Shoutout to Howie, The Only Good One
One of the things that's come back to me throughout this semester is the absolutely terrible men we've run into. Ranging from abusers to life ruiners, it's honestly only gotten worse as it's gone on. For a final blog post in this class, I have chosen to compile a list of the worst men we've come across over the course of the semester. They are somewhat ranked in order of terribleness -- the line between each person gets fuzzier as it goes on. And of course, I would like to extend my congratulations to all who made this list. They truly are assholes.
Rochester
I don't think I really need to explain why Rochester was so terrible, but I'll do it anyway. The most offensive thing Rochester did in Wide Sargasso Sea was attempting to make Antoinette English. He stripped her of her identity, drove her insane, and then locked her in an attic. And why? Well, he did see her as more connected to the black culture of Jamaica/Martinique, and he really doesn't like that. It makes him regularly uncomfortable. He cheats on Antoinette in such a way that she can overhear it, really only cares about money and winning, takes advantage of his gender and colonial leverage through the law in a way to excuse everything he does that's wrong, and somehow manages to make everything worse in regard to Antoinette. Yes, he's in an unfortunate position with his family -- he's the younger son so he gets no inheritance, and he sort of got sucked into the situation of marrying Antoinette. But that's not an excuse for everything he does to hurt Antoinette. By the end of the book, he's practically as insane as Antoinette as he transforms her into his perfect English wife whom he proceeds to lock in his attic. It's a horrific thing to watch, and I think almost everyone in our class agreed that Rochester was horrible. I hope he rots in hell.
Raymond
In terms of characters that were mutually agreed to be terrible people, Raymond is next on the list. I could end this by just saying he's an abuser, but I will give Raymond the true rant he deserves. This man thought he was cheated on, and instead of being a normal person, he decided to enact a complex plan to hurt his ex-mistress because he thought she hadn't been punished enough. You see, he had already beaten her. But this wasn't enough for him, so he coerced Meursault into helping him write a letter to convince her to come over to his place and have sex, at which point he would throw her out of the room. And when the plan was implemented, he not only threw her out, but beat her again. When the police showed up and called him in, he got off by just having Meursault testify that he was cheated on. We could go further and bring in his whole involvement with Meursault shooting the man on the beach -- how he was partially responsible for that, and how he later didn't even bat an eye when he defended Meursault (a murderer). But honestly, I think his more direct actions against his ex-mistress are enough to prove that Raymond is absolutely horrible.
Jake
I'm honestly somewhat sorry that Jake isn't at the top of this list. The only reason he isn't is because he didn't directly mess up people's lives. But he was a strong contender for Worst Man We Read About This Semester, and I have to give him props for that. The Sun Also Rises was one of the most blatantly offensive books that we read this semester in that it explicitly used slurs against people. Jake, our lovely narrator, was absolutely no stranger to these slurs. He was quite the racist (remember the scene with the black drummer in the bar?), as well as considerably homophobic and anti-Semitic. He's a dick to Cohn, who doesn't really deserve half of what Jake and co. give him. He has a persistent know-it-all and superior attitude toward everyone around him, he's condescending, cocky, and a jerk. He is very concerned with his masculinity (shoutout to toxic masculinity for ruining society once again) and while I can sympathize with that, it doesn't excuse the rest of his asshole character. Jake is a dick and I don't care that he doesn't have one.
Bill
Of course, if we're going to attack Jake for his homophobia and racism, we can't ignore Bill. He drops a slur every other sentence. If he were on TV, he'd be censored to the point where we would barely be able to understand what he was saying. He's an enabler, feeding off of Jake while Jake feeds off of him to create a horrific duo of shitheads. He's ironic, but that's really no excuse for his all-around asshole personality. That's besides the fact that his irony isn't even funny half the time because it often hits too close to home and accidentally insults people. It's not funny if it hurts, and that's just a fact. Bill also suffers from toxic masculinity just as Jake does, and I am sorry that he does. But it's not enough to excuse everything else he does, and it also just makes him more homophobic.
