Is it anger the answer?

Almost once in a lifetime people tend to question themselves what has happened to the world they used to know and to that life they wanted to live. This mostly happens when you are getting old or a lot of changes have reshaped the reality you used to live in or when you feel stuck in life. So how is someone supposed to react to this fact that cannot be run away from? With anger seems to be the answer given by Osborne in his play “Look back in anger” (1956), where Jimmy feels nothing but frustrated and irritated and decides to show his emotions by being angry with life. But why? Can a situation be so terrible that the only way of facing it is through anger?

During the 1950’s the post-Second World War England, unlike The United States of America, was going through a crisis as a nation since its time of glory had passed. Many citizens felt that something had died in the country and in themselves as well, but no one was brave enough to realize what it was. Literature has worked as a means of expression for artists to depict some of the issues that concern society in a certain period. However, for the time being, English playwrights did not seem eager to show what the reality of the country- and more importantly of the lower classes- was. That was until Osborne chose to deal in one of his literary works with this theme and to express his disaffection towards a country that was not giving assistance to the ones who need it.

Having shared his play with the world, Osborne became known as the artist who started the “Angry Young Men” movement, which was not more than a group of –mainly working class- playwrights and novelists who were educated post-war and got the chance to go to the university but still were able to perceive the hypocrisy of the upper-media class and the injustice in which they were living: they would never be as educated as the rich ones or have the same opportunities as them.

In Look back in Anger, Jimmy questions the newspapers, his wife’s lack of reaction to the situations lived in their house, and his friend’s lack of interest on what surrounds him. Jimmy finds it difficult to feel excited and no one really understands him because no one has suffered as he has. Everything is still the same as it was before the War, but to him it seems so evident that they are living in a status quo. He even ironizes: “Why don't we have a little game? Let's pretend that we're human beings, and that we're actually alive.” (Osborne, 1956). By and large, Osborne is only sharing his concerns through Jimmy’s eyes.

If on the one hand we have Jimmy angry because nothing has changed and his dreams cannot be achieved, on the other hand we have Alisson’s father who seems to be nostalgic about the time he spent in India, where he was delightful, however, now he knows that times will not come back and wishes nothing had ever changed. Allison smartly said to his father “You're hurt because everything is changed. Jimmy is hurt because everything is the same. And neither of you can face it. Something's gone wrong somewhere, hasn't it?” (Osborne, 1956). But wait… he did not react with anger… Maybe because he had already felt on the top of the mountain and discovered how wonderful life could be when you have the opportunity to experience what you want to; unlike Jimmy who live in the uncertainty of what could be like to be able to actually reach what you aim at, if given the opportunity…

Let us talk about another example: Enid and Rebecca in Ghost World. Both girls are going through the transition from being an adolescent to an adult, which means that you have to face real life, pick a University and leave your hometown and friends. In their case, they also choose to face these radical changes with anger by criticizing the world and the people they know, as a way of refusing to accept leaving their conform zone. Their profoundly fear the upcoming changes, that they finally end up their friendship. 

“Enid: Look, I didn’t say you couldn’t come with me… Ii just feel weird about it… You can still come…

Rebecca: Well, maybe I don’t! I don’t want to go anywhere or do anything… I just want it to be like it was in high school!” (Clowes, 1998)

So, is it anger the final answer? Maybe it is, or maybe not. You can only know how your reaction is going to be once experiencing frustration, and feeling like the characters in these two workarts felt.

References

Clowes, D. (1998). Ghost World. Canada: Thompson Groth.

Osborne, J. (1957). Look back in anger. New York: Criterion Books.