The Angry Chilean Youth

The Angry Young Men movement was joined by unknown, working-class and progresist writers and playwrights who embraced a feeling of disillusion against British society between the 50’s and 60’s, being probably triggered by the critical viewpoint that new generations had about the Second World War with respect to its motivations and consequences (Reeves, 2005: 4).

John Osborne

Similarly, student movement in Chile was led by young people born after 1985 mostly, who took the streets to express their disagreement with the state education system in the country as well as the educational policies behind it (Fallabella, 2010: 8). If John Osborne, one of the angry young men, had written a play like Look Back in Anger (1956) in the contemporary Chile, doubtless main characters and arguments would have reflected powerfully the demand of a society in the point of collapse, while Jimmy, Alison, Cliff and Helena would evoked the diverse ways in which students perceive and get involved in the movement.

In Look Back in Anger, every character admits they live in a sort of ‘hell’ or ‘asylum’, even though they do not take the same course of action to face it, in the same way that every single student in the movement do not. There are the ones who vote ‘yes strike’ or ‘no strike’, the ones who take part of regardless any opinion, the ones who have any interest, apparently, so they live in a world apart. The ones who want to leave everything as it is because either they could not be improved or could be even worse. The ones who only witness to testify what they saw. The ones who hope everything will be fixed by itself or consider that it has already been done whatever it could be. And, of course, we have the one who are driven by indifference, fear, impotence and anger.

Jimmy, the angry comunacho

"You are the ignorant." 

Jimmy (stand up) in Richardson's 1959 film adaptation

Jimmy has enough passion and intelligence to give everything a spectacular turnaround, but a fatal fault plays against him: His idealism. Jimmy longs for a world that does no longer exist and which is for him the model society should follow. His expectations trigger disappointment and thereby an aggressiveness that he expresses in multiple ways, from sarcasm ("There's no reason why we shouldn't have the parson to tea up here") and eloquence ("They're what they sound like; sycopanthic, phlegmatic and pusillanimous"), to offense ("You, evil-minded little virgin") and violence ("If you slap my face - by God, I'll lay you out!").

Jimmy reflects the behavior of the students who wish an education based on foreign models (Finland, the most spent), the same ones who the intensity of wish, and moreover a disappointed wish, makes them intensely angry at everything around them and bitterly aggressive with whoever contradicts them (Silva, 2012: 16).

Alison, the sweet 'que no se moja'

"I just want some peace."

Alison

In Alison prevails an constant desire for anarchy, to let herself be carried away by the strength of her feelings (frustration, bitter and fatigue) so as to exploit destroying everything in her path. However, her capability to self-repression is such that it remains her muted and frozen in the midst of disaster. That is because Alison represents contradiction. Perhaps this explains why she comes back after suffering an spontaneous abortion, even though she knows she can no longer be with Jimmy, because of the tense atmosphere in the apartment.

Alison would be one of those students often accused of holding a 'double standard'. But this view would be unfair and superficial at some extent, because if we looked deeper we would notice how many students are paralyzed at the crossroads of whether fulfilling their duty as trainee professionals or disrupting the order of things to shout that Chile deserves a better educational system (Silva, 2012: 17). It is the same paralysis that keeps Alison wordless, the same that makes her flee and come back. Again, the desire for a better life make us take the most absurd decisions.

Helena, the conservative facha

"You can't be happy when what you are doing is wrong."

Helena (at the back) and Alison (sitting)

Helena deals with the tension in the apartment quite well, unlike Alison. Her sagacity equates to Jimmy's and therefore she usually does not get hurt when facing him. Helena is an actress on tour and Alison's best friend. In her visit, she notes Jimmy's abuse and disrespect, given that she convinces Alison to return to her parents' house. Then Helena takes Alison's role in the apartment in such way that she even starts a relationship with Jimmy, who attracts her after all. When Alison comes back a couple of months later, Helena decides to leave since she considers that everything she has been doing so far 'is wrong'.

Helena resembles students who have a more conservative viewpoint of the movement. Strikes, storming buildings, street damages, irruption of public peace and order... they have seen the violence (mistakenly) associated to the movement, they have rejected it and used it to reject any action taken in name of this movement and even sometimes the motivation behind it (Silva, 2012: 17) in almost the same way that Helena have stayed for a while in the appartment, but after wondering about her decision she has disapproved to stay longer and even her love for Jimmy.

Cliff, the neutral sapo

"I don't think I shall stay here much longer."

Alison and Cliff

Cliff is the most enigmatic character in Look Back in Anger. We never know what exactly are their motivations to live in the midst of Jimmy and Alison's conflicts. He have lunch, spend Sundays and take part of the arguments in the apartment, even though he lives next door really, but apparently anybody seems to question his presence. Cliff is Jimmy's friend in spite of his insults, is kind to Alison although he is not in love with her and is cold to Helena even when she has never done anything to him.

Cliff is basically a witness. He is keeping a track about everything that happens around him. He hears, observes silently. Maybe for himself. Perhaps to learn something from it all. Cliff is there, however apart, maybe in reverie. Cliff would personify those students who do not take part of the movement at any extent, albeit they are fully aware of what it consist of,what it is about and why it is exist (Silva, 2012: 18). It could be even that because they know it, they are apart, perceiving the desire of welfare, the violence of repression, the violence of rebelness. Indeed, it could be that Cliff is there just to cushion of which he is being witness of, though he does not provoke it.

but now, who I am in the Angry Chilean Youth...

