Richard Singh
English 1A
November 2nd, 2014
Essay Question: Does Pozzo represent how cruel humanity can be when they hold a lot of power?
The Rope
Edward Abbey, a famous environmentalist and author, once said, “Power is always dangerous. Power attracts the worst and corrupts the best”. Mr. Abbey is saying that power itself is the root of all problems because as history shows, no one can wield enough due to the fact that it causes major corruption and manipulation. Throughout our history of human existence, those with power have always abused in one way or another in order to benefit themselves. A few examples are for instance Adolf Hitler and The South in the United States. We will start off with Hitler first because Hitler was a single being who had a vast amount of power. Hitler was the dictator of Germany and believed that the world belonged to him. He was on the conquest of taking over all of the territories in Europe and slowly expanding outwards to the whole world. Hitler not only believed he was entitled to the lands of the world, but he also believed that he could control who lived on this Earth. We all know about the infamous Holocaust where Hitler single handedly ostracized the Jewish group and had them all executed. With his power as dictator, he had his group, the Nazis; kill anyone of the Jewish faith. This shows us how power corrupted a man to the point where he believed he could take over the world and kill anyone he didn’t approve of.
Similarly, back in the 18th, and parts of the 19th, Century it was socially accepted to keep slaves in the United States. Predominantly in the southern region of the United States known as The South, there were many plantation owners who had made use of people from Africa. Instead of treating these people with respect and dignity, these white owners treated them as if they tools or even personal punching bags. Caucasians had this idea of how they were entitled to anyone with dark skin. They believed that they were superior to them in every way such as intelligence, power, and even importance in life. Though today we are all accepted as equal with equal value, it was much more different in our country’s nefarious past. Even the Founding Fathers had slaves. Just like Hitler, white citizens in the South believed that they could control other people’s lives and hurt them if they disobeyed them or if they weren’t similar to them just for their own personal gain.
Now in the play Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett, we learn about a character named Pozzo who has power over a being, named Lucky, and abuses him in every way possible. In Act I of the play, Pozzo is introduced in the play as slave owner who is headed towards the slave auction because he wants to sell Lucky. As he interacts with the main characters of the play, Vladimir and Estragon, we see how abusive his character is due to the power he holds over Lucky. Through the verbal and physical abuse he demonstrates upon Lucky, it shows how cruel one human being can be to another.
You may be asking what does Hitler, The South, and Pozzo prove or what connection am I trying to make. Well after reading the play I have realized that Pozzo does in fact represent how cruel humans can be when in power. Hitler and the South are just mere examples of my point. All three have abused and manipulated humans in their own way whether it being physically or even mentally. The character Pozzo, from the play Waiting for Godot, is a representation of how humanity is when given power. Pozzo shows us how our ego and greed can destroy our compassion for others for our own personal gain.
Pozzo shows us how power can corrupt someone is through his treatment of his slave, Lucky. The main characters of the play, Vladimir and Estragon, had mistaken Pozzo for Godot and question him if he was in fact Godot. After establishing that Pozzo was not Godot, the three start talking in a friendly manner until Pozzo “[jerks the rope]” and says to Lucky “Up pig…Up Hog...Stop...Turn!” (16). Pozzo is showing us how the believes that he can control another human’s life because he has this self-given power over this being. Pozzo is a representation of what slave owners in the South were like when they had slaves. They treated them as if they were just a piece of property that had no soul.
