Themes from American Literature

Gender, race, geography, and religion don’t define who you are and how things affect you.

The Prince of Tides is about people who go against stereotypes and respond to their experiences in ways that have no connection to the expectations of society.  Conroy explores the labels that society has put on different types of people and explains that those labels mean nothing and that experiences shape who we are.

One of the main categories Conroy addresses is gender.  Men and women are often seen as having separate roles, but we see in this novel that those roles can be mixed or reversed.  When Tom marries Sallie, he takes on what would often be considered the woman’s job—cooking and taking care of his home and his children—while Sallie becomes a doctor and earns most of the money for the family.  This lifestyle does not make Tom any less masculine or Sallie any less feminine; it is simply a different way to live.

           

Gender is also an important part of the sexual assaults on the Wingo family and their responses to them.  In chapter 5, when Callanwolde comes for the first time, Tom has the most emotional reaction.  He is horrified by the power of his own gender and cannot speak for days.  In chapter 22, Conroy addresses the vanity of stereotypical gender roles when Callanwolde and his cohorts rape Lila, Savannah, and Tom.  Before the incident, Tom didn’t even realize it was possible for a man to be raped.  Conroy uses this incident to prove that men and women can experience the same things.  Tom calls himself a feminist after being raped, but he disagrees with Savannah, Lowenstein, and other feminists because they believe that only women can be abused.

Conroy uses the story of Benji Washington, the first black student to graduate from Colleton High School, to make a statement about race.  Aside from being a different color from everyone else, Benji is a normal high school student.  He is also an excellent football player, and when he is on the football field, it doesn’t matter that he is black; it only matters that he plays well for his school.  The other students mistreat Benji and believe that he merits being treated differently because of his race, but really, his race doesn’t matter.  People group him into a different category, but he is really just like the rest of them.

Tom and Lowenstein are very different in many ways, but they are still able to have a relationship.  Conroy addresses both religion and geography through Tom and Lowenstein: Tom is from the South and was raised Catholic, while Lowenstein is from New York and is Jewish.  Each of them has stereotypes against the other when they first meet, but they soon realize that they share some of the same problems, and they are able to form a connection based on what they have in common.  They both have problems with their families, both of their spouses are cheating on them, and they are both generally unhappy with their lives.  Conroy shows that they bond because of their experiences and feelings and proves that their differences don’t mean anything.

The entire novel is about the Wingo children’s experiences and how they responded to them as adults.  Details like their gender and religion don’t have anything to do with their responses.  The emotion in the novel is much stronger because it is all based on experience, and any reader can empathize with the Wingo children because Conroy shows us that anyone can go through the same trauma and feel the same things.

America is extremely flawed because it feels the need to meddle in other countries’ affairs, is too emotionally detached, and is too industrial.

Although it takes a back seat to other themes, there is a somewhat anti-American feel to The Prince of Tides.  We mostly see this from Luke during his war for the town, but there are several hints throughout the novel from Tom also.  Most of them are merely subtle criticisms of America.

A lot of Luke’s criticisms originate during his time in Vietnam.  He sees the peasants in the rice paddies that remind him of the marshes.  Then he witnesses American soldiers killing those peasants and is forced to kill them himself.  He doesn’t understand why that was necessary or why America always feels the need to be involved in everything even when whatever it is doesn’t have to do with America. 

Luke also did not like that he could be part of the military and that the government could still take away his house.  Joining the military is usually something honorable and something that you are rewarded for, but instead of being rewarded for his service, Luke has his house taken away by the government.  This makes him very angry and distrustful of the government.  Luke begins to think that the only place he can really count on is the South, particularly the marshes of Colleton.  

A criticism that primarily Tom makes is that Americans, including himself, are too emotionally detached.  For instance, when he leaves Tolitha in a nursing home, he says, “Because I’m an American, I let her die by degrees, isolated and abandoned by her family” (146).  He knows that he should care enough about her to take care of her in her old age, but instead, he leaves her in a nursing home away from her family.  The government is also too detached.  It expects everyone in Colleton to not be too upset about moving as long as they would be compensated.  This reflects Tom’s desire to be like Luke, who was very emotional and intensely passionate about the town and nature that he loved.  In the idea that America is too emotionally detached, Tom seems to separate the South from the rest of the country.  The South is emotional and sentimental which is part of what Tom loves about it so much.  

Another criticism about American that is made in this novel is that America tries to expand and industrialize too much.  The destruction of the town of Colleton is significant beyond the fact that it made everyone relocate their homes and families.  The town had been a charming home because of the connections that all of its citizens had with each other because of the nature, the white porpoise, and the history they had together.  The destruction of the town was also the destruction of their memories and their lives and their friendships.  Tom acknowledges this flaw in America when he says, “As a town, we had made the error of staying small—and there is no more unforgivable crime in America” (607).  Conroy makes the argument that small town life in which people have connections and a relationship with lots of the other residents is the right way to live.