Needless to say these four characters would not personify the only faces of the movement. The viewpoints are limitless, nonetheless, in a John Osborne's work those in contact with anger fit. But considering these four, in my particular case I could say that I have been moving from one masquerade to another, from the most apathetic to the most involved, from the most pacifist to the most agressive. I believe this has happened because we all are highly complex universe that need to be in touch to the diversity around us to make a thorough judgement about this to define an attitude from a profound reflection. Our feelings and thoughts are too dynamic, changing impetuously, and that is why before we decide what to do, how to escape from this 'hell' or 'asylum', we need to give us the opportunity to experience with most faces, with most opinions we can find, from the most sensible, the most snatch, the most sincere, the most pretentious to, of course, the most angry.

References

Fallabella, A. (2010). Democracia a la chilena: Un análisis del movimiento estudiantil y su desenlace. Docencia, vol. 20, no. 53, pp. 5-17.

Reeves, A. (2005, Ed.). Look Back in Anger: A Resource Book. Edinburgh: Lyceum Education Department.

Silva, B. (2012). La "Revolución Pingüina" y el cambio cultural en Chile. Retrieved from [http://goo.gl/Yhmcyo] (06.30.15)

A Tool to Dig up Memories

A pen; that is the tool that Seamus Heaney (ʃeɪməs hiːni), one of the greatest poets that has ever existed, used to give life to his very own arcade of memories.

“The Pen is a lot lighter than the spade.” This is one of the quotations that Heaney mentioned to refer to the fact that he always preferred the work given to a pen rather than the work given to a spade.

Having been born in the countryside, Heaney’s family were ‘people of the earth’, people who worked and lived of the ground they stood on.

His father and his grandfather were men proud of the land in which they were born and so they transmitted this pridefulness to Seamus, the next generation, though he did not work the soil has his previous generations did. He worked his earth with words. Although his family considered Seamus a bit disrespectful for this, since for them, sweaty and harsh work was the true way of living.    

You raise a spade to work the soil not a pen.

…Under my window, a clean rasping sound

When the spade sinks into gravelly ground:

My father, digging. I look down

Till his straining rump among the flowerbeds

Bends low, comes up twenty years away

Stooping in rhythm through potato drills

Where he was digging.

Extract of Seamus Heaney’s “Digging”

Since I started reading some of Heaney’s poems, (and of course reading different analysis about his poems) it was clearly shown to me that what drove Seamus’ writing, mostly, were the memories of his childhood and the memories of the essence of the old Northern Ireland he lived in. Needless to say, the feeling of loss Heaney must have felt when he moved from the green-like view of the countryside to live in a grey-modern city and also, how different this new glance of his beloved Northern Ireland was for him.

These memories were the muse and the so needed guidance that Seamus Heaney sought. Heaney recalls the light of a better lively past in order to overcome the maelstroms of the present and by doing so, he gives retrospective to the difficulties he was facing at the moment, politically and personally speaking.  

 

Besides his memories, another important engine of Seamus writing was all the political issues that Northern Ireland was going through (Catholicism Vs. protestant and the siege between The Ireland identity Vs. The British identity). 

As many of the people who analyzed his work have stated, it is quite unlikely that Seamus Heaney could have written all those memorable words if he had not lived in such a noisy context, context of a country which was in a constant social struggle.

"Religion's never mentioned here", of course.
"You know them by their eyes," and hold your tongue.
"One side's as bad as the other," never worse.
Christ, it's near time that some small leak was sprung

In the great dykes the Dutchman made
To dam the dangerous tide that followed Seamus.
Yet for all this art and sedentary trade
I am incapable. The famous

Northern reticence, the tight gag of place
And times: yes, yes. Of the "wee six" I sing
Where to be saved you only must save face
And whatever you say, you say nothing.

Extract of Seamus Heaney’s “Whatever you say say nothing III”.

By the time of his death (2013), the entire country of Northern Ireland looked up to Seamus Heaney as a true Irish man, a man of his country, a true patriot. Seamus Heaney is loved by Ireland due to the fact that most of his poems discuss or narrates the difficulties of being a true, prideful Irish.

Although, as Irish Seamus might have been, his poetry belongs to the entire world. 

This was Seamus Heaney, a man of his country, of his people, of his family and most importantly of his memories. For me, Seamus Heaney was or rather still is, “The Poet of Memories”.

This is why it is so intriguing to read his work. It is remarkable to read about someone who used his past in such a healing manner that his present became less obscure.

 

If you have the time (which you most likely do not have) try to read one of Seamus’ poems and imagine yourself in the place that the Poet of Memories sets for you.

(Or even better, why don’t you stop reading dead poets and attempt to become one alive.)

“Noli Timere” for those who use a pen as a tool to dig up memories.

References:

Emory University. (2015, Jun 01). “A conversation about Seamus Heaney — feeling into words”.  Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67MxifaG8UA

Parker, Michael (1993). Seamus Heaney: The Making of the Poet. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press.

Seamus Heaney. (2015). The Biography.com website. Retrieved 04:40, Jun 01, 2015, from http://www.biography.com/people/seamus-heaney-9332875.

          

          Seamus Heaney, The Art of Poetry No. 75. (2012) The Paris Review. Org 

           Website. Retrieved Jun 01, 2015 from: http://www.theparisreview.org /interviews/1217/the-art-of-poetry-no-75-seamus-heaney.