Did Binx find what he was looking for?

Well, we’ve come to the end of The Moviegoer, and it is now time to ask the questions: was Binx successful in his search? Did he find what he was looking for? If he did, was what he found God?

As we talked about in class, it appears that many different people and forces throughout the novel are influencing Binx: his aunt’s family, his mom’s family, the “bachelor life”. I’d say that in the end, Binx chooses the life of his mom’s family, which means he does choose God. One place in the novel where this conversion is evident is the (pretty one-sided) discussion Binx has with his aunt on pages 219-227. Binx pretty much just sits and takes his aunt’s scolding and is even silent when she asks him, “‘What do you love? What do you live for?’” (226). Although his silence might be understood by some as his lack of belief in anything, I think when his aunt asks him this question he forces himself to really think about his answer, and the one he comes up with is not what she wants to hear. Before she leaves, she smiles at him a “smile which…marks an ending” (226). It is indeed the end of any belief Binx had in his aunt’s lifestyle, and the beginning of his turning to his mother’s family’s ways.

Another key part of understanding Binx’s conversion (as well as understanding Percy’s Catholic imagination) is his conversation with Kate on pages 232-235. I think Kate’s description of Binx has many parallels to how many people see God and how Binx eventually comes to see God as well. Kate says to Binx:

I am frightened when I am alone and I am frightened when I am with people. The only time I’m not frightened is when I’m with you. You’ll have to be with me a great deal.

This is a key passage that illustrates how many people feel about God. They may not understand why, but they know when God is in their life, they aren’t afraid. I think this is the reason many people cling so much to God, they need Him to be with them “a great deal.” The truth Percy is getting at here is that with God, the bored self can be a little less bored, the depressed self can be a little less depressed, the impoverished self can be a little less impoverished, and the lonely self can be a little less lonely. Life becomes just that much more bearable with God involved.

Walker Percy's Journey to Catholicism

After reading about Percy’s rather sad childhood, one may definitely wonder how his faith played into it. Well, in all honesty, it didn’t play into his childhood much at all. Throughout his childhood and all of the hardships it brought, Percy was not a student of religion but of ethics, philosophy, even psychology. You could say that he was a perfect example of G.K. Chesteron’s quote “when a man stops believing in God he doesn’t then believe in nothing, he believes in anything.” At one point he became “a disciple of [his uncle’s] stoic philosophy”, and he even became “greatly impressed with the Hitler Youth.” Clearly, Percy was searching throughout much of his young life.

It was actually disease that brought Percy to spirituality. In 1942 he contracted tuberculosis. Since at the time tuberculosis was though to be a moral defection, he took extended rest in the Trudeau Sanatorium on Lake Saranac in New York. While there, Percy discovered he had lost all interest in medicine, which freed him and allowed him to begin his spiritual journey. After being released he enjoy the “carefree life of a young bachelor”, reading various authors and theologians. In 1946 (approaching his 30^th birthday) he returned to Mississippi contemplating the many questions of his life and dating “a series of local women” (sound familiar?). Throughout the next year he travelled, read, and wrote, and contemplated all of his questions.

On December 13, 1846 Percy was baptized at the Holy Name Church in New Orleans. He had acquired a great respect for Catholics throughout his youth and said he was drawn to Catholicism “because it offered him a theology that reconciled faith and reason.” Soon after, he made his first confession, which he admitted was “one of the main reasons [he’d] become a Catholic.” In 1948 he was confirmed alongside 300 schoolchildren. He highly regarded the social teachings of the Bible and admired those who embodied them (like Dorothy Day). He remained Catholic throughout the rest of his life and was “buried among the monks at St. Joseph’s Abbey” when he died at 74.

Source:

Wood, Ralph C. "An Introduction to Walter Percy." CTools. Fri. 30 Mar 2012.

Part 3

 

Career:

After attending University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill he trained to be a medical doctor at Columbia University, Walker contracted Tuberculosis while preforming an autopsy as an intern. He spent the next several years recovering in New York. During this period he read existentialist authors and began to question human existence. Walker published his first novel, The Moviegoer in 1961. Walker continued to publish several other works including: The Last Gentleman (1966), Love in the Ruins(1971), Lancelot (1977), The Second Coming (1980), and The Thanatos Syndrome in 1987. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walker_Percy

Why am I here? What should I do? What/Who is God? What is the meaning of life? Throughout Percy Walker’s novel The Moviegoer, the protagonist struggles to answer all these questions. Early in the novel, there is little mention of religion. During part three Walker’s religious roots are exposed as Binx struggles with his place in society.  

