In his verse form “ The Hollow Men, ” T.S. Eliot describes the decease of the American Dream from the position of those who sought religious fulfilment in the new universe. He writes:
The eyes are non here
There are no eyes here
In this vale of deceasing stars
In this hollow vale
This broken jaw of our lost lands ( lines 50-54 )
Many people came to colonial America seeking a spiritual “ land, ” get awaying persecution in their assorted fatherlands and hold oning clasp of the freedoms that the New World stood for. While the colonial colonies in Virginia and the South were focused on resources and possible trade from the really beginning, the New England settlements repudiated the thought of compromising their spiritual strong beliefs, as their “ eyes ” looked towards the New World. They risked the death-defying crossing of the Atlantic in order to prosecute their spiritual strong beliefs, minding what they believed the Bibles had commanded of them. They desired spiritual freedom, political and societal equality, and economic sufficiency. They hoped for better life criterions than they had in their former fatherlands. By the 19th century, the industrial revolution had created new societal and economic chances and with it new aspirations. Propaganda arose through Hollywood with narratives of “ shreds to wealths ” and the possibility of prosperity for anyone, irrespective of societal category, which subsequently became a popular myth that emerged as a euphemism known as the American Dream. Although the hope of the fledglings was a dream, the modernised significance of the term does non compare to its former significance. Today, the American Dream is all about philistinism, or as the Oxford English Dictionary defines, the belief that the highest values or aims lie inA materialA well-being and in the promotion ofA materialA advancement. For illustration, “ The Hollow Men ” in Eliot ‘s verse form are the prototype of Americans who have replaced their ability to understand the religious significance of their lives with superficial philistinism. In her novel The Shipping News, Annie Proulx shows that American society can non carry through either signifier of the dream – stuff or religious – finally go forthing the chief character Quoyle suffering, until he eventually finds satisfaction in Newfoundland, where he is able to face his ain private devils.
In America, Quoyle faces debasement and sculpt sadness as he undertakes the troubles of being married to a pagan, who has no dream of any sort because she merely lives for the minute. Petal Bear, Quoyle ‘s married woman of six old ages, causes him great hurting. She sells their two girls to a sexual molester, prior to her death in a auto clang, go forthing Quoyle in a province of forsaking and confusion. A maliciously revengeful, egoistic adult female, Petal marries Quoyle merely for the sex, and is revolted by his character and the really qualities that make him who he is. As a female parent, she fails to put the demands of her kids before her ain wants and desires, an built-in portion of rearing. During a conversation she has with Quoyle, she reveals her true feelings about him and their kids, stating that “ it was all a error, ” and how she “ did n’t desire to be married to anybody, ” or be “ a mamma to anybody ” ( 21 ) . She lives her life with the belief that pleasance is the lone intrinsic good.[ 1 ]She is the prototype of a pagan. She disregards the feelings of those around her, motivated chiefly by sexual conquering and lecherousness. Her lone agencies of fulfilment is to move out her unfaithfulness, one adult male after another. Despite all of the hurting Quoyle endures in America, “ [ he ] believes in soundless agony. ” He “ 500 [ oes ] non see that it goad [ s ] , ” or arouse more torment ( 16 ) . Long after Petal Bear ‘s decease, Quoyle and the kids are still haunted by her. As “ his bosom [ is ] scarred everlastingly by tattoo acerate leafs pricking the name of Petal Bear, ” Quoyle consigns himself as a failure, after being hurt by a barbarous lover. Like the Biblical prophesier Hosea, who was married to a cocotte, Quoyle shows genuine, unconditioned love despite the circumstance. Hosea ‘s matrimony was a prognostication for the state of Judah, because the Judeans went “ after [ their ] lovers ” as an option to the God of their redemption ( Hos. 2.5 ) . Even though Hosea could hold forsaken his married woman, he obeyed God, because he recognized the greater good in his forfeit and obeisance. Similarly, Quoyle realizes that he has to be a responsible parent for his girls. Through him, Proulx demonstrates that sincere “ love covers a battalion of wickedness, ” and that no affair how great or how little the wickedness, love is the greatest of all emotions ( 1 Pet. 4.8 ) .
