Of Wolves and Slaves
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The title Of Wolves and Slaves is an alternative title for the original edition of the same novel No Land for Dead Men. by the same author and same content, just a marketing request by the publisher.
An Introduction to The Novel
This novel is a bold magnificent work of fiction in the richness of its characterization and the sophistication of its plot. It is marked by subtle humor and thrilling surprises.
The author, Sam Benjamin, is an independent, nonpolitical, forward-thinking writer, who defends hard-working individuals and set to expose all sorts of religious and political obscurantism.
The Literary Importance of the Novel
The novel is about a biased, narrow-minded young man who has created his own horrible world; then he tries to escape from it, but it hunts him down and the consequences turn tragic for him and for everyone else. He later realizes the magnitude of the past horrors he has created while working in his new high-end secretive security job. The events that start out as an ordinary story develop into a series of real action horror soon after.
This protagonist sets out to retrieve from an overseas location the lost son of a client, who had a relationship with a prostitute many years earlier and had that child with her. Meanwhile, the protagonist is also trying to find the unscrupulous murderer of a mother in Miami for another client. As that young protagonist himself is carrying an overwhelming guilt on his back, he makes tragic blunders in the tasks assigned to him; he inadvertently gets caught up in a horrible international intrigue and, simultaneously, finds himself entangled in the oddities of the political and social conflict and discord that are sweeping American society. He learns about the true human dilemma of life and the elusiveness of the truth and starts a journey of exploring the philosophical quandary of existence. Several characters complete their individuation process and grasp the reality of the world at the end.
Beside action and suspense, the novel is a sophisticated work of writing replete with classical references. The novel is adroitly studded with many classical allusions to add to its structure an evident literary and philosophical depth. First, the novel is based on a classical myth immortalized by Matthew Arnold’s epic poem, Sohrab and Rustum. Hence come the characters of Ross, Sohrabinho, and Tamina. It is about the ancient saga of a father and a son searching for each other, and because of the mother’s intransigent refusal to bring them together, the father unknowingly kills his son on the battlefield.
Furthermore, the novel has a great deal of references that are built in the conversation and the description of the events from several literary works such as T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land, Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, Yeats’ The Second Coming, Ahmed Fouad Negm’s poem, “Guevara Died,” Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men, E. M. Forster’s Where Angels Fear to Tread, Dante’s The Divine Comedy, Shakespeare’s Hamlet, King Lear, and Macbeth, Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, and Franz Kafka’s The Trial and The Metamorphosis. Additionally, quotes from literary works by Homer, Sophocles, S. T. Coleridge, Lord Byron, Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville, Friedrich Nietzsche, Amal Donqol, John Steinbeck, James Joyce, Joseph Conrad, Virginia Woolf, W. H. Auden, and Samuel Beckett are remarkably interwoven in the novel to give it a great deal of legendary intensity and an eerie fatalistic dimension. Likewise, incidents and quotes from Greek mythology, the Torah, and the New Testament are expertly interwoven and blended with the events to give the novel its ultimate literary excellence. For example, Ross’s “food poisoning and sickness” incident in Chapter Thirty-Two in which Ross becomes so sick that he feels like a “slaughtered pig” is parallel to a passage in Homer’s Odyssey where the enchantress Circe turns men into swine; in Chapter Thirty, Tamina refers to Ross as a “pig.” Moreover, Tamina has “neat braids,” like Circe. Circe tries hard to prevent Odysseus from reaching his goal in the Odyssey while Tamina impedes all Ross’s attempts to connect with his son. However, Ross’s final tragic reunion with his son is a contrast to the Odyssey’s happy reunion of Odysseus and his son, Telemachus.
Probably the most obvious influence on Sam Benjamin’s novel is Albert Camus’s novel The Stranger. This influence appears in the opening lines and how death is treated with triviality. Frank’s existential reaction to his father’s death mirrors Meursault’s reaction to his mother’s death, both reactions are apathetic and absurdist, which foreshadows the subsequent events, namely the needless death of several innocent people and explains the roots of the troubled relationship between Frank and his father. Also, Frank’s absurd treatment of death in Chapter One foreshadows the coldblooded character or personal assassination of Benjamin Budd, the statistics professor, at the hands of Frank and his classmates.
Also, Sam Benjamin’s novel in many ways remarkably takes its cues from James Joyce’s Ulysses. For example, the similarities between Sam Benjamin’s novel and Ulysses are not only in the characters of Ross Blaum and Leopold Bloom, both being Jewish, and both embark on treacherous journeys but also in the epiphanies that they reach at the end. Similarly, the motif of “the father-son encounter and reunion" is prevalent in Sam Benjamin’s novel and James Joyce’s novel. Other characters such as Frank, Rina, Rebecca, Sam Freeman, Marcia, Jim Jenkins, and Tino embark on painful journeys in search of salvation which lead them to those moments of epiphany as well. These characters soon discover that they are fighting the enormous evil they themselves have helped create and the only way out is to free themselves from their being enslaved by malevolent cultural, social, political, and religious beliefs. The “Slavery” poem at the end of the novel sums this up.
