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The Pickup
作者Author  /  Nadine  Gordimer  娜丁•葛蒂瑪

The Pickup

 
 
 

In Nadine Gordimer's The Pickup, the love affair between two individuals from vastly different backgrounds is intensively portrayed. Julie, a young woman from a wealthy, upper class white family in Johannesburg, picks up Ibrahim, an illegal immigrant from an unnamed Arabic country, in the garage where Ibrahim works. The affair starts as a casual pickup, and later evolves into a complicated relationship which has great influence on them and leads them to new directions none of them have expected. Based on Stuart Hall's theory of "identification as a construction, a process never completed – always 'in process'" and the concept of identity as a strategic and positional one (2-3), this paper analyzes the alteration of Julie's identity as in a process of identification. Drawing on certain intersubjective relationships and social discourses, this paper argues that through internal differentiations, the boundary-crossing between self and other can be achieved, and with the boundary-crossing, Julie's identity takes on substance and meaning.

The class difference and mutual incomprehension between Ibrahim and Julie arouse their curiosity in each other. In fact, no personal interaction takes place until Julie shows up in the garage in her father's Rover, signifying the huge gap between them – a daughter of a prominent white citizen and an illegal Arabic immigrant earning his bread as a car technician. Through the acquaintance with Julie, Ibrahim, an illegal immigrant, sees a possibility of escaping deportation. Julie represents a relation to the rich upper class, the circle of social elite, the wealthy with political influences, all of which Ibrahim aspires to. Ibrahim accepts the unjustifiable means to success, with more understanding of the harsh reality in life. To achieve his idea of success, he is willing to try all kinds of methods, just as to avoid deportation, he grasps at any chance that comes along. Ibrahim's behavior mirrors his belief that the end justifies the means, no matter how sordid the means are, indicating the characteristic of an opportunist. Yet Julie is blind to this characteristic despite her aversion to the sordid dealings among the rich and the powerful.

Similarly, Julie is not aware that the lifestyle Ibrahim aspires to is the lifestyle she deliberately runs away from. Even if she is aware of Ibrahim's aspiration, she does not seem to care. The determining factors of Julie's identity should be made clear, brought up first before you discuss their develop along the plot. That is, what you have discussed in these four paragraphs, her curiosity, need for a way out, her lack—which constitute her position as a white—and her subordinate position as a woman should be related to each other. After accompanying Julie to a Sunday luncheon in her father's house, Ibrahim comments, "Interesting people there. They make a success" (Gordimer 51). Upon hearing his comment, Julie is filled with loathing for those people, and the desire for lovemaking is drained from her instantly, implying the fragility of their relationship, which is pretty much constituted by bodily or sexual attraction.

More precisely, Julie's journey toward an identity with substance is a process of self-othering. The Other in this relationship is both to be desired and to be suppressed. Julie is attracted to Ibrahim not because she views him as a holistic individual, but because she identifies her own lack in him. It is through the relation to the Other, to the lack, or the "constitutive outside" that an identity can be constructed (Hall 4). To Julie, the exoticism and physicality of a foreign man is desirable. Ibrahim's countenance and physicality are repeatedly described, while Julie's appearance is almost never portrayed, implying how the dark-skinned man is observed and objectified. What is more desirable is that Ibrahim embodies her over-romanticized notion of Bohemian lifestyle, which she has never experienced. She takes delight in nurturing and sheltering him, as in a process of incorporation – incorporating the otherness into part of her identification. Even in psychoanalytic usage, identification is "grounded in fantasy, in projection and idealization". Since identification is seen as a construction, a process, and "conditional, lodged in contingency", "the total merging it suggests is, in fact, a fantasy of incorporation" (Hall 2-3). Likewise, for Julie, her identification is grounded in fantasy, and based on superficial understanding of her partner. In "New Ethnicities," Hall writes: "The play of identity and difference . . . is powered not only by the positioning of blacks as the inferior species but also, and at the same time, by an inexpressible envy and desire" (Chen 444). Julie's identity is not only conjured up with envy and desire for the Other, but also "the internalization of the self-as-other". Hall reminds us that the self constantly constructs the other as double, "just as masculinity always constructs femininity as double – simultaneously Madonna and Whore – so racism constructs the black subject: noble savage and violent avenger" (Chen 445). Julie incorporates the doubling. Ibrahim is desirable to Julie, while she knows well how Ibrahim is abominable to the upper white class. This abomination is in her, for she employs the abomination to assert her identity in front of her family.

