Abstract
The theme of war and violence is one of the significant themes that literature dealt with since thousands of years. Writers dealt differently with this theme since some of them used to glorify war and describe it as a way for immortality to encourage knights and young people to participate in. In the meantime, other writers used to criticize it, highlighting the disastrous results that war usually causes. This article scrutinizes the suffering and hard times that the protagonists of ‘The Empire of the Sun’ and ‘Restless’ experienced during the events of the two novels in addition to analyzing some extracts in light of Dystopia. The article also shows the inevitable catastrophic results of wars to all countries which involve in, including the winner, and how wars turn the world and societies into dystopian ones. The winner cannot win a victory only after priceless sacrifices which comprise the lives of soldiers and innocent people who are usually killed before winning the victory. In this sense, the winner is a loser and wars are considered as a disaster for the whole humanity because of the suffering they cause to people.
Key words: James Ballard – William Boyd – Novel – War – Dystopia – Horror – Life Risks
Introduction
This article deals with the two prominent novels ‘The Empire of the Sun’ by James Ballard and ‘Restless’ by William Boyd. Ballard was an English novelist, short story writer and essayist. He lived between “1930 and 2009”, (Jones, 2008, 18). “William Boyd was born in Ghana in 1952”, (Norman, 2007). “In 1960s, his family moved to western Nigeria” and then he moved to the United Kingdom, (Brown, 2012). In these two novels, the writers depict the suffering and struggle of people who experienced dangerous and frightening experiences during the Second World War.
‘The Empire of the Sun’ is a semi-autobiographical account of experiences of a British child in Shanghai during the period of the Japanese occupation of the city. Ballard shows how the British child managed to protect his life from the Japanese soldiers and the gangs that spread in the areas that he lived in during and after his detention. On the other hand, Boyd’s ‘Restless’ depicts the dangerous errands that the English spy Eva Delectorskaya performed during the Second World war. It also shows how the protagonist behaved smartly to achieve errands and protect her life at the same time. The story starts a few weeks before the Second World War which made Eva’s errands more complicated, and she had to be more cautious to avoid falling in traps that spies and soldiers usually fall in.
The circumstances that the two protagonists had undergone confirm the dystopian views about our world especially during wars. Dystopia, which is the opposite of utopia and portrays the world as full of wrongdoing and injustice, is featured in these two novels due to the suffering that wars caused to people including innocent children who must have been away from such horrible scenes. The very wars kept people afraid and uncertain of what was going to happen to them in the future and those wars might have more critical influence on people that could have continued throughout all their lives.
Discussion
According to Cambridge Dictionary, dystopia means “a very bad or unfair society in which there is a lot of suffering”, (Cambridge online dictionary). However, dystopia is the opposite of utopia, and it relentlessly criticizes political systems and social conditions unlike utopia that aspires to have perfect and ideal societies and countries. Dystopian literature also exposes social shortcomings, flaws, and failures as well as the impossibility of the dreams of having an ideal and imaginative society. It also highlights many other aspects of life such as restricting freedom, keeping people under surveillance, fear of the outside world, dehumanization and punishing and distrusting the natural world.
Dystopian works focus on the idea that people suffer from an oppressive world and tough societal control. Furthermore, the dystopian protagonist always feels trapped in addition to struggling and attempting to escape. They also feel that things go wrong. The protagonist helps readers of the dystopian works identify the negative aspects of their societies and countries throughout the protagonist’s perspective. However, many of these circumstances are very clear in the two novels especially violence, injustice, and struggle. The two novels occurred during the Second World War, that turned the world into a hell and killed above “75 million people” including innocent children and women, (IP- Historical Estimates). The world at that time really looked like a dystopian one because of the race that many countries triggered to colonize other nations.
The first novel ‘The Empire of the Sun’ begins with violence and horrible scenes on the eve of the Pearl Harbor attack by the Japanese forces in 1941. The British child Jim lives with his British wealthy parents in Shanghai. They stay in the city as they run their businesses there. Shanghai is already occupied by the Japanese forces and the violence started increasing in the city. Jim’s problems and the whole city troubles start following the Japanese occupation of Shanghai and opening fire in the city. “THE EVE OF PEARL HARBOR WARS CAME EARLY to Shanghai, overtaking each other like the tides that raced up the Yangtze and returned to this gaudy city all the coffins cast adrift from the funeral piers of the Chinese Bund. Jim had begun to dream of wars. At night the same silent films seemed to flicker against the wall of his bedroom in Amherst Avenue, and transformed his sleeping mind into a deserted newsreel theater. During the winter of 1941 everyone in Shanghai was showing war films”, (Ballard, 1984, 3). Jim undergoes another big problem as he was separated from his parents. He spends many days in Shanghai looking for them in addition to looking for a place to stay in.
