classes that could lead to such dismal ends. bong accomplishes this through the placement of food: it symbolizes the class divide that each family struggles with in different ways. the parasite of society: food and class studies in bong joon-ho’s parasite emily turner, ball state university essay the role that food plays in film typically has more meaning than a viewer might realize at first. often viewers watch movies for entertainment without analyzing the context that the food in each scene provides to the richness of the plot. for example, bong joon-ho’s 2019 award-winning film parasite thrills its audience while warning them about the dangers of capitalism and class disparity. despite the popularity of this film, the aspect of food was quietly forgotten even though it enhances the movie’s theme. bong intentionally placed food in this film to signify class status, which further divides the park and kim families. while this is a critically-acclaimed film, there is not much scholarship devoted to food studies, concerning social class in parasite; therefore, i am drawing upon movie reviews as well as scholarly work about food in media. in doing this, i have studied parasite through lenses of socioeconomic theory as well as food theory to analyze how food is used in the film. food involves more than simply preparing ingredients and consuming the final product, especially when used in media and popular culture: it often provides deeper meaning that must be examined in order to know what is truly being said. in the film parasite, food is the vehicle that bong uses to signify social status, and furthermore, it signals class disparities between the wealthy and impoverished. beyond the film, bong uses food to warn his audience how class inequality could be the downfall, the parasite, of society. 7 | turner although parasite is a critically-acclaimed film, due to its newness, there is not much scholarship devoted to it; therefore, my essay draws from film reviews, socio-economic and food theories, and scholarly work about food and media in order to show how parasite uses food to elucidate class inequality that threatens dire ramifications for the whole of society. food involves more than simply preparing ingredients and consuming the final product, especially when employed in media and popular culture. in parasite, food is the vehicle that bong utilizes to signify social status, and furthermore, class disparities between the wealthy and impoverished. such class disparity—the struggle over wealth and resources—beckons the collapse of society as the rich become richer and the poor become poorer until society can no longer withstand the pressure of the parasitic relationship that capitalism fosters. in the film, viewers are first introduced to the kim family: they are living in a crowded basement, and it becomes obvious from the clothes they wear, their lack of wi-fi connection, and their living situation that they are impoverished. the kim family is always in need of work, so when ki-woo, the son, tricks his way into tutoring the daughter of the wealthy park family, the kims take extreme measures to infiltrate the park household for employment through various means. the parks are oblivious to the kims’ schemes—they are blissfully unaware since they rely so heavily on the employment of the lower class to maintain their homelife. however, their ambient relationship turns parasitic once the parks’ old employees threaten to reveal that the kims have been scamming the parks for work. the kims will do anything to keep their jobs, including murder, but the struggle over power and wealth comes to a head when chaos unfolds at the end of the film due to the parasitic relationship that each family cultivates. bong leaves the viewers questioning the inner workings of capitalism and class inequality as they reflect on which family was the true antagonist, or parasite, of the film. bong portrays the class divide between the kim and park families in a variety of ways, including their homes, lifestyles, levels of education, and hygiene. for example, the park family lives in a pristine, well-kept mansion while the kim family lives in a crowded, dirty basement. yet, when we consider food theory in cinema, it becomes clear that food in parasite is a key mechanism through which bong critiques class exploitation. anne bower and thomas piontek explain that “[t]hroughout cinematic history, food has played a part in all kinds of films, frequently revealing aspects of characters’ emotions, identities, cultural backgrounds, fears, and inspirations” (177). food in parasite acts as a vehicle to explore not only the families’ socio-economic statuses but also the sheer divide between the two, which is why the film ends with death and despair. the park family consumes food out of luxury while the kim family consumes and uses food out of necessity: this demonstrates how each family operates within their respective social classes. hojin song explains how food studies can be used to identify systems within media: “through identifying and studying food categories, it is possible to decode the religious, political, economic, social, and cultural systems in which food and food-centered practices are embedded” (5). song’s ideology can be used to analyze the food in parasite as social and economic mechanisms, like how food and consumption denotes a class divide between the two families, ultimately pushing each family to collapse. while the parks consume in excess, the kims consume the bare minimum due to their poverty, which promotes the greed that causes them to infiltrate the parks’ lavish homelife. bong’s employment of food to denote social status is particularly striking because food is needed to survive. access to food should be a given right; however, parasite highlights how this is not true among the essay turner | 8 impoverished. while the parks have fully stocked fridges and pantries as well as a maid to prepare their every meal, the kims must buy and consume food from vending machines. food is not guaranteed for the kim family. in other words, any scene that contains food and drink in parasite, whether it be ramdon or alcohol, signifies either economic distress or excess, suggesting that too much or too little of something—money, food, etc.—can be fatally dangerous, promoting the parasitic relationship of the rich profiting from the poor. although the kim and park families are starkly different, they act like symbiotics, sucking the life out of one another, to survive. put another way, the way in which each family prepares and consumes food symbolizes the class divide as well as how each family needs each other to live. the kim mother, choong-sook, must prepare meals for the park family as yeon-kyo, the park mother, does not have the capability to do similar tasks for her family on her own. due to her wealth and status, yeon-kyo never needed to learn how to cook or clean; therefore, she, as well as her family, are reliant on chong-sook. observer film critic mark kermode defines this relationship in his review as “[a] lifestyle that relies upon hired help: tutors, a chauffeur and, most importantly, a devoted housekeeper moon-gwang (lee jung-eun), who stayed with the building after its original architect owner moved out”. the kim family disposes of moon-gwang by exposing her to peaches, which she is allergic to, in order for chong-sook to take over as the parks’ maid. food here is used as a weapon; while the peach itself may not symbolize economic inequality, it does show the desperation of the kims to infiltrate the park family for their money. the kim family is so poor that they feel the need to endanger moon-gwang so they can be paid in her place. weaponizing food thus reflects the wealth gap that causes the kim family to go through such great lengths to acquire wealth. through the disposal of moon-gwang, choong-sook is able to become the new maid, which allows the viewers to see chong-sook preparing food for the kims. even though the parks could not produce their own meals without chong-sook, the kim family would not be able to buy their food without the money they receive from the parks. bong utilizes this symbiotic symbolism, from production to consumption of food within the two families, to highlight the downfalls of capitalism. neither the rich nor the poor can survive without each other, but to do so, the impoverished must suffer while the rich profits from such suffering. bong’s portrayal of food preparation and consumption in this film signifies such a divide between the two families and beyond them, concerning the wealthy upper class versus the impoverished lower class. parasite implies that without remedying class disparity, society will inevitably fail under the strain of greed caused by capitalism. despite being the poorest of the poor, working for an elite family can include certain advantages, though such benefits can come at a grave cost. while the park family is away on a camping trip for their son’s birthday, the kims sneak into the parks’ mansion to indulge in their employers’ riches through the consumption of alcohol, which leaves the family intoxicated. they drink in excess because consuming alcohol is a luxury that they cannot afford to enjoy due to their poor circumstances. french essayist and theorist roland barthes posits in his book mythologies that “[d]rinking is felt as the exposure of pleasure, not as the necessary cause of a sought-for effect: wine is not only a philter but also a durational act of drinking: the gesture here has a decorative value, and wine’s power is never separated from its modes of existence” (80). here, barthes is discussing wine; however, one can come to a similar conclusion within this scene even though the kim family consumes liquor as opposed to wine. both wine and essay 9 | turner liquor are alcoholic beverages that lead to drunkenness when overconsumed. while the parks use expensive liquor for decorative value, they are never shown drinking to become drunk. the kims, however, manipulate the parks’ wealth in order to drink for pleasure—a luxury. they invade their employers’ mansion while it is vacant, but they also invade the family’s lifestyle, feeding off of what the kims could never obtain without the park family. alcohol in this scene is a mode for transformation as well as escapism for the kim family: in doing so they are not only breaking and entering, but also stealing. viewers might resent the kims for stealing what is not theirs, or they might empathize with the family who is too poor to afford life’s necessities, let alone life’s luxuries. whether or not viewers support or chastise the kims in this scene, alcohol is a mechanism for morality: “wine thus provides a collective morality, within which everything is redeemed: excesses, disasters, crimes are of course possible with wine, but not wickedness, perfidy, or ugliness; the evil it can engender is in the nature of fate and therefore escapes penalization, it is a theatrical evil, not a temperamental one” (barthes 81). barthes claims that under the influence of alcohol, one can be immoral but not wicked, so while watching this scene in parasite, one must ask themselves: are the kims simply immoral, or are they committing evil acts? gluttony is a transgression; however, it feels impossible for the kim family to be gluttonous, even when they are drinking in excess, due to their poverty. conversely, the parks overconsume on a daily basis because of their wealth. it is immoral to break and enter. it is immoral to steal. but it is also immoral to be complacently rich in a society where the destitute struggle to provide for themselves day in and day out. through alcohol, bong highlights this question of morality that forces viewers to think critically about the economic inequality caused by capitalism. the alcohol scene thus marks the beginning of the end for the park and kim family, mirroring the downfall of society once it, too, inevitably fails. bong uses the alcohol scene to depict the kims as the luxurious, decadent family, but all illusions are suspended when yeon-kyo calls chong-sook, who is supposed to be home to house-sit, to inform her that they are coming home early from their camping trip due to bad weather. film critic manohla dargis from the new york times summarizes what is at stake during this scene: “by that point, you are as comfortably settled in as the kims; the house is so very pleasant, after all. but the cost of that comfort and those pretty rooms—and the eager acquiescence to the unfairness and meanness they signify—comes at a terrible price.” here, dargis refers to how certain aspects of capitalism have severe consequences as seen in the film. one scene in particular demonstrates the fatal class divide between the park and kim families via the production of food: when yeon-kyo is on the phone with chong-sook, she asks that chong-sook prepares ram-don for the family to eat when they arrive home. ram-don is a popular korean dish that is quick and easy to make on a budget, which is why it is so shocking to the kim family when yeon-kyo requests that chong-sook adds premium beef on top of the ram-don noodles. viewers who are unfamiliar with this dish might compare the oddness of the request to putting high quality steak on top of macaroni and cheese prepared from a box. evelyn yang provides further context to yeon-kyo’s request by observing that “[t]o add a steak on top of the cheap instant noodles is an act of qualifying and justifying mrs. park’s enjoyment of a ‘lower-class’ dish. the rich, despite their wealth, would still crave for things that are below their social status, but with their own imagination.” one can infer from yang that although the wealthy can relate to the poor by craving a cheap dish, they can never close the gap between social classes that capitalism established; yeon-kyo cannot consume ram-don on its own, for it essay turner | 10 must include wealthy ingredients such as premium beef. bernice chan and alkira reinfrank, writers and reporters for the south china morning post, describe how yeon-kyo’s request demonstrates how far removed the wealthy is from the rest of society: “this is meant to be a sign of how outlandishly rich these people are and how out of touch they are from what normal people eat.” therefore, yeon-kyo’s request for a cheap dish (despite the addition of steak) is also used for irony since she craves a dish typically reserved for those who cannot afford higher quality food. as soon as yeon-kyo hangs up the phone, chaos ensues as the kim family rushes to erase any signs that they have intruded before the parks’ return home. the premium ram-don and the kims’ panicked response after yeon-kyo’s call represents how each family cannot belong in the opposite social class, showing division among the families due to the wealth gap. the struggle for power and wealth between the park and kim families comes to a climax, resulting in bloodshed, trauma, and death. yeon-kyo throws an elaborate birthday party for her son da-song, the youngest member of the park family, that includes copious amounts of consumption fit for all the wealthy partygoers. they even watch a performance that mocks marginalized people (indigenous americans), showing how superior the wealthy believe they are compared to other groups: at the apex of the film, bong blatantly demonstrates how he thinks the wealthy dehumanize those who are poor or marginalized. the party ends horrifically when geun-sae, another impoverished captive of capitalism, escapes his confines and stabs ki-jung, the daughter of the kim family. geun-sae is moon-gwang’s husband, who she has hidden in the depths of the park mansion so that she could provide for him via the parks’ wealth—another symbiotic relationship. due to his devotion to the parks, as well as being mentally unstable because of the isolation, geun-sae escapes the basement and kills ki-jung. food, then, is an enabler for geun-sae because without the parks’ food and shelter, he would have never survived poverty. in the end, both families suffer from loss and severe trauma, which bong uses to signify how the overconsumption of wealth and resources proves to be fatal to both the upper and lower class, causing the eventual collapse of society. hence, the kims’ and parks’ relationship evolves from symbiosis to parasitism as the kims’ infiltration leads to the deaths and/or injury of members of each family. korean cinema researcher christina klein contends that “korean cinema allows us to think about the global circulation of u.s. popular culture in a more comprehensive way” (24-25). bong utilizes the party scene to take an inward look at korean social class disparity to then look outward in order to perceive how other capitalistic economies face the same struggles that viewers see in parasite. beyond the film, viewers must realize that unequal distribution, or hoarding, of wealth and resources destroys societies from within, much like how a parasite overtakes its host. bong’s use of food in this film is poignant as it is the vehicle to promote this anti-capitalistic message. by the end of the party scene, chong-sook fatally stabs geun-sae with a kabob stick, which symbolizes how even the poor are pitted against each other in the ever-lasting struggle for control over wealth. yang summarizes that “[bong] witnesses the story of parasite every day in a capitalist society. living in a world where capitalism dominates our values, where we celebrate our freedoms of choices, our wealth and quality of life are more polarized than ever.” food placement is essential for the analysis of the party scene as what began with the overconsumption of food ends with bloodshed. here, bong employs food to encapsulate the theme of his film: class divides promote the rich to benefit from the poor’s suffering before ultimately collapsing. both the kim and park families experience great loss by the end of the party scene, showing how their parasitic relationship that mimics the essay 11 | turner downfalls of capitalism festers and dies, much like how food inevitably rots and decomposes until it is nothing at all. bong utilizes food in parasite to highlight the danger and greed that promotes class inequality within capitalistic economies. through what each family consumes, bong shows the scarcity of wealth and resources of the kim family and the hoarding of the same items from the park family. furthermore, the kims use food as a weapon and a luxury, which shows their desperation for wealth, while the parks use food for comfort and decorative purposes. although parasite concludes with extreme consequences, it is simply warning viewers to take a critical look inwards at how their economy operates to create class inequality. food studies in this film provide rich and complex meaning beyond the overlying message that bong aims to promote: bong intentionally placed food in parasite to define the capitalistic structures that extend the gap between the rich and the poor. in the film, food symbolizes how greed and class disparity will ultimately cause the collapse of society. bong accomplishes this throughout the duration of the film, but his point is made evident at the end of the party scene wherein each family suffers injury, trauma, and death, demonstrating that capitalism is detrimental to every social class whether it be families as poor or as rich as the kims and parks. food preparation, delivery, and consumption in parasite shows that such distress and disparity among social classes lead to perilous ends to everyone within that society. essay turner | 12 works cited barthes, roland. “wine and milk.” mythologies. bréal, 2009, pp. 79–82. bower, anne, and thomas piontek. “food in film.” routledge international handbook of food studies, doi:10.4324/9780203819227.ch16. chan, bernice, and alkira reinfrank. “those ram-don noodles from parasite: a cheap noodle treat popular with students and not usually found on restaurant menus: south korean film parasite’s win at this year’s oscars also made a global star out of an elevated snack food classic. anyone for ram-don?” south china morning post, 26 june 2020, www.scmp.com/life style/food-drink/article/3090342/those-ram-don-noodles-parasite-cheap-noodle-treat-popular. dargis, manohla. “‘parasite’ review: the lower depths rise with a vengeance.” the new york times, the new york times, 10 oct. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/10/10/movies/parasite-review.html. bong, joon-ho. parasite. neon, 2019. kermode, mark. “parasite review – a gasp-inducing masterpiece.” the guardian, guardian news and media, 10 feb. 2020, www.theguardian.com/film/2020/feb/09/parasite-re view-bong-joon-ho-tragicomic-masterpiece. klein, christina. “why american studies needs to think about korean cinema, or, transnational genres in the films of bong joon-ho.” american quarterly, vol. 60, no. 4, 2008, pp. 871-898. song, hojin. “south korean food and women in glocalization: a case study in the role of food media,” proquest dissertations publishing, 2016. yang, evelyn. “‘parasite’ symbolism explained: instant noodles, language, basement.” the news lens international edition, 15 feb. 2020, www.international.thenewslens.com/article/131297. essay 13 | turner bong joon-ho’s portrayal of class and the war between those who inhabit either end of the socioeconomic spectrum has long been noted and explored by critics and scholars for years. in particular, his films parasite and snowpiercer offer a dynamic exploration of this topic. existing conversation about these films delves deeply into the symbolism for class and status, but rarely do they come from an emphasis in food studies and the way food can be used to denote socioeconomic structures. while that conversation is growing, i hope to expand it further by focusing on the space and method in which food is consumed in these films through a socioeconomic lens. parasite and snowpiercer are essential to this conversation because of their careful use of space and consumption. there is a clear spatial divide between the lower and upper classes in these movies that is examined and manipulated within either film. with this spatial divide, we see food spaces change in order to reinforce a binary idea of how class structure exists. along with the change in space, change in method of consumption is equally important to analyze. the subtle but powerful differences create an image that serves to emphasize socioeconomic position and explain the relationship between dominant and subordinate groups. class is a universal tool designed to separate large groups of people into a binary world. it’s a system that has divided every civilization from ancient cities to modern superpowers and, being an all-encompassing timeless force, is thus rooted in every aspect of our society. some of these manifestations of class division are obvious, like neighborhood disparities or social division, creating a tension that is incredibly common in the literature of any culture. while exploring its roots in books and film as a derivative of the social structure established by the novel or movie can be compelling, it is far more interesting to look at the smaller, often overlooked parts of a given piece from a socioeconomic lens. few creators understand the importance of subtle manifestations of socioeconomic principles as director bong joon-ho. in his films snowpiercer and parasite, class is at the forefront, and while the films have more obvious imagery of social division, the most subtle and complex way of viewing class in either film comes from food and the way and space in which it is consumed. bong joon-ho uses the subtle placement of food to explore the different class expectations as a limiting agent as well as in terms of performance, confining each social group into their respective roles through the space and consumption of food. to analyze the socioeconomic systems in each film, i will primarily be using class as defined and studied by raymond williams in his book keywords: a vocabulary of culture and society, where he defines class as “a new binary: in marxist language the bourgeoisie and the proletariat” (32). williams eat the rich: the parasitic relationship between socioeconomic groups in bong joon-ho’s parasite and snowpiercer vincent ramos-niaves, ball state university essay 61 | ramos-niaves explores class as a binary system, disregarding the concept of the middle class as a physical entity and labelling it a “self-conscious and self-used description” (28). for the purposes of this analysis, this definition is fitting as both snowpiercer and parasite seek to highlight a binary interaction between the higher and lower class without an easily identifiable middle ground. while williams does make the argument that the working class may be inducted into the middle class, both films take an approach of the upper class against any lower class, reinforcing the duality rather than complicating it. williams further expands on this duality in his book marxism and literature (marxist introductions) where he conflates the bourgeois as a form of “cultural sociology” and also delves into their habit of “mass manipulation,” both of which are prevalent in these films—particularly snowpiercer (136). beyond williams, class is one of the pinnacles of human society, so there is a plethora of information on these aspects in both films. pieces like “laughing to keep from crying” by ari aster and “’parasite’ review: the lower depths rise with a vengeance” by manohla dargis examine class in the context of bong joon-ho’s subversion of traditional roles and expectations of the characters to highlight a resistance against the binary class system, not unlike what williams describes. not nearly enough dialogue has been started on the idea of food within these class-based films despite the emphasis on food and consumption in each of them. this, along with the recentness of the films, has led to a lack of scholarly discussion regarding the specific topics of this paper. however, scholars and critics of these two films do note common threads. chief among these is a clear reinforcement of traditional class structures, and i will be expanding on this through a close analysis of the use of food and space and by utilizing the limited criticism available. however, it is also important to note that the context of williams’s essays is firmly rooted in british class structures while bong joon-ho is korean. many of bong’s films do have more western-centered images and themes, making a british analysis of class more in line with bong’s methodology. 1. snowpiercer bong joon-ho’s film snowpiercer (2013) is a sci-fi dystopian thriller in which the entire world has frozen over, leaving what remains of humanity to inhabit one long train. the train itself was created by the antagonist of the film, wilford, and is meant to circumnavigate the world and never stop running. everything needed for life on earth exists on the train. the society there is symbolic of socioeconomic structures with the poorest being all shoved together at the tail end of the train, earning the name “tailenders,” while the “frontenders” consist of the upper class. bong joon-ho does not spend much time in the middle of the train, making his representation of class more akin to william’s definition. the plot itself follows curtis, the protagonist, as he and a group of tailenders seek to overthrow wilford in a rebellion. throughout the film, many of them die, including a mother figure, tanya; curtis’s close friend, edgar; and other important tailender figures like gilliam (john hurt) and his surrogate son grey. key frontender and wilfred’s spokeswoman, mason, dies as well. the movie ends with curtis derailing the train, effectively killing everyone except for the two youngest who are left to rebuild a better society. snowpiercer’s relevance is perhaps best explored by ian pettigrew in his review for science fiction film and television. pettigrew notes several scenes from the film, such as that “both korean characters are addicted to the train’s drug of choice kronol” (151). here, he clearly draws a connection to western essay ramos-niaves | 62 civilization’s treatment of marginalized groups, reinforcing the notion of power as a manipulative force and showing bong’s attention to the real-world implications of consumption from a powerful group to a subordinate. snowpiercer is an understudied film, making the analysis of specific scenes essential to understanding the emphasis on food in the film and its relevance to bong’s critique of class. the most emphasized example of food’s massive implications in the film comes from the item that’s given the most frequently: protein bars. these initially appear to be small brown rectangles of indeterminable composition, but bong reveals their production towards the end of the first act. in this scene, curtis and his rebellion break into the production car where mass quantities of the protein bars are made. the tailenders rush to the conveyer belt, grabbing as many of these bars as possible, noting their warmth and marketing that feature as a luxury. however, moments later, the ingredients for the bars are revealed: ground up insects put through a high-tech grinder until they are essentially a brown gelatin-like structure. the emphasis of this role can perhaps best be compared to the role of chicken, a cheap inexpensive meat now that, while sensationalized on the train, carries a specific connotation. in her essay “more than just the ‘big piece of chicken’: the power of race, class, and food in american consciousness,” psyche williams-forson investigates the role of chicken as a food source primarily associated with black culture. she identifies the origins of the stereotype as chickens being an undervalued source that enslaved people could typically get away with stealing (111). in essence, chicken gained its notoriety from being the only available option to a group oppressively denied nourishment. while chicken itself is not used in the film in this specific way, its similarities to the protein bars offer a look into the way bong utilizes the role and consumption of food to highlight the marginalization of the lower class. bong directly compares protein bars to chicken, creating a more poignant emphasis on the luxury of more quality meat as a barrier between classes. when comparing the role of one food to another in snowpiercer, the spaces in which the food is consumed or shown are incredibly relevant in terms of the hierarchy of the train. it’s a rather straight-forward metaphor of class. those closer to the front of the train represent the upper class while the farther back a person is, the less important a person is to the social hierarchy. chicken, being the middle ground of the film, is the first comparison to be made in terms of food. seconds before curtis’s rebellion begins, the tailenders antagonize the guards shouting, “we want chicken,” rejecting the protein bars. this demand for the betterment of their meal at a time in which they are trying to push forward puts the protein bars spatially in the back of the train. there is a massive difference in where the film allows the bars to exist and where chicken is. when we see the protein bars being made or consumed, the car is always dark and the people grimy. the car where they find the grinder is a dingy place with little lighting, but the chicken car is well lit by florescent lights all along the walls. it marks them as a cleaner form of food, making them significantly more important in appearance when juxtaposed to the grime worn by the tailenders. it shows them as out of place next to the luxury that they haven’t been afforded. the food choices as a representation of class come together in the final scene in which curtis is forced to have dinner with the inventor of the train, wilford, which operates as a callback to past moments in the film and emphasizes its role as the epitome of class privilege. this scene is full of religious imagery where wilford rules over and controls the lives of the people in the train, explaining how he essay 63 | ramos-niaves and an important figure of the tailenders orchestrated curtis’s rebellion, and how they, together, control life and prosperity on the train. all while he is explaining this, wilford is cooking a meal for himself of steak and red wine. these two items are very emblematic of socioeconomic structures. steak and red wine are traditionally linked with the upper class, marking their inclusion as a clear indicator of thematic importance to the film. the intentional choice of this food gives this entire scene more weight in terms of the grand scheme of the food choices throughout the film, specifically the method of consumption. at every point of the film where food is involved, the characters eat the item with their hands; even the eggs are hard-boiled so frontenders and tailenders alike eat them with their bare hands, and the daughter of the inventor, yona, drinks champagne directly from the bottle. while this could be explained as a reinforcement of the tailenders as the “savage” end of society, another emphasis on utensils coming from an interaction between mason and curtis at the sushi bar brings the utensils into more critical role. in this scene, curtis forces mason to eat the protein bar, thus cementing her as a part of the lower class, but moments before this, mason had attempted to have sushi with the rest of them using chopsticks which are taken from her. by replacing this utensil with the protein bar, curtis is essentially removing her status as a high-ranking official. this use of utensils as a symbol makes the egg scene more interesting as everyone eats the eggs the exact same way. this draws attention to the blurring of socioeconomic lines that wilford talks about at length during this conversation. wilford talks about working with tailender gilliam because “the front and the tail are supposed to work together” (parasite). he says this cooperation is meant to maintain order, and the tension their oppression creates is just as vital as his maintaining the engine for their society to thrive. this explains why, in the middle of the train, everyone is on equal footing, eating a simple food of moderate luxury with the same method of consumption. the middle of the train illustrates a blurring of societal lines and highlights the importance of curtis’s rebellion as a destructive but necessary force in the same way wilford does. still, as we will explore later in this essay, these comparisons orchestrated by food matters offers the assurance of a relationship both parasitic and symbiotic in nature. the foundation of this argument is perhaps best illustrated by another of bong joon-ho’s films, parasite. 2. parasite parasite, released in 2019, is a social commentary thriller directed and created by bong joonho. it follows the kims, a lower-class family unable to find work due to a lack of opportunities in south korea. while earning some money folding pizza boxes, they meet the parks, a wealthy family in need of some labor. slowly, the kims conspire to get all of the parks’ employees fired and then take those jobs for themselves. the kims’ attempted integration in the park home eventually leads to the death of the kim daughter and injury of the kim son. spurned by this, the film ends with the kim father killing the park patriarch and hiding in tunnels under the park home for what we assume to be the rest of his life. the film is widely believed to be a brilliant depiction of class struggles and won an oscar for its critique of the class system. while the film does follow raymond williams’s definition of class, it brings the separation of lower and upper classes to the forefront, as noted by critics like e. alex jung and bong joonho himself as he states in an interview with the atlantic: “what story could i tell with just two houses? i came up with the idea of a poor house and a rich house. . . . i was really enveloped in this story about essay ramos-niaves | 64 the gap between the rich and the poor” (sims). this separation as it pertains to parasite is best explored in the essay “domination and subordination” by jean baker miller. miller refers to class as a form of “permanent inequality,” meaning it’s something born and not achieved or marked by certain characteristics. according to her studies, most of these sociological groups (class, gender, race, etc.) can be separated through a binary lens made of the dominants and the subordinates. in context with one another, “dominant groups usually impede the development of subordinates” and “determine what is normal for a culture,” while subordinates attempt to follow social rules created by the dominants while motivated by their own self-interest in an act of basic survival (miller 94-95). this insistence on dominant and subordinate social factions is the driving force behind parasite as the lower class competes with the upper for domination despite living as a subordinate group. in terms of the connotation of the food itself in the film, parasite functions much like snowpiercer, using well-known dishes with distinct ties to class in order to enhance the film’s central theme and identify the subordinates and dominants. for example, the parks ask their cook, chung-sook (mother of the kim family), to make a simple dish but emphasize the importance of adding sirloin, a red meat symbolic of wealth (parasite). where parasite deepens this meaning is the invasion and division of socioeconomic spaces and their methods of consumption. the parks eat on a long wooden dining room table, emphasizing their wealth and position as they sit far away from each other, but the kims are often shown eating close together and with the bare minimum of utensils and care. in fact, their positions while eating are remarkably different. the kims eat in various positions around the kitchen, close together and close to the location in which food is prepared. it is in these scenes where the kims eat around their table that the invasion of upper-class space is planned and comprised. however, it is also a location that visually places the kims as subordinates in their relationship with the family they serve. when looking at the way the dinner table is treated with the parks, there is a very different experience. the parks never sit at the table together, choosing instead to have their conversations when one of them is at the table, not eating together. by consuming their food in various locations, they take up more space, carefully avoiding the kitchen to maintain their distance from where the food is cooked. this separation is indicative of a more civilized and refined way of consumption. the two images of the consumption space allow the parks and kims to inhabit a food space at the peak of their class expectations. the importance of this difference is perhaps best shown through the invasion of the park residence by the kims (parasite 00:55:111:24:35.) this long scene represents the turning point of the film where the story takes a darker turn. in this scene, the parks leave for a camping trip, leaving their home in the hands of chung-sook. thanks to this absence, the kims then inhabit the park residence and, with the arrival of the recently fired cook, learn about a series of secret underground tunnels hiding an older poor man who is the former maid’s husband. when the parks call chung-sook informing her of an early return, the family rushes to hide their stay, leading to the death of the park’s former maid. food and drink in this sequence holds a particularly interesting meaning when compared to other instances of eating in different spaces. the sequence can be further investigated by comparing two specific moments: the parks eating on the living room couch of the park house, and mrs. park eating at the dinner table (parasite 00:57:11, 1:18.41). it is important to first reinforce the importance of distance and space when looking at these two scenes. the kim family, essay 65 | ramos-niaves representing the lower-class, or subordinates, are all sitting close together as they eat and drink, but the park family is dispersed and separated, not all eating and also occupying greater space. the two locations operate as different eating spaces in different rooms, giving them a physical barrier to separate the dominants from the subordinates, despite the fact that the kims are still occupying a dominant space to eat. similarly, the underground tunnels hiding the lower-class man within the park house is hidden behind a food-space as well, that being the pantry in the basement, emphasizing the idea of the “upstairs family and the downstairs” (jung). the couch scene opens with most of the family on the floor, pouring scotch into a clear rocks glass, emphasizing the position of an upper-class family. however, as the son pours his father more scotch, the father looks directly into the camera and says, “this is pretty classy,” reminding the viewers of the oddity of this family consuming these items. the sense of irony is only heightened by the placement of the food itself in the scene, covering the table in a disorganized clutter of mismatched foods. from there, they fall further and further from their perceived privilege, moving from drinking from a glass to drinking liquor straight from the bottle, eating food with their hands, and eventually even shattering glasses and throwing food across the floor. conversely, the mother of the park family, yeon-gyo, has a different relationship with the food she consumes in the separate scene. the food given to her is not food she found or made herself, but is rather the food she had her maid, chung-sook, cook and then later serve to her as she sits at the dinner table. yeon-gyo engages chung-sook in a meaningless conversation where the kim matriarch remains standing while mrs. park eats. this signifies a differentiation between the reason either woman is there. chung-sook is there as a distraction from the attack on and essential murder of the former maid that occurred moments earlier, unable to sit at the table itself as the situation marks her as an uncivilized subordinate, while mrs. park represents a picture of civilized society to the wealthy, sitting at a table with a bowl with utensils and eating a meal she did not make herself. even chung-sook’s making of the food symbolizes the subordinate as the act was tainted both by the crime she had just committed and the lie she told yeon-gyo. in this way, the food becomes a kind-of sickness of the lower-class infiltrating the upper-class, a fact only solidified by the fact that the meal itself is a comfort food associated with the lower class but with sirloin, an upper class meat, mixed in, highlighting the blend of class-related foods. the blending is furthered when the park mother offers the food to every member of the house before sitting down to eat it herself, showing the infiltration in a more complete way that directly confronts the dominant social group with the subordinate. 3. common themes in parasite and snowpiercer while parasite and snowpiercer are remarkably different movies, they both revolve around the theme of class and how each social group relates and connects to the other. what’s important about the comparison of the two comes from the lens through which they are told. snowpiercer comes from a place where subordinates seek to become dominants in their own class system. parasite, however, sees class for what it is, a parasitic relationship where the wealthy benefit and the poor have to accommodate while acting in their own self-interest. according to jean baker miller, subordinates know “[their] fate depends on accommodating to and pleasing the dominants,” allowing them to infiltrate them with the knowledge of how they operate. in some ways, the thematic importance of snowpiercer can be essay ramos-niaves | 66 conveyed through the single action of mr. kim stabbing mr. park at the end of parasite. still, however, that aggression and rage create a conflict between the classes that is essential in fully understanding the effects of socioeconomic barriers as they are presented in bong joon-ho’s work. by comparing these two films, we see bong’s steady reinforcement of socioeconomic norms: the subordinates eat with their hands in close proximity to the making of the food, the dominants (or those inhabiting dominant space) drink elegant alcoholic drinks with classier connotation from glasses rather than straight from the bottle like subordinates. similarly, punishment for social deviance is prominent as seen through the massacre of tailenders at the end of snowpiercer and the death, imprisonment, and insanity of the kim family. in both films, bong utilizes punishment to emphasize the rejection of shifting class structures. this comes into play in parasite through the use of water. early in the film, during the first real instance of the kim family inhabiting of the park home, the son of the kim family, ki-woo, takes 2 glass water bottles for himself and his sister. while this in itself is an innocuous enough moment, its place as the first parasitic act of the family is central to understanding the way bong joon-ho reinforces socioeconomic structure through punishment of deviant behaviors. water is influenced by bong’s idea of socioeconomic structures. the director makes it a point to display the brand and type of water being consumed, that being an expensive, imported brand, making the consumption of it an act of deviance by the characters. this deviance then leads to punishment by the end of the film, reinforcing socioeconomic boundaries. the film accomplishes this by flooding the kim home, using that same life-sustaining food to effectively destroy the family’s way of life (parasite). this could be interpreted from a religious context, the great flood washing out sinners. this punishment is supplemented by the ending of the film in which the two most injured members of the family are the same two who drank the water. a review by john tammy makes note of the oddity of the children’s positions, stating, “simply stated, fluency in english is a rather lucrative skill to possess . . . if he’s got these skills why on earth would he be folding pizza boxes? . . . . why isn’t he already lucratively employed by someone, somewhere in seoul.” while tammy notes this, he fails to acknowledge the physical and visual barrier presented by the film as the norm of this film. taking into account the oddity of the intelligence of the kim family that tammy observes, the intelligence of the younger kims marks a further deviation from their societal role, making their punishment at the end even more fitting, solidifying the importance of reinforcing socioeconomic boundaries. this type of religious allusion is common in bong’s works, especially when it comes to the punishment of deviant behavior. for example, the aforementioned scene in snowpiercer involving the eggs references the builder of the train, wilford, as a god of the society, praying to him and saying life on the train is because of his will and grace. this allusion is further cemented by the imagery of curtis when wilford shows him the engine and a bright white light shines on his face. the dialogue is followed by the involvement of chicken, specifically eggs, which operate as an enforcer of class roles similarly to parasite’s use of water. the eggs come into play when curtis and his allies infiltrate the education car where “children enthusiastically recite propaganda,” emblematic of the american repetition of the pledge in school (pettigrew 151). the model of the class and repetition of propaganda that ian pettigrew points out in his review reinforces the idea of god and prayer to the society of snowpiercer. by praying to wilford, they validate themselves as the privileged and “worthy,” making the punishment of the scene essay 67 | ramos-niaves more poignant. in the scene, the tailenders and frontenders are all given free hardboiled eggs despite their place in the class system. however, the moment the eggs are consumed, and the tailenders are afforded the very luxury they sought out, they are immediately punished by the frontenders in the form of gunfire and the mass executions. this punishment is especially weighty when considering the sushi scene just prior to this one. in that scene, the tailenders are afforded a luxury that they hadn’t had since before the apocalypse. moreover, they aren’t the only deviants. when curtis and the others are forced to deviate from the assigned role, curtis also forces mason to do the same, having her eat a protein bar, marking her for the same punishment as them. in either case, the punishment is handed down by that film’s god, enforcing raymond williams’s idea regarding the role of inheritance in socioeconomic structures. food in snowpiercer and parasite is used to create barriers between socioeconomic groups and explore the societal reaction and impact of the blurring of those lines. the impact and importance of food as a human necessity gives it more weight to be able to highlight the infiltration of class structure in our everyday lives, creating an uncomfortable narrative that forces us to question our place within socioeconomic structures. however, these films deal with food in more than just a superficial way. they highlight the differences in food spaces as a strong indicator of class, proximity to sustainable food as an indicator of worthiness and privilege, and using religious imagery and punishment of deviant behavior to show the ramifications of stepping outside of one’s prescribed barrier. their endings and beginnings are centered around where food is from the introduction of the kim family talking at their dinner table to the tailenders waiting for their protein bars. these films end much in the same way, with the kim daughter being stabbed with a kebab and curtis watching wilford eat a steak. both films and their messages start and end with the importance of food and space as a driving point to their careful critique of class structures. while food is just one way in which class is examined in these films, food is also the pinnacle of culture and society, the most basic human necessity. to ignore the importance of that would be to ignore the subtleties and intricacies of our class-based society that bong joon-ho demands we examine. essay ramos-niaves | 68 works cited aster, ari. “laughing to keep from crying.” film comment, vol. 55, no. 5, sept. 2019, pp. 32–33. dargis, manohla. “‘parasite’ review: the lower depths rise with a vengeance.” new york times, 10 oct. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/10/10/movies/parasite-review.html. joon-ho, bong. parasite. neon, 2019. ---. snowpiercer. radius-twc, 2013. jung, alex e. “bong joon ho on why he wanted parasite to end with a ‘surefire kill.’” vulture, vulture, 14 jan. 2020, www.vulture.com/article/parasite-ending-explained-by-bong-joon-ho.html. miller, jean baker. “domination and subordination.” race, class, and gender in the united states: an integrated study, edited by paula s rothenberg and christina hsu accomando, worth publishers/ macmillan learning, 2020, pp. 91-96. pettigrew, ian. “review of snowpiercer, by bong joon-ho.” science fiction film and television, vol. 9 no. 1, 2016, pp. 150-153. sims, david. “how bong joon ho invented the weird world of ‘parasite.’” the atlantic, 10 feb. 2020, www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2019/10/bong-joon-ho-parasite-interview/600007/. tamney, john. “bong joon-ho’s ‘parasite’ is overrated, implausible,class-struggle nonesense” real clear markets, 06 feb. 2020, https://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2020/02/06/bong_joon-hos_ parasite_is_overrated_implausible_class-struggle_nonsense_104067.html. williams, raymond. keywords: a vocabulary of culture and society. oxford university press, 1976. ---. marxism and literature. oxford university press, 1977. williams-forson, psyche. “more than just the ‘big piece of chicken’: the power of race, class, and food in american consciousness.” food and culture, edited by carole counihan and penny van ester ik. routledge, 2007, pp. 107-116. essay 69 | ramos-niaves dlr journal 105 abstract this paper explores the impact of divinity and divine imitation in the anime series death note by tsugumi ohba and the novel parable of the sower by octavia butler, comparing the philosophies of their respective protagonists and the success of their utopian visions. death note’s protagonist’s utopian vision become dystopian because of his violent tendencies and pursuit to become a god, while parable of the sower’s protagonist’s utopian vision succeeds because of her trust in others and her view of god as an ever changing force that people must shape to survive. by allison akers divinity and its imitation in the utopian visions of death note and parable of the sower 106 akers introduction divinity and utopia are often intertwined. utopia represents an idealized society and shapeshifts based on a person’s perception of a perfect world. the utopian concept has existed for hundreds if not thousands of years, even if it did not have the title of “utopia” that thomas more coined in 1516. early examples exist in christian narratives such as the garden of eden and the prospect of eternal paradise beyond the earthly plain, if a person is virtuous in life and follows teachings in the old and new testaments. in modern examples, literature and television shows such as octavia butler’s parable of the sower and the anime adaptation of the death note manga series by tsugumi ohba focus on returning paradise to earth, although the success of each work’s utopian vision is determined by the protagonists’ view of god and how they choose to imitate divinity. death note’s utopian vision is a failure because its main protagonist focuses on obtaining godhood, while parable of the sower’s vision is successful because it relies on the betterment of society and viewing god as change. butler’s novel highlights issues like dependence on material possessions, class status, and family dynamics to correct them and create a perfect representation of what society should be in post-apocalyptic los-angeles, while death note focuses on human nature’s violent tendencies and purging the world of sin in modern japan. utopia for one person cannot exist without encroaching on the happiness of another, leading ultimately to failure, sometimes at a catastrophic level; it is a desert mirage: beautiful and full of possibility and hope, but when examined up close, it dissolves into nothingness. pure utopia cannot exist on earth, because humanity is flawed. it seems logical, then, that a perfect being, or deity, would be the sole entity that could create a perfect world. parable of the sower recognizes that human imperfection and stresses that god is an ever-changing force, while death note explores the consequences of when a person tries to achieve godlike status to rule over a society and the disastrous consequences that follow for its protagonist. death note follows light yagami: a genius, hard-working high school student who finds a black notebook referred to as the “death note.” it allows him to kill anyone he pleases by writing their name in it, and he forms a tenuous alliance with ryuk—the shinigami, or “death god,” that dropped the notebook in the human world. light starts using the death note to eliminate major criminals in 107 akers the world in hopes that he will someday rid the world of everyone who he has judged to be evil and thereby become a god. his utopia stands on the idea that he is the sole person who can save the world. however, as the police start investigating and he matches wits against a brilliant detective, light starts eliminating anyone who gets in his way, including innocent police officers. his plans for a perfect society seem to be precluded by those who are unwilling to accept change or recognize the overall good that light is doing in the world, at least in his own mind. light’s inevitable death at the hands of police is not due to society’s ineptness at recognizing his perfect vision. light’s utopia fails because it is founded on violence, selfishness, and pride. in contrast, the earthseed settlement created at the end of parable of the sower is built on a sense of trust and community. lauren olamina, butler’s protagonist, recognizes that utopia is formed not just by one person but through the efforts of many to create a better society. while light relies on intimidation and violence to achieve his goal, lauren and her friends care for one another and see each other as equals who are all trying to escape their own dystopias. light only views others as puppets in his master plan, resulting in the deterioration of his mental state and the loss of focus on his noble, if misguided, efforts to rid the world of crime. god and utopia's impact in death note and parable of the sower death note, an anime series set in modern-day japan and referencing japanese gods of death like the shinigami, draws inspiration from other cultures and themes. in fact, death note explores concepts that date back to early greek, hellenistic, and roman periods. in his article, “the divine human being,” helmut koester explains that, in early greek civilization, being godlike did not strictly adhere to a person being good. rather, it was “reserved for those special individuals who, by their powerful and inspired deeds, had demonstrated that they were in fact more than just human” (koester 244). this can be applied to death note from episode one, where light discovers the death note and uses it to control death and eliminate criminals. light is committing hundreds of murders, but his actions fit the greek model for a divine person, as he is intelligent, powerful, and given power to control others’ deaths by the influence of a shinigami. he is fighting for a just cause, to create a better world, even if he is going about it through drastic means. 108 akers as he kills innocent police officers and detectives that try to catch him later in the series, though, the theme of divine imitation transfers into the hellenistic and roman periods of the concept of divinity, where koester states that divinity became a tool for “shaping philosophical theory and religious propaganda” (244). divinity was ascribed to those in positions of power, such as emperors and kings, and limited to men because women were unable to hold those same positions (244). this version of godhood becomes light’s central aim. he wants to secure the power and glory of a divine being without considering the consequences of his actions to the innocents who stand in his way. the power of a god tempts light, but he does not accept the responsibility that that power entails. it also feeds into his callous treatment of misa amane, who shows up in episode eleven and becomes light’s partner in crime. he uses her as a pawn for his own gain and does not value her life above the criminals he kills. death note not only draws inspiration from older versions of christianity but also modern tenants of it. being godlike in modern christianity refers primarily to enacting good deeds and, in some cases, martyrdom, according to anders petersen’s article, “attaining divine perfection through different forms of imitation,” but the idea of revering and worshipping a being that has ultimate control over life and death remains firm (13). this premise of reverence and worship is present in death note as well. light hopes to achieve godlike reverence for himself, but his interactions with actual gods undermine this concept of showing the divine respect and reflect light’s selfish nature. episode one displays this when light first encounters ryuk and treats him as more of an accomplice or servant (albeit bribing ryuk to do his bidding with apples can be construed as a metaphor for the forbidden fruit that the serpent tempted adam and eve with in the book of genesis). initially, light shows some fear of ryuk, but once he realizes ryuk will not harm him, he grows confident and explains his master plan to rid the world of crime and become a god in the process. the flaw in this conversation is when ryuk remarks that if light murders all criminals, the only bad person left will be light himself. light disregards him, saying, “i have no idea what you’re talking about. i’m a hardworking honors student who’s considered to be one of japan’s best and brightest” (“rebirth” 00:20:51-00:20:59). light believes his academic prowess is enough to judge others for their sins. the thought does not cross his mind that intelligence is not enough to condemn people. until this point in 109 akers his life, light has been a person of exemplary character and success; he has been praised for all his achievements. since he has been put on such a high pedestal by peers, friends, and family, light cannot fathom being wrong. this justification points to larger issues that prevent his utopia from coming to fruition, such as self-absorption, confidence, and hunger for power, which become dangerous factors as the series progresses. light is not concerned with ryuk’s observation about him being the sole bad person left once his work is finished, because he believes his hard work and intelligence justify his actions. his merits serve as a shield to deflect any dissenting opinions others have of his actions, and from this point, it becomes clear that light is incapable of examining the flaws in himself that he is so shrewd at seeing in others. lauren olamina’s concept of the divine contrasts to light’s idea of divinity and the traditional concept of god found in christianity. while she was raised in a baptist household, lauren does not see god as an entity the way many people believe in a “big-cop-god or big-king-god” or the way that others think “god is…nature” (butler 15). her family and many of the townspeople believe god watches over them and that he will steer them through dark times. in essence, a supreme being polices their actions, executes justice, and controls the world around them. if the townspeople are faithful and virtuous, they will be safe from the evil outside their walled community. however, lauren states, “some say god is a spirit, a force, an ultimate reality. ask seven people what all of that means and you’ll get seven different answers. so what is god?” (butler 15). no one offers lauren a clear definition of what god is; even people who have a similar concept of god have different thoughts or views on how god acts or what god specifically is. this creates a schism between her beliefs and those of the people around her. since her world is subject to violence and poverty, the idea of god as a sentient being does not sit well with lauren. she compares the sentient god that her father and others believe in to “a kind of big kid, playing with his toys. if he is, what difference does it make if 700 people get killed in a hurricane” (butler 16). in lauren’s mind, this god is not benevolent. he allows bad things to happen to good people, because humanity exists for his amusement. any suffering people experience is not his concern. lauren cannot comprehend a being that would allow evil to exist in the world or stand by and watch people destroy themselves and others. the discrepancy of views concerning god’s presence 110 akers and the divine, coupled with the poor, dystopian world lauren finds herself in, leads her to stray away from conventional beliefs of god. she concludes that god is not a sentient being or nature. rather, “god is change,” which is a concept that shapes humanity and that humanity can shape (butler 17). god is neither responsible for hurting people nor for helping them. the poor state of lauren’s world is humanity’s fault, and humanity must make amends for what it has done and help others. after her town is set ablaze, lauren decides to change what displeases her in her world and spread her teachings without being dogmatic or treating the people who accompany her as servants or mindless pawns. she recognizes that they must all band together to survive. light's and lauren's philosophies light and lauren are also set apart in their reasoning behind creating a perfect society. light is concerned with his own ego and power more than the well-being of those around him. he does not start with the intention of forming a functioning society. he wants to eliminate sin from the world. as early as episode two, internet cults start to worship him and his murders, thinking that a god is passing judgement on the wicked. he sees the world as a thing that he can shape to suit his own needs, rather than a home for other people as valuable in terms of life as himself. he allows himself to be enthralled in the persona that internet cults have created for him. philip h. jos points to the tendency of the frightened to look to a higher power, which is arguably what followers of light do in death note. it makes sense to worship someone and be spared rather than fight and be killed. it also points to light’s worshippers experiencing an “us versus them” mentality, where they are excited for the destruction of sinners and for a god to lead them. light’s utopia hinges on this prejudice and fear with his followers, leading to an unsustainable belief system and shaky society. in contrast, lauren’s utopia is focused on a better world and the importance of life. jos explores the effects earthseed has on society and how it provides a non-dogmatic structure and belief system (1). jos mentions that “fear is a dominant shaper of human thought and behavior” and that “the core message of all great spiritual traditions is ‘be not afraid’” (1). lauren sees her earthseed religion as a solution to a dying society, writing in her earthseed journal that “when no influence is strong enough/ to unify people/ they divide” (butler 103). the harsh environment lauren and her 111 akers friends are exposed to greets them with violence, death, and struggle. it is relentless and will not cease until someone decides to fight for a better world. lauren wants her teachings to reach other people and for them to recognize that they can either unite and influence change or divide and be destroyed by it. when comparing these two belief systems, though, light exhibits an understanding of something akin to lauren’s earthseed religion in parable of the sower—that god is change. lauren describes in her writings: “all that you touch,/ you change./ all that you change,/ changes you./ the only lasting truth/ is change./ god/ is change” (butler 79). in lauren’s religion, god is not a static being. god is a dynamic concept, ever-changing in the universe and being altered by people daily, which both aligns and contrasts with the world of death note, regarding how light changes his world and the presence of gods. death gods like ryuk may exist in light’s world, but light’s perception of deification is skewed. once he discovers the death note, and ryuk explains that it is light’s to keep and use as he pleases, he realizes that the notebook is his ticket to godhood. it grants him control over life and death and puts him farther up on a pedestal away from normal people. light recognizes that all the death note influences, all the evil lives it can take, can change the world for the better. however, if light had thought about the concept of change and god as lauren does, he may have stopped and realized that using the death note changes himself as well as the surrounding world. each murder brings light further from his once noble cause of ridding the world of evil and closer to becoming a monster consumed by power. light’s behavior becomes predatory and he develops a twisted view on the concept of god and change instead of lauren’s original philosophy of earthseed, leading to his downfall later in the series, while lauren succeeds in creating her earthseed community. the other factor shaping light’s philosophy and its ultimate failure is the influence of ryuk. despite how light seems to dismiss and not revere ryuk, ryuk is still a god and an influencer. he is by light’s side nearly all through the series, and when light sees that ryuk does not care who is killed or to what end light is using the death note, it sends a message that light’s actions are valid. the two characters also begin their tenuous friendship with ryuk dropping the notebook in the human world because he “was bored,” and light began using it because he “had been bored too” (“rebirth” 00:16:57 112 akers -00:18:22). compared to lauren, who created the earthseed religion to help others and understand a cruel world, light did not have anything else to do with his time. being a god was a pastime, something that could hold his interest when school and sports could not. this points to the larger issue that, while light was trying to rid the world of evil, it did not fall strictly into his intent. killing criminals became a byproduct of using a notebook that could give him godlike status. ryuk’s own boredom and lack of purpose reinforces light’s disinterest in others as well. in episode four, “pursuit,” ryuk says, “we [the shinigami] lead meaningless, empty lives... we no longer even know why we exist. in fact, i doubt there’s any reason for our existence at all” (“pursuit” 00:05:2200:05:38). this quote not only reinforces the idea that the shinigami have no definitive, virtuous purpose, but that taking human life has no meaning. in the grand scheme, regardless of whether what they are doing is right or wrong, ryuk thinks it is pointless, but they still have this immense and horrible power to kill others. if a god like ryuk does not care who light kills or how many die, why should light have the slightest bit of guilt? those around light are pawns to fulfill his ego, rather than people to save. the influence of gifted individuals the impact of gifted individuals on society and what happens when society fails the gifted is also important when evaluating what creates utopia versus dystopia. douglas w. texter focuses on lauren’s gift in parable of the sower and argues that gifted children can change society for the better by rising above the ordinary to achieve greatness. he relates this to lauren and her belief system that is earthseed, and how she and her group begin a new community amidst a rotting society. lauren’s linguistic prowess and “ability to empathize with and organize others around a shared mission” allows her to create a better life for her and her friends (texter 15). however, texter also insists that gifted individuals who are cast out or ignored can become bored and narcissistic, which lead to problems later in society. lauren is an individual who has positive gifts and traits: she shares pain and pleasure with those around her, and she is also smart. she takes it upon herself to create a new belief system in earthseed and lead her friends and followers to a safer life. texter’s observations can also be applied to death note, in which light is an example of gifts 113 akers that are not exercised properly. light tells ryuk he wants to become a god, to have people know of his existence,” and thinks he can create a better world. light shows traits of narcissism and does not put confidence in anyone but himself. he thinks he is above everyone and should be the one to pass judgment on the wicked, while failing to acknowledge his own flaws. light’s inflated sense of importance and disregard for others is arguably his greatest downfall, because it isolates him from family, friends, and his sense of right and wrong that he still clings to in the beginning before spiraling into madness at the end of the series. light’s narcissism and lauren’s selflessness contribute to the execution of their ideas, as well as their respective failures and successes. jerry phillips examines the reinvention of utopia and degeneration of american society in parable of the sower and lauren’s success in creating a utopia at the end of the novel. lauren’s view of god shapes her utopia, and phillips insists, “in lauren’s view, change or god has no necessary direction” (4). by believing that god is an ever-changing force without distinction between good and evil, lauren can focus on the chaos and problems that have arisen in society and overcome them. she does not ascribe her misfortune to god hating her or her being deserving of awful things. lauren believes that god only exists as change. she creates the conditions needed for a better society through her view of reality and earthseed, where people help each other and do not focus so much on the exchange of goods and money to survive (butler 22). this will result in a sense of community and goodwill towards others, prompting people to change for the better and strengthen their community. lauren changes her environment through her teachings and actions. she protects the people in her group and considers them to be a makeshift family, even going so far as to share her view on god with them, which produces trust and camaraderie between lauren and her group members. conversely, light works in solitude, outside occasional help from ryuk and misa. he does not share his views on morality and justice with other people outside one or two humans and relies on anonymous strangers to worship his god-like persona that circulates on the internet. in light’s quest to become a god, he does not consider that he needs to change. he believes he is infallible, and everyone must bend to his will or face lethal consequences. karen slawner also examines the justification for violence to preserve order and justice, beginning with references to the death penalty in the united states of america and assessing the 114 akers moral problems associated with some acts of violence being legal while others are illegal. slawner discusses the final solution’s results that attempted to create an aryan utopia, where the nazi party viewed genocide as a rational solution. they were concerned with defeating a common enemy and tried to eradicate the jewish population in the most efficient way possible. slawner asserts that law is often built upon the foundation of violence, where violence is used to preserve it, and it is through the condemnation of violence that justice can be achieved (460). in the context of death note, light is also trying to achieve a utopia through violence. most of his victims die of heart attacks, and light kills thousands to wipe the earth of crime. although slawner’s argument focuses primarily on governments executing violence, it can also be applied to the individual. light kills those who contest his moral code or law under the pretense that he is the only person capable of cleansing the world of crime and violence. slawner states that violence does not equal justice, arguing that “by deconstructing law and by revealing its foundation upon violence that we can move toward justice” (460). to her, violence for the sake of justice is not true justice, which contradicts light’s rationale. his violence is only a means to grab power and instill fear. light’s goal is to become a god in a perfect world, and madness precludes his sense of justice as the series progresses. however, examining light’s endeavors from slawner’s point of view provides insight into the inherent flaws in light’s judgement. from her quote, it becomes clear that light was doomed from the start and that true justice is not won through violence, especially at the hands of a single person. not only does violence create dystopia, but there are social and economic problems that also prevent light’s utopian vision from being a true utopia. jim miller delves into the causes of dystopia in octavia butler’s works, arguing that parable of the sower highlights cultural, economic, and environmental problems that contribute to the violence and dystopian elements in butler’s futuristic version of america—issues that are not at all addressed by light in death note. miller explains that these problems are all interconnected and refers to the division of the rich and the poor in butler’s novel. he states, “there is a constant low-level class warfare going on between the have-little and the have-nots. the walls protect lauren’s neighborhood, but simultaneously make it a target for those who covet what little they have” (miller 14). lauren’s community, while poor, is still wealthier than others outside the community walls, up until the neighborhood is burned and pillaged for resources. 115 akers it highlights the larger issue of people committing crimes to preserve themselves and their family members. furthermore, people who are discriminated against because of their race cannot get into primarily white, gated communities. then, they must settle for low-paying jobs on the outside or fight and kill to survive, perpetuating a cycle of destruction, while lauren’s earthseed community seeks to combat these issues through diversity and community. lauren does not exclude the people she travels with based on their race or gender and recognizes that they all have done terrible deeds to preserve themselves and survive. she does not blame her friends for their actions. however, light targets criminals without much remorse. lauren knows that people outside communities must fight to survive; not all of them want to commit crimes for fun, like pyro addicts, and even she kills people to survive. lauren tries to keep her and her companions safe on their journey and, as they bond, they become stronger and settle down to create a diverse, safe community. death note does not address issues of racism or class differences. this might be because the main setting is japan and light comes from a well-off, middle-class family, but it is nonetheless an important issue and contributes to the overarching reason why light’s utopia fails. he wants to punish people because of their crimes, while not examining the reasons why these people commit crimes. light’s morality is black and white, where those who steal or murder are always at fault. without a grasp of complex issues like racism, class disparity, and environmental problems, light is unable to consider that some criminals may not deserve to die. they might be stealing to feed themselves or trying to create a better life in a desperate way. light’s worldview leaves no room for moral gray areas. there are those that are good, bad, or against him, and the latter two categories are punished accordingly. light’s and lauren’s approaches to their societal issues determine the failure and success of their utopias, where light ignores them, and lauren recognizes that crime is only a symptom of a larger issue. conclusion the promise of utopia in death note is one that is obscured and sabotaged from the moment that light discovers the notebook. although his intentions to create a pure world are noble, if misguided, they are precluded by his desire to reign as a god and feed his ego. light’s inability to 116 akers consider other factors that drive people to commit crimes, as well as ryuk’s lack of guidance and his use of violence in the place of true justice, are all catalysts to his inevitable downfall. at the end of the series, in episode thirty-seven, “new world,” light is finally caught and discovered to be the killer that detectives have been searching for for the last few years. light tries to talk his way out of it, laughing maniacally and insisting that, while he is kira, he was the only person “who could create a new world” (“new world” 00:11:39-00:11:44). despite the people he has killed, light still clings to the notion that he is special—that he is the only person who could have ever gotten this far and created a world almost crime-free. he still does not see the negative impact, even when the lead detective, near, tells him that he “has only confused himself with a god” (“new world” 00:12:05-00:12:07). near does not toy with the idea of light being right. he shows him what he truly is—a sick man trying to imitate a god. when light attempts to use the death note one last time, he is shot and flees the scene, bleeding and dying. ryuk watches him from afar before writing light’s name in the death note. light dies on the middle of a staircase in a warehouse alone, symbolizing that he was caught between the life of a normal person and ascending to become something greater. in another context, it could also mean that he dies in nothingness, as ryuk mentions in episode one that humans who use the notebook can neither go to heaven or hell" (“rebirth” 00:15:05-00:15:11). he leaves behind a legacy of terror and a world gripped with fear at committing a single wrong deed, not a utopian paradise. in his quest to achieve a better world, light became a monster far from a god. he strayed from justice, fighting for himself rather than the betterment of others. his quest to godhood removed him from what it meant to be human: to show compassion for those who are not perfect and to recognize his imperfections. a utopia founded on the premise of violence or the purging of those who do not fit a strict idea of “good” cannot exist, and those who try to be gods will ultimately fail. lauren’s community in parable of the sower thrived because it was founded on the betterment of other people, not just lauren herself. she saw those around her as equals and treated them as she wanted to be treated. humanity is flawed, and it is only through recognizing those flaws and the societal pressures that push people to commit crimes that people can move towards a better version of themselves and their world. if those flaws are not recognized, and people do not learn to embrace each other as lauren and her friends did, it leads to chaos and further strife. light chose to see the world in rigid 117 akers constructs of good and evil, without evaluating his own judgement or each person based on their merits. he saw only their problems and dismissed their lives. light might have evaded capture and caused terror for years, imposing his ideas of good and evil on people, but in the end, he died a cruel, heartless psychopath, akin to the criminals he killed. the world of death note is far better off without him trying to impose his own flawed will on others, while lauren’s world in parable of the sower is better with her and others changing it without trying to be gods. 118 akers works cited butler, octavia e. parable of the sower. grand central publishing, 1993. koester, helmut. “the divine human being.” the harvard theological review, vol. 78, no. 3/4, 1985, pp. 243-252, jstor, www.jstor.org/stable/1509690?search=yes&resultitemclick=true& search text=society&searchuri=/action/dobasicsearch?query=divine presencesociety&refreqi d=search:c22a374d9244245a93b2e2243014d383&seq=2# metadata_info_tab_contents. miller, jim. “post-apocalyptic hoping: octavia butler’s dystopian/utopian vision.” science fiction studies, vol. 25, no. 2, july 1998, pp. 336–360. jstor, www.jstor.org/stable/ 4240705. “new world.”death note, written by toshiki inoue, directed by. tetsuro araki. nippon tv, 2006. philip h. jos “fear and the spiritual realism of octavia butler's earthseed.” utopian studies, vol. 23, no. 2, 2012, pp. 408–429. jstor, www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/utopianstudies. 23.2.0408. petersen, anders klostergaard. “attaining divine perfection through different forms of imitation.” numen, vol. 60, no. 1, 2013, pp. 7–38. jstor, www.jstor.org/stable/24644805. phillips, jerry. “the intuition of the future: utopia and catastrophe in octavia butler's ‘parable of the sower.’” novel: a forum on fiction, vol. 35, no. 2/3, 2002, pp. 299–311. jstor, www. jstor.org/stable/1346188. “pursuit.”death note, written by toshiki inoue, directed by. tetsuro araki. nippon tv, 2006. “rebirth.”death note, written by toshiki inoue, directed by. tetsuro araki. nippon tv, 2006. slawner, karen. “violence, law, and justice.” alternatives: global, local, political, vol. 20, no. 4, 1995, pp. 459–478. jstor, www.jstor.org/stable/40644844. texter, douglas w. “of gifted children and gated communities: paul theroux's o-zone and octavia butler's the parable of the sower.” utopian studies, vol. 19, no. 3, 2008, pp. 457–484. jstor, www.jstor.org/stable/20719921. digital literature review 1 this paper explores the similarities and differences of midwestern american small town ghost stories, as well as the haunted asylums of the midwest and their own ghost stories. the essay explores asylum histories and shows what makes up the american midwest cultural haunting and why those fears are pushed onto asylums and their ghosts. adam ladner, ball state university the american midwest haunting: the asylum lives on ghost stories, while seeming unique and individual to many cities, towns, and states, often fit into a practiced formula and outline that isn’t always apparent. in the midwestern region of the united states, there are countless stories of women in white, hitchhikers who disappear halfway through the car ride, wailing and screaming coming from woods and abandoned sites, figures wandering lighthouses and the lakeshores, and haunted houses at the ends of streets—just to name a few. stories like these all have common themes and structures, the most prominent being the idea and painful realization of a permanent and unbreakable isolation. upon closer examination, these stories show that women in white are always left to wander the area where they died alone, hitchhikers never reach their destination and often vanish halfway through the car ride, and ghostly lighthouse keepers stay locked in their lighthouses. unbreakable isolation is common theme scattered in many american midwestern ghost stories, but its origin lies in the residual hauntings of the reformatories and asylums scattered throughout the solitary and empty midlands of america. the haunted insane asylum is a prevalent story in the american midwest. only in your state, a website dedicated to investigating every state in america in search for local attractions and the best tourist stops, has a section detailing each state’s haunted loca 1 13 digital literature review 2 114 tions and ghost stories. at least one asylum pops up in their lists for all but one of the twelve of the states that make up the american midwest—the dakotas, nebraska, minnesota, iowa, missouri, wisconsin, illinois, kansas, michigan, indiana and ohio—with south dakota as the only exception. towns adjacent to these abandoned asylums overflow with stories of ghosts haunting the buildings and property grounds (only in your state). many residents of these neighboring towns express fear of these stories and ghosts, despite the fact that the alleged ghosts never seem to leave their haunting grounds. asylums were scattered throughout the midwestern region because of the large open plots of land, the ability to keep and maintain a functioning farm near the asylum, and the condensed sites of the region’s population. these asylums were typically located far enough away from cities to avoid causing disturbances, and some asylums even provided neighboring towns with food and other farm-fresh products as well as working opportunities for asylum patients. yet haunted asylums are still among the first ghost stories haunting the american midwest. asylums housed patients grappling with both psychical and mental illnesses, and patients were the marginalized, unwanted members of society. illness, in any capacity, awakens feelings of uncanniness and frightens many, and so the fear of asylums was already deeply rooted in american culture before people began filling the halls of these buildings. it was the aftermath of these institutions and society’s own fears of what they meant for the people within that truly brought about the ghosts and hauntings of the american midwestern asylum. across the country, asylums were constructed using different architectural systems, the most common of which was the kirkbride system, which was popular in the latter half of the 19th and early 20th centuries. devised by psychiatrist thomas kirkbride, this design featured a “bat wing” shaped floor plan and an emphasis on air circulation and natural light. according to the trans-allegheny lunatic asylum’s history website, which weaves the history of the kirkbride system with their own, about 300 of these kirkbride asylums were built. the asylums were only made to house only 250 people and focused on the idea of “building as cure,” which placed the brunt of patient treatments on the environment they were in. these asylums, however, very quickly became overcrowded and, in a combined total of asylum patients nationwide, housed nearly half a million patients digital literature review 3 115 during the late 1950s and mid 1960s, right before the mass shutdown of many of these asylums. tuberculosis hospitals started cropping up at the same time as many of these kirkbride asylums, and the tuberculosis hospitals drew their own building plans and treatment tactics from the kirkbride system. as tuberculosis came and went, these hospitals changed from sheltering tuberculosis patients to mental patients and some, like waverly hills sanitorium, even housed elderly patients with mental illnesses along with their tuberculosis patients. these buildings were isolated, and with that isolation came a growing fear of uncanny loneliness and the othering of asylum inhabitants. often, when someone went to one of these hospitals, they rarely came back. in a research article on early tuberculous treatment, jean-antonie villemin and robert koch found that nearly 450 americans were dying per day because of tuberculous, with the largest death tolls in patients ranging from the ages of 15 to 44. at this same time period in mental asylums, however, dr. herman josephy found that most patients who were dying were between 40 and 60 years of age, and the leading cause of their death was simply exhaustion from their own mental illness. in chicago’s state hospital, out of the 2,477 patient deaths between 1935 and 1937, 1,297 patients were between the ages of 40 and 69, and most had died from either exhaustion or age. violent and unexpected deaths, however, weren’t all that common in asylums, despite what popularized ghost stories indicate. the idea of mentally ill patients practicing unrestricted violence against doctors and patients alike is another popular fear spread throughout the american midwest, even though that level of violence is almost unheard of in asylum histories. a 2014 study conducted by four members of the mental health field found that societal fears and stigmas about asylums persist in the general public, and even the mental health community, today (stuber et al.). the researchers asked members of the general public and members of their own field various questions ranging from their belief in the violence level of those with a mental illness to how close of a proximity they were willing to be near them. they described their results as revealing “negative” attitudes towards those with mental illness, and that many participants wanted a “social distance” between themselves and those struggling with mental illness, written on the first page of the study (stuber et al.). this digital literature review 4 116 study was done almost 50 years after the height of asylums in the 1960s, and yet the same attitudes of isolation and othering towards the mentally ill continues haunting our society. there is no denying the widespread neglect in these asylums, as many were overcrowded and did not have adequate staffing to properly care for their patients, but purposeful violence toward patients or staff was practically nonexistent. most of the more severe treatments that had been used in previous centuries, like water dunking, beatings, and restraints, had been abolished with the implementation and widespread use of the kirkbride system in the 1900s, as the system itself didn’t use them. outside of the acts of few violent patients, who were typically isolated from other asylum residents to avoid injury and assault, the only real example of horrendous and planned violence comes from pennhurst asylum, in pennsylvania, and even then, it wasn’t the patients who were violent. pennhurst was one of the first asylums to house patients on a massive scale. in her article detailing pennhurst’s history of patient neglect and abuse, elisabeth tilstra notes that almost 3,000 people filled its halls—a building that could only accommodate a little less than half of that number. patient neglect occurred because of how understaffed and overcrowded pennhurst was, and that neglect swiftly and violently morphed into a purposeful mistreatment of these patients. patients were beaten and punished for “incorrect” behavior, forced into ice-water baths and injected with chemicals. pennhurst staff also resorted to previously eradicated methods, such as tying patients to their beds. doctors even encouraged violence among the residents, and readily admitted to doing so when the public finally demanded answers. pennhurst opened in 1903, and it took nearly 60 years for all of this to be exposed. a documentary called suffer the little children aired in 1968 on the nbc network, exposing all of pennhurst’s misconduct in the most public way possible. during interviews conducted for suffer the little children, many of these doctors and nurses weren’t apologetic for their actions; this lack of remorse sent the public into a horrified outcry about the treatment of the people at pennhurst—many of whom weren’t even mentally ill, as was discussed in the documentary (suffer the little children). pennhurst left a lasting impression of rampant violence in asylums, trickling digital literature review 5 117 down to midwestern america, which—like most of america in the 1960s—was full of its own quickly deteriorating asylums. according to a timeline put together by a capstone class at the university of maryland’s college of journalism, asylums were swiftly closing around the time of the documentary’s release. violence like what occurred at pennhurst, however, is common in deteriorating urban areas and crowded rural spaces, which present a similar social and geographical set up to the asylum. according to a study published in 2003 by sociologist matthew lee, who has studied violence and criminal acts, the upped violence in areas like this comes from the social isolation that these places suffer. this social isolation often occurs in minority groups, like disabled people, people of color, and people living below the poverty line—the people who most often ended up in these asylums. the perception that violence is more common among these gives communities an excuse to justify the fear of this violence being acted upon the middle and upper classes. similar to the violence of pennhurst, the stanford prison experiment of 1971 demonstrated how abuse of power leads to the mistreatment of those without power. the exposé of pennhurst’s abuses was only four years earlier, and still fresh in everyone’s mind. perhaps the idea of the association fallacy was at play as well. both pennhurst and the stanford prison experiment suggest that violence and abuse have a higher chance of occurring in small, confined spaces. because of this correlation, people assume that the mentally ill had to be violent as well because of the association fallacy. the american midwest is a geographical oddity. according to the american census reporter, the population per square mileage is only 91 people. the next closest is the american southern region, ringing in at 143.6 people per square mile. the midwest has an overall population of 68,308,749 people, the second lowest population by region in the united states. most of america’s farmland is located in the midwestern region, and the largest city by population is chicago, coming in at 2,714,017 people. the next closest city in terms of population is indianapolis at 846,674 people. a stark difference, to say the least. most midwestern counties have fewer than a million people living in them—in fact, only seven counties have a population of a million or more. the american midwest only holds roughly 20% of the total american population, even though it makes up about a digital literature review 6 118 third of the country’s land. the set up of the american midwest mirrors the set-up of the asylum—a large plot of surrounding farmland and small and dense rural centers of population. urban areas often experience higher rates of violence, and most of the midwest is comprised of rural and small urban areas. that fear of violence that we face is pushed onto the asylum, an outlet that already has a violent stigma attached to it, that still mirrors the setup of the american midwest, because that violence was seen in an asylum already. take michigan’s traverse city state hospital as an example. according to an article published by l.s. stuhler, most kirkbride hospitals strayed from the intended “building as cure” treatment and became far too overcrowded to properly treat patients, but traverse city state hospital was one of the few hospitals that took care to follow the kirkbride plan as well as they could. the traverse city state hospital had its own self-sustaining farm that sent a lot of its produce and harvest to the traverse city area. it had multiple buildings and functioned as its own little town, with patients performing jobs and tasks on the farm as well as helping run the asylum itself (not unlike the setup of a small rural town). the hospital was the furthest thing away from the violence of pennhurst, yet the ghost stories and haunting tales came nonetheless. stories of murder, of violent deaths and suicides, as well as a portal to hell residing on the grounds of this peaceful hospital filled the ghost stories that eventually overshadowed the actual history of asylums. this fear of violence that has been pushed onto these asylums trickles down to their ghosts, which is why hauntings such as those associated with indiana’s central state hospital and the ohio state reformatory emerge. joy neighbors has collected reports and stories of the central state hospital ghosts and spirits being hostile towards visitors and workers. these hauntings manifest through feelings of being watched, breezes going past, and harsh screaming and yelling. bair, an author for mysterious heartland, a site dedicated to reporting ghost stories around the united states, has written one report from the central state hospital of a maintenance worker being choked by these ghosts. the ohio state reformatory, while finishing its last days as a high security prison, began as a hospital for mentally ill criminals, and has its own fair share of stories of violent ghosts. mysterious heartland has reports of people being pushed down the stairs of the guard towers, violent breezes, and angry screams that match the stories of central state digital literature review 7 119 hospital’s ghosts almost perfectly. stories like this are scattered throughout many american midwestern asylums, but it’s not just in these asylums where violent ghosts linger. a small town in michigan tells the story of the ada witch, named so because of the town she resides in. the story is a fairly common one and keeps rather close to the classic woman in white formula. a husband caught his wife and her lover one night and killed them both in a jealous rage. the husband also died in the struggle, and couples and hunters who have been to the area report seeing the crime continue to play out, and some have even reported almost being dragged into the ghostly reenactment themselves. mike kroll, who told the story of his own encounter with the ada witch to gary eberle in his book haunted houses of grand rapids, said that he didn’t truly feel afraid of the ghost that he saw until he saw what he believed to be a knife in her hand. it was not the ghost that truly frightened him, but rather the fear of his own injury or death that prompted him to return to his car and leave. the fear of violence, despite its best efforts, has left the asylum and integrated itself in the small-town rural ghost stories. but it is not just the fear of violence that the asylum has left behind. the fear of isolation frightens us just as much as violence. in his book the sacred canopy, peter berger speaks to this idea of a “nomos” and “atomy.” he uses these terms in regard to religion, but the concept remains the same. the nomos is the idea of a structured and meaningfully ordered society. atomy is the idea of a complete and radical separation from society, and berger even calls it a “powerful threat to the individual” (21). it’s the idea of a disruption of everyday life, of a “loss of status of the entire social group to which the individual belongs” (21). berger lists one of the reasons of this loss as a physical separation from society. according to berger, to be placed in the “ultimate ‘insanity’ of such anomic horror” was the most feared thing to an individual, that to be placed in that isolation would ultimately destroy someone, which was what the asylum was (22). people were removed from the society they knew and placed in chaotic isolation, which they very rarely came back from. the asylum is a picture-perfect place of what that isolation would look like in regard to the already integrated fear of the stereotyped sickness and violence in asylums. residents’ families and loved ones didn’t want them to leave the isolation, because it was easier to just leave them there. these patients were being taken care of, after all, both digital literature review 8 120 in life and death. family rarely came to claim the bodies and take their loved ones back home once they passed, either too ashamed of the mentally-ill family member, or unwilling to make the effort for a dead person. it was because of these attitudes that many of these asylums had graveyards to bury the dead, chock full of unmarked and numbered graves. according to an article by peter dockrill, the mississippi state hospital has 7,000 unmarked and newly discovered graves, and these numbers are not unique to mississippi. ohio’s athens asylum had three graveyards on its grounds, and up until 1943, not a single one of the headstones bore a name. they only contained numbers, with the patients’ names recorded in ledgers that have since been long forgotten. one of these ledgers was found in the ohio university archives, after the school took over several of the buildings; this discovery revealed the names of about 1,700 of the over 2,000 souls that had been buried on these grounds. asylum patients, however, are not the only residents of these graveyards. according to haunted athens ohio, the official site to set up tours through the buildings and graveyards, the athens asylum was open and running during the american civil war, and it functioned as a military hospital at the time as well as carrying out its usual duties of caring for the mentally ill. the hospital staff buried the dead soldiers that came to them and the ones that died in their care just like they buried their own patients, in graves marked only by numbers. these graveyards are full of ghostly sightings and visible hauntings from both the students attending the campus and the surrounding town, but there is no one specific story or ghost to point to. there can’t be, because no one even knows who was buried here, so how can anyone know who haunts them? graveyard stories like this are not specific to asylums, but the fear of being forgotten lies most prominently with them, and the athens asylum cemeteries show this cultural fear with a shocking clarity. not only was a body left behind, but so was the name. it was the ultimate separation from society—the ultimate atomy. the peoria sate hospital in illinois has the story of mr. bookbinder. according to mysterious heartland, who has the story in its archives, he was a patient at the asylum, and he was given the job of helping to bury other patients in the hospital graveyard. he’s known for mourning every patient that passed, and when he too passed, the story goes that at his own funeral, his ghost came back to mourn his own passing. dr. zeller, who digital literature review 9 121 was assigned to mr. bookbinder as his main doctor, writes in his personal journal that over 400 people saw this phenomenon and that they opened his coffin to confirm his death. it’s an eerie story, not just because of mr. bookbinder’s appearance at his own funeral, but because, having no loved one to mourn him, he did it himself. the story of the ghostly appearance echoes the sentiment of mr. bookbinder’s ghost, in both his own mourning and his ability to not leave the graveyard that he worked at in life. illinois also tells the story of resurrection mary, a young woman who died in a car crash along archer avenue near chicago in the early 1930s. as michael keen tells it, she does not have one specific physical appearance outside of a white dress, but she always asks for a ride back to resurrection cemetery. one account of her story even has her telling the man who drove her back to the cemetery ,“where i’m going you cannot follow.” mary, unlike mr. bookbinder, is able to leave the graveyard for a time, but she always has to return. it’s isolation at the most painful—able to leave for a time, but always returning. the fear of death already frightens the midwest, but the thought of having to return, as shown with both mary and mr. bookbinder, is a self-imposed “atomy,” the feeling that, according to berger, is feared the most. patients are not the only ones still tied to the asylum walls. countless stories of doctors and nurses haunting these buildings are just as common as the stories of patients. manteno state hospital in illinois reports stories of its former doctors and nurses roaming the long since abandoned halls, and some have even heard voices over the broken intercom going through what would have been the daily routine. independent state hospital in iowa is full of accounts of sightings of doctors and nurses, and every other aforementioned asylum has at least one account of an apparition of a doctor or nurse—both mysterious heartland and only in your state, websites featuring firsthand accounts of ghost stories, present ghostly sightings of doctors and nurses at the mental asylums they list. these people may not have all died within asylum walls, but it’s not strange to think of them coming back. like resurrection mary, they may feel a sense of obligation to return, to see out the care of the ghostly patients that still remain. it may go back to the idea of atomy—they have already been secluded from society, and are not welcomed back, or cannot merge back into the normalcy of everyday life. society, due to the association fallacy, would have rejected them. these doctors have spent time among the so-called digital literature review 10 122 “insane,” and so they must be too. asylums carry with them a stain on the history of mental treatment and the burden of the midwestern haunting and fears of unspeakable violence and being isolated and forgotten. asylums were places where people were sent to die. even in death the patients couldn’t escape, buried in unmarked and numbered graves. even doctors and nurses rarely left, rejected from a society who othered them along with the patients, staying behind to care for patients no longer there. asylums are beacons of the midwestern haunting—a safe place to project these fears on an environment similar to the region of the american midwest without a seemingly direct correlation. yet these fears still trickle down, tainting the ghost stories we tell and projecting the fear of the midwestern cultural haunting back onto the culture itself. digital literature review 11 123 works cited berger, peter l. the sacred canopy. doubleday, 1969. “central state hospital.” indiana historical bureau, www.in.gov/history/markers/4324.htm. dockrill, peter. “up to 7,000 asylum graves are thought to be hidden under the university of mississippi.” sciencealert, 9 may 2017, www.sciencealert.com/up-to-7-000-asylum-graves-are-estimated-to-be-buried-under-the-university-of-mississippi. eberle, gary. haunted houses of grand rapids, vol. 2, ivystone, 1982. josephy, herman. “analysis of mortality and causes of death in a mental hospital.” american journal of psychiatry, vol. 106, no. 3, pp. 185-189. 1 apr. 2006, ajp.psychiatryonline. org/doi/10.1176/ajp.106.3.185. “the kirkbride plan.”trans-allegheny lunatic asylum, 2020, http://trans-alleghenylunaticasylum.com/main/history3.html. lee, matthew r., et al. “social isolation and lethal violence across the metro/nonmetro divide: the effects of socioeconomic disadvantage and poverty concentration on homicide.” rural sociology, vol. 68, no. 1, 2003, pp. 107–31. wiley online magazine, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1549-0831.2003.tb00131.x. neighbors, joy. “central state hospital (indiana insane asylum) & cemetery.” a grave interest, 12 oct. 2012, www.agraveinterest.blogspot.com/2012/10/central-state-hosptial-indiana-insane.html. “the stanford prison experiment: a simulation study on the psychology of imprisonment.” stanford prison experiment, www.prisonexp.org/. stuber, jennifer p., et al. “conceptions of mental illness: attitudes of mental health professionals and the general public.” psychiatric services, vol. 65, no. 4, 2014, pp. 490-497. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ps.201300136. suffer the little children. directed by bill baldini, nbc, 1968. pennhurst memorial & preservation alliance. http://www.preservepennhurst.org/default.aspx?pg=26. tilstra, elisabeth. “a living nightmare: the history of pennhurst asylum.” the lineup, 4 oct. 2016, www.the-line-up.com/pennhurst-asylum. u.s. census bureau. “midwest region.” census reporter, 2018, www.censusreporter.org/ profiles/02000us2-midwest-region/. digital literature review 12 124 works consulted andrews, stephanie. “13 spine-tingling hauntings said to be true in illinois.” onlyinyourstate, 17 nov. 2016, www.onlyinyourstate.com/illinois/hauntings-illinois/. black, bela. “‘listen doctor’, the merits of benevolent ghost – boise, idaho.” american ghost stories, 4 feb. 2015, www.americanghoststories.com/rocky-mountain-ghoststories/listen-doctor-the-merits-of-benevolent-ghost-boise-idaho. d’antonio, patricia. “history of psychiatric hospitals.” nursing, history, and health care, penn nursing, www.nursing.upenn.edu/nhhc/nurses-institutions-caring/history-of-psychiatric-hospitals/. edited by chris harvey. a history of mental institutions in the united states, 2012, www. tiki-toki.com/timeline/entry/37146/a-history-of-mental-institutions-in-the-united-states/#vars!date=1872-01-02_10:13:16!. hussung, tricia. “a history of mental illness treatment: obsolete practices.” concordia university, st. paul online, 14 oct. 2016, www.online.csp.edu/blog/psychology/history-of-mental-illness-treatment. kirk, chris. “maps: agriculture in the u.s. and around the world.” slate, 19 june 2012, www. slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2012/06/a_map_of_farmers_in_the_u_s_ and_world_.html?query=hillary clinton, donald trump&view=histogram. “population of the midwest (region).” the demographic statistical atlas of the united states statistical atlas, 4 sept. 2018, www.statisticalatlas.com/region/midwest/population. “the ridges cemetery.” haunted athens ohio, 2012, www.hauntedathensohio.com/ the-ridges-cemetery/. scull, andrew t. “madness and segregative control: the rise of the insane asylum.” social problems, vol. 24, no. 3, 1977, pp. 337–51. jstor, www.jstor.org/stable/800085. accessed 8 feb. 2020. stuhler, l.s. “kirkbride, thomas story.” social welfare history project, 15 nov. 2018, https:// socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/organizations/state-institutions/kirkbride-thomas-story/. digital literature review 1 53 shirley jackson’s novel the haunting of hill house emerged during a period of familial reimagination. indeed, the predominantly white, nuclear, and patriarchal family structure demanded by society now faced new scrutiny as people began considering the destruction these dynamics imposed on the individual. jackson’s novel particularly attends to this debilitating relationship between controlling parental figures and daughters. by reading through the lens of trauma theory more broadly, this essay argues that jackson’s text illuminates the complexities of familial trauma as well as the nuances of post-traumatic growth (ptg). dillon o’nail, ball state university “outside the gate”: family, selfhood, and post-taumatic growth in shirley jackson’s the haunting of hill house as eleanor vance, the timid protagonist of shirley jackson’s 1959 novel the haunting of hill house, approaches the titular building, an unyielding gate and cantankerous caretaker named dudley prevent her from reaching her destination. eleanor, after an unsuccessful attempt to convince dudley to open the gate, remarks that “she knew, of course, that he was delighting in exceeding his authority, as though once he moved to unlock the gate he would lose the little temporary superiority he thought he had—and what superiority have i? she wondered; i am outside the gate, after all” (20). jackson’s novel continuously returns to these themes of isolation and exclusion, of autonomy and power. as eleanor attempts to escape the traumatic, debilitating family she left behind and forge a new sense of community and selfhood, she consistently remains outside the gate, just within the reach of new friends and independent individualism yet barred from truly adopting either. the trauma she carries from her abusive mother and selfish sister functions as the metaphorical gate that prevents her from digital literature review 2 54 attaining happiness. indeed, jackson’s novel is concerned with the enduring ghost of trauma and how, if improperly handled, the damaged self becomes ensnared within a cycle of neglect, suffering, and stunted individualism. the haunting of hill house ultimately engages with the discussion surrounding the midcentury family structures of jackson’s times by scrutinizing the ways in which these structures both traumatize and entrap the self. by reading the novel through the lens of trauma theory more broadly, a better understanding emerges of how post-traumatic growth (ptg) can be achieved in the wake of the psychological damage caused by the aforementioned family structures. at the time of the haunting of hill house’s publication in 1959, cultural discourse surrounding the white, nuclear family had emerged in the wake of world war ii. as the men embarked overseas, women filled the spaces they left behind, exiting the domestic sphere to work traditionally masculine jobs. the men, however, inevitably returned, fully expecting life to return precisely to the way it was before the war: women staying at home while men navigated professional careers. susan j. douglas explains in her book where the girls are: growing up female with the mass media how the nuclear family structure was irrevocably disturbed and that this return to “normalcy” would not be easy: by the end of the war, most of these women had discovered that they liked working outside the home—they liked the money, the sense of purpose, the autonomy…women also wanted to be reunited with their husbands or sweethearts, and they wanted to start families. this was a very real desire, but they didn’t want to give up everything for it. poor, deluded souls…the war was over, and they were supposed to sashay back to the kitchen and learn how to make green beans baked with campbell’s cream of mushroom soup. (46-47) the war necessitated a change in traditional family structure, enabling millions to envision and briefly adopt alternative models outside of a strictly nuclear, patriarchal one. women, despite desiring their families, had tasted autonomy; the submissive housewife could no longer peacefully exist. even though the patriarchal society forced a return to the nuclear model, culture began thinking about families in new ways. family structures, especially white, patriarchal ones, faced scrutiny. if society began addressing the failures, misogyny, and limitations of the white, nuclear model that dominated culture, what would this mean for the future of family structures, parenting, and childhood development? moreover, if the patriarchal structure failed, could a matriarchal structure function as a successful alternative? richard pascal, writing on a similar topic in his article “walking alone together: family monsters in the haunting of hill house,” observes that “as the century progressed, digital literature review 3 55 the familial dominance of the patriarch was becoming a shared and even contested privilege, as the widely reported spectre of the obsessively manipulative mother became prominent” (466). this fledgling discussion challenged the nuclear status quo which, in turn, produced cultural anxieties. pascal reveals that one such fear was that children harbored “the disruptive energies of individualism” (466). as pascal notes, “nothing less than the future of america as a society hung in the balance” (466). jackson’s novel, however, counters the presiding belief that children, not parents, were the harbingers of societal destruction, suggesting rather the inverse; the suppression of individualism rather than the promotion of it held these “disruptive energies.” eleanor, a product of the matriarchal family structure, endured years of abuse while caring for her sick, despicable mother, stunting her sense of autonomy and general selfhood. the eleanor readers meet at the beginning of the novel is immediately presented as pitifully meek without a shred of confidence or sense of self-worth. eleanor’s traumatized, damaged self demonstrably resulted not from a nurtured and encouraged selfhood but rather from her inability to reconcile her mother’s selfish needs and her own desire for autonomy. the constricting demands family structures had for women failed eleanor, not vice versa. throughout the novel, jackson dissects and criticizes the aforementioned familial structures. the novel scathingly attacks the ghostly presence of hugh crain, hill house’s deranged creator. while crain’s morality appears dubious from the outset, the true depth of his depravity is revealed later in the novel. the group, clustered within the library, all analyze a book crain created for his two daughters that luke anderson, the heir to the home and a member of the group occupying the house with eleanor, had discovered. amongst a myriad of disturbing imagery, crain orders his children to “‘honor thy father and thy mother, daughter, authors of thy being, upon whom a heavy charge has been laid, that they lead their child in innocence and righteousness along the fearful narrow path to everlasting bliss, and render her up at last to her god a pious and virtuous soul’” (124). crain’s book echoes the requested obedience demanded of nuclear family structures, particularly patriarchal: men, whether in the religious or family sphere, act as gatekeepers that determine women’s ability to enter the gate of familial acceptance or religious salvation. the group, finding crain’s archaic diction and syntax, religious fervor, and imagery disconcerting, ultimately functions as a critique of those commanding masculine figures as vile, oppressive, and destructive to their children. despite fatherhood now being a “contested privilege,” however, the haunting presence of the patriarch nevertheless lingers within our culture; the controlling, domineering father may be dead but not yet moved on. as eleanor attempts to leave at the end of the novel, the narrator reveals that “light glittered on the marble eyes of hugh crain,” digital literature review 4 56 suggesting the marble statue commemorates a time past that nevertheless clings to a degree of life (179). despite criticizing the father figure, the haunting of hill house remains focused on the destructive, detrimental nature of the matriarchal family structure on children. the house, a product of a father, is now described by luke as “‘a mother house,’” effectively shifting the focus from fatherhood to motherhood by suggesting the force of the house now originates from the matriarch rather than patriarch (156). the correlation between the house itself and eleanor’s own abusive mother bolsters the criticism of the matriarchal, nuclear model. early on, jackson describes the house as “‘disturbed, perhaps. leprous. sick,’” all traits that similarly apply to eleanor’s sickly mother (51). upon first meeting eleanor, the readers learn that she “had been waiting for something like hill house. caring for her mother, lifting a cross old lady from her chair to her bed, setting out endless little trays of soup and oatmeal, steeling herself to the filthy laundry, eleanor held fast that someday something would happen” (4). the similar diction used in describing both eleanor’s mother and the house unites the two, transforming the house into a symbol of deranged motherhood and trauma. while depraved matriarchy was originally intertwined with depraved patriarchy, both beasts that consume their children, jackson’s novel suggests motherhood has now become a different disease altogether that deserves as much scrutiny as fatherhood. if both of these unhealthy nuclear models inflicted trauma on the children they were meant to protect, the novel presents a pessimistic view towards a creation of new structures that could substitute or replace the current ones. dr. montague, theo, luke, and eleanor—the group studying the paranormal activity of hill house—speedily form an intimate, albeit superficial, bond that functions as a new, makeshift family structure. after just one night in the house, the guests “had met morning in hill house, and they were a family, greeting one another with easy informality and going to the chairs they had used last night at dinner, their own places at the table” (71). this blissful family dynamic quickly erodes, however, and the guests start lashing out at one another—particularly eleanor and theodora. all of the guests escape momentarily from toxic family structures with their trip to hill house—dr. montague from his arrogant wife, luke from a distrusting family, theo from an argument with her partner, and eleanor from her mother and sister—yet find no solace in new community. the group eventually disbands at the end of the novel, with eleanor dying and the others individually spanning the globe, suggesting an enduring, effective, and healthy family structure or sense of community are not yet available. considering these destructive, traumatic family dynamics, the inability to forge necessary new ones ultimately stunts selfhood. in her article “house mothers and haunted daughters: digital literature review 5 57 shirley jackson and the female gothic,” roberta rubenstein explores this complex relationship between mother and child. rubenstein acknowledges the dependency on parental figures for healthy childhood development, despite the child yearning for autonomy, contending that “the tensions between ‘mother/self’ and between ‘home/lost’ connote a young child’s ambivalent desires and fears: both to remain merged with the mother…and to separate from her” (309). without a motherly presence, “the mother’s absence becomes a haunting presence that bears directly on the daughter’s difficult struggle to achieve selfhood as well as to express her unacknowledged rage or her sense of precariousness in the world” (311). rubenstein’s article demonstrates the danger of lacking an efficient family structure: without a mother, and by extension any parent in general, an independent self cannot develop. the child remains “lost” without a “home,” an individual without an identity. eleanor, trapped between wanting complete severance from her mother but unable to evade her haunting presence, finds herself stuck just outside the gate, frustratingly close to independence but without an accompanying strong selfhood, free from abuse yet plagued by trauma, and finally owning her own agency yet gripped by a dependency on community. eleanor’s mother remains hauntingly active in her daughter’s life long after dying, and long after eleanor says good riddance. the novel makes apparent eleanor’s trauma early on, evidenced by her inability to “remember ever being happy in her adult life; her years with her mother had been built up devotedly around small guilts and small reproaches, constant weariness, and unending despair” (3). late in the story, right before her untimely demise, eleanor confesses “‘it was my fault my mother died,’ [she] said. ‘she knocked on the wall and called me and called me and i never woke up. i ought to have brought her the medicine; i always did before. but this time she called me and i never woke up’” (156). curiously, eleanor’s word choice of “woke” rather than “got” suggests she merely was unconscious during the knocking, but her guilty, confessional awareness indicates otherwise: she simply did not get up to go save her mother. eleanor evokes rubenstein’s “home/lost” confliction in that this act functions as eleanor’s first true act of autonomy. no longer an obedient servant to her mother, eleanor defies the woman who abused her for years and finally “leaves the home.” her resultant guilt, as well as the relationship she leaves behind, ultimately traumatizes eleanor. awakened by a mysterious knocking, eleanor reminds herself that “it is only a noise…it is a noise down the hall, far down at the end, near the nursery door, and terribly cold, not my mother knocking on the wall” (94). knocking occurs in other moments of the novel, and while the other house guests notice the noise, eleanor’s history suggests her trauma and guilt have followed her, forcing her to reenact the traumatic event interminably. eleanor remains stuck digital literature review 6 58 outside the gate, unable to pass through and escape her trauma or prevent it from following her. the dependency on kinship, despite stunted, weak independency, remains and is seemingly unavoidable. tricia lootens, in her article “‘whose hand was i holding?’ familial and sexual politics in shirley jackson’s the haunting of hill house,” explores the various drafts of the novel and how each speak to the fantasy of harmonious domesticity. lootens contends that by the final draft, jackson had created “a house that entraps its inhabitants with fantasies of domestic bliss even as it forces them to recognize such fantasies as delusions” (172). this quote perhaps highlights the tragedy of family and selfhood best: humanity inextricably depends on kinship, regardless of the dangers it poses on the individual. eleanor’s self-growth continues being stunted by both the lingering presence of her mother and the absence thereof. without efficacious alternatives, her selfhood remains lost without a home, present but unformed—perhaps even deformed. the novel offers no solutions, suggesting that a future cannot be forged without a reconciliation to the past; a gate to escape familial trauma exists somewhere, but the past must be bridged with the present to reach it. eleanor faces the most harm from this lack of reconciliation, barring her from any chance of post-traumatic growth. lootens continues analyzing the character in her article by exploring eleanor’s sexuality and trauma. she suggests that eleanor’s strained relationship with theodora, and her reactions in response, suggest a longing both for a loving sister and romantic partner, both of which she has been denied. lootens contends that eleanor’s reactions “crystallize…her hopeless attempt to assert a new sexuality and sense of self without questioning the family structure and morality that have governed her life before hill house” (182). eleanor’s mistake lies not in striving for reconstructed selfhood but in ignoring the trauma she attempted to leave behind. her character thus functions as a warning, embodying the concept of haunting best: abandoning trauma will not, cannot, eliminate it. rather, the specters of our pasts float ever present around us until we properly give them burials and the open gates of trauma can finally be closed. hill house, analogous to trauma, is no exception. just as ruth franklin writes in her biography of jackson entitled shirley jackson: a rather haunted life, “like an abusive relationship—or an ineluctably entangled marriage of nearly twenty years— [hill house] is both impossible to remain in and impossible to escape” (416). toxic family structures are inextricably connected to trauma, as this paper and the haunting of hill house have demonstrated. exploring the ways in which the novel addresses both themes thus illuminates the complexity of the novel in ways previous scholarship has neglected. the above discussion regarding family structures has a direct connection to the field of trauma study, given the negative impact they have on children—particularly young women. the digital literature review 7 59 haunting of hill house fails to provide any explicit explanation for eleanor’s trauma, but the answer lies within the novel’s exploration and criticism of family structures. as mentioned earlier, women were torn between a desire for family and a need for autonomy following the disruption world war ii had on the nuclear family model. as wyatt bonikowski argues in his essay “‘only one antagonist’: the demon lover and the feminine experience in the work of shirley jackson,” women were forced “either to conform to a passive position within rigidly defined gender roles or be abjected into a permanent state of anxiety, insecurity, and even madness” after the war. in other words, women were traumatized by the tension between society’s expectations and personal fulfillment. moreover, women often remained silent about this tension lest they risk social ostracization, a struggle betty friedan addresses in her famous book the feminine mystique. friedan asserts, “[i]f a woman had a problem in the 1950’s and 1960’s, she knew that something must be wrong with her marriage, or with herself. other women were satisfied with their lives, she thought…. she was so ashamed to admit her dissatisfaction that she never knew how many other women shared it.” silence, therefore, was intertwined with trauma, much like the “silence [that] lay steadily against the wood and stone of hill house” (jackson 1). eleanor’s, and by extension the novel’s, silence on this matter indicates her trauma originates from this tension caused by traditional family structures. the netflix show of the same name (a reimagination of jackson’s novel rather than a faithful adaption) literalizes the ways in which this tension inflicted trauma in the episode “steven sees a ghost” when steven crain, a character who borrows his name from the aforementioned hugh crain, argues that “a ghost can be a lot of things. a memory, a daydream, a secret. grief, anger, guilt. but, in my experience, most times they’re just what we want to see. most times, a ghost is a wish” (00:41:53). the term “ghost” may function as a substitute for “trauma,” or the way certain events, emotions, and desires linger with us long after they are gone. eleanor indeed has a wish that has traumatized her and continues haunting her: a wish for individualism that is prevented by a wish for family and community. if eleanor finds herself inside the gate, inside the home and family, she finds herself outside of individualism. if she embraces autonomy, she finds herself outside of the home, of family. no matter where this tension pulls her, eleanor remains tragically outside the gate. how, then, can children, especially young women, survive the suffocation of family models? as jackson’s novel demonstrates, middle-class, white women in the late 1950s were contemplating individualism in ways previously not done. if the family unit cannot be abolished, and if alternative structures had yet to be imagined, reading the haunting of hill house through the lens of trauma theory more broadly illuminates how the self can be salvaged. in her article “healing and post traumatic growth,” suzanne digital literature review 8 60 lalonde leads “an exploration of the possibilities and limitations of the literary arts and imagination to promote healthy post-traumatic growth” (197). synthesizing decades of research from dozens of healthcare professionals, lalonde refers to the psychiatrist judith herman’s three-step process for ptg and then explores the ways in which they connect to literature. herman’s process first involves establishing a sense of safety for trauma survivors, which “entails attention to and control of the body” (197). the second step of ptg involves the survivor using their “own intellect and emotional resources to comprehend the events of the traumatic event. during this stage of remembrance and mourning, the survivor tells her story” (198). the reconstructed story, however abstract, must be created “in a factual way” (199). as this paper will later discuss, eleanor indeed engages in reconstruction but with a largely dishonest approach. ptg culminates with the third step, “which is that of restoring connection” (201). this essay, and by extension the haunting of hill house, is concerned primarily with this idea of connection and the lack thereof. lalonde’s article serves as a particularly useful framework in which to analyze eleanor by revealing her failures within this process and demonstrating how her death could have been prevented. superficially, eleanor appears to engage with each of these three steps. why, then, does she seem to only spiral further into dissociation? throughout the novel, eleanor remains attentive and in tune with her body and others, often focusing on dirtiness—a freudian desire to distance herself as far as possible from her sickly, “dirty” mother. in one of her many scenes with theodora, eleanor subjects herself to the blazon trope: eleanor found herself unexpectedly admiring her own feet. theodora dreamed over the fire just beyond the tips of her toes, and eleanor thought with deep satisfaction that her feet were handsome in their red shoes; what a complete and separate thing i am, she thought, going from my red shoes to the top of my head, individually an i, possessed of attributes belonging only to me. i have red shoes, she thought—that goes with being eleanor; i dislike lobster and sleep on my left side and crack my knuckles when i am nervous and save buttons. i am holding a brandy glass which is mine because i am here and i am using it and i have a place in this room. i have red shoes and tomorrow i will wake up and i will still be here. (60) while this scene suggests an assertion of self, an attention to the body, it rather reveals a profound doubt in eleanor’s selfhood. her attention to her body strives not towards security but to reassure eleanor that there is indeed a self that can be made safe. eleanor, in an attempt to construct a healthy image of herself, deconstructs her various elements, ultimately cementing a self that is fragmented, disjointed, and broken. digital literature review 9 61 despite unsuccessfully engaging with the first step of ptg, eleanor proceeds to the second to reconstruct her past. she professes some honesty, including her mother’s death and overall dissatisfaction, but ultimately avoids true confrontation with her past. eleanor tells theo, “‘i have a little place of my own…. an apartment, like yours, only i live alone. smaller than yours, i’m sure…. i had to look for weeks before i found my little stone lions on each corner of the mantel’” (64). eleanor, obviously evoking the alluring home she found during her commute to hill house, completely lies about her life she left behind, defying lalonde’s emphasis on reconstructing the story “in a factual way.” her reconstruction demonstrates avoidance, rather than ownership, of her traumatic past. moreover, eleanor derives the description of her imagined apartment from homes she had seen beforehand and from theo’s description of her apartment, revealing her lack of creativity. while one may conclude eleanor simply lacks vision, her unoriginality rather suggests an inability to think independently, ultimately emphasizing her total lack of individualism. the inability to productively approach the first two steps of ptg ultimately bars eleanor from reaching the point survivors depend upon the most: reconnection. lootens, in analyzing a scene in which eleanor, thinking she was holding theo’s hand, awakens to realize she never was, argues that “the horror behind eleanor’s scream is not that she was alone in the dark, but that she believed herself to have someone there” (179). eleanor’s inability to find connection demonstrates the linear nature of the ptg process. for reconnection, one must reconstruct one’s trauma, and to achieve that, one must have the security necessary to return to the traumatic event in the first place. as lootens suggests, perhaps the true horror of the haunting of hill house lies not with ghostly apparitions or even traumatizing events themselves, but with finding oneself truly alone amongst family, friends, and colleagues—communities a gate of trauma prevents one from truly entering. thus, without successful ptg and reintegration into a healthy family unit or alternative community, the novel warns of the destruction that will result. as eleanor attempts to escape the house, her trauma lingers, leading to her ambivalent suicide: “i am really doing it, i am doing this all by myself, now, at last; this is me, i am really really really doing it by myself. in the unending, crashing second before the car hurled into the trees, she thought clearly, why am i doing this?” (182). eleanor’s ambiguity about what precisely “it” is suggests she herself does not know and is simply carrying out the demands of external agents: dr. montague forcing her to leave and hill house (or her trauma) refusing to allow that. quite simply, eleanor is doing what she is told, torn between wanting to escape the trauma that governs her life and being wholly incapable of doing so. thus, eleanor cannot escape hill house but also cannot remain alive within it; her suicide was ultimately not of her own choosing. moreover, the shift from a first person perspective to digital literature review 10 62 an omniscient third person one removes any agency eleanor may have had, emphasizing her lack of individualism and autonomy. her final moments evoke a story from her childhood where mysterious falling rocks crashed into her home, suggesting the trauma endured during childhood will invade selfhood, or homes, and carry affected individuals to death unless properly put to rest. until then, the specter stays. shirley jackson’s novel leaves the reader with a sense of unease and a lack of closure. the novel ends abruptly after eleanor’s death, suggesting the story was not, in fact, ever about the haunting of hill house but rather of eleanor vance. the haunting of hill house relentlessly critiques the existing and fluctuating familial structures of jackson’s times, highlighting the damage dominating cultural attitudes towards parenting inflicted on children. while the novel acknowledges the need for community, it does not shy away from lambasting the rejection of selfhood by the collective group. reading the novel through the lens of trauma theory thus illuminates the subtle nuances of ptg and forewarns the damage neglected familial trauma creates. digital literature review 11 63 works cited bonikowski, wyatt. “’only one antagonist’: the demon lover and the feminine experience in the work of shirley jackson.” gothic studies, vol. 15, no. 2, 2013, pp. 66-88. gale literature resource center, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/a367421112/litrc?u=munc80314&sid=litrc&xid=934d3db8. accessed 3 feb. 2020. douglas, susan j. where the girls are: growing up female with the mass media. three rivers press, 1995. franklin, ruth. shirley jackson: a rather haunted life. first edition. liveright publishing corporation, 2016. friedan, betty. “the problem that has no name” from the feminine mystique, 1963. in american journal of public health, vol. 100, no. 9, 2010, pp. 1582-84. doi:10.2105/ajph.100.9.1582. jackson, shirley. the haunting of hill house. penguin, 1984. lalonde, suzanne. “healing and post-traumatic growth.” trauma and literature, edited by j. roger kurtz, cambridge university press, 2018, pp. 196-210. lootens, tricia. “’whose hand was i holding’: familial and sexual politics in shirley jackson’s the haunting of hill house.” in haunting the house of fiction: feminist perspectives on ghost stories by american women, edited by lynette carpenter and wendy k. kolmar, u of tennessee p, 1991, pp. 166-92. pascal, richard. “walking alone together: family monsters in the haunting of hill house.” studies in the novel, vol. 46, no. 4, 2014, pp.464-85. project muse, doi:.10.1353/sdn.2014.0072. rubenstein, roberta. “house mothers and haunted daughters: shirley jackson and female gothic.” tulsa studies in women’s literature, vol. 15, no. 2, 1996, pp. 303-33. jstor, https://www. jstor.org/stable/464139. “steven sees a ghost.” the haunting of hill house, season 1, episode 1, 12 oct. 2018. netflix, https:// www.netflix.com/watch/80189222?trackid=13752289&tctx=0%2c0%2c6e54aa50-c6a8-47b9a3a4-9c431d441634-474812820%2c%2c. “psycho”, “maniac”, and “madman” are all words that are found to be synonymous with serial killers and criminal activity. for decades, the media has perpetuated an extremely harmful image that those suffering from mental illness are violent and dangerous. these portrayals can be found across mediums from fictional books and movies to docuseries and podcasts. in the realm of fiction, specifically, some of the most harmful depictions can be found in horror films. these films tend to paint their villains to be caricatures of various psychiatric disorders including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, dissociative identity disorder (formerly known as multiple personality disorder), and narcissistic personality disorder. these misrepresentations are not only grossly exaggerated but also highly inaccurate. in this piece, i will explore and expose the negative distortions of mental illness in various horror films. the scope will focus on two of the most influential psychological thrillers in the industry: psycho and the shining. these films each depict an antagonist who displays exaggerated traits indicative of mental illness. by deconstructing and comparing these traits with modern research on the mental illnesses they are meant to represent, i will expose the inaccuracies of these portrayals. furthermore, i will outline the lasting impacts of these inaccuracies on both the public perceptions of mental illness, as well as help-seeking among individuals suffering from psychological disorders. even if the characters in these popular films are fictional, the stigma they direct toward mental illness is very real and must be addressed. taking the “psycho” out of “psycho-killer”: the impact of criminal portrayals of psychiatric disorders in horror films makayla edwards, ballball state university 37 introduction “he has done horrible things to people, and he will do horrible things to you,” (split 2:23). these are the final words of the trailer for the 2017 horror film split, wherein the primary antagonist speaks about himself in the third person, saying he is about to harm the girls he has abducted. the movie centers around a man named kevin, whose dissociative identity disorder (did) supposedly leads him to kidnap and torture people. throughout the film, kevin takes on multiple personalities, ranging from peaceful to violent, all of which participate in the abduction of the girls. his disorder plays a principal role in his crimes and violence in the film. upon initial release, the film immediately sparked controversy due to its negative depictions of did and its villainization of mental illness. many found the film to be not only offensive but also extremely harmful to the public perception of the disorder. with various scenes cutting between peaceful and violent personalities, an extremely dangerous picture is painted: any individual suffering from the disorder may simply switch at any given moment and start attacking people. however, many studies, which will be discussed in detail later in this essay, have found that individuals suffering edwards figure 1. film capture of hedwig, a 9-year-old with a lisp and one of the many personalities of kevin (james mcavoy). 27 july 2016, split official trailer 1 (2017) youtube.com. ) 38 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84touqfisii from psychological disorders are statistically no more violent than their neurotypical counterparts. furthermore, a very important aspect of this characterization is often glossed over: split is far from the first horror film to exploit and criminalize mental illness. rather, much of the genre is built on it. dating back to the 1960 release of alfred hitchcock’s psycho, various psychological disorders, both named and unnamed, have been used as grounds for a character to be violent and homicidal. psycho’s antagonist is a young man, norman bates, who suffers from an unnamed mental illness that causes him to take on the persona of his abusive mother. when taking on this persona, he murders various people, including a young woman staying at his motel. the mental illness being negatively portrayed would now be referred to as did, but was not called such in the actual film. this film laid the framework for the “psycho-killer” and many others followed suit. suddenly, horror antagonists didn’t have to be fantastical creatures like dracula or frankenstein’s monster, they could be human beings. in the two decades following psycho’s release, the industry became flooded with the new brand of “homicidal maniac”. from texas chainsaw massacre (1974) to halloween (1978) to friday the 13th (1995), villains characterized by various symptoms of mental illness filled the theaters. audiences loved the concept of a “real” killer and hollywood knew it. while these films may not have given as much focus to the actual mentality and inner struggles of the antagonist as psycho did, it was still clear that the reasoning behind their violent tendencies was assumed to be mental illness. it wasn’t until the movie adaptation of stephen king’s the shining (1980) that filmmakers circled back to a more antagonist-led plot structure. much like psycho, the shining centers around one man, jack torrance, and his descent into “madness.” similarly to norman, jack has a troubled past as well as delusions that both play a role in his unraveling. although we are once again not given an actual diagnosis for the character, many analysts believe that jack suffers from schizophrenia. while split has been heavily targeted in the media for its controversy and inaccuracies, both the shining and psycho remain revered as some of the best horror films to date. though they are well-constructed films in many ways, this is cause for concern. these portrayals were cornerstones in shaping modern horror; they have even spurred off a subgenre now known as the psychological thriller. they are commonplace in present-day media, which means that even those who haven’t seen the films are likely familiar with them in one way or another. what a majority of the population is less familiar with, though, is what people with psychological disorders are actually like. these films build such a stigma around mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia and dissociative identity disorder, that many people fear even being in the general vicinity of individuals suffering from them. they produce shame, and even edwards 39 go so far as to deter those suffering from mental illness from seeking care for fear of being labeled as dangerous. psychological disorders in film, particularly within the horror genre, can be extremely damaging to individuals who want to seek help but are afraid of negative societal perceptions of mental health. after all, films are not just moving pictures; they are active catalysts for real-world perceptions. dissociative identity disorder in psycho alfred hitchcock’s psycho follows norman bates, a homicidal motel owner who murders the primary female protagonist and motel guest, marion crane. as people begin to investigate the woman’s death, bates goes on to commit another murder and two additional attempts. the key thing to note here, though, is that the audience does not find out norman is guilty until the end. throughout the film, it is suggested that his sickly mother is committing the crimes and that norman is simply another victim of her manipulation. and while the latter half is true, it is revealed that norman’s mother has been dead for a substantial amount of time and that he has been taking on her persona during the murders. while her death was initially ruled as a murder-suicide by her lover, norman had actually killed them in a fit of rage. it is suggested that norman’s present mental state was a result of childhood abuse combined with unmanageable guilt from killing his mother. this representation is problematic on a handful of fronts. firstly, dubbing bates as simply a “madman” without any particular diagnosis creates a blurred image of mental illnesses, grouping them all together as one generalized concept of “madness”. this is damaging because it further alienates individuals suffering from any variant of mental illness by collectively categorizing them as dangerous. in the case of norman bates, the modern equivalent of the psychiatric condition he displays would be dissociative identity disorder. however, due to the lack of information about the disorder available following the film’s release, many viewers miscategorized the character as suffering from schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. misguided assumptions such as these can be detrimental and lead to widespread misinformation concerning the symptoms of various disorders. in her article entitled “we all go a little mad sometimes,” sonya lipczynska contends: the antagonists in these kinds of films usually display the kind of behaviours, which mainstream media generally considers as indicative of psychopathy. rarely are these characters diagnosed with any particular disorder (the psychiatrist character at the end of psycho does have a go), but instead, they present with specific symptoms to indicate a general ‘‘madness’’. these include split personality behaviour, talking to imaginary people, violent urges, sadism, manipulation, obsessive behaviours, edwards 40 remorselessness, and general acts of depravity. crucially, all these particular antagonists are human beings, made villainous by their mental illness. (61) general “madness,” as lipczynska describes, is extremely prevalent in psycho. there are many scenes throughout the film that portray the violent behavior that lipczynska is referring to, most notably being the infamous shower scene. the scene shows marion getting into the shower, followed by norman sneaking into the bathroom and pulling back the shower curtain to stab her multiple times. the scene is filmed to not directly show norman, which functions not only as a plot device to maintain the mystery of the killer but also as a way to dehumanize him. the camera is maneuvered in alternating shots that specifically show only marion or a backlit silhouette of the killer. the act of dehumanization is further shown through the use of dramatic music during the murder followed by the juxtaposed calm demeanor of bates as he cleans up the aftermath, insinuating a lack of empathy and psychopathy. even though the audience is led to believe at this point that the murderer is bates’s mother, bates’s eerie composure remains unsettling, to say the least. the violent actions of norman combined with the psychiatrist’s “psychoanalysis” edwards figure 2. film capture of norman bates approaching marion. 1960, psycho. 41 (which is being used very liberally as it is not a real informed medical opinion), creates a taboo around matters pertaining to mental health. the film is framing the scenario as “norman’s mental illness makes him kill people,” which is a misinformed perspective that ultimately leads to negative perceptions. dissociative identity disorder is not inherently linked to or considered a cause of criminal activity, including homicide (weberman & brand). however, characters such as norman bates encourage stigma suggestive of villainous intent among those suffering from mental health conditions. in one of the final scenes of the film, the audience sees norman sitting alone in a cell after being caught. while norman does not appear to be speaking, his mother voices over the scene, implying the killer’s inner thoughts. mother speaks to the audience, telling them that she always knew norman was “bad” and that he “intended to tell [the police] that [she] killed those girls and that man” (psycho 1:48:01). the voice of norman’s mother had been present throughout the whole film, but it is only at this point that she speaks directly to the audience. ominous music underlays as the camera zooms in on norman who seems to be in a trance. the audience is intended to be horrified by this, inching closer to norman’s face as his smile becomes more sinister. this, the only point in which the audience experiences norman’s psychological condition directly, is explicitly made to be one of the most frightening scenes in the entire film, which further encourages the idea that those suffering from mental disorders are to be feared, even in a calm and resting state. edwards figure 3. film capture of norman smiling sinisterly at the camera. 1960, psycho. 42 schizophrenia in the shining jack torrance, from stanley kubrick’s film the shining, is another example of violent misrepresentations of mental illness. note that this is specifically referring to the film, not stephen king’s novel which the film is based on. this difference is critical because while the book focuses much more on supernatural elements, the film takes an approach far more indicative of mental illness. though the film does incorporate the presence of spiritual entities as a reason behind jack’s homicidal behavior, a majority of audiences still perceived him to be “crazy” or “psychotic” (mancine 17). this is because many of the behaviors exhibited by jack in the film are gross exaggerations of symptoms associated with schizophrenia, including delusions, hallucinations, and disorganized behavior (yusfa 50). this is then coupled with violent outbursts that imply a connection between schizophrenia and violence. one example of such behavior is the notorious “here’s johnny!” scene, wherein jack chases his wife wendy into the bathroom and chops through the locked door with an axe. this scene, much like the one in psycho, is accompanied by dramatic music as well as screams of terror from wendy as jack tries to harm her. he hacks away at the bathroom door as wendy begs him to stop and even tries to defend herself with a knife. at this point, though, jack has become so engrossed in his delusions that he no longer cares for her well-being and wishes to cause her harm. this outburst is caused by jack’s belief that wendy is trying to get him to abandon his responsibilities because edwards figure 4. film capture of jack’s face in the hole of the door he chopped through. 1980, the shining. 43 she is selfish and doesn’t want him to succeed. he is extremely angry at her for this and chases her, trying to stop her from leaving the property. in reality, their son had been injured, and wendy wants to take him to get help. paranoid delusions such as these are a common symptoms of schizophrenia (yusfa 49); however, the violent reaction that jack had is not. another instance of delusion-induced violence is when jack chases danny through the hedge maze. this happens after the encounter with wendy, and it is clear that jack is exhausted, as well as suffering the effects of the head injury he received in an earlier scene. he eerily stumbles through the maze yelling out for his son, whom he intends to harm. it is the middle of the night, and the maze is hazy and snowy. intense music once again plays to create an anticipatory effect for the viewer. the scene is extremely dark and intense because it is one of the moments in which the audience is meant to be the most scared of jack. the concept that jack is trying to find his son danny in the middle of the night in a foggy maze and harm him is not only terrifying but unrealistic. this is a man suffering from multiple injuries and paranoid delusions. in a real episode such as this, it is much more likely that an individual suffering from schizophrenia would not be violent, but would rather be terrified themselves. paranoid delusions more often cause severe and debilitating anxiety and stress, not violence (“paranoia”). the individual would be much more likely to go into a more catatonic state or sent into an anxiety attack than to chase down and attack their family. framing the condition as scary and threatening encourages a negative perception of psychosis that can create harmful backlash for individuals suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. edwards figure 5. film capture of jack walking through the maze. 1980, the shining. 