Therefore, it is noticeable that three major literary writing techniques, namely individuation, intertextuality, and sublimation, are specifically utilized in the novel to give it a mythical and metaphysical complexity rarely seen since W. B. Yeats, James Joyce, and T. S. Eliot. There is a significant use of symbolism and motifs that artistically strengthen the meticulous structuring of the novel. The idea of the “Social Contract” as expounded by Hobbes and Locke as well as Carole Pateman’s theory of the “Sexual Contract” are central to the novel. The novel also evokes ideas presented in a study by the authors Tyler D. Parry and Charlton W. Yingling on the use of dogs to control and subjugate slaves in the Americas. We see dogs used to scare and control others in the novel. Hence comes the title, Of Wolves and Slaves.
Similarly, the novel shows the clear influence of Bruno Bauer’s book The Jewish Question and Carl Marx’s book On the Jewish Question, where the two philosophers debate the merits of the Jews’ rights for political emancipation and social freedom. In the novel, Ross and Schultz are two rich Jewish capitalists who assert their rights of freedom in a restrictive society full of constraints. However, their endeavors end up tragically. Both Ross and Schultz are defended by the author, being Jewish himself, because they have been victims of a harsh unjust society despite their weaknesses.
Another evil that the novel has challenged is the idea of political propaganda and manipulation. In several parts of the novel, the reader is reminded of the deception perpetuated on the American people by different politicians and political institutions. For example, The Establishment is symbolized by the main evil character of the novel, Dean Claggart, who is behind all the mayhem and ruin in the action. He assumes two identities by faking two personas. He disguises himself as a man and as a trans woman. He stands for both the conservative fascist and the liberal tyrant. He alternates between these roles throughout the novel, like our two main political parties. One time he is the prejudiced, racist, xenophobic, sex addict conservative and in another time, he is the sneaky, shady, lascivious, pushy liberal represented by his persona in disguise of the transvestite Kim Ashton. It is important here to note that Claggart pretends to be a trans woman; he is not actually a trans woman; he only does this to hide his true intentions to get more sex from unsuspecting victims. In one passage, Samuel Freeman describes that alternation in this way:
The funny thing is that when the dean is around, Professor Kim Ashton is not around. They seem to be working different shifts. One day one would show up, the following day the other would show up, or in the morning one would be around, but the other wouldn’t. When one is present, red radiates all over, when the other shows up, blue beams around. I never saw them together.
Throughout the novel, the two personas are described in the same way. Both have an “awful smirk and broad teeth.” Both of them have the same posture of “standing akimbo,” to show their arrogance and cocky attitude, and both have the protection of the same massive “Rottweiler,” but Claggart wears a red shirt while Kim has blue makeup.
The novel is generally marked by rich characterization and subtle humor. In addition, it carries serious political and social undertones. The novel also shares some of Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men themes such as “unfulfilled dreams, oppression, evil, and loneliness.”
Based on a true story, many of the real names have been changed. The reader lives through this real-life horror and becomes a part of the predicament of the Kafkaesque protagonist as it is everyone’s excruciating experience in life as well. The reader will soon realize that “neither peace through the Dionysian violence, nor peace through the sanctimonious sacrifice of religion and the inevitable forgiveness will confer real harmony and order to mankind.” The protagonist will realize that injustice, cruelty, and hatred are still prevalent on earth despite all the holy purgative violence and the ritualistic sacrificial forgiveness that are meted out every day. “The world does not deserve the justification of violence by the powerful nor the forgiveness of evil by the weak. A world in which everyone has become a god to be worthy of either justification of expiatory holy violence or ritualistic sacrificial forgiveness is an unjust world.”
Of Wolves and Slaves is a chilling microcosm of the world and a frightening summary of human history.
David M. Cohen, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus
of English Literature, Miami University
The Pack of Wolves Motif:
In many parts of the novel, there is that gang of individuals who band up against a lonely poor person. The novel starts with Frank, Maggy, Claggart, and Jason, all like a pack of wolves trying to destroy helpless Billy Benjamin. In the gas station in Rio, the homeless boys stalk their prey in a similar manner to rob them. This happened when they robbed Ross, the old fruit seller, and Frank as well till he was saved by the station attendant. Frank himself felt the "Pack of Wolves" effect every time he encountered his pugnacious landlord, his ferocious wife, and their fierce dog. It was a challenge for lonely Frank to stand the dangerous encounter, but all that was reminiscent for him (and surely the reader) of the dangers and the injustice of being treated unfairly which Frank did to Billy Benjamin, his professor.
Selling One's Soul to the Master
The novel's tragic characters have made the biggest mistakes; they have sold their souls to the master and have become slaves by their own volition. Once this is done, there is no turning back. Choosing to be a slave to one's whims, sexual desires, corrupt religious beliefs, or phony political ideologies is enslavement par excellence.
