Civilization and Barbarism the Path

Civilization and Barbarism

The path that modern people walk, across the balanced precipice between civilized and barbarous is frequently fictionalized. For many authors and readers alike the need to remind one's self of the precarious nature of the human condition comes as a reminder of older wisdom, that of the barbarian and newer realities, those of the modern world. Modern man, by most accounts is simply balancing the fact that he or she is a barbarous animal living within the confines of modern conveniences. If one were to walk outside the confines of these niceties, and say challenge nature, as in Jack London's to Build a Fire, run of with a group of friends to become robbers, as in Mark Twain's Huck Finn or participate in a traditionally form of population management, such as in Shirley Jackson's the Lottery, the individual would face the full brunt of crossing over to the true nature of man, the barbarian.

London's traveler had warning, that the traditional knowledge of the brute should be heeded, as he watches his canine companion seeking to challenge his actions in the brutal 75 below zero weather. Even though the dog was not aware of the modern tool used to gauge temperature, he was smart enough to know that the two should have turned in for shelter, probably before they left home.

The dog did not know anything about thermometers. Possibly in its brain there was no sharp consciousness of a condition of very cold such as was in the man's brain. But the brute had its instinct. It experienced a vague but menacing apprehension that subdued it and made it slink along at the man's heels, and that made it question eagerly every unwonted movement of the man as if expecting him to go into camp or to seek shelter somewhere and build a fire. The dog had learned fire, and it wanted fire, or else to burrow under the snow and cuddle its warmth away from the air. (London 2)

So, the question then becomes, why did the man not heed the warning of the dog? The self-interest of modernity challenged him, and the self-confidence of having been sheltered by modern comforts for most of his life was clear. The man carried self-confidence, which blinded him to reality and gave him a false sense of security. A barbarian would have known that to travel in such conditions was foolish, if not deadly foolish, and the man, having been sheltered by false fur and warm fires went on unafraid. The conflict between the two being an internal conflict that was not even evident until the moment of realization that he was in deadly peril came to him. (London 12) McClintock points out this conflict between real base knowledge and the mental traps of modern conveniences, the man who is to endure the long arctic winter must be exceptionally gifted in that highest of human faculties -- imagination: he must understand the ways of the northland so sympathetically that he can anticipate its emergencies before they occur, always adapting himself to nature's laws, never attempting foolishly to impose the frail, devious customs of society and civilization upon the inviolable wilderness." 174 Possibly "To Build a Fire" was in Labor's mind when he wrote this description of imagination because it is there that London makes his most explicit statements about this faculty.

McClintock 62)

There is a sense that in to Build a Fire the traveler realizes far to late that he is not protected by intention and that he will die, as many other fools have, by the hand of nature because he fails to heed the warnings of barbarism, from which he has divorced his modern mind.

Twain's gang of robbers try desperately to realize a dream, of returning to simpler, more easily understood standards and ways. The adventure of creating a barbarous, blood thirsty gang of thieves, by a group of young boys, far surpassed the reality of carrying out the tasks of such a group, as most came to realize as the journey ended that they had no real ability to be truly barbarous or change the world, of modern man with all its subtle contradictions and wrongs.

Now, we'll start this band of robbers and call it, Tom Sawyer's Gang. Everybody that wants to join has got to take an oath, and write his name in blood. "Everybody was willing. So Tom got out a sheet of paper that he had wrote the oath on, and read it. It swore every boy to stick to the band, and never tell any of the secrets; and if anybody done anything to any boy in the band, whichever boy was ordered to kill that person and his family must do it, and he mustn't eat and he mustn't sleep till he had killed them and hacked a cross in their breasts, which was the sign of the band.... And if anybody that belonged to the band told the secrets, he must have his throat cut, and then have his carcass burnt up and the ashes scattered all around, and his name blotted off the list with blood and never mentioned again by the gang, but have a curse put on it and be forgot forever. Everybody said it was a real beautiful oath, and asked Tom if he got it out of his own head. He said some of it, but the rest was out of pirate-books and robber-books, and every gang that was high-toned had it.

Twain 9-10)

To Tom and Huck the idea of being beyond the contradictions of subtle and overt abuse, by the "civilized" men of the modern era was paramount to their decision to become outlaws. The adventures are played down, as they are the adventures of young boys, but the reality is that Tom and Huck were innately aware that at heart, people were still barbarians. Even modern peoples still had the motives of blood thirst, power and material wealth, so why not live it? Slavery, was on the top of Twain's mind, as he had grown up within the conflicting culture of slavery and this social condition, probably above al others drove his narrative of boys wishing to escape the reality of the barbarous nature of the modern world.

As in most of the questions posited by Huck Finn, Jim will receive only limited answers. He will become a free man, but not through any actions taken by him, Huck, or Tom. Miss Watson's deathbed manumission of Jim has more to do with a guilty conscience and her salvation in the next world than admirable human enterprise. And the "fog" surrounding Cairo will cause Jim to seek his freedom sailing south into slave country. For Mark Twain, the initiatives of no man, white or black, can overcome the pessimistic notion that human determination counts for little in the making of human history. Thus, Jim is released from the bondage of slavery, though not because of any action of his own. Miss Watson, as "Deus ex-machina," frees Jim to soothe her Christian conscience. As Roy Harvey Pearce has remarked, "Huckleberry Finn teaches us... that whereas utopianism is possible, utopians are not" (313-14).

Kravits 3)

The answer, by Twain, through the boy's real inability to change the situation, with their own action, rather than by sheer luck of shifting motive makes clear the value of his message, the inner workings of man have not changed. The motives of a the self-interested barbarian still drive the scene, even if those motives are guised in the Christian ideal. Watson, still lived as her barbarous social situation demanded, only applying the civilized reaction after she knew she was dying.

In Jackson's lottery, there is a similar conflict. The barbarous nature and need for the lottery, is unknown, just as the human realization that barbarism is still an essential part of the human psyche, even in the civilized world. Some question the lottery, but cannot form the power to stop it, as the group mentality of the barbarian drives the situation.

They do say,' Mr. Adams said to Old Man Warner, who stood next to him, 'that over in the north village they're talking of giving up the lottery.' Old Man Warner snorted. 'Pack of crazy fools,' he said. 'Listening to the young folks, nothing's good enough for them. Next thing you know, they'll be wanting to go back to living in caves, nobody work any more, live hat way for a while. Used to be a saying about 'Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.' First thing you know, we'd all be eating stewed chickweed and acorns. There's always been a lottery,' he added petulantly. 'Bad enough to see young Joe Summers up there joking with everybody.' 'Some places have already quit lotteries.' Mrs. Adams said. 'Nothing but trouble in that,' Old Man Warner said stoutly. 'Pack of young fools.' (Jackson 1)