Walter and Richard

         In Freedom by Franzen, the characters all seem to be incredibly similar, yet none of them appear to understand or like anyone else. They are so focused on their own motivations for doing things that they do not comprehend why other people do what they do. However, the two characters that are entirely different from one another are the two that appear to connect to the point of understanding each other.

            For instance, Patty cheats on Walter with Richard, and Walter considers cheating on Patty with his assistant. However, when Walter throw’s Patty out of the house, it can be inferred that it is due to her affair. The narrator states “‘I’ve been evicted,” she [Patty] said with a sad meek smile. “Thanks to you [Richard],”’ (404). Therefore, it is clear that while Patty and Walter are similar because neither of them is entirely happy in their marriage, Walter does not understand Patty’s motivation for actually cheating on him. Walter believes that he is a better person because he has only considered cheating on Patty.

            Walter and Richard appear to be complete opposites. Walter is a hardworking man who has only ever wanted a family, as is obvious with his comment “Kids have always been the meaning of life” (236), and Richard is a womanizer who “had intended to return to the East by the end of May, but … was still working on the deck in mid-June,” (165). However, Walter and Richard seem to be the only two characters thus far in the novel that comprehend the other’s motives. When Richard takes time off from his musical career, Walter states “You can’t just stop because people happened to like one of your records,” (219). This shows his insight into how Richard thinks and what he believes Richard values.

            While reading I found it interesting that none of the characters understand each other, even though the majority of them are inherently the same. Then, I was surprised upon realizing that Richard and Walter more or less understood each other, even though they are entirely different. They have a different sort of relationship than any of the other characters in the novel. Because their understanding of one another is so unusual, I believe that their relationship is one of the most significant in Freedom. 

Mind Games

     Patty's negativity throughout the reading is astounding because in the first part of the novel, she is much more positive and overall a nicer person.  She also is almost childish in some of her exchanges with people and extremely sarcastic.  She did have some characters flaws in the way she would think about different things, but not to the extreme she exhibits later in the book.

     Often times, she is negative towards herself and is looking for attention.  For example, when she is talking to Joey on the phone, he asks how she is and her response is, "Oh, well, it's nice of you to ask, but you don't really want to know" (259).  Instead of being bottom line polite she chooses to make a statement out of an entirely common question.  Even when he asks her again she has to deny him and not give a straight answer.  

     She has taken to playing games, especially with Walter, and asks as though she is uninterested in him and what he does and basically does things to make him mad at her.  She bold faced tells him that he can sleep with Lalitha as a sort of test of hers to see how he will react (322).  Then when she does not receive the reaction she was hoping for, goes and cries and continues to question Walter and his motives.  Her own motives for doing these things are not quite clear.  Patty does not seem to even try to be supportive of Richard anymore.  When he calls her about the story that leaked she is very insensitive and cold.  Then when he states they are "heading for a catastrophe" she immediately jumps to the conclusion that he is speaking of their marriage instead of his business issues.  Why would she do these things?

     One theory is that she really is trying to push Walter away and be with Richard, instead.  She knows he will not commit to anything while they are still married and so she is trying to solve the problem herself.  She reinforces this theory by being very nonchalant when Richard is visiting them in Washington and never being in the house when he is there.  She tries to twist everything on him and say it was his fault because she does not like that she rather be with Richard and feels guilty.  It also hurts her that Walter has found someone else, too.  In the end, she still goes to Richard as she had always wanted.      

Freedom and Confinement

The more that I read Freedom, the more I ask myself just what freedom means within the context of the novel.  I have slowly come to realize that the answer to this question may be different for the various main characters and for the various sets of circumstances in which they find themselves.  Yet, it seems that, most often, what is described or viewed as freedom in the novel is more of a false escape from situations or consequences—an escape that is ultimately more enslaving than liberating.  For example, when Joey moves to Virginia to attend college, Connie tells him that he should feel free to sleep with other girls while he is away (272).  While this may appear to be freedom at first glance, as it would allow Joey to forget about his tumultuous relationship with Connie, being unfaithful to her is doomed to bring him a flood internal conflicts and muddled emotions. The same is true when Patty is unfaithful to her husband and sleeps with Richard.  While this may seem to suggest that Patty and Richard are demonstrating their freedom through this act, it only serves to make them both miserable once they part; it also enhances the discontent they both feel for their everyday lives.

