June 8, 2024

Day Off Reading

While I’m not sure I’ve earned it, today will be a day off from research. I decided to make a bibliography page that lists Mailer’s complete short fiction, rather than trying to do it on each of my journal posts. A single page will ultimately be more convenient for me and anyone else researching the short fiction l later. So, check out Norman Mailer’s Short Fiction.

I read “Right Shoe on Left Foot” this morning. I’m not sure I found it particularly racist, but maybe we should give Mailer credit for attempting to see through the eyes of young black man in the Jim Crow south. Mailer’s story may have entertained certain stereotypes, and the ending was very unlikely. However, there’s some great prose in this piece, especially when the dance becomes surreal for Ivory, like he’s fighting his way through hell.

The plot is fairly simple: Ivory and Dolly, husband and wife migrant workers, drive to the end-of-the-season dance in a North Carolina town. Ivory gets frisky along the way, and they pull off the highway to indulge their desires, when they are caught by the off-duty and drunk sheriff, Spence Hovergarden. Spence intimidates them and tries to get Ivory to “take a walk” so he can rape Dolly. The two manage to get away, backing the car up quickly, so Spence falls over, and continue to the dance. They know there will be repercussions, but want to dance before leaving town. They talk to their friend Hometown who warns about Calliopy Williams, a violent black man, and how Spence helped Calliopy get out of a rape charge, so the latter now owes him a favor. Before they can leave, Calliopy shows up and forces Dolly to dance with him, when the place turns demonic for Ivory. Ivory tries to get Dolly away from Calliopy, but is knocked down and beaten by the larger man. Finally, they are able to make their getaway with the help of Hometown. As they leave, Ivory decides he must stand up for them. He tells Dolly to meet him by Hobson Brook, and goes to confront Spence. After Ivory says his piece, Spence, in a rage begins to beat Ivory.

I think the biggest issue with the 30-page story, is that I can feel Mailer’s presence in the protagonist. In the major conflict of the story—Ivory’s oppression by the white man versus his desire to assert his own individuality and fight for himself and Dolly—the latter inexplicably wins. At the conclusion of the story, Ivory has become a successful Mailer protagonist by acting to assert his own will over the Spence, the story’s white antagonist, but the story ends before the inevitable consequences: likely the murder of Ivory. I guess the unseen consequences are not what matter here, but the heroic capacity that Ivory finally asserted in the face of his own destruction.

I felt bad for Dolly throughout this story. Not only is her character underdeveloped, but she is solely the object of desire and the catalyst for Ivory to become a symbolic hero for his people. Dolly must be protected, Ivory realizes, but how is his murder going to help? Logically, Spence will kill Ivory, so what’s to become of Dolly? How long will she wait? The outcome seems pretty grim for her, too. Dolly is also the object of men’s lustful desires in this violent world, and she has likely lost Ivory, the one who offered her a modicum of protection.

I think the story is an allegory of naturalism. The scenes are atavistic, surreal, which brings out the worst, and best, in people. Ivory is the black guy with the white name, the underdog who stands up for himself rather than running. I guess we’re supposed to admire him for his sacrifice, like the Rosa Parks who have to take the first dangerous steps toward equality and humanity.