Monday, October 8, 2012
Contradictions in Character
Lessing's novel covers the complete range of topics encountered thus far in the course and then some, ranging from issues of gender to colonialism to political debate. Despite this diversity, I find it hard to pin Anna down as a character. Admittedly, we've only read a small part of the story, but it doesn't seem like Anna is really committed to any of the issues in which she expresses interest. Both she and Molly claim to be "free women," but as Clare pointed out in her blog post, neither one of them fits that description in actuality (and Anna appears to be aware of this fact). Anna joined the Communist Party despite her disillusionment with the movement, and is hardly put off when the recruiter turns out to be everything that she expects him to be. Finally, during the events described in the black notebook, Anna makes constant reference to the plight of the black Africans mentioned so frequently by her friends, but rarely attempts to help them in any real sense. In the end, we may just have to wait until Anna reveals her true self.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I'm not sure Anna will ever reveal a "true self" since the novel seems to question whether such a thing exists. Often, the characters watch themselves in out-of-body experiences; each of them is, at the minimum, dualistic. I don't think we can assume that each side of the characters is a part of one larger, broken whole. The puzzles pieces of their identities may not fit together like that.
ReplyDeleteAs I think we should question that there is ever such a thing as a "true self." Identity is a fluctuating, volatile thing, and operates over many overlapping and sometimes contradictory levels (national, regional, familial, social, racial, economic, vocational, philosophical, sexual, political, etc.). Also, identity is something which is not independent of how we represent or describe it -- these two are fundamentally mixed up. To say "I am a Marxist" or "I don't like tacos" (note the lack of distinction between tastes and beliefs) is somehow to insist or make something the case, to set aside a list of items that taken holistically (an improbable project) constitute our identity.
ReplyDelete