Brighton Rock: what does it mean to you?
In Blake's collection of poetry labelled Songs of Innocence and Experience, he juxtaposes the naive, ignorant state of childhood against a corrupt adult world. He looks at the same situations through both perspectives with dramatic eyes, exploring morality, religion and sexuality. Blake's own views can be said to be outside both of these realms, not quite satisfied with either. Whilst Blake does explore the concept of innocence in youth, Greene portrays a much grimmer picture in Brighton Rock that develops Blake's initial imagery. He states:
it was like the dreadful appeal of innocence, but there was not innocence; you had to go back a long way further before you got innocence; innocence was a slobbering mouth, a toothless gum pulling at the teats; perhaps not even that; innocence was the ugly cry of birth.
Greene suggests that there is indeed no such a state as innocence; once you are brought into this world in an 'ugly cry', corruption becomes you. The simplicity of the descriptor 'ugly' exemplifies the candor with which Greene conveys this statement. When combined with words like 'dreadful', 'slobbering' and 'toothless' we are presented with a bleak outlook on the life to follow. Rather than celebrating an innocent birth, the imagery is reminiscent of old age and highlights the loss of control you have. This links to Pinkie's character in his oxymoronic quest for experience in the 'dreadful' Brighton underworld and want for eternal innocence in so far as his virginity and relationships with women. Even in a state of innocence, Greene portrays a useless and unappealing circumstance, later displayed through the frustratingly naive character of Rose whose inability to see through Pinkie's self-created projection of experience leads to her inevitable facing with 'the worst horror of all'.
Ultimately, Brighton Rock is a novel about corruption; it is a novel where the innocent become more ignorant - but this is only because they were never allowed to be innocent in all its glory. Do we learn from Pinkie and Rose's mistakes? Or are we tragically more alert to the dire state of innocence vs. experience, of uncontrollable corruption? Of the 'ugly cry of birth'?
To me Brighton Rock is a novel that depicts the eternal conflict between Religion and secular morality and how the physical and spiritual worlds are interlinked . This is focalised through the characters of Pinkie and Rose.
ReplyDeleteWe can see how the religious world is more powerful through the destruction of Paradise Piece, Pinkie and Roses home. This is evident in the quote “Half Paradise Piece had been torn up as if by bomb bursts; children played about the steep rubble; a piece of fireplace showed houses had once been there… little dingy damaged row was all that was left of Paradise Piece”. The word “paradise” has links to the creation story, the Garden of Eden, and to heaven so to have Pinkie and Rose come from there may demonstrate how they began innocent however were corrupted by the evil all around them, for Pinkie the gang and his need to emulate Kite, the one man he looked up to, and for Rose Pinkie, therefore the destruction of their home is the equivalent of man being thrown out of the Garden of Eden which has led to them both becoming even more corrupted until “paradise” has become a hell on earth, littered with the remnants of people’s homes. The juxtaposition of the “children” and the “rubble” highlights the damaging impacts that the conflict between the religious and physical worlds have as children represent innocence as they aren’t tainted by the evil in the world whereas rubble provides connotations of conflict and destruction so by juxtaposing these two images Greene may be implying that the destructive power of these two worlds is so great that it is able to destroy a “paradise” and to show how this conflict has no distinction between innocence and corruption as it destroys all that is in its path. Also by describing how the children “played” shows how this conflict has become so ingrained within Brighton that people no longer notice it and are able to continue as if it had never happened as “playing” is an act associated with children which implies that it is an innocent action, so to play amongst the destruction of people’s homes demonstrates how they are unable to recognise the danger and to show how this conflict has changed perceptions so that a place that appears to have been a warzone, “bomb bursts”, is now a source of entertainment. Finally the violence implied in the phrase “torn up as if by bomb bursts” denotes the force of this conflict as “torn” is a sudden word that implies that the destruction that occurred here was almost instantaneous alludes to the magnitude that the collision of these two concepts have on the surrounding area so that it appears as if multiple bombs has gone off and destroyed a “paradise”, a word associated with peace and innocence, which demonstrates the brutality f this conflict. The use of the 3rd person narrative voice is utilised to enhance the feeling of despair that the reader feels upon hearing of the destruction of “paradise” as it describes the scarce remaining items as no context to this destruction is provided, just the description of the scarce remainder of the area, which therefore creates a feeling of outrage towards whatever conflict destroyed this and also creates a feeling of empathy towards Pinkie and Rose for growing up in this area, surrounded by such destruction.