44 violent behavior, such as that exhibited by jack torrance, is not considered to be directly caused by psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia (stuart 122), but this does not stop the film industry from perpetuating this stigma. in a study of films portraying schizophrenia conducted by patricia owen, thirty-five out of the forty-one films reviewed depicted characters suffering from schizophrenia as dangerous and violent, and thirteen of them exhibited homicidal behavior (657). this behavior is also often coupled with various other horror tropes such as paranormal activity or cults (657). these portrayals may seem like mere works of fiction, scary movies to enjoy with a bag of popcorn, but unfortunately, the reality is far more detrimental. real world impacts whether one claims that the portrayal of psychiatric disorders in the horror genre is merely fiction or a “warning” to the public, the result remains the same. it perpetuates societal bias against those with mental illness. in regards to simply categorizing it as fiction, it is ignorant to assume that means that cinematic depictions don’t influence public perception. hollywood and the advertising industry have vicious holds on society’s collective subconscious and grossly impact the way that people understand the world around them (hyler 1047). for instance, an individual who has never encountered somebody suffering from schizophrenia has no other reference than what has been shown to them. whatever the media puts in front of them, they are inclined to believe. if the film industry is presenting violent images of people with schizophrenia or did, then audiences have no explicit reason to believe otherwise. the viewer could theoretically seek out resources to help them understand the disorders, but that is assuming they are even aware of their existing bias, which is unlikely. this stigma is rooted deeply in societal perceptions even though they are not based on fact. this is where the argument that cinematic portrayals are a sort of “warning” comes into play. these warnings and cautionary tales are not scientifically sound, however, and their impacts are staggering. in a study conducted by bruce link, a sociologist employed by columbia university, and his colleagues, it was found that sixty-one percent of participants believed that individuals with schizophrenia were prone to violence (1331). furthermore, sixty-three percent of participants claimed that they would prefer to social distance from an individual described as suffering from schizophrenia (1332). another more recent study found that after viewing the film split, participants were twenty percent less likely to be willing to be in contact with a person suffering from did, and the number of participants who reported a negative impression of the disorder rose from zero to forty percent (chen 545). the same study edwards 45 found that after viewing shutter island, another film that inaccurately portrays did (although less explicitly than split), participants were fifty percent less willing to get in touch with an individual suffering from did (545). this is proof that even if a negative portrayal may not be perceived as entirely accurate, that does not negate the overall stigma that is being encouraged by the film. the viewpoints that end up developing as a result of these films are unfortunately very real. in contrast to this perception, it has been found that the prevalence of violence among those with a major mental disorder was virtually no different from those not suffering from one, assuming that neither party is abusing illegal drugs (stuart 122). furthermore, out of those studied, individuals suffering from schizophrenia were statistically least likely to commit an act of violence. more impactful determinants of violent behavior were actually socio-economic and socio-demographic factors, like being a working-class young male (123). a similar study of individuals suffering from dissociative disorders, including did, found that symptoms of the disorder (emotional dysregulation, dissociation, etc.) were not indicative of criminal activity (weberman & brand 9), which greatly contrasts the cinematic portrayals of these disorders in both psycho and split. regardless of this research, the public perceptions of these specific disorders, along with public perceptions of mental illness as a whole, remain predominantly negative. this is a very harmful truth, not only because it creates a societal bias against those with psychological disorders, but also because it may deter said individuals from seeking help at all. a review of various studies at cambridge university concluded in qualitative research that “anticipated and experienced stigma based on stereotypes deters help-seeking directly and through non-disclosure” (clement 22). this compounded with inaccessible and underfunded mental healthcare puts individuals suffering from mental health conditions at a loss for support and treatment. conclusion as sonya lipczynska explains in her article, the primary purpose of any horror movie is to scare its audience. by using mental illness as a motivator for murder, the stigma will only inevitably increase (62). fueling public fear of those suffering from psychological disorders with villainous caricatures cannot be construed as anything but harmful. even though the inaccuracy of these portrayals has been proven through empirical research, it doesn’t seem to prevent hollywood from continuously exploiting psychological disorders. instead, as we see in the recent release of m. night shyamalan’s split, filmmakers continue to ostracize those with mental illness through depictions of violence and criminal activity. people suffering from psychiatric disorders are not villains. they don’t plan edwards 46 to sneak up on women in the shower or chase their families with axes through abandoned hotels. a vast majority of them are compassionate people with good hearts that happen to face more complex mental and emotional struggles than the average person. the film industry paints them as “madmen” and “psychos” when in reality they are simply trying to live their lives, the same as anybody else. individuals exhibiting signs of mental illness or psychosis should be able to seek help without feeling threatened by what social repercussions 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(2017). “mental illness and violent behavior: the role of dissociation.” borderline personality disorder and emotion dysregulation, 4(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40479-017-0053-9. yusfa, weldina, et al. “the schizophrenia of jack torrence’s character in ‘the shining’ movie by stanley kubrick.” eliterate: journal of english linguistics and literature studies, vol. 1, no. 1, 2021, pp. 41–51. 49 https://bpded.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40479-017-0053-9 two young men pause their summertime bike ride through the italian countryside to speak to an old woman sitting outside a farmhouse splitting peas. dressed in memphis-group-inspired shorts and a talking heads band shirt, the younger of these fellows asks the woman if she could fetch them glasses of water. while she’s inside, he reaches into the bowl where the woman has been sorting her split peas and grabs a fistful. his companion slaps his hand, smiling, unable to admonish the younger man for munching on his new-found harvest. after receiving their water, the men peddle off, leaving the woman to go on pea-splitting, oblivious to both the produce stolen from her as well as her role in sustaining a homosexual romance. the scene above is representational of the large part food plays in facilitating the sensual, exploratory world of call me by your name. besides earning an academy award nomination for best picture and launching timothée chalamet’s career, the 2017 film adaptation of andré acimen’s novel has been ground-breaking in its mainstream reception of a queer relationship. while almost every life’s a peach: the convergence of sexuality and class in luca guadagnino’s call me by your name allen warren, ball state university reviewer has had something to say about the infamous “peach scene” (which itself was toned down from the source material) and similar symbols of lust and love in the film, few have focused on how food overall—its production, presentation, or consumption—functions in call me by your name. fewer still have chosen to interact with the working-class characters who not only dot, but paint the lush backdrop of elio and oliver’s interactions and who provide for the main characters’ romance through food production. with these two lenses missing, we have been unable to understand this piece of cinema for what it suggests: for these men to have come together romantically, there needed to be a space, such as the perlmans’ villa, where they could escape normative messaging around sexuality without stressing about the fiscal demands required for a fulfillment of the necessities—in this case, eating. according to this interpretation, love must transcend the body to exist; for that to happen, you need someone underneath to serve you. i propose food as a mechanism by which we can assess this movie’s romantic leanings as well as its reliance on class divisions to kickstart any meaningful realization of queerness. with this understanding in mind, we can begin to gather a better sense of call me by your name’s class-consciousnes call me by your name (2017) became famous for its “peach scene,” though the orchard around the perlmans’ villa where this fruit thrives could not have grown on its own. distinctions of class and a parasitism by the most affluent of their workers cultivate the paradise where director luca guadagnino sets the blossoming romance between elio and oliver. apricots are a clear metaphor for desire here, yet their prolificacy is only possible through the invisibility and silent intervention of other food items, from peas to latkes to water. critics have pointed out the beauty of the italian setting and its use as a temporary escape from heteronormative surveillance, as well as the way domestic workers flow in and out of scenes almost wordlessly. what these critics have missed is the connection these occurrences have in explaining how the working class have built (but do not benefit from) this heaven on earth, where the young male lovers may permit their bodies to act without restraint. while queer and class theories inform this discussion, my primary vehicle for interpretation will be food, both for its prominent place in the movie and for the ways it parallels the class structure at the villa. i find the film quietly reflects on the levels of economic privilege and exploitation needed to experience the paradise it depicts, with the usurpation of food in many scenes helping to remind the audience of the inability of this space to be wholly subversive. essay 83 | warren and reckoning with economic forces that, on the surface, suggest entering a capitalistic elite to even clandestinely undermine heterosexism; however, these views ultimately bow under examination to show the inability of any space built on such a hierarchy to funnel out oppression. cartoonist olivia de recat lampooned the popular excitement around call me by your name through a 2018 series for the new yorker entitled “timothée chalamet made me do it.” in it, obsession over the film, and chalamet in particular, manifests as a collection of indulgent admissions, such as this one from twenty-two-year-old “fiona” of portland, oregon, whose face is broken out in a rash: “i started eating peaches again, even though i’m allergic to them.” this unashamed love coupled with the resulting mythology around guadagnino’s production are reflected in most published critical reviews. writing for the new yorker as well, anthony lane hailed call me by your name as “an erotic triumph,” suggesting that “a gratifying cameo by a peach . . . merits an academy award for best supporting fruit.” besides being “far and away the best movie of the year,” call me by your name was, for christy lemire on roger ebert’s legacy site, a “sensitive adaptation”: “a feeling of melancholy tinges everything, from the choice of a particular shirt to the taste of a perfectly ripe peach.” a messy soft-boiled egg excited manohla dargis in the new york times: “mr. guadagnino almost can’t help making everything look intoxicating.” no written discussion of the film seems to escape a discussion of its food, first among them the peach, which serves as a masturbatory tool while chalamet’s character, elio, waits in a barn loft for oliver, played by armie hammer. that elio discovers the fruit’s erotic potential undoubtedly fueled much of the movie’s public interest: today’s texters code the same reference in the peach emoji (murray), though, as food studies critic john varriano notes, wide-spread sexual interpretations of produce have existed for much longer, pointing to painted and poetic examples from the italian renaissance—some of which feature a peach in an explicitly homoerotic light. this popular discussion indicates that while not forming the basis of the movie, food cannot be removed from the emotional and critical connections which audiences form with call me by your name. the film’s mythology manifests through other cinematic choices as well, including the story itself. oliver is a graduate student who has come from america for the summer of 1983 to work under professor samuel perlman, an expert in classical culture. the opportunity introduces oliver to elio, the professor’s son, a seventeen-year-old who makes a hobby of notating and re-interpreting bach pieces and who can switch with ease between english, french, and italian depending on the situation. guided by the languid gazes of the professor and his wife annella, the two young men swim, study, and simmer beneath the fruit trees of this expansive rural villa. as anthony lane writes, the film is “‘somewhere in northern italy,’ and “such vagueness is deliberate: the point of a paradise is that it could exist anywhere.” in fits and starts, elio and oliver form a bond that starts as a distant intellectual respect for one another before becoming, by the film’s midpoint, a romantic one. director luca guadagnino is faithful to author acimen’s pacing of the novel by resisting expediting the tract of this relationship, instead allocating generous amounts of time to shots of fields, forests, and low-hanging apricots. these apricots are seminal to the start of elio and oliver’s rapport. we are introduced to their grove as forming “annella’s trees,” delineating a claim of ownership to them as well as to the cherries, pomegranates, and peaches, despite us never seeing professor perlman’s wife pick a single fruit—though, by some miracle, apricot juice abounds. a few scenes later, when annella brings some of this juice to essay warren | 84 the professor’s study, she offers a glass to oliver, who laps it down without pausing for a breath. seeing this, the professor proposes a trajectory of the word “apricot” into english from arabic that oliver counters, situating the word’s origins in the latin praecocem meaning “precocious” and “premature.” this last addition is directed at elio, who has been watching oliver behind a book while sharing smirks with his mother. they both know the father is testing his assistant’s etymological skills, so when professor perlman declares oliver has passed with “flying colors,” elio can’t help but interject: “he does this every year” (call me by your name). as anna harvey of screen queens observes, elio has become “intrigued by this newcomer’s confidence,” a growth that prompts the young perlman to elicit oliver’s attention in this scene. it also attests to roland barthes’s belief, stated in “towards a psychosociology of contemporary food consumption,” that “food has a constant tendency to transform itself into situation” (29); beyond giving sustenance, food is a symbol of the social predilections of its user/s, a truth that strengthens as the item’s necessity as sustenance wanes. the philological sparring elio witnesses resonates for him precisely because a physical attraction towards oliver has already begun to form, characterized by this discussion of the sources of the succulent apricot. in his negative review for the new yorker, richard brody points to this scene as an example of how guadagnino supplants intimacy and emotional development for having elio and oliver “post their intellectual bona fides on the screen like diplomas.” through this analysis, brody fails to appreciate the extent to which these interactions with food express the development of the boys’ relationship where words cannot be spoken. in his analysis of contemporary food advertisements, barthes notes that advertising “eroticizes food and thereby transforms our consciousness of it, bringing it into a new sphere of situations by means of a pseudocasual relationship” (27). this relationship, which starts out as formally-structured, removed, and (in advertising’s reliance on “[m]otivation studies” and other psychologies of the consumer) intellectual, dips into a more personal connection “connoting a sublimated sexuality” through the eventual association by the individual of specific foods with erotic images (barthes 27). barthes’s description of french marketing schemes also proves insightful into elio and oliver’s budding bond. this interpretation contends the notion that an eroticization of food requires the intervention of corporation images: as varriano points out, we symbol-seeking animals need no incentive to link our world to our sex, particularly when these links help to code social transgressions. to that end, many of elio and oliver’s interactions with each other involve food or drink such that these items enwrap themselves into, and become, the conversation. at one point, oliver, for example, uses a request for water after playing volleyball as an excuse to knead elio’s shoulder. elio does not respond well to this touching because he mistakes it for teasing from a heterosexual man—with others around, oliver cannot correct this misunderstanding. the presence of girlfriends for both characters complicates being explicit about any homosexual feelings. however, at breakfast one morning when elio declares to oliver and his father that he and his girlfriend marzia “almost had sex last night,” oliver uses the opportunity to opine that “it’s better to have tried and failed,” glancing up from elio to prof. perlman then back down at his soft-boiled egg (call me by your name). this egg’s destruction starts the scene, with shots of the cracking of its shell, the spilling of the yolk, and the spooning out of its contents. it’s a delicate but messy process, necessitating oliver’s focus as well as the audience, and sets up this discussion among the men of a sexual duty to pursue despite the possibility—or likelihood—of failure. essay 85 | warren food becoming its own language in call me by your name follows pierre bourdieu’s observation from “distinction: a social critique of the judgement of taste” that “[t]he sign-bearing, sign-wearing body is also a producer of signs which are physically marked by the relationship to the body” (35). so close to the body that it becomes the body, food must serve here where words cannot. apricots, water, and eggs have joined the ranks of, if not usurped, the typical signalling method of speech to account for social muzzling –thankfully for elio and oliver, little gets lost in translation. this fact suggests the erection of “a new regime of discourses”, founded to account for the fact that “[t]here is not one but many silences” (foucault 27)—ironic for a film whose title promotes declaration. the extinction of words is necessary to conceal what is happening symbolically to the people around elio and oliver, who, if they did catch onto the code, could only ever become aware of a sublimation from strangers to lovers. since oliver and elio often must meet each other at mealtime (with elio’s parents, if not more people, present), meals play a role in both obfuscating and deepening this relationship. on oliver’s first night at the villa, a bell peels through the darkness: the perlmans’ maid/cook, mafalda, is calling the house to dinner. despite elio’s pressings, oliver is too tired to attend and asks elio to make an excuse for his missing the meal. skipping dinner becomes a habit of oliver’s, a crass americanism that elio criticizes later on to his folks. his parents have none of it, disappointing elio. he cannot share why oliver’s absence bothers him (if he knows why yet himself); this denial separates child from parents, though they are dining together. the elder perlmans, it must be noted, are quite progressive for their time: they have gay friends, after all. still, queer topics remain unpalatable at the dinner table, so it must be left to simmer, cloche-covered. when mafalda comes by to remove oliver’s plate from the table, elio scoots over to occupy the empty place, a way of “inhabit[ing] the body for which the space was reserved” (harvey). this movement allows us to begin to understand, at the same time as elio, how much he desires oliver’s company, particularly when he is surrounded by others of the household through the rituality of mealtime. mealtime, like everything at the villa, is cultivated and polished to a degree almost impossible for anyone outside the bourgeoisie to realize; human help curates the machinations of the perlman mansion, for which they receive little in-world or on-screen recognition. manohla dargis sees the villa’s “miles of bookshelves, its velvet sofas, scattered oriental rugs and tastefully arranged antiques” as a sign of how guadagnino makes “even a busy breakfast table and the fruit on a tree . . . seem art directed.” in the film’s universe, these aesthetic decisions are instead aided by a pair of domestic workers: mafalda and the handyman anchise. both are involved in the production and service of food. besides being the perlmans’ cook, mafalda seems to be in constant expectation of the family’s need for food: at one point, a milkshake she has prepared for annella is waved away while she intervenes to show oliver how to properly crack open a soft-boiled egg on his first morning there. anchise, on the other hand, is more involved in the collection of food, such as picking the fruit from the orchard. a large fish he caught serves as amusement for elio, who makes faces at what will likely be part of dinner that evening. elio can take breaks such as this from his music transcription (done with a walkman, no cheap product in 1983) because he did not have to involve himself in the fish’s retrieval; because he did not have to blend the apricot juice he drinks; because the villa greets those with enough socioeconomic privilege to enter it with the sustenance for their academic, leisure, and sexual pursuits. essay warren | 86 the perlmans and their guests are never wanting for food, nor do they ever lack someone to serve them, a fact that they take as natural and therefore unnecessary to examine. whether at home or at a café, they are always able to secure service. annella makes appearances in the kitchen on the pretense of some female bonding with mafalda; we learn later that annella had inherited the property, and it is possible she and the maid have had a long relationship as employer and employed. however, when you only step into the kitchen to remove a tart from the oven so it’s ready for a guest who just arrived, or, in a particularly weird sequence, look square in the eyes of your hired help while sticking your finger into another tart to have a taste, it doesn’t suggest a strong bond. nor does it suggest much awareness of the social stratification that might make mafalda’s presence at the villa a generational venture. oliver is not exempt from this lack of class consciousness; while his financial bearings are technically unknown despite his ability to travel abroad to further his doctoral candidacy, we cannot overlook how easily he adapts to having someone crack his eggs for him, or how he can bear to wave away a hot meal almost nightly. if you aren’t having to make breakfast, you can stomach skipping dinner. when it comes to collecting to food, we see a perlman—elio—attempt this only thrice: once, when he steals the peas from the country woman; twice, when he gains oliver’s attention by shoving oliver out of the way to pick a peach; the last time, when he picks another peach, which he inverts and converts through onanism, refusing even oliver the chance to eat what remains. each instance indicates a commodity comfort through its view of food as cost-free and arousing entity that stands on the shoulders of lower-class labor. these initial observations of food in the film has led me to conclude that call me by your name imagines the fulfillment of same-sex desire only as an effect of capitalism that not only can the workers of the world never expect to realize, but the bourgeoisie might experience this luxury while still being unable to disclose it. homosexuality can manifest only in the spaces as allocated for swimming pools, orchards, and private displays of antique sculpture; moreover, such manifestations must remain hidden, both to the property’s owners and to the property’s up-keepers. besides being problematic, this worldview is pessimistic, albeit lining up with the film’s sad ending. contesting this original conclusion are certain elements of the story—subtle, clever, the largest of which happens at lunch—that allude to social change as a remedy for the social ill (heterosexism) which ultimately brings down oliver and elio. this is all to say that call me by your name is not, as i first thought, ignorant to the class distinctions described up to this point. on the contrary, the film is aware of the political-social context, and while we see posters in town advertising the communist and socialist parties, as well as annella and the professor laughing at a televised satire of the newly-minted socialist prime minister, the most thorough in-film examination of contemporary politics interacts with food. over lunch one day following the national elections, friends of the perlmans bicker about the incoming prime minister and the new “historic compromise” with leftist political parties. in part due to their friends’ bombastic style, but surely as well from the topic at hand, prof. and ms. perlman look uncomfortable throughout the scene, hardly touching their food. per usual, mafalda comes in and out of the scene, replenishing what food has been eaten and taking empty dishes away. however, because the perlmans wish, through their glances, for some distraction, their maid comes more in focus for us—as does anchise, who is off sitting alone in the grass, chuckling to himself essay 87 | warren and shaking his head. the camera highlights the workers for their roles in facilitating the villa’s orchestrated, daily outdoor lunches, making sure food and its production remain in the middle of this political conversation—although oliver and elio are only there as observers, sitting beside each other but silent. having said this, it may become easy to overestimate the political winds of change rippling through italy; we cannot forget how singular the villa is even within the immediate vicinity and how, despite its origins and structure, it has permitted something unusual to flourish. the scene from the opening paragraph of this essay encompasses more than i first described; while oliver and elio are waiting outside for the elderly woman to return with water for them, oliver points out the portrait hanging above the front door of her house: “il duce.” “popolo italiano!” elio replies, impersonating mussolini. the two regard the portrait a second longer, leading elio to resign: “that’s italy” (call me by your name). his linkage of the country with its fascist past—and, as this encounter shows, the persistent penchant for fascism among the italian working class—stands in contrast to what historian charles f. delzell in 1988 called “[italian] citizens’ tolerance of regional and economic differences, . . . their ability to cope with the inefficiencies of democratic government, . . . their pragmatic acceptance of human foibles—and, most of all, . . . their appreciation of the rich texture of everyday life” (135). rather, it is a sign that the political theories that endangered jewish and queer italians during world war ii are still extant, in opposition to the atmosphere of liberality which the perlmans sponsor (an anomaly their non-jewish domestic workers appear to accept). elio introduces to us, then, right at the start of his and oliver’s sexual involvement (the beginning of the end), an awareness that whatever rapport the two of them will develop cannot sustain itself outside the walls of his parents’ mansion—even if there is always someone who will fetch something for them to drink. what these two men share will only be watered if it remains in the shade. more than once will elio have to wrestle with this fate. elio and oliver decide to travel around italy together before oliver must head back across the atlantic. one night during this vacation, after the two have become drunk, oliver finds a male-female couple dancing to the psychedelic furs’ “love my way,” a song that elio had seen oliver dancing to with his local girlfriend earlier in the film. oliver dances with the woman here; elio watches for as long as he can before throwing up the night’s reverie. vomiting, argues jude agho, along with other modes of scatology, can be employed by artists “not as ends in themselves, but as means to an end; that of criticizing the prevalence of corruption, oppression and dehumanisation in society” (196). speaking of the work of the nigerian biyi bandele-thomas, agho comments on how portrayals of vomiting show that the writer “wants the reader to see his own feeling of shame, rage and disappointment at the way things have become in post-independence nigeria” (205). we can link this interpretation with the violent ejection elio emits in witnessing something as unappetizing as his man dancing with a woman to this song. when food has defined so much of their involvement with each other, we suddenly see a rejection of what can be considered elio and oliver’s last supper, and the prediction of oliver’s eventual betrayal for hetero-conformity readable through elio’s self-purge. in the film’s final act, we see the villa in winter, blanketed in snow: a beautiful traditional veneer for this time of year, albeit with an acknowledgement of how the cold prevents the arbor from bearing fruit. phoning in from america, oliver reveals to the perlmans that he is engaged; this knowledge hurts elio to hear as much it hurts oliver to convey. still, despite elio’s belief that his parents “know about” essay warren | 88 his relationship with oliver, neither seems willing to fight the matter, which can be attested as much to the legal and social abhorrence to homosexuality as much to the boys’ religion. elio and oliver’s acceptance of their separate fates and resignation to social dictates develops as does elio’s exploration of his judaism. inspired by oliver, elio begins wearing a star of david necklace in opposition to his parents’ stance that they are “jews of discretion,” bringing elio closer to a moral quandary, since his faith is opposed to gayness. in a food context, judaism’s consideration of pork as unclean may have been a result of considerations of holiness (douglas) or, more likely, cost and care of swine in biblical israel (harris), though neither explanation supplants judaism’s mandate on reverence. thus, even if “religions gain strength when they help people make decisions which are in accord with preexisting useful practices” and “god does not usually waste time prohibiting the impossible or condemning the unthinkable” (harris 65), orthodox jews still “insisted that god’s purpose in leviticus could never be fully comprehended; nevertheless the dietary laws had to be as a sign of submission to divine will” (61); the effort against futility wracks its head on homosexuality. elio and oliver need no reference to leviticus 18:22—the religious expectation of compliance on that matter is in conversation with the dietary dictates elsewhere. the reminder of this for elio is that, upon the conclusion of the credits roll, he is called to the table for latkes—another meal, another form of silence, even at the villa. an ocean apart, elio and oliver can eat this traditional marker of hanukah yet no longer consume each other; to that, they must consign if they are to be in conversation with the law, the land, and their faith. for a brief summer, though, they were able to evade these concepts for a discovery of the flesh. the reality that they were never going to permanently transcend society’s fury at their relationship speaks to what michel foucault wrote, that, for the heterosexists who would look to find some sign to condemn homosexuality, elio and oliver’s romance would be “a secret that always gave itself away” (43). their reliance on food to communicate to each other speaks as much to the subliminal nature of what they were doing as to the need to be a member of the bourgeoisie to say it. while this sexual search contested the two’s gender scripts and social cues, it is not accurate to say they failed if the pleasure of the peach shall linger with them and the viewer: “pleasure and power,” wrote foucault, “do not cancel or turn back against one another; they seek out, overlap, and reinforce one another” (48). indeed, the lasting message of call me by your name is not to resign to louder, more normative messaging, but to better understand the link between what we govern and what governs us. essay 89 | warren works cited agho, jude. “scatology, form and meaning in the novels of alex la guma and biyi bandele-thomas.” neohelicon, vol. 30, no. 2, 2003, pp. 195–208. barthes, roland. “toward a psychosociology of contemporary food consumption.” food and culture: a reader, edited by carole counihan and penny van esterik, 3rd ed., routledge, 2013, pp. 23-30. bourdieu, pierre. “distinction: a social critique of the judgement of taste.” translated by richard nice. food and culture: a reader, edited by carole counihan and penny van esterik, 3rd ed., routledge, 2013, pp. 31-39. brody, richard. “the empty, sanitized intimacy of ‘call me by your name’.” the new yorker, 28 nov. 2017, www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/the-empty-sanitized-intimacy-ofcall-me-by-your-name. call me by your name. directed by luca guadagnino, performances by armie hammer, timothée chalamet, and michael stuhlbarg, sony pictures classics, 2017. dargis, manohla. “review: a boy’s own desire in ‘call me by your name.’” the new york times, 22 nov. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/11/22/movies/call-me-by-your-name-reviewarmie-hammer.html. delzell, charles f. “remembering mussolini.” the wilson quarterly, vol. 12, no. 2, 1988, pp. 118-135. douglas, mary. “the abominations of leviticus.” food and culture: a reader, edited by carole counihan and penny van esterik, 3rd ed., routledge, 2013, pp. 48-58. foucault, michel. the history of sexuality: an introduction. translated by robert hurley, vol. 1, vintage, 1990. harris, marvin. “the abominable pig.” food and culture: a reader, edited by carole counihan and penny van esterik, 3rd ed., routledge, 2013, pp. 59-71. harvey, anna. “do i dare to eat a peach? food and desire in call me by your name.” screen queens, 27 aug. 2018, www.screen-queens.com/2018/08/27/do-i-dare-to-eat-a-peachfood-and-desire-in-call-me-by-your-name/. lane, anthony. “‘call me by your name’: an erotic triumph.” the new yorker, 24 nov. 2017, www. newyorker.com/magazine/2017/12/04/call-me-by-your-name-an-erotic-triumph. lemire, christy. “call me by your name movie review (2017).” roger ebert, 20 nov. 2017, www. rogerebert.com/reviews/call-me-by-your-name-2017. murray, iana. “beware the peach: how peaches went from sexual innuendo to symbol of doom on screen.” them, 5 oct. 2020, www.them.us/story/peach-danger-call-me-by-your-nameratched-parasite. de recat, olivia. “timothée chalamet made me do it.” the new yorker, 4 apr. 2018, www.newyorker.com/humor/daily-shouts/timothee-chalamet-made-me-do-it. essay warren | 90 varriano, john. “fruits and vegetables as sexual metaphor in late renaissance rome.” gastronomica, vol. 5, no. 4, fall 2005, pp. 8-14. essay 91 | warren olive oil small yellow onion small green pepper garlic clove tomato sauce can diced tomatoes can(undrained) lemon white cooking wine black pepper 1/2 1/2 1 1/4 3/4 cup 1/4 tsp 2 cups all purpose flour 3 eggs rolling pin tomato based soup june cooper this is a fantastic and easy recipe that can feed 3, and can be a fun team effort. 1. on a clean flat area pour your flour into a tight compact mound. 2. shape a whole into the middle and outwards until you make your own bowl in the flour. 3. crack open the eggs and add them directly to the center of your flour. 4. mend and mix the flour and eggs carefully together until completely mixed. once dough mixture is thoroughly mixed shape it into a ball and wrap it in cling wrap for it to set out 30 minutes on a counter. 5. you can place in fridge if setting for longer, let it get to room temp before moving on. roll the ball flat using the roller and palms of your hands. flatten the dough evenly until it’s around 1/4 inch. cut desired shape from dough. boil in water until fully cooked. 6. add to soup or desired sauce. 1. cut onion and green peppers together and set aside to add in to your saucepan when you begin cooking with oil. 2. carrots and garlic can be cut and put together before adding to the pan. 3. have a medium bowl hold the tomato sauce, tomatoes, wine and seasonings so they can easily be added to the recipe. 4. in large saucepan bring olive oil to medium heat, mix in onion and green pepper and stir occasionally until onions are tender. 5. once onions begin to look transparent add carrots and garlic, cook for three minutes. 6. stir in bowl of tomato sauce, tomatoes, wine and seasonings-bringing the dish to a boil. 7. stir occasionally until the soup is boiling-reduce to medium heat and let simmer covered for 30 minutes. 8. add precooked seafood and allowto simmer until seafood is brought to temp, squeeze in lemon juice. can be cooked with cajun powder for extra spice. make your own pasta recipe cooper | 36 this soup is based on a taste of home recipe meant for seafood, but works well with pasta as well. description: full red tomato centered on page covered in water droplets, a shadow of the fruit leaks off the page on the right. photo by ed o’neil on unsplash recipe 37 | cooper perfect no bake cookies emily turner 1 stick butter 2 cups sugar 1/2 cup milk 1/3 cup cocoa powder 1 cup peanut butter 3 cups rolled oats 1 tlb vanilla this no bake cookie recipe was not born out of my kitchen, but it has become my own after years and years of making and crafting and perfecting these cookies. i remember one day my dad brought home a recipe for my sisters and i. we were young, not so great in the kitchen, but we loved to bake. as young bakers, we tried this treat, melding together butter, sugar, cocoa powder, peanut butter, rolled oats, and more. our entire family quickly became obsessed with these little cookies, and although not every batch was perfect, we continued to make our beloved no bake cookies, and now i have the recipe practically memorized. make these cookies for holidays, special occasions, or for not-so-special occasions. share with ones you love. expect no leftovers. description: raw oats spread across a white counter with a silver spoon laying among the oats. photo by melissa di rocco on unsplash recipe turner | 94 as soon as the 60 seconds is up, remove the saucepan from the heat. start by adding the peanut butter. stir it in and watch as the gooey peanut butter melts into the chocolate, creating ripples of gold throughout the pan (my favorite step). once combined, stir in the rolled oats and vanilla. to complete the cookies, dollop the dough onto sheets lined with aluminum foil and let harden. (though i highly recommend trying the batter while it’s still warm). you have successfully made your very own batch of no bake cookies! once hardened, these cookies will be dry to the touch on the outside yet moist and chewy on the inside. these cookies are bite-sized pieces of peanut-butter chocolate heaven. be sure to share these cookies with your friends and family, but always make sure you save some for yourself. you deserve it. the ingredients listed above yields one batch of cookies (number depends on how big you make them), but my sisters and i found that you will need to make a double batch (simply double the ingredients and use a slightly bigger saucepan). trust me, you’ll need to make a double batch. in a medium saucepan, melt your butter and then add your sugar. you must melt the butter first or else the sugar might burn. mix until combined and add the milk, cocoa powder, and then stir. the next step is the most important of this recipe: tread carefully and follow my exact words, and you’ll have the perfect batch of no bake cookies. bring the mixture to a boil. it should be more than simmering, but it also shouldn’t be boiling over the pan. stir occasionally. once the mixture is boiling, stop stirring and let it boil for exactly 60 seconds. not a second more. not a second less. if you boil it for longer than 60 seconds, then the cookies will come out dry and crumbly. if you boil it for less than 60 seconds, then the cookies will be runny, and they won’t fully set. so make sure to have a timer on hand and set it before the chocolate starts to fully boil! recipe 95 | turner forbing 47 an exploration of the ford within the remains of the day cassidy forbing, ball state university vehicles cross borders every day, carting vehicles cross borders every day, carting people and objects across time and space. people and objects across time and space. vehicles also propel people across mental vehicles also propel people across mental borders, taking the act of moving across borders, taking the act of moving across time and space and making it tangible time and space and making it tangible and real to those it moves. in this and real to those it moves. in this essay, i will investigate the prominence essay, i will investigate the prominence of the ford within kazuo ishiguro’s of the ford within kazuo ishiguro’s the remains of the daythe remains of the day, taking into , taking into consideration the previous yet minimal consideration the previous yet minimal scholarship already completed, and break scholarship already completed, and break down the symbolism of mobility and thedown the symbolism of mobility and the lack of it, wealth and status, and lack of it, wealth and status, and freedom that the ford exudes in this freedom that the ford exudes in this text. in doing this, the ford’s obvious text. in doing this, the ford’s obvious prominence parallels america’s own prominence parallels america’s own upcoming prominence in britain upcoming prominence in britain and influences not only stevens’s and influences not only stevens’s own story, but a historic narrative as own story, but a historic narrative as well, as it mentally, physically, and well, as it mentally, physically, and metaphorically crosses borders. looking metaphorically crosses borders. looking at this specific vehicle in this specificat this specific vehicle in this specific text can help others see the text can help others see the vehicles, both in real life and in literature, are seen as agents to move people from one place to another, both physically and metaphorically. a vehicle within literature is not an uncommon happenstance in the 20th and 21st century; vehicles have become a part of life, so it makes sense to include them in literature. it is the symbolism that the vehicle gives to advance the plot, give context, and add depth to a text that matters. which brings us to kazuo ishiguro’s 1989 man booker prize-winning novel, the remains of the day. kazuo ishiguro’s the remains of the usability of writing vehicles as usability of writing vehicles as characters, characters that can cartcharacters, characters that can cart people across both physical and people across both physical and metaphysical borders.text can help metaphysical borders.text can help others see the usability of writing others see the usability of writing vehicles as characters, characters vehicles as characters, characters that can cart people across both that can cart people across both physical and metaphysical borders.physical and metaphysical borders. day tells the story of an old english butler by the name of stevens and his motoring trip across the country. he takes his new american employer, mr. farraday’s, ford to visit his old friend, miss kenton. the ford is the vehicle of the text, bothcarting mr. stevens around the country and functioning as the vehicle that moves the plot forward. in a novel that is founded in british culture, why is an american vehicle, specifically a ford, the vehicle used to advance the plot both physically and metaphorically? i will investigate the prominence of the ford within kazuo ishiguro’s the remains of the day, taking into consideration the previous, yet minimal, scholarship already done, and breaking down the symbolism of mobility and the lack of it, wealth and status, and freedom that the ford exudes in this text. doing this, we will see how the ford’s obvious prominence parallels america’s own upcoming prominence in britain and influences not only stevens’s own story, but also a historic narrative as it mentally, physically, and metaphorically crosses borders. mobility obviously, any vehicle can be seen as a symbol of mobility in any text. what is interesting about the ford in the remains of the day is that not only does the ford physically move stevens from one side of the country to the other, but the ford is what moves the plot forward, crossing borders both physically and metaphysically. within the first short chapter of the remains of the day, the audience quickly learns of the expedition that stevens is about to venture onto: “an expedition, i should say, which i will undertake alone, in the comfort of mr. farraday’s ford...[it] will take me through much of the finest countryside of england to the west country, and may keep me away from darlington hall for as much as five or six days” (ishiguro 3). mr. farraday is stevens’s new-money and american employer. he is the one who encourages stevens to go cross-country to visit his friend, offering both his own vehicle and even to “foot the bill for the gas” (ishiguro 4). however, stevens takes this opportunity with a grain of salt, believing that his employer’s generosity is due to his american sensibilities and his failure to understand professional british standards. chuchueh cheng’s article titled “cosmopolitan alterity: america as the mutual alien of britain and japan in kazuo ishiguro’s novels” explores ishiguro’s various novels and how america is the alien “other” within them all. cheng observes that “employment under an american businessman unsettles stevens’s belief that professionalism entails absolute loyalty because the new situation obliges him to abandon his previous commitments” (237). nevertheless, stevens goes on his journey, crossing borders, grateful for his employer’s generosity. the first day of stevens’s motoring trip is successful. he compares his leaving darlington hall with that of first setting sail on a ship, feeling the unknown, fear, and anxiety: forbing 48 [e]ventually, the surroundings grew unrecognizable and i knew i had gone beyond all previous boundaries. i have heard people describe the moment, when setting sail in a ship, when one finally loses sight of the land. i imagine the experience of unease mixed with exhilaration often described in connection with this moment is very similar to what i felt in the ford as the surroundings grew strange around me...the feeling swept over me that i had truly left darlington hall behind, and i must confess i did feel a slight sense of alarm—a sense aggravated by the feeling that i was perhaps not on the correct road at all, but speeding off in totally the wrong direction into wilderness. (ishiguro 23-24) stevens’s first time in years leaving darlington hall is all thanks to mr. farraday’s ford and the surrounding outdoors surprises him because he has not left that property in so long. the scenery is not the only thing that stevens is shocked by, but also his own realizations about himself that he has while on his trip. as stevens motors along, the audience learns of his past at darlington hall through his meta-thoughts over the span of the trip. stevens shyly discloses, “but i see i am becoming preoccupied with these memories and this is perhaps a little foolish. this present trip represents, after all, a rare opportunity for me to savour to the full the many splendors of the english countryside, and i know i shall greatly regret it later if i allow myself to become unduly diverted” (ishiguro 67). although stevens is aware of his “foolish” memories resurfacing, he continues to spill his darkest thoughts and secrets with the audience. the motoring trip allows stevens to cross boundaries within his own mind, exploring emotions and vulnerability like he never has before. without going on this trip, stevens would have never made revelations about his past. the ford not only moves stevens from town-to-town, but also gives stevens the mental space to think about and reconsider the choices he has made in his life. by “avoiding almost entirely the major roads” in the ford, stevens also avoids the major roads he has typically taken in his thought process, allowing for the “backroads” of his thoughts to flourish and give him something new to ponder (ishiguro 67). on his second day of motoring, after a little hiccup with the ford, stevens finds time to walk around the beautiful landscape of england and confesses, “it is no doubt the quiet of these surroundings that has enabled me to ponder all the more thoroughly these thoughts which have entered my mind over this past half-hour or so” (ishiguro 121). again, this trip has given stevens the mental space, without the clouding of morals and propriety that happens in darlington hall, to think over the decisions of his past. at the end of the novel, and the end of stevens’s motoring trip, there is a new light in stevens’s beliefs of his profession and the world in general. the audience sees that stevens has a new perception of his american employer, and is even willing to practice the techniques of bantering to please him. in his article titled “the end of (anthony) forbing 49 eden: ishiguro’s the remains of the day and midcentury anglo-american tensions,” john mccombe ascertains that it is through farraday’s classic ford that “has finally set stevens in motion, both through his brief reunion with miss kenton and in his desire to think less about the ghosts of the past” (96). without the mobility that the ford provides as a vehicle, stevens would not have been able to come to these new conclusions in his life. lack of mobility the lack of mobility from the ford is just as important as its mobility in the remains of the day. multiple times throughout the text, the ford breaks down for various reasons, usually halting stevens from continuing on his journey. the first time the audience sees an issue with the ford is when stevens is on day two of his trip, just outside the border of dorset, when he exclaims, “it was then i had become aware of the heated smell emanating from the car engine. the thought that i had done some damage to my employer’s ford was, of course, most alarming and i had quickly brought the vehicle to a halt” (ishiguro 117). stevens, for fear of breaking his employer’s prestigious ford, pulls into the nearest house to see if he can find help from the house’s owner. the man obliges to help stevens, saying “‘water, guv. you need some water in your radiator’” (ishiguro 118). after inspecting the ford, the man confides to stevens that he thinks of him to be one of those “top-notch butlers” from one of the “big posh houses,” mostly because of the condition and prestige that the ford gives (ishiguro 119). the man then tells stevens to visit a pond just outside where he is stationed, and this where stevens has time for silent reflection. without the ford being out of water, stevens would have never obtained the opportunity to check out mortimer’s pond and allow himself the time and space to reflect. again, the ford allows stevens the chance to cross mental borders within himself, borders that stevens always chose to keep guarded and to never be crossed. on the third day of motoring, the ford has yet another hiccup. in fear, stevens prays that the ford breaking down is not another radiator problem; however, “the ford was not damaged, simply out of fuel” (ishiguro 161). without any gas and with the ford sitting patiently at the top of a hill, stevens makes his way down a hill into the village of moscombe, near tavistock, devon and finds the taylors. the taylors and their guests made quite a scene for stevens, regarding his position higher than it actually is. the taylors and their guests tell stevens that they are surprised and honored for someone with “the likes of yourself ” had come and visit their small village (ishiguro 182). stevens, therefore, blurs the border line of what an actual gentleman is, and what one simply looks like. after spending some time with the taylors and their intruding neighbors, stevens is back on the road with a dr. carlisle to fill up his tank with gas. stevens still fears there is some deeper trouble forbing 50 afflicting the ford but then his anxieties “were laid to rest when i tried the ignition and heard the engine come to life with a healthy murmur” (ishiguro 211). this stop again calls stevens for reflection, permitting him to turn “over certain recollections of the past,” specifically his treatment towards miss kenton (ishiguro 211). although, physically, the ford breaks down multiple times, there is purpose for the mishap, allowing time and space for stevens to reflect upon his life. thus, the ford moves the plot of the remains of the day forward. wealth/status it is evident that mr. farraday’s ford in the remains of the day exemplifies wealth, status, and class. as detailed in the previous section, various people have complimented stevens vicariously through the ford. the first instance of this is when stevens comes to his first stop at salisbury, where “the landlady, a woman of around forty or so, appears to regard [him] as a rather grand visitor on account of mr. farraday’s ford and the high quality of [his] suit” (ishiguro 26). the man who helped fix the ford’s radiator, too, holds stevens up to a high status, calling him a “posh-geezer” (ishiguro 119). it is important to note here that ishiguro has other vehicles within the remains of the day, and calls them by proper name, too. the man who helped stevens had a bentley outside of his house, a nicely-made british car, yet compliments stevens on his american ford. john mccombe ascertains that “the ford has become an emblem of social prestige as well as a measure of america’s global economic predominance” (88). the ford, an american vehicle, is the car that is being complimented in a way adjacent to gentility and status, even when british cars are present. the ford breaks borders of class, destigmatizing the greatness of british products while also granting a servant the chance to be treated as a royal gentleman. on stevens’s third day, when he is at the taylors’s, everyone in his general vicinity is in awe of him. not only are they honored to be housing “the likes” of himself, but try their best to impress him. everyone around the town has heard about his journey, and knows about the ford being parked at the top of the hill. in mr. harry smith’s conversation with stevens, he says that the ford is an “absolute beauty” and that it “put the car mr. lindsay used to drive completely in the shade!” (ishiguro 183). again, the ford is being compared to the other vehicles in the novel, and is always the most impressive one. mr. taylor, the man who has allowed stevens to lodge with him says “you can tell a true gentleman from a false one that’s just dressed in finery. take yourself, sir. it’s not just the cut of your clothes, nor is it even the fine way you’ve got of speaking. there’s something else that marks you out as a gentleman. hard to put your fingers on, but it’s plain to see that’s got eyes” (ishiguro 185). what could be the final piece that makes stevens a gentleman, other than the ford? his dress and his speech aids him to be regarded highly, but as mr. taylor points out, that is not forbing 51 only it. there is something more that allows stevens to present himself as a higher status. it is the ford that makes stevens look like a “posh-geezer.” the irony, though, is that it is the american ford that symbolizes stevens’s status in this novel, yet stevens himself believes that americans do not have the same genuine dignity as british people. cheng speaks on how stevens’s way of talking about the americans within the novel is in an othering way; “whenever [stevens] uses ‘american’ as an adjective, he intends it to be an antonym of ‘english’” (232). cheng then goes on to say, “when remarking that only an ‘american gentleman’ would enjoy ‘bantering’, he uses ‘american’ to stress the strangeness of americans” (233). this american otherness is visibly present throughout the novel and so is the assumption that america equals wealth and an up-and-coming status; both of these statements ring true. after spending an evening at the taylors’s, stevens and dr. carlisle, who is one of the more esteemed men living in moscombe, find gas and make the trek towards the ford at the top of the hill. it would not be surprising for a small village to make a fuss over a foreign and seemingly new car in the 1950s in britain, but the fact of the matter is that everyone comments on the vehicle, even dr. carlisle. it is true that dr. carlisle calls stevens’s bluff and recognizes him as manservant, perhaps because he is a man of higher status himself. he knows the true differences between a gentleman and a servant. everyone else, on the other hand, does not have that experience nor knowledge to make that distinction. still, dr. carlisle does not blame stevens for the name that he has seemingly made for himself, even when stevens tries explaining himself: “‘oh, no need to explain, old fellow. i can quite see how it happened. i mean to say, you are a pretty impressive specimen. the likes of the people here, they’re bound to take you for at least a lord or a duke.’ the doctor gave a hearty laugh. ‘it must do one good to be mistaken for a lord every now and then’” (ishiguro 208). like the man who helped stevens fill his radiator with water, dr. carlisle also owns a british car, this time a rover. again, we can see how the american ford is the vehicle that gets complimented and crosses the borders of class, wealth, and status, even though british cars are in production and in abundance in england. freedom freedom can be interpreted in various different ways, especially within the remains of the day. the ford symbolizes freedom because it not only allows stevens to be on the open road, away from darlington hall, but also symbolizes the freedom of stevens understanding and accepting his past. more specifically, the freedom the ford exemplifies additionally underscores the prominence of america in britain, and overall, the world, during the time period the remains of the day takes place. it is this point—the ford being equal to america— forbing 52 that many scholars have written about when talking about the ford’s prominence in the remains of the day. it is interesting to think about stevens’s relationship to america. though there is significant change in the way that stevens views america and americans by the end of the novel, at the beginning, there is uncertainty. for instance, at the very beginning, stevens cannot come to believe that mr. farraday would offer him his ford to travel the country in, let alone “foot the bill for the gas.” stevens, pondering mr. farraday’s kindness as an employer, tells the audience “as you might expect, i did not take mr. farraday’s suggestion at all seriously that afternoon, regarding it as just another instance of an american gentleman’s unfamiliarity with what was and what was not commonly done in england” (ishiguro 4). at the novel’s start, the audience learns that stevens has a difficult relationship with his employer, because stevens is not accustomed to america’s professional culture. one of the biggest struggles stevens has is the idea of bantering with his employer. this fear and unfamiliarity of bantering persists throughout much of the novel. stevens comes back to the dilemma many times to enlighten his audience with new techniques that he has learned for it. on the third day of his journey, stevens makes a lodging stop outside of taunton, somerset, and practices his bantering with the villagers he lodges with (ishiguro 130). however, it is not until well into the novel where stevens begins to accept this new professional culture that his american employer has bestowed upon him. the last paragraph in the remains of the day is this: it occurs to me, furthermore, that bantering is hardly an unreasonable duty for an employer to expect a professional to perform. i have of course already devoted much time to develop bantering skills, but it is possible i have never previously approached the task with the commitment i might have done. perhaps, then, when i return to darlington hall tomorrow—mr. farraday will not himself be back for a further week—i will begin practicing with renewed effort. i should hope, then, that by the time of my employer’s return, i shall be in a position to pleasantly surprise him. (ishiguro 245) it is a compelling choice for both ishiguro and stevens to end the remains of the day with this paragraph on bantering. other than the fact that it rounds out the novel—the beginning, too, mentions this issue of bantering—this paragraph leaves the readers with one final call to america. compared to the beginning, stevens has grown and changed throughout his journey in the ford across the country. previously not understanding and resenting his american employer and his bantering techniques, stevens now has a renewed effort to want to please and surprise his new boss. in a sense, stevens has crossed the boundary of uncertainty and unfamiliarity and into an area with more vulnerability with his employer. forbing 53 mccombe describes the comparisons of stevens and britain by saying, “by the end of the 1950’s, a cultural (and political) détente between britain and the us emerged, and by the end of remains, stevens also seems to rethink his antipathy toward america (and americans)” (96). perhaps this is because stevens has learned the new role that america is now playing globally and, after taking the ford cross-country, has accepted it. belau and cameron, in an article about the uncanny dialect within the remains of the day, assert that ishiguro “shows how imperialism has a way of catching up with england,” prefiguring “the americanization of british culture,” and showing how “the british are slowly becoming threatened by american encroachment. stevens’s drive through england itself is made possible by way of his new master’s american-made ford automobile” (77-78). in the 1950s, america began to emerge as the superstar country, superseding britain for the first time ever. in an interview about the remains of the day with allan vorda, kazuo ishiguro describes what britain was like when he was writing this novel: “there was an awareness that britain was a more international place, a more cosmopolitan place, but it wasn’t the center of the world. it was kind of a slightly peripheral, albeit still quite wealthy, country. it started to be aware of its place within the context of the whole international scene” (134). even before then, when world war ii was in full swing, america switched from global assistance to self-interest, leaving britain to drown by herself in the midst of war. aside from the ford, we can see america’s self-interest peeking through in the remains of the day, specifically with the american senator lewis who visits lord darlington. lewis tries to sabotage the dinner and the supposed interpersonal relations that lord darlington was trying to make, but comes to no avail. being the only american in a room full of europeans, lewis is called out for his antics, “‘my only question concerning mr. lewis is this. to what extent does his abominable behaviors exemplify the attitude of the present american administration?... such a gentleman capable of the levels of deceit he has displayed over these past days should not be relied upon to provide a truthful reply’” (ishiguro 101). this quote suggests that america, in whole, is the perpetrator of all the bad events happening in europe. it also infers that most europeans, especially in the setting of such a place like darlington hall, have a negative association with america/americans. putting that in conversation with tomo hattori’s quote, “the remains of the day is not so much about the relations between the colonizer and the colonized as much as the relations between different levels within the imperial social hierarchy” furthers the confusion as to if america is the enemy or the friend in the remains of the day (277). placing the question of america as either friend or foe aside, the fact of the matter still stands: america is replacing britain in all her glory. the ford embodies the impending doom over britain that america is going to take its power away. it is always forbing 54 in the background of the novel. sometimes the ford, like america’s influence, makes a grand appearance, other times it sneaks into the narrative to remind you it is still there, still waiting, and still the first choice. ian davidson makes the claim that the “cultural and aesthetic concepts of automobility become inextricably linked to the materiality of the petroleum driven car with implications that include global territorial disputes and world economies as well as the ecological impact of the production of cars and their use” (472). vehicles symbolize more than freedom; they symbolize the new-world order of production and capital in the face of freedom. the ford within the remains of the day, an everpresent image, signifies america in the 20th century. even ishiguro, in his interview with allan vorda, confesses, “it has gotten to the point that some people say america culture is invading or taking over everywhere you go in the world” (vorda 183). the ford as a metaphor for america, symbolizing stevens’s freedom of being on an open road, crossing boundaries and borders, finally facing and accepting his past. conclusion investigating the ford within kazuo ishiguro’s the remains of the day sheds light on the historic cultural significance that ford has within the world. a constant force, driving not only stevens, but the plot forward, the ford symbolizes mobility, the lack thereof, wealth and status, and freedom, or more synonymously, america. by reading into the text and most of the instances the ford is mentioned, we can see just how prevalent the ford’s ability is to cross borders not only locationally, but also mentally for stevens. while other scholarships only briefly mention the ford within the remains of the day, the vehicle deserves more credit in the overall reading and understanding of text, and vehicle imagery as a whole. and maybe the next time you go on a vacation, one that crosses borders, you too, will be able to come across a mental clearing. forbing 55 works cited belau, linda and ed cameron. “writing in translationese: kazuo ishiguro’s the remains of the day and the uncanny dialect of the diasporic writer.” diaspora: a journal of transnational studies, vol. 16 no. 2, 2007, p. 67-91. project muse, doi:10.1353/ dsp.2007.0007. cheng, chu-chueh. “cosmopolitan alterity: america as the mutual alien of britain and japan in kazuo ishiguro’s novels.” journal of commonwealth literature, vol. 45 no. 2, 2010, p. 227-244. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021989410366892. davidson, ian. “automobility, materiality and don delillo’s ‘cosmopolis.’” cultural geographies, vol. 19, no. 4, 2012, pp. 469–82. jstor, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44286991. hattori, tomo. “china man autoeroticism and the remains of asian america.” novel: a forum on fiction, vol. 31, no. 2, 1998, pp. 215–36. jstor, https://doi. org/10.2307/1346199. ishiguro, kazuo. the remains of the day. vintage international, 1993. mccombe, john p. “the end of (anthony) eden: ishiguro’s the remains of the day and midcentury anglo-american tensions.” twentieth century literature, vol. 48, no. 1, 2002, pp. 77–99. jstor, https://doi.org/10.2307/3175979. vorda, allan, et al. “an interview with kazuo ishiguro.” mississippi review, vol. 20, no. 1/2, 1991, pp. 131–54. jstor, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20134516. forbing 56 mckee 27 currency and border crossings: the role of social class in exit west and girl at war erin mckee, ball state university girl at wargirl at war by sara nović and by sara nović and exit westexit west by mohsin hamid both tell the stories by mohsin hamid both tell the stories of characters in war-torn countries that of characters in war-torn countries that are trying to survive day by day. in are trying to survive day by day. in these novels, there are many physical these novels, there are many physical and intangible borders that impact the and intangible borders that impact the main characters’ lives in significant main characters’ lives in significant ways. ana jurić from ways. ana jurić from girl at wargirl at war is a is a croatian girl from the former yugoslavia croatian girl from the former yugoslavia who lives in poverty in the midst of a who lives in poverty in the midst of a civil war at just 10 years old. civil war at just 10 years old. exit westexit west follows young, working-class couple follows young, working-class couple saeed and nadia from an unspecified saeed and nadia from an unspecified country who are experiencing a violent country who are experiencing a violent war within the streets of their city while war within the streets of their city while also trying to navigate their forming also trying to navigate their forming romantic relationship. although romantic relationship. although exit exit westwest differs significantly from differs significantly from girl at wargirl at war due to its elements of magical realism, due to its elements of magical realism, the two novels are very similar in that the two novels are very similar in that they both show that money can be used they both show that money can be used to cross borders. class borders and the to cross borders. class borders and the importance of money to go from one importance of money to go from one place to another play a key role in these place to another play a key role in these novels and in the main characters’ novels and in the main characters’ lives. a lack of money also creates a lives. a lack of money also creates a border for these characters in many border for these characters in many ways. in addition, ana, saeed, and nadia ways. in addition, ana, saeed, and nadia are all moving westward throughout are all moving westward throughout their journeys out of their countries; their journeys out of their countries; borders become more restrictive and borders become more restrictive and more dependent on money to cross. more dependent on money to cross. this paper will focus on comparing the this paper will focus on comparing the experiences of ana jurić from experiences of ana jurić from girl at wargirl at war and saeed and nadia from and saeed and nadia from exit westexit west and and how these characters use money to cross how these characters use money to cross borders and escape the traumatic living borders and escape the traumatic living conditions of their home countries, how conditions of their home countries, how the lack of money impacts their lives the lack of money impacts their lives and ability to cross borders, and the and ability to cross borders, and the connection between the western world connection between the western world and the importance of money in border and the importance of money in border crossings. furthermore, crossings. furthermore, girl at wargirl at war and and exit westexit west both suggest that resources and both suggest that resources and opportunities should be more accessible opportunities should be more accessible to everyone, not just the affluent, and to everyone, not just the affluent, and that wealth distribution would secure that wealth distribution would secure the well-being of the working class. the well-being of the working class. currency is an essential passageway through which to cross everyday borders, and social class is one of the most substantial borders between groups of people in our society. those with money have access to the tools necessary to live a fruitful and happy life, whereas those with less money do not have as much access and live in a cutthroat world in which they must work very hard to survive. for people seeking a better life outside of their country, this is especially true. girl at war by sara nović and exit west by mohsin hamid are two texts that exemplify how social class impacts one’s ability to migrate and have access to basic needs. the novel girl at war follows ana jurić, a croatian girl from zagreb, who lives through the trauma of civil war in former yugoslavia at just 10 years old. eventually, ana immigrates to america after her parents are killed, but faces barriers along the way. there are many instances where money is needed to cross a border, whether it’s a border of hunger or a physical border. likewise, the characters in exit west also struggle with class borders. the novel follows young, working-class couple saeed and nadia from an unknown country, who are experiencing a violent war within the streets of their city while also trying to navigate their forming romantic relationship. unlike girl at war, exit west contains elements of magical realism; in saeed and nadia’s world there are magical, one-way doors that allow for a person to teleport to a distant place in the world. although this world has magical elements, there are still borders for marginalized groups to gain access to these doors to escape war torn areas. these novels tell very different stories, but they are similar because both display how currency plays a role in immigration and the necessity of immigration reform to ensure that impoverished people can migrate out of countries on the brink of disaster or war. the main characters in exit west and girl at war both face borders to seeking refuge in other countries due to their financial circumstances and must find alternative and often illegal methods of escaping. after comparing the experiences of the characters in exit west and girl at war, it is easy to see that social class is one of the largest determining factors in one’s ability to cross a border. one of the first encounters with class borders in nović’s girl at war is the struggle of ana’s family to gain access to basic necessities. ana describes how her parents cannot afford much and often go hungry: my mother sent me to the butcher with a wad of new dinar and instructions to buy a bag of bones, and i watched as she made soup from the flavor of meat. she ladled out ever-shrinking portions, sometimes skipping meals completely herself ...after dinner i was never full. (nović 56) ana also wears hand-me-down clothing from her neighbors because they cannot afford mckee 28 anything else. this is an example of how currency is used to cross a border: money pays for food, clothing, sanitary products, and much more. when one cannot afford such items due to their financial circumstances, it not only puts a strain on their physical health, but also their mental health and motivation. if someone goes hungry or is unable to clothe and clean themselves, this puts a border between them and their health, which impacts their ability to keep working and afford basic necessities, creating a vicious cycle that is difficult to overcome. as her family grapples with the problem of putting food on the table, there is also the matter of ana’s younger sister rahela becoming very ill; the family must send her to america through a charity called medimission as they struggle to get medical care in their own country. although the main reason the jurić family might not have access to resources such as food, clothing, and healthcare is the civil war that tore through their city, the border of class is still an issue. if ana’s family had more money, they likely would have been able to get out of yugoslavia and seek refuge in another country. however, ana’s father applied for visas to america, but they were unfortunately denied. this is also a demonstration of how there needs to be serious immigration reform in many nations to ensure that there are fair opportunities for everyone to seek a better life in a different country. if this does not happen, social class will continue to be a border for impoverished people who need to immigrate. ana’s family traveled from their home in zagreb to sarajevo in order to deliver rahela to medimission. since the jurić family is denied access to visas to travel with rahela to america, she is separated from her loved ones and must stay with a foster family. on their trip back to zagreb, ana’s family is stopped by some serbian soldiers. during this stop, ana’s parents are killed by these men. it is never revealed why their visas were denied, but again it begs the question of, if they had more money, would they have been granted access to visas and thus to safety? if there were immigration policies in place in america to help refugees, would things have turned out differently? would the jurić family have been able to go on and live better lives in america? in her essay “borders of class: migration and citizenship in the capitalist state”, author lea ypi states, “[t]he inconveniences of assembling paperwork, waiting for a response, living with enormous uncertainty, and all of the other familiar troubles associated with immigration bureaucracy are unevenly distributed across the immigrant population” (143). ana’s family is just one example of those impacted by the discriminatory practices of immigration systems that favor wealthy immigrants over poor ones. a significant problem in girl at war is being unable to leave despite a desperate need to, but as ypi states, borders are easy to cross for some, and impossible for others (142). those who do not have as much money face more borders when trying to migrate, while mckee 29 wealthy immigrants have an easier and quicker visa processing procedure. as the war continues around them, petar, ana’s godfather, decides it would be best for ana to go live in america with the foster parents that had taken in rahela. however, the border of class stands in the way of ana getting a better life for herself. all the legal routes through which ana could go to america are unavailable: petar contacted medimission, who offered a terse response that family reunification cases were not within the scope of their work ...then he considered refugee status, but there wasn’t an american embassy in croatia yet. the consulate in belgrade was running a looping voice mail that apologized for the wait time and said, due to the high volume of inquiries, they were working through a backlog of applications at this time. (nović 266-267) again, if ana’s family had more money, perhaps they would have been able to get visas earlier or might have connections to get the family to safety. however, crossing this financial border was practically impossible, and not crossing the border could be a matter of life and death. therefore, legal migration routes were no longer on the table. however, these illegal routes still cost money, demonstrating how it is necessary to have money in order to cross many types of borders. one of the illegal routes that petar can afford to take is to buy fake documents for ana. petar’s friend helps make a fake american visa and yugoslavian passport for ana, since hers was lost. petar then risks his life to take ana to otočac to meet with a united nations peacekeeper, who is set to take her to the airport in frankfurt, germany. on the trip to otočac, petar gives ana an envelope with dinar, a currency used in former yugoslavia, and tells her: “you’ll find that powerful men can often be persuaded. at least they can here. i don’t know about america” (nović 273). currency plays a huge role in this scene because bribery is a valid way to go from one side of a border to another. wealth equals power, and wealth inequality has allowed the rich to seize opportunities, sometimes through bribery, while the impoverished do not have that option. there are many takeaways from girl at war, but most significant is how class borders and wealth inequality impact quality of life, immigration, and other notable opportunities. much like in girl at war, hamid’s exit west depicts the same phenomenon of people coming to the realization that a war is worsening and there’s a desperate need to leave, but not everyone has access to the resources necessary to make their escape. the beauty of exit west is its unconventional way to get out of a country; however, much like in the nonmagical world, access is denied to marginalized groups of people. there are magical one-way doors to get to better places, but the best places that everyone wants to go to are typically heavily guarded once the knowledge of their destinations has spread. according to ypi, mckee 30 “borders have always been (and will continue to be) open for some and closed for others. they are open if you are white, educated, and middle and upper class; they are closed (or much less open) if you are not” (142). saeed and nadia face many borders to migrate seeing that they are not wealthy and not white. as saeed and nadia start forming their romantic relationship, they notice that people are disappearing around them at work: at saeed’s office work was slow even though three of his fellow employees had stopped showing up ...visas, which had long been near-impossible, were now truly impossible for non-wealthy people to secure, and journeys on passenger planes and ships were therefore out of the question ...at nadia’s workplace it was much the same, with the added intrigue that came from her boss and her boss’s boss being among those rumored to have fled abroad. (hamid 52-53) much like in girl at war, the characters in exit west notice that the desire to leave the country has heightened. those who have more money, such as the c-level executives at nadia’s workplace, have been able to make their way out of the country, but many workingclass citizens applying for visas are unable to secure them due to their social class. in her essay, “borders of class: migration and citizenship in the capitalist state,” ypi talks about the advantages that wealthy immigrants have over non-wealthy ones: [u]nder the u.k.’s tier (investor) visa program, those with the ability to invest two million pounds in the united kingdom can come and stay in the country for more than three years, and those who invest ten million pounds may apply for indefinite leave to remain after only two years of residence (compared to five years for those who have reason to naturalize because of family ties). (ypi 143) again, visas are not accessible to those seeking refuge unless they are of a higher social class. this issue shows how non-wealthy immigrants face more borders because immigrants are often only seen as valuable if they have something to offer the host country, such as money or labor. saeed and nadia get desperate in their search for ways to exit their city. the couple risk their lives to meet a man who called himself an agent and claims to be able to find doorways that are not already occupied by militants. he requires payment for his services, which resembles how bribery functions as a passageway much like in girl at war. while they wait for the agent to contact them, saeed and nadia continue to struggle in their living conditions. they no longer have electricity in their building and have to use the bathroom outside. this is another example of how there are borders to gain access to basic resources for those with less money. saeed and nadia meet the agent at a converted house, fearing for their lives, as the agent could have sold them out to militants. much like how petar has mckee 31 to risk his life to get ana out of croatia, saeed and nadia have to risk their lives in order to gain access to safe living conditions, while the wealthy bypass borders with relative ease. to saeed and nadia’s relief, they are able to get through the door and arrive on the greek island of mykonos, yet they still face borders as poor immigrants trying to survive in a country they have never been to before. as saeed and nadia continue to move west, they run into borders to receive help as struggling refugees. this is largely due to the fact that impoverished immigrants are not welcomed by the native people of many places such as the united kingdom. the couple travels through another door and arrives in an empty mansion in london. as they explore their surroundings, more people start to appear in the house through the door. however, when a housekeeper comes to the mansion and sees that it is occupied by people, she calls the police (hamid 127). from then on, london natives and authorities are on a mission to remove migrants from the city. the instant response of trying to rid the city of poor migrants shows how much of a distaste there is for immigrants in need. there is no response from the government showing empathy or asking how these people might need help. the impoverished immigrants are seen as a threat, especially since they are occupying a space owned by affluent people. no one stops to question why migrants were forced into this position to begin with. this puts a border between the migrants and their ability to have access to basic needs, resulting in the need to forage for resources. it is rumored that millions of migrants have come into the city and occupied many empty homes and spaces. although police show up to where saeed and nadia are staying, the couple remain there along with others who came through the magical door because there is nowhere else they can go, and london is a good place to search for food and other necessities. one night, when saeed and nadia are returning to the mansion, they find themselves up against an angry nativist mob that is intent on harming those they perceive as migrants. after the altercation, nadia’s eye is swollen shut from the bruising and saeed has a bloody, busted lip (hamid 134). three people die that night from rioters across the city, and soon the authorities cut electricity as an attack on the immigrants. hamid begins to describe the border between the dark and light sides of london. the affluent are on the light side and the impoverished immigrants are on the dark side without electricity (hamid 141). saeed and nadia wonder what life is like in light london as the border between them and the wealthy grows wider. garbage begins to pile up on their side of the city and the trains keep running but do not make stops in dark london. this section of exit west depicts how poor immigrants are segregated and dehumanized because they are seeking help and resources. later, saeed and nadia find themselves in worker camps for migrants in which they do labor clearing terrain and building infrastructure, in exchange for housing (hamid 169). mckee 32 saeed finds himself working in a road crew, and he admires his foreman, a knowledgeable and experienced native man. he seems to tolerate migrants and saeed believes the foreman likes him, but when saeed decides to thank the foreman for everything he is doing for the migrants, the foreman says nothing (hamid 179). in capitalist nations, one’s labor and wealth are the only things worthwhile, and the white, affluent people and politicians would rather blame poor, nonwhite immigrants for the drain on resources rather than taking responsibility for the wealth inequality taking place in their country. this does not excuse the xenophobia and bigotry of nativists, but it shows how poor nativists have fallen victim to propaganda that is extremely harmful and only benefits the rich, who continue to exploit the labor of both natives and immigrants. for example, in her essay “borders of class: migration and citizenship in the capitalist state,” ypi states: animosity will fall predominantly on those with lower skills and lower incomes who are more likely to make use of a range of such state-subsidized services. after all, arab or russian millionaires living in london typically visit private clinics, send their children to expensive private schools, and make no claims to, say, public housing. thus, the kind of competition that leads to resentment is typically between poor working-class natives and poor immigrants. (144) the way in which saeed’s coworker reacts to his comment depicts this resentment that ypi describes. although saeed and other migrants are not responsible for the lack of funding going into state-subsidized services, the blame is shifted to them in order to create a border between poor, working-class natives and poor immigrants. exit west was published in february of 2017, less than a year after the united kingdom voted to leave the european union. although there were many reasons why people might have voted to leave, conservative politicians advocated for the uk to have more control over immigration and borders. in her piece “fences: a brexit diary,” zadie smith notes that when the class and age breakdown of voters came out, there were many working-class citizens that identified with the populist party, which is for stricter borders and immigration policies (25). there is no doubt that tensions were high among immigrant and native populations around the time this novel was released. although exit west is fictional, it was inspired by real life borders. in the book selected studies in international migration and immigrant incorporation, there is a section titled “the function of labour immigration in western european capitalism” by stephen castles and godula kosack (21). this section contains discourse about how immigrants are a source of labor for host countries to exploit and how western european countries have used racism and nationalism to divide the working class: ...the employment of immigrant workers has an important socio-political function mckee 33 for capitalism: by creating a split between immigrant and indigenous workers along national and racial lines and offering better conditions and status to indigenous workers, it is possible to give large sections of the working class the consciousness of a labour aristocracy. (castles and kosack 24) both the renowned german philosopher karl marx and the german revolutionary friedrich engels wrote the communist manifesto, which outlined the idea of a labor aristocracy in their work (brown and fee 1248; castles and kosack 22). a labor aristocracy is when capitalists try to erode class consciousness by separating the values of the working class. by giving some members of the working class more privileges, it convinces the impoverished to align themselves with capitalist values (castles and kosack 23). by creating this border between members of the working class, such as pitting nativists against immigrants, a corrupt system can flourish. in exit west, it is important to consider this concept when examining why london nativists are so against poor immigrants coming into their country. they have been taught that these immigrants are a drain on their resources when in reality there are people who choose to hoard their wealth rather than share it, which is a far more insidious threat than people seeking refuge. this concept of creating a border between the working class can also be applied to girl at war which is based on the events of the bosnian war (1992-1995) which caused the fracturing of yugoslavia. although this war involved ethnic conflicts between bosnian muslims, serbs, and croats, the events that led up to the war involved class tensions that erupted following a destabilization of their country. in the 1980s, yugoslavia’s economy began to decline after the death of the president of the socialist federal republic of yugoslavia. the international monetary fund (imf) offered to loan the country money; however, mandatory economic reforms were to be put in place in exchange. nick beams notes this in “imf ‘shock therapy’ and the recolonisation of the balkans”: the international monetary fund [then] took over economic policy, implementing a number of all too familiar shock therapies: devaluation, a wage freeze, and price decontrol….as the economy contracted from this shock, revenues to the central government declined, triggering pressure from the imf to raise taxes to balance the budget....these centrifugal forces began to tear apart at the federation, with the richer provinces of croatia and slovenia objecting to being drained of resources by the poorer provinces…yugoslavia broke into pieces as ethnic and religious rivalries were reasserted in an attempt to control the rapidly shrinking pool of resources. (10-11) girl at war and exit west both depict the class tension that can occur when resources are withheld from people who need them and how fear mongering can lead to violence. often conflicts like these appear to only involve ethnicity or immigration; however, they also often mckee 34 also incorporate largely overlooked economic issues and class borders at play. unfortunately, borders like these are extremely normalized in the world. one’s wealth determines their value as a human being, and it is a hard concept to unlearn because of the borders of class created in our society. in exit west, nadia even tells saeed that she understands why the london nativists are frightened and frustrated: “imagine if you lived here. and millions of people from all over the world suddenly arrived.” “millions arrived in our country,” saeed replied. “when there were wars nearby.” “that was different. our country was poor. we didn’t feel we had as much to lose.” (hamid 164) nadia’s perspective in this conversation with saeed displays how easy it is for someone to internalize this propaganda about immigrants. in exit west, eventually immigrants in london are provided with accommodations. although it was probably not the best solution nor was it ideal for saeed and nadia to live in worker camps, it was an opportunity for immigrants to seek refuge and form a life for themselves. the united kingdom always had the resources to do this. however, it is very telling how the first reaction from nativists was to find a way to eliminate immigrant presence through whatever means necessary either through deportation or violence. poor individuals are seen as a threat and drain on resources while affluent immigrants have value to a host country. this phenomenon is very dehumanizing, and puts unnecessary borders in place for people who are in desperate need of help. although the characters in exit west and girl at war go on to live better lives, class borders and their effects continue to impact the world. money is like a ticket to cross borders, and without that ticket, basic necessities are difficult to access. the reality is that there are people looking for a better life who cannot get it because they do not have the money to migrate elsewhere. the border between rich and poor immigrants is one of the biggest issues that exit west and girl at war both address. unfortunately, anti-immigration advocacy by many far-right politicians has led to catastrophic consequences for poor immigrants. without equal wealth distribution and immigration reform in many countries, like the united states and the united kingdom, money will continue to be a border for immigrants to migrate somewhere they can make better lives for themselves. mckee 35 works cited beams, nick. “imf ‘shock therapy’ and the recolonisation of the balkans.” world socialist web site, 17 april 1999, https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/1999/04/imf-a17.html. brown, theodore, and elizabeth fee. “friedrich engels: businessman and revolutionary.” american journal of public health vol. 93, no. 8, 2003, pp. 1248-1249. national library of medicine, https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.93.8.1248. castles, stephen, and godula kosack. “the function of labour immigration in western european capitalism.” selected studies in international migration and immigrant incorporation, edited by marco martiniello and jan rath, university of amsterdam press, 2010, pp. 21-44. hamid, mohsin. exit west. penguin random house, 2017. nović, sara. girl at war. penguin random house, 2015. smith, zadie. “fences: a brexit diary.” the new york review, 18 august 2016, https://www. nybooks.com/articles/2016/08/18/fences-brexit-diary/. ypi, lea. “borders of class: migration and citizenship in the capitalist state.” ethics & international affairs, vol. 32, no. 2, 2018, pp. 141–152, https://doi.org/10.1017/ s0892679418000278. mckee 36 food for thought: the analysis of consumption, preparation, and placement of food in media emily turner, allen warren, tauri hagemann, ian roesler, kaila henkin, and vincent ramos-niaves, digital literature review editorial team imagine our world without food. while most of us can’t even imagine an afternoon without food, food items in literature, movies, and other artworks have tended to fall out of view: characters, if they are surviving, must be eating, though if that eating mostly happens off the page, the details are left to our imagination. even when we do see mealtime during a scene or hear about “amber waves of grain” in a song, analyses often step around food as a symbol, as an arbiter, or as a marker of real and imagined differences. our cultural distaste with discussions of food (compared to the body that consumes it) has made food studies, as a formal discipline, only emerge in the last few decades, with rigorous cultural food studies even newer. considering our personal and global biases surrounding food, this begs the questions: how many wars have been fought and colonies established over access to water and agricultural sources? how many people have been relegated to the kitchen or the dining room based on their sex, race, and/or class? food forms the backbone of most religious and spiritual understandings, too: think of the forbidden fruit’s function in abrahamic traditions or the role of the mustard seed in buddhist teachings about death. perhaps this religiosity of food was what led thomas c. foster, while professor of english at university of michigan-flint, to declare that “whenever people eat or drink together, it’s communion” (8). he clarifies, though, that “not all communions are holy”; rather, mealtime is a process between people that develops—even necessitates—cultural and social undertones: “breaking bread together is an act of sharing and peace, since if you’re breaking bread you’re not breaking heads” (8). food, according to this view, is the ultimate form of subtext; it can act as the canvas on which almost any scene to play out, only catching us unaware when its function becomes disrupted. yet food—in art as well as life—tends to go beyond its daily role to become the disruptor itself. the digital literature review, ball state’s undergraduate academic literary journal, has taken up cultural food studies as its focus this year to highlight how our meals can be both normative and subversive, particularly when put in conversation with issues facing marginalized communities. the ongoing covid-19 pandemic has arguably made the job of introducing this aspect of cultural food studies easier: who hasn’t been moved, since the beginning of lockdown, to try a sourdough recipe or to watch a program like the great british bake off? at the same time, the continued food shortages coupled with the introduction 1 | staff introduction resulting waves of malnutrition; the re-imposition of culinary domesticity on working mothers; and the precarious financial situation for small businesses (including small groceries), particularly in minority-majority areas, spell out the dynamic and sometimes uneasy relationship we all have been maintaining with food. with this wider acknowledgment of food as a worthy aspect of cultural studies, we are also inclined to recognize subtle yet distinct differences in the analysis of food through multiple types of media. specifically, literature, film, and television all use food distinctly and require a different lens of analysis. literature is a more intentional form of media. references to specific foods or particular food-related moments almost guarantee an intention behind them worthy of inspection. film is quite similar, but different in that it is a visual medium. intention can thus be portrayed in a variety of ways, namely in the presentation of food itself along with the way the actors portray the actual consumption. television offers a truly unique lens for analysis with weekly episodes, and repetition becomes a much more powerful tool for analysis. additionally, television allows for analysis of cooking and food in a more direct sense with such a wide array of cooking and baking shows and their own intentional portrayals of food spaces. throughout the fall semester of our digital literature review class, we explored food studies through texts by authors of varied backgrounds. kiese laymon’s heavy: an american memoir (2018) is about laymon’s complex relationship with food and his mother wanting him to be successful. in regards to laymon’s complex relationship with food, it is both a comfort and a contributing cause to his discomfort. throughout the memoir, laymon struggles with body issues arising from his mother’s teasing amongst others’ barbs. his primary way of overcoming discomfort is gorging himself with food, in particular unhealthy junk food or whatever is within his reach. however, this unhealthy coping mechanism simply exacerbates his body issues. a particularly unique aspect of this memoir is that it focuses on body issues from the male perspective, a perspective not usually seen in media because it contrasts with the stereotypes associated both with men and women. continuing on with our study, monique truong’s novel bitter in the mouth (2011) tells the story of food identity through the character of linda hammerick, a vietnamese-american girl who has been adopted. the relationship of food is explored through linda’s struggles that arise, in part, from growing up in a conservative, predominantly white town in north carolina. particularly important is linda’s lexical-gustatory synesthesia, which has an effect on how she interacts with the world, which could be positive or negative depending on the taste of a word. lastly, toni morrison’s tar baby (1981) focuses on the symbolism that foods have in different cultures—in this instance, an island in the caribbean—and among people with different socio-economic backgrounds. the wealthy white street family employs several black servants and has little understanding of the entitlement underwriting their food requests, such as imported apples for a christmas dinner. though primarily we learned about food studies via literature, the film works of director bong joon-ho were influential as well. bong joon-ho shows intersections of food studies with ideas of class and social structure in many ways throughout his filmography. his film snowpiercer (2013) shows the separation of class and the way it impacts food security in a very literal sense; in the film, people of different classes are separated into train cars, and these class separations impact not only how they are treated but how they live and what staff | 2 food they have access to as well. this becomes clearer as the small band of rebels, inhabitants of the last and societally lowest-ranked train car that the film follows, works their way up through the train cars towards the front, seeing just how differently they were forced to live from those of higher classes living towards the front of the train. this, in the most literal sense, is a signifier of class division and social separation through the lens of food theory and food studies—while the back of the train eats what can be most accurately described as protein blocks, people of higher societal class toward the front of the train live in luxury and eat gourmet meals to their heart’s content. this is not the only bong joon-ho’s film wherein food as a signifier of class division plays a prominent role. bong’s film parasite (2019) provides another clear indication of the impact that class and its separation can have on a psyche, especially through a food studies lens. the kim family, the main characters of the film, are first seen in a basement apartment, cramped into a small space and stealing free wi-fi from a nearby cafe. they have only a few small rooms, they sleep on the floor, and the food that we see this family eat is cheap and easy while significantly lacking in nutritional contents—plain bread, prepackaged food, and canned beverages that look as if they come from a vending machine. once they begin receiving employment from the wealthy park family, we see the stark difference in the access that this wealthier family has to food—a fully stocked refrigerator, fresh fruit, and an elaborately catered garden party held for a child’s birthday. there is also a stark difference drawn through the food that the kim family can afford after being employed by the parks—in the beginning of the film, the entire family works folding pizza boxes, but after the two children become employed by the parks, the kim family is able to afford eating at the very pizza place where they used to work. these visual examples of leisure and security in food as compared with the struggle faced by the kims in obtaining food in the beginning of the film show clear class divides and social disparities through a lens of food studies. both of parasite and snowpiercer show distinct signifiers of the ways in which food studies interplay with the images and concepts of class and wealth inequality in film. the study of food as a lens exists not only in literature and film but also in television, which we discussed and analyzed within our class in regard to shows ranging from gordon ramsey’s hell’s kitchen to rachel ray’s 30 minute meals to padma lakshmi’s taste the nation. in “domestic divo?: televised treatments of masculinity, femininity, and food,” rebecca swenson explains how food television depicts men “construct[ing] cooking as a way to flex professional muscles, a theme which rejects situating the male cook as an everyday provider of the personal, domestic care that is a hallmark of family life,” whereas women are presented “with instructional programs position themselves as approachable, domestic cooks that prepare meals for friends and family members” (143). swenson applies food studies within these television shows to the theoretical framework of gender as exercised within media to point out that, while both men and women have public platforms within the sphere of food and the kitchen, they are still existing in the separate spheres of public and domestic domains. these gender scripts are evident in their differences in mannerisms (men are often yelling, displaying themselves as more “macho,” while women are often more docile and family friendly), choice of fashion (within these cooking shows men are often wearing their chef’s outfits, whereas women are dressed more casually like a normal day at home), and the style and format of the show as determined by the television broadcaster. food, while historically known for playing a strong role in defining genders in television as introduction 3 | staff swenson notes, can also be approached in a more gender-neutral fashion in television through shows such as taste the nation on hulu. this series showcases food and the cultures from which they are derived, and is hosted by padma lakshmi, who connects with the people of the culture, such as how women tend to do within food in television, while also being adventurous and eating foods outside of comfort zones, such as men are typically presented doing. this merges the separate spheres into one, illustrating the intersectionality of food as a lens within media such as television. one way that we chose to exemplify these intersections of food with larger social issues is through the inclusion of recipes from each of our staff members. we have interspersed recipes throughout this journal’s powerful essays, ranging from espresso brownies to delicious cocktails. with these, we set out to tell a story, following a day’s meals and linking them thematically to the essays in our journal. with this inclusion, the larger importance of recipes in food studies is hopefully brought to light. recipes hold a key role in the full understanding of food studies; in many ways, recipes operate as time capsules, fully capturing a culture’s way of life and its relationship to food at any specific time—we think of certain meals, and they conjure different feelings for different people. the treatment of recipes as a valuable source of understanding allows for a more thorough understanding of life from varying perspectives. this is best explored by katharina vester’s “queering the cookbook” when she states, “cookbooks have a long tradition of giving instructions that are not solely meant to produce roasts, cupcakes, or beer. the recipes as well as the narrative they are embedded in carry ideological content that reaches far beyond the realm of the kitchen” (131). vester’s words frame our own ideology regarding the recipes we’ve included. these short glimpses into the journal’s identity allow us to look more introspectively at our own consumption and how these recipes may impact our views and the way through which we interpret these essays. we begin this issue of the digital literature review with emily turner’s essay, “the parasite of society: food and class studies in bong joon-ho’s parasite,” which dives into food studies within the cinematic world of bong’s work, a defining aspect of this year’s journal. in her essay, she discusses how bong utilizes food in parasite to denote class inequality that is a direct consequence of the power and wealth divide between the rich and the poor, signaling to the eventual collapse of society. from film to novels, we cross over to hannah salih’s essay, “meat consumption, abject bodies, and toxic flows in ruth ozeki’s my year of meats” in which she analyzes meat production and consumption within my year of meats to discuss othering oneself through abjection in relation to both toxicity and cleanliness. through the framework of abjection, salih compares violence towards women and animals in the novel to form the idea that bodies can “transgress normative boundaries” through bodily functions. violence within the meat industry transforms to violence within human nature through the gaze of food and othering in nimisha sinha’s essay, “‘i see what i have been dreading’: witnessing food and violence in waiting for the barbarians and in the heart of the country.” food in these novels act as modes of violence, which sinha theorizes through the lens of “food witnessing.” here, she argues that food witnessing can represent the urge to consume, or eliminate, the “others,” mimicking a cannibalistic desire. violence through means of consumption is further discussed in kaila henkin’s essay, “redirecting the blame: america’s overconsumption of black women as illustrated in kiese laymon’s heavy.” henkin uses the theoretical framework of triple consciousness, coined after w.e.b. du bois’s double introduction staff | 4 consciousness theory, to analyze how women in kiese laymon’s heavy: an american memoir are consumed by dominant, white male power as a result of overindulgence without consequence due to societal-caused trauma. we now transition to more feminist and food theory ideologies with dilayda tülübas’s essay, “women dined well: bakhtinian carnivalesque in caryl churchill’s top girls.” in this play, historical female characters socialize over a shared meal, which tülübas studies through the theoretical context of the carnivalesque. food in this essay, then, acts as a way to analyze each woman to show how she is dominated in a patriarchal world—a form of oppression that transcends different time periods as well as locations. our journal thus leans into the next essay relating to bong’s films: “eat the rich: the parasitic relationship between socioeconomic groups as explored through film by bong joon-ho’s parasite and snowpiercer” by vincent ramos-niaves. in his essay, ramos-niaves analyzes how the placement of food in the films parasite and snowpiercer represents class inequality. methods of consumption as well as food location shows how the elite dominate the impoverished through abuse and punishment. julia neugarten furthers the discussion of food in spaces in her essay, “the whistle stop café and luke’s diner: the village café as utopian space for women in fried green tomatoes at the whistle stop café and gilmore girls.” in this piece, neugarten explores the concept of utopian spaces for women in cafés within two different media. female characters seek refuge in their respective cafés, where they can fight against gender norms through both action and speech. neugarten also ties in queer theory within these spaces due to the same-sex relationship found within fried green tomatoes, which leads us to the penultimate essay of our journal issue. allen warren argues in his essay, “life’s a peach: the convergence of sexuality and class in guadagnino’s call me by your name,” that food is used in guadagnino’s award-winning film to cultivate the same-sex relationship between the two main characters, elio and oliver. warren approaches his thesis with a socioeconomic framework to explore how food propels and sustains the budding relationship, both sexual and romantic, between the two lovers despite the class division that works to separate them. the film ends with the cruel reality of unrequited love, which transitions well to the final essay of this journal. the 2021 edition of the digital literature review concludes with the third and final essay that discusses bong’s work: tauri hagemann’s essay, “food for the dogs: consumption and wealth inequality in bong joon-ho’s parasite.” hagemann utilizes socioeconomic theory to analyze the role of food in the film parasite. she posits that food in the film represents class divide through modes of poverty as exemplified in various scenes, which begs the ultimate question: who is the true parasite within a capitalist society? the order of this year’s journal encourages the reader to experience the different aspects of food in the media through each author’s frame of thought and argument. each essay, although varying in subject, proves the significance of food in books, movies, plays, and more as food in these works represents the different facets of life. so, grab a cup of steaming coffee, a slice of pineapple chicken pizza, or perhaps a piece of chocolate toast to pair with the consumption of this year’s journey. eat every bite, leave no leftovers, and discover what lies beyond each platter. introduction 5 | staff , works cited foster, thomas c. how to read literature like a professor. harper perennial, 2014. joon-ho, bong. parasite. neon, 2019. ---. snowpiercer. radius-twc, 2013. lakshmi, padma, creator. taste the nation. hulu, 2020. laymon kiese. heavy: an american memoir. scribner, 2018. morrison, toni. 1981. tar baby. vintage, 2004. ramsay, gordon, creator. hell’s kitchen. fox broadcasting company llc, 2005. ray, rachel, creator. 30 minute meals. food network, 2001. swenson, rebecca. “domestic divo? televised treatments of masculinity, femininity, and food.” food and culture: a reader, edited by carole counihan and penny van esterik. routledge, 2013, pp. 137-151. truong, monique. bitter in the mouth. random house, 2011. vester, katharina. “queering the cookbook.” the cambridge companion to literature and food, edited by j. michelle coghlan, cambridge up, 2020, pp. 131-145. introduction staff | 6 lantern asparagus dr. emily ruth rutter asparagus shiitake mushrooms sesame oil butter soy sauce black pepper 2 bunches 1 pint 2 tablespoons 2 tablespoons 1/2 cup 1 teaspoon this recipe is inspired by lantern, a restaurant in chapel hill, n.c., where i worked for several years. typically, a soft-boiled egg would be placed on top, but i am squeamish about egg yolks (i know, i know). 1. wash the asparagus and the shiitakes. 2. cut off the stems of the asparagus and slice the spears diagonally into inch-long pieces. 3. sauté the asparagus on medium heat along with the sesame oil for approximately 5 minutes. 4. add the rinsed shiitake mushrooms, and sauté these vegetables together with the soy sauce and butter for approximately 10 minutes. serve as a side dish with friends or family who take as much pleasure savory vegetables as you do. description: bundle of aspargus sits in bowl on right side, cut off by picture. the bowl is on a wooden cutting board. photo by stephanie studer on unsplash recipe rutter | 26 dlr journal 89 abstract an inverted dystopia: margaret cavendish's utopia, the blazing world by julie santini this new interpretation of margaret cavendish’s the blazing world (1666) shows that women engaged with witchcraft theory in early modern europe. remnants of the early modern witch-craze exist in theoretical texts by the men who were at the heart of defining and defending the ‘truths’ about witchcraft. notably, as cases of witchcraft were predominantly against women, women’s voices remain unheard. margaret cavendish, duchess of newcastle, was a rare example of a woman attempting to insert herself into intellectual circles like the royal society. having frequented the circles of men that believed they were scientifically proving witchcraft, it is unlikely that cavendish did not have her own opinions on the subject. by showing how cavendish’s dystopian science-fiction novel echoes men’s theories about witchcraft, the parody she makes of their theories is brought to light and earns her a place in the wider scholarship on the subject. 90 santini historically, written language has been a male dominated discipline used to shape society. despite their position on the margins, women held opinions about these predominantly male thought processes. an early and rare example of a woman parodying male perceptions of society can be seen in the work of margaret cavendish, duchess of newcastle (1623-1673). in her work the blazing world, cavendish subverts elements of witchcraft theory to demonstrate how belief systems are constructed, how they shape society, and the fragility of such constructs. the early modern european witch-hunts were accompanied by many publications on witchcraft theory. they described witches and explained how to do away with them. men were predominantly the authors of these texts and frequently cited one another as they continuously redefined witchcraft by building dystopian worldviews. such dystopias were characterized by women succumbing to devil-worship in the absence of men. an important textual example is the catholic french jurist jean bodin’s on the demon-mania of witches (1580), which was more widely discussed as witch trials became more common (clark 116). other examples include king james i’s daemonologie (1597), and medical writer william drage’s daimonomogeai (1665). since women generally existed on the margins of society and were allowed to function only in relation to men, they were defenseless against such accusations. a woman unattached to a man was marginalized further and more easily targeted as a witch. stuart clark notes that “the facts of the matter are that witches could not possibly have ridden to sabbats, worshipped devils, and come away with the power of maleficium” (3). and yet, the persecution of mostly women was a reality in europe well into the seventeenth-century. despite women’s place on the margins of society, cavendish was one woman who attempted to participate in its male dominated intellectual circles. margaret cavendish frequently struggled to be seen as an intellectual equal by her male contemporaries—namely at the royal society, which in the 1660s was beginning to give the “existence of witchcraft scientific credibility” (clark 303). unlike some of the great thinkers of her time, cavendish did not believe in witchcraft. this paper will demonstrate how cavendish’s utopian text, the description of a new world, called the blazing world (1666) inverts dystopian ideas by male authors and thinkers by alluding to tropes in witchcraft narratives in ways to render them utopian. before expanding on this, it is worth knowing more about 91 santini margaret cavendish and her contemporaries. margaret cavendish was born into the wealthy gentry lucas family in 1623 as the youngest of eight children. following the outbreak of the english civil wars (1642-1660), margaret’s mother allowed her to become the queen’s maid of honor and join the king’s court at oxford in 1643. a year later, margaret fled to france with queen henrietta maria and, in 1645, she married a royalist, william cavendish, marquis of newcastle (mendelson 9). by 1653, margaret was living in london where she spent her time productively writing, attending lectures, and studying natural philosophy (mendelson 9-10). the royal society was formed in 1660 and only tolerated the presence of women they perceived as potential patrons, which cavendish was. thus, cavendish spent the better part of her career attempting to assert herself in a man’s world. she did so by being a prolific writer and publishing opinions on natural philosophy under her own name at a time when women typically published anonymously. her works often considered issues of gender, putting into question if women were truly in subordination to men in society (fitzmaurice). through writing, cavendish remained in constant dialogue with her male contemporaries. unlike many of her contemporaries at the royal society, cavendish did not believe in witchcraft. in 2007, jacqueline broad’s article, “margaret cavendish and joseph glanvill: science, religion and witchcraft,” examines differences between cavendish and glanvill’s approaches to natural philosophy to understand why glanvill, a fellow of the royal society, believed in witchcraft and cavendish did not (493). broad’s article is a rare exception, as scholarship seldom links cavendish to witchcraft, even when it links witchcraft to natural philosophy. for example, stuart clark’s 1997 chapter on the scientific revolution and witchcraft excludes cavendish but focuses on how royal society fellows—joseph glanvill, henry more and robert boyle—thought of witchcraft as a “proper subject for science” (297) and used it to “protect traditional anglican theology” (300). more broadly, scholarship on witchcraft has evolved from the belief that witches were real to the examination of witches and witchcraft as textual constructs by intellectuals in the medieval and early modern periods. these medieval and early modern textual constructs became an enduring and evolving belief system that resulted in the persecution of many across europe. in his 1997 book, instruments of 92 santini darkness, james sharpe declares interest in studying how so many individuals managed to be convinced that witches were real (8). more specifically, his book aimed to explain how differing groups of people, many intelligent and educated, were able to believe in witches by way of avoiding what edward thompson refers to as “the massive condescension of posterity” (6-7). recognizing cavendish as an intelligent and educated person of the time may avoid this “condescension.” her lack of belief in witchcraft permeates the blazing world by offering a subtle critique of belief in witches. subtle, because elements of witchcraft, such as the sabbath and witches’ familiars come through the text but are unnamed in any overtly recognizable way. the blazing world, possibly the first science fiction written by a woman, is an alternative world created by cavendish as a utopia for women. it has been argued that cavendish “turns bacon’s new atlantis on its head” (mendelson 31). the idea of turning something on its head is fitting with how blazing world has been set up globally, whereby the planets are aligned at extreme poles, so that one may travel from one world to another via a narrow tunnel (mendelson 24). both of these descriptions insinuate an inversion. european intellectuals frequently viewed and explained things through binaries such as good and evil, male and female, or hot and cold (briggs 99). furthermore, in witchcraft theory, inversions signify disorder and the malign. going forward, this paper will discuss how cavendish inverts elements of her own society by creating a society that mirrors it; turns it “on its head.” in her society, cavendish has women rule in place of men, as demonstrated by the story’s protagonist, the empress. as we will see later, the character of the empress can be likened to a witch. however, before focusing on her, it would be best to get a sense of the world in which she lives. the story begins when the main character, known only as the lady, enters another world, following a ship accident with a merchant who kidnapped her. upon her arrival, the bear-men, flymen, bird-men, fish-men, ape-men, and other creatures welcome her. the blazing world’s emperor wants to worship her like a deity but makes her his wife when she explains that she is only mortal. through their union, she becomes the empress and acquires power. she asks the creatures and spirits many questions about the world, finds a platonick female friend in the duchess, and makes changes to all she sees as problematic in religion, philosophy, and science. due to news of war in her homeland, she eventually returns home to fight the enemies. 93 santini as a work of fiction, the blazing world allowed cavendish to safely critique the ideas men published at the time, many of which came to be accepted as fact due to a belief in men’s authority on all things intellectual. as clark says: “the damage that could be inflicted on witchcraft beliefs by skepticism depended on how these beliefs were defended. but because demonology presupposed doubt, it often anticipated the attacks made on it, with the result that the great witchcraft debate became circular and inconclusive” (195). this suggests that theories on the subject were fragile and required regular reaffirmation. cavendish demonstrates her own way of instilling belief through the empress. instilling belief could be done through “art,” which was how she “kept [citizens] in constant belief, without inforcement or blood-shed; for she knew well, that belief was a thing not to be forced or pressed upon the people, but to be instilled in their minds by gentle perswasions” (cavendish 102). from this, cavendish appears to suggest how belief systems can be more organically established through trust building. additionally, it is a subtle critique of witchcraft theorists who managed to instill a belief that led to the persecution of innocent women, as well as advice for political rhetoric. in her philosophical letters, she wrote of how “many a good, old honest woman hath been condemned innocently, and suffered death wrongfully, by the sentence of some foolish and cruel judges, merely upon this suspition of witchcraft, when as really there hath been no such thing” (cavendish). this statement demonstrates cavendish’s awareness of the plight of those around her. a stable society requires trust, and trust relies on truths. here, cavendish inverts the falsity of witchcraft to the truth of its non-existence in order to render a dangerous world for the persecuted a haven. cavendish creates a utopia where persecuted people from her society are permitted to exist. she uses various figures condemned in the seventeenth-century to populate her utopia, namely women. women were most targeted during the witch-hunts, and there is little in the literature that explains why (clark 116). in her note to the reader she explains: “i have made a world of my own: for which no body, i hope, will blame me, since it is everyone’s power to do the like” (cavendish 60). this statement ridicules what fictional works by men about witchcraft created in the material world: a witch craze. though a wealthy woman, she continued to be marginalized within the intellectual circle she wished to frequent, the royal society. regardless of status, the role of women in society remained precarious. using her position of status to publish under her own name highlighted the implications 94 santini a piece of writing could have on society. this act of publishing rendered her vulnerable to scrutiny since she often had different opinions from her contemporaries. differences lead to factions, which lead to marginalization, negating the agenda in blazing world to create a unified world. leaving the religion of blazing world unnamed avoids divisions and unifies the world. though cavendish was anglican, she had minimal interest in any particular religion. her lack of specification for the religion in blazing world where they “unanimously acknowledge, worship and adore the onely, omnipotent, and eternal god” advocates for the root of religion to be the same (cavendish 72). this unanimity means their religion can be a version of any religion and, therefore, can include anyone. having the empress establish a religion and build churches also means it can be any gender’s religion. the empress’s creation of her own congregation, where she can preach and be head, opposes the exclusion of women. upon her arrival to the blazing world, she believes them to be jews or turks because there are no women. she asks why “bar them from religious assemblies? it is not fit, said they, that men and women should be promiscuously together in time of religious worship; for their company hinders devotion, and makes many, instead of praying to god, direct their devotion to their mistresses.” (cavendish 72-73) while women’s exclusion insinuates that they are a wrongful presence, the questioning of whether they were jews or turks emphasizes that it does not matter. both religions’ exclusion of women makes them the same. in witchcraft, women were often perceived as the sexually insatiable gender. however, in blazing world, men are also held accountable when it comes to sexual desire. cavendish portrays administrative beings as eunuchs “to keep them from mariage: for women and children most commonly make disturbance both in church and state” (73). thus, if a man in politics has not been “fixed,” he may also make a disturbance. the initial inability to determine if the men were jews or turks is rendered futile by the new religion that unifies and welcomes women. despite being called by different names, the new religion that unifies and welcomes women. despite being called by different names, the similar rules likened the religions to one another. mendelson notes that when cavendish mentions that “numbers are onely marks of remembrance,” she refers to “the mystical numerology of christian cabbalists from the 95 santini ‘germatria’ of jewish cabbalists” (105). this christian borrowing from jewish tradition further illustrates the futility of creating differences between religions based on their names while their practices resemble one another. much of witchcraft theory was intertwined with religious debates. prior to being intellectual and theoretical, books on witchcraft were evangelical and concerned with piety, aimed “at clerical practice, and their religiosity was the religiosity of churches” (clark 437438). like women, jews were a marginalized group that was, historically, demonized (mendelson 172). additionally, jews were associated with the anti-christ and would flock to him (clark 427). the expectation was that jews would convert to christianity (mendelson 174). however, as mentioned, christianity borrowed from judaism. as the group cavendish refers to in the congregation is guessed to be a group of jewish women, they would have been doubly marginalized. cavendish had close friends in the crypto-jewish duarte sisters who, like her and her husband, were “singled out for persecution for their religio-political allegiance” (mendelson 184). for some theorists, the persecution of witches was similar, as it may have had an anti-catholicism agenda, as in discoverie of witchcraft by reginald scot (sharpe 54). this is significant because, as robin briggs argues, “the stereotype is obvious; it consisted of inverting all the positive values of society, adding a lot of lurid detail (often borrowed from earlier allegations), then throwing the resulting bucket of filth over the selected victims” (32). by using an illustration that encompasses many factors, cavendish demonstrates being cognizant of more than she often receives credit for. contrary to these converging variables, the empress’s religion remains vague and is only specified insofar as being a religion and exclusively for women. the idea of an all-female congregation is like a witches’ sabbath. cavendish’s congregation of women resembles a coven where women possess qualities unseen by men, including their true female power. the empress established “a congregation of women” where the women “had quick wits, subtile conceptions, clear understandings, and solid judgments, became, in a short time, very devout and zealous sisters” (cavendish 100). this illustration of the congregation inverts what witchcraft theory describes as the sabbath. for witches, the sabbath was a meeting of women that followed the making of a pact with the devil filled with “nocturnal conspiracy, black magic, child murder, orgiastic sexuality and perverted ritual” (briggs 32). for cavendish, though, there was no coercing from the 96 santini devil’s part, as the empress is the leader of the other women. rather, the fact that she is a female author reporting on a female meeting offers an inside scoop, whereas a female meeting as reported by man can only have the legitimacy of hearsay. the witches’ sabbath depended on frailty and gullibility as elements of the female condition (clark 117). another element of the female condition in witchcraft concerns emotions. the empress’s friendship with the duchess demonstrates a palette of emotions associated with witches. ambition, melancholy, and lust were seen as traits that women and the devil had in common (clark 113). to associate certain emotions with witches renders those emotions negative. cavendish decriminalizes those emotions by endowing her main characters with them. these emotions were expressed when “truly said the duchess to the empress (for between dear friends there’s no concealment, they being like several parts of one united body) my melancholy proceeds from an extreme ambition” (cavendish 121). the duchess’s ambition is to be a princess. cavendish was cursed with a similar ambition, as she prefaced and concluded her book with the idea that she could not be caesar or alexander. from this, an ambition to rule from the position of having a major title can be seen as predominantly masculine, as her model references are male. melancholy was seen as an illness. based on what is known of cavendish, this form of sadness may be a result of the disappointment caused by rejection from a male dominated society. like the aforementioned unnoticed intellectual qualities, these emotional aspects of the female condition were misunderstood by men. cavendish defends these gender differences by reminding the reader that “there are so many irregular motions in nature, and ‘tis but a folly to think that art should be able to regulate them, since art itself is, for the most part, irregular” (100). thus, the condemnation of these emotions as diabolical was a consequence of male fears. lust was another sinful emotion throughout the period and can be seen in the relationship between the empress and the duchess. their relationship was such that “they became platonick lovers, although they were both females” (cavendish 121). the “although” in the sentence implies the unusual nature of such a relationship between women. this emotion may be perceived as lust given that “souls of lovers live in the bodies of their beloved” (cavendish 118) and “your soul, said the empress, shall live with my soul, in my body; for i shall onely desire your councel and advice" 97 santini (cavendish 146). similar situations were less frequently discussed in theoretical texts, though they did exist. women in fez allegedly “seduced women who came to seek their counsel,” which turned them away from their husbands. gerhild williams argued this type of sexual activity to be a threat to the social order (81). however, cavendish redeemed blazing world’s society from this in an act with the duke. when “the duke had three souls in one body,” the empress and the duchess, the duchess grew jealous, but realized “that no adultery could be committed amongst platonick lovers” (cavendish 133). by having everyone participate, lust is legitimized, or neutralized. the male authority, the duke, also partakes. alternatively, this lustful encounter echoes the sex that allegedly took place with the devil at the sabbath, when all the witches at the meeting engaged with him. from this exchange with the duke, and the empress getting her power from the emperor, the male figures are most like the devil throughout the narrative. the act of sex may be seen as an act of worship within a context “[t]hat the power the devil gives, is on condition of worship to him” (drage 24). by endowing these characters with these diabolical traits, cavendish sheds light on how man created what came to be known as the witch, or the empress, via a certain union. within this context, the legitimization of the act comes from the legitimization of marriage where the devil, as known in witchcraft, does not exist. however, if man creates the witch, man is the devil. despite this, generalizations cannot be made of men at the time, as evidenced by the support cavendish received by her husband, from whom she herself received her title. generally, the duke and the emperor empower rather than control or stifle women. contrary to the devil having power over witches, the emperor gifts the empress power. when the emperor meets the lady, “he conceived her to be some goddess, and offered to worship her,” before she refused and gave her worldly possessions through marriage (cavendish 69). in this moment, cavendish subverts the theories of witchcraft by writing: “but her subjects, who could hardly be perswaded to believe her mortal, tender’d her all veneration and worship due to a deity” (70). alternatively, witches were seen to be possessed by the devil and thus burned as opposed to worshipped. as king james clarifies “the witches ar servants onelie, and slaues to the devil” (9). contrary to this, rather than answer to the emperor, the empress finds freedom in their union. by showing a man who encourages women in society, cavendish reasserts that women are creatures of 98 santini intelligence who merit being consciously active members of society, as opposed to the servants of their male counterparts. her husband may have been her real-life model for this, as he frequently lent her the support and encouragement the rest of society did not. additionally, she affirms that she is not against men and does see the potential for equality among the sexes. the power of one’s sex can be superseded by the power of the sexless soul. the question of how many souls can occupy a body arises in witchcraft theory and is addressed in the blazing world. in witchcraft theory, satan typically possesses a woman, making her a witch, while in blazing world, the empress succeeds in entering the vehicles of others, rather than being entered by others. the vehicle is the body that a soul uses to travel. this contrast demonstrates how the female controls as opposed to succumbs to being controlled, or possessed, in blazing world. in the case of mary hall of gadsen in 1664, two devils allegedly possessed her. when they spoke from within her, they often said: “we are onely two little imps…sometimes we are in the shape of serpents, sometimes of flyes, sometimes of rats or mice” (drage 33). imprisoning a witch was a solution to having satan leave her “if satan will give leave; however, her bewitching of others is prevented” (drage 24). from this perspective, the woman has no agency and acts only as a conduit for the devil who sends his minions. alternatively, in blazing world, when the empress asks the spirits “whether souls did chuse bodies? they [answer], that platonicks believed, the souls of lovers lived in the bodies of their beloved” (cavendish 113). by enabling her to do this, cavendish returns power and agency to the female figure. it also renders positive something perceived as negative: possession. sending her animal-men to do things the way witches allegedly did with their imps likens the empress to a witch. however, while narratives told by men depict witches as villainous, cavendish renders similar actions done by the empress pure, as it is for the beloved. and unlike cavendish’s experience with the royal society, what she can and cannot do is not at the mercy of a male figure. instead, the empress has her own assistants. rather than being subordinate, the empress has her own subordinates. the males in blazing world, aside from the duke and the emperor are generally half man and half animal. the empress assigns each a specialized profession for their species (cavendish 71). in witchcraft, these hybrid creatures are known as imps. according to william drage, “sometimes the witches send their imps” (11). this signifies that witches had assistants to do their bidding. however, because the witches are at 99 santini the service of the devil, they are somewhat at the service of the imps: “these imps that the devil commands some witches to nourish, do instigate them to give them command to do evil” (drage 16). by being at the devil’s command, witches lose power over the imps through a feedback loop created by this triad. contrarily, cavendish restructures the hierarchy by removing the devil—an overseeing male. in the blazing world, when the hybrid-men first appear, the lady has just arrived in the strange place where the bear-men and fox-men are “waiting on her” (cavendish 64). they are immediately established as servants and imp-like. later, when the empress is displeased, the bear-men seemingly cower as they were “troubled at her majesties displeasure concerning their telescopes, kneel’d down, and in the humblest manner petitioned that they might not be broken” (cavendish 79). again, the bear-men appear like witches’ imps. the empress, then, had employees fitting the same profile as witches. the empress herself appears witch-like by having imps at all. cavendish has orders come directly from the empress as opposed to her being a conduit used by the devil. however, unlike the service her fictional characters received, cavendish’s reality was marked by continued opposition. many fellows of the royal society challenged cavendish’s belief in keeping religion and philosophy separate. where religion is the immaterial, philosophy is the material. this is where believers in witchcraft differ from non-believers. the aforementioned glanvill, more, and boyle endorsed the immaterial (clark 298), while cavendish believed that something from nothing was impossible: for how is it possible, that a natural nothing can have being in nature? if it be no substance, it cannot have a being, and if no being, it is nothing; wherefore the distinction between subsisting in another body, is a meer nicety, and non-sense; for there is nothing in nature that can subsist of, or by it self (89). alternatively, william drage believed the world did come from nothing: this world was made of nothing, by spiritual power, and may be resolved into nothing again by the same power; and we can resolve dense bodies into air, and coagulate air into water; and the devil, quatenus a spirit, can do that, that a spirit can do; but as being the worse, and weaker then god, he varies; but by gods permission he is able to do much (19). by opposing intangible ideas of witchcraft, such as drage’s argument in support of making something 100 santini out of nothing, cavendish demonstrates the impossibility of the existence of witches by mocking glanvill’s ideas that the immaterial activity can exist in nature (clark 302). cavendish uses the idea of an army going to war to criticize the idea that immaterial spirits can have material effects to counter ideas like those of glanvill. the spirit without a body accomplishes nothing. though the spirits are present throughout, they become useless at a time of war because: spirits could not arm themselves, nor make any use of artificial arms or weapons; for their vehicles were natural bodies, not artificial: besides, said she, the violent and strong actions of war, will never agree with immaterial spirits; for immaterial spirits cannot fight, nor make trenches, fortifications, and the like. (cavendish 143) cavendish refutes the idea that the immaterial can affect the material in a material way. this contradicts what theoretical texts believed to be possible, such as drage’s belief “[t]hat one spirit may destroy an army of men” (25). unlike basic travel, war must deliver material results. bodin discusses travel in these terms of how [s]ometimes both the body and the soul are transported, and this ecstacy is common with witches who have a formal pact with the devil. they are sometimes transported in spirit, with the body remaining insensate; and sometimes in body and soul when they go to night assemblies. (65) these night assemblies would have been the sabbaths, as previously mentioned. it was believed that witches could physically be asleep, while their spirit flew itself to elsewhere (roper 104). such a superpower proposes a contradiction to the weaker female sex that typically succumbs to the devil in witchcraft theory. contrary to witchcraft theory, the devil is only present in the blazing world when discussing the creation of the world, or the book of genesis. witchcraft theory depends on the presence of the devil. when discussing good and evil, there is no evil to match or supersede good. that there was a supernatural good, which was god; but they knew of no supernatural evil that was equal to god” (cavendish 114). the good of god is always superior. some believe that eve was the first witch, having been seduced by the devil and tempting adam (clark 113). as argued by king james i, among others, the reason for eve and women’s seduction by the devil is because “that sexe is frailer then man” (114). 101 santini by that logic, how did the weaker sex, eve, then succeed in tempting the stronger sex, adam? from this, it can be said that theories of witchcraft are irrelevant, from cavendish’s perspective, since the supernatural good of god would always supersede it, rendering the demonic notion of evil inferior and nonthreatening. the spirits tell the empress that, in the creation of the world, “the devil was within the serpent” (cavendish 109). as seen earlier, the imps sometimes take the shape of a serpent. this is the only instance that the devil is perceived as anyone. this drove them out of paradise. belief and imagination play a role in the creation of reality. the immaterial is a suspension of reality. for instance, the spirits explain that any mortal can be a creator “for every humane creature can create an immaterial world fully inhabited by immaterial creatures, and populous of immaterial subjects” (cavendish 123). in reevaluating the ancients, she realizes that “no patterns would do her any good in the framing of her world; she was resolved to make a world of her own invention, and this world was composed of sensitive and rational self-moving matter; indeed, it was composed onely of the rational, which is the subtilest and purest degree of matter” (cavendish 126). her society and its imagined societies displeased and neglected her, so she made her own. cavendish had a difficult time fitting in with the intellectual men because she was their inverted counterpart. in 1667, a year following the publication of the blazing world, cavendish was stereotyped by samuel pepys as ignorant on a visit to the royal society (mendelson 13). it does not seem unlikely that she was accustomed to this perception of her, as her frustration pours out of the blazing world, which functions as a translation of these real-life experiences into fiction. cavendish’s utopia creates space for women, primarily by having women rule it, as the empress leads conferences as well as preaches in the congregation. this creation of a female space due to male ineptitude is not unlike her real life, as seen in her experience with printers. while earlier on cavendish went through several printers and complained about their work, she eventually settled on anne maxwell in 1666, whom she worked with for a long time, printing and re-printing her works (montgomery 25). kaylor montgomery notes how maxwell is then one with technological aptitudes and parallels their friendship to that of the duchess and the empress (26-27). given the theories on witchcraft having been invented or perpetuated to push certain agendas, such as re-christianization or explaining the inexplicable, it seems understandable that theories were 102 santini seldom set in stone. authors managed to take on languages and adopt formats that looked familiar and were thus understood to propagate the desired thoughts for the time. with blazing world, cavendish offers a voice to women by publishing under her own name, as this was atypical of women. by creating a world where the female characters are central and leaders, she inverts the expectations of women as often dictated by men. this interpretation means to uncover, perhaps, another layer to cavendish’s blazing world, further demonstrating its nuanced composition and her critique on the royal society but, more specifically, analyzing the consequences of work by men as it led to the deaths of innocent women. hopefully, this is only the beginning of margaret cavendish’s inclusion into the study of witchcraft theory. to continue excluding her would be to continue proving her point as we enter the mid twenty-first century. whether moving backwards or forwards in time, the tragedy of the present is that change has been minimal for women, as women continue to parody their societies as cavendish did. for instance, the washington post published “the hideous, diabolical truth about hillary clinton,” a satirical piece by alexandra petri about clinton which reads like an early modern text on witchcraft, weeks before the 2016 election. though it is meant to be a “light” take on the news, the public’s comments suggest that individuals would read such a piece as fact. other commentators explicitly advocated for the satire’s accuracy. that such parody persists over three hundred years later renders cavendish’s work all the more relevant today, as neglecting works from the past only brings our present closer to it. 103 santini works cited bodin, jean. on the demon-mania of witches (1580). centre for reformation and renaissance studies, 1995. briggs, robin. witches & neighbours: the social and cultural context of european witchcraft. viking, 1996. broad, jacqueline. “margaret cavendish and joseph glanvill: science, religion, and witchcraft.” studies in history and philosophy of science part a, vol. 38, no. 3, 2007, pp. 493–505. doi:10.1016/j.shpsa.2007.06.002. cavendish, margaret. the description of a new world, called the blazing world. edited by sara heller mendelson, broadview press, 2016. cavendish, margaret. philosophical letters, or, modest reflections upon some opinions in natural philosophy maintained by several famous and learned authors of this age, expressed by way of letters. ann arbor: michigan publishing, 2003. university of michigan library, quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/a53058.0001.001?rgn=main;view. clark, stuart. thinking with demons: the idea of witchcraft in early modern europe. oxford university press, 2005. drage, william. daimonomageia: a small treatise. j. dover, 1665. fitzmaurice, james. “cavendish [née lucas], margaret, duchess of newcastle upon tyne (1623?