The characteristics of the dystopian society emerge from the very beginning as this innocent child is forced to face very hard circumstances that even adult people can’t bear. These circumstances disclosed the real face of wars and greediness of certain regimes that don’t care to the lives of innocent people and children. The child Jim faces all kinds of obstacles and he had to avoid the traps of the Japanese soldiers and the gangs that spread everywhere. When the Japanese forces seized all homes in the surrounding areas, Jim started planning to stay in the same area until the arrival of the Japanese families to the seized houses. Later, he decides to leave, but the Japanese soldiers discover him and send him to a detention center. The soldiers’ behaviors and detaining the child confirm the dystopian views about wars since detaining a child and sending him to the detention center, like a criminal, is an inhumane and dystopian act that doesn’t differentiate between innocent children and criminals. However, dystopia focuses on the idea of injustice which prevails in this novel and justice vanishes due to the wrong practices of soldiers including seizing the houses of their owners in order to grant them to the colonizers.
At the beginning of the other novel “Restless” Sally Martin, Ruth’s mother, hands her a journal called the story of “Eva Delectorskaya” which tells the story of the mother, Sally, herself. The story depicts the dangerous errands that Eva had to perform within the Second World War through which she was about to die many times. She worked as spy for British Secret Service (BSC), and she had to join special training courses to learn how spies behave in dangerous situations. Following the courses, she was provided with various passports with different identities and then she was allowed to start her work as spy.
However, greediness of regimes and corrupt politicians in addition to their unwise decisions cause the suffering of people and destruction of countries. When people live in peace, they enjoy life, of course utopia is inaccessible, but life can be better when peace is maintained. If regimes think of the lives of their citizens, they will think better about avoiding wars and sending their citizens on dangerous spying errands. In fact, many regimes and politicians are like this, and they care only about how to achieve political and military objectives. Furthermore, hypocrisy is always associated with them as Dirk Helbing said: “Why do politicians, besides managers, have (on average) the worst reputation of all professions? This is probably because we think they are hypocritical; we elect them on the basis of the ideas and policies they publicly voice, but then they often do something else. This apparent hypocrisy is a consequence of the fact that politicians are subject to many strong interactions with lobbyists and interest groups, who have diverse points of view. All of these groups push the politicians into various directions”, (Helbing, 2021,41). This also reflects the deterioration of the sense of humanity and highly contributes to enhancing the sense of dystopia as Suzanne Berne said, “Violence is prevalent in many dystopias, often in the form of war”, (Berne, 2016, 182).
One of the characteristics of the dystopian societies is the fear of the outside world which can be tracked down easily in the second novel ‘Restless’. Unfortunately, after a few weeks of starting her job, the Second World War broke out. The war complicated the errands of spies and increased risks that they usually face. Like Jim who behaved well like an adult man, Eva was a good spy and knew how to manage the dangerous situations. Therefore, her leaders assigned her many sensitive errands and she had to travel so many times. She had also to perform many missions with Lucas Romer who fell in love with her. At this time, she doesn’t know that Lucas is a double agent, and he may cause her troubles in addition to the risks and troubles that spies often face. Romer described such risky works saying, “You know, I always feel uneasy in Belgium, Romer said, continuing in this unusual personal vein. Always keen to leave. Why’s that? Because I was almost killed here, he said. In the war. In 1918. I feel I’ve used up all my Belgian luck. Romer in the war, she thought: he must have been very young in 1918—barely twenty, in his teens perhaps. She considered her vast ignorance about this man she was walking beside and thought about what she had done and risked in Prenslo at his behest. Perhaps this is what happens in wartime, she thought: perhaps this is entirely normal”, (Boyd, 2006, 60).
This exhibits part the great dangers that the persons who involve in wars might face. Their lives are always on the line, and they expect to die at any time. They must be always on the highest tension and alert, not only spies, as this includes everyone participates in a war or lives in an area which is surrounded by war. In such a world, the dream of utopia or having an ideal society evaporates since the protagonists and people of the novels look just forward safety and avoiding death. In this world, there is no way to think about utopia because everything sounded dystopian. When people live in such circumstances, they even hate the word utopia because of the dangerous lives they lead, and they forget everything in their lives except for safety which is their final goal just as Gordin, Tilley and Prakash said: “Utopias and dystopias are histories of the present. Even before we begin to explain that sentence, some readers may feel a nagging concern, for the very term “utopia” often sounds a little shopworn. It carries with it the trappings of an elaborate thought experiment, a kind of parlor game for intellectuals who set themselves the task of designing a future society, a perfect society”, (Gordin, Tilley, Prakash, 2010, 10).