            Binx’s religious opinions are expressed through his internal thoughts. While conversing with his mother, Binx explains:

            “Sometimes when she mentions God, it strikes me that my mother uses him as but one of the devices that come to hand in an outrageous man’s world, to be put to work like all the rest in the one enterprise she has any use for: the canny management of the shocks of life…she has wanted everything colloquial and easy, even God” Page 142

            Binx’s mother employs God to make her life easier and understandable. As Binx describes, his mother uses religion to explain what she does not understand. The “shocks of life” refer to everything that the mother cannot explain for herself and turns to God. One of these “shocks” was the death of Duval.  After Duval’s passing the mother lost sight of the true practice of religion and uses God to make her life easy. From the description, Binx’s mother has not devoted her life to God and does not seek salvation. The mother chooses to instead use religion only when it suits her.

Unlike his mother, Binx has no desire or understanding of religion. Similar to many things in the novel, Binx does not have an opinion on the matter of religion. Binx expresses his indifference towards religion when he explains,

“My mother’s family thinks I have lost my faith and they pray for me to recover it. I don’t know what they’re talking about.” Page 145

This thought pronounces his disillusionment from faith. Binx is indifferent to the fact that other people are worried for his lack of religion. Binx openly expresses is confusion with the purpose of religion. Binx lacks the desire to acquire religion and his family’s prayers are in vain.

Later in the philosophical explanation, Binx continues to explain the depth of his disbelief. Through this description Binx appears to be proud of his unwillingness to accept God. Binx states,

            “My unbelief was invincible from the beginning. I could never make head of tail of God. The proofs God’s existence may have been true for all I know, but it didn’t make the slightest difference. If God himself appeared to me it would have changed nothing. In fact, I have only to hear the word God and a curtain comes down in my head.” Page 145

First, Binx claims his inability to make sense of God as the logic for his “unbelief”. God is not a tangible object that Binx can see and touch. Emotions prevent Binx from grasping faith in God. The fact that God is not tangible is not what prevents Binx from having faith. Binx claims even witnessing God would not change his opinions towards religion. To witness God and still disbelieve is simply denying truth. This statement enables the reader to conclude there is more to Binx’s refusal of religion than simply not believing. Binx rejects all possibility of seeking religion when he chooses to ignore any mention of God. Binx describes a “curtain” descending upon his head at the mention of God. I think Binx hides behind this curtain because he fears religion. Binx employs the curtain to separate his mind from religious interference.

 Many people find purpose through the church and God. Throughout the novel, Binx struggles to find a purpose for life. I think Binx’s inability to accept religion is the reason he cannot find a purpose in this world. Binx is enthralled with his “search” and the answer to all of his questions can be found in faith. Unfortunately, Binx’s mother is a strong religious influence and uses religion only to make life easier. 

First Look at The Moviegoer

"Our neighborhood theater in Gentilly has permanent lettering on the front of the marquee reading: Where Happiness Costs So Little. The fact is I am quite happy in a movie, even a bad movie. Other people, so I have read, treasure memorable moments in their lives" (7). This introduction to protagonist Binx Bolling provides a glimpse into who this protagonist is. We see that he finds happiness in going to the movies, whereas others might find happiness in interactions with others, in special life occasions, and memories made. This passion for the movies is observed throughout the beginning of The Moviegoer as he relates his life experiences to the movies he has seen and thinks about and even interacts with actors. We might see this as a form of escape from his life, as a way to cope with an unhappy life. Yet I do not believe this to be true. Bolling seems quite content with his very average life, saying that "there is much to be said for giving up such grand ambitions and living the most ordinary life imaginable... it is not a bad life at all" (9). Normally upon reading about such a character in literature or seeing such a character in a movie, I would presume a habitual activity such as moviegoing to be at the root of unhappiness with life. However, this does not seem to be so with this protagonist. This leads me to question what it is that makes moviegoing a pleasant experience for this protagonist, as well as to look deeply into this as I continue to read to try to find an answer. It also leads me to question what he might be searching for or might not be searching for but will find, as though this is not a short story, an epiphany of sorts is still likely in store for our protagonist.

The answer to the motivation behind his moviegoing begins to come through even in this introductory reading of The Moviegoer. Upon going to the movies with Kate, Bolling reflects,"She refers to a phenomenon of moviegoing which I have called certification. Nowadays when a person lives somewhere, in a neighborhood, the place is not certified for him. More than likely he will live there sadly and the emptiness which is inside him will expand until it evacuates the entire neighborhood. But if he sees a movie which shows his very neighborhood, it becomes possible for him to live, for a time at least, as a person who is Somewhere and not Anywhere" (63). Bolling does not believe Kate to fully understand his moviegoing, as we also do not necessarily understand at this time, however she does seem to get one thing he appreciates about movies - certification. This certification comes about as a result of seeing in a movie a place that is known to oneself - a place that allows the movie to transcend from the abstract to the concrete. This idea of certification shows us one of Bolling's fascinations with movies, a fascination that allows him to take abstract possibilities of scenarios created in movies and place them to a real place to create a concrete reality.

