An Introduction to The Novel

The Literary Importance of the Novel

 

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 myth 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. 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, A. Fouad Negm’s poem, “Guevara Is Dead,” 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, 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 a 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, who also tries hard to prevent Odysseus from reaching his goal in the Odyssey. 

Generally, the novel in many ways remarkably takes its cues from James Joyce’s Ulysses as well. The similarities between Sam Benjamin’s novel and Ulysses are not only in the characters of Ross Blaum and Leopold Bloom and their journeys but in the epiphanies that they reach at the end. Also, the motif of the father-son encounter and reunion is prevalent in Sam Benjamin’s novel and James Joyce’s novel. Remarkably, Ross’s tragic reunion with his son is a contrast to the Odyssey’s happy reunion of Odysseus and his son, Telemachus. Other characters such as Frank, Rina, Rebecca, Sam Freeman, Marcia, Jim Jenkins, and Tino embark on 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 to 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 techniques, namely individuation, intertextuality, and sublimation, are specifically utilized in the novel to give it a literary and a 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 authors Tyler D. Parry and Charlton W. Yingling on the use of dogs to control and subjugate slaves in the Americas.

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.”

 

 

 

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 preys 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. 

 

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Selling One's Soul to the Master

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The novel's characters 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

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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 to harm 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 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.

 

 

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The Danger of Language

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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.

 

 

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Injustice

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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 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 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. 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.

 

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Anti-Natalism

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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.

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“The Roach Approach”

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“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 over 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.

 

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Of Wolves and Slaves: Intertextuality Analysis

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By Monica Nalley

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            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 audience 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 orchestrates also the structures of these works to match the story line and events of his novel; 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 better 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 starting to “scratch a month-old wound.” More signs of anxiety began to rise when his answers to the interviewer’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.” In the “Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” the young mariner shoots an albatross, which represents a good omen, and with the increased anger of his shipmates wore the dead albatross on his neck to represent his sin. Frank’s sin is not as grotesque as an actual albatross on his neck, but the pressure on his body was all the same. The guilt grew and eventually took over Frank’s morale creating a new perspective of his sin and to finally discover his redemption. Later in the book, Frank was able to achieve “redemption” when he discovers the workplace of the teacher, only to find him happier than a life of turmoil that Frank created in his mind. This creates a connection of 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 Sohrab and Rustum. In this piece, it tells a story of a higher-class war hero that ends up having a child with a queen in a different country. Within the following years, war breaks out between the two countries causing a battle between father and unknown at the time, son. In the end of this piece, the 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 and Sohrabinho as Sohrab. In the book, 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 audience that a broken bond between father and son can sometimes lead to deadly mistakes.

            The last example would be from the work of 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 on.

            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 this piece with not just the three examples above but with numerous other pieces that in the end create a Frankenstein aesthetic of lessons and morals caught in the life of Frank Stevenson. The connection of the lives of those involved create a better insight on how complex life truly is and the lessons the audience experience unknowingly in everyday life.

 

 

 

 

“The History Riddle”

Poem Analysis

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By Monica Nalley

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            The debate of 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 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 thoughtlessly sneaking to the east…” (Sam Benjamin).  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 “thoughtlessly” which retells to the Bible story of Moses and the Israelites being lost in the wilderness for about forty years. (Numbers 17:12). “The first was hailed to wear the bloody crest. / The other dimly claimed eternity blessed.”  Odysseus and Moses were both sent to a land far from home to only partake on the destined path to bloodshed. Odysseus partook in a war where “One wanted the kingdom of Athena best; / The other humbugged to Heaven professed” while Moses did not survive the journey along with most of his tribesmen (Sam Benjamin). The poet finishes this part by saying “Then it all began; never the myths ceased” and that is the first clue of 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 truth.  “Take me to the temple; the sermon stressed. / Toy soldiers strut; the cressets have fluoresced, / The sacrament have been announced and pressed. / Who started the arching superstition? / And the immense intellectual attrition?” Throughout the poem, war and religion become recognized as one entity. “The fanatic chauvinistic aggression, / And regally raged and raised the war sign, / The Crusades, the Jihad, and pushed high Zion?” (Sam Benjamin). It would seem war would then be 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…”. Many examples can be thought of when it comes to the impacts of religious war like The Crusades, The Inquisitions, The Salem Witch Trials, Jihad, 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…” All with the single mindedly human 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.”

            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 book, 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” (Sam Benjamin). 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” (Sam Benjamin). The point of self-accountability is always a hard decision to choose 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. The justification and accountability for actions have always been one of the main focuses split between the two. Humans will continue to validate their actions of expansion 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 create a false sense of security in order to create the accountability when pursuing the art of war 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.