Timothy Findley’s, Famous Last is a metafictional view of the events leading up to and during the Second World War. In the novel Timothy Findley represents the lower, middle, and upper class through the characters Quinn, Freyberg, and Hugh Selwyn Mauberley respectively. Society’s lower class is represented in the novel through a soldier named Quinn by his forgetfulness and the constant abuse he receives from his commanding officer captain Freyberg; Quinn personifies the lower class by providing his support to the middle class of society in their fight against their ever present oppression. The Captain in the United States military, named Freyberg is the representation of middle class society presented by the author in his novel; the entitled
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Captain Freyberg has a ubiquitous hate for the bourgeois of society as is present in most middle class society’s and this is very obviously shown in the novel through the constant war waged by the military upon the upper class of society that will result in their eventual extermination. The sense of entitlement that Captain Freyberg feels due to his high military rank is quite clearly seen in the way he treats his subordinates and the air of non-compromising authority which he holds: “Freyberg’s section of clerks was uncrating files and tables and even a safe. Everything you could think of, Quinn thought, except a sign for Freyberg’s desk reading PRESIDENT” (Findley 145). This observation of Freyberg comes from the novels representation of the lower class, lieutenant Quinn, through Quinn’s eyes it is easy to see just how high of a regard Freyberg holds himself in and how Freyberg although not being a member of the upper class employs some of their values such as violence and corruption in order to maintain his modicum of …show more content…
A theme of Marxist society is the oppression of the lower class by the upper due to their belief that those who are not on par with their standards need to be lowered and controlled. A common theme of an oppressive upper class is the control of the lower-class and in turn the means of production which a member of the novels upper class Charles E. Bedaux sees to be one in the same. “What nobody ever organized before Charles E. Bedaux came along was the concept of the distribution of energy... human energy” (Findley, 127). Although it isn’t said it is heavily alluded to that the control of the lower class is on par with slavery and was how Charles was able to raise himself to the status of a millionaire. The theme of the bourgeois controlling the means of production is frequently associated with Marxism (Marx/Engels, 18). Another common way in which the upper class holds control over the lower class is their ability to control the truth in order to achieve goals or to perpetrate acts that if the truth was known would result in their own downfall represented through the motto adopted by Hugh and his friends is “The truth is in our hands” (Findley 169). This motto is seen to be true in many cases throughout the novel where the murders perpetrated by the upper class are easily
Captain Freyberg has a ubiquitous hate for the bourgeois of society as is present in most middle class society’s and this is very obviously shown in the novel through the constant war waged by the military upon the upper class of society that will result in their eventual extermination. The sense of entitlement that Captain Freyberg feels due to his high military rank is quite clearly seen in the way he treats his subordinates and the air of non-compromising authority which he holds: “Freyberg’s section of clerks was uncrating files and tables and even a safe. Everything you could think of, Quinn thought, except a sign for Freyberg’s desk reading PRESIDENT” (Findley 145). This observation of Freyberg comes from the novels representation of the lower class, lieutenant Quinn, through Quinn’s eyes it is easy to see just how high of a regard Freyberg holds himself in and how Freyberg although not being a member of the upper class employs some of their values such as violence and corruption in order to maintain his modicum of …show more content…
A theme of Marxist society is the oppression of the lower class by the upper due to their belief that those who are not on par with their standards need to be lowered and controlled. A common theme of an oppressive upper class is the control of the lower-class and in turn the means of production which a member of the novels upper class Charles E. Bedaux sees to be one in the same. “What nobody ever organized before Charles E. Bedaux came along was the concept of the distribution of energy... human energy” (Findley, 127). Although it isn’t said it is heavily alluded to that the control of the lower class is on par with slavery and was how Charles was able to raise himself to the status of a millionaire. The theme of the bourgeois controlling the means of production is frequently associated with Marxism (Marx/Engels, 18). Another common way in which the upper class holds control over the lower class is their ability to control the truth in order to achieve goals or to perpetrate acts that if the truth was known would result in their own downfall represented through the motto adopted by Hugh and his friends is “The truth is in our hands” (Findley 169). This motto is seen to be true in many cases throughout the novel where the murders perpetrated by the upper class are easily