– 1673), writer | oxford dictionary of national biography.” oxford dictionary of national biography, 9 nov. 2017, doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/4940. james i, king. daemonologie (1597). edited by g. b. harrison and james carmichael, john lane, 1924. montgomery, kaylor. “margaret cavendish's the blazing world (1666), early modern feminism, and female friendships.” knowledge bank, universidade da coruña, 1 may 2016, hdl.handle. net/1811/76786. petri, alexandra. “the hideous, diabolical truth about hillary clinton.” the washington post, 14 104 santini works cited oct. 2016, www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/compost/wp/2016/10/14/the-hideous-diabolical-truth about-hillary-clinton/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.0896063dcf5a. sharpe, james. instruments of darkness witchcraft in early modern england. university of pennsylvania press, 1997. williams, gerhild scholz. defining dominion: the discourses of magic and witchcraft in early modern france and germany. university of michigan press, 1999. monsters are tied to what we consider normal or abnormal in our cultures. jeffrey cohen’s “monster theory” states that society places its own anxiety or fear of something or someone who breaks cultural expectations into the monsters they create. the fear we have of these monsters makes them incredibly popular in our cultures. in cormac mccarthy’s no country for old men, the main antagonist and cold-blooded killer chigurh fits the mold of the monster theory perfectly in many ways. in the novel, after stealing millions of dollars from a drug deal gone awry, moss is hunted down by chigurh ruthlessly. he represents both the fear and desire of our societal norms by rejecting all humanity via his brutality; however, he maintains a playfulness when it comes to deciding his victims’ fates, utilizing coin-flipping to determine whether the victims live or die. by looking at chigurh through the lens of “monster theory,” we see that he fits the mold of the traditional villain in crime fiction stories, while also managing to surprise readers by just how nefarious he really is. of course, it would be unwise to assume that chigurh is without humanity; he is often given shockingly human characteristics to ground him in reality, which makes him and the state of lawlessness he brings about all the more terrifying. what we gain by applying monster theory is seeing how a society’s fear of violent crime is personified; it also lets us attempt to reassure ourselves of our own humanity in comparison to the absolute inhumanity of chigurh. through chigurh, mccarthy has created one of the most memorable and remarkable monsters in crime fiction. the new law of the land: the monster in no country for old men will callan, ball state university 86 jeffrey cohen’s original “monster theory” states that monsters are representative of our fears of something or someone that breaks our cultural norms. in cormac mccarthy’s no country for old men, many tropes of the monstrous villain are both exhibited and contradicted by the primary antagonist chigurh. recruited to hunt down moss for stealing millions of dollars in cash from a drug deal gone awry, we are given practically no knowledge of the person chigurh was before the events of the story. the fact that he is a calculating, cold-blooded killer fits the monster theory lens present in crime fiction, but because chigurh remains free at the end of the novel, lacks a motive or backstory, and is childishly characterized via his ignorance of his personal evil, he differs from the usual crime narrative monster. chigurh still being free to commit more crimes is what makes mccarthy’s central message about crime in general stronger. it paints an incredibly bleak picture of crime in modern america. to mccarthy, crime has gotten more violent since the old days, and there’s nothing that can be done to stop it. this has real-world implications, with the primary message that bell’s friend ellis tries to convey being that it is futile to try to change the world by oneself. chigurh uses coin-flipping to decide his victims’ fate, creating a sense of arbitrariness to his crimes. this shows that he operates on chance rather than an actual moral system. while it would be misguided to assume chigurh is completely inhuman, analyzing him with monster theory can reassure us of our own humanity in comparison to his ruthlessness. this is important in a world where crime grows more violent and ruthless. using the lens of monster theory, we can identify the tropes of crime fiction, understand why they are relevant to society and crime in general, and analyze how our fears of violent crime are personified through monsters like chigurh. all these aspects lead to a unique approach to crime narratives in which we anticipate the monster to be foiled by the good guys of the story. for the purposes of this examination, the novel will be used as the primary source as opposed to the film, owing to the narrative choices offered in the novel which alternate between sections narrated in the first person by sheriff bell and sections narrated in the third person perspective. monster theory encapsulates the fears of many different cultures’ definitions of what is considered abnormal. in the theoretical framework, monsters are defined as anything that challenges established norms. to this end, jeffrey andrew weinstock says of monsters, “[t]he monster is the thing that, from a particular perspective in a given context, shouldn’t be, but is” (3). in other words, monsters represent everything that could foreseeably go wrong in a thing or person from a certain perspective. there is little doubt that monsters have been related to a negative connotation in callan 87 culture, associated with something to fear and to be disgusted by. however, another facet of monster theory is how viewing monsters allows for introspection into one’s own humanity. this is a key tenet of monster theory and one which asma acknowledges when the author writes, “the monster is a beneficial foe, helping us to virtually represent the obstacles that real life will surely send our way” (293). a way of interpreting this is by recognizing monsters as a stand-in for hurdles in our lives that we compare to our own humanity. reassuring ourselves that we are normal is a coping mechanism, and monster theory also states that another way of coping with potential flaws is by placing all irregularities on one monster. another key tenet of what monsters are is defined by beal, who uses sigmund freud’s idea of unheimlich, or the inability to feel at home. beal writes, “monsters are personifications of the unheimlich. they stand for what endangers one’s sense of at-homeness, that is, one’s sense of security, stability, integrity, well-being, health, and meaning” (297-298). this is a way of saying that monsters contradict everything that makes us feel safe and stable. monsters may appear to us in countless situations, but we never truly get over how uncomfortable they make us feel. monsters are strikingly inhuman most of the time, and this reassures us that we are human in comparison. but this begs the question of how monsters fit into crime and crime fiction. monsters appear quite commonly in crime fiction. we often perceive fictional criminals as monsters, since they reject everything we hold dear in a civilized society. by applying monster theory to crime fiction, we can reassure ourselves of our faith in the criminal justice system. chigurh, of course, breaks this faith in law enforcement by managing to evade them, as they are portrayed as helpless to stop the chain of events in the novel. as is typical in crime narratives, our faith in criminal justice and punishment is jeopardized because of this. in an article on the ineffectiveness of police leadership, simmons-beauchamp and sharpe argue, “the internal divide sustains the eurocentric, male-dominated perspectives as police organizations are not typically reflective of the communities they serve” (1). the barrier this speaks of is the “us vs. them” mentality, which allows for police leadership to be perceived as helpless. this ineffectiveness of the law is made more apparent by mccarthy only being able to provide details about how things used to be. our expectation that monsters take advantage of the weakness of ordinary people to be dealt justice, a typical aspect of crime fiction, is subverted by mccarthy’s thesis that criminals can get away with what they intend to do. through chigurh, mccarthy also makes a statement about the growing violence of crime in america and our desensitization towards it. sheriff bell laments the time when his father was a man of the law and didn’t even callan 88 need to carry a gun, but those times seem to be gone in the novel. at the end of the novel, bell retires, essentially giving up on punishing the monster in this story. by retiring, the sheriff represents how the old ways he’s depended on in the past do not work any longer; this is not a country for old men. near the end of the novel, bell has a conversation with his friend ellis. he talks about the nostalgia he has for the old days when things were simpler. ellis, however, speaks to the fact that it’s not one person’s job to fix the world and rid it of evil as bell had hoped, and that there have always been monstrous criminals such as chigurh. he also reiterates that the good old days are based on bell’s nostalgia and perception of the time rather than actual fact. monster theory has been established thus far in terms of how we define it and the shapes it takes. we have also determined why this is useful for us. the question remains how this relates to the monster of no country for old men, chigurh, and how this helps us better understand crime fiction. moss is hunted ruthlessly by chigurh, who is also in his own way a symbol of the law of the new world or lack thereof. chigurh neatly fits into the definition of a monster in many respects, but he also has many human moments in which he becomes even more terrifying to us. mccarthy’s characters, particularly bell, lament the time when law enforcement had an easier time on the job, saying, “even when i say anything about how the world is going hell in a handbasket people will just sort of smile and tell me i’m gettin’ old” (196). this is an explanation of mccarthy’s very concerns for civilized society. it is because of monsters like chigurh that this long-lost, old way of life is unachievable when the novel’s events take place. the change from civilization to the onset of anarchy seems to have taken place when people abandoned the rules which held society together in old times, allowing monsters to gain power and prominence. this also aligns with what mccarthy is saying about breaking the pre-established rules of a cohesive society in general and how monsters influence how violent crime can become. commentary on crime fiction such as this paints a grim picture of violence in america and how monsters represent that sort of violence. of course, more can be said about this violence and its significance. the brutal world chigurh inhabits is one which is made for a monster like him. society’s fear of violent crime is personified through chigurh, who also manages to break many of the expectations for crime fiction villains and monsters in general. chigurh spends the novel hunting moss and tormenting bell, and even the law cannot prevent the world from sliding into anarchy. this is a concerning message for those who respect the law. the old world that bell mourns for is long dead in no country for old men. however, it is in this world that criminals like chigurh, who is immediately portrayed as a giant and cunning man, thrive. favero writes of callan 89 this brutal world that exists in the novel: “the world bell must confront is one to which chigurh has already assimilated. it is materialistic, nihilistic, deterministic, mechanistic, and neoliberal, and chigurh has risen to its challenges to become successful in his line of work” (159). through this, we learn that the world ed tom bell started his career in has changed for the worse, and only those who can adapt will be able to survive it. it is also implied that only those who are truly evil are capable of assimilating into this world so hostile to old men like bell. this all is an incredibly grim statement about what we can expect from the heroes of our typical stories. the idea of evil triumphing over good is reinforced when in the novel bell says, “[i]t takes very little to govern good people. very little. and bad people can’t be governed at all” (mccarthy 64). through this, mccarthy lays out what he thinks of good and evil. chigurh obviously falls into the category of evil, which fits the trope of the villainous criminal. nevertheless, it’s chigurh’s triumph over bell and the law as a whole that makes him different from this trope. a monster theory view of this problem would say that this is a product of our culture’s fears of a monster that cannot be vanquished or easily removed from society, and this creates problems for the resolutions we expect in crime fiction. there is even more to be said about the monster theory view of crime and how one becomes the monster capable of these sorts of acts. chigurh has many monstrous moments in the novel, such as when he kills moss’s wife, carla jean, for seemingly no reason. upon returning from the funeral of her mother, she finds chigurh in her house and instantly knows why. even carla jean herself says that there is no reason for her to have to die, but chigurh shoots her anyway to fulfill the promise he made to her husband that he would kill her. the section in which she is killed is narrated omnisciently at first before returning to the perspective of bell, who has his own reaction to the horrific coldness of it. of course, to assume that chigurh is without any humanity is not only wrong but runs contrary to mccarthy’s message. chigurh has many surprisingly human moments in the novel. even the way he rummages through the fridge for milk at moss’s house after barging in to search for him is incredibly human and almost childlike; there are several instances in which this is done. this all makes him even more terrifying because it suggests that even the most monstrous characters are essentially human. it also opens the question of what it takes for someone human to become such a monster. mccarthy gives almost no details on chigurh’s past, leaving this incredibly important question decidedly ambiguous. one of his more human moments is revealed by forcing his victims to reflect on the nature of life and death. phipps writes of this very introspection, “the novel lends itself well to philosophical and theological questions about life and death since its main antagonist, anton chigurh, callan 90 forces many of his victims to take up introspective reflection even as he dispenses death with cold ruthlessness” (38). in other words, there is an inherent contradiction in how chigurh acts when killing people. on the one hand, he is utterly brutal and without conscience, but on the other, he also sees it as being necessary to force his victims to reflect psychologically. in the text, when considering what he needs to do to survive the people hunting him after hiding the money he took, moss thinks to himself, “[b]y the time he got up he knew he was probably going to have to kill somebody. he just didn’t know who it was” (mccarthy 87). this is significant because it shows that moss must resort to acts he doesn’t want to do just to survive. the question becomes whether chigurh started on a similar path. the sparse details of chigurh’s past leave open the possibility that he started off in a similar situation compared to moss, slowly doing more and more criminal things just to survive. by looking at this through the monster theory lens, we can attempt to unlock how monsters come about and what their synthesis is. still, matters are further complicated by the role fate has in chigurh’s killings. chigurh uses coin-flipping to decide the fate of his victims, which is a playful spin on the cold-blooded murder he specializes in. this also gives the reader the impression that chigurh is a dispatcher of justice. our expectation for justice to be served by the good guys of the crime narrative is again subverted in this way because chigurh serving his own cruel form of justice displays a law of the land that relies on violence as a means to an end. moreover, the use of coin-flipping makes this all seem arbitrary and tragic to mccarthy’s audience. mangrum writes of the tragic nature of “justice” in no country for old men, saying, “mccarthy’s characters are subject to the tragic tension between aspiring for justice and the absence of the good, searching for the real and misunderstanding the presence of the transcendent because of the inherent limits of their world” (108). in other words, the author is elaborating on how the absence of justice is just another form of the new law of the land that is present in mccarthy’s novel. the bleakness of no country for old men allows for a statement on the primal nature of justice when evil individuals take the law into their own hands. also present is the idea that even if carla jean were to survive chigurh by correctly calling the coin toss, it would have simply been someone else’s turn to die on perhaps a different day or under other circumstances. this approach towards chance and determining who gets to live or die is certainly befitting of a monster. the arbitrary nature of crime in the novel is a way of saying that it is pointless to try to stop it. chigurh also differs from typical monsters in crime narratives where the villain is caught in the end, because he escapes. after killing carla jean, he is involved in a vehicle collision while driving and breaks his arm. he pays a boy to give him his callan 91 shirt to use as a sling and gets away before the police arrive. ultimately, by evading capture and justice at the novel’s conclusion, no country for old men contradicts the traditional crime narrative where the villainous monster is captured. the significance of chigurh remaining free is that we are never truly safe from monsters. chigurh remains uncaptured to presumably commit more horrendous crimes, and this breaks many traditions of crime narratives where it is expected that the bad guy will be foiled in the end. the expectation that the culprit is busted at the end of the crime narrative reassures us that violent criminals can never succeed. through an incredibly austere view of justice and crime, no country for old men presents a world where evil and monsters are allowed to reign. this world is one in which old men like sheriff bell cannot hope to survive like in the days of yore. the villain chigurh, by constantly subverting our expectations for crime narratives in the novel, represents the new law of the land over which he presides in a terrifyingly bleak commentary about the state of anarchy and justice. chigurh callan 92 figure 1. film capture of anton chigurh in the movie adaption of no country for old men, 2007. is truly monstrous in the way he plays with his victims and takes pleasure in hunting people down, allowing us to get a glimpse of mccarthy’s grim perspective on monstrous criminals. while it is important to make the distinction that not all criminals are inherently monsters, monsters often happen to be horrible criminals in how they break the expected rules of society. monster theory is thus shown as being present in no country for old men via chigurh. with moss’s death and chigurh escaping to presumably commit more crimes at the novel’s conclusion, mccarthy is suggesting that lawlessness will prevail because of monsters like chigurh; moreover, the good guys such as bell don’t have a chance to stop the bad guys by holding to the old ways. not only is this a serious departure from what is anticipated in crime stories, but it also is symptomatic of a general shift in our perception of the trust we place in law enforcement to protect us from this state of anarchy described in the novel. via analysis from the lens of a monster theory perspective, it becomes clear that chigurh’s monstrosity provides commentary for how we analyze criminals. at the end of the day, mccarthy suggests that we will never be truly safe from these kinds of monsters and that trying to rid the world of them is futile. callan 93 works cited asma, stephen. “monsters and the moral imagination.” monster theory reader, edited by jeffrey weinstock. university of minnesota press, 2020, pp. 289-294. beal, timothy. “introduction to religion and its monsters.” monster theory reader, edited by jeffrey weinstock. university of minnesota press, 2020, pp. 295-302. favero, douglas. “you don’t have to do this: cormac mccarthy’s and the courage to be.” the cormac mccarthy journal, vol. 19, no. 2, 2021, pp. 157-177, www. muse.jhu.edu/article/814965. accessed 10 december 2022. mangrum, benjamin. “democracy, justice, and tragedy in .” religion and literature, 2011, pp. 107-133, www.jstor.org/stable/23347090?pqorigsite=summon#metadata_info_tab_contents. accessed 16 january 2023. mccarthy, cormac. no country for old men. alfred a. knopf, 2005. phipps, gregory. “death and the search for heideggerian authenticity in .” the cormac mccarthy journal, vol. 18, no. 1, 2020, pp. 37-55, www.muse.jhu.edu/ article/751604. accessed 11 december 2022. simmons-beauchamp, bobbi, & sharpe, hillary. “the moral injury of ineffective police leadership: a perspective.” frontiers in psychology, vol. 13, 2022, www. frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.766237/full. weinstock, jeffrey. “introduction: a genealogy of monster theory.” the monster theory reader, edited by jeffrey weinstock. university of minnesota press, 2020, pp. 1-36. callan 94 http://www.muse.jhu.edu/article/814965 http://www.muse.jhu.edu/article/814965 http://www.jstor.org/stable/23347090?pq-origsite=summon#metadata_info_tab_contents http://www.jstor.org/stable/23347090?pq-origsite=summon#metadata_info_tab_contents http://www.muse.jhu.edu/article/751604 http://www.muse.jhu.edu/article/751604 http://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.766237/full http://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.766237/full food within literature often presents itself through the multifaceted lens of the intersectionality of culture, gender, class, and race. kiese laymon’s memoir heavy is not exempt from this intersectionality as laymon presents food as an outlet for the struggle that the black women in his life face as they are forced to fit into gendered expectations through the gaze of not only men but of america and white power structures. within heavy, kiese laymon presents both the implicit generational and explicit current trauma that african american women endure through the consumption of their bodies by america, their use of food as ownership, and the role that food insecurity plays in ensuing actions. this essay applies triple consciousness to the trauma of these women as black women in america as they internalize the gaze of white people in america and aims to shift abusive blame from black communities back to the white institutions which use these black communities for consumption. this is evident through analyzing the rape of laymon’s childhood friend, his grandmother’s submission to white power structures but her strength in the kitchen, and laymon’s mother’s abusive tendencies toward him which follow her food insecurities. this essay will delve into how throughout heavy, laymon illustrates how food functions in the lives of black women in american societies and the unhealthy habits that are formed in order to confront both this explicit and implicit trauma, and the increasing relevancy to shift the blame of these unhealthy habits from black communities back to the white power structures which enforced them in the first place. redirecting the blame: america’s overconsumption of black women as illustrated in kiese laymon’s heavy kaila henkin, ball state university essay introduction generational trauma—which was, and still is, evoked by white people—is prominent in the black community today and often presents itself in a harsher manner both within black women and as a consequence of how black women are treated as consumable beings. this generational trauma stems from being enslaved by white people, to segregation, to societal racism, and can manifest itself within black folx in multiple fashions. in kiese laymon’s heavy: an american memoir (2018), an autobiographical narrative about a heavyset black man’s experiences with personal trauma and struggles with food, this generational trauma manifests in how the black women in laymon’s life are treated as sexual objects. in laymon’s memoir, black women respond to their hardships through their interactions with food as a tool to negotiate the implicit and explicit trauma they endure; at the same time, laymon compares black women’s exploitative treatment to the indulgence of food being devoured throughout the narrative. by delineating generational trauma through the black women in his life, laymon affirms the consequences of white institutions abusing black folx through overindulgence, and how that carries into the lives of black women and their actions as a result. to further this conversation in a present-day context, it is also relevant to analyze the black lives matter movement in relation to the protests, riots, and the deaths of black women specifically as consequences of white power henkin | 38 within institutions such as the police force and within politics, evincing a pattern of abuse and overconsumption of black women with a lack of remorse or justice. this essay will explore how laymon’s heavy is an indictment of dominant white power structures and the lack of acknowledgement of the impact that these structures have on black women, in particular, as they see themselves not only through the white american gaze but also the male gaze—a theoretical framework referred to as “triple consciousness.” moreover, laymon’s memoir shifts the blame from the black community’s actions to expose the ways in which white power structures built the grounds for these actions to begin with, reflecting the trend of food and consumption as the polarity of comfort and grief in the discussion of generational trauma within black women. to analyze this through the lens of triple consciousness, i will interpret where both the white and male gaze is evident within characters in heavy, including laymon’s childhood friend layla, who is sexually assaulted through the means of overconsumption but then neglected in the beginning of the novel; laymon’s grandmother and her negotiation of the white gaze and tendency to serve others while creating a safe space of food for herself and her family; and laymon’s mother through her abusive tendencies and food insecurities. moreover, the essay includes research on the impact that generational trauma, as caused by white people, has on black women. these interpretations and extensive research will allow for further understanding of the disregarded consequences that are derived from the power that white institutions hold, along with the harm of focusing the blame on the black community rather than on the white structures which allow black women to become the scapegoat for their own victimization. understanding triple consciousness to begin to understand the trauma—both generational and present—that the black women in laymon’s heavy encounter and react to, we must first take a step back to understand what generational/ cultural trauma and collective memory is through the lens of triple consciousness. in his book cultural trauma: slavery and the formation of african american identity (2008), ron eyerman explained that: [t]rauma is mediated through various forms of representation and linked to the reformation of collective identity and the reworking of collective memory. … in this sense, slavery was traumatic in retrospect, and formed a ‘primal scene’ which could, potentially, unite all ‘african americans’ in the united states, whether or not they themselves had been slaves or had any knowledge of or feeling of africa. slavery formed the root of an emergent collective identity through an equally emergent collective memory, one that signified and distinguished a race. (1) the concept of collective memory and trauma being present in the black community in america was caused by and perpetuated by the white population through continued racism and the enforcement of stereotypes. this collective and generational trauma is the foundation for both double and triple consciousness, where black women are traumatized to view themselves through the gaze of blackness, america, and womanhood. in some cases, including in heavy, such experiences may influence their relationship to food. the theoretical origin of this framework is double consciousness, a term coined by w.e.b du bois, essay 39 | henkin which explains how black men in particular are prone to looking at themselves through the white american gaze, rather being allowed to develop a true self-consciousness. this white gaze is internalized due to generational trauma that black folx tend to suffer because of their ancestral history, consisting of enslavement, dehumanization, segregation, police brutality, and more, along with the repercussions of this consistent racism and the promised reparations that have yet to be made. as du bois wrote in the souls of black folk: the negro is a sort of seventh son, born with a veil, and gifted with second-sight in this american world—a world which yields him no true self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the revelation of the other world. it is a peculiar sensation, this double-con sciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity… the history of the american negro is the history of this strife, — this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self. (23) triple consciousness takes du bois’s theoretical framework one step further by including the gaze of womanhood which black women have been held against and hold against themselves, as they are consistently consumed (not unlike food) by dominant power structures. according to scholar nahum welang’s “triple consciousness: the reimagination of black female identities in contemporary american culture” (2018), “[b]lack women view themselves through three lenses and not two: america, blackness and womanhood” (296). black women are forced to see themselves not just as black women but through “the perceptions of the white world” (welang 297) and the generational trauma that they are faced with, along with the gendered stereotypes that are derived from these perceptions. in other words, triple consciousness acknowledges the impact that both “blackness” and “americanness” hold on women specifically—recognizing that black hypermasculinity targets black women while white hypermasculinity targets the generalized black community in general. therefore, black women are subject to the “womanhood” lens, which consists of gendered expectations, a lack of respect, and the normalized and accepted (over)consumption of their bodies by both male and white communities. triple consciousness is evident through the black women in laymon’s heavy and how they are influenced by the power structures which oppress them and attempt to define their roles as women in black communities. black women strength trope as laymon’s memoir also indicates, issues ranging from physical abuse to food insecurities derived from the influence of white structures are normalized within black communities and black women especially experience the repercussion of historical and present racial and sexual abuse and trauma. in racial indigestion: eating bodies in the nineteenth century (2012), kyla tompkins argues that “the image of the black body as an edible object is a strong and consistent trope… black bodies and subjects in these encounters fight back, and bite back… in novels produced by black authors” (8). not only is the black body seen as edible to the white eye, such as tompkins argues, but also by applying the triple consciousness lens, i contend that the bodies of black women, in particular, are appetizing to both the essay henkin | 40 white gaze and male gazes. in laymon’s heavy, these women “fight back, and bite back” through defying weakness and simulating perfection and strength, which is made evident through their actions and involvement with food in their lives. this normalization of the consumption of black women can be seen through laymon’s childhood friend layla, his mother, and his grandmother, and how they respond to the undue societal expectations to which they are held. each of these women face their own trauma—both generational and present—throughout their lives and are greatly influenced by triple consciousness, causing them to act out in various ways but with one common factor: fitting into the persona of a strong black woman. regardless of their particular traumas, they are forced to fight against the unwanted overindulgence of their own bodies. according to roxanne donovan and lindsey west’s study “stress and mental health: moderating role of the strong black woman stereotype” (2015): [the strong black woman] is perceived as naturally resilient, able to handle with ease all the stress, upset, and trauma life throws at her. . . . during slavery, internalization of these traits was likely necessary for personal, familial, and community survival. today, black women no longer have to contend with institutionalized chattel slavery, but they do have to contend with such significant intersectional stressors as racialized sexism and gendered racism. (386) to further contextualize this stereotype through the lens of triple consciousness, the strong black woman is a trope derived from the need that black women have to present themselves as secure in order to stray from humility, as pending from both the looming racism from white power structures and the sexism from hypermasculinity—both lenses that black women tend to view themselves through. as i argue, these pressures to be strong bear down on laymon’s friend layla, his grandmother, and his mother, influencing their interactions with food. black lives matter protests in 2020 the fact that black women are forced to portray themselves as having a specifically strong “character” to provide protection for themselves is not a new subject of debate; however, while this conversation is not new, there is still a lack of acknowledgement of the consumption of black women due to the dominant tendency to view black women as something to devour and ingest—a view originating with white power structures during the long centuries of chattel slavery. this remains evident today through the recent 2020 spark of protests in support of the black lives matter movement which were provoked by the murder of george floyd by minnesota police officers and protests that were spurred on by the continued killings of black folx, and how white institutions taught us to fight for the lives of men but disregard the health of black women. these murders of black folx were committed by, and as a result of, white power structures which influence communities to act and respond in a certain manner, including “protesters [who] burned a police precinct in minneapolis, torched cop cars in los angeles and atlanta, and dodged plumes of tear gas” (altman). moreover, “by june 2, the national guard had been activated in at least 28 states, and dozens of cities had imposed curfews to quell looting, arson and spasms of violence,” as alex altman essay 41 | henkin recalled in his time article “why the killing of george floyd sparked an uprising” (2020). instead of asking how the black lives matter protestors could destroy property, steal from big name brand companies, and protest in the middle of a pandemic, which consequently shifts the blame to the black community, this blame needs to be redirected to the white power structures that have suppressed the black community for centuries by instead asking the question of why the black lives matter protestors have responded in such numbers and actions. while this recent series of blm protests happened in response to the unjust murder of george floyd on may 25, 2020, the mention of black women such as breonna taylor, an innocent woman killed in her sleep by a no-warrant home invasion by police officers, has been significantly less valued along with a lack of justice due to america failing black women in addressing their pain and instead continuing to consume their bodies as if they were edible. this is evident not only through the fact that taylor’s murder happened on march 13, 2020 (booker), two months before floyd’s, which is what caused the series of protests, but through how the media consumed taylor’s body as a black woman in response. taylor became a popularized image in the media, as seen on the covers of vanity fair and the oprah magazine, as america continued to overindulge in her body post-mortem and use her picture to attract buyers yet stay static about taking any action to bring taylor any justice. this standardization of the overindulgence of black women is explicitly stated when laymon writes in heavy that “i was taught by big boys who were taught by big boys who were taught by big boys that black girls what be okay no matter what we did to them” (16)—a philosophy passed down not only between black boys but also one that stems from when black people were still enslaved and black women were owned and sexually abused by white men without consequence. black women as sexual consumption in heavy throughout laymon’s heavy, the pattern of justified sexual abuse and using black women as a means for overindulgence through the act of sex is prevalent and emphasizes the indictment of dominant white power structures and the impact of triple consciousness on black women’s experiences. the consumption of black women within heavy is most notable with the introduction of laymon’s childhood friend and crush layla, and how the “big boys” in laymon’s life would sexually abuse her. laymon remembered that “layla had to go in daryl’s room with all the big boys for fifteen minutes if she wanted to float in the deep end. . . . i assumed some kind of sex was happening” (18), and that afterward “i knew that the big boys would tell stories about what happened in daryl’s room that were good for all three of them and sad for [layla] in three vastly different ways” (21). the “big boys” consumed layla’s body without consequence, abusing her in the overindulgence of sex, satisfying their own appetites and allowing her to reap the small benefit of swimming in the deep end of the pool. just as the black lives matter protests in 2020 brought fleeting attention to breonna taylor and the media’s exploitation of her body without any serious act for justice and therefore without consequences for the consumption of taylor’s image, thereby perpetuating generational trauma and the experience of triple consciousness, the “big boys” in laymon’s heavy sexually consumed layla’s body and left her with nothing but trauma and minimum gain through the swimming pool deal. this scene, along with laymon’s own acknowledgement of layla’s rape yet his refusal to try to essay henkin | 42 stop it, relays how black women—and girls—are treated and seen as succulent beings in the black community, especially by black men, as influenced by systems controlled by white people. in “black women and girls & #metoo” (2020), jennifer gómez and robyn gobin explain that “black women and girls’ experiences of intra-racial sexual assault . . . [are] impacted by racial trauma, sexism, cultural betrayal, and (intra)cultural pressure. . . . consequently, addressing racial trauma has implications for healing from cultural betrayal trauma as well” (12). accordingly, when black women are abused by someone within their own community, such as layla was in heavy, this behavior creates not only physical but also emotional scars that tear black women away from their people, creating a further division and increasing the blame of the black community, even though this abuse and thought process originated from white power due to the fact that black women view themselves through the trifecta gazes of white america, blackness, and womanhood. the lack of recognition for black women and girls who have been raped force these women to act accordingly, as if they were unaffected. in “revealing a hidden curriculum of black women’s erasure in sexual violence prevention policy” (2017), sara wooten furthers this idea by stating, “ultimately, black women are the antithesis of the ideal rape victim due to centuries of racist and sexist ideology aimed at protecting white supremacy” (409). to elaborate, it is not just that black women are not the “ideal rape victim” due to white supremacy, it is also that black women are not seen as victims at all when it comes to sexual abuse. instead, their bodies are seen as meant for men to consume without consequence, as laymon exhibits with his unwillingness to act when layla is being gang raped in the next room. the implication is that black women and girls are not actually seen as women and girls but instead as objects for consumption and food to be devoured by america, as can be currently seen through taylor’s face on the cover of magazines as a form of pathos but no perceived legal amends for her or her loved ones. as a response to her sexual abuse by the three boys, layla puts up the “strong black woman” front in the face of laymon and the boys waiting in the pool. this trope that layla exhibits, as previously discussed, is a way for black women to mask their true emotions in order to present themselves as unconsumable, even after being consumed, as constructed by a systemically white america and the triple consciousness that black women tend to see themselves through. however, by portraying herself as a strong figure who “was all-world at dissing” (laymon 16), layla further performs the idea that black women and girls don’t need help and cannot be bothered, and therefore don’t deserve justice—similar to how the black women consumed, raped, and/or murdered by white power structures are often not given justice or even entirely fought for by movements such as the black lives matter protests, not only in 2020 with breonna taylor, but throughout american history. indeed, the strong black woman front is problematic because it normalizes the overconsumption and overindulgence of black women and their bodies, both sexually and not, as evident not only through layla in laymon’s narrative but with many black woman today. food as an outlet in heavy another woman within laymon’s heavy who is constantly consumed by both the white, male, and american gazes is laymon’s grandmother, who teaches him the importance of home, food, and the struggles of racial inequality. his grandmother worked at the chicken plant, sold a variety of food, and essay 43 | henkin worked as a domestic laborer for the white mumford family (laymon 49). in one scene, she takes laymon to the mumford’s house with her, and laymon is offended by the privilege of the white family and his grandmother’s servitude toward them; in response, his grandmother talks to him in the kitchen when they return home—a place of solace, and as she describes, “she spent so many hours in white-folk kitchens and just wanted her children to respect her kitchen when she got home” (laymon 57). to laymon’s grandmother, the kitchen was sacred because she was working for herself and no one else, as she exhibited the “strong black woman” trope that is consistent within the black women throughout the narrative. behind this is a history of black women working in kitchens as servants. as, kimberly nettles-barcelón, et al. write in “black women’s food work as critical space” (2015), “black women are not seen as authorities in the kitchen or elsewhere in matters of food—culturally, politically, and socially. . . . she is rendered absent, and made invisible by the continued salience of intersecting vectors of disempowerment: race/gender/class/sexuality” (35). historically, black women were not accepted within the production nor consumption of food, so for laymon’s grandmother, her kitchen is a symbol of strength in the face of adversity and independence in the face of triple consciousness. since laymon’s grandmother experiences america’s gaze, the black community’s gaze, and the gaze of womanhood, she fights their expectations by creating a safe place within her kitchen for herself and her family, outside of any of these gazes. the “strong black woman” trope is also evident in laymon’s grandmother’s self-efficiency within her food habits, including growing vegetables in her own garden because she likes to know the process the food that she is consuming has gone through (laymon 59). laymon notes that, because of this, he would tend to eat more healthily with his grandmother, even though she is a heavier woman, which defies the food insecurity which black communities often suffer from due to white power structures oppressing black folx to the point of food scarcity and a lack of access to a variety of healthy food. moreover, laymon’s grandmother’s strength—unlike layla’s which was derived from intrapersonal trauma through sexual abuse between her black peers—has developed from a need to protect herself from the abuse of the white families to which she has been in service. her strength is a defense mechanism to ensure that they cannot “get” to her—therefore consuming her body as a result—and accuse her of an action such as stealing food, as laymon had wanted to when he visited the mumford’s house. while laymon’s grandmother actively works against holding a defiant attitude toward the white families that she has worked for, she is still allowing their white american power to affect her and her mindset such as it does through triple consciousness. she relays that “it ain’t about making white folk feel what you feel. . . . it’s about not feeling what they want you to feel” (laymon 56). she reveals the impact that the white gaze holds on her life by adamantly thinking in a way that defies the expectations that she is held to as a black woman by the white communities around her. laymon’s grandmother is heavily influenced by triple consciousness, but she also recognizes the cause and effect that white people tend to have on the black community, so she attempts to stray from stereotypical manners—stealing from white people, lying to white people, etc.—that would allow the white people to consume her even further and place the blame on the black communities that they are hungering for. essay henkin | 44 abusive tendencies as a result of white hunger this white hunger for black blame is satisfied when the black community responds to their generational trauma in negative fashions, in turn passing down white hate, supremacy, and power to influence their families and allow them to be consumed by white influence. within heavy, this hunger is satisfied through his mother as the memoir follows her trends of food insecurity and abusive impulses as derived from white institutions and triple consciousness. within the memoir, laymon’s mother is yet another black woman who presents herself as a strong, no-nonsense, professional, and educated woman in order to defy any negative feedback from the white community which could deter her professional career. with these publicly secure qualities, laymon’s mother hides her insecurities through the abuse of her son: insecurities including a lack of consistent, nutritional food for herself and her son, and her fear of white power systems affecting her, and her son’s, lives. these insecurities, as derived from white supremacy and therefore triple consciousness, lead to abusive tendencies—both physical and emotional—that laymon’s mother felt were necessary in order to teach laymon about the harm that white power systems could impose upon his livelihood if she weren’t there to punish him first. laymon’s mother inadvertently consumes her own son through the influence of white power structures and the hold that they have on her life by abusing him into submission toward both her and the food present in his life. unlike laymon’s grandmother who grew her own vegetables which gave laymon access to healthy food options growing up, laymon’s mother, throughout the heavy narrative, struggled with supplying laymon with those same nutrients and was therefore associated with unhealthy foods, ranging from laymon binge-eating pop tarts late at night (laymon 13) to him stealing an obscene amount of bread which his mother never questioned (laymon 108). laymon’s mother’s food insecurities only further motivated her to act out the strong black woman trope and her abusive tendencies; she focused on the womanhood gaze as included in triple consciousness, which caused her to abuse laymon as a result of her role as a food insecure mother protecting her son, not only against her own food insecurities, but against the white power structures which devoured their black community, and many other black communities, into submission. laymon’s mother would physically abuse her son—once over laymon dating a white girl, hitting him and relaying the dangers of such a relationship (laymon 97) and once over poor grades, going “on and on about ruining the only chance [laymon] had of getting free” (laymon 138)—in order to show laymon what white people and institutions would do to consume his body if he didn’t learn his lesson now through his mother. the physical act of beating her son suggests how influenced laymon’s mother was by triple consciousness and the white gaze and how it controlled her life, leading her to commit abusive acts which shifted the blame from those white institutions to herself as a black woman. throughout heavy, laymon refutes that placement of blame by not only illustrating his mother’s actions but the reason behind them, therefore redirecting the blame back to white supremacy and the racist systems that are still in existence today. along with physical abuse, laymon’s mother mentally abused him about his weight as a result of her food insecurity. the mention of weight is consistent throughout heavy, but laymon’s mother viewed it as another excuse for white people to devour the black community without consequence and with justified reason. within the text, after laymon lost weight and went on daily and nightly runs, his mother essay 45 | henkin addressed his concerns about being shot by police: “how is running at night increasing my chances of getting shot?” “please. you are a big black man,” [she] said. “stop running at night.” i asked [her] if [she] still thought i was big even though i had hardly any body fat. “to white folk and police, you will al ways be huge no matter how skinny you are.” (laymon 201) laymon’s mother’s actions and abusive tendencies were a direct result of the trauma that has been inflicted upon her throughout her life by white people as an independent black woman, causing her to react in fear and anger. laymon’s mother’s food insecurities and her inability to view her son as anything but “big” or “heavy” are abuses influenced by triple consciousness and her inability to fathom herself or her son outside of the white and american gaze, and herself through the womanhood gaze as a single mother raising her son under the influences of white power structures. according to wendy ashley’s “the angry black woman: the impact of pejorative stereotypes on psychotherapy with black women” (2014), “many characteristics of the angry black woman stereotype, including hostility, rage, aggressiveness, and bitterness may be reflective of survival skills developed by black women in the face of social, economic, and political oppression. this trifecta of oppression is all encompassing and creates a pervasive environment of injustice” (29). in addition to the “strong black woman” trope, laymon’s mother also negotiates the “angry black women stereotype” in response to the constant humiliation of being a black woman as seen by americanness, blackness, and womanhood. in his review “what we hoped to forget: the weight and power of kiese laymon’s heavy” (2019), bijan stephen notes that “his mother hurt him as well, beating him when she thought he was out of line, while insisting to laymon that it was for his own good. . . . even when he was a college student, his mother continued to police his behavior, worried as she was about how the white world might harm her son.” through the repercussions of generational trauma and the consequences of viewing her life, and her son’s life, through the white gaze in america, laymon’s mother harmed her son for fear of how others would harm him outside of her own control. put another way, she was consumed by america as she acted out in abusive tendencies, not unlike white institutions expect black women to in order to place the blame on black communities rather than on themselves. this fear, as maintained by white power systems, is continuously perpetuated by the consistency of white supremacy, from before laymon’s mother was alive to after heavy was published—a fear which creates a chain reaction within the black community and places blame on its members for being trained in the mindset of pleasing the existing white institutions. laymon elaborates on this fear in an interview with abigail bereola titled “a reckoning is different than a tell-all” (2018): [t]his anxiety about white folks and what they would do if given opportunity was always around us. . . . i think sometimes it can inadvertently make white folks into the traffic cops of your life. . . . i think it makes it harder for us to imagine because we’re literally told that if we imagine out of the box, white people are gon’ get us. and so when i bring that shit up in the book, i’m not trying to indict my grandmom, my mama, and them, because i understand. they’re trying to protect themselves and protect their child and their grandchild. essay henkin | 46 laymon recognizes this fear of white power structures within himself and within the influential black women in his life, pointedly saying that they are only trying to protect their children before white institutions can harm them. to further this, i argue that laymon is relaying in heavy that these black women in his life are not at fault for fearing white supremacy and acting out in ways that are harmful—such as his mother abusing him. it is instead these white institutions and systems that are held in such high regard that are at fault and are to blame for the destruction of black communities, specifically across america, as these white power structures continue to overconsume and indulge in the oppression and destruction of black communities as they stand. the destructive consumption and exploitation of black communities by white institutions was further proved during the black lives matter protests in 2020 when police officers continued to harm black bodies in public but rarely with consequence. this lack of consequence further implies the lack of care for black folx and how their bodies are only feasted on by america, the white gaze on black folx, and, for black women, hypermasculinity. as a result, the narrative of the blame of destruction during the 2020 black lives matter protests was further bestowed upon the black community rather than the white power structures which instigated the destruction in the first place. conclusion throughout heavy (2018), kiese laymon shifts the blame of abuse, insecurities, and negligence from the black community and projects it onto the white power systems which have upheld the grounds for these negative actions for centuries. through the strong characteristics of the black women in his life, including layla, his grandmother, and his mother and the overindulgence of their bodies and impact of triple consciousness, laymon shows how they view themselves, as well as their fraught relationships with food. following suit in the reactionary strong black women trope, the black women in heavy face trauma—both generational and present—which force them to act in specific manners, from a normalization of being consumed by men, the media, and america in general, to having abusive tendencies in order to stray from future potential harm from white institutions. this can also be seen through the mention of food habits throughout the novel, from laymon’s grandmother’s place in the culinary world and conversation, to his mother’s focus on laymon’s weight—whether he is “heavy” or not—and her food insecurities. all of this is a reaction to how black women have been treated in the past and continue to be treated as consumable items and something that others are allowed to overindulge in without consequence. this is still evident today in america with black women such as breonna taylor within the 2020 black lives matter protests and the consumption of her body for the media and publicity without any real warrant of justice. the abuse of black women causes them to see themselves through triple consciousness, or the lens of both the white and male gaze, and react in ways that shift the blame to the black community. in writing heavy, laymon achieves redirecting this blame back to white supremacy and the influence of the white systematic oppression of black people, and specifically black women, throughout america. essay 47 | henkin works cited altman, alex. “why the killing of george floyd sparked an american uprising.” time, time, 4 june 2020, time.com/5847967/george-floyd-protests-trump/. ashley, wendy. “the angry black woman: the impact of pejorative stereotypes on psychotherapy with black women.” social work in public health, vol. 29, no. 1, 2009, pp. 27–34. bereola, abigail. “a reckoning is different than a tell-all: an interview with kiese laymon.” the paris review, 18 oct. 2018, www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/10/18/a-reckoning-is-different-than-a tell-all-an-interview-with-kiese-laymon/. booker, brakkton. “2 louisville police officers connected to breonna taylor’s death have been fired.” npr, npr, 6 jan. 2021, www.npr.org/2021/01/06/953285549/two-louisville-police-officers-con nected-to-breonna-taylor-shooting-have-been-fi. donovan, roxanne, and west lindsey. “stress and mental health: moderating role of the strong black woman stereotype.” journal of black psychology, vol. 41, 2014, pp. 384–396., doi:10.1177/0095798414543014. du bois, w.e.b. the souls of black folk. a. c. mcclurg & co., 1903. eyerman, ron. cultural trauma: slavery and the formation of african american identity. cambridge university press, 2008. gómez, jennifer, and robyn gobin. “black women and girls & #metoo: rape, cultural betrayal, & healing.” ebsco host, sexroles, jan. 2020. nettles-barcelón, kimberly, et al. “black women’s food work as critical space.” gastronomica, vol. 15, no. 4, 2015, pp. 34–39. stephen, bijan. “the weight and power of kiese laymon’s ‘heavy’.” the nation, 7 feb. 2019, www.thenation.com/article/archive/the-weight-and-power-of-kiese-laymons-heavy/. tompkins, kyla. racial indigestion: eating bodies in the nineteenth century. new york university press, 2012. welang, nahum. “triple consciousness: the reimagination of black female identities in contemporary american culture.” open cultural studies, vol. 2, no. 1, 2018, pp. 296–306., doi:10.1515/culture-2018-0027. essay henkin | 48 wooten, sara. “revealing a hidden curriculum of black women’s erasure in sexual violence prevention policy.” gender & education, vol. 29, no. 3, may 2017, pp. 405–417. essay 49 | henkin digital literature review 1 25 this essay examines how gillian flynn’s novel sharp objects and the hbo miniseries adaptation raise questions about representations of female self-harm in entertainment. i argue that the protagonist’s scars act as ghosts since both scars and hauntings are messengers and manifestations of trauma. this paper examines the distinction between read and watched trauma, and the psychological validity of these interpretations. i assert that flynn and director jean-marc vallée present self-harm as a haunting to exploit the uncanny and attract readers and viewers with dramatic content. ultimately, i ask that readers practice empathy when consuming entertainment featuring trauma and self-harm. addison paul, ball state university haunting the body: an exploration of scars as ghosts trigger warning: this essay contains discussions of self-harm. released in 2006, gillian flynn’s debut novel sharp objects draws attention to the severely damaging effects of trauma and the physical manifestations of such emotional pain for the protagonist camille preaker. the mystery-thriller not only explores how murders haunt a small midwestern town, but also raises essential questions about the connections between psychological trauma and the supernatural. expanding upon and drawing from the novel, the sharp objects hbo television miniseries directed by jean-marc vallée portrays flynn’s story on screen, complicating the dynamic between read and watched interpretations of trauma. the differences between textual and visual portrayals of trauma create an important distinction: written trauma, much like horror narratives, leaves the visualization of traumatic events up to the readers’ imagination, effectively creating personalized fear, whereas on-screen depictions of trauma present a set image, which takes away the work of the imagination for viewers. despite their differences in the presentation of the story, both the digital literature review 2 26 novel and the miniseries portray the horrors of suffering as supernatural and portray self-harm scars as ghosts of the protagonist’s tragic past. camille preaker, a journalist and native of mysterious wind gap, missouri, endured the death of her younger sister, marian, and an emotionally abusive relationship with her mother, adora, which resulted in camille’s reliance on self-harm as a coping mechanism for her childhood trauma. though she also grapples with sexual harassment and alcoholism, camille’s self-harm practices and how the resulting scarification haunts her body are most closely connected to the supernatural. scars, particularly those of self-harm, evoke uncanny feelings in people examining the scarred individual’s body. this discomfort arises from the jarring and confusing realization that no one truly knows and understands each other, despite the perceived closeness of a relationship, as well as the viewer’s unfamiliarity with the trauma that led to the scarification. in her 2018 article “hbo’s ‘sharp objects’ is a messy depiction of self-harm, but that’s ok,” freelance writer and recovered self-harmer samantha puc reviews the miniseries through the position of both an intrigued fan and an individual who is hyper-sensitive to the triggering subject matter: because i’m familiar with the steps that cutters take to hide their scars, i immediately recognized that camille wears only jeans, boots, and long-sleeved shirts and sweaters in neutral, dark colors, even in the height of summer. but those less familiar with this tactic who haven’t read the novel may not initially notice. the “uncanny is frightening precisely because it is not known and familiar” (freud 2), so the shock factor accompanying visualizations or descriptions of scars generates a response akin to encountering the supernatural. for the scarred individual, self-harm makes the body itself uncanny. self-harmers display their own version of a doppelgänger, a more socially acceptable, less damaged persona of themselves, which stirs uncanniness within and leads individuals to question the authenticity of each identity. furthermore, the body is an integral component of the self, and marking the body disrupts the sense of familiarity between the self and the physical being. thus, repeatedly viewing markings of pain and suffering on a familiar body awakens the uncanny, even if only the self-harmer sees their own scars. in camille’s case, being truly seen and understood, horrific scars and all, is deeply powerful. social stigmatization and the demonization of self-harm in the media strip the humanity from struggling individuals, leaving them to feel any combination of loneliness, shame, and fear, and causing self-harmers to hide their expressions of pain. camille falls victim to this cultural haunting, and as a result of never feeling truly seen for her authentic self, uncanny feelings dominate her mind. the contrast between camille’s intimate sexual experiences demonstrates the differdigital literature review 3 27 ence between the social discomfort leading to secrecy in self-harm and actual empathy with the complicated emotions behind it: with richard, camille likes “it with [her] clothes on” (flynn 172), whereas john “held up [her] arms, [her] legs, turned [her] on [her] back” and “read [her],” allowing camille to feel truly accepted in her haunted body (flynn 209). publicizing a novel and tv show largely revolving around self-harm stirs uncanny feelings in readers and viewers alike, exemplifying the importance of a more empathetic societal understanding of self-harm. outside of mediatized representations, self-harm is generally hidden from public view. as such, these representations not only offer rare glimpses into a rather private suffering, they operate pedagogically; that is, they operate to inform the spectator’s understanding of self-harm in the absence of other kinds of encounters. importantly, however, cultivating empathic understandings of self-harm from such occasions depends upon moving past dominant readings of self-harm that view it as a destructive behaviour with solely negative consequences to recognize instead that, for those who practise it, self-harm serves as a means of survival in the wake of trauma. (fallier 12) it is important to note that the psychoanalysis and application of critical psychological theories to a fictional character coping with imagined trauma does not amount to the same significance as diagnosis for individuals suffering from real trauma. furthermore, media implements representations of mental health struggles and self-harm as devices to create drama and add tension to a story. sensationalization of self-harm in the media is a cultural haunting, hooking readers and viewers by exploiting the uncanniness of scars, the human craving for violence, and “flawed” characters as a means of catharsis. this dramatization of mental pain feeds an inaccurate and harmful perception of self-harm to the public, much like the negative perceptions surrounding ghosts and the supernatural. for struggling individuals and recovered self-harmers, visual depictions of self-harm are dangerous and can trigger more than a minor haunting, but rather cause relapses and throw people back into the horrors of previously lived trauma: given the inherent voyeurism in depicting trauma on screen, i worried that camille’s struggles would be sensationalized once they got the hbo treatment. far too often, the way television depicts trauma, unhealthy coping mechanisms, and mental health struggles is extremely insensitive, especially when the characters are women. (puc) taking inspiration from the famed spectacle of ghost stories and horror movies, modern content digital literature review 4 28 creators use trauma and self-harm as shocking character flaws, often without considering the detrimental and delegitimizing effects that poor portrayals of suffering have on those struggling with mental health. uncanniness and the horrific representations of self-harm in the media haunt scarred individuals, further connecting self-harm to the supernatural. while not directly associated with the horror genre, the negative social messaging surrounding self-harm haunts entertainment culture—for example, many supernatural beings exhibit some form of mental illness. scars, like ghosts, act as physical manifestations of emotional and psychological trauma. camille’s scars externalize the buried fear, sorrow, anger, and confusion plaguing her mind, and scarification gives her an outlet to express tumultuous emotions, even though it physically and emotionally damages her. permanence is a key factor in positioning scars as ghosts, since the scar itself lingers on skin, preserving the traumatic events or emotions that drove individuals to brutalize themselves. despite being a practice to achieve catharsis, self-harm scars serve as constant reminders and messengers from the past, haunting the body as long as they remain visible. similar to how locations experience repeated hauntings, “the body collects” scars and becomes its own haunted home for the suffering individual (“falling,” episode seven, 5:25-5:29). sharp objects depicts the social stigmas and fears surrounding scars, which reminisce taboos associated with ghosts, thus demonstrating how society and the media demonize mental health struggles and self-harm to exploit the uncanny discomfort of scars as hauntings. apparitions of anguish: scars and ghosts scars, like ghosts, have various positive and negative connotations, and can both haunt the body in comforting and vengeful ways. an understanding of the many functions and classifications of ghosts is necessary to pursue the scars as ghosts metaphor as it applies to the sharp objects novel and miniseries. essentially, ghosts fall into three moral categories: good, neutral, and evil. while neutral ghosts are often thought of as docile spirits aimlessly wandering the mortal plane, good and evil ghosts have specific functions, namely to comfort or harm, respectively. self-harm acts both as a coping mechanism and a destructive tendency, thus, the resulting scars could fall into either category. in her article “twenty-first-century american ghosts: the after-death communication—therapy and revelation from beyond the grave,” susan kwilecki defines after-death communications (adcs) as “direct and spontaneous” forms of spiritual interaction (101). self-harm scars act as communicators of emotion, similarly to kwilecki’s definition of adcs, and as she later asserts, adcs appear as signs of “healing and revelation” for loved ones, connecting the healing nature of such ghosts with therapeutic coping and overcoming digital literature review 5 29 trauma (kwilecki 102). many of camille’s own scars stem from the death of her younger sister, who appears frequently in brief flashbacks and hallucinations, and functions as an after-death communicator. alternatively, vengeful spirits are aggressive ghosts that seek retribution through haunting, and unlike adcs, are a paranormal punishment for the living. in their research examining auditory hallucinations in patients diagnosed with schizophrenia, paul chadwick and max birchwood categorize vengeful spirits as powerful, authoritative voices. “cognitive therapy for voices” posits that patients “may be terrified of the voice and comply with its command to harm” if it belongs to a vengeful spirit, however, patients may not experience these thoughts if the voice is “believed to be self-generated” (73). birchwood and chadwick’s research implies that the desire to harm stems from a perceived spirit, countering the therapeutic construction of ghosts and scars and positioning self-harm as malicious. in sharp objects, camille preaker self-harms to cope with intense childhood trauma, but the cutting also aligns with her other self-destructive actions—binge drinking and forced isolation, for example. adora crellin, camille’s harsh, gas-lighting mother, believes that camille self-harms “out of spite,” further affirming the connection between self-punishment and the angry, hurtful actions of vengeful spirits (“closer,” episode five, 15:25). in addition to benevolent and malevolent spirits, ghosts function as supernatural messengers. these apparitions haunt people to convey information and meaning, be it an important memory or an expression of strong emotions. like after-death communications, messenger ghosts return from death to commune with the living, however, their messages are more associated with an expression of pain than comfort. these ghosts with unfinished business seek recognition of suffering and remain in the mortal world as a form of punishment, both of which factor into motivations for self-harm. marilee strong studies the impactful messages of self-harm in a bright red scream: self-mutilation and the language of pain. one of strong’s interviewees not only wrote “reams of morbid poetry” and a “first and final suicide letter” to share her message of internal suffering, but she also externalized that message by “carv[ing] words and pictures into her arms and legs” (strong 5). the linguistic component of the interviewee’s pain is parallel to camille’s own self-harm, which appears as words and phrases scarred across the majority of her body: i am a cutter, you see. also a snipper, a slicer, a carver, a jabber. i am a very special case. i have a purpose. my skin, you see, screams. it’s covered with words—cook, cupcake, kitty, curls— as if a knife-wielding first-grader learned to write on my flesh. i sometimes, but only sometimes, laugh. getting out of the bath and seeing, out digital literature review 6 30 of the corner of my eye, down the side of a leg: babydoll. pull on a sweater and, in a flash of my wrist: harmful. (flynn 60) self-harm is a language of pain—quite literally for camille and strong’s interviewee—and the resulting scars lingering on the individual’s skin serve as ghostly reminders of the past. scars, like ghosts, act as messengers of residual trauma, haunting the body by preserving elements of suffering, and in the case of these two women, depicting causes or direct connections to trauma. flynn’s novel presents literal words and first-person narration to brutally describe camille’s scars, and “instead of voiceover, [the show] uses its own visual language involving flashbacks and hallucinations to clue the viewer into what’s really going on inside camille’s head” (puc). this television adaptation focuses on the visual language of scars to convey camille’s emotions, which helps readers understand her dark personality and haunted past. viewers may not initially realize that camille self-harms, making the ultimate reveal at the end of “vanish,” episode one, more shocking and uncanny. ultimately, recognizing humanity in self-harm and the supernatural is the most important consideration when positioning scars as ghosts. both scars and ghosts are rooted in uncanny emotions and can both repulse and intrigue people, but the humanity of individuals struggling with self-harm is often stripped away, like the past lives of ghosts, and forgotten in the shocking fascination with self-harm. though visualizing scars may cause discomfort, the person bearing such scars deserves empathy for surviving the hauntings of their past. sharp objects captures this understanding, endearing the audience with camille’s strength and passion to remind viewers that she is more than just her ghosts. vallée preserves and emphasizes camille’s inherent value so that viewers “still care for her because there’s something about her that is so human; her humanity is deeply moving” (vallée 3:57-4:02). femme fairytale vs trauma trope: women, self-harm, and the supernatural patriarchal society marginalizes women as a form of oppression, stripping away female agency and value, and perpetuating the cultural haunting of sexism. through sharp objects, flynn draws attention to the jarring psychological and sociocultural connections linking women to self-violence and the supernatural, which appear not only in the dramatization of mental health struggles, but as modern adaptations to centuries-old tropes. the scarred words across camille’s body are “often feminine in a dick and jane, pink vs. puppy dog tails sort of way,” which immediately associates femininity with self-violence, a connection present in centuries of literature (flynn digital literature review 7 31 60). in his essay, “the uncanny,” freud elaborates on the concept of doubling and doppelgängers, drawing from otto rank’s research on doubling as exemplified by “reflections in mirrors, with shadows, [and] guardian spirits” (freud 9). freud fails to address the biologically female practice of doubling through pregnancy and birth, and his conception of the double’s function establishes women as uncanny by association, since reproduction is essentially “preservation against extinction” (freud 9). to further darken the psychological perception of women, freud theorized that people with the ability to double are omens of death, further solidifying the links between women and self-harm, as well as self-harm and ghosts. in sharp objects, trauma is rooted in the familial connections of women, meaning that adora’s own doubling in giving birth to camille, marianne, and amma connects the women to uncanniness, which explains how each of them embodies elements of the supernatural through mental illness or death. society, as well as sharp objects, associates teenage girls with self-harm, which is attributed to the uncanny perception of women and of scars. not only do girls and young women grow up amidst the haunting effects of gendered oppression, but they also endure marginalization and othering if their mental and emotional states are deemed too weak, or stereotypically feminine. in her article, “resistant rituals: self-mutilation and the female adolescent body in fairy tales and young adult fiction,” cheryl cowdy associates femininity and youth with violence toward the self. ‘cutting’ in particular is an activity that is generally associated with troubled female adolescents. in psychiatric discourse, it has conventionally been treated as pathologically destructive behaviour. (cowdy 42) in the sharp objects miniseries, camille befriends a fellow self-harmer at a rehab center, and the younger girl describes cutting as “something you grow out of” (“fix,” episode three, 14:53). camille’s scars and self-destruction, however, continue to haunt her body, reappearing in triggering times of trauma and depression. in the novel, flynn connects horror and physical suffering with teenage girls, particularly through the continued fixation on the pornographic hunting shed, a shack where “pink flesh dangled from strings,” “the first floor was rusted with blood,” and “the walls were covered with photographs of naked women” (flynn 14-5). teenage camille, along with amma, anne, and natalie, visited the grotesque cabin, connecting young women with horrific depictions of trauma, a significant theme for both the novel and the miniseries. literature and film frequently subject women to violence to give male characters a reason to fight or to drive the plot of the story forward, as seen in sharp objects. this trope especially appears in the horror genre, where women either die to catalyze the male protagonist’s character arc or appear as ghosts themselves. sharp objects focuses on female stories—the inciting digital literature review 8 32 incident involves the death of a little girl, and dead little girls continue to push the plot forward thereafter, frequently reappearing in flashbacks reminiscent of ghosts. gillian flynn and marti noxon’s involvement in writing for the show gives the story more female agency, which subverts this patriarchal storytelling trope. centering a story on women’s trauma without exploiting it for the betterment of men is desperately needed in media, and for the most part, sharp objects is careful not to exploit trauma for the sake of sensationalizing character development (puc). in a male-dominated society, the “dying women” trope is so ubiquitous that it has become ingrained in our storytelling culture and remained so for centuries. in her 2018 article “sharp objects and damaged women,” new york review of books editor liza batkin argues that “gillian flynn’s mission to create disturbed or disturbing female characters is certainly less innovative than it felt to the author twelve years ago”—the span of years between publication of the novel and the miniseries release. nonetheless, flynn’s own interpretation of the story is rooted in horror and femininity: in an interview for entertainment weekly, she explained that, to her, “sharp objects was a character study hidden inside of a mystery”; but for rolling stone, she described the show as “largely a feminist fairy tale”—a genre not particularly wellknown for its searing psychological portraits. (batkin) in terms of female-centric storytelling, fairytales provide the most widespread representation of women as otherworldly, and according to batkin’s analysis, vapid. though culturally significant, these fairytales have haunted women both with attachments to physical suffering and societal notions of expected femininity. socioculturally, women are rooted in self violence and the paranormal through fairy tales. society conditions girls with stories of magic and mystery, both of which revolve around unfamiliarity and only differ from the uncanny by a positive connotation. cowdy analyzes grimm fairy tales, narratives of magical horror, as well as the values they teach to young women, exposing the dark, uncanny undertones of stories believed to be frivolous and feminine. taking “cinderella” and “the little mermaid” as representative texts in children’s culture, i argue that self-mutilation functions as an act of self-sacrifice to romantic hetero-normative narratives, expressing the violent demands patriarchal culture can require of the young woman as she takes her place in the competitive market of marriage… [modern depictions of self-harm push for the understanding of] violence digital literature review 9 33 and for agency in self-mutilative acts, graphically communicating young women’s resistance to the symbolic demands revealed in the fairy tales. these contemporary representations of self-mutilation continue the critical work of the fairy tales, transferring the locus of pathology from the expressive female adolescent body to the diseased communal social body. (44–45) as presented in fairy tales, the dichotomy of supernatural womanhood and perfect femininity is a clear theme throughout sharp objects. flynn’s use of fairy tale tropes further establishes women as otherworldly and horrific, a connection that haunts her characters as well as the women consuming her story. the miniseries visually juxtaposes camille, the embodiment of ghostly trauma, and her half-sister amma, exemplifying picturesque innocence by day, and teenage rebellion by night. camille covers her scars to hide her personal haunting, and her wardrobe of long sleeves and dark colors establishes her as an edgy, un-feminine woman, whereas amma, either clad in childish dresses and bows, or crop tops and short-shorts, represents both ends on the spectrum of feminine presentation. contrasting these characters establishes women as either supernatural and unwomanly, or hyper-feminine, which furthers the cultural haunting of negative stereotypes surrounding women. sharp objects blurs this dichotomy with its revelation that amma murdered the two girls in wind gap, subverting the preconceived notion of stereotypical femininity’s docile and innocent nature and implying that women are supernaturally much more powerful and rooted in the horrors of original fairy tales than expected. the miniseries asserts that violent female narratives do not need to be solved or caused by men, challenging the societal belief that paranormal women are weaker than their male counterparts and that “women don’t kill like that, that violent. until they do” (“cherry,” episode six, 20:11-20:14). horrific harm: read vs. watched suffering written and televised media provide unique opportunities to portray emotion in different ways, but the distinction becomes serious when handling triggering subject matter. though this distinction is not directly attached to ghosts or scars, the presentation of horror and self-harm drastically alters how an audience consumes trauma, and further examination of read vs. watched trauma and its effects on readers and viewers is essential for understanding hauntings of the body. hidden self-harm translates to the screen uniquely because of its visceral, yet secretive, nature. the limited visibility of camille’s scars plays on the horror factor of ghosts, providing a jump scare for the audience upon the first appearance. maggie turp’s classifications for more dramatic versus less visible self-harm put camille’s case in an interesting middle ground; her self-harm, digital literature review 10 34 while drastic and jarring in its nature, remains completely hidden to almost everyone she encounters, as well as the readers and viewers. according to her research in hidden self-harm: narratives from psychotherapy, turp theorizes that “high visibility manifestations of self-harm are those most often highlighted in literature, both popular and professional” (9). though camille herself is “a text to decipher” and “her body is covered with words that she has cut into herself,” the palimpsest translates differently on screen than on the page. the miniseries layers shots like the scars collected on her body, filling each frame with visual metaphors of literal sharp objects—knives and mirror glass—and “each episode in the series is named after a scar on her body” (batkin). these tactics set apart the tv show and the novel, creating a new assemblage of discomfort, fear, and uncanny emotions brought upon by camille’s scars. throughout the miniseries, camille experiences constant flashbacks of her deceased sister, visually displayed through fast, jarring cuts and dramatic depictions of camille’s own fearful thoughts. the jump “cuts” reflect the theme of cutting and self-harm in sharp objects, and the use of flashbacks is reminiscent of a ghost continually haunting camille with the horrors of her past. additionally, visualizing self-harm scars impacts people in a significantly different way than when reading descriptions of scars. the triggering images of camille’s body covered in scars unsettles viewers and enhances the uncanny, haunted aspects of self-inflicted scars. the visual depiction allows viewers to see the blood and gore described on the novel’s pages, which amplifies uncanny feelings. from the parallelisms of adora cutting her hand on a rosebush thorn and camille carving lines into her skin in episode three, “fix,” to the symbolism of camille’s childhood room being painted red, the visuals intensify this already tense story. the sharp objects miniseries also has the advantage of casting powerful actresses in the lead roles, allowing viewers to give well-known faces to self-harm. amy adams’ portrayal of camille breathes life into the written character and her intimate flaws and struggles. the beloved actress personalizes self-harm and scars for audiences, evoking the complicated emotions people experience when a loved one, or even an acquaintance, is visibly in pain. flynn herself believes amy adams perfectly balances camille’s air of mysterious beauty and her dark strength. she has this angelic outer-coating in a way. she has this angelic voice, and she’s, um, you know, so lovely to look at. but she has what i call grit. she does what she says she’s going to do, she has this inner-strength and toughness. she has this spine of steel, and that’s who camille is. (flynn, “gillian” 0:50-1:16) digital literature review 11 35 the culmination of each of these filmic features points to the more serious consideration that visually graphic content is often more triggering than written depictions of horror and selfharm. a clear indicator of this difference is apparent in that the sharp objects series includes a public-service announcement reading: “if you or someone you know struggles with self-harm of substance abuse, please seek help by contacting the substance abuse and mental health services administration,” with provided phone numbers at the end of each episode, whereas the novel features no such acknowledgement of the real hauntings people face. similarly, the hbo sharp objects page uses a resources tab listing organizations and services that help individuals cope with self-harm, substance abuse, and sexual violence, proving the real-world severity of themes throughout the story. for many people, reading the novel and watching the series evoke drastically different reactions. watching this series, especially as a recovered cutter, is hard. initially, i was revolted by [the end of “vanish,” episode one]. however, after some reflection, i conceded that this moment is as close to the matter-of-fact declaration camille makes about being a cutter in the novel… i can’t say that sharp objects portrays these issues responsibly, because there are some jarring directorial decisions that left me having to pause and catch my breath, even having read the novel just months ago. but i can say that the series is very focused on portraying the complexities of recovery, not just for camille but for everyone in wind gap. (puc) seance of significance: the cultural impact of haunted bodies in addition to providing a gripping tale of murder, familial drama, and feminism, the sharp objects novel and television miniseries bring a widely ignored, yet vitally relevant, issue to the forefront of entertainment. through connecting scars to the supernatural, flynn made the complex and taboo topic of self-harm more digestible for readers by presenting the subject as a mystery-horror, a genre in great demand for modern readers and tv watchers. mediatized hauntings not only provide adrenaline-pumping entertainment, but also an escape from reality and a cultural catharsis—both of which are motivations for self-harm. a more empathetic analysis of trauma and self-harm in the media helps readers and viewers understand the importance of respect and care for haunted individuals, using camille as an example of how humanity is masked by pain, but can emerge with proper love and compassion, much like how ghosts are released into the beyond after communicating their messages of unfinished business. digital literature review 12 36 it is often easier to designate scars as frightening manifestations of trauma and avoid inter acting with, or even looking at, scarred individuals out of discomfort, but much like ghosts, scars tell stories that must be heard and understood before they fade. though the depiction of scars as ghosts creates an intriguing extended metaphor and draws in readers and viewers with the uncanny promise of horror and human suffering, the positioning of self-harm as a haunting is both poetically accurate and socially destructive. if society and the media continue to dramatize selfharm and paint mental health struggles in a grim, supernatural light, then we can never fully accept those who have suffered and embrace them with compassion. as is the trope in many ghost stories, acceptance and empathy help spirits pass on to achieve peace, which requires a change in depictions of scars in the media. flynn’s sharp objects portrayal of self-harm and scars as ghosts is not perfect, but the representation and social discussion it prompted are steps on the right path. though we feel haunted by our scars, the understanding and acceptance of those around us lightens the load, so that one day, we might be able to free our spirits. digital literature review 13 37 works cited batkin, liza. “‘sharp objects’ and damaged women.” the new york review of books, 30 aug. 2018, https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2018/08/30/sharp-objects-and-damaged-women/. birchwood, max, and paul chadwick. “cognitive therapy for voices.” cognitive therapy for delusions, voices, and paranoia, john wiley and sons, 1996, https://www.nasmhpd.org/sites/default/files/psychosis%20manual.pdf. cowdy, cheryl. “resistant rituals: self-mutilation and the female adolescent body in fairy tales and young adult fiction.” bookbird: a journal of international children’s literature, vol. 50 no. 1, 2012, p. 42-52. project muse, https://muse.jhu.edu/article/465017. failler, angela. “narrative skin repair: bearing witness to representations of self-harm.” esc: english studies in canada, vol. 34 no. 1, 2008, p. 11-28. project muse, https://muse.jhu.edu/ article/361778. flynn, gillian. “gillian flynn: amy adams makes long wait for ‘sharp objects’ worth it.” youtube, uploaded by associated press, 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trfzxar9ka0. sharp objects. new york, broadway books, 2006. flynn, gillian, and jean-marc vallée. “gillian flynn’s ‘sharp objects’ is a whodunit … and a who is she?” by lynn neary, npr, morning edition, 2018, https://www.npr. org/2018/07/06/626249226/gillian-flynns-sharp-objects-is-a-whodunit-and-a-who-is-she. freud, sigmund. “the uncanny.” an infantile neurosis and other works, translated by alix strachey, the hogarth press, 1919, london. https://uncanny.la.utexas.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/freud-uncanny_001.pdf. kwilecki, susan. “twenty-first-century american ghosts: the after-death communication— therapy and revelation from beyond the grave.” religion and american culture: a journal of interpretation, vol. 19, no. 1, 2009, pp. 101–33. jstor, www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/ rac.2009.19.1.101. puc, samantha. “hbo’s ‘sharp objects’ is a messy depiction of self-harm, but that’s ok.” bustle, 2018, https://www.bustle.com/p/hbos-sharp-objects-is-a-messy-depiction-of-self-harm-butthats-ok-9654889. strong, marilee. a bright red scream: self-mutilation and the language of pain. penguin, 1998. turp, maggie. hidden self-harm: narratives from psychotherapy. jessica kingsley publishers. 2002. © mayeaux, the digital literature review, 12 (5), 70–83. doi: 10.33043/4z9c28b8. shared with cc-by-nc-nd 4.0 license. abstract 70 | mayeaux this essay explores the persistent sense of alienation experienced by black individuals and migrants, comparing james baldwin’s stranger in the village and teju cole’s black body. both writers highlight how racial and cultural othering continue despite societal progress, showing how black people and migrants are scrutinized, stereotyped, and pushed to the margins. baldwin’s account of being treated as an exotic outsider in a swiss village parallels cole’s reflections on the racialized gaze in modern america, revealing how blackness is still seen as foreign. the essay also examines how the media reinforces these reductive portrayals, the lasting psychological toll of historical trauma, and the pressures of forced assimilation. additionally, it critiques cultural appropriation, where dominant groups profit from black and immigrant cultures while disregarding the people behind them. drawing from scholarly and literary sources, this analysis emphasizes the importance of awareness and solidarity in challenging systemic racism and fostering a more inclusive society. ultimately, it calls for a shift in how we tell these stories— one that moves beyond stereotypes and truly acknowledges the humanity and belonging of black individuals and migrants, both in america and abroad. the enduring alienation of black bodies and migrants: a comparative analysis of james baldwin’s “stranger in the village” and teju cole’s “black body” victoria mayeaux http://doi.org/10.33043/4z9c28b8 the digital literature review | 71 introduction: literature as a reflection of racial and migrant alienation in 1951, civil rights activist and american writer james baldwin visited a remote village in switzerland as the sole black man. a few years later, in 1953, he published an essay titled “stranger in the village” where he reflected on those years he lived in leukerbad. his essay established the effects of american racism on the black body as it compares to outside countries. decades later, nigerian american writer teju cole visited the same village and later published his own 2014 essay, “black body.” by writing about the parallels between baldwin’s experiences and his own in both switzerland and america, cole highlights the enduring legacy of racial othering, despite advances in societal progress. the conversation between both writers illustrates how literature has long served as a mirror reflecting the social realities of its time, offering powerful insights into issues of identity, belonging, and exclusion. particularly, teju cole’s literary exploration reveals how societal perceptions of race render black bodies as foreign— within and outside of their own countries—underscoring the challenges of identity and belonging faced by migrants, which will only continue without the proper implementation of change. however, it is important to note that the comparison between these two essays is not an attempt to conflate the experiences of black individuals with those of other migrants, but rather to illustrate the resonance between their experiences. the alienation of black bodies and the politics of visibility the alienation experienced by black individuals, both as migrants and within their homelands, is intensified by societal perceptions and stereotypes. in “black body,” teju cole observes, “to be a stranger is to be looked at, but to be black is to be looked at especially” (cole, 13), illustrating how race magnifies the scrutiny and othering of black americans. this assertion emphasizes that while all migrants may experience the feeling of being viewed as outsiders, black individuals face an additional layer of scrutiny tied 72 | mayeaux to their race. their very existence and presence in a space are often politicized, viewed not as individuals but as symbols of difference. the constant gaze is dehumanizing, and the inability to escape the racialized identity imposed upon them fosters alienation. similarly, baldwin’s “stranger in the village” recounts his dehumanizing experience in a swiss village, where he was treated as a “living wonder” rather than a fully realized human being. this perception reduces baldwin to an exotic spectacle, robbing him of his individuality and complexity. he is seen not as a person with his own experiences and history but rather as an object of fascination, a symbol of difference that reinforces societal boundaries. this reducing of identity to racial difference does not only affect black people but also extends to immigrants from many ethnic backgrounds. the process of othering frequently targets migrants, focusing intently on their cultural, linguistic, or religious distinctions; all become points of scrutiny in american society. baldwin’s own reflections on being perceived as an object of fascination in leukerbad—an almost entirely white village—resonate with contemporary accounts of migrant experiences in america. he was othered because he was racially, culturally, and linguistically different. the role of media and stereotypes in perpetuating alienation media outlets, for example, perpetuate this sense of alienation for migrants through their frequent representation of refugees from the middle east and africa, labeling them as “waves” or “crises” due primarily to the colors of their skin, cultures, and religions. this reductive language indicates “that the media is still manufacturing consent with regards to immigration coverage” (okoye) in a way that supports biased, racist perspectives and agendas. in doing so, the media itself removes migrants’ individuality and diminishes them to a single, dehumanized group, and it is a phenomenon that points out many shared challenges of identity and belonging that affect a large number of black the digital literature review | 73 americans and migrants. in an interview with francois bondy, baldwin speaks on the harm of spreading similar reductive narratives about non-white americans through media outlets and textbooks, commenting: if we could tell the truth about what happened to indians, what happened to the black man in america, and get rid of all those terrifying myths which are all over tv, and books and textbooks, if we could tell the truth about what our real relationship was to the mexicans, for example, then we would begin to use a tremendous potential, and it might begin to save the world. (baldwin and bondy, 18) as baldwin suggests, reductive narratives alienate and reinforce social hierarchies and “terrifying myths” that privilege the white americans in power who cannot let go of their hatred for those who are not like them. it’s evident that these insights on the media’s role in shaping racialized perceptions of marginalized groups remain relevant today, as the same reductive narratives used to justify slavery and segregation in the past are now wielded against contemporary immigrant communities, such as the non-white immigrants who cannot escape their connection to labels like “waves” and “crises.” the psychological toll and historical trauma of alienation a similar sense of reduction to one’s race or foreignness is echoed by nigerian author chimamanda ngozi adichie in her ted talk, “the danger of a single story,” where she recalls a personal encounter with microaggressions. adichie describes how, after moving to the u.s. for college, her roommate was astonished that she spoke fluent english and didn’t listen to tribal music, reflecting how stereotypes based on incomplete knowledge lead to misperceptions. adichie explains, “the single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue but that they are incomplete” (adichie, 13:11). these stereotypes limit how people see others and prevent them from 74 | mayeaux understanding the complexity of their identities, reducing them to narrow, often harmful narratives. this idea that stereotypes are incomplete captures how black individuals as well as migrants are often judged based on the limited understanding others have of their backgrounds, cultures, and experiences. together, these insights reveal how societal labeling and reductive narratives not only alienate black individuals but also migrants from all backgrounds. these narratives reinforce the “otherness” of such groups, making it difficult for them to integrate fully into society. this alienation and the challenges that come with navigating a world shaped by stereotypes highlight the deep complexities of belonging and identity. american immigrants, just like adichie, must constantly negotiate their sense of self within a society that frequently fails to see them for who they truly are. furthermore, such enduring racial stereotypes are linked to historical trauma, leading to the psychological toll of displacement for black individuals. baldwin reflects on this in “stranger in the village” when he writes that the children who shout slurs at him “have no way of knowing the echoes this sound raises in [him]” (baldwin). these moments of casual racism carry a deep and cutting weight, tying baldwin’s personal experience to the broader historical trauma experienced by black americans under systemic prejudice. such instances aren’t just individual affronts—they are reminders of centuries of racial subjugation, with each insult or prejudice echoing the pain of history and time. the constant exposure to this dehumanization accumulates over time, leaving a profound psychological impact, particularly in terms of alienation. in “black body,” teju cole builds on this idea, observing that “the black body comes pre-judged, and as a result, it is placed in needless jeopardy” (cole, 13). this insight underscores how black americans face heightened vulnerability due to the stereotypes attached to their bodies. because of this, black individuals are often seen as threats or dangers, regardless the digital literature review | 75 of their personal characters or intentions. this, in turn, can expose them to further discrimination and violence. similarly, migrants of all backgrounds—especially those who are non-white—face challenges rooted in racial and national stereotypes. these stereotypes, often leading to alienation and violence, shape the migrant experience in ways that parallel the racialization of black bodies. a striking example of this is “the rapid escalation of racial violence that followed 9/11 [that] normalized an atmosphere of racial terror” (rana), fueling a nation-wide growth of anti-muslim racism and islamophobia. innocent immigrants who merely shared the faith of the terrorists were vilified, subjected to hate crimes, and labeled as threats to a country they had no role in attacking. despite this being just one extreme instance in a long history of racial stereotyping, it does not stand alone as an isolated incident; in fact, it is simply one more tragedy added to the many others in american history which has led to the exclusion and persecution of migrants. it is clear that racial bias, historical trauma, and exclusionary practices create a shared vulnerability between black americans and immigrant communities. these experiences reveal the significant toll that systemic racism and prejudice exact on marginalized groups, preventing them from being seen as fully human. as a result, both black americans and migrants are frequently treated as outsiders where their sense of belonging is consistently questioned. in baldwin’s “stranger in the village,” he reflects on the loss of cultural and ancestral roots for black americans, stating, “i am told that there are haitians able to trace their ancestry back to african kings … the signature on the bill of sale” (baldwin). meanwhile, many black americans cannot say the same; that history was lost to time and stolen by terrors of the past, bleeding into the present. this difference highlights the disconnect that black americans feel from their heritage due to the traumatic history of slavery, which forcibly severed their ties to their african roots. slavery erased much of 76 | mayeaux their history, rendering it difficult for them to trace their cultural lineage. likewise, immigrants from various ethnicities and nationalities experience a similar sense of dislocation when they migrate. forced to leave behind their cultural traditions and identities in search of a new life, many immigrants face pressure to assimilate into the dominant culture of their new home. for example, many mexican immigrants and their children face pressure to abandon spanish in favor of english, often being discouraged from speaking their native language in schools, workplaces, and public spaces. this pressure stems from a broader societal expectation that assimilation into american culture requires the rejection of one’s native language, as it creates discomfort for the mostly white, prejudiced americans who dislike when someone of a different race and nationality engages in a language and culture that they do not. nonconformity terrifies them. to those with this particularly poisonous ideology, what cannot be understood becomes other, and what becomes other soon becomes a threat. thus, mexican-americans—like many other immigrants—are often given two choices: assimilate or face the consequences of their non-conformity. whether for mexican americans or for immigrants hailing from other countries, the process of forced assimilation often creates a feeling of displacement, as their roots are either erased or made invisible. as the scholar nandini sahu notes, “one of the most significant traits of the immigrant existence is the striking balance between the two worlds―the homeland and the adopted one” (sahu, 145). this struggle is not simply a matter of learning a new language or adjusting to different customs; rather, it is a continuous negotiation of identity, where immigrants must navigate the tension between preserving their cultural heritage and integrating into a society that often demands conformity. for many, the homeland represents deep-rooted traditions, values, and a sense of belonging, while the adopted country offers new opportunities but often at the cost of cultural loss. this balancing act can lead to a fractured sense the digital literature review | 77 of self, as immigrants attempt to retain their original identity while also trying to avoid marginalization in their new environment. the expectation to assimilate can be especially challenging when dominant cultural narratives portray foreign traditions as inferior or outdated, further alienating immigrant communities and reinforcing the erasure of their heritage. or, sometimes, their roots and customs are stolen from them and appropriated to fit another’s standards, and an entirely new loss of culture occurs. cultural appropriation and the erasure of identity teju cole’s “black body” addresses this particular aspect of such alienation against black communities when he writes, “throughout the culture, there are imitations of the gait, bearing, and dress of the black body, a vampiric ‘everything but the burden’ cooption of black life” (cole, 14). this highlights a frustrating truth: those who steal the culture of black identity—in this instance, the majority points to white americans—do so without bearing the burden of actually being a black body. the appeal of it is embraced wholeheartedly, yet there remains a distance from the daily struggles of living in a society that marginalizes them. while cole’s statement directly critiques the exploitation of black culture, the sentiment extends to the experiences of immigrants from all backgrounds. aspects of american immigrant culture—whether food, fashion, music, or art—are often celebrated or commodified, but the individuals behind these cultural elements remain marginalized and excluded. the culture is seen as desirable, something to be appropriated, yet the people who produce it are still treated as outsiders. this phenomenon is also reflected in stuart hall’s “what is this ‘black’ in black popular culture?” where he discusses the existence of ethnic hierarchies in america. hall explains, “america has always had a series of ethnicities, and consequently, the construction of ethnic hierarchies has always defined its cultural politics” (105). this 78 | mayeaux statement highlights how both black americans and immigrants are positioned as outsiders in american society, even though their cultural contributions have shaped and enriched the nation. one such instance of this presents itself in the rising popularity of east asian american entertainment in western culture. despite things like k-pop and anime becoming more prevalent in american households, many asian american artists still struggle to receive recognition or to break into the mainstream u.s. entertainment industry. this is due in part to hollywood’s decades-long streak of whitewashing asian roles in movies and television, going so far as to cast white actors as asian characters. scarlett johansson in the movie ghost in the shell is a prime example of this, as she was a white actress cast for the role of a japanese woman. as it stands, this is not a singular occurrence; the upsetting truth is that it happens all the time with people of color in american media, and it remains yet another obstacle for non-white americans and american immigrants alike. time and again we see that the contributions of immigrants are overlooked in american society. even more so, those who are non-white are further dismissed in favor of a dominant narrative that consistently frames both black and immigrant americans as “other.” this leads to american culture—and america itself—being enriched by that of migrants and black individuals, yet that enrichment goes overshadowed and thankless. unfortunately, sweeping it under the rug and claiming that it was always there is easier than admitting the truth of its origins. these simplified, often inaccurate representations reinforce both communities’ struggles with exclusion, marginalization, and misrepresentation. when their stories are told by others—when their food, art, music, style, and speech are stolen and appropriated—these individuals lose agency over how they are perceived and are left the digital literature review | 79 with narratives that are incomplete at best and harmful at worst. thus, their own narratives are now controlled by the dominant beliefs of american society. this process of reduction contributes to the erasure of both their personal identities and their cultural contributions. the result is a society that limits understanding and perpetuates harmful stereotypes, which further alienates marginalized groups. in this way, both black americans and migrants face similar challenges when it comes to maintaining their cultural identities while navigating systems that marginalize them. their cultural richness is often commodified or misunderstood, leaving them in a constant state of tension between preserving their roots and assimilating into a dominant culture that does not fully accept them. unmasking systemic racism and the power of solidarity it must be said, however, that in order to address systemic racism and the challenges faced by marginalized groups, it is also essential to understand the deeper, often hidden forces that perpetuate exclusion and discrimination. james baldwin addresses this, arguing that black americans cannot be set free “unless one is prepared to set the white people in america free … free from their terrors, free from their ignorance, free from their prejudices and free, really, from the right to do wrong” (baldwin and bondy, 14). baldwin’s assertion shows how systemic ignorance and prejudice don’t just hurt black people—they hold back all of society. to really create change, these issues need to be addressed on a broader scale. similarly, teju cole also discusses how racism has been able to cling onto life—or thrive, really—in america. he describes american racism as having “many moving parts, and has had enough centuries in which to evolve an impressive camouflage” (cole, 15). this highlights the horrifying truth that racism isn’t always obvious; it can be hidden in everyday actions or policies, and that makes it even more difficult to fight. 80 | mayeaux even still, in a later interview of his own, cole claims that “the fact is that if you have a voice, you try to find ways to be responsible to your voice” (hodapp, 249). this is a reminder that everyone has a role to play, especially migrants, allies, and activists who can challenge harmful narratives and speak out for change. despite it being an uphill battle, it must still, in the end, be a battle we are all willing to fight. given this, it is essential to recognize the importance of “the development of critical consciousness [and] the restoration of connective solidarities and healing relationships” (lang, 182) in repairing the fractured american system. building connections and understanding between different groups is an effective tool to fight against alienation and create a stronger sense of belonging for black americans and migrants alike. conclusion: the path forward in addressing systemic racism ultimately, the purpose of this essay is to highlight the ongoing challenges faced by both black americans and american immigrants, exploring how their experiences mirror one another, the reasons these challenges persist, and the ways society can address and correct the negative perceptions and attitudes directed toward them. in this vein, adichie’s declaration on and against stereotypes, once again, finds a place here. when she asserts that “the single story creates stereotypes [and] emphasizes how we are different rather than how we are similar” (adichie, 13:11), she highlights how stereotypes reduce people to a single, oversimplified narrative that ignores their full humanity. both the black experience and the migrant experience are often shaped by these stereotypes, where people are seen as "others" rather than as individuals with rich histories and complexities. baldwin himself addresses this dehumanization once more, arguing that “the black man insists … the white man cease to regard him as an exotic rarity and recognize him as a human being.” this need for recognition that baldwin pleads for is something that applies to migrants just the same, especially those who are of a different the digital literature review | 81 race. no matter where they come from, immigrants often face the challenge of being seen as outsiders or even threats—threats to american safety, the economy, and social status—with their identities shaped by the dominant culture’s view of them as different or lesser. it is evident that “despite the passage of time, shades of political progress, and the greater spatial and cultural mobility that cole enjoys, the underlying racial fear and hatred that baldwin interrogated still persists” (gehlawat et. al., 59). just as it was before, teju cole’s claim that “if you have a voice, you try to find ways to be responsible to your voice,” becomes imperative to implement when considering the path to activism and speaking out against prejudice. it serves as a reminder for people to take action, challenge stereotypes, and speak up against the discrimination faced by black americans and migrants. it underscores the critical importance of continually revisiting the conversation about race relations, as these issues still persist today—decades after “stranger in the village” was written and centuries after the founding of america. moreover, it illustrates the importance of using literature as a tool through which we can carry on this dialogue. this essay itself seeks to do the same, adding to the conversation between baldwin and cole and many other scholars within migration and race studies. by engaging in this ongoing dialogue, both verbally and through literature, we can use our voices—responsibly, as cole encourages—to advocate for a more inclusive society so that we may finally foster the change that is long overdue. 82 | mayeaux adichie, chimamanda ngozi. “the danger of a single story.” ted talk, 7 oct. 2009, www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9ihs241zeg. accessed 24 jan. 2025. baldwin, james. notes of a native son, “stranger in the village.” london, penguin books, 1955. baldwin, james, and bondy, francois. “james baldwin, as interviewed by francois bondy.”transition, no. 12, jan. 1964, pp. 12–19, https://doi.org/10.2307/2934484. accessed 24 jan. 2025. cole, teju. known and strange things, “black body.” london faber et faber, 2017. gehlawat, monika. “strangers in the village: james baldwin, teju cole, and glenn ligon.” james baldwin review, vol. vol. 5, 2019, pp. 48–72, https://www.jstor.org/ stable/48665178. accessed 1 nov. 2024. hall, stuart. “what is this “black” in black popular culture?” social justice, vol. 20, no. 1/2, 1993, pp. 104–114. jstor, www.jstor.org/stable/29766735. accessed 3 nov. 2024. hodapp, james m. “lumpy sympathies: an interview in beirut with teju cole.” research in african literatures, vol. 48, no. 4, 2017, pp. 243–249, www.jstor.org/ stable/10.2979/reseafrilite.48.4.16, https://doi.org/10.2979/reseafrilite.48.4.16. accessed 24 jan. 2025. lang, peter. “conclusion: transcending racism, transcending trauma.” counterpoints, vol. 244, 2004, pp. 181–193, https://www.jstor.org/stable/42979565. accessed 1 nov. 2024. works cited http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9ihs241zeg https://doi.org/10.2307/2934484 https://www.jstor.org/stable/48665178 https://www.jstor.org/stable/48665178 http://www.jstor.org/stable/29766735 http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/reseafrilite.48.4.16 http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/reseafrilite.48.4.16 https://doi.org/10.2979/reseafrilite.48.4.16 https://www.jstor.org/stable/42979565 the digital literature review | 83 okoye, john-bell s. “mediated representation of middle eastern and african migrants in uk and us press in the wake of brexit and trumpism.” journalism, vol. 23, no. 10, 30 dec. 2020. sage journals, https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884920984693. accessed 24 jan. 2025. rana, junaid. terrifying muslims. duke university press, 1 june 2011, doi. org/10.2307/j.ctv12101n2. accessed 7 feb. 2025. sahu, padmini. “from alienation to assimilation: exploring jhumpa lahiri’s the namesake.” the creative launcher, vol. 6, no. 4, 30 oct. 2021, pp. 141–147, https://doi. org/10.53032/tcl.2021.6.4.23. accessed 24 dec. 2021. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884920984693 http://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv12101n2 http://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv12101n2 https://doi.org/10.53032/tcl.2021.6.4.23 https://doi.org/10.53032/tcl.2021.6.4.23 dlr journal we are thrilled to share 3 art pieces along with their rationale by talented artist allison akers. embodied utopias and dystopias featured artist: allison akers for my artwork, i wanted to focus on creatures that may not often be associated with utopia, but that i took to represent utopian and dystopian ideals both from the way i designed them and their representation in nature, literature, film. sting, 2018, ink, 4x4 in. sting takes inspiration from the cover photo of the dlr. jellyfish have always seemed otherworldly and beautiful to me, much like idea of utopia. however, many are also capable of stinging and inflicting pain, making them dangerous and deadly creatures. a single person’s idea of utopia may be suppressive and harmful to other people, much like a jellyfish’s tentacles do not hurt itself but will paralyze and ensnare the prey it needs to survive. one jellyfish, the turritopsis dohrnii, is even immortal, which i related to utopian and dystopian concepts that have persisted for thousands of years. i used black ink to capture the jellyfish’s slick appearance and to reflect the darker, less moral actions that are often associated with achieving a “utopia” on earth. “sting” 161 162 akers the modern siren also takes similar inspiration to the jellyfish’s themes. in greek mythology, sirens were bird-women who enchanted sailors with their songs and drove ships into rocks, but over time sirens were conflated with mermaids into their modern incarnations. i like to think of utopias as modern sirens. utopia is alluring, and many characters in literature and film want/try to achieve it, but often utopias are warped by human flaws into monstrous, corrupt dystopias. it is easy to stare at the siren’s beautiful face, listen to her enchanting voice, but her more sinister features should not be ignored. utopia also means “no place,” which i also related to my siren, since it is a creature that does not the modern siren, 2018, ink, graphite, and marker, 9 in x 12 in. “ѕiren” exist. since green is often associated with life and safety, my siren has a pale green tail and markings coupled with black to represent death and danger. she also strikes a dynamic, confident pose, smiling directly at the viewer in an inviting way. 163 akers artificial beauty, 2017, ink, 5 x 5 in. “artificial beauty” unlike the other two pieces, artificial beauty embodies how mankind alters and mimics nature, shaping it to create utopia but often falling short of nature’s perfection. in class last semester, we examined nature-centric utopias such as of the cannibals by michel de montaigne and the tempest by william shakespeare, which gave me the idea to submit this piece. the lack of color in the butterfly emphasizes the lifelessness of the butterfly, and the negative space in its wings, thorax, and abdomen allude to the idea of it being a hollow, manmade imitation of a real butterfly. makes them more likely to be targeted by police, as well as a contemporary comparison and analysis of these issues. the media around newton’s case, although he was later acquitted of all charges, painted newton as a deviant simply because he was in a black organization. applying the lens of critical race theory, as explained by bryan warde and edward taylor, to these events, we can begin to see the racist groundwork on which many of our institutions of law are built upon and how media’s favoring of sensationalism over accurate representation is hurtful to already vulnerable members of the american public. true crime’s popularity has never been higher. however, true crime media largely ignores offenses by authority figures, and creators use their outreach to monetize viewership with cold cases rather than making critiques of the societal structures in the united states. most true crime media also perpetuates “missing white woman syndrome” and ignores the plights of marginalized communities, including black and native american. this bias makes it harder for the stories of minority groups to be heard and can be damaging to their communities in the long run. following this, my argument will use huey p. newton’s revolutionary suicide as a historical representation and firsthand account of the ways in which the judicial system is inherently biased towards minority groups and how their representation in the media the white lens of crime media: examining minority underrepresentation in american media and its consequences caleb hardesty, ball state university 13 introduction nearly every facet of media in the united states is tainted by the racist precedent set by reporters over the course of the last two hundred years. this inherent racism not only demonizes members of minority groups daily but also completely erases their voice in the purposeful omission of their struggles. if more mass media outlets and popular influencers were willing to highlight the day-to-day injustices faced by the underprivileged members of our country, we could potentially see real social change and the regression of racist legislature as the public becomes more aware of the oppressive scaffolding holding the judicial system together, instead of continuing to cast minority groups as inherently deviant and making it harder for them to prove their innocence or receive help from government bodies. to lay out the historical groundwork of these issues, this essay will draw heavily from huey p. newton’s experience in the 1960s using his autobiography revolutionary suicide (1973), as well as the works of several critical race theorists including bryan warde, angela davis, and edward taylor. newton’s own experience with racism in the judicial system and how he was portrayed in public media provides a welldocumented firsthand account of the inherent racial bias in both of these institutions, as well as fighting back against the pre-established narrative of black americans. while newton’s story did unfold in the 1960s, its relevance can still be directly applied to the current climate of the united states. while many like to pretend that institutionalized racism is a thing of the past, modern media and judicial issues prove otherwise. these contemporary issues linked with a historical precedent provide a clear outline of the real-life damage that negative media representation inflicts upon the marginalized communities of our country. were these communities to have a larger say in their own stories, or at the very least get to have their stories properly told through other outlets, they could potentially benefit in three major ways: these groups could remove the mark of demonization that has plagued them throughout american history, they could have a greater chance of combatting racist legislature and demanding structural change, and they could finally receive proper help from government bureaucrats (such as the police) rather than having their struggles be ignored or punished. historical precedent a brief overview of the origins of the police force in the united states is helpful to understand the argument being presented before moving on. the first equivalent of hardesty 14 the police force can be traced back directly to carolina slave patrols in the 1700s. while these groups would continue to grow and develop throughout america’s early history, they flourished after the abolishment of slavery in 1865. wealthy white communities, afraid of retribution from the now-freed black population, needed a vanguard to protect them from perceived harm and continue the subservient role of the previous slaves. this job, which would lead directly into the modern police force, was given to former slave hunters (spruill 43). from their very inception, the police have served white elites by purposefully combatting underprivileged communities, and their brutality has been overlooked by state governments in favor of pleasing the upper class. this was later followed by jim crow policies and mass segregation (enforced by the police and upheld by legislative and judicial bodies), the effects of which still permeate throughout american institutions (warde 468). in 1967, newton, a co-founder of the black panthers, was charged with the murder of police officer john frey. his trial began in 1968, and he was later acquitted of all charges after it was discovered that frey was accidentally killed by his own partner in a panicked shooting. this case, as well as newton’s experiences leading up to it, will be used to demonstrate newton’s demonization by the media and how the opinions of him that were publicly broadcasted through various outlets allowed law enforcement officials to harass him, and further, to pass legislation to directly suppress the rights of black americans. the media’s negative representation of minority groups was not a new concept during huey p. newton’s trial. on the contrary, it was a leading force that made newton question the unfair treatment of him, his family, and his community at a very young age. on his entrance into the local school system, newton reported, “i knew only that i constantly felt uncomfortable and ashamed of being black. … it was a result of the implicit understanding in the system that whites were ‘smart’ and blacks were ‘stupid’” (17). this statement shows the permeating effect of negative minority representation in america, where a child inherently feels othered from their fellow children simply because of their skin color. despite not having yet faced direct racism in his life, newton had already been forced to internalize the racist status quo because of what public opinion had taught him about race relations. as newton grew older, he watched as both he and his community were routinely harassed and assaulted by police officials. at this time, these events did not gather any media attention. whereas today, thankfully, bystanders can easily document instances of police misconduct, this was occurring at a time in which the marginalized communities being harassed had almost no outlet for help. when they did reach out, it boiled down to their word against the word of the white police officers. this is a nearly impossible battle for members of minority groups to win, as the societal hardesty 15 narrative broadcasted through all forms of media forces disenfranchised groups to have to prove that they are morally sound, whereas white people are naturally assumed by the public eye to be just (patton & ward 335). this is further reinforced by critical race theorist angela davis who describes a system through which an everperpetuating cycle forces black americans to be arrested after being assumed guilty, sent to jail in much greater quantities than whites because of racial bias, and then seen as criminals because of the large number of black people in prison, creating a perceived “black monopoly on criminality” (265). reflecting on this idea, newton became aware of how severely minority groups were being deprived of their own voice. this concept would inspire a large portion of revolutionary suicide in which newton emphasizes the importance of black people being in charge of their own representation. he highlights this scarcity and the flaws with what little representation there is when reflecting on his first experiences with african american activists. newton claims donald warden “is the only black man i know with two weekly radio programs and one on television. the mass media, the oppressors, give him public exposure for only one reason: he will lead the people away from the truth of their situation” (66). as a way to combat this problem, newton was driven to write this book without the influence of “the oppressors” to inspire others to resist these narratives upheld by the establishment. after this, huey p. newton and bobby seale started the black panthers. the first course of action they took was to combat the harassment of innocent minorities by police officers. the black panthers started “police patrols” in which volunteers would gather in small groups with visible firearms and follow the police officers through black communities in oakland. during the process, they would also give legal advice near people who were being detained, often providing the victim with the knowledge they were being arrested under false pretenses and allowing them to go back home to their families while also forcing the police officer to admit their illegal actions (newton 127-128). these officers would not face charges, however, as there were no outlets for these groups to report officer misconduct and no popular media outlets broadcasted the struggles of inner-city communities. the complete omission of the black narrative allowed the white power structure to publish false claims about the panthers with no repercussions. white-owned newspapers began to print stories told by the police that the panthers were a violent mob disrupting the peace, which allowed law enforcement to crack down on the group without public outcry (figure 1). hardesty 16 consider here bryan warde’s ideas on critical race theory in which he states: this racial privilege comes by way of white people having unequal access to resources and social rewards and the power to shape the norms and values of society by virtue of being a member of the dominant group. because of this unequal access, white people as a group not only have and maintain an ongoing competitive edge over minority groups, such as black people, but they are also able to sustain this dominance in all areas of society through the shaping of law and practices that protect the status-quo. (463). warde’s definition helps to underline the relationship between resource access and the subsequent ability to suppress minority groups. it is important to note that while the resources mentioned certainly apply to physical things like money and property, public resources also include more conceptual aspects such as time and executive representation. from this, we can begin to see that this symbiosis between white media and white lawmakers is not an accidental occurrence, but rather a product of the purposeful exclusion of black voices which allows the powers that be to reap the social rewards, in this case being able to control social perceptions in a way that places them on top of the social hierarchy. this unity of police and media narratives paved the way for racist public officials to change the law to directly combat their unease at the thought of organized black people following the aforementioned police patrols carried out by the black panthers. look no further for proof of how improper media representation can allow lawmakers to suppress minority groups than the following quote by huey p. newton. these are his own words on donald mulford, a republican state assemblyman, calling into a radio hardesty 17 figure 1. “panthers indoctrinate the young.” aug. 18, 1969, fascination and fear: covering the black panthers the new york times (nytimes.com) show interview with newton: he told us that he planned to introduce a bill into the state legislature to make it illegal for us to patrol with our weapons. it was a bill, he said, that would “get” the black panthers. mulford’s call was a logical response of the system. we know how the system operated. if we used the laws in our own interest and against theirs, then the power structure would simply change the laws… a few days later, the paper carried a story about mulford’s “panther bill.” in its particulars it was what we had expecteda bill intended to suppress the people’s constitutional right to bear arms. until then, white men had owned and carried weapons with impunity… mulford had been asked by the oakland police to introduce this bill because some “young black toughs,” as they called us, were walking around with guns. the bill was further evidence of this country’s double standard against blacks. (newton 154) this is a very potent historical event for several reasons once we begin to roll back the layers. firstly, and perhaps most glaringly, newton points out that white people (including the violent ku klux klan at the time) had publicly brandished weapons in public protests throughout the country without ever being charged as criminals and without any intervention by lawmakers. once minority groups in underprivileged communities began to practice this same right, laws were implemented in direct response to strip these communities of their power and uphold the status quo. this was made possible because of the media’s use of fear mongering, in which news outlets spread disinformation to paint the panthers as a force of evil acting against the interest of american citizens. fear goes hand in hand with racism, and this is a purposeful strategy utilized by oppressors because if citizens are afraid of a group of people and what they might do, they are more likely to overlook when they are brutalized under the guise of public safety (davis 269). furthermore, we can see that this blatantly racist bill was able to be passed because of the media’s support and presentation of mulford’s ideas, as well as the newspapers’ repeated characterization of black panthers as a militant force taking the streets by storm. by controlling the narrative through news media, mulford was able to propose racist legislature in the public eye and simultaneously be seen as a protector of the community due to the papers’ inherent bias against minority groups. below is an example and analysis of the impact of these press releases. hardesty 18 figure 2. “the sacramento bee’s front page story the day after the panthers protest of the mulford act.” may 2nd 1967, the panthers and the press – fourteen east (fourteeneastmag.com). this article (figure 2) was released in the sacramento bee after a protest at the sacramento capitol building regarding the aforementioned “panther bill.” the images and opinions expressed in this article were not a new stance by the media, but they do highlight the lengths that the press was willing to go to uphold the narrative that most benefited the power structure. simply put, the capitol was not invaded. the panthers arrived at the capitol brandishing firearms (as was still legal at that time) and read a speech highlighting the importance of combatting racist lawmaking as well as simply walking around the building (newton 156-158). however, the headline of this paper and the accompanying image instill a fear of an organized and hostile mob looking to overthrow the government. within the article, there are also lies about how many panthers there were, what they had been doing, and what they had said, as well as the use of negative vocabulary to describe normal legal actions. this was done to imply that the panthers were criminals and deviants rather than the protesting civilians that they were (pederson). these panthers would be arrested after their legal demonstration, which may not have happened had the public been more aware of what was actually happening. the media’s portrayal of the black panthers prior to the incident made it simple for police hardesty 19 to round up the protestors without gaining public ire, whereas if the average citizen had been more aware of the true situation taking place, they may have been outraged to see innocent people being battered and arrested by the police. this is a situation we still see all too often, in which the oppressed are robbed of their voices and are denied the opportunity to speak out in defense of themselves. throughout the entirety of huey p. newton’s lifespan, he was denied chances to speak on mass public broadcasts because of the representation that preceded him as a black activist, something he attempted to counter with his autobiography. without the ability to present their own narratives, minority groups are forced to endure whatever the established powers wish the public to believe, which is almost always a narrative that upholds the status quo and keeps those that benefit from the oppression of minority groups in control. contemporary application while some may insist that these historical precedents are outdated and deny that there is any such thing as systemic racism, there is an alarming parallel connecting these past issues to the contemporary united states. i also argue that racism is just as pervasive in these institutions as ever, it has simply changed its form. in this section, each of the historical issues covered will be directly tied to recent events in this country that show little progress has been made regarding minority group representation and struggles within the judicial system. first, representation of minority groups in media has only minutely changed in news media and true crime narratives. a glaring issue with both of these mediums is the erasure of minority stories. several factors lead to this issue. just as in the 1960s, minority groups are still assumed to be naturally at fault when presented in news stories, even when they themselves are the victims. patton & ward contend that “proving the worthiness of missing black women is difficult when media narratives attempt to link these women to crime, mental illness, and other issues to suggest that they are somehow responsible for their predicament” (334). it has been so ingrained in the mass-scale culture industry of the united states that black people are deviants that simply making their presence known in crime media will, by default, suggest guilt on their behalf. with the lack of public outlets available to them, as mentioned by bryan warde, there is little hope for these oppressed groups to counter these narratives or begin the process of reversing their assumed guilt by white audiences, meaning that the audience is not only made unaware of the struggles of these communities but also becomes unsympathetic towards their struggles. because of this, the stories of hardesty 20 minority groups are often simply left out of the media circuit. white people can be related to as a stand-in for the audience whereas a member of a minority group would ostracize the potential viewership (patton & ward 333). just as the panthers could not speak for themselves against allegations by the police, modern disenfranchised communities are still at the mercy of white media. this erasure that strips minority groups of their voices is a symptom of a phenomenon known as “missing white woman syndrome” (mwws). mwws is best described as “the information communicated to general audiences [is] influential and situate[s] ‘certain subgroups of women-often white, wealthy, and conventionally attractive—as deserving of our collective resources, while making the marginalization and victimization of other groups of women, such as low-income women of colour, seem natural” (patton & ward 334-335). mwws arises from the media’s reliance on sensationalism and viewership monetization rather than reporting on the most pressing stories. this has life-altering consequences for those who are denied media representation and is widespread in both news and crime media. take for instance the recent true crime craze over gabby petito, a young white blogger who went missing in 2021. the events following the search and rescue efforts carried out by law enforcement highlight the sad reality of the underprivileged experience in our country. during the search for petito, at least nine other dead bodies were found in the wild. these bodies would turn out to belong largely to minority groups, including black, native, and hispanic women. their stories were almost completely ignored, as they did not fit the public narrative of an innocent pure woman (montell & medina). law enforcement agencies did not look for their killers, and their families were left without peace, which is another example of media representation directly affecting the course of policing. without public outcry and interest, true crime media’s hyper-fixation on mwws allowed the police to sideline the deaths of the underprivileged. this is not a unique standalone occurrence. whereas a young white woman’s story draws the national eye seemingly overnight, minority groups must fight to get even a passing glance from both media and law enforcement. take for instance serial killer jeremy skibicki, who was charged with the murder of three indigenous women in 2022. normally, it would be assumed that a modern serial killer would attract true crime influencers like moths to a flame, but the deaths of indigenous women don’t fit into the sensationalism addiction caused by mwws, even though police believe that the bodies of two or more women may still be buried in the landfill where skibicki dumped his victims. even worse, the police refuse to search for these bodies despite pleas from the families of the victims (morin). being denied any semblance of justice is a reality minority groups face on a daily basis. if these police were held accountable hardesty 21 in news media, the pressure for the case to be solved would push law enforcement to assist its community. as it stands, the lack of public outcry allows law enforcement to avoid consequences for ignoring the needs of underprivileged americans. while mwws is not immediately evident and media outlets may deny that they are favoring white people over minority groups, that only further aligns with the thoughts of critical race theorist edward taylor, who states in a 1998 article, “[b] y relying on merit criteria or standards, the dominant group can justify its exclusion of blacks to positions of power, believing in its own neutrality” (123). neutrality may at first sound positive regarding race relations. however, when it comes to oppression, neutrality naturally benefits the oppressor while further harming the efforts of the oppressed. neutrality leads to an issue sometimes conveyed as “colorblindness” towards race and is presented as a positive. “colorblindness” often fails to see the white power structure oppressing minority groups or implies that underprivileged communities are already entirely equal with the white upper class, which is not true (taylor 123). this pseudo-willful ignorance does more damage than good and only ensures that those without the ability to speak for themselves will remain suppressed and controlled by the established racist narrative. instead, media owners should acknowledge the discrepancy present in their narratives and allow diverse journalists to highlight the problems in their communities. another direct correlation between the 1960s and today’s narrative structure arises whenever any member of a minority group stages a public protest. as seen during the sacramento protest in 1967, the established media will skew the narrative whenever possible to mislead their audience into believing that peaceful protesters are organizing into violent mobs. in this image (figure 3), taken during a 2020 black lives matter (blm) protest following the death of george floyd, protestors can be seen standing in front of a flaming trash can on a public street. the headline speaks for itself. when comparing this reporting to that of the 1960s, there are many parallels with damaging implications. first, this report immediately relies on fear mongering. tucker carlson, pictured on the left, has often been accused of being a fear monger himself, and the headline along with the photo of fire is meant to instill a sense of panic in viewers. if the camera were to pan around this city, however, it would be evident that the city is not on fire and this was a contained incident, which can be proved by the documentation of these protests posted to social media. although these more aggressive actions were largely isolated incidents, media outlets, such as fox news, instead skew the facts in order to uphold the racist narrative that serves them best and allows for further discrimination against minority groups by fostering fear in their audience that these protestors are an active threat to their cities and their safety. hardesty 22 consider also the combative attitude of “our leaders peddle lies” and the function that this part of the report serves for the narrative. the “lies” mentioned here are the charges against the officer who murdered floyd, as fox news took the stance that the officer was within his legal right. by trying to undercut opposing views, this outlet is attempting to instill distrust in blm spokespeople and any public officials who are sympathetic to them. this angle was also used to say that floyd was deserving of his punishment by implying that he was a criminal and the officer was simply detaining a dangerous man, which was the same strategy used to justify the arrest of the sacramento panthers. yet again, we see the symbiotic relationship between media fear mongering and presumed criminality used as a tool to pave the way for abuses by government bodies. finally, there is the issue of how separate events are reported and how the vocabulary and presentation of these issues serve to uphold the status quo. take for instance january 6th. during the reporting of that event, fox news took a sympathetic tone and praised the protestors for upholding civic duty and fighting for what they believed was right. they were painted as family-oriented patriots, and it’s no coincidence that a majority of these protestors shown were white. when compared hardesty 23 figure 3. “our leaders peddle lies as our cities burn.” 2020, foxnews.com to the reporting of blm protests, we see a harsh contrast that bolsters newton’s exact critique in the 1960s in which violent white protesters were excused while black activists were immediately reprimanded. despite a vast majority of blm protesters being nonviolent, carlson described them as “crazed ideologues, grifters, criminals, antisocial thugs with no stake in society and nothing better to do than hurt people and destroy things.” however, unlike the sacramento protest, there is a spark of light in the reporting of this event. it comes from the independent posters on social media that relayed the true motives and goals of these protesters, as well as clarifying that they did not participate in any violent or aggressive action. because of the ease of internet access and widespread social media in this country, it is somewhat more possible for underprivileged communities to share their stories. we see a direct effect in this story, wherein the protestors were prevented from being entirely demonized because of the large public interest in the protests that encouraged interpersonal discussion and inspired content creators to report on the situation. looking back at the events of sacramento and even the foundation of the black panthers, you’ll recall that there was no outlet for the group to clarify its own story en masse. they were entirely at the mercy of biased white media and therefore made deviant. had they had this ability to present their narrative, the mulford bill may not have been passed, and members of the panthers may not have been unlawfully beaten and arrested. this shows us the direct positive influence that proper media representation can have. despite the longstanding racist narrative, the historic abuses by the police, and the racist legislature across the country, this group was protected and valued because they were given the chance to speak for themselves. they were not erased in favor of a trite and dated true crime story or demonized on the public news. were more of these massively popular independent content creators driven to pick up on the stories of the underprivileged, we could see real public perception of these groups change entirely. conclusion it is a simple fact that institutionalized systemic racism permeates throughout many largely influential bodies throughout the united states. these issues have existed since the country’s inception and have affected all levels of government. while these problems do not rest solely on the shoulders of the media, the assistance that the media has given (and continues to give) to uphold the power vacuum preventing minority groups from protecting themselves cannot be understated. angela davis argues, “what we have come to recognize as an open, explicit racism has in many ways begun to be replaced by a secluded, camouflaged kind of racism, whose influence on people’s daily lives is as pervasive and systematic as the explicit forms of racism hardesty 24 hardesty 25 associated with the era of the struggle for civil rights” (270-271). as citizens, we have historically had little in the way of outlets for demanding social reform. however, with the rise of easy-access media, we have seen cases in which minor pushback has been inflicted on the power structure. if more media creators, specifically independent true crime influencers and news media reporters unbound by the limitations of broadcast networks, were to continue presenting the stories of the voiceless, these communities would gain an invaluable quantity of support. from finding missing persons to combatting the racist foundations of law enforcement bureaucrats, proper media attention could revolutionize how we communicate with our government. in the words of huey p. newton, “there were enough laws on the books to permit black people to deal with all their problems, but the laws were not enforced” (110). the pieces to social reform do exist in this country, but they will not be put into the proper place by those currently in charge, as that would upset the power vacuum that keeps them in charge. through the mass social education available through independent media available to the public, we, as a united people, could hold the institutions around us responsible for their actions and demand an end to the injustices inflicted upon our marginalized countrymen by the judicial system. works cited lubiano, wahneema, and angela davis. “race and criminality black americans and the punishment industry.” the house that race built, random house, 1999, pp. 264–279. montell, amanda and isa medina, hosts. sounds like a cult. apple podcasts, 2023, sounds like a cult: the cult of true crime on apple podcasts. morin, brandi. “daughters of murdered indigenous woman push canada for action.” indigenous rights news | al jazeera, al jazeera, 9 dec. 2022, www.aljazeera.com/ news/2022/12/9/daughters-of-murdered-indigenous-woman-push-canada-foraction. newton, huey p., and j. herman blake. revolutionary suicide. penguin books, 2009. patton, lori d., and lawanda w. ward. “missing black undergraduate women and the politics of disposability: a critical race feminist perspective.” the journal of negro education, vol. 85, no. 3, 2016, pp. 330–349., doi.org/10.7709/ jnegroeducation.85.3.0330. pederson, brendan. “the panthers and the press.” 14 east, 21 oct. 1970, fourteeneastmag.com/index.php/2016/10/21/the-panthers-and-the-press/. spruill, larry h. “slave patrols, ‘packs of negro dogs’ and and policing black communities.” phylon (1960-), vol. 53, no. 1, 2016, pp. 42–66. jstor, www.jstor. org/stable/phylon1960.53.1.42. taylor, edward. “a primer on critical race theory.” the journal of blacks in higher education, no. 19, 1998, pp. 122–24. jstor, doi.org/10.2307/2998940. tucker carlson tonight. fox news channel. 