Upton Sinclair, 1942
1943 Pulitzer Prize
There is a glorious ton of detail in this book. It just takes forever to unfold. Talk about Dickensian diversions. I wanted to reread the climax and just enough of the rising action to set up the climax, and that was about 280 pages. Geez. But now I know how the other – what is it, certainly not half, 1 percent maybe? – lives. And get this: it is the third in an eleven-book series. It took many pages for me to decide this would be a book worth reading. I’ve not read the first three, so I have no commitment to the Lanny Budd character. And it seemed like such a lightweight book, in spite of its length; in fact, I was wondering how on earth it could go on for nearly 600 pages exploring the relatively pointless life of rich Budd.
By far the most interesting segments of the book deal with Lanny’s time at the Nazi prison Stadelheim. Up to this point, in so many ways, and in so very much detail, the book has dealt with the insulating quality of the money he and his family and friends possess. In the prison the veil is pulled back and he is naked in his humanity. He is not entirely unwilling, as it is an opportunity to reclaim himself. He feels deep anger at the injustice of the Nazis and a kind of pride that makes him determined to keep, even under torture, what he calls the silence of a native American. For a little while he is face to face with something – with just what got me thinking again about the fear in The Red Badge of Courage
And maybe I got that one wrong.
I said Crane was asking the wrong question. But after reading Dragon’s Teeth, I find myself wondering if you can separate fear from death. I mean, when “Fear took complete possession” of Lanny Budd and “turned his bones to pulp,” what is it he was afraid of?
Or maybe that’s not even it. Maybe it’s not the wrong question but the wrong audience, the wrong judge. In Badge, Fleming is afraid of death and he’s afraid that fear will make him unequal to the task of dying. He’s afraid that he will lack courage: ordered to charge, he might run and, in running, show the army and the world that he is a coward. Lanny is afraid of being tortured; he is afraid, specifically, of pain. Pain might bring death, but Lanny isn’t looking that far ahead. And he’s not afraid of being seen to be a coward, of losing face, but afraid of betraying those he loves or for whom feels a responsibility, afraid of exposing them to the fate he faces. It is not the judgment of the army or his family or his friends or anyone else he fears. He fears failing to live up to his own values. He fears that in the pain he may die to himself and that he may actually will it to happen. He may choose betrayal. He may kill the person he is.
It’s a kind of suicide he’s afraid of and that in killing himself in this way he becomes one of them, one of those who “dishonor the form of men.” It feels as if it is this moment that makes Lanny’s life worth something. He thinks, up to this point, that his life may be wasted on luxury, and I, the reader, while feeling perhaps a little envious, am inclined to agree. So if he passes the torture test, if he chooses to endure pain and die physically instead of dying to himself, does that redeem the rest of his life?
Is that how redemption works? If we suffer, do we atone? Is the atonement more complete if we choose to suffer? Lanny sought to atone for a life of comfort. Is his inheritance of that life or his marriage into it similar to our participation in our country’s commitment to eternal war? And what about all the bits and pieces, all the little troubles and pains one causes the others in one’s life? Is there atonement for them in that suffering? Is there redemption?
In Lanny’s case, we don’t find out. Is this dirty or what? He is freed to go home to his wife and his child and their money. He has shown courage by putting himself in the way of danger to save his brother-in-law, but he does not take the test, so we readers will never know the answer.
Do I feel cheated? Well, I certainly didn’t want to go through the torture with Lanny Budd. But, yeah, I’m still wondering what it was all for.
Ruth – pity, compassion, remorse
Defalcation – the taking or illegal use of money for which one is responsible
What is A Bookful Bequest? Read about Hannah Grachien’s Literary Circumlocutary
Coming soon: Julia Peterkin’s Scarlet Sister Mary