Lillian Hellman and Clifford Odets - Book Report/Review Example

A review of the biographies of the Lillian Hellman and Clifford Odets shows that both were heavily involved with communist and socialist ideas in pre-WWII America, as well as in political organization with Leftist groups. What may have been standard intellectual activity and research in the pre-war era became subversive activity, the fundamental enemy of domestic law enforcement, in the beginnings of the Cold War. McCarthyism and its blacklists are the symbols of the backlash of that movement in the art and literature circles, but this crackdown had deeper roots throughout America’s labor movement from the mid 1800’s. Lillian Hellman was blacklisted after the war for her work with Dorothy Parker and others with communist ties. Odets was also blacklisted for his organizational work and writings, but was able to remain free of the punishment that Hellman received due to co-operation with authorities, something that calls his greater legacy into question and doubt. As both advocated resistance, in their personal lives it is important to see in what ways their ideas were applied personally to the greater society as a whole and actually lived. Odets was a long-time Socialist organizer in the tradition of Eugene Debs and Upton Sinclair, a radical Leftist constantly at odds with the government and established authority, seeking reform and justice in the political system. Lillian Hellman’s play, Watch on the Rhine, and Odets’ Waiting for Lefty, both show political organization as the answer to State repression and fascism in their themes, but Hellman’s play delivers a patriotic, pro-war message that can be considered supportive of the government’s foreign policy at the time, and advocating organized, violent resistance in the humanitarian context of the war in Europe, with respect to German dissidents and organizers in America. “For every man who lives without freedom, the rest of us must face the guilt,” she famously wrote, and this is remembered to this day as a rallying cry for WWII. (Helman, 1941) Odets, however, can be seen as sending the message of the need for organization and armed resistance through the Labor movement of Socialism, and his violence is directed to a type of domestic fascism of the corporate State in American political expression. Edna: "But when a man knocks you down, you get up and kiss his fist! You gutless piece of baloney.” Joe: “One man cant –“ Edna (with great joy): “I dont say one man! I say a hundred, a thousand, a whole million, I say. But start in your own union. Get those hack boys together! Sweep out those racketeers like a pile of dirt! Stand up like men and fight for the cryin’ kids and wives. Goddammit! Im tired of slavery and sleepless nights.” (Odets, 1935) To summarize, while both writers show how organized violent resistance is required politically, in the context of opposing Nazism in Europe and in opposing labor injustice in America, but Hellman takes a pro-state, patriotic stance from the U.S. perspective at the beginning of WWII and Odets takes a radical, anti-State stance that is ready to lead workers into a Socialist revolution. As this was related to the decision to join the war in Europe, Hellman’s work is recognized to have been influential both on Broadway and in Hollywood, attracting the positive attention of politicians and even the President at the time. “Since when do you have to agree with people to defend them from injustice,” she asked. (Hellman, 1941) In contrast, Odets is the ultimate outsider in American politics, and his work would have seen to be supporting neither the Nazis nor the American State politically. Fay: "The world is an armed camp today. One match sets the whole world blazing in forty-eight hours. Uncle Sam wont be caught napping!” Mill (addressing his pencil): "They say 12 million men were killed in the last one and 20 more wounded or missing.” Fay: "Thats not our worry. If big business went sentimental over human life there wouldnt be big business of any sort!” (Odets, 1935) Hellman’s play was so supportive of the war effort that it was made into a Hollywood movie with Bette Davis that rallied public sympathy for the war against Germany in America (1941-43). Odets play, when read and performed, still seems controversial today, even with the Cold War officially ended. In a sense, both plays are works of propaganda or “message plays.” Whereas Odets wanted to bring the workers’ revolution immediately to the experience of the audience, Hellman wanted to rally a sense of solidarity in opposition to fascism that supported the war machine. "And so we have met again. The blood on earth did not have time to dry. We lived to stand and fight again. This time we fight for people" (Hellman, 1941) Neither were avowing a pacifist response by nature in their political organization. The Germans who organized in the underground to oppose Hitler in Hellman’s play are actively organizing an armed response. In Odets’ example, violence is openly advocated as if he expected the audience to immediately rise up and join the revolution as part of the family. One receives the same sense from Hellman, but it is the sense of rising up immediately and joining the war effort and resistance to Nazis, not the workers’ revolution. For example, radical socialists in line with Odets’ view saw World War II as an example where workers on both sides were exploited in armies, and urged them to throw down their weapons and abandon fighting as millions had done at the end of WWI. If one sees Hellman’s situations from the German context, from German history, from German identity, there is a different message than from the American view. In Odets’ example, the American government is a fascist enemy much like Germany that one must rise up and oppose through the workers’ revolution. He is urging the audience to join by telling them that it is already here, this is the organization, it starts now with everyone together in the theater as they are. He is instigating the audience and community in this manner, whereas Hellman shows an organization that is targeting the American audience in a much different way. In identifying with the German resistance, the audience became more patriotic in the American context. In the debate over America’s role in WWII, Hellman actively helps build and rally support for the war, where Odets opposed it on a more fundamental ground as a Socialist. The messages of Watch on the Rhine and Waiting for Lefty are similar in many ways on this need for organization and political response; it is generally only their context to U.S. policy that distinguishes them and the reaction to them. Works Cited: Odets, Clifford. (1935). Waiting for Lefty and Other Plays. New York: Grove Press, 1994. Hellman, Lillian. (1941). Watch on the Rhine. New York: Dramatists Play Service, 1998. Read More