2020. warde, bryan. “black male disproportionality in the criminal justice systems of the usa, canada, and england: a comparative analysis of incarceration.” journal of african american studies, vol. 17, no. 4, 2013, pp. 461–79. jstor, www.jstor.org/ stable/43525522. hardesty 26 pineapple chicken pizza benjamin jett 1 cup of chopped pineapples 1 cup of pineapple juice 1 sliced green pepper and carrot 1 cup of pre-cooked sliced chicken 1 lb. dough, homemade or store bought any additional veggies or toppings 1 cup of mozzarella cheese this recipe is a pizza-fied version of a dish i personally love from my filipino background, pininyahang manok. my mother makes this anytime i return home from school and it instills quite a bit of nostalgia about my own childhood. i love all of my mother’s traditional filipino dishes, but this one has to be my absolute favorite. it starts with tenderizing the chicken and slicing it into bite size pieces, then marinating that in pineapple juice for about 30-45 minutes. make sure to keep the juice for the sauce base while you sauté the pineapples and pineapple juice to give it a more viscous consistency. then, cook the chicken until light brown. if you wish to add additional veggies, you can precook them after washing with the chicken. roll the pizza dough while everything is cooking into a thin circle. once everything is prepped and cooked, spread the pineapple base evenly on the dough and then sprinkle on the mozzarella. then, add the chicken, pineapple slices, green pepper, and any additional toppings to preference. preheat the oven to 475 °f, then let pizza bake from 10-15 minutes or until the cheese is golden and the crust brown. serve and enjoy! description: round pizza with pineapple with one slice on a wooden round board. two slices of pineapple lay in the bottom right side. recipe jett | 82 gillian flynn’s 2012 novel gone girl, as well as the 2014 movie adaptation, portrays the story of a wife, amy, whose suppressed resentment in a dysfunctional marriage that caused her to frame her husband, nick, for her murder. the story takes the audience through the plot of the disappearance and investigation through the alternating perspectives of the two spouses. amy’s accounts of their relationship initially paints nick as guilty, but it later reveals that the entire disappearance was a ploy, meant to convince the public of his faults while uplifting amy’s character. this essay seeks to use rhetorical criticism to analyze the persuasive devices of emotional appeal, credible identity, and logical reasoning utilized by amy dunne’s character to manipulate other characters and media into believing that her husband killed her. it will also analyze how she uses those same rhetorical devices to attempt to convince the readers that her actions in framing her husband for her murder were justified. this analysis won’t solely focus on how she goes about persuading the characters, media, and the audience; it will also analyze why it was so easy for her to do so. as a result, this essay will use sociological criticism to reveal the power that mass media and public perception hold in regard to criminal justice cases, and how this pressure from the media corresponds with a presentday bias favoring privileged white women in america’s criminal justice system. the art of persuasion: a rhetorical analysis of amy dunne’s narration in gone girl ellen bain, ball state university 28 the crime fiction fiction genre is an overarching space of literature that tends to focus on the art of careful investigation and problem-solving in relation to a crime, highlighting the good of society versus the darker, more sinister side. in many cases, these pieces of fiction tend to reflect aspects of our real lives, using written pieces of fiction to reveal the unspoken truths of society. this is emphasized in the theoretical framework of the sociological criticism of literature, which considers modern societal issues and their influence on a written piece (blanchard). this framework, along with rhetorical criticism—which interprets the persuasive arts used in a communicative act —serves as the foundation of this essay’s examination of the 2012 novel gone girl by gillian flynn as well as its 2014 movie adaptation (leeman). throughout the novel, amy’s narration utilizes rhetorical elements of emotional appeal (pathos), credibility as a victim (ethos), and logic (logos) to effectively manipulate the media and characters in the novel to believe that her husband committed the murder. furthermore, she uses these same rhetorical devices to justify her actions to the reader in the second half of the novel. the overall ease and effectiveness of amy’s ability to skew the criminal investigation through the manipulation of mass media reveals the influence that media pressure has over criminal justice cases. furthermore, it reveals a larger issue of the impact of public perception in the legal system, which very often lends itself to a societal bias towards privileged white women in america. the plot of gone girl revolves around the mysterious disappearance of antagonist amy elliot-dunne, who is suspected of being killed by her husband, nick dunne. with alternating first-person perspectives between amy and nick, the audience is taken through the criminal investigation regarding amy dunne’s disappearance during the past and present days of the relationship, initially painting nick as the prime suspect. the novel is set up to follow the traditional form of a “whodunit,” which is the mystery subgenre that takes the audience through the puzzle of discovering the truth behind the crime by planting clues throughout the piece. as the novel reaches the halfway point, the story breaks the traditional form of a whodunit when the narrator reveals that the disappearance was a ploy set up by amy to get back at her husband for being unfaithful. ultimately, she returns home after fabricating yet another story of false kidnapping by an ex-boyfriend, whom she ends up murdering to keep up the appearance of her elaborate story. although she admits her crimes to nick, the truth of amy’s actions is never revealed to the public, nor is she ever formally penalized for murder, fraud, and defamation of her husband. the story ends with the couple spiraling into an even more toxic relationship, in which amy manipulates nick into continuing their marriage by revealing that she is pregnant with his child, which she announces in a tense scene in front of a talk show host. bain 29 one of the most imperative factors in amy dunne’s ability to persuade others to believe her story is her manipulation of the media. as ahmed hussein states, “amy displays an obsession with making the people she abhors constantly suffer the ‘wrath of public opinion’” (146). in other words, amy uses the media and the public’s negative opinions to punish those that have wronged her, especially her husband nick. to do so, she places her own public identity at odds with nick’s, creating a situation in which the press must choose one side or the other. out of all the rhetorical appeals that she uses, establishing credibility (ethos) is perhaps the easiest for her to accomplish, but is also one of the most important as it serves as the driving force behind the investigation and overall public outlook on the case. as phillip and steidly state in their article, “the likelihood that a defendant accused of a death-eligible murder will be sentenced to death is three times greater if the case involves a white female victim.” this statistic is especially important in amy’s case because she utilizes this knowledge to sway the case in her favor. by framing her husband as the murderer, she is stripping him of all his credibility in depicting him as a criminal. opposedly, amy is a well-educated, wealthy white woman who is well known by many in the story due to her being the inspiration for the popular children’s book amazing amy. as her character mentions in the novel, the book character “amy is the elliot bread and butter, and she’s served us well…” (flynn, 26). so well, in fact, that amy mentions her trust fund of nearly $800,000 provided by her parents to “make me feel secure enough so i didn’t need to make choices based on money—in schooling, in career” (flynn 86). these lines point to the lifestyle that she was raised in, confirming the notion that she has been positioned very highly in society in terms of class and race. furthermore, the character of amazing amy serves as a mirror to reflect good traits onto amy’s character in the eye of the public. amy herself describes amazing amy as “my literary alter ego, my paper-bound better half, the me i was supposed to be” (flynn 26), proving that the character in the novel is meant to be a more idealized and loved version of herself. this then allows amy to take on the fictitious persona of amazing amy in the eyes of the public, “adopting the heroine’s traits of perfection and female virtue [to] establish her appeal to an audience” (vouza 40). as such, there is an inclination by society to automatically believe her side of the story without question because of the reputation that has been constructed through the media, which greatly impacts the way that her “murder” case is perceived by the nation. an additional layer of an appeal to ethos that amy dunne uses is directed towards both the characters of the story and the readers themselves. the narration of gone girl shifts perspectives, going back and forth from nick’s view to amy’s view. while nick’s narration is through a first-person depiction of his inner thoughts, amy uses a reflective, diary entry to depict her life leading up to and after her bain 30 disappearance. the form of epistolary, or diary, writing is an especially effective tool for persuasive storytelling because it is “particularly effective at producing reactions of sympathy, since [it] encourages extradiegetic readers to respond to intradiegetic writing” (snyder iv). in other words, writing in this way prompts the audience that exists outside the fictional world to critically and emotionally interpret events that happen within the fictional realm, causing them to accept it as truth. upon reading amy’s diary, the audience is under the impression that they are gaining insight on the innermost personal thoughts of the victim leading up to the crime. however, we later discover that the narration the audience sees through the diary entries is meticulously set up to uplift amy while incriminating nick dunne. by carefully injecting false scenarios and fears in her diary entries, it’s extremely convincing to the readers that he committed the crime, as they initially read the diary entries with no other context than amy’s recollections. as amy reveals in the novel, “i wrote her carefully, diary amy. she is designed to appeal to the cops, to appeal to the public should portions be released” (flynn 238). this line reveals the intricate ways in which amy purposely manipulates her identity, fragmenting “diary amy” as an entirely separate entity from her actual self. according to isavella vouza, amy uses the diary to demonstrate her belief that “selfhood is not something that one is but something that one does” (39). rather than completely transforming herself into the likable persona that the public wants, she puts on a performance of sorts to create a different persona compiled of traits that she knows will appeal to both the reader and the characters in the novel. in her explanations of staging her husband’s crime, it is apparent that amy is acutely aware that to have any credibility in framing her husband, she needs to make herself a sympathetic victim beyond the scope of reasonable doubt. during the criminal investigation, amy knows that she must make both the detectives and the public relate to her through the struggles she endures at the hands of her husband. as a result, amy’s use of logical appeal to the detectives is crucial to establish herself as a victim in their eyes. one of the main ways in which she establishes a logical appeal to the detectives is by manipulating a staged crime scene. according to bitton and dayan, “the most common victim–offender relationship involving hss [homicide scene staging] is an intimate partner relationship, and most staged homicidal scenes involve the killing of an intimate partner” (1056). in other words, most cases in which the crime scene is altered relate to the murder of intimate domestic partners, such as a husband or boyfriend. this is something that amy’s character capitalizes on and uses for the basis of staging the home crime scene; she creates a scene that is believable at first glance but has deeply obvious flaws which signal to law enforcement that her husband, nick, is a strong suspect in her disappearance. bain 31 amy manipulates this statistical evidence of crime scene staging by pointedly setting up her home in such a way that leaves a breadcrumb trail for investigators, prompting them to look deeper into the crime. she expresses this notion in the movie adaptation through a voiceover by emphasizing the importance of “meticulously [staging] your crime scene with just enough mistakes to raise the specter of doubt.” (gone girl 1:08:38-1:08:41). along with selectively destroyed furniture that presented indications of struggle, amy further increases her appeal to the investigators’ sense of logic by using unmitigable dna evidence to stage the scene. according to steven lee, dna is often referred to as the “silent witness,” as it is the only concrete way to place or connect someone with a crime (2). as such, amy is intentional in using her own blood on the floor of the kitchen to frame her husband. she expresses in flynn’s novel that after cutting herself, she “cleaned it up as poorly as nick would have done after he bashed my head in” (220). this was done because amy knew that the forensics team would come to the logical conclusion that her husband was trying to cover up the murder once they discovered the cleaned-up blood via blue light and luminol—an organic compound commonly used by forensic teams to discover blood and other human fluids on crime scenes. these two factors that contributed to a staged scene in the home are very effective in their appeals to the detectives’ deductive reasoning by manipulating the crime scene in a way that would make sense in a typical domestic disappearance investigation. a staged crime scene was only one part of what amy dunne altered to what was deemed as common sense to the detectives; another approach she took in appealing to the detectives’ common sense was by creating false incentives for her husband to kill her. to give more validity and probable cause to her husband killing her, she had to make the marriage appear troubled. amy had extremely effective ways of going about this. in building up to her big reveal, amy constructed a marriage riddled with money problems. she explains in the first half of the novel how they are first burdened with “his-and-her-layoffs” as well as nick’s spending of her trust fund money to fund their sudden move to missouri and to purchase a bar (flynn 85). furthermore, as the investigation into her disappearance continues, she makes countless purchases that would put their credit cards into massive debt. as she expresses in the film through flashbacks of the initial stages of her plan, she must keep up appearances and “secretly create some money troubles: credit cards, perhaps online gambling” (gone girl 1:07:13-1:07:17). she takes it a step further in making it seem that her husband signed off on raising her life insurance a few months prior to going missing: “with the help of the unwitting, bump up your life insurance” (gone girl 1:07:20-1:07:24). by doing this, amy was able to sway the characters and the audience in her favor because there are tangible documents that can be used as proof of incentive for the husband bain 32 committing the crime. in hindsight, audiences see a husband who made their money troubles worse by spending thousands upon thousands of dollars worth of purchases and signing off on life insurance right before the disappearance of his wife. this would lead any rational person, including the audience, to believe he is guilty. the same can be said about her appeal to the detectives, by creating numerous means of evidence that would force them to make the most logical conclusion in the investigation. amy continues this notion with the reader, as she goes on to explain that what she is doing to her husband is justified. a famous line from the film adaptation explains her reasoning as such: “nick dunne took my pride and my dignity and my hope and my money. he took and took from me until i no longer existed. that’s murder. let the punishment fit the crime” (gone girl 1:06:36-1:06:48). it is evident from the text that amy dunne elicits the audience’s emotions by depicting how nick dunne went about ruining her life, financially and emotionally. even with the given knowledge that she is actively trying to incriminate her husband, she is appealing to the reader’s empathy by explaining that she is essentially getting back at him because of what he did to her. in her mind, nick’s infidelity with another woman after all that they invested into their marriage is the same as ending her life. she’s using this reasoning to explain that potentially sentencing him to the same fate is within the lines of just punishment. this analysis of amy’s ease in her ability to use rhetorical devices to persuade the literary audience reflects some of the larger societal issues that come into play regarding privilege in criminal justice cases. the investigation and media coverage of amy’s case in gone girl is a clear example of the sense of urgency and importance that white female victims receive in criminal cases in comparison to other citizens of the country. a study done by professors at the university of denver in the department of sociology and criminology supports this notion, stating that “white females were victims in 36% of the approximately 1,000 cases in which capital defendants were sentenced to death.” the same study also found that “an execution was 2.8 times more likely in cases with a white female victim than one would expect in a system that is blind to race and gender” (phillips et al.). these statistics regarding the execution of perpetrators committing crimes against white women suggest that there are harsher repercussions in our justice system when the victim of the crime is a white woman. furthermore, in violent crimes like this where the victim is a white woman, media outlets exert more outrage and pressure than they would with victims of other demographics. the bias found in the justice system can be attributed to the combination of two things: the white privilege that makes their life more of a concern to the public, and the media’s desire to deliver an entertaining story. beale explains this phenomenon, bain 33 stating: the news media are not mirrors, simply reflecting events in society. rather, media content is shaped by economic and marketing considerations that override traditional journalistic criteria for newsworthiness. in the case of network news, this strategy results in much greater coverage of crime, especially murder, with a heavy emphasis on long-running, tabloid style treatment of selected cases. (401) this idea of network news focusing on ‘long-running, tabloid style treatment of selected cases’ works perfectly for the media because newscasts can make their own perceptions of criminal cases. if it’s within reasonable rationale with the evidence provided, newscasts have freedom in how they convey cases, regardless of the objective truth of the matter. the manipulation of media based on societal biases was the driving force behind amy’s plot in gone girl. news stations were able to create a seemingly clear-cut story of a husband who killed his pregnant wife, despite the manipulation that was at play behind the scenes of this crime. because of the utilization of her privilege as a white female “victim,” it was easy for amy to convince everyone in the novel, including the readers, to go along with her side of the story. additionally, the shock factor of the story allowed it to garner enough attention from the nation to also be pressured by the opinions of common people, despite the investigation still being ongoing. in this way, the power of the media was able to correspond with amy dunne’s status as a privileged white woman, effectively influencing the detectives, the consumers, and the criminal case itself. this ease in her execution of the revenge plot proves that, in our society, the media has too much influence over criminal cases and investigations. too often, it alters the sense of unbiased reasoning in criminal cases by creating incriminating narratives in advance based on preconceived notions of who the victims are. bain 34 works cited beale, sara. “the news media’s influence on criminal justice policy: how market-driven news promotes punitiveness.” william & mary law review, vol. 48, no. 2, 2006, scholarship.law.wm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1103&context=wmlr. blanchard, robert. “social criticism and their types.” international scholars journal, vol. 11, no. 1, 1 mar. 2022, www.internationalscholarsjournals.com/articles/socialcriticism-and-their-types-86417.html. fincher, david, director. gone girl. twentieth century fox, 2014. flynn, gillian. gone girl: a novel. first edition. new york, crown, 2012. hussein, ahmed. “patriarchal potency in gillian flynn’s gone girl.” adalya journal, vol. 9, no. 6, june 2020, doi.org/10.37896/aj9.6/016. lee, steven b. collecting dna evidence at property crime scenes. san jose university, 17 mar. 2009, www.sjsu.edu/people/steven.lee/. leeman, richard w. “rhetorical criticism.” the international encyclopedia of communication research methods, 2017, pp. 1–11., doi. org/10.1002/9781118901731.iecrm0219. phillips, scott, and trent steidly. “study finds defendants accused of killing white women are 3 times more likely to be sentenced to death in texas.” death penalty information center, columbia human rights law review, 6 sept. 2020, deathpenaltyinfo.org/news/study-finds-defendants-accused-of-killing-whitewomen-are-3-times-more-likely-to-be-sentenced-to-death-in-texas. snyder, emery. persuasion and tutelage in some european epistolary novels of the eighteenth century. 1992. harvard university, phd thesis, www.proquest.com/op enview/98ca33b034668e7ba9e5b684322fe0c6/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=187 50&diss=y. vouza, isavella. “setting the stage”: theatricality in gone girl (2012) and 10:04 (2014). 2018. mcgill university, master of arts. escholarship@mcgill, escholarship. mcgill.ca/concern/theses/s1784p00h. yifat bitton, hava dayan, “‘the perfect murder’: an exploratory study of staged murder scenes and concealed femicide,” the british journal of criminology, volume 59, issue 5, september 2019, pages 1054–1075, doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azz015. bain 35 http://scholarship.law.wm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1103&context=wmlr http://www.internationalscholarsjournals.com/articles/social-criticism-and-their-types-86417.html http://www.internationalscholarsjournals.com/articles/social-criticism-and-their-types-86417.html https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pyjigfc5juq66tq4zhnokoo6brtx3wz1/view http://www.sjsu.edu/people/steven.lee/ https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781118901731.iecrm0219 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781118901731.iecrm0219 http://deathpenaltyinfo.org/news/study-finds-defendants-accused-of-killing-white-women-are-3-times-more-likely-to-be-sentenced-to-death-in-texas http://deathpenaltyinfo.org/news/study-finds-defendants-accused-of-killing-white-women-are-3-times-more-likely-to-be-sentenced-to-death-in-texas http://www.proquest.com/openview/98ca33b034668e7ba9e5b684322fe0c6/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y http://www.proquest.com/openview/98ca33b034668e7ba9e5b684322fe0c6/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y http://www.proquest.com/openview/98ca33b034668e7ba9e5b684322fe0c6/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y http://escholarship.mcgill.ca/concern/theses/s1784p00h http://escholarship.mcgill.ca/concern/theses/s1784p00h https://academic.oup.com/bjc/article/59/5/1054/5489005?login=false multispecies encounters an analysis of the film bee movie and multispecies theory lilly elrod • • • • multispecies theory is applicable to a multitude of formats for analysis. in this essay, the film bee movie is analyzed for its purpose in multispecies studies and how it can be used to understand the function of the bee outside of the film. multispecies theory suggests a new form of viewing the world, of being attentive to those around you that might not warrant a second thought, like an annoying bee buzzing around your head. it asks us to analyze the interactions we see around us on a dayto-day basis and how the world functions around these interactions. this essay analyzes the interactions in bee movie and how they might translate to real-life interactions made by bees. this essay analyzes how bees interact with the hive, flowers, and various other parts of the world around them in their daily lives and how these interactions shape not only the lives of humans, but other species as well. ©2024 elrod. the digital literature review, 11, 59-72. doi: 10.33043/a76zdwqxz. shared with cc by-nc-nd 4.0 liscense. 60 the honeybee has been in countless headlines and topics of conversation, from concerns over the disappearance of bees to the unique way they communicate, honeybees are not only important to ecosystems, but to culture in america. the western honeybee, apis mellifera is a vital and well-studied insect, but what impact does it have on the world, and what has popular media said about this insect? many forms of popular media center around the honeybee, from movies, to television shows, to works of art. a significant portion of this media is aimed toward education, whether in kids’ media or through documentaries about the importance of the mighty honeybee. one of the most popular pieces of media from this genre is bee movie, released in 2007 and directed by simon j. smith and steve hickner. this is an infamous movie, with memes and jokes surrounding it spanning the last decade. while bee movie is a children’s movie, it analyzes our world through a multispecies lens without meaning to. this movie showcases the interdependence and connectedness that links all living things on the planet together through the relationships that the common honeybee has with the world around it, whether it is the hive, flowers, or other animals and bugs. the story of bee movie is a simple one: the protagonist, barry b. benson, terrified at the thought of working every day until he dies producing honey for the hive, ventures into the human world. upon entry into the world, he discovers that humans use their hard-earned honey in their food, drinks, and body products. this outrages barry to the point where he sues the human race for commandeering their honey, and he wins. all the honey that humans have taken is returned to the bees and, for the first time in twenty-seven million years, the bees stop making honey. this leads to all the plants in the world dying, and barry having to come up with a clever way to save the planet, with the help of his human love interest, vanessa. the day is saved, and barry and vanessa live happily ever after in their bee-human relationship. the way the movie shows how important even the smallest creature is to the dynamic of our society and ecosystem is a key tenant of multispecies theory. thom van dooren, eben kirksey, and elrod 61 ursula münster, authors of “multispecies studies: cultivating arts of attentiveness”, pose the question:are all lively entities biological, or might a tornado, a stone, or a volcano be amenable to similar forms of immersion? what does it mean to live with others in entangled worlds of contingency and uncertainty? more fundamentally, how can we do the work of inhabiting and co-constituting worlds well? bees are taken for granted in our world. they’re the little annoying bugs that buzz around us and scare our pants off because, what if we get stung? how do we determine what is important to each species, and how do we determine what is alive and what is not? examining the dynamics of bees in bee movie allows us to view bees in a new light as well as acknowledge the gaps of information present in the movie. for some background into real-life honeybees, the western honeybee, apis mellifera, is one of the most studied insects in the world (wood 1100). according to britannica, the term “honeybee” can apply to any of the seven members of the genus “apis-”, but is usually in reference to apis mellifera. honeybees are extremely social creatures with a unique form of communication—they dance. honeybees are the main pollinator for most flowering plants in natural and agricultural ecosystems (danforth r 156). the importance of honeybees cannot be understated. according to brianna randall in her article “the value of birds and bees,” honeybees pollinate up to eighty percent of all flowering plants, and up to one hundred and thirty types of fruits and vegetables. in donna haraway’s when species meet, she writes: ms. cayenne pepper continues to colonize all my cells—a sure case of what the biologist lynn margulis calls symbiogenesis. i bet if you were to check our dna, you’d find some potent transfections between us. her saliva must have the viral vectors. surely, her darter-tongue kisses have been irresistible. even though we share placement in the phylum of vertebrates, we inhabit not just different genera and divergent families but altogether different orders (15) in this passage, haraway is talking about her pet, ms cayenne pepper, and how by existing together, surely their bodies share cells after so much elrod 62 time together. as i sit here, i think about all the tea sweetened with honey that i’ve consumed in my life–all the honey straws bought at fairs and festivals. after eating their life source, their sole sustenance in the world over years and years, how much do i have in common with a bee? if you look at my biology, at all that i’ve consumed, how close am i to a honeybee—or any animal? i’ve lived with my cat for thirteen years now–over half of my life. how much of me is her, and how much of her is me? and, truthfully, how much does it matter? the labels we as humans put on everything, the way we explain our existence, is meaningless in the study of multispecies theory. it is all a way for humans to label and explain the world we inhabit. multispecies theory tries to find a way to give those we deem “lesser” or “non-sentient” a voice. multispecies theory challenges us to change the way we think about our day-to-day interactions with non-humans. we must analyze what it means to be a bee in a world where the function of the bee has been changed by human interference and how that changes how the world works. jordan luttrell in their essay “knowing the honey bee: a multispecies ethnography” says, “the honey bee is commonly known as an introduced, domesticated species, kept by humans in beehives in apiculture. this conceals the agency of the honey bee, rendering it passive, productive and compliant to the desires of humans, or in need of human intervention for survival” (4). the bee is no longer a free agent. instead, the bee has been domesticated for commercial use by humans. the relationship between bees has changed, and so has their relationship with the surrounding environment. luttrell continues with: recent scholarship argues that non-humans do not just exist in the world, they are unruly agents which experience the world in particular ways. this scholarship has opened pathways of inquiry that explore how we know and engage with non-humans, and how modes of knowing and engaging shape them (11). honeybees used to roam wild in the woods, cultivating honey as their sole food source. honey is their lifeline—it is their entire life, essentially, boiled down into one substance. the importance of honey is an essential part of the plot for bee movie, as the comelrod 63 mandeering of honey by humans is the motivation barry b. benson needs to sue the entire human race for stealing their honey. there is much that we do not understand about the honeybee. for instance, bees have been experiencing rapid declines in numbers for decades now. much research has gone into what is causing their rapid decline, and several culprits have been identified. in an article by jessica robbins titled “bees in the balance,” the phenomenon known as colony collapse disorder (ccd) is explored, which is a condition where bees seem to disappear or die out of nowhere, leaving a colony in disarray. robbins details that “[w]ithin six months of its first appearance, colony collapse disorder had claimed the lives of up to 80 percent of the nation’s honeybees, and there was still no clear explanation for the disorder in sight” (2) ccd is a truly disturbing phenomenon and one that has required a lot of research. there is still no answer as to what causes ccd, but cases of the disorder have dwindled over the years (“colony collapse disorder”). the truth is that humans could very well face the daunting conflict in bee movie where the flowering plants in the world see a massive decline because of the loss of bees. before diving into an analysis of the movie, i took a look at how the public felt about the movie. some reviews are scathing, considering this movie to be a retelling of already famous movies. a review on imdb from riffraffmckinley says “...the movie was basically a rehash of movies like “a bug’s life” and “antz,” both of which were very good movies in which insects dreamed of a better life and had the fortitude to make it happen. that sentence should be its own genre by now!” but other reviews are in favor of bee movie, such as this one from gordon-11 on imdb that says “...to look at the world with a bee’s perspective is interesting. i also liked the morals of the story, especially vanessa’s line about all lives are equal.” bee movie is an infamous part of the culture in america, especially among the youth, so i was not surprised when i met with exaggerated reviews of the movie, one imdb user calling it “the ‘citizen kane’ of bug movies.” while the jury of public opinion is still out on whether or not this film can be considered a “good movie”, there are also professional reviewelrod 64 ers to take into account. roger ebert says “all of this material, written by seinfeld and writers associated with his television series, tries hard, but never really takes off.” ebert is not a fan of the movie and the humor throughout, which is the main draw of the movie, not its multispecies applications. the critic consensus on rotten tomatoes says “bee movie has humorous moments, but its awkward premise and tame delivery render it mostly forgettable.” sitting at a solid fifty percent on rotten tomatoes, the critics there are also not fans of the humor in the movie, but the humor isn’t the center of this paper, the multispecies interactions are. there were two scenes that particularly stood out to me when watching this movie. the first scene that grabbed my attention was the first scene of the movie (00:02:21). barry and his best friend, adam, arrive at their “college” graduation after completing three days of grade school, three days of high school, and three days of college. they graduate, and are immediately moved on to honex industries, where the hive works tirelessly to make honey. the seats they were sitting in are transformed into a trolley to take them through the factory, a seamless and efficient transition for a hive that is constantly pumping out more and more worker bees. barry and adam are excited to begin this journey, as making honey is all they’ve ever been told to do. it’s their sole purpose in life. the music is happy, even a little inquisitive. barry and adam are constantly talking to each other, sharing their excitement, their eyes full of hope for the future. as they enter the factory, barry proclaims “this is it!” and a collective “wow!” travels through the group as the doors open and the honey factory is presented to them. the music picks up, climaxing for a dramatic entrance into their future. the factory is whimsical, with nonsense machines and mechanisms for making honey to appeal to the children in the audience. there’s even a device called the “krelman” that has bees wearing hats that look like fingers spinning on a wheel that “catches that little strand of honey that hangs after you pour.” and deposits it back into the honey collection. adam is particularly intrigued by this job, he lurches from his seat and desperately asks “can anyone work on the krelman?” to which the tour guide answers “of course, most bee jobs are small ones, elrod 65 but bees know that every small job, if it’s done well, means a lot.” this is a sentiment repeated throughout the movie, about how each working bee, no matter how insignificant, is a working cog in the machine that is the hive. the hive can be seen as another species when looking at multispecies interactions. the hive exists because the bees create it to house and produce their honey. the hive houses the bees, and the bees keep up maintenance on it so they can continue to live and produce honey. thom van dooren et al. wrote “and so, beyond mere survival, particular lifeways in all their resplendent diversity emerge from interwoven patterns of living and dying, of being and becoming, in a larger world.” creating the hive is a form of survival, the bees must do it, but once the hive is completed, there is a clear cut relationship between the two in which they need each other, and thus their relationship is born. a beehive is an entire, living, breathing mechanism. it has incredible complexities that are a small wonder. an example of this comes from some small witty dialogue at this juncture, with adam at one point calling another bee “hot” (00:05:02) and barry saying “but she’s your cousin.” and adam going “she is?” and barry proclaiming “yes! we’re all cousins!” which, on some level, is true, as the bees within the colony do not reproduce with each other. the queen bee will mate with drone bees, and will mate with about ten to twenty drones at once, in a process that usually kills the drone (“how honeybees reproduce”). another fascinating fact about the birth of honeybees is that the queen bee chooses the sex of the eggs. if she chooses to fertilize it, it will become a worker bee or a queen. if not, the egg becomes a drone (“how honeybees reproduce”). honeybees have very complicated and fascinating hive dynamics and anatomy that bee movie barely scratches the surface of. viewing the honeybee through bee movie waters down the truth of the everyday existence of the honeybee, imbuing it with human struggles and morals. specifically this scene where the bees tour the “factory” and barry faces his existential dread. bees do not have existential dread, they are animals with a very specific purpose and they function in amazing ways throughout the hive. while the movie is entertaining to young children, there are very obvious elrod 66 faults that can be found within the multispecies application of the movie. the movie doesn’t fully appreciate the true hive dynamics, as well as the real relationship between bees and flowers. these gaps have to be filled in with knowledge the audience may or may not have. as the scene progresses, things take a turn for the worse. after discussing the krelman, the tour guide says “but choose carefully, because you’ll stay in the job that you pick for the rest of your life.” (00:05:57). while the other bees say “ooh” and smile at each other, barry’s face falls. he doesn’t want to work at the same job for the rest of his life. this is a horrible realization for him that spurs the conflict for the rest of the movie. the tour guide goes on to say that “…bees as a species haven’t had one day off in over twenty-seven million years.” to which barry responds “so you’ll just work us to death?” to which she responds “we’ll sure try!” which gets laughs from the rest of the bees. this is the worst news that barry could get. barry is a bee that needs diversity and freedom, not to work at the same job until he dies. of course this is an anthropomorphic bee that has human ideologies imprinted upon him, and this isn’t how real bees feel, just how jerry seinfeld wanted him to feel. the human-centric feelings of living in what feels like a never-ending cycle of being taken advantage of by capitalists being imprinted onto a bee isn’t the best lens for multispecies studies, but it’s a great way to relate to the character and to understand how he’s feeling and why he does what he does later in the film. this leads to the multispecies interactions later in the film. the second scene that drew my attention is later in the film. this scene is an integral part of the film–it’s the first time barry leaves the hive. earlier in the film pollen jocks (the only bees who leave the hive to collect nectar) invite barry to leave the hive with them, and he takes them up on their invitation. the pollen jocks look different from the rest of the bees. they’re bigger in every way. they’re taller, their upper body is larger, and they have bigger wings. barry is hiding behind what appears to be a storage station for the guns they use to collect the nectar, talking to adam through his antennae like a phone (00:12:15). he says he has to go out there before he works every day for the rest of his life, but adam doesn’t elrod 67 think it’s a good idea, he says it’s too dangerous. barry hangs up on adam and tentatively ventures to the pollen jock formation. the bee in charge, a caricature of an air force sergeant, tells barry that the flight deck is restricted and he needs to leave, but the other pollen jocks speak up for him and say that he’s good to go out with them. barry promptly signs a few waivers, and that is that. he’s ready to hit the skies. the sergeant gives us some foreshadowing by mentioning that it’s supposed to rain that day, and that bees absolutely cannot fly in the rain. barry looks nervous the entire time he’s on the flight deck. he has incredibly expressive eyes, and every emotion he’s feeling is portrayed in them. this is a situation he isn’t comfortable with. it’s a completely new, and dangerous, situation for him to be in, but he knows that he needs to leave his comfort zone and find out for himself what the outside world looks like. as the sergeant is running down some cautions for the pollen jocks, he reminds everyone of bee rule number one: absolutely no talking to humans. now, it’s time to enter launch positions. the pollen jocks all march together, chanting “buzz” over and over again as they march into formation around barry. barry still looks absolutely terrified, and very confused about what’s going on around him. the camera pulls out to show that the pollen jocks formed three arrows, with barry in the center one. they pull down their glasses, and the sergeant bellows “black and yellow!” and the jocks respond “hello!” while they hop in the air. this is a common chant throughout the movie, but the meaning of it isn’t ever disclosed. the bees all get down into a runners position, hands on the floor and one knee cocked. one pollen jock asks barry “you ready for this, hot shot?” and barry says “yeah. yeah, bring it on.” in a very weak, unenthusiastic way. he is absolutely terrified, and it’s written all over his face. the jocks go through various checks, just like air force pilots. at the end of their checks, barry says “scared out of my shorts, check.” other bees come on the platform and start up the wings of the jocks, like revving the engine of a car to get it ready. they pull stops out from behind the feet of the jocks, tying more illusions in that the pollen jocks are like real planes. the music tempo begins to pick up here, as does the volume. something really big is elrod 68 about to happen. barry starts to look more enthusiastic as he stares into the opening of the hive. the camera pans to the back of the pack, and it’s time for takeoff. the bees pour out of the hive and the music crescendos. it’s time to enter a brand new world. they fly out into the world in perfect formation, weaving between the branches of the tree that holds their home. the tree that holds their home is at least several decades old. it has weathered all kinds of seasons and the construction of the city around it. the funny thing is, this hive would not exist without this tree, and yet it gets no appreciation from the bees that live on it. a majority of the bees within the hive will never actually see the tree, they will just continue on with their lives within the hive, doing their small part to make the hive work without a second thought about the tree, and yet the pollen jocks must weave through its branches every day to retrieve the nectar that keeps the hive alive (00:14:14). this is the first multispecies interaction out of many within this scene. once they leave the tree, they burst into the sunlight and barry’s eyes widen as he takes in the view of the park that they live in (00:14:21). barry and the pollen jocks weave through the multicolored kites being flown by the children and adults below. the kites take various forms, from the traditional and rectangular, to those shaped like insects. the bees dive and fly among the bikers in the park, observing everything that they can. they fly under a bridge and find the flowers they were looking for. one of the pollen jocks lowers his glasses and sees that some of the flowers are ready to have their nectar harvested. the guns the pollen jocks use to collect the nectar are very whimsical, with multiple tubes that shoot out to enter the centers of the flower and then suck up the nectar to be collected into the gun (00:15:24). the greatest multispecies interaction of all in this movie is between honeybees and flowers. this is a true symbiotic relationship as one cannot survive without the other. when collecting nectar from a flower, bees get pollen on them. the next time they land on a flower, some of that pollen shakes off of them and pollinates that flower, and so on and so forth. collecting the nectar from the flowers fuels the bees quite literalelrod 69 ly, and the pollination from the bees moving from flower to flower keeps the flowers reproducing. without one or the other, the suffering that these species would suffer would be insurmountable. thus is the entire plot of the movie, the bees stop pollinating and all the plants die, and then when the bees run out of honey, what would they do? van dooren et al. continued in their paper with “the intimate relationship between a flower and its pollinating bee is one in which both forms of life are shaped and made possible through a shared heritage, an entanglement that isabelle stengers characterizes as “reciprocal capture.” as such, they do not just happen to meet each other, this bee and this flower; rather, their relationship emerges from coevolutionary histories, from rich processes of “co-becoming.” the honeybee and the flower share a rich history of survival together, through thousands–millions of generations. they are, essentially, one creature because they cannot exist without the other. as stated earlier, the movie does not fully capture the true complexities of the multispecies interactions that bees are a part of every day. this is a major shortfall of this film, but that’s to be expected in a children’s movie about anthropomorphic bees with human morals and problems. the movie doesn’t fully capture the “co-becoming” of bees and flowers, the rich history these two species have with each other. there are a lot of shortcomings when it comes to this film, but it is a great starting point to examine multispecies interactions in film and the shortcomings the films may have. examining these films leads to examining our everyday life, reconsidering how we experience the world around us, and how the world around us experiences life. multispecies interactions run our day-to-day lives. every interaction we have is meaningful, and many different organisms and species work together to produce the environment we live in each day. the honey that we use in our tea was the result of the combined effort of hundreds of different bees, all working in harmony to produce our honey, beeswax, propolis, and royal jelly. without the common honeybee, apis mellifera, our world would look vastly different, or, human life would cease to exist on this planet. honeybees work together with their hives and a multitude of different flowering plants to produce products that we take for granted, elrod 70 as shown in bee movie. multispecies theory has us analyze our world in a different light by immersing ourselves in our surrounding environment, and asking how each interaction shapes our world as well as the world for those around us, and bee movie is a fun and entertaining way to analyze that mindfulness. elrod 71 works cited bee movie. directed by simon j. smith and steve hickner, performances by jerry seinfeld,renée zellweger, matthew broderick, patrick warburton, and john goodman, paramount pictures, 2007. “bee movie.” imdb, imdb.com, 2 nov. 2007, www.imdb.com/title/ tt0389790/. “colony collapse disorder | us epa u.s. environmental protection agency.” epa.gov, 2023, www.epa.gov/pollinator-protection/colonycollapse-disorder. danforth, bryan. “bees.” current biology, vol. 17, no. 5, 2007, pp. r156-r161. ebert, roger. “bee movie movie review & film summary (2007): roger ebert.” bee movie movie review & film summary (2007) | roger ebert, 1 nov. 2007, www.rogerebert.com/reviews/bee-movie2007#:~:text=we%20learn%20at%20the%20outset,pull%20if%20 off%2c%20she%20could. haraway, donna jeanne. “introductions.” when species meet, university of minnesota press, minneapolis, mn, 2007, pp. 1–42. “honeybee.” encyclopedia britannica, encyclopedia britannica, inc., 20 oct. 2023, http://www.britannica.com/animal/honeybee. “how honeybees reproduce.” perfectbee, 13 feb. 2024, www.perfectbee. com/learn-about-bees/the-science-of-bees/how-honeybees-reproduce. lutrell, jordan. knowing the honey bee: a multispecies ethnography. 2017. massey university, ostiguy, nancy. “pests and pollinators.” nature news, nature publishinggroup, 2011, www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/ pests-and-pollinators-23564436/#:~:text=there%20are%20over%20 200%2c000%20species,%2c%20solitary%20bees%2c%20and%20 wasps. randall, brianna. “the value of birds and bees.” farmers. gov, 6 june 2022, www.farmers.gov/blog/value-birds-andelrod 72 bees#:~:text=honey%20bees%20alone%20pollinate%20 80,types%20of%20fruits%20and%20vegetables. robbins, jessica. “bees in the ballance.” berkeley scientific journal, vol. 16, no. 1, 2011, pp. 1-4. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8pp7r3bj seinfeld, jerry, et al. “bee movie.” rotten tomatoes, 2 nov. 2007, www. rottentomatoes.com/m/bee_movie. van dooren, thom, eben kirksey, ursula münster; multispecies studies: cultivating arts of attentiveness. environmental humanities, 1 may 2016; 8 (1): 1–23. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/22011919-3527695. wood, t.j., michez, d., paxton, r.j. et al. “managed honey bees as a radar for wild bee decline?”apidologie 51, 1100–1116 (2020). https://doi. org/10.1007/s13592-020-00788-9. elrod exploring religious animal symbolism in louise erdrich’s the plague of doves katelyn mathew • • • • multispecies encounters in her 2009 novel the plague of doves, louise erdrich weaves a complex story that demonstrates the attempted erasure of native american culture and religion through contrasting religious animal motifs. serpents, doves, and lambs have inherent associations with biblical and some indigenous religions that, together, build a conflict that is reflected by the tension between the occupants of the reservation and by the white characters. for example, the biblical interpretation of serpents is that they are evil spirited and essentially the embodiment of satan; however, some religions view serpents as creatures that cast out demons. these contrasting beliefs, along with other examples in the novel, create the religious and spiritual conflict that occurs in the novel as the native americans are bombarded with catholicism and other pressures to abandon their culture. associating or assigning these animals with religious symbolism to different characters, both white and indigenous, erdrich enriches the conversation surrounding the conversion of native americans to catholicism and the separation of indigenous peoples with their families and culture by exposing the entitlement and power imbalances present between native americans and westerners. ©2024 mathew. the digital literature review, 11, 42-57. doi: 10.33043/a79zb3z77. shared with cc by-nc-nd 4.0 liscense. 43 religion, especially as it pertains to catholic conversation and influence on native americans, is a hallmark of many of louise erdrich’s works, including tracks (1988) and the last report on the miracles at little no horse (2001). in her 2009 novel the plague of doves, erdrich utilizes contrasting religious animal motifs to add to her critical commentary on religion in relation to the conversion of native american tribes to catholicism and other western practices. these motifs build upon religious symbolism to create and demonstrate the colonizer entitlement and power imbalances present between native americans and westerners. the plague of doves is a 2009 novel set in north dakota in the fictional town of pluto, which neighbors an ojibwe reservation. throughout the novel, white characters and ojibwe characters collide and interact, intertwining family trees and tragic events from the past, such as the murder of an entire white family excluding their baby daughter which led to the hanging of three innocent men belonging to the ojibwe tribe. the novel is separated into chapters that are narrated by a range of characters from pluto. in each chapter, religion comes into play in some way. in evalina’s first chapter, which is the first chapter of the entire novel, we see mooshum, her grandfather, interact with father cassidy. along with his brother shamengwa, mooshum taunts and mocks the priest, who visits often to encourage their family to attend weekly mass. during one of father cassidy’s visits where he suggests it is time they return to the church to confess as it has been an extended period of time and they have surely sinned since their last confession, shamengwa claims that he has not sinned. mooshum agrees and says, “i, too, completely pure,” while his chin “trembled,” as if he were holding back laughter (erdrich 24). in evalina’s first chapter, we see her struggling with her sexuality as she develops a crush on one of the nuns that teaches in her catholic school. catholic schools, or mission schools, were a common way to convert the native americans to catholicism. in “native americans on the path to the catholic church: cultural criss and missionary adaptation,” multispecies encounters 44 ross enoch discusses how mission schools were essential to the conversion of native americans to catholicism because they were often boarding schools where native american children would be cut off from their family’s culture for large portions of time (85). there is also non-catholic religion representation in the novel, particularly in marn wolde’s perspective as she is the wife to billy peace, a cult leader who began as a catholic priest before forming his own religion based around the “spirit.” even without the animal symbolism in these instances, it is abundantly clear that religion is a major theme in the plague of doves. erdrich weaves the animal symbolism with the religious storylines to enhance the theme and to give it a deeper reading. present in both the title itself and throughout the novel—especially in the beginning—doves play a pivotal role in understanding erdrich’s religious motifs and how they contribute to the overarching theme of the desire for power. in western religions, the dove has multiple meanings including, but not limited to, peace, the holy spirit, love, new beginnings, and purity. in her review of the novel, carole goldberg reflects on these various meanings in comparison to how erdrich utilizes the doves and states that they appear in “guises throughout the book: emblem of nature, symbol of the holy spirit, harbinger of troubles” (goldberg, par. 6). in the book of genesis, after the great flood, noah sent out a dove to test if the water had receded. when the dove returned, it had an olive branch in its beak, implying that there were trees and foliage and not just endless water (life application study bible, gen. 8.11). the dove with an olive branch has become a widely recognized symbol of peace. the dove seems to only have positive connotations in western spirituality, which contrasts with the symbolism of doves in native american religions. while some native american tribes view doves similarly to western religions—doves as symbols of peace and new beginning—some view doves as omens of death. the algonquian peoples, of which the ojibwe are a part of, is one of these groups (lewis 1). in the beginning of the novel, mooshum tells the story of doves descmathew 45 ending over pluto in 1896 in what he describes as a plague. the doves decimated crops and tormented the townspeople. mooshum explains that “one could wring the necks of hundreds or thousands and effect no visible diminishment of their number…the dead only fed the living and each morning when the people woke it was to the scraping and beating of wings, the murmurous susurration, the awful cooing babble, and the sight, to those who still possessed intact windows, of the curious and gentle faces of those creatures” (erdrich 5–6). during this time, mooshum was serving as an altar boy in his older brother’s church. this church was covered with birds who were knocking each other off the cross on the roof from where they perched. during one of the attacks the doves had on the people of pluto, the women pulled their skirts up so they could run from the violent birds. mooshum, young and raised around catholicism, lusted over the women’s legs. however, a dove struck him in the forehead “with such force that it seemed to have been flung directly by god’s hand, to smite and blind him before he carried his sin of appreciation any farther” (erdrich 8). in this scene, where mooshum is struck in the face with a dove, he looks up and sees his future wife junesse wiping the blood from his forehead and ear. evalina narrates her grandfather’s telling of the story and describes what she imagines, saying, “the holy spirit hovered between them” (erdrich 12). in christianity, the holy spirit’s role is the helper; the holy spirit may reveal information or provide peace and comfort. in the book of luke, the dove is used in a metaphor for the holy spirit: “and the holy spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove” (luke 3.22). likewise, the spirit is known to give power: “but you will receive power when the holy spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in jerusalem, and in all judea and samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (acts 1.8). in this way, erdrich’s inclusion of the holy spirit in the retelling of mooshum’s meeting with his future wife amidst the plague of doves shows how both mooshum and junesse gained agency from their interaction on that day. junesse, who is white, gained enough power to leave her abusive aunt as well as her responsibilities caring for six younger cousins,whereas mathew 46 mooshum gained enough power to leave and to avoid becoming a priest like his older brother whose church he was the altar boy for. had the plague of doves not fallen over the town, the couple’s future together might not have been guaranteed. the word “plague,” which is used to describe the doves and their reign of terror over pluto, has a religious connotation as there have been many plagues depicted in the bible. one specific plague that is similar to the plague of doves in the novel is the locust plague in the book of exodus: “if you refuse to let them go, i will bring locusts into your country tomorrow. they will cover the face of the ground so that it cannot be seen. they will devour what little you have left after the hail, including every tree that is growing in your fields” (exod. 10.4–5). the plague of locusts was the eighth of ten plagues god laid over egypt to assert his power and force pharaoh to release the enslaved israelites. with this context, the plague of doves over the town of pluto might symbolize the way the westerners pressured native americans to convert to western culture, as well as western religions. by refusing western colonization—as mooshum does, especially when he decides not to follow his brother’s footsteps to become a priest and instead runs off with junesse—the ojibwe folks, alongside the white residents of pluto, experience the plague of doves. however, as evidenced by both history and by the plague of doves, the power and influence of colonizers surpassed the native americans’ efforts, similar to how god’s pressure against pharoah eventually wore him down to surrender. it is important to note that while many of the native american traditions and populations have diminished since the colonization of what is now the united states, these communities are far from extinct. believing so would fall subject to the trope of the “vanishing indian,” a myth which harvard university’s pluralism project describes as “the american imagination that many believe there are no more native americans, or at least no more ‘real indians’”(“myth of the ‘vanishing indian’” par. 4). this is evidenced to be false. today, there are a recorded 6.79 million native ammathew 47 ericans from 574 federally recognized tribes living in the united states (“native american population by state 2023” par. 3). members of this population partake in active roles in legislation, in the government, in activism, and in the spreading of awareness of their communities to continue to give their people a voice in a time where the “vanishing indian” myth is still believed by many. the pluralism project states, “indigenous men and women say plainly that they are here to stay, and that american expansion and american history rests on their stolen land” (“myth of the ‘vanishing indian’” par. 4). while it is clear that westerners did not erase the native american, they did damage their population and cause changes in some traditions and practices, which will be explained in more depth later in this paper. another way to look at the plague of doves decimating the crops and the livelihood of the people of pluto is to see it as a representation of western civilization taking steps towards the erasure of native american land, religion, and culture. as the white population in america moved west, indigenous tribes experienced “some of the most rapid and dramatic cultural changes in history” (enoch 71), including economic and social changes, which were prominent factors that diminished many traditional native american religions. this was a result of a multitude of reasons, one of those being the relocation or destruction of indigenous-owned land. in many native american communities, religious traditions and rituals are linked to specific landmarks or sites. because they were essentially cut off from these sites, their religions declined, and some seemed to die off completely (enoch 74). this view on the natural world and land differed from the view christians hold. christian worship is not restricted to specific places as the “church” is anywhere where there are at least two christians gathered in fellowship together (matt. 18.20). angela sparks writes, “understanding the reciprocity and relational nature of the ojibwe people’s treatment of the environment and its inhabitants is key to recognizing the stark contrast between indigenous and settler approaches to land use in the early nineteenth century” (sparks 409). it is possible these differing views mathew 48 on the religious and general significance of location impacted the manner the united states government seized indigenous-owned land, exerting their power over the indigenous peoples. this loss of land caused many native americans to lose aspects of their religions. discussing the birchbark house series by erdrich alongside other native american works, roxanne harde claims, “erdrich holds up these small migratory animals as the better symbols for the family and their people” (harde 241). while the “migratory animals” are not doves, harde does discuss the role of birds in the birchbark house series. in the series, she claims that the birds are symbolic of the ojibwe people and the dynamics within their specific family. additionally, the birds are a source of protection and guidance. this is a far different depiction of birds from their symbolism in the plague of doves because the birds are not described as characters and do not provide any guidance, other than possibly being the reason mooshum meets junesse. even still, the birds wreak havoc and cause harm to the people and the town. the rationalization of colonizing native land includes bringing the indigenous people to perceived “better” ways of life, despite the harm and genocide committed. perhaps this believed benefit is reflected in mooshum’s meeting his future wife, and the detrimental colonization of native land, which expresses the imbalanced power westerners had over native peoples. taking the ojibwe’s view of doves into consideration, a different interpretation of the plague arises. rather than relating to the egyptian plagues, the holy spirit, or the westernization of native american culture, this interpretation depicts the doves as a bad omen. because the plague takes place in 1896, it is a precursor to the tragic events that are to follow in 1911: the murder of the white lochren family, excluding a single family member who is a baby, and the lynching of three innocent ojibwe men who were wrongfully blamed for the crime. along with doves, serpents also emerge as a religious symbol, though it is through marn wolde’s perspective that we see them. marn wolde, a white woman, married billy peace, an ojibwe soldier-turned-preacher. mathew 49 many characters in the novel experience conflict between their native american religious beliefs and the pressure to assimilate into catholicism—by father cassidy and mission schools, for example—and billy’s conflict led him to form his own religion that marn described as “a religion based on what religion was before it was religion” (erdrich 158). because there is little documentation that suggests there was a time where civilization did not believe in one or multiple higher powers, this may allude to the days where jesus walked the earth with his original followers. billy viewed himself highly, especially after getting struck by lightning, so there is a parallel between billy and his followers and jesus and his. to spread his religion, billy and his followers travel. marn obtains two serpents—a diamondback and a northern copperhead, both venomous—from a family who practiced an unorthodox religion and handled snakes whom she met while traveling alongside billy and his followers. when the old woman from the snake handler family gives marn the serpents, she tells her that she will get bit but live because of marn’s power. the woman also tells marn that the snakes “have judgment in them…[a]nd they have love” (erdrich 160). after hearing of this, marn picks the snakes up and willingly lets them bite her. marn describes this experience as “getting close to spirit” (erdrich 160), which she did not find in billy’s religion. she goes as far as to call them her “lambs of god” (erdrich 173). because the snakes judged and approved of her, and she had the “power,” she did not die, just as the woman told her. as marn’s chapter progresses, marn grows to hate billy. while they are intimate one night, marn takes a needle “filled with the venom of the snake and tipped with the apple of good and evil” and plunges it into billy’s heart, killing him (erdrich 178). if we read the serpents as a jesus-like figure, as suggested by the “lamb of god” reference, then the serpents are jesus and judge billy, finding him guilty and thus killing him with their venom. however, if we read the serpents as derived from the devil, then perhaps they tempted marn of sin in the form of her husband’s murder. this would line up with christianity’s view on serpents. in the book of mathew 50 genesis, the serpent is described as “more crafty than any of the wild animals the lord god had made” (gen. 3.1). likewise, in revelation: “the great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or satan, who leads the whole world astray” (rev. 12.9.). the story of original sin also contains a serpent where the devil, in the form of a serpent, tempted adam and eve to eat the forbidden fruit. this forbidden fruit is referenced in the novel when marn describes the needle as “tipped with the apple of good and evil.” the serpent is the devil in this circumstance, so the serpents marn possesses hold that connotation. however, the family who handles snakes do so because they believe snakes “cast out devils by handling poisons” (erdrich 160). this reading is the opposite of what the serpent represents in the bible, so it creates more of that religious and spiritual conflict that occurs in the novel as the native americans are bombarded with catholicism. robert lake-thom, a descendant of karuk and seneca tribes and a traditional native healer and spiritual teacher, views snakes similarly to the snake handler family: “they can have good power, bad power, or both…used for seeing, healing, and protection” (14). with either interpretation, the serpents held the power that enabled marn to murder billy. while it can be interpreted that the murder of billy is another case of a white character killing a native american in an act that further erases the native american population just as the settlers who settled on the americas enacted on the indigenous peoples since the beginning of colonization in the united states and perpetuates the myth of the vanishing indian, deborah l. madsen complicates this idea. in “discontinuous narrative, ojibwe sovereignty, and the wiindigoo logic of settler colonialism: louise erdrich’s marn wolde,” madsen argues that marn’s narration is unreliable, and that her actions and delusions reflect a colonizer’s perspective. madsen writes, “marn wolde’s narration achieves the displacement of the indigenous into the category of the monstrous and of the political into the sphere of the private by portraying herself as the spousal victim of billy peace’s overwhelming appetite for power of all kinds” (madsen 26). mathew 51 madsen describes marn’s “appetite for power of all kinds” as “settler land hunger” (madsen 24) because marn would inherit their jointly possessed money and land after billy’s death, taking away the power he had built for himself. marn’s implicit “appetite for power” is heightened and enabled through the snakes, which are a vessel of power for her. like how many white people rationalize the relocation and westernization of native americans, marn rationalizes the killing of her ojibwe husband. she believes that because the snakes judged her highly and judged billy to be less worthy, and that the land under their name belonged to her, that killing billy was a reasonable means to that end. furthermore, billy posed a threat to marn’s power because he subverted the roles of conquered and conqueror, as rachel bonini claims in “constructing the past: places, histories, and identities in louise erdrich’s the plague of doves.” she writes, “billy contorts his agency into a vicious form of domineering power, in a sense reversing the roles” (bonini 104). although billy takes back the land that had been stolen from his people, erdrich does not paint him as a hero in the scenario. once he obtains power, he abuses it, just as marn abuses her power that she uses to get the land back. in an analysis of tracks, erdrich’s novel from 1988, gheytasi and hanif allege that erdrich does not play into positioning people opposite of each other with a black and white perspective. they write that erdrich “avoids giving priority to one cultural code over another; her literary and cultural hybridization intends to deconstruct binaries like the europeans versus the natives” (gheytasi and hanif 151). while this is written about tracks, it is true to the way erdrich writes billy and marn as well. neither are given favor as both abuse power in their own ways. this manipulation of “traditional narrative convention” (gheytasi and hanif 1-52) also translates to the other decisions she made while writing the plague of doves, including “time, truth, narration, and reliability” (gheytasi and hanif 152). using marn’s perspective, as she experiences living as a cult leader’s wife and gets bitten by poisonous serpents, allows the narrative unreliability to come through and challenges the idea that marn mathew 52 is a helpless, victimized wife of billy, which madsen claims is a common interpretation (madsen 23). billy peace took the religion he learned from the white settlers and mixed it with other religions—both from native american culture and from his own mind—but his religion, whether or not it was harmful, was taken from him by marn’s snakes. her power—symbolized by the serpents—stole his religion, reflecting the way colonizers historically stole native american religions. erdrich utilizes a couple other animals as symbols throughout the novel, though snakes and doves are the most prominent. three of these animals are salamanders and lambs. the salamander is only discussed in the first chapter, which is told from evelina’s perspective. siblings evelina and joseph observe the behaviors and physical attributes of black salamanders because joseph expresses an interest in observing their life cycle throughout the year. mooshum informs them that nuns believed the salamanders were “emissaries from the unholy dead, sent up by the devil, and hell was full of them” (erdrich 29). likewise, father cassidy tells the siblings, “there are some who believe those creatures represent the devil” (erdrich 36), though he does not believe it himself. however, joseph and evelina—as well as their grandfather and most of their family—do not subscribe to the catholic faith that the mission school and father cassidy encourage, and they do not view the salamanders as from the devil. instead, they show them kindness by saving them from the schoolboys who would’ve stomped on them had the siblings not gotten to them first. at one point, when joseph grows impatient observing the elusive amphibians, he dissects a live salamander using his father’s equipment. witnessing the salamander’s exposed insides and guts reflects a discussion between father cassidy, mooshum, and shamengwa not long after the di ssection. it’s a brief moment, but they mention god creating each of them, “down to the details” (erdrich 33). this discussion—being created with precision and detail—correlates with the dissection of the salamander because the procedure allows joseph and evelina to see a creature that god made from within. the dissection, as well as the rest of joseph’s observatmathew 53 ion, also demonstrates a power imbalance because he is able to do what he wants with the salamanders. the salamander he dissected alive had tried to crawl away during the night, but died at the windowsill with its insides— which joseph examined and pinned in place—unraveled and stretched (erdrich 30). in an analysis of animals and metaphors in native american literature, gerald vizenor writes, “we learned as hunters, and later as authors, never to let a wounded animal suffer. wounded animals were put out of their miseries, at heart our miseries of the animal other in literature” (666). while the salamander is put out of its misery, it is not by joseph’s doing. he dissects the salamander while it was still living, unintentionally allowing it to suffer, and then left it cut open and alive while he slept. despite not maliciously dissecting the salamander, joseph’s position allows him to ignore the suffering of the salamander. once it dies, he buries it with evalina, but the death does not affect him deeply because he begins dissecting them again a month later. his previous kindness for them was overcome by the power he held over them, which allowed him the distance from their suffering. similarly, the transportation of the salamanders from their original habitat to a fabricated one for joseph to observe them more closely also reflects his exercise of his power over them. it also parallels the forced removal and constriction of native americans from their native land to reservations. however, as the salamanders never remain in their relocated habitat, many native americans make efforts towards restoring their stolen land and traditions. used in marn wolde’s chapter, another animal erdrich uses that has connotations of religious symbolism to contribute to the effect of power demonstrations in the novel is the lamb. more specifically, the “lamb of god.” marn describes the snakes as such to billy while in bed with both him and the snakes. while billy is disgusted and wary of the snakes, marn feels comfortable around them, if not empowered and lustful. the term “lamb of god” comes directly from the bible and is the title of jesus. claiming the snakes as her lambs of god gives the snakes the role of jesus, the son of god the father, which would assign marn the position of god mathew 54 the father. the holy trinity is then made whole: marn, as god the father, the snakes as god the son, and their connection as god the spirit. jesus is called the “lamb of god” because lambs were often used for sacrifices, and jesus was the ultimate sacrifice to pay for everyone’s sins. the bible reads, “the blood of jesus, his son, purifies us all from sin” (1 john 1.7). the serpent’s venom parallels jesus’s blood because it “saves” or sets marn “free” from billy. in marn’s greedy delusion, she must believe that billy is the ultimate evil. it is interesting that the snakes are described as lambs, though, considering the practice of sacrificing lambs and the crucifixion death of jesus. this would assume that marn would kill them, too, as she killed billy. however, this does not happen. marn’s connection with the snakes is severed when she is no longer on wolde land (which was once reservation land). the holy spirit binds people with god, so the disconnection assumes a distance from the spirit as well. after killing billy, when marn is in the restaurant with her children, she loses her title as god the father—as well as her power—because she is no longer a part of the trinity that gave her the power. her connection with the land could possibly reflect the connection between native americans and their land, especially their religious sites that have been stolen from them either in relocation or destruction. the ojibwe religious traditions respect the manidoog, or the “spirits” (“anishinaabe ojibwe ways” par. 2). these spirits are likely what billy peace based some of his religion from, considering he stripped the figures of god and satan from the catholic religion he once preached and he is from the ojibwe tribe. marn narrates, “there was only spirit…there was spirit, and that was vast, vast, vast, so vast we had to shut out the enormousness of it” (erdrich 159). the spirits in ojibwe traditions are most commonly symbolized by animal spirits. (“anishinaabe ojibwe ways” par. 2). this is likely because of the “interdependent relationship between animals and people” (enoch 72) of many native american religions. as sparks explains, “in contrast to the settlers who separated spirit and nature, the ojibwe are portrayed by erdrich as people who believe that spirit mathew 55 and nature are inseparable” (407). by having a white woman find “spirit” while with the snakes, and then using them to rationalize and enable her to kill an ojibwe man for her own personal gain, marn steals more from the people her ancestors have historically stolen from. in many native american cultures, animals are regarded as “sustenance, as spiritual helper and guide, and as a symbol of the ability to respond to, adapt, and even thrive in drastically changing circumstances” (harde 231). bonini contributes to this idea and asserts that the plague of doves represents the history of humans overtaking untouched wilderness, or white americans overtaking native american communities, and relates that to the main characters of the story (bonini 103). this overtaking involves religious conversion, of course, but bonini’s point about the plague representing humans overtaking untouched wilderness adds to the conversation because of the strong ties between native american religion and nature. many native american economies, which relied on hunting and farming, were interconnected with religious rituals. by continuing to participate in these farming and hunting practices, their religions persisted. however, as a result of white overhunting and the formation of reservations, many tribes had to abandon these practices. these practices not only broke down their traditional economies and ties to sacred sites, but they also broke down their religion and overall culture (enoch 75). with the breakdown of their culture, it became easier to convince them to adopt the catholic ways. taking one’s power displays the power of the taker, or conqueror; in this scenario, that would be settlers. this is one of the hallmarks of madsen’s “appetite for power of all kinds.” not only do they want power, but they are also incentivized to strip it from others to create a steeper imbalance. with the metaphoric nature and treatment of the animals in erdrich’s novel, they serve as allusion and symbol to expose the ways in which religion is handled throughout the book: as complicated power dynamics and imbalances, particularly in relation to the westernization of native american peoples and culture that sought to erase their religion. mathew 56 works cited “anishinaabe ojibwe ways.” the pluralism project, harvard university, 2020. pluralism.org/anishinaabe-ojibwe-ways. bonini, rachel. “constructing the past: places, histories, and identities in louise erdrich’s the plague of doves.” midamerica, vol. 42, 2015, pp. 93–108. the midwestern press. https://ssml.org/wp-content/ uploads/2022/10/mid-am-2015.pdf#page=93. enochs, ross. “native americans on the path to the catholic church: cultural crisis and missionary adaptation.” u.s. catholic historian, vol. 27, no. 1, 2009, pp. 71–88. jstor, http://www.jstor.org/ stable/27671175. gheytasi, sajjad and mohsen hanif. “louise erdrich’s tracks: survival or subversion.” esc: english studies in canada, vol. 44 no. 1, 2017, pp. 151–166. project muse, https://doi.org/10.1353/esc.2017.0044. goldberg, carole. “channeling the past, vibrant characters, lyrical prose, enchant in louise erdrich’s latest.” chron, 11 may 2011, www.chron.com/life/books/article/the-plague-of-doves-by-louiseerdrich-1753474.php. harde, roxanne. “‘he called their namesakes, the animals, from each direction’: kinship and animals in indigenous children’s literature.” children’s literature association quarterly, vol. 46, no. 3, fall 2021, pp. 230–243. johns hopkins university press, https://doi. org/10.1353/chq.2021.0034. lake-thom, robert. spirits of the earth: a guide to native american nature symbols, stories, and ceremonies. penguin. aug 1997. https://books.google.com/. lewis, orrin. “native american dove and pigeon mythology.” native languages of the americas, www.native-languages.org/legends-dove. htm. accessed 10 dec. 2023. life application study bible. new international version, zondervan mathew 57 mathew publishing house, 2007. madsen, deborah l. “discontinuous narrative, ojibwe sovereignty, and the wiindigoo logic of settler colonialism: louise erdrich’s marn wolde.” studies in american indian literatures, vol. 28, no. 3, 2016, pp. 23–51. jstor, https://doi.org/10.5250/ studamerindilite.28.3.0023. “myth of the ‘vanishing indian.’” the pluralism project, harvard university, 2020. pluralism.org/myth-of-the-vanishing-indian. “native american population by state 2023.” native american population by state 2023, 2023, worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/ native-american-population. sparks, angela. “kinship ecology and the bildungsroman: the child– animal relationship in louise erdrich’s the birchbark house series.” textual practice, vol. 36, no. 3, 2022, pp. 404–421, taylor and francis group, doi: 10.1080/0950236x.2022.2030117. vizenor, gerald. “authored animals: creature tropes in native american fiction.” social research, vol. 62, no. 3, 1995, pp. 661– 683. the johns hopkins university press. https://www.jstor.org/ stable/40971113. maguire 83 “a border is a veil”: death as a border in the farming of bones and the book thief brigid maguire, ball state university within literature, death has always been within literature, death has always been a common theme. in this essay, death as a common theme. in this essay, death as a border in literature will be explored in a border in literature will be explored in edwidge danticat’s edwidge danticat’s the farming of bonesthe farming of bones and markus zusak’s and markus zusak’s the book thief. the the book thief. the farming of bonesfarming of bones follows amabelle défollows amabelle désir, a young haitian woman working in sir, a young haitian woman working in the dominican republic, and tells of the dominican republic, and tells of the haitian massacre in the dominican the haitian massacre in the dominican republic in 1937. republic in 1937. the book thiefthe book thief follows follows liesel meminger, a young german girl liesel meminger, a young german girl living under the nazi regime, and tells of living under the nazi regime, and tells of life during world war ii. both danticat life during world war ii. both danticat and zusak explore death as it appears in and zusak explore death as it appears in those tragedies, how it affects the people those tragedies, how it affects the people under those regimes, and how it creates under those regimes, and how it creates a border. death creates a border both a border. death creates a border both physical and spiritual, rigid yet perme-physical and spiritual, rigid yet permeable, and one that is displayed through able, and one that is displayed through the personification of death by danticat the personification of death by danticat and zusak.and zusak. when most people think of borders, they tend to think about physical borders: ones that separate countries, ones that separate the imprisoned from the free, and more. a border that is often forgotten, one that is both physical and spiritual, is the border between life and death. death has long been a theme in literature and it has been explored in many ways. death creates a border both physical and spiritual, rigid yet permeable, and one that is displayed through the personification of death in edwidge danticat’s the farming of bones and markus zusak’s the book thief. in the farming of bones, amabelle désir is a young haitian woman who works as a servant for a wealthy family in the dominican republic. she loses her parents to death as a child and later loses her other loved ones during the haitian massacre. amabelle survives the haitian massacre in the dominican republic, what’s referred to as the parsley massacre, and flees back to a haiti she barely knows or remembers. in the book thief, liesel meminger is a young german girl who is sent to live with a foster family during world war ii. she loses her brother to death, her mother to the war early in her childhood, and then the rest of her loved ones over the course of world war ii. both amabelle and liesel are confronted with the reality of death due to genocide, as they witness their loved ones’ deaths and the aftermath. amabelle’s and liesel’s lives are shaped by losing their family and friends to the other side of the border of death; or as amabelle puts in the farming of bones: “a border is a veil not many people can wear” (danticat 264). the farming of bones while death is more than just a physical border, the consequences of it as a physical boundary are usually the most prominent. in the farming of bones, amabelle désir experiences the physical border of death when her parents die. while trying to cross the river from the dominican republic back to haiti, her parents are swept away by the current while amabelle stays waiting on the bank. one of the boys at the river, who stops her from jumping in after her parents, remarks on the finality of the physical boundary: “‘unless you want to die,’ one of them says, ‘you will never see those people again’” (danticat 52). the physical border of death keeps her from her loved ones later in life as well, like with sebastien, her lover. the spiritual border of death becomes blurred for amabelle. she spends the better half of the novel living as if dead on earth. she admits this to sebastien in one of her dreams, saying “i chose a living death because i am not brave” (danticat 283). although we know she lives for at least two more decades after returning to haiti, it isn’t really living. as hewett states, “amabelle lives like a ‘ghost,’ trapped somewhere between past and present” (132). she sticks to her routine of sewing and staying in the house as she struggles with feeling able to live after being surrounded by so much death. death, although she is scared of it, is something she comes to welcome. after living through the river-crossing that her fellow refugees, odette and wilner, did not, amabelle was not comfortable with her own survival: “there was a stillness to it [odette’s face] i nearly envied” (danticat 205). not only did odette die, but it was a result of amabelle’s actions. while they were crossing, wilner was shot by a soldier and amabelle covered odette’s nose and mouth to keep her from yelling. odette was still breathing when they got to the shore, but since wilner died “... she had already made her choice” (danticat 202). again, after more than two decades have passed, amabelle describes sleep as a “comfort” for it “... was as close to disappearing as i could come” (danticat 287). after sebastien is gone, amabelle seems to give up on living. even before she lost sebastien, amabelle said “i am afraid i cease to exist when he’s not there” (danticat 2). that feeling maguire 84 maguire 85 would only solidify once she had lost him for good. after losing so many people to the violent acts of genocide, amabelle experiences a spiritual death; she is never fully living again.-fort” for it “... was as close to disappearing as i could come” (danticat 287). after sebastien is gone, amabelle seems to give up on living. even before she lost sebastien, amabelle said “i am afraid i cease to exist when he’s not there” (danticat 2). that feeling would only solidify once she had lost him for good. after losing so many people to the violent acts of genocide, amabelle experiences a spiritual death; she is never fully living again. even the idea of parsley, which is explored throughout the novel, is used as a symbol of both life and death. amabelle’s community used parsley “... to wash a new infant’s hair for the first time and ... a corpse’s remains one final time,” along with culinary and medicinal methods (danticat 62). when amabelle, yves, and tibon are being beaten by the dominicans and have parsley shoved in their mouths, instead of thinking about the impending death that was sure to come, she thinks of it as a way to survive instead: “i told myself that eating the parsley would keep me alive” (danticat 193). death is personified in different ways throughout the novel. amabelle is the narrator of her own story and so we, as readers, get to experience her thoughts, feelings, and dreams. amabelle is haunted by “shadows” in both her waking life and her dreams: “when i was a child, i used to spend hours playing with my shadow ... there were many shadows, too, in the life i had beyond childhood” (danticat 2-3). these “shadows” followed her around her whole life, representing the spirits of all the loved ones she would lose. amabelle also refers to sebastien’s absence as her “shadow” before she knows if he has died or not (danticat 281). haitian folk religion is heavily linked to the voundoun religion and it makes its appearance in the spiritual practices of the characters in the novel (weir-soley 168). the voundoun religion has been notoriously misrepresented, especially in western cultures, and is “... perceived as an illicit source of spiritual agency, is associated with death, darkness and the devil” (weir-soley 171). it has even become common to refer to it as ‘voodoo’ with all the negative stereotypes of ‘black magic’ instead of the real voundoun religion. but as weir-soley explains, it couldn’t be farther from the truth: “experts recognize voudoun as a legitimate source of agency and transformation for the haitian peasantry, perhaps even a spiritual reprieve from the abjectness of poverty and the oppression of political tyranny” (171). like most communities, the haitians’ religious ferocity helps them to stay sane and deal with the turmoil in their country. while voundoun is not part of the “dark arts” as modern media would have us think, it does still have ties to both death and life through healing. when amabelle is sick, her mother makes her a doll out of her favorite things; whether it be a spiritual doll or just forcomfort, it helps. in her fever, she sees the doll get up and start jumping rope. the doll tells amabelle, “‘i am sure you will live to be a hundred years old, having come so close to death while young’” (danticat 58). since amabelle comes so close to death again later in life, during the massacre, it seems the doll’s predictions come true. the way that life and death are addressed in the farming of bones is also very cyclical. the final scene wraps up amabelle’s personal experience with death neatly. as amabelle gets into the river, “in the place of [her] original loss,” she finds comfort in her dreams and memories instead of pain (hewett 141). she “has found a place where she can be at peace with her body and the violence of her past, at least temporarily” (hewett 141). we, the readers, don’t know if amabelle is simply reflecting on her life when she gets into the water or if she intends to end her life. hewett reads the final scene of amabelle as a reflection of her life and finally embracing what she’s gone through. at this moment when “amabelle finally embraces all of the losses that have defined her identity and creates a new self out of loss,” there is a rebirth (hewett 141-142). but perhaps amabelle was not there to simply reflect on death, but to embrace it herself. it would be a fitting way for her to go: just as her parents did, just as when she first tried to join them in death. the book thief in the book thief, death as a narrator and death as the idea and act itself are two separate concepts, and thus require distinct styles of capitalization moving forward. liesel meminger loses her brother to death as well. she and her brother are traveling with their mother to be taken in by a foster family, but on the train ride there, her brother dies suddenly. liesel “could see without question that her younger brother, werner, was now sideways and dead” (zusak 20). with the death of her brother, she sees the physical border of death in action; at one moment her brother is breathing and conscious, and in the next, he’s simply a limp body sat next to her. her brother’s death is not the only one she experiences, as she again witnesses the death of everyone close to her at the end of the book. her foster father, hans hubermann, foster mother, rosa hubermann, and best friend, rudy steiner, all die in a bombing that she survives. she loses almost everyone. literary scholar débora ameida de oliveira states that “of all people who know liesel, just three are able to survive and share her life” (49). death separates liesel from almost all her loved ones. mass death is often described by death through his narration, but in simple ways. not only does liesel witness her brother’s, foster parents’, and friends’ deaths, but death does as well. death often uses numbers to relay tothe readers the violence he’s seeing in an impersonal way, like “just over two hundred maguire 86 murdered souls” (zusak 488). for death’s own “sanity,” he creates a boundary between himself and the dead by trying to see them simply as numbers and not as the complex humans he knows they are. liesel is haunted by death, as he follows her and tells her story, but she is also haunted by death, especially her brother’s. she often wakes up to terrible nightmares about her brother’s death, waking up “swimming in her bed, screaming, and drowning in the flood of sheets” (zusak 36). as johnson explains, “swimming while drowning symbolizes life—a painful struggle that ultimately ends with death. liesel’s dream further demonstrates this innateness of human suffering because werner’s death haunts only the living liesel” (3). in her sleeping hours, the border of death becomes more permeable. her dreams feel real and show her struggle with letting her loved ones cross that border. as johnson says, only liesel experiences the terror that werner’s death came with because she is the one who is alive (3). when she’s asleep, the deaths that liesel has experienced haunt her, while death haunts her waking hours. death sees liesel’s interactions with death, the act, and has her own interactions with her, like picking up her diary after she threw it away (zusak 539). while liesel is haunted by death itself, death is also who narrates her story. to fully understand the book thief, “it is necessary to view the book thief as a double story: it is liesel’s story, but it is death’s story too” (oliveira 37). not only that, but one must understand that death is both a character, narrator, and a border. zusak wrote the narrative style in such a way that death, since he is omniscient, can share the details of liesel’s life, as well as her thoughts. but even death experiences borders and is limited to only insight into liesel’s mind. he says “max, hans, and rosa i cannot account for, but i know that liesel meminger was thinking that if the bombs ever landed on himmel street, not only did max have less chance of survival than everyone else, but he would die completely alone” (zusak 384). while death has the ability to travel around, he is entranced by liesel once he first sees her, when he is collecting her brother’s soul: “i buckled — i became interested. in the girl. curiosity got the better of me, and i resigned myself to stay as long as my schedule allowed, and i watched,” and he continued to watch and share her story (zusak 7). death is personified, as he is given feelings and opinions of his own, but he is not made human. throughout the novel, colors. then the humans,” while he ends the novel with “i am haunted by humans” (zusak 3; 550). but he is not unmoved by all the tragedy he sees, often using the colors of the sky to distract him from the violence and keep his focus away from the humans who survive, “the leftovers” (zusak 4). he takes no joy from collecting souls but even more so dislikes the whole experience of his job: “when deathtakes someone away, he feels a great discomfort by noticing the behavior of those who stay” (oliveira 26). in a convoluted way, he experiences death as a border as well; he never maguire 87 is shown interacting with or even seeing the souls he carries away again. it is simply his job to carry the souls and they are permanently on the other side of the border once he’s taken them away. when he first introduces himself as what humans will meet at the end of their life, he makes sure to explain there is no choice in it, saying “please, be calm, despite that previous threat. / i am all bluster— / i am not violent. / i am not malicious. / i am a result” (zusak 6). while the explanation comes because he is desperate to make clear that bringing death is not his choice, the contrast of himself with humanity makes the border clear. as much as death follows liesel’s life, the border of death keeps him from taking part in life at all. conclusion amabelle and liesel both lived through genocides and experienced death all around them. amabelle, like liesel, is also haunted in dreams, often with imagery or memories of death. although they have managed to evade death on multiple occasions, they are still surrounded by death in their waking life. their stories take place only years apart, in 1937 and 1939 respectively. death separated them from their loved ones, first as a physical boundary and then as a spiritual one. they both lost their immediate family early in their childhood and then the majority of their loved ones later in life, because of the genocidal acts. death becomes permeable for them at times, like amabelle with the doll during her fever dream and liesel having death narrate her story. at the end of both their stories, they themselves cross the border of death: amabelle in the same river that took her parents and liesel to finally meet her old friend face-to-face. maguire 88 works cited danticat, edwidge. the farming of bones. soho press, 2014. heather. “at the crossroads: disability and trauma in the farming of bones.” melus, vol. 31, no. 3, 2006, pp. 123–45. jstor, www.jstor.org/stable/30029654. johnson, sarah k. “pain, death, and nazis: the surprisingly beautiful function death plays as narrator in markus zusak’s the book thief.” 2015. brigham young university, phd dissertation. hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/3348. oliveira, débora ameida de. “‘haunted by humans’: the uncanny narrator in markus zusak’s the book thief.” 2017. universidade federal do rio grande do sul, phd dissertation. lume digital repository, hdl.handle.net/10183/159109. weir-soley, donna. “voudoun symbolism in the farming of bones.” obsidian iii, vol. 6/7, 2005, pp. 167–84. jstor, www.jstor.org/stable/44511673. zusak, markus. the book thief. alfred a. knopf, 2016. maguire 89 american psycho by bret easton ellis is a post modern satire of the 1980s american culture. in this essay, i argue that ellis uses the facets of a serial killer to methodically break down the impact that trickledown economics had on marginalized communities in the u.s. trickledown economics is a tax policy which posits that favoring the rich in terms of tax breaks, allows the the wealthy to trickledown to the masses. while a seemingly good theory, the results devastated marginalized communities throughout the nation as the richer got richer and the poor got poorer. ellis’ novel establishes bateman as the stand-in for this type of unchecked capitalism, and his cogs in the machine: an analysis of american psycho rae keeler, ball state university 62 violence is a representation of this. for example, ellis’ depiction of bateman as a product killer establishes how capitalism treats its victims before leaving them behind in the form of the homeless and marginalized. furthermore, these people become bateman’s victims, who in the true crime community are known as the “less dead.” this is ellis’ commentary on how the justice system treats these individuals already and why bateman ultimately gets away with his crimes. the 1980s in america was a time marked by terror and blood. with the election of president reagan came a revolution that would follow the republican party until today after the introduction of trickle-down economics or also called reaganomics. in american psycho, bret easton ellis methodically breaks down each facet of a serial killer through his protagonist patrick bateman and compares them to stages of capitalism in 1980s america. while the movie has become iconic in pop culture, this essay will focus on ellis’s book as it is how the author originally intended it and because the depictions of violence are more extreme. much of the modern scholarship surrounding american psycho argues about the identity crisis of the white male and whether ellis is sympathetic towards the white male anxiety, which stems from the fear that their time at the top of society is ending as the acceptance of new identities arrives. storey argues that “ellis shows us the monstrous heart of masculinity at the outer limits, a frenzied pomophobia [a convergence of fear from late capitalism, including feminism, non-straight sexualities, and anything else diverging from ‘normal’]” (58). in other words, bateman’s desire to be in control, in conjunction with his anxiety over losing power, is ultimately what causes his downfall. while i would agree that bateman being white and wealthy are key in understanding this novel, ellis is not focused on bateman’s identity itself, but rather what it represents, which is that those who gained the most from reaganomics and who hoarded wealth and power caused economic despair upon the middle and lower classes. i contend instead that ellis uses the composition of a serial killer to illustrate the effects of capitalism in america. the concept of trickle-down economics posits that if the rich were given giant tax breaks, then the wealth would trickle down and eventually be distributed to the rest of society. in practice, it favors the upper class, particularly large corporations and extremely wealthy investors. those who idealize this practice believe that when big businesses receive tax benefits, they will treat their workers better. when it was advocated by former president reagan, however, all it resulted in was the rich getting richer, hoarding their wealth as the poor became poorer (hartsoe). not only was trickle-down economics forcing economic disparity onto the masses, but also, this decade saw the highest levels of active serial killers than ever before and since (aamodt). by putting these two ideas together ellis depicts how the violence of unchecked capitalism is similar to the violence of serial killing. ellis begins his novel by establishing the importance of the setting, which reveals the significance of the plot that unfolds. ellis reveals the core of the attitudes held by the newly rich of the era via the first spoken words in the novel as bateman and his coworker price ride in a taxi towards an event and price suddenly says, “‘i’m keeler 63 resourceful… i’m creative, i’m young, unscrupulous, highly motivated, highly skilled. in essence what i’m saying is that society cannot afford to lose me. i’m an asset’” (3). in other words, because of price’s identity as a wealthy white man working on wall street, he believes that he is more valuable to society than other people. this is significant because it reveals the inner psyche of the characters, which will be juxtaposed by the events that happen as the novel progresses as well as the economic disparity that is also shown throughout the novel, but especially as ellis establishes the setting: “his voice stops, he takes in a breath and then quietly says, his eyes fixed on a beggar at the corner of second and fifth, ‘that’s the twenty-fourth one i’ve seen today. i’ve kept count’” (4). price’s casual counting off all the homeless people he sees while just on a casual drive demonstrates the disparity of the economy. it is important to note how the powerful can look at those affected by the economy that they are directly benefiting from and remain unaffected by them while their actions directly impact the homeless. this is demonstrated particularly when price sees another homeless person and jokingly says to bateman, “‘ask him if he takes american express’” (7). his cruelty towards the homeless reflects the attitude of american society during this period, which is key to understanding why bateman’s murders and mutilations relate to capitalism. furthermore, ellis introduces another motif that is consistently returned to throughout the novel at integral moments. as bateman and price continue the drive, ellis makes sure to note that there is “another advertisement for les misérables” (6). while it could be explained that the musical is frequently brought up because it was the most popular show on broadway at the time, i contend that ellis is alluding to the french revolution and the story of jean valjean because the musical tells the story of not just the lower-class starting a bloody uprising, but also the story of a man who was punished for stealing a loaf of bread for his family. in essence, he is punished for the entirety of his life for being poor. this is something that ellis is clearly considering when crafting the setting for his novel. having the backdrop of the poor being punished shows how cruel society can truly be. without these critical themes that ellis establishes, none of the gore that follows would hold any significant meaning. ellis devotes an entire chapter to describe at extreme length bateman’s morning routine to establish him as the vehicle for his metaphor for capitalism. ellis begins by showing how bateman describes his apartment: “a toshiba vcr sits in a glass case beneath the tv set; it’s a super-high band beta unit and has built-in editing function including a character generator with eight-page memory, a high-band record and playback, and three-week, eight-event timer” (25). the depiction of the apartment’s features, especially with the inclusion of the brand names, becomes a representation keeler 64 of consumerism in the extreme and an embodiment of the slogan “greed is good,” which was popularized during the era. bateman’s obsession with material things reveals not only his wealth and the shallowness of his personality but also turns him into a symbol of capitalism. the objective of capitalism is to gain and maintain as much wealth as possible, which is made much easier by trickle-down economics. this is displayed through bateman’s obsession with having status symbols of his wealth and extends to his physical appearance, from his clothing and perfectly groomed hair to his in-depth morning ritual of skin care and workout routines, which ellis takes the rest of the chapter to depict. another way that bateman is both obsessed with his appearance and attempts to present himself the same as the rest of society is through his clothes, which are frequently brought up by bateman himself. when he is leaving in the morning, he “find[s] a burberry scarf and matching coat with a whale embroidered on it (something a little kid might wear) and it’s covered with what looks like dried chocolate syrup crisscrossed over the front, darkening the lapels” (ellis 30). ellis is subtly hinting, not only at bateman’s materialism by again mentioning the expensive name brand and the details of the design, but also at his violence. “[w]hat looks like dried chocolate syrup” creates the image of dried blood, intrinsically linking violence as a part of his materialism. by creating this character profile for bateman, ellis establishes him as a symbol of capitalism and the violence that ensues from it. an important feature of the novel is much like the economy at the time in which the novel is set, bateman is already in a state of escalation with his killing. he needs increasingly more violence and deviance to get the same amount of pleasure. graham argues that the intensification of capitalism is “comparable to the shocking amorality of transgression, this extremity is characterized by a process of escalation integral to bateman’s hyperviolence, demonstrated through his increasingly depraved but localized scenes of brutality” (228-229). in other words, bateman feels the need to escalate his crimes because he is a representation of the economy at the time. while i do believe that bateman is certainly acting as a representation of what the economy is doing at the time, i argue that ellis is even more specific in what he is depicting through bateman. as a member of the wall street class of the nouveau riche, the economic scale is tipped in his favor as the stock market skyrockets—of course before its inevitable crash—and he can hoard the wealth that he is gaining in extreme due to the policies of the reagan administration. his escalation can be seen in the way that bateman casually starts to incorporate violence into his thoughts. for instance, when he is spending time with his coworkers, he begins to have violent urges when his coworker says something he does not agree with: “i have a knife with a serrated blade in the pocket of my valentino jacket and i’m tempted to gut keeler 65 mcdermott with it right here in the entranceway, maybe slice his face open, sever his spine” (ellis 53). this is significant because it shows how casually bateman regards violence at this point because something small can set him off and something equally as small—such as going to a club—can convince him not to murder and or torture someone. bateman’s violent personality traits continue to be depicted and gradually escalate as the novel continues through ellis’s demonstrations of how easily bateman is angered. for example, when the waitress at the club ignores his flirting he states, “i tell her i would like to tit-fuck her and then maybe cut her arms off, but the music, george michael singing ‘faith,’ is too loud and she can’t hear me” (ellis 80). not only is he set off by a minor inconvenience, which illustrates how ellis is establishing that bateman is in a state of violent escalation, but he also blatantly states several times the violent acts that he would like to commit or has already committed. despite this, he is never taken seriously. this is comparable to the novel’s depiction of the increasing disparity between the rich and poor as well as the increasing homelessness that was taking place, yet no one is attempting to solve or take it seriously. ellis continues to show how trivially bateman’s actions are taken and how it parallels how the privileged part of society treats those they can ignore. this is particularly clear during a scene in the dry cleaners in which he is angry about them not getting the blood stains out of his clothes: “the chinese dry cleaners i usually send my bloody clothes to delivered back to me yesterday a soprani jacket, two white brooks brothers shirts and a tie from agnes b. still covered with flecks of someone’s blood” (ellis 81). when he is unable to get the dry cleaner to understand that he wants the bloodstains out because of a language barrier in conjunction with underlying racism and frustration at having to deal with someone below him in class, he becomes increasingly angrier, resulting in him having increasingly violent thoughts: “i have never firebombed anything and i start wondering how one goes about it—what materials are involved, gasoline, matches... or would it be lighter fluid?” (83). bateman is prevented from acting out on his violent urges, however, because a woman who lives in his building also enters the dry cleaners. when she notices the bloodstained sheets, though, bateman’s response is, “‘it’s, um, cranberry juice, cranapple juice… i mean, um, it’s really... bosco. you know, like… like a dove bar. it’s a dove bar... hershey’s syrup?’” (84). despite bateman’s excuse being incredibly flimsy and practically incoherent, the neighbor does not care, which is clear when she still attempts to flirt with him. this is another extreme example of how society disregards issues that are staring them directly in the face, and in this case, how trickle-down economics is a disaster that is resulting in lower-class people paying the price. keeler 66 product versus process killers is a term colloquially used within the true crime community to characterize distinct types of killers. the difference between the two is whether the person kills because they want the outcome of having a dead body, such as in the case of ed gein or john wayne gacy, or whether the person enjoys the process and does not want to deal with the body afterward, such as btk (kissel et al.). ellis distinctly establishes bateman as a process killer, which reveals how capitalism treats its victims. significantly, the first time that ellis depicts bateman carrying out an act of violence the victim is a “bum, a black man [with a] handprinted cardboard sign attached to the front of the cart [which] reads i am hungry and homeless please help me” (128). it is not a coincidence that the first victim ellis has bateman attack is a homeless man. ellis is establishing that not only will this man become bateman’s victim, but he is already a victim of capitalism. in a game that is rigged for those who are already white and wealthy to win, this man has lost and now ellis will demonstrate the consequences of losing the game of capitalism in america. bateman, much like society, regards the man with disdain, asking the questions that privileged people untouched by economic despair frequently ask: “‘why don’t you get a job?... if you’re so hungry, why don’t you get a job?’” (129). in other words, bateman becomes not only a representation of capitalism but also the cruel attitudes of society at this moment when he berates a man who is most likely at his lowest and relishes in the process. ellis establishes bateman as a process killer when he starts to depict the actual killing: “i pull out a long, thin knife with a serrated edge and, being very careful not to kill him, push maybe half an inch of the blade into his right eye, flicking the handle up, instantly popping the retina” (131). the graphic description reveals how bateman is enjoying the process of torturing and mutilating, not just getting it over with so that he can use the body. in other words, bateman is relishing the process of mutilating the man and the feeling he derives from it but does not want anything to do with the person after he has received his pleasure from the act, which can be seen later in the text when bateman progresses to killing and when looking at the body he claims, “i get very tired looking at it” (291). this is the same as what capitalism does to those who suffer from the consequences and what society does to the victims of it. in the exact same way that bateman does not want to deal with the consequences of his actions—the leftover bodies—so too does capitalism not want to deal with its victims—the homeless and desolate. as the plot continues, bateman’s victims, much like the homeless man, continue to be members of traditionally marginalized communities. storey argues, “for bateman to remain coherent, his unstable sense of self requires a particularly savage attack on the ‘other’ and a clear idea of who they are. everyone he ‘murders’ keeler 67 presents some kind of challenge to his position of patriarchal supremacy” (storey 65). while storey is playing into the popular idea that bateman’s acts of violence may or may not be real, his point of bateman’s violence against others still stands on its own. in other words, to remain sane and in power, bateman must attack others, especially those who are not white, wealthy, and male. while i agree that both bateman’s and his victims’ identities are essential to the understanding of the novel, it is less about maintaining the patriarchy itself, but the entire capitalist system, which is upheld by the patriarchy. i also contend that the others that he references are part of a population that has been titled “the less dead” in true crime, which was defined by los angeles police department officer mitzi roberts, who caught infamous serial killer samuel little, as “people who live on the margins of society and whose murders have historically tended to be not as thoroughly investigated as those of their wealthier, whiter, and perhaps more sober counterparts” (lauren 3). in other words, serial killers can get away with their crimes for longer—and perhaps even reach the status of a serial killer—because the deaths of the populations that they normally prey on are not investigated in the same way that a wealthy, white person’s death would be. the fact that these victims’ crimes go uninvestigated due to social and economic factors exemplifies how even the world of crime is not untouched by the politics and evils of capitalism, which ellis is clearly aware of, proven by bateman’s murder victims. ellis makes this clear, not only with bateman’s first assault being a black, homeless man but also when the first person he is shown killing is “an old queer... walking a brown and white sharpei” (164). homophobic attitudes have prevented police from investigating crimes for many years, but particularly in the eighties with the backdrop of the aids crisis, the likelihood of a gay man’s death to be investigated is significantly lower, which includes members of the lgbt+ community in the “less dead” population. ellis demonstrates the cruelty that society unleashes on members of the communities through bateman’s violent killing as he “start[s] randomly stabbing him in the face and head” (166). unlike before, however, where his victim was left alive and wounded, bateman opted to “make sure the old queer is really dead and not faking it (they sometimes do) i shoot him with a silencer twice in the face and then i leave” (166). by depicting the violence and killing of a gay man, ellis argues that in capitalism members of the lgbt+ community also suffer. as the plot progresses, bateman turns to sex workers as his next category of victims, which then includes them in ellis’s own definition of the less dead and victims of capitalism. after bateman picks up two sex workers, brings them back to his apartment, and engages in a sex act, his reoccurring urge to escalate takes over keeler 68 as he describes, “i stand up and walk over to the armoire, where next to the nail gun, rests a sharpened coat hanger, a rusty butter knife, matches from the gotham bar and grill, and a half-smoked cigar; and turning around, naked, my erection jutting out in front of me, i hold these items out and explain in a hoarse whisper, ‘we’re not through yet...’” (ellis 176). this extreme act of violence he commits on the two women he does without fear of repercussions because he is aware that as sex workers, they are not able to report the crimes that are taking place against them. those who are lumped into this category share the fact that both in capitalism and in death, they lose their value and identity. ellis broadens who he believes loses value in capitalism, however, when bateman starts to pick off people within his own class. colby contends that “[t] he novel exhibits a present-day society devoid of values, one that has been made vacuous by the violence of global capitalism, revealing an unbearable nihilism that has deeply affected the family unit and the individual in everyday life” (340). in other words, the violence in ellis’s work reveals the belief that no one and nothing matters in globalized capitalism because of the deep devaluation of individuals. in capitalism, the only thing that is valued is your output of work, which should be sacrificed more than anything else. this can be seen in the ways that up until this point, bateman’s victims were homeless people, gay men, and prostitutes. when he kills paul owen—another wall street yuppie, whom bateman is in fact frequently mistaken for—ellis begins to show the ways in which people are devalued in capitalism and how the extreme lack of identity leads to everyone being interchangeable, which can be seen in the way that owen has the same kind of violent death as all of bateman’s other victims: “the ax hits him midsentence, straight in the face, its thick blade chopping sideways into his open mouth, shutting him up” (217-218). in other words, capitalism has turned him into just another body that is only meant to be used, and when the system has decided that its use is finished, it eliminates it. this can also be seen in the way that bateman treats owen’s corpse: “i carry the body up four flights of stairs until we’re at the unit i own in the abandoned building and i place owen’s body into an oversize porcelain tub, strip off his abboud suit and, after wetting the corpse down, pour two bags of lime over it” (219). in other words, bateman, as the hand of capitalism, starts to treat those within his own class the same way that he has treated the “less dead.” ellis is showing that in the world of capitalism, no one’s identity truly matters—that everyone is valueless in this system. ellis continues to develop this theme when he introduces a private investigator hired to investigate owen’s disappearance. at first, bateman believes he will be caught, but his alibi is created by another co-worker who claims “‘[h]e was at keeler 69 atlantis with craig mcdermott, frederick dibble, harry newman, george bunter and... you [bateman]’” (ellis 274). ellis shows how even bateman is replaceable in a capitalist system because while he is murdering someone an unknown person can take his place and the people that he spends the most time with will not notice that it is not bateman that is having dinner with them. ellis even begins to depict bateman as taking the place of the now-dead owen: “i decide to use paul owen’s apartment for a little tryst i have planned for tonight” (301). much like a job opening, once the position for owen is open, bateman can seamlessly slip into that role, and no one questions it. in fact, bateman goes as far as to buy expensive items “charging them on paul owen’s gold american express card” (301). in other words, bateman becomes a spiritual replacement for owen, which he can do because who paul owen is does not matter—only the output of the work he creates. ellis is subversively showing how it is not just those who suffer from the violence of capitalism who lose value and identity but that in a capitalist society, no one’s identity actually exists and therefore does not matter. the climax of the novel is reached when bateman’s largest killing spree is triggered. ellis depicts at this point that the bloody spree serves as a cautionary tale of what will happen if unchecked trickle-down economics is to continue. the biggest economic failure of reaganomics did not occur until the recession of 2008, which left those who played the stock market penniless in some cases (hartsoe). this spree, however, warns of this collapse as foresight as early as the 1990s because of the great inequality that was already apparent. ellis begins to show the economic collapse when bateman kills a street performer: i screw a silencer onto the gun... i raise the gun to his face and midnote pull the trigger, but the silencer doesn’t work... [t]he booming sound of the gunshot deafens me... i pop the clip and replace it with a full one, then something bad happens... because while doing this i’ve failed to notice the squad car that was traveling behind me. (ellis 348) up until this point, bateman has not feared being caught, but when his power is threatened by the means of being caught by the police it causes a break in his psyche. not only does he begin to murder people without abandon, seemingly not even enjoying the process, yet almost as a reflex, like it is the only thing he knows how to do, but he also begins to have an out-of-body experience, which is seen when ellis, without warning, switches perspectives: “patrick tries to put the cab in reverse but nothing happens, he staggers out of the cab” (349). in other words, bateman’s perception of his body representation has shifted from inside him to keeler 70 the external, as though he is a spectator watching his actions—as if he is trying to distance himself from what he has done. i contend that this out-of-body experience is a type of depersonalization, which represents what society does when it inflicts violence on others via capitalism—it tries to distance itself from it as much as possible. this switch in a moment of heightened drama is a physicalized version of what society inflicts upon the left-over bodies of capitalism after it has wreaked havoc. the kind of mass destruction both bateman and capitalism are capable of is truly portrayed, however, when “a stray bullet, sixth in a new round, hits a gas tank of a police car, the headlights dim before it bursts apart, sending a fireball billowing up into the darkness” (350). the explosion draws attention and even more police to the scene, yet bateman escapes out of sheer luck. while this moment is the largest display of mass violence in the book and ultimately causes him to call his lawyer to confess to all his crimes, bateman’s escape from the law reveals ellis’s argument that the criminal justice system allows the white, straight, cis, upper class to get away with crimes, leaving the rest of society to suffer at their hands. as the bodies have piled up after his killing spree and the novel reaches its conclusion, bateman starts to feel the need to compulsively confess his crimes. however, ellis depicts how confession is not an option or exit: “[h]e confesses at the end of the novel that all of his violent acts come to nothing... [therefore,] the text seems to warn that white male crisis is the latest form of justification for fascistic violence against racial, sexual, and classical minorities” (kwon 66). in other words, ellis turns his novel into a cautionary tale that warns against the dangers of indulging the excuse of the white male crisis against social injustice. while i would agree that this is true, this view ignores the fact that capitalism is already committing “violence against racial, sexual, and classical minorities,” and that bateman is merely a stand-in and an extreme expression of what capitalism is already doing. therefore, the confession that follows shows that there is no solution or escape from capitalism. when bateman confronts his lawyer to whom he had previously confessed and who tells him it is impossible that he killed paul owen, bateman responds, “‘i chopped owen’s fucking head off. i tortured dozens of girls. that whole message i left on your machine was true’” (ellis 388). instead of believing him, though, ellis shows exactly how interchangeable people in society are when he reveals that owen cannot be dead “‘[b]ecause... i had... dinner... with paul owen... twice... in london... just ten days ago’” (388). ellis depicts how the people of wall street—just like bateman’s victims— are also valueless in capitalism. they are interchangeable just like a cog in a machine that can be swapped out with another identical part. ellis establishes that whether or not owen is alive is irrelevant because either he has been replaced by someone who serves the same function or bateman killed keeler 71 someone whom he believed was owen, but either way the machine of capitalism hums on. therefore, bateman’s confession is meaningless because his crimes mean nothing in the end. they are all a part of the endless violence of capitalism that will not end with bateman, which is demonstrated in the very last words of the novel: “this is not an exit” (ellis 399). in other words, the end of the novel is not an end to the system that bateman is a representation of. there is no escape or “exit” from the violence of capitalism. in doing this, ellis creates a space within the crime fiction genre to allow for critique, especially within the justice system and how it is corrupted by capitalism. just like bateman, the wealthy, white upper class gets away, while everyone else suffers at their hands. through the portrayal of patrick bateman, ellis depicts several facets of a serial killer and methodically relates each one to capitalism devaluing individuals and creating violence in the form of economic terror. akin to the way that the capitalist machine chews up its victims and spits them out, so does bateman, which is portrayed in the way that ellis characterizes him as a process killer. his victims are all members of the “less dead,” who are people who have already lost at the game of capitalism until he reaches paul owen—a member of his own class. ellis does this to show how eventually, everyone loses their identity because capitalism only values measurable output. finally, bateman’s last killing spree and confession reflect how there is no escape from the system that america has created. this is a fact that remains hauntingly true as we consider the most recent events and the economic despair that continues to grow in our country, which reminds us that there is never an exit. keeler 72 works cited aamodt, m.g., “serial killer statistics.” radford university and florida golf coast university, www.researchgate.net/profile/michael-aamodt-2/ publication/342501023_radfordfgcu_annual_report_on_serial_killer_ statistics_2020/links/5ef75a6492851c52d6007c8c/radford-fgcu-annualreport-on-serial-killer-statistics-2020.pdf. accessed 02 february 2023. colby, georgina. “repressive desublimation and the great refusal in bret easton ellis’s fiction.” textual practice, vol. 26, no. 2. 19 september 2011, pp 319-345. mla international bibliography, 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bibliography, www.doi.org/10.1080/00144940.2019.1604485. accessed 31 january 2023. lauren, jillian. “the serial killer and the ‘less dead.’” new york, vol. 51, no. 26, dec. 2018, pp. 24–92. academic search complete, www.thecut.com/2018/12/howserial-killer-samuel-little-was-caught.html. accessed jan 19, 2023. storey, mark. “‘and as things fell apart’: the crisis of postmodern masculinity in bret ellis’s american psycho and dennis cooper’s frisk.” critique, vol 47, no. 1, fall 2005, pp 57-72. www.doi.org/10.3200/crit.47.1.57-72. accessed 31 january 2023. keeler 73 https://www.researchgate.net/profile/michael-aamodt-2/publication/342501023_radfordfgcu_annual_report_on_serial_killer_statistics_2020/links/5ef75a6492851c52d6007c8c/radford-fgcu-annual-report-on-serial-killer-statistics-2020.pdf https://www.researchgate.net/profile/michael-aamodt-2/publication/342501023_radfordfgcu_annual_report_on_serial_killer_statistics_2020/links/5ef75a6492851c52d6007c8c/radford-fgcu-annual-report-on-serial-killer-statistics-2020.pdf https://www.researchgate.net/profile/michael-aamodt-2/publication/342501023_radfordfgcu_annual_report_on_serial_killer_statistics_2020/links/5ef75a6492851c52d6007c8c/radford-fgcu-annual-report-on-serial-killer-statistics-2020.pdf https://www.researchgate.net/profile/michael-aamodt-2/publication/342501023_radfordfgcu_annual_report_on_serial_killer_statistics_2020/links/5ef75a6492851c52d6007c8c/radford-fgcu-annual-report-on-serial-killer-statistics-2020.pdf http://www.doi.org/10.1111/jacc.13281 http://www.doi.org/10.1111/jacc.13281 http://today.duke.edu/2019/01/road-trump-began-reaganomics-loss-middle-class-economist-says http://today.duke.edu/2019/01/road-trump-began-reaganomics-loss-middle-class-economist-says http://today.duke.edu/2019/01/road-trump-began-reaganomics-loss-middle-class-economist-says http://www.lastpodcastontheleft.com/ http://www.doi.org/10.1080/00144940.2019.1604485 http://www.thecut.com/2018/12/how-serial-killer-samuel-little-was-caught.html http://www.thecut.com/2018/12/how-serial-killer-samuel-little-was-caught.html http://www.doi.org/10.3200/crit.47.1.57-72 fowler 58 considering societal, psychological, and geographical borders in dayton & faris’s 2006 film little miss sunshine eden fowler, university of sheffield when considering borders and when considering borders and boundaries, our initial interpretation boundaries, our initial interpretation often responds with a recognition of often responds with a recognition of the geographical borders which divide the geographical borders which divide and organize our world. however, and organize our world. however, often overlooked are the psychological often overlooked are the psychological and societal borders experienced by and societal borders experienced by individuals and the ways in which individuals and the ways in which these kinds of boundaries define our these kinds of boundaries define our lives. borders and boundaries of all lives. borders and boundaries of all forms are encountered in the 2006 forms are encountered in the 2006 road movie road movie little miss sunshinelittle miss sunshine, directed , directed by jonathan dayton and valerie faris. by jonathan dayton and valerie faris. as ann brigham notes, “road stories as ann brigham notes, “road stories themselves are plotted around unsettling themselves are plotted around unsettling processes: the crossing of borders, the processes: the crossing of borders, the courting and conquering of distance, the courting and conquering of distance, the reinvention of identity, and the access, reinvention of identity, and the access, negotiation, and disruption of spaces” negotiation, and disruption of spaces” (8). this essay will consider the complex (8). this essay will consider the complex borders navigated by the hoover family borders navigated by the hoover family as they journey from albuquerque, new as they journey from albuquerque, new mexico to redondo bay, california mexico to redondo bay, california in search of the in search of the little miss sunshinelittle miss sunshine beauty pageant. as a road narrative, beauty pageant. as a road narrative, the film covers extensive geographical the film covers extensive geographical distance, emblemized by the yellow vw distance, emblemized by the yellow vw campervan the hoover family travels in. campervan the hoover family travels in. but the hoovers are a family of misfits, but the hoovers are a family of misfits, all experiencing their own psychological all experiencing their own psychological barriers and suffering under the societal barriers and suffering under the societal boundaries of social class hierarchy and boundaries of social class hierarchy and patriarchy. thus, as a film embedded patriarchy. thus, as a film embedded in mobility, this essay will also consider in mobility, this essay will also consider the ways in which boundaries are the ways in which boundaries are transgressed as well as responding to the transgressed as well as responding to the resilience exhibited by individuals when resilience exhibited by individuals when faced with challenging circumstances.faced with challenging circumstances. there is little doubt of the vital and complex significance of borders in the 21st century. in a time of political unrest, national intolerance and suspicion, and increasing migration, the contradictory existence of geographical boundaries is emphasized. as marc silberman and his fellow authors explain, “the contradictory yet simultaneous functions of walls, borders and boundaries – to divide and connect, to exclude and include, to shield and constrain – are fundamental to all cultures” (1). these kinds of barriers exist simultaneously with other borders, like the mental and social boundaries which establish our perceptions of the world and the relationships we construct. our lives are determined by borders and boundaries, and yet perhaps less salient in our minds are the societal and psychological borders sub-consciously defining the choices we make and the opportunities with which we are presented. in dayton and faris’s 2006 film little miss sunshine, the characters from the hoover family encounter borders on many levels, from the borders created by social class hierarchies, to the psychological boundaries that are perpetuated from within the family dynamic. thus, when the hoover family take to the road in quest of seven-year-old olive hoover’s little miss sunshine beauty pageant, the characters cross both geographical and metaphorical borders, and overcome the many boundaries placed before them. these border crossings become imperative in the personal development of these characters, as by the end of the film, each family member is reaffirmed of their purpose and place in the world. simultaneously, the collective impact of these border crossings is demonstrated in the strengthened familial unity of the hoover family. the crossings this essay will analyze designate little miss sunshine as a film about defiance, growth, and overcoming adversity. as a road narrative, little miss sunshine is, by proxy, a film about the traversing of borders and boundaries. from the outset, the journey even in theory poses numerous challenges about who will participate in the trip, what vehicle will be used, and the resources needed for this kind of travel. in a tense scene at the beginning of the film, the family debate how to navigate and overcome the various borders placed before them. the financial requirements of flying from albuquerque to california ensure that road travel is the necessary mode of transport. however, it is the requirement that the entire family of six participate in the journey – grandpa edwin helped olive rehearse, frank is on suicide watch, dwayne is too young to be left home alone, and sheryl “can’t drive a shift” – which ensures that the iconic yellow vw campervan is the vehicle of choice (dayton and faris). once on the road, the hurdles the hoover family encounter on their journey only multiply. from very early on in the film, the old campervan is a source of precarity with its engine, horn, and door breaking at various periods and thus preventing olive from reaching the beauty pageant. even as the family reaches california, the location presented in little miss sunshine deeply contrasts traditional interpretations of the state as one of freedom and opportunity. dayton and farris present an environment polluted with freeway network links as concrete bridges cut across the open sky. this overwhelming man-made infrastructure encourages a return to silberman et al’s ideas of the contradictory nature of borders. these highways are fowler 59 intended for travel and connection and yet appear intimidating and hostile. california freeway network. richard drives through the barrier to the beauty pageant hotel car park. further, when the hoovers near their destination of redondo beach, the beauty pageant hotel is illustrated again as a site of hostility. the difficulty of finding the hotel, leading to richard driving the van along footpaths, through chain barriers, and even breaking through the car park entrance barriers again symbolizes the both mental and physical borders crossed in order to reach the pageant. however, it is the traversing of these boundaries which in many ways breaks down the borders the family members have created between one another and creates a sense of family unity absent at the beginning of the film. the family’s solution to the broken van – to push start the vehicle and then run and jump in while the van moves – actually acts as a distinctly positive, bonding experience for the family. fowler 60 dayton and faris illustrate this in frank’s elated reaction to the successful operation: “no one gets left behind! outstanding soldier, outstanding!” family joy after successfully push-starting the bus. (see full scene here.) here we observe frank’s first experience of joy in the film, an emotional state far from his own struggle with depression and a consequential suicide attempt. little miss sunshine thus indicates the distinct sense of achievement when borders are crossed and boundaries are ruptured. the push-starting of the car throughout the film then forms a cinematic motif of bonding and connection between the family, but also of the physical struggle between individuals and the limitations placed on them seemingly by fate. these borders also illustrate that the family are in many ways resigned to circumstances beyond their control, but also that as a family of misfits, they are predisposed to facing additional boundaries in life. these are characters struggling to find their place in the world, to be valued and to be respected. as jill dolan articulates, “olive intuitively feels her own confusion and incipient despair at the choices that land in our laps, whether or not we want them there, at the vagaries of life over which we have so little control, biologically or politically” (1).thus, the following will focus on the borders encountered by three out of six main characters in the film: dwayne, frank, and olive. dwayne dwayne hoover, a mute-by-choice teenager, is sheryl’s son from a previous marriage. as a character, he is socially awkward and extremely isolated, perhaps as a result of the fragile genetic bond he shares with his family. he is detached from his step-father richard and step-grandfather edwin, and, to an extent, from his half-sister, olive. interestingly, he fowler 61 https://youtu.be/ij9hvhbfdxq experiences an almost instant connection with uncle frank, a family member who perhaps feels more stable and central within a traditional family to dwayne. dwayne’s notepad. dwayne undeniably constructs a border between himself and others. his adolescence ensures he pushes away his family and his refusal to maintain relationships with others, as he states “all i ask is that you leave me alone” (dayton and faris). as finamore illustrates, “dwayne seems to typify the plight of the contemporary angst-ridden adolescent” (124). but it is the non-verbal border created by dwayne which ensures his isolation from the world. he takes a vow of silence to prove his discipline until he achieves his dream of becoming a fighter pilot. his refusal to verbally communicate ensures a boundary between himself and others. dwayne instead relies on the non-conventional method of communication: writing short responses on a notepad. this method is thus inherently restrictive and ensures that dwayne’s ability to convey language and emotion is limited. dwayne is a victim of the borders of his own creation. dwayne’s vow of silence is essential in ensuring the audience’s recognition of how critical his dream of flying jets is to his character. thus, there is a sudden, devastating moment of realization when it is revealed that dwayne will not be able to fly. in the scene, frank, olive, and dwayne read a pamphlet with vision tests, one of which is a color blindness test. it soon becomes clear that dwayne is color blind, and frank instantly realizes “you can’t fly jets if you’re color blind.” dayton and faris employ a hand-held camera in the scene, mimicking the shaking, nauseating motion of the bus. additionally, the scene takes place shortly after the van’s horn has broken, ensuring that the infuriating, whining fowler 62 horn sound illustrates hysteria. dwayne experiences a psychological breakdown in the van, banging against the doors and ceiling in an attempt to escape the confines of the bus. colorblindness becomes a completely unpreventable border between dwayne and his dreams. dwayne’s breakdown scene. (see full scene here.) but little miss sunshine is a film about navigating boundaries and the refusal to be confined by the borders placed in our paths. after his breakdown, dwayne becomes more open, mostly as a result of increased articulation, thus creating a stronger connection with his family and deeper understanding of the great lengths individuals will go to for the ones they love. in turn, he becomes less isolated and actively includes himself in the family. in fact, it is in the scene following dwayne’s emotional breakdown that we witness the first fowler 63 https://youtu.be/zcllq4lml7a instance in which he experiences physical contact with another character, when olive hugs him. the emotional and physical border he experiences between himself and the coldness of the world is fractured by the warm touch of his little sister. olive comforts dwayne. frank like dwayne, frank ginsburg is also a character who experiences isolation and constructs barriers between himself and others. frank, a disgraced and heartbroken academic, joins the hoover family to enable his sister, sheryl, to take care of him after his suicide attempt. frank is thus restrained by the psychological borders of mental illness, but is also stigmatized due to his sexuality, and, in a way, due to his academic status which at first impedes him in relating to others. but, as someone who has attempted suicide, frank loses consent over the boundaries around him. when he enters the hoover household, he is not allowed to be left alone and has to share a bedroom with dwayne. as sheryl reminds him, “leave the door open, that’s important” (dayton and faris). the physical boundary of the door is ruptured, and frank loses access to his dignity and any agency over his privacy. this is only heightened when the family endeavors on their road trip, where it seems every waking minute is spent in the close vicinity of richard, edwin, sheryl, dwayne and olive on the bus. the close proximity of others to frank forces the boundaries he has built between himself and others to ebb away. frank quickly gains a new lease on life, like in the euphoric moments when the van is hurtling down the highway and the family all manage to jump in on time. further, it is in the final parts of the film, when the hoovers finally reach the pageant, that we see frank as the first of the family to jump out of the van (with the door comically falling off in his hand) and run into the pageant hotel for olive. here, we witness fowler 64 frank’s sense of purpose and the determination he possesses to reach the goal of the road trip. as a character, frank has undergone a significant development on the road journey and crossed the internalized borders of heartbreak and self-deprecation. frank races to the pageant. olive one character provides the motivation behind all the miles, all the motels, and the many borders crossed on the hoover’s road journey: olive hoover. olive, the adored daughter, granddaughter, sister, and niece is the centring, collective point of the family. however, olive also faces borders in her attempts to achieve her dream of becoming a beauty pageant winner. aside from the narrative borders experienced on the road, olive is also restrained by the borders of girlhood, with issues of self-image and bodily insecurity heightened to extremes within the beauty pageant environment. these societal borders which prevent olive from establishing and maintaining a strong sense of self and selfimage are only consolidated by her father richard’s damaging words of advice relating to his daughter’s body. when the hoovers stop at a diner for breakfast, olive orders waffles and ice cream. richard responds: “olive, can i tell you a little something about ice cream? well, ice cream is made from cream, which comes from cow’s milk, and cream has a lot of fat in it...well, when you eat ice cream the fat in the ice cream becomes fat in your body...so, if you eat a lot of ice cream, you might become fat, and if you don’t, you’re going to stay nice and skinny sweetie.” (dayton and faris) richard employs damaging rhetoric on an impressionable and vulnerable seven-year-old girl, fowler 65 ensuring lifelong questioning of her relationship with food and her body. as alison happel and jennifer esposito explain, “it appears richard is trying to help discipline olive’s body so that she performs a femininity that is sanctioned by the dominant culture” (6). she will constantly be confined by her father’s words and come to view her body and appetite as a barrier between her and success and love. thankfully, the rest of the family are quick to deconstruct this harmful rhetoric, as sheryl states “it’s ok to be skinny, and it’s ok to be fat if that’s what you want to be. whatever you want, it’s ok.” (dayton and faris) olive orders waffles and ice cream at the diner. (see full scene here.) at the little miss sunshine pageant, we see olive struggling to place herself within this uncharted territory. she struggles to maintain the sense of self she previously possessed when viewing the other child contestants, whose physical figures sit in a liminal space between children, glamour models, and barbie dolls. olive begins to perceive her body within the beauty pageant gaze which, attuned to the male gaze, perpetuates a view that the female body should be regulated to a certain standard, which olive’s pre-pubescent body obviously does not. olive judges her figure in the mirror at the beauty pageant. fowler 66 https://youtu.be/joo1ldyu4qi furthermore, when olive dances, she becomes again confined by the profoundly complex and ludicrous boundaries of beauty pageantry, where young girls are sexualized within the realm of objectification but rejected when they are seen to take agency over their own bodily expression. as dolan notes, “olive dances with enthusiasm and joy, unaware that her moves borrow from a sexual vocabulary that signifies the sexual commodification and availability of women, particularly, for a male gaze” (1). despite their best efforts, olive also faces borders as a result of her family dynamic. regardless of the extreme lengths they go to in order to help olive reach the little miss sunshine pageant, there is no denying that the hoovers could never fully cross over into the bizarre and ostentatious world of pageantry. olive is both restrained and encouraged by the overbearing advice of her father, but even richard realizes his overly simplified advice that “there’s two kinds of people in this world, there’s winners and there’s losers. okay, you know what the difference is? winners don’t give up,” is helpless within the ‘strictly codified’ world of the pageants (robinson and davies 353). even the quite minimal class barriers olive faces – in a diner she asks sheryl “how much can we spend?” – are heightened when contrasted with the excess of the pageantry world. olive’s simple leotard costume and ponytail looks pitiful next to the ostentatious outfits of the other girls. ultimately, olive crosses borders and overcomes the boundaries placed before her through the deep-rooted support and encouragement of her family. not only do they help her get to california, but they encourage her to the very end, even joining her on stage in a final mark of defiance against the harsh and ceaseless world which grants the hoovers no favors. olive at the little miss sunshine pageant. (see full scene here.) little miss sunshine is finalized as a film about the borders we face as individuals and the great depths we go to to cross them in the penultimate scene of the film. for the first time, we witness olive’s performance. it is a dance routine she has been rehearsing with her grandfather, the content of which is yet unknown to her family. olive’s performance turns out to be a scandalous burlesque dance routine taught to her by edwin. despite fowler 67 https://youtu.be/wymrllee9qo the obvious sexualization of the other contestants, it is perhaps the agency which olive unknowingly obtains over her sexual expression which transgresses the deeply codified beauty queen world. the dance routine is thus met with dismay and olive is heckled, but in a wholesome and poignant finale, the family join olive on stage. the characters themselves become borders between olive and the “mainstream world of success and efficacy, warped, ambitious, spiteful and lonely” (beck 30). olive’s final performance at the little miss sunshine pageant. (see full scene here.) as this essay has illustrated, little miss sunshine exhibits the crossing of borders at an individual level. but it is the conditions in which these borders are crossed that illustrates the significance of the family dynamic in this film, as the personal journeys the characters undertake are supported by the presence of the unconditional love of their family. personal development is facilitated by the family, and thus, each border crossing, geographical, fowler 68 https://youtu.be/ecfvsmde_-0 psychological or societal, consolidates the emotional ties that hold the family together. olive is empowered by the realization that the most important judgement comes from those who love her. dwayne is reintroduced to the familial love he previously rejected. frank is reawakened to the unchallengeable love of his family after the pain of romantic heartbreak. in little miss sunshine, the resilience each character shows is essential for the crossing of borders of all forms. as eppler and hutchings define, “resilience is the process of coping with and overcoming adversity, finding purpose in the face of suffering, and preparing for the future with a focus on interconnections and personal strengths” (1463). as the hoover family start the 700-mile drive back to albuquerque, the yellow vw campervan provides the powerful symbol of this resilience, of the traversing of boundaries and the refusal to accept the adversities placed before them. the hoovers travel back to albuquerque in their vw van.. fowler 69 works cited brigham, ann. american road narratives: reimagining mobility in literature and film. university of virginia press, 2015. dayton, jonathan, and valerie faris, directors. little miss sunshine. fox searchlight pictures, 2006. dolan, jill. “summer movie wrap up: the descent, little miss sunshine, v for vendetta.” feminist spectator, september 5 2006. https://feministspectator.princeton. edu/2006/09/05/summer-movie-wrap-up-the-descent-little-miss-sunshine-v-forvendetta/. eppler, christie and jen hutchings. “the use of cinematherapy to illustrate systemic resilience.” journal of clinical psychology, vol.76, no.8, 2020, pp.1463-1471. https://doi. org/10.1002/jclp.22998. finamore, dora. “little miss sunshine and positive psychology as a vehicle for change in ddolescent depression” popular culture in counselling, psychotherapy and play-based interventions, edited by lawrence c. rubin. springer publishing company, 2008, pp.123-130. happel, alison and jennifer esposito. “pageant trouble: an exploration of gender transgression in little miss sunshine.” gender forum, no. 46, 2013, pp. 1-12. proquest, https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/pageant-trouble-exploration-gendertransgression/docview/1501552411/se-2. “little miss sunshine dwayne’s meltdown.” youtube, uploaded by starpaw7, 5 july 2011, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcllq4lml7a. “little miss sunshine | the car breaks down | hd clip.” youtube, uploaded by filmincom, 16 june 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ij9hvhbfdxq. “little miss sunshine. ice cream clip.” youtube, uploaded by chelle hacker, 18 march 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joo1ldyu4qi. “little miss sunshine (5/5) movie clip a family affair (2006) hd.” youtube, uploaded by movieclips, 29 july 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecfvsmde_-0. robinson, kerry h and cristyn davies. “she’s kickin’ ass, that’s what she’s doing! deconstructing childhood “innocence” in media representations.” australian feminist studies, vol.23, no.57, 2008, pp.343-353. https://doi. org/10.1080/08164640802233294. silberman, marc, et al. walls, borders, boundaries: spatial and cultural practices in europe. berghahn books incorporated, 2012. fowler 70 https://feministspectator.princeton.edu/2006/09/05/summer-movie-wrap-up-the-descent-little-miss-suns https://feministspectator.princeton.edu/2006/09/05/summer-movie-wrap-up-the-descent-little-miss-suns https://feministspectator.princeton.edu/2006/09/05/summer-movie-wrap-up-the-descent-little-miss-suns https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/pageant-trouble-exploration-gender-transgression/docview https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/pageant-trouble-exploration-gender-transgression/docview https://doi.org/10.1080/08164640802233294 https://doi.org/10.1080/08164640802233294 walsh 101 borders of masculinity: the hero’s journey in the marvel cinematic universe cara walsh, ball state university the marvel cinematic universe has grown the marvel cinematic universe has grown into one of the most popular entertainment into one of the most popular entertainment franchises since its debut film in 2008. even franchises since its debut film in 2008. even with competition rising in the superhero film with competition rising in the superhero film industry, the mcu continues to stand out due industry, the mcu continues to stand out due to its unique and intricate depiction of the hero’s to its unique and intricate depiction of the hero’s journey. the three foundational heroes of the journey. the three foundational heroes of the mcu (iron man, captain america, and thor) mcu (iron man, captain america, and thor) illustrate how toxic expressions of masculinity illustrate how toxic expressions of masculinity create borders to their emotional development create borders to their emotional development and character growth, borders that they must and character growth, borders that they must overcome along the hero’s journey. in his first overcome along the hero’s journey. in his first film, film, iron man,iron man, tony stark begins to reevaluate tony stark begins to reevaluate the path that his father laid out for him when the path that his father laid out for him when he undergoes a major moral transformation he undergoes a major moral transformation that makes him realize the violent impact of that makes him realize the violent impact of weapons manufacturing at stark industries. weapons manufacturing at stark industries. by becoming iron man, tony makes a by becoming iron man, tony makes a commitment to bettering himself and serving commitment to bettering himself and serving as a protector, but his insecurities continue to as a protector, but his insecurities continue to manifest into his public image as hero until manifest into his public image as hero until his final appearance in his final appearance in avengers: endgameavengers: endgame. . captain america, though not the most obvious captain america, though not the most obvious depiction of toxic masculinity, struggles with depiction of toxic masculinity, struggles with the same identity issuesas tony stark. from the same identity issuesas tony stark. from his first film, his first film, captain america: the first avengercaptain america: the first avenger, , steve rogers battles with insecurities