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The Mailer Review/Volume 2, 2008/The Wise Blood of Norman Mailer: An Interpretation and Defense of Why Are We in Vietnam?: Difference between revisions
The Mailer Review/Volume 2, 2008/The Wise Blood of Norman Mailer: An Interpretation and Defense of Why Are We in Vietnam? (view source)
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{{DISPLAYTITLE:<span style="font-size:22px;">{{BASEPAGENAME}}/</span>The Wise Blood of Norman Mailer: An Interpretation and Defense of ''Why Are We in Vietnam?''}} | {{DISPLAYTITLE:<span style="font-size:22px;">{{BASEPAGENAME}}/</span>The Wise Blood of Norman Mailer: An Interpretation and Defense of ''Why Are We in Vietnam?''}} | ||
{{MR02}} | {{MR02}} | ||
{{Byline|last=Fulgham|first=Richard Lee|abstract=''Why Are We in Vietnam?'' is a novel that calls for reassessment four decades after its appearance, particularly as a work of satiric allegory.|url=https://prmlr.us/ | {{Byline|last=Fulgham|first=Richard Lee|abstract=''Why Are We in Vietnam?'' is a novel that calls for reassessment four decades after its appearance, particularly as a work of satiric allegory.|url=https://prmlr.us/mr02ful}} | ||
{{dc|dc=A|mong the imperceptive and raucous}} commentaries on Mailer’s novels, this remark by [[w:Anatole Broyard|Anatole Broyard]] stands out as refreshingly clear: “the rock he throws usually has a message tied to it.”{{sfn|Broyard|1967|p=4}} In the case of ''Why Are We in Vietnam?'', the rock has been given much more attention than the message because it hit us at the wrong time and in an extraordinarily sensitive spot. | {{dc|dc=A|mong the imperceptive and raucous}} commentaries on Mailer’s novels, this remark by [[w:Anatole Broyard|Anatole Broyard]] stands out as refreshingly clear: “the rock he throws usually has a message tied to it.”{{sfn|Broyard|1967|p=4}} In the case of ''Why Are We in Vietnam?'', the rock has been given much more attention than the message because it hit us at the wrong time and in an extraordinarily sensitive spot. | ||
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He neither admires nor loves his father, feeling instead a horror when he looks into Rusty’s eyes. There he sees “voids, man, and gleams of yellow fire....”{{sfn|Mailer|1967|p=37}} Students of Mailer will quickly recognize D.J. as the personification of “The White Negro.” He is a hipster, a sensitive psychopath who operates only in the present, with no precedents, no preconceptions. | He neither admires nor loves his father, feeling instead a horror when he looks into Rusty’s eyes. There he sees “voids, man, and gleams of yellow fire....”{{sfn|Mailer|1967|p=37}} Students of Mailer will quickly recognize D.J. as the personification of “The White Negro.” He is a hipster, a sensitive psychopath who operates only in the present, with no precedents, no preconceptions. | ||
Mailer had used this theme before. Virtually all of his fiction up till and including ''Why Are We in Vietnam?'' is centered on this one fixed idea: | Mailer had used this theme before. Virtually all of his fiction up till and including ''Why Are We in Vietnam?'' is centered on this one fixed idea: | ||
{{quote|If the fate of twentieth-century man is to live with death from adolescence to premature senescence, then the only life-giving answer is to accept the terms of death, to live with death as immediate danger, to divorce oneself from society, to exist without roots, to set out on that uncharted journey into the rebellious imperatives of the self.{{sfn|Mailer|1967|p=304}}}} | |||
D.J. is so different from his father primarily because he grew up in a super-accelerated society where no sooner is one standard established than it is destroyed and superseded by another. No value system lasts for more than a few months before it must be dismantled and replaced. To infinitely compound matters, he must exist in a society that is literally held hostage by its own government, with the subsequent threat of impending annihilation. | D.J. is so different from his father primarily because he grew up in a super-accelerated society where no sooner is one standard established than it is destroyed and superseded by another. No value system lasts for more than a few months before it must be dismantled and replaced. To infinitely compound matters, he must exist in a society that is literally held hostage by its own government, with the subsequent threat of impending annihilation. | ||
