"... a figure of sorts in stone, aluminum, and bronze, displayed proudly in front of the school library: 'Solstice' was it's enigmatic name" (41)
The winter solstice occurs in December and brings with it the longest night. On this day, the sunlight hours are brief and we are submerged into a lengthy period of darkness. This time of year is associated for many with the beginning of a death/rebirth cycle. During the long nights of the winter months, there is traditionally more death, starvation, loss of energy, a general feeling of ennui, etc. The beautiful part of it though is that the world continues to turn and ultimately, the Earth comes through this dark time to face the bright sunny days of spring and summer again. Thus, from our darkest days, we are brought back into the light.
This symbolic look at the solstice provides some insight to the novel of the same name by Joyce Carol Oates. Solstice traces the darkest days of Monica Jensen and Sheila Trask. The two women seem to repeat their own solstice cycles throughout the novel. Monica has recently gone through an abortion, a divorce, and a complete mental breakdown; Sheila has recently lost her husband and not recovered from this staggering blow. The two seemingly come through these dark times and find their worlds revolving necessarily together.
For a brief period, Monica and Sheila both seem stable and content together. They bring to each other a needed friendship yet they have their outside passions: Monica has found passion in her teaching while Sheila finds passion in her art. Sheila begins her descent into darkness as Monica watches and tries to understand it. Sheila explains, "it [is] just December: the approach of the solstice: the malaise of relentlessly darkening days and relentlessly lengthening nights" (75). During this time, Sheila begins to slip away, until ultimately Monica is afraid her friend will kill herself. Sheila develops an obsession with the idea of death which is spoken in chapter nine of part two: "Always and forever mortality. Nothing else engages me, nothing else terrifies me..." (110). During this time, Sheila loses her passion for her work and has to create an alter ego (Sherrill Ann) as a way to survive these dark times and maintain some sense of passionate abandon in her life.
Monica seems to be the one in control during these dark times for Sheila, but the balance shifts slowly as the world keeps spinning. At Sheila's lowest point on Christmas as we believe she may kill herself, Monica is arguably at her best. This balance begins to shift immediately after the episode at Sheila's door, which is almost exactly the mid point of the book. It is here that the dark side of the Earth's surface begins to spin in Monica's direction.
As Sheila comes out of the dark and regains her ability to travel, to work, to care about things - Monica loses it in equal proportion. She loses her passion for her work and for her students. She loses interest in her friendship with Sheila and in her relationship with her coworkers. Much as Sheila became singularly obsessed with her work and slid into darkness, Monica's slide into darkness focuses on a singular obsession with Sheila. As the world of the novel rotates, Sheila is working again and moving closer toward her show opening. Though she still needs Monica to help her organize her life and prevent her descent back into darkness, it is clear that she is on her way back to the light as Monica is falling: "falling asleep, falling sick. Falling" (214).
As the solstice falls on Monica's life, it is Sheila who has to act as the stabilizing force. On the night of Monica's personal solstice - on the darkest night - Sheila calls an ambulance and rides with Monica to the hospital. There is no indication in the last line: "...we'll be friends for a long, long time... unless one of us dies" (224) of exactly what is to happen to Monica, but from the meaning of the solstice imagery, it can be hoped that she will recover and start her ascent into the light again as she did after her divorce.
As the loss of light during the solstice is explored as equivalent to a loss of life, it is worthwhile to look at another "curious phenomenon" (194). Just before her final plunge into illness and near death, Monica notices daffodils outside in the school yard and reflects on the fact "that when daffodils pass their prime their petals become paper-thin. The colorful centers remain (yellow, orangish-yellow) but the outer petals turn transparent" (194). Monica is certainly facing her transparent stage, but the image she has in her head shows a sense of life still within her core. It is fitting then that the daffodil is a symbol much like the solstice. It is a flower representative of renewed life after a dark and troubling time.
