Thursday, October 30, 2008

The Last American Chapter

In my opinion, Eustace is NOT the last American man, you dig? Yeah, there are always going to be plenty of his kind in the future. Yes, he knows a lot about nature, and yes he like the circle of life, and yes he does weird things like smear deer artery all over himself, but in reality, all humans are like that. The other 299,999,000 Americans just don't express themselves like Eustace does. For example, normal businessmen have very similar traits to that of Eustace. Businessmen understand that there is a circle of life, and a food chain i.e. some are on top, others on the bottom, and that's how it goes. The ones on the top have the power, and feed off of the ones on the bottom, and when the ones on top die out, the ones on the bottom are sometimes rewarded with a promotion or raise of some kind. The ones on top will do whatever it takes to stay on the top, and will try and make sure that the struggling bottom feeders will stay where they belong. Businessmen also desire land, territory, wealth and power, just like Eustace does. Only instead of bonds, stuffy air conditioning, corporate branches, salesmen and customer service workers, and skyscrapers, Eustace has tall trees and mountains, valleys, birds, animals, and open air.
Eustace is not the last American man, and this idea is a bad one. There are many types of "men" in our society, and Eustace is just a version of a man who became a stereotype in the 19th century, and in the 20th century with cheesy John Wayne movies and politically incorrect Disney movies. Gilbert's idea of the "Last American Man," is terrible, and in my opinion is just portraying that American men should be white, bearded, control freaks who like deer blood and love to use people for his own benefit, and do nothing for anyone else.

1 comment:

Scottie Boi said...

Rory i would definitely agree with you on how Eustace is not the last American man. I liked how you talked about regular Americans and how they are just as american as he is. I found your blog to be very interesting. Nice job Priest