To exist as a free individual in such a society means waging eternal war against the rigid conformity imposed by the state and corporate bosses. D.J., if he is to retain his personal integrity, has to face American life as a “white Negro,” forever on the edge of life, tottering as it were on the brink of Nietzsche’s abyss. {{efn|My use of Nietzsche’s abyss here refers to the anxiety associated with endless falling as conceived by Nietzsche in ''Beyond Good and Evil'' (New York: Boni and Liveright, no date), Chapter IV, aphorism 146: “He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a monster. And if thou gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee.”}} Though this interpretation of D.J. might be debatable, Mailer himself hints at such a relationship between D.J. and the existential hipster. Many times D.J. interrupts his monologue to suggest that he is not really a “Texas Wasp,” but rather a “black-ass cripple Spade and sending from Harlem.”{{sfn|Mailer|1967|p=224}} | To exist as a free individual in such a society means waging eternal war against the rigid conformity imposed by the state and corporate bosses. D.J., if he is to retain his personal integrity, has to face American life as a “white Negro,” forever on the edge of life, tottering as it were on the brink of Nietzsche’s abyss.{{efn|My use of Nietzsche’s abyss here refers to the anxiety associated with endless falling as conceived by Nietzsche in ''Beyond Good and Evil'' (New York: Boni and Liveright, no date), Chapter IV, aphorism 146: “He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a monster. And if thou gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee.”}} Though this interpretation of D.J. might be debatable, Mailer himself hints at such a relationship between D.J. and the existential hipster. Many times D.J. interrupts his monologue to suggest that he is not really a “Texas Wasp,” but rather a “black-ass cripple Spade and sending from Harlem.”{{sfn|Mailer|1967|p=224}} | ||
This singular literary device not only accentuates the existential state of D.J., it implies that American youth as personified by D.J. is hopelessly divided in half, with two separate and distinct personalities. In this sense especially, D.J. becomes a valid microcosm of the macrocosmic youth rebellion of the 1960s, where even the most bitter protester was torn between love of country and love of individual freedom. We who have survived long enough to peer into the twenty-first century can still relate. We love the country but hate the scene. | This singular literary device not only accentuates the existential state of D.J., it implies that American youth as personified by D.J. is hopelessly divided in half, with two separate and distinct personalities. In this sense especially, D.J. becomes a valid microcosm of the macrocosmic youth rebellion of the 1960s, where even the most bitter protester was torn between love of country and love of individual freedom. We who have survived long enough to peer into the twenty-first century can still relate. We love the country but hate the scene. | ||
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This astonishing conclusion can be seen in Mailer’s 2007 novel ''The Castle in the Forest'' (New York: Random House, 2007) and his nonfiction interview about God with his authorized biographer Dr. Michael Lennon, appropriately entitled ''On God: An Uncommon Conversation'' (New York: Random House, 2007). We have to pay attention because Norman Mailer’s genius cannot be denied. | This astonishing conclusion can be seen in Mailer’s 2007 novel ''The Castle in the Forest'' (New York: Random House, 2007) and his nonfiction interview about God with his authorized biographer Dr. Michael Lennon, appropriately entitled ''On God: An Uncommon Conversation'' (New York: Random House, 2007). We have to pay attention because Norman Mailer’s genius cannot be denied. | ||
