SECTION I (pp. 107-16)
Focus on:
vigour
CONSIDER THE
IMAGERY . . .
'His vigour, nowadays, contains something savage and
tasteless. It is pink-tongued. It is feral' (p.108). Look at earlier imagery
that this echoes. 'John attends them both with his animal parts thickened' (p.
89); 'Cruelty, which is bright-eyed, which is pink-tongued' (p. 31). What ideas
form around the notion of 'vigour' in this novel? List them, and add to the
list as you read on.
Focus on:
names
COMPARE THE
FAMILIAR AND THE EXOTIC . . .
— Tod Friendly and John Young are
banal, familiar names. Hamilton de Souza is more exotic, and suggests to us
that Friendly/Young/de Souza's roots might be less familiar than we had
expected. Notice, though, that all three adopted names are unimaginative.
Connect this idea with the way that de Souza is 'ever the literalist' (p. 108).
In what ways has this characteristic of unimaginative literalism been present
throughout his portrayal?
Focus on:
locale
COMPARE
THROUGH AN ANALYSIS OF IMAGERY ...
— Compare the setting of the villa near
Redondo with that of New York in the previous chapter. Focus on: palindromes
RESEARCH AND
CONSIDER . . .
— The narrator's claim that he can only
understand somos (p. 112) continues
the verbal playfulness with which Amis presents the reversal of time. It is a
palindrome, because it reads the same backwards. The narrator has drawn our
attention to this conceit as early as p. 16, when he lists 'palindrome' as an
instance of his 'superb vocabulary'. What other palindromes can you think of?
— 'Deed' is the same, backwards and
forwards — but is a deed?
Focus on:
inferences
INFER ...
— Performing a running reversal to
'make sense' of events according to our time logic, we note that Hamilton de
Souza exchanges gold for money (p. 113). Put together the clues: the date, the
place, the fact that he will soon be on the run, the reference to tooth solder.
What connotations does gold have in this context? What is it about the mood of
these transactions that supports your inference?
Focus on:
sentimentality and psychosis COMPARE ...
— Compare the descriptions of Rosa and
of the camp on pp. 113-15 with de Souza's views of her. In what ways is his
sentimentality seen to be a substitute for genuine feeling? How are images of
the colour pink on pp. 113—15 used to suggest that de Souza's reactions to Rosa
are psychotic: that he cannot see the girl herself, only the images into which
he makes her?
SECTION 2 (pp. 117-23)
Focus on: the
crucified Christ
INTERPRET ...
— How is it fitting that de Souza sees
the crucified Christ only as 'the worshipped corpse' (p. 118)?
Focus on: the
perfecto (a medium sized cigar)
CONSIDER THE
MOTIF ...
— Friendly/Young/de Souza's 'perfectos'
(cigars) are more consistent than his identity. Note that they recur with the
frequency of a leitmotif, each time
with an alliterating adjective: 'a pensive perfecto' (p. 22); 'with plausible
perfecto' (p. 107); 'one's penitent perfecto' (p. 120) are examples. Despite
his changes of identity his character is in some ways consistent. An arrogant
belief in his own superiority runs throughout, as does hedonism, as does a
capacity for posing. How are these ideas conveyed by this recurring motif?
Focus on:
guilt and penitence
ANALYSE
IMPLICIT MOTIVES . . .
— Read de Souza's conversation with
Father Duryea on pp. 120—1. What does he admit to? Is it a confession? Gauge
how sincere de Souza is in expressing penitence?" Assess the validity of
the claim that "You do what you do best [...] not what's best to do' (p.
120) as an excuse for his actions. What is he seeking?
ASSESS AND
RESEARCH . . .
— Comment on the reactions of Father
Duryea. Do you interpret his willingness to understand as a sign of Christian
love? Of moral laziness? Does he compromise Christian ideals by his reactions
to de Souza? You might research historical accounts of reactions of the Roman
Catholic Church to Nazi atrocities by doing a web search on Pope Pius XII.
According to John Cornwell, in Hitler's Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII
(Penguin, London, 2000), the wartime Pope's 'silence' in the face of the Jewish
genocide was tantamount to counterwitness to what was happening. For a rebuttal
of this argument, you might go to http://www.beliefnet.com
— Analyse the language the narrator
uses to describe Odilo Unverdorben's impressions of his 'charmed' journey on
pp. 121-2 (from 'And clean heels' to 'It never did anything'). What do you make
of the personification of the land as clean-cut and innocent? The word
'painterly' draws attention to its symbolic qualities, and may recall the
pictures of clean-cut Aryan farmers living close to the land of Nazi
propaganda. Look for examples of such pictures. What do they say about Nazi
ideals of purity, nature and national identity?
Looking over Chapter 4
QUESTIONS FOR
DISCUSSION OR ESSAYS
1. 'Sentimentality is the false emotion
of those who cannot feel.' Is this claim an accurate description of de Souza's
expressions of emotion in Chapter 4?
2. Discuss the themes of innocence and
guilt in Chapter 4.
3. What aspects of his attitude and
outlook associate de Souza/Unverdorben with a Nazi mindset in this chapter?
4. 'I might be impressed and affected
by this sudden talent for suffering, if it weren't for its monotony: fear, just
fear, fear only' (p. 119). Consider the idea that de Souza cannot feel for
anyone but himself.
