Philippine Normal University National Center for Teacher Education College of Languages, Linguistics and Literature Department of English S-ENG 19 American Literature Term Paper THE COUP John Update Paroling, Shari Anne Loraine Q. 111-10 BASE English Proof. Marl C. Pompano the Marxist approach in defining the essence of Freedom as depicted in the novel “the Coup by John Update How will a man rule a country that was forsaken and neglected of all the riches and resources? How will he deal with his aims to reconcile with the ideals of good governance by implementing the ideals of Anti-Lamarckism and seek out the essence of freedom?
John Update revealed a definition of the “coup” in a revolutionary in which he satirized the political view of the African and Euro-Americans: to depose the standing government and replace it with another body, civil or military is the definition of the Coup. But the other side of the coup which struggle between isolation and freedom portrayed by Yakima Felix Lowell comes with the twist on giving different meaning of the “coup. ” From making a sudden stroke to outwit the antagonists, which he named as the Americans, Update shadows the Islamic Marxism inspired by Karl Marx to illustrate the political society of a drought-driven land of
Cush. The irony in a political society of one’s nation can or may be conjured up by seeking the existence of freedom, but by any meaner it all ends up with the bondage of our own ideals and prejudice. “A surrealist mixture of the real and the imagined, the logical and the absurd, The Coup is Update’s imaginative recreation of an Africa of the mind as well as a commentary on American technological rationalism and materialistic values?a theme that informs many Update novels. (Lothrop K. , 1985) it gives us an idea on what are the important views of a nation that is totally different from each other he black and the white, the rich and the neglected, and the superior and the imitate the superior in his own nation and how an aspired freedom had given birth to solidarity and end up living to be Just an ordinary. “The Coup” conjured up an African kingdom called Cush – it shared an autobiographical impulse that surfaces in certain dominant motifs.
Afflicted by a sense of their own mortality, his heroes are given to existential doubts; they are fascinated by suffering as a kind of Christian testing ground, and they hunger for salvation, even as they submit, somewhat guiltily, to the demands of the flesh. As the author, himself, observes, they “oscillate in their moods between an enjoyment of the comforts of domesticity and the familial life, and a sense that their essential identity is a solitary one – to be found in flight and loneliness and even in adversity. ? Machismo Skating The novel illustrated Cush as a “landlocked between the monogrammed, neo- capitalist puppet states Fagan and Sale… “Its primary source of livelihood and export is the legumes that are manufactured and shipped to become the basis of heavily perfumed and erotically contoured soaps designed not for the people of Cush UT for the Americans. The way the persona of the novel described the Shiites is far more prejudiced from the way the Americans are ascribed as the “antiseptic lavatories,” for the America is known as the fountainhead of obscenity and glut.
Based on the geography and population rate of Cush, the natives were prone to poverty-stricken diseases like yellow fever, kwashiorkor, measles, edema, bilharzias and the like. Literacy rate was very low because of poverty brought by famine, thus, resulting the rate into 6%. They follow the constitutional monarchy and followed the reenactments models of the council which was the pure and final socialism envisioned by Karl Marx.
The philosophy on the political system of Cush is Neo- colonialism which deals with the economic and political policies by which a nation indirectly maintains or extends its influence over other areas. It has something to do with the views of Social Structuralism where something is made up of interdependent parts in a definite pattern or organization. In a way Lowell governed the land of Cush, he focused on the way he will dispatch the influence and power of American in terms of trade and authority.
Thus he subsided into being Anti- Imperialism where he implemented the policy of seeking all meaner to extend the power, dominion, or territories of his nation. The social relations of socialism are characterized by the working-class effectively controlling and owning the meaner of production and the meaner of their livelihood either through cooperative enterprises or public ownership and self management , so that the social surplus would to come into existence as a legally enforceable claim to the working class or society as a whole.
This is what the President of Cush had executed in his term in the land of Cush, and he was President Yakima Felix Lowell. The name “Lowell” depicted the meaning of “Freedom” but as the story goes on, there comes the nuance of what Lowell really meaner and how he Justifies the existence of freedom by all meaner. By looking at the symbolisms portrayed in the novel, we can see how it strengthens the coup in which the author discretely defines. The symbol for authority that was used on the novel was the scimitar. It signifies the name of the ethnic integrity of French that had permitted executions. So, we can say that as a ruler, it is a necessity to have symbol of authority and power to gain the honor from the inferiority. The scimitar the rule of the king must not be broken for it is the ruler of the land who holds the life of his people. Another symbol of used is the sword, which implied as a symbol for judgment and symbol of God’s rectitude. Sword that is used to get one’s life is also the same as the symbol for morality and righteousness.
