(Fictional Essay for my 3rd assignment at WMU, ENG 1100)
“You can’t tell a man by the song he sings” is one of the short stories written by Philip Roth in 1958 in his first book “Goodbye, Columbus” which was published in 1959. Roth won his first National Book Award with the help of Goodbye, Columbus, a novel which consists of a novella and five short stories.
Every story that Roth has written is based on the trapped situation the hero faces “within the social constraints of their immediate environment, usually the family, religion, or American society in general” (Milton, 2012). In this story too, the unnamed hero is trapped in a high school confrontation with a teenage “gangster” named Albie Pelagutti.
In this short story with a long title, the main character re-experiences his freshman year in high school which featured many of unforgettable events involving fellow classmates, Alberto (Albie) Pelagutti and Duke Scarpa and his teacher, Mr. Russo. The story begins at the time of the “Preference Test”.
Philip Roth has effectively written the story in an interesting humorous way to allure the readers to keep reading his masterpiece till the end. There are a lot of humors present in this short work of fiction. Roth is aware that humor is the most important “character trait” that may lighten up the mood of the story. Moreover, humor adds an essence of “entertainment” to any novel or screenplay to avoid “dull and boring” reactions of readers and watchers (St. John, 2011). First of the comedies that the readers can easily figure out is that Alberto Pelagutti, a large black tough Sicilian immigrant, actually asked the main character for an answer of a question in a “Preference Test”. The answers of every question in a test like that can be anything. Despite this fact, Albie had to cheat so that he could “pass” the test because he was planning to “go straight”. Furthermore, the result of his test was the same as the protagonists’ that they “were going to be lawyers”.
The second comedy is about overestimating someone’s ability based on physique and regretting it later on. The leading character was picked by Mr. Hopper as the captain of the softball team was given a privilege to pick his teammates. With an opportunity like this, undoubtedly he chose Albie. Albie had once told him that he had ever played the game back at the Jamesburg Reformatory. Besides the captain thought that Albie had seemed to “star” his Jamesburg Reformatory’s baseball team. Not to mention Albie’s physical features. His arms might be able to “hit the ball a mile”. Unfortunately, the dream of having a chance to win the game was demolished by Albie who was a “lemon”. Albie was the weak link in the anonymous character’s team. They had lost really badly with a nil score during the first half while the opponent’s team had scored 8. Additionally, Mr. Hopper was mocking the main character’s wrong choice by winking at him.
Thirdly, Albie’s revenge tactic against Mr. Russo’s was one of the most brilliant yet the simplest plan to annoy a teacher quickly. As Russo turned his sight towards the blackboard, all the students had agreed to bend over pretending to tie their shoe laces. And they were waiting for Albie told us to stand up and sing the famous “Don’t sit under the apple tree” song by the Andrew Sisters. They started to make a ruckus and drove the teacher crazy. Russo tried to calm the class down however this did not stop the students from singing. They began to sing the national anthem of America, The Star-spangled Banner. America’s national anthem can be heard before every baseball game is played. And also, anyone singing the anthem should stand up to pay respect for the nation. Russo had no choice but to sing too as he respected his country very much.
Dark humor, also known as black comedy which is present in a literature work is used to express the “cruelty” in reality life. Dark humor always consists of tragic scenes to any ordinary characters in literature stories. Philip Roth is one of the writers that contain “elements of black humor” (The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia Editors, 2007). In this short fiction, the dark humor is based on Mr. Russo, an “Occupations” class teacher. Mr. Russo was fired and arrested because he was caught of having once attending communist Marxist meetings while attending Montclair State Teachers’ College in 1935.
Another dark rumor existing in the story was based on the hero of the story. During the month of March, the anonymous narrator, Albie, and Duke were “sparring in the hall outside the cafeteria”. They were having a good time until the part when the protagonist “plunged forward” and his fist incidentally broke the glass window. Knowing that they were in danger, Albie and Duke ran off to escape as they were aware about the principal’s “filing cabinet” which the hero of the story only learned about as a result of having to visit the principal’s office.
Symbolism plays an important role in this fiction. Some of the symbols are used to hint out the true meaning that Roth has hidden. And almost all of the symbols describe about America’s background. First of all is the baseball game during gym class. Baseball has been called a “national pastime” by the United States since 1856. The game represents a linkage between their “heritage and national institutions” (American Museum of Natural History Editors).
