Materiality and the Modern Cosmopolitan Novel

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176 Materiality and the Modern Cosmopolitan Novel


which itself contributes to the character’s tragic downfall, Ringold
also exhibits in such instances a manner of interpreting the world
that is restrictive in a way that invites unnecessary social confronta-
tion and dissonance.
This confined outlook can also be viewed in the excessively
instrumental manner in which Ringold regards art, particularly lit-
erature. Being in his early teens when he first meets and becomes
acquainted with Ringold, the young Zuckerman is quite taken by
the former’s energy and relative fame. When discussing a novel by
Thomas Paine, Ringold didactically instructs Zuckerman that the
work has value because it demonstrates strong “convictions” (p. 28).
Reading, for Ringold, is therefore an occupation whose value derives,
not from its capacity to allow the individual to be “elevated by it,”
but by its ability to equip the reader with the tools for class struggle
(p. 27). Indeed, we are told later in the narrative that when it came
to books, if Ringold “didn’t find political and social implications
[... ], the whole thing was no good” (p. 155). Such a limited view
of literature and art in general eventually begins to irk Zuckerman
as he attends university and develops his own sense of intellectual
independence. However, for a significant portion of the novel,
Zuckerman describes being enthralled by the passionate Ringold
and his Communist ideals.
This admiration bears a strong resemblance to the lofty esteem
in which Zuckerman holds the Swede in the early pages of American
Pastoral. Indeed, the narrator recalls, as a high school student, view-
ing Ringold as a “brave, angry hero I adored” (p. 90). Along with
fame and social eminence (both of which Ringold possesses to a
relatively large degree), heroism is of course another key constitu-
ent in the classical Aristotelian model of tragedy.^96 Ringold does
indeed display feats of courage that reach heroic proportions: the
bravery required for a public figure like “Iron Rinn” Ringold, a well-
known radio broadcaster married to a famous Hollywood actress, to
advocate strong left-wing social and political views in McCarthy-era
America cannot easily be dismissed.
In keeping with the patterns of the tragic model, Ringold’s over-
zealous and somewhat reckless adherence to these views is the very
characteristic that brings about his fall. This comes in the form of

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