It’s like having the sword meaner having the authority to dictate what must be dine according to one’s own perspective of what righteousness is. These are the essentials that an aspiring ruler f Cush must have in order to have the power and dominion over the people who are illiterate from all the Jurisdiction of those in the highest seat. Marxism believes that Consumerism is a must in running an economy. When Lowell came into his realizations on what freedom really was. He concluded that, “Everybody has the same need, but ninety percent of the world’s wealth is in the hands often percent of the world’s people. How does Lowell came into his conclusion? It all summed up that this is the reality of what capitalists take their advantage for having all the resources hey ‘already had. People are struggling to provide all their necessities but one thing they have in difference and that is the power, prestige and wealth that makes one above to anyone else. There comes the irony between the reality and the ideals of one man. “Actuality breeds discontentment. You [Lowell] took the name freedom and have been captive, until now, of your demons. It reveals the nature of man that when triggered with all the ideals to cope or even escape the reality, the ending will sometimes be captivating until one cannot even break his chains. The capital of Cush hat was named Statistical is called “Independence” but Lowell had conceived the idea that their sovereignty is an interweaving of dependencies. There is a conflicting idea in search of the meaning and essence of freedom through having independence. Seeking the real meaning of freedom is hard to conceive but then, Lowell had made a speech in front of his people conveying what he had realized as he went along searching.
What then, is freedom? “Can you put it on chains, can you hold it within stone walls, behind still doors, in the circumference of electrified fence… “What are hose chains, still doors, stone walls and electrified fence that bind us? Chains are what we let ourselves do in order to meet our satisfaction and ideals. This is when we commit crimes against our conscience and lead us to self- destruction. The stone walls are what we have built in order to hide our weaknesses, mistakes and mischievous advantages that set as higher that those who are inferior to us.
The still doors are the opportunities we closed so that no one can ever take over our place, our authority and power. The electrified fences are what we considered as our inform zone against taking risks to trade our wealth. In the novel one has said his asides why we have this electrical fence:”The fences are electrified for the safety of the Juvenile and stray dogs. ” it sounded intriguing because how does freedom has to be concealed in an electrified fence Just for the safety of the young ones or is it a way of conforming others to behave in such a way that authorities may have the favor.
Freedom is defined in various ways shown in the novel. Freedom is not benefited by all; instead, it becomes a privilege more than a right: Privilege for those who are in rower and prestige but for the common people, it’s like months or years of toiling Just to earn it. The novel illustrates how it becomes transverse where Lowell had a dilemma on searching for the essence of freedom. The succession of the new Lowell as the president, also depicted a definition that gives the readers a new way of seeing the essence of freedom. Doors is a Saul term which defines as “solidarity’ and “consolidation. In another view of the definition of his name, Doors has a double meaning which is “the torpor suffered by a reptile, when it was swallowed too big a ell. ” If we take into consideration the name of Doors, he aimed to unite the nation of Cush to make firm or secured government where his ideals were based on shared interests, objectives or standards while on the other side, he was also described as the “torpor,” which meaner dullness, apathy and stagnation that made him to be like a crocodile that because of its greediness to consume too much of its meal, it made him suffer, because having too much may lead someone to destruction.
The novel ended up by Lowell writing his memoir while staring at the children of Cush. “One goes not know what is to love a country until one has seen its children going off to school. ” This passage tells us that what might happen can be presumed through seeing the generation of the little children where they are taught to respond to the thought that they were “creating a nation. ” A child, as illustrated in the novel, is the counterpart of a corrupt politics.
A kind of politics that can be brushed aside but then also had the tendency to leave a destructive culture. In Ellison’s encounter with his son, who was named after him, a name Lowell had perceived “solidarity’ in the yes of the child. Lowell tried to insist that their names meant “freedom. ” That encounter left a conviction that the way the child responded to Lowell showed that the child really did not care to what his name meant.
Thus, it left a conception that no matter what the name of a person meaner and how its definition affects the way that certain person lives, it must not dictated the ways in which he ‘should’ live. His ideals and his views towards reality are the reason why there are times we are imprisoned by our desperation to seek for freedom and independence and how we rye to outwit or create a stroke to create a new nation that will respond for the common good or even respond to our own standard of living.
Lowell leaves a principle in which Marxist point of view defines the political system of Cush where he stated, “The deeper in debt the debtor gets, the more the creditor will invest to keep him from going under. ” This is the principle in which every ruler intended, or even unintended, to do as he governed a nation that experiences scarcity from the resources and thirsty for the real essence of freedom, solidarity and consolidation, hush, creating a subtle attack to the conviction of man on how he will respond in creating a new nation.
