Sometimes in life it’s crucial that we swallow our pride, backpedal, and admit we’re wrong because the alternative, continuing done Wrong Road, just creates a greater and greater catastrophic embarrassment.
The birthers who claim Obama is not an American citizen are looking more and more like crackpots in the face of definitive evidence that Obama has an authentic birth certificates.
Same is true of the conspiracy theorists who believe 9/11 was an inside job done by the Bush Administration.
A preacher keeps predicting the end of the world and is always wrong. He, and his followers, should admit they can’t interpret biblical prophecy.
A man with an imminent wedding realizes he doesn’t love his fiancé but goes on with the wedding to save face.
A college student realizes she hates her major but sticks with it to save face.
A kid at school “calls out” another guy for an after school fight even though he knows in his heart he was acting irrational when he lost his temper but goes on with the fight to save face.
An employee screams at his boss and rather than apologize to keep his job, he quits to save face.
Bin could stop all this nonsense, this escalation of war between him and his employers, but his pride stops him. All Bin has to do is buy his boss a bottle of Vodka. Conflict over.
Why Bin Is Addicted to Rage
One. The purity of emotion intoxicates him like liquor, makes him urinate as if he is experiencing hormonal changes. This could be a byproduct of his simmering frustration, which feeds on itself.
Two. Rage gives Bin a sense of mission, which must placate him living in a small town that revolves around a fertilizer plant.
Three. Rage makes him feel like he has the moral upper-hand over the supercilious bureaucrats who lord over him even though in fact his sense of superiority is a gross illusion.
Four. Bin’s rage makes him lose a sense of proportion so that he does foolish deeds, which get him and his family into trouble.
Five. Bin is an artist but all of his art is subsumed by rage, resulting in the misplacement of his talents.
Six. Rage is part of Bin's bullheaded stubbornness and constitutes his identity. This characteristic is the primary source of the novel's comedy.
Seven. When you rage all the time, it becomes a force of habit; it's all you know. It becomes your orientation to life.
Eight. Rage impedes Bin from listening to himself. He is so full of rage, people cannot take himself seriously. He comes across as a lugubrious clown. If people listened to themselves speak, they would speak less, but of course Bin speaks from the rage simmering in his gut and he has no Third Eye, the ability to stand apart from himself and see what he appears like in the eyes of others. The Third Eye, which is the ability to stand back and observe oneself objectively, is one of the cornerstones of wisdom and self-improvement. Of course, Bin does not have this quality.
Part Two: Applying the Lessons or Laws of Bureaucratic Power to the Novel
One. Never show emotional reciprocity to your “inferiors.” In other words, you can’t let Bin know that he “cut you” psychologically.
Two. Balance the carrot and the stick. Too much or too little of one creates problems. Throw table scraps to the dogs to keep them quiet, but use fear when you have to.
Three. Always win the PR battle with BS that is superior to your opponent’s. See pages 16 and 17.
Four. Know the strengths and limitations of your enemy. Of course, Bin can’t see this. On page 30, we read that his wife must tell him, “A sparrow must not match itself against a raven.”
Five. Learn the Psychology of Mollification Or False Satisfaction. Give the masses a sense of vindication or a sense of reward even though it’s “peanuts.”
Six. Discredit your opponent as a crackpot so that his accusations will have no sticking power. This is easy to do considering how nutty Bin is.
Seven. Show false sympathy, as on page 33, when Liu tells Bin that Bin is not evil, just insane and that “an ant can’t shake a tree.” This is false, condescending pity and sympathy used to discredit Bin. Of course, it only enrages Bin all the more.
Eight. Don’t become overconfident; otherwise, your enemy make be like a toad who grows wings and flies into the sky. See page 45.
Part Three. Qualities of the Anti-Hero
One. He possesses an exaggerated view of himself, which contradicts others' perception of him.
Two. His obnoxious traits test our sympathy and patience.
Three. He embodies the rejection of traditional values and the status quo.
Four. He is often a misfit, a loner, a malcontent.
Five. He is sometimes well intentioned but compelled by irrational, misguided forces.
Six. He has remarkable insight into others but is painfully blind to his own egregious shortcomings. In Bin's case, his insight into others makes him highly judgmental but being judgmental is dangerous. "Whenever you photograph someone's _____, remember that someone is photographing your _______. " In other words, your most strident judgment of others makes you most vulnerable to being judged.
Seven. He is often the victim of his own solipsism (self-centered egotism).
Eight. His self-serving obsessions often hurt the people he presumably loves.
Nine. He is not constrained by social norms and is apt to issue vituperations (long-winded tirades) in the most awkward settings.
Ten. For the anti-hero, problems are not his problem. It is his OVERREACTION to his problems that are his problem. Yes, he overreacts to everything and as such he digs himself into a hole.
Part Four. Student In-Class Activity to Use in Your Essay Introduction (if you wish)
Write about someone you know who embodies the characteristics of the anti-hero. Share with the class. Then if you like this topic, you would write a transition like this: Similarly, Bin is the consummate anti-hero evidenced by ________________, _______________, ________________, ________________, and _____________________.
Sample Thesis Statements for Essay
The novel's cruel irony is that while Bin convinces himself in paranoid fashion that people are out to get him he is in fact his own worst enemy made evident by ______________________, __________________, __________________, and __________________________.
Bin's addiction to self-righteous indignation and fury blinds him in catastrophic ways, not the least of which is _______________, ________________, _________________, and ________________________.
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