🌹The Rose & Skull ☠️

Response 3B

Topics: ❧ How are betjaks used to push readers into questions of morality and economics? ❧ Compare the opening scene (or scenes) of the novel and film. ❧ Show how one image or idea in the first two chapters works out later in the novel ❧ Compare Fowler and Hamilton in terms of journalistic and/or psychological detachment.

opening scenes - image or idea - Fowler & Hamilton - betjaks

Opening Scenes in Novel & Film

The opening scenes between the novel and film are not completely similar. The opening credits of the film briefly shows the Wayang, a traditional Indonesian puppet theatre, and this foreshadows its importance throughout the movie. Also, the film immediately introduces Billy Kwan and he is set as a narrator in the opening scene, and the viewers hear his thoughts on Guy Hamilton as he introduces him into the movie. However, in the novel, the opening scene is narrated by Cookie’s thoughts and point of view, who introduces Billy Kwan, Guy Hamilton, and the other new reporters into the novel.

In the film The Year of Living Dangerously, the opening scene is of two dragons fighting each other in a wayang puppet show in Indonesia. This scene is metaphoric for the tension between communism and capitalism that the story is based on. In the opening scene of the novel, Kwan praises Sukarno and his concept of Marhaenism. Meanwhile, Curtis replies: Sukarno the poet/ yeah, like Hitler was an artist. While the narrator remains ambiguous at the beginning of the novel and not in the film, this begs the question of whether one narrator is more reliable than the other.

The opening of the book focuses on Hamilton and his views on Indonesia as a country in a political sense. One of the first things he begins speaking about with the Nekolim is the political climate of Indonesia under Sukarno. However, the film adaptation begins with Hamilton experiencing a more grounded introduction into Indonesian life. He witnesses the poverty of the country first hand, and it is conveyed to the audience via Kwan in a second person perspective. It is only after this that the politics behind the country are discussed.

The opening scenes of the novel and the film are extremely different. The beginning of the film starts off showcasing a story told through a shadow puppet theatre, with many children gathered around. Later we see Hamilton arriving in Jakarta and going through immigration. The novel, on the other hand, does not have an interesting beginning. It starts off in a dark bar setting with people drinking gin and tonic while describing a dwarf man who is half Chinese in detail. 

The film starts off by showing a play through wayang, which is also mentioned in the opening scenes in the novel. The difference is that the events in the opening scenes in the novel takes place in a bar while the film is set publicly. The scene where Hamilton met Wally and Pete came in later in the film but in the novel, it was the first scenario to happen. And the conversation that happened between them is a close match to the novel.

Image or Idea

In the first chapter, Billy Kwan thinks highly of Sukarno. He regards the latter as a ‘genius’. He compares him to a poet; one that has put a soul into Jakarta and has ‘created’ the country. However, later in the novel, his beliefs are dusted to the ground when he recognizes that the feeble die along ‘poisonous canals’ daily while Sukarno constructs monuments. While his hope for Jakarta diminishes, he decides to confront the man in question through a banner that reads,’ ‘Sukarno feed your people’. Contrary to his expectations, his attempt to challenge governance eventually leads to his death.

Both Kwan and the Javanese consider Sukarno as the God Vishnu in his human form for showing concern for the hardworking people. However, Kwan resembles Vishnu more when he later decides to protect Ibu and Udin, whereas Sukarno resembles Arjuna in terms of both his fickleness, by forgetting the poor and their sufferings and selfishness, by wasting money for useless things instead of spending for the poor. As a result, Kwan loses his faith in Sukarno, which leads Kwan, the dwarf to resemble Vishnu and Semar in their dwarf form more when he finally chooses to avenge Udin’s death and fight for the poor.

As the group of expat journalists disparage Sukarno while briefing the newly-arrived Hamilton, we are introduced to Billy Kwan. Kwan fervently challenges the others, claiming that Sukarno is a genius and that “he’s created this country.” This is our first taste of Billy’s fierce allegiance to Sukarno, but as we learn more, we see that not only does Billy see Sukarno as the country’s saviour, he even feels that he and Sukarno “share the same identity”. Billy and Sukarno are parallel dalangs, and Billy comes apart at the seams as Sukarno’s failings become obvious and Kwan’s own puppet mastery fails.

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Fowler & Hamilton

At the start Hamilton and Fowler are simply uninvolved journalists. They both care for only the story and not for the lives of the natives. However, this changes as both Hamilton and Fowler are swayed by love. Fowler falls in love with Phuong, and through metaphor, also with the people of Vietnam. Hamilton falls in love with Jill trading that love for his journalism. Hamilton also comes to understand the suffering of Indonesia through Billy and Kumar. The psychological disconnect to suffering natives that Fowler and Hamilton both initially share is shattered as they become entangled in love and pain.