But there is no such realization seen in Mailer’s 1968 novel ''Why Are We in Vietnam?'' In it, protagonist D.J. gives up his freedom of choice by acquiescing to the “wisdom of the blood.” {{efn|It is interesting to compare D.J.’s decision to obey his instinctive impulses to Emil Sinclair’s decision to accept the “wisdom of the blood” in Herman Hesse’s classic ''Demian''. Though both Enoch of ''Wise Blood'' and D.J. of ''Why Are We in Vietnam?'' ultimately become less than human by accepting their instinctive “wisdom,” Emil Sinclair becomes more than human.}} By submitting to the dictates of Nature (that is,“instinct”), D.J. loses all control of the hunt, to say nothing of his life. He learns nothing from his encounter with “that Cannibal Emperor of Nature’s Psyche.”{{sfn|Mailer|1967|p=200}} And having learned nothing, he is subsequently doomed perforce to confronting life with the animalistic shallowness of his father. In the end, he lacks the courage to be free and voluntarily gives his will over to instinct. | But there is no such realization seen in Mailer’s 1968 novel ''Why Are We in Vietnam?'' In it, protagonist D.J. gives up his freedom of choice by acquiescing to the “wisdom of the blood.”{{efn|It is interesting to compare D.J.’s decision to obey his instinctive impulses to Emil Sinclair’s decision to accept the “wisdom of the blood” in Herman Hesse’s classic ''Demian''. Though both Enoch of ''Wise Blood'' and D.J. of ''Why Are We in Vietnam?'' ultimately become less than human by accepting their instinctive “wisdom,” Emil Sinclair becomes more than human.}} By submitting to the dictates of Nature (that is,“instinct”), D.J. loses all control of the hunt, to say nothing of his life. He learns nothing from his encounter with “that Cannibal Emperor of Nature’s Psyche.”{{sfn|Mailer|1967|p=200}} And having learned nothing, he is subsequently doomed perforce to confronting life with the animalistic shallowness of his father. In the end, he lacks the courage to be free and voluntarily gives his will over to instinct. | ||
Returning to the basic story, Rusty and D.J. arrive at the Brooks Range with the two “medium asses” and Tex Hyde, D.J.’s best friend. They are met by a half-breed Indian guide named Big Luke and his assistant Ollie. Big Luke warns them that the exposure to modem technology has driven the big grizzlies mad; now they are doubly wily and dangerous. | Returning to the basic story, Rusty and D.J. arrive at the Brooks Range with the two “medium asses” and Tex Hyde, D.J.’s best friend. They are met by a half-breed Indian guide named Big Luke and his assistant Ollie. Big Luke warns them that the exposure to modem technology has driven the big grizzlies mad; now they are doubly wily and dangerous. | ||
None of the American group is particularly impressed by this. They are equipped with rifles powerful enough to down rhinoceros. (This of course | None of the American group is particularly impressed by this. They are equipped with rifles powerful enough to down rhinoceros. (This of course | ||
refers to the overmatching of American weapons against those of the North Vietnamese.) And predictably, the large animals encountered are mown | refers to the overmatching of American weapons against those of the North Vietnamese.) And predictably, the large animals encountered are mown down without the slightest chance given to the animal. A helicopter is used to frighten them to a spot where hunters lay in wait. The slaughter is described without sentiment from Mailer; but it is obvious enough that the Americans brought with them some virulent, malignant evil. The savagery of Nature seems real only as it festers within the armored hearts of men. | ||
down without the slightest chance given to the animal. A helicopter is used to frighten them to a spot where hunters lay in wait. The slaughter is described without sentiment from Mailer; but it is obvious enough that the Americans brought with them some virulent, malignant evil. The savagery of Nature seems real only as it festers within the armored hearts of men. | |||
This intentional parody of Hemingway’s claim that killing a big animal was somehow noble is one of the most vital messages Mailer gives us. As we experience the mindless slaughter, we are aware only of the cold insensibility of the killers. The animals—wolves, caribou, bear—show agonizing emotion as they die, peering at their executors through fading yellow eyes. But the emotion we are told wells up in the hunters is just the smug satisfaction of proving one’s sexual supremacy in the presence of one’s friends. | This intentional parody of Hemingway’s claim that killing a big animal was somehow noble is one of the most vital messages Mailer gives us. As we experience the mindless slaughter, we are aware only of the cold insensibility of the killers. The animals—wolves, caribou, bear—show agonizing emotion as they die, peering at their executors through fading yellow eyes. But the emotion we are told wells up in the hunters is just the smug satisfaction of proving one’s sexual supremacy in the presence of one’s friends. | ||