The combined power of these images and the last line spoken by Sheila serves as an indication that the two women will live on to get each other through these natural life cycles for years to come. They will have their ups and downs, and hopefully while one is suffering their internal solstice, they will have the supporting "sunlight" of the other. The entire novel serves as a reminder that our darkest days in life are best reflected upon as a time of solstice... it does not end in darkness, because the world continues to spin and will come close to the sun again. A momentary loss of light does not mean we are doomed to a loss of life, but rather that we must weather these hard times so that we can rise up again and find our passion and joy.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Invention of Independent Identity
In Joyce Carol Oates' Do With Me What You Will, the characters seem to change very little over the course of five hundred plus pages. Though toward the end, there are some important shifts in the characters and their sense of identity, it is Ardis Carter who displays the most marked transformations during the novel. As a woman who sought independence at an early age, Ardis has spent her entire lifetime creating new identities for herself.
After chastising her daughter Elena for not being "normal", Ardis goes on to say how important it is to be independent. "When I was your age, I was totally independent. Of other people, of other people's ideas of me. I didn't give a damn for anybody", Ardis tells Elena bragging about her youth (88). This sense of independence gives Ardis the ability to do something that few people seem capable of; it gives her the ability to decide for herself who and what she will be. Ardis even tells Elena early on: "we're our own ideas, we make ourselves up; some women let men make them up... they're helpless to invent themselves... but not me, I'm nobody's idea but my own" (79).
Clearly, Ardis has ideas for new inventions regularly. She is seen as this nearly mythical creature - as someone who was never a child - by her ex-husband. She creates herself as the perfect, devoted creature for Mr. Karman until she gets what she wants from him. Ardis even changes her and Elena's last name and asks Elena to "guess how much they're worth - our lovely last names" (72). To Ardis, a name is an easy thing to change because it is only a label for her creation and her creation is simply a thing to help her get what she wants.
After arriving in Detroit and arranging a successful marriage for her daughter, Ardis thinks up a new creation named Marya Sharp. When Elena is introduced to Marya for the first time, she doesn't quite know how to react: "Elena looked at Marya Sharp's face and saw it shift slowly into the face of someone she knew" (138). Marya confirmed that she was Elena's mother and referred to the cosmetic surgery she had done, the name she'd "taken on" (139), and her new television show.
Not long after this meeting, Elena runs into a woman while out shopping who she is certain is her mother. "The woman smiled in recognition, happily" (152), but tells Elena she is mistaken. The woman introduces herself as Olivia Larkin and proceeds to tell an entire tale of how she has been repeatedly mistaken for Marya Sharp, how she and Elena have previously met, and how flattering it is to be mistaken for a woman like Marya. Meanwhile, Elena is certain this is her mother simply assuming one more creation.
Instances like this happen often for Elena because one could never be too certain what face or personality Ardis would put on from one day to the next. The whole thing was terribly confusing to Elena who sometimes "noticed a woman who resembled her mother" (382), but was afraid to say anything for fear of being mistaken. At other times, Elena did not see her mother at all and was later admonished for ignoring her mother when they had both been in the same place.
Ardis seems to be such a successful chameleon that these changes of persona and identity cease to come as a surprise. It is then, not surprising at all to discover Marya is engaged to be married to a gentlemen from London who Elena had never even heard of. It is less surprising that the marriage takes place secretly with Marya having already moved to London by the time Elena hears of it next. Marya has taken on a new identity of Mrs. Nigel Stock and is quite as committed to it as to any of her previous roles. She is determined that she "will make a permanent home... not just be a 'transplanted' American" (458).
