Comedy, American Style
- Jessie Faust
In Comedy American Style, by Jessie Faust,
self-hatred and bigotry tear a family apart. The
main character Olivia is so consumed with hatred
of her identity that she destroys herself and her
family. It is quite distressing to see how a mother
who hates of her own child to drive that same child
to actions that shatter her family. What is even
more distressing though is the hatred displayed by
society towards African-Americans. Despite the
obvious adversity the idea the we can't give up is
apparent through the novel.
Many of these struggles portrayed in this
book demonstrates parallel struggles in society in
the time period. Olivia’s father was prideful in the
fact that he was an African American, and did not
care about what his neighbors thought. He wanted
to be respected for what he accomplished, not
what the color of his skin. However, Olivia despite
her father’s teachings fails to realize that race does
not cause an individual to accomplish their goals.
Olivia rejects the company of equally
educated African Americans for the company of
lesser educated White Americans. In doing this she
creates a facade which revolves around the color
of her skin not her accomplishments. This facade
however, is threatened by the birth of her son
Oliver, who looks exactly like her father. With the
possibility of her true identity being discovered she
shuns Oliver, and never shows him any affection.
This causes her husband to begin to loathe her,
while her children view her as a traitor.
What is most saddening though is Olivia’s
hate is now directed towards Oliver. While Oliva
displays affection towards her other children the
only affection Oliver receives is from his
grandmother. What is most surprising though is the
way Oliver’s personality turns out though, as he is
the exact antithesis of Olivia. Olivia’s attitude in the
end though causes her family to shatter as Oliver
can’t stand Olivia’s hatred towards him and after an
attempt to escape him takes his own life.
This admittedly it is hard for an individual to
vanquish the demons present throughout
society and inside one’s own self however, it
is better to fight to the death then give in to
hate, cruelty, bigotry, bitterness, fear and
every other demon present in life. However
if we believe in a brighter tomorrow then we
can overcome however, if we lose hope we
lose our future. We will have to sacrifice to
achieve this brighter tomorrow whether it be
our health, our fame, our fortune, or our
lives we can and shall overcome. However if
we do give up to evil like Olivia did then we
are no better than Stalin, Hitler, or Pol Pot.
When this occurs there is rarely the
opportunity to correct these mistakes and if
we do not attempt to correct our wrongs
then we are letting evil control our lives. We
can either chose to repeat our mistakes or
we can enter a brighter tomorrow. This novel
shows exactly what happens when we give
control of our lives to evil. Admittedly it is
impossible to live a life free of sin but if we
try our best then we shall never be shackled
in the manacles of sin.
Olivia demonstrates what happens if we give
up hope and despair. We have the choice to
either to languish in despair because of evil
or we can choose to fight it with either the
pen or the sword. When we fight evil we
give hope to those to whom hope is nonexistent therefore we shall and we must fight
evil wherever and whenever we encounter it
even if we have to march to the gates of hell
and fight our own personal devils. That is
the main point of “Comedy American Style”
the idea that “we can overcome” injustice
but we must not give up hope.