Frank betrayed his professor by falsely testifying against him; Ross entangled himself in a sexual fantasy that had undone him; Tino betrayed someone he did not know on the promise he would be rewarded later by a lot of land which he never got but instead he got into deep remorse and mental torture that ruined him at the end. Even rich and powerful individuals such as Ted Schultz, Jack DeFore, and the General Manager became slaves to their search for more power and absolute dominance which led to their destruction and the destruction of everyone around them. Tamina's intransigence and stubbornness and Maggy's selfishness and greed led to the devastation of innocent souls that were not expecting that kind of treatment.
The Two Oldest Professions
In the novel, Of Wolves and Slaves, "prostitution" and "spying" take the front row in the action. Maggy, Tamina, and Rebecca are three prostitutes who shape the action and fate of all characters, including their own. Maggy's and Tamina's greed and insanity lead to death and destruction. Rebecca, on the other hand, decides at one point to quit prostitution and perhaps she is one of two characters in the whole novel who change their fate after they reach moments of epiphany that save them.
Spying is another despicable profession that grew up with human history since the first day man walked earth. Characters such as Jack DeFore, Kim Ashton, and Claggart spy on innocent people with the aim of harming them. Those spies do their work to either satisfy some pervert sexual desire or to exact revenge, or both. The victims of these acts of spying pay with their lives. The writer adroitly gets all those stories linked together to produce one of the greatest novels written in the English language.
Frank Stevenson
Frank is the narrator and the pivotal character around which all other characters and incidents revolve. He is the modern-day Odysseus in his search for salvation. He becomes aware of his guilt and starts a journey of atonement but because he is not prepared enough to save himself, he gets others into trouble during his confusion. His archetypal betrayal symbolizes Adam's first sin. His lack of experience in life stems from his shallow personality: He never realized his poor father's enslavement working in the mines of West Virginia, his disdain to learn anything useful in college, and his disinterest to get his head around the requirements of his job.
Frank Stevenson futile journey in life is by far a parallel to Leopold Bloom legendary figure in James Joyce's Ulysses and Odysseus in Homer's the Odyssey. Ironically, Frank is only saved by his loyal legendary sweetheart, Rina, and his long-time friend, Sam Freeman. His salvation does not come easy. Beside the mental torment of guilt he goes through, he is humiliated and placed in jeopardy's path many times to the extent that he was near being jailed for a crime he did not commit and was near being murdered twice in Rio by Jack DeFore and by the boys' gang. He learned his lessons well.
The Kafkaesque traits of Frank Stevenson's character are also a remarkable parallel to Joseph K, who is the main character of Franz Kafka's The Trial. The arrest scene of Frank Stevenson and his subsequent trial in chapters Thirty-Six and Thirty-Seven are particularly similar to Joseph K's arrest scene and trial in Kafka's novel, The Trial. This amazing allusion to classical works adds a great deal of literary value to the novel.
The Danger of Language
The Novel, Of Wolves and Slaves, is a magnificent literary masterpiece in itself, but it also falls into the genre of "revolutionary literature" for its emphasis on the importance of resisting enslavement, traditional and modern, freeing oneself from the manipulation of the masters of society, and getting rid of the evil of our own biases, whims, and weaknesses.
Sam Freeman's awareness of the danger of Star Wars, Star Trek, and Harry Potter is significant as they, and other forms of fake art and media releases, are tools in the hands of the masters of society and politicians who use them to implant their own trivial ideas and values and to replace old traditions and respectable language. Trivial and fake art also aims at limiting the range of ideas and creativity in the minds of the new generations. Fake art and media outlets aim at making the populations of the world thinking and language to be homogenized in anticipation of the final takeover by the beast of war.
Frank resisted Sam Freeman's revolutionary ideas but at the end, with his character change and development, he realizes the danger of fake decadent art and the misleading language of the media. Chapters Eight, Fifteen, and Forty-Eight show the development of the danger of these fake art pieces in the novel.
In this respect, therefore, Of Wolves and Slaves echoes another novel, namely George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, where language is manipulated by the state to control the masses, where the aim is to "narrow the range of thought." Their minds are emptied of good literature and respectable language and filled with trivial and vulgar language and shallow ideas.
Injustice
Definitely, the novel’s obsession with the failure of the justice system has its roots in the “Collective Unconscious” of humanity’s long history in search of justice and the failure to mete it out. Injustice seems to be the only cause of all the chaos and anarchy in the world. From page one in the novel, readers are hit by an egregious instance of injustice. That motif of the justice failure hovers over the rest of the novel. It is only at the end of the novel when Frank realizes the scope of his evil in Chapter Forty-One when he admits, “I felt I was behind all that evil because I let it happen from the start and I was instrumental to it in many ways, or at least I made him feel that evil was convenient, sweet, easy to get away with, and it pays off well.”
Although the protagonist, Frank Stevenson, started that chain of injustice, he gets caught in that same confusion that he set into motion in the past. Frank tampered with the order of nature from which point "anarchy is loosened on the world," to quote W. B. Yeates. He goes through the mill of injustice himself and sees the impact of the harm done by injustice to him and to others as well. Innocent Marcia was raped and stabbed by the same man he supported with his false testimony. That same criminal was also the murderer of his best friend, Sam Freeman. That murderer also caused the death of innocent Barbara. Moreover, the protagonist’s interference in the natural order of justice and messing it up led at one point to delay his action to save his client, Ross, who caused the demise of his own son and finally killed by a friend of his own son.
