University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

The engaged hero and the human destiny

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The engaged hero and the human destiny

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Content THE ENGAGED HERO AND THE HUMAN DESTINY:
by
Suat Kadir Karantay
A Thesis Presented to, the
FACULTY OP. THE GRADUATE. SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OP SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the;
Requirements, for the Degree.
MASTER OF ARTS
(C omparative. Lit erature)
August 1968
UMI Number: EP43085
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C® f K ^ K
This thesis, w ritte n by
..........Suati.XadiK.KaEaatax .
under the direction o f BlMi..Thesis Comm ittee,
and approved by a ll its members, has been p re
sented to and accepted by the Dean of The
Graduate School, in p a rtia l fu lfillm e n t of the
requirements fo r the degree of
M&SHEB.DSL.ABTS..
Dean
D a te .
HESIS COMMI
Cnairman
TABLE OB CONTENTS
Page:
INTRODUCTION ...... ..... . . . . . . . . ... . , 1
r. FOR WHOM. THE . BELL-TOLLS-.......... 4 .
11 • LA, PBSIE . ^ ^ . . > . - . * . . . . - . - * ~ . . .... 15
Iir. LA CONDITION BUHAINB . . . . . . , - . , . . . . . . 34
CONCLUSION . - . . . , • . . . . . . - . . . - . . . . - 59
BIBLIOGRAPHY . ......... . . . . , . - . . . , . , . . . . 61.
INTRODUCTION !
I
Hemingway, Camus and Malraux are three of the
significant contemporary writers who have deeply felt the
anguish of the contemporary man in an alienated and
insecure: world, They have given different presentations
of the human condition. All three have introduced in their,
novels detached heroes, as well as passionately engaged
ones. Robert Jordan in For Whom the Bell Tolls comes to
Spain to fight for the Republican cause: during the Spanish
Civil War. His engagement is not the result of some
metaphysical anguish. ■ He loves the Spanish people and he
loves freedom. This is why he joins the Spanish Republi
cans.
La- Peste of Camus is based on an event that offers; a
good occasion for those who want to get involved in a
human cause. The plague threatens, everybody's life in
Oran. The agony which the innocent people: and the: child
ren suffer revolts many individuals., who immediately go
into action against the epidemic. There are those, like
Tarrou, who try to find in their engagement an answer to
questions that have tormented them all their lives, or
those like Dr. Rieux who do all they can to defeat the
epidemic simply because they feel it is their duty, to help
1,
others whenever they can. One day the epidemic stops as
mysteriously as it had started. The survivors are once
more thrown back into the routine of the old days, with all
the absurdities., the eternal problems, of life. The
generally optimistic atmosphere of the book ends, up with
a pessimistic tone, showing a bitter Rieux looking sadly
at the: unchanged, view of the world and. of Man.
Malraux in La Condition Humaine treats the theme of
engagement, its, causes: and, consequences in a wider context.
He: tries: to probe into all the motives that urge his;
protagonists to get engaged, in the Chinese Revolution.
These, motives tend to cover all metaphysical aspects of
the human condition. The1 tragic destinies of these heroes
unfold as; the novel progresses and in the end nothing
seems, to be solved. Their engagement becomes one small
aspect of the human predicament. With the- ultimate defeat
of their cause, the futility of trying to transcend the
human condition is implied. More than For Whom the Bell
Tolls and La Peste, La Condition Humaine succeeds in giving
a clear image of the universal problems of contemporary
man, his vain attempts, to transcend his destiny by getting
involved in some significant human cause, and his ultimate
defeat in trying to change things and find answers to the
questions of all places and of all times:.
The purpose of this paper is, to compare these three
3 I
i
thematically interrelated novels and the general picture
of the human condition which can be defined briefly as
the inability of the contemporary man to create meaning ;
in an alienated and insecure? world so that he can overcome j
his anguish in the face of death, escape his solitude:, !
find worthwhile values to cling to, and be able- to
communicate with others.
The three: novels I have included- in my study pose
most effectively a central problem of the twentieth
century— the desperate striving of the contemporary man
to create meaning in life. Many novels deal with this
problem on the individual basis, within the. context of the:
daily lives of their protagonists. But the Spanish Civil
War, the? plague:, and the Ghinese Revolution are exceptional
situations which enable the protagonists to get involved
in purely altruistic causes and indirectly solve their
personal and metaphysical problems. By becoming engaged
in a cause which will not bring any personal benefit since?
it is fought in a foreign country in the name of humanity,
the heroes of these three, novels put up a more sincere,
humanistic and obstinate fight to attain their ends. Yet
their ventures: ultimately fail and. one is. left with a
pessimistic view of the human condition.
I
FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS
Ernest Hemingway’s. theme in For Whom,the Bell Tolls;
can be deduced from the title itself. Robert Jordan, the
hero of the novel, becomes engaged in the: Spanish Civil
War as soon as: the "bell tolls", i.e. when tha Spanish
people start suffering under the Fascist oppression and
cry out for help. Many others who love freedom and feel
sympathy for the. Spaniards respond to the tolling of the
bell. They pour into Spain from all parts: of the- world
and start fighting on the side- of the:. Republicans:. Horst
Oppel in an essay of his emphasizes the change in Heming
way’S; work in the 1950’s from despair and disbelief to a
growing social consciousness:
Whereas previously the; life*of Hemingway’s characters
was marked by inner emptiness and-, utter lack of meaning,
only temporarily alleviated by intoxication and, a blind
lust for life, now for the; first time we see that
Hemingway recognizes: some sort of hierarchy of ethical
values'. . . . The conflict of moral interests is.- no
longer one-sidedly resolved in favor of the "easy life"
without responsibility. Here there is at least an
indication of situations in which the individual, as
such has; become unimportant because: he- is* caught up
in the community spirit.!
"Heraingway's Across the River and.into the; Trees,"
in Hemingway and His Critics, ed. by Carlos-Baker (ftfew
York: Hill andWang, Inc., 1961), p. 213.
I
Many of Hemingway1 s : . heroes, in his; novels of. the twenties., j
like those of The Sun Also Rises. , are irresponsible,
i
hypocritical, full of an undefinable anguish, alienated, j
)
and worshippers of the Freudian death-wish. They live a
purposeless, life. They want to. forget themselves in liquor
and love. Their restlessness carries them from one city
to another. Pier Francesco Paolini calls such characters; :
"dilettantes," and those?who belive in ideals and work for
them "professionals." He further differentiates them more
explicitly:
For the Hemingway man (homo hemingwaianus) to belong
to the category of "professionals" implies a choice^—
either by instinct or as a result of a series of expe
riences;; it means, he? has taken up a solid strategic,
position in the life-war which by its? very nature? can
no longer be stormed by the enemy or engulfed in the
abyss of nada [nothingness} . The choice determines
whether life is. worth living and fighting for, or is?
"a nothing and then nothing." Hence the. "dilettante"
is a failure: he has failed in his duty, in the true
categorical imperative of the? conscience?; he has wasted
his talents and energies. The other category is. that
of the "undefeated," the winners, even when they win
nothing, even when they seem to be routed* It is in
these terms that Hemingway advances and. solves; the
dilemma of "to be or not to be," in which "nonbeing,"
probably deriving from the mysticism of the. Slav writers,1
is both an obstacle and. a calamity to "being."2
Robert Jordan is such a professional. The novel is; j
about a handful, of guerrillas? and Jordan— a partisan
ggent. It covers- some^ seventy hours between a Saturday
and a Tuesday in the- lives of these men. The? setting is:
2
"The Hemingway of the Major Works," in Hemingway and ■
His Critics, ed. by Carlos Baker, p. 155*
6 '
a valley in the Guadarrama. The action is centered on a ;
.sabotage- operation behind the fascist lines. Jordan has
been charged, with the mission of blowing up a bridge.
Thus the fascist troops on their way to meet; the Republican
attack will be prevented from advancing any further. The
thought-stream of the hero reveals his ideals: "You believe
in Liberty, Equality a.nd fraternity. You believe in Life,
Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.Jordan is deter
mined to bring these abstractions-, to the test of practical
i d
experience. In the'Spanish Civil War he finds the occa
sion to get into action. Being a teacher of the Spanish
language and. literature, in the States, he has great inte
rest and sympathy in the Spaniards. He hates fascism
because it threatens the freedom of these people, and all
people. Towards the end of the novel he feels happy
because he has had a chance to fight for an ideal of
universal dimensions. He is optimistic though he. knows
that he’ll die soon:
I have fought for what I believed in for a year now.
If we win here we will win everywhere. The world is 1
a fine place and worth the fighting for and I hate very
much to leave: it. And you had a lot of luck, he told
himself, to have: had such a good. life. You’ve had. just
as. good.a life as grandfatheris though not as long.
You've had as good a life as anyone because; of these;
last days. You do not want to complain when you have
been so lucky.4
^Erne.st Hemingway, for Whom the. Bell Tolls$few York:
Charles Scribner's;' Sons, 1^40), p. 565.
I L
H emmgway, 467 •
7
This is the oversimplified image of Robert Jordan
and his engagement in the Spanish cause. Though these
last words are said towards the end of the novel, they do
not sum up Jordan's experience in Spain, nor the theme of
the book, which transcends the boundaries of the three
days For Whom the Bell Tolls deals with. Jordan is not
a highly educated and sensitive man. He cannot analyse
effectively his own motives, the situation he is in in
Spain, nor the implications of his engagement, together
