The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-12-18
UncOnlpron'ising Stand
For Revolution Taken
By ROLAND in Novel

AS the conflicts become more nu-
me-ous and sharper, the classes
more clearly divided, Annette real
ICES that force can only be COM
batted with force. that her place
is with the revolutionary movement.
Her life has been spent in fighting
falsehoods: the pre-war falsehoods,
the world war falsehoods, and then
the falsehoods encouraged by the
bourgeoisie and sublimated by the
fascists. It has always been los
ing fight because she has been a
voice in the wilderness.
In this volume she definitely takes
her place with the Communist
Party 1t is an inevitable develop
ment in her character which any
intellectually clear reader could
have forseen earlier in The Soul
Enchanted" The main conflict de-
veloped in this last book energies
from the relationship between Marc,
Annette's son, a hardened individ-
ualist who still retains the illusions
Of a liberal, and his wife, Asia, a
Russian refugee who is Rolland's
personification Of Soviet Russia.
Throughout the preceding volumes
Of this novel we watched Marc fight
ing with all his might to preserve
his precious individuality. In this
book we are made to see what little
use his individuality is to him in
the midst of capitalistic insanities.
His wife knows his struggle must
inevitably lead to fascism of Com
munism. We hear ROLAND speak
ing through one of his Communist
characters:
This is not the epoch for young
Hamlets, stuck on the edge of the
cemetery. To be or not to be >
He who does not want to be, let
him be buriedl"
We see the conflict between Asia
and Marc rejecting itself in their
personal relationships and leading
to their separation. When they are
united again, it is because Marc
has embraced Assia's attitude
toward life, and begins to take a
militant part in Paris revolutionary
activities.
ACTION is the main keynote. Every
n character is aware that he must
force himself to fight off the con-
ditions that are snothering human
ity or else be smothered himself.
The intellectuals who, hitherto, have
been so far-sighted that they have
missed what has been going on
under their very noses, are driven
to active stands. The cynics drop
their cynicism and become active
in the revolutionary movement.
Marc is killed by a band of Italian
fascists when he tries TO save an
old man and a boy from being
dubbed. Annette, "the soul en-
chanted." dies. The only one Of
the main characters who survives
is Asia, the Communist.
There is probably no living author
who writes as beautifully and as
lucidly as ROLAND. 1t is, therefore,
disconcerting to find that he often
lets the mood of his characters
determine his style When he is
writing of Annette, for example, he
is apt to let her intuitional person.
ality dominate his writing. His
phraSing becomes languid with the
mysticism that comes of worship,
and he brings up concepts that are
closer to religion than they are to
Communism. When he writes Of
Asia and Marc, on the other hand,
his sense of objectivity, even when
he is dealing with intensely sub
jective moments, remains clear-cut,
unhampered by the vagaries Of per-
sonal devotion, and strengthened
with the convictions of a reyolu-
tionary writer.