Anti-Natalism
One of the important themes of the novel is anti-natalism. It becomes a tool of resistance against the controlling state. Sam Freeman and Frank Stevenson differ on that matter until Frank realizes that having children and adding to the population help the tyrannous state. Therefore, anti-natalism is the only way of resistance against the control of the state and corrupt politicians.
In Chapter Thirty-Three, Frank explains to Rina Sam’s philosophy of resistance through anti-natalism: “Before it is too late, it is time to stop having children for now. A family with many children is a stymied family suffering under a huge burden to provide for those children, and here comes the oppression; oppression due to the obligations and responsibilities that are dictated from inside us toward those children; but then there is the oppression that comes from outside us, namely from greedy politicians who care about increasing tax revenues through our toil and drudgery by taking advantage of our stupor; and this is coupled with oppression that comes from greedy corporations that take advantage of our torpor by enslaving us so that we keep providing to our children. Not to mention the depletion of Earth’s resources.”
Rina toward the end of the novel in Chapter Forty-Five, after going through the agony of the harsh world, realizes the weapon of anti-natalism. She says, “Let politicians have only cretins left in the world for them to govern. We will leave the world to those cretins and debils.”
Corrupt politicians depend on taxes from the masses to advance their agenda. Similarly, corporations benefit from the available cheap labor and the increasing demand from the exploding population. Thus, it is only through such passive resistance that corrupt politicians and greedy corporations will fall.
“The Roach Approach”
“The Roach Approach” is a term coined by Sam Benjamin, the author of the novel, to describe the repugnant tactics that masters of slaves, administrators, and other lowlifes use to stalk and spy on their victims. In Chapter Twenty-Five, Frank discovers fortuitously that Kim Ashton tried to get information from him about his friend, Sam Freeman. Frank describes her devious act as those of “cockroaches.” He then angrily affirms that:
"[S]limy cockroaches descended on Sam’s apartment, office, and soul. They searched for food or information to devour or use against him. They lurked behind every plate in Sam’s kitchen, and every street corner Sam drove by, and every poem Sam wrote. They were on every spoon, book, paper, and file Sam had. They crawled with their slimy bellies on Sam’s bread, dreams, documents, and dignity. They watched Sam with wide eyes in the dark in his sleep and during the day when he was awake. The roaches covered the ground everywhere and desecrated every inch of human honor and immaculate innocence leaving behind their disease, hatred, and prejudice. Cockroaches knew no decency."
Frank also discovers that his supervisor, Jack DeFore, was stalking him and his girlfriend, Rina, whom DeFore has been trying to lure into his mesh of sexual desires. Frank and Rina become very afraid of DeFore for his obsession with Rina.
In like manner, the landlord and his wife sneak into Frank’s apartment in search of dogs that were never there but the couple acted upon suggestions from Dean Claggart. Marcia’s scream in the face of her harasser, Dean Claggart, also comes with her affirmation that we live in “a world controlled by sneaky cockroaches …… and stalking wolves.”
Later we learn that Jack DeFore followed Frank secretly “like a roach” all the way to Brazil to kill him. The novel, being a work that can be classified as a revolutionary novel, tries to draw attention to all the sneaky tactics that those in power are using against their unsuspecting, trusting victims.
Of Wolves and Slaves: Intertextuality Analysis
By Monica Nalley
Intertextuality has been used in literature as a source of connection with the audience. It has been used to help influence the audience in the direction that the writer is going or helping encourage action. Intertextuality is defined as “the relation between texts that are inflicted by quotations and allusions” from classical works. In the book Of Wolves and Slaves, written by Sam Benjamin, the reader follows the main character, Frank Stevenson, on his journey through redemption of his own sins and others. Sam Benjamin uses intertextuality by comparing Frank’s experiences with several works like “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” “Sohrab and Rustum,” and Kafka’s The Trial. The author, Sam Benjamin, orchestrates the story line and events of his novel to match the structures of these works; moreover, the lessons from these works are intertwined into his piece creating a vast spiderweb of experiences that continue to entangle together in the most crucial moments. Sam Benjamin enhances the lessons experienced in all three pieces by connecting them to the encounters Frank Stevenson has while continuing on his own path to redemption and discovery.
