Tomas Honrado Cortes Navarro
October 10, 2006
Most mature readers discover that realist novels reflect more on actual people and situations better than, say, science fiction or horror stories. People can relate more to realist novels that portray the imperfections of individuals, rather than to shining paragons of genius, beauty, strength, and virtue because, human maturity in life is always preceded by entry into a crisis situation brought about by imperfect people and imperfect circumstances. Oftentimes, they see themselves in the anti-hero, i.e., a protagonist of a drama or narrative who is notably lacking in heroic qualities. Examples of anti-heroes are Don Quixote and Tom Jones (Kuiper, 57).
A novel whose main character is an anti-hero that suffered and survived crisis situations is a novel that provides a vicarious, cathartic, and valuable reading experience. Such a book is worth one’s time and has a more profound impression on the reflective reader’s awareness towards people and situations that are very possible and are depicted plausibly in a book. Anne Tyler’s “A Patchwork Planet” is one such book.
Anne Tyler has artfully interwoven believable characters, settings, and situations in a literary patchwork pleasing to the objective beholder and affording decades and even worlds of experiences and imaginations both entertaining and instructive, by exploring subjectivities, i.e., biases, prejudices, and inherently unique attitudes (Steinberg, 6), of various distinct characters but somehow interconnected even in their isolation and separation.
The novel delves on how families and people drift apart as well as how they form bonds that last a lifetime, the prerequisite of which is also the quality of true love, inter-subjectivity[1] that must rise above social expectations and even ambition.
This critique seeks to discuss the novel’s multiple layers of meaning and realities in its analysis of the literary devices, conflicts, theme, and socio-cultural implications to the reader and to the society as a whole.
Literary Styles and Devices
Style. Anne Tyler’s writing style is plain, witty, humorous, and engaging. Her descriptions are full of vivid, concrete, and textured qualifications that are also fluid and playful. Thus, the reader can find “half-timbered, Tudor style house…with leaded glass windows” (textured, specific) alongside “her hair had a warm, yellow glow” (colorful, fluid). Her diction is easy to follow except for Americanisms that can be understood from context. Of course, as a realistic novel told by an all-American Average Joe (the main character), this comes as no surprise. In fact, one’s curiosity is piqued by American idiomatic expressions abundant in the story that gives ideas about of the inner thoughts and even, the breeding of the speaker than a direct statement can.
Idiomatic Expressions. Here are some colloquialisms selected from the book, ranging from the benign, humorous to the coarse and sarcastic.
1) “…babe in the woods” (Maud May) – ignorant of a method or chore
2) “…doesn’t have a stitch on” (Barnaby) – naked
3) “…gave me the willies” (Barnaby) – made one nervous, uncomfortable
4) “…go halfsies” (Opal) – to share equally in payment for an item
5) “…hold my horses” (Barnaby) – to pause first and think things over to hesitate
6) “…played hooky” (Barnaby) – neglected one’s duties
7) “…have to force culture down your throats” (Margot) – to impose (culture)
“I had to hand her that.” (Barnaby) – to reluctantly acknowledge one’s capability or quality
9) “We had the devil’s own time…” (Barnaby) – lengthy time of doing something due to difficulty
Majority of the expressions belonged to Barnaby Gaitlin, the main character and the narrator, making the novel’s Point of View as the First Person Participant. This type of viewpoint is uniquely capable of involving the reader to identify with the main character. They 0may possibly root for the character and his supposed “angel”, Sophia, Barnaby’s love interest, whose relationship was established but did not prevail at the conclusion. Tyler deftly “hooked” the reader to see Sophia as the person who could financially lift Barnaby, reconcile him with his parents, and give him the love and attention he needs, however, it was that kind of “attention” that he could live without, the eventuality of which the author subtly, almost furtively developed and abruptly terminated, to many a reader’s surprise. Nevertheless, in retrospect of Tyler’s Foreshadowing and Characterization, the same readers can accept the ending without reservations.