Besides recognizing one's lack, the power relationship between man/woman also constitutes one's identification. Laclau argues that "if . . . an objectivity manages to partially affirm itself it is only by repressing that which threatens it," and Derrida has shown an identity's formation is based on "excluding something and establishing a violent hierarchy between the two resultant poles – man/woman, etc". As Laclau explicates, the second term in a binary opposition (man/woman, white/black) is viewed as marks in contrast to the unmarked first term, exposing the essentiality of the first (qtd. in Hall 5). Ibrahim can be placed at either end of the binary opposition, marked or unmarked, and Julie's position changes accordingly. Ibrahim is viewed as an outsider by the South Africans. The upper class whites in Julie's family are repelled by his presence. Julie's friends only refer to him by his name in his presence, but behind his back, they refer to him by exotic nicknames in a mocking manner. However, in the male-female relationship, the vicissitudes of power relations disarrange the binary opposition of man/woman – dominant/subordinate. Julie, with her economic and social advantages, seems domineering at first, but we also see how Ibrahim uses his body to reverse the power relationship, and turns Julie into the subordinate. He feels entitled to have the final say in their disputes: "That was the message of that grasp on her forearm: I am a man. I am the one who is not for you but who possesses you every night: listen to me" (Gordimer 82). His Islamic background also causes him to be sensitive about any "stigma on his manhood" (Gordimer 255).

Although Sullivan contends that Gordimer writes beautifully about the power of sex, "of its capacity to elevate humans out of worlds that would divide them, of its occasionally transcendent quality" (10), I think the act of lovemaking signifies more than its transcendent quality in that the vicissitudes of power inscribed in bodily contacts are conveyed. Nor is the power of sex beautiful in this relationship, for lovemaking is more like a battlefield where two forces of power meet, interact, and collide. Lovemaking is the only site where the two major characters can interact on the common ground of libidinal drives, considering the huge discrepancies between the other attributes of the two characters: political power, economical background, social status, religions, and even skin colors. Foucault's claims that "the body is the inscribed surface of events" and "power is exercised, rather than possessed" characterize this male-female relationship (McNay 15; Leitch et al. 1618). If lovemaking is their last resort to communication, it only leaves them with transient corporeal pleasure, and then in stalemate, for no inner communication is achieved. Ibrahim uses his possession of Julie's body in the articulation of power; only that this kind of power is deferred to the moments when the two are in disputes, and exercised to turn Julie into the subordinate, eradicating the possibility of boundary-crossing. As Foucault claims, "the body is the inscribed surface of events (traced by language and dissolved by ideas), the locus of a dissociated self (adopting the illusion of a substantial unity), and a volume in perpetual disintegration" (McNay 15). If her body is inscribed by the patriarchal ideology, Julie accepts the inscription, but she eventually refutes the subordination.

In fact, from the beginning of their relationship, Julie is blind to the motive behind Ibrahim's acceptance of her invitation to the cafe. Despite Julie's insistent denial of possessing the Rover – "It's not mine! She claimed her identity: I'd like to have my own old one back!" (Gordimer 9), the deed of driving an expensive vehicle makes her relation with the wealthy inescapable. Nevertheless, Ibrahim ignores her claim, focuses his attention on the Rover, and accepts Julie's invitation. How ironic it is that when Ibrahim responds to Julie, his interest lies in the expensive car, instead of Julie.

It is worthy of note that Julie claims her identity only in a verbal form; at this point, she does not realize that identity cannot be simply claimed without any deep involvement in daily activities. The lack of physical involvement in daily activities is also reflected in her attitude toward her job in public relations and the failure to have long-term commitment regarding her choices. Even the repetitive ellipses in her verbal expression signal the hesitation and uncertainties about her identity:
 
  I don't know how exactly these things work out, I wanted to be a lawyer, really, I had these great ambitions when I was at school . . . I quit law after only two years. Then it was languages . . . and somehow I've landed up working as a PRO and fundraiser [. . .] Sycophantic [emphasis added]. I won't stick to it for long [. . .] I don't know what I want to do, if that means what I want to be. (Gordimer 11)
 

In a luncheon, Julie uses Ibrahim to make a statement in front of the older and more conservative generation, attempting to show how different she is from her father's generation, and what a free spirit she is to befriend someone from a different ethnic and racial background. Ironically, Julie is not aware she is being used by Ibrahim for another purpose. She also thinks her identity depends upon the appearance of her companion, rather than tak ing es action to pursue her identity on her own initiative. In other words, the constituents of her identity are superficial and free-floating.