that stem steve rogers battles with insecurities that stem from always having been the “little guy.” steve from always having been the “little guy.” steve constantly starts fights that he cannot win to constantly starts fights that he cannot win to stand up for others, and repeatedly enlists to stand up for others, and repeatedly enlists to the wwii draft despite being rejected due to the wwii draft despite being rejected due to poor health every time. his desperation to fulfill poor health every time. his desperation to fulfill the hero role separates him from his only love, the hero role separates him from his only love, peggy carter, by an uncrossable border, time, peggy carter, by an uncrossable border, time, until he gives these toxic traits up to return to until he gives these toxic traits up to return to her in her in avengers: endgame. avengers: endgame. thor also struggles to thor also struggles to fill his father’s shoes as the king and protector fill his father’s shoes as the king and protector of his home world, asgard. his need to be seen of his home world, asgard. his need to be seen as a hero and fierce warrior make him impulsive as a hero and fierce warrior make him impulsive and quick to violence, which puts his kingdom and quick to violence, which puts his kingdom at risk and bases his self-esteem on this image at risk and bases his self-esteem on this image of himself. though thor’s arc isn’t finished of himself. though thor’s arc isn’t finished yet, yet, avengers: endgameavengers: endgame illustrates his coping with illustrates his coping with his failure to fulfill this image as he rebuilds his his failure to fulfill this image as he rebuilds his self-esteem into his own identity. these three self-esteem into his own identity. these three heroes demonstrate how toxic masculinity heroes demonstrate how toxic masculinity creates borders to their personal growth and creates borders to their personal growth and progression along the hero’s journey.progression along the hero’s journey. superhero films in recent years have grown in popularity since the marvel cinematic universe’s, or mcu’s, first movie debut in 2008. the mcu continues to stand out despite the now oversaturated market because of its unique illustration of the hero’s journey. while all superheroes face obstacles and fight villains, marvel’s protagonists must overcome their own toxic perceptions of masculinity in order to truly step into the hero role. even after many of them seem to become recognized heroes by their community, they continue to struggle with living up to their own perceptions of masculinity. the mcu depicts superheroes’ emotional growth from boy to man alongside the traditional hero’s journey, wherein hypermasculinity creates a border between them and their ability to reach true heroism by imposing hegemonic values onto their gender identity. as the heroes mature throughout their prospective films, they have to overcome hypermasculine tendencies within themselves–such as needing to assert dominance, impulsive violence, and the desire to be perceived as a hero–to undergo emotional growth and discern their identity. this illustration recognizes how the pressures of cultural expectations and gender performance create unattainable and aspirational models of masculinity that coerce men to conform within the social hierarchy. the three foundational heroes in the mcu–iron man, thor, and captain america–depict how hypermasculinity creates a border in their lives that blocks their character development by stunting their emotional growth and development of personal identity. to understand masculinity’s significant role within the male heroes of the marvel cinematic universe, it is important to explain how it functions within sociocultural contexts to alter notions of male identity. in their research on diverse masculinities, scholars douglas schrock and michael schwalbe outline how hegemonic masculinity necessitates the performance of manhood, stating that this “requires mastering a set of conventional signifying practices through which the identity man is established” (279). these practices are absorbed into the understanding of their self-identity, making the aspiration to this masculine “ideal” indistinguishable from the individual. the traits associated with hegemonic masculinity may change depending on cultural and social contexts, but it follows the same schema regardless. medical research on how social expectations of gender influence men’s behaviors defines hegemonic masculinity as principles that establish a gendered social order through a combination of the “hierarchy of masculinities, differential access among men to power (over women and other men), and the interplay between men’s identity, men’s ideals, interactions, power, and patriarchy” (jewkes, et al. s113). internalization of culturally established gender roles imposes these values onto the formation of self-identity, constructing masculinity upon a foundation of power dynamics. schrock and schwalbe state that in the pursuit projecting this hegemonic ideal, “this means signifying a capacity walsh 102 to exert control over oneself, the environment, and others” (286). their research examines hypermasculine displays of these traitsin men, such as failure to seek help, poor social support networks, and proximity to violence, that mirror the behaviors of the mcu heroes discussed further in this essay. these customs attempt to signal a “[capacity] to control one’s own life, to be invulnerable and needless of help, and to be fearless and hence not easily intimidated by others” (schrock and schwalbe 289). this understanding of hegemonic masculinity’s overarching influence on male identity and gender performance reveals the prominence of the masculine identity within the mcu hero’s journey. iron man/tony stark in marvel studios’s first film, iron man, tony stark’s struggle with hypermasculinity originates from his patchy relationship with his father as the effects of this trauma become distinguishable through his transformation into iron man. tony grew up a boy genius turned playboy and, after his parents tragic death, inherited stark industries, his father’s tech and weapons development company. when tony undergoes a major moral transformation, he is forced to confront the violence he has caused. in response to his introspection, tony wrestles with his emotions as he considers leaving stark industries and the weapons business, wrestling with the idea aloud: i never got to say goodbye to my father. there’s questions that i would have asked him. i would have asked him how he felt about what this company did. if he was conflicted, if he ever had doubts. or maybe he was every inch the man we remember from the newsreels. i saw young americans killed by the very weapons i created to defend them and protect them. and i saw that i had become a part of a system that is comfortable with zero accountability. (favreau) tony’s perspective begins to shift and his guard comes down for the first time, revealing an internal struggle between ending his participation in further violence or upholding his father’s legacy. as the most prominent male role model in his life, tony cannot help but wonder if his father had ever questioned the integrity of their business in the same way. as one of the most technologically advanced weapons manufacturers, stark industries represents hypermasculinity and the ultimate ability to assert control and dominance. although tony desperately wants to live up to his father’s image, he must let go of this symbol of violent masculinity to cross into his new frame of morality. by overcoming this border, tony is able to find a new purpose in becoming iron man rather than continue the cycle of violence. walsh 103 tony stark continues to struggle with how he fit into a masculine identity but as he begins tofocus on genuinely living up to the hero role, his hypermasculinity only shifts into other areas of his life. he still yearns to be loved and wants to make up for his past, and tony’s suit quickly becomes a crutch for him to obtain these things. stepping into his iron man suit creates a barrier that hides his past mistakes, only showing his hero persona to the rest of the world. this is where we see how his suit becomes a safe space that enables his need for validation, turning it into “a form of self-medication” that “strengthens his ingrained belief that the iron man suit is the only means of attaining his desired goal: to be a hero” (wincherauk 45). the suit creates a physical and metaphorical border that shields the public from seeing tony stark. instead, they only see the masculine figure he is projecting to the world. although he believes his new identity as iron man is the key to his redemption, this plays into his hypermasculine tendencies explains how food studies can be used to identify systems within media: “through identifying and studying food categories, it is possible to decode the religious, politi-cal, economic, social, and cultural systems in which food and food-centered practices are embedded” (5). in captain america: civil war, a moral disagreement with steve rogers forces tony to reevaluate his disposition to violence. after several years of working together, the avengers team has become a family, but in this film, the “sokovia accords” drawn up by world governments divides them. the sokovia accords are meant to de-privatize the avengers, allowing them only to work under the supervision of the united nations. as the avengers discuss whether or not to sign the accords, stark pulls up a picture of a young college graduate who died during the gruesome battle in question. he explains, “he decided to walsh 104 tony stark suits up to protect refugees from foreign militia in afghanistan. spend his summer building sustainable housing for the poor. guess where, sokovia. he wanted to make a difference, i suppose. we won’t know because we dropped a building on him while we were kicking ass. there’s no decision making process here. we need to be put in check!” (anthony and joseph russo, civil war). until this moment, tony had beensure about his actions as iron man, but he starts to question the good he has done as a herosimilarly to the way he did with stark industries. tony has seen the civilian lives lost as collat-eral damage, but he begins to recognize that his pursuit of heroism only shifted his need for power and control into a new outlet. explains how food studies can be used to identify systems within media: “through identifying and studying food categories, it is possible to decode the religious, politi-cal, economic, social, and cultural systems in which food and food-centered practices are embedded” (5). a division forms among the avengers as they discuss the sokovia accords with steve and tony leading the opposing sides. although tony had previously thought the avengers were protecting humanity, he now relates the sokovia accords to stark industries before he decided to end weapons manufacturing. steve responds: “tony, you chose to do that. if we sign this, we surrender our right to choose. what if this panel sends us somewhere we don’t think we should go? what if there’s somewhere we need to go and they don’t let us? we may not be perfect but the safest hands are still our own” (anthony and joseph russo, civil war). steve and tony in this scene are at odds over how to handle conflict going forward, both having different opinions over what course of action would breed less violence. steve rogers is often hailed for his “uncompromising purity and resolve” as a hero that prefers to walsh 105 the avengers face off, divided by tony stark’s and steve rogers’s moral differences. use non-lethal force (roblou 174). he is morally sound and confident in his role as a hero, but when tony is forced to confront the victims of his actions, he reevaluates the choice he made to end the cycle of violence by becoming iron man. tony’s initial struggle with a violent and control-oriented concept of masculinity makes him unsure of his own judgment and overly concerned with his public image as a hero. the ghost of his hypermasculinity makes him insecure and favor supervision over the avengers operating privately, but this forms a border that tears the avengers apart. in iron man’s final appearance in the mcu, avengers: endgame, tony finally transgresses hypermasculinity and makes peace with himself as he becomes a true hero. initially, he refus-es to help the avengers with this final mission in order to protect the normal life and family he had built. he eventually confides in his wife, pepper, that he cannot escape his conscience: “something tells me i should put it in a lock box and drop it to the bottom of the lake, and go to bed,” to which she responds, “but would you be able to rest?” (anthony and joseph russo, endgame). tony’s moral transformation in iron man leaves him unable to ignore his role as a hero, “he must live with his commitment to better himself ” (wincherauk 47). at the end of the film, he declares “i am iron man” just before sacrificing his life, signifying his acceptance of his past mistakes and final transformation into a hero. he gives up the peaceful life he had with his family to save innumerable lives, and in his absence he passes on his responsibilities as a hero to the remaining avengers. although tony stark began his journey as a reckless playboy with questionable morals and a distorted sense of masculinity, he was able to achieve true heroism in his final moments by breaking down the barrier of hypermasculinity that blocked his emotional growth. walsh 106 tony declares “i am iron man” as he reverses the final battle against thanos. captain america/steve rogers out of all of the avengers, captain america is generally not the first hero whose masculinity would be called into question, but his character is built on his feelings of inadequacy. before steve rogers became captain america, he was just a short, scrawny boy that struggled to get a date. this gave steve a fragile sense of masculinity that made him feel the need to prove himself as a man. when world war ii began, he repeatedly tried to enlist in the military despite being denied countless times for his small stature. when the military notices his falsified enlistment forms, they question him, uncovering his motives. he says, “i don’t want to kill anyone. i don’t like bullies. i don’t care where they’re from” (johnston). steve feels an overwhelming desire to defend others because he has been the “little guy” his whole life, but this does not mean he was already the perfect hero. because of captain america’s symbolism for american perseverance and morality, he is often seen as “a champion of the american dream and its ideals, though his posture has not always been as clear-cut as one would expect” (roblou 174). despite his size and lack of muscle, steve is shown in the first few scenes constantly getting himself into fights that his friend, bucky, has to end. although he knows he will not win, steve feels an overwhelming desire to defend others to compensate for his fragile masculinity. like iron man with wealth and control, steve’s insecurities manifest hypermasculinity by leading him to seek validation and assert his physical strength. this creates one of the most important aspects of steve’s character arc by separating him from his first and only love, peggy carter. at the end of captain america: the first walsh 107 steve gazes at peggy through a glass window during the time travel mission. avenger, steve must crash an airplane into the arctic ocean to avoid hitting new york city with a stockpile of nuclear bombs. he remains frozen in the ice for almost 70 years, but when he wakes up he enters a new world in which he has, and always will be, a symbol of heroism and uncompromising morality for his actions in world war ii. although he obtains the identity he has always wanted before undergoing his transformation into captain america, he spends the rest of his time in the mcu longing to go back in time and live out a peaceful life with peggy. because he chose the role of a hero, he was separated from peggy by a seemingly uncrossable border: time. near the end of avengers: endgame, steve must use the avengers’s new time travel technology to return the infinity stones back to their proper timelines, one of which brings him back to the 1940s. he returns seemingly seconds later but shocks the avengers by coming back as an elderly man. steve explains, “well, after i put the stones back, i thought maybe i’ll try some of that life tony was telling me to get…it was beautiful” (anthony and joseph russo, avengers: endgame). in the decade that steve spent living in the future, he realized that his fragile masculinity and desire to fulfill the hero role had overshadowed the only thing that could truly make him happy. rather than returning immediately to continue his role as captain america, he let go of this part of his identity to cross back over the time border and live the remainder of his life with peggy. thor arguably the most obvious depiction of hypermasculinity in the marvel cinematic universe is thor’s origin film. thor’s desire to fulfill the hero role stems from his upbringing as the future king of his home world, asgard, but this desire to conform to the values of hegemonic masculinity makes him overzealous and quick to violence. like iron man, he wants to prove that he can “make things happen,” “resist being dominated by others,” and live up to his father’s great legacy (schrock 280). thor: the jotuns must learn to fear me, just as they once feared you odin: that’s pride and vanity talking, not leadership. you’ve forgotten everything i taught you about a warrior’s patience. thor: while you wait and be patient, the nine realms laugh at us! (branagh) thor desperately wants to fill his father’s shoes, but this makes him prideful and quick to violence. odin conquered all of the enemies that threatened his kingdom and thor longs for his own opportunity for glory. this had already put his friends and kingdom in danger, making odin realize his son’s immaturity: “i was a fool to think you were ready” (branagh). thor is stripped of his title, powers, and sent across space to live on earth as punishment. the pressure to perform within this model makes him violent and prideful; overcoming the border that hypermasculinity creates within his identity allows him to become a true hero walsh 108 and noble king. in avengers: endgame, thor struggles to cope with his failures as a hero; his pride and heroic image of himself collapses, and he loses his sense of self-worth. although all of the remaining avengers are struggling with loss and survivor’s guilt at this point, thor’s decline is the hardest to ignore, mostly because of the beer-belly he’s grown. instead of the chiseled god of thunder shown in past films, thor has become a deadbeat drunk that spends most of his time playing video games. though his appearance is used as comic relief in this film, his physical decline reflects his emotional journey from an overly confident god to a broken man. in his article on “fat thor,” gregory wakeman writes “there’s no doubt that the new thor embodies a more complex and vulnerable version of masculinity, and endgame shows that even a god like him, who has the ‘picture perfect’ looks, can be affected by trauma, can be mentally fragile.” thor puts up walls to avoid his pain, cutting him off from his friends and dissolving the overly confident person he used to be. because he tries to avoid the pain and grief he feels, “[he] goes from being a perfectly chiseled, confident, and arrogant god to a decrepit alcoholic who suffers from a panic attack during a mission” (wakeman). thor’s character takes a complete turn from who he previously was, and the once mighty god of thunder now spends his days in hiding, closed off even from those closest to him. thor has built much of his self-image on his role as a hero and cannot cope with his shortcomings. he struggles to accept his failure to prevent the death of his entire family, the destruction of his home planet, and now half of all living things in the universe. thor’s emotions send him into a downward spiral and the state of his mental health makes it difficult for him to walsh 109 thor passed out while the avengers plan their final mission. regain his confidence, making him surprised when he is still worthy enough to wield his hammer. his pride and desire to fill the hero role are expressions of hypermasculinity that create a border keeping him from confronting his emotions and learning to accept himself. he cannot live up to the unattainable image he has of masculinity, and though his arc is not finished he’s within the mcu, he begins to let go of these expectations of himself by the end of the film. conclusion the marvel cinematic universe uncovers the connection between heroism and hypermasculinity through its protagonists’ character arcs. in all of their personal struggles, masculinity and the pressure to perform are at the root, making them assert dominance, act with violence, and question their self-worth. although many of these men had already become recognized heroes across the universe, they continued to struggle with their sense of self until they let go of their hypermasculine tendencies. whenever these heroes try to live up to theexplains how food studies can be used to identify systems within media: “through identifying and studying food categories, it is possible to decode the religious, politi-cal, economic, social, and cultural systems in which food and food-centered practices are embedded” (5). standards they set for themselves, they are submitting to their insecurities and fulfilling their need for validation. the marvel cinematic universe continues to stand out from other superhero film creators because of the emotional growth that its characters undergo by struggling with the idea of heroism itself. throughout their films, they grapple with overcoming the border that hypermasculinity creates in their own lives until they gain self-acceptance. the mcu recognizes the connection between the hero’s journey and masculinity by reinventing this iconic characterization to uncover the consequences it has on men’s lives. walsh 110 works cited branagh, kenneth, director. thor. paramount pictures, 2011. favreau, jon, director. iron man. paramount pictures, 2008. jewkes, rachel, et al. “hegemonic masculinity: combining theory and practice in gender interventions.” culture, health & sexuality, vol. 17, no. s2, 2015, pp. s112-s127. https://doi.org/10.1080/13691058.2015.1085094. johnston, joe, director. captain america: the first avenger. paramount pictures, 2011. roblou, yann. “review of captain america, masculinity, and violence: the evolution of a national icon, by j. richard stevens.” journal of cold war studies, vol. 22 no. 2, 2020, pp. 173-175. project muse, muse.jhu.edu/article/756832. russo, anthony, and joseph russo, directors. avengers: endgame. walt disney studios motion pictures, 2019. russo, anthony, and joseph russo, directors. captain america: civil war. walt disney studios motion pictures, 2016. schrock, douglas, and michael schwalbe. “men, masculinity, and manhood acts.” annualreview of sociology, vol. 35, 2009, pp. 277–95. jstor, http://www.jstor.org/stable/27800079. wakeman, gregory. “avengers: endgame’s treatment of ‘fat thor’ reduces trauma for laughs.” the federal, 31 may 2019, https://thefederal.com/features/yes-fat-thor-isvery-problematic-in-avengers-endgame/. walsh 111 by forcefully calling out the class-based scapegoat, considering the perspective of the scapegoat, and vindicating the scapegoat. this essay will investigate the role of the scapegoat within the secret place and my sister, the serial killer within the context of literary crime fiction genre conventions with frantz fanon’s wretched of the earth (1961) as a framework to examine the significance of class, race, and violence in the decolonization of literary crime fiction. tana french and oyinkan braithwaite transcend genre conventions established by wealthy, white english authors such as agatha christie by confronting contemporary issues through their consideration of the classbased scapegoat. this confrontational transcendence utilizes scapegoats to call out the marginalization and oppression of diverse populations by privileged individuals and subsequently replace the traditionally privileged individuals with the previously marginalized people. the crime fiction genre is one of many clichés, including isolated locations, technology struggles, law enforcement errors, red herrings, and more. these clichés interact with various class, gender, language, and religious identities that influence how investigations evolve and how the genre is received by its audience. tana french’s the secret place (2014) and oyinkan braithwaite’s my sister, the serial killer (2018) both interact with these genre conventions through isolated boarding schools and mansions on hilltops, law enforcement errors, investigative dynamic duos, and more, but the most significant of genre conventions is their consideration of the scapegoat and its functionality. in this essay, a scapegoat is a character knowingly forced to endure the blame and punishment for another’s actions. while these pieces follow genre conventions in the presence of a scapegoat, each piece of literature juggles red herrings and the class-based scapegoats in new lights. these pieces transcend the genre money moves: class-based scapegoats and the decolonization of literary crime fiction riley ellis, ball state university 51 introduction the crime fiction genre has a rich background with notable authors like agatha christie and arthur conan doyle, both renowned, well-off british authors best known for the mousetrap and the adventures of sherlock holmes respectively (“about agatha christie;” “biography”). christie and doyle are often credited for many of the genre’s popular conventions like isolated locations, technological struggles, red herrings, detective duos, and more. within these conventions, one also finds considerations of class, gender, and language identities, all of which play large parts in those suspected, accused, and victimized within the chilling stories. today, contemporary novels such as tana french’s the secret place and oyinkan braithwaite’s my sister, the serial killer transcend genre conventions established by wealthy, white english authors like christie and doyle by confronting the class-disadvantaged scapegoat. french does this by grappling with the obstacles of investigating a murder at a wealthy, all-girls boarding school, while brathwaite explores what it means to be and assist a murderer. within this essay, the term “scapegoat” will be used to identify a character knowingly forced to endure the blame and punishment for another’s actions. this transcendence utilizes scapegoats to call out the marginalization of diverse populations by privileged individuals. after calling out the scapegoat, the authors subsequently replace the traditionally privileged individuals with the previously marginalized people. this replacement mirrors that prescribed by frantz fanon in his novel wretched of the earth (1963), which considers the actions necessary to decolonize a people through the class war. in accordance with the principles presented within wretched of the earth, contemporary crime fiction pieces, specifically tana french’s the secret place and oyinkan braithwaite’s my sister, the serial killer, challenge and decolonize genre conventions by calling out, considering the perspective of, and ultimately vindicating the class-based scapegoat. frantz fanon’s the wretched of the earth within his text the wretched of the earth, fanon considers violence, race, and the class war as he dissects the relationship between the colonist and the colonized. most significant to this essay is fanon’s idea that “decolonization is quite simply the substitution of one ‘species’ of mankind by another” that occurs in an “unconditional, absolute, total, and seamless” manner (1). regarding literary crime fiction and the class-based scapegoat, this substitution would occur when the conventionally ellis 52 suspected marginalized scapegoat takes the place of the traditionally untouchable privileged victims. for this substitution to take place, fanon declares that “the last can be the first only after a murderous and decisive confrontation between the two protagonists,” the privileged and the marginalized (3). additionally, any “proof of success lies in a social fabric that has been changed inside out” (1), meaning not only must the economic structures change, but any supplemental power structure dictated by gender, race, or class must also be substituted. decolonization is the absolute destruction of colonial structures and systems within a society. in addition to the substitution of species, this essay addresses the figures, such as police officers, that work to protect and maintain the colonial or classist regime and status quo, otherwise known as the “legitimate agent” of the regime (fanon 3). in crime fiction, this violent confrontation against the regime and its agents takes place both in the literal crime committed, as well as in the accruing of land, money, and social influence. calling out the scapegoat scapegoats are rife within literary crime fiction. these red herrings can be used to lead readers and detectives away from the truth, effectively making the conclusion more shocking and subsequently more entertaining. in the nineteenth century, crime fiction began with the understanding that “[i]f crime was the problem, then identification and removal of the perpetrator was the solution” (lee 282). however, in contemporary novels such as my sister, the serial killer and the secret place, authors play with the many ways those falsely accused as the perpetrator are victims of a larger oppressive society. today, the crime fiction genre has shifted to become a place of dissent, where previous conventions are transformed by radical decolonial politics (roy 120). as contemporary authors begin the process of decolonizing the genre, they first call out the scapegoat, defining the many ways an oppressive regime is built and maintained. within my sister, the serial killer, braithwaite utilizes the scapegoat in a variety of ways. there’s the primary and most prevalent scapegoat, korede, who becomes increasingly suspected and blamed as ayoola, korede’s sister, continues murdering her romantic partners. after korede and her sister ayoola have an interview with the police about femi, ayoola’s third victim, the police request to see korede’s car (braithwaite). the police’s possession of her car prompts korede to question “why should [ayoola’s] hands be clean, while [her’s] become more and more stained” (102). regardless of who committed the violent murder, korede is repeatedly suspected of the murders, making her hands, as she says, “more and more stained.” this passing of the blame to korede is significant because of the sisters’ differing jobs and social standings. while korede is a nurse who works at a local hospital, ayoola “models the clothes she designs on social ellis 53 media” as a social media influencer (braithwaite 68). while both sisters hold servicebased jobs, the audience perceives korede as the harder-working, grittier individual relative to ayoola due to established societal connotations of influencers. braithwaite maintains these perceptions when ayoola invites korede to lunch and gets upset and frustrated when korede cannot abandon her workload to go out. through the class distinctions established by the sisters’ jobs, readers “are witness to the mobilization of a people, who now have to work themselves to exhaustion,” a people represented by korede, “while a contemptuous and bloated europe,” represented by ayoola, “looks on” (fanon 55). furthermore, ayoola’s beauty and adherence to feminine body and behavior standards, as illustrated in her modeling/influencer career, signifies higher social standing within the patriarchal order due to implications of masculine desire, as described by david buchbinder, a professor of masculinities studies (108-110). in contrast, korede’s undesirable presentation relative to ayoola’s decreases her social standing within the patriarchal order (braithwaite 84-166; buchbinder 108-110). women’s beauty acts as a social currency that cultivates influence and power in the same way financial currencies garner power within the colonial order. throughout the novel, braithwaite utilizes korede as an effective scapegoat, who is marginalized based on distinctions established between korede and ayoola’s jobs and the pair’s social standings within the patriarchal order. in addition to korede becoming a scapegoat for murder, braithwaite also utilizes mohammed, one of the janitorial staff members at the hospital where korede works, as a scapegoat for thievery. after tade, a doctor who works in the same hospital as korede, finds his office a mess and his engagement ring for ayoola broken, yinka, a fellow nurse, decides that mohammed likely trashed the office and broke the engagement ring because of drugs (braithwaite 194). in response, korede observes that “[i]t’s easy to point the finger at mohammed. he is poor, uneducated. he is a cleaner” (194). despite his tenure at the hospital and how “mohammed denies the charges vehemently,” he is fired (194). here, the class-based distinctions are clearer than those established with korede, as there are direct references to mohammed’s socioeconomic status as lower-class and “poor,” which is associated with being “uneducated” and his job as “a cleaner.” these class-based distinctions allow those around him at the hospital to easily prosecute and fire him. the scene that encompasses suspicions of mohammed, his accusation, and the subsequent punishment takes up no more than one page. the more elite at the hospital, korede’s fellow nurses and tade, manage to utilize their social position and class to wrongfully punish mohammed (194). braithwaite reflects fanon’s observation that “[c]onfronted with a world configured by the colonizer, the colonized subject is always presumed ellis 54 guilty” (fanon 16). while all of braithwaite’s characters exist within a colonized context since lagos was colonized by britain, the story’s “colonist” is the one with power and social influence. fanon understands the colonist as one who “derives his validity, i.e., his wealth, from the colonial system” and the “colonized” (2). in this context, the nurses and tade hold the social and financial power, effectively making them the colonists and mohammed the colonized (bishku 361). mohammed is automatically presumed guilty and is punished at the will of the “colonizer.” within my sister, the serial killer, braithwaite emphasizes how class-based distinctions and discrimination are used to keep the fiscally and socially wealthy in power and unpunished through the unjustified prosecution of poorer characters. in the secret place, french, too, utilizes the class-based scapegoat to call out how society discriminates and punishes those of lower classes. after detectives stephen moran and antoinette conway return to st. kilda’s, an all-girls boarding school in dublin, conway recalls how “[o]ne of the groundskeepers came up on the system: prior for supply” and they “figured it was [their] lucky day: two solves for the price of one. chris snuck out to buy drugs off the groundskeeper, some fight over money, bang” (french 39). however, the “groundskeeper alibied out…we got him for possession with intent, but the murder…i should have known it wasn’t gonna be that simple” (39). within this scene, there are a few instances of class-based discrimination. to find the “simple” answer, conway and the previous detective on the case chose to go after the groundskeeper who would have stuck out at a rich, all-girls boarding school. as a blue-collar worker with “priors,” the groundskeeper would make an easy target. within this quick, off-hand comment, french establishes how the regime uses class-based scapegoats as an easy way to get answers and solve crime with a bow, regardless of whether their answers are genuine and truthful. in this moment, “[t]he agent does not alleviate oppression or mask domination” (fanon 4), but rather there is a proud display of the many ways society utilizes class-based oppression to more easily display control over the public. french’s utilization of the class-based scapegoat, like that of braithwaite’s, works to “exacerbate inequalities” and reveal crime and its punishment as key elements of societal struggles for power (roy 123). after establishing the scapegoats within their stories, the contemporary authors face the challenge of “seiz[ing] th[e] violence as it realigns itself” (fanon 21). by calling out scapegoats, these contemporary authors start the process of seeking justice, prompting the need to “seize their efforts” (lee 289). this search for justice realizes itself in the many ways authors consider the scapegoat identity along with the different gender and racial identities that influence it. french and braithwaite are two women residing within postcolonial contexts in ireland and nigeria respectively. both ellis 55 ireland and nigeria have been colonized by european powers and while those colonial powers have left, their structures have stayed. french and braithwaite’s understanding of this dichotomy allows them to utilize korede, mohammed, and the groundskeeper to establish class-contexts and subsequent identity politics necessary to prompt a confrontation against the status quo with regard to crime fiction genre conventions. considering the scapegoat while traditionally franz considers the police officer to be “the spokesperson for the colonizer and the regime of oppression” (122), shampa roy, an associate english professor at the university of delhi, considers how detectives provide greater opportunities for marginalized peoples in crime fiction. within braithwaite and french’s novels, scapegoats are marginalized by societal values and standards, implanted by colonial interests within several contexts. braithwaite highlights korede’s identity as undesirable relative to patriarchal beauty and behavioral standards, one which korede is “marginalized” and subsequently “demonized” for, as seen through her continuous persecution throughout the novel . however, braithwaite deepens her consideration of the scapegoat by understanding the position of being colonized as fluid with many degrees of severity. in these moments, braithwaite acknowledges fanon’s idea of the traitorous common person “who apparently gets along very well with the occupier and strives to succeed in the context of the colonial system” (67). while korede and mohammed are in a continuous state as colonized, korede also often acts as a “spokesperson for the colonizer” or traitor to the fellow colonized by regularly chastising and disciplining mohammed (braithwaite). while korede is “disenfranchised within colonial contexts,” she also finds her voice within the same context as a powerful figure. in her consideration of the scapegoat, braithwaite acknowledges the nuance of the colonial context concerning the various powers, including economic and patriarchal powers. in addition to braithwaite, french works to consider the scapegoat by consistently evaluating why the detectives, as well as the employees and students of st. mary’s, presumed and believed the scapegoat’s guilt. for three-quarters of the novel, students, detectives, and other school faculty admit to believing “groundskeeper willy” was guilty of killing young chris harper (french 358). when first reviewing the murder, detectives only had the murder weapon, a hoe, that only had the groundskeepers’ prints and access. however, this lack of information was not limited to just the detectives. much of the general student body recollected that they were not even sure of the accused’s name, claiming that “that’s just what everyone else called him” (89). moreover, the girls of st. kilda’s even admitted that “[they] don’t know ellis 56 if he was a pervert or just a drug dealer, but either way, ew” (89). the school readily associated the groundskeeper with being a “pervert,” going as far as actively referring to him as “willy” in reference to the colloquial term used for the male sexual organ. relying solely on rumors and weak police evidence, the entire school and police force fortified the colonizer-colonized system that relies on identity-based discrimination. while the audience never hears the groundskeeper’s perspective, french provides insight into the weak and seemingly baseless assumptions that support the public’s quick assumption of guilt concerning the groundskeeper. a blue-collar job and previous drug charges were enough for students, staff, and detectives to quickly think the worst—that a man was capable of murdering a child. french further considers the scapegoat, determining that detectives are “not going to suspect [someone like] selena,” a rich, white girl (404). rather, they would suspect a groundskeeper. as illustrated by french, there are certain identities people more frequently associate with crime, specifically ones associated with socioeconomic status, gender, and race. by highlighting the different biases involved in determining a scapegoat, french and braithwaite participate in what buchbinder determines to be “‘mark[ing]’ in the sense of being singled out for retribution” (99). the contemporary authors’ acknowledgment of discrimination creates a vehicle for the retribution of the scapegoat. by considering the scapegoat within each novel, french and braithwaite examine, poke, and spotlight the many biases and structural errors that influence the creation and perpetuation of the scapegoat determined by class distinctions. vindicating the scapegoat within braithwaite and french’s works, vindicating the scapegoat takes many forms, most particularly given that only certain scapegoats are vindicated. in her article entitled “crime fiction and theories of justice,” susanna lee remarks that “[t]heories of punishment include such traditional justifications as retribution, deterrence, incapacitation, rehabilitation and restoration” (284). within my sister, the serial killer and the secret place, scapegoats are vindicated primarily through means of retribution and restoration. these punishments are enacted against the people, powers, and institutions that actively work to marginalize and demonize the scapegoats. the punishments support those working against the marginalizing system and the marginalized themselves—victims are “not just the actual individual victim of the crime at hand, but also society at large, the city, moral fiber and even the individual detective” (lee 284). in braithwaite’s my sister, the serial killer, while mohammed is not saved, the ellis 57 novel does end with an acknowledgment of the system’s failures. while at work, after dealing with muhtar and ayoola, korede calls for mohammed only to be told, “mohammed is gone, ma” (braithwaite 221). in this moment, korede must hold herself accountable for her part in supporting the status quo and forcing mohammed to be a scapegoat. in addition to this reflection, which serves as mohammed’s vindication, korede ends the novel with an understanding of retribution against several powerful identities, including men and the patriarchal order, that act as a colonizing power within korede’s space. there’s also retribution on the class front since many of ayoola’s victims are rich men. towards the end of the novel, when asked who stabbed her, ayoola quickly blames tade, determining that “he proposed to [her] and [she] said [she] wasn’t interested and he lost it” (206-207). when korede pushes back on her sister’s statement, ayoola remarks that “it’s him or me,” telling korede that “[she] can’t sit on the fence forever” (207). in this scene, ayoola forces korede to make the decision to either support her sister and fight against the larger patriarchal order, or fight against her sister. both represent a colonial power in korede’s context. at the end of the novel, korede, ayoola, and any other person impacted by the masculine construct are vindicated when korede happens upon ayoola’s new boyfriend: “they are in the living room—my mum, ayoola and the man…the man smiles. i smile back” (223). at this point, korede is not vindicated from her sister, but rather no longer letting her life be ruled by rich men. within my sister, the serial killer, braithwaite vindicates the scapegoat by recognizing the intersectional nature of the colonized and the subsequent power dynamics within colonized populations. in the secret place, there’s retribution against patriarchal powers with a recognition of class influences. at the end of french’s novel, detectives figure out that becca, a boarding student at st. kilda’s, murdered chris. the girl recounts that “all those stupid slimebags, james gillen and marcus wiley, it could never have been them. they’re nothing; they’re totally worthless. you can’t have a sacrifice that’s worth less. it has to be something good” (french 424). rather than killing one of the boys who fit the patriarchal order, the boys who had a history of teasing girls like becca, becca killed chris, someone she described as “kind” (109). to protect her and the girls’ sacred friendship, becca follows through with fanon’s final violent confrontation. rather than letting a wealthy, white boy that represented, in becca’s mind, the best of the patriarchal order rule over or destroy the girls’ bond, she kills him. this murder substitutes the standing power of the wealthy man with a new power, the feminine. there’s vindication in this moment because the girls get their vengeance—they maintain their friendship, as seen when, “in the center of the clearing, holly dropped to her knees in the grass” and her friends “opened like a puzzle, arms unfurling, reached out to draw her in and closed around her” (427). despite becca’s criminal behavior, ellis 58 the standing societal order does not reclaim its power, rather there’s a complete acceptance of the girls’ power for a moment. french vindicates the scapegoat by disconnecting the groundskeeper from chris’s murder and by allowing the girls’ sacred friendship to persevere contrary to the patriarchal order. conclusion oyinkan braithwaite’s my sister, the serial killer and tana french’s the secret place both deal with the scapegoat with considerations of class and subsequent identity influences, most especially gender. these deliberations, in alignment with frantz fanon’s the wretched of the earth, illustrate how “[t]he crime fiction of the colonized or previously colonized writers is often a resistant force” (roy 127). braithwaite and french spotlight, consider, and vindicate scapegoats in such a manner that creates a confrontation between two forces created by the colonial context (fanon 2). this confrontation is illustrative of the authors’ efforts to “move away from ‘classic’ detective fiction and its formal conventions in order to engage critically with the compelling sociopolitical issues” and decolonize the genre (roy 127). at the end of my sister, the serial killer, braithwaite encompasses contemporary crime fiction authors’ efforts by acknowledging that in their deconstruction of the genre, any investigation is a game of “ [their] word against ours” (213). ellis 59 works cited “about agatha christie.” the home of agatha christie, www.agathachristie.com/aboutchristie. anderson, lisa. “‘shithole countries’: the wretched of the earth, frantz fanon.” social research: an international quarterly, vol. 85 no. 3, 2018, p. 487-502. project muse, doi:10.1353/sor.2018.0026. “biography.” arthur conan doyle, www.arthurconandoyle.com/biography.html. bishku, michael b. “nigeria and the muslim middle east: historical, political, economic, and cultural ties.” journal of the middle east and africa, vol. 12, no. 4, oct. 2021, pp, 361–383. proxy.bsu.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx? direct=true&db=a9h&an=154040507&site=ehost-live&scope=site. braithwaite, oyinkan. my sister, the serial killer. first anchor books, 2018. buchbinder, david. studying men and masculinities. routledge, 2013. fanon, frantz, et al. the wretched of the earth. anniversary, grove press, 2021. french, tana. the secret place. penguin random house, 2014. lee, susanna. “crime fiction and theories of justice.” the routledge crime fiction companion, edited by janice allan, jesper gulddal, stewart king, and andrew pepper, routledge, 2020, pp. 282-290. roy, shampa. “coloniality and decoloniality.” the routledge crime fiction companion, edited by janice allan, jesper gulddal, stewart king, and andrew pepper, routledge, 2020, pp. 120-127. ellis 60 http://www.agathachristie.com/about-christie http://www.agathachristie.com/about-christie http://www.arthurconandoyle.com/biography.html http://proxy.bsu.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&an=154040507&site=ehost-live&scope=site http://proxy.bsu.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&an=154040507&site=ehost-live&scope=site crime fiction has many common tropes often associated with its setting, including large houses with wealthy families, isolated homes in vast expanses of forest, and technological deserts in which everyday things like cell phones are all but useless. these characteristics assist with the plot, and oftentimes are key contributors to the facts of the case. the manor in the 2019 film knives out, directed by rian johnson, displays these tropes outrightly, as it is in a large expanse of woods, and the family living in the house is built upon a family legacy of vast amounts of wealth. in many cases of crime fiction, the old manors come from old generations of money. many characters throughout the film believe victim harlan thrombey to be from old money, although it is revealed later that this may not be a genuine portrayal of his rise into wealth, altering the perception of how his manor and ultimately his legacy is viewed. unlike other crime fiction settings, knives out utilizes technology in order to put together pieces of the crime, instead of eliminating its use, as is common in crime fiction settings. the setting of the film is as important a piece to a crime fiction narrative as any other plot devices, like characters or events. this essay seeks to examine the tropes utilized in the film, and how they worked in providing evidence towards the case of the murder of harlan thrombey. the film also plays with crime fiction tropes in terms of technology. the mansion has aspects that are both archaic, like the vhs tape security system, but also modern, in the use of social media throughout the film. this essay will also show how the film used inverse versions of crime fiction stereotypes to craft a crime narrative. the mysteriously murderous manors of crime fiction: an examination of setting in knives out angelo gonzalez, ball state university 75 in the 2019 film knives out, directed by rian johnson, the setting plays a crucial role in the narrative. as stephen d. rogers writes, “setting, the time and place of a story, is particularly important in the mystery genre. not only do carefully chosen details enrich the tale, but they may also very well assist or impede the investigation, even after possibly being an accessory to the crime” (1). set in a gothic manor in modernday new england, the film follows the investigation into the death of crime novelist harlan thrombey. as one reviewer notes, “johnson goes back to his roots with an updated homage to the agatha christie whodunnits he loved as a child, and to those ‘cheekily self-aware’ screen adaptations in which peter ustinov would lead an all-star cast through a labyrinthine murder mystery” (jones 1). the mention of peter ustinov leading an all-star cast suggests that johnson is incorporating the tradition of the grand ensemble cast, which has long been a staple of murder mystery films. the reference to a labyrinthine murder mystery highlights the film’s intricate plot, which adds to the suspense and excitement of the story. in this way, johnson’s work can be seen as a nostalgic tribute to the mystery genre that shaped his formative years, imbued with a contemporary, humorous sensibility. the film’s setting, described as a “gothic pile,” adds to the film’s success. this isolated setting is a common trope in crime fiction, as it allows for a sense of mystery and isolation, making it easier for the crime to take place without interference. the manor itself is also a trope in crime fiction, as it is often associated with old money and a family legacy of wealth. in knives out, the thrombey family is seen as having old money, although this is later revealed to be a façade. the setting not only serves as a backdrop for the crime, but also plays an active role in shaping the narrative and the perception of the characters. this essay seeks to examine the tropes of setting common to crime fiction utilized in the film and how they contribute to the narrative, aiding rian johnson in creating a nostalgic film that harkens back to the stories of agatha christie, but offers a unique vision of the future of crime film. background on crime fiction and setting tropes crime fiction has come to be recognized as a crucial element in the preservation of social order. readers of crime fiction are given the opportunity to participate in the penalizing of perpetrators and to be active members in a moral framework that maintains order in society. the genre’s focus on what it means to be human and the complex motivation behind crime also allows readers to engage with ideas of justice and punishment. the appeal factors of crime fiction, including story, setting, character, and language, draw readers to the genre and allow for a wide range of sub-genres to 76 gonzalez exist. as the critic john scaggs argues, “crime has nevertheless been the foundation for an entire genre of fiction for over one hundred and fifty years” (23). for over a century, crime fiction has been drawing readers in with its focus on humanity, justice, and punishment. in addition to its exploration of crime and its consequences, crime fiction also offers readers the opportunity to participate in the penalizing of perpetrators and to be active members in a moral framework that maintains social order. the ending of a crime fiction story offers the possibility of restoration and a return to innocence, making the genre particularly appealing to readers who “suffer from a sense of sin” (auden 411). despite the fact that many readers know of the genre’s “tricks,” crime fiction continues to be popular and relevant because it allows readers to engage with important moral and societal issues. despite its popularity, the genre of crime fiction is not without its pitfalls, as it can be seen as perpetuating harmful stereotypes and supporting the status quo. however, its ability to experiment and critique social issues makes it an important genre in world literature. the setting of the film ties into the framework auden sets up, as it allows the audiences to connect the scenery to the events that take place within the film. application of tropes in knives out the opening scene of knives out takes place on the third floor of the thrombey estate, in the master bedroom suite, which is empty and unslept in. this sets a somber tone and immediately creates a sense of unease, as it is not typical for the master of the house not to have slept in his own bedroom, and it was known he was there the night before. the setting is further emphasized when fran, the housekeeper, heads out onto the landing and up an even narrower half-flight of stairs, which leads to a single door, creating a feeling of claustrophobia and a sense of foreboding as fran ascends to the top of the house in search of her boss. she arrives at the top of the stairs and knocks, not waiting long before entering what will soon be a highly investigated crime scene. the cramped attic study where harlan thrombey’s body is discovered is described as having every shelf crammed with curios, adding to the sense of clutter and disarray. the fact that the murder takes place in such a wealthy and extravagant setting also emphasizes the power dynamics at play in the story. the manor’s status as a symbol of old wealth and power adds a layer of complexity to the narrative, as the motivations of the characters are informed by their association with this world of privilege and prestige. the manor’s implied history and elegant design serve as the backdrop for the unfolding events, and its central role in the narrative underscores the importance of setting in the creation of a successful crime story. in this opening scene, knives out 77 gonzalez demonstrates how the careful selection of setting can play a crucial role in the success of a modern homage to classic crime fiction. the next scene after the opening credits is in direct contrast to the glamor and extravagance of the manor seen before. instead, the audience is put in the bedroom of a 20-year-old woman living in a small, cramped apartment with her family. the differences between the thrombey manor and marta cabrera’s housing project could not be starker. marta’s apartment is plain, modern, and cramped, in sharp contrast to the opulent, spacious mansion in which harlan met his untimely demise. her family’s kitchen is humble, with her sister alice watching csi on an ipad at the kitchen table and her mother concerned for marta’s well-being while preparing for the day. the contrast between the two settings emphasizes the class divide at the heart of the film’s narrative, and highlights the unique challenges faced by marta cabrera as she navigates a world that is both alien and hostile to her. one of the key tropes of crime fiction is the isolated manor, often belonging to a wealthy family with a dark past. in knives out, the thrombey family’s expansive manor in a secluded forest is a fitting setting for a crime fiction novel, as it provides the necessary seclusion and secrecy for the crime to take place. as cathy cole writes, “the settings of crime fiction are often associated with power and money, the places of 78 gonzalez figure 1. film capture the outside of the thrombey estate. 2019, knives out. privilege and authority that are closed to most people” (116). the use of such exclusive settings in crime fiction highlights the idea that crime and wrongdoing are often associated with positions of power and wealth. this idea is reinforced by the fact that the thrombey manor is only accessible to those within the family or those who have been invited, like marta. this exclusivity emphasizes the gap between the wealthy and the poor in society, as everyday people are shut out from these places of privilege and authority. this idea is also reflected in the parallels between the trick window and marta’s own use of trickery to protect herself and her family, highlighting the need to be careful and use wits to stay ahead of those in positions of authority. in a setting framing scene from knives out, lieutenant elliott expresses his frustration with the case, stating that it’s an open-and-shut case of suicide and that he expected something more interesting from the great benoit blanc as they take a stroll outside, revealing the exterior of the mansion they are working with. while walking, blanc picks up an old baseball lying in the grass and asks about the method of death, noting the dramatic nature of a throat slit for a suicide. this exchange highlights the tension between the expectation of a straightforward resolution and the possibility of a more complex mystery, often sought after by detective blanc. this tension is mirrored in the film’s setting, which is described as a “giant clue board” by lt. elliot. 79 gonzalez figure 2. film capture of marta cabrera’s family in thier kitchen. 2019, knives out. this comparison to the classic board game serves to reinforce the idea that the thrombey manor is a labyrinthine mystery waiting to be solved. additionally, the varied elements and tropes common in crime media add to the tension of the film and reinforce the significance of the setting, which serves as more than just a physical location, but as a character that affects the events of the story. by utilizing timeless cinematography and comparisons to classic crime media, knives out effectively creates a sense of mystery and unease, inviting the audience to join blanc and marta in solving the puzzle of harlan’s death. another common trope of crime fiction is the lack of technology in the setting. in knives out, detectives use a variety of devices, including cell phones and vhs tapes, to gather evidence and piece together the events leading up to the murder. this use of technology adds a twist to the traditional crime narrative, setting it apart from other works in the genre. the film also utilizes technology in a unique way in comparison to other crime fiction narratives. rather than eliminating technology, as is often done in order to create a sense of isolation, the characters in knives out use technology to uncover clues and piece together the crime. for example, the manor has a vhs tape 80 gonzalez figure 3. film capture marta cabrera and harlan thrombey in his office. 2019, knives out. security system, which is an old and outdated technology, but the characters also use their cell phones to keep tabs on other members of the family to uncover secrets about them. in a key scene of knives out, the conversation between ransom and marta at a restaurant is interrupted by the ringing of marta’s phone. meg’s phone call to marta, in which she pretends to be alone on the phone while the rest of the family listens in, demonstrates her utilizing a manipulation tactic, something meg, a friend of marta, would not normally do. however, due to the additional familial pressures and the threat of their way of life, she gives in and begins playing the game with the rest of her family. the sprawling estate of the thrombey family, with its ornate furnishings and expensive artwork, gives off the impression of a family steeped in generational wealth and prestige. the reveal of harlan thrombey’s family home being bought in the ‘80s and their generational wealth being a lie, as unveiled by blanc in one of the final scenes, serves as a critical turning point in the perception the audience has of the thrombey family. this revelation discredits the family’s presumed prestige, shattering the illusion of their wealth and power. it reveals the deceitful and corrupt nature of those in positions of authority, subverting the audience’s expectations and reinforcing the notion that crime media often employs the settings of power and 81 gonzalez figure 4. film capture of meg thrombey on the phone with marta. 2019, knvies out. wealth to question morality. as all the thrombeys become increasingly antagonistic in a last-ditch effort to save the fortune they feel entitled to, marta remains the only character to sympathize with, representing the working-class background that is often overshadowed by those of the elite. overall, the scene and the revelation of the family home’s history highlight the underlying theme of knives out, which is that even those with wealth who are enabled by the power wealth gives can be motivated by their greed and desire for more. as joel goldman writes, “a setting with a heartbeat represents the difference between good and great crime fiction; and allows readers to develop a true attachment to protagonists and, yes, a deep-seated fear and loathing of the villain” (1). the manor in knives out acts as a symbol of the family’s wealth and power, as well as the conflicts and tensions that arise among the family members as they navigate the investigation into harlan’s death. it is not just a static backdrop for the action, but a living, breathing presence that influences and is influenced by the characters. by using the manor as a character, rian johnson creates a more immersive and engaging story, deepening the reader’s connection to the characters and the environment that they are in, and further, how that environment influences their behaviors and actions throughout the film. 82 gonzalez figure 5. film capture of benoit blanc sitting on a throne of knives. 2019, knives out. overall, the setting of knives out plays a crucial role in the narrative, adding to the film’s success as a crime fiction story. as david geherin argues, “[w]hen a writer uses location as more than backdrop by weaving it into the very fabric of the novel, affecting every other element of the work, the reader gets far more than local color” (1). when the setting becomes more than just a physical location, but rather a character affecting every other element of the work, the reader gains a deeper understanding of the story. this results in a richer and immersive experience for the reader, as they can fully grasp the impact of the location on the events of the story. by weaving the setting into the narrative in this way, the writer can create a more nuanced and impactful story. the same can be applied to films of the crime fiction genre, as is the case with knives out. the isolated manor and the use of technology subvert common tropes in the genre, making for a unique and engaging narrative. the setting of the film is an important part of the narrative, as it allows for the development of attachment to the characters, as well as adding to the foreboding undertones. rian johnson utilizes the tropes of crime fiction in order to create a piece of media that makes the setting into a delightful character for the viewers to enjoy, instead of just leaving it as scenery. even as the audience believes they know exactly what happened to harlan from the beginning, there is a sense that there is another layer of the story still waiting to be told. the use and subversion of common crime fiction tropes in the setting of the film make it a standout in the genre and add to the tensions during the rising action. according to writer donald cawelti, the evolution of the classical detective genre has been to give “increasing importance to the intricacy of the puzzle surrounding the crime and less prominence to the detective’s initiative in the investigation” (84). this runs in accordance with benoit blanc’s more passive investigative method in the film, where the emphasis is set on the mystery of the crime itself, with the backdrop giving important context along the way. films must focus more on the complexity of the plot, so utilizing a classic setting formula, as done in knives out, aids in allowing for the plots to become odd and whimsical, and therefore original in nature. this film serves as a prime example of how the setting can be used to enhance the genre and create a standout piece of media. the future of crime films may rely on including more nostalgic tropes from crime media in order to create the mix of nostalgia and realworld narratives that contemporary audiences crave, just as knives out has displayed. gonzalez 83 works cited auden, w.h. “the guilty vicarage: notes on the detective story, from an addict.” harper’s magazine, harpers.org/archive/1948/05/the-guilty-vicarage/. cawelti, j.g. “adventure, mystery, and romance: formula stories as art and popular culture.” university of chicago press, 1976. cole, cathy. “private dicks and feisty chicks: an interrogation of crime fiction.” fremantle, 2004. franks, r. “a taste for murder: the curious case of crime fiction”. m/c journal, vol. 17, no. 1, mar. 2014, doi.org/10.5204/mcj.770. geherin, david. “scene of the crime: the importance of place in crime and detective fiction” cambridge scholars publishing, 2008. goldman, joel. “you set me up: importance of setting in crime fiction.” pml media, 6 june 2013, joelgoldman.com/you-set-me-up-importance-of-setting-in-crimefiction/. huang, chi-chieh. “knives out (2019) and the classical detective formula.” diggit magazine, 10 dec. 2022, www.diggitmagazine.com/papers/knives-out-2019and-classical-detective-formula johnson, rian. knives out. lionsgate, 2019. rogers, stephen d. “the scene of the crime: choosing your setting.” writing world, 2002, www.writing-world.com/mystery/setting.shtml. scaggs, john. “crime fiction theory.” slideshare, 23 apr. 2016, www.slideshare.net/ tirsinacristina/crime-fiction-theory. gonzalez 84 https://harpers.org/archive/1948/05/the-guilty-vicarage/ https://journal.media-culture.org.au/index.php/mcjournal/article/view/770 https://joelgoldman.com/you-set-me-up-importance-of-setting-in-crime-fiction/ https://joelgoldman.com/you-set-me-up-importance-of-setting-in-crime-fiction/ https://www.diggitmagazine.com/papers/knives-out-2019-and-classical-detective-formula https://www.diggitmagazine.com/papers/knives-out-2019-and-classical-detective-formula https://www.writing-world.com/mystery/setting.shtml https://www.slideshare.net/tirsinacristina/crime-fiction-theory https://www.slideshare.net/tirsinacristina/crime-fiction-theory carrot cake and cream cheese icing tauri hagemann thanksgiving, easter, birthdays, any special occasion you could think of my mom would be found in the kitchen the night before baking this cake. growing up i always played sous chef for her, so i have no idea how many times i’ve made this cake by now. it’s a very sweet and very delicious dessert year round, and it’s easier to make than one might think. cake 2 cups flour 2 cups sugar 1 tsp baking powder 1 tsp ground cinnamon 3 cups finely shredded carrots 1 cup cooking oil 4 eggs icing (2) 3oz. packages cream cheese 1/2 cup softened margarine or butter 2 tsp vanilla 2-4 cups sifted powdered sugar cake in a bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon. add carrots, oil, and eggs. beat with electric mixer until combined. pour into greased and floured baking pan. bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. if using a bundt cake pan, cook time is closer to 50 minutes. cool on wire racks for 10 minutes. remove from pan, and cool thoroughly. icing in a bowl, beat together cream cheese, margarine, and vanilla until light and fluffy. gradually add 2 cups powdered sugar, beating well. gradually add more powdered sugar until frosting is of desired spreading consistency. refrigerate until firm, and then evenly spread on cooled cake. recipe 93 | hagemann regardless of their subgenre, crime films share the fundamental element of presenting audiences with society’s intricate executions of law and punishment. because of this relationship, crime films are able to use their genre-specific elements to include social commentary within their storylines. using their victims, suspects, and crime resolutions, modern crime fiction pieces such as rian johnson’s 2019 film knives out and halina reijn’s 2022 film bodies bodies bodies both implement the larger conversations of class division within their stories. in knives out, the audience follows the mystery behind the sudden death of the renowned author, harlan thrombey—the suspects being his family and staff. within the film’s mystery, johnson uses elements of the story to recognize and critique those in power who benefit from privilege, suggesting america should change the bias system it currently upholds. bodies bodies bodies focuses on couple bee and sophie as they join sophie’s upper-class influencer friends for a weekend of partying, but mystery ensues when one of the friends is found dead, leaving only those within the house as suspects. throughout the film, reijn critiques the privileges of modern influencers and their often problematic culture, using the critique to warn younger generations about utilizing technology harmfully. this essay will use these pieces of modern crime fiction to explore how fictional crime narratives can use their stories to include social commentary. “realistic villains”: examining social commentary in crime films through knives out and bodies bodies bodies caitlin davis, ball state university 96 regardless of their subgenre, crime films share the fundamental element of presenting audiences with society’s intricate executions of law and punishment within their elaborate storylines. this is the subject that sociology and law professor ferdinando spina introduces in the article “crime films”’ by recognizing that crime films “dramatize the uncertainty of moral categories and the ever-present tension between the social order and its violation” (2-3). crime films explore society’s “social order and its violation,” and by doing so, they become representational of society— their elements and themes becoming reflective of relevant societal topics. spina concurs, analyzing the relationship between crime films and society: on one hand, crime films reveal something important about the social context that they represent and from which they have been fashioned. on the other, they themselves have an effect on the social context, since their representation of crime, law, justice, and punishment itself becomes culture, acquires meaning, and provides an interpretation of reality. (3) within the reflective relationship between crime films and society, these films are able to use their genre elements to include various types of social commentary, creating larger conversations and developing new “interpretations” of pertinent topics within society. in her novel shots in the mirror: crime films and society, criminologist nicole rafter expands on the specific effects of these “interpretations,” explaining that they “sculpt our assumptions about the nature of reality and fill our mental reservoirs with a vast supply of imagery for thinking about crime, criminals, and the role of criminal justice institutions in society” and “guide us in defining justice, heroism, and the illicit” (179). because of the meaningful societal representations crime films create, they can inform and educate audiences, producing and reshaping how they interpret significant topics that play roles in how they define elements such as “crime” and “justice”—vital elements that likely will determine future perceptions of the justice system itself. after establishing the relationship between crime films and society, recognizing social commentary within crime films, and acknowledging its importance, it is vital to exemplify these points with recent crime films that epitomize certain types of social commentary using their story elements. both rian johnson’s 2019 mystery knives out and halina reijn’s 2022 thriller bodies bodies bodies are exemplary models of the subject as they comment on a perpetual and relevant topic within modern society—class division. as films structured as whodunit stories, both pieces use their specific genre and story elements—victims, suspects, and crime resolutions— davis 97 to examine the different positions members of society are placed in based on their socioeconomic status. knives out depicts and critiques america’s prejudice system that seems grounded in benefitting the privileged upper class by focusing on the class differences between a wealthy family and their staff, hoping to exhibit and propose a new society that america should stray toward. bodies bodies bodies similarly criticizes this same system, using the privileged positions of modern influencer characters to exhibit class divisions, working to ultimately caution younger generations about the harmful use of technology and influencer culture they see online. this essay will analyze how these pieces of crime fiction use their story elements to include social commentary regarding class divisions within their storylines, expanding on their crime narratives to not only depict socio-economic issues within modern society but also to help audiences recognize and form newfound perceptions regarding this particular societal issue. the victim in a fictional crime story is a vital element as they are what ignites the mystery—the circumstances of their death often being used to symbolize deeper meanings. in knives out, the film’s central victim is the renowned and wealthy author harlan thrombey; however, because of the particular decisions johnson makes revolving around harlan’s death, it is plausible to interpret harlan as both the victim and the killer within the film’s story. specifically, under the belief that his nurse, marta, has made a fatal mistake with his medications, harlan refuses to seek medical attention and instead insists that they hatch a plan to cover up the incident—one of which involves him killing himself (johnson 00:40:25). establishing harlan as both the victim and instigator, johnson seemingly uses his passing to depict the figurative death of the long-established systems that have bred the current prejudiced class system society continues to implement today. in the moments the audience sees harlan, it is obvious that he detests his family’s greedy and egotistical behavior, desperately wanting them to change their ways. in an attempt to do so, he confronts the family about their behaviors by threatening his unfaithful son-in-law, cutting off funds to his daughter-in-law, and firing his son. harlan explains his sudden choices in a flashback scene by saying, “it’s unfair of me to keep you tethered to something that isn’t yours to control. i’ve done you a great disservice. all these years, i’ve kept you from building something of your own, that was yours” (johnson 00:16:00). harlan regretfully recognizes that he has raised his family within society’s classist system from which they benefit—a decision harlan comes to regret as it has turned his family into money-driven, egotistical perpetrators of this privilege. although harlan’s efforts leave a fearful impression on the family, it is clear that the thrombeys still feel secure in their positions. this leads to harlan’s davis 98 final move—his will reading. it is not until the thrombeys learn that everything is left to marta that their perceptions change, and they begin to grow fearful (johnson 1:07:18). in the article “knives out is a surprisingly subversive mystery,” editor and writer olivia rutigliano elaborates on the significant meaning of harlan’s death in terms of the thrombeys: harlan thrombey...comes to represent a longstanding system of influence and control that rejects the privileged descendants it has begotten, needing to die for this rejection to be fully meaningful and for a new, more productive world order to be born. his death is a sacrifice, it can prevent the ascension of his terrible family— from a ‘body-politic’ angle, it might help save america. (rutigliano) using harlan’s death, johnson implies that to prevent the perpetuation of unfair systems that reward those who are privileged, those who benefit from america’s classist system society must recognize the unjustness in society’s current ways and be willing to make changes or sacrifices for the sake of a more equal system. this is seemingly the interpretation johnson wants the audience to take away from the commentary within the film—an interpretation that, if taken into serious consideration, could “save america” from continuing to perpetuate the biased system that harlan strives to and eventually does end. when continuing to analyze the deeper meaning of victims within crime fiction stories, bodies bodies bodies follows the death of a social media influencer to serve as a warning to younger generations about enabling the harmful behaviors they see these influencers exhibiting online. similar to knives out, bodies bodies bodies focuses on a group of upper-class individuals; however, in this case, it is a group of young-adult influencers who, during the night of a party, begin to suspect each other of murder after their friend—central victim david—is found dead. the mystery that plagues the majority of the film is solved when it is discovered that there was no murder at all. the cause of david’s death is that he accidentally slits his throat when attempting to post a tiktok (reijn 1:26:53). in the “digital technology” chapter of the novel the routledge companion to crime fiction, nicole kenley, twenty-first-century detective fiction and global crime researcher, elaborates on the critical role that technology plays within fictional crime pieces: “the formulation that technology simply equals novelty is problematic because it obscures the true role of digital technologies, which is not as a marker of newness but rather as a signifier of the choices such innovations force upon society” (261). in modern society, being in a position to become an influencer—a position that will be discussed in more detail later on—comes with certain attributes that have become davis 99 favorable to younger generations. as exemplified by david, these attributes include attention, popularity, and perhaps monetary gain; however, though technology has generated access to these attributes, it also has “innovated” a harmful mentality “upon society.” specifically, david’s need for recognition on social media establishes a lack of recognition, one so severe that he blatantly ignores how dangerous it is for him to wield a weapon that he is clearly inexperienced with. david’s mentality is reminiscent of the behaviors seen in real-life with trends such as the tide pod challenge—a social media challenge that, despite being obviously dangerous, was popularized during its time of relevancy by many influencers and their followers. by purposefully setting up david’s death in this way, reijn reflects on these behaviors, wanting to make it clear to the younger audiences that, despite the powerful influence influencers may wield, they should be mindful and careful about the harmful behaviors that are being perpetuated within social media spaces. though exemplified differently, it is worth recognizing here the use of technology in knives out as it exhibits similar ideas presented in bodies bodies bodies. despite being in the same time period as bodies bodies bodies where the use of technology is popularized, knives out does not make technology a core subject throughout the film. therefore, when technology is shown, its use seems meaningful. there are scenes in which technology is presented purposefully, such as when the thrombeys instantly resort to their cell phones to search for ways to obtain harlan’s will and when marta’s blackmailer communicates with her through email (johnson). these scenes seem to depict moments of the upper-class utilizing their access to technology as a weapon against marta in attempts to selfishly gain something for themselves. as discussed previously with bodies bodies bodies, johnson’s decision to portray technology in this way highlights the typical socioeconomic status of those who can gain access to technology. however, this decision also presents a similar theme as reijn—the theme that technology has the potential to inflict dangerous innovations upon society, especially when in the hands of those who are in positions of privilege. within fictional crime pieces, suspects are another key element to analyze as they are who the audience primarily focuses on and ultimately follows to solve the mystery that is presented; therefore, their behaviors during the time they are present are often significant and purposeful. as mentioned, knives out focuses on harlan’s family, the thrombeys, being questioned about his death. johnson characterizes the thrombeys as greedy and narcissistic people, making their behavior reflective of the types of figures in real life that benefit from the prejudiced system society has established. for example, during their questioning by the police, the thrombeys praise marta as harlan’s caregiver, insisting that she is “part of the family” (johnson davis 100 00:13:05). flashback sequences during this scene exemplify the thrombeys’ claims— one showing a push-in shot of richard, harlan’s son-in-law, smiling at marta as he seemingly invites her to join the family in conversation (00:13:05). however, the audience is later shown that, as a latina immigrant, marta was only invited into the family’s conversation because richard started a debate regarding immigration policies—one in which some of the thrombeys think immigrant detention facilities are rightful punishments for “breaking the law” while others compare them to concentration camps (johnson 00:45:52). johnson is purposeful in making the scene representative of the societal topics that were relevant for the time the film is set in, allowing the audience to recognize the types of people that the thrombeys represent. rutigliano analyzes the characterization of the thrombeys: as invested as knives out is in exposing the culprit masterminding the mystery at hand, it’s more invested in exposing more realistic villains...that the thrombeys variously believe themselves to be allies to the less-privileged or marginalized only makes their selfishness and wickedness feel more true-to-life...knives out is very clear that these kind of dynastic families should lose their power, but it’s loudest about the kinds of shady characters that hide in plain sight, professing to be allies... to an inclusive system that plans to share power, resources, and rights up and down the ladder and across demographics, as long as it is convenient for them. (rutigliano) though the family may claim to be in alliance with marta, johnson makes a point to show that between criticizing immigrants right in front of her and fighting her over harlan’s will later on, they clearly are not. representing figures in real life who falsely claim to stand with those who are oppressed in society, yet continue to benefit from privilege, the thrombeys are used to expose and warn audiences about society’s “realistic villains”—the ones who endanger the hopes of the more equal system that harlan strives to create. in bodies bodies bodies, similar to johnson’s utilization of the thrombeys, reijn uses the characterization of the suspects to expose “realistic villains,” creating audience interpretations regarding problematic behaviors within modern influencer culture. as already established, the film’s suspects are mostly young-adult influencers—social media figures, actors, and podcasters—who come from upperclass families. this representation is fitting considering that, often, those who can be influencers are able to do so because they are in a position of privilege, having access to the necessary technology as well-off individuals. reijn clearly depicts these positions of privilege and nepotism; the group resides at an exceedingly lavish mansion owned by david’s parents, utilizing its many rooms to partake in expensive davis 101 alcohol and drugs while they party, record themselves, and merely talk about their jobs that require “a lot of work” (reijn 1:12:59). by characterizing and portraying the characters in this manner, reijn not only creates representational figures based on modern privileged peoples, but she also expands on this representation to recognize and curate audience thoughts based on the problematic behaviors within the influencer realm. as exemplified earlier with the character of david, in an age where recognition on social media has become more enticing to younger generations, it is much more common to see influencers who neglect their privilege, often playing the victim and saying whatever will gain them the most sympathy or positive attention from an audience. reijn uses the suspect characters to exemplify this behavior as their quick willingness to blame each other or label themselves as the victim in the situation prohibits them from sensibly handling the events of the night. a scene that best depicts this behavior is shown toward the end of the film. after the deaths of more characters, one of the deaths being the group’s fault after a false accusation about who the murderer is, tensions rise, and an argument begins amongst those who are left. however, the disagreement has little to do with the murderous events of the night and consists of the group attacking each other over their flimsy friendships. the group uses generational terms such as “red flags” and “triggering” to critique each other, debates over who is more “rich,” and defends themselves so as to appear as the victim within the situation—podcaster alice attempting to excuse any wrongful behavior by claiming, “i’m an ally” (reijn 1:08:46-1:10:04). even though the group is no longer in front of a camera, they still exhibit these harmful behaviors that are becoming so prominent amongst modern online platforms. author and film critic justin chang recognizes reijn’s critique of these behaviors in the article “it has its sharp moments, but bodies bodies bodies could use a few corpse corrections”: in an age when everyone makes a fetish of authenticity, friendships are shown to be the flimsiest and least authentic of constructs, mediated by tiktok...there’s promise in [reijn’s] understanding of how, even in a politically progressive, racially and sexually inclusive crowd, people can and do wield the language of social justice to hide their own glaring privilege. (chang) reijn focuses on these characters in hopes of showing audiences that they are representational of those who perpetually misuse their positions on social media to gain popularity—a behavior that the film critiques as an unhealthy and dangerous cycle that only works to protect those who are in privileged positions and should be abolished. davis 102 using suspects as a symbol, both johnson and reijn further the discussions about class divisions throughout their films by establishing particular circumstances for their unique suspects, marta and bee. similar to marta, bee is also a workingclass immigrant; therefore, both women not only stand out amongst the respective suspects but also are put into different positions based on their ethnicity and class throughout their situations. in knives out, as a minority and member of the working class, marta already has less privilege in the situation than the other suspects. academic writer katarina dulude recognizes marta’s position in the article “the roles of class and gender in popular films of 2019: hustlers, knives out, and avengers: endgame”: “[marta] would have never obtained so much money had harlan not deviated from the norm and given it to her, not because she wasn’t deserving of it, but because the system rarely rewards those who work hard, but do not start their lives with the resources to propel them towards substantial affluence” (6). johnson uses marta’s vulnerability as a working-class citizen within the situation to highlight the unfairness in the justice system—a vulnerability that is compounded due to the fact that marta’s mother is undocumented. this theme recurs in scenes throughout the film. specifically, marta insists that they call for help when she believes she has switched harlan’s medications; however, knowing there would not be enough time, harlan hatches the plan discussed earlier, telling marta in a close-up shot that “[y]our mom is still undocumented, and if this is your fault, she’ll be found out, and, at best, deported, and your family will be broken” (johnson 00:39:56). despite desperately wanting to tell the truth, marta is made well aware of the consequences if she does. a later scene where harlan’s son, walt, threatens to expose marta’s mom if she does not renounce harlan’s will only raises the stakes (johnson 1:25:50). johnson writes marta’s character in this way to present and reflect the unjust irony of the justice system—a system that, despite being dedicated to preserving equal treatment, forces an innocent person like marta to play the part of a murderer covering up their crime out of fear that she will lose her family if she trusts law enforcement. although bee from bodies bodies bodies is not a person of color, she is still vulnerable within her situation because, based on her socioeconomic status, the respective suspects treat her with prejudice and essentially view her as an outsider, similar to marta. their lack of hospitality toward bee is present from the beginning of the film. an early scene of david interrupting bee and her girlfriend sophie’s time together to talk to sophie “in private” about bringing bee “without telling anyone” whilst the rest of the group probes bee about her romantic past and nationality, serves as a clear example (reijn 00:10:40-00:17:00). though bee and the group seemingly begin to feel more comfortable around each other, the group’s disdain resurfaces after murders begin to take place and they openly suspect and accuse bee davis 103 without solid evidence and lock her out of the house—a harsh and dangerous choice considering, at this point in the film, the audience is aware of bee’s innocence and still believes a murderer is killing off the group one by one (reijn 1:01:10). similar to johnson’s choices regarding marta, reijn makes a clear point to viewers by having well-off individuals quickly suspect and endanger someone who does not share the same economic status as them—a point that society’s unfair beliefs have embedded a distinct division between people that has reached an unfathomable and dangerous level. perhaps the most essential of the fictional crime elements, the resolution of a crime story best emphasizes the story’s central purpose, solidifying the conversations presented and the interpretations that have been established. rafter expands on what the conclusions of crime films offer, explaining that crime films’ resolutions give “us contradictory sorts of satisfaction: the reality of what we fear to be true and the fantasy of overcoming that reality; the pleasure of entering the realm of the forbidden and illicit and the security of rejecting or escaping that realm in the end” (3). in different ways, both films achieve this type of “satisfaction;” johnson achieves it by the end of knives out by ending the film with marta overcoming the thrombey’s attempts to reclaim harlan’s will from her—a final closeup shot of her watching the thrombeys from the balcony and sipping a mug that reads “my house, my rules, my coffee,” solidifying her victory (johnson 2:05:08). visually, the whole setup is symbolic; marta’s placement above the thrombeys represents the power she now holds over them as she has acquired the inheritance the family was convinced that they had earned. rutigliano concurs with marta’s success by the film’s ending, remarking that “[t]he film’s defensive-sounding title is the first and last sharp point it makes—that taking on a thorny, rotting system like the thrombey family sovereignty isn’t easy, and won’t happen without a big fight, or at the very least, screaming bloody murder.” in the film’s finale, the previous conversations johnson included come together to represent the metaphorical overthrowing of the modern biased system that the thrombeys embody. by having this system lose to marta, johnson creates a new reality—one he seemingly suggests that society and the audience should stray toward. less optimistically, by its conclusion, bodies bodies bodies achieves the same “satisfaction” knives out does. after discovering the true cause of david’s death, the film concludes with a final scene in which max, the only one in the group who was not present for the night’s events, returns and promptly asks bee and sophie, the sole survivors, what happened. in a final close-up, the girls, who are clearly in shock, are both silent as they are brought back to reality (reijn 1:27:41). while this is can be seen as an unfortunate fate for the characters, the film’s conclusion does supply a sense of contentment by having the influencer’s davis 104 egotistical attempts to save themselves backfire, leaving them either dead due to their unprincipled decisions or in a reality in which pretending to be the perfect influential figure will not be enough to dismiss a murder charge. the film’s final moments not only further execute reijn’s themes regarding younger generations recognizing harmful attributes of online and influencer culture, but they also, similarly to knives out, make a proposition—a reality in which those in privileged positions are unable to fake their way out of the critical or, in the film’s case, fatal mistakes they made. using the films knives out and bodies bodies bodies, this essay exemplifies specific and individual aspects of crime narratives that are capable of including social commentary. both films, utilizing their victims, suspects, and resolutions, discuss and critique the relevant societal topic of class division. focused on the upper-class thrombey family who benefits from privilege, knives out criticizes the current bias system that society perpetuates, creating a new, more hopeful reality by its ending that johnson believes modern american society should strive toward. similar yet different, bodies bodies bodies follows a group of wealthy social media influencers who, due to their economic statuses, are in privileged positions. the film uses the characters to critique social figures’ harmful behavior with technology and behavior within modern influencer culture, working as a cautionary tale for younger generations if they do not recognize the harm in this behavior and choose not to perpetuate it. davis 105 works cited chang, justin. “it has its sharp moments, but bodies bodies bodies could use a few corpse corrections.” los angeles times, www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/ movies/story/2022-08-04/bodies-bodies-bodies-review-a24-pete-davidson. dulude, katarina. “the roles of class and gender in popular films of 2019: hustlers, knives out, and avengers: endgame.” the macksey journal, 2022. johnson, rian. knives out. lionsgate, 2019. pepper, andrew, et al. the routledge companion to crime fiction. routledge, 2021. rafter, nicole. “shots in the mirror: crime films and society.” oxford university press, 2006. reijn, halina. bodies bodies bodies. a24, 2022. rutigliano, olivia. “knives out is a surprisingly subversive mystery.” crimereads, 7 nov. 2022, www.crimereads.com/knives-out-is-a-surprisingly-subversivemystery/. spina, ferdinando. “crime films.” oxford research encyclopedia of criminology, pp. 1-29. davis 106 http://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2022-08-04/bodies-bodies-bodies-review-a24-pete-davidson http://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2022-08-04/bodies-bodies-bodies-review-a24-pete-davidson http://www.crimereads.com/knives-out-is-a-surprisingly-subversive-mystery/ http://www.crimereads.com/knives-out-is-a-surprisingly-subversive-mystery/ 4 | the digital literature review editorial team “finding home: migration, exile, and diaspora in our lives” introduction migration studies is a complex field that seeks to understand the emotional and social effects on individuals and communities as well as the broader economic, political, and cultural impacts of migration and exile. it studies migrants, countries that the individuals migrate to, and the countries and cultures they come from, creating an incredibly complicated and ever-evolving field. according to peter scholten et al., “it is an inherently pluralistic field, bringing often fundamentally different theoretical perspectives on key topics” (4). the methods they use range from “ethnographic fieldwork with specific migrant communities to large-n quantitative analyses of the relation between economics and migration” (4). these different—and often contradictory—perspectives create a field of study that is very diverse and complicated. it has been extensively developed in a variety of disciplines including, but not limited to: sociology, political science, anthropology, geography, and law and economics. migration studies developed throughout the 20th century, which is relatively recent in human history, given that human beings have always migrated. there are some reasons for this, though. according to asya pisarevskaya, “various scholars have argued that the growth of migration studies has kept pace not only with the growing prominence of migration itself but also with the growing attention of nation–states in particular towards controlling migration” (456). before the introduction of centralized governments, people were more free to move and migrate, and these movements were seen as normal—or, at least, were controlled less strictly. but with the increasing emphasis on creating an organized bureaucratic state during the industrial revolution, migration came to natalie byers, emma carlson, theo edwards, victoria mayeaux — the 2025 digital literature review editorial team the digital literature review | 5 be seen in a different light. as wage labor became the dominant form of economic transaction during this time laborers (and, consequently, migrants) became subject to the ebbs and flows of the economy, and their wages largely depended on the surplus of individuals within the available labor pool. nations, and the people living within them, now saw migration as a threat to their hegemony and, therefore, they felt they needed to control it. additionally, discrimination and racism play a key role in how migrants perceive themselves and how they are perceived by others. because we have only ever experienced a post-industrial world, it can be difficult to recognize that our perception of migration did not develop in isolation but rather emerged from a combination of factors shaping the world we live in today. such complex labor histories and cultural encounters established migration studies as an important field of study that even today continues to persist and expand. in this year’s journal, our essayists delve into the field of migration studies by analyzing works of literature, song, and film. readers gain insight into how our world is cultivated through film, how literature breaks down barriers and creates understanding, and how music is a uniting force that can strengthen and empower marginalized voices. migration studies can contain a variety of academic subjects, and to reflect that, our essayists examine the impact of exile, multiple identities, counterstories, and the impacts of alienation and racism. our essays cover a wide variety of topics, but all of them have one common goal: to raise awareness of a subject within this field that the writers are deeply passionate about. creating a narrative that stays true to the migrant perspective has been something that has been co-opted and often whitewashed to make these stories palatable for a western audience. authenticity, and how to achieve that within these narratives, is something that is expanded upon by jack vaught in their essay “counterstories in cathy park hong’s minor feelings.” they analyze minor feelings with multiple different 6 | the digital literature review editorial team essays along with other critical works to create an incredibly thought provoking and effective deconstruction of how to create this authenticity in migrant narratives with counterstories. counterstories are a reclamation of perspectives by migrants themselves, giving them the agency to tell their narratives in a way that feels authentic to their own experiences and cultures. acts of reclamation are particularly frequent in films that contain elements of exile and the rediscovery of lost identities. these themes, however, are difficult to acknowledge when written into movies that are primarily intended for younger audiences. natalie byers discusses this in her essay about identity reclamation titled “birds of a feather: a comparative analysis of rio (2011) and the migrant experience,” which dives into rio and its protagonist, blu, on his journey of understanding who he wants to be and who he is. after being taken from his homeland, blu struggles to combine his two cultures and learns to be confident in his evolving identity. similarly, kaira carter’s essay “post-migration and embracing identity multiplicity” also engages with themes of identity. in this case, though, carter analyzes ibi zaboi’s novel american street and how the main character, fabiola, reconciles both her identity as a haitian migrant and her newfound american identity. it engages with american street by utilizing it as an example of how identity multiplicity can be a complicated but beautiful thing, where one individual is able to foster a welcoming community that accepts them for who they are. identity is something that is difficult for everyone to navigate, but when someone migrates to another nation, identity can become a lifelong struggle, and this essay illustrates how american street engages with this idea. in the united states, nativism is an ideology that has sprung up countless times throughout its history. nativist ideologies “see the relations between nations and nationstates as a zero-sum game. they privilege erecting borders, both territorial and symbolic, the digital literature review | 7 against minorities, migrants or refugees, other nation-states and supranational political formations” (anna triandafyllidou 207). nativism is almost always combined with racism and other forms of xenophobia, and these ideas create a culture of conformity, where anything outside of total assimilation is outside the norm. while it has always had deadly consequences for those it affects, its impact has rarely been as far-reaching as it is today under the current administration, where mass deportations are dislocating families, instilling fear, and fueling hatred. continuing from this theme, some of our essayists seek to fight back against the hatred and xenophobia we see espoused, including anna grile’s “the power of language: strengthening chicano voices through song.” this essay discusses a famous band known as chicano batman and their role in creating a welcoming community through spreading messages that can be loved and appreciated by all. the band also seeks to raise awareness of key issues faced by mexican americans, such as in their cover of “this land is your land” (2017) where they seek to question and undermine the nativist ideology espoused by many politicians in our world today. alienation and othering are two concepts that are heavily misunderstood and nearly impossible to fathom for those that have never experienced it. in order to best understand the effects and impacts of othering, reading firsthand accounts of people that experience it can provide an invaluable perspective. victoria mayeaux does exactly that in her essay “the enduring alienation of black bodies and migrants: a comparative analysis of james baldwin’s ‘stranger in the village’ and teju cole’s ‘black body’.” this essay compares the writings and experiences of james baldwin and teju cole in a swiss village decades apart to highlight how racism is a deadly reality, especially for migrants. this essay brings in contemporary examples and analyzes media portrayals of migration to show how these things are still present in our culture and in our institutions. 8 | the digital literature review editorial team the representation of exile in film is also discussed by emily king in “stitch: the creation, the model citizen, and the reality discovered through exile.” this essay highlights how we can look at the character stitch and see parallels of our own world. while not trying to conflate the experiences of a fictional character with real people and real emotions, king argues that the struggles stitch experiences in trying to fit in can be seen all throughout our world. she argues that this struggle to fit in can persist for a long time—and, in many cases, last forever. she also claims that most adults react to stitch with fear, awe, and confusion except for the main character, a young girl who has not yet been influenced by the older generation’s harmful beliefs. this interesting analysis shows that prejudice is something that is perpetuated by the old and passed on through generations. the digital literature review is an undergraduate student-run journal which means that the process of selecting essays, designing the journal, and promoting it is done independently by the student teams in the course. as such, all seven essays published here were selected, reviewed, and edited by the editorial team, the illustrations and formatting were done by the design team, and all promotions on social media and otherwise were created and distributed by the publicity team. this caters to ball state’s investment in high impact practices by supporting undergraduate research and professional experience as part of the senior seminar course. migration will always be an important reality within our world, and the struggle of grappling with one’s identity will persist. hatred and prejudice remain a thriving problem within our society, but by continuing to participate in conversations regarding the migrant experience—through open dialogue as well as literature—ideally those sentiments will fade away. our hope is that the essays featured in this year’s edition of the digital literature review contribute to this on-going conversation, and that you enjoy reading them as much as we did. https://www.bsu.edu/about/administrativeoffices/vice-provost/student-services/high-impact-practices works cited digital literature review | 9 pisarevskaya, asya, et al. “mapping migration studies: an empirical analysis of the coming of age of a research field.” migration studies, volume 8, issue 3, september 2020, pages 455–481. scholten, peter et al. “an introduction to migration studies: the rise and coming of age of a research field.” introduction to migration studies, springer nature switzerland ag, 2022. “finding home: migration, exile, and diaspora in our lives” introduction natalie byers, emma carlson, theo edwards, victoria mayeaux —the 2025 digital literature review editorial team counterstories in cathy park hong’s minor feelings jack vaught birds of a feather: a comparative analysis of rio (2011) and the migrant experience natalie byers post-migration and embracing identity multiplicity kaira carter the power of language: strengthening chicano voices through song anna grile the enduring alienation of black bodies and migrants: a comparative analysis of james baldwin’s “stranger in the village” and teju cole’s “black body” victoria mayeaux stitch: the creation, the model citizen, and the reality discovered through exile emily king contributor’s biographies great grandma’s chocolate toast shelby harrison unsweetened cocoa powder (hershey’s cocoa recommended) all-purpose flour salt white sugar milk (2% recommended) preferred toast 1 tbs per person 1 tbs per person a dash per person ¼ cup per person 1 cup per person 2 slices per person my great grandmother was born in hazard county, kentucky in 1909. she grew up helping her family work on their tobacco farm, and she married my great grandfather by eighteen. she raised most of her children during the great depression, which resulted in her making this recipe as a way for a decently cheap meal that tasted like a dessert. she would make this meal for breakfast for her children, one of them being my grandfather. the recipe was then passed down to my grandmother who proceeded to make it for my own mother. throughout my childhood, i would wake up to the smell of chocolate toast in the kitchen next to my bedroom and hear the noises of my mother moving pans around. when i taste chocolate toast, i taste the warm embrace of home and the long line of love that has been passed down. i hope this recipe brings you the warmth of home, even for just a little bit. 1. put dry ingredients and milk into a pan on medium heat and bring to a boil. make sure to constantly stir to avoid sticking and clumping during the process, building up to the boil. 2. while the ingredients are on the stove and the mixture is about to begin to boil, put toast in the toaster to begin to heat. 3. once the mixture is boiling and toast is done, pour mixture over the toast. 4. serve. recipe harrison | 16 multispecies encounters my philodendron’s favorite music is beethoven: considerations of plant sentience milo hardison • • • • it is necessary to look at how things we may consider ‘below us’ have sentience, and in turn a developed consciousness, on their own in order to take away the notion that one species is above the other; each one shares the world and influences the development of the other. through plants, we can further understand our minds and how the environment around us fosters sentience. in this essay i argue that plant life, specifically through examining mushroom forests and extreme reactions from other plant types, contains a level of sentience, consciousness, and intelligence previously ignored. “arts of inclusion, or how to love a mushroom” written by anna tsing develops the basic information about the lives of mushrooms and their interactions with habitats within the essay, while “multispecies studies: cultivating arts of attentiveness” informs the argument of sentience within beings other than humans. through looking at studies of plant interactions with each other, their environment, and humans in the island of missingtrees’s chapters “roots,” “trunk,” and “ecosystem” in addition to scientific research about the subject, i argue that different species of plants are sentient beings and deserve the same respective level of attentiveness. this attentiveness can change how plants are seen and characterized in the everyday, academia, and media. ©2024 hardison. the digital literature review, 11, 85-98. doi: 10.33043/q599x7c22. shared with cc by-nc-nd 4.0 liscense. 86 there have been many experiments done to determine if plants are sentient, conscious, both, or neither through the years. in the media, this idea has been explored in various genres, ranging from science fiction to dystopian to the supernatural. although further scientific research into this field is important for understanding human consciousness and other notions, this essay aims to examine and add to the social considerations of this question. the purpose is to bring social awareness to the experiences of plants and mushrooms in order to facilitate better reciprocal relationships between humans and other species. in this essay, i argue that plant life, specifically through examining mushroom forests and extreme reactions performed by other plant types, contains a level of sentience, consciousness, and intelligence previously ignored by the general public. through looking at studies of plant interactions with each other, their environment, and humans in elif shafak’s the island of missing trees’s parts “roots,” “trunk,” and “ecosystem,” in addition to scientific research about the subject, i argue that plants and mushrooms are sentient beings and deserve a respective level of attentiveness. this attentiveness can change how plants are seen and characterized in the everyday, academia, and media. once they are understood as active participants in society, people might take more care and responsibility when interacting with plant life. this can help resolve some environmental issues if not all. the science there is a lot of vocabulary that goes into this topic that i will define here. firstly, consciousness can be defined as feelings plus an awareness of events that includes awareness of internal states or “recurrent and self-sustaining activity of certain biological structures, based on the temporal synchronization of functional networks” (nani 66). sentience is better defined as “the presence of some subjective phenomenal experience, be it of the external world or of oneself” (segundo-ortin 1) or “feedback processes directed to maintain the integrity of the organism” (nani 69). part of the criteria for both classifications is behaving, which can be defined as hardison 87 “any measurable response of an organism” from the penguin dictionary of psychology. in order to say that something is behaving, a difference between cognition and adaptation must be established; the response must be unable to be explained away by adaptation. though they initially may seem the same, consciousness and sentience operate at diverse levels that need to be considered when asking if a thing can be classified as either. another criterion that comes up is intelligence, which is defined as “the ability to learn or understand or to deal with new or trying situations also: the ability to apply knowledge to manipulate one’s environment or to think abstractly as measured by objective criteria” by the merriam-webster dictionary. the line between consciousness and sentience is very blurry. for some individuals, there is no line. the defining features of each term are fairly subjective despite the definitions given earlier, as they are still constructs that humans do not fully understand yet. in order for plants to have a sense of awareness as we understand it, there needs to be an exchange of information between their internal and external environments: a process of collecting information from external stimuli, processing it, and using it in ways that are not simply reacting to things. there have been numerous experiments done (by both those who agree with plant sentience and those who do not) that have studied the sunflower, the cornish mallow, the thale cress, the common purslane, and the boquila trifoliolata—to name a few—to discern plants’ levels of cognitive response, showing that they are able to adapt to and predict their environment beyond a simple mechanical response to stimuli (nani 62). similar to animals, plants use electrical signals such as action potentials and ion movements throughout localized areas and the entirety of their bodies, have specialized fibers that function similarly to animal muscles, and not only contain chemicals such as gaba, serotonin, dopamine, melatonin, and glutamate—some of which are considered key parts of animal nervous systems—but use them in similar or the same way that animal bodies do. one of these, gaba, is “an amino acid that decreases the receptivity of neurone membranes hardison 88 to being excited by electrical signals,” which plays a key role in how the brain functions. receptors for this acid have been found in plants, showing that it operates as a signaling molecule within them, as it does for animals (calvo 99). though plants do not have a nervous system like humans or animals do, they have complex vascular systems interlinked by numerous, irregular cross-links of tissue where their electrical firing events occur. a. nani in “sentience with or without consciousness” uses this information to conclude that “plants are therefore equipped with a complex communication system, which can convey information inside the plant, by means of electrical and chemical signaling, as well as within and between species” (65). communication occurs mainly through the roots, which make up over half of the organism and collect the necessary information about the living and non-living environment around the plant. a root system will form relationships with the other plants around it, including fungal threads. in a mutually beneficial relationship, fungi possess the “chemical tools to harvest from the soil precious resources such as phosphorus and nitrogen” (calvo 39) that plants cannot secure themselves, while plants “have the alchemical ability to create sugars from sunlight through photosynthesis, to which they allow the fungi to access” in return (39). a big name in the world of plant science, suzanne simard, was the one to discover how this furthered tree agency. simard’s research details what has been called the “wood-wide web” through which the forest regenerates itself, where older mother trees sustain saplings through a network of roots and fungi (o’neill 12). reviewing her work, simard comments that trees “perceive, relate, and communicate; they exercise various behaviours. they cooperate, make decisions, learn, and remember—qualities we normally ascribe to sentience, wisdom, intelligence. by knowing how trees, animals, and even fungi…have this agency, we can acknowledge that they deserve as much regard as we accord ourselves (qtd. in o’neill 13). “arts of inclusion, or, how to love a mushroom” by anna tsing goes into detail about how exactly this “wood-wide web” works: fungi make those webs as they interact with the roots of trees, formhardison 89 ing joint structures of fungus and root called ‘mycorrhiza.’ mycorrhizal webs connect not just root and fungus, but, by way of fungal filaments, tree and tree…there are many ways to eat here and to share food. there is recognizable hunting in the city: for example, some fungi lasso little soil worms called nematodes for dinner. but this is just the crudest way to attune one’s digestion. mycorrhizal fungi siphon energy-giving sugars from trees for their use. some of those sugars are re-distributed through the fungal network from tree to tree. others support dependent plants, such as mushroom-loving ‘mycophiles’ that tap the network to send out pale or colourful stems of flowers (e.g., indian pipes, coral-root orchids). meanwhile, like an inside-out stomach, fungi secrete enzymes into the soil around them, digesting organic material and even rocks, and absorbing nutrients released in the process. these nutrients are also available then for the trees and other plants, which use them to produce more sugar for themselves—and the network. in this process, too, there is a whole lot of smelling going on…(tsing 1-2) a. nani in “sentience with or without consciousness” goes further to include that “communication can also involve insects, some of which are attracted or repelled by certain substances produced by plants” (65). plant communication is very complex, something not fully understood yet. it is not far-fetched to say that it is underpinned by cognitive processes that lend themselves to plant sentience. lastly, how does this tie into multispecies studies? the term multispecies studies is explained in the article “multispecies studies: cultivating arts of attentiveness” as, unsettling given notions of species, it explores a broad terrain of possible modes of classifying, categorizing, and paying attention to the diverse ways of life that constitute worlds. from detailed attention to particular entities, a multiplicity of possible connections and understanding opens up: species are always multiple, multiplying their forms and associations. it is this coming together of questions of hardison 90 kinds and their multiplicities that characterizes multispecies studies. (van dooren et al. 1) in line with this definition, the question of plant sentience usurps accepted ideas around plants, explores new modes of classifying and categorizing plants—which leads to new categorization of other species as well—and attends to the diverse ways in which different plants operate in reality and within media. the relatively new field of plant neurobiology conducts research into plant signaling and behavior, looking for similarities between animal neurobiology and plants, specifically “it seeks to ascertain whether in plants there are chemical substances with functions analogous to neurotransmitters, so that they may mediate adaptive responses in short or long periods of time” (qtd. in nani, 61-62). sometimes unknowingly and sometimes intentionally, books, television, movies, and other media draw references from questions that this subfield of plant biology seeks to address. there are many factors that build up the argument for plant consciousness that media also uses to portray plants and (or) mushrooms in several interesting ways. miguel segundo-ortin lists the most widely cited empirical evidence of plant consciousness as plants’ communication, kin recognition, decision-making, anticipatory behavior, learning and memory, foraging and competition, risk sensitivity, mimicry, numerosity, and swarm intelligence (3-8). in characterizing plants and mushrooms, media may give them these qualities, heighten these qualities, or use these qualities as a starting point to fully personify plant and mushroom life. this evidence is reached through several disciplines, such as molecular biology, electrophysiology, biochemistry, evolutionary and developmental psychology, and plant ecology, which media may also pull from in world-building (segundo-ortin 9). the considerations in media elif shafak’s the island of missing trees follows the intricate lives of kostas, defne, and their daughter ada, examining the consequences of civil war in their home country of cyprus while ada and kostas are also hardison 91 dealing with the death of defne after the family immigrated to london. intertwined with their story is the life of a fig tree, ficus carica, that watched the love between kostas and defne bloom, the devastation of civil war on cyprus, and then the relationship between ada and kostas change after defne’s death. shafak takes plant sentience to its furthest consideration of a separate arboreal experience of the world when writing the fig tree as a narrator within the novel. she does this through the rhetorical device of anthropomorphism, which is “an interpretation of what is not human or personal in terms of human or personal characteristics” according to the merriam-webster dictionary. the fig tree is not only allowed subject status in the story; it also has its own voice, knowledge, and experience of the world around it that is deliberately shared with the audience. it is imperative that we receive this point of view. much of the history of cyprus, the ecosystems of cyprus (and britain), and the history of families are revealed through the fig tree’s voice. if not for the tree’s witty phrases, wonderful prose, and philosophical wonderings about humanity in relation to plants, parts of the history of cyprus and the people there would have been lost in the story. the fig tree stands as a major witness, a “more-thanhuman medium” (o’neill 3) able to share an arboreal point of view that “enacts an intraspecies communion with nature” that is shared with the audience (3). the novel does this by amplifying the characteristics of communication, kin recognition, learning, memory, risk sensitivity, and swarm intelligence seen in plants, constantly playing with the restrictions and possibilities of human knowledge about trees. true to the part of the tree it is named after, the “roots” section of the novel goes into detail on the communication aspect of the fig tree within the novel. it touches on other qualities, like kin recognition and of course, memory, to inform the conversation centered around communication. at this time in the novel, the fig tree is buried underground to ensure it survives the winter. for this reason, its exchanges with various beings through its roots are central since it cannot “see” anything going on above ground. shafak uses this as a moment hardison 92 to give the audience insight into the underground workings of the “woodwide web” that informs the tree while it is buried, showing her knowledge of phytology, and legitimizing her use of the tree as a narrator. the tree gives background into how plants interact and work with the environment intertwined with its own personal feelings on the matter: under and above the ground, we trees communicate all the time. we share not only water and nutrients, but also essential information. although we have to compete for resources sometimes, we are good at protecting and supporting each other. the life of a tree, no matter how peaceful it may seem on the outside, is full of danger…we have to work together. even when we might seem stand-offish, growing away from others or at the edge of forests, we still remain connected across entire swathes of land, sending chemical signals through the air and across our shared mycorrhizal networks. humans and animals can wander around for miles on end in search of food or shelter or a mate, adapting to environmental changes, but we have to do all that and more while rooted to the spot. (shafak) even though the author personifies the tree in the novel, there are still elements to its characterization that remain distinctly plant-like; it is not telling a human’s story through a tree, it is telling a tree’s story in a way humans can comprehend it. the tree has its own emotions and opinions about humanity, war, plants, and animals that the audience becomes privy to as it recalls its life through the years, uncovering the silent world of arborealities in an attempt to make them more accessible. through this, the novel is able to discuss the traumatizing nature of war and suffering not being unique to humans. clearly, the devastation wrought by war affects plants and animals as well. the tree’s identity as a witness to this history of civil war in cyprus legitimizes its presence as the subject and narrator of the novel. the tree’s sentience, “the presence of some subjective phenomenal experience, be it of the external world or of oneself,” (segundo-ortin, 1) is the foundation of its ability to bear witness . it is feeling and behaving in accordance with its reactions to the devastation of war hardison 93 wrought on its tree kin and its family in kostas, ada, delfine, yiorgos, and yusuf. in order to say that something is behaving, a difference between cognition and adaptation must be established. the response must be unable to be explained away by adaptation. like in humans, emotions and emotional reactions to terrible situations are much more than an adaptive advantage; one might say that in certain situations they are even detrimental to survival. another criterion that comes up is intelligence, which is defined as “the ability to learn or understand or to deal with new or trying situations” by the merriam-webster dictionary. following this definition, the generational trauma that afflicts the fig tree is a sign of its intelligence; the effort it puts into trying to relay this traumatic feeling fits the second half of the definition, “the ability to apply knowledge to manipulate one’s environment or to think abstractly as measured by objective criteria,” by showing the tree applying its knowledge of humans and war to understand ada, as well as persuade the audience into respecting its authority. with the tree’s philosophical commentary, it shows a deeper self-awareness and awareness of societal issues present in its environment. scientifically, it demonstrates an exchange of information between its internal and external environments. similar to its identity as a witness, the fig tree’s importance in the narrative is determined by the tree’s risk sensitivity in a philosophical manner, as it questions its safety, the safety of kostas and ada, and the consequences of war. moreover, the narrative power of the tree is cultivated primarily from its ability to learn and contain memories. it is the one that recounts imperative moments for the audience, giving necessary context for the actions of kostas, ada, and aunt meryem in london. throughout the section “trunk,” the tree talks about the devastation and consequences of the war on itself and those it held dear. these chapters bring the living quality of the tree to the front of the audience’s mind in a different way than previous chapters. they rely on emotional connections and reactions to the tree consoling itself, expressing sadness for the people close to it, and recounting the travesty of war. the way the fig tree hardison 94 discusses this past connects to something it says earlier in the novel, explaining that “the dilemma between optimism and pessimism is more than a theoretical debate for us [trees]. it is integral to our evolution” (shafak). although it is narrating a terrible time, the fig tree also deliberately describes the positive times that were created to combat the fear of the unrest in cyprus afterward, comparing human resiliency to strengths it finds in nature through a hopeful tone. it can be seen through this that the fig tree chooses optimism and solidifies a literary evolution of creative narratives from plant life. in “ecosystem,” the island of missing trees directs the characteristic of memory towards developing the fig tree’s relationships through time. the third person narrator writes: arboreal-time is cyclical, recurrent, perennial; the past and the future breathe within this moment, and the present does not necessarily flow in one direction; instead it draws circles within circles, like the rings you find when you cut us down. arboreal-time is equivalent to story-time – and, like a story, a tree does not grow in perfectly straight lines, flawless curves or exact right angles, but bends and twists and bifurcates into fantastical shapes…they are incompatible, human-time and tree-time. (the island of missing trees) through the discordance of human and arboreal understandings of time, the fig tree is important not because of its relevance to humans, but because it is a vibrantly alive organism that operates beyond human comprehension (o’neill 16). perceiving trees as subjects, as vibrantly active, starts to remove the barrier between them and humans and opens the space for further talk about their consciousness and reciprocal relationships with them. in multiple passages in “roots” and “trunk,” the fig tree shows recognition of kin in retelling its “family” history (including kostas and ada amongst its family); it also recognizes other species of trees as kin, despite negative opinions about them, for the fact that they are all trees. in “branches,” the fig tree explains that “[f]igs are sensual, soft, mysterious, emotional, lyrical, spiritual, self-contained and introverted,” alluding to a kept knowledge of “family” history coupled with showing a recognition of hardison 95 other tree species and alluding to a collective intelligence as it continues to say, “carobs like things to be unsentimental, material, practical, measurable. ask them about matters of the heart and you will get no response… if a carob tree were to tell this story, i can assure you it would have been very different to mine” in such a manner-of-fact way (shafak). the fig tree’s knowledge of other species and the consequences of war throughout the novel operates off of the swarm intelligence of surrounding plants and its relation to kostas in addition to the animals that it comes in contact with. o’neill explains it as the novel disrupting “the silent logos of plant life to express a rich arboreal knowledgebase that extends to the fig tree a quality associated with the human, disrupting traditional hierarchies of human/vegetal being in favor of a relationality. shafak’s novel branches outward to ask that we not only know trees better but learn from them” (o’neill 14). the island of missing trees is an important addition to academia for its work of understanding nature through its inclusion of biology and philosophical propositions, additionally doing so in a way that creates a new standard for respecting the agency of plant life in creative works. the implications when thinking of animal intelligence, it is often attributed to the movement that animal bodies require and minds facilitate, but this excludes animals that do not move, such as coral, sponges, and sea anemones. are these not animals? if they are indeed animals, then do they not also have a level of intelligence? this inconsistent cataloging of beings causes issues in research and academia as humans are predisposed to be more interested in something they can relate to or know can affect them immediately. there is an underlying bias that for something to be important (and for this topic, conscious) it must be “like” the individuals studying it. this “likeness” does not have to be large; it can be as simple as the ability to move. a. nani notes in “sentience with or without consciousness” that: researchers in the scientific field of consciousness studies still dishardison 96 agree as to what the real nature of consciousness is and as to which living organisms are to be considered conscious. most research between species is comparative: investigators search similarities of structures and functions. (65) consequently, when choosing a being to research—or at the very least pay attention to—plant life has gotten the short end of the stick. to change the opinions and practices surrounding plants and mushrooms, there needs to be “passionate immersion in the lives of the nonhumans being studied” (tsing 17). this reflects the true nature of the natural world, as “human existence, though no doubt precious beyond words, had no special priority in the ecological chain” (shafak). this is mirrored in creative works; exploration of environmentalism, animal intelligence, artificial intelligence, and futurism are seen in different genres, but considering plants and mushrooms as their own active, willing, and conscious participants is seen less, even within themes of environmentalism. as seen with popular media such as hbo’s the last of us and scavengers reign, the inclusion of plant life as an active character to build a wildly different point of view can make media more believable and entertaining. there is much speculation in and about the field of plant neurobiology still, questions and considerations that will not have answers until well into the future. however, that does not mean that reactions to these questions should not be thought of or acted out before then. zoocentric thinking, giving animals preference above other considerations (largely how western society thinks), is the antithesis to considering plant sentience and is harmful for many reasons in the long run. as tsing said, “no one stops to ask, ‘wellbeing for whom?’…experts and objects are separated by the will to power; love does not flow between expert and object” (17). considering plant consciousness, sentience, cognition, or any other form of understanding is a step towards thinking of plants as active participants in the environment as well as history. once that is recognized, then further solutions for social issues can be reached. exploring this argument creatively through novels, television, and other forms of media investigates different reactions to plants, moreover, futures hardison 97 where certain responses foster a better—or worse—environment and better understanding of humanity’s place in the environment. this interspecies understanding is central to multispecies studies. hardison 98 works cited calvo, paco and natalie lawrence. planta sapiens: the new science of plant intelligence. w.w. norton & company, march 2013. dooren, thom van, et al. “multispecies studies: cultivating arts of attentiveness.” environmental humanities, duke university press, vol. 8 issue 1, may 2016, pp. 1-23. nani, a., et al. “sentience with or without consciousness.” journal of consciousness studies, imprint academic, january 2021, pp. 60-79. o’neill, stephen. “arborealities, or making trees matter in elif shafak’s the island of missing trees.” isle: interdisciplinary studies in literature and environment, oxford academic, july 2023, https://doi. org/10.1093/isle/isad040. raja, vincent and miguel segundo-ortin. “plant sentience: empirical and theoretical issues – editorial introduction.” journal of consciousness studies, imprint academic, vol. 28 issue 1-2, march 2021. segundo-ortin, miguel and paco calvo. “consciousness and cognition in plants.” wires cognitive science, wiley interdisciplinary reviews, vol. 13 issue 2, september 2021. shafak, elif. the island of missing trees. penguin books ltd., august 2021. ocean pdf. https://oceanofpdf.com/genres/historical/pdf-epubthe-island-of-missing-trees-download-24876839098/. pdf download. tsing, anna. “arts of inclusion, or, how to love a mushroom.” unloved others: death of the disregarded in the time of extinction, edited by monique rooney, australian humanities review, may 2011. hardison © byers, the digital literature review, 12 (2), 30–42. doi: 10.33043/q3d6a4c5. shared with cc-by-nc-nd 4.0 license. abstract when people migrate somewhere new, they experience a schism in their identity; there is the person they were in their homeland and the person they become in their new home. in order to make their identity whole again, migrants must decide what parts of their past selves to rediscover or reclaim, as well as what new discoveries they wish to incorporate into their new sense of self. this essay explores carlos saldahna’s film rio through the lens of migrant studies, examining how the film captures the complexity of migrant identity through the development of its characters. more specifically, this essay includes in-depth character analysis for the protagonist, blu, a rare macaw originally from brazil but raised in the united states, who finds his way back to rio de janeiro. he must grapple with both of his conflicting identities and redefine who he is and what’s important to him. based on the film itself, rio reviews, and theoretical essays on both migrant studies and the portrayal of brazil in media, this essay reveals how migrantoriented narratives offered in an easily comprehensible format like film provide opportunities for migrants and other audience members to understand and mend their own identities through the journey of a character on a screen. 30 | byers birds of a feather: a comparative analysis of rio (2011) and the migrant experience natalie byers http://doi.org/10.33043/q3d6a4c5 the digital literature review |31 scientists, historians, psychologists, and other researchers have spent an enormous amount of time and effort trying to understand how immigration affects a person and their identity. the field of migration studies is solely focused on the journey migrants take: why they migrate, how the migration takes place, and the consequences migration might have in a broader sense, for themselves and societies involved. and one film encapsulates this journey perfectly: the 2011 film rio. directed by carlos saldahna, rio tells the tale of a macaw named blu, who is believed to be the last male of his kind. captured by smugglers when he is just a hatchling, blu finds himself in minnesota where he is raised and domesticated by his caretaker linda. one day, a brazilian ornithologist named tùlio informs linda and blu that there is a female macaw like blu in rio de janeiro, and asks them to go there so that they can save blu’s kind from extinction. linda and blu reluctantly make the journey, but just as blu meets the female, jewel, the two of them are captured by smugglers and chained together; they manage to escape, but now they have to figure out a way to remove their chains so that blu can reunite with linda and jewel can live freely in the rainforest. they meet some other bird friends (along with a drooly bulldog) on their journey and learn to work together, slowly falling in love in the process. they have a falling out, but once blu is forced to rescue jewel from the smugglers again, he learns to accept his love and his identity and finally learns how to fly. at first glance, rio has no connections to migrant identity, but a closer look at the main protagonist blu reveals that is far from the case. blu is a rare macaw taken from his homeland brazil before he can even fly, raised in minnesota by a human he bases his life around. when he is suddenly forced to travel to rio against his will to mate with another macaw he doesn’t even know, he is scared, confused, and feels extremely alone. his american caretaker linda cannot understand how his brazilian heritage could foster in him, and his new brazilian bird friends cannot understand how his american background 32 | byers has domesticated him into a bird they can barely recognize as one of their kind. it takes the entirety of the movie for someone to accept him for who he is—his planned mate, jewel—and when she does, he finally learns how to accept who he is: both brazilian and american. it is only then that he is able to fly. no one has looked at rio through the lens of immigration before, but rio offers a perfect parallel to the struggles of immigrants through the character journey of blu. delving deeper into blu’s character—his strengths, his struggles, his relationships, and his development—opens a larger dialogue between the character of the immigrant and the audience. the creation of rio (2011) and the creation of “brazil” when carlos saldahna was developing what would eventually become the film rio, his goal was to create a love letter to the city he grew up in, and a city that was quickly on the rise in global recognition. after a period of economic decline, brazil had found itself in an upsurging economy and profile; in the late 2000s, brazil had just been selected to host the 2014 fifa world cup and the 2016 olympics, and they were becoming much larger players in the geopolitical scene. and rio de janeiro was becoming brazil’s crown jewel: all thirty-three olympic venues were there, and the fifa world cup final took place in one of its many soccer stadiums. all that was needed was the reconstruction of its international “branded identity”—an identity that depicted brazil more positively to appeal to tourists and its own people. saldahna did not single-handedly pioneer this restructuring, but his film did emphasize the sense of vibrance and happiness his hometown could bring to its citizens (and the prospect tourists watching the film). his purpose for creating rio serves as a double-edged sword; the movie “recreates a very positive urban imaginary for rio, with a great potential for boosting mass tourism via blockbusters, however, at the same time, it reaffirms anachronic north-south hierarchies and recasts brazil in the periphery of global capitalism” (vieira, 2). from 0:12:59–0:13:34 in the film, rio is presented on only the day before carnaval, arguably the largest party the digital literature review |33 in the world, and dozens of people are shown scantily dressed in shimmery one-pieces dancing through the streets. at that moment, rio de janeiro becomes a spectacle of an experience tourists would flock to instead of the home of a spectacular and historic celebration. instead of exalting brazil for its brilliant history, culture, and nature, aggrandizing brazil for its prospective economy and tourism exalts it for its capitalist identity only. instead of becoming an independent power of its own, brazil also becomes a brand for other global powers to exploit. while the branding of a country for geopolitical gain is rather commonplace and not always problematic, one must consider brazil’s goals for their brand when viewing and discussing rio. brazil wanted to portray itself as a place full of grand sports in beautiful places, somewhere with much to see and do, a tropical paradise that was also safe to visit, and rio executes these portrayals of its setting to a tee. when blu first sees rio (0:12:15–0:12:58 of the film), it is a beautiful, sunny, tropical paradise with gorgeous skylines, colorful parrots flying everywhere, and hundreds of people lounging on the beach. aside from the film’s setting, what about its characters? the characters of rio are pronouncedly animated, and their identities are usually simple and dichotomous; “in other words, identities are mostly constructed following a basic semiotic equation that one’s identity can be defined by difference from an other” (marsh, 74). thus, any characters can only be understood in relation to other foil characters, as personalities, character traits, and identities are fairly cut-and-dry in the movie. this type of stereotyping, which establishes an “us” versus “them” divide in a set of characters, is also a tactic used to create negative views on other-groups, such as migrants in a country. otherization in populist media is a new trend in brazil ever since the election of president jair bolsonaro, who promoted a nationalistic perspective at the cost of demonizing brazil’s immigrants (gonçalves and david). when immigrants are misrepresented and marginalized, it becomes extremely difficult for them to both be 34 | byers accepted by their country and by themselves, which is why stereotyping can become such a slippery slope in media. rio likely utilized popular brazilian stereotyping to create a simpler, more marketable movie, but analyzing its characters requires critics to recognize the stereotypes present in order to look past them to discover deeper meanings. now, with this in mind, let’s delve deeper into rio’s protagonist, blu, and how his character includes far more than meets the eye. the character blu almost all of rio’s themes revolve around the main protagonist, blu, and his struggles with his identity through his experiences and relationships with the other characters. when the audience first meets blu, he is a small hatchling in a nest by himself, woken up by the singing and dancing of the other colorful birds in rio’s rainforest as they celebrate the arrival of carnaval. he instinctually begins to dance to their samba, and when he spots other hatchlings jumping from their nests and learning to fly with the music, he braces himself to do the same, but bird smugglers interrupt their fun and blu falls from his tree, getting trapped in a cage. this awful experience coupled with his terrifying journey from brazil to a crate thrown off a truck into the snow (0:4:05) traumatizes blu. the only comfort he finds is in his new caretaker, linda, who finds him and gives him an extremely structured life that ensures his well-being. blu never learns to fly, and linda accommodates so that he doesn’t have to. he bases his life off what linda does, so he subsequently becomes highly introverted, book smart, and a homebody; he also makes every decision based off logical facts and his safety. when blu is trying to teach himself to fly, he reads a bunch of books about flight, makes a checklist for himself, and even constructs a runway for himself to run down, though all of it fails dramatically (0:10:37–0:11:34). every other bird that sees him mocks him by calling him a “pet,” but blu is happy with his life—since he doesn’t know any different, how could he not be? it the digital literature review |35 is only when he and linda are all but forced to make the trip to rio de janeiro to save blu’s species that blu is first met with another culture of birds like him and begins to question his identity, specifically the reemergence of the brazilian culture he had largely forgotten. when blu meets the only other blue macaw, jewel, he is determined to woo her quickly so he can return home as quickly as possible, so he tries to impress her with his mind, not his heart, showing her how he can communicate with other animals and make daring ground escapes (0:32:31–0:33:53). jewel, on the other hand, has no desire for a mate and only wishes to escape their enclosure to freedom in the rainforest. right away, the macaws are set up as foils for each other: blu, the nerdy american who acts more human than bird, and jewel, the free-spirited brazilian who refuses to trust humans. they are on completely opposite pages until they are kidnapped and chained together by one leg each, forcing them to work together so they can escape the chain and go their separate ways. as they learn to cooperate, the largest obstacle in the way of their freedom is blu’s inability to fly, which is depicted as his lack of freedom from humans. jewel tells blu that flying is freedom—it is not having to rely on anyone else (ivypanda, “rio and the issue of freedom”)—and she asks him why he wouldn’t want that, to which he replies that a life like that sounds lonely. here, blu’s dependence on others and rejection of independence contradicts with jewel’s stubborn independence and rejection of depending on anyone but herself; as their journey progresses, they must both learn to be more independent and dependent respectively, and this is eventually how they connect with each other and fall in love.the last character of significant note to blu is the toucan rafael, who serves as blu’s primary mentor in successfully wooing jewel and accepting his brazilian identity. like blu, rafael used to do things that satisfied his brain’s desires, but after meeting his mate and settling down with her, everything he does now comes from his heart—and this is where rafael tells 36 | byers blu flying comes from. he says, “blu must connect his heart to his mind, and only then will he truly soar and discover the hero inside” (“carlos saldahna rio interview”). this juxtaposition of heart versus mind is central to blu’s character journey as he grows to accept more of himself through his love for jewel. throughout the movie, blu’s largest conflict is his internal struggle accepting both his identities, both as an american pet and a brazilian bird, as valid while it seems everyone around him cannot. as he unlocks more memories of his past—once through a flashback to the beginning of the movie as blu dances with jewel at 0:54:20—and grows to love the little tastes of freedom he gains through his wild adventures with jewel and his friends, he still values the knowledge and carefulness from his american upbringing. because of his upbringing, blu is an expert at using human tools around him to solve problems in sticky situations—such as when he used a skateboard at 1:21:27 to catch up to a trapped jewel. however, at this point in the film, blu has not accepted both his american and brazilian identities to make up his whole immigrant identity. the only one that seems to like both sides of blu equally is jewel, which opens the door in his mind towards reclaiming his cultural heritage, but when the chain is finally removed from them and jewel immediately flies away from him, his insecurity skyrockets. from 1:07:08–1:09:38 in the film, blu is watching his friends and his love interest, jewel, happily soaring above him, the music soaring with them. while the flying birds are illuminated by the moonlight, blu is lit by streetlights on the ground with the bulldog luiz, his face dejected. luiz tries to comfort him by saying, “yep, i know just how you feel. watching them up there makes you want to chase them and grab them in their mouth and bite their heads off, huh?” and then laughs it off, but eventually he realizes he is not helping and leaves. the camera focuses on jewel and the other birds flying in circles with blu out of focus, until he eventually walks out of frame. it seems even the camera has decided he is not important compared to his friends flying above the digital literature review |37 him. once jewel realizes he is leaving and goes to ask him what’s wrong, they are much more separated than they were when they were chained together, and they are never both shown in focus in the same shot. this is to signify their disconnect; now that blu believes jewel could never accept all of him, he tells her, “i can’t spend the rest of my life following you wherever you go,” and jewel retorts that it isn’t her fault he can’t fly— which really means it isn’t her fault he refuses to conquer his insecurities and live with her. as the music intensifies with the heat of their confrontation, blu then completely separates himself from his brazilian roots, claiming he doesn’t belong here and also hates samba, implying nothing had changed in him and there was no possibility of a relationship with jewel. jewel, realizing blu has rejected any brazilian part of himself he’d grown to love and has thus rejected his love for her, also rejects the american part of him she’d grown to love, calls him a “pet” once more, and flies away from everyone. blu’s character has echoes of james baldwin’s essay “stranger in the village.” like baldwin, an african-american staying in an isolated swiss village, he is seen as a “living wonder” to every bird he meets in brazil, and while they do not intentionally treat him unkindly, they do not view him as a real bird without the ability to fly (2). the people in the swiss village only view baldwin as otherworldly because they had never seen anyone like him before, which is similar to how the brazilian birds react whenever they observe blu’s american mannerisms. all of blu’s friends try and use different methods to teach him how to fly, but in the end, blu takes flight only after both his identities are accepted, first by jewel and then by himself. once he can see the value of his american pet resourcefulness and the value of the wonders of his freedom in rio de janeiro as equal, his identity is finally whole. he is american, but he is also brazilian—he is a pet, but he is also a bird—and when jewel accepts that too, there are no fears or insecurities that could stop him from soaring with her by his side. 38 | byers blu as the role of the migrant it may seem incredulous to think the character arc of an animated macaw in a children’s movie might have any parallels to the experience of immigrants, but there is much to learn about the migrant experience when viewed through the narrative of blu’s journey in rio. immigrants often struggle with trying to balance their two identities: who they are in the culture of the country they call home, and who they are in the culture of the country they used to call home. they might feel at home in their new country but unwelcome based on what self-reflective critics of migration studies call “ethnic lensing,” which conceptualizes ethnicity as separate from other sectionalities of one’s identity. peter scholten et al. argue, “focusing only one ethnicity risks defying social complexity and the importance of intersectionalities between ethnicity and, for instance, class, citizenship, education, location, cultural, or political disposition” (18). even though blu was born in brazil, he was raised in america and had no memories of his original home before he returned, and upon returning, both his identities were immediately challenged by the other’s existence. as it turns out, blu’s journey is closely related to the journey many immigrants find themselves on to find self-acceptance of their multiple identities, because he is an immigrant. on the journey to accepting his brazilian heritage, music is the strongest way blu is able to connect with his roots. unlike something like language, music is a simple common ground for people from different cultures to connect to, so it is an incredibly useful tool for immigrants to use when trying to connect to their ancestral cultures. sandra sanchez adorno conducted a research study that showed music allowed four second-generation immigrant children to explore the values and traditions of social groups and also served as a source for “understanding, maintaining, and expressing their ethnic, gender, and youth identities” (1). the movie rio starts with birds singing and dancing to brazilian music, and there is almost always samba playing when the cast is in rio de janeiro. as the digital literature review |39 a baby, blu is shown dancing to the music, and when he and jewel dance together at a party, the same flashback plays while blu does a very similar dance instinctively.and it is no coincidence that when blu rejects his brazilian identity, he ends by saying he hates samba—a move that shocks all his friends and even brings some to tears. carlos saldahna’s choice to make rio a diet movie musical makes sense since he was writing a love letter to his culture, and music plays such a huge part in sharing any culture with an audience. by making music a pinnacle part of blu’s cultural rediscovery as well, he creates a portrait of discovering one’s identity that is easy for others to relate to— particularly to immigrants. one of blu’s toughest decisions in rio is deciding what constitutes a home for him. is a home based on where you live, where you’re from, what you’re doing, or who you’re with? he thinks minnesota is his home because it’s where he grew up, but once he travels to rio de janeiro and gains new friends, love interests, and desires, he loses sense of where his home truly resides. this experience is one many immigrants go through, too. when examining the 2006 film the namesake, natalie friedman explains that the american-raised children of indian parents ashoke and ashima, who both immigrated to the united states when they got married, “do not see india as their country of origin or as a putative homeland, and they can only define home as the place where their two cultures merge” (115). for some, that home is their family’s house, with their extended family’s memories and their own memories with each other. for blu, that home eventually becomes rio de janeiro, in a new blue macaw sanctuary run by his caretaker linda, deep in the rainforest where he lives with his friends, jewel, and his and jewel’s three children. although he does not still live in minnesota, linda, the most important part of his minnesota life, is still with him; blu’s home is anywhere with all his loved ones, and in true migrant fashion, both of his cultures are accounted for. 40 | byers conclusion narratives are how people discover new parts of themselves: their personalities, their quirks, and most importantly, their identities. it is vital to the betterment of society that a trove of diverse narratives is spread to everyone in it—that way, humans continue to foster identities that fit themselves and continue to shape the world to be a better place for all. carlos saldahna may have created rio for the brazilians in his homeland, but the narrative he tells speaks to more than just them. if an immigrant watches rio and feels seen by the awkward, insecure, but brave blu, they will find it easier to accept themselves for every piece of their identity that doesn’t seem to quite fit together, and humanity will feel more whole as a result. and isn’t that the greatest outcome society can achieve? after all, regardless of where we come from, what we love to do, what we believe in, and who we love, we are all birds of a feather. the digital literature review |41 adorno, sandra sanchez. “navigating identities: the musical lives of four secondgeneration immigrant children.” journal of research in music education, july 2024, p. 1. ebscohost, https://doi.org/10.1177/00224294241256929. baldwin, james, “stranger in the village,” harper’s magazine, (1953). carlos saldanha rio interview. https://www.girl.com.au/carlos-saldanha-rio.htm. accessed 29 jan. 2025. friedman, natalie. “from hybrids to tourists: children of immigrants in jhumpa lahiri’s the namesake.” critique, vol. 50, no. 1, fall 2008, pp. 111–28. ebscohost, https:// doi.org/10.3200/crit.50.1.111-128. gonçalves, isabella, and yossi david. “a systematic literature review of the representations of migration in brazil and the united kingdom.” comunicar, vol. 30, no. 71, apr. 2022, pp. 47–58. ebscohost, https://doi.org/10.3916/c71-2022-04. marsh, leslie l. “another good neighbor?: hollywood’s (re)embracing of brazil in ‘rio’ (2011) and ‘fast five’ (2011).” revista canadiense de estudios hispánicos, vol. 37, no. 1, 2012, pp. 67–85. jstor, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24388781. accessed 5 nov. 2024. “rio (2011) and the issue of freedom.” ivypanda, 14 jan. 2022, ivypanda.com/essays/ movie-review-rio-2011/. rio. directed by carlos saldanha, 20th century fox, 2011. scholten, peter, et al. introduction to migration studies: an interactive guide to the works citedworks cited https://doi.org/10.1177/00224294241256929 https://www.girl.com.au/carlos-saldanha-rio.htm https://doi.org/10.3200/crit.50.1.111-128 https://doi.org/10.3200/crit.50.1.111-128 https://doi.org/10.3916/c71-2022-04 http://www.jstor.org/stable/24388781 http://ivypanda.com/essays/movie-review-rio-2011/ http://ivypanda.com/essays/movie-review-rio-2011/ 42 | byers literatures on migration and diversity. 