59 pages • 1 hour read
Vineland
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Themes
The Failures of Counterculture
Vineland begins in 1984. By this time, the counterculture movement of the 1960s has long passed (See: Background). The counterculture movement, embodied by hippies like Zoyd, called for free love, civil rights, an end to the Vietnam War, and the legalization of substances such as marijuana and LSD. Though Zoyd may still hold these values, his role in society is greatly diminished, as the wave of optimism and enthusiasm for genuine social change has abated. Across the non-linear timeline, Vineland explores the failures of the counterculture movement and how the people closely involved in that historical moment coped with the change.
Taking place on an ostensibly conservative campus, far removed from the more prominent and more left-wing campuses such as Berkely, the People’s Republic of Rock and Roll is founded in the shadow of a giant statue of Richard Nixon. The students are swept up in a chaotic embrace of radical politics, anti-war demands, communist rhetoric, and rampant substance misuse. The People’s Republic of Rock and Roll functions as a microcosm of the counterculture movement, a brief and dazzling burst of energy in which the students strive to build a better world, only for their attempt to collapse in on itself amid conspiracies, substance misuse, and personal vendettas. The optimism cannot be sustained, and the People’s Republic, like the broader countercultural movement itself, frizzles out in a haze of brutal police retribution and infighting.
The novel also explores counterculture movements in the older and younger generations. Sasha and Hubbell fought their own battles against similar power structures. Their biographies are closely entwined with the Hollywood blacklist era, when those in control of the film studios and government ruthlessly sought out anyone with left-wing politics and banned them from involvement in the film industry. Sasha and Hubbel fought hard for social change, just as the counterculture movement did in the following years, even though Hubbel says he was later forced to betray his beliefs after being banned. Similarly, Isaiah Two Four and his fellow members of the next generation fight for their own social movements.
Thus, while Vineland is set in the aftermath of the counterculture movement’s collapse, it illustrates the cyclical way in which successive generations fight against power structures. Invariably, these power structures win, and the radical protestors must reflect on their failures. That the cycles of radicalism endure, however, hints at a sincere desire for social change which cannot be lost or abandoned by any one generation. Zoyd and his counterculture warriors may have lost, but there will be other battles in the future.
The Search for Meaning
Vineland is set in the era after the collapse of the 1960s counterculture, which leaves many characters adrift after a time of radical change. Through characters like Zoyd, Hector, and Prairie, the novel explores the alienation of contemporary life in the 1980s and the desire for meaning and connection that drives the characters.
For Zoyd, his music, his work, and his family all once gave meaning to his life, but they are not what he imagined they would be. His band is largely inactive, his work is a series of odd jobs, and his family is now reduced solely to Prairie. Even his modicum of local fame—his annual stunts—are only to secure his disability checks and to keep up his agreement with Brock Vond. He has, however, found something meaningful through his bond with Prairie. Their house is a symbol of this hard work, having been built out and extended over the years, only to be threatened by Vond. Zoyd searches for meaning through Prairie, his family, his music, and his home, but only Prairie provides him with any form of continued meaning in his life.
Hector joins Zoyd in the struggle to find a purpose in a post-1960s world. Notably, Hector is addicted to television. His entire personality is predicated on his viewing habits, from his accent to his actions. He speaks as detectives on television speak and he acts how the men in police dramas act. To Hector, actual existence has seemed so shallow and meaningless that he has been forced to find meaning elsewhere. The television entertains him, so he tries to transpose that fleeting sense of entertainment into his actual existence. To Hector, Zoyd is the closest thing he has to a friend, despite their antagonistic dynamic. He even does a favor to an old friend, which distinguishes him from brutes like Vond and makes him feel human at last. Hector’s life may be an elaborate performance, but he can occasionally tweak this performance to perform a meaningful gesture.
Prairie’s search for meaning is central to Vineland. Growing up without her mother in her life, she has felt as though she only knows one side of herself. Her search for meaning is thus a search for identity and an attempt to understand why her mother abandoned her. The more she learns about Frenesi, however, the more she is forced to deconstruct the mythical image of her mother which has built up in her mind. Despite the many stories she has heard, Frenesi betrayed many people, including herself, and struggled to deal with the devastating consequences of her actions. At the end of the novel, Prairie and Frenesi are reunited. Prairie rejects Brock Vond afterward because, now that she feels secure in her identity, she feels she has found both her true meaning and her home.
The Importance of Family
Amid the search for meaning in Vineland, most of the characters feel lost and alienated. They drift through life, shorn of the hope and optimism they once held. The novel suggests that the cure for this alienation is meaningful connections with others, especially family ties.
Zoyd realizes the importance of family when he nearly loses Prairie. With federal agents and planted evidence in his house, he changes her diaper one last time, an act which is suddenly imbued with a new, subjective meaning. He is forced to reckon with how much he loves her and how much he fears being separated from her. Zoyd and Prairie build a life out of such moments, struggling and striving together to build something meaningful from their very different experiences. Their connection brings them both comfort and a sense of purpose even in the midst of their struggles.
The tight-knit bond between Zoyd and Prairie contrasts with the family Frenesi builds with Flash. She and Flash are both informants; they are bound together by their betrayals, having been thrown together after turning against someone they truly loved. The result is that their marriage is unsatisfying but mutually beneficial; for Frenesi, it is a self-imposed prison, a way to punish herself for her many failures. Theirs is a family in the shadow of Brock Vond’s corrosive, authoritarian domination, which Frenesi blames on herself. She and Flash live together because together is all they have, since they have betrayed everyone else. Justin is almost an inconsequential afterthought of a family constructed from such negative emotions. Frenesi loves Justin, but his existence only prompts her to compare her current family situation to the one she might have had in the past. Family is important for Frenesi, but only as a way to punish herself.
Vineland ends, significantly, with a family reunion. Sasha may not like Zoyd much, but she invites him to the annual Becker-Traverse reunions because, through Prairie, he is family. These reunions bring together people from different backgrounds, generations, and even different families. There are fights, yet people keep returning. These foundations are genuine attempts to cross the divide in an alienated society and build something substantive. Tellingly, Vond imposes himself on the reunion to steal Prairie away, only to find himself the victim of unexpected budget cuts. Meanwhile, Prairie is held in the bosom of a family that is, at last, bigger than just herself and her father. Justin, through his half-sister, is given a more loving bond than he has ever known. Even the emergent friendship between Flash and Zoyd hints at a world in which fundamental differences can be set aside in the name of community.
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