Today near the end of class Mr. Mitchell asked us if we like Michael Taylor. My first instinct was to say no, almost that he is a character created for us not to like. Reading the "Souvenirs" chapter my opinion of him was compounded by his behavior. Up to that chapter he had always seemed to me to be an arrogant, self centered man. I didn't like his smugness when Moby gets taken by a crane, or his passive aggressive way of verbally fighting with everyone (mostly Helena and Brian) at dinner. I thought it was a character flaw that he couldn't at least hide his displeasure at Jason's stammer a little better, because after all it's not like Jason chooses to have it. I took his actions in "Souvenirs" to be a continuation of his poor character. He passed Jason along to his trainee Danny, didn't call Jason about being tied up with a seminar, and then made Jason apologize to Craig for getting elbowed in the face. I did think the scene with the kite was nice, but it seemed more like an outlier of his personality, that everyone has one of those days where they're exceptionally nice and attentive yet they go back to the same old curmudgeon the next day.
As I thought about Michael more after class though, I began to not really be angry or annoyed with Michael so much as feel sorry for him. He's a middle level person in every sense of his life, he's a middle manager at work, middle class socially, and of middle intelligence. I don't get the sense from Jason's description that he's very attractive (though I don't know how much any of us see would describe our parents as being attractive), he's clearly not funny, and his one talent is apparently identifying fossils. But I'm sure when he was a teenager he had dreams of being somebody, or changing world. Instead he's a manager at Greenland. He was probably picked on by the previous incarnations of Ross Wilcox and hoped to escape his tormentor once he was a professional. In a sense he did, I don't think Craig Salt would be described as a hard man like Ross is a hard kid, but Michael still has to quietly follow everything Craig says and does. Jason says that his dad wouldn't meet his eyes when he tells Jason to agree with Craig's incorrect identification of the fossil. He's clearly ashamed by the whole situation, though he probably finds more value in advancing up the food chain at Greenland than Jason's momentary respect.
Taken in this light, a lot of Michael's behavior can be explained. His weird rule about not going into his office which Jason breaks in the first chapter is clearly more about control than hiding anything in his office. At work he is only a mouthpiece for Craig, so to have people listen to his personal commands at home is a big deal. Pretty much all of the other stuff he does seems related to this thirst for some small level of control over his life. I think his issue in life is one many of us fear, or at least I do. I don't want to live my life as a middle man who passes on my boss' ideas to my subordinates without ever getting to use my ideas. Michael lives the life none of us want to live, so it's easier for us to overlook him with a simple judgement of his personality without bothering to look at why he is who is, because deep down we fear becoming him.
Despite all the angles from which we see Michael, I can't feel much sympathy for him. Just about every interaction Jason has with him is littered with displays of character flaws, including rudeness and egotism. I do agree that the kite day was a fluke, particularly in that negative experiences are relayed to us more frequently and that the kite flying itself was immediately undercut with Jason's run-in with Craig Salt's elbow. I would need to see something more substantial (particularly a display of honest self-knowledge or remorse) before I could feel sorry for him.
ReplyDeleteI do feel feel sorry for him because of his situation. Whatever he aspired to, it was not being a middle manager of a grocery store. He is constantly one-upped by Uncle Brian and put down by Craig Salt. He probably will not go that far in life. However, while I do pity him, I dislike Michael Taylor for how he deals with his troubles. He is obviously not able to keep his marriage steady and stable. He is visibly ashamed of his son for something out of his control. He tries to compete with Uncle Brian in a childish manner. I hope that we will see him come to a realization about his attitude and situation.
ReplyDeleteAlthough you make some valid points, in many ways, Michael is very lucky. He may not be the big boss, but he has enough money to live comfortably, a nice house, a lovely family, and good health. He has so much to thrive on, and he really needs to stop feeling sorry for himself, and work with what he has to be happy.
ReplyDeleteMy sympathy for Michael increases in the last few chapters, so I'll be curious to see what all of you think about Michael at the end of the book. It's true, he acts in a pompous and self-important manner around the home, and even the suggestion that he's been carrying on some kind of affair puts him outside of most readers' sympathies. A lot of this has to do with Jason's perspective--he used to worship his dad, for precisely things like his ability to talk about fossils, or Dutch history, or what happens to dead bodies under water. And now his father has been increasingly distant, wrapped up in his own affairs, and Jason feels neglected. But there's a whole other story that's been going on with Michael over this eventful year, and Jason is only dimly aware of it.
ReplyDelete