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Mythic Mailer in An American Dream: Difference between revisions
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Rojack describes Cherry's tenement as full of unfiltered smells and sounds, not isolated by the artificial protection wealth ensures. Similarly, their lovemaking is unprotected by birth control devices. Mailer's novels have always overflowed with his particular brand of sexuality, and ''<u>An American Dream</u>'' is no exception. Whether the sexual act is potentially impregnating or sodomistic, loving or violent, has great bearing on its meaning in relation to the theme of this novel. Tanner discusses Mailer's use of sexuality in ''<u>An American Dream</u>'': | Rojack describes Cherry's tenement as full of unfiltered smells and sounds, not isolated by the artificial protection wealth ensures. Similarly, their lovemaking is unprotected by birth control devices. Mailer's novels have always overflowed with his particular brand of sexuality, and ''<u>An American Dream</u>'' is no exception. Whether the sexual act is potentially impregnating or sodomistic, loving or violent, has great bearing on its meaning in relation to the theme of this novel. Tanner discusses Mailer's use of sexuality in ''<u>An American Dream</u>'': | ||
<blockquote>For just as one kind of intercourse is procreative, and the other kind quite the reverse, so Rojack cannot be sure whether he has broken through to some of the true mysteries of creativity after the sterile world of politics; or whether he has unwittingly aligned himself with the Satanic forces of waste. | <blockquote>For just as one kind of intercourse is procreative, and the other kind quite the reverse, so Rojack cannot be sure whether he has broken through to some of the true mysteries of creativity after the sterile world of politics; or whether he has unwittingly aligned himself with the Satanic forces of waste.{{sfn|Tanner|1971|p=360}}</blockquote> | ||
Rojack's mental confusion during this act parallels his uncertainty about the meaning of Deborah's murder. In murdering Deborah was he choosing spiritual creativity or spiritual death for himself? His choice concerning his relationship with Cherry is clearer. While making love with Cherry, Rojack describes himself making a choice: a choice to love, to know what life is really about, to find the answer to his quest. "It was as if my voice had reached to its roots; and, 'Yes,' I said, of course I do, I want love,'" | Rojack's mental confusion during this act parallels his uncertainty about the meaning of Deborah's murder. In murdering Deborah was he choosing spiritual creativity or spiritual death for himself? His choice concerning his relationship with Cherry is clearer. While making love with Cherry, Rojack describes himself making a choice: a choice to love, to know what life is really about, to find the answer to his quest. "It was as if my voice had reached to its roots; and, 'Yes,' I said, of course I do, I want love,'"{{sfn|Mailer|1964-65|p=128}}. They make love twice. After the second time, Rojack says: " ... now I understood that love was not a gift but a vow" {{sfn|Mailer|1964-65|p=165}}. Rojack vows to continue his quest. Cherry's love gives him the strength to continue. | ||
The other woman in the book with whom Rojack has sex is Ruta, Deborah's German maid. Sex with Ruta has the opposite purpose and result. After he murders Deborah, he is shattered by the violence of his actions and engages in what Bufithis calls a "demonic bout of sodomy" with Ruta | The other woman in the book with whom Rojack has sex is Ruta, Deborah's German maid. Sex with Ruta has the opposite purpose and result. After he murders Deborah, he is shattered by the violence of his actions and engages in what Bufithis calls a "demonic bout of sodomy" with Ruta{{sfn|Bufithis|1978|p=65}}. Rojack is torn by "conflict between creative and destructive power"{{sfn|Bufithis|1978|p=66}}. He alternately has intercourse with her and sodomizes her. Rojack relates: "So that was how I finally made love to her, a minute for one, a minute for the other, a raid on the Devil and a trip back to the Lord"{{sfn|Mailer|1964-65|p=45}}. At first, Ruta struggles with Rojack, but Rojack continues his act of buggary. Suddenly he senses that Ruta is a Nazi. When he accuses her of it, she confesses, while begging him not to stop his sexual assault. Rojack's continuation of his assault on Ruta echoes his assault on the Nazi soldiers which made him a war hero. Rojack seems to be wanting to aspire to heroic stature of a different kind in his sexual conquest of a Nazi. | ||
Leigh explains the sex in ''<u>An American Dream</u>'' in mythic terms: "In''<u>An American Dream</u>'' orgiastic sex plunges Rojack into epistemological and ontological depths and communion with the mysterious forces to which the individual is exposed" (105). Sexuality for Mailer has always featured heavily weighted mystic overtones. The possibility for procreativity influences the degree of goodness inherent in the sexual act. The more likely the act is to be procreative, the more moral it is. The women in the novel provide three different ways for Rojack to succeed in his quest. Leigh describes them best: | Leigh explains the sex in ''<u>An American Dream</u>'' in mythic terms: "In''<u>An American Dream</u>'' orgiastic sex plunges Rojack into epistemological and ontological depths and communion with the mysterious forces to which the individual is exposed" (105). Sexuality for Mailer has always featured heavily weighted mystic overtones. The possibility for procreativity influences the degree of goodness inherent in the sexual act. The more likely the act is to be procreative, the more moral it is. The women in the novel provide three different ways for Rojack to succeed in his quest. Leigh describes them best: | ||
<blockquote>Killing Deborah cancels Rojack's social contract with the "dream" world of capitalist success, status and priviledge. Buggering Ruta is a technique for absorbing her vast reservoir of energy, cunning and guile into his own body. Genital release with Cherry represents the perfect harmonious coupling. | <blockquote>Killing Deborah cancels Rojack's social contract with the "dream" world of capitalist success, status and priviledge. Buggering Ruta is a technique for absorbing her vast reservoir of energy, cunning and guile into his own body. Genital release with Cherry represents the perfect harmonious coupling.{{sfn|Leigh|1990|p=105}}</blockquote> | ||
The perfect sexual harmony is directly related to the cosmic harmony Rojack is seeking. Loving Cherry, expressed sexually, is only part of Rojack's quest. Listening to and trusting in himself as he pursues knowledge is the other goal in his adventure. The culmination of Rojack's quest is his walk on the parapet. | The perfect sexual harmony is directly related to the cosmic harmony Rojack is seeking. Loving Cherry, expressed sexually, is only part of Rojack's quest. Listening to and trusting in himself as he pursues knowledge is the other goal in his adventure. The culmination of Rojack's quest is his walk on the parapet. | ||