with the Spanish Civil War as a tragic picture of the
human condition. His optimism, even before he dies, does
not reflect Hemingway's attitude toward his subject matter.
Robert Jordan in the first place is a lonely person
and dies a lonely person. John Killinger makes a genera
lisation on this point covering the heroes of contemporary
literature, and especially those of Hemingway:
The hero is very much alone in this world, because he
has no God and no real brother. Only the dying embers
of religion appear to glow from time to time, as in the
prayers of Jake Barnes and Lt. Henry and old Pablo and
Santiago; but when the mind is clean and well-lighted
the glow pales away, and spiritual aspirations are
recognized as obsolete in our time. A thoroughgoing
humanism is valued more highly than the via dolorosa
with divinity at its end.5
Man is lonely because religion is unable to solve his
problems. Another factor enhancing his alienation is his
^Hemingway and the Dead Gods, A Study in Existenti
alism (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, i960),
p. 99.
inability to communicate., with, others-. Jordan is- an
alienated person and does: not have a warm personality.
The Spanish War offers: him an occasion to come out of his
seclusion and act. Yet the reader sees:. Robert Jordan as.
a stranger among the Spaniards even when he is. so closely
in touch with them for the three days, the novel covers.
In the end. he dies a moral victor, but he does not become
a part of the victory or of the defeat.
Jordan's engagement is a failure from the very
beginning. The demolition of the bridge has to take place
at daybreak. This means that Jordan has only the slimmest
chance of escaping from the guards, posted above and below
this, bridge:. With Anselmo, a Spanish peasant, he joins
a guerrilla band living in a cave above’ the Guadarrama
valley. Pablo, the leader of the band, is a person who
would rather save: his own skin than preserve the freedom
of the: Spanish Republic. .Another guerrilla leader, El
Sordo, has promised to help Jordan with his: men; but they
are all blasted to death by Fascist bomberplanes. As
the critical hours approach Pablo disappears, taking
Jordan's detonators with him. But he. soon returns:,
regretting his cowardice:. These: events undermine the
success of the demolition.
The success of this- venture would not mean anything
anyway within the context of the whole political action
9*
going on in Spain. Though Jordan and his. men do not know
it, it is certain that the Republicans are going to lose ;
the war. As Earl Rovit expresses it so well:
In concrete military terms, the bridge is no longer the
point on which the future of the war, or the human race,
can turn. The explosion of the bridge, with all the
human waste that accompanies it, is. an absurdly
meaningless- event within the desperate flow of a losing
war. It represents, in a grim and even sardonic way,
the intrusion of nada into the. illusions and courage
of the group that has banded together into a cohesive:
unit in order to destroy the bridge and create m e a n i n g .6
To the reader who knows that the sacrifice of Jordan and
his friends is futile., this event is; absurd in its
implications. It reflects the meaninglessness of human
endeavors in the long run. Carlos Baker refers to this
fact in a study of his:*
In either of these instances, in three days or three
years, you come back to where you began— "and nothing
is settled." This is the wheel-like turn of Spain’s
tragedy, indeed, that after all the agony and all the
blood, nothing should be settled, and that.;Spain should
be back where, it began, in a medieval situation.7
This tragic irony is embodied, in the. conclusion of La Peste
and La Condition Humaine. After all the pain and horror
the people, of Oran undergo, things do not change in the
least. As soon as the gates of the. town are once more-
opened and things return to normal, the people start to
f l
Ernest Hemingway((hew. York: Twayne Publishers, Inc.,
1963), p. 146.
^Hemingway, the Writer as Artist (Princeton:: Prin
ceton University Press, 19&3), p. 263.
"behave;: as they had, before the plague. The?- same;- reckless.-
ness, the same, futility overtaken all. activities:. The
people never learn a. lesson from the plague. In La Condi
tion Humaine the revolutionaries cannot achieve thairLfsnds:
the ideals are crushed and nothing is settled. Those who
survive cling to another hope, to another revolution in
order to have a raison d'etre.
Earl Rovit points: out the paradox of Jordan's
adventure which is meaningful even as the situation is
absurd: "But in non-military terms, that is, in poetic
terms, the nada is heroically bridged; the confrontation
does become a point on which the. future of the human race
can turn; for mankind does conquer the: futility of non-
8
meaning in its resolute bravery and achieved oneness."
Just like the people of Oran or the revolutionaries of
La Condition Humaine. Jordan and his men are sincere in
their endeavors. Yet all the other facts concerned with
the action render it futile so that to an observer these
people seem like very honest and enthusiastic playthings
in the hands of an all powerful, undependable and capri
cious master. Their good-will has no meaning because it
is: ultimately controlled by some other force. Jordan has-
tried to create meaning for himself out of something
basically futile and doomed. He is incapable of evalua-
^Rovit, p. 146.
■ting what lie has done:- on a large scale so that he dies; a
happy man without realizing that neither his venture nor
|
his death will have any value, any meaning in the course
of the Spanish War. .
Robert Jordan is not an existential hero as defined
by John Killinger in his study of Hemingway’s Existen
tialism:;
To ensure world, freedom which guarantees individual
freedom, the perpetual hero has been known to join the.
army in time of war. In doing so, he, like the. fictional
characters of Sartre and Beauvoir: and, Camus, swears
allegiance- to the brotherhood of man and voluntarily
suspends his own subjectivity until the freedom of all
is assured. But to be externally disciplined is, a
strain upon him and he anxiously awaits, the dissolution
of the fraternity and the moment of his return to the
separate peace.9
Jordan, too, after he gets involved with Maria starts to
think of his personal happiness. He wants to survive
his venture. But this is not the "return to the separate
peace" Killinger refers to. The existential hero is
aware of the limitations, the restrictions his engagement
will result in. Yet he willingly participates; in the
action. This is a temporary sacrifice of his freedom.
The existential hero holds his freedom above anything
else and engagement means subjecting oneself to the orders
of a group. Nonetheless, he knows that his involvement
^Killinger, p. 99*
is only temporary, that things will return to normal, and
so he is? looking forward' to his personal peace and happi
ness.
After Filar reads death in Jordan's hand, she sends*
Maria to his; sleeping-bag. She does this for his sake
and also to heal Maria’s emotional, trauma through Jordan's
love. The love affair is.- intensified as the hours go
along. It is. when Jordan realizes that he loves. Maria
that he starts to think of a future happiness with her.
This; is; a common, natural response to a typical human
situation. Now that he has found a good reason to live,
Jordan does care about death. This is. not the longing
of the; existential hero for his "separate peace" which
has. far more philosophical implications than Jordan's
simple, human response may reflect;
He did not want to make a Thermopylae, nor be* Horatius
at any bridge, nor be the. Dutch boy with his.' finger in
that dyke. No.. He would like to spend, some; time with
Maria;. That was the simplest expression of it. He
would like; to spend a long, long time, with her.40
Alfred Kazin finds For Whom the.. Bell Tolls unsatis
factory as a novel. He argues that commitment of a hero
was too big and difficult a subject for an author who had
always written about people of the lost generation;
But the Spanish war is essentially only Robert Jordan’s;
education— "It's part of one's education. It will be
^Hemingway, p. 164.
f
13
quite an education when it's.finished." The. Hemingway
; ”1" is still the center of existence, as only he could
alternate between the war and.Maria in the sleeping-bag
so easily; as only he could seem less a man entering
into the experience of others than the familiarly
damned, familiarly self-absorbed, lost generation Byron
playing a part beside them. . . . For Whom.the Bell
Tolls is thus, an unsatisfactory novel, . . . because
it is a- strained and involuntary application of his
essentially anarchical individualism, his brilliant
half-vision of life, to a new world, of war and. struggle,
too big for Hemingway's sense of scale and one that
can make that half-vision significantly sentimental.H
The; love affair of Jordan and Maria may seem to distract
attention by its intensity and sensuality. Yet it helps
to extend the frame of reference of the novel— Jordan
changes, his attitude towards life: and. death after he
falls in love with Maria. Apart from this point, Kuzin's
criticism of the novel is very relevant. Jordan never
attains the complexity of Camus' and Malraux's heroes.
He has neither their passion nor their psychological
depth. Although the Spanish Civil War offers an excellent
occasion where the theme of engagement and its universal
implications could be studied, Hemingway ends; up in an
interesting love and adventure story with some subtle
references regarding the destiny of an engaged hero.
Edwin Berry Burgum clarifies: to a certain extent
why Hemingway's treatment of a similar theme differs
"Hemingway: Synopsis of a Career," in Ernest
Hemingway:: The Kan and his Work, ed. by John K. M„ Mc-
daffery (Cleveland and New York: The World Publishing
^Company, 1950), p. 203-
greatly from Camus' and Malraux's approach:
Indeed, to a person of Hemingway's type, unlike; the
anarchist, the ideal will always he delectable because
it cannot be realized either through life or death,
either through social or individual action. Once you
come into any form of contact.with it, it ceases to be
ideal. . . . Goodness drifts and it is as impotent in
the world of practical affairs as these men sense
themselves to be in their personal lives. They project
their own failure upon the world at large.12
Jordan has been a college instructor of Spanish in
Montana, has written a book about Spain after having