Mr. Mason
Mr. Mason wasn't one of the more prominent characters we ran into, but he was pretty terrible for the amount of time he had. For one, he also hated Antoinette and her culture being closer to black culture than he would have liked. His entire purpose of coming to the West Indies was so he could take advantage of the post-slavery economic crisis and buy estates for cheap. Not to mention that he's completely a white supremacist and embodying the "white savior" and "white man's burden". He blew off Annette's fears and doesn't pay attention to everyone's warnings, essentially bringing about the burning of Coulibri and subsequent death of Pierre. He even clips Annette's parrot's wings, so it dies in the fire too (not to mention the many metaphors that could be made here regarding colonialism). He visits Antoinette solely to prepare her for marriage and push her toward it, whether or not she likes it. He's patronizing toward both Antoinette and Annette and won't listen to them (and others) even though they have more experience in matters in the West Indies than he does. Honestly, I question why Annette married him, but I suppose if you're desperate for a chance at your successful past again, you'll do anything.
Macon Dead II
Another abuser! Constantly and solely obsessed with money, Milkman's father pissed me off from the moment I started reading Song of Solomon. Embarrassed by Pilate's appearance, he orders her to not come back to his house because she makes him look less wealthy than he might want. He abuses Ruth and forces his son to help him in his business, regardless of whether Milkman actually wants to. He constantly warns Milkman against every single woman in his life, forcing him down the path to becoming an exact replica of Macon. He doesn't really care about his daughters and inadvertently prevents Lena from going to college and having her own life because she feels a pressure to remain at home and make sure her mother stays safe from her husband. Worst father. 0/10.
Meursault
Besides killing an innocent man, Meursault is complicit in Raymond's actions. He agreed to write the letter convincing Raymond's ex-mistress to come back, and didn't even bat an eye at the physical abuse. He was taken advantage of to an extent, but that doesn't excuse that he still did what Raymond asked him to -- and what Raymond asked was horrible. Meursault doesn't care that he is surrounded by abuse. Salamano regularly beats his dog next door, but Meursault just views it as part of life. There may be something wrong with Meursault, but as far as I care he's just as bad as Raymond by being complicit in everything that happens in The Stranger.
Mr. Samsa
Alright, Mr. Samsa isn't nearly as bad as some of these men. In comparison to many of them, he's tame. But he's still pretty controlling of Gregor's mother and sister, as well as a parasite. He doesn't do any work and has Gregor pay off his debt. Instead, he sits around eating a nice, leisurely breakfast while Gregor rushes off to work at an ungodly hour in the morning. And to make it all worse, he's been hiding money from Gregor the entire time. Gregor didn't need to work as long as he was contracted for, but Mr. Samsa's selfish self kept the money that would have allowed this hidden from him. Mr. Samsa essentially completely screws over his own son and takes total advantage of him. And then once Gregor is gone, he switches to taking advantage of Grete, who is now perfectly fertile and ready for marriage. Ironic that Gregor is the insect in The Metamorphosis, because Mr. Samsa is certainly the parasitic, less than human character here.
Peter
Peter is where I've decided to end my list. He's not as much of an asshole as the other men on this list, but he's still just enough of one to make the list. He wasn't too great toward Clarissa, always having some sort of criticism about her. Really, he should have just left her alone and let her live her life. But no, he had to come back and whine about every single thing she did that he thought was stupid and uppity. He noses into her life at Bourton, ruining her kiss with Sally Seton. He mocks her constantly, leaving her with unpleasant ruined memories. He's that friend who you're not friends with anymore because he constantly exhausts you. He chases after younger women simply to make himself feel less insecure. The only consolation is that he could have been a whole lot worse. At least he's only somewhat of a jerk.
That completes my compilation of The Worst Men of 20th Century Novel. Feel free to add anyone else you think deserves to make this list or point out anything I may have missed in tearing these characters apart. And as for all the men on this list: they truly are some of the most asshole assholes I've come across. I sincerely hope they rot.