Throughout the novel, Proulx associates any major event in Quoyle ‘s life with a knot – a love knot for Petal Bear, and a strangle knot for his parents ‘ self-destruction. His name, “ Quoyle, ” means a spiral of lying rope in which each crick made by life ‘s alterations creates a new way, and hence a new knot. These knots, nevertheless, adhere Quoyle to his yesteryear, necessitating undoing and so retying to typify a new measure in his life. At the start of the novel, Quoyle, in footings of the name ‘s actual significance, is “ a Flemish flake [ knot that ] is a coiling spiral of one bed merely. It is made on deck, so that it may be walked on ” ( 1 ) . From this beginning, by the weaving of all of these knots Quoyle is made who he is, and his way to contentment is defined. Due to the bad luck Quoyle experiences in America, “ unemployed, married woman gone, parents deceased ” and “ Petal ‘s inadvertent decease, ” he is left with small pick but to return to the fatherland of his lineage ( 29 ) . Quoyle is determined to replace his emotionally traumatic life with a new 1. As “ the ferry heave [ s ] toward Newfoundland, ” Quoyle begins “ his [ journey ] to get down anew, ” therefore binding a new knot in the spiral of his lying rope ( 29 ) . After geting in Newfoundland, Quoyle ‘s life passages from a downward spiral to an upward one. America is radically different from Newfoundland, and this is apparent through Proulx ‘s debut to chapter 10, where she states, “ In Wyoming they name girls Skye. In Newfoundland it ‘s Wavey ” ( 122 ) . She introduces Wavey Prowse, a “ Tall and Quiet adult female, ” and a new love in Quoyle ‘s life ( 171 ) . The footing, on which Quoyle and Wavey ‘s relationship is built, is non physical, but on the better qualities that lie beneath a individual ‘s physical visual aspect. This is apparent when Quoyle is described as grotesque – “ big, white, [ and ] stumbling along ” ( 4 ) . While Wavey, on the other manus, is ne’er described in footings of sexual magnetic attraction, or feminine properties. Both Wavey and Quoyle are haunted by the memories of a past, opprobrious lover, and are compatible in the sense that they can associate to one another. They worry that if “ [ they ] married, would Petal ” or Wavey ‘s ex-husband Herold Prowse “ be in the bed with them. ” Such concern causes them to “ conceive of the devil lovers matching, seize with teething and growling, ” as “ [ they ] crouch against the footboard with their eyes squeezed shut, fingers in their ears ” ( 314 ) . Despite the tarriance effects that their yesteryear lovers have on them, they both move toward adulthood and integrating in their community, as one brotherhood. Quoyle ‘s hunt for contentment nears its fulfilment.
Quoyle moves to Newfoundland, he is liberated from the subjugation of hedonism in American society and is he able to happen contentment and felicity. Through Quoyle, Proulx shows the cardinal factors imperative in obtaining contentment – determination and prosecuting one ‘s ain single illustriousness, assisting others and the edifice up of one ‘s character. When Quoyle “ worked the tiller ” and “ traced curves, ” as he “ laughed like a Canis familiaris in the dorsum of a pickup, ” Proulx makes clear that a individual will ne’er be content in life without understanding their intent ( 109 ) . For Quoyle, “ all the complex wires of life were stripped out ” in Newfoundland, leting him to “ see the [ beyond doubt ] construction of life ” ( 196 ) . Even though “ there are still old knots, ” along the spiral of his lying rope, Newfoundland provides Quoyle with “ new intents for [ his ] rope, ” and deliver a newfound strong belief to populate life without limitations ( 324 ) .With this in head, Quoyle is able to assist Wavey happen the contentment that he finds in Newfoundland. He becomes her helpmate, the Eve to her Adam ( Gen. 2.18 ) . As they spend clip together, they epitomize “ the dear advocate of [ relationship ] ” and demo how such convention is as “ sweet as aroma and incense ” ( Prov. 27.9 ) . In peculiar, Proulx parallels their relationship to the hit of two icebergs and the subsequent falling of the ice under H2O. She describes one tower as “ [ raising ] over [ the other ] like a lover ” ( 193 ) . Through such imagination, Proulx shows how two cold, ignored entities, Quoyle and Wavey – collide, go forthing behind the strivings of their yesteryears, in exchange for contentment. As the displaced H2O sprays up when the iceberg goes down, the old lovers, Quoyle ‘s Petal and Wavey ‘s Herold, are everlastingly washed off by the apposition of new love.
Many people who find themselves populating suffering lives frequently believe that they have to stay in the province that they are in, hopeless and discouraged. They fail to recognize that they possess the power to command their fates. They remain bound to their ain private devils, and neglect to face the really things that oppress them – physically, spiritually, and mentally. As Tim Kasser, a celebrated American psychologist, explores in his book The High Price of Materialism, hedonic, material-seeking life styles are frequently the direct cause of most suffering lives. He shows that people whose values center on the accumulation of wealth and the promotion ofA materialA advancement face a greater hazard of unhappiness. As seen through Quoyle, a adult male who was married to a pagan, contentment can non be found through such life. Proulx shows that contentment of course lies dormant within each person, but can non be fulfilled until one separates himself from a life style of greed. Consequently, Quoyle patterns “ the Russian Escape ” from the American Dream and allows the force per unit areas of life and the strivings of his yesteryear to “ steal over the dorsum of his manus ” and “ under the handlock whipping ” with which his private devils used to keep him confined ( 154 ) .