The search for something more or the discovery of something new that will change our protagonist via an epiphany is also hinted at in the beginning of the story. "For, as everyone knows, the polls report that 98% of Americans believe in God and the remaining 2% are atheists and agnostics-which leaves not a single percentage point for a seeker... Truthfully, it is the fear of exposing my own ignorance which constrains me from mentioning the object of my search. For, to begin with, I cannot even answer this, the simplest and most basic of all questions: Am I, in my search, a hundred miles ahead of my fellow Americans or a hundred miles behind them?" (14). This brings up the idea of religion as well as the search of the protagonist for a religion or an alternative understanding. Though he lives an average life and doesn't seem the critical thinking and observatory type, Bolling seriously questions his search for the truth, especially in context of the polls done on Americans and their religious beliefs, and this seems an important idea to continue to look at through the remainder of the novel.

Introduction to Walker Percy: Family Matters

Walker Percy was born in May 1916 in Birmingham, Alabama. His father's roots trace back to the Percys who appear in Shakespeare's plays, and his mother's to French Catholics. His family was prominent in Birmingham, with Percy's father and grandfather both having practiced law there. The Percy family was pretty well-off but lived by their secular version of the Biblical claim that "to whom much is given, of him much will be required." The Percy family was thus opposed to living in luxury and aimed to live with the common people. They were active in community matters, particularly through involvement in civic clubs and as members of the Independent Presbyterian Church, a congregation led by a humanist pastor who did not believe in miracles nor the divinity of Jesus.

Percy attended a select academy for his schooling and was very studious. He was described as "too vulnerable and frail a creature to be suited for the rough and tumble of ordinary life," a trait seen as derived from his mother. He was not involved in sports and rather chose to write short stories for magazines.

His family moved out of Birmingham and to a suburb in Alabama when Percy was 8 years old. At this time, his father began to experience extreme mood swings and to become obsessive. His father encouraged extreme competition among Percy and his brothers, and the family became very unhappy. Percy's father committed suicide when we was 13 years old, and he did not get to attend the funeral as he was at summer camp. Later in his life, Percy admitted the huge impact his father's suicide had on him throughout his life, as he constantly asked why his father killed himself. It is interesting to note a familial history of suicide, thought to be driven by a sense of "failed honor" at not having achieved the honor held by Percy ancestors.

Percy was soon impacted again by the death of his mother, thought by some to have also been a suicide attempt. Left orphaned, Percy and his brothers were taken in by their father's cousin Will. Later in life, Percy said of Uncle Will “that he was the most extraordinary man I have ever known and that I owe him a debt which cannot be paid.” This praise was well-deserved, as Percy's Uncle Will was rather distinguished and raised Percy and his brothers quite well, as to make them men of culture and of ambition. He encouraged them to follow the classic professions, excluding the ministry. Uncle Will was raised Catholic and had considered entering the Priesthood when he was a child but later gave up this faith, including his Christianity, as a believer in secular humanism. Uncle Will's beliefs in secular humanism, in addition to his parental raising in the Independent Presbyterian Church, struck a chord with Percy at this time in his life. He was neither a Catholic nor a Christian, but would prove to convert to Catholicism later in life as a result of his future experiences, to be highlighted in the upcoming blog posts.

Source:

Wood, Ralph C. "An Introduction to Walter Percy." CTools. Web. 26 Mar 2012.

Ancient Beauty/Modern Aesthetic

 As we firmly ground ourselves in the near present with Walker Percy's The Moviegoer, it may be that time in the semester to honor his protagonist's habit.  I highly recommend checking out The Secret of Kells. It's an animated film unlike any I have ever seen before filled with all those lovely Catholic elements of questing, conversion, and grace. If you gave up tv/movies/youtube for Lent, pull a post-Vatican II Catholic move and watch it on Sunday (not saying that's what I did, but I do enjoy my Sundays). 

Charles' Conversion

Good fortune, pleasure, contentment, and joy encompass happiness itself. Throughout Evelyn Waugh’s novel Brideshead Revisited, this concept of happiness is a major theme. From the beginning of the story, Charles and Sebastian form an intimate bond that in turn brings the two of them happiness. The question behind the happiness, for me, was whether or not they truly enjoyed each other or if they were somehow seeking an escape from their unhappiness in life through one another. Charles is in awe of Sebastian’s glorious lifestyle and finds his family and wealth fascinating, while Sebastian, on the other hand, is looking for an escape from his family through both alcohol and his friendship with Charles. The desire to escape from his family leads to a tension in their friendship that extends throughout the entire novel. Although Charles continues to reassure Sebastian that he is on his side, he also makes a point to stay close to the members of Charles’ family.

