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conviction, and therefore must seek reassurances, which are not forthcoming for precisely the same reasons. |
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Suddenly, the chapter shifts its perspective. Using another reference to Orr's continual flight mishaps as the occasion, the chapter shifts in time and turns to an account, much fuller than we had before, of Milo's operations. Much of this account is comic, of course; we have, for instance, the woman procured by Milo and described in a parody of the old joke about a used car driven only on Sundays. But there is much here, even much that is funny in itself, that should alert the reader to deeper levels of meaning. |
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Age and time are here distorted, suggesting that, for everyone but Milo, time is psychological. (The reader can come to grips with such details by asking, "In whose eyes is this 32-year old an 'eighteen-year old virgin'?" And, what is the object of having someone describe her in this way?) Such distortions are accompanied by a consciousness that slurs over people falling and being trampled to death, and the whole scene is latent with tragedy even though it is comic on the surface. |
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Part of the effort of this presentation is to give us an idea of the inter-connectedness of the syndicate, parallel to that shown regarding Snowden. Thus, here too, "everybody has a share." The syndicate, then, involves everyone, and it is also, though not so obviously, a threat. Or perhaps better put, it is a different kind of threat, one against which Dobb's proposal would be ineffectual even if carried out since everybody is involved. As Milo goes from place to place, the major here, the Caliph there, it becomes apparent that Milo is all the world and his syndicate "the way of all flesh." And, just as the trapped mouse symbolizes one sort of danger, so here the rain imagery symbolizes this danger. |
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The central concern of this chapter is the argument between Nately and the old man. Ranged around this core are the revelation of Aarfy's cruelty and the depiction of Nately's family, and all of this is set in the "apartment" in Rome. Thus we have Nately's world, both as it is and as he would have it be. |
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The argument itself revolves around Nately's cliches and the old man's sophistry. It deals principally with the meaning of strength and weakness, and these terms have to be defined in terms of one's desired end. For the old man, the end is simple: to stay alive. Therefore, principles have to go. Strength and sanity are measured only by survival, and whatever threatens survival must be rejected — for example, country and patriotism. And, indeed, if a country is no more than a body of land bounded arbitrarily, then why should one die for it? Thus, we have here again the theme of the value of one's life, the theme of sanity and madness, and the theme of appearance and reality. |
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