Be Ware of Corruption

After finishing Harold Frederic’s “The Damnation of Theron Ware” (quoted rather than italicized due to my ignorance of underlining on Blogger), I have to say that I was glad to see Theron rejected by Celia, Forbes and the rest of this new and strange culture that he had come to admire. I wouldn’t have felt this way earlier in the book, but his abysmal, paranoia-fueled mistreatment of his wife, and his sudden distaste for his own life (which, of course, he has made for himself) warranted this let-down. However, assessing the overall authorial intent of this work is somewhat complex and multifaceted based on the way the novel ended. One reading is that the stagnant ways of “Primitive Methodism” and other insular communities of worship create a closed-minded, bigoted and backward thinking population, as is the case with Octavius. Contrasting this with the new and comparatively progressive, adaptive lifestyles that the Irish residents share enhances this social dissonance, highlighted by the fact that “The church is always compromising” as Forbes explains, evolving to be accommodating and inclusive, which is a stark contrast against the ideals of the local Methodists (231).

In the end, it is clear that Ware is a spineless character who, in his efforts to stand for something, instead falls flat. Let’s look at the strikes against him:

1). He is unfaithful to his wife, a character he professes from the beginning to be a good wife whom he has been happy with up the point of meeting Celia.
2). He displays despicable amounts of jealousy and distrust toward his wife and her supposed infidelity, which is blatantly hypocritical in light of his own infidelity.
3). He abuses funds of his church to sneak off to New York, all the while “committing adultery in his heart” with no apparent shame in doing so.
4) He complains of his mistakes that have led him to become a clergyman, and despite this and his other numerous faults, he continues in the profession, only leaving when he has become heinously corrupt as a man of the church and as a man in general. And the list of his decline as a person continue to accumulate…

After all this, his statement that he may end up being “a full-blown senator” is especially telling; he is certainly corrupt enough to fit in well with the political world (326).

Examining where Ware started from within this novel and then contrasting it with where he ends up, I had wishfully thought that Ware would fall out of religion and become a more virtuous person because of it, but it turns out that his damnation was complete. Because of his corruption, he now has no place in the town of Octavius. On the other hand, Celia and the educated catholic community saw him as “unsophisticated and delightfully fresh and natural,” which condescends upon his inadequacies that he also perceives, and which in reality should be insulting (305). However, his corruption from this simple small-town minister to the role of a despicable adulterer leaves him absolutely nowhere to go, save for far away from the mess that he has brought himself to.

Looking at where Ware ended up, his journey parallels a fall from Paradise; here he is in a quiet little town, and the “illumination” and knowledge of new and broader ways to think end up corrupting him, and he falls from grace and is cast out of the society, or garden, if you will.

Coming of Age in "Ex-Colored Man"

After reading the first four chapters of James Weldon Johnson’s Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, I have found the unnamed protagonist to be a likeable character with tremendous potential to find real, lasting success in turn-of-the-century America. However, poor decision making has riddled the characters attempts at this so far. Specifically, the moments when the character reaches a crossroads, he seems to invariably make the wrong turns. Having both a stable job and a sudden streak of good luck in gambling, he declares, “I at last realized that making cigars for a living and gambling for a living could not both be carried on at the same time, and I resolved to give up the cigar-making” (Johnson 52). Here is a character who is so well-spoken and grounded in a seemingly rational mindset, yet he comes to some of the least rational conclusions.

Having not read ahead to establish a better understanding of the overall direction that he is headed as a character, I can only speculate. So far, I am seeing the narrator make so many poor decisions amidst the potential for such opportunity, and I come back to this thought: he is a young man. While I believe that the racially volatile dynamic of post- civil war America is a prevailing lens through which to examine the story as a whole (or half, as that is all that I have read up to this point), I still think it is key to acknowledge that this work is revolving around the young life of a boy becoming a man, and I’ll be the first one to admit that young adults make some pretty ridiculously irrational decisions from time to time. Based on these observations, I expect this narrative to adhere to the inverted slave narrative structure that we have discussed in class, but I also see this work in some ways taking the form of a coming-of-age story. In the traditional "Bildungsroman," the character's personal growth transitions the character into being more dependable, and I see this as probable for the narrator.

Complex Social/Racial Commentary in Twain

After completing train's work, I decided to provide some of my closing thoughts on the debate over whether racist leanings of Twain are exposed in the text. The short answer is that I absolutely do not believe that. The long answer...

Mark Twain is so widely known for his anti-racist commentary that I am implored to see this as one of the prevailing themes of Pudd’nhead Wilson, but the problematic conclusion complicates this reading. Finally, the white man formerly known as “Chambers” gains status as a full citizen and a white man. This produces a complicating factor for his character: in this text, we are drawn as readers to feel a sense of justice in that Tom, the real Tom, has “White” status. However, 21st-century society conditions us to acknowledge the fact that it shouldn’t matter what his status is. Isn’t a person a person?

From Chambers’ perspective, his sudden realization of white privilege becomes awkward; here is a character who is not up to speed with the cultural expectations of a white heir to a large sum of money (166). In a way, this supports the ongoing “nurture” side of the argument. Though the real Tom is certainly a better person than his changeling counterpart, his slave upbringing has denied him the social wherewithal to adapt to the environment that dictates he immediately become cultured.

Meanwhile, and perhaps most shockingly, we observe the fate of the despicable character that the real Chambers turned out to be. Is it really just that he gets sold down the river? Let’s look at his strikes against him:

1) Personality: he’s a gambling, snooty, awful person and we as readers immediately wish the worst for him, right?
2). He killed the man who he grew up believing to be his uncle.
3). He was an irrepressible burglar and conniver, not a virtuous character at all.

So… it is just that he be sentenced to prison, so is it also just that he be sold down the river? This gets to the heart of the trickier elements of Twain’s craft; while we may wish the worst for this character, if we support the end that he came to, we also implicitly support slavery in a way. While I believe that Twain had this in mind in writing this complex social commentary, these points definitely lead me to understand how so much controversy and debate simultaneously enshroud and enshrine the work.