Protest Art: Art as well as Protest - Essay Example

? Protest art Art- Art as well as Protest Your First Your Submitted Protest art Art- Art as well as Protest Protest against established forms of authority can arise out of many reasons. Resentment is likely to build up as a result of marginalization within a certain community or oppression from a power that is not a part of one’s own community. Oppression itself can take on many forms and in the case of feminist authors, the oppression in many cases arises as a result of the behavior of one’s own family, owing to the misogynistic attitudes that are perpetrated by a society that is largely patriarchal in its orientation and belief systems. Protest can be a way of registering one’s lack of interest in being a part of a community or in a particular occupation. Over the centuries, protest has been one of the most potent methods that have enabled change in the social formations that exist in the world. The forms of oppression that were based on race, caste and class were always countered through methods of protest that were based on the participation of people in mass movements that were also backed by representations of the marginalized in art. Protest against forms of oppression was also done on an ideological basis in works that satirized certain belief systems that gave sanction to such forms of oppression. The role of art and the works of literature that are under discussion in this paper, in the success of these protests has always been a great one since they are able to change the perceptions of forms of oppression and the social structures that support them in the society. Such changes in public perceptions are necessary since they enable legislation that is another important method of countering oppression. Most protests and art that protests against injustice seek to enable legislation and reverse the movements that subjugate certain sections of the society through ideology and sometimes even through the use of brute physical force. The works of fiction that are under discussion in this paper serve to bring such issues into the limelight. Tim O’Brien’s recreation of the horrors of the Vietnam War and the My Lai massacre that led to the killing of many Vietnamese civilians, In the Lake of the Woods is the story of how the ghosts of John Wade’s past return to haunt him. The disappearance of John’s wife, Kathy Wade, and the subsequent search for her is what forms the major part of the novel. The novel uses this story not as the major part of it but as a setting to explore the effects of the Vietnam War upon the American soldiers who were guilty of perpetrating violence upon the Vietnamese people. There is a suggestion in the novel that John’s wife may have been murdered. One of the suspects of the murder is John and this suspicion is heightened by the suspicion that one of the characters in the novel, Patricia, has regarding the character of John. The importance of this suspicion lies in the fact that it reveals the inhumane nature that is repressed by John for a large part of the novel during which he attempts to appear respectable for the sake of his political career. This represses side of his breaks loose during the day that his wife goes missing, when he pours boiling water over the plants in his house with the chant, “kill Jesus” (O’Brien, 1995). In the larger context of the novel, one may look upon this episode in conjunction with another, the thoughts of the young John Wade during the funeral of his father, What John felt that night, and for many nights afterward, was the desire to kill. At the funeral he wanted to kill everybody who was crying and everybody who wasn't. He wanted to take a hammer and crawl into the casket and kill his father for dying. But he was helpless. He didn't know where to start. (O’Brien, 1995) This, along with another quote in the text, an observation by the narrator-“There is no such thing as 'getting used to combat'...Each moment of combat imposes a strain so great that men will break down in direct relation to the intensity and duration of their exposure” (O’Brien, 1995) - indicates to the reader the effects of battle on the minds of people. John Wade is not shown to be a normal person even before he went to Vietnam for the war. However, his involvement in the war not only intensifies his problematic mental condition but also is the cause of the death of Vietnamese civilians. It costs him dearly as far as his political career is concerned and he is shown to be unable to bear the stress that this causes. O’Brien demonstrates how the war and the policies of the government of the United States of America were flawed. The novel thus becomes a work of protest against earlier acts of interference committed by America. Such works of protest art are able to provide pointers for the future. The failure of the Vietnam War, according to O’Brien, produced effects that were far-reaching and could return to haunt America in a fate similar to that of John Wade. The novel thus, anticipated the events that were to follow in the following decade when many similar diplomatic and military decisions would come to be questioned. The novel’s protest is significant in that it is able to record the anguish of both parties- American soldiers who were driven to an act of desperate inhumanity during the course of a war where they were not even able to feel palpably the presence of an enemy; and the Vietnamese civilians who died in My Lai and elsewhere. Another significant aspect of O’Brien’s protest is that it reveals the disgust that the American masses feel towards such mindless acts of violence. This is depicted through the landslide loss that John suffers. The novel registers its protest in an artistic manner. By moving back and forth in time, the novel is able to capture accurately the mental landscape of the protagonist. The novel, in that respect, is an artistic and aesthetic success. In a poem with a similar theme, How I Learned to Sweep, the poet Julia Alvarez seeks to expose the hollowness of the war in Vietnam that was fought by the United States of America. In a scathing critique of the war, Alvarez uses poetic techniques that blur the boundaries of space to reveal the immediacy of war in terms of space. This seems like a reminder to countries that fight wars in other countries that sweeping historical events under the carpet may only lead to a situation where the war would be brought home. The poem, thus, like O’Brien’s work, is able to anticipate certain events of the twenty first century. The poem points out the futility of a war that seeks to subjugate foreign races and is thus, a comment and protest against the foreign and military policies that were followed by America when the Vietnam War was going on. Alvarez critiques the destruction not only to the men and women of both the countries but also to nature. Alvarez creates imagery in the poem by using elements of the Vietnamese landscape- in the Far East our soldiers were landing in their helicopters into jungles their propellers swept like weeds seen underwater while perplexing shots were fired from those beautiful green gardens into which these dragonflies filled with little men descended. (Alvarez, 2003) Such a description focuses the attention of the reader to an area that has not exactly been the centre of attention when critical commentary is done on the subject of the Vietnam War- the immense loss of natural wealth that was caused due to human interference. The bloody impact of this war is criticized by the poet in her work of art that is a protest against the oppressive nature of war. Like O’Brien, she also focuses on the harm that is done to people of both countries and points out how war benefits nobody in the long run. The poem also seeks to critique the traditional roles that women are supposed to play in the society. The girl is expected to sweep the floor and to have an almost inherent knowledge of its techniques. The title satirizes such roles and societal expectations that serve only to assign women an inferior position in society. The child’s interaction with the outside world happens in the poem through technology that destabilizes traditional models of spatiality. By doing so, the domestic boundaries that women are expected to stay within are also destabilized, thus offering an opportunity to break out. Through her work of art, Alvarez is able to demonstrate the importance of awareness in people in the initiation of a protest. The two works of literature that have been discussed in this paper talk of the war that America fought in Vietnam. They are critiques of the futility of war in solving crises and criticize the military policies of the United States of America. The mental and physical consequences of war are recorded in these works that protest the violence that wrecked the lives of many Vietnamese and American people. The importance of these ideas in today’s world lies in the lessons that it provides to people who are decision makers in the fields of politics and diplomacy. References O’Brien, Tim. (1995). In the Lake of the Woods. New York: Flamingo. Alvarez, Julia. (2003). “How I Learned to Sweep”. Peace Not War. Retrieved 12th February, 2012 from http://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/poetry/peace.html Read More