travelled in the country for ten years. When the Fascist
movement starts in his beloved Spain, he comes to believe
in the impossibility of any liberty under such a system.
But besides this point Jordan wants to be like his
grandfather who had- fought in the Civil War for the
freedom of the States; and also to wipe out the shame his
father had inflicted upon their; family when like a coward
he had committed suicide years ago. -Jordan has not been
a brilliant person in his life so that his sacrifice and
heroism in taking part in the Spanish War to a certain
extent promises more; self-respect for himself. His ideals
cease to be ideals when a glimpse of happiness with a
girl strikes up— they were really never too intense. So
Jordan’s venture is not altogether altruistic in nature.
12
~ "Ernest Hemingway and the Psychology of the Lost
Generation," in Ernest Hemingway: The Man and his Work,
ed. by John K.^M. McCaffery (Cleveland and New York: The
World Publishing Company, 1950), pp. 326-32?.
■ For Whom the Bell Tolls remains a novel about an ineffectu^
al hero engaged in a social cause doomed to failure-
f . — n
I
I t
LA BESTE ;
' Together with L* Etranger, La Peste is the; most widely '
read and acclaimed work of Camus.. A humanistic attitude,
and as a result a more optimistic approach to his; subject
matter, is what makes La Peste. differ from L1Etranger.
Between the. two novels France underwent a deep crisis
as a- result of the German Occupation. Camus actively
took part in the Resistance Movement. This was a drastic
change in attitude, a shift from the total indifference
of Mersault to the passionate engagement of Rieux. Thus,
ended the nihilism of Camus which was so much spoken of
and admired. Basically both novels have the same theme.—
the meaninglessness of human existence. But while Mersault
is> not: aware, of the meaninglessness; surrounding human
life, the- protagonists, of La Peste are? conscious of the
basic absurdity of life.; therefore? they revolt and act.
La Peste? is certainly a more: optimistic novel than
L1Etranger. In lieu of Mersault's indifference towards
human affairs, here one finds people who fight for human
dignity and happiness. Yet, La Peste is not an altogether '
, optimistic work. Tarrou or Dr. Rieux are admirable
16
individuals in their engagement for humanity and against
evil. But in the long run, once the fight is; over, the
same old pessimism of Camus and of many other contemporary !
writers comes to the. surface. Once the struggle is over,
the values it has; created die out with it. Do study this
aspect of La Peste, first it is necessary to eliminate
the parallelisms Between the plague and the German Occupa
tion of France during WII. If the novel were principally
an allegory of the German Occupation it would be no more
than a patriotic study of a people under political
oppression who eventually defeat the. enemy.
The parallel between the people of Oran imprisoned
in their/ town during the. plague.- and tha Frenchmen living
under the German rule during the Occupation is not
difficult to trace out. The plague can be taken as a
symbol of the Occupation or as a. metaphysical concept.
The second level can be seen in two parts.: the first is
the problem of evil allegorized,; the second, is. the
allegory of cosmic alienation represented by the picture
of a town sealed off by geography and by catastrophe. In
this second case it is a. parable of man in the midst of
his weaknesses, and in a rebellion which aims at aiding
human beings. This allegorical interpretation comes
nearer to the humanistic standing, of Camus in Laa Peste.
Since. Camus deals- with the fight the human beings put up
18
against an evil which is. of nonhuman origin and which
comes from the outside, the value of ha Peste as an
allegory of the Resistance Movement is considerably
reduced. One cannot equate resistance to microbes with
resistance to men, i.e.. transfer an actual fight against
men into an allegorical fight against disease. So the
metaphysical interpretation of the allegory is a more
sound one.
Once the interpretation of the plague as merely the
allegory of the Occupation is discarded, one comes:-
directly to the question of the absurd. The plague is
absurd because it does not choose among its victims. Not
sparing even the; children, it is' a blind menace to a-
community where, people are more innocent than one gene
rally thinks they are. So men have to get together and
revolt when such a disaster strikes them. This solidarity
will result in a fraternity which is presented very
effectively in La Peste. In the case of Mersault, who
also was in the midst of an absurd experience, a tragedy
results which is altogether individual. When the revolt
takes form this tragedy turns into a collective experience
The first discovery the rebel makes> is; a common suffering
which he shares with all men. The plague is an absurdity
which is not in the individual or in his relations with
other people; it is something exterior. So the people
19:
-of Oran will- not blame; themselves; for the misfortune the
plague has brought, nor blame others. Thus their getting
together to? fight it will- be easier.
The, humanistic approach of Camus; to his subject matter
is; reflected in the sincere: efforts of his protagonists
to: defeat the plague;.. The, primary concern of Camus for
the; human dilemma became more explicit before he began to
write., ha; Peste,. Roger Quilliot1 attaches; great importance
to an interview, with Camus reported in the Swiss, periodical
Servir„ 1945r where Camus says that he; is not a philoso
pher, that he does; not believe: in reason, and concludes
that what interests him is to get to know how one; should
act when one believesoneither in God nor in reason. This
is the starting point of Camus.' absurd, universe,, which
in spite of everything still possesses, human values when
the; plague invades, Oran, ha; Pest®; rather, than exalting
the Resistance has as its object a : , humanism faithful, to;
human dignity. It does not exalt the. human being,, who-,
without the. help of the Eternal or of rationalistic,
thought, can create., all by himself, his. own values-— this
being the optimistic aspect of the novel..
In a- few. articles concerning Camus and his; work the
-humanistic element in La Peste: is emphasized. Wilson G„.
^'‘Geridse de La. Pests, Preuves, 142; (19 62 )., 30— 37
0lough summarizes'the themes of La Peste with terms that
are a - , good presentation of Camus, the humanist: 1)- We
must define real love as giving all to the present— a view
rejecting escape^ refusal, to aid, or the collaboration of
resignation; 2)- We must choose a philosophy of rebellion,
which is not revolutionary (i.e. a denial of human nature),
2
but is ameliorative and a form of love of man. Charles
I. Glicksberg gives: a different expression to Camus'
humanism.^ The universe is steeped in absurdity (war,
j .
political tyrannies, death furnaces, etc.). Then comes
the irrational but redeeming humanistic affirmation:, man
must rebel against this knowledge of nothingness, seek
at all costs to gratify his Faustian hunger for truth.
Man is the focus of meaning, and meaning lies precisely
in his passionate quest for meaning. Konrad Bieber
formulates Camus' humanistic conviction in connection
lL
with religion. Camusis, he says, shares with the Christians
the same horror of evil, but he does not share- their hope
and continues to fight against a world in which children
^"The Plague,” Colorado Quarterly, VII (1959)*
580-404.
5
-"'The Novel and the Plague," University of Kansas
City Review, XXI (1954), 55-62.
^"Engagement as a Professional Risk, Yale French
Studied, 16 (1955-56)-, 29-59.
buffer andj die. ¥hile Christianity is pessimistic with
regard to man, it is optimistic with regard to human
destiny. Camus has just the opposite conviction.
One sound deduction from the many works written on
Gamus and especially on La Peste can he made. Yes., there
is a great change in.the Camus-: of La Peste, something
which one does not find in L* Etranger. This is in the
form of more sympathy for the human being and his eter
nally tragic condition. But this does, not mean that
Camus has altogether abandoned, his pessimistic individu
alism so dominant in L 1Etranger for an optimistic social
consciousness- reflected in the passionately engaged
protagonists of La. Peste. In La Eeste especially, Camus
is not preaching the intensity of human values., the; passion
for man and his actions, but is simply implying that
values do: exist— even though temporarily.
A closer look at La Peste and its characters will
reveal Camus' approach to the theme of engagement and its
universal implications, la- Peste deals with an epidemic
of plague that supposedly struck Oran sometime in the
nineteen-forties. Oran, as described in the novel, is a
town with no trees, no soul. It is. thus dominated by an
atmosphere which easily makes people inactivelia state
far from the rebellious nature the absurd, universe; of
Camus must have in order to place man in opposition to
the world. As a symbol the plague stands tear many things,
all interrelated. Apart from the French Resistance
Movement which can only be a secondary symbolic meaning
of the plague, it stands- for the incomprehensibility of
the universe; in the.- way it; appears and dies; out unexpec
tedly. It is a; symbol also of human mortality. As such
it is. an enemy that can never be defeated. If the enemy-
were; only the Germans;-, that would; be; a particular enemy
that could be^ conquered. In this case La Pasta- would
have; a; further drawback— the representation of a social
evil (i.e.. the; German Occupation) by a natural evil (tho
plague*), which is; an ambiguous; symbolism.
When the plague is considered, in universal terms,,
the problem of the engaged hero emerges. The human
values, the; heroic actions the plague evokes; have in the
long run very limited value.. This temporary fight which
lasts, about nine months; does, not change the; realities
of the: human condition. Even during their engagement,
the; protagonists- of La Peste: are all the time; conffanted
with the, absurdity, the futility of their endeavors;..
They differ greatly from Robert Jordan, who ih his
engagement was- not tormented, all the time with questions
which transcended, the immediate realities he was occupied
with; and who found in his love for. Maria personal
jiappiness.' and., hope; for the. future;. Questions of a broad
philosophical nature do trouble Jordan from time to time, ;
but he suppresses them because he feels they might divert :