Although it can be argued that all identity is nothing more than a surface performance, Ardis seems to be the queen of the stage. With an effortless grace, Ardis shifts from one identity to another in an attempt to get for herself whatever she most wants. She says in her farewell, "those of you who know me will understand what this kind of life will mean to me" (458), yet the only conclusion to draw from that is she means the type of life where nobody will know her at all and she is free to reinvent herself as often as she wishes in a new place. Ultimately, it seems as though this choice to invent and reinvent an independent identity is fulfilling to Ardis. Though she changes herself constantly, it seems to always be on her terms and her means seems to always bring about her desired end. Perhaps, Oates argues through this character we all should all strive to create an identity that makes us happy and fulfilled rather than allowing other people to define us through their eyes. A little power and control over ourselves and who we are clearly goes a long way to true freedom.
After chastising her daughter Elena for not being "normal", Ardis goes on to say how important it is to be independent. "When I was your age, I was totally independent. Of other people, of other people's ideas of me. I didn't give a damn for anybody", Ardis tells Elena bragging about her youth (88). This sense of independence gives Ardis the ability to do something that few people seem capable of; it gives her the ability to decide for herself who and what she will be. Ardis even tells Elena early on: "we're our own ideas, we make ourselves up; some women let men make them up... they're helpless to invent themselves... but not me, I'm nobody's idea but my own" (79).
Clearly, Ardis has ideas for new inventions regularly. She is seen as this nearly mythical creature - as someone who was never a child - by her ex-husband. She creates herself as the perfect, devoted creature for Mr. Karman until she gets what she wants from him. Ardis even changes her and Elena's last name and asks Elena to "guess how much they're worth - our lovely last names" (72). To Ardis, a name is an easy thing to change because it is only a label for her creation and her creation is simply a thing to help her get what she wants.
After arriving in Detroit and arranging a successful marriage for her daughter, Ardis thinks up a new creation named Marya Sharp. When Elena is introduced to Marya for the first time, she doesn't quite know how to react: "Elena looked at Marya Sharp's face and saw it shift slowly into the face of someone she knew" (138). Marya confirmed that she was Elena's mother and referred to the cosmetic surgery she had done, the name she'd "taken on" (139), and her new television show.
Not long after this meeting, Elena runs into a woman while out shopping who she is certain is her mother. "The woman smiled in recognition, happily" (152), but tells Elena she is mistaken. The woman introduces herself as Olivia Larkin and proceeds to tell an entire tale of how she has been repeatedly mistaken for Marya Sharp, how she and Elena have previously met, and how flattering it is to be mistaken for a woman like Marya. Meanwhile, Elena is certain this is her mother simply assuming one more creation.
Instances like this happen often for Elena because one could never be too certain what face or personality Ardis would put on from one day to the next. The whole thing was terribly confusing to Elena who sometimes "noticed a woman who resembled her mother" (382), but was afraid to say anything for fear of being mistaken. At other times, Elena did not see her mother at all and was later admonished for ignoring her mother when they had both been in the same place.
Ardis seems to be such a successful chameleon that these changes of persona and identity cease to come as a surprise. It is then, not surprising at all to discover Marya is engaged to be married to a gentlemen from London who Elena had never even heard of. It is less surprising that the marriage takes place secretly with Marya having already moved to London by the time Elena hears of it next. Marya has taken on a new identity of Mrs. Nigel Stock and is quite as committed to it as to any of her previous roles. She is determined that she "will make a permanent home... not just be a 'transplanted' American" (458).
Although it can be argued that all identity is nothing more than a surface performance, Ardis seems to be the queen of the stage. With an effortless grace, Ardis shifts from one identity to another in an attempt to get for herself whatever she most wants. She says in her farewell, "those of you who know me will understand what this kind of life will mean to me" (458), yet the only conclusion to draw from that is she means the type of life where nobody will know her at all and she is free to reinvent herself as often as she wishes in a new place. Ultimately, it seems as though this choice to invent and reinvent an independent identity is fulfilling to Ardis. Though she changes herself constantly, it seems to always be on her terms and her means seems to always bring about her desired end. Perhaps, Oates argues through this character we all should all strive to create an identity that makes us happy and fulfilled rather than allowing other people to define us through their eyes. A little power and control over ourselves and who we are clearly goes a long way to true freedom.
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