In ‘The Empire of the Sun’, the Japanese forces find Jim and send him to the detention center in which he meets Basie, an American citizen, whom Jim had met earlier at the waterfront. The friendship and cooperation between Jim and Basie make detention life easier for both. In the camp, Basie teaches Jim survival skills and Jim runs errands for Basie. The camp life symbolizes the catastrophic social collapse of the lives of the city which is another characteristic of dystopia. After spending some time in the center, both Jim and Basie were selected to leave the center and move to a camp. On the way to the camp, Jim meets Dr. Ransome who is another prisoner. Following several days, they arrive at Lunghua camp in which they stay for three years. The prisoners worked together and formed a community at the camp in addition to practicing various activities including entertainment and attending lectures and lessons at school. Meanwhile, Jim became eager to meet his parents, but at the same time he doesn’t want to leave the camp. Unfortunately, this good situation at the camp does not last long because life in those areas sounded dystopian wherein people can’t succeed to overcome horrible circumstances or even to coexist with them. In dystopian societies, it is hard for people to feel comfortable and if they have such a feeling then other issues occur to put an end to these comfortable moments and turn them into anxiety or misery like what happened to Jim in the camp.
These events confirm the dystopian characteristics especially restricting freedom, watching people and dehumanization. These hard circumstances last for years before the end of the war. After a few years, Japan is about to surrender, and the camp conditions get worse. The American air attacks are also intensified on Lunghua, therefore the Japanese soldiers evacuate the camp and plan to move prisoners to a different place. Jim suspects the intentions of the Japanese soldiers and get to know that the soldiers plan to lead prisoners from the sight of Americans in order to execute them. Some prisoners collapse and die while they are walking to the new destination. Jim hesitates whether to continue or pretends that he is dead like the people who collapsed since soldiers leave all weak persons who fall down before reaching the destination. The soldiers also think that all people who fall down are dead. Mr. Maxted, one of the prisoners, convinced Jim to continue walking until they reach Nantao stadium then they can execute their plan. After executing their plan and the soldiers leave them, thinking that Jim and Maxted are dead. Jim decides to go back to Lunghua camp. When he arrives in the camp, he finds out that former British prisoners have occupied the camp. They don’t want Jim to enter, but they allow him after he tells them lies about a treasure he has found in Nantao stadium.
In these dystopian scenes, the child suspects all behaviors of the soldiers, and he gets convinced that they plan to kill him along with the other prisoners. Due to these horrible circumstances people die even before being executed because of the great fear and uncertainty of what will happen to them. Therefore, many people fall on the ground and die before reaching the assigned destination. In another dystopian scene, the former British prisoners don’t accept their citizen, Jim, in the camp. Not only, the Japanese soldiers treat Jim inhumanly, but also the British people themselves deal unfairly with this child. They allow him to enter the camp only after telling them about an unreal treasure. This confirms the dystopian idea that the natural world or the true world is punished, and people can’t protect themselves without telling lies and deceiving each other.
During these horrible scenes, modern technology played a significant role, not in improving the lives of people, but in killing them. The Japanese tanks and the American planes shelled buildings and destroyed them over their dwellers. In that world and those moments, people got despaired and they felt death everywhere due to the vast destruction caused by the new technology which is expected to serve people and humanity. These kinds of technology are expected to turn the human societies into utopian ones, but in fact, they turned their societies and lives into dystopian ones as Rushkoff said: “Contrary to the technologically utopian claims, which view technology as a beneficial addition to all aspects of humanity, technological dystopia concerns itself with and focuses largely (but not always) on the negative effects caused by new technology”, (Rushkoff, 2002, 21).
Later, the prisoners decided to leave Lunghua and started packing their supplies in a truck. They also decided to take Jim with them to the stadium in order to help them get the treasure. They leave him in the truck, and they go to bring the treasure. Jim escapes but he doesn’t go far to avoid a possible attack by other gangs. Jim is caught again, and he was about to be killed, but one of the gang members was Basie, his old friend, who stops the gang from Killing Jim as described in the novel “The flame trembled in his powdered cheeks, exposing a familiar pair of wary eyes, with their sharp but modest focus. "Basie!" Jim wiped the blood from his nose. It's me, Basie Jim! Shanghai Jim! The cabin steward stared at Jim. After a moment's thought he shook his head in an almost formal way, as if recognizing the fourteen-year- old but no longer interested in him. He scanned the cartons of K- rations and fingered the silk of the parachute….. they noticed him, most of them liked Jim, who in return, and out of respect for America, ran endless errands for them”, (Ballard, 1984, 252).
