When Norman Mailer released his serialized novel An American Dream in 1965, critics either praised him for his work or dismissed the novel as a failure. In this controversial novel, Mailer tells the story of Stephen Richards Rojack, a former congressman and current television celebrity and professor of existential psychology.
The text chronicles 32 hours of Rojack’s life, concentrating on those hours after he murders his wife—Deborah Caughlin Mangaravidi Kelly—by strangling her and disposing of her body by tossing her out the window of a 10th-floor apartment. Once Rojack disposes of Deborah’s body, he then has a series of quests to complete before being absolved of the crime.
Mailer takes us through several sexual encounters, beatings, incest, and suicidal thoughts before Stephen is exonerated by Deborah’s father, Barney Oswald Kelly. And if this seems somewhat far-fetched, it is (many critics dismissed the novel for its lack of realistic portrayal). But here lies the beauty in Mailer’s work; this text is a radical departure from his previous novels where Mailer concentrates on the realistic.
In An American Dream, Mailer develops a text that relies on the romantic, the mystical. On the surface, the text pushes the boundary of realistic fiction; however, a closer reading reveals the novel’s true focus on mystical elements such as magic, death, and the supernatural—all elements central to appreciating and understanding Mailer’s attempt at the romantic.
As readers, we first see Rojack’s preoccupation with mysticism in his fascination with the moon. Early in Chapter 1, “The Harbors of the Moon,” Mailer depicts Rojack’s reliance on this mystical element:
So I stood on the balcony by myself and stared at the moon which was full and very low. I had a moment then. For the moon spoke back to me. By which I do not mean that I heard voices, or Luna and I indulged in the whimsy of a dialogue, no, truly it was worse than that. Something in the deep of that full moon, some tender and not so innocent radiance traveled fast as the thought of lightning across our night sky, out from the depths of the dead in those caverns of the moon, out and a leap through space and into me (11).
Here, we see Rojack’s obvious belief in the romantic—this sense of another world beyond that of reality. Clearly, Rojack is immersed in this subculture where imagination rules. For Rojack, the moon guides his actions. Rojack does not decide his course; he waits for guidance from the moon.
Norman Mailer
For critic Robert Begiebing, Mailer guides us through Rojack’s life by portraying it as a symbolic dream. Begiebing believes that the text operates within this dreamlike state to further Mailer’s purpose of depicting Rojack in a world that defies reality. Just as Rojack walks Kelly’s parapet balancing life and death, so too does Mailer balance his protagonist’s life between reality and fantasy.
According to Robert Ehrlich, this break from realism and the delicate balancing act serve to promote Mailer’s vision:
While much of the melodrama and coincidence are effects of Mailer’s attempt to write a novel beyond the confines of realism, supernatural forces not only contribute to the symbolic heightening of experience, but exist, independent of the form of the novel, as part of Mailer’s developing cosmological vision (Ehrlich, 69).
Therefore, these abnormal occurrences that appear throughout the text supply Mailer’s need to view the world beyond the scope of reality. The plot promotes Mailer’s ideas about both magic and supernatural forces.
According to Tony Tanner, Rojack enters the world of the mystical after he kills Deborah:
“Having left the political world, Rojack finds himself in a demonised [sic] world of invisible powers and strange portents, of rampant superstition and accurate magics” (Tanner, 43).
Since Deborah’s murder occurs early in the text, Tanner suggests that Rojack survives in this world of magic for most of the novel. Accordingly, Mailer’s break with the reality in the fiction of his previous works requires it.
When reading An American Dream, it is crucial to realize that this novel is a departure from the style found in Mailer’s previous works. Their focus was the truth at the hearts of his characters. In An American Dream, however, Mailer opts for the romantic; his focus becomes the mystical, the romantic.
As readers, we cannot presuppose his loyalty to the realistic—we must open our minds and allow our thoughts to follow Mailer’s guide. In doing so, we are better able to appreciate and understand Mailer’s purpose—to promote his own sense of the universe.
Sources
Begiebing, Robert J. Acts of Regeneration: Allegory and Archetype in the Works of Norman Mailer. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1980.
Ehrlich, Robert. Norman Mailer: The Radical as Hipster. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1978.
Fetterley, Judith. “An American Dream: ‘Hula, Hula,’ Said the Witches.” In Critical Essays on Norman Mailer, edited by J. Michael Lennon, 136–144. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1986.
Mailer, Norman. An American Dream. New York: Dial Press, 1965.
Merrill, Robert. Norman Mailer. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1978.
Tanner, Tony. “On the Parapet.” In Modern Critical Views: Norman Mailer, edited by Harold Bloom, 33–49. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1986.
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