Secondly, the principal kept records of students that had damaged any school’s property. Likewise, the society also kept records of people especially during the McCarthy era which really needed past historical references. With the presence of this record, Russo was fired, arrested and was unemployed because of his past temporary identification of which he had moved on.
Roth’s works are also famous for his sarcasms in his stories. The first sarcasm initiated in this story is that Albie was wearing a “lavender undershorts”. Lavender symbolizes “femininity, grace and elegance” (Rohr, 2011). Albie was potrayed as a very boyish fellow. He had done many things kids around his age would not have done. For instance, he had “trafficked with whores”, he “stole” things.
The next sarcasm was that Albie who used to be a criminal, started to “go straight” by cheating on the test with no right answers. Moreover, the result was astonishing. Albie was going to be a lawyer. This leads to the following sarcasm when Albie and the leading character were sent by Mr. Russo to the Essex Country Court House to see “real lawyers in action”. Albie had probably done many crimes and he might have visited the court house for every crime he had committed. He had literally seen and was really a part of the “real lawyers in action” at the court house.
Thirdly, at the time when the Kefauver Committee came for inspection, it did not capture the real criminals like Albie Pelagutti and Duke Scarpa. On the other hand, the innocent Russo was caught. Russo had never done any crime. He was a good American as he worked as an educator at a high school. Furthermore, he joined communism about twenty years ago when people were allowed to choose whichever beliefs they want. This was as if he would always be haunted by his past wherever he goes.
Lastly, the sarcasm is about Mr. Russo’s name which is connected to McCarthyism (Milton, 2012). Russo, a surname originated in Italy, is a southern variation of “Rossi”, meaning "red-haired or ruddy-complexioned individual". It is also derived from the nickname "rosso," meaning “red” (About.com Editors, 2012). McCarthyism which was led by Joseph McCarthy is also known as the “Red Scare”. Russo who used to have a communist background was caught in the end. He could not seem to escape a seemingly innocent episode in his past, which was ironically symbolized by the meaning and performance of his own name.
Roth has titled his fiction as “You can’t tell a man by the song he sings” to criticize 1950 society’s view that they a person’s reputation and career should be sacrificed as a consequence of innocently belonging to a communist organization. just by the fact of his communist past. Russo had changed. He joined the students’ prank on singing America’s national anthem. If he was still a communist, he would not even bother to stand up and join the sing-along. This proved that Russo was as true an American as any of other Americans. He respects American. And the society is wrong to say “You can’t tell a man by the song he sings”. It is the other way around.
In a nutshell, You can’t tell a man by the song he sings is a story that contains humor throughout the story to keep the readers amused, symbols that describe about America’s background, and lastly sarcasms that maintain the reader’s attention focused till the end of the story. Not to forget the true meaning beneath the title “You can’t tell a man by the song he sings” that reflects the society’s point of view and provides a message for the society too.
References
About.com Editors. (2012). Genealogy, RUSSO - Name Meaning & Origin. In About.com. Retrieved January 13, 2012, from http://genealogy.about.com/library/surnames/r/bl_name-RUSSO.htm.
American Museum of Natural History Editors. (-). Baseball as America, Our National Spirit. In American Museum of Natural History. Retrieved January 13, 2012, from http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/baseball/spirit/index.html.
Milton. (January 5, 2012). Introduction " Short Story Criticism. Ed. Anna J. Sheets. Vol. 26. Gale Cengage, 1997. In eNotes.com. Retrieved on January 12, 2012, from http://www.enotes.com/philip-roth-criticism/roth-philip-milton-79363/introduction
Rohr, K. (2011). Color Symbolism And Culture. In Incredible Art Department. Retrieved January 13, 2012, from http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/lessons/middle/color2.htm.
St. John, C. (January 31, 2011). Fiction writing: The importance of humor as a trait for created characters. In Helium where knowledge rules. Retrieved January 12, 2012, from http://www.helium.com/items/2080400-fiction-writing-the-importance-of-humor-as-a-trait-for-created-characters.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia Editors. (1994, 2000-2006, on Infoplease. 2000–2007 Pearson Education, publishing as Infoplease.). black humor. In The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia. Retrieved January 13, 2012, from http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/ent/A0807778.html.
No comments:
Post a Comment