This escapist mentality does not only apply to characters who stress their freedom through sexual acts.  When Richard briefly contemplates suicide, he relishes in the appeal of being free of his complicated relationships with Patty and Walter, free of “the bother of being a bother” (402).  When Patty emphasizes that she loves the freedom that she possesses to make trips to Nameless Lake, it is no mystery that this freedom is appealing because it provides a refuge from her unhappy marriage and home life.  In fact, the novel reads, “There was a more general freedom that she could see was killing her but she was nonetheless unable to let go of” (190). 

To me, this connects to a political idea expressed in the novel:  freedom often comes with conditions.  This raises the important question:  is freedom that comes with conditions freedom at all?  This reminds me of a scene in the movie The Duchess during which Georgiana, the Duchess of Devonshire, is surrounded by her husband’s comrades as they discuss women’s rights.  They note that “freedom in moderation” is their party’s approach to the matter.  At this, Georgiana points out that the concept of freedom is an absolute; just as one cannot be moderately loved or moderately dead, one cannot be moderately free.  This rings true for me, and with this in mind, I am anxious to see how characters’ ideas of freedom continue to evolve.  

Jessica's role in the novel

Up until this point in the novel, Jessica’s character has not been given a voice of her own. She is portrayed through other character’s eyes, but has not been portrayed through her own thoughts and feelings. The reader does not get a real sense of who she is; the reader only sees her through her family, who aren’t entirely reliable. Her mother does not connect with her the way most mothers connect with their daughters. They lack that female bond that mothers and daughter typically share. Instead, her mother chooses to bond with her brother and, in turn, sort of neglects Jessica. The one time she visits her at college her interaction with Jessica and Jessica’s boyfriend is so odd she seems to have no emotional connection with her own daughter. Jessica’s father sees Jessica to be more like him than Joey and connects with her more than her mother. But, he doesn’t “favor” her so that he won’t seem unfair. They talk everyday and he even says that she “looked after him that way” (337.) Her relationship with Joey is so not sibling-like and full of hatred it is hard to read about. Most siblings fight with each other but then get over it and continue being brother and sister, having that familial bond that differs from the bond they have with their parents. Joey and Jessica, on the other hand, seem to have never even remotely liked each other. When Joey talks about the time when his parents were gone and he had sex with Connie right next to Jessica, he did so because he wanted to get a rise out of his mother (264.) His motives seem to be driven from spite towards his mother and not towards Jessica.

Jessica, however, has not been given the chance to state her own opinions of her family members. Personally, I think it would be very beneficial and interesting to hear her views on her family from her own thoughts. She is the only semi-normal character in the novel and her opinions would be very interesting and insightful. She seems like she would be able to give a more reliable account of the emotions within the family.

The author gives some insight into the workings of Jessica’s mind when she is talking to Richard in D.C. She believes her parents still love each other (376.) She doesn’t say this from their actions and the way they treat each other, but because she knows who they are she can just tell they still love each other. Also during her conversation with Richard, the reader gets the first real look at who she is. Before this point in the novel the reader doesn’t really know who she is through narrative, but instead through the opinions and voices of the other characters.

I would love to hear Jessica’s side of the story through her thoughts and emotions. Hopefully this happens later in the novel, because it would round out the story better and make it less biased. It is probably the intention of the author to not include her story, but I believe it would be incredibly interesting.

