Koestlers Darkness at Noon - Term Paper Example

Grammatical Fiction Student Lecturer Date Koestler’s Darkness at noon deals with Communist in the USSR which happened in 1930s, when the leaders of the revolution were accused of crimes against the revolution. Rubashov who was a well recognized Soviet official and a revolutionist to reckon with found him imprisoned at the hands of the man he this as Number one, Josef Stalin. Through a well calculated indoctrination process with the use of diverse inquisitors, he knew that his execution will follow and he is therefore induced into signing a confession of crimes of which he is innocent, with the notion that, confessing is the best thing to do for the party and his country, which he believed was of more importance than his mere self. This implies that, the first person singular he once derided as a grammatical fiction. This leads to the contention whether grammatical fiction is justifiable option for a political system. Rubashov spent two years in Gestapo prison where he came to understand that, grammatical fiction is an all embracing urge to embrace forgiveness and a dealing of compassion fro all human beings including those his partisan ideology refers to as enemies (Neufeld, 2005). In the same case, the moral self reliance and grammatical fiction are connected where Rubashov reminds Ivanov who was his interrogator of the issues that surrounded Rskolnikov where by it was clear that one cannot justify his act of murder by applying a mathematical equation to it. “Twice two are not four when mathematical units are human beings” It is a matter of fact that, morality is well emphasised in the Darkness at noon through the Rubashov’s psyche and the communist movement in general. In this matter, the visions of oceanic oneness and commendable ethical conduct in the inner self, the party tried to do away with them and in their place instil logic, science and social engineering and in so doing the moral direction as lost. In the grammatical fiction, it seems that the irreconcilable attitudes within an individual’s heart and the mind of the protagonist, and the visible polarity between politics and the concerns of one’s personal being are not emphasised. However, there is much concentration on the bringing into the surface the difference perspective in “I” and “we”, “the grain of salt” and “the infinite sea” of Rubashov’s vision (Tučev, 2006). The original great “we” in the revolution for which the “I” was willing to lay down, were the multitudes, the people belonging to his country or even mankind in general (Tučev, 2006). The main reasons why he joined the party were “the promise of more dignifies forms of life for mankind” and the drive “to abolish senseless suffering”. He actually condemned the communist system. With Bukharin, they were betrayed by the party and scorned by the great purge. They were doubtful about the parties ideologies condemning it in the statement that, “it was a mistake in the system, in the precept, that the end justifies the means. And this is the main reason why the revolution fraternity vanished”. It was clear that, all suffering have social connections and therefore pointless and senseless and can completely be removed by means of proper social action. There is therefore a precise recognition of the inherent altruistic devotion to the welfare of humanity in the grammatical fiction. Rubashov had a feeling that the political dogma has totally destroyed the “we” and therefore there was no existence of the respect to the masses, or even any effort towards the interest of the progress of humanity. In his final speech, it was clear that he was working towards recovering the original “great we” of the revolution (Berkowitz, 2009). He stooped down to go through humiliating public trial and act as a scapegoat for the party, just because of his due loyalty to it and out of what has been referred to as mental bankruptcy. However, his speech concluded with a pledge to his loyalty to the people of the Soviet Union and not the regime. This is clear in his words that, “on the threshold of my last hour, I bend my knees to the country, to the masses and the whole people” (Tučev, 2006). In Rubashov’s reflection of the grammatical fiction, he looks back on the trial and remembers the moment when he contemplated raising up like Danton in the parliament so that he can unearth the truths behind the misdeeds for the revolution. However, he never got to that for and therefore he said to cast his lot with reason. In actual facts he went ahead and challenged the to Stalinist Soviet Society when he asked whether it is just to act politically to remove the senseless suffering from the world when it is clear that the utopia is possible and clear (Barner-Barry, Carol & Hody, 1994). He then went ahead to state that, this is possible for if one poke in regard to human kind but man in the singular. The Stalinist Soviet Society was an institution of