The Brothers K: A Close Look At The 1960s Essay, Research Paper
The Brothers K–a close look at the
1960s
The 1960s was a decade that destroyed the traditional
view of living in America. It brought new ways of thinking
and fought the old ones. Before this decade, life was much
simpler in America. The average American went to church
regularly, obeyed the laws, and basically did whatever their
forefathers did, without any change. The 1960s destroyed
all of this. The hippies of today believe that ?it took a
megalithic event like the 60s to shatter the old energies to
let the new energies of peace, light and love shine through?
(zb.html). Perhaps this is not as far from the truth as we
may think.
The movement of the 1960s sought to break free from
tradition. It showed this in many ways. For instance, the
traditional view that sex should be saved for marriage was
utterly forsaken. In The Brother?s K, Everett, along with
many others, promoted free love, in which everyone willingly
gives their body to sex, with whomever they please. This
was a major belief of the hippie movement. Even Irwin, who
was the one who stayed closest to his Seventh Day Adventist
views of Mama, ended up falling in love and having a baby
before marriage. He found that it was too hard to stay
pure, when everyone else around him was promoting the
opposite.
The reason so many of the people in the 1960s turned to
new ways of life, is that they decided ?every freedom
[should be] infinitely extended and voraciously enjoyed?
(fonda.html). These freedoms included sex, drugs, speech,
and anything else they could take advantage of. They did
not care what the authorities, such as their parents and the
police, had to say because they thought the authorities were
trying to stifle their freedoms. The people had the ability
to speak out and fight for their individual rights, so they
did. They started to uncover themselves from the blankets
of traditional society and dared to be themselves. They no
longer conformed, but did what they believed to be right.
This psychological shift to non-conformity frightened
conventional people because they did not know how to handle
the situation. They had never seen anything like it before.
Some of the people in the 1960?s even decided to
forsake the traditional view of religion, arguing that it
?use[s] fear, domination and oppression to terrify [it?s]
followers into giving the church all their individual power?
(zb.html). In The Brothers K, Kincaid, Everett, Peter and
Freddy all chose to follow this movement to forsake their
religion, though each to a different extent and in their own
ways.
After the ?Psalm Wars?, in which Everett and Mama
hurled beliefs at each other in a outrageous manner, Everett
forsook his traditional Seventh Day Adventist views
completely. He thought he had no need for this oppressing
religion. Instead, he took up speaking to large crowds,
speaking to them against the current political state of
America. Everett said that all that was needed was love,
peace and brotherhood. Meanwhile he had totally destroyed
his relationship with his mother.
Everett despised violence and believed that in an ideal
society, cruelty and violence would be legislated out of
existence. Because of these beliefs, Everett hated what was
happening in Vietnam. So when the time came for him to be
drafted into the army, he set his draft papers on fire and
fled to Canada. While in Canada he lived with his
girlfriend, Natasha, for a while until she got pregnant and
left him. After she left, Everett was devastated and began
to question himself and the powers that be. Soon after
this, Everett received word from Kincaid that Irwin had been
institutionalized by the army. Irwin had seen a young boy
murdered by his fellow army men. Irwin could not handle
this and the others became afraid that he would leak the
story. So to cover up, his colleagues marked him insane and
dillusionary. Upon coming back to America to save his
brother Irwin from the institution, Everett was thrown in
prison for being a ?draft-dodger?. During his time in
prison he received a letter from Natasha, saying that she
missed him and wanted him back. Everett soon came to
realize that there must be a higher power out there and,
because he refused to follow the tradition of calling it
God, he simply titled it ?You?. Although people such as
Everett forsook religion, they could not quite fill the void
that the absence of God left in their souls. Because of
this, most of them eventually came back to religion to a
certain extent.
Peter, on the other hand chose a totally different path
from his brother. All through his childhood, Peter had read
books of the Hindu and Buddhist religions. He incorporated
all three of the major religions, Christianity, Hinduism and
Buddhism to form his own beliefs. During college, Peter
received an opportunity to travel to India for a school
study project. He figured this must be his path to
enlightenment, so he went very willingly. Once he arrived
in India, he tried very diligently to live as the Indians
did. He traveled on the low class trains, ate the same food
and deprived himself from all other luxuries. However, he
soon began to realize that it was much harder to shake his
?American-ness? than he had first imagined. So, before
long, he was
higher class places and eating much better food. However,
after he got scammed and robbed, he was forced to go back to
living like the poor. At this point, he finally realized
that this was not the path to enlightenment, so he returned
to America. When Peter got back he discovered that his way
of life was not so bad, and although the other religion?s
scriptures may be good to learn from, they were not really
the true path to salvation. Many others in the 1960s also
tried other religions but few found true satisfaction in any
of them.
