Conspiracy in America Thomas Pynchon Way
Janice Vazquez
12/17/12
Who knows the Government
In the novel Vineland, Thomas Pynchon, exposes corruption within government agencies misusing their power in order to benefit their own parties’ interest as seen in American citizens’ public life from the 1960s to the 1980s. Brock Vond, the FBI (Federal Bureau of Intelligence) agent and federal prosecutor who operates throughout this whole period, relies on his connections with various government agencies to set-up civilians in order to prosecute them later on. Brock Vond's fascism mirrors President Richard Nixon’s repressive term of office with manipulation of citizens, abusive police power, and over-zealous drug raids. In Political Repression in Modern America From 1870 to 1976, Robert Justin Goldstein explains Nixon’s abusing the intelligence agencies as a form of political repression triggered by dissenters. In the article, “The War on Drugs: How President Nixon Tied Addiction to Crime”, Emily Dufton describes how Nixon shifts America’s perception that withholding drugs are illegal, which enforces the creation of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), an organization that investigates and prosecutes anybody who possesses drugs. As an authoritative figure, Vond abuses his power to justify his actions in order to get what he wants. Many citizens in the text, such as Frenesi, members of the PR3, and Zoyd, are affected by Vond’s intentions and actions. All the events in the text depict real life events as seen through every government agency’s prosecuting a character. Vond’s fascist views are seen through Frenesi’s clairvoyance at the drug store. As Frenesi looks down the brightly lit aisles, she has an instant glimpse of the future that “if human lives and deaths [are patterns], if everything about an individual could be represented in a computer record by a long string of ones and zeroes...then the only thing we’re good for, to be dead or to be living, is the only thing He sees” (90-91). He meaning Brock Vond
12/17/12
Who knows the Government
In the novel Vineland, Thomas Pynchon, exposes corruption within government agencies misusing their power in order to benefit their own parties’ interest as seen in American citizens’ public life from the 1960s to the 1980s. Brock Vond, the FBI (Federal Bureau of Intelligence) agent and federal prosecutor who operates throughout this whole period, relies on his connections with various government agencies to set-up civilians in order to prosecute them later on. Brock Vond's fascism mirrors President Richard Nixon’s repressive term of office with manipulation of citizens, abusive police power, and over-zealous drug raids. In Political Repression in Modern America From 1870 to 1976, Robert Justin Goldstein explains Nixon’s abusing the intelligence agencies as a form of political repression triggered by dissenters. In the article, “The War on Drugs: How President Nixon Tied Addiction to Crime”, Emily Dufton describes how Nixon shifts America’s perception that withholding drugs are illegal, which enforces the creation of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), an organization that investigates and prosecutes anybody who possesses drugs. As an authoritative figure, Vond abuses his power to justify his actions in order to get what he wants. Many citizens in the text, such as Frenesi, members of the PR3, and Zoyd, are affected by Vond’s intentions and actions. All the events in the text depict real life events as seen through every government agency’s prosecuting a character. Vond’s fascist views are seen through Frenesi’s clairvoyance at the drug store. As Frenesi looks down the brightly lit aisles, she has an instant glimpse of the future that “if human lives and deaths [are patterns], if everything about an individual could be represented in a computer record by a long string of ones and zeroes...then the only thing we’re good for, to be dead or to be living, is the only thing He sees” (90-91). He meaning Brock Vond