Patty and Walter

I find that I do better in these posts when I focus on a specific scene. In this case, after Patty and Walter argue and she finds herself a job, and then he gets mad at her. He encourages her to get a job to break her out of her depression, but when she comes back with a job as a greeter, Walter is critical: "'Any job is better than no job, or, but, no, sorry, wait, the job that you actually want and are well qualified for is not better than no job'" (351). He doesn't want her doing work that he thinks is beneath her but that's an elitist attitude and Walter doesn't want to be elitist. I wish I had more examples but Walter consistently feels like a hypocrite to me. In this central example, the text says "Becoming a front-desk greeter at Republic of Health did for Patty's spirits everything Walter had hoped a job would do. Everything and, alas, more" (352). I know Patty was the depressed one, but apparently Walter can never be happy too. He is upset that she's wearing jeans and enjoying herself at work, he thinks she's doing it to "spite him" (353), which is a really messed up way to think about another person's happiness.

Walter seems aware that he and Patty are messed up. "She was giving it to everybody now, giving it indiscriminately, meaninglessly, to every member who walked off Wisconsin Avenue" (353). While this in reference for to her laughter, there is a weird sexual connotation to it: she's "giving it." They have a bad relationship. "Walter was frightened by the long-term toxicity they were creating with their fights" (354). They both spend their time together attacking each other and it's terrible. Lalitha and Richard aren't even really the problem. Richard is happy when he's freed of the two of them. Lalitha is almost too bright-eyed to care. Patty and Walter constantly butt heads because they are each other's problem. I don't know if I could say what Franzen is trying to say with this. That it's better to be single and "free?" Maybe he's a real believer in polyamory and this toxic relationship is his ode to the horror of monogamy. Maybe it's just interesting for the plot.

Freedom not as good as it sounds

The national anthem, written in 1814, immortalized America as “the land of the free.” It’s been a core value of America for centuries. Yet Jonathan Franzen’s novel Freedom is hardly a recommendation for it. Of the characters whose inner monologues the reader becomes privy to, freedom seems to bestow onto them a sort of anxious purposelessness. If anything, freedom is the toxic cause of all their problems, and the characters only find happiness when they give up their freedom.

Katz, when “freer than he’d been since puberty” is simultaneously “closer than he’d ever been to suicide.” He despairs in the “approval and plentitude” of his fame, wishing for adversity for which to pit himself against – in other words, some clearly defined ‘other’ instead of the openness of freedom (193). It isn’t until he embraces his role as a member of the New York music community that he is “busy and successful” and “contented” (536).

Patty’s moment of freedom is quickly followed by the knee-wrecking injury that ends her basketball career and drives her even closer to Eliza; later, the freedom of going up to Nameless Lake is “killing her but she [Patty] was unable to let go of.” Patty struggles constantly because she looks for freedom personified by Richard Katz, who is free to be an asshole when Patty feels so constrained by her ‘nice-girl’ persona. Each time the misery is reduced when she throws herself into some role; as housewife, or as yuppie. She only gets a permanent kind of peach when she goes back to Walter and they drive off together, recommitted to their duties as husband and wife.

Joey, wishing for someone to contact after getting himself hopelessly embroiled in the shady business of arms sales, regrets asking for his freedom from his family: “they’d granted it, and he couldn’t go back now” (241). He twists and turns, almost bankrupting himself, almost committing adultery, screwing over his best friend, until he finally embraces his role as a husband and a responsible citizen.

In Freedom, Franzen writes contrary to the ideal that most American have, which is that freedom is something integral to the American experience and should be valued; instead, he paints a picture of freedom as something that causes conflicts and gets in the way of living a truly happy and contented life.

The Consequences of Freedom

Jonathan Franzen explores the idea of freedom in his aptly titled novel Freedom through the characters’ bouts with infidelity, depression, and their struggles with parenting. By the end of the novel the reader is able to come to the conclusion that Franzen does not believe that anyone can be happy being entirely free. Through Patty’s relationship with her college best friend Eliza as well as Richard’s womanizing ways and yo-yoing music career, the reader sees that humans need ties to other people and thus complete freedom from responsibility, society, and other people should not be desired.