Alongside this theme of happiness comes the similar theme of love. At the end of the story Charles is, to my surprise, a Catholic. I drew a parallel between Charles’ artistic abilities to an undiscovered inspiration from God in the final page of the book when Charles narrates:

"Something quite remote from anything the builders intended has come out of their work, and out of the fierce little human tragedy in which I played; something none of us thought about at the time: a small red flame – a beaten-copper lamp of deplorable design, relit before the beaten-copper doors of a tabernacle; the flame which the old knights saw from their tombs, which they saw put out; that flame burns again for other soldiers, far from home, farther, in heart, than Acre or Jerusalem. It could not have been lit but for the builders and the tragedians, and there I found it this morning, burning anew among the old stones." (Waugh 351).

The candle referenced here refers to the candle that is kept lit at the tabernacle on Catholic alters and the bread, which is taken as the body of Christ, is accompanied by a burning flame to signify the presence of God. At this final scene in the book Charles finds comfort in these Catholic references, suggesting that the title itself "Brideshead Revisited" symbolizes Charles' journey to Catholicism as well.

Now what does art have to do with this final scene of Charles' Catholicism? Charles describes "…a beaten-copper lamp of deplorable design…" during his visit to the Chapel. Clearly this acknowledgement of art during his time of conversion shows how important art truly was throughout his life. Perhaps God was in Charles' life during the story, inspiring his art despite the fact that Charles himself could not see this. The irony here is that Julia and Charles could not be together because of his denial of faith:

"That is what it would mean; starting a life with you, without Him. […] But I saw to-day there was one thing unforgivable – like things in the schoolroom, so bad they are unpunishable, that only Mummy could deal with – the bad thing I was on the point of doing, that I'm not quite bad enough to do; to set up a rival good to God's. […] It may be a private bargain between me and God, that if I give up this one thing I want so much, however bad I am, He won't quite despair of me in the end." (Waugh 247).

God's invisible influence throughout the novel shape each characters' lives, but in this discussion particularly Charles'. Through his art, his intimate friendship with Sebastian, his forbidden relationship with Julia, his discussions with Lady Marchmain (influencing him to convert), and even his father's lack of appreciation for him, Charles ultimately finds God. I'll leave it to your own discretion whether or not you think Charles unconsciously used art as his connection to God throughout the story.

Fishers of Men

Brideshead Revisited is a story rooted in Catholic ideas. The protagonist, Charles Ryder, becomes very interested in a family of practicing Catholics. Though he is not religious, he is fascinated with Catholicism and seeing it in action in Sebastian and his family member’s lives. Cordelia, the youngest member of the family, is especially devout. Most of her conversations with Charles involve Catholicism. At one point, he even asks her if she’s “still trying to convert [him]” )page 220). She answers that she’s not, but reminds him of a quote from the Father Brown story Lady Marchmain read to them a while back:

“I caught him (the thief) with an unseen hook and an invisible line which is long enough to let him wander to the ends of the world and still to bring him back with a twitch upon the thread.”

She mentions that their mother read the quote on “the evening Sebastian first got drunk – the bad evening” (page 220). This is significant in that it shows Cordelia’s belief that though her dad, Sebastian, and Julia have wandered from the Faith God won’t let them go for long” (page 220).

This quote comes from G.K. Chesterton’s story “The Queer Feet” in “The Innocence of Father Brown.” Father Brown acts as a detective at a very exclusive hotel and catches the thief of silver utensils. Its context in that story is that it is used as a reply to the colonel when he asks about whether Father Brown has “caught the man,” in the physical sense of getting hold of him as a thief. Father Brown was answering in the spiritual context of “to catch,” the one used Biblically.

Basically, this quote rephrases the fundamental Catholic teaching that Christians are fishers of men, but the hook and line used are so powerful, dynamic, and universal that, though at first sight it may seem ineffective, it pierces everyone right in the center of their hearts. All of us have these morals built into us, and none of us can escape them. That’s how Father Brown was able to fish for the thief and save him from death (living in sin).

Lord Marchmain, the father of the family Flyte, has left Catholicism and his family in England to live with his mistress in Italy. At the end of the book, we witness him die back at home with his family. He also reconnects to Catholicism seconds before his death. This shows that he was caught by the hook his whole life, went to the ends of the world and came back at the simple administration of the sacrament by Father Mackay.