Rochester
I don't think I really need to explain why Rochester was so terrible, but I'll do it anyway. The most offensive thing Rochester did in Wide Sargasso Sea was attempting to make Antoinette English. He stripped her of her identity, drove her insane, and then locked her in an attic. And why? Well, he did see her as more connected to the black culture of Jamaica/Martinique, and he really doesn't like that. It makes him regularly uncomfortable. He cheats on Antoinette in such a way that she can overhear it, really only cares about money and winning, takes advantage of his gender and colonial leverage through the law in a way to excuse everything he does that's wrong, and somehow manages to make everything worse in regard to Antoinette. Yes, he's in an unfortunate position with his family -- he's the younger son so he gets no inheritance, and he sort of got sucked into the situation of marrying Antoinette. But that's not an excuse for everything he does to hurt Antoinette. By the end of the book, he's practically as insane as Antoinette as he transforms her into his perfect English wife whom he proceeds to lock in his attic. It's a horrific thing to watch, and I think almost everyone in our class agreed that Rochester was horrible. I hope he rots in hell.
Raymond
In terms of characters that were mutually agreed to be terrible people, Raymond is next on the list. I could end this by just saying he's an abuser, but I will give Raymond the true rant he deserves. This man thought he was cheated on, and instead of being a normal person, he decided to enact a complex plan to hurt his ex-mistress because he thought she hadn't been punished enough. You see, he had already beaten her. But this wasn't enough for him, so he coerced Meursault into helping him write a letter to convince her to come over to his place and have sex, at which point he would throw her out of the room. And when the plan was implemented, he not only threw her out, but beat her again. When the police showed up and called him in, he got off by just having Meursault testify that he was cheated on. We could go further and bring in his whole involvement with Meursault shooting the man on the beach -- how he was partially responsible for that, and how he later didn't even bat an eye when he defended Meursault (a murderer). But honestly, I think his more direct actions against his ex-mistress are enough to prove that Raymond is absolutely horrible.
Jake
I'm honestly somewhat sorry that Jake isn't at the top of this list. The only reason he isn't is because he didn't directly mess up people's lives. But he was a strong contender for Worst Man We Read About This Semester, and I have to give him props for that. The Sun Also Rises was one of the most blatantly offensive books that we read this semester in that it explicitly used slurs against people. Jake, our lovely narrator, was absolutely no stranger to these slurs. He was quite the racist (remember the scene with the black drummer in the bar?), as well as considerably homophobic and anti-Semitic. He's a dick to Cohn, who doesn't really deserve half of what Jake and co. give him. He has a persistent know-it-all and superior attitude toward everyone around him, he's condescending, cocky, and a jerk. He is very concerned with his masculinity (shoutout to toxic masculinity for ruining society once again) and while I can sympathize with that, it doesn't excuse the rest of his asshole character. Jake is a dick and I don't care that he doesn't have one.
Bill
Of course, if we're going to attack Jake for his homophobia and racism, we can't ignore Bill. He drops a slur every other sentence. If he were on TV, he'd be censored to the point where we would barely be able to understand what he was saying. He's an enabler, feeding off of Jake while Jake feeds off of him to create a horrific duo of shitheads. He's ironic, but that's really no excuse for his all-around asshole personality. That's besides the fact that his irony isn't even funny half the time because it often hits too close to home and accidentally insults people. It's not funny if it hurts, and that's just a fact. Bill also suffers from toxic masculinity just as Jake does, and I am sorry that he does. But it's not enough to excuse everything else he does, and it also just makes him more homophobic.
Mr. Mason
Mr. Mason wasn't one of the more prominent characters we ran into, but he was pretty terrible for the amount of time he had. For one, he also hated Antoinette and her culture being closer to black culture than he would have liked. His entire purpose of coming to the West Indies was so he could take advantage of the post-slavery economic crisis and buy estates for cheap. Not to mention that he's completely a white supremacist and embodying the "white savior" and "white man's burden". He blew off Annette's fears and doesn't pay attention to everyone's warnings, essentially bringing about the burning of Coulibri and subsequent death of Pierre. He even clips Annette's parrot's wings, so it dies in the fire too (not to mention the many metaphors that could be made here regarding colonialism). He visits Antoinette solely to prepare her for marriage and push her toward it, whether or not she likes it. He's patronizing toward both Antoinette and Annette and won't listen to them (and others) even though they have more experience in matters in the West Indies than he does. Honestly, I question why Annette married him, but I suppose if you're desperate for a chance at your successful past again, you'll do anything.