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But this is a small revelation compared to the next. When the grizzly proves to be alive and escapes into the forest, the father and son have to follow it. Neither would go if they had been alone; together they are shamed into pursuing the wounded bear. They find it where it lies dying and helpless. As D.J. approaches, Rusty nervously and cowardly lags behind. He is all too willing to allow his son the dubious pleasure of confronting the unknown. | But this is a small revelation compared to the next. When the grizzly proves to be alive and escapes into the forest, the father and son have to follow it. Neither would go if they had been alone; together they are shamed into pursuing the wounded bear. They find it where it lies dying and helpless. As D.J. approaches, Rusty nervously and cowardly lags behind. He is all too willing to allow his son the dubious pleasure of confronting the unknown. | ||
But if Rusty is ultimately a coward he is nevertheless a determined one. Rusty not only has his honor at stake; he has invested over six thousand dollars! When D.J. is only a few yards away, Rusty lifts his rifle and places a sad and pointless round between the dead bear’s eyes. There is one last spasmodic paroxysm, “legs thrashing, brain exploding from new galvanizing and | But if Rusty is ultimately a coward he is nevertheless a determined one. Rusty not only has his honor at stake; he has invested over six thousand dollars! When D.J. is only a few yards away, Rusty lifts his rifle and places a sad and pointless round between the dead bear’s eyes. There is one last spasmodic paroxysm, “legs thrashing, brain exploding from new galvanizing and overloadings of massive damage report, and one last heuuuuuuuuu, all forgiveness gone.”{{sfn|Mailer|1967|p=156}} Back at the camp of Big Luke, D.J. has to admit that Rusty indeed placed the last shot. Rusty is silent for a few moments, perhaps embarrassed, but then says, “Yeah, I guess it’s mine, but one of its sweet legs belongs to D.J.”{{sfn|Mailer|1967|p=157}} | ||
overloadings of massive damage report, and one last heuuuuuuuuu, all forgiveness gone.” {{sfn|Mailer|1967|p=156}} Back at the camp of Big Luke, D.J. has to admit that Rusty indeed placed the last shot. Rusty is silent for a few moments, perhaps embarrassed, but then says, “Yeah, I guess it’s mine, but one of its sweet legs belongs to D.J.”{{sfn|Mailer|1967|p=157}} | |||
In the early 1960s, Vietnam was still seen as a technologically primitive country that would fall like a wild animal under the vastly superior weapons of the United States. The corporate mind of America presumed itself intellectually and morally so far above the Vietnamese that the war was not even considered a real war, but only a minor “police action,” which was undertaken ostentatiously for the good of civilized mankind. Mailer’s bizarre bear hunt took this red-herring justification of the fathers, turned it inside out, and revealed that it was red from the bloodiest kind of deceptions. | In the early 1960s, Vietnam was still seen as a technologically primitive country that would fall like a wild animal under the vastly superior weapons of the United States. The corporate mind of America presumed itself intellectually and morally so far above the Vietnamese that the war was not even considered a real war, but only a minor “police action,” which was undertaken ostentatiously for the good of civilized mankind. Mailer’s bizarre bear hunt took this red-herring justification of the fathers, turned it inside out, and revealed that it was red from the bloodiest kind of deceptions. | ||