Along with Lord Marchmain, Charles was reeled in too. Towards the end of the book, he prays “an ancient, newly learned form of words.” (page 350). The beauty of Christianity is that though it is ancient, we learn it throughout our lives. And though not everyone is Christian, almost everyone is caught by the hook and reeled in slowly but surely.

Sebastian's Fall

          Evelyn Waugh, the ultra-conservative unafraid to expose the gruesome truth of sin, has his own style that is both uniquely modern and persistently dated. The era of satire has come and went, but Waugh has become known as "the greatest satirist since Swift and the best stylist of his generation" (Buckley). I will focus on the fall of Sebastian in "Brideshead Revisited" as a window into Waugh’s own perspective on life and of religion. The fall of Sebastian allows Waugh to create a world that allows his readers to "see past our self-delusions' in order to confront the "inner core of selfishness, spite, and indifference” that inevitably occurs in the human condition (Buckley). Waugh first describes Sebastian, through the perspective of Charles Ryder, as "entrancing, arresting, and eccentric" (Waugh p. 30). The nature of Charles'  friendship with Sebastian is very unclear from the very beginning, bordering infatuation and romantic intimacy. This relationship struck up by Waugh behaves as a lens into which one can readily view the confused and suffering character of Sebastian.

Sebastian is portrayed as confused and tortured, struggling with his sexuality, religion, as well as his relationships with all of those who are close to him. Sebastian seems to have everything that a young man should want: money, great friends, a family who cares, and an opportunity at an extraordinary education. But, alas, his youthful years are not so happy. Something about his personality and childhood tends to keep Sebastian in a never ending state of unhappiness, first beginning with his religion.

To begin with, Sebastian says "It's very difficult being a Catholic" (Waugh p. 98) He claims that, instead of struggling with temptation, he is convinced his soul "is very much wickeder" (Waugh p. 98)  He lets on that every day he prays for God to make him good, but not yet. Possibly Sebastian is haunted by this flaw of character, which may have caused him to begin drinking more heavily. Charles questions Sebastian of his reasoning behind being of faith and Sebastian says, "It's a lovely idea" (Waugh p.98). Charles cannot believe how frail this link is, but Sebastian insists “That is how I believe” (Waugh p. 98).Thus we see that Sebastian is a Catholic merely by his belief in it being a good idea, yet somehow still holds seriously to a Catholic perspective of himself and the world around him. The tragedy in Sebastian's story is that, even though his faith is based on the beauty of the story of Christianity, he is able to see past the facades that people use to distance themselves from the world (which is an action Sebastian takes part in himself through Aloysius). This Catholic understanding of man makes Sebastian realize the sin of the world and even in himself. His religious struggle is with the twistedness of man, the sins that most try to overlook or ignore. As was mentioned before, Waugh is a master of satire. His satire of the nature of man's ignorance of sin is readily seen when Sebastian describes his father's religion and how he left the family behind to escape with his mistress. A normal person in that situation would be angry with their father if this were to happen, as I had been when I experienced a similar event in my early childhood. A man, who has taken a vow to love and protect until death, who leaves his family is not only religiously sinful, but morally bankrupt as well. Strangely, Sebastian says "You must meet him. He's a very nice man." Waugh is making a satire out of Sebastian’s ignorance of his father’s sin, which allows the reader to see that Sebastian is just as twisted and ignorant of reality as the rest of his family. Sebastian knows this and may be using alcohol as a means to cope with the truth.

Thus we can see that Sebastian is not only struggling with his sexuality and ability to see and cope with the twistedness of man, but he is guilty of ignorance of sin as well. Another particular point of interest is when Cara, Lord Marchmain's mistress, tells her own perspective of the truth about Sebastian's character. She proposes that Sebastian is very much like his father in that they, possibly including the whole Flyte family, are "full of hate - hate of themselves" (Waugh p. 118). She describes Alex Flyte as 'hating all the illusions of boyhood - innocence, God, hope" (Waugh p. 119). Thus we, the audience, are given a hint into the nature of Sebastian's struggle with himself and the reason behind the drinking, stealing, and other shady actions. Sebastian is in love with his childhood, with his teddy-bear and his relationship with his nanny as evidence. He is so attached to his childhood that he cannot deal with becoming an adult.