Fowler and Hamilton lose connection with journalism by falling in love with the city they are in, and women that pull at their heart strings in a manner they cannot control. Both men try to stay connected to their jobs as journalists yet let their guards down to really see the rawness of the people in these poverty-stricken cities. As Hamilton gained his lover in the end it came with a cost, the loss of an eye from a “detached retina.”  While falling under the spell of his Vietnamese mistress and without the ability to “detach,” Fowler’s history of failed love has come to fruition once again.

Fowler and Hamilton both attempt to stay detached from their environment, with Fowler escaping through opium and his relationship with Phuong, and Hamilton coping by “numbing his feelings . . . and turning to action for relief”. Both, however, fail to stay unattached. Fowler gets involved politically by enabling Pyles murder after witnessing multiple innocent deaths, and Hamilton, deeply affected by Billy’s demise, reconsiders Kwan’s philosophies, recalling “[Billy] had always made me feel . . . as though I were living life half asleep instead of fully awake”, and admitting “he was right about a lot of things”. 

Fowler's detachment from his career shows in his lack of motivation to stay focused. Fowler allows himself to get absorbe; he indulges in the sins of opioids and primal lusts. Fowler adds to his distractions by having a “rivalry” with another journalists. On the other hand, Guy Hamilton is too driven. He wants to prove his journalistic skills and stops at nothing to get what he’s aimed for, even at the costs of other lives.

Fowler in the Quiet American for the most part holds journalistic integrity but often is also swayed by his emotions. Fowler pessimistically views the world through reasonable eyes that he can only have because he has emotions and personal connections to the people around him involved with the war. Guy Hamilton is also very similar in his caring for the people around him and being caught in emotions. The difference we can see between the two men is that Fowler is more uptight and harsh about the world but Hamilton is more sensitive, anxious, and compassionate.

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Betjaks

The Betjaks, or Pedicabs in The year of Living Dangerously push readers into questions of morality and economics by humbling the protagonists/riders of the pedicabs by having them directly interact with the working class, and understanding their experiences and views on life. The journalists begin to understand the problems of people in other countries, who do not have the same quality of life as we do, and this allows both the characters and the readers to get an understanding of what these individuals have to deal with in their lives.

Christopher Koch uses the betjaks to symbolize the dysfunctionality of Jakarta under the Sukarno’s regime, while the riders personify the poverty of all the people who are forced to live with Sukarno’s political mistakes. The images of poverty push the reader to realize that so much damage and social injustice can occur to an economy just due to the errors of one political figure in a high position.

The betjaks are a representation of the poor and Hamilton is scared because he doesn’t understand them. It displays the distinction of right and wrong concerning the rich and poor. The betjaks gives the readers and Hamilton a moment to stop and view the average people in the real world. 

The Betjaks represent the lower class people of Jakarta. Koch uses the treatment of Betjaks drivers to portray the injustice in the country among the poor. Most of the “nekolim’s” treat the poor terribly, like when they “mocked the poverty” of the Betjak boys by using their way of income as a joke by racing on the betjaks bikes for fun. These injustices make one wonder if the morality of the characters (who mock the poor) could be bad? It is not absurd to question if the “nekolim’s” are not the hero’s but one of the villains of this story. (100)

The betjaks are used within the story to create a question within the reader of morality and social economic status within The Year of Living Dangerously by showing to us the divide between the classes economically both in the physical reality that these men are essentially human cars breaking themselves for the smallest portion of money, as well as metaphorically with a man riding nearly on the back of another. That the man who has the money to pay should be carried from one destination to the next on the back of another man by paying him far less than that man deserves, and by continuing this cycle of low pay ensuring that there will always be someone who’s back he should be able to ride.

The betjack drivers serve as a constant reminder to the reader of the bigger issue at hand - these politicians, and westerners are capitalizing on the Javanese people's poverty.  Hamilton and the other journalists are trying to one up the other to obtain a “herogram” and the next big syndication, fueled by narcissistic needs. The betjack drivers, the working face of the poor, pedaling their “torturing toys” exploited by westerners just to feed themselves.  The betjack drivers are a reminder to not be distracted by the “dalangs” “mask” of a superficial hedonistic oasis, but of the people's absolute squalor. (100) 

Readers relate questions of morality and economics with the social class they reside in; this is portrayed within Koch’s novel, The Year of Living Dangerously. Betjaks are working class individuals who are required to ensure the economy runs smoothly. Betjaks are used to push readers into questioning morality and economics within the novel as they provide individuals with a stable point to compare other characters to those of higher and lower social classes. As many individuals fall short of obtaining sustainable occupations, they become cemetery girls. These women leave society questioning their values as prostitution is viewed to be morally inacceptable.

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