1st ed, springer international publishing ag, 2022. vieira, else r. p. “carlos saldanha’s cinematic reinvention of rio as an aspiring global city.” the international journal of new media, technology and the arts, vol. 15, no. 2, 2020, pp. 29–50. doi.org (crossref), https://doi.org/10.18848/2326-9987/cgp/ v15i02/29-50. http://doi.org https://doi.org/10.18848/2326-9987/cgp/v15i02/29-50 https://doi.org/10.18848/2326-9987/cgp/v15i02/29-50 babcock 72 dreams, doors, and death: exploring liminal space and mortality in exit west and the farming of bones grace babcock, ball state university oftentimes, the most complicated oftentimes, the most complicated narratives challenge the permanence of narratives challenge the permanence of death by emphasizing the impermanence death by emphasizing the impermanence of the human experience. this is of the human experience. this is frequently accomplished through the frequently accomplished through the creation of liminal spaces in text, which creation of liminal spaces in text, which become almost purgatorial in their become almost purgatorial in their function. here, characters choose to function. here, characters choose to confront and embrace the inevitability confront and embrace the inevitability of death or to reemerge into life. in of death or to reemerge into life. in edwidge danticat’s edwidge danticat’s the farming of bonesthe farming of bones, , the linear historical narrative her main the linear historical narrative her main character amabelle creates is interspersed character amabelle creates is interspersed with bolded sequences that draw from with bolded sequences that draw from both her memories and her dreams. in both her memories and her dreams. in order to come to terms with the trauma order to come to terms with the trauma of the haitian massacre, these chapters of the haitian massacre, these chapters communicate amabelle’s physical communicate amabelle’s physical and psychological turmoil. similarly, and psychological turmoil. similarly, moshin hamid’s moshin hamid’s exit westexit west centers on centers on refugees nadia and saeed’s multiple refugees nadia and saeed’s multiple the idea of death, often either personified as a skeletal, scythe-wielding figure cloaked in black or deconstructed into a vast, foreboding void, has long enticed creators because of its ambiguity, its inherent and abstract unknowability. in order to fully complete an exploration passages through doors blackened passages through doors blackened by the sudden, spontaneous creation by the sudden, spontaneous creation of international portals. as the couple of international portals. as the couple moves through several doors and across moves through several doors and across several borders, their relationship to each several borders, their relationship to each other and themselves constantly evolves. other and themselves constantly evolves. amabelle’s dreams are manifestations amabelle’s dreams are manifestations of her acceptance of death and embrace of her acceptance of death and embrace of her mortality, while the portal-of her mortality, while the portaldoors function as avenues for rebirth. doors function as avenues for rebirth. thus, hamid and danticat explore thus, hamid and danticat explore the complicated relationship human the complicated relationship human beings have with death and mortality beings have with death and mortality in the wake of trauma through their in the wake of trauma through their rich descriptions of liminal space.rich descriptions of liminal space. of mortality without engaging with the permanence of sacrificing a key character to the so-called “other side,” many writers often choose to create an environment that exists between life and death, a liminal space that becomes almost purgatorial in its function and construction. both edwidge danticat and mohsin hamid are two such novelists. both choose to use liminal space as the primary environment for their characters to confront their mortality head-on. in danticat’s the farming of bones, the linear historical narrative her main character amabelle creates is interspersed with ephemeral, bolded sequences that draw from both her memories and her dreams. in order to come to terms with the trauma of her parents’ deaths and reconcile the life she lived with both dominican and haitian loved ones in 1937, amabelle uses these chapters to communicate her emotional, physical, and psychological turmoil. similarly, hamid’s exit west centers on refugees nadia and saeed’s multiple passages through doors blackened by the sudden, spontaneous creation of international portals. as the couple moves through several doors and across several international borders, their relationship to each other and themselves evolves to each new environment. when analyzing these two texts in conjunction, the border between life and death becomes increasingly hazy. there is pain on either side, and there is growth on either side. hamid and danticat explore the complicated relationship human beings have with death and mortality in the wake of trauma through their rich descriptions of liminal space. to clarify, the aim of this argument is not to equate the experiences of the characters within these two texts, nor is it meant to erase the key differences in each novel’s unique historical context. the farming of bones is a realist text set in 1937, before, during, and after the parsley massacre. exit west is a magical realist novel set in the modern day, aiming to complicate and criticize the contemporary world’s treatment of middle-eastern migrants. rather, the synthesis of these two texts is designed to analyze how these two authors reconcile trauma (especially that which results from state-sponsored violence) with the inevitability of death and reflections on corporality. both choose to develop a sort of liminal space to explore the complexities of mortality, but their characters approach their survival in diverse ways. similarly, both operate under a sort of shared sense of cultural liminality, one that closely identifies with that outlined by critical cultural theorist homi bhabha. culture, to bhabha, inherently exists in what he calls the “realm of the beyond” (bhabha 1). essentially, he describes a sort of cultural liminal space tied to the development of personal and communal development. bhabha claims that this tension between the weight of the past and the pull of the present, this “process of displacement and disjunction” is representative of adaptation, of cultural and personal growth (bhabha 8). through this discomfort and acknowledgement of the complexities of history, characters like amabelle, saeed, and nadia have the opportunity to reconcile their past trauma with babcock 73 their current lived experience. by using bhabha’s conceptions of liminal culture as the common thread that connects these two descriptions of the “in-between” spaces that “provide the terrain for elaborating strategies of selfhood” and redefine personal identity, the linkage between hamid and danticat’s liminal spaces becomes self-evident (bhabha 2). amabelle, saeed, and nadia all reemerge from liminality radically different from when they first entered that middling space. the liminal spaces employed by danticat are inherently a part of amabelle herself. the space is created by her independent desire to reflect on her internal, rich bank of memories and her experience of vivid, moralistic dreams. as a child, amabelle experienced dreams that made her feel caught between the realm of humanity and the supernatural spiritual world. she insists that playing “with [her] shadow made [her] feel less alone,” and that even the real people (including sebastien onius, the who amabelle loves above all else) around her occasionally felt like they were “one of them” (danticat 4). in her memories, the borderland between life and death is blurred as ghosts meld with people, as dreams bleed into reality. similarly, when amabelle nearly dies from a severe fever as a child, her dreams remind her that her life, while impermanent, is not quite over; danticat personifies death in the creation of amabelle’s animated voodoo doll. the doll assures amabelle that she “will be well again,” and that she will live to be “a hundred years old, having come so close to death while young” (danticat 56). these initial experiences, though loosely tied to the trauma of adolescence and illness, familiarize a young amabelle with the death that she will eventually confront. danticat uses the liminal space of amabelle’s childhood dreams as an introduction to the harsh realities she will soon face. this liminality reminds her of life’s volatility, yet shields her from the brutal experience of living as a haitian in the dominican republic that will later characterize her adulthood. though amabelle is conscious of human mortality from both the beginning of the narrative and her life as a whole, the liminal space created by her memories makes death far more tangible to her, far more traumatic. in the same bolded passages that detail amabelle’s dreams, danticat interweaves memory with amabelle’s linear lived experience. this is yet another instance of a blurred border complicating amabelle’s relationship to her interior self. the first traumatic memory with which amabelle and the audience are confronted occurs when she details her recollection of the day her parents died. while amabelle describes how she watched her parents drown in the raging dajabón river, she recalls how she screamed so intensely that she could “taste blood in [her] throat,” lending an aspect of physical and emotional trauma to the scene (danticat 50). though she attempts to swim after her parents, to join them in their fight for survival, she is pulled back to life by two boys who remind her that “unless [she] wants to die…[she] will never see those people again.” babcock 74 (danticat 50). as amabelle continues to survive, to outlive both her parents, she slowly begins to process her trauma internally, choosing silent and dreamlike reflection as a method of reconciliation with her past. according to megan feifer, danticat draws attention to both amabelle’s emotional turmoil and her personal growth by creating a transition of “grief from that of posttraumatic shock to a longing to narrate” her lived experiences (feifer 45). feifer notes that amabelle’s recovery fluctuates, that the transition may be linear but is not necessarily direct. she moves through her trauma in waves, grieving at the same time she heals through expression. in this liminal space, amabelle is directly confronted not only with mortality and the border between life and death, but with survivor’s guilt. in order to process this internal conflict and to avoid transgressing this border, she turns inward. she leans back into her dreams and her memories to rediscover her parents and reconnect with her emotions. in hamid’s exit west, the liminal space detailed in text takes on a far more physical element. it is represented by a sort of supernatural, border-challenging door that opens to another part of the world. identified only by their internal blackness, these doors allow free passage into a random, alternative spot across the seven continents; obviously, for those who seek refuge from their native homeland, these doors offer them a chance at a sort of “new life.” nadia and saeed, who live in a unspecified, war-torn country located somewhere in the middle east, travel through these doors in order to both save their lives and salvage their burgeoning romantic relationship. almost immediately after they travel through their first door, hamid employs his first description of liminal space using the terminology associated with death and rebirth. nadia, the character who is arguably the more emotionally aware partner in her relationship with saeed, remembers that passage through the doors was known to feel “both like dying and being born” (hamid 104). upon embracing the darkness and emerging on the other side, nadia notes that she felt “a kind of extinguishing” in her mind and body (hamid 104). both like a dying elder and a newborn baby, nadia cannot stand and fights for breath after emerging through the portal-door. for nadia and saeed, there is a definitive “before” space and a definitive “after” space as they exchange one location for another, their native culture for a foreign one. they make a deliberate choice to walk through the door, and their bodies pay a physical price for supernaturally moving across time, space, and land. they are transformed, entirely different from the two people who first embraced the darkness of the door. similarly, the diction that hamid uses to describe nadia and saeed’s life both before and after their transition through time is riddled with reminders of mortality. saeed moves out of his homeland with nadia, a decision that means isolating his widowered father who wanted to stay close to saeed’s mother’s grave. hamid makes it known to his audience babcock 75 that, much like death, the passage through the portal-doors is a permanent decision, one that radically alters both an individual’s life and the lives of the people around them. saeed recognizes that when a person makes the decision to migrate, they “murder from [their] lives those [they] leave behind” (hamid 98). in using such extreme comparisons, hamid raises the stakes of migration of this kind; saeed and nadia have to initially choose their lives together over the lives they had independently curated at home. the “death” of their past lives forces both characters to come to terms with the precariousness of their travels, of their lives. in order to move forward, to make progress, nadia and saeed have to recognize that their movement requires sacrifice. both the companionship and the culture they were used to is radically and permanently altered. in both cases, the liminal space created by the authors creates an avenue for selfreflection and personal growth. amabelle matures rapidly because of her past traumatic experiences, but as a consequence she becomes an increasingly internal, isolated person, while nadia and saeed in contrast must cling to the familiar, to each other, in order to navigate their new world post-portal. both authors explore mortality and impermanence, but their creation of liminal space ensures that both characters process their struggles in ways that are culturally and personally affirming. this choice once again reflects homi bhabha’s definition of liminality, especially when he asserts that liminality is the “connective tissue” of identity (bhabha 5). without this in-between space, human beings would struggle to understand themselves and their position in their communities. in this sense, danticat and hamid are essentially exploring different reactions to change, loss, and grief in the context of an “interstitial passage,” especially one that “entertains difference” in interpretation and narrative result while still acknowledging the impermanence of the human experience and the unknowability of one’s own fate (bhabha 5). their liminal spaces in text provide the “room” for each character to grow into a new, fuller version of themselves because of the flexibility these spaces offer. however, given that amabelle’s space is entirely confined to the inside her own mind while nadia and saeed’s space is externally represented by the portal doors, it is important to make the distinction between their experiences with liminality. since amabelle reflects exclusively on the internal level, she cannot share her trauma in the same way that saeed and nadia can. through a shared bodily experience, a passage through a physical door, nadia and saeed can empathize with each other’s feelings on a more intimate level. conversely, amabelle’s experience is deeply personal to her. while her dreams and memories give her the necessary space for recovery, she has trouble commiserating with fellow orphans and fellow refugees because they cannot know exactly how she carries her trauma. according to scholar oana-celia gheorghiu, nadia and saeed’s passage through the doors instantaneously allows babcock 76 their “bodies to move as fast as [their] minds,” lending their experience the proper physical vocabulary to communicate their trauma to both one another and their fellow refugees (gheorghiu 88). amabelle has no such language, choosing instead to communicate to the audience alone through the dialogue of her dreams. though the function of both spaces is essentially identical, the recognition of the key difference in physicality reveals the different strategies for healing. amabelle’s is fueled by pensiveness, reflection, and an embrace of the past, while nadia and saeed’s is fueled by commiseration, communication, and an embrace of the present moment. for nadia and saeed, the doors are a physical escape; for amabelle, her dreams and her memories are an emotional safe haven. the bolded sequences in danticat’s work quickly grow from the simple narration of dreams and memories into a space for amabelle to actively process her trauma. however, her growing preference towards her internal experience rather than the establishment of supportive networks outside her own mind ultimately prevents her from being able to embrace her new experience, her life after the massacre. as critic eliana de souza ávila remarks, amabelle initially experiences a sort of “numbness” after the massacre, an innate “disidentification from the surreal horror” that the death of her friends and even the loss of sebastien thrusts upon her already grief-stricken body (de souza ávila 27). though she finds safety and refuge across the haitian border with yves, sebastien’s friend (and, momentarily, her lover), amabelle cannot fully release herself from her past, attempting simultaneously to nurse her new traumas while preventing old ones from tearing open once again. she does so by turning inwards, crossing into her own liminal space. in a dream, amabelle conjures a dust storm where people who she cannot identify walk before her. embodied as her childhood self, she clings to her father and mother’s hands. however, when the storm subsides and the dust settles, amabelle is left alone, with her “hands raised up, in motionless prayer,” as if abandoned by every person meant to guide her (danticat 137). this dream, intentionally crafted by danticat, is to encourage the reader to recognize amabelle’s isolation and the inherent impermanence of her situation, of her life. almost every person she has loved has slipped through her fingers like sand, crossed over the border of death and left her feeling entirely alone. she is precariously caught between life and death, and transgressing this border means embracing her family but sacrificing her new relationships, her new experience. in visualizing the chaos as a dust storm, amabelle is able to grapple with her isolation, to give herself tangible meaning to her grief and loneliness. amabelle further confronts and soothes her mounting grief by recognizing the healing power of her dreams after first speaking with other survivors. they attempt to provide her with support but can offer no salve as potent for amabelle as her own inner sanctuary. she speaks with yves, with his mother, man rapadou, and sebastien’s mother, babcock 77 man denise, all in hopes of finding closure; while she emerges from each conversation with more strength, she is also reminded of her grief, of the things she had lost. after all these conversations, danticat includes one of the longest bolded passages yet, allowing amabelle the space to arrange her complicated feelings and understand that her old life has disappeared, has died with many of her loved ones. in her dream, she claims that the “dead season is, for [her], one never ending night,” and that the only way to ease her pain is to cross into “heaven,” or the “veil of water that stands between [her] parents and [her]” (danticat 262). the fact that she frequently emerges from her liminal space, from her dreams, from her heaven, is the only thing that “makes [her] alive” (danticat 263). literary critic jennifer harford vargas asserts that, “in her interior life,” amabelle becomes the most cognizant of her suffering and comes to terms with it by meditating “on her own shadows and hauntings by fusing them with collective losses and disappearances” (1166). by giving her loved ones new life in her mind, amabelle transcends the previously solid border between life and death. however, she cannot exist in this liminal space permanently despite the relief it gives her from her “internal struggles” and “the pain of her losses” (vargas 1166). she compares her dreams to an “amulet” that protects her “from evil spells,” from experiencing further suffering (danticat 264). she is slowly discovering that, in order to truly heal from her trauma, she must embrace the hurt, her grief, and her life’s transience by leaning into her past. nadia and saeed, however, come to terms with their losses together. since they do not carry their liminal space with them, since their memories do not feel tangible like amabelle’s, they can grieve as a pair and, eventually, as a collective. according to scholar michael perfect, hamid extends the liminal space of his portal-doors to the descriptions of refugees across the world, stating that migrants are “between roads and next to boundaries, and they sleep in the margins of streets” (191). upon trying to navigate their new environment and their evolving relationship, nadia and saeed become increasingly aware of their surroundings. they initially cling to one another for support. they pitch their tents together, sleep in the same bed, share the same food, and make joint decisions on when and where they want to go next. they shield one another from extra pain by providing each other with reminders of home. they notice that their own migration, their own difficulty, is similar to every other person who passed through that marginal, liminal space between the portals. according to scholars knudsen and rahbek, the fluid migration and the suffering that often accompanies it in exit west is “intrinsic to human nature,” and the experiences of nadia and saeed are recognized as almost universal (445). they recognize that loss is a part of movement, that “this loss unites humanity” and their ability to understand the “temporary nature of our being-ness” allows them to find support and comfort (hamid 203). even when cognizant babcock 78 of the inevitability of dying, “in the face of death,” both nadia and saeed are aware that a better world for themselves, for their families, and for their peers is possible (hamid 203). they find solace in community, in collectivity; they see impermanence represented in themselves and in their fellow portal migrants. however, the strain of migration and the constant pressure of becoming houseless, starved, or marginalized like the people they see around them strains their relationship. as they grow into two separate people, their idea of what their lives should be changes. nadia is socially active and areligious, while saeed is internal and deeply spiritual. they simultaneously feel “friction,” “resentment,” “love,” and “loyalty” towards one another, but their tension, proximity, and shared trauma prevents them from attaining comfort and happiness in their new existence (hamid 203). their connection makes them feel caught, pulled between their lives before the portals and their lives after. they make the decision to separate as they have made every other: together. hamid calls attention to the end of their relationship by framing it as a sort of passing on. he notes that the end of a couple is a “small death” in and of itself (hamid 205). the “notion of death, of temporariness” is highlighted through nadia and saeed’s breakup, through their mutual decision to cut ties, but so too is the “value of things,” especially their lives (hamid 205). at the end of the novel, nadia and saeed are completely at peace, but they are completely separated. nadia has found companionship with a cook, saeed with a pastor’s daughter. love still exists between them, but it is not romantic; the consequence of their continuing lives is their relationship. in order to live on, to escape the constant middle-existence the portal passages and border-crossings presented to them, their partnership must come to an end. the final scene of the farming of bones, in contrast, is one of reunion in death. after weeks of existing between her dreams and her new reality, amabelle makes the decision to travel once more over the border to make a final visit to her old home in the dominican republic and the massacre river. as she stands before the place her parents died, the place where hundreds of haitians were murdered, and the symbolic resting place of sebastien, amabelle makes one final reference to the salvation of her dreams. she claims that she looked to them “for softness, for a gentler embrace, for relief from the fear of mudslides and blood bubbling out of the riverbed” (danticat 308). she sees the river as “sebastien’s cave, [her] father’s laughter, [her] mother’s eternity,” and so as she floats atop its waters “like a newborn in a washbasin” (danticat 308). she surrenders her life over to her dreams, over to her past. she embraces life’s impermanence by launching herself into her dreams, living amongst her family rather than her painful new memories. she heals her trauma by leaning into her own mortality, by accepting it with the sense of peace that was not afforded to her parents, to her beloved. her trauma is healed through dreaming, through reunification. babcock 79 the climaxes of the farming of bones and exit west explore both the acknowledgement of death and of life, but the decision to accept life’s impermanence is carried out by nadia, saeed, and amabelle to differing degrees. the choice to embrace death or rebel against it reveals the long-term effects of emotional pain and the volatility of life; both sets of characters have to survive in tumultuous, unfamiliar settings, yet both react differently. in both these instances, amabelle, nadia, and saeed develop new “strategies of selfhood” as a result of their passages through liminal as described by bhabha (bhabha 2). while nadia and saeed’s senses of identity have been strengthened by their communities, amabelle’s is uniquely “singular” because of her choice to embrace her own dreams, her own memories of the past (bhabha 2). though amabelle’s ultimate fate is intentionally left ambiguous, she acknowledges her mind and her dreams as her safe haven. she decides in her final moments to side with her memories and her lost loved ones, to cease her internal liminality by excluding herself from her post-massacre life. amabelle reconciles with her trauma by exploring and embracing death, choosing to “reunite” with the figures she lost in both her dreams and at the conclusion of the novel. conversely, saeed and nadia choose to embrace their new lives after traveling westward, choosing to appreciate their lived experience for what it is, while they have it. after confronting liminality and emerging from the other side, nadia and saeed are reborn. however, the end of their relationship still reflects the impermanence of the human experience. while amabelle’s journey concludes, nadia and saeed’s just begins. after the doors, nadia and saeed are bright, alive, and separated; after her dreams, amabelle is tranquil, at peace, and reunited. babcock 80 works cited bhabha, homi k. the location of culture. routledge, 1994. danticat, edwidge. the farming of bones. soho press, 1998. de souza ávila, eliana. “decolonizing straight temporality through genre trouble in edwidge danticat’s the farming of bones.” ilha do desterro: a journal of english language, literatures in english and cultural studies, no. 67, 2014, pp. 21-36, https://doi. org/10.5007/2175-8026.2014n67p21. feifer, megan. “the remembering of bones: working through trauma and the counter archive in edwidge danticat’s the farming of bones.” palimpsest: a journal on women, gender, and the black international, vol. 9 no. 1, 2020, p. 35-49. project muse, doi:10.1353/ pal.2020.0011. gheorghiu, oana-celia. “as if by magical realism: a refugee crisis in fiction.” cultural intertexts, vol. 8, no. 8, 2018, pp. 80–93. https://doaj.org/article/70ebc85a4ef54d8aa901d7b35a35b15c. hamid, mohsin. exit west. penguin publishing group, 2017. knudsen, eva, and ulla rahbek. “radical hopefulness in mohsin hamid’s map of the world: a reading of exit west (2017).” journal of postcolonial writing, vol. 57, no. 4, 2021, pp. 442–454. taylor and francis online, https://doi.org/10.1080/17449855.20 21.1889641. perfect, michael. “‘black holes in the fabric of the nation’: refugees in mohsin hamid’s exit west.” journal for cultural research, vol. 23, no. 2, june 2019, pp. 187–201. ebscohost, https://doi.org/10.1080/14797585.2019.1665896. vargas, jennifer harford. “novel testimony: alternative archives in edwidge danticat’s ‘the farming of bones.’” callaloo, vol. 37, no. 5, 2014, pp. 1162–80. jstor, http://www. jstor.org/stable/24265199. babcock 81 .75 oz grenadine .35 oz peach schnapps .5 oz vodka .25 oz chambord (black raspberry liqueur) .15 oz galliano all ingredients to taste, pour grenadine (should be the majority), peach schnaps, chambord, and some vodka into a shaker tin with ice and shake until the tin is well frosted. strain the mixture into the bottom of a 2 oz shot glass until 3/4ths full. carefully layer galliano on top by pouring over the back of a spoon (preferably a bar spoon) until full. if you use less grenadine than recommended, you may have to mix galliano with a high-proof liquor (recommended: everclear but vodka of any brand will do as well). chirp-chirp shots *all measurements featured are recommendations* tools: shaker, spoon, strainer (hawthorn or the top of a regular cocktail shaker (not boston), 2 oz shot glass, ice photo credit: vincent ramos-niaves ball state university themed cocktails: inspired by ball state university’s amazing community and environment vincent ramos-niaves recipe 103 | ramos-niaves description: two full shot glasses in between two liquor bottles on a countertop 4-5 1/4th oz. 2.5 oz. 1 oz. 20 oz. put mint leaves in the bottom of shaker tin and pour simple syrup and lime juice over them. gently press against the leaves with muddler, similar to the force it would take to press down onto a button (if you press too hard, the mint will go bitter). once muddled, pour in rum and strawberry purée (to taste). the more purée you put in, the sweeter the drink, so be careful not to let it overshadow the mint! if it does, add a bit more of each ingredient into a separate glass and mix together before pouring it in the tin. fill shaker tin with ice and shake vigorously until tin is well frosted. fill highball glass with ice and strain the mixture into the glass. top off with club soda (or if you really don’t like tasting the rum, cherry 7-up). garnish with mint sprig, and lime wheel. education redefined mojito tools: shaker, muddler, jigger (for measurements), blender, stainer (hawthorne preferred), highball glass, ice mint leaves, muddled in the bottom of the glass simple syrup white rum lime juice strawberry purée (store bought or homemade) club soda or cherry 7-up garnish: mint sprig garnish: lime wheel photo credit: vincent ramos-niaves recipe ramos-niaves | 104 description: mojito and liquor bottle on countertop 84 | king © king, the digital literature review, 12 (6), 84–98. doi: 10.33043/cyd2d399. shared with cc-by-nc-nd 4.0 license. abstract disney’s lilo & stitch explores a multi-faceted migration story in which stitch is exiled because of his creation and perceived behavior, yet rather than the migrant only being against a greater power—which glenda carpio attempts to refute in her book migrant aesthetics—stitch is shown to struggle with beratement from the dominant culture, his place in his new home, and with his internal perception of himself. stitch, an alien creation by a mad alien scientist, is an outcast both in space and on the hawaiian island he crashes into. he immediately recognizes the need to blend in with similar creatures, leading him to minimize his alien features. however, because he is unfamiliar with hawaiian culture and other normalities on earth, his unexpected and unusual actions cause his newfound o’hana (the cultural value in which family is never left behind or forgotten) to face public scrutiny and other difficulties. the expectations set forth by the community are loosely verbalized to him when the social worker states stitch’s need to become a “model citizen:” he is expected to assimilate to life on earth. when stitch fails to meet the social expectations, stitch begins questioning who he really is and where he needs to be. eventually, he reveals his alienness and receives pushback from his found family; yet, they come to realize that stitch displaying his differences doesn’t change who he is. in the end, the audience is stitch: the creation, the model citizen, and the reality discovered through exile emily king http://doi.org/10.33043/cyd2d399 the digital literature review | 85 shown the culture swapping the family participates in, as well as stitch’s assimilation to his new community. throughout the essay, i argue that the film reflects carpio’s previous claim that the depiction of migration must move beyond the “problem of two opposed entities,” instead displaying how migration “is produced by the actions of institutions that permeate every level of society” (8). thus, stitch’s story depicts the battle between the expectations from one’s community, assumptions from outsiders, and real identity, displaying the complexity of migration and exile in a fictional tale. much like other aspects of life, different forms of art and entertainment are directly influenced by positive and negative life experiences, including migration and exile. simultaneously, important topics and ideas — such as migration and exile — are shaped by the representation and language used when such stories are told (caprio). an example of entertainment depicting a migration story is disney’s animated movie lilo & stitch. in the movie, experiment 626 (stitch) is deemed a monstrosity, doomed to wreak havoc on cities, steal “left shoes,” and generally have “no place among [the alien society]” he was born into (1:24–2:53). yet, after escaping his harsh, seemingly unjust imprisonment, he migrates to earth only to face further condemnation. his appearance and lifestyle are called into question by most; however, lilo, a six-year-old girl native to the area, accepts stitch for who he is, allowing him into her family without question. as a result, the audience witnesses stitch questioning who he is meant to be and where he belongs. stitch, from disney’s lilo & stitch, is pulled between three aspects of himself: who he was made to be, who he is believed to be, and who he actually is. these aspects are explored through his exile from his homeland, forced assimilation into a new culture, and eventual acceptance into a found family. lilo & stitch provides a complex yet comprehensible introduction to migration stories, targeting a younger audience but reaching far broader demographics. in this 86 | king essay, i argue that the movie responds to glenda carpio’s book migrant aesthetics in which the author sets a foundation of understanding by attempting to “[challenge] the view of migration as a problem of two opposed entities: the migrants, who must beg admission to sites of power, and the powerful, who must figure out how to protect their borders” (8). carpio argues that “migration needs to be understood as a global phenomenon, one that, much like global warming, is produced by the actions of institutions that permeate every level of society” (8). in other words, migrants are depicted as being forced to fight for any chance at equality and acceptance in lands dominated by those in power or the accepted majority. yet, migration is not that simple: it has a variety of causes — far beyond just those of two vastly different groups — including the widespread patterns of discrimination present in society. because of these complexities, introducing complex topics to a younger audience in a simple yet hopeinducing manner becomes vital in changing the perception of migration over time. lilo & stitch provides a multi-faceted migration story in which stitch is exiled because of his creation and perceived behavior, yet rather than the migrant only being against a greater power, stitch is shown to struggle with beratement from the dominant culture, his place in his new home, and with his internal perception of himself. all that said, i would like to note that i don’t feel comfortable comparing stitch to real-life immigrant experiences. i recognize and seek to acknowledge the harm that can be caused by comparing fictional, alien creatures to real people who have been discriminated against because of their cultural, physical, etc. attributes. however, i cannot neglect the connections between stitch’s story and immigrants’ stories, including his exile and forced assimilation into an unfamiliar society. the creation stitch is a new, never-before-seen alien species, making him a distinct outcast no the digital literature review | 87 matter where he is located. in the opening scene, self-proclaimed mad scientist dr. jumba jookiba is charged by his alien government body known as the united galactic federation (ugf) with “illegal genetic experimentation.” the resulting creation is experiment 626 whom he claims is a new alien species with immense power and, despite his small stature, city-destroying desires (0:1:27–0:1:53). jumba’s description of the creature later known as stitch casts the both of them in distinctly negative lights and results in the surrounding crowd visibly and audibly gasping. crysta rollison’s article “we are not alone: finding family across a universe of differences in lilo and stitch” explores how jumba’s description is an example of science fiction’s use of “extraterrestrial others” to cast out specific individuals because of their differences (1–2). in her article, rollison refers to david seed’s book science fiction: a very short introduction, in which she summarizes his depiction of the term “alien,” explaining how it “did not originally refer to extraterrestrial beings, but rather to other human beings” (2). in this opening scene, the grand councilwoman of the ugf refers to stitch in a similar manner explained by seed; however, instead of using the term “alien,” she labels him an “abomination” that “is a fiord project of a deranged mind” with “no place among [the ugf]” (0:2:43). the opening scene establishes this aspect, alluding to how stitch will be rejected, “not just by humans, but also from the very alien society that he was created into” (rollison 1–2). as a result, stitch is imprisoned and informed of his exile to a “deserted asteroid” (0:3:35 – 0:3:57). it is not clear whether or not stitch understands why he is being imprisoned; however, he understands that he is imprisoned and will be subjugated to immensely restrictive conditions if he doesn’t escape. thus, he plans and executes his escape, eventually activating his stolen spaceship’s hyperspeed and blasting off to a foreign land (0:4:26–0:7:10). luckily for stitch, instead of finding himself landing on an uninhabitable planet or stranded somewhere in space, he lands on earth on an island in hawaii. 88 | king his outcast label is further bolstered immediately after landing on earth by the exaggerated, fearful reactions he receives in the animal shelter. after his crash landing, stitch is believed to be a dog after getting run over by a semi-truck, so he is brought to the animal shelter. while at the animal shelter, lilo and her sister nani arrive to adopt a pet though lilo initially struggles to find any pets. she calls out, “hello? hello! are there any animals in here?”, and the frame pans upward, revealing scared, shaking animals clinging to the rafters and tops of the kennels (0:25:46 – 0:25:54). beyond the animals, nani and the animal shelter worker show obvious shock and fear at the supposed dog before them, most notably when the animal shelter worker states, “oh, yes, all our dogs are adoptable... except that one!” (0:26:23). during the pause in her exclamation, she physically jumps back in her chair before running forward to pull stitch away from lilo’s side, claiming “it was dead this morning” (0:26:31). stitch then begins to pull the animal shelter worker toward an excited lilo being held by a scared nani. despite her fear, nani allows lilo to adopt stitch. this scene shows the fear caused by the unnatural aspects of the once-dead “dog” and the fear sparked by the other. as stated in iris-aya laemmerhirt’s “from outer space to paradise? remapping hawai’i in lilo and stitch,” “the idea that these creatures from outer space, which exist beyond the borders of the known, are being used as metaphors of binary oppositions, because ‘difference and otherness are the essence of aliens’ and according to most science-fiction narratives, the only way to prevent chaos and to restore social order is to relentlessly eliminate these aliens”(88). in the context of the scene, the otherness of stitch evoked fear and discomfort in those who recognized the differences. lilo, though, is young and malleable. she does not yet recognize the “binary oppositions” brought forth as a result of the alien creature she has willingly chosen to be a part of her family. since the target audience of the movie is younger individuals who are meant to be able to identify with lilo, the scene allows the audience members to adopt the same beliefs as her, meaning they are more willing to go against the cultural norms and accept the other with greater ease. however, the digital literature review | 89 stitch’s perception is not only hindered by his blue alien appearance and aggressive personality; his lack of understanding of the surrounding culture also interferes. stitch’s unfamiliarity with hawaiian culture and normalities on earth cause a variety of individuals to react negatively, including restaurant patrons. however, because nani and lilo hold the cultural value in which family is never left behind or forgotten (known as o’hana), stitch is allowed to stay with the pair. during the luau-themed restaurant scene, the audience is shown stitch, who is currently considered a dog, and lilo sitting at a table eating dinner while nani works as a waitress (31:58-35:28). nani walks up to the table and scolds lilo for allowing stitch to eat while sitting at the table in which lilo simply responds, “stitch is troubled. he needs desserts!” (32:36). reluctantly, nani agrees and brings both of them a slice of cake, and stitch attempts to eat both slices in one bite. lilo shows her clear disappointment with a simple drawn-out “hey,” causing stitch to spit out the cake slices and offer them both back to lilo who audibly displays her disgust (33:00). this scene displays the clear disconnect between stitch and the surrounding culture: while nani and lilo seem to understand the restraints surrounding “dogs” in restaurants in their community, lilo doesn’t seem to care, nani is too resigned to force stitch to the ground, and stitch doesn’t know the expectations placed upon him in the moment. moments later, stitch is lured to jumba and ugf agent pleakley’s table who are dressed in tourist-style disguises. stitch begins gnawing on pleakley’s head when they try to detain him and take him back to the united galactic federation for his sentence in exile. stitch’s outlash is not without justification, though. because of his inability to communicate the situation to lilo, nani, and the owner of the restaurant, nani is fired from her job, and the group is asked to leave the premises. after returning home that evening, nani and lilo have a small argument regarding stitch’s place in the family because of his seemingly unwarranted, feral behavior: nani: hey! look at him, lilo. he’s obviously mutated from something else. we have 90 | king to take him back. lilo: he was an orphan and we adopted him! what about o’hana? nani: he hasn’t been here that long. lilo: neither have i. dad said o’hana means family. huh? o’hana means family. family means… nani: …nobody gets left behind. lilo: or…? nani: or forgotten. i know. i know. (lilo & stitch 35:14-36:37) in these scenes, the audience is shown a clear miscommunication between stitch and his newfound family unit, leading to rising tension and nani’s attempt to convince lilo to bring stitch back to the animal shelter. however, because of lilo’s reference to their cultural belief o’hana, nani realizes she would be violating the expectations and the trust built between herself and lilo if she went against their values. thus, despite the numerous cultural transgressions impacting the family that are performed by stitch, he is allowed to stay with the duo because of his new label: o’hana. the movie is attempting to display how families “can be formed under the most strained and difficult situations and can unite even angry, desperate, and otherwise abandoned people (and creatures)” (minow). in other words, stitch is able to overcome the “prejudices and social fears” enacted by his label of “alien” and “other,” making room for the creation of family ties in an unlikely scenario (laemmerhirt 92). he is still struggling within the greater community; however, with lilo’s help, he has begun to make headway within his family unit. the model citizen after being on earth for a few days, wreaking havoc both on the island and in nani and lilo’s home, the undefined expectations posed by those on the island are verbalized by social worker cobra bubbles: he is expected to become a model citizen and assimilate the digital literature review | 91 to life on earth. to become a model citizen, lilo proposes elvis presley as an individual whom stitch should mirror his behavior after. the audience, then, begins to hear elvis’s “you’re the devil in disguise” playing in the background while a montage in which stitch attempts to meet the pillars set forth by lilo, arbitrarily including dancing, playing guitar, and romance. simultaneously, the audience sees nani attempting to get a job at a variety of different businesses around the island. stitch is shown learning how to hula dance, play the ukulele (noticeably not a guitar), and romance women. nearing the end of each of his lessons, stitch makes vital mistakes in which he knocks a watermelon onto an elderly woman’s head, shatters windows at a coffee shop, and kisses a woman in the lobby of a hotel (0:41:42–0:44:08). unfortunately for nani, because of stitch’s missteps, she doesn’t receive any job offers, and as a last resort, she goes to the beach in an attempt to become a lifeguard. the camera pans the area and shows a variety of individuals of varying demographics relaxing and enjoying the beach when stitch, dressed in a white, sparkly elvis-style outfit and hairstyle, walks to the middle of the beach and begins to play alongside the elvis track. in doing so, he draws the attention of the beachgoers who then begin to surround stitch and take an overwhelming amount of flash photography, causing stitch to overreact, shred all his clothes, and cause the crowd to flee the beach, knocking over the lifeguard during their rapid departure (0:44:13–0:45:37). when stitch begins to make mistakes, the lyrics of “you’re the devil in disguise” shift from the sweet opening lyrics, “you look like an angel (look like an angel) / walk like an angel (walk like an angel) / talk like an angel,” to the chorus, “you’re the devil in disguise / oh, yes, you are, devil in disguise,” displaying how his appearance looks sweet but something about him is off-putting and inherently negative to the general public. the mayhem he causes in this scene displays an idea described by carpio in which she claims people “have a hard time experiencing empathy for those we can only imagine abstractly” (10). in other words, people who are different from the majority of the population, whether physically or psychologically, are difficult for others to empathize with as their differences 92 | king become hard to comprehend. in this instance, the individuals who flee from stitch fail to empathize with him because of his physique, attire, and actions. they saw him as a spectacle and became fearful after he reacted to the lack of empathy from the crowd. despite stitch’s valiant attempts to become a “model citizen” as ordered by cobra bubbles, he ultimately fails and remains labeled an outcast. when stitch fails to meet the social expectations, stitch begins questioning who he really is and where he needs to be. the evening after the beach debacle, stitch begins to recall what lilo described to him early in the movie regarding the children’s book the ugly duckling in which she states, “that’s the ugly duckling. see? he’s sad because he’s all alone and nobody wants him. but on this page, his family hears him crying, and they find him. then the ugly duckling is happy because he knows where he belongs” (0:40:26– 0:41:04). stitch then leaves through lilo’s window and is shown reading the ugly duckling in a dark, vegetation-dense forest in a lone patch of dirt and beam of moonlight. his distressed facial expressions indicate his remorse regarding the pain and suffering he has caused lilo, nani, and the others he has harmed. the camera zooms in on a page where the duckling cries, “i’m lost!” while reading, the audience sees stitch stroke a page in which the duckling finds its family. simultaneously, his ears lay flat down his back with his eyebrows pitched upward in a concerned manner. he then starts clasping his hands together repeatedly, indicating his anxiety and despondency. furthermore, the film utilizes a crane shot in which stitch looks at the sky and copies the duckling, stating “i’m lost” (0:54:43–0:55:45). the film’s choice in using a crane shot indicates to the audience that “there has been a dramatic change of perspective,” and this idea is further indicated by the difference in his demeanor and body language compared to earlier in the movie (corrigan 73). additionally, his choice to repeat the book’s phrase “i’m lost” verbalizes how stitch isn’t sure of where he belongs: he understands that he has caused harm to his o’hana, but he doesn’t know what he is meant to do next or who he can the digital literature review | 93 turn to. stitch is immensely vulnerable in this position, and his confused, melancholy demeanor helps the audience, who has spent the entirety of the film up to this point connecting to stitch, “to think, as themselves, from the position of another person and thus to call into question their own preconceptions and actions” as called for by carpio (8). the reality upon revealing his alienness, stitch does receive a lot of pushback from lilo; however, after being put into a dangerous situation, she recognizes that stitch displaying his differences doesn’t change who he is. after stitch’s reflective moment in the woods, a battle with other aliens, and the destruction of lilo and nani’s house, lilo runs away when bubbles attempts to take her to foster care. for context, throughout the movie, bubbles, the family’s social worker, has been monitoring the care of lilo and informed them that lilo could be removed from the home if her care is insufficient. in this scene, lilo just fled from bubbles and is now walking away from the remains of her house. she is shown with pinched eyebrows, her mouth ajar, and slightly squinted eyes, indicating to the audience that she is in emotional distress after her whole life is uprooted by jumba and pleakley, the aliens actively hunting stitch. when suddenly running into stitch, her first words are, “you ruined everything,” shortly followed by “you’re one of them?” and a swift shove and order for him to leave (1:03:54–1:04:06). lilo, the first and only person to accept stitch unconditionally, has turned on him as a result of the detrimental situation caused by the other aliens. before stitch is able to address lilo’s feelings, the duo is captured by captain gantu of the ugf. stitch, however, is able to escape because of his alien attributes and works with nani, jumba, and pleakley to successfully rescue lilo from her capture. during the rescue, when it seems as if it may not be possible for lilo to be rescued, she yells to stitch “don’t leave me, ok?,” indicating that she does trust him despite being a part of the demographic who destroyed her home and kidnapped her 94 | king (1:11:35). lilo’s initial reaction to his alien reveal was fueled by her emotions: she knows he is good. her emotional outburst is not surprising as stitch’s migration to earth has had major negative consequences for lilo, including her lack of stability and removal from her guardian. she couldn’t have known he was actively being persecuted and hunted by the same group of people. despite her age, though, lilo recognizes that while he is an alien, he is not the cause of the disruption they are faced with. these scenes introduce the audience to the idea that even though an individual is a part of or shares attributes with a certain group of people, they can’t assume the person fits within the stereotype they associate with that group. labels are not one-size-fits-all situations: there is variation, especially in people. the next major scene in the movie highlights the bureaucratic migration conflict between two larger entities while also showing how the institutions created problems for migrants in the first place: the scene reflects carpio’s previously stated claim in which the depiction of migration must move beyond the “problem of two opposed entities” instead displaying how migration “is produced by the actions of institutions that permeate every level of society” (8). after the chase and lilo’s rescue, the grand councilwoman and multiple ugf cronies cuff stitch and inform him of their intentions to bring him back to space for his criminal sentence to be served. however, questions from pleakley, lilo showing stitch’s adoption papers, and bubbles arguing how “aliens are all about rules” convince the grand councilwoman to agree to change his exile location to earth rather than the deserted planet previously mentioned (1:14:05–1:16:57). in this instance, instead of the two governmental bodies (the ugf and the united states government) arguing over who has claim over stitch; pleakley, lilo, and bubbles argue for why stitch should be allowed to stay, meaning a ugf member, a former cia agentturned-social worker, and a member of the general public all pitched in to fight for stitch’s migration to earth. the migration struggles permeated throughout multiple levels the digital literature review | 95 of society because of the actions of the ugf: they caused “dire consequences for those who are misread and/or are unseen by that law,” with stitch, lilo, and nani being among those who are “misread” and unseen” by the law and the consequences being depicted throughout the entirety of the movie (espiritu 26). the scene reinforces the idea that the actions of ugf are what caused his migration and eventual consequences. before the movie officially ends, stitch is shown to have assimilated within the family and on the island, even displaying signs that nani and lilo are willing to take on aspects of stitch’s alien culture and vice versa. after being formally exiled to earth, the audience is shown a short sequence of video clips and photos displaying his assimilation to life on earth and his acceptance into lilo and nani’s family, and while there are fewer, the audience is also shown scenes of stitch, jumba, and pleakley sharing aspects of their space culture as well. this sequence begins with stitch playing the ukulele while jumba, pleakley, nani, and others are shown rebuilding the family’s destroyed home, though instead of building the house exactly as before, the group adds a room that looks like a red planet or a small ship with white detailing, accenting the nontraditional addition (1:17:35). stitch learns to bake, partakes in holiday festivities, travel to a variety of locations outside of hawaii, and perform group hula dances with lilo (1:17:35-1:20:20). the audience also gets to see stitch helping lilo carve a pumpkin with a laser gun, teach her classmates about space, and see jumba give lilo and stitch child-sized flying ships for christmas. they partake in a variety of culture-blending and assimilating activities while they are together. this ending of the movie wraps up stitch’s migrant story quite nicely in which he understands who he really is, where he is meant to be, and how he can connect with those in the dominant culture. it is important to note, however, that real migration stories are complex and don’t typically end in such a finite manner. finding one’s place in the world is a complex process, especially after migrating to unknown lands, whether forcefully or not. at the same time, for the primarily child-based audience, the ending 96 | king reassures the audience that “hope is never lost,” that “things will get better,” even if it doesn’t feel that way (parker). conclusion according to a new york times article by a.o. scott, lilo & stitch is “an example of quiet, confident craftsmanship that tells a sweet, charming tale of intergalactic friendship;” however, the movie is far more complex than the simplicity posed by scott. the film manages to respond in a positive manner to carpio’s migrant aesthetic perspective which frames “migration solely in terms of the nation-state, belonging, acculturation, and individual and collective identity formation, [limiting] our apprehension of a global phenomenon that constitutes our whole world to the great suffering of many and the benefit of a few” (14). instead of expanding perspectives to a global level, lilo & stitch takes theories of migration aesthetics and broadens it to a universal level with the inclusion of actual aliens, providing a way for the story to represent a wide range of individuals and their migrant stories. stitch’s sudden departure from his home paired with the internal questioning and eventual community acceptance emphasizes caprio’s claim on page 13 in which she states, “migration shapes and is shaped by language and narrative, specifically how we write and read fiction, and how the language of migration in turn influences real-life phenomena.” thus, stitch’s story depicts the battle between the expectations from one’s community, assumptions from outsiders, and real identity, displaying the complexity of migration and exile in a fictional tale. the digital literature review | 97 carpio, glenda. “introduction: migration aesthetics.” migrant aesthetics: contemporary fiction, global migration, and the limits of empathy, e-book, columbia university press, 2023, pp. 1-32. corrigan, timothy. a short guide to writing about film, tenth edition, waveland press inc., 2024. denbroeder, lena. “fragile families in lilo and stitch.” sociological images, 28 oct. 2019, https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2019/10/28/fragile-families-in-liloand-stitch/. accessed 20 feb. 2025. espiritu, yen le, et al. “introduction: departures.” departures: an introduction to critical refugee studies, vol. 3, university of california press, 2022, pp. 11-29. laemmerhirt, iris-aya. “from outer space to paradise? remapping hawai’i in lilo and stitch.” 2013: world designs of the fantastic: narrating writing playing, 1 jan. 2013, komparatistik online, https://www.komparatistik-online.de/index.php/ komparatistik_online/article/view/101/66. accessed 6 jan 2025. lilo & stitch. directed by chris sanders and dean dublois, walt disney feature animation, 2002. luibhéid, eithne. “immigration.” keywords for american cultural studies, third edition, nyu press, 2007, https://keywords.nyupress.org/american-cultural-studies/essay/ immigration/. minow, neil. “parents’ guide to lilo and stitch.” common sense media, https://www. commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/lilo-and-stitch. accessed 20 feb. 2025. works cited https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2019/10/28/fragile-families-in-lilo-and-stitch/ https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2019/10/28/fragile-families-in-lilo-and-stitch/ https://www.komparatistik-online.de/index.php/komparatistik_online/article/view/101/66 https://www.komparatistik-online.de/index.php/komparatistik_online/article/view/101/66 https://keywords.nyupress.org/american-cultural-studies/essay/immigration/ https://keywords.nyupress.org/american-cultural-studies/essay/immigration/ https://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/lilo-and-stitch https://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/lilo-and-stitch 98 | king “movie: lilo and stitch,” content kids, https://content-kids.com/review-for-movie/liloand-stitch/. accessed 20 feb. 2025. ness, mari. “aliens and family values: lilo and stitch.” rector, 27 oct. 2016, https:// reactormag.com/lilo-and-stitch/. accessed 15 jan 2025. parker, lacie. “why i still love animated kids movies as a (grownup) highly sensitive person.” sensitive refuge, 23 dec. 2021, https://highlysensitiverefuge.com/why-istill-love-animated-kids-movies-as-a-grownup-highly-sensitive-person/. accessed 20 feb. 2025. rollison, crysta a. “we are not alone: finding family across a universe of differences in lilo and stitch.” interdisciplinary journal of student research and scholarship, vol. 4, no. 1, university of washington tacoma, 2020, https:// digitalcommons.tacoma.uw.edu/access/vol4/iss1/7?utm_source=digitalcommons. tacoma.uw.edu%2faccess%2fvol4%2fiss1%2f7&utm_medium=pdf&utm_ campaign=pdfcoverpages. accessed 6 jan. 2025. scott, a. o. “film review; escaping deep-space exile and making friends in hawaii.” new york times, 21 june 2002, https://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/21/movies/filmreview-escaping-deep-space-exile-and-making-friends-in-hawaii.html. accessed 20 feb. 2025. sharpson, neil. “disney reviews #42: lilo and stitch.” unshavedmouse, 12 dec. 2025, https://unshavedmouse.com/2013/12/12/disney-reviews-42-lilo-stitch/. accessed 20 feb 2025. https://content-kids.com/review-for-movie/lilo-and-stitch/ https://content-kids.com/review-for-movie/lilo-and-stitch/ https://reactormag.com/lilo-and-stitch/ https://reactormag.com/lilo-and-stitch/ https://highlysensitiverefuge.com/why-i-still-love-animated-kids-movies-as-a-grownup-highly-sensitive-person/ https://highlysensitiverefuge.com/why-i-still-love-animated-kids-movies-as-a-grownup-highly-sensitive-person/ https://digitalcommons.tacoma.uw.edu/access/vol4/iss1/7?utm_source=digitalcommons.tacoma.uw.edu%2faccess%2fvol4%2fiss1%2f7&utm_medium=pdf&utm_campaign=pdfcoverpages https://digitalcommons.tacoma.uw.edu/access/vol4/iss1/7?utm_source=digitalcommons.tacoma.uw.edu%2faccess%2fvol4%2fiss1%2f7&utm_medium=pdf&utm_campaign=pdfcoverpages https://digitalcommons.tacoma.uw.edu/access/vol4/iss1/7?utm_source=digitalcommons.tacoma.uw.edu%2faccess%2fvol4%2fiss1%2f7&utm_medium=pdf&utm_campaign=pdfcoverpages https://digitalcommons.tacoma.uw.edu/access/vol4/iss1/7?utm_source=digitalcommons.tacoma.uw.edu%2faccess%2fvol4%2fiss1%2f7&utm_medium=pdf&utm_campaign=pdfcoverpages https://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/21/movies/film-review-escaping-deep-space-exile-and-making-friends-in-hawaii.html https://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/21/movies/film-review-escaping-deep-space-exile-and-making-friends-in-hawaii.html https://unshavedmouse.com/2013/12/12/disney-reviews-42-lilo-stitch/ vaught article © vaught, the digital literature review, 12 (1), 10–29. doi: 10.33043/5559r34a. shared with cc-by-nc-nd 4.0 license. abstract 10 | vaught although the “model minority myth” seems promising in benefiting asian americans, its greatest hoax is that it has never guaranteed safety from antiasian hate. the covid-19 pandemic in 2020 uncovered the long-existing, historical tensions of anti-asian hate in america, as hate crime rates had spiked to unprecedented levels. they have historically been shaped by discrimination, forced assimilation, and the struggle to belong in a society that has continuously treated them as diseased or alien enemies. asian americans have been subjected to the simplification of what chimamanda ngozi adichie defines as the “single story.” to break from this continued discrimination of autonomy and identity, it is crucial to look at stories that push back against dominant narratives imposed by mainstream society. in recent years, a surge of marginalized narratives has countered pre-existing barriers formed by single stories, including cathy park hong’s minor feelings: an asian american reckoning. her semi-autobiography includes various essays that work toward describing the asian american consciousness through hong’s lived experiences and research. authentic stories that counter the single stories imposed by mainstream society re-story the canon of what it means to be asian counterstories in cathy park hong’s minor feelings jack vaught http://doi.org/10.33043/5559r34a the digital literature review | 11 since their initial wave of immigration to the united states, the asian american identity has been historically shaped by discrimination, forced assimilation, and the persistent struggle to belong in a society that continuously treats them as perpetual foreigners. chimamanda ngozi adichie’s concept of the “single story”—noted as the reductive, inaccurate representation of a group of people—provides a powerful lens to comprehend this struggle of identity: asian americans frequently have stereotypical images and singular narratives forced onto them that erase their complex and diverse lived experiences, rendering them invisible. korean american poet cathy park hong hopes for a change in american literature to counter the single story imposed on asian americans: “overhaul the tired ethnic narratives that have automated our identities; that have made our lives palatable to a white audience but removed them from our own lived realities—and stop spelling ourselves out in the alphabet given to us” (4748). authors’ counterstories—an act of what chinua achebe refers to as “re-storying”— are crucial when deconstructing single stories. in this essay, i will explore how asian americans reclaim identity through counterstories, turning minor feelings into visualized struggles. using adichie’s definition of the single story and elements of espiritu et al.’s critical refugee studies (crs) in departures, i will explore the enduring impact of racism and displacement within the home. through analyzing the critique of single stories, lived experiences of purgatorial space, and narrative voice, i will demonstrate how cathy park hong’s minor feelings: an asian american reckoning works as a counterstory with hong’s acknowledgment of the power to heal, reconstruct, and reclaim asian american american. in this paper, i will explore how asian americans reclaim identity through “counterstories,” turning what hong calls “minor feelings” into visualized struggles. by analyzing the critique of single stories, narrative voice, and the experience of purgatorial spaces, i will demonstrate how minor feelings works as a counterstory to reclaim asian american identity. 12 | vaught narratives. cathy park hong was born and raised by korean parents in los angeles, california. hong is a poet by trade, her work primarily focusing on the fusion of language and unique expressions of human honesty. her semi-autobiography minor feelings is divided into seven critical essays that attempt to locate asian american experiences within the racial discourse of the united states, each struggling with questions of internalized and societal racism. hong begins her novel with the essay “united,” in which she asks, “who is us? what is us?” (28). her essays detail the complexities of the asian american identity from defining the single story and cross-racial relationships in “stand up,” political shame in “the end of white innocence,” and concluding with the burdens of silence and gratitude in “the indebted.” each chapter deals with spaces of discomfort with the “intersections of racism and capitalism, specifically but not solely as they relate to asian americans, to more deeply understand where we are and how we might move forward” (beyer). the title of the novel minor feelings is positioned as a framework to identify why asian americans are dismissed as racialized minorities. using sianne ngai’s “ugly feelings,” hong contends that minor feelings arise from a spectrum of racialized experiences that have been internalized to avoid giving them significant value. this can result in emotional suppression, self-doubt, and a complicated relationship with one’s cultural background or “home.” minor feelings breaks from the mainstream to make the lived experiences of asian americans visible. as an asian american herself, hong acknowledges her access to this knowledge and practices trinh t. minh-ha’s “speaking nearby” when discussing the asian american condition, maintaining proximity to the subject while refraining from speaking on their behalf (hong 102-103). like crs, which espiritu et al. define as the contextualization of refugee narratives, hong recenters the story of asian american experiences to enable transformation from simplified objects of study to complex narratives, emphasizing they are fellow humans deserving of justice. in this essence, the digital literature review | 13 hong’s minor feelings evokes elements of richard delgado’s “counter-storytelling” or “counterstories”: critical stories used to challenge dominant narratives, such as single stories (delgado 2414). hong retells the story on her own terms, bringing an intimate, raw honesty that allows readers to bear witness to the impacts of systemic racism. when discussing the asian american body, it is important to recognize the complexities of the diaspora. the label asian american is a recent term coined by historical civil rights activist yuji ichioka in the late 1960s to unify asian ethnic groups in solidarity to increase their power, rejecting terms such as “oriental” imposed by the western world and demanding much-needed resources (shih et al. 412). despite the rich diversity of asian americans, the label has been used as an umbrella term to homogenize the diversity of asian subgroups’ myriad differences; they are generally understood to be those of the east asian diaspora (i.e., korean, japanese, and chinese). yang et al. acknowledge in the introduction of their article that “grouping such diversity into one category blurs the uniqueness and humanity of different heritages, making it all too easy to marginalize and stereotype,” describing one of the main dangers of the asian american monolith in its erasure of individual groups’ realities. in discussing the asian american condition, hong questions how to use the collective statement “we,” mentioning in minor feelings her conflicted feelings in its usage. she uses it cautiously throughout her novel, describing the struggle of defining what the label asian american is: “the paint of the asian american label has not dried. the term is unwieldy, cumbersome, perched awkwardly upon my being” (29). her cautious use of the word reflects the challenges asian americans face when uniting a vast community under a single label while simultaneously honoring the diversity of individual experiences. by acknowledging the fluidity of asian american identities, more inclusive narratives that counter the homogeny of the label itself are brought to attention. this recognition of the richness of asian american experiences is essential to dismantle the reductive frameworks 14 | vaught that erase them. according to bell and delgado, counterstories refer to the narratives of those marginalized by white-dominated spaces. counterstories humanize marginalized groups’ realities by articulating their lived experiences while simultaneously challenging dominant frameworks (qtd. in rodríguez 160). delgado emphasizes their power, noting that counterstories engage the conscience and stir imagination in ways conventional discourse cannot (2415). hong draws audiences’ attention using her tools as a poet to illustrate lived realities, describing how poetry is used to authentically describe immigrant experiences: “the lyric as ruin is an optimal form to explore the racial condition, because our unspeakable losses can be captured through the silences built into the lyric fragment” (196-197). turning to prose gives hong more agency to examine and analyze her internalized feelings on racial identity. her narrative in minor feelings presents her lived experiences not to elicit empathy, but to reclaim and resist the commodification of her pain. hong critiques the expectations that writers of color must present their trauma in ways white audiences can maintain innocence: of course, writers of color must tell their stories of racial trauma, but for too long our stories have been shaped by the white imagination. publishers expect authors to privatize their trauma: an exceptional family or historic tragedy tests the character before they arrive at a revelation of self-affirmation… the outlying forces that cause their pain… are remote enough to allow everyone, including the reader, off the hook (49). hong’s critique highlights how migrant and racialized literature has historically been framed to maintain the existing framework “shaped by the white imagination” that demands writers of color’s voices be modified into preapproved, nonconfrontational templates to avoid addressing systemic racism. this simplification aligns with carpio’s critique in migrant aesthetics of how racialized literature—such as slave narratives the digital literature review | 15 and contemporary immigrant fiction—relies on expressions of suffering and pain to gain empathy and allyship (12). similarly, hong observes the pressures on marginalized writers to always express gratitude, stating “writers of color had to behave better in their poetry and in person; they had to always act gracious and grateful so that white people would be comfortable enough to sympathize with their racialized experiences (46). asian american writers, hong argues, are often pressured to adapt their stories to be consumable to a white audience. this process obscures their complexities and lived realities, forcing them to adhere to preapproved molds of the single story. the single story is a concept that devalues and homogenizes marginalizes narratives. as adichie defines in her tedtalk, “the single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. they make one story become the only story” (00:13:03-00:13:15). single stories place labels onto groups of people, creating a distinct line between those with power and those without to otherize them. it is here that those in power standardize what they consider to be authentic stories. as adichie further explains, “like our economic and political worlds, stories too are defined by the principle of nklai: how they are told, who tells them, when they’re told, how many stories are told, are really dependent on power” (00:09:4800:10:03). the perpetuation of the single story devalues lived experiences that do not conform to dominant standards, using certain available facts to obscure reality and justify the reinforcement of stereotypes (delgado 2421-2412). as hong identifies, this can be found in exceptional stories of struggle and triumph that let readers “off the hook” (49). stories narrated by minorities lose their authenticity when forced to conform to molds prescribed by the dominating white framework. as hong describes, these “respectability politics” adhere to the sterilization of grief in subaltern narratives. rather than empowering marginalized voices, the single story ultimately serves the dominant group, reaffirming white innocence and complacent distance from systemic injustice. 16 | vaught hong advocates for acknowledging the emergence of counterstories that reclaim the fullness of asian american identity. these stories refuse to create remoteness that isolates pain from the collective histories and systems that shape it. in countering these stories through minor feelings, hong applies what chinua achebe defines as re-storying: “the process of ‘tak[ing] back the narrative’ of ‘peoples who had been knocked silent by all kinds of dispossession,’ in the hope that re-storying will result in ‘balance of stories among the world’s people’” (qtd. in espiritu et al. 22). asian americans are grossly underrepresented with the dominating presence of the single story. throughout minor feelings, hong works to contextualize asian americans’ stories, examining figures such as ocean vuong and theresa hak kyung cha to emphasize the importance of authentic representation by countering the singular narratives imposed onto them as tragic diasporic subjects. contextualizing such marginalized stories outside of the exceptional tale acknowledges the individual human stories that enrich a collective narrative. hong highlights the dynamic of commodified, exceptionalist stories in her essays, particularly in “stand up,” where she describes how white audiences impose their frameworks onto stories of trauma. this framework is highlighted in hong’s short analysis of ocean vuong whose work is often simplified by audiences who fixate on his background as a vietnamese refugee, ignoring the broader complexities of his layered identity; to audiences, his queer identity does not fit into the mold of tragic victimhood. in her critique of vuong’s single story, hong underscores the limitations of the refugee narrative. she argues it objectifies pained experiences to evoke emotional responses driven by a sense of injustice such as empathy, pity, shame, and outrage: “he reassures the public that he has not only sung but lived through his libretto of hurt so that his poetry and biography have become welded into a single american myth of individual triumph” (espiritu et al. 19; hong 51). the importance of counterstories, delgado notes, is that they shatter complacency to deepen and humanize the othered subject: “it is through the digital literature review | 17 this process that we can overcome ethnocentrism and the unthinking conviction that our way of seeing the world is the only one—that the way things are is inevitable, natural, just, and best—when it is, for some, full of pain, exclusion, and both petty and major tyranny” (2439). diverse stories are a gateway to conversations that construct reality. welding stories such as vuong’s to a solely tragic subject fosters audience complacency, dehumanizing the individual by erasing complex identities and flattening his lived experiences into a consumable narrative that elicits empathy, as carpio describes. the concept of empathy plays a significant role in the perpetuation of the single story. carpio notes that empathy has been historically commodified in literature. by 1955, susan lanzoni notes, “reader’s digest defined the term… as the ‘ability to appreciate the other person’s feelings without yourself becoming so emotionally involved that your judgment is affected’” (qtd. in carpio 10). this detached empathy model of art, as serpell calls “a gateway to white saviorism” with its implied occupation of marginalized stories, allows audiences to feel without thinking critically about systemic issues” (qtd. in carpio 12). instead of working toward genuine understanding, this approach enables readers to consume marginalized experiences while maintaining distance. another key aspect of the single story is the racial binary that excludes asian americans. hong notes the difficulty of situating herself within the context of the dominant “black/white” racial framework. she understands the oppression of black and african americans but also finds herself allying with white people (53-54). these binaries create an exclusionary dynamic where, in the context of asian american single stories, asian americans are neither fully accepted nor entirely rejected, reinforcing their status as perpetual foreigners. despite being positioned as “honorary whites” under the model minority myth, asian americans remain racialized others, expected to be diligent and compliant while remaining politically silent (saiot, tuan, zhou & tuan qtd. in sabharwal et al. 543). such limitations lead to a form of erasure where asian americans are 18 | vaught absorbed into a white supremacist framework where whiteness equates to acceptance and success, therefore denying their individuality and history. the positivity of american optimism coupled with seemingly positive stereotypes establishes a double bind of existence where asian americans occupy what hong describes as a “vague purgatorial status:” in the popular imagination, asian americans inhabit a vague purgatorial status: not white enough nor black enough; distrusted by african americans, ignored by whites, unless we’re being used to keep the black man down… but while i may look impassive, i am frantically paddling my feet underwater, always overcompensating to hide my devouring feelings of inadequacy (9). although asian americans are given the faux privilege of being adjacent to white americans, their status is easily reversed by their perceived foreignness in this country’s long-existing anti-asian hate rhetoric. the importance of counterstories becomes especially clear in such times of crisis. more recently in 2020, the united states was forced into lockdown with the covid-19 pandemic. many politicians—including present donald trump—labeled covid-19 as the “kung flu” or “chinese virus,” associating asians with the disease. those racist sentiments reinvoked hate and discrimination targeting asian americans, mirroring america’s history of making asians a racial scapegoat through disease. according to the anti-asian hate crime report in 2021, reports of discrimination and violence against asian americans increased by 145%—unprecedented levels—in 2020 (qtd. in han et al. 2516-1517). racism in america has always been under the surface by systemic barriers. as sabharwal et al. point out, “the rise in reporting hate crimes against asian americans is indicative of the xenophobia and the deep-seated stereotype of ‘forever foreigner’ that persist in the historical, political, and cultural underpinnings of the us” (543). conditional citizenship, where asians are caught in a double bind between praise and hate, highlight the limitations of the single story. hong delves into the internal toll of this purgatorial status, describing the strenuous performance of the digital literature review | 19 competency in terms of citizenship and economics. the purgatorial status in which asian americans are positioned exiles them with the inability to fully belong in the american framework, where they are viewed as perpetual foreigners. the perpetual foreigner stereotype alienates asian americans, compelling them to feel as if they are not recognized as part of a larger community. as asian americans are not acknowledged as “real minorities,” they overcompensate and contort their identities to fit into singular narratives constructed by the white imagination, as seen in hong’s critique on whiteness and success. this is not to say that all asian americans are to be perceived as generally conforming, but that the effects of the single story manipulate how the general public views them in terms of their conditional citizenship. as asian americans are positioned outside of society’s barriers through the perpetual foreigner myth, their experiences arguably align with those of refugees under espiritu et al.’s crs, which critiques the commodification of stories of exceptionalism. while it is recognized hong is privileged compared to refugees as an american-born citizen, there are ways her depiction of systemic marginalization in the states aligns with crs. similar to previous movements in other emergent fields, crs confronts conditions such as purgatorial spaces and systemic forces of erasure, challenging the status quo to amplify the voices of the “overlooked and underestimated” (espiritu et al. 11-12). it focuses on elements of achebe’s re-storying, using um’s definition of it “as the process conceptualizing survivor-refugees as ‘experiencing subjects,’” rewriting to humanize and legitimate these lived experiences (qtd. in espiritu et al. 22-23). crs emphasizes the importance of lived experiences being retold canonically by those who bear witness, resisting systemic marginalization and dominant narratives of the single story as counterstories do—themes that resonate with hong’s analysis of asian american identity in minor feelings. crs highlights how refugees are seen as outsiders who are shaped by tragic experiences of imperialism and war, which extends to how hong contends 20 | vaught the multifacetedness of asian americans who are regarded as perpetual foreigners in a society that refuses to acknowledge their existence outside a liminal space. the marginalization of asian americans through their purgatorial status mirrors crs’s examination of how refugees are denied agency and visibility. hong’s critique that asian americans “don’t have enough presence” to be considered “real minorities” parallels the marginalization of refugee experiences in broader narratives (7). they are objectified into a framework of commodity under the guidelines of the single story, reducing them to figures who must constantly justify their existence and citizenship outside of portrayed victimhood. for asian americans, it is their dismissal as a model minority “used by whites to keep the black man down” (9). during the cold war in 1965, hong describes how asian americans went from “the degraded race” to the model minority: during this period the model minority myth was popularized to keep communists— and black people—in check. asian american success was circulated to promote capitalism and to undermine the credibility of black civil rights: we were the “good” ones since we were undemanding, diligent, and never asked for handouts from the government (22). however, this status can easily change, as previously mentioned, when the white men in power use asian americans as racial scapegoats. this unstable identity is similar to that of the systemic erasure crs critiques: refugees are often reduced to sanitized victims of imperialism and war to avoid existing systemic issues that suppress upward mobility. these reductive roles record how both asian americans’ and refugees’ exceptional stories are commodified in single stories. by reviewing hong’s work within the broader framework of crs, she not only critiques the perpetual foreigner stereotype and racial binaries used to keep minorities in place but also challenges the structural inequities they perpetuate. like crs, hong advocates re-storying to resist the singular narratives imposed by dominant groups to reclaim humanity and the complexities of identity. the digital literature review | 21 by contextualizing herself as an asian american woman while navigating these restrictive structures, hong challenges the idea of the “tragic unknowable subaltern subject” (172). she acknowledges the silence embedded in asian american narratives: the problem with silence is that it can’t speak up and say why it’s silent. and so silence collects, becomes amplified, takes on a life outside our intentions, in that silence can get misread as indifference, or avoidance, or even shame, and eventually this silence passes over into forgetting (165). here, hong discusses korean american writer and artist theresa hak kyung cha, whose notable novel dictee is known for its manipulation of english as an act of resistance. she is also known by police as “an oriental jane doe” (hong, 164). years after her death, critics and audiences quite literally made a performance out of it to grapple with the meanings of her many works. in this act of disregard for her humanity, cha’s own views on silence were hijacked by the dominant discourse that silenced her. unlike the previous case study of ocean vuong’s narrative, cha’s was reduced simply to silence. cha was brutally raped and murdered in 1982—a fact that is often omitted to avoid sensationalizing her story or retraumatizing her family (hong, 164). hong argues that this silence ultimately erases cha, reducing her identity to “mystery and hushed hearsay,” a common trope found in objectifying asian women (165). hong centers the chapter “portrait of an artist” on cha to re-story how her life is remembered, appreciating her being in its entirety, including her end. she critiques how asian american writers often struggle against their work being hijacked by their biographies, particularly when those stories disrupt dominant narratives. these counterstories can elicit discomfort, leading audiences to erase or reframe them in ways that align with the preapproved molds of the single story. one of the main points echoed throughout minor feelings is the struggles asian american writers face when their work is paired with their biographies, especially when 22 | vaught it comes to racial and sexual experiences. the confrontations of these experiences that do not adhere to the single stories of exceptionality and foreignness expose audiences to long-suppressed discomfort, which they then impulsively erase again with narratives that fit their ideals. when hong recalls her conversation with flitterman-lewis—a friend of cha’s—she describes one of the dominating narratives that fetishized cha’s life as an object of study. one graduate student at a particular conference “made confusing, pretentious claims about cha’s passivity as rape victim being a kind of performance art” (170). cha, as flitterman-lewis retorted, was not at all passive. any form of biographical narrative that counters or re-stories dominant ones must be treated with care. they must appear noncoercive as counterstories to not turn potential allies away, nor should their aesthetics promote sensational viewing. when hong reflects on her search for who cha was, she writes, “maybe i am just tired of cha’s ghostliness. if she’s known at all, she’s known as this tragic unknowable subaltern subject” (172). hong is in a privileged position where she can speak near these “unknowable” subjects. the confrontation disrupts the commodified silence that typically follows the narratives of asian women. language has long been used as an act of silence. throughout history, the english language has served as a tool of assimilation. however, writers such as achebe and cha see language as a medium of resistance. hong notes cha manipulated english to create an unpleasurable experience, presenting the discomfort asian americans feel when their sense of belonging is determined by linguistics: “english could never be a true reflection of her consciousness, that it was as much an imposition on her consciousness as it was a form of expression” (155). hong examines how the concept of standardized american english reinforces the perpetual foreigner stereotype while simultaneously offering a means to reclaim identity. in her chapter “bad english,” hong reflects on her relationship with english by celebrating the realities of accented, nonstandard, mixed dialects she proudly refers to as her heritage: the digital literature review | 23 it was once a source of shame, but now i say it proudly: bad english is my heritage. i share a literary lineage with writers who make the mastering of english their rallying cry… to other english is to make audible the imperial power sewn into the language, to slit english open so its dark histories slide out (97). hong describes bad english as a powerful linguistic tool that projects an authentic, unapologetic voice that challenges the authority of standard english. as she recounts her history of “outside” english, hong explores “what it means to borrow words and stories from other groups. the resulting vernacular pokes holes in the idea of fluency” (kim 27). hong embraces her bad english as a form of reclamation of the asian american identity, defying the dominating white framework of america that expects the people to speak in unaccented, standard american english. for hong, bad english represents a form of defiant survival in a society that situates a binary based on linguistic performance. hong highlights how language choice intersects with identity. she briefly touches on awkwafina’s backlash for her “blackface” accent in the film crazy rich asians, realizing the accent awkwafina had used was similar to the k-town girls’ accents: “it never occurred to me that those k-town girls were doing blackface. i thought they were just talking the way other teens around them talked” (101). here, hong shows linguistic choices emerge from lived experiences and are not necessarily cultural appropriation. however, when individuals such as awkwafina adopt linguistic markers from other marginalized communities in an attempt to assert belonging, they face scrutiny that reinforces their liminality. hong critiques this response, noting that like the single story, “stay in your lane” politics simplify the lived realities of racial identities: “such a politics not only assumes racial identity is pure—while ignoring the messy lived realities in which racial groups overlap—but reduces racial identity to intellectual property” (102). once again, hong illustrates the objectification of asians as objects of study. hong’s commentary on the transformation of english amongst minority groups 24 | vaught reflects other postcolonial theories writers, such as achebe with “english and the african writer.” hong describes english as “our ever-expanding lingua franca, the consumer language of brand recognition and outsourced labor,” highlighting the power dynamics within the language (96). by reshaping english, hong asserts how marginalized communities reclaim the language as a tool to reflect their own lived experiences rather than conformity. this reflects the sentiments of both cha and achebe, the latter stating a writer “should aim at fashioning an english that is at once universal and able to carry his peculiar experiences. i have in mind here the writer who has something new, something different, to say” (347). hong’s reclamation of bad english challenges the authority of existing, standardized norms of the language, which are rooted in maintaining systemic hierarchies. english is typically thought to be the white man’s language, one that involves the colonization of other languages in acts of assimilation. this can be seen today with “stay in your lane” politics imposed onto minorities by white supremacist frameworks, keeping them in low positions of power and other them in society. as hong demonstrates, nonstandard forms of english—or as she describes, bad english—serve as a reclamation of voice. achebe states, “the price a world language must be prepared to pay is submission to many different kinds of use” (347). when the english language is reclaimed, it must adapt to suit the needs of the minority who uses it to their best judgment; it must remain in contact with english and the primary language to avoid erasure, yet altered enough to suit its new usage. to explore “bad english” with its linguistic reclamation, i spoke with dr. mary lou vercelotti, an applied linguistics professor at ball state university. although she disagreed with hong’s use of the term “bad english,” she acknowledged how hong inverts linguistic discrimination to challenge standardized english. as hong states, “to other english is to make audible the imperial power sewn into the language, to slit english open so its dark histories slide out” (97). her aggressive language—describing how she must “eat english the digital literature review | 25 before it eats me”—reflects the violent nature of linguistic policing (98). dr. vercelotti noted that “cannibalizing” english allows hong to reclaim the power of language historically used to oppress minorities. this transformation of english to a tool of survival underscores how linguistic hierarchies maintain social inequalities. as dr. vercelotti stated, “who gets to define her english? is it the white people, or is it her? she’s saying, ‘i get to decide.’” by embracing bad english, hong asserts her agency and disrupts power structures of exclusion. hong’s minor feelings dismantles the single story in resisting commodification, amplifying uncomfortable truths, and reclaiming asian americans’ narrative agency. she critiques the racialized constraints imposed onto marginalized writers by white supremacist frameworks, recognizing that to write truthfully about race she must “write against the narrative” to break free from the “infernal circle” that reduces people of color to their racial identities (64). through counterstories and their elements of restorying, hong challenges these sympathetic approaches that distort migrant experiences into simplified, commodified single stories designed for white audiences. she calls for literature that directly confronts racism, imperialism, and historical erasure while also paying respect to the lived experiences of asian americans, ensuring their voices are not flattened into monolithic representations. by embracing linguistic diversity, hong asserts her right to define her own voice and identity rather than conforming to the limiting framework. hong is direct in her language, demonstrating the importance of not negating her intentions with minor feelings: to present her story not as one of exceptionalism, but as one of many stories that make up an authentic counterstory. hong goes against the status quo to establish the authentic counterstory. she recognizes her privileged position as a published and educated american-born writer, using it to amplify other authors’ voices in her critical essays. minor feelings does not finish with a solidified conclusion of 26 | vaught what is asian america, instead ending with the declarative statement, “we were always here” (203). the asian american face has never truly been solidified, constantly being reshaped to fit standards of marketability, rendering multitudes of stories invisible. when it comes to defining what the asian american story is, there is no answer. hong’s semi-autobiography proves its power to heal, reconstruct, and reclaim narratives as a counterstory by saying “we were never invisible; it was just a refusal to see us.” ultimately, minor feelings is a powerful act of re-storying, reclaiming asian american narratives from the constraints of the single story. the digital literature review | 27 colby, sandra l., and jennifer m. ortman. projections of the size and composition of the u.s. population: 2014 to 2060. u.s. census bureau, 2015. hong, cathy park. minor feelings: an asian american reckoning. one world, 2020. kim, jisu. “marginalia.” women’s review of books, vol. 37, no. 2, mar. 2020, pp. 26–27. ebscohost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lkh&an=142053769&si te=ehost-live&scope=site. park, josephine. “alien enemies in julie otsuka’s when the emperor was divine.” mfs modern fiction studies, vol. 59, no. 1, mar. 2013, pp. 135–155, https://doi. org/10.1353/mfs.2013.0013. rodríguez, noreen naseem. “‘this is why nobody knows who you are:’ (counter)stories of southeast asian americans in the midwest.” review of education, pedagogy, and cultural studies, vol. 42, no. 2, 14 mar. 2020, pp. 157–174, https://doi.org/10.1080/ 10714413.2020.1757377. sun, michelle. “minor feelings: an asian american reckoning.” journal of the american academy of child & adolescent psychiatry, vol. 63, no. 3, mar. 2024, pp. 381–383, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2023.12.006. “about the topic of race.” census.gov, 1 mar. 2022, www.census.gov/topics/population/ race/about.html. carpio, glenda. migrant aesthetics: contemporary fiction, global migration, and the limits of empathy. columbia university press, 2023. works cited http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lkh&an=142053769&site=ehost-live&scope=site http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lkh&an=142053769&site=ehost-live&scope=site https://doi.org/10.1353/mfs.2013.0013 https://doi.org/10.1353/mfs.2013.0013 https://doi.org/10.1080/10714413.2020.1757377 https://doi.org/10.1080/10714413.2020.1757377 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2023.12.006 http://www.census.gov/topics/population/race/about.html http://www.census.gov/topics/population/race/about.html 28 | vaught espiritu, yen le, et al. departures: an introduction to critical refugee studies. university of california press, 2022. us census bureau, et al. “projections of the size and composition of the u.s. population: 2014 to 2060. population estimates and projections. current population reports. p25-1143.” us census bureau, mar. 2015. ebscohost, search.ebscohost.com/login.as px?direct=true&db=eric&an=ed578934&site=ehost-live&scope=site. yang, shuling, et al. “understanding culturally sustaining practices through the lens of chinese immigrant families in the united states.” journal of language, identity & education, 2023, pp. 1–14, https://doi.org/10.1080/15348458.2023.2282697. shih, kristy y., et al. “impacts of the model minority myth on asian american individuals and families: social justice and critical race feminist perspectives.” journal of family theory & review, vol. 11, no. 3, 12 aug. 2019, pp. 412–428, https://doi. org/10.1111/jftr.12342. “chimamanda ngozi adichie: the danger of a single story | ted.” youtube, uploaded by ted, 7 oct. 2009, www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9ihs241zeg. vercellotti, mary lou. personal interview. 14 nov. 2024. hong, cathy park. interview by mina kim. “poet cathy park hong on ‘minor feelings’ and anti-asian racism in the age of covid,” kqed, 29 july 2020. achebe, chinua. “english and the african writer.” transition, no. 75/76, 1997, pp. 342– 349, https://doi.org/10.2307/2935429. delgado, richard. “storytelling for oppositionists and others: a plea for narrative.” http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&an=ed578934&site=ehost-live&scope=site http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&an=ed578934&site=ehost-live&scope=site https://doi.org/10.1080/15348458.2023.2282697 https://doi.org/10.1111/jftr.12342 https://doi.org/10.1111/jftr.12342 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9ihs241zeg https://doi.org/10.2307/2935429 the digital literature review | 29 michigan law review, vol. 87, no. 8, aug. 1989, pp. 2411–2441, https://doi. org/10.2307/1289308. fassler, joe. “what stories about racial trauma leave out.” the atlantic, atlantic media company, 26 feb. 2020, www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2020/02/cathy-parkhong-susan-sontag/607081/. goh, jin x., et al. “positioning asian americans in social cognition.” social and personality psychology compass, vol. 17, no. 6, 20 apr. 2023, https://doi. org/10.1111/spc3.12760. han, sungil, et al. “anti-asian american hate crimes spike during the early stages of the covid-19 pandemic.” journal of interpersonal violence, vol. 38, no. 3–4, 3 june 2022, pp. 3513–3533, https://doi.org/10.1177/08862605221107056. sabharwal, meghna, et al. “from the chinese exclusion act to the covid-19 pandemic: a historical analysis of ‘otherness’ experienced by asian americans in the united states.” public integrity, vol. 24, no. 6, 2 nov. 2022, pp. 535–549, https://doi.org/1 0.1080/10999922.2022.2120292. https://doi.org/10.2307/1289308 https://doi.org/10.2307/1289308 http://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2020/02/cathy-park-hong-susan-sontag/607081/ http://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2020/02/cathy-park-hong-susan-sontag/607081/ https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12760 https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12760 https://doi.org/10.1177/08862605221107056 https://doi.org/10.1080/10999922.2022.2120292 https://doi.org/10.1080/10999922.2022.2120292 _14ctpy1fh5tr grenier 91 confronting potential cultural barriers in translated works olivia grenier, ball state university “confronting potential cultural “confronting potential cultural barriers in translated works” reflects barriers in translated works” reflects upon the stylistic choices of maxine upon the stylistic choices of maxine hong kingston and sandra cisneros hong kingston and sandra cisneros in their respective works, “no name in their respective works, “no name woman” and “woman hollering creek.” woman” and “woman hollering creek.” both strategically include either moments both strategically include either moments of or full iterations of translation of or full iterations of translation culturally and linguistically. when culturally and linguistically. when incorporating translation at any degree, incorporating translation at any degree, a potential barrier could arise: a barrier a potential barrier could arise: a barrier from comprehension, a barrier from from comprehension, a barrier from translation, a barrier between author and translation, a barrier between author and reader, or a barrier between cultures. reader, or a barrier between cultures. throughout this essay, i will be throughout this essay, i will be discerning the stylistic choices of discerning the stylistic choices of cisneros and kingston concerning cisneros and kingston concerning their inclusion of translation but also their inclusion of translation but also their overarching storylines to evaluate their overarching storylines to evaluate whether their work disrupts the presented whether their work disrupts the presented cultural barrier or whether the presented cultural barrier or whether the presented cultural barrier disrupts their work. cultural barrier disrupts their work. truly reading literature extends beyond mere reading; it can become a type of conversation, but in order to embrace that rapport between the author and the reader, the text must be made available. when reading literature that has been translated in the sense of culture and language, the expectation of the reader varies. cultural nuances that exist within the native language of a text may be lost in translation. few, if any, languages offer a seamless translation, which makes literary conversations challenging due to a presented linguistic barrier. cultural barriers are often presented alongside linguistic barriers. translation offers a sense of mobility between the author’s culture and the reader’s experience. however, in order for a text to be accessed by a multitude of readers, its translation is not free from a type of debt to the original language and culture. translation can either be halting to the reader, or translation can be a type of avenue, a border that, when crossed, leads to newfound understanding.these notions are dually expressed in sandra cisneros’s “woman hollering creek” and maxine hong kingston’s “no name woman.” “woman hollering creek” is peppered with cisneros’s spanish culture through implementing various words and phrases. these moments serve as a transmission of culture, and they are successful due to the words and phrases being identified with italics and then followed by an english translation. this specific strategy welcomes a monolingual reader, or a reader who is not well-versed in the spanish language, into the story alongside cleófilas. cisneros assures the reader that they do not need to extend their mind further than the page since the translation is made readily available. however, with this strategy of coupling spanish with english, one language may be put at a deficit. maxine hong kingston’s “no name woman” is the telling of a family story from a chinese-american protagonist. in comparison to “woman hollering creek,” kingston’s text is entirely translated in the sense of culture. “no name woman” was written in english; however, it was written by an author with a chinese-american perspective. kingston was able to comprehensibly transmit her chinese culture in an american society. however, that was not achieved without some community backlash. “no name woman” begs the question of whether or not cultural ties were severed or weakened in order to construct a chinese story for an american audience. when discerning the effects of translated texts, it begs the question of whether the literary conversation is mutually enriching to both the author’s culture and the reader’s experience. cisneros and kingston disrupt the cultural and linguistic barriers of translation with specific stylistic choices that welcome, rather than exclude, the monolingual reader into the literary conversation while still respecting the native cultures of their texts and staying true to their own linguistic liberties as authors. translation presents the possibility that there will be discrepancies on a linguistic level. unique grammar and semantic structures will not always be seamlessly transitioned into a different language, which could impede the reader’s comprehension and thus their connection with the literature. translation of culture presents the possibility that certain expressions of cultural niceties may be subdued in order to uphold the comprehensibility of the literature. both presentations are confronted with a positional cultural barrier. allison fagan says that as authors negotiate their own linguistic identities, there is now “the question of whether, and when, and how much to translate” (58). in this sense, translation can offer a type of mobility in itself to evoke a crossing of borders (fagan 58). bolaki commends translation for gifting language a form of mobility, but recognizes a “debt” that is bound to the original text (40). the intention of production implores the literary conversation to ask whether this construction is simply trying to resolve translation conflicts for the sake of presenting a coherent story. cisneros displays this favorable type of mobility by representing grenier 92 both spanish and english in “woman hollering creek.” while the essence of a barrier is to present a divide, cisneros is able to create a harmony between languages. cisneros’s opening paragraph is one sentence that sets up the scene for her female protagonist, cleófilas enriqueta deleón hernández. along with the culturally significant character names, cisneros begins the coupling of spanish and english early on. this sets the precedent for the importance of this “marriage” between spanish and english: “...over several miles of dirt road and several miles of paved, over one border and beyond to a town en el otro lado –on the other side –already did he divine the morning...” (cisneros 43). the spanish words are italicized and followed by an english translation, which maintains the plot and heightens the cultural significance of the story. through the coupling of spanish and english, the reader is further introduced to mexican culture due the english translation being provided by cisneros, which supports her intention of welcoming a variety of readers into the cultural and literary experience that is “woman hollering creek.” extending beyond the literal words on the page which form this connection between spanish culture and english readers, cisneros’s opening line sets up the very barriers, linguistic and cultural, that are central to the plot of her story. cisneros’s newlyweds are moving from mexico to texas. while the characters are literally crossing borders, the layout of the words on the page also displays the border between spanish and english languages that cisneros was able to bridge with an em dash. cisneros’s literal and stylistic choice to present barriers showcases her implicit intention not to divide but to harmonize languages. when confronting potential cultural barriers in translated works with harmony in mind, there appears to be a “reconciliation” between languages as opposed to a form of domination in cisneros’s work. deciding to incorporate translation could be a type of double reward for both the monolingual and multilingual reader, which kingston and cisneros portray respectively in their texts. torres says that “much of the latino/a literature written in english in the us incorporates spanish at some level” which is exemplified in “woman hollering creek” (76). throughout “woman hollering creek,” cisneros identifies her culture by italicizing spanish words and then following them with an english translation, like when she notes the title of popular telenovela “tú o nadie. ‘you or no one’” (44). this display of language could cast cisneros’s culture as the “other,” as a cultural barrier itself. however, when looking at the translation above, instead cisneros is welcoming the reader into the cultural conversation with cleófilas and her neighbors by translating the title of the television show they watch. so, in that regard, cisneros’s culture is not at a deficit, instead she is acknowledging the barrier and providing a bridge. torres continues to say that in the united states, the presence of latinx immigrants grenier 93 is increasing, which suggests that the coexistence of languages in literature is also representative of “literary language actualizing the discourse of the border and bilingual/ bicultural communities” (76). inclusion does not promote exclusion. cisneros’s intentional inclusion of spanish into her text represents her culture and the culture of her characters without excluding the reader or “othering” her native language. torres says that frequently “these latinized texts tend to provide special pleasure to the bilingual reader; monolingual readers may not have complete access to the text and while they can often decipher the meaning from context, sometimes they must resort to a dictionary” (83). torres notes that a dictionary or a reference book may not help find the translation for which readers are searching, which only strengthens the cultural barrier that is present with translated works. however, cisneros writes in a way that is accessible to both monolingual and bilingual readers. the english translations after her spanish words and phrases are a stylistic strategy that dually supports the reader’s comprehension and combats the presented barrier. while most of the spanish words and phrases are translated, there are few that stand proud in italics absent of an english follower: “telenovela episode,” “...going to go to the farmacía and buy a hair rinse,” and “bad luck. mal aire” (cisneros 44; 51). these words and phrases are still definable by the monolingual reader through context clues, which makes for a more academically enriching reading experience. with that, the bilingual reader is doubly enriched because, while these words and phrases are defined, their familiarity serves as a point of personal relevance which allows the reader and the characters to not only see culture but see themselves in one another. cisneros’s co-existence of languages dismantles the presented cultural barrier by harmonizing cultures but also by welcoming and embracing the readers. this skillfully incorporated point of personal relevance for the bilingual reader is also seen through cisneros’s incorporation of the mexican myth, la llorona. cisneros writes, “the natives only knew the arroyo one crossed on the way to san antonio, and then once again on the way back, was called woman hollering, a name no one from these parts questioned, little less understood ...the townspeople shrugged because it was of no concern to their lives how this trickle of water received its curious name” (46). the monolingual readers of “woman hollering creek” are similar to the townspeople in this way. the inclusion of spanish and the premise of this cultural myth is not a concern to the comprehensibility of the story, but to a bilingual reader the story will now have a new layer of cultural depth. the monolingual reader, or reader who is unfamiliar with the myth, will gain general knowledge through cleófilas’s thought process: “is it la llorona the weeping woman? la llorona who drowned her own children. perhaps la llorona is the one they named the creek after, she thinks...” (cisneros 51). with cisneros’s skillful writing, “woman hollering creek” reveals a door for connection to its bilingual readers without excluding its grenier 94 monolingual readers, which supports a mutually enriching reading experience. maxine hong kingston establishes similar cultural realities to cisneros in “no name woman” through the personal curiosity of her first-generation chinese-american protagonist’s retelling of a family story. the “story to grow up on” is a devastating tale about how her aunt was humiliated and excluded from her own family and village due to her pregnancy outside of marriage. this rejection led her to commit suicide, killing herself and the newborn baby. the notion of storytelling and community are leading factors in kingston’s text. it is from this story that the protagonist “believed that sex was unspeakable and words so strong and fathers so frail that ‘aunt’ would do my father mysterious harm” (kingston 6). this maturing female is lead astray about the nature of sex; she correlates sex and her aunt with harm. her mother is trying to instill fear into her because she, like all women, has the potential to become pregnant. unplanned pregnancy is a risk of further humiliation for this family, as they warn their daughter, “don’t humiliate us” (kingston 6). the cultural connections within kingston’s preamble are evident due to the female, firstgeneration protagonist. these connections may have been lost if “no name woman” was not formatted this way. kingston’s way of transmitting culture offers a sense of mobility that has the ability to unify cultures. bolaki writes that while kingston “has been praised for extricating chinese myth ...through her translations...” she has also been “condemned for twisting and distorting the meaning of the original in order to please her white sisters” (42). the criticisms of kingston’s work may stem from the footnote, “transcription errors may remain,” which alludes to there being moments of the text not all will understand due to the cultural barrier translation creates. however, “no name woman” was originally written in english (kingston 7). so, these “transcription errors” are cultural, not linguistic. yes, ‘no name woman’ translated well, as bolaki suggests, but beyond accessibility, kingston was able to create a space for culture to reside in a prolific way. diverse literature presents the possibility of a cultural barrier to arise, but the intention of the authors like kingston to create such spaces of cultural translation could dismantle that barrier before it becomes invincible. the barrier of cultural transmission is prevalent in kingston’s “no name woman” due to her representing her own identity as a chinese-american woman. the story reveals how a chinese woman’s community harasses her to the point of suicide, a death the family does not mourn. instead, it is a death that allows for dismissal of the woman’s prior existence entirely in order to free the community of her wrongdoings. kingston writes, , “those of us in the first american generations have to figure out how the invisible world of the emigrants built around our childhoods fits in a solid america” (2). while the “us” in this quoteis grouping the character in the story to others who had to assimilate to american grenier 95 customs, the “us” can also extend beyond the text to represent kingston herself as a chinese woman in america. kingston’s syntax in her quote represents the barrier of culture. the dichotomy between “invisible” and “solid” presents a cultural barrier, while the verb “fits” evokes the possibility of harmony. bolaki notes that this remark appears early in kingston’s work, which requires the reader to quickly map out the invisible world from the solid world: “[the quotes] apparently rigid distinction between the “invisible” and the “solid,” which one quickly maps onto china and america respectively” (40). this polarity suggests a type of divide between cultures which bolaki says conveys “a sense of incommensurable, and thus untranslatable, differences” (40). kingston does not let the cultural barrier deter her protagonist and her readers from embracing the two cultures that characterize her adult life. by including the verb “fits” in “...how our childhood fits in solid america,” kingston authorizes a sense of possible appeasement. kingston is grappling with the sentiment of culture through her protagonist, who relates to the reader’s point of view because of her outsider status. kingston’s narrator, who closely resembles kingston herself, is transcending borders and disrupting cultural barriers by revealing newfound insights to her own personhood while trying to comprehend her aunt’s life story. kingston’s intentional stylistic choice with syntax disrupts barriers while transmitting culture to the reader. literature welcomes a conversation between the author and the reader, but is one required to do more? fagan reminds that there is an inherent mistrust with translation. with latinx literature, fagan says there are “interpretive possibilities by manipulating the role of spanish in english (and vice versa)” (59). translation poses as a barrier in itself due to the perils of translating culture. torres notes that in “woman hollering creek,” cisneros translates “la consentida” as “princess,” which is not a direct translation; the direct translation of that spanish phrase would be “the spoiled one” (torres 85). this particular translation shows priority to the monolingual reader’s comprehension as opposed to the understandability of the culture. fagan describes the translation of the author’s work and the access to readers as a type of “fight for control over linguistic identity” (59). translation allows for accessibility and a heightened range of readership, but that may expose the original text to a type of debt. however, is this debt to the original text or to the reader’s experience? while cisneros’s inclusion of spanish followed by an english translation does welcome the monolingual reader, torres says that with that translation strategy, readers “do not have to leave the comfortable realm of his/her own complacent monolingualism” (78). but shouldn’t readers be deemed skillful enough to resolve any difficulty in a text instead of the author spoon-feeding them? not necessarily, according to torres: “main--stream readers expect to gain access to other worlds, not be made aware of their limitations” (82). grenier 96 for kingston, she embraces the curiosity of other cultures through her chinese-american protagonist’s own personal conflict between hearing her family’s portrayal of her aunt and her own desire to retell her story: “my aunt haunts me –her ghost drawn to me because now, after fifty years of neglect, i alone devote pages of paper to her, though not origamied into houses and clothes” (kingston 7). both kingston and cisneros dismantle the cultural barriers presented by translation by actively wanting to welcome a variety of readers to their texts. in this sense, translation does present a cultural barrier, but one that is permeable by artistic intention. this permeation prompts the question of why might an author feel the need, or the want, to include a second language or transference of culture into their text? fagan mentions that while “opposing one language to the other suggests a clear-cut equivalency that potentially distracts readers from the complexities of existing between or among languages,” the inclusion of two languages, although with the intention of presenting the languages as equals, may create a barrier within itself (59). with two languages to view and digest, they could be a distraction as opposed to a helping hand. fagan continues to say, “but the glossary, when examined closely, can also work to unintentionally or even subversively highlight those linguistic complexities” which is what cisneros achieved (59). cisneros in “woman hollering creek,” confronted the potential linguistic barrier with harmony in mind. while mindful of the possible complications of coupling spanish and english in one story, cisneros mindfully and skillfully intertwined the two languages to produce a more realistic and significant story not only for readers but also for her own identity. the purpose of translation is to welcome, not to exclude, which is a sentiment kingston also represents. kingston presents transition in a cultural rather than linguistic sense, which results in a more assimilative translation (bolaki 44). with the culture of kingston’s story being rooted in a dominating, patriarchal society, translation in a similar sense can be a tool of domination. however, for kingston, she strategically decided to choose harmony. as bolaki notes, “... translation can be better described as a lost-and-found space” (55). keeping with that belief, for kingston, more was found than lost. kingston’s work may have been criticized for distorting the meaning of the original story, but the attempt to tell chinese stories in an american context welcomes more readers to the literary conversation (bolaki 39; 42). both authors wanted to include translation into their texts, into their stories, to welcome a wider audience to experience their culture. translation gives texts mobility, but also a sense of evolution. instead of forming a barrier, translation demands flexibility. the inclusion of culture and native languages within a text alongside the overarching english-american frame could either exist comfortablyor uncomfortably depending on the author’s stylistic intentions. for kingston and cisneros grenier 97 alike, both authors achieved a balance of culture that harmonized language and disrupted the distinct culture barrier by embracing their native culture while simultaneously welcoming the monolingual reader. when confronted with a border, kingston and cisneros created a bridge. as bolaki said in response to “no name woman” translating well, “i propose another phrase ...one that articulates, in its very assertion, the promise and perils of translation: ‘something gives.’” this “gives” could denote one text being at an expense from another, but when concerning cisneros and kingston, this “gives” is more in association with that of a gift. translation gives culture a widely accessible expression. these authors were able to transmute the presented barrier into a border that fostered newfound understanding for the readers while remaining truthful to the author’s moments of culture. grenier 98 works cited cisneros, sandra. “woman hollering creek.” woman hollering creek and other stories, new york: vintage books, 1992, pp. 44-56. bolaki, stella. “’it translated well’: the promise and the perils of translation in maxine hong kingston’s the woman warrior.” melus, vol. 34, no. 4, winter 2009, pp. 3960. gale literature resource center, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/a214711140/litrc?u=munc80314&sid=summon&xid=34a040e9. fagan, allison. “translating in the margins: attending to glossaries in latina/o literature.” journal of modern literature, vol. 39, no. 3, spring 2016, pp. 57-75. gale literature resource center, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/a458680420/litrc?u=munc80314&sid=summon&xid=58e5357f . kingston, maxine hong. “no name woman.” the woman warrior: memoirs of a girhood among ghosts. new york vintage books, 1989. accessed as pdf file. torres, lourdes. “in the contact zone: code-switching strategies by latino/a writers.” melus, vol. 32, no. 1, spring 2007, pp. 75+. gale literature resource center, https:// link.gale.com/apps/doc/a164423122/litrc?u=munc80314&sid=summon&xid=ddfaf7e1. wang, jennie. “the myth of kingston’s ‘no name woman’: making contextual and intertextual connections in teaching asian american literature.” the johns hopkins university press, vol. 59, no. 1, 1996, pp. 21-32. jstor, https://www.jstor.org/stable/ pdf/44378291.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3a766b317cab91f690007ce93c5abb3017. grenier 99 ellis 15 stranger danger: the imperialist tendencies of peacemakers riley ellis, ball state university sara nović’s sara nović’s girl at wargirl at war, a realist novel , a realist novel concerned with ana jurić’s journey concerned with ana jurić’s journey through the yugoslavian civil war, and through the yugoslavian civil war, and mohsin hamid’s mohsin hamid’s exit westexit west, a magical , a magical realist novel detailing the lives of nadia realist novel detailing the lives of nadia and saeed during a civil war, are two and saeed during a civil war, are two different takes on one’s life within a different takes on one’s life within a warzone. while nović explores identities warzone. while nović explores identities and borders within the history of the and borders within the history of the former yugoslavia, hamid brings modern former yugoslavia, hamid brings modern issues including violence, surveillance, issues including violence, surveillance, and borders into a hypothetical world. and borders into a hypothetical world. nović and hamid highlight hypocrisies nović and hamid highlight hypocrisies within peace organizations, as well within peace organizations, as well as a lack of accountability for abuses as a lack of accountability for abuses committed against citizens living within committed against citizens living within warzones. rather than alleviating warzones. rather than alleviating devastation within areas in conflict, devastation within areas in conflict, peace organizations appear to add to the peace organizations appear to add to the violence. with an established exploration violence. with an established exploration of the globalization present in hamid’s of the globalization present in hamid’s exit westexit west and nationalism present in and nationalism present in nović’s nović’s girl at wargirl at war, we can expand and , we can expand and investigate the portrayal of third-investigate the portrayal of thirdparty peace organizations, such as the party peace organizations, such as the united nations, independent agents, united nations, independent agents, and others. while observing these and others. while observing these organizations’ tactics concerning the organizations’ tactics concerning the guarding of borders and their supposedly guarding of borders and their supposedly protective measures within countries, protective measures within countries, one can examine them as bodies that one can examine them as bodies that self-govern, gatekeep safety, and bypass self-govern, gatekeep safety, and bypass borders, all of which are distinguishing borders, all of which are distinguishing characteristics of imperialist tendencies characteristics of imperialist tendencies vis-à-vis the control and authority they vis-à-vis the control and authority they have exerted within foreign states.have exerted within foreign states. peace-building organizations are recognized as good, pure, benevolent saviors that travel around the world to help those in need. a negative concept such as imperialism would not ordinarily be associated with a peace-building organization like the united nations, but the conversation has begun to change as more accusations of un human rights abuses come to light. most recently, an independent panel reported “83 allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse” associated with the who’s presence in the democratic republic of the congo due to the 2018 to 2020 ebola outbreak (westendorf). the abuses occurring within the congo are not the first associated with un organizations. since about 2000, many un peacekeeping operations have been discovered to have “sexually abused and exploited local women and children” (westendorf). such organizations have been “structurally unable and arguably unwilling to effectively prevent or punish sexual exploitation and abuse by its personnel,” as seen in the congo where there were no official reports or investigations filed before the media caught wind of the abuse (westendorf). the actions of the u.n. personnel prompt questions regarding its ability to make or keep peace across borders around the world. how can such violent actions cultivate a peaceful environment, most especially given the apparent lack of accountability within the organization? how can a disordered organization halt chaos within another territory? both sara nović’s girl at war, a realist novel, and mohsin hamid’s exit west, a magical realist novel, depict the impact of war, border crossings, and peacekeeping organizations on individuals living within tumultuous territories. in girl at war, nović establishes a loss of faith between war-impacted individuals and international peace organizations, most specifically the un, by portraying abuses committed by peacekeepers and growing frustrations directed at said organizations by the public. furthermore, hamid illustrates the effects of a peacekeeping organization’s temporary assistance and how such temporary measures lead to distrust, exploitation, and violence. while the conversation about un misconduct is only just beginning, nović and hamid’s novels represent the foreboding undertones of imperialist behavior by highlighting peace organizations’ abuse of power and authority at border crossings between and within war-torn countries. to analyze the united nations and other peacekeeping bodies as having imperialist tendencies, i will primarily use marxist sociologist isaac christiansen’s definition of imperialism in the twenty-first century. christiansen determines that imperialism acts “as a nationalistic geopolitical expression of capital” where core countries reallocate “land, labor, and resources necessary to produce commodities,” therein “[subjugating] the interests of peripheral client states” (338). in a modern sense, imperialism solely requires the elimination of a nation’s authority over its natural and human resources through the establishment of a foreign power within the territory. regarding this definition, the united nations and other peacekeeping organizations will operate as foreign powers that displace the authority of the peripheral states. furthermore, the united nations’ goal will be understood as “the maintenance of international peace and security,” which the organization accomplishes through conflict prevention and mediation (“maintain international peace”). regarding ellis 16 girl at war and exit west, the behavior at the center of this discussion will be the attempts, or lack thereof, of peacemakers to curate an environment for sustainable peace as both nović and hamid examine implications of different abuses that occur at the hands of peacekeepers. nović first introduces the united nations and challenges the organization’s fulfillment of its intended goals when the main character, ana jurić, presents her story in front of un delegates. upon walking up to the un buildings, ana notes that “over the years [she had] lost faith in the un” seeing as how “their interventions, in [her] country and across the globe, were tepid at best” (nović 96). while nović establishes that ana previously had faith in the un, the organization’s lack of substantial action ruined any such beliefs. ana continues her reflection by “imagin[ing] the delegates ...discussing the body count of [her] parents and friends and determining that yes, something would have to be done to keep up appearances, but that it would be best to stay out of such a messy conflict” (nović 98). ana’s narrative asserts that the un does not intervene in conflicts to help civilians, but rather “to keep up appearances.” despite the un’s intended purpose of helping parties in conflict make peace, the organization would prefer to refrain from engaging in real conflict. through ana’s interactions with un delegates, nović establishes the un as a controversial organization and begins a discussion concerning the continuity between peace organizations’ intentions and their behaviors. similarly, the un and other peace organizations’ lack of action against china regarding the ongoing genocide of uyghur muslims is illustrative of such critical descriptions. in march 2021, the united nations acknowledged the allegation that, in china, abusive working and living conditions were forcefully inflicted upon uyghur muslims (“rights experts concerned”). however, instead of taking any direct action, the organization responded solely by “respectfully urg[ing] the government [of china] to immediately cease any such measures that are not fully compliant with international law, norms, and standards relating to human rights” (“rights experts concerned”). even with an increased number of humanitarian experts begging for china’s government to be held accountable for their human rights violations, there is a lack of real interference within china (richardson). the un’s consistent calls for the government of china to act and begin investigations are nothing more than empty actions meant “to keep up appearances,” as nović dictates (98). because the un considers china a permanent member, china can use its authority to undermine the intentions of the un and maintain its reputation in the international system (“current members”). while the un has yet to intervene in china, nović and the world’s ever-present understanding that it could illustrates that a peace organization’s power extends beyond physical borders. ellis 17 after introducing the united nations, nović develops a disconnect between the organization’s intentions and its employees’ behavior. when ana gives her presentation at the un, she determines that “the un delegates ...would be thirsty for gore” (nović 100). nović contrasts ana’s conclusions concerning the un’s desire to avoid messy conflict with the affirmation that the delegates “would be thirsty for gore.” kapka kassabova of the guardian describes nović’s un workers as “criminally well-meaning” in that there is a great divide between their inaction and their potentially good intentions. at this moment, nović appears to establish a border between the un as an international peace organization and its employees. this border signifies that, even with peace-driven intentions, their actions do not follow these aims, which leaves the opportunity for human rights violations and power imbalances that resemble imperial outreach. nović’s observations are congruent with the number of abuses committed by individual un employees outside of organizational direction. as of march 2017, an associated press investigation found roughly “2,000 allegations of sexual abuse or exploitation” against un peacekeepers and staff (daigle and dodds). despite finding employment at an organization dedicated to maintaining peace around the world, un employees appear to lack the desire, dedication, and wellbeing necessary for such a meaningful and challenging initiative as the un’s. moreover, this contrast between violence and ambivalence is further emphasized when ana spots two boys in the room, thus prompting her to wonder whether sharon, the un peacekeeper who worked with ana, “had recruited them, too, or if they were someone else’s project” (nović 101). nović’s use of the word “project” dehumanizes not only the presenters but their experiences as well. un peacekeepers do not see ana or the boys as people that went through incredibly traumatic experiences, but rather as mascots meant to uplift their pitches for humanitarian committees. the dehumanization of civilians living through war, seen through abuse and belittling rhetoric, minimizes the importance of both the civilians and their histories while creating an environment in which the peace organization can place its will above others involved. peace organizations, as depicted by nović, can be understood to “subjugat[e] the interests of peripheral client states,” not necessarily through the literal extermination of the conflicting country’s human resources, but rather through deprivation of human qualities and respect for the country’s human resources (christiansen 338). the bureaucratic detachment nović describes is not unique to the un’s peacekeeping efforts, as reports of un bureaucratic struggles have emerged for years. in march of 2016, “a former president of the general assembly was charged by the us attorney for the southern district of new york with tax evasion after corruptly receiving $1.3 million in bribes” (baumann 462). furthermore, the un interim administration mission in kosovo ellis 18 was recognized as failing to “comply with applicable human rights standards in response to the adverse health condition caused by lead contamination of the [internally displaced persons] camps” (baumann 462). what is significant about these investigations, along with many others concerning un malpractice, is that they were initiated by the secretary-general and other internal agencies associated with the un (baumann 462). the sole presence of internal handling creates a lack of external accountability and enforcement, which can lead to a lack of genuine accountability. in response to the negative reports of the un’s work culture and bureaucracy, the un posted a blog that launched a bottom-up procedure for culture changes within the un (javan). the current chief secretary-general antonio guterres aims to focus on the mission rather than the bureaucracy while also “vow[ing] to boost the un’s culture of accountability” (javan). however, many argue that, because “organizations are led from the top,” if the un truly wants to change and become more efficient and accountable, “it must be from the top” (bannock and kweifio-okai; baumann 469). the lack of responsibility for real change by united nations executives means that the organization itself may not be truly committed to change, thus leaving room for the bureaucratic errors that cultivate an environment tolerant of abuse. in addition to the un’s bureaucratic struggles, the structures for holding peacekeeping operations accountable have failed in several ways. not only have un peacekeepers been found guilty of sexual abuse, exploitation, and spreading diseases but they have also been found guilty of “inaction in the face of genocide” and other crimes against humanity that have led many to demand increased accountability regarding peacekeeping mandates (bosco; di razza 1-2). today, the lack of clear and concrete regulations and procedures has led to many failures to protect citizens within conflicting regions (bosco; cooper; di razza 2-10). the internal procedures for accountability currently rely on the un charter, performance management, ethical standards, and several other documents (di razza 3). furthermore, the legal accountability of un staff is limited because of the immunity privileges of the un (di razza 6-8). while the immunity can be lifted, there are still additional difficulties in the prosecution process because of “limited evidence, limited access to victims, and variations in criminal codes and legal interpretations and approaches from country to country” (di razza 7). a lack of clear direction, legal accountability, and internal and external transparency has cultivated a space where varying performances of peacekeepers are passable within the un (bosco; di razza 1-13). the un’s bureaucratic struggles concerning direction and legal responsibility perpetuate peacekeepers’ negligence and abuse provided by the lack of structural accountability. in contrast to nović’s bolder introduction of the peacekeepers, mohsin hamid introduces the independent agents in exit west through whispers across main characters ellis 19 nadia and saeed’s home. hamid uses a subtle and uncertain introduction, therein establishing a trepidatious relationship between the agents, characters, and the audience. as the civil war in nadia and saeed’s home begins to progress, “rumors began to circulate of doors that could take you elsewhere” and “some people claimed to know people who knew people who had been through such doors” (hamid 72). with the increasing reports of violence, these rumors began to fester within nadia and saeed’s minds, leading them to seek out the agents who operate the doors that allow for relatively safe border crossings. when nadia and saeed first meet their agent, “[t]hey did not hear the agent approaching,” and were even unsure of whether or not “he had been there all along” (hamid 89). in their efforts to understand whom they were working with, the pair determined that the agent’s demeanor reminded them of either “a poet or a psychopath” (hamid 89). however, any understanding of kindness or assurance of decency that one may find with “a poet” is disavowed when the agent refused to elaborate on instructions, given that they “[were] not a request” (hamid 89). at this moment, nadia and saeed lose any inkling of control within their interactions with the agent. because of their desperation to find safety amidst the civil war, the agent becomes aware that the pair is willing to do anything. with this understanding between the three characters, there is a blatant power imbalance that leaves nadia and saeed at the agent’s will. this power imbalance stems from a similar dehumanization that nović depicts within ana’s experience of being labeled as a project by un delegates. both authors use dehumanization to illustrate that peace organizations create metaphysical borders based on authority to separate themselves from those whom they are helping. hamid’s description of the power imbalance between the agent and nadia and saeed, created through the possession and disposition of goods and means, reflects realworld transactional relationships between peacekeepers and civilians. in a report published by the un office of internal oversight services, in the period between 2008 and 2013, about 480 instances of un peacekeepers sexually abusing haitian and liberian women and children in exchange for resources were reported (“un peacekeepers”). the report further dictates that these transactional abuses are not new to peacekeeping but are rather common (chandler; “un peacekeepers”). un peacekeepers can—and do—withhold resources with an understanding that the desperate, hungry, and poor civilians they are meant to serve are willing to do anything to better their situations. as dean spade and craig willse, associate professors at seattle university and george mason university respectively, discuss in their article concerning “sex, gender, and war in an age of multicultural imperialism,” imperialism uses “sexual, gender, and family norms as technologies of intervention and violence” (7). by manipulating and surpassing cultural norms concerning sex and gender, both peacekeepers and hamid’s agents create an uncertain environment in which they have ellis 20 power while the civilians are kept guessing and submissive. nadia and saeed are not familiar with the agents or their intentions, thus making them vulnerable to unpredictable behavior (hamid 90). these vulnerabilities provide the agents the opportunity to exploit and harass the pair. the agents do not commit sexual violence in the same way the un peacekeepers did against haitian and liberian civilians, but they do challenge gender and family norms by demanding nadia remove her headscarf while nearly engaging in physical contact (hamid 89). within hamid’s depiction of nadia and saeed’s interactions with the agents, he reflects imperial behavior through the use and abuse of sex and gender by peacekeeping organizations. by blatantly crossing the metaphysical border of a region’s cultural norms, the peacekeepers illustrate their chauvinism and imperialist power by placing their organization above the authority and values of the peripheral state. sara nović further describes how physical resources are used by peacekeeping organizations to subjugate the citizens living within territories in conflict. while recollecting the un’s interactions with civilians and serbian nationalist fighters, ana describes a lack of peacekeepers’ presence and how the serbian soldiers “stole the aid meant for civilians,” concluding that “[i]f you drop the food and leave, you’re just feeding your enemy” (nović 104). while the un and other peacekeeping organizations cannot be everywhere at once, there were nearby areas that had surplus amounts of peacekeepers (nović 274). since there were other locations with far higher concentrations of people, one can understand that there were enough peacekeepers to have some in ana’s village. furthermore, while no one in the village had seen any peacekeepers, there was a certain un presence within the community illustrated through the armored trucks that delivered aid (nović 225). ana also explains how the serbian soldiers would not kill all the villagers to ensure the continuation of un and nato food deliveries (nović 224). in one understanding of imperialism, robert biel describes the imperial tactic where the oppressed are used “as agents in their own oppression,” which can be seen with the soldiers’ control over the other villagers through the food supply (86). by “drop[ping] the food and leav[ing],” the un allowed the villagers to be victims of further oppression, thus increasing the civilians’ vulnerability and dependence on un aid (nović 104). by furthering the villagers’ oppression, the un creates a larger border between the civilians and the outside world, for there are fewer opportunities to escape or find more advantageous circumstances. physical resources as aid are critical in conflicting zones where citizens may struggle to find their next meal, but they can cause harm long term. while speaking about the un world food program, wfp, deepmala mahla who works with mercy corps and wfp has discussed how food drops are “only an immediate rather than long-term answer” that pose the danger of falling “perpetually into a cycle of more and more relief ” (cole). without ellis 21 prolonged assistance that serves as a supplement for food programs and other aid to lead countries to be self-supporting, conflicting countries become dependent on the un for survival. the countries are forced into subordinate positions in which they are subjected to the authority of the un, and if the countries do not abide by the un’s authority, then they risk losing their established assistance, and therein their survival as a country. hamid further explores the role of peacekeepers in relation to goods through the lens of monetary resources and the elitist position of peacekeepers standing guard at the doors. rather than physical goods, the peacekeepers within exit west control opportunities and circumstances by blocking doors, or physical borders, that lead to desirable places (hamid 115). the agent’s gatekeeping leads many to fear the moment when “hunger force[s] them back through one of the doors that led to undesirable places” (hamid 115). as more people traveled to an area, the camps became more expensive, meaning that, without enough money to pay off guards, many lost their access to shelter and other physical resources. with a lack of resources, people also lost the ability to find newer, better opportunities, which only served to enforce a cyclical pattern of less-than-optimal circumstances (hamid 118). christiansen engages with this devastating cyclical pattern by detailing how imperialism “shift[s] ...wealth and resources upward” by using redistributive mechanisms that benefit the wealthy (341-342). with christiansen’s understanding of the relation between imperialist powers and the flow of resources, hamid’s depiction of peacekeepers’ efforts to gatekeep opportunity is indicative of imperial behaviors. peacekeepers shift money and opportunities to populations that are already wealthy, therein making the general population dependent on any and every resource provided to them as aid. while there are no portals for the un to block like hamid’s peacekeepers, newfound opportunities and discussions are often stunted by the un’s permanent occupation, even when many developing nations support the efforts. for example, as recently as march 2021, “richer members of the world trade organization,” an agency of the un, “block[ed] a push by over 80 developing countries ...to waive patent rights in an effort to boost production of covid-19 vaccines for poor nations” (“rich, developing nations”). these wealthy countries used their position, power, and wealth to ensure the prioritization of capital within their own industries. rather than supporting an initiative that held the backing of many un member countries and had the potential to benefit the globe, the permanent countries acted solely out of their own self-interest. in this instance, the un participates in christiansen’s idea of imperialism being “conceived of as a nationalistic geopolitical expression of capital ...by which capital from core countries appropriates the ...resources necessary to produce commodities and subjugates the interests of peripheral client states to those of capitalist in the metropolis,” or those of the imperial power (338). the un acted ellis 22 as an outlet for powerful core countries to withhold the information needed to produce the vaccines, which therein suppressed the interests of the peripheral states. hamid’s portrayal of peacekeepers and their manner of controlling circumstances reflects how the un has blocked opportunities and therein suppressed foreign interests as a way to exert imperial-like power. nović and hamid’s depictions of peacekeeping organizations in their respective novels, girl at war and exit west, illustrate the imperialist tendencies of peacekeeping organizations through corruption and abuse. while traditionally one may think of a singular nation, large in size and population, in relation to imperialism, it is significant to understand that an imperial power “is defined solely by its cultural diversity and flexible borders,” as noted by yuval noah harari in his book sapiens: a brief history of humankind (190). nović and hamid’s depiction of guarded borders, lack of aid, lack of accountability, dehumanization, power imbalances, manufactured dependence, and more reflect real-life events and atrocities and are illustrative of imperialist tendencies within peacekeeping organizations. at their core, these actions stem from a body, or core country, displacing the interests of another for their own through the means of “land, labor, and resources” (christiansen 338). these peacekeeping organizations, as depicted by nović and hamid, use physical and metaphysical borders to exert control over various populations through the containment and oppression of entrances and exits, opportunities, resources, and cultural norms. these controlling efforts displace the authority and will of “peripheral client states,” while simultaneously violating the very nature of what a peacekeeping organization is meant to be. through the understanding that even a well-known, highly respected peace organization can become an abuser, perhaps other large, powerful organizations within different pieces of literature can be examined for abusive behavior. literature is an accessible resource that has extensive outreach to the public, meaning that authors can expose wrongdoings throughout the world and everyday life and educate the public in an intimate and expansive manner. ellis 23 works cited bannock, caroline, and carla kweifio-okai. “‘not perfect, but it is effective’: un from the point of view of its staff.” the guardian, 21 september 2015. https://www. theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/21/not-perfect-but-it-is-effective-un-from-thepoint-of-view-of-its-staff. baumann, franz. “united nations management—an oxymoron?” global governance, vol. 22, no. 4, 2016, pp. 461-472. jstor, https://www.jstor.org/stable/44861195. biel, robert. “food, imperialism and dependency.” sustainable food systems: the role of the city, ucl press, 2016, pp. 74-89. jstor, https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1j1vzc5.13. bosco, laura. “prioritizing un peacekeeper accountability.” international peace institute global observatory, 9 january 2017. https://theglobalobservatory.org/2017/01/unitednations-peacekeeping-sexual-abuse-guterres/. chandler, adam. “a humanitarian mission becomes a disaster.” the atlantic, 11 june 2015. https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/06/un-peacekeepingtransactional-sex-haiti/395654/. christiansen, isaac. “linkages between economic and military imperialism.” world review of political economy, vol. 11, no. 3, 2020, pp. 337-56. pluto journals, https://doi. org/10.13169/worlrevipoliecon.11.3.0337. cole, diane. “nobody wants to drop food from a plane. but it’s happening.” npr, 24 march 2017. https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2017/03/24/520547986/ nobody-wants-to-drop-food-from-a-plane-but-its-happening. cooper, clarke. “improving accountability and performance of united nations peacekeeping.” u.s. department of state, 24 december 2019. https://2017-2021.state. gov/improving-accountability-and-performance-of-united-nations-peacekeeping-2/ index.html. “current members.” united nations, 2022. https://www.un.org/securitycouncil/content/ current-members. daigle, katy and paisley dodds. “un peacekeepers: how a haiti child sex ring was whitewashed.” ap news, 27 may 2017. https://apnews.com/article/ap-top-newsinternational-news-colombo-haiti-sri-lanka-a41a3d23872d4e1d976663e2338f8e4d. di razza, namie. “the accountability system for the protection of civilians in un peacekeeping.” international peace institute, december 2020. https://www.ipinst.org/ ellis 24 wp-content/uploads/2020/12/poc-accountability-system-final.pdf. hamid, mohsin. exit west. penguin random house, 2017. javan, jafar. “changing the organizational culture of the un: a bottom up approach matters!” united nations system staff college, 27 april 2017. https://www.unssc.org/ news-and-insights/blog/changing-organizational-culture-un-bottom-approachmatters/. harari, yuval noah. sapiens: a brief history of humankind. harpercollins publishers, 2015. kassabova, kapka. “girl at war by sara nović review – when childhood lurches into nightmare.” the guardian, 11 june 2015, https://www.theguardian.com/ books/2015/jun/11/girl-at-war-sara-novic-review. “maintain international peace and security.” united nations, 2022. https://www.un.org/en/ our-work/maintain-international-peace-and-security. nović, sara. girl at war. penguin random house, 2015. “rich, developing nations wrangle over covid vaccine patents.” reuters, 10 march 2021. