Civil Rights Tensions in 60s America and France Metaphorical Contexts of Romain Gary s White Dog
Part I Introduction “Chien Blanc” or White Dog is a story told by Romain Gary (Gary, 1970b). Sandy, Romain’s dog, brings a big German Shepherd home with him one day. The new dog is gentle, loving, intelligent, and very well-behaved. He wears no collar, so the Gary’s keep him and name him Batka. But one day, when a black pool-attendant comes to the house, Batka’s other learned nature appears: wild, brutal, cruel, and uncontrollable. ... Batka was a “White Dog.” Romain cannot keep the dog, so he takes it to a zoo, where it can be kept and perhaps cured. Keys, a young Black Muslim who works at the zoo becomes interested in the dog and decides to do something. ... The story of Gary’s attempts to discover the source of hate and erase it from Batka and to undo years of training is the core of the book. From Keys to the liberal friend who wants the dog to use him as a watchdog, whites and blacks react to the situation in ways that reveal all their deeply hidden wounds of hate. The story takes place in 1968 in the United States and in France. It is a non-fiction story which, for the most part, is told in Hollywood where Romain Gary lives with his wife and son. He is married to Jean Seberg, an actress who is involved with Civil Rights Movement: she participates in Urban League and Black Panthers Party meetings and donates money to various black related issues such as the Montessori’s school without hate. ... S. wanting to do something, Jean and Romain have different strategies in their solidarity for the blacks’ demand for justice. Jean: “There’s a school with thirty kids in it and let me tell you that their black reality is of a kind that even Hollywood can’t make unreal. It’s not Hollywood that will give it a touch of unreality, it is the other way round. Thirty ghetto kids, that’s reality all right. I got five-thousand-dollar check for them…” Romain: “A ‘school without hate,’ you know what that means? ... S. ... Some of the social and political issues that are introduced to the reader are: The war in Vietnam and its meaning to some black leaders; the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy; riots in cities and university campuses; the Poor People’s March in Washington D. ... ; and the Chicago Police’s reaction to demonstrators opposing the Vietnam War outside the national Democratic Party convention. ... On a global perspective, Gary talks about famine in Biafra and Prague Spring. Toward the end of the book, he travels to France, where his account on racism and his observation of students’ movement of May 1968 in Paris are introduced to the reader from different perspectives. Madeleine: “It’s just that Ballard can’t get used to France. You know, he’s so American…” Romain: “What is it he’s missing? ... Here is a black missing his homeland – the very homeland his black brothers feel is only a white man’s one. ... 226 Clearly, the story of the dog and social and political issues in the 60s are the main subjects of this book. White Dog does not teach us about the Civil Rights Movement, but by touching on different social events, it draws a fine picture about the struggle. ... White Dog might not be the strongest book about racial injustice, but it is the first book that made me question this reality. ... My intention is not to critique Gary’s comprehension of race and Civil Rights Movement in the U.S. ... In other words, I will see how Gary’s vision of Black Power matches or relates to the Black Power as told by blacks. Gary’s White Dog cannot be studied in isolation. ... This is one of the only two books in which Gary talks freely about his life and his relationship with his wife. To put White Dog into perspective and to see who Gary and his wife are and how they relate to Black Power, short biographies of them are provided. Understanding Black Power from the perspective of a white Hollywood actress and a French Gaullist man is interesting. ... It is more pleasant to re-discover White Dog and try to re-relate to it with a critical vision of “Civil Rights Movement: Then and Now. ... She rose to prominence at the age of seventeen after she played Joan of Arc in Otto Preminger’s controversial “Saint Joan.” Playing opposite Richard Widmark as King Louis, she turned in a mesmerizing performance that encapsulated Preminger’s vision of Joan with an unnatural precision. While Preminger’s direction and superb performances from the leading players made for a great film, it was criticized for it’s secular approach to the tale of Joan of Arc, and it’s depiction of organized religion as a force for brutal political regimes enraged the establishment, particularly in the United States. “Saint Joan” and its star were critically slammed, but Preminger chose Seberg again in “Bonjour Tristesse,” which was scandalous and modern enough to maintain Seberg’s career. In “Bonjour Tristesse,” she played Cécile the hedonistic but sensitive heroine of Francoise Sagan’s ground breaking novel of the same name “Bonjour Tristesse.” Seberg’s most significant success comes from her role in Jean-Luc Godard’s class “A Bout de Souffle. ... During the 60s she also became active in left-wing political groups in France. In the United States, Seberg’s generous contribution to African American Civil Rights Movement groups made her a highly visible figure in Hollywood’s liberal community. ... The articles asserted that the father was an important member of the Black Panther Party, one of Malcolm X’s cousins. ... The child, most likely fathered by Gary, did not survive. To satisfy the morbid curiosity of onlookers at the Child’s funeral, held in Seberg’s hometown, Seberg ordered an open casket service. Although Gary and Seberg won a slander suit against Newsweek, Seberg’s psychological equilibrium crumbled and she sank into severe depression. ... ” Romain Gary Born as Romain Kacew in Moscow in 1914, Romain Gary spent the first fourteen years of his life in Russia and Poland. ... Her husband, Lebja Kacew, was probably not Gary’s father; he left his wife shortly after the child’s birth. In Russia, Nina’s millinery business failed, and she and her son moved to Warsaw. ... In 1928, mother and son moved to Nice, France. For both of them France was the Promised Land. In France, Nina presented Romain to others as “the future ambassador.”(Schoolcraft, 2002) Prior to and during World War II, Gary served as a pilot with the French Air Force, in Africa, Russia, and Palestine. ... For his military service Gary was awarded the Croix de Guerre and the Croix de la Libération and he was made a Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur. When Gary returned home he began a diplomatic career. ... Much of his life with Seberg and their involvement in the Civil Rights Movement are described in White Dog (Bona, 1987). While he was still writing under Gary, he created another pseudonym: Émile Ajar. It is believed that Gary’s decision to write as Émile Ajar stemmed from his pleasure in disguises and from a need for freedom. ... Writing as Ajar, Gary won his second Prix Goncourt for “La Vie Devant Soi” (translated first as “Madame Rosa” and then as “Life Before Us”) although the award was accepted by Pavlowitch, in keeping with the hoax. ... Seventeen month after the death of Jean Seberg, Romain Gary committed suicide in December 1980. White Dog’s Reception It is not clear whether White Dog was first written in English or French. Ralph Schoolcraft has classified White Dog as a book originally written in English (Schoolcraft, 2002). This is not of significance if Gary was not attempting to make the English version more optimistic, in other words, a “gentler and kinder one. ... Gary acknowledged, “and I will, in the American version. ... White Dog or “Chien Blanc” has been reprinted three times in France(Gary, 1970a, 1972, 1980) and twice in the U.S. in both hard-copy and paper-back (Gary, 1970b). ... S. ... As for White Dog’s reception in France, I need more time to find reliable information. ... Fuller’s White Dog was released for the first time in New York and then in other cities. The film was on big screens in France, however, for longer time. ... S., almost all film reviews were positive: either positive to Fuller himself or to his works in general or to White Dog in particular. ... ” In the book, however, it is clear that Gary’s finds out about the dog’s conditioning in a completely different way. ... Batka was hurling himself against the fate, foaming at the mouth, in a paroxysm of hatred (Gary, 1970b).” The disturbing fact is Fuller’s reproduction of stereotypes of rape and blackness. ... In this climate, the NAACP warned Paramount that the film, in which three blacks are viciously attacked by the “White Dog,” could be a dangerous incitement to racism (Katzman, 1991).