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The result of such probing insight is the realization of an exquisite irony. While the corporate minded fathers spoke of civilization and technology, their true motives lay in the coarsest kind of savagery: animal instinct. Just as Rusty must slaughter a grizzly to reaffirm his dominancy among his “tribal” peers, so must corporate America reaffirm its dominancy among its global peers. And just as Rusty intentionally sacrifices the honor of his son to maintain his dominancy, so the corporate state willingly sacrifices its young citizens for the same bestial purpose. | The result of such probing insight is the realization of an exquisite irony. While the corporate minded fathers spoke of civilization and technology, their true motives lay in the coarsest kind of savagery: animal instinct. Just as Rusty must slaughter a grizzly to reaffirm his dominancy among his “tribal” peers, so must corporate America reaffirm its dominancy among its global peers. And just as Rusty intentionally sacrifices the honor of his son to maintain his dominancy, so the corporate state willingly sacrifices its young citizens for the same bestial purpose. | ||
In the end, Mailer implies and perhaps confesses that there is nothing civilized about violence. The roots of murder and warfare are imbedded in the soil of our animal ancestry. As long as we justify our blood lust and hunger for sexual dominancy, we are not civilized men, but baboons and hyenas and wolves—at the best, monkeys. {{efn|It is possible that Mailer was heavily influenced by the anthropological theories popularized by the late Robert Ardrey in his 1965 best seller ''African Genesis'' (New York: Dell, 1961), in which it was postulated that mankind evolved from “killer apes.”}} | In the end, Mailer implies and perhaps confesses that there is nothing civilized about violence. The roots of murder and warfare are imbedded in the soil of our animal ancestry. As long as we justify our blood lust and hunger for sexual dominancy, we are not civilized men, but baboons and hyenas and wolves—at the best, monkeys.{{efn|It is possible that Mailer was heavily influenced by the anthropological theories popularized by the late Robert Ardrey in his 1965 best seller ''African Genesis'' (New York: Dell, 1961), in which it was postulated that mankind evolved from “killer apes.”}} | ||
Rusty and his group do not find savagery and slaughter in the “wilds” of Alaska. Rather, they bring savagery and slaughter with them. They do not absorb some natural energy that forces them to live on “bestial” terms with a cruel Nature. Rather, they bring with them a distinctly human violence, a cultivated horror of human hubris and an inability to empathize with living creatures. | Rusty and his group do not find savagery and slaughter in the “wilds” of Alaska. Rather, they bring savagery and slaughter with them. They do not absorb some natural energy that forces them to live on “bestial” terms with a cruel Nature. Rather, they bring with them a distinctly human violence, a cultivated horror of human hubris and an inability to empathize with living creatures. | ||
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Up until this very moment, there seems to have been hope for D.J. He has seen through the hypocrisy of his father, rejected the Darwinian biological imperatives of his country, proven his personal courage in the face of death, and found a type of grace in Nature. | Up until this very moment, there seems to have been hope for D.J. He has seen through the hypocrisy of his father, rejected the Darwinian biological imperatives of his country, proven his personal courage in the face of death, and found a type of grace in Nature. | ||
But with the welling up of his violent and sexual “urges” comes the end of hope for D.J. He never grasps the full meaning of his experiences. Instead of recognizing that he is tyrannized by his own “wise blood” (or “urges”), he mistakenly assumes that he is receiving messages from a God of the cosmos. Instead of understanding that his violence is something to be overcome, he accepts it as not only natural but divine. He comes within a hair of finding the true meaning of his experience, only to misinterpret the entire lesson. D.J. finally finds God, but instead of psalms, he hears the command,“Go out and kill—fulfill my will, go and kill.”{{sfn|Mailer|1967|p=219}} God is not there for him—only the Beast. | But with the welling up of his violent and sexual “urges” comes the end of hope for D.J. He never grasps the full meaning of his experiences. Instead of recognizing that he is tyrannized by his own “wise blood” (or “urges”), he mistakenly assumes that he is receiving messages from a God of the cosmos. Instead of understanding that his violence is something to be overcome, he accepts it as not only natural but divine. He comes within a hair of finding the true meaning of his experience, only to misinterpret the entire lesson. D.J. finally finds God, but instead of psalms, he hears the command, “Go out and kill—fulfill my will, go and kill.”{{sfn|Mailer|1967|p=219}} God is not there for him—only the Beast. | ||
