PERSPECTIVE ON THINGS AS THEY ARE THAT SEEM FOREIGN TO US

 PERSPECTIVE ON THINGS AS THEY ARE THAT SEEM FOREIGN TO US

James R. Fisher, Jr., Ph.D.

© April 15, 2012

My novel A GREEN ISLAND IN A BLACK SEA takes place in South Africa in 1968, what I considered the end of the American Century.

Seamus “Dirk” Devlin, the protagonist of the story, grew up in the Midwest in a small industrial town on the Mississippi River called Crescent City.  He is a man nearly thirty who comes from a working class family, but has had a meteoric rise in industry.

We find him in South Africa's apartheid culture where his incredible rise but inability to assimilate this cultural malaise throws him off stride, and leads to the incongruity of being intellectually on top of things while emotionally falling apart 

Since I am a message writer, it is hoped the reader will contrast the story in the light of today.  To see the story only in the context of 1968 would, from this writer's perspective, be a failure on his part. 

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For the past several months I have read and, yes, watched the histrionics regarding the insane Republican Presidential Campaign, and the even greater insanity of the media to cover this cultural breakdown.  People are going crazy about $4.00 and possibly $5.00 per gallon gasoline.

Someone reading my manuscript notes that Devlin makes $62,000 in 1968, seeing that as not such a significant income given the dramatic nature of the novel.  Incidentally, this income was earned abroad, and therefore there were no United States Federal Income Tax.  That said numbers must always be interpreted in the light of the times, or they are meaningless.

So, I googled and typed in “the dollar value over time.  What came up was a selection including INFLATION CALCULATION – FIND THE DOLLAR VALUE.

For the reader’s information that $62,000 in 1968 was the equivalent in 2012 dollars of $408,686 with an annual rate of inflation of the exchange of 559.2 percent.

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Recently, President Barak Obama stated, and the “truth meter” of the Pew Institute confirmed that 98 percent of Americans in 2012 make less than $250,000.

What was the equivalent value of $250,000 in 1968? 

It was $37,926.34. Or –84.8% in the rate of exchange. . 

In other words, for all intent and purposes, if we can compare apples to apples, most Americans made less than $40,000 a year in 1968, or stated otherwise, only 2 percent of American made over $40,000.  Actually, the median family income in 1968 was $10,000.

Now, we come to all the histrionics over $4.00 - $5.00 per gallon of gasoline and how the President will lose the reelection if that cannot be resolved.  I don’t think so. 

What is the equivalent price of gasoline at $4.00 per gallon for 1968?  It is 61 cents per gallon, and 76 cents for $5.00 per gallon, again at the –84.8% inflation rate.

BB tells me I make too much about Devlin’s income in my novel when it is the crux of the problem.  Devlin has never bought into the idea that he has left the working class although he left it once he became a college student and excelled there. 

The scars of early childhood are deep, and Devlin runs on insecurity and fear and outdistances most of his competitors except in his psyche.  He couldn’t have been put into a worse situation than to find himself in colonial splendor with a household of servants while 80 percent of that population was in servitude and had no power because they were black or Bantu. 

Early in the novel, Sarah his wife, spends 100 Rand ($140) for outfits for the children and herself to impress an American couple for dinner that they had met the previous day. 

*     *     *

No one likes to put on the dog more than Sarah, so he was not surprised when she said, “I had the concierge (of the hotel) suggest a fine dress shop nearby.  The children and I picked out new outfits.  We won’t let you see us until we’re ready for dinner, will we children?”

Ruthie and Rosie looked up from their coloring books, and said nothing.  Rickie cuddled his teddy bear, while Robbie said, “Yes, mother,” returning to his comic book.

“How much?”

“See children! The first thing out of your father’s mouth is to rain on our parade.”

“How much, Sarah?”

“Not that much.”

“Sarah?”

“Only 50 Rand.”

“For everything?”

“Well, 100 Rand for all including four outfits for the children.  We got everything on sale, didn’t we children?”  Devlin was used to the drill, the children said nothing.

“Do you know how much that is in dollars?”

“What, I suspect less, $35?”

“Sarah, what did I tell you about the rate of exchange?”

“God, Devlin, you make everything so complicated.  We wanted to please you, to feel good about ourselves.  Being here has been hard on us all.  I bought a dress, all right, and outfits for the children.  So, I spent a couple of dollars or Rand, or whatever.  It isn’t going to break us.  I can’t help it if you so tight.”

“You spent $140. That’s more than the average American makes in a week, as much as these people running around serving us, smiling until their faces hurt in four months.”

She started to cry.  “Do you see children what your mother has to put up with?  Do you understand what it is like to be constantly criticized when you’re only trying to do your best?  I hate it here.  So there, I said it.  I didn’t want to come.  I don’t like being around all these foreigners, all these black people.  They scare me.  I’m an American, and proud of it.  I get a chance to meet one American family, and you have to make me feel guilty.  Shame on you, Dirk, and in front of the children.  I’d take the dress and the children’s things back this very minute but the shop is closed.

The girls erupted into tears.  Sarah wrapped her arms around them.  The boys distanced themselves from the whole affair having seen it too many times.  Even three-year-old Rickie cowered in the corner with his teddy bear away from the shouting.

Devlin took a book out of his attaché case, and went into the sitting room, defeated.  Five against one, once again it was not a fair fight

*     *     *

Was Devlin unreasonable?  Readers might think so not appreciating his mindset or the fact that $140 American dollars in 1968 is the equivalent of $922.84 today at the annual rate of inflation again of 559.2 percent in 2012 dollars.  In the final analysis, everything is relative.

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