Comparison

Last semester in World Since, we read the novel One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich,

which dealt with similar themes as Slaughterhouse Five. After reading Slaughterhouse Five, I

noticed a difference in how each book dealt with the concept of dignity.

Here’s a basic summary of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich: It follows a rather eventful

day for a man named Ivan Denisovich Shukhov at a Soviet imposed labor camp. Ivan is

Russian himself, but was accused of being a spy due to him being captured by the Germans.

For efficiency, the prisoners were split into squads, and Ivan was a respected member of Gang

104.

Slaughterhouse Five portrays the ease in which dignity can be taken away. In general, the

American soldiers lack dignity through their largely immoral ways and poor health

conditions. A cook at the prison even claims, “All the real soldiers are dead.” Analyzing

specific characters delves deeper into this theme. Roland Weary grew up with people

constantly “ditching” him, and was, and is, a revenge-seeking bully. As a soldier, he is just as

pathetic as Billy, but his strong patriotic values created his own dreams of grandeur. After

becoming ill from walking in the wooden clogs, he tells another soldier that it was Billy’s

fault and to seek revenge on him. Weary lacks dignity on every level, and his upbringing most

likely took it away from him. Billy also lacks dignity, but in a different manner. From the

start of his time in the war, in situations where he was saved, he didn't even want to be saved.

His urgency for survival was not really present. Vonnegut has a complex take on dignity, and

Billy’s lack of dignity is an example of this take. Billy never wanted to fight in the war in the

first place; he was drafted. Vonnegut uses his characters’ interactions, especially inter-

country, to show that war causes a loss of dignity.

With One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, it is very clear that keeping dignity in tact is

important to the respectable characters. Survival is the number one goal for the prisoners, and Ivan

only uses moral and honorable means to make sure he survives. He is resourceful, which ends up

being his greatest tool. Moral compromises are acceptable to a certain degree due to the

circumstances the prisoners are in, as Ivan sometimes uses his position to bully and swindle people.

He wants to become the “ideal prisoner” or make the best out of his situation. Characters whose

actions aren’t dignified are looked down upon by the other prisoners. One of Gang 104’s members,

Fetiukov, literally scrounges for food scraps and tobacco and is not respected by Ivan in particular.

Jazz in Mumbo Jumbo

Jazz is huge aspect of Mumbo Jumbo, and I found that the Situation Reports that Reed

includes in the novel serve as a representation of jazz related themes. The centerpiece of

Mumbo Jumbo is “Jes Grew,” which, in totality, is a representation of the success and

pervasiveness of black art. The Situation Reports read like breaking news bulletins about Jes

Grew. They are written in all capital letters and oftentimes come out of nowhere, which is

analogous to the improvisational style of jazz music. These Situation Reports are written out

of place and lack context, much like the essential jazz concept syncopation, which is defined

as unanticipated rhythms that make part of or the entire song off-beat.

Mumbo Jumbo’s Situation Reports sometimes seem to be making fun of white American culture,

with examples like “Jes Grew onflying giving America rise in the town of Muncie Indiana where it

is engendering more excitement than the last dental inspection” (Reed 32). However, he also uses

them to speak on how multicultural and universal African-American culture really is. One report

reads, “In Haiti it was Papa Loa, In New Orleans it was Papa Labas, in Chicago it was Papa Joe. The

location may shift the the function remains the same. Creole bands conceal Jes Grew from Chicago’s

Psychic Department of Public Health” (Reed 77). He included all these different nationalities but

they all serve similar purposes. Jes Grew has been around since ancient times but continually adapts

and improvises, where ever it may be located, much like jazz.