Foreshadowing. Intelligent plotting is presupposed by adequate and almost natural foreshadowing. The following excerpts illustrate foreshadowing highlights, which primarily dealt with how Barnaby came to end with Martine, his co-worker, rather than with more uppity Sophia:
1) Barnaby found Sophia “irritating beyond endurance” despite initially eyeing her as his life-changing angel simply because she behaved like his mother, who would rather dwell on superficial matters. Barnaby’s estrangement from the bank officer Sophia began with her Aunt Glynn’s accusing Barnaby of theft. Sophia replaced her aunt’s lost money with her own and revealed this to Barnaby. Barnaby, returning the favor, suspected her of using this as a pretext to exact a debt of gratitude from him, constantly reminding him of her act. This made Barnaby lose his trust and interest in her, and left her for Martine. The author introduced Barnaby’s aversion with money used as leverage in the scenes where his mother nagged him of his debt, and reached an unpleasant outcome when she tried to return his payment of the $8700, wherein Barnaby tore the check.
2) The author hinted at Barnaby and Martine’s blossoming into real partners with many instances and characterizations.
a) Barnaby longed for close family ties, signified by his fondness at rummaging through other people’s family albums, letters, and mementos. Martine, on the other hand, was close and nurturing to her nephews and nieces, her brother, and sister-in-law.
b) Barnaby was sensitive to slurs at his low status, reacting hotly at how his parents discounted his job at Rent-A-Back. Sophia’s miscalculation of mentioning a “ne’er-do-well” relative touched a raw nerve in him, and may have been the coup-de-grace to whatever esteem he had had for her, paving the way for Martine to be the better alternative as a partner.
c) Sophia intentionally had Barnaby hired for her Aunt Glynn for them to see each other, anteceding Martine’s arrangement for sharing the ownership of the truck with Barnaby, which may also be a parallelism drawn between the two women.
Foreshadowing and its “subsequence” affirmed the predictable behaviors within the characterization, which in the story, goes hand in hand.
Characterization of Barnaby Gaitlin. The novel presented Barnaby in stages, the same way a person becomes acquainted with another’s personality, allowing the reader to realize both the positive and negative aspects of the protagonist, the character’s entire subjectivity.
1) Adolescence – he was a juvenile delinquent with a penchant for petty larceny. Chronic delinquents come from households of neglectful authoritarian parents who failed to instill proper standards of behavior or psychological foundations of self-control (Steinberg, 508). He was emotionally distant from his parents, up to the point where he locked them out of their house, set their curtains on fire, and smashed their window with a chair, unprovoked. He was sent to a juvenile rehabilitation facility. He “played hooky” at school.
2) Adulthood – he was content with his menial job. He still disliked his family, recalling their hypocrisy and their less than affectionate treatment of him. Although he possessed a keen intelligence and was industrious, he had a lack of self-confidence around affluent people for not being sophisticated enough to live up to their family’s rich lifestyle (he called himself “dumb” and a “black sheep”.).
These stages may have been responsible for forming negative and positive aspects of his personality.
1) Negative
a) Lack of self-confidence in some respects
b) Insensible – he has a different way of perceiving things that are contrary to the common view (of his family’s society). This is demonstrated by his line of reasoning as his father-in-law told him to vacate their place: “Your daughter was the one who walked out, Mr. Bassett. I fail to see why I should be dislodged from my established residence (the Bassett family’s room lent to him and their daughter Natalie).”
c) Suspicious and judgmental – he is especially prejudiced against people overly/overtly concerned with status and probably some of the upper class people, such of whom would be very difficult for him to accept, much less be his partner for life. He said, “I feel uneasy around do-gooders”, “I’m not looking to get rich”, dialogues that promise a basis for his paranoia around the wealthy. He also entertained suspicious thoughts that may or may not reinforce his prejudices. He mentioned, “These Penn folks could be sneaky sometimes” and “I worried she (his daughter) was storing up criticisms to pass on to her mother (his ex-wife)”.
d) Unforgiving toward his parents – his adamant disposition toward his mother, Margot, was portrayed in the scene wherein he tore the check given by her in returning his payment of their expenditure for his larceny (He broke an expensive porcelain vase, among others). This may be the result of his deep-seated resentment towards his parents’ neglect of appreciating him. His attitude may also account for his sudden, impulsive decision to abandon his romance with Sophia when she began to show similarities with his mother’s personality.