In the beginning of the book, Frank Stevenson commits his “cardinal sin” by creating false allegations along with other students and his dean against a professor stating that for a better grade a monetary trade would be made in the shape of tickets to a game or other goods while he was in college. Frank was not confident when he was interviewed by the clumsy investigators by starting to “scratch a month-old wound.” More signs of anxiety began to arise when his answers to the investigator’s questions seemed contradictory, and he eventually “sank” in an “ocean of confusion.” In the end of this part, Frank’s mission was accomplished by the suspension of the teacher creating the “albatross around his neck” motif. In the “Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” the young mariner shoots an albatross, (an albatross represents a good omen, hence the professor they framed) and with the increased anger of his shipmates, the mariner wore the dead albatross around his neck to represent his sin. Frank’s sin is as grotesque as killing an albatross and a metaphorical albatross around his neck, but the pressure on his body was all the same. The guilt grew and eventually took over Frank’s soul and conscience, creating a new perspective of his sin and to finally discovering his redemption. Later in the book, Frank was able to achieve “redemption” when he discovers the workplace of the teacher, only to find the teacher happier than a life of turmoil that Frank created in his mind. This creates a connection between the long, exhausting journey that Frank had to endure that is similar to the young mariner’s path of redemption.
The next example of intertextuality would be the use of the epic of “Sohrab and Rustum.” Mathew Arnold’s masterpiece tells the story of a high-ranking war hero that ends up having a child with a queen, named Tahmina, in a different country. Within the following years, war breaks out between the two countries causing a battle between the father and the unknown at the time, son. In the end of this poem, Sohrab ends up being killed by his father and only telling him after he is dying in his father’s arms. Sam Benjamin uses an almost exact example of this with his character, Ross, and his search for his son “Sohrabinho.” The names themselves are remarkably similar as Ross is portrayed as Rustum, Tamina as Tahmina, and Sohrabinho as Sohrab. In the novel, Ross ends up physically chasing after his son into a busy street causing the son to be hit and killed. This devastates Ross as seeing his son dying in front of him only to be killed by the son’s group of friends, unaware of the true situation. The connection between these two stories shows the reader that a broken bond between father and son can sometimes lead to deadly mistakes.
The last example would be from Kafka’s The Trial where it follows the tale of Josef K where he must endure a trial of false accusations by nosey neighbors to maintain his freedom. Sam Benjamin has a similar scene too when Frank is having to report to court under allegations of abusing his nonexistent dogs. Due to misinformed neighbors, law enforcement was contacted by Frank’s neighbors in an attempt to have him put in jail; this is reminiscent of the conspiracy concocted by dean Claggart that Frank had against his teacher. Josef K and Frank K are remarkably similar because they had no knowledge of the arrest warrant being issued as well as the officers carrying out the warrant. This created an unnerving feeling for both characters due to the unknown of their trials. Intertextuality was used in this scene by creating an emotion of uncertainty for both characters and what would happen later.
In Of Wolves and Slaves, Sam Benjamin depicts a spiderweb of events and characters that can be related to the audience through either scenarios or characteristics of those in the work. Intertextuality is used repeatedly throughout the novel with not just the three examples above but with numerous other references that in the end create a Frankenstein aesthetic of lessons and morals caught in the life of Frank Stevenson. The connection between the lives of those involved creates a better insight into how complex life truly is and the lessons the audience experience unknowingly in everyday life.
Money and Class
In Scott Fitzgerald’s masterpiece, The Great Gatsby, Gatsby builds up wealth to gain a higher social class, but his calculations fizzle out. He realizes in the end that money does not attain class or help him achieve his dreams. His beloved Daisey prefers Tom, the rich man who comes from a big family. On the other hand, in Of Wolves and Slaves, Ross has both wealth and class. The library is full of books from all sides of knowledge; he is obviously well-read, but he sits on a broken “rickety chair” which foreshadows his downfall. He still lacked wisdom. Wealth and class are not guarantees for success. He loses his class when he fell sick to food poisoning, and he felt like a piece of trash. His lust for cheap prostitutes leads him to pay dearly with his son and his life. Neither money nor class were of any value to him.
Conversely, Maggie comes from a poor family and aspires to make money through prostitution. In the first page of the novel, she is described as “very stylish but in a gaudy way. She wore expensive clothes, and we never knew how she could afford all that money for her strange sartorial fantasies. Her skin always looked pale.” Her obvious lack of class permeates the novel, and she becomes the epitome of the vulgar whore. Despite her attempts to cling to the middle class, she falls off the wall, so to speak, and her financial patron and sex partner kills her for she has asked for too much.
Similarly, rich Schultz has risen to wealth, but he has no class or culture to shore up that wealth. He marries a poor secretary of his but because of the difference in their mindset and culture, he kills her out of jealousy.
In a like manner, Tino, the peasant from the South American country of Bolivia, who has betrayed Che Guevara on the promise that he would be awarded a lot of land and become a big, distinguished landowner suffers a severe psychological setback due to his wrong choice to rise in society. He does not possess the class and the culture that would set him up for his new role, not to mention the means he chooses to rise in society, i.e. betraying a friend to the authorities is obviously not the way to that goal. Tino’s soul suffers instant demise, and he realizes that there is “no land for dead men.”
The author emphasizes that fake art, symbolized by cheap works such as Star Trek and Star Wars, are not high culture and are not signs of high class as Sam Freeman always has asserted to Frank. This is one reason out of two* why the author prefaced the novel and every Part with a quote from one great poet, namely, and in order, Dante, T. S. Eliot, W. B. Yeates, and Richard F. Burton. These are works of great artistic value. The author simply reminds the reader that these are examples of great culture, fine art, and true class.