In another report, Reed makes a statement about how white America will go to absurd measures

to delegitimize and dismiss African-American culture: “The Wallflower Order induces its running

dog medical societies and its jackanape punk Freudians to issue a report which ‘scientifically’ proves

that Jes Grew is hard on the appendix… The shimmy, that descendant of the Nigerian Shika dance, is

outlawed” (Reed 115). He completely exposes the pseudo science that has historically undermined

black people in general. The fact that it affects the appendix which is a useless organ shows how

desperate white society was to subvert the success of jazz music in the 1920s. The Wallflower Order

are referred to as Atonists, which is an ancient religion. Again, Reed mixes tradition and new ideas

to make them one in the same, like the basis of jazz music.

Chapter 4

Although Chapter 4 of Mumbo Jumbo is relatively short, I thought the insight it provides about

the American 1920s and America as an entity was really interesting. The only part that I didn’t

understand at all was the very first sentence of the chapter, where Reed talks about Charlie Parker,

one of the most influential jazz musicians in American history. The sentence reads, “Charlie Parker,

the houngan (a word derived from n’gana gana) for whom there was no master adept enough to

award him the Asson, is born.” Again, I didn’t get the relevance of this sentence, so I looked into the

meanings and historical context behind some of the vocabulary used. Reed refers to Parker as a “houngan” which is basically a Voodoo priest or chief of the spirits.

This parallel seems clear enough based on the prevalence of Voodoo religion in the novel, but

learning about the “Asson” further explores the correlation between Voodoo tradition and

African American jazz culture. Generally, Asson is the ceremony where the title of priest is

bestowed upon those deemed worthy by existing an houngan. Interestingly, there is a Haitian

myth of a man named Titon, who claimed that there was no houngan great enough to give him

an asson. This is a direct parallel to Reed’s description of Charlie Parker. Another important

aspect of the story of Titon is that while he is more than qualified to become a houngan, he is

too poor to afford the ceremony. This ties into the idea that African American artists not being

acknowledged in the way that they deserved to be due to the systemic implication that they

were second class citizens.  

Source: Postmodernism and Its Others: The Fiction of Ishmael Reed, Kathy Acker, and Don
DeLillo by Jeffrey Ebbeson

Thoughts on Chapter 10

Themes of race and racism have been present from the beginning of Ragtime. The opening

paragraph of the novel contains a set of contradictory sentences, the first stating “There were

no Negroes. There were no immigrants.” (Doctorow 11) and then towards the end of the

paragraph the narrator realizes “Apparently there were Negroes. There were immigrants.”

(Doctorow 12). As the story largely follows relatively to extremely wealthy white characters,

these quotes exemplify the mindsets socio-economically privileged white people have

regarding minorities and people of color’s place and role in their lives. It’d be convenient for

black people and immigrants to just not be in the picture, but that’s not the reality and their

presence becomes an issue. How they (white people) deal with that reality has showcased

throughout the novel so far.

Of the characters, Father is definitely the most overt with his racial prejudices and clearly

racist statements. A major example of this is in Chapter 10 when the narrator writes about

Father’s expedition to the North Pole. At a certain point, Peary tells Father that Eskimos are

children

and should be treated as such and the narrator points out that “Father tended to agree with

this view, for it suggested a consensus.” (Doctorow 66). It’s interesting that Doctorow

includes that what mattered to Father was a consensus, rather than just saying he agrees with

Peary’s comments. It wouldn’t be completely out of character if he described Fathers feelings

in that manner, so it seems like Doctorow is inserting a perspective regarding the communal

and contagious nature of racism.

Matthew Henson, a black explorer, accompanied Peary on the expedition. He is incredibly

skilled as an explorer and Father even acknowledges how good he is. When Peary was trying

to decide who would actually go to the Pole with him, Henson thought that someone besides

the Eskimos should accompany Peary, and that person should be him. Father admits that

Henson’s reasoning was sound but “found himself unaccountably resenting Henson’s

presumption” (Doctorow 69). Despite all of Henson’s experience, skill, and credibility, Father

couldn’t accept Henson’s idea solely based on the fact that he’s black. In the novel, father is

described as a “decent man,” but the widespread influence of racism in America completely

normalizes his racist and prejudiced thoughts. There are many more situations in the book that

deal with similar issues, but this chapter stuck out to me.