him from his immediate goal. The protagonists of La Peste;
try to uphold, man’s dignity, but their struggle- is hope
less. A hostile universe sets an unsurmountable barrier
to man's desperate striving for human values, for
brotherhood, and for communication.
Tarrou and Dr. Rieux. are the two main Characters of
La Peste. Both revolt against the injustice of the; plague.
Tarrou, unlike Rieux, is able to put his revolt into
intellectual form as well as into action; so he. can be
considered to be the hero of La Peste. Tarrou's father
is a, public prosecutor. When Tarrou was seventeen he had:
invited his son to hear him plead a murder case. When
his father demanded the execution of the convicted: crimi
nal, Tarrou felt nausea. Instead of being impressed by
his father's rhetoric, he sympathized with the criminal.
While everybody was against the accused, Tarrou was
with him. After this incident he repressed his disgust
for about a year, and then left home to become a political
revolutionary. He believes that life has intrinsic value
but that a society based on capital punishment denies
this value. In the political party he joins: Tarrou
discovers that death sentences cannot be avoided. In the
old order as well as in the new order one is fatally led
: 24~!
to assassination. What is mors now he has- become an ;
accomplice to evil. He does, not blame anybody for what is ■
going on in society. For Tarrou the plague takes on a
general meaning from then on— it is all that oppresses
and kills human beings, like armies, regimes, etc. He
goes all over Europe in search of meaning and justice.
In the end he comes to the conclusion that it is impossible
to save mankind; but that people may try to do the least
harm to others and even sometimes a little good. Men
carry within themselves the germ of the plague which urges
them to do violence to others. By fighting for the
victims the damage can at least be limited.
This constant struggle will bring an inner purity
and great satisfaction to the engaged hero. Even if the
enemy is not conquered, he will feel a purity knowing
that he himself is not doing any harm to others. He will
constantly watch himself and his actions so that in a
moment of distraction he will not poison another person,
with the germs in his nature. Tarrou is an atheist, yet
this striving of his is: purely a search for sainthood
without God. He is conscious of this paradox and often
wonders if it is possible to be a saint without God.
The plague in Oran gives Tarrou an opportunity for
purer action than he ever found in his political
revolutions. He tries to reach in this town an almost
25
impossible purity of thought and action. Ironically even
this town is not the ideal place for him. The local :
authorities with whom Tarrou co-operates have to use ;
I
violence against those trying to escape- the quarantined ;
city. The shots, he hears in the streets bring him to an
ironic awareness, of life's absurdity even in his passionate
engagement to kill the germ of the plague within himself
and others. Before- the epidemic appears he keeps, for
quite a while, a notebook, jotting down all the. meaningless
activity about him. He was a lonely figure then, and
remains one all. through the action because there are always
things reminding him of the human condition. He lives in
a continual state of anguish. He is far more preoccupied
than anybody in the novel, with the essence of human affairs
and the destiny of Flan. His search for sainthood in
action is as fruitless, as it was when he sought for it in
observation and meditation when he settled in Oran before
the advent of the plague.
Tarrou and his desperate craving for sainthood have
been favorite subjects for many critics. Louis R. Rossi
finds Tarrou's endeavors futile and ineffectual because,
he wants to create a perfect state vaguely called peace,
yet he realizes all the while the impossibility of
transcending his relative existence.^ Edwin P. Grobe is
^"Albert Camus: The Plague of Absurdity*" The Kenyon
Review, XX (1958), 399-422.
6
also pessimistic about Tarrou's fate. Tarrou survives
the descent (despair, revulsion of the intellect). His
spirit rises to the surface of,community living when the
plague invades the town. But Tarrou's spirit has plunged
too far; it will he forever afflicted with his basic
philosophical questions for which there are no solutions.
In this way Tarrou is situated at one extreme of the human
ideal. At the other extreme is the old Spaniard who
spends his days; transferring peas from one pan into
another, thus reacting to an absurd world in an absurd
manner. Tarrou, too, at the beginning was an absurd hero,
keeping a; funny diary of daily events. He cannot come to
terms with the reality of man's condition. He dies before
the plague is>over. He has. never found peace to the very
end of the novel. If he was. to survive the plague: he
would have been the one to be the most upset when the
gates were opened and he saw; the same old crowd recklessly
indulging in the. vices of the old days. He did not find
happiness in getting involved in human welfare:, in staying
away from harm to others, shortly in his attempts at
sainthood. He was full of 'anguish all the time. The
disillusionments following the plague would shatter all
^"Tarrou's Confession: The Ethical Force of the:
Past Definite,1 1 French Review, XXIX (1966), 55G-558*
his ideals and hopes. Like Kyo in La Condition Humaine,
he was fortunate enough to die: before:; seeing the dis
couraging consequences; of his engagement.
Dr . Rieux;, the narrator of La Peste, does? not aspire
to the eternal or the absolute. He, too, has had,an
experience which changed his whole; view of life. When
he saw. a man die,for the? first time in his life?, his?
revolt took shape against the very order of a world ruled.
by death. .From then on his only aim was to defend mankind.
against death. Dr. Rieux, unlike Tarrou, is; a realist.
He does not lose sight of the fact that all victory is
but temporary and that sooner or later death will triumph.
He is less an intellectual than Tarrou. Yet he has a
very sane view of life which can be outlined in the words
of Philip Thody:;
The first discovery which the rebel makes, in his
movement towards human solidarity, is that he shares ’
a common suffering with all men. He is: united with his
fellows, but in a community which more resembles a
prison than a free and hospitable city. He is no longer
alone, but the hostile absurdity of his state has not
changed.. The world is still absurd, as it was? in
Caligula and Cross-Purpose, and the existence of moral
values proclaimed in A Note on Revolt does not open a
period of optimistic humanism. "In an absurd world,'
he writes;, 'the rebel still has one certainty. It is
the solidarity of men in the same adventure, the fact
that the grocer and he are both oppressed.' The only
change is that 'the evil which attacked an isolated
man has become a collective plague.' The absurdity of
the world changes only in its appearance when the rebel
discovers his mortality. But to the new kind of
absurdity which manifests itself in the plague, revolt;;
offers a possible reply. The world cannot be transformed
; 28!
7
but it can be resisted.
Rieux*s fight based on these principals is purged 1
from all romanticism and abstract philosophy; it is a 1
daily struggle against the plague. He neglects his perso
nal happiness.:, in order to defend the happiness of others.
Though he loves his wife very much, he does not join her
in the health center where she finally dies. His closest
friend Tarrou also dies. In Germaine Bree.'s words:
He survives.; the plague, but alone, dehumanized. As he:
watches the exuberant crowd on the. night when the gates
of-Oran finally open, he realizes that he will always be
a prisoner of plague. For him the plague is, in essence,
the clear awareness of man’s accidental and transitory
presence on the earth, an awareness that is the source
of all metaphysical torment, a torment which in Camus*
eyes is one of the characteristics of our time.8
Bree has defined a wider frame of reference for Rieux's
problem. Rieux's fight against his daily enemy, man's
mortality, gets its intensity in a way from his awareness
of his own transitory presence on the earth. He does not
undergo the metaphysical torment of Tarrou, yet he sees
daily that his engagement leads nowhere, that people
continue to die in spite of all his endeavors. Rieux will
certainly continue his fight with the same determination—
but this time all alone and with a sharper awareness of
^Albert Camus. A Study of His Work, (London: Hamish
Hamilton, 1957)., p. 29.
Q
Camus, Revised. E d ' . . (New Brunswick:: Rutgers University
Press, 1^6i), p.122.
.the futility of his struggle. Germaine Bree has- a further
comment that very effectively sums up the them©/ of
La Paste;
Nowhere has ■ Camusimore starkly depicted his reaction
to the; total, unintelligibility of man’s condition, nor
his protestation against the: amount of suffering
inflicted on human bodies and human feelings. No reli
gion, no ideology, he tells us? can justify the spec
tacle of the collective suffering inflicted upon man.
Our minds waver, and Tarrou and Paneloux both die.9
Neither the religion preached by Paneloux., nor the
ideology of Tarrou help to solve the problems the plague
brings to the surface. The human condition remains in
the end as ambiguous as it was- in the beginning of1 the
novel. John Cruickshank considers La Peste; an illustration
of Camus' philosophy as manifested in Le Myths de Sisyphe:
La Peste, then, with its picture of the inhabitants of
Oran cut off from the rest of the world and suffering
and dying from the epidemic, is a picture of cosmic
alienation, of that metaphysical absurdity of man's
condition analysed in Le Mythe- de: Sisyphe.iO
Moral heroism is manifested by many others in
La- Peste. Besides Tarrou and Rieux, Grand, Rambert,
and Paneloux stand among others. The: priest Paneloux
represents philosophical suicide; in La: Peste; . In his
first sermon he interprets the plague as the punishment
of God for the sins of the people of Oran. In his second
^Bree, p. 129.
^ Albert Camus and the Literature of Revolt (London:
Oxford University Press, 1959), p. 1^8.
sermon he identifies himself with the community whose !
suffering, as he now realizes, is not caused because of
their sins. This change comes about after he sees a I
child die in unbearable agony. Though he still cannot
hate God:, he gets engaged1 -in the fight against the: plague,
all the time preaching a faith which blindly consents to
evil. His engagement does not bring him any relief.