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-wto/rich-developingnations-wrangle-over-covid-vaccine-patents-iduskbn2b21v9. richardson, sophie. “un rights chief to report on china’s abuses in xinjiang.” human rights watch, 15 september 2021. https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/09/15/un-rightschief-report-chinas-abuses-xinjiang. “rights experts concerned about alleged detention, forced labour of uyghurs in china.” united nations, 29 march 2021. https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/03/1088612. spade, dean and craig willse. “sex, gender, and war in an age of multicultural imperialism.” qed: a journal in glbtq worldmaking, vol. 1, 2014, p. 5-29. project muse. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/537876. “un peacekeepers ‘barter goods for sex.’” bbc, 11 june 2015. https://www.bbc.com/ news/world-33089662. westendorf, jasmine. “who workers are accused of sexual exploitation and abuse. that hurts everything the u.n. does.” the washington post, 5 october 2021. https:// www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/10/05/who-workers-are-accused-sexualexploitation-abuse-that-hurts-everything-un-does/. ellis 25 lacertilia. — fiderhlen. by ernst haeckel, 1940. public domain. multispecies encounters anthropomorphism unveiled: a case analysis of isle of dogs and its role in mediating multispecies narratives eden hathaway • • • • this essay explores wes anderson’s isle of dogs through the lens of anthropomorphism and multispecies theory, examining how the film captures the complexities of human-animal relationships and the interconnectedness of all beings. anderson’s distinctive filmmaking style, characterized by vibrant visuals and intricate narratives, serves as a backdrop for the exploration of themes such as empathy, collaboration, and the blurring of boundaries between human and non-human worlds. drawing upon donna haraway’s ideas in when species meet and academic film reviews, the essay analyzes key scenes and characters to uncover the profound insights offered by isle of dogs regarding the nature of interspecies communication and the transformative power of companionship. ultimately, the film challenges viewers to rethink their perspectives on the world around them and embrace a more inclusive understanding of multispecies interactions. ©2024 hathaway. the digital literature review, 11, 12-23. doi: 10.33043/y9y6a9wdz. shared with cc by-nc-nd 4.0 liscense. 13 wes anderson is a renowned filmmaker recognized for his distinctive style—featuring vibrant colors, notable soundtracks, intricate costume designs, and consistent font usage—and narrative techniques that offer valuable artistic insights into humanity and the world around us. his films, which often focus on themes such as love, capitalism, and over-consumerism utilize postmodern styles to evoke feelings of nostalgia and hope within their viewers (szemetová 5–6). among anderson’s repertoire is his 2018 stop-motion animated film isle of dogs. the film transports viewers to the realm of trash island, where the canine inhabitants’ journeys mirror human challenges of forging connections, navigating loyalty, and confronting environmental decay. this practice of attributing human or personal characteristics to non-humans, called anthropomorphism, plays a pivotal role in storytelling. it acts as a bridge between the familiar and the bizarre, allowing viewers to suspend their disbelief to a degree that allows them to confront difficult dynamics within the human narrative more empathetically. in isle of dogs, the canine characters are given human-like qualities, transforming them into relatable figures and allowing audiences to emotionally invest in their struggles and triumphs. they each have names, distinct accessories that match their individual personalities, dynamic relationships, and the ability to communicate with one another—and with the audience, which is important for later discussions. these attributes help the audience make inferences about what the characters are going through, which should, in turn, allow viewers to empathize with the characters by relating the experience to emotions they have felt in similar situations (harrison and hall 34). anderson’s use of dogs was an especially strategic decision for the anthropomorphizing of this narrative because studies show humans are already confident in their ability to communicate and understand feelings among dogs, compared to a list of other animals (harrison and hall 3740). despite the benefits of using anthropomorphism in regard to the narrative, there are limits to the strategy, relating to its morality and effectiveness in media. while it undoubtedly serves as a valuable narrative tool, at what point does the use of anthropomorphism hinder our ability to connect hathaway 14 with the animals and cultures represented in the media outside of the context of the film? in when species meet, donna haraway delves into the complex relationships between humans and animals, challenging traditional notions of species boundaries and emphasizing the interconnectedness of all beings. haraway’s ideas resonate deeply with the anthropomorphic portrayal of canine characters in wes anderson’s isle of dogs. haraway’s emphasis on interspecies communication and collaboration underscores the importance of understanding and respecting the perspectives of non-human entities—a theme echoed in isle of dogs as the characters work together to navigate their shared challenges. by drawing upon haraway’s ideas and various academic film reviews, this analysis aims to explore how the anthropomorphism in isle of dogs serves not only as a narrative device but also as a reflection of broader inquiries into the nature of interspecies relationships and the blurring of boundaries between human and non-human worlds. to review, isle of dogs is set in a dystopian near-future japan where dogs have been quarantined on trash island due to an outbreak of a canine flu called snout fever. when a young boy named atari kobayashi, or the little pilot, crashes on the island to find his lost dog spots, a group of five alpha dogs—named chief, boss, duke, king, and rex—aid him on his quest. the story revolves around their journey, and the narrative is driven by their interactions with each other, the island, and the human characters. the first interaction we see among the characters of the film is a political gathering, or “a special midnight session at the municipal dome,” where kenji (mayor) kobayashi addresses the canine flu to a large crowd of japanese citizens (isle of dogs 00:03:45). the first observation a viewer can make is that the humans in the film are speaking japanese, yet there are no subtitles provided. rather, viewers rely on interpreter characters and machines to explain and emphasize important information in english. for instance, after mayor kobayashi calls for a hasty and crowd-pleasing quarantine, an electronic display board translates what appears to be mayor kobayashi’s exact words: “our legal-system provides for: dissenting opinion.” this is where the minority opposition, scientists exploring a hathaway 15 cure for snout fever, has a chance to advocate for the dogs. the scientists seem confident they will be able to find a cure, so they are pleading with the crowd to be patient and ask themselves, “what ever happened to man’s best friend?” this line is intended to evoke feelings of nostalgia, which, as previously mentioned, anderson commonly focuses on in his films. still, the crowd responds by cheering with displeasure and throwing things at the scientists on stage. the interpreter contextualizes this visual response by announcing, “the crowd is calling for the immediate ratification and approval of the mayor’s proposal.” this implementation of limited english and communication from the human characters is intended to decenter the humans from this narrative. the audience is meant to focus on the ways in which the dogs are shaped by the world around them. thus, the only information we need to know about the humans is that this crowd supported their exile, but there are still a few humans who trust in the bonds of their human-animal relationships. aside from this observation about anderson’s use of language in the film, this scene also lays the foundation for all future interactions between the characters, as well as their interactions with the surrounding environment. mayor kobayashi’s anger and the crowd’s overwhelming support of his decree show viewers the crowd’s general disdain for the dogs. on the contrary, the scientists, as well as their supporters [1], showcase the side of this community that still cares for these animals. this shows viewers that the beliefs that lead to the dogs’ excommunication are not unanimous among humans, and there will likely be advocates appearing later in the film. while most of the animals in isle of dogs exhibit a degree of human traits, it is important to note that the deepest emotions associated with human beings are projected onto our five leading canines and the companions they connect with on their journey. after the first dog is transported to the island, the film cuts to six months later, after all of the inhabitants have arrived and grown accustomed to their new home. after a bag of garbage is dropped on the island, a pack of five nearly identical dogs show up to investigate (isle of dogs 00:09:35–00:13:30). they gather close tohathaway 16 gether behind the bag before looking up at the main pack, and the camera cuts to a long symmetrical shot of five dogs standing a few paces from one another. our leads rex, duke, king, boss, and chief are introduced using single medium shots of each member in that order. this is how they are established as a pack yet noted to be individual beings with alpha-like personalities. in the single shots, viewers see the dogs’ names on their collars—aside from chief, who doesn’t wear a collar. after the packs are introduced and the exigency, the trash, is presented, the packs move toward the trash slowly yet ferociously. once they meet face to face directly in front of the trash, rex interrupts the face-off to present the option of opening the bag first to see if it is worth fighting for. they all agree, open the bag, and are met with rotting fruit and meatless bones. while it looks like an unsavory meal, the animals quickly decide it is worth it and jump into a chaotic ramble that ends with chief biting the ear off of the rival pack’s leader igor. his yelp concludes the fight, leaving rex, duke, king, boss, and chief with their prize. in this short interaction, the rivaling packs, the trash, and even the humans “become with” (haraway 4) each other in tight-knit packs in order to survive, which is an unfortunate contradiction to their need to fight other packs in order to do so. additionally, they once “became with” human beings, but that connection is not entirely severed here on the island, as the dogs’ dependence on human-generated waste reflects the ways in which human activities shape the ecology of the island and influence the behaviors of its inhabitants. these aspects of the film resonate with haraway’s exploration of the entanglements between humans, animals, and their shared environments, emphasizing the ways “in which diverse bodies and meanings coshape one another” (haraway 4). after the alpha pack’s chaotic scramble with igor’s pack of pedigree dogs, rex interrupts their relaxing mealtime to say, “i don’t think i can stomach any more of this garbage,” initiating a discussion about their old lives. this dialogue scene serves as a crucial moment of reflection and introspection for the pack. rex, once accustomed to the warmth and comfort of indoor living, is now on the cold and desolate trash island, longing for hathaway 17 the security and care provided by his human owners. king, once the star in dog food commercials, bears the disheveled appearance of neglect, a stark contrast to his former glamorous life. boss, formerly a spirited mascot for a baseball team, now lacks his former spirit, crushed by the harsh realities of life on the island. duke, desiring nothing more than basic care and attention, grieves the absence of the comforts and routines he once took for granted. as the conversation progresses, rex admits fearfully, “i want my master” (00:12:30). this underscores a deep emotional bond between humans and their canine companions. however, chief, who embodies resilience and survival instincts, intervenes to scold his companions for their lack of resilience as alphas, urging them to persevere. at the end of his speech, chief insults the pack by referring to them as “pets.” rex begins to retort with the clear intention of calling him a harsher term, and chief finishes his sentence, confidently claiming his identity as “a stray.” this scene provides a rich exploration of multispecies encounters as well. through their reminiscence of past lives as pets and their current struggles on trash island, the dogs embody the complexities of human-animal relationships and the intertwined histories that shape them. haraway’s premise that touch shapes accountability is evident in the dogs’ interactions with each other and their environment, reflecting their shared experiences and responsibilities. rex, king, boss, and duke were each touched by their masters with various expressions of love and care, which shaped who they are today on the island. conversely, it is later revealed that chief has not experienced this kind of love from humans, so he finds a deeper connection with the island, where he can express his resilience. these histories drive their journey and the narrative throughout the film. additionally, the use of anthropomorphism serves to enhance these and future messages about multispecies encounters. by portraying the dogs with human-like emotions about their past lives, viewers are invited to consider the complex bonds that exist between humans and animals from an empathetic perspective. while in real life, dogs do not have the cognitive abilities required to reflect upon change and relationships, those relationships still exist. the film just paints it in a way that human viewers can personalhathaway 18 ly connect with. atari kobayashi arrives on the island at 00:14:41 after the animals discuss their situation and witness his plane crash in the distance. they watch from a distance as he gets out of the plane and collapses on the ground, taking a vote on whether they should eat him or rescue him. deciding to help, they embark on a journey with the little pilot to find his lost dog spots. in the midst of this, viewers are shown a scene from three years prior, when the little pilot and spots are first introduced. after his parents were in a fatal train accident and his uncle adopted him as a ward of the mayoral household, atari is gifted with spots as a highly trained guard dog. they are told that spots is not a pet and should not be treated as one, but their connection as companions is clear from the beginning. they each receive a communication apparatus that is attached to their ears, and as atari mumbles into the device, spots begins to tear up repeatedly saying, “i can hear you.” throughout the film, as they search for spots, atari’s presence builds on what we know of each dog’s relationship with humans. this flashback to atari’s past emphasizes the deep emotional connections that can exist between humans and animals. despite the instruction that spots is not a pet, their relationship is characterized by companionship, communication, and mutual understanding. haraway discusses the ways in which an encounter among species changes once they gain the ability to communicate, as they move from being an object to being a subject (25). their ability to communicate opens the door for spots and atari to have a meaningful and impactful relationship that drives the film. once again, the anthropomorphism in this scene helps the audience engage with the characters on a more emotional level. the little pilot is a vital character in the film, being the only human to show up looking for his lost dog. he represents the perseverance of deeply woven relationships between species, and his relationships with each dog, mainly spots thus far, highlight those aspects of multispecies theory. upon the little pilot’s arrival, we see a stark contrast between human and animal perspectives on survival and morality. while chief, representing the more feral instincts of the canine pack, initially leans toward hathaway 19 viewing atari as a potential food source, rex advocates for compassion and assistance, reflecting a tension between primal instincts and empathy within multispecies interactions. atari’s presence on the island highlights the interdependence and mutual reliance between humans and animals in extreme circumstances. despite their initial differences, they recognize a shared bond and understand the importance of collaboration for not only survival, but also the preservation of love and friendship. this underscores the notion that multispecies encounters often require cooperation and mutual aid, transcending traditional boundaries between humans and animals. atari’s relationships with the dogs, especially with chief, embody this film’s lessons about multispecies interaction. an important aspect of that is chief’s backstory, which is revealed at 00:40:23 after he, rex, boss, duke, king, and atari have been traveling for some time. in a close-up shot, he tells the pack that he grew up on the streets, running from dog catchers. after being caught three times and escaping the first two, he was adopted by a large family that had two dogs already. the youngest child woke him up one morning and tried to pet him. scared, chief bit the child and was locked in the family’s shed. once again, he escaped, returning to his life as a street dog. in this monologue, chief explains that he knows the child was only being nice, so he doesn’t know why he bit him. as the audience, we can understand why, connecting his story to multispecies theory. chief was not raised with humans, yet his species is one that relies on them entirely. among the basic necessities, boss relies on them for cheer, rex relies on them for comfort and safety, king relies on them for his ego, and duke relies on them for structure, but chief has only ever relied on them for garbage. the only connection he had to humans before this was being captured by them unwillingly, and that is who the little boy was reaching out to when he was bit. these knots that tie him to humans are rotten, and new knots that consider his different past need to be tied with this human atari to make the new pack work (haraway 18). i say, “new pack,” because this scene also emphasizes atari’s growing role as a member of their pack. recall the earlier scene where we first met chief, rex, boss, duke, and king in an extreme long shot. in this scene, hathaway 20 when chief is talking about his past, we cut to a much closer but similar shot of boss, atari, rex, king, and duke. this visually establishes that the lines between dogs and humans here are blurring, new knots between humans and animals are being tied, and atari is becoming a member of our alpha pack. additionally, he is paying attention to chief and learning about who he is, reflecting haraway’s assertion that companion species need to learn to pay attention (19). atari’s connection with chief is solidified later in the film after the pack is separated and they continue the journey as a pair (00:55:04). after convincing chief to fetch a stick, atari calls him a “good boy” and hugs him. from this point forward in the film, their relationship is changed. in the next scene, atari bathes and grooms chief, revealing the true color and pattern of his coat. throughout the film it was black, but the bath revealed it is white with black spots, just like atari’s lost dog spots. observing their similar appearance, chief reflects on his history. he has brothers, but their breed isn’t a rare one. chief becomes unsettled by his confusion, so atari offers him half of the dog biscuit he brought to the island. declaring it as his “new favorite food” (00:57:39), chief thanks atari before the camera cuts to a close-up shot of the two moving forward on their journey, this time as true companions. these pivotal interactions between chief and atari represent the new knots being tied in their multispecies relationship, which showcases the positive aspects of their new relationship. they also actively oppose the preconceived notions chief has about humans, untying the old rotten knots that connect him to the people who believe he is a bad dog. once the barrier that chief has between him and atari falls, atari is able to help chief step out of survival mode and reflect on his past. this kind of understanding of chief’s complex being is a key aspect of forming strong companion relationships (haraway). once this bond is formed, chief and atari’s relationship drives the point of the narrative. the pack reunites and successfully completes their journey to find spots, who has been living on the other end of the island with a pack of aboriginal dogs. upon their arrival, it is confirmed that chief and spots are in fact brothers, and spots reveals hathaway 21 he has a mate and will soon be a father. unable to neglect his newfound responsibilities, he asks that his brother chief replace him as atari’s bodyguard dog. they both accept in a discussion that mirrors traditional wedding vows, once again highlighting the depth of the connection between companion species (01:16:57). in the final parts of the movie, it is revealed that the cure to snout fever has been proven effective and that mayor kobayashi hid the serum to push his personal agenda forward. after the scientists’ supporters—a group of local young journalists—and atari reveal this to the citizens at the megadome, he gives a touching speech that resonates deeply with the multispecies theory present in haraway’s work. here is the relevant excerpt: i have spent much of my time in recent weeks traveling in the company of the very kind of animals our mayor refers to as bad dogs. they are the finest living beings i have ever come to know in all my dozen years on this earth. to your readers, the good people of megasaki, i say, ‘the cycle of life always hangs in a delicate balance: who are we and who do we want to be? (in english) who are we?’ . . . i dedicate this poem to my distant uncle mayor kobayashi, who took me in when i myself was a stray dog with nowhere else to turn. (01:24:34) here, atari actively decenters his humanity in this narrative by referring to himself as “a stray dog.” the speech awakens something in mayor kobayashi, forcing him to reflect on the deeply rooted bonds between humans and their companion species. after a few moments, kobayashi announces, “not fair to the boy, not fair to the dog,” officially unstamping the trash island decree. multispecies theory invites us to connect with the world around us without using our individual experiences as humans as the lens through which we see the species we are connecting with. by anthropomorphizing the canine characters, anderson enables viewers to empathize with their struggles and triumphs, fostering a deeper understanding of the shared experiences between humans and animals. this narrative strategy not only serves as a powerful storytelling device but also prompts reflection on the hathaway 22 nature of interspecies relationships and the blurred lines between human and non-human worlds. drawing upon donna haraway’s ideas and academic film reviews, we can see how isle of dogs delves into the complexities of human-animal interactions, emphasizing the importance of communication, collaboration, and mutual aid in navigating shared challenges. through characters such as atari kobayashi and chief, the film portrays the transformative power of companionship and the capacity for empathy across species boundaries. at its core, isle of dogs invites us to reconsider our relationships with the world around us, urging us to connect with other species without imposing our human-centric perspectives. as atari’s poignant speech at the film’s conclusion suggests, embracing multispecies theory allows us to recognize the inherent value of all living beings and strive for a more harmonious coexistence on this delicate balance of life. hathaway 23 works cited haraway, donna. “when species meet.” the routledge international handbook of more-than-human studies. routledge, 2008. pp. 42-78. harrison, marissa a., and a. e. hall. “anthropomorphism, empathy, and perceived communicative ability vary with phylogenetic relatedness to humans.” journal of social, evolutionary, and cultural psychology 4.1 (2010): 34.karlsson, fredrik. “critical anthropomorphism and animal ethics.” journal of agricultural and environmental ethics 25 (2012): pp. 707-720. szemetová, lucia. “deconstructing the fantastic world of wes anderson the philosophy behind the artificial surface of a contemporary director.” 2016, https://dspace.cuni.czhandle/20.500.11956/75435?lo cale-attribute=en. isle of dogs. directed by wes anderson, performances by brian cranston, ed norton, bill murray, jeff goldblum, and bob balaban, fox searchlight, 2018. ________________ [1] at 00:05:51, the audience is shown a small section of the crowd that is in support of the scientist, sporting “pro dog” clothing accessories and raising their fists in solidarity. (isle of dogs 2018) hathaway consumption of true crime podcasts has shot up in recent years, with a majority of listeners being female. there are many things which might draw women to these pieces of media. women who previously reported elevated levels of fear of violent crime have taken to viewing true crime as a safety measure, wanting to become educated on the stories of others in an effort to not become victims themselves. many women report feeling more confident that they would know how to avoid or get out of a dangerous situation after learning the details of previous crimes. production and consumption of true crime media can also lead to increased feelings of justice and a desire to speak out about personal experience or societal and systemic issues. studies have also been done on the effect of hearing women’s voices on true crime podcasts and its relation to the visualization of mutilation in true crime stories. while earlier studies have argued that audiences of true crime media have more anxiety and trepidation around violent crime, i argue that true crime podcasts have many psychological benefits, specifically for women. in their podcast, my favorite murder, karen kilgariff and georgia hardstark tell murder stories with comedic commentary, including advice about how to avoid meeting the same fate as the victims they speak of. following the success of the podcast, the hosts published stay sexy and don’t get murdered: the definitive how-to guide, condensing their tips into book form and sharing their own experiences with true crime. using select episodes from the podcast as well as the book, i will prove that participating in these audio spaces improves feelings that women have agency over their lives, giving them an awareness of what’s happening around them that makes them savvier, helps them notice patterns, and allows them to break out of the dangerous mold society has placed them in. murderinos: examining the female audience of true crime podcasts with my favorite murder bella hughes, ball state university 121 of the top twenty subscriber podcast shows of 2022, eleven are of the true crime genre. true crime has become one of the top entertainment genres in the modern world, with new multimodal content being released every year. audiences flock to these projects, dying for a glimpse into the gruesome crimes committed by seemingly ordinary people. while there are plenty of reasons that people are drawn to this genre, what is often overlooked is the demographics of these audiences. more than ever before, women are the key consumers of this media, making up large portions of true crime fanbases. specifically, women have been drawn to true crime podcasts, with 61% of the genre’s most popular podcasts’ audiences identifying as female (parisyan). the popularity of true crime among women has been noticed and publicly mocked, most notably by saturday night live in their skit entitled “murder show.” through a catchy melody, various women sing about how they watch shows about true crime as a form of relaxation and listen to true crime podcasts as they fall deeper into “the rabbit hole” about the gruesome events. this sort of mockery tries to dismiss the power of the podcast medium, but it succeeds only in inspiring laughter as most consumers of true crime podcasts believe in the effectiveness of this auditory pastime as an accessible educational tool. true crime podcasts have many psychological benefits, specifically for women. participating in these audio spaces improves feelings that women have agency over their lives, giving them an awareness of what’s happening around them. this makes them savvier, helps them notice patterns, and allows them to break out of the mold of deference that society has placed them in by encouraging them to act against men who might harm them. this argument will follow the idea that “[t]he exercise of human agency therefore requires a ‘change in the rules of the game’, i.e. the formal and informal institutions that condition the effectiveness of human agency” (ibrahim & alkire 385). in regards to this paper, the “rules of the game” are the informal mold society has placed women in—to be polite, well-mannered, and helpful, always showing deference to men. by examining one of the most popular true crime podcasts, my favorite murder (mfm), one can reach an understanding of why this genre is so appealing to a female demographic. amidst femicide and violence against women, mfm provides a unique experience that we must analyze in order to be able to properly prepare women to defend themselves in an increasingly hostile society. the knowledge gained from this medium can increase awareness of threats and encourage women to break free of expectations that have led to their victimization for far too long. my favorite murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by karen kilgariff and georgia hardstark. each episode covers at least one true crime story, incorporating 122 hughes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4rdce6h4gs victims—and criminals—of various races, genders, and classes and discussing the role these demographics played in the treatment of each party within the crime as well as the investigation. multiple episodes comment on the seemingly lenient sentences for perpetrators of specific assaults and murders, offering criticism of the reliability and functionality of the justice system. the hosts, both middle-class white women, acknowledge their privilege within society and take care to preface their comments on these issues with statements on how they can’t understand what victims of other demographics go through due to their race or class. the podcast first aired in 2016 and immediately amassed a large fanbase. since its launch, the podcast has expanded to include live shows and a published book of tips and tricks from the hosts titled stay sexy and don’t get murdered: the definitive how-to guide. the show has popularized phrases such as “stay sexy and don’t get murdered,” “call your dad, you’re in a cult,” “fuck politeness,” and “stay out of the forest.” humorous phrases such as these draw people in with the promise of a light take on a dark subject, but many listeners get hooked on the way the hosts deliver instructive content in a comedic way. the show’s popularity has led to merchandise, memes, fan art, facebook groups, and reddit discussions where listeners can share their stories or insights in a community setting. partially owing to its majority female fanbase, “mfm also stands out…in part because it continues to focus on true crime as it relates to women but also because this focus has developed into a feminist critique of the gendered nature of crime” (rodgers 3). this aspect of mfm is what makes it an ideal podcast to examine in relation to women escaping the expectations society has placed on them. before considering the effects of consuming true crime podcasts, it’s important to understand why people—specifically women—are drawn to the genre. while more than half of general podcast listeners are men, listeners of true crime podcasts are more likely to be women, as in the case of mfm, whose fanbase is 80% female (mcdonald et al. 2086). ultimately, many women come to this genre out of fear. they consume true crime media as a survival measure, learning defense tactics and methods of escape while also uncovering the mysteries behind why someone might commit violent crimes. furthermore, listeners are aware that most victims discussed in true crime media are women, so they have more to gain from engaging with this genre. one of the hosts of mfm, georgia hardstark, writes in their book stay sexy and don’t get murdered: the definitive how-to guide: i had picked up tons of questionable survival techniques from watching overly dramatized reenactments on america’s most wanted and terrible lifetime movies where stalkers had to be fought off in life-or-death battles and abusive husbands always got their comeuppance. i fortified those shows with real-life accounts of survival in books from our true-crime lord and savior, ann rule. (39) 123 hughes while the media hardstark cites are not podcasts specifically, her experiences of using true crime as a self-defense tool are common among women who acknowledge their fear of the world that seems aimed to harm them. though women feel more fear of crime happening to them, men are more likely to be victims of crime (mcdonald et al. 2086). in their article “true crime consumption as defensive vigilance: psychological mechanisms of a rape avoidance system” published in the archives of sexual behavior, mcdonald et al. discuss this phenomenon, which “is referred to as the ‘fearvictimization paradox’…[and] rests on the tendency for women to perceive that crimes committed against them, such as burglary and assault, will co-occur with rape” (2086). with this knowledge, it becomes clear that “women’s fear of crime is in fact, a fear of men that reflects women’s social location in a gendered world and an ‘anxiety about their vulnerability to men’s violence’” (rodgers 8). this circles back to the idea that women live in a society where deference to “the man” has become a dangerous expectation. after establishing what draws women to general true crime, one can begin examining the appeal of the podcast medium. a 2022 study of australian podcasts found that “the potential for ‘justice’ outcomes draws listeners towards specific [true crime podcasts]…participants also recognized that podcasts and the act of listening could be a way of providing justice to victims by memorializing and sharing testimony” (vitis 10). in terms of seeking justice, podcasts are unique in that they provide more opportunities for audiences to get involved. as kathleen rodgers calls attention to in her study entitled “‘f*cking politeness’ and ‘staying sexy’ while doing it: intimacy, interactivity and the feminist politics of true crime podcasts,” podcasts like mfm allow listeners to passively consume but actively provide feedback and ask questions on certain platforms. in mfm, hosts karen kilgariff and georgia hardstark ask audience members to send them their “hometown murder stories” so that they can share them on the podcast. this brings more awareness to lesser-known victims and allows for those victims’ stories to be heard on a large platform. bringing listeners into the personal accounts of others lends to the “hyperintimacy” of podcasts, allowing listeners to feel like part of a community where their fears are heard and shared. that “hyper-intimacy” extends to the speakers as well, “wherein listeners feel as though they develop ‘parasocial’ relationships with the hosts” (rodgers 4). in parasocial relationships, one party “extends emotional energy, interest and time, and the other party, the persona, is completely unaware of the other’s existence” (“parasocial relationships: the nature of celebrity fascinations”). part of the development of these relationships is the feeling that podcasts are centers of gossip or storytelling, which often happens among friends. this is another aspect 124 hughes of true crime podcasts that draws women to the genre, as “evolutionary perspectives on gossip and story-telling suggest that they may be psychological adaptations that enable individuals to discuss group norms and values, to police or deter the deviant behavior of others, and to learn from others’ experiences” (mcdonald et al. 2089). the story-telling nature of true crime podcasts and their online communities is one of the reasons women see the genre as beneficial to their survival. they believe that by hearing about other victims’ “mistakes,” they can better defend themselves and recognize the behaviors of others that indicate they are in danger. these parasocial relationships can also add to diminishing feelings of loneliness among listeners and those who feel as though they are alone in their fear of crime. even though the hosts aren’t aware of each individual listener, there is comfort found in hearing someone considered a friend describe a situation that is relatable. that comfort leads to a realization that others have survived these events as well and can aid in recognizing patterns or informing about concerning details in an environment that might not have aroused suspicion before. awareness of those extra details or patterns can prevent women from becoming victims, thus becoming a benefit of these parasocial relationships. the relationship between host and listener is not the only component setting the medium apart from others. podcasts hosted by women also have a uniqueness in their sound. amanda greer discusses the idea of the acousmêtre in her article “murder, she spoke: the female voice’s ethics of evocation and spatialization in the true crime podcast.” greer introduces how “in cinema, the acousmêtre as a disembodied voice both frustrates and titillates the viewer…the act of de-acousmatisation, wherein the acousmatic voice is attached to a body, neutralizes these powers” (152-153). podcasts allow for the female acousmêtre to retain its disembodied power. this is demonstrated in mfm as the female hosts rely on a purely auditory recounting of the crimes rather than graphic images like those used in visual media. the hosts and the victims they speak of then become “spectres,” leading listeners to use their imaginations to visualize the scenes of violence in their heads. greer asserts that “the true crime podcast is one potential site of doubled resistance against the de-acousmatisation of female voices and the visualization of mutilated female bodies…[which] allows an affective and affectionate relationship to establish itself between listener and victim” (153). greer offers an example of this in the context of mfm on pages 156-158, describing how the back-and-forth conversation style of the podcast demonstrates the idea of the acousmêtre and evocation in the context of true crime podcasts. the impact of women’s voices communicating through this medium lies in the power that they bring to the victims. hearing the stories of female victimization told in a man’s voice or through his perspective would run the 125 hughes https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/20551940.2018.1456891 risk of taking away from the life and respect for the victims. when a woman brings the story to this medium, it is typically clear that they are doing so to inform and educate on something that is prevalent in their own life, whereas a man would not necessarily be able to understand the everyday fear or experience of women. women are usually trusted to communicate the details accurately and in a way that would resonate with audience members. not only is this an important factor in understanding the benefits of this medium, but it is also a reminder that there is a level of awareness for all involved in the production and consumption of true crime podcasts. the stories told must be dealt with delicately while the hosts try to communicate lessons such as “fuck politeness.” for those who struggle to understand the concept of “fuck politeness,” the hosts explain the idea more in-depth in their dual memoir. under the chapter titled “fuck politeness: final thoughts,” the hosts discuss why they think their listeners gravitate toward the concept and how to implement it in your life. kilgariff claims that their audience is drawn to the phrase because “it’s what everyone wants to do but has been led to believe they’re not allowed to do. we’re giving you the permission to act in your own best interests before considering anyone else’s” (61). many women find this difficult as society has made them feel like acting in their best interests makes them “bad people.” in reality, the reason this tactic must be used is because a bad person— or someone you can’t be sure has good intentions—has made you feel the need to forgo the usual politeness you’d use around others, particularly men. this is explained further by kilgariff when asked how to get past the awkwardness and do what needs to be done for your safety: let’s be clear: the idea of fucking politeness isn’t about standing on a corner shouting, “fuck you!” to anyone passing by. it’s a strategy for when someone tries to invade your space somehow. they started it. they’re the dick here. you’re just fighting fire with fire. you can’t care what a dick thinks about you. they rely on that fear of judgment to keep you in their control. (61) in this piece of advice, kilgariff brings up what has led to the creation of “fuck politeness,” which is the assumption and expectation that women should show deference to men, even those who are strangers. this expectation can lead to women putting aside their instincts and giving a stranger a ride or being unable to say no, which is oftentimes how women find themselves to be victims. the “fear of judgment” that kilgariff refers to is the idea that women will remain quiet in the face of a threat rather than potentially offend by calling attention to the concerning actions of another person. as one listener explained, “there is no obligation for you to cater to being a 126 hughes woman who is pleasing and not making a scene” (rodgers 11). more than anything, the mantra reminds women that they can choose to go against what’s expected, as the phrase “encourages women to express agency, uniquely instructing women that they can also protect themselves by engaging in behaviors that run counter to cultural expectations of deference” (rodgers 11). “fuck politeness” is, in essence, the call to break free of society’s expectation that keeps women from putting their needs first. when encouraging women to “fuck politeness,” one must keep in mind how the concept could be misconstrued. some might say that this phrase places blame on the previous victims for not trusting their instincts in the first place. while victim blaming is a common issue in some areas of true crime, the mfm podcast takes great care in respecting the victims and their stories. they recognize the extreme circumstances of the scenes they describe, often calling attention to how people never know how they’ll truly react when they’re put in a dangerous situation. while some true crime narratives suggest that women invite violence unto themselves, the stories on mfm are “discussed within an anti-victim-blaming framework…and instead explain women’s experiences in the context of social structural conditions that foster victimization” (rodgers 11). while this mantra directly targets the culture of gender-based violence, another popular phrase tackles victim-blaming at its heart. the popular slogan “stay sexy and don’t get murdered” (ssdgm) has been viewed by some as sexualizing murder. in actuality, the phrase is permitting women to embrace their femininity without being blamed for being victimized. often used as a tag in stories where women have survived or escaped being the victim, ssdgm allows women to maintain their confidence in their feminine or “sexy” appearance while also encouraging them to be cautious and conscious of their surroundings as best they can. the backlash against this podcast is not confined to concerns about catchy quips. after each episode, there are bound to be people who noticed a particular phrasing or word choice used and will call attention to it in the mfm facebook group. however, the podcast medium allows for both the hosts and the listeners to learn in real-time. when it is brought to the hosts’ attention that something they said was wrong, politically incorrect, or insensitive, they are sure to take responsibility for that mistake in the following episode in what they call “corrections corner.” before they begin talking about their new favorite murders for the week, the hosts take a moment to respond to audience feedback. for example, in the early episode “10 murderous tendencies,” one of the hosts used the word “prostitute” to describe a victim in a story and listeners were quick to inform the hosts that the correct term is “sex worker.” in the following episode, they apologized for their mistake and committed to using more respectful language when referring to sex workers. encouraging their audience to call 127 hughes them out on incorrect language has continued to be a vital part of the podcast and it is what has contributed to an evolution of thinking for all parties involved. not only does audience participation like this improve the overall respect attributed to mfm, but it also invites members of the audience working in certain specialties to offer up their own knowledge and experience. many doctors, scientists, and forensic specialists have commented on cases where an incorrect claim was made during the storytelling or where they think their insight on a topic might bring something new to light. it is these aspects of the podcast medium that make it such an ideal place for true crime, as well as an ideal place for women. these spaces have become a haven for women searching for vindication and community. when hardstark first got into true crime, she expressed the relief she felt at knowing she wasn’t crazy for having anxiety about navigating the world as a woman, writing, “there was something so satisfying about getting confirmation that the world wasn’t as great as happy days…made it out to be. it didn’t take the anxiety away, but it still felt like a fucking triumph…i didn’t just want to feel the thrill of fear or the satisfaction of validation, my survival depended on my knowing about crime” (stay sexy and don’t get murdered 131). she’s not alone in this feeling, as others have also shared their relief upon finding a community to navigate true crime with. one listener explains how they benefit from listening and participating in the mfm community, saying “i guess i feel reassured because i know that the anxiety that i feel walking out of the house at night, that is normal, that is what everybody feels, that is because of these vulnerabilities for the situation i am in” (rodgers 9). this perspective, as well as countless others, brings attention to the normalcy of crime in the lives of women. one reason true crime podcasts are a huge step for these women is that “few opportunities previously existed for women to share or document the everydayness of their fear” (rodgers 9). participating in online spaces, in-person meet-ups, and live shows regarding true crime feels like an assurance to these women that they aren’t alone in a world that seems to thrive on violence against them. mfm has offered women a place to share their stories of how they’ve escaped dangerous situations or how listening to the podcast has made them more aware of their surroundings. for example, in the episode “54 – valet area,” the hosts open with a story submitted by a listener that describes the moment a fellow “murderino”—the term coined for listeners of the mfm podcast—helped her get out of a situation where she could have become a victim. as the listener was leaving a restaurant, a woman came up to her and started talking to her like she knew her. after the listener voiced her confusion, the woman lowered her voice and informed her that a man was hiding behind her car. the listener let the woman walk her to her car, during which time she explained that she noticed him “lurking…got a bad feeling” and decided to wait 128 hughes for the listener before she left. when they approached the vehicle, a hooded man stood up and walked into an alley nearby. the listener says that their savior turned to them before they left and said “stay sexy and don’t get murdered.” she goes on to say, “a fellow murderino probably saved me from being robbed, assaulted, kidnapped, murdered, god knows what and i’m so thankful for her.” there were other stories like this shared on the podcast as well and the hosts had their own reactions to the stories: kilgariff: that idea right there of somebody noticing something that might be bad and taking the time to look out for another person and the idea that the reason they might do that is because they were emboldened by the shit that you and i say on this… hardstark: …i’m so proud of us! i left therapy the other day and just texted you “i’m really proud of us.” …that’s so wonderful and i’m proud of us. kilgariff: good job, everybody. hardstark: good job, you guys. we fuckin did it. we’re staying sexy, we’re not getting murdered, we’re making friends. kilgariff: extending yourself to people who might be in a bad place, that’s kinda like, that’s what we’re looking for these days. hardstark: yeah, and we’re putting those fuckin dumpster alley lurkers in their place, of like “no, you can’t fuckin, you can’t do this, dude.” kilgariff: no. or, you know, maybe that guy was peeing, either way that girl got in her car and got home safe, the end. (“54 – valet area”) stories of listeners being saved either by other murderinos or by what they’ve learned from the podcast make up much of discussion boards on facebook and reddit. the examples shared on the show demonstrate the importance of the podcast in the lives of women. it’s clear from the reactions of the hosts that this is the type of impact that they want to come from their discussions of true crime. another story came up in the episode “60 – jazz it” when a situation was mentioned where a victim fought off a perpetrator, and the hosts debated when fighting back was a viable option. one of the hosts says, “you don’t want to say how badass she is because that’s sending the message that you should always fight. it’s just such a situational thing…you don’t want to be like ‘beat the shit out of the person who’s attacking you’ because that could be the absolute wrong thing to do.” as the 129 hughes hosts explain, the response depends on the situation. in this case, the woman knew she was in a place where there was no way the situation could be turned around on her and she had taken self-defense classes. however, in another situation, a victim might be better off trying to scream and get the attention of others or observe their surroundings in case they have a chance to communicate their location or the suspect’s appearance to someone. the hosts go on to discuss how this victim went about defending herself: hardstark: the thing i really did like about it, and that i took away from it, is that she was fighting him and at one point she thought in her mind “this doesn’t have to be a fair fight,” and so it wasn’t like wrestling. then she said “i started clawing at his face” and that kind of hit me because it was like, this doesn’t have to be civil, this can be fucking out of control. kigariff: yes! if there is someone in the bathroom, that came into the bathroom to harm you or touch you in any way that you don’t want to happen, you go, the knee goes to the nuts, the fingers go to the eyes, and you fucking go for it animal style like they serve at in-n-out. (“60 – jazz it”) in this instance, the hosts remind women that they have the ability to judge how to respond to their situation by observing their surroundings and determining how they can best survive. hardstark brings attention to the fact that people who would try to harm someone don’t deserve a fair fight and asserts that victims have every right to do whatever is necessary to escape, pushing the idea of “fuck politeness.” the advice given in response to audience testimonies and during the stories of the hosts’ favorite murders is one of the things that draws listeners back to the podcast every week. as one listener wrote at the end of their hometown murder story, “thanks for the humor, the strange and enjoyable hobby that is true crime and for being some kick-ass ladies. i honestly believe that fucking politeness and all your other wise words are helping empower women and other humans to truly stay sexy and not get murdered” (mfm minisode 23). this is the general consensus of the mfm fanbase, which shows the importance of the true crime podcast in the lives of these women. while men are certainly welcome to join the communities that surround true crime podcasts, more often than not, the typical true crime podcast fan will be female. this will continue to be true as long as gender-based violence continues to flourish in a society that persists in trying to own or control women’s bodies. as violence against women continues unchecked, women will search for anything that might help them feel in control of what happens to them, as well as anything that makes them feel like there’s someone at their back who knows what they’re dealing with daily and 130 hughes can share in their struggle. these things can be found in true crime podcasts like my favorite murder and so many others. what makes true crime podcasts mockable by outside spectators are the very things that make them so valuable to women. the gory detail and a seemingly endless list of stories to learn from make these audio spaces central for female self-preservation and self-defense education. though many of the victims whose stories are told did not survive their encounters, their actions and their memory can be the catalyst for the survival of future women. it is the voice in the dark that shouts the reminder “fuck politeness” when a situation could take a turn for the worse. 131 hughes works cited browder, laura. “dystopian romance: true crime and the female reader.” the journal of popular culture 39.6 (2006): 928-953. proxy.bsu.edu/login?url=https://search. ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&an=22978260&site=ehostlive&scope=site. greer, amanda. “murder, she spoke: the female voice’s ethics of evocation and spatialisation in the true crime podcast.” sound studies 3.2 (2017): 152-164. proxy.bsu.edu/ login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&an=13099 4359&site=ehost-live&scope=site. hardstark, georgia, and karen kilgariff. my favorite murder. feral audio and midroll media. 2016. —. stay sexy and don’t get murdered: the definitive how-to guide. new york, forge, may 2019. ibrahim, solava, and sabina alkire. “agency and empowerment: a proposal for internationally comparable indicators.” oxford development studies 35.4 (2007): 379403. proxy.bsu.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true& db=a9h&an=27665396&site=ehost-live&scope=site. mcdonald, melissa m., rachel m. james, and domenic p. roberto. “true crime consumption as defensive vigilance: psychological mechanisms of a rape avoidance system.” archives of sexual behavior 50.5 (2021): 2085-2108. proxy.bsu.edu/login?url=https:// search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&an=151386584&site=ehostlive&scope=site. monroe, rachel. savage appetites: true stories of women, crime, and obsession. scribner, 2020. “parasocial relationships: the nature of celebrity fascinations.” findapsychologist.org, 2015, www.findapsychologist.org/parasocial-relationships-the-nature-of-celebrityfascinations/. rodgers, kathleen. “‘f*cking politeness’ and ‘staying sexy’ while doing it: intimacy, interactivity and the feminist politics of true crime podcasts.” feminist media studies (2022): 1-16. proxy.bsu.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct =true&db=a9h&an=158568691&site=ehost-live&scope=site. vitis, laura. “‘my favorite genre is missing people’: exploring how listeners experience true crime podcasts in australia.” international journal for crime, justice and social democracy (2022). hughes 132 https://web.p.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=c3a6210b-83b0-4add-9976-78b979f591bf%40redis&bdata=jnnpdgu9zwhvc3qtbgl2zszzy29wzt1zaxrl#an=22978260&db=a9h https://web.p.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=c3a6210b-83b0-4add-9976-78b979f591bf%40redis&bdata=jnnpdgu9zwhvc3qtbgl2zszzy29wzt1zaxrl#an=22978260&db=a9h 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https://web.p.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=a818fcb9-b588-440e-a8ec-0a50343340dc%40redis&bdata=jnnpdgu9zwhvc3qtbgl2zszzy29wzt1zaxrl#an=151386584&db=a9h https://web.p.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=a818fcb9-b588-440e-a8ec-0a50343340dc%40redis&bdata=jnnpdgu9zwhvc3qtbgl2zszzy29wzt1zaxrl#an=151386584&db=a9h https://web.p.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=a818fcb9-b588-440e-a8ec-0a50343340dc%40redis&bdata=jnnpdgu9zwhvc3qtbgl2zszzy29wzt1zaxrl#an=151386584&db=a9h https://www.findapsychologist.org/parasocial-relationships-the-nature-of-celebrity-fascinations/ https://www.findapsychologist.org/parasocial-relationships-the-nature-of-celebrity-fascinations/ https://web.p.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=e01a8983-8cf9-4fd8-a249-15b01a1101fa%40redis&bdata=jnnpdgu9zwhvc3qtbgl2zszzy29wzt1zaxrl#an=158568691&db=a9h https://web.p.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=e01a8983-8cf9-4fd8-a249-15b01a1101fa%40redis&bdata=jnnpdgu9zwhvc3qtbgl2zszzy29wzt1zaxrl#an=158568691&db=a9h fulghum 38 my neighbor is lesser: a look at xenophobic social borders that would lead to brexit natalie fulghum, ball state university when thinking about brexit, it is when thinking about brexit, it is important to dive into the preexisting important to dive into the preexisting social borders among those who lived in social borders among those who lived in pre-brexit britain. these social borders pre-brexit britain. these social borders are represented in kazuo ishiguro’s are represented in kazuo ishiguro’s never let me gonever let me go and stephen frears’s and stephen frears’s dirty pretty things.dirty pretty things. these works not only these works not only convey these social divisions between convey these social divisions between neighbors, but also reveal the cultural neighbors, but also reveal the cultural circumstances that led up to the vote circumstances that led up to the vote for brexit. in this essay, i highlight for brexit. in this essay, i highlight how these texts work to do just that. how these texts work to do just that. to this day, people argue whether britain leaving the eu in 2016 was a fix for the greater commonwealth or if it was a power grab for white british citizens. brexit started with debates about taxes, trade, and how there was a need for more jobs. in 2016, british parliament argued that britain leaving the eu would allow more control of their country and over the people allowed to live in it. this concept would later be known as “brexit.” with the decision to leave, britain was faced with angry residents who felt this was a racist and prejudiced bias toward the working class. at the time, most immigrants were motivated to move to the uk because of a need for work (“migrants in the uk” ). this working class felt that brexit was unfair to those who moved to britain from other countries in the eu and saw it as an attack on those who already experienced the unimaginable trials of working life. many argue that this passing of brexit justifies the xenophobic social structures that white british citizens envisioned. however, there were already xenophobic prejudices in pre-brexit britain. authors like kazuo ishiguro and filmmakers like steven frears have used their platforms to depict this brutal treatment of immigrants in pre-brexit britain. borders between neighbors were emphasized in ishiguro’s novel, never let me go as the main character, kathy, comes to terms with the dehumanizing treatment clones like herself endure from naturally born humans. in her world, she is an organic resource that is destined to have her organs donated to british citizens. based on the clones’s treatment, kathy knows no other way to live her short life other than to prepare for her donations. steven frears’s film, dirty pretty things, depicts immigrants in pre-brexit britain in the same dehumanizing way. the main character, okwe, observes the way immigrants are expected to either work difficult conditions or sell their organs to the black market. these characters, much like those in ishiguro’s novel, are seen as organic bodies who serve no purpose beyond being organ donations. british texts, like steven frears’s dirty pretty things and kazuo ishiguro’s never let me go, showed how pre-brexit xenophobic attitudes and social borders towards immigrants contributed to brexit. in kazuo ishiguro’s novel, never let me go, he uses his characters poor living situations to convey the way immigrants and non-white citizens faced ignorant prejudice in britain. ishiguro’s main character, kathy, grows up at a special school with other clones called hailsham. kathy and the other students are kept away from naturally born children in britain; therefore, the world outside of their school is a scary yet exciting new world. when an immigrant moves, there is a similar excitement to what the clones felt when it comes to living in a new country. however, this excitement can turn to fear when confronted with the dehumanizing living conditions immigrants face when they must live in what white europeans leave for them. these living conditions are represented in ishiguro’s novel. once the kids are old enough to leave hailsham, they are sent to a place called the cottages. here, the clones have “big boxy heaters” and houses with “trails of mud” everywhere (ishiguro 117). these houses are then left to the students’ care, thus leaving these children to care and provide for themselves without support during their first time in a foreign place. although kathy claims “i’m making it sound pretty bad...none of us minded the discomforts,” she still admits to her worry and feelings of abandonment (ishiguro 117). even the old man, keffers, who has been sent monitor the clones, is described as “sighing and shaking his head disgustedly” when seeing their lives at the cottages (ishiguro 116). keffers isn’t just disgusted with how the clones live, but with the clones in general. he never once questions his own part at the cottages and how these students were simply dropped off to figure things out on their own. the clones represent immigrants in britain by living in those familiar dehumanizing circumstances and being judged for it. the clones, like immigrants, have been left to fend for themselves in trying times. and the relationship that keffers and the clones have represents that ignorant prejudice that citizens convey and brexit would soon justify. josie gill’s article “written on the fact: race and expression in kazuo ishiguro’s never let me go,” also talks about the way the clones represent immigrants and the predetermined attitudes citizens have toward them. gill’s article focuses on the way the clones’ lives are similar to the mistreatment immigrants encounter. whether it is their living fulghum 39 conditions, their jobs, or the lack of respect they get from their neighbors, gill pinpoints these connections. she points out that the clones’ lives reflect, “the gap between expectation and reality that has often characterized the immigrant” (gill 850). the aspirations ishiguro’s clones have when dreaming of jobs and families in the “real world” is just like the idea that immigrants have had when believing they will live “better lives” in britain. however, ishiguro’s idea to use clones instead of immigrants is to show that the removal of race “does not remove the material conditions of race or racism” (gill 850). instead, the “denial of race results in “racism without race,” making racism and the social inequalities that feed into it more difficult to identify” (gill 850). in other words, gill believes that ishiguro purposefully chose to not bring race into the novel so that he could emphasize the racist idea that immigrants are uncivilized or dirty. when in fact, it is simply the poor living conditions that have been left to them that causes such stereotypes. as white europeans began to believe this stereotype, the social barrier between citizens and noncitizens in britain grew. thus, when looking at the characters of ishiguro’s novel, one can pinpoint a similar and symbolic social border characters have between the clones and those who are naturally born. clones in ishiguro’s novel are also depicted as biological resources to convey the way treatment of non-citizens has always been to benefit the british population. when the clones of ishiguro’s novel find out they were made to donate their organs for others, they aren’t surprised. in fact, their teacher, miss lucy, seems more disturbed by the idea than they are. she explains to kathy and her classmates that, “your lives are set out for you” (ishiguro 81). this indicates that the world outside of hailsham is aware of their existence, but chooses to ignore the students. miss lucy, unlike the rest of the world, finds herself getting to know these students. therefore, she is able to think of her students as more than biological resources. however, these interactions make her regret the treatment her students must endure. another time that a teacher from hailsham can be seen regretting the treatment of these students is when kathy and tommy go to see miss emily. she reveals to her students that hailsham was a school created to prove the existence of souls in clones. however, despite the proof collected and the evident natural, emotional lives these students have lived, they are still told they must donate their organs. miss emily regrettably tells them, “i can see...that it might look as though you were simply pawns in a game” (ishiguro 266). this comment is a reflection on the lives immigrants faced in pre-brexit british society. they were not welcomed by their neighbors and often ignored. however, they were still expected to work those poorly paid jobs for the benefit of white british citizens and to pretend the border between them was not because one is human and the other considered a tool. josie gill’s article also talks about the way the clones are supposed to represent immigrants as nothing more than able and abusable bodies. she explains how the clones fulghum 40 of ishiguro’s novel are created to “serve the needs of the ‘normal’ population…” to reflect the “exploitation of nonwhite workers, who are often reduced simply to bodies that carry out various forms of undesirable and poorly paid labor” (848). just like a sweatshop might abuse the use of immigrant workers, the clones are reduced to nothing more than a resource. and the lack of the characters’ races being mentioned only shows the way race is a social construct and not a biological one. gill mentions this by explaining, “bodies do not provide or add to an understanding of character” (854). instead, the clone’s bodies, no matter the color or biology, are able enough to give their organs. immigrants, who are looked down upon because they look like immigrants, still possess able and worthy bodies, just like the clones. they can work hard jobs and do anything that white citizens can. it is simply that fact that immigrants are immigrants that bring about a question of value on those lives in prebrexit britain. hence, we have yet another example of how a social barrier has been created to not only make citizens feel superior to immigrants, but for citizens to take advantage of those who have no choice but to do the hard work. similarly, stephen frears’s film, dirty pretty things, also conveys his characters as biological resources for british citizens. much like never let me go, frears’s film addresses how illegal immigrants in britain function to support the social structures of britain. in the film, okwe, the main protagonist, is trying to live an unnoticeable life in london. however, throughout the film, his position as an immigrant becomes an issue for his plan. the first time we are introduced to anything from his past is when okwe is asked by his boss to examine him for a sexually-transmitted disease. okwe, who doesn’t even want to address his past for the audience, protests doing this. his boss exclaims, “but you’re a doctor!” okwe responds, “i’m a driver,” as he gives in to his boss’s wishes (frears). fulghum 41 okwe is asked by his boss to examine him for stds. not long after this, okwe finds himself having to examine three more men in the same situation for his boss. this goes to show how okwe’s skills are to be exploited more and more for british society if he wants to stay hidden. this same situation is paralleled when okwe finds and helps the infected immigrant in his hotel manager’s office. when the man refuses to go to the hospital, okwe helps treat him and impresses his boss, sneaky juan. however, this one act of kindness leads to juan asking questions for his own benefit. he prods okwe for information on his past, saying, “you never told me where you’re from. or even, how come you’re in this beautiful country”(frears). this sentence, though worded innocently, is spoken with a threatening tone. juan knows okwe is an immigrant, and uses his morals to convince him to do illegal surgeries for him. okwe, refusing at first to agree, only finds himself trapped and tempted to do as juan pleases in order to keep his friends and himself safe. thus, this shows how the abuse of immigrant bodies was prominent and expected even before brexit was introduced and depicts a moral border that okwe struggles to cross. fulghum 42 okwe is confronted by sneaky juan, who tells him about the illegal surgeries that take place in the hotel at night. vincent rodrigez ortega’s criticism of the film, “surgical passports, the eu and dirty pretty things: rethinking european identity through popular cinema,” also address the use of immigrant bodies for the benefit of british society leading to the perceived social superiority of british citizens and their vote for brexit. ortega begins by talking about the opening scene of the film where okwe is working as a cab driver from those at the airport. one of okwe’s first comments in the film is, “i’m here to pick up people who have been let down by the system” (frears). this comment sets up the subject of the film. ortega describes okwe’s actions in this scene as representing how “illegal social bodies function as necessary support mechanisms for the social structures that deem their status as unlawful. in other words, they are an institutionally repressed and yet practically indispensable component of the eu” (ortega 23). ortega claims that immigrants are needed in british society. however, immigrants are on the side of the social border that are to be perceived as abused tools that can be discarded when no longer needed. not only is this situation depicted in okwe’s experiences, but it is also depicted through okwe’s love interest senay’s own as she experiences the trials that immigrants must face to live in britain. the first time we see senay being abused is when, in order to keep herself hidden, she must give her boss oral sex. although this goes against her religion and morals, she feels, unlike okwe, that she has no choice and obeys. later, when she claims she is willing to do anything to obtain citizenship, she finds herself blackmailed and forced into having sex with sneaky juan. ortega claims fulghum 43 okwe and senay walk out of the hotel together having shared their traumatic experiences with sneaky juan. that to obtain any form of legitimacy in british society, senay had to “uncover the multilayered social and economic networks immigrants must negotiate and subvert to achieve their purposes” (ortega 24). just like okwe, senay finds herself trapped in a dehumanizing situation that forces her to work for british society. not only is she used as cheap work, but she is abused in the way that she is a woman and an immigrant. in the end, whether it is okwe, senay, or some other immigrant, “their existence becomes intimately linked to the profit-driven networks” (ortega 24). thus, immigrants are left with little self-worth other than as a resource for legal citizens. this film depicts a border between citizens and noncitizens in the eu. this border between people would solidify the superiority felt by citizens over immigrants and would eventually lead to the belief that brexit was needed to keep these people separate. many british writers have noticed the dehumanization of immigrants even before brexit was introduced. whether it is depicted through a sci-fi novel, or an uncomfortable film, these writers have been attempting to spread their concern. britain leaving the eu was something that could be predicted when looking at these works of literature because the social borders were already there. there was already discrimination among races and complaints about a lack of jobs. and yet, there was still an abuse of immigrants in order to continue cheap and fast profits. the treatment of non-citizens has, and continues to, involve prejudice, hatred, and a lack of compassion. to look at your neighbor and feel a superiority because of your looks has only threatened to further the divide among people. xenophobic attitudes continue to drive people away form one another. ishiguro and frears’s works help to show the denying audience that there is a social barrier that immigrants cannot ignore. there has been, and still is, a border between neighbors that exists because of a reach for power. brexit was simply the consequence of when this social hierarchy became prominent enough to believe in the u.k’s superiority over the rest of the eu. fulghum 44 works cited frears, stephen, director. dirty pretty things. miramax, 2002. gill, josie. “written on the face: race and expression in kazuo ishiguro’s never let me go.” mfs modern fiction studies, vol. 60 no. 4, 2014, p. 844-862. project muse, doi:10.1353/ mfs.2014.0056. ishiguro, kazuo. never let me go. vintage international, 2005. “migrants in the uk: an overview.” migration observatory, university of oxford, 6 november 2020. https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/briefings/migrants-inthe-uk-an-overview. ortega, vincente rodriguez. “surgical passports, the eu and dirty pretty things: rethinking european identity through popular cinema.” studies in european cinema, vol. 8, no. 1, august 2011, pp. 21-30. ebscohost, https://doi.org/10.1386/seci.8.1.21_1. fulghum 45 multispecies encounters the art of being attentive in virginia woolf’s mrs. dalloway mia godleski • • • • virginia woolf’s mrs. dalloway is one of the penultimate works of modernist literature. given its status, many scholars have analyzed the work, typically through the lens of class, gender, sexuality, or some combination of those categories. something that often goes overlooked when viewing mrs.dalloway through those various lenses is the multitude of meaningful interactions with flowers that the novel’s namesake, clarissa dalloway, has throughout the novel. in this essay, utilizing the multi-species theory work “multispecies studies: cultivating arts of attentiveness” (dooren, et al.), i will look at the interactions that mrs. dalloway has with flowers throughout the novel and discuss what interacting with flowers at specific moments does for mrs. dalloway. ©2024 godleski the digital literature review, 11, 74-83. doi: 10.33043/dad3c3ax3. shared with cc by-nc-nd 4.0 liscense. 75 virginia woolf’s novel mrs. dalloway is one of the most famous modernist works to have ever been written, and because of this, many scholars have taken the time to pull the work apart piece by piece and offer their interpretations. typically, mrs. dalloway is viewed through the lens of class, gender, or sexuality. while it is necessary to have viewed the novel through those various lenses as they all play an important role throughout the story, one lens i think we have neglected to view mrs. dalloway through is that of multispecies studies. as scholar diana swanson states, “nonhuman nature—in the shapes of earth, sky, water, insects, birds, animals—holds a significant place in woolf’s fiction” (59). nature does not simply exist in the background of mrs. dalloway. rather, nature and the various non-human species that reside within it, particularly trees, plants, and flowers, are interwoven throughout the story. throughout the novel, the main character clarissa dalloway is seen interacting with and taking notice of various plants and flowers. in some of the most pivotal scenes in the novel, mrs. dalloway can be seen interacting with or thinking about at least one type of flower. when people discuss clarissa’s interactions with flowers, typically, they are focusing on the flowers as a symbol, and the specific meaning that has been assigned to each flower. while i do intend to discuss the symbolism of a few specific flowers as well as what flowers symbolize in general in the novel, i more so intend to focus on the interactions between clarissa and her flowers and how the flowers are acting or contributing to her life during specific moments in the story and as a whole. in order to bring woolf’s mrs. dalloway into the realm of multispecies studies, i will be utilizing a work entitled “multispecies studies: cultivating arts of attentiveness” by thom van dooren, eben kirksey, and ursula münsterto describe the attentiveness that clarissa gives to the flowers that she interacts with throughout the story. while mrs. dalloway is most certainly a novel about class, gender, and sexuality, it is also, above all else, a novel about life. because mrs. dalloway is a story about life, it makes sense for woolf to have included so many references to non-human species throughout her stories, as a story about life is not comgodleski 76 plete without mentioning the multitude of non-human species that reside on this earth with us. by including so many interactions with and references to flowers and the natural world, woolf is attempting to show us how interacting with species outside of our own in meaningful ways adds to our lives, as well as how not doing so has significant consequences. before i begin my analysis of the interactions between clarissa and the various plants she mentions, i feel it is important to discuss what multispecies studies is as well as what it means to be attentive to the non-human species around us. multispecies studies is a method of exploring the world in a way that does not simply center humans. rather, the goal of multispecies studies is to pay attention to the non-human species that are all around us, whether those species be plants, animals, or insects. in “multispecies studies: cultivating arts of attentiveness,” the various authors explore “modes of both paying attention to others and crafting meaningful response” (van dooren, et al. 1). we see clarissa dalloway do both of these things in mrs. dalloway. clarissa pays great attention to the flowers she comes across and she listens to what the flowers say, and to the emotions they make her feel. we see clarissa interact with flowers or plants in moments in which she is feeling overwhelmed, and they remind her to live in the moment rather than in the past or the future. the opening line of mrs. dalloway is one of the most memorable quotes to have ever come from a piece of literature, and it reads as follows: “mrs. dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself” (woolf 4). this quote sets up what will be a very important symbol throughout the entirety of the book. mentioned time and time again, flowers hold very significant meaning for clarissa. while each flower in mrs. dalloway holds its own, individual meaning, i think that flowers as a whole are meant to represent life, and are a reminder to live in the present. as i am about to explore, it would seem that clarissa reaches for flowers during moments in which she is having difficulty processing her complex emotions or living in the moment. before clarissa enters the florist’s shop, there were a million thoughts racing through her head. she was thinking of her beloved daughter, elizagodleski 77 beth, and of elizabeth’s dog, grizzle. then her thoughts soured when she began to think of her disapproval of elizabeth’s friend ms. kilman. she then began to think of her illness, and how it combined with her dislike for ms. kilman made this hatred brew inside her. however, as soon as clarissa entered the florist’s shop, everything changed. she was immediately captivated by the beauty that surrounded her, thinking “[t]here were flowers: delphiniums, sweet peas, bunches of lilac: and carnations, masses of carnations” (woolf 9). once clarissa saw the flowers, the anxious thoughts pacing back and forth in her mind ceased. suddenly, clarissa was no longer stuck within her own mind. the sight of the flowers reminded her to step back into the present moment, as if they were saying to her that she is alive, and so are they, and that she should be present in the world with them. clarissa listens to what the flowers have to say to her and she immediately steps back into the present moment. by listening to the flowers, clarissa gives them agency. she also gives the flowers agency in one of the quotes that follows shortly after the previous, which reads, “and it was the moment between six and seven when every flower—roses, carnations, irises, lilac—glows; white, violet, red, deep orange; every flower seems to burn by itself, softly, purely in the misty beds” (woolf 9). here, the flowers are able to have individual agency and are capable of individual action. as scholar betty rychen so eloquently puts it, “the flowers which mrs. dalloway buys for her party and the scene in the florist’s shop as she chooses them prepare the reader for a deeper sense of her identity” (rychen 18). this scene in which we see clarissa listen to the flowers around her allows us a closer look into clarissa’s personality. it shows us how she is attentive to the non-human species around her and it also shows us her keen attention to detail, making her a master at the art of being attentive (van dooren, et al). clarissa not only creates a meaningful interaction with flowers by giving them agency, but also by listening to how they make her feel and associating them with important people in her life. one such flower that she does this with is the rose. roses are mentioned frequently throughout mrs. dalloway and play a significant role in the novel. as i previously mentioned, it would seem that godleski 78 clarissa often associates specific flowers with specific people in her life. in her mind, clarissa associates her husband, richard, with roses (shearer). roses are a complex flower when it comes to determining what they mean. typically, they represent love, and when a rose is of a specific color, it can change the type of love being conveyed (shearer). one moment in the novel in which roses are mentioned is when richard gives clarissa a bouquet of red and white roses. woolf writes “he was holding out flowers— roses, red and white roses” (woolf 72). the roses that richard chooses to give clarissa are red and white, a choice i believe was purposefully made by woolf. red roses are a symbol of a true, passionate love and white roses are meant to convey unswerving loyalty (thompson). however, the combination of these two specific colors of roses is seen as “a symbol of unity” (shearer). scholar jeanne shearer explains that clarissa’s identity is tied to her being married to her husband, richard, and that she primarily only sees herself as being mrs. dalloway, a loyal wife and a perfect party host. she goes on to explain that “[t]he roses richard gives her represent this unity with him,” the unity she is referring to being the loyal, dedicated marriage the two share (shearer). because clarissa associates much of her identity with being a wife, and since richard often chooses to give her roses, it makes sense that they would be mentioned so often throughout mrs. dalloway. what is happening when richard gives clarissa the roses is important to note as well. before richard walks in with the roses, clarissa is worrying about whether or not she should invite someone to her party that she initially didn’t want to invite (woolf 71). however, when richard walks in and clarissa sees that he’s holding out roses for her to take, she is immediately pulled out of her anxious thoughts. in this scene, the flowers are once again acting as a reminder to clarissa to live in the present, and to not worry so much about what is to come. while roses are certainly an important symbol in mrs. dalloway, there is one more flower that i must discuss as it is mentioned at the penultimate moment of the novel: the beginning of clarissa dalloway’s heavily anticipated party. the final moment i want to discuss in which clarissa is attentive to godleski 79 the non-human species around her is towards the end of mrs. dalloway, at the beginning of the party. the party does not truly begin until the moment in which clarissa notices how “[g]ently the yellow curtain with all the birds of paradise blew out and it seemed as if there were a flight of wings in the room, right out, then sucked back” (woolf 101). the story has been building up to this moment, readers are watching clarissa prepare for this party all day, and now it has finally, at long last, begun. this could be considered a multispecies interaction in one of two ways, either seeing the “birds of paradise” as actual birds or as the plant with the same name. based on the numerous mentions of plants clarissa has made throughout mrs. dalloway up until this point, i am going to see this interaction as being one between clarissa and the bird of paradise plant rather than an interaction between clarissa and an animal. there is also the fact that clarissa lives in england, and it would make more sense for the “birds of paradise” she is referring to to be a plant since colorful, tropical birds that we tend to call birds of paradise are not native to england. the bird of paradise plant can grow to be quite large, and when properly cared for, they can bloom with orange or white flowers whose petals resemble those of the feathers on a bird, making the name quite fitting and also making it difficult to distinguish the flowers from an actual bird upon first glance (hensley, et al 1). the bird of paradise is an incredibly majestic plant–it is impossible to ignore the presence of one in a room. the large size of the plant and its bright flowers grasp your attention, and you cannot help but to be in awe of its beauty. choosing such a magnificent plant to mark the true beginning of clarissa’s party was a masterful choice on woolf’s part. again, it is important for us to examine what was happening in the moments before clarissa takes notice of the bird of paradise plant. at this point in the novel, the guests have begun to arrive at clarissa’s party. she greets a few guests, including her old friend peter walsh. after greeting the various guests that had just arrived, clarissa becomes overwhelmed. she thinks to herself, “oh dear, it was going to be a failure; a complete failure…she could see peter out of the tail of her eye, criticizing her” (woolf 101). now that her guests have begun to arrive, clarissa is scared godleski 80 that her party is going to be an absolute failure. her seeing peter and being under the impression that he is criticizing her really spikes clarissa’s anxiety. however, once again, when clarissa spots the magnificent bird of paradise plant from across the room, she is transported out of her own head and back into reality. yet again, we see clarissa being attentive to a member of a non-human species, listening to what they are telling her and taking their advice: to live in the real world, with her beloved flowers, rather than in her own head. although clarissa is ever so attentive to the non-human species that surround her, particularly various flowers and plants, there is one character in mrs. dalloway that does not practice this attentiveness towards the non-human species that surround him. the character that i am referring to is peter walsh. peter serves as a foil to clarissa. whereas clarissa lives in the present, sometimes being pulled back to it by the flowers she loves so dearly, peter does not. peter lives in the past, and is absorbed by the regret he carries for not marrying clarissa. while peter does occasionally reflect back on his past and will recall a flower or plant that he saw, his recollection of the non-human species he witnessed at whatever particular moment in his past that he is reflecting on does not pull him back to the present. woolf makes it clear in the very beginning that peter is not attentive, nor cares to be attentive, to the non-humans around him. in a scene early on in the novel in which clarissa is walking around a garden, he asks her if she is “[m]using amongst the vegetables?” and then continues, stating “i prefer men to cauliflowers” (woolf 4). peter is unlike clarissa in the way that he does not give the non-human species around him agency, and in turn, he does not listen to what they have to say. this really detracts from peter’s life, and does not aid in his healing from his past. if he would be attentive to the plants around him, he may be reminded to live in the present rather than the past, just as clarissa is when she pays attention to the plants around her. as scholar matthew delsesto states, “being human means being in consant contact and communication with plants” (delsesto). this is something that woolf understands very clearly, as evident by clarissa’s many godleski 81 interactions with plants in mrs. dalloway. by looking more closely at the meaningful associations that clarissa creates with flowers and important people in her life, such as her husband, as well as the reverent way she interacts with flowers, we can learn how to be more attentive of the non-human species in our lives. by interacting with the flowers she comes across in an attentive way, she crafts a “meaningful response” to the interaction (van dooren, et al. 1). the way that clarissa interacts with flowers in mrs. dalloway shows us a new way of interacting with the non-human species in our lives. through listening to the flowers and the feelings that they provoked within her, clarissa dalloway showed all of us a meaningful way of interacting with the plants around us. she showed us that when we are feeling overwhelmed by our emotions or with the stress of our daily lives, we need only look for the beauty of a flower to remind us to live in the moment. flowers play an important role in virginia woolf’s mrs. dalloway. the main character of the novel, clarissa dalloway, interacts with the plants around her in a very meaningful way. she touches them and observes them very carefully, allowing them to evoke certain emotions within her. by listening to the emotions that each flower clarissa interacted with evoked, she combined two very important aspects of her life: flowers and the people she loved. clarissa is so aware of the plants that she sees in the single day that we see in her life, and we could all stand to learn to be more like her in that way. clarissa’s interactions with flowers are also meaningful in the way that the flowers she sees and touches pull her out of her emotions—out of her head—and into the present moment. woolf also shows us in her novel what not being attentive to the non-human species around us can take away from our lives through peter walsh, who is stuck in the past and cannot pull himself into the present because of his tendency to hold onto his regrets as well as his not paying attention to the multitude of species that he encounters in his life that would remind him to live in the moment with them. not only did clarissa create meaningful interaction between herself and the various flowers she loves so very much, she showed us, the readers of mrs. dalloway, a way in which we can be more godleski 82 attentive of what the non-human species around us, including flowers and plants, can add to our lives. godleski 83 works cited delsesto, matthew. “people-plant interactions and the ecological self.” plants people planet, vol. 2, no. 3, may 2020, https:// nphonlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ppp3.10087. dooren, thom van, et al. “multispecies studies: cultivating arts of attentiveness.” environmental humanities, duke university press, 1 may 2016, read.dukeupress.edu/environmental-humanities/ article/8/1/1/61679/multispecies-studiescultivating-arts-of. hensley, david, et al. “bird-of-paradise.” scholarspace, university of hawaii at manoa, 1998, scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/server/ apicore/bitstreams/85181a29-c202-4170-badf-40efbb74dafc/content. rychen, betty i., “mrs dalloway’s flowers: an attempt to define a symbol” (1982). dissertations, theses, and masters projects. william & mary. paper 1539625176. https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21220/ s2-04tp-vt46. shearer, jeanne. “nature as symbol and influence: the role of plants in mrs. dalloway.” virginia woolf miscellany, no. 78, fall-winter 2010, pp. 26+. gale literature resource center, link.gale.com/ appsdoc/a297829226/litrc?u=munc80314&sid=googlescholar&x id=1c60c41b. swanson, diana l. “woolf’s copernican shift: nonhuman nature in virginia woolf’s short fiction.” woolf studies annual, vol. 18, 2012, pp. 53–74. jstor, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24906897. thompson, julia. “rose color meanings.” fiftyflowers.com, fifty flowers, 29 nov. 2021, fiftyflowers.com/blogs/flowers/rose-colormeanings?return_to=%2fblogs%2fflowers%2frose-color-meanings. woolf, virginia, and c. a. jordana. mrs. dalloway. aziloth books, 2010 godleski © grile, the digital literature review, 12 (4), 58–69. doi: 10.33043/6adcr468. shared with cc-by-nc-nd 4.0 license. abstract 58 | grile in a country as full of diversity as the united states, there are numerous groups of people, especially racial/ethnic minorities, that are systemically marginalized. because of this, representation through music that is created by those who are individuals within these groups can act as empowerment. the chicano batman cover of the song “this land is your land” by woody guthrie establishes an attitude of resistance towards prejudiced norms and inspires a sense of belonging for latino/chicano people through the spanish lyrics that are embedded into the classic american song. in this essay, i will use the chicano studies reader: an anthology of aztlán by chon noriega to highlight and demonstrate the significance of chicano culture and history within the united states. i will dissect the spanish lyrics included within the chicano batman cover of the song and elaborate on the importance of their inclusion in relation to both current and past chicano history. the power of language: strengthening chicano voices through song anna grile http://doi.org/10.33043/6adcr468 the digital literature review | 59 music is a force that has been uniting people for thousands of years, and the new personal connections that become possible through song and music can change people’s lives. individuals and groups across the globe have all created different music that shares their perspectives on humanity and the world, and this representation has allowed for the sharing of unique points of view. lyrics and musical composition have the power to unify and educate people about key topics. musicians revisiting well-respected songs from the past and creating new covers can create spaces for entirely new audiences within the genre and music, and this type of change is notable, especially regarding universal topics such as immigration. this can allow for new experiences with music and new meaning making as well. a prime example of this is the cover of “this land is your land” done by the latino band called chicano batman. the chicano batman cover of woody guthrie’s song “this land is your land” is both important and empowering, as it reclaims a sense of belonging for multigenerational chicano people and immigrants through the modernized way they rewrite the original 1940 song. this cover allows for chicano and latino communities to make meaningful connections and feel a sense of empowerment in the united states through the inclusive spanish lyrics that it includes. this specific choice of alteration, among others in their cover of the song, is already making lasting impressions within latino communities. the chicano batman cover of “this land is your land” was released in january 2017, and most listeners noted this significant timing, as it was released just days before donald trump came into office for his first term as president. this cover of the iconic original song by woody guthrie captivated audiences across the nation, as it transformed an already pro-freedom anthem into a new one: one that amplifies the voices of latino and chicano-identifying people in the united states. the last stanza of lyrics in their cover contains three lines from the original version in english, and one final line in spanish. this concluding spanish line reads, “esta tierra es para ti y para mi.” by 60 | grile blending the two languages together in the ending of the song, they are connecting the two central cultures that make up the chicano identity. by making the choice to end the song with one last line in spanish, they are also intentionally reemphasizing a sense of latino triumph and pride. their bilingual cover acts as a more inclusive version of the original song. chicano batman allows for latino audiences to establish more meaningful interactions through their cover of the already well-known anthem. this version does so with the stanza of spanish lyrics that the band implemented into the song. with its synth, bardo martinez’s powerful vocals, and accompanying background vocals, the chicano batman cover contains a more upbeat tempo and groovy melody in comparison to the original. this restyling of the song adds to the already empowering tone that it creates, as well as creating a more twenty-first century and bilingual take. these changes may also appeal more to modern audiences, as they turn the original song into one that sounds similar to pop or indie music that may play on the radio. chicano batman is an indie latino rock band that was formed in 2008 in los angeles, california and is made up of members eduardo arenas, carlos arévalo, bardo martinez, and gabriel villa. they are known for their soulful and bold music and the culturally relevant themes they discuss and present within their songs and albums. they tackle serious and important topics such as immigration, identity, police brutality, and freedom while blending them into their smooth style of music. their album “freedom is free” takes a stance on these topics in both straightforward and inexplicit ways. for example, their song titled “la jura,” a spanish word colloquially used to identify police, tells the story of an instance of police brutality head-on and is inspired by tragic events that happened to arenas’ old neighbor/companion (bryan). their song sharing the title of “freedom is free” contains lyrics that promote freedom as an individualistic idea of belonging and liberation. this song contains lyrics such as: “freedom is free, and you can't take that away from me” and “that's the way it's always gonna be.” in their the digital literature review | 61 album and song titled “invisible people,” chicano batman explains what it is like to be a minority in the united states, stating that “invisible people, the truth is we're all the same, the concept of race was implanted inside your brain.” in this song, they do not stray away from the idea that minorities are treated differently than dominant groups, and bring attention to this idea with their groovy/funky cover. the unique name chicano batman does not simply come out of nowhere either, and lead singer bardo martinez is the one who originally came up with the concept/ band name. in a pbs socal article, martinez shared that “the whole point was that both chicano and batman are very iconic names so when you combine these two iconic names it creates a whole different thing. the whole point is combining a pop-cultural symbol and a cultural-political symbol” (anguiano). the word chicano is a term that mexican americans in the united states have identified with and used to label or describe their culture or family heritage (“latino/a/x, hispanic, chicano”). the name chicano batman exists and works to create a newer positive reception and reputation of the word chicano, as it has previously held a negative connotation in the united states. the name does so by blending this term with the previously established pop culture of the united states to add balance. by creating, releasing, and performing their music under the band name chicano batman, they are decreasing the negative stigmas surrounding the word and becoming a visible and well-known positive representation of it. the name acts as an immediate attention grabber for multiple audiences, and this is only the beginning of how chicano batman is spreading visibility for chicano people as a band. their chicano representation directly acts as a powerful influence that can inspire and empower chicano people of all ages and reduces previous negative stereotypes. it is no surprise that a band that creates music in order to promote freedom and diverse voices would end up working on a modernized cover of woody guthrie’s classic song “this land is your land.” in an interview for billboard, the members of chicano 62 | grile batman discussed their beliefs and experiences as a band and what the music they create and play means to them. when asked about the creation of their cover of “this land is your land,” they shared that the idea of them covering the song came from a pitch in hopes of them recording the song in collaboration with johnnie walker whiskey. this collaboration ended with a video advertisement in which all members of the band were in the spotlight for. this ad itself acted as a source of chicano/latino representation in media and became a source of attention and discussion because of this. carlos arevalo, the guitarist of the band, shared about the initial hesitation they had about the song because it was “cheesy” and something that they all had to sing in school when they were younger. eduardo arenas, the bassist of the band, also shared they believed “that song [“this land is your land”] has been misappropriated into this all-american, almost pro-war type of chant,” and how after beginning to recontextualize the lyrics of the original song, they began to understand the importance of it and what their cover of it could mean for people (norris). in this interview, arenas shares about a meaningful interaction he had with someone who had listened to their cover. he recounts this moment, stating, “i ran into someone after a show who said he was working on a midterm, one of his college papers, about the song and what it means for latinos to be singing that song today, in america” (norris). this interaction alone is a prime example of how their cover of “this land is your land” has created environments for people to connect with it and resonate with the messages that it shares to promote and inspire community and belonging for multigenerational immigrants in the united states. their cover promotes the idea of latino and chicano people using their voices in order to represent themselves and claim their rightful belonging within the united states. conversations like the one arenas had with a fan may seem as though they are a smaller interaction, but there is a deep significance behind these discussions. when people within the latino/chicano communities are able to see the digital literature review | 63 the inclusion of spanish within a classic american anthem, they are able to establish a sense of relation and belonging that is specific to them and their culture. in his essay titled “unraveling america’s hispanic past internal stratification and class boundaries,” historian ramón a. gutiérrez notes that there are “several possible origins for the word” (gutiérrez 257). guiterrez shares a few of the most plausible beginnings for the word, stating that it may derive from the following: the switching of letters in the spanish word "chinaco," meaning "tramp;" the shortening of names used with children learning to speak; the passing down of the name of an aztec tribe called meshicas; or that it stems from the spanish word "chico," meaning "small" (gutierrez 258). despite which of these origins the word accurately came from, in the past it has been used as a derogatory word towards mexican people that live in the united states, especially aimed at, but not limited to, low-income mexican families. since then, newer generations have especially begun to reclaim and identify with the word chicano/a in the mid-to-late 20th century. adaljiza sosa riddell shares this sentiment in her essay titled “chicanas and el movimiento,” expressing that the chicano movement is “the allencompassing effort to, on the one hand, articulate and intensify the chicano existence, and on the other hand, to articulate and alleviate the suffering that has accrued to chicanos precisely because of that existence” (riddell 245). the reclamation of the chicano label has allowed for chicano people to restore a sense of power for themselves within the word and use it as a word that empowers them, rather than belittle or discriminate against them. this provides a stronger sense of agency within these communities and unites chicano voices together. since world war i and world war ii, chicano-identifying people and mexican people have endured several cases of mass deportations and acts of racism in the u.s. these types of experiences are unfortunately nothing new for mexican people in the united states to face, and there is a relevant history and multiple examples of this occurring. 64 | grile in her essay about chicano movements, rosaura sánchez shares some of this history, summarizing that this discrimination presented itself as “the repatriation of mexican immigrants in 1930–1931 and continuing with media reports promoting violence against the ‘zoot suiters’ of the 1940s, the deportation of ‘wetbacks’ in the 1950s, and the raids and border violence against ‘mexican illegals’ throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s” (sánchez 352). these acts of violence and prejudice have reinforced immense feelings of exclusion towards mexican people, as well as created and upheld these attitudes and structures in which they have the potential to be harmed. for decades, the united states allowed the maintenance of these harmful beliefs and judgements towards mexican americans and mexican individuals, and this is something that still occurs today. current immigration policies in the united states have also allowed for these negative mental and physical consequences to continue. according to the american immigration council, the united states immigration and customs enforcement (ice) has contributed to the deportation of 231,000 mexican individuals from 2013-2018 that had at least one child that was a u.s. citizen. similarly, in 2019, 27,980 mexican people were deported that had u.s. born children (american immigration council). this demonstrates one of the many ways in which mexican and chicano-identifying people are treated and the cultural shame they have endured in the u.s. because of their identity. modern bands like chicano batman are working to reclaim the word chicano in both a positive and powerful sense in relation to identity within the united states. they are shedding light on the importance of the chicano identity and history and becoming additional representation for those within this community. since the creation of the united states, many artists have used creative means to express their beliefs about the country, including both appreciation for it and what could be changed for the better. “this land is your land” is a song known by many due to its peak in popularity in the 1940s that has lasted to this day, and this woody guthrie song the digital literature review | 65 has been well-received and chanted by many throughout the country as a patriotic song. although this song includes patriotic themes, guthrie also worked to ensure that the song included elements that brought attention to the economic disparities in the country. in fact, guthrie is believed to have written this song as a unique response to the song “god bless america” by irving berlin (“this land is your land”). according to the library of congress, guthrie’s observations “accurately reflected the fact that, even in the depths of the depression, nearly 20 percent of the nation's wealth rested with one percent of its population” (“this land is your land”). guthrie wrote this nationally acclaimed song as a means to acknowledge both the beauty and injustice of the country. he also included lines of a similar sentiment in the song that were later removed from recorded versions. two of these lines read: “nobody living can make me turn back / this land was made for you and me” (“this land is your land”). these lines reflect more of an objection in relation to the unequal distribution of property, wealth, and land in the united states. while the woody gurhrie version of “this land is your land” was advanced for its time in promoting a more inclusive united states, the spanish lines added to the chicano batman cover of the song are what makes it so unique and sets it apart from the original version from several decades ago. the spanish stanza of lines from their cover state: no existe nadie que pueda pararme por el camino de libertad no existe nadie que pueda hacerme volver esta tierra es para ti, para mí. in english, this stanza translates to read: “there is no one who can stop me / on the path of freedom / there is no one who can make me return / this land is for you, for me.” it is noteworthy to mention that the spanish lines from the song have been partially translated through a combination of translations from both spanishdict and myself. the line “esta tierra es para ti y para mí” is repeated again as the last line of the song, and 66 | grile this repetition highlights the specific importance of presenting that the u.s does not solely exist for one group of people/people that were born there. while these spanish lines only make up a smaller section of the entire song, the significance of this stanza is immense because of the ways in which it speaks for immigrants and envisions a new pro-immigrant version. the specific line “no existe nadie que pueda hacerme volver” or “there is no one who can make me return” especially display this belief because of the ways that they express mexican immigrants/chicanos should not be–and will not be– forced to leave the united states to live in mexico. while the original version of the song does express views that the u.s. should be shared between everyone with the consistent line of “this land was made for you and me,” it does not include lines that are specifically aimed toward the inclusion of all immigrants and latino/chicano immigrants in the same modern way the chicano batman version does. they put emphasis on the fact that these are their rights as human beings, and their uplifting lyrics within the song begin to work as a sense of activism in itself. these chicano batman lyrics discourage sentiments of alienation towards people who are immigrants in the united states and instead promote ideals sharing the belief that these people belong in the u.s. and should share the same freedoms as every individual who lives in the country. as a band, chicano batman has already achieved success when it comes to sharing the messages of latino voices through their music. their influence has been noted by many, and people in the chicano and latino community have been able to make strong personal connections with their songs and musical performances. in a review of “are we not foreigners here? indigenous nationalism in the u.s.–mexico borderlands” by jeffrey schulze, gregorio gonzales recounts a time in which he was able to see chicano batman perform their cover of “this land is your land” live in new mexico and how powerful this experience was for him. he shared that after the spanish lines in the song were the digital literature review | 67 first sung, “chicano nationalism and native nationhood soaked the sea of brown bodies grooving to the psychedelic soul rhythm pulsing through the veins of this transnational indigenous, urban border town of indian country” and “a crescendo of voices then emerged from the crowd to yell protest anthems in lakota” (gonzales). gonzales’ experience in this crowd of people demonstrates a first-hand account of how chicano batman’s cover of “this land is your land” has directly positively impacted the chicano community in the united states. gonzales was able to see the latino and indigenous communities that were brought together through chicano batman’s cover, and this goes to show just how impactful the spanish lines were for chicano and latino voices. music and songs are powerful tools which artists are able to use to craft entirely new meanings and connections for themselves, as well as their audiences, to experience. the exposure and influence that chicano batman has had as a band through their cover of “this land is your land” has instilled further growth, pride, and belonging within the chicano label and chicano/latino community in the united states. it has allowed for chicano/latino people to claim the sense of belonging and that they deserve to live and exist as human beings wherever they are in this country–without the dismissive and prejudiced views of others interfering. this cover of “this land is your land” has promoted ideas of inclusivity and empowerment, and chicano batman as a band itself continues to provide latino representation for audiences of latino/chicano and their communities. 68 | grile anguiano, jose. “chicano batman: not another band from east l.a.” pbs socal, pbs socal, 7 feb. 2022, www.pbssocal.org/shows/artbound/chicano-batman-the-eastla-band-offering-nostalgia-and-comfort#:~:text=the%20name%20originally%20served%20 as,and%20a%20cultural%2dpolitical%20symbol. bryan, beverly. “chicano batman’s new album is their funkiest political statement yet.” remezcla, remezcla, 29 apr. 2019, remezcla.com/features/music/chicano-batmanfreedom-is-free-interview/. gonzales, g. (2018). are we not foreigners here? indigenous nationalism in the u.s.–mexico borderlands. by jeffrey m. schulze. american indian culture and research journal , 42(1). http://dx.doi.org/10.17953/0161-6463-42.1.135. retrieved from https:// escholarship.org/uc/item/9v1203kh gutiérrez, ramón a. “unraveling america’s hispanic past.” aztlán: a journal of chicano studies, vol. 17, no. 1, 1986, pp. 257–258, https://doi.org/10.1525/ azt.1986.17.1.79. “latino/a/x, hispanic, chicano.” editorial style guide, university of wisconsinmadison, editorial-styleguide.strategiccommunication.wisc.edu/term/latino-a-xhispanic-chicano-2/#:~:text=latino%2c%20latina%2c%20or%20latinx%20are,use%20to%20 describe%20their%20heritage. noriega, chon a., et al. the chicano studies reader: an anthology of aztlán, 19702019. ucla chicano studies research center press, 2021. works cited http://www.pbssocal.org/shows/artbound/chicano-batman-the-east-la-band-offering-nostalgia-and-comfort# http://www.pbssocal.org/shows/artbound/chicano-batman-the-east-la-band-offering-nostalgia-and-comfort# http://remezcla.com/features/music/chicano-batman-freedom-is-free-interview/ http://remezcla.com/features/music/chicano-batman-freedom-is-free-interview/ http://dx.doi.org/10.17953/0161-6463-42.1.135 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9v1203kh https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9v1203kh https://doi.org/10.1525/azt.1986.17.1.79 https://doi.org/10.1525/azt.1986.17.1.79 http://editorial-styleguide.strategiccommunication.wisc.edu/term/latino-a-x-hispanic-chicano-2/# http://editorial-styleguide.strategiccommunication.wisc.edu/term/latino-a-x-hispanic-chicano-2/# the digital literature review | 69 norris, john. “chicano batman talk inspiring resistance in trump era & how their acclaimed johnnie walker ad came about.” billboard, billboard, 7 apr. 2017. riddell, adaljiza sosa. “chicanas and el movimiento.” aztlán: a journal of chicano studies, vol. 5, no. 1–2, 1974, p. 245, https://doi.org/10.1525/azt.1974.5.1-2.155. sánchez, rosaura. “mapping the spanish language along a multiethnic and multilingual border.” aztlán: a journal of chicano studies, vol. 21, no. 1–2, 1 oct. 1996, p. 352, https://doi.org/10.1525/azt.1996.21.1-2.49. “this land is your land.” the library of congress, www.loc.gov/collections/ patriotic-melodies/articles-and-essays/this-land-is-your-land/. “u.s. citizen children impacted by immigration enforcement.” american immigration council, american immigration council, 8 oct. 2024, www. americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/us-citizen-children-impacted-immigrationenforcement. https://doi.org/10.1525/azt.1974.5.1-2.155 https://doi.org/10.1525/azt.1996.21.1-2.49 http://www.loc.gov/collections/patriotic-melodies/articles-and-essays/this-land-is-your-land/ http://www.loc.gov/collections/patriotic-melodies/articles-and-essays/this-land-is-your-land/ http://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/us-citizen-children-impacted-immigration-enforcement http://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/us-citizen-children-impacted-immigration-enforcement http://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/us-citizen-children-impacted-immigration-enforcement smooth criminals: an introduction to the prevalence and power of true crime and crime fiction in society makayla edwards, caleb hardesty, hannah holmberg, bella hughes, rae keeler, the digital literature review editorial team crime media has the capacity to highlight the reality of flaws and misconceptions in criminal justice. while these stories are intended to convey a realistic portrayal of the pervasiveness of crime, most only succeed in perpetuating stereotypes. crime fiction has skyrocketed in popularity over the last couple of centuries as it has developed into a definitive, nuanced genre. this is for a multitude of reasons, the most obvious being that people are fascinated with crime, especially as a dramatized form of entertainment (lettieri). readers thrive on being able to follow the forensic clues and investigate a crime alongside the detective to try to figure out the criminal’s motives and subsequently how to guard themselves against such horrendous crimes (donovan). crime fiction can also be a medium through which people can explore their fears and anxieties surrounding the possible repercussions of larger social or cultural problems. for instance, the industrial revolution took place when the genre began to define itself in the 19th century and the world wars were in the background during the golden age of crime fiction which gave rise to authors like agatha christie and novels such as the maltese falcon. crime fiction has developed in many ways throughout history, leading us into more diverse territory. as the popularity of crime fiction continues to grow, audience and author demographics widen with it. we no longer exclusively see the restrictive storylines of locked rooms and police procedurals; the genre has evolved to provide contemporary authors with an outlet to discuss social issues involving race, gender, and class, such as those ellen bain examines in her essay “the art of persuasion: a rhetorical analysis of amy dunne’s narration in gone girl.” there are still many more advancements to be made concerning intersectional diversity within the genre, 6 https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/decoding-madness/202109/why-are-we-so-interested-in-crime-stories#:~:text=some%20researchers%20concluded%20that%20the,accompanies%20criminal%20behavior%20and%20homicide. https://www.mysteryandsuspense.com/forensics-in-fiction/ such as those riley ellis calls attention to in her discussion about scapegoats in her essay “money moves: class-based scapegoats and the decolonization of literary crime fictions,” but the increased representation of marginalized voices sets a more progressive tone for the future of crime fiction. as time has progressed, so has the genre. society and culture have become increasingly complex and so have the crimes along with the criminals that commit them. much like crime fiction, true crime has garnered attention in recent years, becoming increasingly popular across all genres. the genre was originally full of works authored by those within the professions associated with crime–law enforcement, judicial participants, and reporters (roysdon). while these figures are still heavily involved in works of true crime, production of the genre has expanded to more diverse fields. when true crime was first introduced in the 16th century, it was a way of communicating news and simply reporting a crime story. these pamphlets and short narratives gave literate audiences an inside look into criminal cases and legal proceedings (burger). as the genre grew and progressed, audiences began to gain more from the often graphic content. around the 19th century, audiences began stepping into the detective role, gravitating toward true crime mysteries where they could put their wits to the test and attempt to solve the case. true crime also began to lean towards critiques of the criminal justice system and law enforcement, interacting with the everevolving culture that surrounds it. for some–particularly female audiences–true crime has become a tool for learning how to avoid crime, as bella hughes calls attention to in her essay “murderinos: examining the female audience of true crime podcasts with my favorite murder.” these audiences consume the content in order to learn from previous victims and avoid similar fates. that’s not to say that true crime is not simply entertainment for some. it is because of the growing popularity and possibilities of the genre that the digital literature review chose to explore the public perception of crime. in this 10th edition of the journal, the team wanted to analyze how certain tropes have shifted to fit a more progressive society. crime media has become a more accepted form of literature because of its ability to validate fears of the uncertainty of violence. our goal was to reach a broad audience of authors and readers from the already diverse world of crime narratives. as the purpose of crime literature has morphed to appeal to new generations of “crime junkies,” the digital literature review wanted to examine these narratives in terms of their benefits—or lack there-of—to the understanding of crime and criminals in a society prone to upholding patriarchal and racial standards. while crime fiction may be filled with outlandish mysteries and characters, it is important to acknowledge that these stories do not exist in a fully fictionalized bubble 7 introduction https://crimereads.com/a-brief-history-of-the-rise-and-evolution-of-true-crime-books/ https://daily.jstor.org/bloody-history-of-true-crime-genre/ completely detached from real social impact, and thus they can become harmful narratives. crime fiction gives us a clear look at many aspects of our culture, such as who is typically framed as a criminal, and what that can reveal about our preset biases. true crime narratives, too, can fall into these same biases when sensationalism is favored over accurate reporting, which caleb hardesty sheds light on in his essay “the white lens of crime media: examining minority underrepresentation in american media and its consequences.” when we begin to examine which people are assumed guilty in these narratives and, just as importantly, who is assumed innocent, we get a glimpse into the cultural scaffolding around criminality. for groups of people who are often cast as deviants in these narratives, such as foreigners or those suffering from mental disorders, the real-life implications make themselves known when they are labeled as dangerous or untrustworthy due to public perception being skewed from constantly being villainized by the media, as found in makayla edwards’s essay “taking the ‘psycho’ out of ‘psycho-killer: the impact of criminal portrayals of psychiatric disorders in horror films.” beginning with hardesty’s “the white lens of crime media,” we are shown how these damaging narratives are not a new phenomenon. using huey p. newton’s revolutionary suicide, hardesty explores how racially biased media has damaged the reputation of american minority groups for decades, as well as how little how changed through contemporary comparisons. issues like “missing white woman syndrome” serve to illustrate how white upper-class americans benefit from these biased narratives while paving the way for minority groups to be neglected by the justice system. in “the art of persuasion: a rhetorical analysis of amy dunne’s narration in gone girl,” ellen bain analyzes the role of narration in crime fiction. by examining the privileges of the character amy dunne, we are shown how demographics and logic can be used to skew public perception and shift the blame of criminality from one person to another. this essay highlights the power that societal expectations and prejudices hold over law enforcement. continuing the theme of harmful misrepresentation, makayla edwards’s “taking the ‘psycho’ out of ‘psycho-killer: the impact of criminal portrayals of psychiatric disorders in horror films,” walks us through how damaging false narratives can be to those struggling with mental illness. the essay explores the inaccurate and criminalizing nature of mental illness representation through alfred hitchcock’s psycho and stanley kubrick’s the shining, which both perpetuate the stigma that those suffering from mental illness are violent and dangerous. the analysis also addresses the real-world implications of these portrayals and the negative effects they have on societal perceptions of various psychological disorders. recently, more authors have begun to recognize the harmful narratives taking 8 introduction place and have taken to calling attention to their significant influence on society. when examining the social issues at play within true crime, some narratives choose to address the questions of who gets blamed, who gets away, and what role class, race, gender, and sexuality play in these types of stories. instead of subverting the typical tropes that are played out in true crime, fiction that recognizes these narratives instead leans into the tropes, specifically in ways that reflect what society is already doing. the genre of true crime sheds light on societal and systemic issues, depicting them for what they are. without attempting to fix the issues or find solutions, these stories simply but masterfully show the injustices of society, and leave it in the hands of the reader to understand the nuance behind the narrative and the commentary that they make about issues of injustice. this discussion of recognizing the narrative begins with “money moves: classbased scapegoats and the decolonization of literary crime fictions,” in which riley ellis tackles the role of the scapegoat in tana french’s the secret place and oyinkan braithwaite’s my sister, the serial killer. through the context of literary crime fiction genre conventions, she explores topics such as gender, race, and class. ellis uses frantz fanon’s the wretched of the earth (1961) as a framework to examine the significance of these intersectionalities and violence in the decolonization of literary crime fiction. in “cogs in the machine: an analysis of american psycho”, rae keeler connects the violence that is depicted in the novel with the inherent violence that is present in capitalism. she argues that bateman’s victims, his style of killing, and the lack of justice brought upon him represent the criminal justice system and its effects on society. she breaks down parts of the serial killer that are depicted in bateman and analyzes how they represent different aspects of the effects of trickle-down economics in america. angelo gonzalez examines the connection between setting, class, and the genre of crime fiction in “mysterious murderous manors of crime fiction: an examination of setting in knives out.” gonzalez argues that knives out is a nostalgia tribute to the genre but is also key to establishing themes and subverting typical tropes. finally, in “new law of the land: the monster in no country for old men,” will callan examines the character chigurh and applies monster theory to understand him in a new light. he argues that mccarthy creates chigurh to be a monster in order to depict the violence of crime and the futility of attempting to stop it. he achieves this through the narration of sheriff bell and how that perspective translates into today’s society. as creators of modern crime media begin to recognize the harmful narrative that has perpetuated prejudices and obstructed justice throughout generations, they work to break ground on a new narrative in which unjust societal and systemic structures are critiqued and the tropes and expectations that have made up the genre for so long are updated for a new generation of crime fans. some of these unjust structures are 9 introduction examined in “realistic villains’: examining social commentary in crime films through knives out and bodies bodies bodies,” where caitlin davis uses the two titular films to highlight class divisions in the real world. with an examination of the symbolism involved in the deaths that occur in each movie, this essay adds to the discussion of what crime fiction can tell us about our own culture, as well as how to possibly move forward from unjust divisions that so often have a role in crime. delving deeper into the possibilities of a younger demographic, katelyn mathew explores how young adult crime fiction has morphed to influence and reflect teenagers in today’s society in “how young adult crime fiction influences and reflects modern adolescents: an examination of karen m. mcmanus’s one of us is lying and one of us is next.” mathew takes the reader through the popular young adult crime fiction duology and shows how mcmanus works to connect to modern adolescents through concepts such as technology and progressive values. with an understanding that contemporary audiences recognize and condemn societal faults that were once ignored or encouraged, novels like these attempt to normalize aspects of public relevance, which mathew discusses regarding the development of social media as a weapon and the inclusion of primary non-heteronormative characters. it’s important to understand that these new narratives aren’t limited to only crime fiction, but can be woven into true crime as well. audiences learn much about crime from engaging with the stories of victims and survivors. in “murderinos: examining the female audience of true crime podcasts with my favorite murder,” bella hughes investigates how women tend to gravitate toward true crime podcasts for their educational content. through an analysis of the functions of both the medium and the genre, hughes showcases the connection between those functions and audience reception of true crime podcasts with particular emphasis on women’s feelings of agency moving forward with access to this resource. with the ever-growing popularity of the true crime and crime fiction genres, identifying, recognizing, and ultimately changing the harmful narratives that often lie within them is imperative. the cultural significance of these stories cannot be overstated, and leaving them without critique only creates more space for discriminatory and criminalizing portrayals. the lack of intersectionality in both crime fiction and true crime is a paradoxical issue, which can only be solved through accountability and intervention. while many authors have made strides to recognize and diversify tropes in the genre, it still remains largely catered to and biased toward the dominant population (whether it be class, race, gender, etc.). that is why our hope with this journal is to help readers explore and examine the tropes and inequities in crime media and literature as well as within real-life socio-economic contexts. each essay provides a different perspective on various complex issues within the 10 introduction genre, offering a critical understanding of popular crime literature, film, and media. throughout the journal, we encourage our readers to take an introspective approach to their own interactions with crime media and the significance of their personal consumption of it. and hopefully next time readers listen to an episode of their favorite crime podcast or try to solve a murder mystery, they will be able to understand it in a completely different light. following the incredible work produced on a wide variety of subjects throughout 10 years of dlr issues, we are grateful for the opportunity to deliver research on such a prevalent topic in this 10th edition of the journal. thank you, and good luck, detectives, makayla edwards, caleb hardesty, hannah holmberg, bella hughes, and rae keeler editorial team of the 2022-2023 dlr 11 introduction works cited burger, pamela. “the bloody history of the true crime genre | jstor daily.” jstor daily, 24 aug. 2016, daily.jstor.org/bloody-history-of-true-crime-genre/. donovan, trisha. “forensics in fiction.” mystery and suspense magazine, 17 mar. 2021, www.mysteryandsuspense.com/forensics-in-fiction/. lettieri, richard. “why are we so interested in crime stories?” psychology today, 24 sept. 2021, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/ decoding-madness/202109/why-are-we-so-interested-in-crimestories#:~:text=some%20researchers%20concluded%20that%20the. roysdon, keith. “a brief history of the rise—and evolution—of true crime books.” crimereads, 14 june 2021, crimereads.com/a-brief-history-of-therise-and-evolution-of-true-crime-books/. 