2) Positive – the side of his personality probably accounts for his closeness to Martine
a) He was helpful toward old women – he may have been paid for working for senior citizens, however it was his seeming nature to assist the disadvantaged that brought him into the job in the first place (he went beyond his duty to serve Mrs. Dibble, owner of Rent-A-Back.) Mrs. Dibble saw this positive aspect in Barnaby. He also nurtured a fondness for some of his customers (Mrs. Alford), that probably motivated him not to purloin any of their possessions, stay in his job, and work hard despite his mood swings and occasional irreverence towards them (“I hope she is not fixing to die on us.”). His attachment for the disadvantaged might have induced an attachment for a fellow “disadvantaged”, Martine.
b) He still allotted time for Opal – From Baltimore, he traveled to another state, Philadelphia, to visit and stay in contact with Opal, even though his relationship with Natalie ended sourly. He had sacrificed a little of himself in continuing to be a father despite Natalie’s discrimination of his “blue collar” behavior, for certain socio-economic groups have their own subcultures and ingrained behaviors[2]. It showed that he still subscribed to fatherhood even though it was Natalie who first instigated him to do so.
c) Industrious in his line of work – having a stable job maybe sufficient for Barnaby and Martine to form a family even without the luxury his parents have.
d) Firmly follows principles – he fixed in his mind that he had to pay his parents debt he thought he owed them. Although it indicated his own lack of understanding and tolerance towards them, he was able to achieve it through his determination in such that he believed in.
Anne Tyler, in her creation of an imaginative but sturdy, resilient antihero, has made the novel more up-to-date with today’s youth, who are often confronted by social pressures to achieve oftentimes very lofty ambitions. The novel becomes the voice of authenticity and understanding in the literature of make believe by depicting a very human, very imperfect, and very subjective Barnaby Gaitlin. It is also a credit to her skill as a writer to create a character as diverse and as incongruous to her and still exist in the novel as living, breathing, and feeling individual.
However, her telescoping of the human situation does not stop with Barnaby’s characterization. She has utilized or are existing in her novel, devices such as irony, symbol, and recurrent imagery that bring to light other aspects of life and human conditions.
Irony. The most emphatic ironic situation in the story is that Barnaby’s parents could not wholeheartedly accept or were less affectionate on account of their own son’s entire humanity despite the fact that they are involved in philanthropy, i.e., providing financial aid or other assistance to people they have not the intimate knowledge of. Specifically, despite their generosity to other people for social prestige, they insisted on reminding/nagging him of his “debt”. His parents represented supposed knowledgeable individuals with shallow moral-family values and to whom social status takes precedence over authentic bonding, they being overly concerned with superficialities. Of course, ideally, this should not be the case for them because “much is expected to whom much is given”.
Symbol. Many minor characters can stand for positive or negative human attributes.
a) Father at the Penn Station – he stands for the Ideal Family Man. The inclusion of this minor character, as his part in the story is fleeting at the start of the novel, speaks volumes about the author’s view of what a father should be: loving and self-sacrificing to his wife and children. He is the antithesis of Barnaby’s father, whose “angel”, as those of the rest of the Gaitlin patriarchs, was not the guardian of virtue but purveyors of profitable, commercially viable ideas.