Sebastian continues to become drunk, now with more vigor than ever, especially when he is around his family. Part of the reason behind his behavior is the persistent manipulation of Mrs. Flyte with all who are close to Sebastian, so that she can help him how she sees fit. Charles knows that Sebastian is struggling with his own demons, including "his own conscience and all claims of human affection," and can see that his outrageous behavior and yearn for drink will become an increasingly problematic issue. Charles notes that Sebastian has become weary at the thought of his own family, his religion, and now of Charles. He is weary of all that is bound to him. Charles describes him as continuing to love, but lost his joy of it due to their shared relationship losing its ability to be apart of his imaginary happy world. Remember Alyosious and how Sebastian seems to use him, and alcohol, to escape his reality and distance himself from the world around him? Now that Charles is a seemingly more permanent part of that world, Sebastian cannot help but push him away as well. Thus, Sebastian’s drunkenness continues and eventually he escapes to live far away from Brideshead.

The fall of Sebastian is used by Waugh to demonstrate the brokenness of man. Sebastian can experience and feel this brokenness in himself and the world around him, and, as a result, tries to escape it through his drunken reality. His religious understanding of the world seemed to open the curtains to a view of the world, suddenly making clear the harshness of sin. His experience as a child from when his father left behind along with his family has had a lasting effect on Sebastian’s soul. It seems he is trying to remain in a childhood fantasy, before his father left and before he understood mankind. His attempts result in excessive drunkenness, ruined family gatherings, and stealing to gain money to fuel his addiction to alcohol. Sebastian, who pushed his family and Charles away, refused to even attend his own mother’s funeral. Cheifly, it is Sebastian’s faith that causes the most suffering. At one point it was mentioned that no man of faith can live without experience suffering. Sebastian’s fall is testimony to the truth of that statement. Even a faith such as his, based solely on the beauty of the Christian story, is enough to lead Sebastian down this path of humility and suffering. “Man is by nature an exile, haunted, even at the height of his prosperity, by nostalgia for Eden” (Buckley 2003). Waugh uses Sebatian’s fall to make the fall of man clear, intimate, and vividly real.

Works Cited

Buckley, F.H.. "The Satirist of the Fall." Crisis Magazine. N.p., January 2003. Web. 14 Mar 2012. <www.CrisisMagazine.com>.

Waugh, Evelyn. Brideshead Revisited. Penguin Essentials. England: Clays Ltd., 2011. Print.

Summer Wishes (Brideshead Revisited p 1-104)

        I am almost certain that Evelyn Waugh and Graham Greene got together, had a beer, and decided it would be hilarious to add a close-to-useless British nobody to open and close their most famous novels. They did this entirely to mess with literature students everywhere. Well, maybe not, but they were friends, and I wouldn't put it past them.  However, a note for readers ,  if you would like to spend valuable hours of your life trying to figure out the character of Private Hooper, you're welcome to, there is some interesting symbolism happening there, but he's really not the point of the novel. 

         Besides the conspiratorial beer chugging with Greene, there's something noteworthy about how Brideshead Revisited came to be written. Waugh, like his protagonist Captain Charles Ryder, was in the army during World War II. During this time, Waugh became very much disenchanted with the military, and in a rather unusual burst of generosity the army offered him a few weeks leave to get his act together. He spent his time in a drab little hotel at a rickety little desk, doing a lot of writing. And rumor has it, he got the whole of Brideshead Revisited with all of its beautiful imagery and detail done in two months.  The prologue with the shouldn't-be-famous-but-Waugh-used-him-anyway-Hooper is just a jumping off point, which perhaps enabled Waugh and Charles Ryder a means to start thinking about life and their placement in it, what came before it and what comes after it.

        And since I seem to be stuck on the prologue,  I should also mention that Waugh finally does throw the reader a bone in the last couple pages by withholding the name of the house that Ryder stands in front of. Waugh, who had let the reader begin to question his authority as a writer through his droll assessment of Hooper, brings the reader back like a snap of the leash when Ryder finally has a reaction. He's tense, anxious, and one can't explain why. Not simply anyway. Otherwise, there'd be no book. 

          Here is where the magic of youth glitters and dances and pokes fun at us all. Charles Ryder looks back twenty years to his youth, Oxford-bound and ready for the unique fortune of encountering the whimsical Sebastian with his persistently present teddy bear. While I think most adult men do not carry stuffed animals, Sebastian has the unique gift of innocence, and if a teddy bear does not embody child-likeness, I challenge you all to a drinking contest. Oh, and speaking of drinking, the students of Oxford 1920 put UM on St. Patrick's Day to shame every single day of the week.  Beer and wine flowed faster than water and were much more eagerly consumed by student and faculty alike. Waugh did not miss a beat when he sent Ryder's cousin to check in on him and give practical advice, which Ryder cheerfully ignores and keeps to his impractical ways. 