In order to fully understand how Julie's identity is superficially constructed, the social discourse in the L.A. Cafe must be explored. Julie spends most of her time at the L.A. Cafe with a group, including whites and blacks, who chat for hours about irrelevant issues. Indeed, in a post-apartheid society, boundary-crossing between different racial groups has become easier, as Gordimer comments in an interview that most whites are more prepared now to accept the relinquishing of many privileges defined by "the construction of whiteness" (Jeyifo 923). However, closer analysis shows that the group at the cafe are just fair-weather friends. When one of them is in serious troubles, the others either view him with alarm and caution, or avoid talking about his trouble. In a word, they refuse to be deeply involved. For example, when one of them announces that he is diagnosed with AIDS, instead of showing their concerns, the others in the group start to discuss the origin of AIDS. One of them refers to AIDS as "an ancestral curse", and another who is a Buddhist makes such a comment: "meat-eaters, breakers of the code of respect for creature-life" (Gordimer 24). The indifference is also indicated in the group's attitude toward Ibrahim. Even though the group is composed of various people, including whites and blacks, all of them treat Ibrahim as "the other". They refer to him as Julie's "oriental prince", and they consider him "an element like a change in climate coming out of season, the waft of an unfamiliar temperature" (Gordimer 20), implying the exoticism they imagine they see in Ibrahim. In another situation, Julie expresses her worries about the deportation order issued to Ibrahim, yet her friends at the table hesitate to sympathize with her: "Their reactions duplicated hers when it came to surface manifestations; the others, the depths of fear and emotions, they hesitated to approach. . . ." (Gordimer 57).

The above examples depict how the group of friends deliberately distance themselves from the serious issues related to their present lives. The way they hesitate to deal with the most relevant issues at hand makes it doubtful whether any meaningful boundary-crossing between different racial backgrounds takes place. In fact, the group at the L.A. cafe seems to form an epitome of a lost generation during the transitional period in post-apartheid South Africa ; they do not wish to follow the path of their father's generation, yet they do not know exactly how to bridge the gaps between people from different racial and cultural backgrounds. The group shares no strong bonding—"whatever you do, whatever happens, hits you, mate, Bra, that's all right with me [the group's creed] . People come and go among them; so long as they remain faithful among themselves: gathered at The Table" (Gordimer 23). While their creed implies they respect one another's freedom, it also implies they reject deep involvements. Even the name " L.A. cafe" suggests a displacement of time and space. Gordimer suggests that most people walking by the cafe do not know L.A. stands for Los Angeles, and that the cafe owner confuses Los Angeles with San Francisco, which is associated with the hippies in the 1960s, thinking the name offers "an imagined life-style to habitues, matching it with their own", whereas the habitues are composed of ageing Hippies, Leftist Jews, crazed peasants, and prostitutes (5). However, Julie chooses to identify with this group at the L.A. cafe. The paradox lies in the fact that Julie identifies outwardly with her friends whose identities lack substance.

What factors, then, prompt Julie to undergo a transformation in identity and differentiate her identity from those of her friends at the L.A. cafe? Julie's relationship with Ibrahim certainly plays a major role in her transformation, which leads to a process of boundary-crossing between spaces and cultures. As this paper argues previously, mutual incomprehension constitutes their mutual attraction, and the discrepancy in their beliefs has more impacts on Julie than on Ibrahim. Julie's belief is constantly challenged by her lover. Ibrahim asks why Julie chooses those friends instead of people like her family who prefer making progress than "just talking intelligent" (Gordimer 62). After the deportation order is issued to Ibrahim, Julie reluctantly seeks out a Senior Counsel for help. Nevertheless, the Senior Counsel severely criticizes the illegality of Ibrahim's status, eradicating any hope for Ibrahim to remain in South Africa . He also implies condescendingly that Ibrahim is the wrong guy for Julie. Immediately, Julie is full of resentment towards the Senior Counsel and the upper class he represents: "the famous lawyer is one of them, her father's people . . . it doesn't help at all that he is black; he's been one of their victims, he's one of them now" (Gordimer 80).

Julie's resentment is unjustifiable in that she again ignores the fact that it is Ibrahim who breaks the immigration law in the first place, just as she naively despises the high circulation of capitals among the upper class. Since Julie detests bribing the officials to gain a legal status for Ibrahim, it is self-contradictory that she has presumed the Senior Counsel would help her lover because she comes from a prominent family, and because the Counsel is a non-white, like Ibrahim, notwithstanding that Ibrahim is Arabic. Here she simply rejects an oblique means, and then turns to another oblique means. Julie is still naive about the social construction of identities – the Senior Counsel is a South African citizen, while Ibrahim is an illegal immigrant, and being non-whites does not mean they speak or think on the same premise.

The meeting with the Senior Counsel has an impact on Julie's identity in that for the first time, Julie feels alienated from her friends at the L.A. cafe. The humiliation and the resentment she experiences in the Counsel's office is something her friends would not dare to share with her. The physical involvement to save Ibrahim is contrary to mere "talking intelligent" and to Julie's previous aimless attitude. The alienation is important because it marks a turning point in which Julie rejects her identification with those friends and moves towards a new identity: "The struggle stays clenched tightly inside her. It possesses her, alien to them, even to those she thought close; and makes them alien to her . . . They are the strangers and he is the known". (Gordimer 91-92).