b) Mr. Jeffrey Gaitlin – Head of the philanthropic Gaitlin Foundation, might have been too busy for his family to make an impression on young Barnaby, who might have been too headstrong to just conform with upper middle class provisions without his father’s bonding and supervision. In fairness he provided wealth and comfort but he seemed not to have made any effective effort to be close to his underachieving son.
c) Maud May/Aunt Glynn/ Ditty Nolan – these were the characters that had very strong, independent, and uncompromising personalities or what the critic terms as “very subjective subjectivities”. Their idiosyncrasies and quirks of attitude rendered them isolated and virtually severed from intimate, self-sustaining, meaningful relationships. Their situation in life was one of the two consequences of a person’s subjectivity, the other being that two people belonging to the same social milieu and/or having the almost similar or less-excluding and more altruistic subjectivities usually ending up together. However, these isolated characters might be also unwilling subjects to prevailing American culture.
d) Mrs. Alford – she is probably an amiable person, judging from the thoughtfulness of her character, as opposed to the cynicism of Maud May, the paranoia of Aunt Glynn, and the seclusion of Ditty Nolan. However, it is almost unthinkable in Filipino culture[3] for a senior citizen who is as affable as her would be left living alone. She represents the deplorable American culture of inured abandonment of elders. One of the poignant scenes in the story was where she had her Christmas tree decorated for grandchildren who might not have come (the story did not state any of the kind.) and being partially time-disoriented during the rearrangement of her deceased husband’s belongings, with only hired hands for company. Barnaby observed, “It’s like people don’t want to see what they will become.”
e) Len Parrish – he represents some Americans who are too preoccupied to earn and accumulate wealth in order to satisfy their cravings in life. It is probably this hedonistic egocentrism that is partially responsible for the existence of many situations similar to that of Mrs. Alford.
Recurrent Imagery. The novel has a predominant tone and multiple examples pertaining to loneliness, isolation, and the state of being left behind or discarded due to perceived antiquation or outliving of use. The main images pertaining to this tone are:
- Old people who live alone
- The Twin Form
- Stashed away junk/ old possessions
The author may have included these images in reassessing for the reader the value of valuing objects and people, such that as objects retain their value through continued usefulness, people, as senior citizens or maladjusted children, feel valuable when their kin still commune and live with them, accepting their beneficial past as well as the not-so-beneficial present, dealing actively and humanely with their total subjectivity and situation.
It is unfortunate that a society that celebrates achievement, youth, and physical beauty allots only a fraction of attention and concern for the aging and the less competitive, however justifiable the actions and gestures accorded towards them.
It is a semblance of this mindset that Barnaby was at odds from the very start.
Conflicts of the Main Character
Man against Himself. It is his own behavior, which might or might not stem from parental deficiency that inhibited him from enjoying his parents’ adulation and support. He repeatedly broke into homes, discounted his studies, formed his prejudices, and chose not to avail of the opportunities his parents represented, not even for the sake of thinking of having a stake/ investment in his daughter’s future. One cannot fully hold one’s parents responsible for all actions, behaviors, and decisions. Ultimately, it is the man himself that is held accountable by society for whatever he did.
The one of the un-pragmatic (un-American, as Americans are supposed to be culturally pragmatic) consequences of Barnaby’s pattern of behavior and the manner of actualizing his principles was that he could have used the money being returned by his mother to pay for Opal’s birthday party, buy his own car for work, and other worthwhile spending rather than seal his estrangement towards his parents, seemingly for good.
Man against Man. Barnaby’s parents might have overreacted in sending Barnaby to a rehabilitation facility, wherein he suffered more trauma (isolation from parents) as an adolescent than was sought to be treated. Their act can be characterized as authoritarian. As authoritarian parents, they probably placed more value in obedience and conformity and tend to favor more punitive, absolute and forceful disciplinary measures (Steinberg, 162). Their “conformity = success” mindset alienated Barnaby and favored the pleasantly adjusted Jeffrey Jr., whereas they were supposed to love their children whatever their defects, whether they maybe hardened criminals or afflicted with Down syndrome. They might be partly to blame for Barnaby’s own lackluster role as husband and father because of their own deficiency in parenting.
