Trust contains four narratives that inform the reader’s view of the lives led by Andrew and Mildred Bevel. These narratives are a roman a clef about the Bevels, Andrew’s unfinished biography, the biography’s ghostwriter reflecting on her experiences writing the biography, and Mildred’s journal. These narratives are distinctive because they each explore - either implicitly or explicitly - the ethical dimensions of women being deprived of their personhood and autonomy.
Within Bonds, Helen is - from a young age - manipulated by others. Her father uses her schooling as a way to fill emotional and intellectual voids in his life (Diaz 28). It should also be noted how Mr. Brevoort’s obsessions render him unable to contribute to the family’s finances (Diaz 28). He is consumed so much by fictional demons that he creates real ones for his wife and his daughter. Mrs. Brevoort is forced to manage every element of the family’s affairs with no help. Naturally, Helen shoulders this burden alongside her. In attempting to secure social status, Mrs. Brevoort uses Helen’s language skills as a party trick (Diaz 39). Amidst this situation, Helen is tacitly taught to minimize her emotions. “... it was this dampened version of herself that her parents preferred - her father followed her uninspired work with great pleasure; her mother found her more approachable,” (Diaz 30).
Bevel’s key achievement regarding Mildred in My Life is painting their marriage as impeccably happy, free of conflict (Diaz 157). He portrays his wife as unfailingly kind, gentle, and gracious (Diaz 160). His description of Mildred’s love of music is - like most references to her - brief, vague, and only emphasizes her supposedly docile nature (Diaz 160). The ethics of these choices are explicitly explored in A Memoir, Remembered.
Ida explains that Andrew’s stated motivation in writing My Life is to dispel the myths that had become popular about Mildred in the wake of Bonds’ publication (Diaz 258). However, Ida also reveals how the limited depth given to Mildred in My Life was entirely intentional. Andrew refuses to provide meaningful information about Mildred’s personality, even dismissing her love of music as irrelevant (Diaz 278). Andrew reduces Mildred to this statement: “... she was a simple creature. And sensitive,” (Diaz 278). Through the course of Ida’s collaboration with Andrew, one theme emerges: Andrew was not angry because his wife’s legacy was tarnished by Bonds; he was angry because he did not get to control her legacy, her narrative (Diaz 300). He was angry because he did not get to turn her into something she was not (Diaz 300).
The discovery and inclusion of Mildred’s journal represents both Trust and Ida’s attempt to at last restore Mildred’s autonomy. Even so, the journal is - by its very nature - a fragmented, deeply inadequate portrait of Mildred. Its discovery and inclusion is derived from Ida’s insistence that she knows Mildred even though she does not and never can (Diaz 357). In this sense, Mildred’s journal is Trust’s most visceral, pivotal symbol surrounding the ethics of why and how someone’s story is told.
Not only do the four narratives in Hernan Diaz’s Trust highlight the imbalanced power dynamic between men and women – and husband and wife – but the narratives by Vanner, Bevel, and Partenza convey the rigid, socially accepted gender roles (men as breadwinners; women as frivolous spenders) and the prejudice that women during the 20th century faced. In contrast, the final narrative penned by Mildred Bevel counters and invalidates the harmful stereotypes surrounding women.
ReplyDeleteThroughout the first three narratives, there is a discussion of the type of intellect men and women possess: men possess practical intellect (business endeavors, economics), women possess frivolous intellect (sophisticated music taste). For example, when Bevel discusses the events leading up to the 1929 crash, he declares, “Women represented only 1.5 per cent of the dilettantish speculators at the beginning of the decade. At the end they neared 40 per cent. Could there have been a clearer indicator of the disaster to come?” (Diaz 182). Bevel’s blatantly sexist remark highlights the common conception that women were incapable of making sound economic decisions. However, in Mildred’s narrative, it’s revealed that Mildred was the unnamed strategical genius behind all of Bevel’s most legendary plays. Mildred possessed practical intellect; Mildred embodied the societally accepted male norm. Therefore, in reaction to the strict gender roles of the period, after Mildred’s death, Bevel attempted to rewrite history in order to present himself as the mastermind breadwinner, while Mildred became an uncomplicated, dedicated homemaker.
This post’s exploration of perspective, and specifically the depiction of Mildred, reflects a broader theme in the novel — trust. Diaz’s goal with “Trust” was to play with the reader’s ability to believe its four narrators, and the extent to which we can is revealed through their motivations for skewing her image.
ReplyDeleteI found the beginning of the book interesting because without knowing the objective of the book, you wouldn’t have reason to suspect bias or outright lying. The authenticity of Vanner’s story is only called into question when Andrew Bevel “writes his autobiography in response” to “Vanner’s depiction of his wife” (276). The eccentric and tormented character created by Vanner likely stemmed from a struggling author’s need to embellish and invent in order to sell a book and hurt Bevel’s reputation. In Bevel’s section, Mildred is “fragile” and “saved [Bevel] with her humanity and warmth” (158). The stark difference puts the reader’s walls up as one can only guess which of the narrators are lying. The third section removes almost all trust remaining for Vanner and Bevel when revealing their ulterior motivation and dismissiveness of Mildred’s true nature. Although it would make sense for Mildred’s own diary to clear up misunderstandings and give back the trust that the reader has been searching for throughout the book, her fragmented accounts and deteriorating mental state, as well as the fact that her words are being interpreted by another character, leaves the reader with arguably more questions than when they began.