Taking the ills of the world upon himself, he dies a.
Christ-like death. He refuses to take any medication
when he is inflicted by the plague. He dies a lonely,
bitter old man.
Rambert, the journalist who is doing research on
Oran, finds himself imprisoned in the town when the gates |
are closed to everybody. He does not believe in ideologies
and absolutes. For him the only remedy against human
anguish is love and- the happiness, it brings;. Heroism has
only a secondary place in his ordering of values. The
woman he loves is in Paris. He tries desperately to join
her somehow. After a while he finds out that to become
happy in one1s little world: is very degrading' when others
suffer and die. He becomes engaged in the common cause.
He is the only character in the novel for whom a future
happiness seems possible:. Since love: counts for him
more than anything else, he will be happy when the plague
is over and he joins his mistress. He finds his sacrifice:
worthwhile because like the- majority of human beings he
would not be very happy while he knew and saw that
thousands of others suffered.
Grand represents the category of individuals who are
impelled by instinct to do what is necessary in time of
misfortune. He works very hard during the plague, not
from any intellectual convictions:, but because he feels-
that people must help each other. His engagement is the
least egoistical of all. His real concern centers around
his ambition to write a perfect novel. He cannot go
beyond the first sentence, which he continually tries to
polish— never to his satisfaction. The plague for him
does not represent anything. It is like a few more hours
added.to his monotonous office work.
The conclusion one draws from ha Peste- is as pessi
mistic as that of Por Whom the Bell Tolls. In his article
11
entitled1 "Gamus and. the Passion of Humanism,'1 James: K.
Feibleman says that the human dilemma is one that demands
the subordination of the individual to the aims of society.
Gamus was sure that a reunion of any sort between the
individual and the society would be temporary, and that
happiness is like an accident which has lasted: both will
end abruptly, and the one fundamental condition for the
•^Kenyon Review. XXY (1963)» 281-292
32 '
human "being is that this diversion must not change any
thing. Feibleman looks at the problem of humanism and
human involvement from the widest possible angle. He sees.,
that solidarity, passionate human involvements, heroism,
human attachments are transitory, and that they come to
being in very special cases of war or a plague. The
human condition resumes its eternal routine once the;
danger is over.
George Kateb dwells on the same question— that in
time; of a plague (and in extreme situations generally)
men behave in such a way as to show that there is more to
admire in them than to despise, but that this is not a
12
permanent human condition. Feibleman and Kateb go beyond
the strict boundaries of the novel, and try to give a
universal interpretation of the human condition presented
by Camus in La Peste. The engagement of the protagonists;
fighting the actual plague is only a by-product. Though
the success of the movement is important, what the plague
really counts for is the possibility it offers to the
heroes of the novel to try to solve their personal prob
lems, and yet their struggle to solve them becomes a
metaphor for the metaphysical condition of man in the
12
"Camus' La, Peste: A "Dissenting View," Symposium,
XVII (1963), 292-303.
twentieth century. Thus, La Peste in the scope of the
human problems posed and the resolution of these problems
goes far beyond For Whom the Bell Tolls.
Jordan's engagement in the Spanish Civil War repre
sented an almost blind quest for a solution to an essen
tially personal need; the engagement of some of the
citizens of Oran in the struggle against the plague became
a paradigm of the struggle of contemporary man to find
meaning in the face of the absurdity of human existence;
but the engagement of Malraux's characters in the Chinese
Revolution demonstrates that whatever the quest, whether
personal or metaphysical, the individual in the twentieth
century can define himself only by means of involvement.
Ill
LA CONDITION HUMAINE.
In For Whom the; Bell. Tolls Robert Jordan did not have
a vital reason for. becoming engaged in the Spanish War,
comparable to that of Tarrou for example.- In La Condition
Humaine the. reasons why the; protagonists: are engaged in
the; Chinese; Revolution are? very personal and vital for the
lives of these tormented, people:. Consequently the outcome
of their engagement affects; their whole; life and depicts
bitterly the tragic destiny of the human being.
Andre. Malraux: has found in the Chinese Revolution a
suitable occasion to depict the human condition in all of
its aspects. Geoffrey H. Hartman has an interesting view
on the nature and implications of the human condition:
What is:fate except an inextricable involvement with the
world, one which comes about because, of the nature of
Man, who wants to make the world inseparable from his?
life?
That this attempt, however vital., must fail, is the
condition humaine out of which Man’s greatness and
tragedy" spring. Malraux stands: close to the exis.ten-
tialistic thesis that we ’invent’ our fate: in order to
be irremediably bound to the. world. But even though
every such 'invention' reveals a specific power in Man
to impose his. world on the world, it is also an escape;
from his intrinsic solitude. .1
^Andre- Malraux (London, I960), p. 45
3/f
Hartman with, these words summarizes the essence of Mai- j
!
raux's major work. Man gets involved, with the world out
of a basic need: to escape from his. intrinsic solitude,
and impose himself upon a demanding world. In hia engage- |
ment one sees Man's, grandeur which springs from the/ courage
and good will he shows in his engagement. One also sees
his tragic destiny in the form of Man's ultimate failure
in his attempts to rise above the human condition.
Kyo, one of the protagonists of La Condition Humaine. ,
mentions at one point in the- novel something that his
father Gisors thinks:: that ”... le fond.de 1'homme; esl
l'angoisse, la conscience de sa propre fatalite, . < * » .”
This anxiety is connected to Man's solitude and his fear
of death. The intrinsic solituda of Man fills him with
anxiety. His mortality and alienation make him restless,.
According to Gisors/ the fundamental reason for this anxiety
is the craving of Man to become God~x ~ "Tout homme reve.
A 3
d'etre, dieu* . . , , • , as. he puts it. Joseph Hoffman sum
marizes the essential themes. of the novel with these words::
La solitude (c'est-a-dire la prise de conscience- de; ca
que 1’homme est asservi aux limites; de sa propre condi
tion) et la volont£ de deite (la volonte d'echapper au
Destin dont la pression tend h , maintenir 1*homme. assu-
jetti a cette condition): tels seront les deux grands
2 /
Andre; Malraux, La Condition Humaine (Paris, 1946),
p. 180. ’
^Malraux, pp. 272 and 401. 1
36 i
i
poles de notre roman. Cette tension fondamentale sera I
sans? cesse a. 1 *arriere-plan et eclairera ainsi les des-
tinees des- differents personnages qui vont apparaitre
sous: nos yeux. A la lumier-e de cette tension leurs
actions, se: montreront a nous comme: autant de possibilit^s
qui se presentent a 1’homme d'^chapper k sa condition et
de s.' opposer au des tin: chaque figure est chargee de?
manifester un "pouvoir" de 1.'homme qui, mis a 1'epreuve,
permettra b . Malraux de prendre la mesure de I1 homme?.
Aussi i en profondeur, le roman de la Condition Humaine?
est-il compose d'une maniere aussi rigoureuse— —. . . i
qu’une tragedie classique.^
The tragedy springs, from the metaphysical nature of Flan's
aspirations to immortality and deity. Absolutes are ulti
mately unrealizable.
The protagonists, of ha Condition Humaine vainlyy seek
transcendence in political action. Politics offers Man
a means to go? beyond, himself.. The political failure of
Malraux's heroes represents, the. general failure, of human
enterprises. The actions) fail and the dreams, are. never
realized. Man's’ tragic, fate is the all-powerful force
preventing any victory. Catharine Savage analyzes the
implications of the political action in La Condition Hu
maine with regard to the metaphysical aspirations of its
heroes:
In La Condition Humaine?, all man's enterprises, from
the petty to the grandiose, appear as a sort of Pascalian
divertissementa form for man’s being which seeks at
once- to flee and to possess., and to surpass itself. Thus -
we can say that all politigg" is? a form of metaphysics.
^L'Humanisms de Malraux: (Paris?, 1963), pp. 156-57•
3?
It is: an expression of the will to being. But if the,
expression is taken for, the essence—f —-that ia, if poli
tics becomes an end-all, without another dimension— it
turns into: a fatality. Kyo. saw in Marxism these; two
elements, will and fatality. Action has to be measured
according to a; vaster criterion than the; politically
practical: that of man's metaphysical, aspirations.
Using this, criterion, we see. that Malraux makes; the
political action fail but builds on the failure; of: the
attempt at Shanghai a few. individuals-' depassement, and
thus creation, of themselves.5
Yet this: depassement is: not a long: lived1 one. Kyo who
finds, meaning in his engagement though it is: a complete
failure does not live: long enough to see what all his.
sacrifices; and struggles; amount to. His case cannot be
compared, to that of' Rieux who- survives; his, engagement and
starts; to live the normal routine of Oran. Camus' conclu
sion is not optimistic, nor is that of Malraux if one does
not judge Malraux's; attitude, on the: basis of Kyo and
Katow' s happiness in their last minutes-. The action in
La Condition Humaine fails to satisfy either the demands
of the; intellect or those; of the emotions— — the great
loneliness that overwhelms the heroes of the novel.
Catharine Savage's; optimism, put into the following
terms, is thus not justifiable::;
True, it is. for a political ideal that May, Kyo, Katow,
and Tchen sacrifice, themselves, and they express to
themselves, the meaning of their lives partly in politi
cal terms.. But their action transcends these terms
^Malraux;, Sartre, and Aragon as: Political Novelists
(Gainesville, 1964), pp. 13-14. '
both because they give it a meaning for a general human |
dignity which goes beyond Marxism (certainly Kyo and.
Katow do) and because it is an expression of their
deepest selves, that self which one knows: from the.