Man against Society. Society, and the prevalent cultures within, institute and form standards, norms, and expectations to which some people conform their ideas, decisions, and actions. Marx theorized that “…it is not the consciousness of men that determines their being but on the contrary, their social being determines their consciousness” (Stevenson and Haberman, 1998)[4]. American upper class society, as portrayed, frowned at embarrassment ad failure within families, wherein the besmirching of social expectations, i.e., having members incompetent to maintain and sustain the wealthy lifestyle, constituted a “mortal sin”. Furthermore, some of the wealthy aged might have been consigned to “golden cages” away from the sight of the party-going jet set, their care-taking relegated to hired hands. It seems that, for some quarters, American consumerism and materialism (Williams, 467) takes precedence over the humanistic, holistic influence of Christianity. Whatever happened to “…whoever among you who does this to the least of my brothers, did it to Me (Mt. 18:1-5)” and “Honor thy father and thy mother (Ex 20:12)”?
Thus, Barnaby might have been robbed of his parents’ affection and deep emotional bond and vice versa, by being in their type of social status. Natalie discriminated his lack of drive to earn money. Even Opal prioritized more her birthday party over more time with him (which is partly his own fault and Natalie’s). The casualty of the standards of affluence vs. Barnaby was not so much the financial capacity and being debarred from the amenities of the high standard of living than his authentic bond with his parents, wife, and child. This goes to show how pervading cultures seriously impinge in human affairs, especially if passivity sets in.
Pervading Culture
The novel pointed out practices and social trends that had become features of American society. They may not be technically labeled as culture, however if a large number of the population subscribes to their legality, then, their predominance in terms of occurrence and tolerance in that society already becomes part of the culture. The critique selected those that need reexamination as socio-legal norms.
1) Divorce – divorce[5] is so common in America that as a legal means to exit from a relationship or marriage that turned out to be undesirable, precludes any effort to adjust to unpleasant subjectivities of a partner, and has become a culture, a common practice by the impatient individual fast tracker who wants everything to go his or her way, to the detriment of the lasting family. It is no wonder that some people grow old alone that being un-self-sacrificing in their youth, end up with children who do not sacrifice their time and space for them. Natalie immediately left Barnaby with her baby and filed a divorce without so much as a threshing out of differences, instead, what pervaded, in Barnaby’s words, “was a silence within the silence”.
2) Senior citizens living or left alone – again, their prevalence in ever growing numbers reflect societal toleration of a cultural malaise of an overrated sense of independence of the seniors in themselves and of their children. Today, far fewer older people live with other family members. There is a rapid growth of nursing homes (for the aged) (Currie & Skolnick, 338). Many of the aged are poor and lonely, and there is also a systematic pattern of discrimination against the aged (Horton, Leslie, Larson, & Horton; 150, 152). It would be surprising for the family oriented Filipino reader to note that the children of Mrs. Alford only appeared in the story after her passing.
3) Individual worth measured by material success – at least among some of the upper class, as the story had shown, this mindset existed. To illustrate, Margot esteemed the accomplished Len Parrish more than her own son, extolling him in his absence during Barnaby’s own birthday.
The novel is quite straightforward about these issues that, having been tolerated for a long time by American society, does not mean they are moral or just. It is within this social setting that a value and principle must be reiterated for today’s generation.
Main Theme and Title Relevance
The moral of the novel is derived from a phenomenological-philosophical reading for underlying principles essential for profound realizations one must attain in order to have an authentic human existence, i.e., giving and receiving that is essential for human needs.
