Our Man in Havana

Our Man in Havana Thesis statement One of the foremost aspects of today’s living is the fact that, as time goes on; people in Western countries grow increasingly aware of the sheer out-datedness of the classical concept of nationhood. This could not be otherwise, because an ongoing process of Globalization effectively exposes people’s tendency to assess the surrounding reality through the lenses of their national affiliation, as such that substantially impedes their chances of a social advancement.Advertising We will write a custom critical writing sample on Our Man in Havana specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More This is exactly the reason why, even though that as recently as during the course of the fifties, the idea that one should be willing to sacrifice its life for the sake of a ‘nation’ used to be considered fully legitimate, this is no longer being the case. After all, it nowadays becomes increasingly clear for more and mor e people in the West that, since they live only once and since there is no ‘afterlife’ to look forward to, it is specifically ensuring their personal well-being, which represents their foremost priority in life. Therefore, there is nothing too surprising about the fact that even today; Graham Greene’s 1958 novel Our Man in Havana continues to be referred to as such that represents an undermined discursive value. The reason for this is quite apparent – the themes and motifs, explored in this particular novel, appear discursively consistent with the post-industrial realities of the 21st century’s living, associated with the process of more and more people getting rid of socially upheld illusions, as to what accounts for the essence of their responsibilities in life. In my paper, I will aim to substantiate the validity of this suggestion at length. Main part Given the apparent straightforwardness of Green novel’s plot, the task of outlining its main twists does not represent much of a challenge. The novel’s protagonist James Wormold (who happened to be a British citizen), owns a vacuum cleaner shop in pre-revolutionary Havana, Cuba. Being a loving father of his teenage daughter Milly, Wormold finds it increasingly difficult to be able to support Milly’s extravagant lifestyle. In its turn, this prompts him to accept Henry Hawthorne’s (M16’s resident in the Caribbean region) proposition to become a British intelligence agent in Havana – in exchange for his willingness to work on behalf of M16, Wormold was placed on a payroll. Nevertheless, after having realized that would prove impossible to create the ring of informers in Cuba, as it was required of him, Wormold decides to simply invent them, while specifying the cost of maintaining each of these imaginary informers. As the plot unravels, Wormold becomes ever more preoccupied with supplying M16 with fictitious intelligence reports, which i n London are being regarded as such that represent a particularly high intelligence-value.Advertising Looking for critical writing on literature languages? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The novel’s comical sounding reaches its peak when Wormold sends the drawings of vacuum cleaners (intentionally made to look like some menacing military installations) to London, which causes a great deal of anxiety among M16’s top-officials, who never doubted the realness of the depicted ‘installations’ even for a second. In its turn, this causes Wormold’s superiors to decide to provide him with the ‘secretary’ Beatrice Severn and with the radio-operator Rudi – both working on behalf of British intelligence, as well. Nevertheless, as time goes on, Worlmold realizes that his imaginary intelligence-activities had effectively ceased being merely a game, as Havana’s newspape rs report the actual deaths of many of his imaginary ‘informers’. This, of course, causes Wormold to feel increasingly uneasy about the whole situation. After having been confronted with the death of his close friend Dr. Hasselbacher, who was pressured by captain Segura (Cuban police) to spy on Wormold, the novel’s main character decides to reveal his fraud to Beatrice. Consequently, he gets to be recalled back to London – presumably, to face the charge of betrayal. Yet, to Wormold’s amazement, it was not only that did not get to be punished, but he in fact ended up being offered a teaching job with M16 and awarded the Order of British Empire. Apparently, Wormold’s superiors refused to even consider the possibility of admitting to the government that ‘their man in Havana’ was nothing but a con artist, as it would expose British intelligence in a rather unsightly light. It is needless to mention, of course, that even a brief glanc e at the earlier provided outline of Green novel’s plot does not allow us to refer to Our Man in Havana as such that emanates the spirit of British patriotism, in the classical sense of this word. After all, with the probable exemption of the character of Beatrice, the individuals associated with the British government, featured in the novel, appear to have been deprived of even basic analytical abilities – quite contrary to the assumption that, in order for one to qualify for the job of a British spy, he or she must possess a supreme intelligence. Partially, the ‘unpatriotic’ sounding of Green’s novel can be explained by the particulars of the author’s religious affiliation. This is because, throughout the course of his adult life, Green never ceased to proclaim itself a devout Catholic. However, it does not represent much of a secret that, ever since the beginning of the 17th century, British Catholics have been finding themselves in an inc reasingly disadvantaged social