However, Ibrahim is not "the known" for Julie, for Julie's conception of the Other is still grounded in fantasy. Gordimer continues to draw on their mutual incomprehension to criticize that Julie over-romanticizes the movement to the Arabic country. Julie insists on accompanying Ibrahim to his country, being ignorant that he uses her as an object, a trophy, to show that he is not a complete failure in the western country; at least, he possesses something from the western world – this white woman. Julie is also ignorant that her lover views her as the cause of his pain, and thinks about her in aversion: "I please her, my God how I please her. And no visas for me"; what Ibrahim really wants to tell Julie is that "her purpose in his life was ended" (Gordimer 152, 174). In fact, he does not even bother to tell Julie that every day he goes to the capital to seek opportunities to enter another western country.

Since the mutual incomprehension remains strong long after they move back to the Arabic country, it is not Ibrahim who helps Julie cross the boundary between her previous identity as an aimless person to an identity with substance and meaning. Other factors, such as intersubjective relationships, religious factors, and the shift in spaces, contribute to the alteration in Julie's identity. Julie forms a strong bonding with her sister-in-laws, and she starts to teach them English in exchange for lessons in their language. She insists on going on a fast during the Ramadan and participating in the house chores (Gordimer 143, 152). In the effort to assimilate herself into the local life, she consciously observes that "there was another construction—perception of herself formed in this village that was his home". (Gordimer 197). Julie discovers a sense of belonging in the village on the edge of a desert. Despite Julie's efforts to identify with the local culture, Ibrahim intentionally thwarts her efforts, implying his rejection of his own culture and an illusionary aspiration for the western. For instance, he becomes furious seeing Julie in a Muslim robe, and he refuses to talk to Julie in his mother tongue. While Julie attempts to cross the boundary of the self and the other, Ibrahim still perceives her in his stereotyping of western women.

Eventually, Julie sees through Ibrahim and rejects his manipulation. This rejection signifies a new phase in her identity. After Ibrahim and Julie obtain the visas to enter the U.S. with the help from Julie's mother in California, Ibrahim demands that Julie should go with him to the U.S., but not living with him. Ibrahim urges Julie to live with her mother because "her husband got the letters from important people so easy . . . It can be he will find something good for me, he'll put me in with the right connections" (Gordimer 238). This is the moment when Julie finally wakes up. She finally sees that she is used again by Ibrahim, just as Ibrahim uses her to avoid deportation. A new awareness arises in her – "something temptingly dangerous, too: The Suburbs; The Table; a third alternative" (Gordimer 239). "A third alternative" implies that this time, Julie consciously chooses to identify with the local culture, with more involvements in the daily activities. As she declares to Ibrahim that she is not going with him to the U.S., nor is she going back to South Africa – she will stay in his home, Ibrahim becomes furious for in the Islamic society, a wife should obey what her husband wishes. The discrepancy between their perceptions shows that for Julie, the boundary between two cultures can be crossed, as she thinks that she has never worked like this before, without reservations of self. As for Ibrahim, he holds on to the traditional Islamic notion of dominant men and subordinate wives, while he despises his impoverished hometown. The boundary crossing between the world he comes from and the western world he adores remains difficult.

In conclusion, this paper discerns Julie's journey from the self to the Other. Her identity is constituted by a series of choices and self-othering. First, she deliberately distances herself from her upper class family, and identifies with her friends from a lower class. Julie's relationship with Ibrahim propels her to move farther away from her root. Under the juxtaposition of self-othering, incorporation of the doubling of the Other, and power struggle between genders, the boundary between self and other becomes inconspicuous. The blurring of boundary is analogous to the process in which Julie's identity gradually takes on meaning through physical involvements. Her identity even takes on new meaning as she sees through the reality and refutes to be manipulated by the patriarchal ideology. Stuart Hall's theory of identity as in a process of identification is explicable in recognizing the protagonist's identity, while Foucault's insight in the exercising of power is relative to the hierarchy of binary oppositions, especially self and the Other. Moreover, it is through physical involvement that the protagonist's identity acquires meaning and substance.

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Works Cited
 

Chen, Kuan-Hsing, and David Morley, eds. Stuart Hall: Critical Dialogues in Cultural Studies . London: Routledge, 1996.

Gordimer, Nadine. The Pickup. New York: Penguin, 2001.

Hall, Stuart, and Paul du Gay, eds. Questions of Cultural Identity. London: Sage, 1996.

Jeyifo, Biodun. "An Interview with Nadine Gordimer: Harare, February 14, 1992 ." Callaloo 16.3 (1993): 922-930.

Leitch, Vincent. B., et al., eds. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. New York: Norton, 2001.

McNay, Lois. Foucault and Feminism. Cambridge: Polity, 1992.

Sullivan, Andrew. "How the Other Half Loves." Rev. of The Pickup , by Nadine Gordimer. New York Times Book review 16 Dec. 2001: 10.
 
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