Manuel Dy (222) philosophized that Love is the crowning action of one’s existence. The novel, in presenting an imperfect person, also portrayed a person in need of understanding, acceptance, and ultimately, love. Barnaby was not able to feel love from his parents, from Natalie, and even from Sophia. His parents, Natalie, and Sophia could not countenance and understand his positives alongside with his negatives, rendering him emotionally and psychologically fractured, where in fact, a person is more than his or her qualities (Ibid.). As a delinquent, he might have suffered emotional scars and parental neglect. He needed love much more for personal healing. The feeling of being loved, understood, and accepted in the core of being heals all fears and rancor (Shostrom & Montgomery, 70).
His need for love, like a garment that was torn and full of holes, was “patched up” by (1) Mrs. Dibble, (2) Mrs. Alford, and (3) Martine. They believed and trusted him, fulfilling his want for love and acceptance of his total personhood. It is a natural tendency of a person to seek thus (Dy, 220).
Thus, the novel qualifies the Love expected of parents, spouses, and siblings: the total, unconditioned acceptance of the person with respect to all that person’s qualities, pleasant or otherwise. For spouses, their relationship must not be that of one dominating the other, whereas the individuality of the subjugated is subsumed in the dominant half, but rather should mutually respect each other’s subjectivity for among spouses, Love is the union that preserves one’s integrity and individuality (Fromm, 20).
The novel implies that inter-subjectivity[6] is necessary for love which completes one’s existence or “patches up” one’s need for care and attention, especially that most people’s needs are not completed by their families.
The relevance of the title, “A Patchwork Planet”, a title that seems to have a negative connotation of fractiousness, of being worn and torn, confides an intimation of the author’s optimistic view of human relations, that of being bound together in a great tapestry, of being renewed and revived once more. The title bespeaks of many neighbors and fellows who are willing to accept persons as they are: friends, co-workers, relatives, etc., that one needs not to despair provided that one must look. The author believes that the human society has the capability to heal itself as long as people are willing to reach out to others. Sharing one planet, chances are great in finding someone who is willing to enter into an “inter-subjective bond”. As the antihero Barnaby proved, being imperfect to some could also mean being perfect for another, in complementing each other’s strength and weaknesses, or “patching up” each other.
Thus, the author suggests how to love and from whom one is mostly likely to find it.
Advocacy for Profound Societal Change
Although the tone of the novel is basically optimistic in regard to persons finding love and acceptance, the dramatization of pervading American cultural malaise and the title and story theme invite the reader to reassess one’s own society and one’s own actions and behavior within a relationship or within one’s family. After reading, the conscientious Filipino reader may ask herself or himself the following questions:
1) Is Philippine society (or your own society, for that matter) already overtaken by materialism, consumerism, and hedonism? Does my attitudes, prejudices, and actions tend toward valuing material gain and possessions over my own values and fellow human beings? If so, what must I do?
2) What is my demeanor toward the elderly, especially to my parents and grandparents? Do I look at them as a burden or as human beings who are in need of my company, love, and sheltering?
3) How do I really love my partner? Am I a person who would stay with my partner as long as she or he acts in accordance to my preferences and/or as long as she or he is physically attractive or financially capable?
4) Am I giving my children quality time so that I can impress on them the ABC’s of GMRC[7]? Am I too authoritarian and whimsical in my discipline? Do my children feel loved, understood, and accepted? Do I allow them ample freedom to live their lives?
Anne Tyler’s “A Patchwork Planet” is very simple as it is thought provoking, a household, living room masterpiece. It seems she took care not to bring people to other realms, as Stephen King and Anne Rice are wont to do, bedazzling the bookworm to forget about the present, to escape reality for a while. She instead brings the veteran and the neophyte page-turner closer to home and tease them to ask those most frequently avoided questions. If people begin asking themselves, then, as Anne foresaw, the “Patchwork Planet” would truly be a better place each passing day.
Conclusion
The novel has conveyed modern issues, moral principles and values, in a direct, conversational manner, humoring and magnifying realities and truths about family, marriage, and true love, sans the romanticism. The main theme is acceptance and complementation of each other’s subjectivities and not only each other’s utility. The reader who readily accepts Barnaby will probably be more inclined to accept her or his own Barnaby in real life. Or if their hearts go out to Mrs. Alford, then they would be better equipped in maturity to take care of and connect with their Alfords.
