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The theme of abuse of authority is prevalent throughout the Briar Club. How does Kate Quinn illustrate the parallels between political and personal tyranny in the book?
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Tyranny comes in many forms.
Senator McCarthy certainly abused his government platform when he used it as a means of targeting a group of people he defined as communists. He black balled many professionals costing them their careers. People lived in fear of being accused of something they had nothing to do with. They feared they might lose their job because of a past association with or having lived in a communist country. Their lives were not spent celebrating freedom but always having to look over their shoulder. Words taken out of context could cost you everything. The way you dressed could cost you everything. Fear silenced people as their rights were quietly stripped away.
Mrs. Nillson managed Briarwood House as a tyrannical dictator would run their country. She was not a mother. She was a tyrannical ruler who used her children for her benefit and profit. She did not nurture them. She robbed Pete of the food he needed to feed his growing body and the education he needed to nurture his curious mind all to fill her pockets with money. Lina was denied the glasses she needed to function in the world. The glasses that would have strengthened her self confidence helping her to fend off the bullies at school. The glasses that would have helped her learn better. She was denied the encouragement of a mother’s love.
Both children were denied access to their father. They were fed lies about him while she used his child support payments to fill her bank account.
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The 1950s were the period of McCarthyism where Senator McCarthy thought that “Commies were running all over making trouble and the government was riddled with homosexuals.” Red Channels published over 150 names of actors/writers, musicians, broadcast journalists and others for purported Communist manipulation of the entertainment industry. Many lives were ruined. “Nothing wrecks havoc like a weak man–because they never learn, so they just go blithely on, leaving pain and wreckage behind them.” Just look at today’s America!
On a personal level, Nora is tyrannized by her brother, a corrupt policeman. He takes her money because he likes cards and the ponies and drinking. Even her mother says that it is Nora’s Christian duty to give her brother money. Emigrants like Reka and Otto Muller were treated as a resource to line someone else’s pockets. Then Arlene gets her fired from her job at the library in retaliation for the fight Reka picked with Harland. Claire who is gay finds herself in an elevator with her boss Senator Smith and McCarthy, the man half of America revered and most of America was petrified of. Except Senator Margaret Chase Smith. Claire finds herself remembering key parts of Senator Smith’s speech and their ensuing conversation gives Claire the courage to help Sid stand up to her abusive husband. Grace escaped Russian tyranny through espionage and her first visit to an American grocery store. “Because I love this country, Grace thought. I can speak my mind here without being arrested; I can walk these streets a free woman without worrying I’m going to be hauled away in a van; I can earn money and decide for myself what to do with it. Why wouldn’t I love this place? Why would I every want to harm it?”
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There are so many examples in the book of this. All the women in Briar house seem to me to be enduring some form of tyranny, or have in the past.
Definitely Arlene and her gossiping about Reka costs Reka her job and plummets her into poverty. Even when she’s confronted, Arlene has no sympathy or compassion for the hardship she puts Reka through (much like the Sutherland family has none when they steal Reka’s Klimt sketches). Arlene simply spouts the political propaganda to justify her actions, ignorance and cruelty. Such is the way with all tyranants, really. It starts with individuals and then becomes political when enough people decide that it should be the prevalent way to behave – just be bullies and you will accrue more power over others.
Like Libby points out Mrs. Nillson withholds care from her children but justifies it by saying they need the money and can’t afford anything. But her hypocrisy is evident because she goes off to gamble with her friends and squirrels the money away for herself. What are the children supposed to do? They cannot stand up for themselves as they have no authority.
Sydney Sutherland lives under the tyranny of her politician husband (his family an example of the personal tyranny being leveraged into political power), and Claire too is somewhat trapped by being gay under McCarthyism that would see her persecuted and jailed.
And Nancy points out how Nora has a brother and mother who bully and belittle her.
That’s why I felt that Grace was the true antithesis to tyranny – because she could see through both the political and personal tyrannies of everyone no matter where she lived or who she is with. She understands that you have to battle personal tyranny wherever you see it. A lesser example of this might be the way Grace helps Fliss – who is battling her own internal tyranny to be perfect at the expense of her physical and mental health. Or more overtly when she beats up the racist attacking people at the dance hall she takes Fliss to.
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Mrs. Nilson really was quite tyrannical wasn’t she? I thought she was neglectful and abusive but I think Libby describe her actions quite accurately as a tyrannical ruler. It’s really an awful tyranny in that she prioritizes her bank account over her children’s welfare. But then that’s what so much of the politicians in power are doing these days it seems. They’ve decided to ignore the common good and caring for citizens in favor of filling their bank accounts! I wonder what drove Senator McCarthy? Love of country? Love of power? I know he was eventually censured by the senate and thereafter lost his influence (hard to imagine any censure happening for bad behavior in government these days). I hadn’t realized he had kept his job and died in office at age 48. One has to wonder what mischief he might have gotten into had he lived longer. What I thoroughly enjoyed throughout the book was that each of the women confronts tyranny in different ways and they all persevere and win. I found myself cheering on Nora, Reka, Bea, and others as they fought for their freedom and independence.
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So many excellent examples here! Quinn does an amazing job of weaving the theme of tyranny and oppression between the individual women’s lives and the political landscape of that time. What I really appreciate is that the oppressors don’t prevail, not McCarthy or Mrs. Nilsson or Barrett Sunderland or Kirill. I am not politically naive here but the ending gives me some sense of optimisms that resistance may be effective even now as it was for the women of Briarclub House and that time.
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I agree 100% Jane. We can all use some hope and optimism that we can overcome tyranny in our lives. I always feel that that is one of literature’s great purposes, providing us stories and realities that we can dream of and that can inspire change in our own lives.
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