          Drinking together was one of the first bonds of friendship for Oxford students, and Ryder and Sebastian are no exception. However, in their own ways, both of them are sort of oddities at this prestigious institution of higher learning. Ryder comes from a middle class family, so he has no income or authority to recommend him. His father behaves passive aggressively and keeps him distant (sounds a bit like Waugh and his father). On the other hand, there is Sebastian, who comes from a land-owning, respected English family, but he's Catholic, which makes him different. And different at Oxford doesn't equate good, but Ryder sees the beautiful Sebastian as this remarkable escape from the hum-drum loneliness of his middle-classness and virtual fatherlessness. 

           It is through Sebastian that Ryder encounter  Catholics, and let's face it, he doesn't get them. They really are kind of weird. It's summer. Why do all of the conversation always circle back to religion? Sebastian gives off no particular airs of piety, but he baffles Ryder when he describes Catholicism as sounding very "sensible".

          "But, my dear Sebastian, you can't seriously believe it all."

          "Can't I?"

          "I mean about Christmas and the star and the three kings and the ox and the ass."

          "Oh yes, I believe that. It's a lovely idea."

          "But you can't believe things because they're a lovely idea."

          "But I do. That's how I believe" (86-87).

In fairness to Ryder, this does sound a bit odd when considering that these words of faith are coming from the lips of the nearly-always-tipsy Sebastian, but I love these words all the more because they exemplify a desire for goodness, and for Sebastian that's how he looks for God (feel free to argue with me on this).

           Sebastian's other family members make appearances of course: the gorgeously pompous Julia, the entirely dislikable Brideshead, and my personal favorite, the precocious and chatty Cordelia. Waugh perfectly captures the raptures of a child Catholic through Cordelia. She waxes on about rosaries, decades, prayers, and a "black god-daughter" baptized for five shillings (94). This rings so true to my ears that music does not compare. She may come off as a little weirdo, but in my less than humble opinion, she's the character that you are most likely to run into, and I love her. Just go hang about a CCD classroom if you don't believe me. 

              I may sound gleeful discussing Sebastian's family, but don't be fooled by their charm and candor, there is something dark and ominous in their family fracturing. Lord and Lady Marchmain, Sebastian's parents, have lived apart for a considerable length of time, and it is Lord Marchmain's mistress that directs Ryder's attention to Lord Marchmain's considerable talent for hatred and Sebastian's forthcoming alcoholism. The entire family has attachments and opinions on Catholicism. But no one really knows what the future will hold, and they could turn to the faith for comfort--or not. Foreshadowing has a sound as the mistress's voice dips to convey the situation's seriousness, a slow sort of drum roll. 

                  Thus, summer ends for Sebastian and Ryder.

Converting Evelyn Waugh

Evelyn Waugh (far left) amongst friends

Converting Evelyn Waugh

              “I went with Alastair to Mass at a church in Hampstead—very ugly” (155).  In 1924, Evelyn Waugh was feeling particularly pouty (my words, not his) about the Roman Catholic Church. Much to his annoyance some of his close friends were leaving their skepticism behind them and converting to Catholicism. Hardly a stranger to Christianity, as a child he served at the altar of his Anglo-Catholic parish, but his late teens and early twenties were marked by an embracing of modern theology, which warmly recommended the agnosticism of questions without answers. He and his classmates fell into religious apathy, and it was the twenties after all. The Great War was over, and now, it was a time to not learn or remember but to drink and drink more. Life swirled with college dormitories, occasional classes, plenty of gossip, and booze. So when his friends began to drift out of their drunken college and university haze, several of them professed a desire for something more filling than the vast quantities of beer, wine, and champagne that they had gleefully downed. However, these newly anointed Catholics, while still Waugh’s friends, began to irritate him to no end. He described one Catholic-focused conversation as, “of incredible inanity, which lasted with brief breaks from 6 to 12 and nearly drove me mad…I did not know Chris [Hollis] had it in him to be such a bore” (153) Probably because he remained friends with these young converts, over time his feelings toward the Church did mellow. Even if his satirical wit always remained sharp.