As society continues to advance technologically and human culture becomes more dependent on material culture, novelists like Anne Tyler are there to remind that to be more human is to be less attached to material culture and to be more attached to fellow humans, and this entails love that has healed and renewed families and societies ever so gradually amidst the fast pace of modernization. How much love does a Barnaby and an Alford need? The measure of love is to love without measure, and that love begins at home.
References
Bustos, Alicia S. Espiritu, Socorro C. Psychological, Anthropological, & Sociological
Foundations of Education, 2nd edition. Quezon City: Katha Publishing Co. Inc., 1996; p.110.
Curran, James. Morley, David. & Walkerdine, Valerie. Cultural Studies and Communication.London: Arnold, 1996.
Currie, Elliott. Skolnick, Jerome H. American Problems, Social Issues and Public Policy.
Boston: Little, Brown, & Company, 1984; pp. 237-238.
Dy Jr., Manuel B. Philosophy of Man, Selected Readings, 2nd edition. Makati City: GoodWill
Trading Co., Inc., 2001; pp. iv, 220-222.
Fromm, Erich. The Art of Loving. New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1956; p. 20.
Horton, Paul B. Leslie, Gerald R. Larson, Richard F. Horton, Robert L. Sociology of Social
Problems, 12th edition. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1997; pp. 144, 150-152.
Kuiper, Kathleen. Antihero. In Merriam-Webster’s Encyclopedia of Literature. Massachusetts:
Merriam-Webster, Incorporated, 1995; p. 57.
Shostrom, Everett L. Montgomery, Dan. Healing Love, How God Works Within the
Personality. Nashville: Abingdon, 1978; p. 70.
Steinberg, Laurence. Adolescence, 4th edition. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1996; pp. 162,
508-509.
Stevenson, Leslie. Haberman, David L. Ten Theories of Human Nature. New York: Oxford
University Press, 1998.
Tyler, Anne. A Patchwork Planet. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001.
Williams Jr., Robin M. American Society, A Sociological Interpretation, 3Rd edition. New
York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1970; pp. 467-469.
[1] Loving inter-subjectivity is the mutual acceptance and understanding of each other (Dy, 222).
[2] Class articulates its identity and whose interests are different and usually opposed to other classes (Curran, Morley, & Walkerdine; 1996).
[3] Filipino culture practices the custom wherein…the family takes care of the old (parents and grandparents)(Bustos & Espiritu, 110)
[4] However, the critic subscribes to this tenet of Marxism insofar as social incidental behavior is concerned, for no amount of ideology can bracket the inherent freedom and responsibility of the individual. Jean-Paul Sartre declared, “Man is cursed and trapped to be free” (Ibid.).
[5] The United States has one of the highest divorce rate of any major industrial nation (Horton, Leslie, Gerald, & Horton, 144). Divorce rates had shot upward in the 1960’s and 1970’s, caused by the destructive “permissiveness” of the (American) modern welfare state (Currie & Skolnick, 237).
[6] It is the participation of one’s subjectivity with another person’s subjectivity, and vice versa, resulting in mutuality and symbiosis (Dy, 220).
[7] GMRC stands for Good Manners and Right Conduct
Filed under: Book Critique
O my, where does one begin? Your review is thoroughly engaging and extensive with respect to depth of understanding. I have to go back and re-read because of the length and complexity of your review. May I ask what was the impetus for this mental aerobic exercise? I’m curious, is all..:)
Thanks for taking the time…this is actually an academic paper that I wrote as a requirement to pass in our Contemporary Literature Class. I enjoy reviewing and looking where nobody looks when it comes to extricating layers of meaning and message in a literary work, which I believe, the author might convey without her or his own conscious knowledge…You amaze me, Janet.