Macon Dead II
Another abuser! Constantly and solely obsessed with money, Milkman's father pissed me off from the moment I started reading Song of Solomon. Embarrassed by Pilate's appearance, he orders her to not come back to his house because she makes him look less wealthy than he might want. He abuses Ruth and forces his son to help him in his business, regardless of whether Milkman actually wants to. He constantly warns Milkman against every single woman in his life, forcing him down the path to becoming an exact replica of Macon. He doesn't really care about his daughters and inadvertently prevents Lena from going to college and having her own life because she feels a pressure to remain at home and make sure her mother stays safe from her husband. Worst father. 0/10.
Meursault
Besides killing an innocent man, Meursault is complicit in Raymond's actions. He agreed to write the letter convincing Raymond's ex-mistress to come back, and didn't even bat an eye at the physical abuse. He was taken advantage of to an extent, but that doesn't excuse that he still did what Raymond asked him to -- and what Raymond asked was horrible. Meursault doesn't care that he is surrounded by abuse. Salamano regularly beats his dog next door, but Meursault just views it as part of life. There may be something wrong with Meursault, but as far as I care he's just as bad as Raymond by being complicit in everything that happens in The Stranger.
Mr. Samsa
Alright, Mr. Samsa isn't nearly as bad as some of these men. In comparison to many of them, he's tame. But he's still pretty controlling of Gregor's mother and sister, as well as a parasite. He doesn't do any work and has Gregor pay off his debt. Instead, he sits around eating a nice, leisurely breakfast while Gregor rushes off to work at an ungodly hour in the morning. And to make it all worse, he's been hiding money from Gregor the entire time. Gregor didn't need to work as long as he was contracted for, but Mr. Samsa's selfish self kept the money that would have allowed this hidden from him. Mr. Samsa essentially completely screws over his own son and takes total advantage of him. And then once Gregor is gone, he switches to taking advantage of Grete, who is now perfectly fertile and ready for marriage. Ironic that Gregor is the insect in The Metamorphosis, because Mr. Samsa is certainly the parasitic, less than human character here.
Peter
Peter is where I've decided to end my list. He's not as much of an asshole as the other men on this list, but he's still just enough of one to make the list. He wasn't too great toward Clarissa, always having some sort of criticism about her. Really, he should have just left her alone and let her live her life. But no, he had to come back and whine about every single thing she did that he thought was stupid and uppity. He noses into her life at Bourton, ruining her kiss with Sally Seton. He mocks her constantly, leaving her with unpleasant ruined memories. He's that friend who you're not friends with anymore because he constantly exhausts you. He chases after younger women simply to make himself feel less insecure. The only consolation is that he could have been a whole lot worse. At least he's only somewhat of a jerk.
That completes my compilation of The Worst Men of 20th Century Novel. Feel free to add anyone else you think deserves to make this list or point out anything I may have missed in tearing these characters apart. And as for all the men on this list: they truly are some of the most asshole assholes I've come across. I sincerely hope they rot.
This is the best blog post I have ever seen. I love it. I strongly agree with everything on this list. The man i absolutely hated the most was Jake because he just annoys me so much.
ReplyDeleteLooking at this compiled list, I'm both surprised and unsurprised. Of course I knew that we had horrible male characters and I was expecting a long list. However, I was a little surprised at how short it was, as awful as that sounds. Looking back on the semester, only the bad men stood out to me. If I thought hard enough, there were a few that I could recall that weren't absolutely horrific. Take Septimus for example. This could be my hazy memory from September, but I don't recall him doing anything problematic or hating him at all. In fact, I kind of liked his character. I certainly felt bad for him. But when I think about the semester as a whole, only the bad ones come to mind, which I find a little sad for the characters like Septimus.
ReplyDeleteAhahaha. Truly, Howie was really great - no abuse issues, no arrogance, no strange insanity that causes one to lock up their wives. I agree with many of your comments, but I would like to point out that while Jake and Bill's various racist and homophobic views being blatantly expressed in today's society would be quite disgusting, we should consider the time of the book. I honestly pity both Jake and Bill more, and in my mental list would move up Macon Dead II, Mr. Mason, and Mr. Samsa. Especially Mr. Samsa. Ugh.