And for that reason, all the violence and domineering sex in him seems to be justified and affirmed. Like the Nazi gunners with ''Gott mit uns'' inscribed on their belts, D.J. believes that God is “on his side” so long as he follows his natural impulses, even if it means constant fighting and killing if necessary to remain on top of the human herd and get what he wants in the sexual and material sense. | And for that reason, all the violence and domineering sex in him seems to be justified and affirmed. Like the Nazi gunners with ''Gott mit uns'' inscribed on their belts, D.J. believes that God is “on his side” so long as he follows his natural impulses, even if it means constant fighting and killing if necessary to remain on top of the human herd and get what he wants in the sexual and material sense. | ||
In this sad way, D.J. becomes his own father, with the same sad hypocrisies and the same sad justifications. The book ends with D.J. and Tex waiting to go to war in a fever of happy anticipation. Their last words are “Vietnam, hot dam.” {{efn|Compare this to the last line of Mailer’s 1948 war novel, ''The Naked and the Dead'', which exclaims, “Hot dog!” A good argument could be drawn that the two books convey the same message: naturalistic forces so overwhelm the individual that willed action is futile and pointless.}} | In this sad way, D.J. becomes his own father, with the same sad hypocrisies and the same sad justifications. The book ends with D.J. and Tex waiting to go to war in a fever of happy anticipation. Their last words are “Vietnam, hot dam.”{{efn|Compare this to the last line of Mailer’s 1948 war novel, ''The Naked and the Dead'', which exclaims, “Hot dog!” A good argument could be drawn that the two books convey the same message: naturalistic forces so overwhelm the individual that willed action is futile and pointless.}} | ||
Why Are We in Vietnam? is Mailer’s most profoundly pessimistic book. Mankind as allegory fails to realize that he has a choice to lift himself | ''Why Are We in Vietnam?'' is Mailer’s most profoundly pessimistic book. Mankind as allegory fails to realize that he has a choice to lift himself | ||
above the brutishness of raw Nature. Instead, he allows himself to be a subject of Nature, thus becoming just another brute. He fails to discern good from evil. He fails to understand that he—personifying mankind—is becoming a force as powerful as God and the Devil because he can | above the brutishness of raw Nature. Instead, he allows himself to be a subject of Nature, thus becoming just another brute. He fails to discern good from evil. He fails to understand that he—personifying mankind—is becoming a force as powerful as God and the Devil because he can | ||
choose. | choose. | ||
This was Mailer’s maturing perception of a “good” God and an “evil” Devil in the late sixties. Perhaps the root of this belief can be found in this statement in ''Advertisements for Myself'', from an essay written a few years earlier: | This was Mailer’s maturing perception of a “good” God and an “evil” Devil in the late sixties. Perhaps the root of this belief can be found in this statement in ''Advertisements for Myself'', from an essay written a few years earlier: | ||
{{quote|God’s destiny is flesh and blood with ours, and so, far from conceiving of a God who sits in judgment and allows souls, lost souls, to leave purgatory and be reborn again, there is the greater agony of God at the mercy of man’s fate, God determined by man’s efforts, man who has a free will....{{sfn|Mailer|1959|p=91}}{{efn|Norman Mailer, “A Public Notice on ''Waiting for Godot'',” essay in {{harvtxt|Mailer|1959|p=289}}.}}}} | |||
This conception is precisely the one presented in Mailer’s 1968 bear hunt and his 2007 portrait of Adolf Hitler as a boy. God, Man, and Nature are not one, not made up of the same substance. Man is neither the consciousness nor the conscience of God. Mankind is a third determining force in the Universe. | |||