12 introduction http://daily.jstor.org/bloody-history-of-true-crime-genre/ http://www.mysteryandsuspense.com/forensics-in-fiction/ http://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/decoding-madness/202109/why-are-we-so-interested-in-crime-stories#:~:text=some%20researchers%20concluded%20that%20the http://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/decoding-madness/202109/why-are-we-so-interested-in-crime-stories#:~:text=some%20researchers%20concluded%20that%20the http://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/decoding-madness/202109/why-are-we-so-interested-in-crime-stories#:~:text=some%20researchers%20concluded%20that%20the http://crimereads.com/a-brief-history-of-the-rise-and-evolution-of-true-crime-books/ http://crimereads.com/a-brief-history-of-the-rise-and-evolution-of-true-crime-books/ 4 “multispecies encounters” introduction sam allen, lilly elrod, mia godleski, and piyesone hunthant—the 2024 digital literature review editorial team multispecies theory and its respective research and scholarship is extensive, and at times, complicated. put most simply, the theory works to dissolve the idea that the human species is something ultimate, individual, solitary, or somehow separate from other living and nonliving beings. multispecies theorists hope to influence the study of human history, biology, and the humanities to include the lives and histories of nonhuman beings—no matter if they are categorized as living or nonliving. however, in a multispecies exploration of the world, scholars must ask this first: what is a species? thom van dooren, eben kirksey, and ursula münster describe the nonhuman areas of study in “multispecies studies: cultivating arts of attentiveness” as fungi, plants, microorganisms, and animals (3), but also as stones, weather systems, technology, artificial intelligence, rivers and mountains, and the unseen beyond—ghosts, gods, and spirits (4). in “arts of inclusion, or how to love a mushroom” by anna tsing, she explores the intricate cities of fungi that exist beneath our feet, and in staying with the trouble: making kin in the chthulucene, donna haraway tries to define the ongoing and ever-connected nature of the ecosystem. she explores how each thread of life and nonlife is connected, and to tell the stories of the unknown is to explore “the patterning of possible worlds and possible times” (31), which is also, somehow, a way of multispecies scholarship. in this journal, essayists explore and analyze works of literature and film with multispecies theory as their guidebook. in analyzing the nonhuman and nonliving characters and story elements in literature, readers can understand not only how nonhuman species impact our day-to-day life, but also how nonhuman lives and histories are worth studying and appreciating on their own. multispecies theory draws lines between academic subjects, over cultural sectors and political boundaries, and dissects human ideas of time, life, and ways of being. when relating this theory to literary criticism, essayists in “multispecies encounters” explored the nonhuman narrator, plant and animal life as independent actors, the complications with an anthropomorphized animal character, and how science-fiction genre expectations can lend to viewing our environment as an independent organism. in our own ways, the writers of the following essays were inspired by the work of multispecies scholars. we pulled threads to reveal the nonhuman players in the stories we know well, we listened when the authors gave them a voice, and paid attention to their history, their meaning, and their futures. our results were as expansive as the topic. in eden hathaway’s “anthropomorphism unveiled: a case analysis of isle of dogs and its role in multispecies narratives,” the anthropomorphized animal allows viewers to better empathize with the dogs in the story and grow to consider the individual and shared history that exists between them. hathaway reveals the knots that connect the humans and the dogs, and how human behavior can both negatively and positively shape the lives of the nonhuman beings in their environment. the dogs in isle of dogs serve as the story’s narrators, and as the film hands over the narrative responsibility over to the nonhuman, it reveals a previously unknown perspective to the human reader. elif shafak’s novel the island of missing trees, analyzed by two authors in this journal, tells parts of the novel’s story from the perspective of a female fig tree. in bella hughes’s essay “the trees speak for themselves: how non-human narrators in fiction influence multispecies encounters,” she considers how this narrator educates the human reader on how plants experience both positive and negative life events and how their own interactions and communications with other nonliving species can better influence how humans treat the environment. their analysis serves as an example of how literary endeavors to give voices to nonhuman beings expands beyond the anthrointroduction pocentric worldview. nonhuman beings in literature often serve as symbols and motifs, which help readers better understand our relationship to those beings. katelyn mathew in “exploring religious animal symbolism in louise erdrich’s the plague of doves” explores religious animal symbolism in literature, and how it represents human emotion and premonition, both positive and negative, and how the symbolism changes over cultures and religions. her analysis sheds a light on the complicated relationships between the colonizer and the colonized, and how sometimes contrasting animal symbolism represents power imbalances. this can also mean that natures and divines are inseparable, and it may cause conflicts if we divert our attention from them. the representation of plants and animals in literature is complicated, and varies across genres. in lilly elrod’s “an analysis of the film bee movie and multispecies theory,” she provides an insight into how the film represents the true interactions that bees have with the world around them, but also how anthropomorphism can have inaccuracies that are harmful to how people interact and think of the insect. in mia godleski’s essay “the art of being attentive in virginia woolf’s mrs. dalloway,” godleski writes about how flowers are not just a literary symbol, but have agency as a living being to keep mrs. dalloway calm during moments of duress. rather than analyzing the flowers by their relevance to a human life, godleski emphasizes their inherent individuality—opening up literary criticism to involve these seemingly passive players in their analyses. but why do we give plants agency? in “my philodendron’s favorite music is beethoven: considerations of plant sentience,” milo hardison explores the science behind plant sentience, and how island of missing trees explores the biological ways in which plants behave and operate on their own, giving them an individual presence outside of human involvement. in the same vein, fiction allows authors to explore ideas that we introduction have difficulty understanding from a human perspective, like plant sentience and environmental independence. in “surrendering the self: the posthuman world in vandermeer’s annihilation,” sam allen explores the science-fiction genre’s ability to explore the power of an unstoppable nature, and how humans truly serve as one evolutionary piece in our environment. the world humans live in contains an endless multitude of multispecies interactions—and our essayists in “multispecies encounters” aim to prove this argument in their extensive literary and film analysis. though our everyday lives are so heavily influenced by the interactions we have with various species, we do not tend to acknowledge these significant interactions. so much of history and of our own lives centers on interactions between humans. because of this, only a small fraction of the world’s history, as well as our own, individual histories, gets told. by ignoring the multitude of species around us as well as the interactions we have with them, we are disregarding the magnitude of the environments that we are a part of—the environments that do so much to care for and provide for us, but also have beautiful ways of existing on their own. introduction works cited haraway, donna j. staying with the trouble: making kin in the chthulucene. duke university press, 2016, pp. 30–57. jstor, https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv11cw25q. haraway, donna. “when species meet: introduction.” when species meet, university of minnesota press, 2008. tsing, anna. “arts of inclusion, or, how to love a mushroom.” unloved others: death of the disregarded in the time of extinction, edited by monique rooney, australian humanities review, may 2011. van dooren, thom, et al. “multispecies studies: cultivating arts of attentiveness.” environmental humanities, duke university press, 1 may 2016, read.dukeupress.edu/environmental-humanities/ article/8/1/1/61679/multispecies-studiescultivating-arts-of. introduction anthropomorphism unveiled: a case analysis of an isle of dogs and it’s role in mediating multispecies narratives eden hathaway the trees speak for themselves: how non-human narrators in fiction influence multispecies encounters bella hughes exploring religious animal symbolism in louise erdrich’s the plague of doves katelyn mathew an analysis of the film bee movie and multispecies theory lilly elrod the art of being attentive in virginia woolf’s mrs. dalloway mia godleski my philodendron’s favorite music is beethoven: considerations of plant sentience milo hardison surrendering the self: the posthuman world in vandermeer’s annihilation sam allen when we read crime fiction, we often expect a cast dominated by adult characters. this is likely a result of decades’ worth of popular crime fiction narratives almost exclusively containing adult characters. the earliest literature in the mystery and crime genre that was targeted towards younger audiences contained teenage detectives and adult criminals because it allowed the younger audiences to read about powerful teenagers overthrowing adult authority while still only engaging in acceptable moral activities in an attempt to decrease or discourage juvenile delinquency. a newer trend among young adult crime fiction novels is the adolescent playing the part of the criminal in addition to the detective. applying social cognitive theory explored in the study conducted by black and barnes to the roles of adolescents in karen m. mcmanus’s young adult mystery novel one of us is lying and its sequel one of us is next, this essay will analyze the novels’ adolescent characters to show how adolescent characters in young adult crime fiction reflect their young audiences’ desires to subvert adult hierarchies while still displaying acceptable morals and how they possibly influence their sense of morality. how young adult crime fiction influences and reflects modern adolescents: an examination of karen m. mcmanus’s one of us is lying and one of us is next katelyn mathew, ball state university 108 mathew crime fiction as a genre has notably been geared towards adult audiences, most likely a result of the violent subject matter including but not limited to murder, rape, torture, and gore. however, the crime fiction genre isn’t exclusive to adult audiences. young adult (ya) crime fiction, emerging in the 1920s and gaining popularity around the 1950s, is targeted towards younger audiences between the ages of twelve and eighteen. despite catering towards a younger audience, young adult fiction— including young adult crime fiction—is a genre that deserves recognition and serious discussion. focusing on the roles of adolescents in karen m. mcmanus’s young adult mystery novel one of us is lying and its sequel one of us is next, as well as research on the effects of ya fiction, this essay will analyze the adolescent characters to show that adolescent characters in young adult crime fiction reflect and possibly influence young audiences’ sense of morality, especially in a society in which technology plays an integral role in adolescents’ everyday lives. to understand the genre of ya crime fiction and its audience, it is important to note its origins. in “teenage detectives and teenage delinquents,” ilana nash analyzes the society which created ya crime fiction and traces its roots back to 1880s writer edward stratemeyer, who wrote many teenage heroism stories for boys in the ten– fifteen age range. it wasn’t until the 1920s when stratemeyer’s publishing company, called stratemeyer syndicate, published the hardy boys series, which became one of the first, if not the first, children’s detective series featuring recurring teenage characters as detectives (nash 73–74). the nancy drew series was quick to follow in the 1930s, and around twenty years later, both series’ popularity rocketed. this was after world war ii, which brought an onslaught of teenage independence and social influence. nash explains, “the literatures of teens and crime used the image of the teenager to address anxieties about social control and the future of american society” (nash 73). many believed that these stories and other similar stories would encourage behavior that was deemed acceptable and would discourage teenage delinquency as well as, ultimately, the erosion of american morals in the younger generation. to accomplish this, the role of adolescents in ya crime fiction was that of detectives upholding traditional values that reinforced conservative hierarchies of class, race, and gender. for example, those who came from lower-class households were depicted as more susceptible to delinquency and violence. girls faced sexual activity as a factor to determine their delinquency whereas the boys’ sexual activity was under less scrutiny, their delinquency being primarily focused on violence and vandalism (nash 76). the desired result would be to encourage readers to adhere to the boundaries and values portrayed. while it is still true today that adolescent characters in this genre are given the 109 mathew role of the detective to bring the criminal to justice, the morally sound detective is not the only role adolescents occupy anymore. john g. cawelti identifies four essential character roles in mystery fiction: the victim, the criminal, the detective, and those threatened by the crime but incapable of solving it (91). the original ya crime fiction writers from the 1930s up until recently have ensured their teenage characters filled the roles of the detective in an attempt to decrease juvenile delinquency, as nash explained, but modern ya crime fiction seems to have changed this convention. now more than ever, audiences of this genre are seeing teenagers in the roles of all of those presented by cawelti, and some even redefine these roles. a modern example of ya crime fiction redefining some of these roles is mcmanus’s one of us is lying. for some background, in this novel, high school student simon runs a notorious gossip app called “about that” that regularly exposes bayview high’s students’ secrets. during an after-school detention where the supervising teacher exits the room for a short amount of time, leaving students bronwyn, nate, cooper, addy, and simon alone, simon mysteriously dies. the four other students in detention, later dubbed the bayview four, are all potential suspects in his death because the gossip app simon ran had queued up their secrets next, providing them all with a motive for murder. in the end, it is revealed that simon suffered a fatal allergic reaction that he caused as a form of suicide because he wanted to die in infamy while bringing down the four other students with him. in his manifesto, which gets revealed towards the end of the book, simon wrote down that he thought about conducting a school shooting but “that’s been done to death. it doesn’t have the same impact anymore. i want to be more creative. more unique. i want my suicide to be talked about for years” (mcmanus 322). in this book, it is clear that simon is simultaneously playing the role of the victim and also of the criminal, with the other criminals being his two friends who helped him execute the phases of his plan after his death. like simon, the four students who are blamed for simon’s death—bronwyn, addy, nate, and cooper—fill two roles in the narrative, the detective and those threatened by the crime. unlike cawelti’s original formula, which stated that those who were threatened by the crime were unable to solve it, the characters in one of us is lying are the ones who solve it. in fact, it seems as though it is up to them because the adult authority falls short of discovering the truth themselves. more unique to one of us is lying compared to early ya crime fiction is modern technology’s consistent, and almost intrusive, role in adolescents’ lives. technology has become an integral part of modern teens’ lives, and the novels reflect that and use those technologies—more specifically, social media—to create a plot that generates relatability among young readers. simon finds a community online that fuels his hatred towards his classmates of a higher social ranking. according to janae, simon 110 mathew “started spending all his time online with a bunch of creepers, fantasizing about getting revenge on everyone who made him miserable” (mcmanus 322). in this context, “creepers” refers to individuals who shared simon’s twisted and masochistic fantasies of causing harm to others with a sense of higher self-worth. furthermore, simon’s “about that” app spreads secrets among bayview high and exposes its students for the sake of drama and gossip. simon later uses it to expose the four students at the top of the social ladder—the bayview four—because he is jealous of their social status and wants to be the catalyst of their downfall. in the early stages of the investigation following simon’s mysterious death, detective wheeler told addy in a conversation that read as a soft interrogation, “kids your age are under a lot of pressure today…the social media alone—it’s like you can’t make a mistake anymore, can you? it follows you everywhere” (mcmanus 83). the intent of this quote in context was to persuade addy into admitting guilt, but in the greater context of the novel, and even in reality, it shows how prevalent the impact of social media and technology is on adolescents. young readers who have grown up in the age of social media have most likely faced some form of cyberbullying, so when they read of simon facing the consequences of his actions, they must feel some sort of satisfaction. it enables them to read a situation in which a bully loses and the victims win. although it was in simon’s plan to die, his ultimate plan was to ruin the lives of the bayview four and frame nate as his murderer. the bayview four, along with the help of maeve, ruin simon’s plans and end up exposing his detestable and manipulative actions. the genre of young adult literature (yal) provides a sense of wish fulfillment, though connors claims it is not fulfillment as “the life we wish we could live, but as the power and influence we wish we could have” (3). this is what grants readers satisfaction: the bully facing justice and the consequences of their actions, something that victims of cyberbullying or other types of bullying undoubtedly want to experience. with this context of modern adolescents and their roles in mind, one can begin to analyze modern ya crime fiction as it pertains to its effects on audiences today. a study done by jessica black and jennifer barnes assessed how fiction—with a focus on ya fiction—impacts readers’ empathy, moral identity, and moral agency. their findings concluded that exposure to adult fiction and ya fiction were both connected to integrity, or “the desire for consistency between moral principles and actions,” but perceived moral agency was exclusively linked to ya fiction (black and barnes 157). furthermore, across studies, ya fiction was found to be consistently associated with empathic concern, integrity, and moral agency. these findings align with social cognitive theory, which states that “learning occurs in a social context with a dynamic and reciprocal interaction of the person, environment, and behavior” (black and barnes 149). or, when applied to the context of this paper, consumers of literature can absorb 111 mathew the moral behavior displayed by fictional characters. this would support the efforts made by publishers in the 1950s when they were pushing for the representation of traditional values in the form of teenage detectives in ya crime fiction, though those traditional values were imposed by white conservative middle-class americans and are no longer the exclusive standard by which western society at large judges morality. as a result of black and barnes’ study, which shows how influential the genre of ya fiction is to its audience, it is paramount to critically analyze its content because the adolescent audience will soon assimilate into and assume active roles in society. these research findings provided by black and barnes apply to one of us is lying because morally ambiguous, morally sound, and morally unsound actions are all performed by adolescent characters in the major roles identified by cawelti. as previously mentioned, in one of us is lying, the criminals are high school students. simon runs a gossip app that was designed to expose his peers for his own entertainment, something that many would agree is not particularly morally sound across multiple standards. furthermore, simon’s two friends that agree to help him in his plan to kill himself and then pass the blame to his classmates—whom he hates because they were ranked high on the social hierarchy whereas he, despite his best efforts, was always on the bottom—also make questionable choices, including the instance where one of them, jake, attacks addy and nearly kills her because she messed up the plan near the end. janae, simon’s other friend who initially agreed to help execute his plan, decides near the end that she would no longer go along with his plan to plant evidence on addy because she realized addy was not as awful as simon led her to believe. when addy asks janae why she didn’t stick to the plan to plant the evidence on her, janae says, “you were nice to me…i know we’re probably not really friends and you probably hate me now, but…i couldn’t do that to you” (mcmanus 327). when jake attacks addy after she discovers the full truth, janae also helps her then. this blurring of lines between roles redefines cawelti’s roles for mystery narratives. the four main characters who play the part of detective also blur the lines of roles because they were actively hiding something viewed as morally wrong. bronwyn, for instance, was hiding the fact that she stole the answers for a chemistry exam to uphold her perfect gpa to be accepted into an ivy league university. nate’s secret is that he had been selling drugs. for addy, it’s how she cheated on her boyfriend. cooper’s secret was that he is gay, and although his secret is not nearly on the same level as his peers’, it was still something that wouldn’t have been widely accepted. he is also rumored to have been using steroids to enhance his athletic performance in sports, though this would be revealed as a lie. with each of these characters not upholding the traditional values, one might argue that despite their ability to bring the truth to light, they are not the role models nash wrote about in her discussion of 112 mathew adolescents in ya crime fiction. however, as a result of black and barnes’ study which found strong associations between the consumption of ya fiction and empathy, it can be said that reading books such as one of us is lying is not inherently detrimental to their audiences simply because their adolescent characters occasionally misbehave. the main characters in the bayview four adhere to more progressive standards of morals. the teen delinquents, simon and jake, are written in a negative light and are met with justice. for simon, this means his malicious plans are ruined and are brought to life. for jake, this means being arrested. consequently, this novel still encourages youth to be more aligned with the adolescents who fill the detective role and those threatened by the crime than the teen criminals. as previously mentioned, these adolescents adhere to a more progressive and modern moral code that does not, for example, villainize promiscuity or homosexuality. these depictions could be an attempt to change the ya crime genre’s penchant for supporting the white middle class values that were being pushed by the nancy drew and hardy boys series. as well as attempting to change these genre conventions, they reflect the shift in morals present in younger generations, who are the target audiences for these novels. for example, a poll conducted by gallup, a global analytics firm, found that the percentage of u.s. adults who identified as a part of the lgbtqia+ community has “increased to a new high of 7.1%, which is double the percentage from 2012,” which is largely due to the influx of lgbtqia+ identifiers in generation z (jones). the representation of non-heterosexual characters in one of us is lying, though minimal, reflects this trend. while this representation is small in comparison to the representation of heterosexuality in mcmanus’s novels, it does not villainize or demoralize the characters who identify as such. in fact, cooper, one of the main characters, is gay and helps the other three of the bayview four solve simon’s death. his boyfriend also aids in the uncovering of the truth of the crime. audiences also want to see more representation of poc characters in yal, which also diverts from the focus of the first ya crime fiction narratives since they aimed to represent and prioritize the white middle and upper class. one of us is lying takes a step to cater to this with the character of bronwyn. she diverts from the stereotypes maintained by the era of the hardy boys and nancy drew by representing a poc adolescent woman who is intelligent and has attainable aspirations of attending an ivy league university. yal is seeing an influx of diversity, but the ya crime fiction genre still has plenty of room to become more diverse and inclusive. one of us is lying is a step towards this representation. having the more diverse teen detectives—those who are meant to display the behaviors which young audiences are meant to draw influence from— demonstrates how mcmanus’s ya crime novels have begun to push the genre forward 113 mathew as well as reflect the progressive values of their audience. while the ya crime genre has shifted since the nancy drew series and the hardy boys series to reflect changes in audiences’ values, one aspect that has prevailed is the adolescent desire to overthrow adult hierarchies. the first notable signs of fear of teenage rebellion sprouted from post-war america when adults’ anxieties of atomic warfare during the cold war shifted “to the image of the nation’s youth” (nash 76). the fear of teenage rebellion was met with the desire to subdue and control teenage behavior, which has continued to the present. today, similar acts of teenage rebellion from the past are still apparent. also increasingly present is the number of youth involved in organized protests and rallies, such as march for our lives and climate change demonstrations. psychologist carl pickhardt identifies two common types of teenage rebellion: rebellion of non-conformity and rebellion of noncompliance, otherwise stated as rebellion against adult authority (pickhardt). this rebellion against adult authority comes from adolescents’ “desire for power and control,” according to sean p. connors, researcher of yal (connors 3). the adult authority falls short in one of us is lying in multiple instances, such as failing to discover the true person who is at fault for simon’s death, and even wrongly arresting nate, causing the rest of the bayview four to have to prove his innocence in their process of uncovering the real murderer. when bronwyn first learns of nate’s unfounded arrest, she says, “you’ve seen how screwed up this investigation is. they thought i did it for a while. they’re wrong. i’m positive they’re wrong” (mcmanus 276). the reason the authorities believe nate to be the murderer is because it was in simon’s plan for janae to plant evidence and frame one of the bayview four. janae is meant to plant the evidence on addy, but after addy is friendly to her, she changes the plan. the rest of the bayview four rebel against adult authorities’ ruling and investigate the murder case themselves because the adult authorities fell for the lie. reading about these adults’ shortcomings and the adolescents’ ability to subvert their authority by solving the mysteries themselves reflects and satiates young adult readers’ desires to overthrow adult hierarchies in reality. the sequel to one of us is lying, one of us is next, contains the same aspects of the first novel that reflects and influences its modern adolescent audience. as a basis for context, the novel follows the younger sister of bronwyn, named maeve, and two other students named phoebe and knox. these three are the targets of a dangerous, and even fatal, game of “truth or dare” that sprung up as a copycat of simon’s infamous gossip app to continue simon’s legacy. while none of the main three characters are suspected of being behind the anonymously run game of “truth or dare,” they are each impacted by it as they all have secrets that could get out if they choose truth instead of the perilous dare. in one of us is next, cawelti’s identified roles are also mainly filled by 114 mathew adolescent characters. maeve, phoebe, and knox fill the role of the detective and are also somewhat threatened by the crime, though in a different way compared to how the four students in the previous book were threatened. the victims are all high school students, and the main criminal is an adult named jared, who is brought to justice in the end. it could be argued that phoebe’s younger siblings emma and owen could also be classified as criminals since they teamed up with jared for a short amount of time, but when assessing their intentions, it is clear jared took advantage of their young age and emotions. a deeper analysis of these characters’ situations will be conducted later in this essay to support the claim that the adolescent characters who have contributed in some way to the crime are not used as positive models for the young audience to imitate in their formation of morals and behaviors. while jared, an adult, is the main criminal in this novel who exemplifies a corrupt and violent standard of morals, it still stands that adolescents fill the major roles. like the first novel in the series, technology plays a major role in one of us is next as well. however, the gossip app “about that” is gone and is instead replaced with a “truth or dare” game conducted over text that results in the death of a student named brandon. the digital footprint left by the one controlling the game and picking its victims leads knox, maeve, and phoebe to discover a reddit thread that gives them enough clues to reveal their identities and motive. in the first book, technology’s role was the root cause of the issues that arose; in the sequel, it helped track down the one responsible and bring him to justice. in both, technology—specifically social media— is a method of exposing students and enacting revenge. in real life, the same can be true. cyberbullying—such as the “truth or dare” game in the novel—is increasingly prevalent among modern adolescents as they become more reliant on social media and technology because individuals feel a sense of protection from their words and behavior when they are conducted online. gianesini and brighi explain that this is because when individuals communicate online, “they feel that they are a part of an anonymous mass and therefore tend not to take responsibility for their actions or do not perceive their actions as particularly harmful because ‘virtual’ is not ‘real’” (8–9). the perceived disconnect between “virtual” and “real” enables cyberbullies to victimize their targets easier. however, the pain and torment victims face as a result of cyberbullying is not easier to manage just because it is facilitated online. after knox’s secret is revealed during “truth or dare”, he narrates, “how the hell am i supposed to show up at school tomorrow? or ever?” (mcmanus 151). when adolescents read these lines, many of them are likely to relate to how knox is feeling because of how prevalent cyberbullying has become in recent decades. these instances in one of us is next reflect not only the constant use of technology in modern adolescents, but they also reflect the unique struggles they face as a result. 115 mathew similarly to how each of the bayview four characters all have flaws (or perceived flaws) in one of us is lying, the main protagonists in the sequel are also written with more moral ambiguity than the earliest ya crime fiction adolescent protagonists discussed by nash. for example, phoebe sleeps with her sister emma’s boyfriend behind her back and maeve tells an embarrassing secret about knox to her sister bronwyn which gets leaked to the whole school. again, although the findings of barnes and black’s research that assessed how yal impacts audiences in terms of empathy, morality, and integrity, reading about these characters’ flaws are not inherently causing their audiences to misbehave. there are not as many teen criminals present in one of us is next as there were in one of us is lying, but there are a few examples of adolescents who, intentionally or not, contribute to the main crime. these examples would include emma and owen, phoebe’s siblings. emma wanted revenge on a student named brandon, who accidentally killed her father and cheated on her with her sister phoebe, and started chatting with jared—the main criminal— on reddit, but she backed out as soon as she realized how violent and cruel jared’s plans were since she only wanted to expose unflattering secrets. when revealing the truth at the very end, emma says, “as soon as the truth or dare game started, i hated it. i regretted everything. i told jared to shut it down, and he said he would…but the game kept going. i didn’t understand why, but i was afraid to get in touch with jared again.” she begins to cry and adds, “brandon wasn’t supposed to die” (mcmanus 336–337). owen took his sister’s place in the chat room without emma’s knowledge because he saw how devastated she was as a result of her ex-boyfriend cheating on her and tried to continue speaking with jared, but once he realized how far jared was taking the game, he also backed out. after brandon died fulfilling a dare from “truth or dare,” owen messages jared still under the guise of his sister and says, “that wasn’t supposed to happen” and then promptly “ghosts” him (mcmanus 371). it is evident that their intentions—publicly humiliating the one who caused their father’s death with teen gossip—were not criminal or malevolent, though the consequences were. as such, these books still encourage youth to be more aligned with the adolescents who fill the roles of detective and those threatened by the crime than those who contribute to the crime. like one of us is lying, one of us is next also reflects its audience’s more progressive values compared to the traditional values identified by nash. the three main protagonists—maeve, knox, and phoebe—as well as some tertiary characters, demonstrate these shifts. younger audiences have an increased desire to see representation of diverse characters in narratives. it is important to note that one of us is next is undoubtedly not the most diverse ya crime novel, but it is worth noting the difference in representation compared to the earliest ya crime fiction narrative 116 mathew to recognize the progression of the genre. representation of illness has increased in yal—a notable example would be john green’s the fault in our stars—but its representation in ya crime fiction is still low. maeve’s character represents a character who struggled with leukemia in her past and grapples with a potential relapse throughout the novel. representation of race is also present in the novel with maeve’s columbian heritage and luis and his family’s mexican heritage. another aspect of the novel that reflects the desire for more diverse characters and the audiences’ more progressive values is the—somewhat limited—representation of sexual orientations. cooper, who was in the closet in one of us is lying, appears in this novel as openly gay and in a happy relationship with his boyfriend. having more diverse teen detectives— those who are meant to display the behaviors which young audiences are meant to draw influence from—demonstrates how mcmanus’s ya crime novels have begun to push the genre forward as well as reflect the progressive values of their audience. as well as catering towards its audiences’ desire for more representation and progressive values, one of us is next provides readers with teen detectives who overpower adult authority. like the first novel in the series, the adult authorities are unable to solve the crime of brandon’s death; in fact, they do not recognize that the death of brandon is even a crime until the three teen detectives—maeve, knox, and phoebe—solve it for them. the adults are written as primarily uninvolved, resulting in the responsibility of solving the crime to fall onto the kids. their connections and unique perspectives grant them the ability to uncover things the adult authorities were unable to. in one scene where maeve and knox are attempting to hack into knox’s mother’s work computer, maeve succeeds without any struggle. she does not even have to hack into it because she guesses common passwords until she gets it right on the third try. she tells knox, “parents are the single worst threat to any type of cyber security” (287). it is by the adults’ incompetencies that they are able to succeed. seeing these adult authorities failing and the teens succeeding feeds into the wish fulfillment many readers of this genre seek. connors explains that reading about adolescents pushing back against authority “challenges readers to look critically at the power structures that envelop and seek to construct them” (3). he asserts that it is important for adolescents to read these types of novels, even in school settings, because allowing students to read yal that includes characters who resist oppressive power systems “invite[s] students to acknowledge their own potential to act” (connors 20). although connors is discussing ya dystopia, the same can be said about ya crime fiction. this is especially true concerning mcmanus’s one of us is lying and one of us is next because they are both set in the mostly relatable setting of a public school and reflect the struggles adolescents from their technology-infused generation face. although ya crime fiction is for a younger audience, it would be unreasonable 117 to be skeptical of the merit of the literature that falls under this genre. in fact, because this genre contains subjects that are geared more towards mature audiences—such as crime and violence—and is targeted towards a demographic who are in one of the most critical moments for their development, it requires our attention. the findings of black and barnes’s study as well as the research by nash prove the importance of yal, and when applied to ya crime fiction—especially more modern ya crime fiction— these implications are even more critical for this reason. not only does the analysis of ya crime literature reveal the desires and practices of its audience, but it also influences its audience in ways that may contribute to their formation of morals. mathew 118 works cited black, jessica and barnes, jennifer. “fiction and morality: investigating the associations between reading, exposure, empathy, morality, and moral judgment.” psychology of popular media. 2021, vol. 10, no. 3, 149-164. dx.doi.org/10.1037/ ppm0000281. cawelti, john g. adventure, mystery, and romance: formula stories as art and popular culture, the university of chicago press, chicago, 1976. connors, sean p. ““i have a kind of power i never knew i possessed”: surveillance, agency, and the possibility of resistance in ya dystopian fiction.” study & scrutiny: research on young adult literature, vol. 2, no. 2, sept. 2017, https://doi. org/10.15763/issn.2376-5275.2017.3.1.1-23. gianesini, giovanna, and brighi, antonella. “cyberbullying in the era of digital relationships: the unique role of resilience and emotion regulation on adolescents’ adjustment.” technology and youth: growing up in a digital world, vol. 19, 2015, pp. 1–46, https://doi.org/10.1108/s1537-466120150000019001. jones, jeffrey m. “lgbt identification in u.s. ticks up to 7.1%.” gallup.com, gallup, 10 june 2022, https://news.gallup.com/poll/389792/lgbt-identification-ticks-up. aspx. mcmanus, karen m. one of us is lying. new york, delacorte press, 2017. —. one of us is next. new york, delacorte press, 2020. nash, ilana. “teenage detectives and teenage delinquents.” the cambridge companion to american crime fiction, 2010, pp. 72–85, https://doi.org/10.1017/ ccol9780521199377.007. pickhardt, carl. “rebel with a cause: rebellion in adolescence.” psychology today, 6, dec. 2009, https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/surviving-your-childsadolescence/200912/rebel-cause-rebellion-in-adolescence. accessed 18 jan 2023. 119 mathew https://journals.shareok.org/studyandscrutiny/article/view/965 https://journals.shareok.org/studyandscrutiny/article/view/965 https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/s1537-466120150000019001/full/html https://news.gallup.com/poll/389792/lgbt-identification-ticks-up.aspx https://news.gallup.com/poll/389792/lgbt-identification-ticks-up.aspx https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/cambridge-companion-to-american-crime-fiction/teenage-detectives-and-teenage-delinquents/013070c728bf78513e77fc6af6b2ec04 https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/cambridge-companion-to-american-crime-fiction/teenage-detectives-and-teenage-delinquents/013070c728bf78513e77fc6af6b2ec04 https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/surviving-your-childs-adolescence/200912/rebel-cause-rebellion-in-adolescence https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/surviving-your-childs-adolescence/200912/rebel-cause-rebellion-in-adolescence the trees speak for themselves: how nonhuman narrators in fiction influence multispecies encounters bella hughes • • • • multispecies encounters elif shafak’s 2021 novel the island of missing trees describes fictional events that occur on the real island of cyprus during the war between the greek and the turkish inhabitants of the island. this story is told from multiple points of view at various points in time in both cyprus and london, where the characters move to and live following the events of the war and their families’ disagreements with their relationship. what is unique about shafak’s storytelling is her use of a fig tree as a primary narrator of events. while the use of non-human narrators is not a new strategy, most of these occurrences involve animal speakers rather than plants or objects. in delivering a fiction narrative from the point of view of a fig tree, elif shafak’s the island of missing trees introduces readers to multispecies encounters by providing an example of how arboreal figures communicate and experience history alongside humans in an anthropocentric world, and further encourages prosocial behavior between human and non-human species. based on shafak’s novel, theories of attentiveness and slow-violence, and studies on the effect of non-human narrators on readers, including these “non-living” narrators in widely accessible pieces of fiction not only informs audiences of the multispecies encounters that occur in everyday life, but also opens more avenues of multispecies conservation. ©2024 hughes. the digital literature review, 11, 25-40. doi: 10.33043/72qzyray5. shared with cc by-nc-nd 4.0 liscense. 26 our planet has existed for about 4.5 billion years, and in that time, five mass extinctions have occurred. thanks to human action—and the lack thereof—earth must now suffer through the sixth mass extinction in its history (ceballos et al.). from rising temperatures to increasingly severe weather due to greenhouse gas emissions, human impact on the environment and biodiversity has never been more visible (united nations). while there are debates over the definite start of this age of human influence, experts agree that earth has entered the anthropocene epoch, a geological era marked by human activity that will be observable far into the future (lewis and maslin 171). although it is true that many people learn of things like climate change and environmental systems from news reports and social media, a less popular and lesser-known source of information comes in the form of fiction stories. fiction offers an avenue of learning without the pressure that comes from taking on academic texts or journalistic articles. in particular, fiction provides a place to showcase the world from non-human perspectives. this is demonstrated well in elif shafak’s 2021 novel the island of missing trees. the novel is a fictional account of the greek-turkish war in cyprus, told from multiple perspectives, but most memorably from the perspective of a fig tree. as explained in a review of the novel, “shafak portrays different ways of life, expressed through the stories of various life-forms and connected to each other under the common denominator of grief...a sense of longing for wholeness, oneness, and harmony, not only between people but also between all elements of the wider ecosystem” (atayurt-fenge 76). in delivering a fictional narrative from the point of view of a fig tree, shafak introduces readers to multispecies encounters by providing an example of how arboreal figures communicate and experience history alongside humans in an anthropocentric world, and further encourages prosocial behavior between human and non-human species. by including these “non-living” narrators in widely accessible pieces of fiction, authors can not only encourage attentiveness and inform audiences of the multispecies encounters that occur in everyday life, but also open more avenues of multispecies conservation. hughes 27 before exploring the possibilities of narrative fiction, it is important to understand multispecies studies and the theory of attentiveness. multispecies studies considers the encounters between species and “the multitudes of lively agents that bring one another into being through entangled relations” (van dooren et al. 3). the purpose of a multispecies approach is to confront ecological challenges using a myriad of disciplines and bodies of research, achieving a deeper understanding of the causes and effects of issues touching countless species. with this approach, multispecies scholars can take existing knowledge of one species and apply it in the context of the other species it encounters. in contrast to other fields like ecocriticism, which often only uses how humans interact with nature and how we perceive it as a way to encourage change, multispecies studies expands beyond the world of humans and pays attention to the intricacies of other species, exposing us to other perspectives besides our own. this attention to how other species perceive and interact with the world is why the multispecies approach is the best way to analyze the island of missing trees, whose narrator is not a human reporting how human action has changed the environment, but a tree sharing how it has experienced war, migration, and connection with all of the species it interacts with from its point of view. taking a multispecies approach requires paying attention to the actions, reactions, and interactions among species, both human and non-human. part of this attention comes from “ask[ing] how specific worldings come to matter, and to matter differently, for given beings” (van dooren et al. 13). when one is exposed to the lives and histories of other species, one can develop the “art of attentiveness” and begin to gain more awareness of other beings that function alongside the realm of human activity. as van dooren et al. explain, “attention to others is vital to responding appropriately” (16). thus, if one hopes to encourage multispecies relations and ensure mutual conservation, one must first attempt to understand the complexities of other species and their ecosystems. while there are many ways to learn attentiveness, reading fiction narrated by non-human characters hughes 28 can prove to be a particularly impactful practice. due to the broad interpretations of the terms “non-human” and “non-living,” understanding how they will be used in relation to shafak’s novel is important. in their article “towards a theory of nonhuman narrative,” biwu shang breaks down non-human narrative into four distinct categories: narrative about natural things, narrative about supernatural things, narrative about artificial objects, and narrative about artificial humans. while each category includes multiple examples of non-human species, the fig tree of shafak’s novel falls into the category of natural things. because this category also includes animals, narrators like the fig tree are referred to as non-living in this analysis. non-living in this case refers to species that are inanimate, that is, not alive in the way humans and animals are perceived to be. trees and other non-humans that are not insects, animals, or things that are obviously living are still coparticipants with us living on this planet. scholarship has tended to look at animal life rather than other natural objects, and while it might raise questions to refer to trees as non-living, this is deliberate in this essay to call attention to how we largely ignore objects that we do not classify as living. in this way, non-human narratives can “deconstruct anthropocentrism” and teach humans about their varied roles in “the more-than-human world” (shang 70). it is through these non-living characters that humans can become exposed to other perspectives of the world, perspectives that serve as a reminder that the world is not a solely human one. though the world is “more-than-human” in reality, the non-human aspects of the world hold little stake in the scheme of human life, according to most humans. however, as discussed by rob nixon in his book, slow violence and the environmentalism of the poor, the goings-on of the non-human realm are real and pertinent for humans to acknowledge. nixon defines slow violence as “violence that occurs gradually and out of sight, a violence of delayed destruction that is dispersed across time and space, an attritional violence that is typically not viewed as violence at all” (2). the questions that nixon asks us to consider revolve around bringing hughes 29 the truth of slow violence to masses in one form or another and making it interesting enough that something may come of it. this can be challenging when one considers how the stories of slow violence “are anonymous and ... star nobody” (3). nixon suggests creative solutions, “ways of drawing public attention to catastrophic acts that are low in instant spectacle but high in long-term effects. to intervene representationally entails devising iconic symbols that embody amorphous calamities as well as narrative forms that infuse those symbols with dramatic urgency” (10). i argue that shafak does just that in her novel the island of missing trees through her use of compelling non-human narration to tell the story of multiple species over years of growth and hardship. the island of missing trees follows the story of war-torn nicosia, cyprus in 1974 and the lives that the conflict touches. partially narrated by a fig tree growing in a tavern in the divided capital, the novel covers the ways the war impacted nature alongside the secret love between kostas, a greek christian, and defne, a turkish muslim, and later the grief felt by kostas and his daughter, ada, following defne’s death in london. shafak, who has a personal connection with cyprus after growing up in turkey, has wanted to tell this story for many years, but “could never dare” until she “found the fig tree” (penguin books limited editor). according to shafak, the fig tree was a “calmer, wiser” narrator of events, able to navigate the complexities of borders, inherited trauma, and civil war better than a human narrator on the greek or turkish side might have. due to its relative recency, there is not much literary scholarship on this novel. what scholarship does exist approaches the novel’s commentary on inherited trauma, generational grief, diaspora, or displacement rather than its use of trees and multispecies encounters. this essay expands discussion on this subject by looking at the tree’s role as narrator and further considering how wars in distant places can affect our own lives and futures. beyond simply being entertainment, fiction can be beneficial to promoting multispecies attentiveness because the act of reading narrative hughes 30 fiction can be crucial in the development of morals and empathy (johnson et al.). this development comes primarily from the imagery that is generated when reading, that is, the way the reader becomes immersed in the experience of the characters they are reading about and thus interprets the world from another perspective. through this practice, readers can develop affective empathy, which is “an individual’s ability to feel for another” (johnson et al. 306). additionally, recent studies in social learning theory and the general learning model indicate that narrative fiction that includes prosocial behavior can influence readers to behave similarly (johnson et al.). to use an example from shafak’s novel, kostas, one of the main characters and an expert in studies of trees and certain animals, shows an attentiveness and responsibility toward non-human species on multiple occasions. from reading about kostas’s interactions with these species, the reader can be inspired to take on similar behaviors in their own life. fiction has historically been used by organizations and groups to promote prosocial behavior toward animals. a previous example of this is the book black beauty by anna sewell, which is the story of the titular horse’s journey being owned by humans that could be both kind and cruel. what makes the depictions of cruelty more impactful is that the events are narrated by the horse, which allows readers to experience human cruelty from the horse’s point of view. this tactic influences readers subtly rather than explicitly, placing them in situations where they might come to their own conclusions about issues as well as providing an avenue that is less outright informational and more entertaining than nonfiction (małecki et al.). within stories of animal narratives, the non-human characters detail their experiences of interacting with humans, “in particular, how their lives are changed by human activities, thus drawing readers’ attention to the importance of human-nonhuman co-existence” (shang 64). the success of black beauty demonstrates the effectiveness of prosocial fiction, as membership in humane societies and laws prohibiting animal abuse increased following its publication. of course, that novel used non-human narration of an animal rather than a “non-living” object like in shafak’s novel. hughes 31 one of the most important things the fig tree accomplishes as narrator is to raise non-human species to be just as important as humans. most fiction focuses on the impact humans feel following war or disasters, mostly, if not completely ignoring the other species that must also recover from such events. the fig tree serves as a sort of advocate for non-human species, working to make space for their stories to be heard: but on an island plagued by years of ethnic violence and brutal atrocities, humans were not the only ones that suffered. so did we trees and animals, too, experience hardship and pain as their habitats came to disappear. it never meant anything to anyone, what happened to us. it matters to me though and, so long as i am able to tell this story, i am going to include in it the creatures in my ecosystem the birds, the bats, the butterflies, the honeybees, the ants, the mosquitoes and the mice because there is one thing i have learned: wherever there is war and a painful partition, there will be no winners, human or otherwise. (shafak 190) through the fig tree’s narration, the reader is exposed to non-human stories in a form that they have seen before, but through unfamiliar eyes. as noted by kostas, “the world humans saw was only one of many available” (shafak 226). humans tend to view events only in regard to how their own lives are changed or impacted, but that does not mean that other ecosystems and species cease to exist, nor does it mean that the human world is the most important. however, even though some may try to speak for other species and make space for them in the conversation, as shafak points out, “in a land besieged with conflict, uncertainty and bloodshed, people took it for indifference, an insult to their pain, if you paid too much attention to anything other than human suffering” (147-148). in shafak’s novel, readers find themselves paying attention to non-human suffering simply from engaging with storytelling. to allow readers to effectively take in the experiences of non-human narrators, human-like consciousness is often a necessity in the narrator. by projecting traits of human consciousness onto non-human beings, readers hughes 32 can better approach unfamiliar experiences. that said, it is important to simultaneously remember that the narrator is not human and thus their experiences “may question (defamiliarize) some of readers’ assumptions and expectations about human life and consciousness” (bernaerts et al. 69). as defamiliarization occurs, the text becomes a tool for delivering scientific knowledge about the non-human species and how they perceive human events (bernaerts et al.). the use of non-human and non-living narrators in fiction is not widespread or conventional, perhaps due to the preference to consider humans as the superior species rather than to place them as equal to non-humans. rare as they are, when non-human narrators are utilized, the impact of these stories can be found in the greater defamiliarization and empathy produced by the reading of other perspectives (bernaerts et al.). for example, in the island of missing trees, the fig tree’s narration forces readers to pivot their perspective and view reality from another’s experience. in the case of the fig tree, not only does the reader experience the war on cyprus and other events through the fig-tree’s eyes, but the reader learns valuable information about how trees feel and communicate with each other and other species. because “object narrators collapse the cognitively basic distinction between animate and inanimate entities,” it is possible that the effect of defamiliarization can be felt more intensely in object narrators than in animal narrators (bernaerts et al. 89). while the use of objects, specifically plants, is not conventional in modern literature, it is certainly not a new practice. plants have been used in stories throughout history and across cultures and religions. shafak’s fig tree provides examples of the roles trees play across the globe: the bedouin settle their disagreements in our shade, the druze kiss our bark reverently, placing personal objects around us, praying for ma’rifah. both arabs and jews make their wedding preparations beside us, hoping for marriages sturdy enough to weather any storms which may lie ahead. buddhists want us to blossom near their shrine, and so do the hindus. kikuyu women in kenya daub themselves with the sap of fig trees when they want to get pregnant and it is the same hughes 33 women who defend us bravely whenever someone tries to cut down a sacred mugumo. (shafak 65) despite their inclusion in previous narratives, their role has often been limited to acting “as metaphorical means to anthropocentric ends: to tell human, perhaps all-too-human, (hi)stories” (middelhoff and peselmann 177). a popular example of this sort of role is found in the 2003 novel the tale of despereaux by kate dicamillo, in which a mouse narrates his quest to save a human princess. the mouse and his journey stand as metaphors for breaking stereotypes and becoming a hero no matter how small you are. in this case of non-human narration, the focus is on the human world and how the mouse can act as human as possible to earn the love of the princess. little emphasis is placed on multispecies encounters, with the main purpose of the novel being to entertain and deliver a message of individuality. in contrast, the goal in using trees in stories, and what shafak manages to do in her novel, is to present the trees as characters in their own right, with thoughts, feelings, and agency, rather than reducing them to background objects in human lives. however, if trees are to be presented as accurate characters and narrators, authors must take care to research the species’ physiology and culture, ensuring that it is the trees’ stories that are being told (middelhoff and peselmann). in shafak’s case, thorough research on trees has been done, so when the audience is introduced to the fig tree, they are interested in both learning and hearing what the tree has to say. not only does this sort of narration educate readers on trees as cognizant beings, but it allows for a perspective on events like war that is separate from divisive human politics. shafak has claimed that the narration of the fig tree allowed her a certain degree of freedom to tell the story of the war on cyprus from neither a greek nor a turkish side, but rather from the side of natural objects impacted by the human conflict (o’neill). one of the biggest things that sets trees apart from humans is their longevity. trees have existed longer than humans, and they will remain long after humans are gone. as the fig tree explains, “a tree’s rings do not only reveal hughes 34 its age, but also the traumas it has endured, including wildfires, and thus, carved deep in each circle, is a near-death experience, an unhealed scar” (shafak 45). during their long lives on earth, trees have seen civilizations rise and fall, and felt the effects of human action. their connection to and awareness of the many species in their environment allows them to recognize how every action has an impact within multispecies encounters: a tree always knows that it is linked to endless life forms – from honey fungus, the largest living thing, down to the smallest bacteria and archaea – and that its existence is not an isolated happenstance but intrinsic to a wider community. even trees of different species show solidarity with one another regardless of their difference, which is more than you can say for so many humans. (shafak 100) as evidenced in the final line of this passage, there is sometimes a bitterness toward humans in the fig tree’s narration that is not often apparent in other forms of narration. part of this comes from the writer’s intention; shafak wants to indicate that humans are doing something wrong, while other authors might just want to tell a human story from an outsider’s point of view. a tree is a good medium for communicating this message because of the length of time they have experienced and understood multispecies encounters. as discussed previously, shafak’s the island of missing trees presents a tree as a main character, a narrator of events being experienced not just by humans, but by other species that are often overlooked. one of the most important things shafak does to adjust readers to the narration of the fig tree is to give her a familiar voice, one similar yet different to our own: “i am a ficus carica, known as the edible common fig, though i can assure you there’s nothing common about me” (shafak 23). throughout the fig tree’s narration, the reader is able to get a sense of a personality that is similar to other narrations they have encountered. the fig tree shares her thoughts and emotions, ruminating on her environment and the other characters around her, as is characteristic of any human or animal narrator. though there is humanization of the nonhuman object, there is still a dishughes 35 tinct otherness found in the fig tree that comes from the unfamiliar ways it views the world. though some of the fig tree’s narration is meant to comment on the other main characters, each chapter narrated by the fig tree provides some insight into the fig tree’s world and their interactions with the other life in cyprus and then in london. after being buried underground to prepare for winter in london, the fig tree comments on the unfathomable number of microorganisms that live and work within the soil and how trees can hear the vibrations of creatures both above and below ground level (shafak 80-81). the fig tree narrates an instance where another tree communicates with her: “i picked up an odd sound...it turned out it was my old friend the hawthorn tree, a native species, a gentle hermaphrodite, sending signals through roots and fungi, asking how i was doing” (99). later she explains how “in nature, everything talks all the time” (341) indicating that there is a whole realm of communication and social order separate from human understanding. further research into the complexity of arboreal communication is explained by the fig tree: under and above ground, we trees communicate all the time. we share not only water and nutrients, but also essential information. although we have to compete for resources sometimes, we are good at protecting and supporting each other...even when we might seem stand-offish, growing away from others or at the edge of forests, we still remain connected across entire swathes of land, sending chemical signals through the air and across our shared mycorrhizal networks. (99) this explanation of connection between trees beckons the idea of sentience, a concept previously thought to be reserved for humans and certain animals. sentience, which the oxford english dictionary defines as “the condition or quality of being sentient, consciousness, susceptibility to sensation,” is typically assigned to beings that display a nervous system. species like plants, fungi, and bacteria have been labeled as unconscious hughes 36 due to the lack of nerves in their anatomy (“what beings are not conscious”). however, research done by german forester peter wohlleben strives to disprove this theory. in the hidden life of trees: what they feel, how they communicate – discoveries from a secret world, wohlleben attempts to redefine trees, displaying them as beings with intelligence and physical reactions to stimuli. he discusses how trees learn and react to pain with distressed sounds like screaming, like humans, though they can only be heard with advanced machinery. this is a trait that the fig tree also references, asking if humans would wish to know “that many plants, when threatened, attacked or cut, can produce ethylene, which works like a type of anaesthetic [sic], and this chemical release has been described by researchers as akin to hearing stressed plants screaming” (shafak 45). while the strength of wohlleben’s argument depends on a certain degree of pathos, and the presence of sentience in plants has not yet been proven, his assessment of tree consciousness does open the door for further studies into the possibility of plant sentience. aside from her commentary on the ways different species communicate with each other, the fig tree also demonstrates her own understanding of how other species’ actions affect her own life and environment. she shares her sorrow at the widespread death of bats in cyprus, referring to them as her friends and acknowledging their importance in the ecosystem and their close connection with the pollination of trees (shafak 150). when reflecting on a time a honeybee got stuck inside an office, she claims that she “had a deep respect for her kind. no other species embodies the circle of life quite like the apidae. if they were to disappear one day, the world would never recover from their loss” (294). the fig tree’s understanding of the importance of each species and how they work together heightens the trust a reader can place in her narration and expands a reader’s empathy for species that they might not have otherwise considered. this ability of the fig tree to teach and inspire empathy, and in turn prosocial behavior, fulfills nixon’s recommendation for drawing attention to slow violence. in using the fig tree as an intriguing narrative device, hughes 37 shafak finds a creative way to tune audiences in to the long-term effects of war and human action on all species without losing interest. though narrators like the fig tree in shafak’s novel are not found often in popular media, there is no doubt of their benefit to multispecies studies and the understanding of multispecies encounters. with their unique ability to view the world from non-human perspectives, non-human narrators do the job of educating humans in the ways in which major events in the human realm of experience also impact the many non-human realms of experience. humans beg for and provide humanitarian aid during times of strife, yet little to no aid is given to “non-living” inhabitants of the planet, despite how they may beg for help in their own way. texts like the island of missing trees not only show us how we might pay better attention to our co-inhabitants, but also inspire us to act in the best interest of all beings, human or not. as the earth progresses into the anthropocene and the climate crisis continues, texts that spotlight non-anthropocentric perspectives will continue to hold increasing value as mediums of education and advocacy. hughes 38 hughes works cited atayurt-fenge, zeynep z. “the island of missing trees.” world literature today, vol. 97, no. 1, 2023, pp. 76–77. ebscohost, https://doi. org/10.1353/wlt.2023.0039. accessed 24 oct. 2023. bernaerts, lars, et al. “the storied lives of non-human narrators.” narrative, vol. 22, no. 1, 2014, pp. 68-93, https://muse.jhu.edu/ article/536491. accessed 24 oct. 2023. ceballos, gerardo, et al. “accelerated modern human–induced species losses: entering the sixth mass extinction.” science advances, vol. 1, no. 5, e1400253, 2015, https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/ sciadv.1400253. accessed 27 feb. 2024. johnson, dan r., et al. “potentiating empathic growth: generating imagery while reading fiction increases empathy and prosocial behavior.” psychology of aesthetics, creativity, and the arts, vol. 7, no. 3, 2013, pp. 306-312, http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0033261. accessed 24 oct. 2023. lewis, simon l., and mark a. maslin. “defining the anthropocene.” nature, vol. 519, no. 7542, 2015, pp. 171-180, https://www.nature. com/articles/nature14258. accessed 24 oct. 2023. małecki, wojciech, et al. “can fiction make us kinder to other species? the impact of fiction on pro-animal attitudes and behavior.” poetics, vol. 66, 2018, pp. 54-63, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.poetic.2018.02.004. accessed 24 oct. 2023. middelhoff, frederike, and arnika peselmann. “the stories plants tell: an introduction to vegetal narrative cultures.” narrative culture, vol. 10, no. 2, 2023, pp. 175-188, https://doi.org/10.1353/ncu.2023. a903843. accessed 24 oct. 2023. negishi, takayo, and hirotsugu kanno. “earthquake and war-damaged trees in urban history: non-destructive tree diagnosis using sonic tomography.” land, vol. 12, no. 10, 2023, pp. 1931, https://doi. org/10.3390/land12101931. accessed 24 oct. 2023. 39 hughes nixon, rob. slow violence and the environmentalism of the poor. harvar harvard university press, 2011. jstor, https://doi.org/10.2307/j. ctt2jbsgw. accessed 28 feb. 2024. o’neill, stephen. “arborealities, or making trees matter in elif shafak’s the island of missing trees.” interdisciplinary studies in literature and environment (isle), 2023, pp. 1-21, https://doi.org/10.1093/isle/ isad040. accessed 24 oct. 2023. penguin books limited editor. “elif shafak on the book she’s waited years to write.” penguin random house, 19 aug. 2021, https://www. penguin.co.uk/articles/2021/08/elif-shafak-interview-island-missingtrees. accessed 29 feb. 2024. “sentience, n.” oed online, oxford university press, january 2024, https://www.oed.com/dictionary/sentience_n?tab=meaning_and_ use#23614708. accessed 31 jan. 2024. shang, biwu. “towards a theory of nonhuman narrative.” neohelicon, vol. 49, no. 1, 2022, pp. 59-73, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/ s11059-022-00628-y. accessed 24 oct. 2023. simard, suzanne w. “mycorrhizal networks facilitate tree communication, learning, and memory.” memory and learning in plants, 2018, pp. 191-213, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75596-0_10. accessed 24 oct. 2023. united nations. “causes and effects of climate change.” united nations | climate action, https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/science/causeseffects-climate-change. accessed 27 feb. 2024. van dooren, thom, eben kirksey, and ursula münster. “multispecies studies: cultivating arts of attentiveness.” environmental humanities, vol. 8, no. 1, 2016, pp. 1-23. accessed 24 oct. 2023. “what beings are not conscious.” animal ethics, https://www.animalethics.org/what-beings-are-not-conscious/#:~:text=beings%20 that%20have%20no%20centralized,fungi%2c%20plants%20and%20 certain%20animals. accessed 31 jan. 2024. wohlleben, peter. the hidden life of trees: what they feel, how they 40 communicate—discoveries from a secret world. vol. 1. greystone books, 2016. scoma 113 it’s all about the punch(line): the crossing of masculinity’s border as portrayed in todd phillips’s joker sam scoma, ball state university catcalls, rapists, dick jokes, and risky catcalls, rapists, dick jokes, and risky business are only a handful of symptoms business are only a handful of symptoms of the current worldwide viral epidemic of the current worldwide viral epidemic dubbed “toxic masculinity.” focusing dubbed “toxic masculinity.” focusing on toxic masculinity in todd phillips’s on toxic masculinity in todd phillips’s film, film, jokerjoker, this essay recounts the , this essay recounts the toxic behaviors associated with toxic behaviors associated with america’s hegemonic masculine america’s hegemonic masculine system and addresses how party system and addresses how party clown and failed comic arthur clown and failed comic arthur fleck’s journey across masculinity’s fleck’s journey across masculinity’s border—and transformation into border—and transformation into the famous villain, joker— glorifies the famous villain, joker— glorifies the adoption of these toxic traits. the adoption of these toxic traits. phillips’s film is an unhealthy influence on phillips’s film is an unhealthy influence on young, nontraditionally masculine males. young, nontraditionally masculine males. fleck’s character arc teaches them that fleck’s character arc teaches them that using violence, sexually asserting oneself, using violence, sexually asserting oneself, and withholding emotions all come and withholding emotions all come with serious social benefits and lack any with serious social benefits and lack any consequences. phillips claims through consequences. phillips claims through jokerjoker that the oppressed unmasculine that the oppressed unmasculine man can overcome his social hardships man can overcome his social hardships by simply replacing his weak, effeminate by simply replacing his weak, effeminate personality traits (such as crying openly, personality traits (such as crying openly, solving conflicts without physicality, solving conflicts without physicality, and sexual passivity) with mainstream and sexual passivity) with mainstream toxic behaviors. this personality change toxic behaviors. this personality change is necessary to cross the border into is necessary to cross the border into mainstream masculinity and elevated mainstream masculinity and elevated social states, according to phillips’s social states, according to phillips’s character study. phillips’s catch-all character study. phillips’s catch-all solution is a claim i contradict with solution is a claim i contradict with evidence of the failing health of young evidence of the failing health of young men in real-world america, concluding men in real-world america, concluding with a plea for the creation of safe spaces with a plea for the creation of safe spaces for healthy male identity exploration.for healthy male identity exploration. overcome his social hardships by overcome his social hardships by simply replacing his weak, effeminate simply replacing his weak, effeminate personality traits (such as crying openly, personality traits (such as crying openly, solving conflicts without physicality, solving conflicts without physicality, and sexual passivity) with mainstream and sexual passivity) with mainstream toxic behaviors. this personality change toxic behaviors. this personality change is necessary to cross the border into is necessary to cross the border into mainstream masculinity and elevated mainstream masculinity and elevated social states, according to phillips’s social states, according to phillips’s character study. phillips’s catch-all character study. phillips’s catch-all solution is a claim i contradict with solution is a claim i contradict with evidence of the failing health of young evidence of the failing health of young men in real-world america, concluding men in real-world america, concluding with a plea for the creation of safe spaces with a plea for the creation of safe spaces for healthy male identity exploration.for healthy male identity exploration. toxic masculinity is a modern pandemic that has overtaken young white men in america at an incredible rate, with restrictive symptoms such as withholding one’s emotions, displaying hypersexuality and aggression, and adopting unnaturally high self-reliance, among others.these values are not intrinsic, but societally enforced in the practice dubbed hegemonic masculinity. todd phillips’s version of dc villain joker, arthur fleck, is a modern poster child for the american male everyman’s journey to adopt toxic masculine principles in order to mature into a man of dangerous confidence and consequence. fleck’s zero-to-hero character arc is an adept illustration of how society forces men to cross a metaphysical border from “weakling boy” to “real man” in order to gain respect from others and exert control over one’s own body. however, as fleck’s journey across the border illuminates, crossing into toxic masculinity requires the adoption of many dangerous traits— from coveting violence to embracing hypersexuality and adopting emotional façades—and serves as a testament to why toxic masculinity’s border should remain uncrossed. a biblical book: masculinity’s commandments in tracing fleck’s haphazard arc toward toxicity, one must first understand exactly what toxic masculinity requires of its adherents. in 1976, social scientists deborah david and robert brannon synthesized a “guy code” from years of research, having drafted a bible-to-be for those coming into manliness: 1. no sissy stuff: anything that even remotely hints of femininity is prohibited. a real man must avoid any behavior or characteristic associated with women. 2. be a big wheel: masculinity is measured by success, power, and the admiration of others. one must possess wealth, fame, and status to be considered manly. 3. be a sturdy oak: manliness requires rationality, toughness, and self-reliance. a man must remain calm in any situation, show no emotion, and admit no weakness. 4. give ‘em hell: men must exude an aura of daring and aggression, and must be willing to take risks, to ‘go for it’ even when reason and fear suggest otherwise (levine 145). but america hasn’t burned this bible yet. distinguished sociologist dr. michael kimmel recently asked young men (ages 17-22) from every state in america (and 15 other countries) what phrases came to mind when they heard someone say, “be a man.” much to his dismay, kimmel found that the guy code’s pillars remained largely unchanged: 1. boys don’t cry 2. it’s better to be mad than sad 3. don’t get mad—get even 4. take it like a man scoma 114 5. he who has the most toys when he dies, wins 6. just do it or ride or die 7. size matters 8. i don’t stop to ask for directions 9. nice guys finish last 10. it’s all good (kimmel 45). these “commandments” form the foundation of toxic masculinity—real men must follow them to receive the highest social status. several of these commandments are embraced by fleck as he fills out his (rather large, clown-like) shoes during the film’s progression. “it’s better to be mad than sad”: beat-downs and bystanders the classic joker is one of the american public’s most beloved villains. he is a complete madman boasting a chemically-inflicted skin disfiguration and a love for violence and manic laughter. however, todd phillips’s joker, arthur fleck, is contrastingly unremarkable. he is a socially awkward, sad party clown who simply learns to stand up for himself. fleck’s life is one boisterous, walking example of kimmel’s second principle, “it’s better to be mad than sad” (kimmel 45). when fleck simply chooses to be “sad,” he is beaten and battered. the film proposes that violence is the necessary answer to fleck’s woes, using it as the vehicle to help him cross the border into manhood. joker opens with fleck, the professional party clown, sporting a painted grin while spinning signs for a liquidated business. only seconds later, a gaggle of teenagers seize fleck’s sign and a chase ensues, ending in an alley beatdown. while kicking fleck, the boys shout, “this guy’s weak, he can’t do nothing. harder, harder!”and “beat him up, take his stuff ” (phillips). the camera engages in a lengthy pause to emphasize fleck’s pitiful state as he cradles his groin on the pavement, painted smile twisted with grief. scoma 115 the camera engages in a 24-second pause to emphasize fleck’s pitiful state. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_tod0-46vq https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_tod0-46vq within the film’s first minutes, fleck is presented as a pitiable effeminate character; this is what motivates the young boys to target him. when fleck is a “sad” man, he’s an easy target for physical beatings. this trait is a reflection of toxic masculinity’s emphasis on learning how to “take it like a man,” that is, with unbreakable stoicism. the boys also take his belongings in a brief ode to kimmel’s fifth principle, “he who has the most toys ...wins” (kimmel 45). fleck isn’t respected by others because his failed masculinity places him within the bordered outlands of the social eye. however, everything changes once fleck is gifted a pistol by his coworker randall. suddenly, fleck can choose to be “mad,” and his life becomes considerably better. arthur fleck first toes the border between weak and powerful masculinity on a late-night subway ride when an unexpected episode of his pseudobulbar affect (uncontrollable, moodnoncongruent laughter) pins him beneath the shoes of a drunken businessman trio who mock and assault his shaking, contorted body (phillips). an analysis of this scene’s physical posturing is pertinent to illustrate fleck’s newfound empowerment after crossing toxic masculinity’s border through a sudden act of violence. during the early stages of confrontation, fleck remains seated and small while the businessmen circle over him with outstretched arms and loose posture that project their socially owed confidence. the men’s relative posturing is indicative of their relative social statuses. these businessmen bring home respectable money, sexually assert themselves upon a female passenger on the subway, and use violence to uphold their place in the pecking orderover poor, unmasculine, feeble virgin fleck. but once he draws his pistol, fleck unfolds his spine for the first time and stands tall while marching after the last of his aggressors who is symbolically wounded into a limp (phillips). scoma 116 fleck stands tall, pistol in hand, positioned dominantly over his last victim. https://youtu.be/mupjckusdzo?t=212 fleck is able to stand over the now-terrified man’s body before murdering him from above, indicating that with violence he is able to quite literally stand above the men to whom society has awarded a higher social status for living within masculinity’s borders. fleck then does something unexpected. instead of grieving, he performs a ninety second dance in a nearby bathroom to further emphasize the unexpected wave of joy he has experienced from getting mad rather than sad. miraculously, fleck manages to escape the crime scene and return to his home, visually minimizing the consequences which come from using violence to solve disputes. the contrast here is blatant. when fleck passively took a beating in the film’s opening scene, his body and paycheck were bruised and broken just like his wooden sign, but when he became angry and killed his aggressors, his problems simply vanished. his adoption of violence as a problem-solving method is the most apparent sign that feeble fleck has hopped over toxic masculinity’s border, taking kimmel’s adage to heart; it really is better to be mad than sad (45). once fleck retaliates by using violence to control others, he finally sheds his weak façade to reveal his inner joker: a confident man with a more jovial attitude who is an active player in his own life’s story. affirming the positivity of this masculine behavioral change is the next visit fleck pays his social worker, wherein he expresses that he’s “finally a real person” and that “[his] life matters” (phillips). these expressions heavily coincide with toxic masculinity’s notion that the only men of consequence are those who use violence to obtain power, something the malnourished, weedy clown had not attempted before acquiringa firearm. much later in the film, popular ex-coworker randall arrives at fleck’s apartment with their mutual friend gary in tow. randall begs fleck to falsely testify that randall didn’t give fleck the pistol he used for the subway car’s triple-murder (thus acquitting randall from any criminal charges), but fleck simply smiles while stabbing randall repeatedly with a pair of blunt scissors (phillips). this gruesome event indicates fleck’s growing confidence in his manhood, as he no longer feels subordinate to his larger, more popular backstabbing colleague. whereas fleck once lapped up insincere praise from randall in the green room, his growing sense of entitlement to power now emboldens him to eliminate the man threatening to blow his cover. by “getting mad” and utilizing violence, fleck effectively eliminates this threat to his new lifestyle so he can climb the social pecking order. further, he does so yet again with no consequences, as gary wearily leaves the apartment alone, having decided to withhold this information from the police for the film’s duration. fleck’s violent tendencies escalate when he feels betrayed by his own mother, penny, who had been withholding information on his adoption from him. fleck verbally indicates his crossing of toxic masculinity’s borders while standing beside her hospital bed, scoma 117 explaining that “i used to think my life was a tragedy, but now i realize it’s a ...comedy” (phillips). this statement is the final indicator that fleck no longer will simply lay down and feel “sad.” he has turned to unpredictability and reckless abandon, finally adopting toxic masculinity’s desire for chaos and power over others by “[giving] ‘em hell” (kimmel 45). after this admittance, fleck coolly smothers his mother, illustrating his newfound masculine entitlement to power, and escapes into the night. important to notice is the relative positioning of bodies here as well—fleck’s power has overcome that of even his own mother, indicated by his high relative position while standing over her low-lying bed (phillips). the camera’s angle also remains parallel with fleck’s eye-level to suggest his actions are levelheaded and thus minimizes the horror of his violent act by excluding his mother from her own death scene. despite the disturbing nature of this event, the film’s use of framing and positioning suggests that fleck is not behaving as an insane villain, but simply as a different man—a real man, thanks to toxic masculinity’s commandments. fleck’s use of violence to cut social ties to the weak and unlikeable (his mother) proves that he’s willing to do everything necessary to cross into toxic manhood, and that he has no desire to hold onto the past or return to the effeminate boyhood from which he came. important to note in fleck’s beatdowns is the underlying perpetuator of male violence as a means to enforce masculinity’s border during assaults: bystander silence. there are easily dozens, even hundreds of bystanders who watch fleck chase down the mischievous signsnatching teens in the film’s opening scene, yet all refuse to respond to his frantic cries for help (phillips). scoma 118 the camera focuses on fleck with an angle equal to his eye level to imply rationality regarding his mother’s strangulation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zujvwq3vzk0&t=69 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_tod0-46vq https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_tod0-46vq similarly, both randall and penny’s murders were sloppy, with bystanders and vitalmonitoring technology witnessing the events. yet fleck is never explicitly punished for either crime, projecting that violence is an acceptable solution to one’s problems since there are no consequences, all thanks to bystander silence. scenes such as these are prime examples of how phillips’s film asserts the problematic mentality that guys can act however they please without the risk of being held accountable for their actions—showing young men that they can mirror fleck’s actions to rise from zero to “hero” without any unwanted consequences. unfortunately, the guy code can easily explain the reluctance of bystanders to stop an assault. real men don’t show weaknesses such as walking away from a situation, stepping forward to stop it, or informing an authority figure of any misdoings. real men have each other’s backs. guys learn not to tell their teachers, their police force, their parents, to look the other way when lewd remarks are thrown at women. they learn to stay silent. they learnto let immoral behaviors continue unpunished. weak men remain victims, and the guy code lives on. phillips’s normalization of unopposed violence as a means to solve issues in film feeds into the greater hero film culture which young boys mirror as they mature. this leads to regular, real-life beatdowns in order to assert the hegemonic hierarchy. thanks to fictional media, persons in power asserting their status over subordinates has become a “natural” process of life. fleck—and american kids—are simply carrying out society’s brutal orders. while most fictional heroes and villains aren’t children, they are no less guilty of asserting a strict hierarchy upon their fictional worlds. heroes sit atop the social hierarchy by means of using artificial assistance (flight, laser beams, and the likes) to control others. they are, simply put, humanity’s best. the everyman stands below them, and villains are the scum of society. modern elite heroes, according to professor of mental health dr. sharon lamb, are far unhealthier influences than their comic book counterparts, who were “real people scoma 119 fleck sprints past countless bystanders while crying for help—most don’t even spare him a glance. with real problems and many vulnerabilities.” she classifies two types of modern hero’s masculinity: “slackers,” who are funny but avoid responsibility and exist as sidekicks, and the more socially desirable “players,” who are dominant, stoic, and violent (lamb). young boys seeking validation are far more likely to model themselves after the players such as tony stark/iron man whose persona outside of the super-suit manipulates women, rakes in cash, and demeans others in order to gain confidence, increase his social status, and give ‘em hell. a character’s physical superpowers often also serve as a metaphor for the power used to put down others deemed as “lesser” by society’s elite. while real people can never hope to supernaturally slow time or breathe fire, they can vicariously live through empowered characters who possess the extraordinary means to subvert others. most of these heroes are male, and male heroes are almost exclusively muscular, confident, and charismatic. by these standards, skinny, awkward arthur fleck should never have been able to transform into a powerful, inspiring figure, and yet he’s managed to win the public over. although fleck is completely unremarkable, his willingness to use any means to gain social acclaim is what makes him even more admirable to audiences who are “just like him.” specifically, these audiences are composed of primarily young men who are still adrift in the turbid sea of masculinity, learning what they’re capable of enacting in order to rise to the top. joker itself is the story of fleck’s transformation from an isolationist nobody to a violent, confident player who murders all whom he had once held dear and proudly confesses to his crimes on live television without batting an eyelash. therefore, joker serves as a perilous playbook for real boys hoping to transform into players and follow fleck across toxic masculinity’s border. “size matters”: homosociality and hypersexuality behind each example of male-male bullying lies an explicit trend—sexual themes. sex is a point of fixation forced upon men by the media, expressed in kimmel’s rule number seven: “size matters” (45). to develop his sub-par comedic material, fleck spends his nights watching comedians, from the famous television comic murray franklin to other wannabes. much of the material fleck watches relies heavily on the use of lewd jokes, such as one male comic who tells a long-winded metaphor about how men view sex like driving and women as a row of spot[s] to park in. “oh, i have to pay to park here? never mind,” he jokes, implying that, like a stretch of marked pavement, women have no willpower to decline sex and should be “easy” to sexually access. after he finishes the set, the audience goes wild, whistling and hollering (phillips). yet another comic tells a sexual roleplay story with his wife playing a college student who is “willing to do anything to pass [his ‘class’].” the audience laughs at the comic’s sexual comments, relating his story to their own personal experiences and expectations scoma 120 in the bedroom. these situations are unfamiliar to fleck, a virgin and social isolationist. he laughs at all the wrong times during the set, proving that laughing at sex and the objectification of others are not innate tendencies; they’re adopted traits enforced by society when crossing toxic masculinity’s border. fleck also earns a few side-eyes for his mis-timed laughter, indicating that there is little tolerance for people who don’t live within masculinity’s postulates. to show what he’s learned that night, fleck jots a note in large, messy script: “sexy jokes alwaze funny” (phillips). where in society, though, is this pressure to start sexualizing the world coming from? citizens are bombarded from all angles by the media’s sexist and objectifying television shows, movies, product promotions, music, video games, and more. content from all sides promises happiness once men transition into sexual confidence and dominance. society depicts men as hypersexual beings who must be physically attractive, and sexually active— standards which assert the guy code’s emphasis on risk-taking, use of genitalia, and an inflated sense of self-importance. although gotham is in an alternate reality, it’s safe to say that sex still sells everywhere; its comics, construction workers, and passersby toss around sexualized comments from the film’s background. comedy broadcasts featuring lewd jokes often play on television sets, and audiences applaud while watching men kiss strangers without consent. as arthur fleck’s confidence in his newfound social behaviors grows, he himself takes a large leap in the “right direction” regarding virility, having stalked his neighbor for days before arriving at her doorstep to kiss her suddenly without consent. a similar incident happens near the film’s conclusion when fleck (now called joker) seizes the chin of elderly murray franklin show guest dr. sally and kisses her on live television while she flails her arms, eyes open in surprise, for nearly twenty seconds (phillips). scoma 121 fleck, now called “joker,” forcefully kisses the elderly doctor sally on live television, who becomes visibly uncomfortable. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wwrqn8060m&t=83s it seems that after crossing masculinity’s border, fleck has taken the other comics’ lifestyle advice to heart by asserting dominance over the few females he encounters, in heavy contrast to the awkward virgin he once was. this problematic behavior extends from society’s assertion of male virility: a man must be sexually forward, and that he can “have” any woman he wishes. by the film’s conclusion, fleck has successfully pocketed another trait of toxic masculinity—the necessity of dominant virulence—in order to step into toxic masculine territory. in fact, many real and fictional men carry false or shaky definitions of consent and assault. eighty-eight percent of men whose actions fit under the legal definition of rape adamantly denied that they had committed that act. this is because men are misled about what exactly constitutes rape. society teaches them through sexist, brutal pornography and misogynistic music that all women are sexually available and have a sex drive just as high—or even higher—than men’s, which is not exclusively true (katz 27). men are taught by american culture that women are continuously open to sexual advances regardless of whether they voice a consensual “yes” and are always ready to “take it rough” (reminiscent of the film’s joke comparing women to parking spots), which often results in rape or attempted rape. in america, “less than one percent of rape is committed by women,” but rape is classified as a women’s issue even though men are the perpetrators. this is because society has normalized hypersexuality as a normal male behavior. as american educator, filmmaker, actor, and advocate jason katz explains, “men are the ones doing most of the battering and almost all of the raping. men are the ones paying the prostitutes (and killing them in video games), going to strip clubs, renting sexually degrading pornography, [and] writing and performing misogynistic music” (5). american men are praised for a high libido, indicating that “real” men must be sexually dominant in order to cross the border into manhood and earn social praise. these claims carry across to phillips’s joker. no male character is ever sexually degraded or beaten by a woman, and neither woman retaliates after being sexually assaulted by fleck, normalizing his dominant behavior. phillips’s film is a problematic space for men to wreak havoc on society without consequences. “it’s all good”: standing tall like a sturdy oak perhaps the most famous trait of toxic masculinity is adopting the sturdiness of an oak. a man must remain unemotional and stand tall no matter his circumstances, or as kimmel recounts, “it’s all good” (45). what sets this rule apart, however, is that fleck learns this trait during his childhood and therefore exhibits it throughout his time on the screen. it’s revealed late in the film that he was abused by his stepfather and neglected by scoma 122 his own mother, who caused the head trauma behind his medical condition. because fleck’s own guardians abused him during his childhood, he never learned to trust others enough to lean on them emotionally. thus, the seeds of fleck’s sturdy oak are well-grown by the time he graces the silver screen. when asked to share his mental health journal with his social worker (post-triple murder), fleck’s shaking legs and fidgeting fingers express discomfort with the idea of sharing its contents, as he is accustomed to keeping his emotions to himself (phillips). when she asks fleck if “it help[s] to have someone to talk to?” he responds with, “i think i felt better when i was locked up in the hospital.” the scene cuts abruptly to a clip of straightjacketed fleck beating his head against the walls of an isolation ward (phillips). this brief statement implies that even at the height of fleck’s sickness he was never cared for by others, but instead locked in seclusion. in real-world america, males experience a lack of medical care as well. the average man perishes five years before the average woman as reported by the cdc, but physiological differences don’t explain this discrepancy. according to a study of 250 participants conducted by psychology professors himmelstein and sanchez, men who held ‘traditional beliefs’ about masculinity were more likely to put off the confrontation of medical issues, compared with women or men who held less traditional beliefs (himmelstein and sanchez). traditional beliefs included being “tough, brave, self-reliant, and restrained in expression of emotion.” fleck is one of these men, exhibiting reluctance to share his journal’s many dark thoughts about death and depression with his social worker, which prevents her from properly helping him to improve his health. this scene contains just one example of the scoma 123 fleck beats his head forcefully against the glass window of his isolation ward cell’s door in arkham asylum. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tu1trigfs_4 postulates fleck has been forced to adopt in order to cross toxic masculinity’s border: “it’s all good” (kimmel 45). in the film’s early scenes, even after running out of medicine and losing a paycheck for his busted sign, fleck still soothes his mother’s worries. he reasons that “everybody’s telling me that my stand-up is ready for the big clubs” (when he hadn’t yet performed a single joke), following up with “i don’t want you worrying about money, mom, or me” (phillips). fleck’s tendency to lie about his financial situation, mental health, and career progress are indicative of his desire to keep up appearances and admit no weakness, even to those whom he should trust. he cries in secret, hides his bruises, and quite literally paints on a happy face for work every day to keep the world unaware of his internal despondency. however, fleck’s façade does slip at times. he is seen shooting himself in the head with finger guns throughout the film, and even places his loaded pistol’s barrel into his mouth in a moment of despair. while folded delicately in his kitchen chair, fleck records a rightly telling note in his journal: “the worst part about having a mental illness is people expect you to behave as if you don’t” (phillips). and fleck is far from alone. boys who develop depression are far less likely to seek treatment than their female counterparts. why? because real men don’t cry. a plethora of psychologists argue that from an early age, boys are taught to stow away their emotions and never display weakness. as a result, boys feel effeminate not only if they express emotions, but even if they only feel any at all (kimmel 53). for men, there is socially sourced shame in sadness and in showing emotional vulnerability. these feelings are left to fester until a man cannot bear his burden any longer. in the united states, eighty percent of suicide deaths are males according to the centers for disease control and prevention (holmes). who’s enforcing the border: the gender police it’s important to note that without social pressure, masculinity would be noticeably more diverse. who, then, is moderating young guys’ behaviors? it turns out, nearly all males have become the self-employed gender police. teachers, coaches, strangers, and—most importantly—a guy’s own bros observe and judge his behavior. if a guy didn’t have physical strength or stoicism, he wasn’tdeemed a man, and his peers made sure he knew it by either taunts, physical assaults, or barefaced exclusion from activities. although fleck’s educational background is unclear, he does fall victim to the gender police as an adult several times throughout the film. in the film’s early stages, fleck is personally brought up onto the stage during a taping of the murray franklin show after yelling “i love you, murray!” and explaining that his own purpose in life is also to make others laugh (phillips). franklin then tells fleck that he’d be a great son to have and hugs him affectionately. but when fleck finally attempts to perform his own comedy set in a nightclub, video clips of it wind up on the same comedian’s television show. franklin introduces fleck this time as “a guy who thinks if you just keep laughing, it’ll somehow make you funny” and not only plays into the masculine urge to ignore the possibility of illness (considering fleck looks pained in the tapes) but also makes a mockery of fleck’s aspirations, teasing that this is “in a world where everyone thinks they could do my job” (phillips). 124 https://youtu.be/j5618ge0mn8?t=39s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb7cg2pbdwm&t=60s franklin thoroughly mocks fleck, comparing the clown to himself in order to demean fleck and boost his own public opinion. this change in behavior is brought about when fleck attempts to ascend the social ladder from audience member to competitor, illustrating the masculine urge to uphold the male hierarchy. franklin’s opinion of fleck turns from sweet to sour, his scorn pushing fleck back into his place—outside of masculinity’s walls. additionally, billionaire thomas wayne (who fleck mistakes as his biological father from his mother’s lobotomy-driven illusions) treats fleck in a similar manner. when fleck dons an employee outfit and sneaks into a high-class film premiere, the affluent audience spares him no glances, even staring straight through him when he walks down into the aisle. this is because fleck is perceived as a lowly server who is of no threat to them, and especially not to thomas wayne. when fleck follows wayne into the bathroom, the mogul looks straight past him at first (phillips). as fleck approaches, wayne entertains his story with an amused expression and light laughter until it calls the billionaire’s social reputation into question. once fleck doubles down on his claim that thomas wayne is his father, however, wayne’s demeanor changes. he begins interrupting fleck as if to prevent socially injurious words from even escaping into the air and offers fleck a bribe to keep him away from the glittering wayne family reputation. when that approach doesn’t work, however, thomas wayne takes the familiar masculine approach and socks fleck in the nose before quickly leaving the room. yet again, fleck is beaten down by a male moderator with higher social status who wants nothing to do with a poor, unsuccessful social recluse. it’s not all good: some borders shouldn’t be crossed if “weak” men like arthur fleck weren’t forced to march across the border into toxic masculinity to earn a place in society, the world would be a safer place. there would be fewer rape cases based on the blurry line of consent and dominant masculine positioning. there would be fewer male suicides in the united states from years of severe emotional isolation. boys in schoolyards and sidewalks wouldn’t have to limp home after being assaulted by teammates in the name of “manning up.” some borders are not meant to be crossed, and arthur fleck is a superlative exam--ple of the burdensome behavioral toll paid by unmasculine men when crossing into toxic masculinity. although fleck glows with confidence and self-satisfaction when leading gotham’s underdogs as joker, viewers behind the screen can recognize that he has become a violent, lewd, dangerous isolationist. he is a perfect villain. however, simply recognizing toxic masculinity in films like joker isn’t enough; we must learn to recognize these films’ negative impact on america’s real-life young men. hero films are a staple of american culture, and young boys developing their identities look to these heroes (and sometimes, villains) to determine how to act and what to value. therefore, phillips’s joker is only one instance within a genre that’s hindering toxic masculinity’s real-world abolishment. we must strive to provide better examples of masculinity to america’s boys; to provide a safe space for every man in society: one without the pressure to cross borders into toxic masculinity’s dangerous territory. 125 works cited “arthur kills his mother joker (2019) movie clip 4k.” youtube, uploaded by theaterclips, 18 march 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zujvwq3vzk0&t=69. “arthur kills three guys in the subway | joker [ultrahd, hdr]” youtube, uploaded by flashback fm, 21 january 2020, https://youtu.be/mupjckusdzo?t=212. feasey, rebecca. masculinity and popular television. edinburgh university press, 2008. himmelstein, mary s, and diana t sanchez. “masculinity in the doctor’s office: masculinity, gendered doctor preference and doctor-patient communication.” preventive medicine, vol. 84, 2016, pp. 34-40. sciencedirect, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2015.12.008. holmes, leonard. “rates and statistics for suicide in the united states.” edited by sean blackburn, verywell mind, 9 july 2020, www.verywellmind.com/suicide-rates overstated-in-people-with-depression-2330503. “joker entrance scene murray franklin show – joker.” youtube, uploaded by goodmovieclips, 20 september 2020, https://youtu.be/_wwrqn8060m?t=83. “joker journal joker best clips.” youtube, uploaded by bestclips, 20 december 2019, https://youtu.be/tu1trigfs_4?t=179. “joker teenagers steal the sign board and beat him [hd].” youtube, uploaded by recall, 12 june 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_tod0-46vq. “joker 2019 arthur watching murray franklin show 1080p full hd ii best movie scene.” youtube, uploaded by bestmoviescene, 5 march 2020, https://youtu.be/ zb7cg2pbdwm?t=60. “joker, 2019 i love you murray scene | filmverse.” youtube, uploaded by filmverse, 3 december 2020, https://youtu.be/j5618ge0mn8?t=39. katz, jackson. the macho paradox: why some men hurt women and how all men can help. sourcebooks inc, 2006. kimmel, michael. guyland: the perilous world where boys become men. harpercollins, 2018. walsh 126 lamb, sharon. “packaging boyhood: saving our sons from superheroes, slackers, and other media stereotypes.” 118th annual convention of the american psychological association, 15 august 2010, san diego convention center, san diego, california. levine, martin p., and michael s. kimmel. gay macho: the life and death of the homosexual clone. new york university press, 1998. phillips, todd, director. joker. warner bros. entertainment, 2019. scoma 127 the digital literature review | 43 abstract migration is a phenomenon that requires individuals to shift their identity to incorporate new cultures, creating a split between the individual’s ethnic identity and national identity. acculturation to a new environment requires migrants to solidify a new identity, often adopting a combination of their past lives and their new lives. in the context of social identity theory by henri tajfel, each migrant has the ability to choose how they categorize themselves and create groups. the book american street by ibi zoboi contextualizes the migrant experience to america as a struggle to find their place and acceptance in a community. using social identity theory, this paper aims to prove that the protagonist, fabiola toussaint, is able to find peace as a haitian american citizen, incorporating both of her homes into her identity. by embracing her multiple identities, fabiola unites her family from both worlds and learns to accept herself. © carter, the digital literature review, 12 (3), 43–57. doi: 10.33043/y9535cb4. shared with cc-by-nc-nd 4.0 license. post-migration and embracing identity multiplicity kaira carter http://doi.org/10.33043/y9535cb4 44 | carter in each culture, there are unique traits and traditions that set it apart from other cultures across the world. within these social constructs, each individual develops an identity to reflect the culture they live in. this representation allows individuals to feel a sense of belonging and harmony, creating meaning and community worth cherishing (deaux 280). however, for those who permanently migrate to new countries, their ethnic identities no longer reflect social expectations, driving them to adopt a new national persona. this new national identity often differs from their ethnic identity, requiring migrants to rapidly adapt to their new situation. between ethnic identity and national identity, each migrant has to decide how to incorporate their old selves into their new selves and find acceptance as a mixture of both. without the ability to adhere to each part of their identities, they will feel incomplete or inauthentic as an individual. migrants finding belonging in their new home depends on their ability to blend their social identities and categorize themselves as bicultural individuals who derive support from their cultural traditions, spiritual beliefs, and family bonds. in 2017, haitian-born author ibi zoboi wrote her debut novel american street about immigrants in the united states having to grapple with several social identities while adapting to new surroundings. as one of the finalists for the national book award for young people’s literature, this novel follows the us-born haitian protagonist, fabiola toussaint, raised in haiti with her haitian-born mother. wanting to leave haiti to live with their american family, fabiola tries to enter america with her undocumented mother, who is arrested at the airport and put into a detainment center. fabiola is forced to immigrate alone. struggling to leave behind her mother and country to assimilate into detroit’s isolated, fast-paced society, fabiola turns to her american-born cousins to help her acculturate while also remembering to preserve her haitian heritage to find a sense of happiness. while immigrants to the united states can identify as americans, they can’t escape their past cultural identities. throughout the novel, fabiola connects her the digital literature review | 45 spiritual beliefs to the people in her life, finding guidance and comfort from her origins. her cousins and aunt jo take care of her and teach her how to survive in downtown detroit, even introducing her to their family businesses: loan sharking and drug dealing. because of their haitian backgrounds and because they have a single mother who cannot work an official job due to medical issues, the toussaint family has to support each other by any means necessary. fabiola finds strength and offers support by praying for her family, cooking nutritious haitian cuisine, and inviting her family into her religious practices. even though fabiola must adopt new behaviors as an american citizen, such as attending a public school and prioritizing money, she does not abandon her ethnic identity as a haitian. instead, she recontextualizes her ethnic identity in a way that sustains her national identity. by engaging with both of her identities, fabiola finds peace and acceptance with her choices throughout the novel and feels connected with her haitian mother, the person she dedicates herself to rescuing from confinement. the novel culminates in an impossible choice between two families: her american family or her haitian mother. accepting both worlds as a crucial part of herself, fabiola finds a solution that allows her to unite both, even at the expense of financial security. the author of american street, ibi zoboi, is a haitian immigrant to the united states who writes about migrant experiences, striving to bring awareness to her audiences about violence and oppression in america. american street is her break-out novel and national book award finalist, and it was the first step toward accomplishing her goal. in an interview with pbs books, zoboi explained she was born in port-au-prince, like fabiola, and immigrated to america with her mother at the age of four to bushwick, new york. the area she grew up in was prone to violence and drug use, causing her mother to restrict her from going outside. as a result, zoboi grew up in front of the television, consuming as much media as she could (pbs books). she explains her reason for placing the setting of american street in west side detroit was because it reflected the bushwick 46 | carter she had to grow up with. the event that motivated her to publish american street was “the murder of a black boy and the media haranguing of his haitian-dominican-american friend” (jean-charles 45). as someone who grew up in the crosshairs of violence, zoboi decided to represent migrants and marginalized groups who face persecution because of racial judgment and their inability to escape their ethnic identities. after american street’s success, she published several more books such as nigeria jones, pride, (s)kin,punching the air, and many more. american street helps provide a migrant perspective about the difficulties of categorizing oneself in a new environment and finding an accepting community to rely on. zoboi’s novel received extensive review and praise for making migration studies and an assimilation text accessible for young adult readers, who often struggle to relate to migrants. in laurel niedospial’s review on popsugar, they state, “while a different writer might have fallen into the trap of making america be the ideal, zoboi manages to describe the difficulty of living in the us while still making authentic and dynamic characters who have grown up there.” as a haitian immigrant to the united states herself, zoboi understands first-hand the hardships involved in leaving one’s country behind for one that is supposedly better. zoboi depicts the american dream as an unrealistic standard and presents the struggles migrants face as they adapt to a new culture. another review from tiffany rhoades on girl museum also takes notice of fabiola’s multiple identities and her dedication to integrating into detroit’s harsh environment. they emphasize that the book creates an emotional attachment between fabiola and the reader, creating a personal experience. rhoades states, “i was proud as she learned how to write a proper research paper and received her first ‘a’ in an american school … i also became enamored with her traditional practices as she prayed to the ilwas, made a haitian-influenced thanksgiving dinner, and told her cousins about life in haiti.” these reviews show that even if the american dream is not accessible the digital literature review | 47 to everyone, immigrants in the united states can find success. fabiola’s journey is not just one of hardship; she learns to be courageous and take steps toward the life she wants most. her dedication to her family and her bicultural identity gives her a sense of purpose in her new life that the american dream never offered her. before determining whether multiculturalism is an approachable method for integration, it is imperative to understand how human beings define themselves and what creates effective social groups. social identity theory, originally established by henri tajfel and his colleague john turner in the early 1970s, is a method used to define and categorize an individual. this theory utilizes social categorization and social identity to explain why and how social groups are created (tajfel 254). social categorization is when like-minded individuals with similar qualities or goals come together. these qualities and goals help the group identify and compare themselves to other groups. tajfel explains that “social identity will be understood as that part of an individual’s self-concept which derives from his knowledge of his membership of a social group (or groups)” (254-255). social identity is how someone defines themselves in relation to others, thus creating communities of people. as established in the definition, individuals can be parts of several groups and determine for themselves what represents them. this can incorporate multiple cultures and beliefs should the individual choose to accept culturally diverse practices into their everyday lives. what determines whether a social group is successful is equally important to identify. in a later article published in 1985, tajfel teamed up with john turner to research the factors determining if a group fulfills its purpose and gets along with other groups. a social group naturally determines its success by comparing itself to alternate groups, also known as out-groups. if conditions are better in their group, members will have higher self-esteem and a sense of belonging. when conditions are worse in their group, members will have worse self-esteem and will likely leave the group or start 48 | carter conflicts with an opposing group (tajfel, turner 16). the difference in social status between groups is what creates issues with out-groups, leading to disputes over social identity and how to properly categorize oneself. social identity theory applies to all ethnic groups because ethnicity is a categorization used for identification and relatability. because identity is malleable and can be changed to conform to a new social standard, assimilationist and multiculturalist texts are often about how to shift from one identity to another, or how to bridge the gaps between the two cultures (carpio 16–17). however, conflict often plagues migrant groups, preventing them from finding self-esteem and acceptance in their host country. large immigrant groups with common traits and beliefs tend to be viewed as threats to a host country’s culture, preventing the two ethnic groups from forming peaceful relations (schwartz 344). in many cases, immigrants who try to integrate into a host society have to accept new ethnic labels that place them into a stigmatized social group, such as when an afro-caribbean native is labeled as “black” in american society (deaux 276). zoboi focuses on conflicts between different nationalities and ethnicities in her book, emphasizing the haitian struggle to immigrate to america and assimilate into their society. in trying to compete with a powerful, opposing culture, the haitian american community is plagued with low self-esteem and feels as though they have to fight to belong. fabiola’s oldercousins and aunt jo represent this struggle, and they feel alienated as a result, unable to find support from locals or financial opportunities. because they could not find a stable source of income, the family resorts to becoming loan sharks and drug dealers to survive. while a part of their social group and struggle, fabiola also represents the combination of american and haitian culture. instead of feeling resentful toward anyone in particular, she attempts to create bridges to cross the gaps between their ethnic and national cultures. creating these bridges and finding similarities in her social groups are what allow her to integrate into society as a bicultural the digital literature review | 49 individual and allow her family to follow in her footsteps. one of the first ways fabiola bridges the gap between her ethnic and national identities is through spiritual association: drawing connections between the people in her life and the spiritual lwas that guide her. these lwas play a significant role in the haitian religion known as vodou. laënnec hurbon, a haitian professor who studies haitian religion and culture, explains vodou as a social hierarchy of spirits (lwas) with god serving as the leader of all spirits. he states, “they represent a transformation of ethnic groups into families of divinities and constitute a genuine pantheon. god is recognized as the ‘great master’ who leaves to the lwa, the secondary divinities, the task of dealing with earthly matters” (6). to interact with the guardian spirits, there are manbo, or priestesses, and vodou practitioners who conduct ceremonies to communicate with the lwas (7). each family usually inherits one or two lwas who guide and represent them. in american street, papa legba, also known as the leader of the lwas and the “master of crossroads,” is fabiola’s lwa who helps show her what choices she has in front of her. (6–7). once fabiola realizes that papa legba is guiding her, she realizes that her life is surrounded by spiritual guardians who take the form of the people in her life, offering their advice. in chapter 21, after interacting with several outside characters and spiritual guides, she finally puts everything together, connecting her two worlds through spiritualism. for instance, the book states: “if the old man at the corner called bad leg is papa legba in the flesh, if dray with his eye patch and gold cross is baron samedi, if donna with her makeup and pretty things is ezili and, with her scars, ezili-danto, then chantal and pri can be my spirit guides, too, as ogu, the warrior, and one-half of les marassa jumeaux, the divine twins who stand for truth, balance, and justice. maybe even kasim represents a lwa if i look hard enough. they are all here to help” (zoboi 214). 50 | carter by identifying recurring archetypes in her life, she feels better prepared to confront challenges and take action to appease the lwas. these associations also help fill in what is no longer present for fabiola: her mother. on the page before, fabiola wonders to herself what her mother wouldsay to her if she were there. after discovering her cousins are the drug dealers responsible for killing a minor at a block party, fabiola hides away in her mother’s nightgown, breathing in the scent of home. the confusion caused by the discovery brings her to a crossroads and a monumental decision. should she turn in her cousins in exchange for her mother’s freedom or ally with criminals and become the manifestation of a falsified american dream? when tasked with an impossible scenario, recontextualizing her life to that point through spiritual guidance is what allows her to preserve both. her morally gray decision becomes black and white: sacrifice dray, donna’s abusive boyfriend, to the police. as the manifestation of death itself and having a hand in local drug dealing, dray becomes the key fabiola needs to liberate her home, her cousin donna, and her mother from entrapment. though the results of her decision would later become a devastating trade-off, fabiola’s spiritual upbringing allows her to find resolution in her new circumstances and determine where her loyalties lie: with her family. the second instance where she blends her ethnic and national identities to find solace in her new home is in chapter 23 when she helps her family prepare a haitian american-style thanksgiving dinner. in this section, fabiola sees her aunt “holding her head as if about to pass out” (229). having suffered from a stroke in the past, fabiola’s aunt is unable to maintain the level of power and control she had in the past, making her feel incapable of holding together the family, even for holiday events like thanksgiving. fabiola, recognizing this pain, takes it upon herself to bring the family together, despite her unfamiliarity with the holiday and the foods commonly prepared. rather than letting the task daunt her, her passion spurs her forward. the kitchen connects fabiola with the digital literature review | 51 her mother and the ingredients bring her comfort. she says, “i’m at peace here in this kitchen—seasoning, chopping, and stirring pots. i pour every prayer and blessing into the dishes” (230). by comparing cuisine to religion, she is also incorporating her protective vodou practices, meant to fend off misfortune and create harmony in the household. the tension caused by the drug deals and dray in the past chapters fade into the background as fabiola blesses her household in a moment that is “like a hug from god.” once the meal is prepared and the family is together, they each take turns commenting on how fabiola’s presence helped heal the sense of helpless separation their family created. the unified moment is thanks to the warmth she feels for her family, and the thanksgiving meal helps her to express her dedication. in her “thunderstorm” of emotions, fabiola finds strength in the familiar and the new as her cousins and aunt embrace her (231). the scene concludes with the cousins realizing that fabiola stewed the turkey, a common tradition in haitian cuisine, rather than cooking it whole. they accept the shift in tradition and fabiola as a new, experimental individual who brings warm memories. her american family comes together to comfort her and support her for who she is, accepting her traditions even when they deviate from what they are used to. her country’s food brings them all together and helps contextualize fabiola’s unique talents and blessings. haitian food, like what was served during the thanksgiving dinner, has a vibrant history of cultural identities forging together into a melting pot of internal and external cultural influences. for instance, according to an article about the history of haitian cuisine, the indigenous tribe known as the taino set the spicy foundation for haiti’s food culture, inventing barbecue and open-air cooking practices. once the european settlers colonized haiti and introduced african slave workers, they introduced their unique cuisine, introducing ingredients like coffee, sugar, cacao, okra, and gumbo (louis-jean 1). with spanish and arab migration to haiti, more cooking styles permeated in the haitian culinary world. fabiola’s history and bloodlines, derived from countless global sources, 52 | carter prove that she has experienced identity multiplicity and integration since she was born, having incorporating european, african, american, and indigenous influences. the final chapter of the book brings fabiola’s family together one final time to mourn the loss of their collective american dream. fabiola, taking up her mother’s role as a mambo, a priestess, conducts restorative ceremonies to help her family move on from their losses and misfortune: “we are all in white. even pri has shed her dark clothes and now wears a white turtleneck and pants. i had wrapped my cousins and aunt in white sheets after making a healing bath of herbs and florida water for each one, and let them curl into themselves and cry and cry. this is what manman had done for our neighbors who survived the big earthquake. the bath is like a baptism, and if black is the color of mourning, then white is the color of rebirth and new beginnings. our brown skins glow against our sweaters, pants, and head scarves. we are made new again” (zoboi 321). the ritual helps fabiola and her family remember that not all is lost and that they still have their lives before them. even after losing their home to crime and violence and watching their companions perish because of impossible choices, they still have each other and are allowed to heal each other. pri’s decision to cast away her masculine persona demonstrates her desire to be present, ready to be vulnerable with her family as a way to offer support. however, she still wears pants rather than a skirt or dress, recognizing who she is and staying true to herself. fabiola’s recollection of her mother after the 2015 earthquake that devastated her previous home in port-au-prince shows that she has witnessed first-hand what it is like to see an entire existence crumble before her into something that can never be restored. rather than giving into despair, she leans into her upbringing and her mother’s comforting role to bring hope. in this baptism scene, the whole family recognizes that what they desire in their lives is not a new the digital literature review | 53 nationality or the american dream; rather, they seek solace in each other and peace from the world that offers them nothing but hardship. despite the chaos surrounding them, fabiola knows how to pave the way for a new future: open-minded understanding and a strong community. because of her continuing connection to her past life, fabiola can find resolution not only for herself but her entire family as they each choose to move forward to the future. vodou, as a healing and connecting religion for haitian individuals, offers comfort and connections to haitian migrants in their new homes. by cultivating a community and practicing their religious beliefs, they embrace their ethnic identities alongside their national identities, similar to how fabiola embraces vodou and invites her family to participate in her rituals to purify them. this can be seen in a 2009 scientific study of haitian communities coming together to practice vodou in montreal and inviting locals to join them. in hadrien munier’s article about this study, they state, “as the migrant defines himself or herself within this socio-cultural construction of belonging, two dimensions are important to this process. the first establishes haiti as a reference point for identity that is constructed and shared in the diasporic community. secondly, adherents develop a ‘dividual’ self through the practice of vodou” (27). what they mean is that haitian migrants use vodou as a way to comfortably and successfully integrate into their host culture, allowing themselves to become part of a like-minded social group and retaining their ethnic background in a safe environment. their practice educates the local inhabitants, encouraging cultural exchange and open-mindedness. for instance, one participant named carline grew up in montreal and was experiencing financial troubles. her family encouraged her to consult a vodou practitioner. after taking their advice, she overcame her troubles and found a community of caring individuals, leading her to become a convert (munier 30-34). vodou is a therapeutic practice for adherents, offering stability in an unfamiliar situation and leading to the reinvention of the self. the 54 | carter baptism scene in american street is an example of this reinvention, and it solidifies the family’s collective desire for a better life—not an american or haitian one, but something in between. in becoming individuals, a unified family with shared ethnic backgrounds and shared goals, fabiola finds the community she needs to feel accepted as a haitian american. american street’s significance comes from its ability to confront racial conflicts migrant groups face in america and how material gain never trumps family and culture. the ending reflects this idea and leaves only one thing certain for the readers: fabiola has her family, and they are going to continue the fight to belong. in a critical essay about american street by betsy nies, she states, “the family drives down joy road, symbolizing a decision to abandon the american dream … zoboi leaves unanswered how the family will survive …, she does indicate the importance of moving away from material gain as a value and toward spiritual and familial connections” (153). the american dream—the concept that everyone has the freedom to pursue wealth and achieve their wildest dreams—proves to only be a dream for fabiola and her family. instead of ending with a struggle for wealth or turning against american ideals after dray and kasim’s deaths, zoboi chooses to leave the ending open to interpretation. ultimately, the audience needs to decide if their struggles throughout the novel were worth the outcome. what matters most in the end is fabiola’s conviction to stand up for herself and her culture, showing the world what it means to be a proud haitian american. fabiola, “fortified by vodou, love, and visions of community …, helps readers think of worlds in which her trials and tribulations … cease to exist” (jean-charles 47). fabiola alone cannot improve american society and create acceptance; the people around her are the ones who decide if she has a place. zoboi’s voice for girls like fabiola is meant to push her audience to consider a world where migrant groups are not seen as invaders or threats—they are people. the digital literature review | 55 ibi zoboi and their first breakout novel american street show that no one has to give up their history or their home to acculturate to a new place; their past lives and experiences are what give them strength. fabiola’s journey to the united states teaches her that the skills she adopted from her mother in haiti make her powerful and resourceful. she creates an entire thanksgiving feast, asks the lwas for guidance to save her sisters from deadly drug dealers, and uses her knowledge of sacred rituals to guide them in mourning and restoration. by relying on her haitian background as she developed as an american citizen, fabiola found friends and a family to look out for, even rescuing her mother from detainment in prison. home is not something that needs to be abandoned; rather, it should be incorporated into every new home, offering strength, esteem, and familiarity to those who face a vast new world. 56 | carter carpio, glenda r. “categorizing migrant literature.” migrant aesthetics: contemporary fiction, global migrations, and limits of empathy, columbia university press, new york city, new york, 2023, pp. 15–25. deaux, kay. “immigration and identity theory: what can they gain from each other?” identity and symbolic interaction, 23 apr. 2020, pp. 273–291, https://doi. org/10.1007/978-3-030-41231-9_10. hurbon, laënnec. “haitian vodou.” cambridge encyclopedia of anthropology, 4 may 2022, https://doi.org/10.29164/22haitianvodou. “ibi zoboi on ‘american street’ at the 2017 miami book fair.” youtube, pbs books, 17 nov. 2017, youtu.be/w4wvwsmp3mi?si=yyaduvbouaf6892r. jean-charles, marsha. “decolonial migration, crimmigration, and the american dream nightmare in ibi zoboi’s spirit worlds.” the black scholar, vol. 51, no. 2, 3 apr. 2021, pp. 40–50, https://doi.org/10.1080/00064246.2021.1888683. louis-jean, james, et al. “valorization of pikliz: a spicy meal garnishment in haitian cuisine.” journal of ethnic foods, vol. 8, no. 1, 9 apr. 2021, https://doi. org/10.1186/s42779-021-00077-5. munier, hadrien. “self, lwa and haitianness: the adherence process and reinvention of the self by haitian vodou in montreal.” student anthropologist, vol. 3, no. 4, 1 dec. 2020, pp. 27–40, https://doi.org/10.1002/j.sda2.20130304.0003. niedospial, laurel. “american street shows the shifting perspective of the american dream.” popsugar, vox media, 9 oct. 2017, www.popsugar.com/entertainment/ works cited https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41231-9_10 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41231-9_10 https://doi.org/10.29164/22haitianvodou http://youtu.be/w4wvwsmp3mi?si=yyaduvbouaf6892r https://doi.org/10.1080/00064246.2021.1888683 https://doi.org/10.1186/s42779-021-00077-5 https://doi.org/10.1186/s42779-021-00077-5 https://doi.org/10.1002/j.sda2.20130304.0003 http://www.popsugar.com/entertainment/american-street-review-44123125 the digital literature review | 57 american-street-review-44123125. nies, betsy. “vodou illuminations, diaspora literacy, and racial violence in ibi zoboi’s young adult novel american street.” caribbean children’s literature., vol. 2, 18 may 2023, pp. 133–157. critical approaches, https://doi.org/10.14325/ mississippi/9781496844583.001.0001. rhoades, tiffany. “book review: ‘american street’ is the next great american novel.” girl museum, 11 june 2020, www.girlmuseum.org/book-review-american-street-isthe-next-great-american-novel/. schwartz, seth j., et al. “identity development in immigrant youth: a multilevel contextual perspective.” european psychologist, vol. 23, no. 4, 2018, pp. 336–49. ebscohost, https://doi.org/10.1027/1016-9040/a000335. tajfel, henri, and john c. turner. “the social identity theory of intergroup behavior.” psychology of intergroup relations, nelson-hall inc., chicago, illinois, 1986, pp. 7–24. tajfel, henri. “social categorization, social identity and social comparison.” human groups and social categories: studies in social psychology, cambridge university press, 1981, pp. 254–267. zoboi, ibi aanu. american street. balzer + bray, an imprint of harpercollins publishers, 2018. http://www.popsugar.com/entertainment/american-street-review-44123125 https://doi.org/10.14325/mississippi/9781496844583.001.0001 https://doi.org/10.14325/mississippi/9781496844583.001.0001 http://www.girlmuseum.org/book-review-american-street-is-the-next-great-american-novel/ http://www.girlmuseum.org/book-review-american-street-is-the-next-great-american-novel/ https://doi.org/10.1027/1016-9040/a000335 multispecies encounters surrendering the self: the posthuman world in vandermeer’s annihilation sam allen • • • • in his novel annihilation, author jeff vandermeer provides a science-fiction narrative on nature as an unstoppable and uncontrollable environment where plants, animals, humans, and the land exist as a collective and connected entity of interactions. the novel utilizes lovecraftian horror elements of an uncontrollable nature, human contamination, and an unknowable future controlled by nonhuman forces to portray both a multispecies environment and the posthuman future. read through a multispecies lens and framed by donna haraway’s staying with the trouble: making kin in the chthulucene, this essay is an analysis of how annihilation’s setting—area x—necessitates the removal of human-centered processes and the human concept of individualism for favor of a flourishing multispecies environment. its analysis exemplifies the genre of science fictionas a method to expand the boundaries of our perceived human-centered world. the narrative and rhetorical structures utilized by vandermeer in his representation of real-world environments and natural processes as uncanny horrors and an off-center reality accurately represent the unknown future beyond the human species. ©2024 allen. the digital literature review, 11, 100-114. doi: 10.33043/b8b79k4xz. shared with cc by-nc-nd 4.0 liscense. 101 in the science fiction and weird horror foundation built by american fiction writer h.p. lovecraft, stories are characterized by cosmic, unseen, and unnameable horrors. his fictional cthulhu mythos is a representation of the world and the future beyond the human species, and portrays human-created laws and social orders as meaning little in the grand scope of an indifferent universe. human characters often experience physiological torment and contamination in response to interactions with an unexplainable environment and complex creatures (kneale). in staying with the trouble, multispecies scholar donna haraway names our current ecological period the chthulucene in opposition to the anthropocene, and in reference to lovecraft, emphasizing that the interactions, connections, and evolutions between living and nonliving beings extend beyond humans, and will continue after our extinction. jeff vandermeer calls to lovecraftian science-fiction elements of weird horror and psychological manipulations in his novel annihilation, but utilizes them to represent haraway’s chthulucene in his biologically uncanny setting in area x. vandermeer illustrates a setting where no one species is an individual, but instead an intermingling amalgamation of plants, animals, and other-worldly creatures—in so doing, arguing for a multispecies perspective in studying living and nonliving relationships and considering the posthuman earth. the lovecraftian horror and science fiction genre expectations of exploring the mysteries of the unknown allow vandermeer to push the boundaries of natural realities like coastal environments, the human microbial system, death and decomposition, and the posthuman world to explore the natural world’s true power over humankind. through annihilation, vandermeer offers up the science fiction genre as an adequate portrayal of multispecies theory, and specifically how the posthuman earth requires the removal of human-centered belief systems and actions to preserve the natural environment and its processes. h.p lovecraft (1890-1937) was an american horror fiction writer who created a literary mythos that cemented cosmic horror as an avenue of storytelling far beyond his lifetime—the avenue now labeled lovecrafallen 102 tian. in his fiction, the nonhuman creatures and spirits from the incomprehensible beyond were lovecraft’s sources of horror and fear, belonging to “spheres of existence whereof we know nothing and wherein we have no part” (lovecraft, “supernatural horror”) and initiating the most visceral feeling of fear that humans encounter: fear of the unknown. his descriptions of the unknown tread the line between clarity and confusion, so his texts become “explorations of the limits of language and representation” (kneale 110). an example being his description of the monster cthulhu representing a “vaguely anthropoid outline” with an “octopus-like head” (148) and originating from some society “frightfully suggestive of old and unhallowed cycles of life in which our world and our conceptions have no part” (149). lovecraftian horror became a genre where human actions are inconsequential in the grand scheme of the cosmos, represented by the inability of human society to understand its grandeur, and the metamorphosis of human social constructs (lovecraft et al., “letters” 8). upon their awareness and interaction with cosmic beings, human characters experience physical and psychological transformations and hauntings. after researching the cult of cthulhu, narrator francie thurston in lovecraft’s “the call of cthulhu” says: with it shall go this record of mine—this test of my own sanity, wherein is pieced together that which i hope may never be pieced together again. i have looked upon all the universe has to hold of horror, and even the skies of spring and the flowers of summer must ever afterward be poison to me. but i do not think my life will be long. as my uncle went, as poor johansen went, so i shall go. i know too much, and the cult still lives. (lovecraft, the call 169) in his tales, lovecraft willfully leaves out placid resolutions where humans are better off than they began and instead leaves them to accept the nature of their devolving condition. this decision emphasizes two key elements of lovecraftian horror that persist in vandermeer’s novel annihilation: human ideas, investigation, and anatomical or physiological abilities are no match for whatever exists ‘beyond’ their society; and cosmic allen 103 environments and beings will continue to exist beyond humanity’s societal lifespan. annihilation by jeff vandermeer is a novel that utilizes lovecraftian horror elements to describe a world indifferent to human processes, but differs from lovecraft in its multispecies application. where lovecraft’s characters unwillingly forgo their autonomy to be plagued with torture by cosmic horrors, vandermeer’s narrator forgoes her autonomy willingly to be intertwined in an environment where an ever-evolving nature wins out, and humans are clearly represented as one evolutionary step into a posthuman world. the novel follows a group of four women: a biologist, a psychologist, a surveyor, and an anthropologist as they explore area x on the twelfth expedition put on by an obscure governmental agency referred to as the southern reach. surrounded by a slowly growing and indestructible border, area x is an environment reclaimed by nature and that is evolving into a diverse and biologically abnormal ecosystem. upon arrival, the team finds an opening in the ground with descending stone stairs, and along the wall are cursive words with the make-up of, according to the biologist, “rich green fernlike moss…a type of fungi or other eukaryotic organism” (vandermeer 24). the vines are composed of an ecosystem of filaments and golden nodules, including one that sprays the biologist with gold spores and initiates her contamination (25). this contamination is dubbed a “brightness” (83) and produces psychological and physical changes within the biologist, transitioning her from an observer and mapper of area x into an active component of it. the novel ends with the biologist venturing out into the sea of area x rather than traveling back home through the border in search of her husband, who was on the previous expedition. reviewer sam gormley names jeff vandermeer’s writing as “ brimming with eerily intelligent life forms overspilling the boundaries between natural and unnatural, organic and artificial, human and nonhuman” (111) and his southern reach trilogy as “showing up the limitations of human intelligence” (114). this essay builds upon previous scholarship on anniallen 104 hilation’s place in multispecies theory and ethics, such as lisa dowdall’s chapter “figures” and its description of annihilation as reimagining interactions between plants and humans by exposing what lies beneath nature (151-152), as well as finola prendergast’s “revisiting nonhuman ethics in jeff vandermeer’s annihilation” and its explanation of how science fiction represents reality slantwise in order to express an ethical way of managing interactions between nonhumans and humans (344). this essay explores three elements of annihilation: the ongoing and indescribable ecosystem area x, the biologist and other human characters, and the interconnectedness and transformation of humans into the environment. each element serves as an example of the utilization of lovecraftian horror genre expectations to describe how living in a multispecies world—as defined by donna haraway in staying with the trouble as the chthulucene— requires an acknowledgement of that which is unknown and an absolving of human constructions and identities as absolute. multispecies theory and studies involve an inclusive look at the world, one that acknowledges all of its interactions and entanglements between living and nonliving beings. multispecies scholar donna haraway defines the world in when species meet as a “knot of species coshaping one another in layers of reciprocating complexity all the way down” (42) from before, during, and beyond their existence. analyzing annihilation as a science-fiction avenue of multispecies scholarship opens up its value beyond casual readership into a guidebook for how to acknowledge the web of interspecies interaction in the present day, but more specifically the posthuman world. haraway defines the chthulucene as the trash-collector of the anthropocene, and a name for “an elsewhere and elsewhen that was, still is, and might yet be” (staying with, 31). the setting area x in annihilation represents a potential chthulucene, and thus a potential posthuman world. although vandermeer calls to lovecraftian horror themes of inconsequential humans and contamination, he differentiates himself from the genre’s negative aspects and transforms those themes into ones that describe haraway’s chthulucene. vandermeer uses science-fiction tropes allen 105 to extend beyond the portrayal of humans as a part in a web of living and nonliving beings in the present, instead hypothesizing about “the patterning of possible worlds and possible times, material semiotic worlds, gone, here, and yet to come” (haraway 31). the chthulucene is one that we, the collective homo sapiens, will not see, and thus cannot study, understand, and most horrifyingly, control. in narrating through the biologist who understands the limits of human capabilities, and thus becomes one with the natural environment through what van dooren defines as “passionate immersion” (6), vandermeer explores one possibility of the inevitable evolution of the natural world past our current geological age, and past the human species. readers of annihilation traverse area x alongside the biologist narrator as she attempts to make sense and meaning out of an ecologically diverse, extensive, and at times unexplainable environment. area x is located in a coastal, or transitional environment—a zone where ocean water meets the land, characterized by sand, mud, marsh, and swamp terrains. upon arrival, the biologist describes area x as having a dense pine forest eventually giving way to a swamp with swaying reeds and “windgnarled trees” (3), and before the coast and the ocean run rivers of natural freshwater canals. the purpose of representing area x as a coastal environment lies in the real-life qualities of coastal flora and fauna—namely their natural biodiversity and ability to adapt in an environment in constant motion. vandermeer utilizes the differences in terrain to introduce complex interactions between atypical organisms, such as marine animals that adapt to freshwater and coexist in environments with otter and deer (12), and the underground tower with flesh-like walls that live and breathe, its depths “revealing themselves in a kind of ongoing horror show of such beauty and biodiversity” (43). area x pushes the limits of a real-life coastal environment by representing its ecology slightly off-kilter, its wildlife, structures, and creatures increasingly perplexing and scientifically uncanny to the biologist. for example, she encounters a pair of otters that stare at her for over a minute, producing “a strange sensation that they could see allen 106 [her] watching them…that things were not quite what they seemed” (30). in his descriptions of area x, vandermeer connects to the central source of lovecraftian horror by shining a light on an unknown realm, making the literary “endeavor to visualize and verbalize the unseen and unsayable” (jackson 23). vandermeer is setting the scene of the posthuman world as one humans would undoubtedly recognize by featuring similar ecological components, but is insinuating that this environment has changed certain processes through evolution. in the biologist’s endless curiosity, rhetorical questioning, and acknowledgement of her inability to describe area x and its ecological processes, vandermeer is emphasizing the power of what we do not fully understand, and thus cannot fully control. in the underground tower, a being the biologist names the crawler appears to be writing organic and plant-like words on the wall, themselves a perplexing amalgamation of indecipherable phrases. the biologist acknowledges her own inability to conceptualize the tower, claiming: i felt that i had abdicated my responsibility to that point, which was to consider those elements found inside of the tower as part of a vast biological entity that might or might not be terrestrial. but contemplating the sheer enormity of that idea on a macro level would have broken my mood like an avalanche crashing into my body. so…what did i know? (93) the words on the wall themselves represent both the inability to adequately represent the posthuman ‘“beyond” in words and how area x evolved to include human words and languages, but leaves them vague and incomprehensible. vandermeer is arguing that the posthuman world will inevitably hold remnants of the human species as we currently understand it, but those remnants will not be focused on the benefit of human society or its once-powerful species, hence why neither the biologist nor explorer’s from past expeditions made any progress on the words’ meaning or purpose. when the biologist finally reaches the crawler near the bottom of the tower, she is perplexed by the appearance, or non-appearance, of allen 107 the being: “the crawler kept changing at a lightning pace, as if to mock my ability to comprehend it” (176). vandermeer recognizes what scholar james kneale calls “the problem of witnessing” in lovecraftian horror, where the writer must include enough hints about a being’s complexity to make it horrific without explaining the fear away (112). where lovecraft’s characters experience negative physical and psychological repercussions of coming too close to the unknown, or the cosmic, vandermeer’s biologist is overtaken with an appreciation for area x’s complexity and an acceptance that she may never understand it. her experience engaging with the environment is enough, as she claims “[o]bserving all of this has quelled the last ashes of the burning compulsion i had to know everything” (195). through vandermeer’s description of area x as an uncanny version of a coastal environment and creating a narrator who appreciates its complex beauty, readers’ interpretation of an ecosystem is reframed into a multispecies perspective for the purpose of appreciating a world one might not fully understand, and might not be the central figure of. like lovecraft’s humans, vandermeer’s human characters traverse through an unknown environment and are made aware of their insignificance in relation to it—the contrast being lovecraft’s sole ending for humans to be in death or endless torment, where vandermeer only results to torment if the characters refuse to adapt to nature’s will. vandermeer’s depiction of humans in annihilation serves his purpose of both acknowledging lovecraftian genre expectations of their insignificance, but also arguing that humans are tangled in chthulucene’s web of beings and must adapt to an uncontrollable nature. the biologist becomes the perfect model for this adaptation by nature of her general distaste for human connection in favor of nature and of her acceptance into it via area x. at her core, the biologist craves solitude and assimilation with the nature she studies, often expressing this nature in opposition with her confident and outgoing husband. “observation always meant more to me than interaction,” she claims, even comparing an orgasm to the “sudden realization of the interconnectivity of living things” (vandermeer 110). in the biologist, vanderallen 108 meer exalts a worldview that understands humans’ incapabilities while not leaning entirely anti-human in his narrative. the biologist criticizes her husband’s outgoing nature directly, claiming he “wanted to stand out… he had been wrong for the eleventh expedition because of this quality” (110), but vandermeer also uses subtler ways to critique exclusively human-to-human interaction by removing any personal names and instead referring to the human characters by their job titles (psychologist, biologist, surveyor, anthropologist), and bringing harm to those in the novel that solely adhere to human methods of communication, technology, or both. the anthropologist is killed by the crawler in the tower, the psychologist jumps from the lighthouse platform for fear of the biologist and her physical transformation resulting from her immersion into area x, and the surveyor is shot by the biologist in self-defense. their deaths are results of not just their human-centered professions, but also their inability to passively coexist with area x. their end goals for the expedition are ultimately self-interest or at least an increase in their knowledge of the environment for the benefit of a governmental agency—contrasting to the biologist’s belief: “[y]ou had to fade into the landscape…you had to pretend it wasn’t there for a long as possible. to acknowledge it, to try to name it, might be a way of letting it in” (116). the nature of area x as the chthulucene requires a sort of giving up on the self, a shedding of human-centered belief systems and ways of studying or understanding the world for the purpose of nature’s self and system of being. area x makes this system inherent, so no human can control or access its patterns except for the biologist, who experiences a transformation physically and psychologically that separates her from her human self. this separation from the self is not a complete separation from the human as a being, because humans do play an important role in multispecies interaction and study. haraway herself discredits the belief of homo sapiens as entirely purposeless in the chthulucene, as “[d]iverse humans are necessary in every fiber of the tissues of the urgently needed chthulucene story. the chief actors are not restricted to the too-big players in the too-big stories of capitalism allen 109 and the anthropos” (staying with, 55). interpreting the title of annihilation as explaining the novel’s depiction of destroying humans is inaccurate, it instead is explaining the destruction of human-centered communication, interaction, and the belief of humans as above all others, or at least above nature. the biologist retains her natural passion, her body, her consciousness, but forgoes an element of her human autonomy and social orders in favor of area x. her contamination and subsequent transformation represent a disconnect from an anthropocentric worldview in favor of a multispecies one. the final argument for vandermeer’s chthulucene and its foundation on and positive extension beyond lovecraft is the depiction of human characters’ integration into area x. as the biologist is transformed psychologically and physically, and human characters are enfolded in the natural environment during and after their deaths, vandermeer is representing the complexity of the human self and its validity in the scope of area x’s chthulucene, connecting to scholarship regarding the microbiome and its power over human behavior. as it relates to a posthuman world, vandermeer is also depicting the reality of humans as one evolutionary step between our current geologic age and whichever one might come after. in lovecraft’s horror, human contamination often transfigures into a haunting and represents his support of eugenics. in “arthur jermyn” and “the shadow over innsmouth”, scholar mitch frye claims that lovecraft’s miscegenation and the comingling of humans and monsters in his fiction often results in social denigration, suicide, and torment (248). while vandermeer depicts the genre expectation of contamination and transforming human characters as a result of interaction with unknown elements of nature and the cosmic beyond, his analogy is concerned with the assimilation of the human species in the webs of the chthulucene, or humans playing neutral in interactions with plants and animals, or more specifically the human microbiome. after her infection from the tower’s spores, the biologist begins perceiving elements of area x and her own self differently, representing the ineffective human in relation to a nature that holds control. allen 110 first, the psychologist’s hypnosis strategies fail to work on her, and she begins to see the tower as pulsating, living and breathing flesh, insinuating her transition from a human on a government-funded expedition to a part, a being, of area x. she describes the general environment differently as well, claiming “[t]he wind was like something alive; it entered every pore of me…[e]ven the darkness seemed more alive to me, surrounding me like something physical” (vandermeer 74-75), but never in her descriptions does she expound self-doubt or fear, instead her transition is neutral. in the first sentence of the chapter “integration”, vandermeer writes, “in the morning, i woke with my senses heightened, so that even the rough brown bark of the pines or the ordinary lunding swoop of a woodpecker came to me as a kind of minor revelation” (37). the biologist’s brightness, as she dubs it, gives her a certain power in area x, specifically over the psychologist’s actions and the crawler—which is itself a former human fully absolved of all autonomy in writing the words on the wall. the psychologist describes her as “‘a flame…floating and floating, like nothing human but something free and floating’” (125), and claims her arm did not allow her to pull the trigger and attempt to shoot her. here, vandermeer is detailing the change that occurs when we examine ourselves as just one piece in haraway’s “muddle” of multispecies interaction (staying with, 56). one ‘real-life’ example lies in the human microbiome, how by acknowledging the livelihood of the trillions of bacteria within the human body and how their purpose and activity exists on a separate plane than the body they occupy expands the collective understanding of consciousness and self-control. bacterial infections like syphilis and lyme disease cause sensory, psychiatric, and cognitive issues, sometimes continuing after extensive antibacterial treatment, so the true make-up of the human self comes into question when bacteria in the human body impacts consciousness and self-making (schuller). in giving up her human self, she becomes a gear in area x that works to progress its processes, a reflection of reordering humans in the chthulucene. as haraway says, “human beings are with and of the earth, and the biotic and abiotic powers of this earth are the main allen 111 story” (staying with, 55). the crawler is eventually confirmed as the end result of a full-human-to-area-x-cog transformation in the third novel of vandermeer’s southern reach series, acceptance, and his original form is hinted at when the biologist finds him at the end of the tunnel in annihilation. she describes his face as featuring “the endurance of unending pain and sorrow, yes, but shining through as well a kind of grim satisfaction and ecstasy” (186), ultimately claiming that he “existed in a place none of us could comprehend” (187). it is undeniable that the crawler is no longer human nor participates in human biological processes, but in area x, he still holds elements of his human life physically and physiologically by retaining human expression and writing words in english. neither the biologist nor the reader sees what the crawler’s purpose for area x is, so the resolution is that it (or he) is ultimately incomprehensible until the human self is surrendered. beyond the biologist, vandermeer portrays area x’s reordering process in the deaths of other human characters. not all human characters in annihilation become contaminated, and a stark difference appears between the fate of the anthropologist, psychologist, surveyor, and the biologist because of the formers’ refusal to adapt to the environment. as an analogy for the human species as a singular and finite evolutionary step, vandermeer represents their death as a sort of transformation, leaving hints of human elements in nature itself. the organic words on the tower wall speak truth to this analogy, appearing above the anthropologist’s body to say “...the shadows of the abyss are like petals of a monstrous flower that shall blossom within the skull and expand the mind beyond what any man can bear” (61). the shadows being the virtually unknown chthulucene, the unknown future evolution of homo sapiens, and the blossoming and expanding of the mind reflect either the biologists surrendering her human self for area x, or the others dying and becoming area x. upon their deaths, their bodies become inhuman and pass quickly into the landscape and are assumed to become a living creature or plant. the biologist sees the completion of human transformation before seeing the process, describing a dolphin’s eyes as “painfully human, almost allen 112 familiar” (vandermeer 97), finding human-shaped “eruptions of moss or lichen” (96) in an abandoned village—both things causing a “feeling of something left unresolved or still in progress” (97). wounded and dead bodies grow vaguely organic and supernatural qualities, the anthropologist having “something green spilling out from her mouth” (60) and “a torrent of green ash that sat on her chest in a mound” (61), and the psychologist’s arm “colonized by a fibrous green-gold fuzziness” (133). the biologist does not witness any transformation of the surveyor, but has now recognized the pattern of human integration into area x and hesitates to bury her in case it may block her from achieving her purpose to become a part of a multispecies and posthuman world. this process is not overlooked by haraway, in fact, the act of living and dying is crucial in creating the multispecies web, imagining and appreciating the tangling of living and nonliving beings in our world and beyond. haraway writes that “there is only the relentlessly contingent sf worlding of living and dying,” “of becoming-with and unbecoming-with, of sympoiesis, and so, just possibly, of multispecies flourishing on earth” vandermeer represents both the reality of human deterioration and decomposition after death and the part humans play in the flourishing of a multispecies world even if their consciousness dissipates. it reflects the truth of the chthulucene, where whether humans are conscious of it or not, we must accept the truth of the passing of the human species, and thus surrender human needs and necessities, for the favor of an ever-changing ecosystem. in area x as the chthulucene, humans are one piece in a range of uncanny multispecies interactions, but also themselves an amalgamation of natural elements that when initiated—in the biologist’s infection—are integrated into an environment where nature has full control. this essay explored how area x is a representation of a complex transitional environment after our current ecological age, and how vandermeer purposefully acknowledges his characters’ inability to describe area x to emphasize the unknown future of the posthuman world. like lovecraft’s, vandermeer’s human characters and their constructed systems and thought processes allen 113 are rendered inconsequential against area x. by relinquishing her self, the biologist is transformed by and integrated with area x, resulting in physical and sensory changes—and the other human characters physically become part of the ecosystem through animals and plants. this transfiguration of human characters represents the truth that donna haraway defines in when species meet and staying with the trouble: that humans are one piece in the web of human and nonhuman interaction, and to fully understand the extent of a non-human-centered world, there must be some sort of reframing the human as a natural element of an ecosystem. vandermeer’s annihilation argues for science fiction as an adequate method to represent this reframing, its writing portraying the posthuman world as one that requires humans to absolve their sense of self and acknowledge the power of an ecosystem that runs on the collective web of interlocking and interacting living and non-living beings. allen 114 works cited dowdall, lisa. “figures.” covert plants: vegetal consciousness and agency in an anthropocentric world, edited by prudence gibson and baylee brits, punctum books, 2018, pp. 151–60. jstor, http://www. jstor.org/stable/j.ctv2s2pnz3.14. gormley, sam. review of the southern reach trilogy, by jeff vander meer, and: borne, configurations, vol. 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