ReplyDeleteThis is so great. I definitely agree with everyone on this list. I would say I hated Raymond more than anyone for the way he abused his mistress and defended Meursault for killing someone. I was kind of surprised to see Peter on the list. I think you had pretty good justification for why you added him, but I had been so focused on men like Rochester and Jake that I didn't think about the men who are jerks in more subtle ways like Peter and Mr. Samsa. Overall, I love this post so much and agree with everything you said wholeheartedly.
ReplyDeleteI laughed so hard reading this! Howie is really so pure compared to all the characters on that list.
ReplyDeleteAlthough your list highlights how bad all these men were, I think the most interesting aspect of it is the sympathy we (or the book) has for all of them. I don't think any of those men are wholly "good" or "bad" - they're all deep, complex characters that have some aspect of "goodness" or sympathy to them. Rochester, who made the top of your list, is not initially portrayed as a villain in Jane Eyre. Bill cares very much for Jake, and even stops joking around to make sure his comment about Jake's injury didn't hurt him. I think these well-developed "bad" characters is a large part of what makes these books so good - their flaws and shortcomings make them more real to us. (Besides, we all love to hate a good villain.)
I agree whole-heartedly with this sentiment. While I agree that many of these characters have done some super shitty things, many of them do have their sympathetic points. I'm not condoning their actions because of their situations, but it makes many of them complex characters that are hard to pin down.
DeleteOkay also I think Milkman deserves to be on this list because he basically kills Hagar and Pilate and also doesn't seem grateful at all for the situation he's born into economically and socially, not that it doesn't bring him his own problems, but still he has the privilege to go do what he does and he never stops and appreciates that.
Yeah, if I had done this Tuesday night I might have added Milkman. I did it this weekend before we finished Song of Solomon, so I didn't know he basically kills Hagar and Pilate. Still, I debate whether he actually had a hand in Pilate's death. I also wonder if he's worth putting on the list simply because he realizes how horrible he's been by the end of the novel, unlike everyone else here. I totally understand where you're coming from though -- he definitely isn't the greatest.
DeleteIt is true! So many of the main character in the books that we read this semester have been not the best people. I think one book where the people were nice was Mrs. Dalloway. Of course every person/character have their flaws but all in all the people in the book seemed nice to me.
ReplyDeleteYou’re so right. It’s fun to look back at all of the novels we’ve read this semester and to revisit Howie- but it’s pretty sad that good old Howie is one of the only decent main male characters that we’ve encountered.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest it says something that Mr. Samsa, who is greedy and violent towards Gregor, is close to the bottom of the list. This is about the order I would put them in, but i would put Mr. Mason higher than Jake and Bill, simply because he was directly responsible for Antoinette's marriage.
ReplyDeleteI love this! I agree 100% with your list. Honestly all these men are equally horrible, but the ones I hated most were Raymond and Rochester. They were both abusive in their own ways, Raymond physically and Rochester mentally. It's kind of sad how Howie is the only good person compared to all the others
ReplyDeleteDanm, one hell of a blog post. I'd like to point out how Jake insult everybody's masculinity despite not having one himself. (i.e abandoning bullfighting, becoming Brett's slave, etc).
ReplyDeleteWhat a blog post! I really loved how deeply you went though most of the men in our semester. You are totally right, many of the characters in the books are completely horrible people. I liked where you ranked your list and I thought it was pretty accurate. Considering the guy who thought about straws as the best, I guess there wasn't anything really wrong with Howie. Then again, I didn't think Mr. Samsa was the worst, as his action in the book proved to be more defensive. Then again, he did get himself into a loan and make Gregor do it. Great post!
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, I didn't really love any of the books we read this semester. In particular, I always thought it was mostly due to the plot. However, having gone over this blog post and the overwhelming amount of terrible characters we've encountered I'm now more inclined to believe it was the characters and not the plots that I disliked.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting cause some of the characters have flaws that could maybe be partially explained by the times like Jakes usage of slurs would have been way more acceptable in the past then they are now
ReplyDelete