throat.6
Not only in Kyo and Katow's case, but for most of the
characters in La Condition Humaine: the revolution is^fbut
their' engagement is not altogether political in nature:.
They have found in politics; a means to solve their personal
and metaphysical problems. With the failure of the revo
lution their quest also fails:. In the end nobody finds
the answers: he is: looking for. The: "meaning1 1 Catharine.
Savage mentions is not created through sacrifice and good:
will.
Each character in La Condition Humaine: chooses;
political action because: it offers; an opportunity to rea
lize his ideals. Tchen is searching for identity, Kyo
for a means to restore; human dignity, Hemmelrich for an ;
escape from humiliation, Perral for power, Kdnig for a
scapegoat to extinguish his humiliation, Katow for a way :
to realize brotherhood and love among human beings. :
Tchen is the first character to appear in La Conditi- ■
on Humaine. He is the man of action. His: disposition to
murder is an urge to destruction of his own self, a
yearning for death. Political action and murder have:
^Savage, p. 13.
given to his solitude- a meaning, but only temporarily. He
acts and succeeds but is never satisfied. His youth, his:
pure ideals, his estrangement, his tragic end make him a
pathetic figure::-. He has been educated by a priest who has
taught him that people are not living in the right way,
that their fall is unavoidable. Highly tormented, by these:
convictions, Tchen is sent to Peking by his*uncle. There
he meets Gisors- who teaches him that ideas are not to be
thought but to be lived. Tchen breaks all his; bonds: with
religion, is. freed.from the torments; he was suffering from
and decides to shape his. own destiny. But his. earlier
education will, carry its imprints;* through all. his life.
Hes will, be a. restless person most of the time..
Tchen is often short of money. This will be; one of
the reasons: which push him to take part in the Chinese
Revolution. He dreams; of. a world which will materially
be a better place to live in. This comes near to Jordan’s
ideal of freeing the Spaniards:, from oppression. It is a
very impersonal and altruistic motive. Yet the determi
ning factor in Tchen's case is a*very personal and univer
sal one. He wants; to be: the creator of his; own destiny;;
to transcend the human condition shaped by an all-powerful
God. In this way he will find an answer to the; inner
torment he has felt all his life, of being a plaything in
the hands, of God— somebody who has: no control on his
4 - 0 !
future, somebody who must die some day. His fear of
sleeping or going mad is an indication of a consciousness 1
reminding him all the time that he may still lose control
of himself. Because. by now Tchen has started to act like;
an existential hero. To be completely free and master of
one's destiny it is necessary for him to say 'no' to the
human condition; to act on his own choice and not under
the dictates- of a superior being.
The famous scene opening La Condition Humaine is
about a murder which Tchen commits, for the. first time; in
his life. The. victim is a Chinese business; man from whom
Tchen is. intending to get a document which will permit, the
revolutionaries to get hold of some arms on a ship». This
first act of violence will reveal to Tchen a world of
blood, and danger. After he kills the man he comes out to
the balcony. Under thousands, of stars; in the sky and in
the silence surrounding him he feels that he: has; discove
red a reality— that of violence and death. From now on
it is; not only God who will be the commander of human
mortality. By killing a person Tchen has; also shown a
God-like quality. This fills him with a species of
pleasure;. But as the minutes; pass, and the time approaches;
when the silence; will end. and he will be; with people once
again, his.- previous, anxiety starts to. take hold of him.
Tchen after the. murder goes: to visit; his. master
Gisors. to tell, him all he has discovered that night. :
Gisors was able to diagnose, Tchen's basic problem before
I
anybody else. He knew that for people? like- Tchen the? only!
i
possible way to support life was action and' not meditationi
He could see that Tchen was: a. lonely person, full, of !
I
anxieties. However, the night of the murder even Gisors !
gets confused about Tchen. He cannot understand why Tchen;
still feels? the anguish and solitude that had tormented
him for so long now that he had found the only means
which would make him happy. At this point emerges the
essential problem of the engaged hero. On the surface
the reasons of Tchen1s engagement are the improvement of
the Chinese, society, better living conditions, more: respect
for the people and other reasons?. But the basic cause for
Tchen*s getting involved in this venture is to satisfy his?
anguish and solitude which he is not aware of. In Tarrou*s?
case the basic cause was evident to the hero. Tchen does,
not know what is happening to him. By getting involved,
by acting he hopes he will solve his problems. But his:
problems are? the universal problems of all. human beings.
There has not been an absolute solution for people who
have consciously felt these problems and sought to resolve
them.
As a terrorist Tchen finds a way of action which is-,
most close to his temperament and which at the same time
gives him the freedom from the bonds of an Almighty. Yet,
gust as ha was an alienated, person in his life- before: the
engagement, he, remains an alienated person after he takes
his drastic step into the world .of assassination, because
Tchen will still, be alone in this world. Even at times
of war men are not psychologically murderers so that it
will be impossible to find a large group of people sharing
the same traits and pleasures of ‘ Tchen’s special case
with whom he could be close friends and thus give an end
to his solitude. Secondly, even if he were to find such
peoples he would still remain the same, lonely figure he
was before the revolution. Tchen is different from the
average person. Though not consciously, he feels- deeply
the estrangement of the contemporary man. He) hopes to
change things for others, and especially for himself.
But he> does not succeed even in this violent way of action
he has: chosen. In a way it will permit him to think and
believe that now he, as a human being, is on the same
level with God, that he is free- to do whatever he. wants
to do— even to take: somebody else1 s life if he chooses:.
Yet he cannot extinguish the anguish that: lies within him
and which is; the result of a solitude that has no remedy.
Thus he is ar doomed! hero: and no type) of engagement will,
save him. He cannot understand, himself after his first:
murder, nor does Gisors: who> had only one part of: the:
reality of Tchen*s problem— his need for action. Gisors:,
in spite of all. his problems, has a son whom he loves
dearly. No matter how distant they are from each other,
this relation gives him enough happiness not to turn into
a bitter man like Tchen. When in the end of the novel
Kyo dies, Gisors will know what real solitude means.
His successive acts of violence plunge Tchen farther
into solitude instead of into communion with Man. Even
during an intense battle his estrangement hangs heavily
on him. In one instance Tchen and a group of revolutiona
ries are on the roof of a police station. In a very
dangerous position they are trying to toss grenades
through a window into a room below the roof. Even here?
where every person is dependant on each other and where
everybody is on equal terms, Tchen feels that he is. not
one with his friends. Only one thing will cure his terrib
le solitude— death. "W . M.. Erohock sums up Tchen * s tragic
destiny in these terms:
Tchen*s motives are only superficially political. When
he kills the man at the hotel he forgets why he is
killing him, and when he dashes: himself under Chiang* s
empty car, there is no shadow of feeling in his heart
that thanks to his sacrifice the revolution may now
succeed. He is at last bursting the gates of his; prison,
destroying hi&:> solitude:, freeing himself, from the bonds
of man * s.predicament.7
'Andre Malraux. and the Tragic Imagination (Stanford
Stanford University Press, 1952;, p. 70.
Tchen's last act of violence is turned on himself.
It is not a consciously premeditated, suicide. ]?rom one
angle it can he seen as a revolt against a God who is the
ultimate power deciding life- and death. Tchen knows that
there is no escape from this; last action of his. Yet he
does not regard it as. a suicide. For it will be done for
a reason— to kill Chiang. Nobody takes it for an act of
suicide. Since human fatality was one; of the causes for
Tchen1s anguish, this interpretation of Tchen's sacrifice
is justifiable;. From another angle; it can be interpreted
as a death-wish, to give an end to a terrible solitude; he
cannot escape in any other, way. In For Whom the Bell Tolls
La Peste; there was no apparent indication of a death-
wish on the part of the heroes. Malraux, with his first
character to appear in the. novel, has gone much deeper
than both Hemingway and. Camus; in his efforts to reveal
the essential motives which urge the heroes^ to get involved
in a cause, why they cannot attain their ends, and what
the consequences of their engagement will be. Since Tchen
does not survive the revolution to see-; what he has accomp
lished and what his participation means in the long run,
one can evaluate Tchen's sacrifice as. a failure rather
than a victory.
Tchen, like the other characters in La Condition Hu
maine , comes to face death and destiny alone. All of the
; 45;
characters remain strangers to themselves and to the; j
world. Even death is no more than a symbol, of an ultimate ;
i
self-estrangement, a prison which finally closes its gates
over the self separating the person completely from the
rest of the world. Malraux* s; pessimism is felt more keenly
in his characterization of Tchen than in the other charac
ters of La Condition Humaine.
Kyo is not a complicated person like Tchen. He has
identified himself completely with the; revolutionary cause.
He is Gisors* son from a Japanese; woman. In contrast to
Tchen he has had no interest in religion. The reason why
he joined the revolutionaries is a simple one: he wants
to help the poor Chinese people: for whom he has a deep
sympathy, mostly because of his half Japanese parentage.
He considers himself more of an Oriental than a; European.
Having been educated by Gisors, he did not have to undergo
a period of meditation andl torment before getting involved