an enormous and overlapping party state bureaucratic apparatus, c command economies and secret police. It was an administrative command structure and a stable one (Keep, 1999). This society had consolidated power where by it tolerated no opposition to or deviation from the correct line according to their ideologies. In actual facts, this society was an inflexible and highly controlled society which persuasive secret police enforced adherence to the directives from those in authority. Fear was inevitable among the society from arbitrary application of those rules and this resulted to an atomized society. This society worked hard towards meeting the needs of a people while maintaining internal stability in an era when there was Cold war competition. The Stalinist Soviet Society allowed an upwards mobility and opportunity and strived towards meeting the needs of the people (Holloway, 1994). This means that it fitted in the grammatical fiction. its main focus was on the achievements from the dramatic, for it was able to give it people food and improve the quality of consumer goods even in the midst of the first explosion of a hydrogen bomb and the race to outer space. However, there are in some actions which went against the grammatical fiction which was all about the common good of the land and the people. For instance, this society ensured obedience through torture and violent plunges by the secret police. They used terror as a weapon against its own people (Hughes, 1991). Human rights were not considered in this society and whoever went against the law ended up in Gulag which was a system of brutal labour camps and many people died there. Even though the economy was stable, the Soviet people were dominated by a totalitarian system based on terror which was not advocated by the grammatical fiction. The welfare of the human was a crucial entity. In his letter to the only number one as he could refer to him, who in this case happens to be Stalin, Rubashov expressed his feeling towards dictatorship where he stated that, “ in all this years, I have been honestly and sincerely carrying out the party line and have learned to cherish and love you wisely”, for this forgive me, he believes tat Stalin is unaware of the injustices taking place. In actual fact he believes that he misinformed and that if he happens to inform the dictator, then all will be laid to the right course. On the contrary, Stalin knows what is going on and has his approval on the same. Conclusively, the grammatical fiction is not a justifiable option for political systems. This is attributed to the fact that, it will hinder justice from prevailing. Borrowing from this context, the culprits of the crimes against humanity should be left to pay for the atrocities they have committed. Rubashov induced into signing a confession of crimes of which he is innocent, with the notion that, confessing is the best thing to do for the party and his country, which he believed was of more importance than his mere self. However, in actual fact, the crimes committed by the party continued because they were not laid bear (Koestler, 2006). In a political system, those in authority should be answerable to those they are ruling and they have an obligation in ensuring that their welfare is adhered to. Confessing of crimes which one in innocent will be a stabling block towards knowing what is really happening and leaving the perpetuators of the same crime free. Rubashov carried all the crimes of the party Stalin on his shoulders. This did not help in improving the human welfare. In actual facts, more eggs continued to be broken, to the good of a few individuals and making people the sacrificial sheep. This is contributed to the notion that, he was against the suffering of the people, where he stated that, to make omelette, some eggs have to be broken. The case is rested on the notion that, grammatical fiction is not a justifiable option for political systems. Works Cited Barner-Barry, Carol, and Cynthia Hody. ""Soviet Marxism-Leninism as Mythology." ." Political Psychology 15, no. 4 (1994): 609-630. Berkowitz, Roger. "APPROACHING INFINITY: DIGNITY IN ARTHUR KOESTLER’S DARKNESS AT NOON." Philisophy and Literature, 33: (2009): 296–314. Holloway, D. Stalin and the Bomb . New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1994. Hughes, J. Stalin, Siberia and the Crisis of the New Economic Policy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991. Keep, J. "‘Wheatcroft and Stalin’s Victims: Comments’." Europe-AsiaStudies, vol. 51, no. 6 (1999): 1089–92. Koestler, Arthur. Darkness at Noon. New York: Scribner, 2006. Neufeld, Gordon k. "The Grammatical Fiction: Totalism, Solipsism, and the Dispensing of Existence in Modern Literature." ICSA E-Newsletter, Vol. 4, No. 2 (2005): 1-5. Tučev, Nataša. "THE GRAMMATICAL FICTION:SELF VS. SUBJECT IN ARTHUR KOESTLER'S DARKNESS AT NOON." Linguistics and Literature Vol. 4, No 1, (2006): 61 - 70. Read More