*The other reason for the poetry quotes was to foreshadow what will happen next.
Obscurantism and Social Deception
By David Cohen
The novel sharply speaks against all modes of obscurantism and deception whether it is political, religious, or social. Clearly, Of Wolves and Slaves is an intellectual anti-obscurantist work.
Obscurantism, as a concept, refers to the deliberate obscuring or hiding of facts and true knowledge. Obscurantism encompasses various aspects, such as fostering religious dogma, perpetuating political manipulation, and institutionalizing social deception.
Throughout history, there have been numerous instances where poets, writers, and philosophers have challenged prevalent myths or lies, aiming to expose them and bring about a greater understanding of the truth.
The novel poses serious questions about the capacity of religion to manipulate and deceive the masses. Several characters such as Maggy and the general manager, both are wicked souls that caused harm and death to others, claimed that God was on their side.
The novel brings up a serious contradiction in the Old Testament or the Tanakh. In Chapter Seventeen of the novel, Colton’s aunt quotes Ezekiel 18:20, “The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son.” She tries to say that Colton should not suffer from his father’s crimes. This quote is completely contradictory to Exodus 20:5, “Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.” This Tanakh quote indicates that the sons will suffer from the father’s errors and God will punish the sons for that to the third and fourth generations, which contradict the verse in Ezekiel mentioned above.
Both fathers, Schultz and Ross, stand at the far split ends of a father-son relationship. Schultz was trying to disown his son while Ross was trying to redeem his son. Thus, the novel’s author adroitly used the Tanakh inconsistency to mirror the characters contradiction as well.
One of the important passages in the novel is the following conversation between Rina and Frank in Chapter Fourteen:
So, I have a question: Why didn’t movements such as Black Lives Matter and Feminism fare well?”
“The leaders of those movements made a horrible mistake; they limited their causes to blacks only and to women only. The police kill everybody, blacks, whites, Hispanics. Also, men and women are victims of unfair laws and social traditions as well as being victimized equally by raging controlling politicians. These movements issues should be universal; they should fight for every person whether black, white, man, woman, everyone. But this limitation of black lives only or women only was done intentionally to doom those movements from the start by some moles, infiltrators, or what I call ‘pretend liberals’ who are gutting and betraying the liberal movement from within, but nobody is paying attention. I would name the movements American Lives Matter and FemMalism.”
“This truly makes sense, Rina."
“Those moles’ sole purpose is to disintegrate the liberal movement and create small cocoons or rather communes separate from true liberalism and from each other. On the other hand, conservatives are being licked into shape and lumped as a big mass of mindless minnows trusting in fake holy beliefs. Both liberals and conservatives are moved by what Aldous Huxley called ‘Moral Indignation’ which is the essence evil in recruiting mindless followers.” Rina explained. I was stunned.
In another important passage in Chapter Thirty-Five, we read:
Then there was another speaker whose name was Martha D. Rodriguez. “Gay rights are a matter of fact and are indisputable. When was the last time a gay couldn’t be gay? You can be gay all the time you want. What do you want? Turn the whole world gay? There are pressing causes to fight for like the economic and political freedom of the people,” Martha said enthusiastically. “As a lesbian myself and proud to be, I must say gay rights are intrinsic to the liberal movement, but it is not the whole liberal movement. It is part of a wider frame that involves all civil rights and political and judicial reform. The liberal movement is about everyone and every fair and just cause that concerns us. The outside world sees us as being obsessed only with gay rights and that is the work of traitors and moles inside our liberal movement. Those traitors telescoped the liberal movement into gay rights only and marginalized or dropped other more pressing issues of justice and reform across the board. Many Americans this way are being alienated. We will lose if this continues. We will lose!
Another evil that the novel has challenged is the idea of political propaganda and manipulation. In several parts of the novel, the reader is reminded of the deception perpetuated on the American people by different politicians and political institutions. For example, The Establishment is symbolized by the main evil character of the novel, Dean Claggart, who is behind all the mayhem and ruin in the novel. He assumes two identities by faking two personas. He disguises himself as a man and as a trans woman. He stands for both the conservative fascist and the liberal tyrant. He alternates between these roles throughout the novel, like our two main political parties. One time he is the prejudiced, racist, xenophobic, sex addict conservative and in another time, he is the sneaky, shady, lascivious, pushy liberal represented by his persona in disguise of the transvestite Kim Ashton. It is important here to note that Claggart pretends to be a trans woman; he is not actually a trans woman; he only does this to hide his true intentions to get more sex from unsuspecting victims. In one passage, Samuel Freeman describes that alternation in this way:
The funny thing is that when the dean is around, Professor Kim Ashton is not around. They seem to be working different shifts. One day one would show up, the following day the other would show up, or in the morning one would be around, but the other isn’t. When one is present, red radiates all over, when the other shows up, blue beams around. I never saw them together.