in action. After he set as his goal' in life; the restore- ,
tion of the; dignity of Man, he immediately looked for a
means to realize his ideal. As the Chinese Revolution
offered him a good occasion to start with, he. got into
action.
Personal questions do not disturb Kyo as much as;
they do Tchen. He has no problems with money. With him
we come; not to the question of the individual, but of all
46 •
human beings. He resembles Rieux, oust as Tchen resembles
Tarrou. The human condition also presents problems to
Kyo's mind. But while Tchen tried to give meaning to- his
own life, it is with all human beings that Kyo; is concerned
with. Humanity also includes the specific individual and.
Kyo indirectly may feel as much concern for himself as he? .
feels for others. But he does not hold his salvation
above anything else. Kyo does care about the revolution;
about all. people. Tchen is indifferent about the revolu
tion; its outcome interests him very little?. While Tchen
goes ahead destroying things, killing people, Kyo is
constructive.
Some of Tchen*s personal problems also affect Kyo's
life. Alienation is one of them. Kyo's childhood and
adolescence was a. happy one. He loves his wife May very
much. She is a doctor.. She backs up her husband's ideals
with enthusiasm. Kyo's occasional moments of solitude,
which are never as intense as the terrible loneliness of
Tchen, are relieved by May. Then one day May tells him
that^she has been unfaithful to him. Kyo is terribly
wounded-by May's infidelity even though he had. granted,
her sexual liberty in accordance with his Marxist opinions..
Kyo was not very close to his father though both liked
one another dearly. He found love and affection in his
marriage to May. Her infidelity shatters his whole world.
; 4-71
He comes to see that even the people one loves most and' is:
closest to become strangers after a certain point. Joseph1
Hoffman clarifies this view from an interesting angle:.
Dans 11univers de Malraux les hommes ne.se connaissenh
que par la partie superficielle d' eux.r-m%mes, et m%me:
la tendresse la pins grande— et la fraternity la plus
profonde-— ne saurait ebablir une rdele communion des
Itres. C’est en quittant May que, dans 1'obscurite de.
la nuit, Kyo se? souvient des> disques: : "On entend la
voix des? autres avec ses. oreilles, la sienne avec la
gorge”: jamais on ne saurait etre pour 1'autre celui
que l'on est pour soi-meme. II reste alors h accepter
ce mystere et a 1'aimer pour lui-meme: May n’aime pas?
mo ins. le Kyo jaloux et bles.se qu'elle ne connaissait
pas, que le compagnon de combat qui lui etait familier,
et c’est la. ce qui distingue 1*amour de tous les. autres:
rapports humains,Aincapables de vaincre la solitude
fondamentale desetres.8
Kyo realizes that just as. one hears another person’s?
voice through the ear while he "hears” his own voice- only
in his throat, one cannot impart all that one feels and.
thinks to another person, because there is always a
distance between two people which cannot be bridged. This
implies that communication is never perfect among human
beings. let Kyo does not fall into the solitude which
Tchen was. a prey to continually— like Maria’s; love for
Jordan, May’s love still is dear to Kyo and helps him
to have hopes, for the future and in his ideals.
Besides May' s infidelity a second.incident threatens.;
to shatter Kyo'm well, balanced: world. He is taken prisoner
8Hoffman, 195-196
' 48 i
towards the end of the novel. The imprisonment prevents 1
him from action and the pursuit of his venture. During
i
these days Kyo feels the burden of the; human condition
more keenly than at any other time. It is not Konig or
the guards who are restricting him from action, but human
destiny incarnated in the image of God. Kyo feels very
bitter about his: weakness as a human being, his inability
to transcend the human condition. In spite of this fact,
Kyo is one of the; least bitter of all the engaged charac
ters in La Condition Humaine before; he dies;. To Kdnig
who wants Kyo to repudiate his ideals, he resists; to the
last minute. He does not find his goals meaningless even
in the frustrations of his imprisonment. He believes;
and cherishes to the very end human dignity for which
Be-is sacrificing himself.
Kyo does not turn into a pessimist before; death.
Dying with many others who have fought for the same cause,
he finds meaning even in his death. Fraternal love turns
his last moments into bliss. Tchen or Tarrou's solitude.
does-1 not become a vital part of his; life any time... It is
a very peaceful, tranquil death. In Hoffman’s terms;:;
II a pu de la sort© echopper k la solitude et d
I'angoisse d'etre homme. Les autres. personnages: du
roman— Clappique, Ferral, Gisors, Tchen— se sent d^battus
en vain dans la prison de leur condition d'hommes: leur
echec nous apprend que 1'angoisse reste la plus forte,
aussi longtemps- qu’on n© brise pas. les.; limites: du Moi. . ,
. . Seul Kyo a su vaincre I'angoisse- suscitee en lui par
4-9 '
sa "voix.de gorge’ ": en se referant an monde des valeurs,
i son "affirmation absolue" s'est donne un objet. Sa ;
mort, "supreme expression d'une vie a quoi cette mort
■ ressemblait tant", s'oppose ainsi aux cris de Perken |
mourant: ("II h ’y a que moi, moi qui vais mourir"), et
1'humanisms revolutionnaire: dont cette mort temoigne
apparait comme le plus haut "pouvoir" de l’homme:. celui
qui permet au reve de d&ite de s-e rdaliser.9
Kyo is not as. case of extreme- individualism seeking in !
action the relief of a private anguish. His devotion to
human dignity is what liberates him in the. last moments
of his life both from the feeling of solitude; and from
any disillusionment. If he survived the Revolution he
would not, certainly, be one of the; optimists in La Con
dition Humaine;who- go and join another revolution in
another part of the; world- as though: the one- in China was;
a success; and now they could- start a new one,. The failure
in China, proved' the futility of all the good will and
sacrifice invested in human enterprises. Kyo, who believed
in action and in ideals, would turn into a disillusioned,
bitter man when he saw that nothing was accomplished on
their part. Like Tarrou he has escaped this disillusion
ment. Unlike Tarrou who lived in anguish all the time
knowing the futility of his attempts to build the ideal
society, Kyo was generally optimistic and died, a happy
man. Hoffman is not altogether justifiable in his
exaltation of Kyo's sacrifice and death in the above
citation. It is. true that Kyo has shown good will, to the
%offman, 199-200..
I
I
50 1
very end and never abandoned-, his hopes about man's bright ;
i
future. But if Kyo were a character of Tarrou*s
intellectual level., he would not find too much satisfaction
' i
in the transitory fraternal bonds and joy created among
the prisoners; before their execution. Just like the
plague., this love and closeness was a temporary situation
lasting not too long and soon forgotten. Kyo resembles
Robert Jordan more than Tarrou in his. hopes; about the
future;, the simple and determined manner he did his; job,
the peacefulness; he died.in, and. lastly in his love for
a woman, which helped, him to stand against obstacles..
Katow is the; most likable person among the: revolu
tionaries. With his tiny smiling eyes, his little pointed
nose he is very sympathetic. He is a tender-hearted
individual. After his imprisonment in Russia, he finds
a way to come; to China to help the Chinese people. His
engagement is out of sheer tenderness and. pity for others. :
He likes the little: girl working in the factory, his
companions in the Chinese Revolution, and everybody. It
is to Katow that Tchen first comes: after the murder,
thinking that Katow is a closer friend, to him. He is the:
only one. to understand Hemmelrich's; situation— the latter's
great desire: to join the revolutionaries; on the one hand
and to stay away from them for the safety of his wife and
child on the other. Hemmelrich at first hates Katow.
51m
But he: soon finds out that Katow is the only person who
really understands him, and looks at his problem objective-'
ly and with sympathy. They become very good:, friends. '
Katow's engagement is a result of his; love; for people.'
There are no personal problems: involved in his: case;. Like ;
Grand who in La Peste participates in the struggle; just
because he feels that people should; help each other, Katow,
too, has a very simple reason for becoming engaged in the
Revolution. He is the.; only person in all the three; novels:;
who could be happy in all. circumstances— whether in a
plague or in a revolution, or in ordinary daily life
anywhere; in the world. For he is one of the rare persons
who gives love: willingly without any ulterior motive ,
without expecting anything in return. The- Chinese Revolu
tion gives him a chance to help more people, and be closer .
to them. At the prison he: gives^shis cyanide, only enough
for two, to- two wounded Communists, who are terribly scared
of the horrible- death awaiting all of them. This is the
utmost test one could put somebody to in order to test '
his love-for others. In his last moments, as all through
his life;, he finds bliss, in his sacrifice, his love for
the human being and in the. humanistic' relations which can
be created everywhere if people learn to love; and be
generous.
Katow would; be the sames understanding and. loving
character if he had survived the Revolution, The failure:
of the Revolution might disappoint him for a time. He
would soon see- that there are still people around who
need help, love;, and. understanding. To Katow and people;
like him life is an endless; treasure; to be cherished
eternally. The Revolution is like many other steps Katow
had been through in his life. It is not vital to him as
it was. to Tchen, Kyo, lerral and others: whose lives; derive
their meaning from their engagement in the Revolution.
As.a result his engagement is sincere5 but less passionate
than that of the; other characters in the novel.
Hemmelrich is a pathetic person. He has never in
his life been able to earn a reasonable living. He des
pises himself for being so helpless in this respect. He
hates; the people who control the economy because it is
they that .have humiliated him all the time; by not giving
him an opportunity to work for a decent living. Now that
the Revolution gives him an opportunity to strike back at
his; humiliators, he finds that he cannot join the revolu
tionaries because he has married a Chinese woman out of
pity and has a child from her. He does not want to eacpose
