The ordering of chapters that Jennifer Toth uses in "The Mole People" gives insight, perhaps, into her own ideas on the culture she has studied. The chapter that Toth places last is entitled "Blade's Piece". This story seems to me to build up the crux of the book's purpose. Blade says that the people of the tunnels are "just like people topside" only with "a different part in them" brought out (Toth 238). Blade notes that this part that is visible in the tunnel people is present in everyone, although the "topside people" do not agree. Toth calls Blade an "dangerously unstable person" but in the same breath says that she does not "believe him dangerous" (Toth 238). This sentence seems to contradict itself, but upon exploration, perhaps, can offer a new light with which to view each of the other stories, as well as those who are not the focus of the book, "the topside people in fancy suits" who include Toth, herself.
Blade's chapter is prefaced with a quote by William Saroyan, which implores its reader, "Remember that every man is a variation of yourself. No man's guilt is not yours, nor is any man's innocence a thing apart" (Toth 237). Toth's inclusion of this quote gives insight into her view of the people of the tunnels as well as those people who live in the comfort above them. In using this quote to possibly indicate the relationship between both sorts of people, Toth's ethnography becomes not only an exploration of tunnel culture but also of the entire culture of New York City.
Toth gives her audience two important ideas. First she uses Saroyan's quote, to note the community that every person functions in and the similarities that exist between us all, merely because we live and act, with "ungodliness or evil" but also in "kindly and gentle" ways (Toth 237). Toth furthers this idea by bringing attention to Blade; a character that she "never really understood". Blade, however confusing, seems to infatuate her. He, himself seems to have an odd relationship with her, because she reminds him of a classmate who stood up for him when he was young. This does not stop Blade from later threatening Toth, eventually causing her to leave the city, and although not explicitly said, seemingly to end her tunnel work. Toth seems to want to indicate the duality of humanity, the sides of a person that may be turned on and off, so easily. Blade tells Toth that she will "never understand [the tunnel people] because [she is] not one of them" (Toth 242). And indeed, Toth does not understand the people she studies. She constantly under or over estimates those she encounters, including Blade. However, in Blade's chapter Toth has her realization. After arousing Blade's wrath, Toth is faced with the question of whether she could kill Blade or not. Upon pondering this, she learns that she could, indeed kill him (Toth 246). Interestingly, Blade himself tells her earlier in the chapter that the main difference between the two of them is the ability to kill. Blade helps Toth explore the tunnels but also helps her explore the part of herself that is inside him, "inside everyone" (Toth 238). In the end it seems that Toth's realization comes from herself, and not those she studies. She sees that in herself there is the ability to kill someone she "still [can] remember only with a smile". In this instance Toth lets her reader see that she has straddled the "tightrope" between under and above ground. She knows the thin line between surface and tunnel too well at this point and can only just escape it. Sadly to do this, she must sever her ties with the tunnels and hope that others will as well.
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Cora, your post was insightful about the ways that Toth presents the different sides and levels of human nature. Your post though also reminded me of a post from last week called “Nature and Nurture” by Melissa. Melissa’s writing discussed the deterministic aspect of Crane’s writing in “Maggie” and how the characters were condemned to their fates by the conditions that they lived in. This is also applicable to the character “Blade” that you discussed in your post.
ReplyDeleteBlade is good-natured based on Toth’s unwillingness to believe that he is dangerous, as you said. But, he, like all humans as Toth asserts, has a dark side, the “ungodliness and evil” that you described (Toth 237). It is not surprising to a reader familiar with naturalistic literature that Blade succumbs to his environment, is influenced by the danger he faces, and becomes violent toward Toth, who has done him no harm. This is the deterministic aspect of the novel. Blade is unable to escape his fate.
The interesting part of this whole situation, that was not found in “Maggie,” was Toth’s reaction. Toth finds within herself the ability to kill Blade if necessary. This is a testament not only to the duality and possibilities within human nature that you described, but it also emphasizes the slow, treacherous workings of the deterministic factors of the novels. Toth’s fall from grace into the personal lives and at times the minds of the “mole people” shows that it is not only the mentally ill and substance-dependent people that fall victim to the persuasion of the tunnels. It is the conditions that brings out the necessity of survival in the people that live in them.
Toth is considered a reliable narrator for the majority of the novel because she is an above-grounder, giving the reader someone to relate to. But, her slipping in and out of the darkness of the tunnels shows the reader how they have it within themselves to be affected by the tunnels. This gives responsibility to the reader and society as a whole for creating the conditions in the tunnels and makes Toth’s ethnography into a critique.
Thank you Adrienne! I appreciate your clear ideas -- I was really having a difficult time with clear sentences and you included a lot of clean information that illuminates some of my jumble! Not to undercut, of course! Your points do not hinge on mine but do compliment them, I think. Haha.
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