position.Advertising We will write a custom critical writing sample on Our Man in Havana specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Even today, being a British Catholic implies being socially underprivileged to an extent. As Burgess noted, â€Å"The British State tolerates the Catholic Church, but the Catholic Church, being a supra-national body, has no representation in the establishment†¦ To honor the monarch is to acknowledge the hegemony of the Church of England† (94). Therefore, when assessed from a purely religious perspective, the lack of Green’s patriotic enthusiasm, clearly exhibited in Our Man in Havana, can be well thought of as having been reflective of the author’s deep-seated unconscious anxieties, related to his religious sense of self-identity. However, it was not only the societal implications of Green’s affiliation with Catholicism, which caused his novel’ s satire to attain a clearly defined political sounding, but also the theological and ideological ones. This is because Catholics always suspected Protestants to be deeply hypocritical in how they go about proclaiming their adherence to God. After all, as opposed to what it is being the case with Catholics; Protestants do not perceive God as their ultimate benefactor. Rather they think of him as some distant authority that simply lays down the rules of a religious morality but does not intervene in their lives actively. Apparently, Protestants have grown to realize a simple fact that material riches do not fall out of the sky and that one needs to work hard, in order to achieve a financial prosperity. In fact, it now became a commonplace practice among many Protestants to think that the amount of money they have in banks positively relates to the measure of God’s pleasure with them (Weber 60). Green, however, never ceased considering Protestants’ obsession with making money morally wrong, which explains the sarcastic sounding of the novel’s scenes in which American businesspersons elaborate on their vision of religion/spirituality. For example, there is a memorable scene in the novel, where the character of Dr. Braun comes up with a public speech, while praising the trade as the actual source of spirituality, â€Å"Trade was important because without trade there would be no spiritual links, or was it perhaps the other way round. He (Dr. Braun) spoke of American aid to distressed countries which would enable them to buy more goods and by buying more goods strengthen the spiritual links† (Green 91). This explains the subtle criticism of American (Western) concept of ‘democracy’, which can be found throughout the course of Green novel’s entirety.Advertising Looking for critical writing on literature languages? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Apparently, the author was intellectually honest enough to admit to himself and to his readers that, by promoting the values of ‘democracy’ in the Third World, Western countries pursue their own geopolitical/economic agenda, which in turn is being concerned with assuming a unilateral control of the world’s natural/human resources – hence, the actual secret of Western countries’ economic prosperity. This suggestion and the clearly defined autobiographical undertones of the Green’s novel, help us to explain the innate motivation behind Wormold’s decision to accept money from the British secret service, without providing any real intelligence information in return. It appears that, while deceiving British intelligence, Worlmold (a literary embodiment of Green) was not merely concerned with ensuring an additional source of income but also with acting on behalf of justice – whatever ironic it may sound. Even though that the novelâ₠¬â„¢s main character initially doubted the moral appropriateness of his decision, in this respect, Dr. Hasselbacher was able to convince him in the opposite, â€Å"They (governmental officials) have no money except what they take from men like you and me† (29). Eventually, it had dawned upon Wormold that, by making the rich and powerful to share some of their riches with ordinary individuals like himself, even by the mean of deceiving the government, he in fact was serving a higher good. This again reveals an unmistakably Catholic mindset, in the part of the novel’s author, as the reading about how Wormold went about addressing life’s challenges does substantiate the validity of the idea that there is nothing wrong about combating evil with evil. And, as Green’s biographers are being well aware of, this idea never ceased to fascinate the author of Our Man in Havana,† Throughout his life†¦ Greene had a fascination with evil and a contempt for or dinary virtues. After his conversion to Catholicism, he defended this attitude on the ground that a close acquaintance with evil was no obstacle to the salvation of the soul. It might even be essential† (Gray 51). Hence, the thoroughly humanistic sounding of the Green’s novel, as such that promotes the idea that, despite their weaknesses, people are nevertheless are being capable of adopting a proper stance in life. Nevertheless, it would not be fully appropriate to assess the significance of the novel’s themes and motifs solely in regards to what used to be the particulars of Green’s religious affiliation. Had this been the case, these themes and motifs would not be considered discursively relevant today. Yet, as it was mentioned in the Introduction, there are indeed a number of good reasons to believe that the manner in which Wormold behaves in the novel is being fully consistent with the discourse of post-modernity, which nowadays causes more and more p eople to reassess the validity of many traditional assumptions, regarding what accounts for the purpose of one’s life, and regarding to the implications one’s national affiliation. For example, there is another memorable scene in the novel, where Hawthorne tries to recruit Wormold, while implying that being assumed a British patriot, his newly found would-be-spy simply had no option but to agree to the proposition, â€Å"You are English, arent you?.. And you refuse to serve your country?