them to danger. ¥hen Tchen needs.a refuge? Hemmelrich
does; not allow him to get into his shop because it would
be dangerous for his family. After his; wife and child
are killed, he■ immediately joins; the revolutionaries. He
fights to bring an end to the misery of the people around
him, including hi a . - own misery. His final engagement is
the result of a personal need which he projects on millions
of others. After the Revolution he goes to Russia and
starts working there. He is happy now that he has a de
cent job. His humiliation no longer , exists.: As in the-
case of Katow., the Revolution in its essence is not a
determining force for Hemmelrich. It does not encompass
his whole understanding of the world., and of the human
condition. It offers an opportunity to punish the opp-
;
ressors and to better his material condition as; . well as
that of others. The failure of the Revolution does not
mean too: much to him. When he;, finds, a decent job he
attains his goal in life, and is happy.
To- people like Pei revolutions are a kind of profes
sion. When one fails, they start to work for a new one.
When things, go' wrong in Shanghai, Pei goes to Moscow and
starts afresh, writing propaganda for a future revolution.
Such people are not involved, with their whole being in a
revolutionary cause. The. excitement, the prestige; of this
venation is what attracts them. Certainly they have; their
altruistic ideals, too. All who escaped., from Shanghai
are back in revolutionary work in Moscow. Even May is
getting ready for her part in the coming struggle. Her
motives to continue the revolutionary work are not basi-
54 !
cally altruistic. Her primary intention is to avenge Kyo.
It is a very personal reason which, has no place in the:
i
I
order of values. Malraux; has. set for an authentically
i
engaged, hero— i. e. not limiting one' s? reasons to some 1
minor starting point like May'a desire; for vengeance, hut
having motives: that have universal application and signi- '
ficance., like Tchen * s. solitude? and his. existential longing
to transcend his human limitations.
Ferral, Gisors, and. Glappique can he regarded as
engaged heroes, because they directly or indirectly influ- :
ence the* course?- of the? Chinese? devolution. They differ
from Jordan, Rieux, Tarrou or Tchen and Kyo in that they >
are not interested in any way in ameliorating the? social
situation, whereas these? characters in different degrees
are concerned, with changing the present order. In order
to evaluate the problem of engagement in La Condition
Humaine it is necessary to analyse the contribution of
these? characters to the Chinese Revolution.
Ferral is one of the. few negative? characters; in the
novel. He is a capitalist whose affairs will fall apart
if the Revolution succeeds. He: is, the advepturer type?
like, most of the characters, in the. book. He owns? many
industrial units so that his success; wild be the failure
of the}? revolutionary cause?. He. does-not believe, in ideals,..
He continually acts?, builds things, wants to dominate.
55
. Power is the: only reality he accepts. By dominating
business and. people, he wants to pise above the- human con
dition. ’ Thus his problem is somewhat similar to that of
Tchen. Heither can accept' a superior power shaping his:
destiny. Ferral. wants to express his: will power even in
his: sex life;. He, tries to humiliate' his mistress on every
occasion of their sex life, but in the end. Valerie makes,
a fool of him.
Money is, not important to Ferral. His goal is to
impose; his will on everybody. He has; committed, himself
to the Revolution in order to satisfy this private need.
The Chinese Revolution offers: a. situation where a. man is
what he does. As; the representative: of capitalism in
China, he sets in motion the, forces, which soon crush the
insurrection. But in the. end he is not the: victor. His;
self-esteem receives the fir at blow from Valerie, and the
second blow when the policy in China changes,.
Ferral has to crawl out of China. He desperately
tries: to make a new start in Europe., which is not a very
successful one. In the last; pages, of La Condition X-Iuma-
ine Ferral is no longer dominant. He is at the mercy of
a group of other capitalists. Ferral1s private need for
power might have been realized if he' had had more luck.
Yet it is; debatable if sheer power would have been the
answer to his: search in life. For basically Ferral* s.
problem is the- same: as; the other engaged heroes of the:
three novels.. Since nobody was able to come to a sabis*-
factory solution, it is very impropable that Ferral. will
be the one to attain this state* Malraux in his: characte
rization of Ferral is: in a way suggesting that in the;
capitalist system every man is a. victim— even those who
may have tha illusion of power and. of being master of
their destiny like Tchen and, Ferral.
Gisors is the intellectual. He has: been a professor
I
for many years. He is; the. opposite of his son Kyo who
acts rather than meditates. His teaching at the: Univer
sity of Peking helped to form the revolutionary generation
in China, which includes Tchen and Kyo. The specific
source of Gisors,' anguish is. his fatherhood. He loves his-
son very much. But he himself, is not a- man of action.
So he cannot participate in Kyo's commitment. He is.
tortured by the resulting separation between them. He.
owes his famous serenity to opium. He seeks, self-identity
in opium just as; Tchen seeks his in terrorism. For him it
is also a v/ay to overcome an irreducible solitude.
Though Gis..ors; is; not an engaged hero his- role resem
bles that of the chorus in the; Greek tragedies. It is
through his interpretation that the reader gets;’ the meaning
of the other characters' actions and. words. Like Tarrou
La Paste-, Gisors is.: the most intelligent and educated
person in La Condition Humaine. Since he. can see all the.
sides or a problem, he cannot coma to a definite; conclu
sion and begin to act. Tarrou takes part in the fight
against the plague though he has his. doubts; about the;
consequences of his engagement. Gisors is.- more perceptive
than any other character in all the three, books;. He. sees
the.; human condition more, clearly than every other person.
This is why for Gisors it is more, difficult to become
engaged in a social cause. He is a good, representative
of contemporary man lost in his. doubts., in his.; solitude,
and. the chaotic condition of human affairs;, never to be
resolved. In such cases action becomes; almost impossible,
as in the. case; of Gisors;. Gisors, though not engaged
himself, sees and feels all the anguish of an engaged hero.
Her some; time; after Kyo?1 s> death he gives, up his pipe and
lives in the. fullness of his suffering. But at Kobe he,
is smoking opium again. He no longer feels, the burden of 1
life; and the. coming of death.
Clappique-; also takes part in the revolutionary action;
But he is, no more than an adventurer as far as his motiy.es:
are concerned. He is a mythomaniac. He tells; strange
stories, a lot of lies. He does not need a listener
because he. is; his own audience all the time;. He acts
different roles every minute of'his life. He lives; in
an imaginary world: where he. assimilates: himself with the
i 58;
heroes., of his stories;. Yet Clappique is- not psychologi
cally sick. He is; a man who lives outside of himself'
in order to escape his^ own self , his condition as a human
being. He takes refuge; in lies. His participation in
the Revolution gives him another chance to: forget himself.
Apart from the fun and excitement he finds; in his; engage
ment , he has no interest in the; Revolution # *
CONCLUSION
For Whom the Bell Lolls, La Peste, and La Condition
Humaine- point to one reality: because of the temporary
nature of the engaged hero's involvement in a humanistic
cause., he cannot tie. his destiny to that of society. His
destiny is an independent entity and he has to cope, with
it alone. The human condition is eternal while civil
wars, plagues, revolutions come and- go.
At one extreme, of the.; line of engaged heroes; in the
three novels is Gisors- who cannot take: a decisive- step
on the way towards: action. His ideas encourage those who
are ready to act, while he himself remains detached. At
the other extreme- is- Katow. He; is the -best armed of the
engaged heroes against failure, disillusionment, and
death. He is the. type to be the victor in all sorts of
defeats. His participation in the Revolution is not a
decisive act for his life.
Most of the other characters, in different degrees,
make their engagement the determining event of their lives
All their expectations; for the- future, all of their values
aspirations and ideals are- invested in the goal they
fight for. Because they expect so much from their, venture
60 1
which is; bound to fail, they end up as bitter men, if they
survive; their venture.. Basically all the problems, that
they associate; with their struggle are similar, They are 1
the universal problems of the; twentieth century:: estrange
ment, th@; impossibility of communication, the loss: of
values, fatality, the weakness; of the; individual in
comparison to the forces that govern the universe. For a-
short time some feel happy in the temporary fraternal bonds
created. But the; order of the universe does; not change;.
The destiny of the engaged, hero makes a large circle; and
ends up where it had started— nothing is changed except
for the disappointment and bitterness added to the bright
hopes of our heroes if they survive their venture and if
they are perceptive enough to evaluate the implications of
their heroic struggle..
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Asset Metadata

Creator Karantay, Suat Kadir (author)

Core Title The engaged hero and the human destiny

Contributor Digitized by ProQuest (provenance)

Degree Master of Arts

Degree Program Comparative Literature

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag comparative literature,OAI-PMH Harvest

Language English

Advisor Malone, David H. (committee chair), Armato, Rosario P. (committee member), Belle, Rene F. (committee member)

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c20-105155

Unique identifier UC11261126

Identifier EP43085.pdf (filename),usctheses-c20-105155 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier EP43085.pdf

Dmrecord 105155

Document Type Thesis

Rights Karantay, Suat Kadir

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the au...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus, Los Angeles, California 90089, USA