Jason Murray

March 20, 2013

A liberal sensitivity in an era of the neocon.

‘The creel would not fit on the rack with the bags, nor would the bowl, so he kept these on the seat beside him.’ (Trilling, p.310)

Thus ends Trilling’s novel The Middle of the Journey, as Laskell sits in his seat on the train waiting to get under way.  The creel and the bowl, both things Laskall saw as extraneous sit next to him, one a utilitarian basket designed to hold the fish one has just caught, the other a former tool, painted and unusable except as decoration.  Like these things Laskell sits next to his friends in the book, people caught at the end of a political movement, the beginning of the next, not sure where they stand.  The Crooms, Laskell, Simpson, and Maxim, all attracted by what they saw as injustice, all working for the “party” to differing degrees, and all friends are at a dividing point.  Maxim has rejected the party, and thus rejected everything they have all worked for.  Laskell, through the death of Elizabeth Fuess, and his own near death experience has found that he doesn’t feel strongly about the cause anymore.  Simpson, comfortable, wealthy, is still committed but in a way that only someone not worried about his future, not driven by ambition, fear, or passion could be.  The Crooms still passionate, taking risks with Arthur’s job through protests, and their stance still believe but in differing amounts.  

At the time progressive politics had achieved many of their ambitions through the implementation of Roosevelt’s new deal, the enlargement of the ranks of worker’s unions and the greater freedom young people were experiencing.  The enlargement of the movement of course started generating fallout that we were not going to see for a few more years with the advent of the Alger Hiss trial, the McCarthy hearings and what most here in the United States saw as the failure of the ideals of communism in the Soviet Union.  Out of this success, and this failure to see the dictatorship in the Soviet Union for what it was came a disillusionment in the ranks of the progressives and out of this disillusionment came breaks in the fabric of the party and in the ranks of the progressives as a whole. What for many was an intellectual pursuit began to fray in the light of reality.  As the intellectuals, brought to the cause through their education and given the opportunity to discuss, digest, digress, and generally examine what they believed was wrong with the world; housing, food, and worker’s rights, the intellectuals found friendship in like minds.  But as this period came to a close, and the horrors of World War Two gradually gave way to the promises of the next decade and the growing middle class many stopped seeing need and started to see dependency and lack of personal responsibility.

Gifford Maxim may be based on the real life Whittaker Chambers but he could be based on a fair number of the New Intellectuals who began to break ranks.  His initial attraction to the Fellow Travelers and to the communist party was one of revolution and an honest desire to help his fellow man.  The depth that the character Maxim was willing to go showed his commitment to something exciting and fulfilling.  As he became more and more deeply embroiled in the cause he began to see the cracks in his ideology and the problems with the system in place in the Soviet Union.  Maxim began to leave behind his indictment of society and began to believe in the absolute responsibility of the individual, “ I reverse your hole process.  I believe that duck Caldwell--like you or me or any of us--is wholly responsible for his acts.” (Trilling, p. 299) In this statement, a response to Nancy’s discomfort with her feelings about Duck Caldwell, Maxim begins a divided conversation, the Crooms on one side, Gifford Maxim on the other and “An absolute freedom from responsibility--that much of a child none of us can be.  An absolute resoponsibility--that much of a divine of metaphysical essence none of us is.” (Trillling, p. 301) puts Laskell absolutely in the center, on neither side and opposed to both.  Maxim, a man obsessively involved with his cause to the point of disappearing both literally and ideologically into the cause.  Maxim had put himself in true danger unlike anyone else in their group and had seen what he thought was the truth.  His break from the party and his break from the ideology of his friends had to do directly with how deeply he had believed what he had been fighting for.  His reaction could only be that of anyone who fights on dogmatic principles, to go entirely the other direction.  

The Crooms, safe for the summer in their country house, believe strongly in their principles and live on the edge of the communist party.  What attracts them to the Party is the same thing that attracts many young intellectual and intelligent young people to similar ideologies both then and now; the thought that you are working for the good of the masses.  To have a noble purpose, that thing that many young and well educated people have the time for.  Those that don’t have to work in a factory, or on a road crew have the time to join these causes.  Causes that are still relevant today.  Maybe moreso now than at the time this book was written.  The reactionary rise of the neoconservative movement grew out of the discontent with what had been accomplished, the realities of communism and the end of World War Two.  Many of the intellectual set began to feel that their youthful ideologies were wrong and the boom that accompanied the end of the war as well as the truth of what lay behind the iron curtain formed a foundation for this argument.  This movement grew in opposition of the liberals and split many friendships, just as you see the end of the friendships at the end of The Middle of the Journey.  

The Crooms particular subset of ideology with its extreme acceptance of the ideas of Marxism and Leninism would not fit in the world in today’s political environment.  The collapse of the Soviet Union, the poverty of Cuba, and the strange mix of communism, capitalism and   totalitarianism in China has made sure that Marxism is a passe ideology.  However, the liberal movement that would have them today would be one of similar ideas, housing for all, no one hungry, no worker oppressed.  The Crooms today would be working for immigration reform, health care rights and for worker rights.  They would be dismayed by the loss of union jobs and the plight of the middle class.  They would not have as much time because unless today’s arthur published more than one book on economics they would both be working full time.  The economic realities of today have made the life of the intellectual a rarity.  

The Middle of the Passage begins and ends with a Laskell on a train.  At the beginning of the book he is totally dependent on his friends, still weak from his sickness, still hurting from the loss of Elizabeth, and confused by and unsure of Maxim.  Through the book and his eyes we are shown the idealism of the Crooms,  a little naive and very fervent, the betrayal of Maxim, the Rogers with their utilitarian socialism, the simplicity of the Caldwells and the reality of death.  Laskell leaves, independent and healthy, leaving behind his friendships and his past.

Trilling, Lionel.  The Middle of the Journey.  Charles Scribnor’s Sons. New New, New York.  1947.  Print.