Thursday, June 13, 2013

Bond, James Bond: A Man For All Times

So this is my final rough draft of my English Literature paper. I hope you enjoy it! And to the other students on the blogs, if you read my paper and comment I will read yours and comment. Thanks!



The world today has unique definitions of gender roles in society. Recently, there has been much discussion on topics such as gay marriage, the breakup of the family system, and the overall definition of what a man is in the 21st century. Many of these issues can be traced back to the social movements and changes that happened during the 1960’s and onward. Because of the women’s rights movement many women today have equal opportunities in the workplace and have surpassed men in graduating college. These changes have brought a lot of benefits to our society because now the female voice has a say in many of the decisions that go on at home, at the workplace, and in the world. However, while women have risen to new prominence in their roles today, men have diminished in theirs. Men today are more self-centered, less masculine, and have lost their sense of responsibility. Men of our grandparent’s generation were dependable, took action, and they defined what it is to be manly. Popular characters of their generation like James Bond personified this idea of the alpha male and masculine traits. Actually, Bond was so masculine and direct in his demeanor that when the Bond novels first came out they were considered edgy by many and even downright misogynistic by some. Still, today he remains the man that men want to be, and the man that women want to be with. So although James Bond is a flawed and sometimes overtly sexist character, he does represent a kind of masculinity that men in our society desperately need right now.
The first James Bond book was printed in 1953 in a time where the entire world seemed to be searching for and settling into their new identities. The United States and the Soviet Union became the new world powers after World War II and countries like Britain had taken a smaller role in the governance of the world.  The James Bond novels were Ian Fleming’s answer to the decline of British superiority in the world stage and they hearkened back to the glory days of Britain. He was their ultimate hero, a one-man army on Her Majesty’s Secret Service who could solve the world’s problems without the help of Britain’s larger cousin the United States. Long gone were the times when Allied soldiers were fighting against evil and oppression in the vast areas of the world. Tales of duty and good vs. evil were now found in the James Bond novels and their popularity rapidly increased among the general populace. Bond provided escape and excitement to readers in a time of peace. He has timeless qualities that can be admired in any generation and culture. They are the reason why he has remained immensely popular to this day.
As mentioned earlier the James Bond novels are a form of escape and can be categorized under the umbrella of “Escape Literature”. According to Harmon and Holman’s A Handbook to Literature “Escape Literature” is defined as “Writing whose clear intention is to amuse and beguile by offering readers a strong world, exciting adventures, or puzzling mysteries. It aims at no higher purpose than amusement. Adventure stories, detective stories, tales of fantasy, and many humorous stories are frankly escape literature, and they exist for no other purpose than to translate readers for a time from the care ridden actual world to an entrancing world of the imagination (Harmon and Holman, p.209).” The Bond novels are an escape for men because while we read them we can be in the exciting world of Bond for a few hours. We can get the beautiful exotic girl, we can travel round the globe, and we can save the day. All of the fantasies of the male mind are written into the novels, and he represents the epitome of those fantasies. His masculine qualities and instincts are just as relevant today as he was in the 1950’s. We need him now more than ever as men in our generation further lose sight of the definition of manliness and sink deeper into states of irresponsibility.
Several young men today live at home with their parents and they go out into the real world much later than the past generations. According to a recent survey, 19% of men today ages 25 to 29 still live with their parents. The percentage has risen 8% just from the 1980’s (Snider). Though he is a fictional character, Bond’s life story can be an example of independence and self-worth. Orphaned at the age of 11 because of his parents’ death in a sudden mountain climbing accident, Bond had to become self-reliant at a young age in order to support himself. Later, he served in the Royal Navy as an intelligence officer during WWII and started his work with the British Secret Service afterwards to fight Britain’s battles behind the scenes. The talents he perfected during his military service prepared him well for his later career.
In the beginning of the novel Moonraker, James more than qualifies for his marksmanship scores when he practices on the shooting range. “[His instructor] was pleased with Bond’s shooting, but he wouldn’t have the thought of telling him that he was the best shot in the Service. Only M was allowed to know that, and his Chief of Staff, who would be told to enter the scores of that day’s shoot on Bond’s confidential record” (Fleming, Moonraker p. 4). Because he honed his shooting skills in the military Bond was able to continually impress his superiors, and making a good impression on our bosses is something wanted in every profession. After shooting practice Bond used some of his analytical attributes and abilities to examine “Two days [worth] of dockets and files” (Fleming, Moonraker p. 5). James Bond was able to use the training he received during his service not only for his deep cover intelligence missions, but for his desk job as well.
