Essays

Community and Self-Revelation

In a society, some people act cautiously and covertly in order to avoid getting into troubles; others act more obliviously, without fearing much about how the society may respond to their actions. Restraining actions can prevent you from losing your place or becoming a selected victim in your society. Waverly, a character from The Rules of the Game, and Tessie, a character from The Lottery, were both incapable of restraining themselves and this led to their unhappy endings. The poem Much Madness is Divinest Sense also seems related to this in that it describes the power of the majority and the dangers of having a perspective that differs from others. On the other hand, concealing everything you know of can cause the people of your society to think that you are dishonest and make arbitrary assumptions on you. This happened to Kabuo Miyamoto in Snow Falling on Cedars as he claimed to know nothing about Carl Heine’s death and remained expressionless throughout his murder trial; that only made people more suspicious of him. By comparing the implied messages in these four different writings, I would like to contemplate the extent to which one should reveal his/her true self to the society.

The Rules of the Game stresses upon the importance of keeping your true thoughts and desires invisible and also elicits the overwhelming power of a community to an individual. Waverly learned this from her mother, and while she followed this principle, she gained victory in chess games. Her tactics were to have “a mathematical understanding of all possible moves” (1.217), and a foresight on the endgame, while superficially appearing foolish in front of her opponent. For example, she wore “[a] crisp pink-and-white dress” to one of her chess games, and “[swung her] patent leather shoes back and forth like an impatient child riding on a bus” (1.355-365). With her calculative act of childishness, she cleverly concealed her advantages and strength in playing chess. However, in the end, Waverly broke her own rule by straightforwardly telling her mother that she felt embarrassed when her mother bragged about her. Consequently, when she returned home, “nobody looked at [her]” and no dinner was left for her (1.453) Her imprudent actions led to her getting secluded by the members of her family. In Waverly’s visionary chess game, “[her mother’s] black men advanced across the plane, slowly marching to each successive level as a single unit. [Waverly’s] white pieces screamed as they scurried and fell off the board one by one” (1.464). This story symbolizes how weak an individual is compared to a community, and in order to keep your position in your community, you must think ahead and act prudently.

Tessie Hutchinson is another character who underestimated the force of the society. In The Lottery, all villagers held the fear of winning the lottery and getting killed, so they abided by the rules and traditions of the society. However, Tessie was solely oblivious to the dangers of defying the rules and acting different from others. To begin with, she arrived late for the lottery, which was probably an inexcusable mistake since the lottery was a very important ritual. Also, when her husband Bill was called to draw a slip from the box for her family, she said, “Get up there, Bill” (p.513), which was another terrible mistake because every villager was obliged to follow the strict rules of patriarchy. Then Bill opened his slip of paper to find that “[he] got it” (p.513), and Tessie shouted furiously that it wasn’t fair. As a result of her defiant attitude, Tessie ultimately drew the paper with the dot on it and was stoned by the villagers. In other words, the society eliminated her for her undesirable existence as a resistant individual, and Tessie inevitably had to pay for her inability to adapt to the society rules.

Much Madness is Divinest Sense describes the tyrannical power that the majority has over the minority. Emily Dickenson, the writer of this poem, believes that “Madness,” which is the distinctive perspective of the minority, is the most gifted sense and that the so-called common sense, which the majority of people have, is the most absurd. Nevertheless, as she writes “Tis the Majority In this, as All prevail,” the majority always wins over the minority. If you agreed with the majority, “you are sane,” and if you disagreed with them, “you’re straightway dangerous.” Therefore, you must always go along with the majority and the rule of possessing common sense, no matter how absurd they may seem. The minority cannot express their true original thoughts to the society without carrying the risk of being regarded as dangerous and getting locked away in prison.

Kabuo Miyamoto, the defendant of a murder trial in Snow Falling on Cedars, was well aware of the dangers of revealing too much of himself. He did not tell the sheriff about his battery affair with Carl Heine at the night of Carl’s death “even in the face of imminent arrest” (p.408). However, Kabuo had good reasons for being reluctant to tell the truth. The Japanese American community was probably a minority in the San Piedro Island since they got exiled during World War Two. As part of war propaganda, Ishmael and other Americans were taught that the Japanese were “sly and treacherous” (p.344), and some islanders still held prejudice against them. For example, Etta Heine, Carl’s mother, thought the Japanese-Americans “got the better of you” by “[acting] small and [thinking] big” (p.127). To make matters worse, Kabuo fit the image of a “sly and treacherous” Japanese as he used to be a warrior and his face itself communicated “haughtiness” and “guilt” (p.155).

The three writings The Rules of the Game, The Lottery, and Much Madness is Divinest Sense demonstrated cases in which rebels, mavericks, or extremely talented people were punished by society for revealing too much of their true thoughts and personalities that differed from the norm of society. In contrast, Kabuo in Snow Falling of Cedars did not reveal too much of his true thoughts; rather, he kept his mouth shut, but society punished him anyway because in this society there existed a general prejudice against people who look like Kabuo— the Japanese. And so in conclusion, the possible answers to the dilemma of whether to speak one’s mind and risk being preyed by society or to avoid the risk by keeping thoughts/personalities concealed can be divided in two conditions. That is to say, in the case that there already exists a prejudice like Kabuo’s, there is no merit to keeping your thoughts hidden because it is a no-win situation. Therefore, it is better to at least have the benefit of expressing thoughts. It is more complex for the type of people demonstrated in the other three writings because they have the true dilemma, and there is no true answer.