Throughout the novel, the two personas are described in the same way. Both have an “awful smirk and broad teeth.” Both of them have the same posture of “standing akimbo,” to show their arrogance and cocky attitude, and both have the protection of a massive “Rottweiler,” but Claggart wears a red shirt while Kim has blue makeup.
On the other hand, the abject failure of the justice system, the inadequate education system (including colleges and universities), and the decadent art (symbolized by science fiction Star Wars and Game of Thrones) are more ideas that are brought forward to the mind of the reader to consider.
Similarly, the Company stands for the secret government that rules the world. The Company can handle every action from a small incident such as an individual who lets his dog defecate on the lawn of his neighbor and the Company’s subsequent action to stop that to the shaping of the national and international political scenes as well as its role to decide what should happen and what shouldn’t.
On the other hand, the Company failed in several ways, e.g. Frank’s failure to save Ross and his son Rabinho Messias, who themselves stand for God and the Messiah; and according to Nietzsche, they had died as they represented the good and innocence that we killed by our ignorance. These failures of the Company are failures of the flawed individuals in charge, exactly as we see that in the debacles made by our political and religious leaders.
The novel has artistically and in the least obtrusive manner encouraged critical thinking and the pursuit of the truth, dismantling obscurantism, and promoting more enlightened thinking.
It is noteworthy to mention that the whole novel is based on a true story or stories collected and collated together in those enigmatic vignettes we see in the novel.
The Jewish Question
By David Cohen
The novel shows the clear influence of Bruno Bauer’s book The Jewish Question and Carl Marx’s book On the Jewish Question, where the two philosophers debate the merits of the Jews’ rights for political emancipation and social freedom.
In the novel, Ross and Schultz are two rich Jewish capitalists who assert their rights of freedom in a restrictive unjust society full of constraints. However, their endeavors end up tragically. Bruno Bauer states in his book, published in 1843, that for Jews to be emancipated and participate in society, they must give up their religion.
Carl Marx, on the other hand, goes a step further in his book, published in 1844, and demands Jews to give up their religion and their money. Both Ross and Schultz in the novel faithfully embrace their Judaism and their self-made wealth. Tamina persistently, but unjustly, complains that Ross is very stingy and that he refuses to give up some of his money to his son and to her. However, he gives little money to the people who have saved his life in Brazil after he has gotten the food poisoning. He barely cares about others when it comes to money.
Likewise, Schultz marries a poor young girl, his secretary, and kills her on the suspicion that she has cheated on him after Claggart deceives them. Schultz even refuses to pay his son's college tuition thinking the son is illegitimate. Rich Schultz and Ross have not felt free in a restrictive society of poor, but sometimes, greedy individuals. The narrator, Frank Stevenson, shows a lot of sympathy toward Ross, recognizing the greed and intransigence of his former mistress, Tamina. The novel definitely acknowledges that Ross has been a victim of society's greed and inconsiderateness. On the other hand, Schultz is a victim of his own delusions as a jealous callous husband, but he is also a victim of society that did not defend him against Claggart’s manipulation of his wife. Both Ross and Schultz are defended by the author, being Jewish himself, because they have been victims of a harsh unjust society despite their weaknesses.
“The History Riddle”
Poem Analysis
By Monica Nalley
The debate about the relationship between religion and war has been a contemplated topic for thousands of years. The need for religious expansion has always been an untainted truth in the history of mankind. War, on the other hand, has always shadowed mankind on their demand for colonial expansion and power. These two topics seem to be on different sides of the spectrum when it comes to human events but, eerily, they are similar in the aftereffects they have created. “In the long term, we can hope that religion will change the nature of man and reduce conflict, but history is not encouraging in this respect. The bloodiest wars in history have been religious wars,” a quote by Richard Nixon that rings ever clearer in the novel Of Wolves and Slaves. The author, Sam Benjamin, in this novel orchestrates a mesh of lives that have been tested with one of life’s hardest questions, what defines good and evil? Within the book, a poem is written titled “The History Riddle” which helps assess the intricate dance between faith and militarism that was created on false information in order to create accountability when pursuing war and religious assimilation.
In the beginning of the poem, two of the most recognized names appear in both literature and mythology:
As birds built the earliest civilized nest,
Odysseus was restlessly sailing west,
And Moses was frantically sneaking east.
Then it all began; the myths never ceased.
In the first line of the poem “As birds built the earliest civilized nest,” there is a direct reference to two civilizations, namely of Ancient Egypt and Greece. However, two characters appeared in both civilizations who ruined the world with their myths till the present time with their militarism and divisive religious beliefs. Odysseus is considered one of the most influential war leaders in Greek Mythology and this line details his journey to his homeland after he finished a questionable war. On the other hand, from the religious Mythology perspective, Moses is one of the highest prophets and leaders in the Islamic, Christian, and the Jewish religions. He is detailed to go to the east “frantically” which retells to the Bible story of Moses and the Israelites being lost in the wilderness for about forty years. (Numbers 17:12). But even after their deaths, myths and rumors continued about their fake heroism and godly piety. Sam Benjamin’s poem describes:
One unjustly ruined a peaceful city.