Mankind can and must realize itself as a determining factor in the development of life. Curiously, all of Mailer’s literary work, except ''The Naked and the Dead'' and ''Why Are We in Vietnam?'', emphasizes the moral responsibility of the individual to fight the suffocating restrictions of society, especially when society is dominated by the laws of Nature, not man. This more than anything illustrates Mailer’s abhorrence of American interference in Vietnam. “We did it to prove we are the meanest, biggest, baddest dog on the block,” he seems to be saying. We were allowing our natural instincts to rule our actions. Thus, Mailer is not concerned with the destruction of another country so much as he is concerned with our self-destruction. {{efn|This quotation from {{harvtxt|Mailer|1966}} may help clarify Mailer’s position: “[T]he only explanation I can find for the war in Vietnam is that we are sinking into the swamps of a plague and the massacre of strange people seems to relieve this plague. If one were to take the patients in a hospital, give them guns and let them shoot on pedestrians down from hospital windows you may be sure you would find a few miraculous cures.”{{sfn|Mailer|1966|p=91}}}} | Mankind can and must realize itself as a determining factor in the development of life. Curiously, all of Mailer’s literary work, except ''The Naked and the Dead'' and ''Why Are We in Vietnam?'', emphasizes the moral responsibility of the individual to fight the suffocating restrictions of society, especially when society is dominated by the laws of Nature, not man. This more than anything illustrates Mailer’s abhorrence of American interference in Vietnam. “We did it to prove we are the meanest, biggest, baddest dog on the block,” he seems to be saying. We were allowing our natural instincts to rule our actions. Thus, Mailer is not concerned with the destruction of another country so much as he is concerned with our self-destruction.{{efn|This quotation from {{harvtxt|Mailer|1966}} may help clarify Mailer’s position: “[T]he only explanation I can find for the war in Vietnam is that we are sinking into the swamps of a plague and the massacre of strange people seems to relieve this plague. If one were to take the patients in a hospital, give them guns and let them shoot on pedestrians down from hospital windows you may be sure you would find a few miraculous cures.”{{sfn|Mailer|1966|p=91}}}} | ||
If his allegory holds true throughout the novel, we must conclude that America as a society failed to will itself more sophisticated than the beasts in the woods when it sent its army to Vietnam. America failed to choose attainment of universal justice and compassion. In Mailer’s terminology, especially now at the beginning of the twenty-first century, we must conclude that our attempted bullying of Vietnam was nothing less than demonic, as it represented the antithesis of divine. | If his allegory holds true throughout the novel, we must conclude that America as a society failed to will itself more sophisticated than the beasts in the woods when it sent its army to Vietnam. America failed to choose attainment of universal justice and compassion. In Mailer’s terminology, especially now at the beginning of the twenty-first century, we must conclude that our attempted bullying of Vietnam was nothing less than demonic, as it represented the antithesis of divine. | ||
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===Works Cited=== | ===Works Cited=== | ||
{{Refbegin|indent=yes|30em}} | {{Refbegin|indent=yes|30em}} | ||
* {{cite news |last=Broyard |first=Anatole |date=September 17, 1967 |title=A | * {{cite news |last=Broyard |first=Anatole |date=September 17, 1967 |title=A Disturbance of the Peace |url= |work=New York Times |location=3, 4–5 |access-date= |ref=harv }} | ||
* {{cite book |last=Mailer |first=Norman |date=1966 |title=Cannibals and Christians |url= |location=New York |publisher=Dial |pages= |isbn= |author-link= |ref=harv }} | * {{cite book |last=Mailer |first=Norman |date=1966 |title=Cannibals and Christians |url= |location=New York |publisher=Dial |pages= |isbn= |author-link= |ref=harv }} | ||
* {{cite book |last=Mailer |first=Norman |authormask=1 |date=1971 |title=Of a Fire on the Moon |url= |location=Boston |publisher=Little, Brown |pages= |isbn= |author-link= |ref=harv }} | * {{cite book |last=Mailer |first=Norman |authormask=1 |date=1971 |title=Of a Fire on the Moon |url= |location=Boston |publisher=Little, Brown |pages= |isbn= |author-link= |ref=harv }} | ||