| Contents > A Dangerous Fiction: Challenging the Perception of Masculinity in the Novels of Michael Chabon by Louise Colbran |
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With Joe’s potency threatened by his exile and disempowerment, he reemphasises and performs his masculinity through the Escapist, his intention being to save his family through the appropriate “manly” medium of violence. Through the Escapist, Joe fights the Nazis and attempts to gain the freedom for his family that he cannot realise in reality. The Escapist is thus set up as an icon. Through the adoration of his image and metaphysical “meaning,” Joe intends to gain access to his heart’s truest desires; to attain the unattainable. This becomes the driving force of Joe’s life in America – his attempt to exact revenge against a cruel world.
As a “Kavalier,” Joe is set up in the traditional role of questing knight. His narrative generally conforms to the pattern established by Joseph Campbell: “a separation from the world, a penetration to some source of power, and a life-enhancing return.” (Campbell, 1968) Generally, the quester must give up social connection in order to keep the purity of his pursuit in tact – he has one mission and one mission only, anything that could possibly hinder his quest must be forsaken.1 Of the hero’s need for isolation from worldly desires Campbell writes,
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To a man . . . courageously responding to the dynamics of his own nature – to a man who is, as Nietzsche phrases it, “a wheel rolling of itself” – difficulties melt and the unpredictable highway opens as it goes. (Campbell, 1968)
Chabon’s text suggests the dangers of such a vision. Joe is nothing if not “a wheel rolling of itself”; however, he has nothing but difficulties throughout the bulk of the narrative. The singlemindedness of his vision blinds him and makes his path all the more dangerous and distorted.
Joe’s emasculation through the business deal with Sheldon Anapol and Jack Ashkenazy regarding his and Sammy’s remuneration for the Escapist character causes a reaction; a reassertion of his masculinity through performance of the one masculine ideal that Joe perceives has any power – violence. David Buchbinder reasons that the repression of emotion by many men leads to the signification of “anger and aggression” as “appropriate ‘manly’ feelings.” (Buchbinder, 1994) Joe becomes convinced that violence is power and it is the only way a man can win. Chabon contextualises the advent of violent comic books within a violent culture and thus complicates the simplistic argument that comics cause violence. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay contends that violent comics are also the result of a world that teaches its inhabitants that power is analogous to the oppression and extermination of one’s enemies. Joe perceives, and to a large extent has been taught by the world which produces him, that he must strive to be like the Escapist to have anything like the transcendent power he promises. It is not enough anymore to just to create a superhero, Joe needs to become one. The titillation of vicarious comic book violence is no longer enough. Joe graduates to the violent satisfaction of his desires.
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay argues that the “real” purpose of superheroes is exactly the opposite to Fredric Wertham’s characterisation of them as fascist Aryans.2 (Wertham, 1955) Chabon does not so much reject outright Wertham’s arguments but indicates that they are more complex than Wertham’s treatise would suggest. Instead, superheroes encapsulate the sublimated desires of young Jewish men who want to fight Nazi atrocities. The novel, though, complicates the matter further by exposing the destructiveness of this phenomenon. The reality is that these superheroes employ the tactics of the enemy in order to battle and, therefore, are ultimately no better than the men they were created to challenge. As a result, throughout the novel, Joe comes to increasingly resemble what he hates most.
The Antarctica episode of the novel is crucial in Joe’s story of guilt, violence and redemption. It is also the key section of the novel that finally disrupts the binary way of thinking about the hero and the villain, alerting readers to the crucial element of perspective in appraising any situation. While monitoring the radio for the presence of Nazis, Joe hears a broadcast about the “Theresienstadt Model Ghetto” in Terezin, Czechoslovakia. In Joe’s perception, the Ghetto is a “witch’s house” used to “lure children and fatten them for the table.” (Chabon, 2000) In Joe’s perception, the Jews of Europe are infantilised, thus providing more impetus for him to reassert his status as a “man.” Warren Rosenberg writes that in Jewish mythology, “With few exceptions, this heroic model is gendered. Warriors are expected to be men.” (Rosenberg, 2001) Equally, the implication of this reasoning is that being a warrior makes a male a “Man.” Joe’s assumption of the warrior role is his way of asserting and constructing his masculinity.
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| Contents > A Dangerous Fiction: Challenging the Perception of Masculinity in the Novels of Michael Chabon by Louise Colbran |