Freddy again chose a different path from her siblings,
although hers was not quite as extreme. She decided that
instead of religion, the recent discoveries in science were
far more interesting. Taking after her grandmother, she
began to research science and tried many experiments.
Science even became a sort of religion for Freddy, it could
explain things in the world which she could never before
quite understand. The advancements in science surrounding
the 1960s lead to many atheistic views, but also led to more
unanswered questions. People were still trying to fill the
void where God was missing but couldn?t quite do it.
Many others in the 1960s found different manners in
which to avoid the traditional religious views. Papa found
baseball. Since his youth, he had never been a religious
man. His father had been a baseball player, so Papa decided
to take up his fathers career. It was all he needed in his
life, he played baseball and was happy. However this came
to an end one day when his thumb was crushed in a mill
accident. From that day on, Papa would never pitch normally
again. After this, he lost all hope in life, it was as if
his salvation had been lost. Papa soon took up smoking and
drinking to drown his sorrows. He still watched the
baseball games on TV while the rest of the family went to
church but he was not the same man as before. Then Kincaid
encouraged him not to give up, and Papa began to start
pitching in his backyard again. After a thumb surgery, he
returned to the ball diamond as a pitching coach and his
?religion? was once again restored. Papa had found
something other than the traditional religion to keep his
life meaningful. Others found satisfaction in love, music,
writing or any other thing that could keep them content.
The people of the 1960s also escaped conformity in
other ways, such as their ways of living. Since most of
them believed in ?free love?, there were a lot of unmarried
couples living together, something which was not lightly
done before this time. If one did not settle with a certain
person, they would give themselves freely to as many people
as they chose. They believed that the body was a beautiful
thing and it should be utilized to its full potential. The
shift from self-control to self indulgence was very evident
in the 1960s. Pleasure became the ultimate goal and free
love was one way of achieving it.
Others achieved this goal through things such as drugs
and music. Drugs were very prominent in this era because
they were believed to be a way of lifting the mind to
another level, a level never previously enjoyed by many of
them. Music became a way for people to express their
feelings and to make public their views of authority and
conformity. Even the way some dressed in the 1960s was a
way of escaping conformity. Up to this time the traditional
appearance for men included having short hair, and for women
it involved wearing a long dress. In the 1960s however, the
men grew long hair and beards, and wore brightly coloured
shirts and pants. The women, on the other hand, wore halter
tops, short shirts, mini skirts, and shorts. In summary,
practically anything that wasn?t previously worn was now
exhibited. This was a very strong display of
non-conformity.
The non-conformists of the 1960s also didn?t see the
point in working in a job which they didn?t like. For
instance, in The Brothers K, Kincaid cannot understand why
Papa works in the mill when he knows he does not like it
there. Papa works long days doing the same thing time and
again, instead of doing what he really wants to do; play
baseball. One hippie belief that corresponds with this
tiresome mill work, is that ?there are some companies that
profit from human suffering, and they exploit human
suffering to increase their gains?(zb.html).
The Brother?s K carefully depicts all areas of the
1960s, the era of change and non-conformity. In the 1960s
people began to realize that they could live differently
from other people, and seek happiness in other ways. The
sought new ways of filling the void where God was supposed
to be. However, unfortunately for them, they usually ended
up unsatisfied. The 1960s have had a very strong influence
on todays? culture. For instance, there is a much higher
tolerance level for different beliefs and new ways of life,
than there were prior to the 1960s. The 1960s was an era of
experimenting and escaping the norm. After many years of
conservative traditionalism, people were ready for some
changes, so they made them happen. On the other hand,
although the 1960s was a tumultuous time and brought many
new ideologies, certain previous traditions, which were
still seen to be valuable, made their way through the decade
and are still alive and well today.