Many young men of Bond’s generation also answered the call to serve in WWII, and later the Korean War. Afterwards, many of these men were able to assimilate back into society and contribute to said society with the skills they gained from their service. This is not to say that every young man these days should enlist in the military to gain the necessary experience and skills for life and career. The men of our grandparent’s generation did it because it was what they had to do. They either volunteered for service or they were drafted. There really weren’t any other options. Actually, today men have more opportunities because without an active draft they can choose to spend their early years building and educating themselves in universities or even vocational schools. Gaining an education will help more than anything else for getting ahead in today’s society. But unfortunately men today are slacking in this department. In 2003 there were 1.3 female four-year graduates for every male, contrast this with 1.6 male four year graduates for every female in 1960 (Francis). Men are clearly not stepping up to the plate these days and if something isn’t changed about our culture soon they will find themselves ill-equipped in the workplace. If men today were able to look at getting a college degree with the same sense of duty and zeal that Bond’s generation looked at their military service then I believe that this problem could be alleviated. With the skills gained in post high school education they could not only get ahead in the workplace, but they could also make a profound difference in the world.
Additionally, men in recent times have not been shown as much respect in the home as they were previous decades. This is reflected in media portrayals of the clueless and ineffective dad on modern sitcoms such as The Simpsons and Arrested Development. These sad portrayals of men were unheard in the time of the Bond novels. Men back then were the providers of the family. They established themselves, married, and then strived to support their family. It was expected of them to do so because it was their duty. Although not portrayed as a family man in the novels, James Bond certainly had a similar sense of duty and responsibility. He could have spent his time in idle pursuits; instead he devoted his entire life to a higher cause which was the protection and the safety of the Western world. Sure he pursued his own interests, but they were always secondary to his greater mission and purpose.
A relatively unknown and somewhat surprising fact about Bond is that several times in his life he had seriously pondered the idea of getting married and having a family, especially with his lovers Vesper Lynd and Tiffany Case. In On Her Majesty’s Secret Service however, he actually did succeed in marrying the beautiful and resourceful Countess Teresa “Tracy” di Vicenzo. He had planned to settle down with her and start a new life, but unfortunately for Bond she was killed shortly after the wedding by his arch-nemesis Ernst Stavro Blofield (Fleming, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service). This shows that Bond was not the heartless womanizer that many people make him out to be. He was a man who believed in love as most of us do and he was willing to sacrifice his personal interests to do so. Today we find that many men put their own interests first by marrying much later in life, or sometimes they decide to live as bachelors indefinitely. Many men waste their lives away with video games, television, and seemingly endless internet browsing, all of which only leads to stagnation career wise and personally.
Men today also have a problem with the way they treat women. Often we hear the saying that “chivalry is dead”.  Many have claimed that James Bond was just a sexist womanizer in the past, but a closer look at the novels reveals that he certainly knows how to treat women. There is a reason why so many women are attracted to him and that most of the women aren’t fictional. He sincerely complimented all of the women he pursued and made them feel like they were the most beautiful women in the world. He was confident and assuring, he courted women without looking desperate or needy. And often times throughout his adventures he even treated his female counterparts as important assets to his success. This Bond quote from the short story Quantum of Solace offers some insight into Bond’s character: “Quantum of Solace-the amount of comfort. Yes, I suppose you could say that all love and friendship is based in the end on that” (Fleming, p.76). That may come as a shock to some who think of Bond as a sexist and misogynist. Bond understood that in relationships there has to be genuine care for the comfort of one another, that it isn’t something that is one sided. There has to be mutual respect and care between the two parties. Men in the dating world today could learn a lot of lessons from 007.
Just as the countries of the world were searching for their identities after WWII, men today are searching for their own identities within the modern world. Much has changed since the time that James Bond burst onto the scene with his novels. Social reforms and movements have given us new characterizations for what men are and how they should act in society. Once the sole providers in the home, men are now being consistently outmatched by women in college and in the workplace. Men of today need to step up, but many don’t have the knowledge or motivation to do so. Thankfully history is often our greatest teacher. Men in our grandparent’s generation went through the Great Depression and the Second World War. After that they went to work to provide for themselves and their families. This generation of men and their great examples of manhood were epitomized in the James Bond novels.  Men of today can look back to the James Bond novels and learn about what has to be done to progress now. He was and still is the definitive man: stalwart, responsible, and unwavering in his display of masculinity. He was developed partly to rescue Britain’s declining sense of worth and return Her to her glory days, today he can be used similarly to help us strive to become the best men that we can be.

Works Cited
Harmon, William and C. Hugh Holman. A Handbook to Literature, p.209.
Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2009.
            Fleming, Ian. For Your Eyes Only, “Quantum of Solace”, p.76.
                        New York, New York: The New American Library,1964.
            Fleming, Ian. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. New York, New York:
The New American Library, 1963.
            Fleming, Ian. Moonraker, p. 4-5. United States: Penguin Books, 2003.
            Francis, David R. “Why do women outnumber men in college?”
National Bureau of Economic Research, Website. 6/12/13.
http://www.nber.org/digest/jan07/w12139.html

            Snider, Julie. “Living with Parents”. USATODAY. Survey. 8/1/2012

1 comment:

  1. Interesting analogy between the declining status of Britain and the state of men. Glad you addressed some of the counterarguments!

    ReplyDelete