† (21). Apparently, it never occurred to Hawthorne that, as time goes on, the discursive significance of socio-political concepts, such as ‘nation’, continues to be qualitatively transformed, which often leads to these concepts becoming deprived of any meaning, whatsoever. Nowadays, the validity of this statement appears especially self-evident, because due to an ongoing process of Globalization, the national borders between formally independent countries have long a go assumed a purely symbolic value. In its turn, this causes many political observers to conclude that it is being only the matter of time, before the concept of ‘national sovereignty’ will be effectively disposed with, as thoroughly outdated. As Ohmae noted, â€Å"The global economy ignores barriers, but if they are not removed, they cause distortion. The traditional centralized nation-state is another cause of friction. It is ill equipped to play a meaningful role on the global stage† (Ohmae 25). Yet, even throughout the course of the late fifties, the discursive irrelevance of the concept of ‘nation’ was becoming apparent. The reason for this is simple – after the end of WW2, Western European countries (including Britain, which had lost all of its most important colonies) have been effectively deprived of their de facto independence – all due to these countries’ willingness to participate in the Marshall Plan and to join NATO. In essence, they became the America’s puppet-states. And yet, as it appears from the novel, the character of Hawthorne remained thoroughly ignorant of this fact, which explains why, while trying to convince Wormold to become M16’s agent, he continued to refer to Britain’s geopolitical challenges in essentially pre-WW2 terms. The legitimacy of this suggestion can be well illustrated in regards to Hawthorne’s strongly defined anti-German stance, â€Å"Not that it matters East or West, they (Germans) play the German game. Remember the Ribbentrop Pact. We (British) wont be caught that way again† (13). This explains why Wormold could not help but to accept Hawthorne’s offer – after having realized that Hawthorne was a perceptually inadequate individual, allowing him to walk away with money would constitute a ‘sin’. The discursive implication of this suggestion can be formulated as follows: unlike what it was the case with man y of the novel’s intellectually inflexible characters, such as Hawthorne, Wormold proved himself being quick enough to take advantage of moneymaking opportunities, presented by the realities of the Cold War era. Apparently, despite having been born well before the discourse of Globalization had attained a politically legitimate status, Wormold was psychologically attuned with what would constitute the secularized and deideologized realities of a post-industrial living. After all, nowadays it is specifically only not overly bright individuals who may be comfortable with the idea that the abstract cause of ‘patriotism’ is worthy of risking their lives. This is because, due to the revolutionary breakthroughs in the field of informational technologies (the rise of the Internet), this world is becoming ever more ‘informationally intense’. In its turn, this creates objective preconditions for people in Western countries to realize the simple fact that ther e is only one reason for the representatives of social elites to continue striving to endow ordinary citizens with the sense of ‘patriotism’ – it is so much easier to turn patriots into a ‘cannon meat’, willing to sacrifice for the rich and powerful on the battlefield, if circumstances require. Therefore, it will not be much of an exaggeration, on our part, to suggest that the appeal of Our Man in Havana is being partially concerned with the novel’s ‘visionary’ subtleties – today’s readers cannot help but to perceive the character of Wormold, as such was born well ahead of its time. This, of course, causes them to relate to this character emotionally – hence, the continual popularity of Our Man in Havana. Conclusion I believe that the line of argumentation, deployed throughout this paper, is being fully consistent with the initial thesis. It appears that, even as far back as during the course of the late fifti es, Green had a very good idea, as to what would be the nature of ‘things to come’ in the future. This explains why; whereas, the names of the author’s contemporaries, who used to criticize him on the account of his ‘lack of patriotism’, are now long forgotten, Green’s literary legacy continues being highly appreciated. Given the fact that, as time goes on, the process of intellectually liberating Globalization keeps on gaining a momentum; this will likely to remain the case in the future, as well. Burgess, Anthony. â€Å"Politics in the Novels of Graham Greene.† Journal of  Contemporary History 2.2 (1967): 93-99. Print. Gray, John. â€Å"A Touch of Evil.† New Statesman 13.633 (2000): 51-52. Print. Greene, Graham. Our Man in Havana. Penguin Classics. New York: Penguin Classics, 2007. Print. Ohmae, Kenichi. Next Global Stage: Challenges and Opportunities in Our  Borderless World. Upper Saddle River: Wharton School Publishing, 2005. Print. Weber, Max. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. New York: Courier Dover Publications, 2003. Print.