The other had just lied with pious pity.
The first was hailed to wear the bloody crest.
The other claimed eternity accessed.
And that is the first clue to the madness of history that struck humanity: myths about alleged military heroism in wars and religious beliefs in the unknown.
Throughout the poem, many similarities between the two topics become entangled to present a higher horrible truth:
Take me to the temple; the sermon stressed.:
Toy soldiers strut; the cressets have fluoresced,
The sacraments have been announced and pressed.
Thus, divine war plans have spread and blessed.
Throughout the poem, “war” and “religion” become recognized as one entity:
Were they who set the human partition?
The fanatic chauvinistic aggression,
The raging echelon of a war lion,
The Crusades, the Jihad, and pushed vile Zion?
Crookedly, it would seem that war is fueled with the passion of religion, for God has blessed the followers because they were merely, in their own mind, on the side of good and justice:
To their heedless hoodlums left a bequest
Of endless amount of ignorance messed,
And unleashed fake legacies unsuppressed.
Why do their followers fight with mad zest,
Militarily irate and hard pressed
With feigned piety, mentally possessed?
Many examples can be thought of when it comes to the impacts of religious war like The Crusades, The Inquisitions, The Salem Witch Trials, the Jihad, slavery, extermination and genocide against native Americans, The Holocaust during the Second World War, and the occupation of Palestine.
In one, shadows of fake heroes hovered.
On the other, blood flowing was paramount.
There I saw civilization hostage held,
And no bird in a nest had ever dwelled.
All single-minded humans need to expand fear, discrimination, and bloodshed without the counter reaction of their religious leaders. All to be absolved because they were on “the side of good” as they falsely believe.
The assimilation of other groups of people for the sole purpose of expanding their views would not seem to qualify for “the side of good.” Much like the characters in the novel, people strove to do wrong for the effects of their own beliefs. The character, Maggy, is an excellent example in her partaking of having a professor fired from his career due to her lack of work ethic, harsh judgement, and unapologetic behavior. Her reasoning for her unbecoming characteristics were because “I have faith in God and God is by my side.” Another example would be the main character, Frank’s manager, Jack Defore. Jack had a very unsettling infatuation with Frank’s girlfriend Rina which involved stalking and attempted murder. He would defend his actions with the need for Rina’s love because he deserves her. Unaware of all those he hurt in the path of overcoming Rina with his sexual lust. “Mr. Jack Defore was extradited to the U.S. with full video confession of his intended crime. He admitted "you stole the woman he liked from him,” the agent added.” The point of self-accountability is always a hard decision to make when one has someone or something to blame instead.
Throughout the novel, we are reminded of the futility of religion. All those involved with religion fail to establish any peace or harmony in the world. Scenes inside places of worship reveal ineffective results to help or protect anyone; the rabbis fail to help; the rabbi in Rio leaves Ross alone and undefended, and Ross gets killed later as a result; the description of the church in Rio and the synagogue show debilitated conditions of the buildings. Ironically, the General Manager of the Company is an ex-general, who participated in many unjust wars, and he brags about the thousands he killed. Moreover, he confirms that God “was always on our side.”
The fine line between war and religion is a challenging balance act that has been recorded all throughout human history. Justification and accountability for action have always been one of the main focuses split between the two. Humans will continue to validate their actions of expansion and control through fear and power into the cease of existence. The poem, “The History Riddle” marries the two topics to where the line has been blurred to emphasize the false sense of security in order to create the accountability when pursuing war, aggression, and assimilation in the name of God. Thus, in addition to all these deep metaphysical ideas that make the poem by far the most important and most philosophical work in the English language, it is marked by all the artistic features of a great verse such as rhythm, alliteration, profound imagery, and rhyme scheme.
The Myth of Sisyphus, The Violation, Fate, and Suffering
The novel offers a new interpretation of the Greek myth of Sisyphus or Sisyphos. Because Sisyphus angered the Gods by violating the rules, the gods forced him to roll an immense boulder up a hill only for it to roll back down every time it neared the top, repeating this action for eternity. In the novel, Frank realizes that much of what he has been doing is futile, and wrong for the most part.
Frank tampered with the cosmic symmetry of order, justice, and balance. He felt that the ruler of the universe was not happy with that violation.
In Chapter 46, Frank says:
When I looked through the window behind her, I saw that the rain had just started to fall heavily. After a few minutes of the downpour, the water on the ground streamed up and raced fast to beat the moving clouds above. I wondered if the water wanted to evaporate fast again before the rain stopped. What was the shame it was escaping from? Wasn’t it a futile game to repeat the same? Who made the charge and who meted out the blame? That replication couldn’t be the aim. That repeated cycle of suffering was pointless.
Frank realized that he would be repeating errors for eternity because of the wrong illegitimate start of his life (he did not learn anything in college, and he got the job by error), and the horror he had caused to others, so he decided to reset the button. He started anew. He went back to have a fresh life with the man he attempted to ruin in the past and set to rebuild paradise.