Similarly, another example related to Pozzo treating those beneath him as if they’re non-existent would be the relationship between the United States government and the Native Americans. Upon their first encounter with each other, Pozzo belittles Lucky in front of Vladimir and Estragon as they were examining Lucky, who was carrying all of Pozzo’s belongings. Pozzo said to the two men “Be careful! He’s wicked” (14). Pozzo shows us how cruel he is by degrading his slave that’s passed out on the ground due to the exhaustion of carrying all of Pozzo’s belongings. Pozzo treats Lucky like he is nothing of importance and uses him in for his own benefit. Similarly, Native Americans were also mistreated just like Lucky in terms of being treated with no dignity or respect. Aaron Huey, a famous photojournalist and documentary photographer, had spoke on the controversy surrounding Native Americans today. During his televised presentation, America’s Native Prisoners of War, Huey said, “They’re killing each other. They’re killing themselves…this is how we come to own these United States”. Huey goes on to say the causes of the slow extinction of the Native Americans is due to the fact that “more than 90 percent of the population is below the poverty line…[untreated diseases]…[and] alcoholism” (Aaron Huey, “America’s Native Prisoners of War”). Huey is describing how Native Americans are killing themselves off slowly through the use of alcohol and how many are dying of untreated diseases due to the fact majority of Native Americans are in poverty and unable to care for themselves due to the costs of medicine. The United States government does not provide aid to the Native Americans because they gave them pieces of land through treaties and let them have their own authority. Even with the crisis of poverty, America feels like they do not have to help out the dying population of Native Americans because they do not respect them and want them to die out so that they do not look like the villains even though they technically stole their lands and then proceeded to built a nation on top of it. Also not to mention the fact that the lands seized by the United States was taken by force and not just a simple agreement between the white colonists and the Native American leaders.
Not only does Pozzo represent how corrupted the relationship between the Native Americans and the U.S. Government is, but he also represents the relationship between the United States and it’s “poor” citizens. The book The Rich and the Rest of Us, by authors and social activists Tavis Smiley and Cornel West, talks about how the American government is set up today and how the government makes it very hard for the lower class to sustain themselves and escape poverty because the government is essentially run by the 1% or multi billionaire corporations because they “bribe” these politicians who are supposed to “represent” us. Keep the saying “Scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours in mind”. In The Rich and the Rest of Us, we learn about a man named Joe, a single father who lives paycheck to paycheck. Joe says, “I do not eat lunch. I drink from the hose at work…you got to sacrifice for your child” (Smiley and West, 122). Joe is saying that he sacrifices food everyday for his son to ensure he is well nourished while he does his best to “live”. Due to low minimum wage laws, many people in the United States are unable to provide for themselves let alone for their family. Though Joe, and many others in his position, is not literally killing himself, he is dying from the sacrifices he makes for his son because of the way the country is set up. Joe is given a limited life where he cannot grow, is stuck in poverty, and cannot crawl out of it. Besides the unjust laws that make it virtually impossible for those in poverty to climb the social ladder, there are those who lean towards violence because they are not taught any better due to the country turning its back on them. Joe could be compared to Lucky from Waiting for Godot as they are both slaves to those who have much more power than them. They both cannot escape their fates of being subservient puppets that are manipulated and abused while their superiors benefit from their lives.
In conclusion, Pozzo, from the play Waiting for Godot, represents how callous humanity can be when given an absurb amount of power or control over anything. Pozzo illustrates how one’s ego and selfishness can destroy our compassion for others for our own personal gain. Humans today and in the past have all used each other in cruel ways in order to gain and maintain power over others. No one is truly born evil rather they are influenced by it through their surroundings. Confucian philosopher Mencius himself says that human’s nature is innately good upon entering the world. If the United States didn’t have the checks and balances system then who knows how the nation would be today. If we didn’t have the civil rights movement with those seeking justice and equality for all, who knows if people of color would even have a “say” in this country or even the world. This world could’ve been controlled by one race or even one person had there not been a war to eliminate a power hungry dictator who killed anyone in his path in having world dominance. Power can truly change one’s perspective in life. With the more power you have, the more you have to lose and nobody wants to lose anything in life. If faced with something threatening your way of losing something you care about, you will do anything to keep it. Though not everyone who holds a great deal power will abuse it, there will be situations where you have to make selfish choices in order to keep your power. Humanity since the start has always been corrupted and always forgets the true meaning in life, to help others and succeed together. It was Viktor Frankl who said “The meaning of life is to help others find theirs.”