            Patty has never been one to thrive under “free” conditions. As the jockish oldest child, she grew up as the black sheep in her artistically talented family and was given virtually complete freedom from rules and consequences. While most freshmen college students enjoy a newfound sense of freedom after moving out of their parents’ home for the first time, for Patty it was the opposite. She immediately befriends an “exactly half pretty” girl who “smelled like an ashtray” and “had a lot in common with Patty’s artsy little sisters” named Eliza who invokes disturbingly overprotective rules upon Patty:

No doubt she should have been disturbed by how different Eliza’s rules for her turned out to be—Drink only on Saturday night and only in Eliza’s presence; No going to mixed parties except accompanied by Eliza; and Tell Eliza EVERYTHING—but something was wrong with her judgment and she instead felt excited to have such an intense best friend. (61—62)

While the average person would likely be able to easily see the unhealthiness of this stalker-esque relationship, Patty’s utter lack of rules or stability for the first 18 years of her life left her damaged and incapable of forming healthy friendships. Of course Patty ends up being taken advantage of by Eliza and the reader sees the negative repercussions of having too much freedom.

            Richard provides an additional example of how freedom is actually undesirable. After he and his band achieve the “traumatic” and “disorienting embarrassment” of musical success (204), Richard falls into a deep depression. He goes back to building decks and roofs, feeling “freer than he’d been since puberty and closer than he’d ever been to suicide” (205). The problem with freedom is that it comes hand in hand with loneliness; the two are inextricably connected.

            Franzen uses dozens of examples through a variety of characters, including Joey and Walter as well as Patty and Richard, in order to prove the idea that freedom is not to be desired and that a lack of human connection and strong relationships can have dire consequences to one’s mental health. 

Unlabeled

While Jonathan Franzen's novel Freedom may be rather lengthy, I believe it's most valuable strength is that it changes perspectives.  It elaborates on the world from multiple characters' points of view, perhaps in a way comparable to Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad.  By switching points of view every fifty pages or so, Franzen is able to establish ambiguity about who each character actually is, especially in regards to Patty.

The novel starts with Patty, making her seem like a main character, perhaps even the one protagonist.  Yet while Patty does define herself and her life, Walter, Richard, and, Joey all end up defining her in a slightly different way, reflecting their understanding or misunderstanding of her.  Perhaps part of the problem is that Patty does not really understand herself.  She is in love with two men but cannot communicate this very well to either of them; she has college basketball friends that we never hear about or meet; she simultaneously cares but doesn't care about her family.  Even after Patty's autobiography, the reader really doesn't know how to characterize her. We know she is competitive, we know she is a housewife, we know she is an ex-athlete.  But other than that we really don't have any other adjectives to describe Patty's actual personality.  In other novels this may not have been a problem, since there are oftentimes significant actions of characters that then define them.  But even if you look at her reaction to rape, Patty does not really fit any labels.  She was almost more upset about her family's reaction to her rape than the rape itself.  Notice that Patty was resigned to inaction on her family's part before talking to her Coach--she cried in the shower to avoid talking to her sisters; she didn't tell her parents; her coach made the call home.  She wants to not let the team down, and therefore connects that to pressing charges.  She was angry, and because "HE RAPED ME LIKE IT WAS NOTHING," (45) but she doesn't characterize the emo silent self- focused grieving teenager rape victim (Kristen Stewart, Speak) at all.  So while her team spirit points to loyalty, her view of the actual rape is all about self-worth.  Her actions are unreadable--no one conclusion can be drawn about her personality--she is difficult to judge.  Does this lack of labels give Patty freedom?  Or in the long run make her more restricted because others (and perhaps she herself) cannot understand her?

In general, therefore, I don't think it is really fair to judge Patty as a character, since she cannot even figure out herself.  When the rest of the characters desperately try to figure her out, and then blame her when they fail to do so, something is wrong. While Patty may be in a perpetual state of mid-life crisis, whether she's freaking out about her neighbors or addicted to exercise or funding her obnoxious son's drinking habit, the way other characters view these actions just creates even more ambiguity.  So when Richard is thinking about how much he relates to her, and Walter is freaking about her sanity, and Joey is horribly outraged at her parenting skills, I think it is worthy to revisit the first reading and see how Patty does not define herself, but instead paints a complicated abstract art piece. If they don't understand her, it may not be Patty's fault, but it may be instead because she does not understand herself.