Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 2002. Vol. 8. Eger Journal of American Studies.(Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 28)
Studies - László Dányi: On the Bad Side of the Fence: Fiascos of Southern Ethos
One aspect of the absurdity of the age lies in the individual's desire to achieve order in the 20 t h century, in which the chaos is initiated by human beings through their strivings to establish their order by eliminating those who do not fit, or do not want to fit. It can be the inherent implication of disorder hiding beneath the surface of order. For example, in the novel Mrs. La Farge speaks about the war in Poland, and the A-bomb is also mentioned in the novel, "Nagasaki, the man said and he spoke of mushrooms and Mr. Truman: there were atoms in the air everywhere, he said, and he explained, but I couldn't make much sense" (Styron, Lie 327). Styron refers to the absurdity of disorder when he writes that wars and cataclysms may open up new procpects, "... to people so young there is nothing final in disaster, the disaster itself often opening up refreshing vistas of novelty, escape or freedom" (221). The descriptions of order, disorder and oppressive order express the problem of "differentiating between that sort of organization which procures and protects intelligible life, and that sort of mechanical 'order' which induces anaesthezia" (Tanner 144). Being unable to bear the unbearable burden of the disintegrating world around her, Peyton approaches her tragedy. She listens to music and "the voice goes up and up tragically as a night without stars" (Styron, Lie 332). She wants to fly with the "birds". She wants to leave the earth and it is expressed in the recurring image of "birds". But these "birds" have no wings and these wingless birds represent the futility of Peyton's existence, "the birds came back and things shadowed over some —it seemed that a lot of light went away from the day" (326), "then the birds all rustled in the sand... incurious eyes and I lay down somewhere in the desert topography of my mind" (331), "they came so serenely across the darkening sand, my poor wingless ones" (333). Peyton realizes the meaninglessness of her life, "I saw the birds alive, apart from dreams" (334), "I couldn't think of anything again but becoming immoral, the birds came rustling around me" (340). She wants to regain the balance of her disturbed mind in the communion with "birds", in death, "Perhaps I shall rise at another time, though I lie down in darkness... Come then and fly... and so I see them go —oh, my Christ—one by one ascending my flightless birds through the suffocating night, toward Paradise" (368). Haunted by the 183