              Not to be turned out of his atheism/agnosticism too quickly, he read voraciously from G.K. Chesterton's short stories to William James’s The Varieties of Religious Experience. It seems though that for a little while Waugh permitted himself distraction from his interior thoughts. Critics praised his first book, and glamour beckoned her little finger. He and his fresh new wife of 1928 were the F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald of London society. Charmingly referred to as He-Evelyn and She-Evelyn (Evelyn Gardner), they acted as one another’s eye candy. Have you seen my beautiful wife? Have you read my husband’s bestseller? They acted as one another’s accessories, and the adorable She-Evelyn, who knew that all accessories are changeable if not entirely replaceable, promptly had an affair. The divorce went through quickly enough, but the pain lingered, and Waugh's next novel Vile Bodies took a rather dark turn in its descriptions of the interior emptiness of people despite their physical jewels. Referred to as an "exorcism", the publication of the book enabled him to first examine himself and secondly to begin the search for depth--to find the thing that would satisfy his soul (151). 
               The old friends were still there, but it was a recently converted ex-girlfriend and and an articulate priest that seemed to finally give Waugh the inspiration and answers he needed to enter the Church. One of Waugh's contemporaries, Muriel Spark used to tease him, "He could never make up his mind between suicide and an equally drastic course of action known as Fr. D'arcy" (161). This priest was known for appealing to the intellectuals of England and having great success in moving them towards Catholicism. Fr. D'arcy gave Waugh three months of instruction, called him a star pupil for his extreme focus on truth, and accepted him into the Roman Catholic Church in September 29,1930. Right before his conversion and forever afterwards, Waugh wrote and spoke of life as "unintelligible and unendurable with out God" (163). Therefore, keeping God close to his heart, Waugh used his youthful experiences and conversion to make his Catholic masterpiece Brideshead Revisited into an echo of his own memories and trials from those years of sorting through Catholicism. 
               


Sources: Pearce, Joseph. "Waugh and the Wasteland." Literary Converts. Ch. 14. 

Helping you get started with Brideshead Revisited

Dear Students: here is some help getting started with our next novel -- a guide to the first part of the reading, which includes the Prologue and the first 100 pages or so of Book One. (There are also other resources on our class Ctools site under the "Evelyn Waugh" folder).

Prologue

The story opens in Great Britain during World War II in 1943. Our main character, Charles Ryder, is a captain in the British Army; his company is leaving camp in Scotland to travel to new lodgings.

There are some obscure military references in the prologue (and it’s a bit boring, to be honest, but just keep reading). Here are the main points you need to get:

- Charles is deeply disillusioned and tired of his life in the army.

- He is so weary that he doesn’t even ask where they are going to camp next.

- He is also skeptical about the future of Britain -- one of his younger officers is a man named “Hooper,” who Ryder sees as near-incompetent, untidy, always late, etc.

During the war, it was common for the Army to take over some of the older mansions and castles in England as a place to house soldiers – and that’s what happens here. Charles and his regiment travel to a large, beautiful old mansion where they are going to be staying.

This magnificent mansion is called “Brideshead” (because it is at the head of a stream called the Bride). When he arrives, Charles says “I’ve been there before.” He then tells the story of how he came to know this place and the family who lived there.

So, this whole novel is actually a “flashback” – it’s Charles remembering his time at Brideshead Castle.

Book One: Et In Arcadia Ego

The flashback begins with Charles, 20 years younger, starting college at Oxford University in 1923. Charles is a lonely middle-class kid, and he meets the wealthier students who just party and get drunk. He becomes attached to a young man named Sebastian Flyte, who is funny, childish, and charming.

Eventually, Sebastian takes Charles to visit his home – Brideshead Castle – and his aristocratic, wealthy family, who split time living in the mansion in the country and in a home in London.

There’s one thing unique about the Flyte family: they are Roman Catholics. This gives them something of an “outsider” status in English society, even through they are wealthy landowners (Catholics have been frowned upon in England to varying degrees since the 1500s). Charles calls himself an agnostic and he wonders why they even bother with faith at all in the “post-religious” era of modern Britain.

This family is certainly far from perfect. And they’re not all the best Catholics, to be sure:

- Sebastian’s Dad, Lord Marchmain (that’s his official aristocratic title; his name is Alexander Flyte) has abandoned his wife and family and gone to live with his mistress in Venice, Italy!

- Lady Marchmain, Sebastian’s Mom (Teresa Flyte), is very devout but also quite manipulative.

- Sebastian’s older brother is also called Brideshead (as the heir to the estate he has the official title “Earl of Brideshead.” His siblings call him “Bridey” for short). Brideshead is a devout Catholic, and a very stiff and serious person.

- Sebastian’s sisters are Julia and Cordelia; Julia is close in age to Sebastian and also has mostly drifted away from the faith. Cordelia is much younger, a pre-teen girl, and a devout believer.

- Sebastian himself seems of two minds about his religion. Sometimes he says all he’s really interested in is “happiness,” but other times he says that he does find beauty in Catholicism.

For Charles, who grew up alone and without a mother (his Dad is kind of distant to him), life with Sebastian and his family is like opening up a whole new world to him – a world of riches, luxury, delicious food, great wine, servants, money, long summers, travel, art, beauty, etc.

But Charles’s time in this heavenly existence can’t last forever, and the story soon takes a sadder turn. His time with Sebastian’s family sets the stage for the twists and turns that will come his way later.