The Millionaire--Modernity and Materialism
By Michele Thompson
"We hit slavery through a great civil war. Did we destroy it? No, we
only changed it into hatred between sections of the country: in the South,
into political corruption and chicanery, the degradation of the blacks through
peonage, unjust laws, unfair and cruel treatment; and the degradation of the
whites by their resorting to these practices, the paralyzation of the public
conscience, and the over-hanging dread of what the future may bring. Modern
civilization hit ignorance of the masses through the means of popular education.
What has it done but turn ignorance into anarchy, socialism, strikes, hatred
between poor and rich, and universal discontent? In like manner, modern philanthropy
hit at suffering and disease through asylums and hospitals; it prolongs the
sufferers' lives, it is true, but is at the same time, sending down strains
of insanity and weakness into future generations. My philosophy of life is
this: make yourself as happy as possible, and try to make those happy whose
lives come in touch with yours; but to attempt to right the wrongs and ease
the sufferings of the world in general is a waste of effort. You had just
as well try to bail the Atlantic by pouring the water into the Pacific."
-- The Millionaire, in James Weldon Johnson's The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored
Man, 106 - 107.
The millionaire appears to be an undeveloped and a minor character in Johnson's
novel, The Autobiography Of An Ex-Colored Man, but in the short passage
above, we can analyze and realize the magnitude of this character and his associations
with modernity and materialism through his own philosophy of life. The millionaire's
philosophy of life is not simply his own personal philosophy. It is a representation
of a larger picture on which the novel is based on and it is the philosophy
that the narrator eventually subscribes to.
The millionaire is an educated man with an "unmistakable stamp of culture"
(84). He is definitely rich - "for he was reported to be a millionaire"
(87) and by the stark suggestion of his name. On the surface, this character
seems to have it all: affluence, influence, friends, contacts and excitement.
Even the narrator initially describes him "as about all a man could wish
to be" (88). But as we probe deeper, we see a troubled man - one who lives
simply because he is not dead ("the thing which seemed to sum up all in
life that he dreaded - time" [104]). The millionaire deals with life by
running away both physically and psychologically. We also sense in the millionaire
that he is withdrawing from life. He is tired of politics, America and all the
problems surrounding the country. He is constantly on the move, moving from
place to place and "always searching for something new" (96). He immerses
himself in the narrator's music and "take it as a drug" (96). This
escapist form of life is clearly represented in the above abstract. Problems
of past generations cannot and should not be attempted to be corrected as it
is a general "waste of effort" (107). This persistence and continuance
of escaping has tragic effects - the millionaire ultimately gives up on life
itself by "leaping into eternity" (104).
The philosophy of modernity is based on "absolute selfishness", "reason
and common sense" (107). Modernity also works on two levels. On the upper
level, it provides an individual with access to economic, technological, educational
and cultural resources. But on the second level, the individual is distanced
from traditional notions of glory and acts of heroism that have become corroded
and no longer relevant in modern society. These honorable manifestations are
seen as temporary and a "hopeless struggle" (105). The millionaire
even goes as far as to say that these acts generate more problems for generations
to come - "sending down strains of insanity and weakness into future generations"
(107).
We shall now examine the millionaire's philosophy of life. I agree with the
first part of his philosophy: it is the simplest pleasures of life that give
the most satisfaction and happiness - making our loved ones and ourselves happy.
In the second part, he goes on to say that the pursuit of "wild dreams
of bringing glory and honor" (32) to humanity is as impossible a task as
"bail[ing] the Atlantic by pouring the water into the Pacific" (107).
But it is precisely this 'wasteful' pursuit that brings hope and optimism to
oneself, that there is more than life than materialistic endeavors. It is this
lack of inner aspirations that is missing in the millionaire's life and we become
conscious of the fact that the material success that he has cannot make up for
what is empty and void within. Thus, we can equate the millionaire's philosophy
of life to modernity and materialism.
Interestingly, though modernity appears to take a rather material and discouraging
stand, modernity also enables differences and diversity such as color and race
to be transcended. One clear example is the relationship between the millionaire
and the narrator. Both characters are from the opposite ends of the spectrum
- the millionaire is a rich, white man and the narrator is a poor, colored man
- and yet these two apparently diverse characters manage to cultivate "a
very strong bond of affection" (104). Not only do they become close friends,
the millionaire treats the narrator "as an equal, not as a servant"
and buys the narrator "the same kind of clothes he himself wore, and that
was the best" (95). The narrator describes him as "the best friend
I ever had, except my mother, the man who exerted the greatest influence ever
brought into my life, except that exerted by my mother" (108) and as his
benefactor, for the narrator "could not think of him as employer"
(99). But even as we see the merits of modernity, we realize that modernity
cannot escape its association with materialism and that even friendships involve
some form of monetary or emotional transaction. The relationship is "backed
up by a debt we each owed to the other" - on one hand, the millionaire
has 'rescued' the narrator "from a terrible life in New York" and
given him money, the chance to travel and be "a polished man of the world".
On the other hand, the narrator is the millionaire's "chief means of disposing
[…] time" (104).
From the time that the narrator decides to leave his millionaire friend "on
purely selfish grounds, in accordance with [the] millionaire's philosophy"
(107) and subsequently returns to New York, we begin to see the influences of
the millionaire's own philosophy of life on the narrator. The narrator enters
business college, dabbles in real estate and is soon absorbed in the game of
money-making. In fact, he contracts the "money fever, which later [takes]
strong possession of [him]" (142). At the end of the novel the narrator
describes himself as "an ordinarily successful white man who has made a
little money" and one who has "sold [his] birthright for a mess of
pottage" (154). Not only has modernity caused the narrator to be materialistic
and practical, it has caused him to sever his roots and identity.
The philosophy of the millionaire thus takes shape as the philosophy of the
resigned masses - those who clamber after momentary material gains and those
who forsake their dreams and ambitions. Modernity and materialism forces us
to settle for the "lesser part" and to leave the honorable and glorious
work to greater men.
Work Cited
Johnson, James Wheldon. The Autobiography Of An Ex-Colored Man. New
York: Penguin Books, 1990.
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