The other characteristic of fearing the outside world is depicted by the other protagonist Eva who faced a series of risks during her errands. One of the dangerous orders that she had to deal with was in 1941 in New Mexico. In this errand, she should have delivered a map to a certain destination. She discovered something wrong about the map and she did not do what she had originally to do. When she was there in a hotel, an officer, who knew that Eva had the map and a lot of money, came to the hotel, and took her with him. The officer asked her to put the map and money in her pocket and then he drove her to a canyon. Like Jim when he suspected the intentions of Japanese soldiers, Eva discovered that the officer wanted to kill her, and she could escape because she found out his plot on time. This features the dystopian characteristic of distrust and deception. Accordingly, if people trust themselves in the novel, then they would fall in multiple traps and ambushes like Eva. Furthermore, the characteristic of distrust can also be tracked down throughout her journeys since Eva was betrayed by the person who claimed to be in love with her. Eva knew that she has been betrayed and her life was in danger, but she was surprised more when she found out that it was Lucas Romer who was the traitor. For being cautions and always on high alert, she could escape all plots and protect her life after killing one military individual, who kidnapped her. She also used their car to escape from them. After this incident, she changed her name once again and got more secure.
The safety of the two protagonists indicates that dystopia can sometimes be there and getting out of the bottleneck requires hard efforts similar to that of the protagonists. People can avoid dystopia, but they will never reach utopia because some corrupt people, officials, and regimes will be always there. However, if corrupt persons access power, then they will change the world into dystopian one and if power is kept away from them, then the world will avoid being involved a new dystopian era like that of the Second World War. Moreover, the future can be better, and dystopia can be avoided if people cooperate with each other and prioritize peace to war and public interests to personal interests as Helping said “In other words, there are surely alternatives to a dystopian future, but we would have to bring them on the way”, (Helbing, 2021, 10).
In the first novel, cooperation between the prisoners was amazing and changed their prison into a reasonable place that they can stay in. Furthermore, Jim liked the place, because of the good relationships among prisoners, but good moments did not last long. In the second, novel there is no such effective cooperation, on the contrary the characters might plot against each other like Lucas. But the two protagonists’ smartness empowered them to manage crises professionally and they could avoid imminent death many times. At the end of ‘The Empire of the Sun”, Jim sounds happy as the war is coming to an end. He returns once again to Lunghua camp and runs towards Dr. Ransome who tells him that the war is over and takes him back to his parents. Following two months through which Jim recovered his health, Jim and his parents are boarding on ship towards England, and they never return to Shanghai again. “He removed his mask and pressed Jim's head to his chest, inspecting the boy's gums and ignoring the blood that stained the crisp fabric of his U. S. Army shirt. "Your parents are waiting for you, Jim. Poor fellow, you'll never believe the war is over”, (Ballard, 1984, 273).
The other protagonist Eva wrote her life story and gave it to Ruth since she was a spy, and such a job should always be top secret. Therefore, she did not reveal her real name in the story, instead she used the nickname of Eva Delectorskaya. After performing several risky and complicated errands, Eva is with her daughter again, enjoying the rest of her life. “Now I could drink my wine and smoke a couple of cigarettes. But, instead, twenty minutes after I had washed up the dishes, I was still sitting in the kitchen, a mug of black coffee in front of me, thinking about my mother and her life”, (Boyd, 2006, 188).
Conclusion
Ballard and Boyd delivered great literary works that professionally depicted the suffering of people during the Second World Ward which led to killing millions of people including a lot of innocent civilians. Therefore, war is always a notorious act that leads to dystopian societies, and it will never be advantageous as the losses of war are priceless because they are associated with lives of people. However, if war is inevitable, then all people should behave wisely like Jim and Eva in order to protect themselves and the other people around them. The protagonists of the novels could avoid death since they were cautious and did their best to manage risks professionally. Further, people can get valuable messages from the two novels such as exerting all possible efforts to avoid wars or living near the areas of conflicts and if wars break out, people must be cautious and behave wisely.
Furthermore, people face hard circumstances every now and then because of wars, disputes or any other troubles that may turn their societies into dystopian ones, but they must do their best to contain such circumstances or troubles before they go out of control. People should also be aware that dystopia exists when people ignore public interests and security of their countries and focus on their personal interests. Dystopia can’t exist if people cooperate with each other and work sincerely to protect their societies. When people respect each other and always prioritize peace to war, then they will never leave a gap for dystopia to emerge.
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