Monthly Archives: March 2018

Vandover and The Brute (Second Half)

I found Vandover’s discussion of each event that “destroyed” his purity to be very interesting the beginning portion of the second half of the novel. Essentially Vandover lists each of the external influences (many of which are people) that have somehow contributed to the growing beastly influence inside of him. He blames his loss of innocence from losing his mother, he blames his father’s death for the loss of an influence in his life that “cultivated and fostered his better self, would have made it strong against the attacks of the brute.” Vandover blames the fact that Turner Ravis fell out of love with him as well as the fact that the public ceased to take interest in him anymore and his lack of religion for the further deterioration of his so-called “higher self”. I find it interesting that Vandover is quick to blame every external influence in his life, but never himself or his own actions for the growing force of the brute inside. He also seems to come to the conclusion that he is unable to save himself without any help. The external influences Vandover describes only served to contain the evil within Vandover all of his life. Is Vandover inherently evil? Does this evil only surface when all that was containing the brute ceases to exist? Or is Vandover unwilling to accept his wrongdoings and blames others for the consequences he now suffers because he is selfish and entitled? Perhaps this begs the larger question of how one must decide to cope with their loss of innocence. Vancouver never quite embraces his good sense of self and his independence until he succumbs to his vices later in the novel. Even then, he is a slave to both his addictions and the actions of the brute (which he becomes increasingly unable to control—to the point where he becomes this brute and crawls on all fours in public).

This discussion of Vandover’s loss of innocence and inherent goodness versus evil and the presence of outside influences may be interesting in light of Vandover’s interaction with the young boy in the last few pages of the novel. The young boy gets attention for his rude comment about Vandover and therefore repeats his action. However, he is scorned by his father and goes back to eating his bread and butter very innocently while watching Vandover work. By this point, Vandover is humbled and working for the first time in his life, trying to make purpose of something and this innocent child is just embarking on his own journey of life. The fact that the child gets attention for his cruelty towards Vandover and is scorned by his father may be some sort of a parallel to Vandover’s own story and how he wrestled with the attention he got from outside influences as well as the scorn and what happened when both of these things were lost from him.

Vandover and the Brute (first half)

Madness in the context of Vandover seems to be rooted in his carelessness and lack of self-accountability, and it’s interesting how that ‘madness’ is conflated with misogyny and toxic masculinity. It his, as well as his friends’, harmful beliefs that the lack of patriarchal policing of women (along with their vices such as excessive self-indulgence via drinking and eating) is what contributes to their “wildness” or “bruteness.”

Vandover and the Brute, First Half

One of the themes that really stuck out to me in this first half of the book was this idea of an inherent classism in Vandover’s world. It is clear that his role as an upper class citizen, or social elite, has afforded him certain privileges, such as being able to essentially automatically attend Harvard, and then being able to become a “painter”. (Although he doesn’t have to rely on his painting abilities to make any money, unlike Ida’s mother.)

Coincidentally, his social status somehow absolves him from any wrong doing. When he essentially lusts after women of a lower social standing, his sexual attraction to them somehow becomes their problem. At the same time, their mere existence actually disgusts him. Specifically for Ida, the possibility that Vandover impregnated her becomes her family’s disgrace rather than his shame (even though he later admits to pressuring her into sex).

In terms of accountability, his social status saves him from any kind of persecution related to Ida’s suicide or the murder of the Jew boy (even though others were persecuted for letting him drown).

The Awakening

How would you describe Edna Pontelier’s connection to reality, to the tangible world and social interactions around her? How would you characterize her emotional reactions? Is there a particular passage that speaks to your understanding of Edna’s way of seeing the world as it exists outside herself?