April 19, 2007

Let us now praise Famous Men

By Stan Dyer

I borrowed that title. It fits nicely. It's from a photo essay by James Agee and Walker Evans documenting life during The Great Depression. The pictures and story display abject poverty and the struggle to survive harsh economic times, or at least that's the way it seems. Sometimes, however, appearance can be deceiving.

It was the first day of class. Sitting quietly and waiting for class to begin, I noticed a disheveled, old man dressed in "second-hand" enter the classroom. Everyone seemed to notice this strange visitor as he made his way to the front of the room. He looked out of place. Many assumed he was either lost or there to "clean up". We were startled to discover he would be our professor for the rest of the semester. He didn't fit our stereotype. He was also head of the Sociology Department. He didn't fit their stereotype either. His name was Edward Rose.

Once we came to know him, we understood his unusual style and his "costume". Professor Rose had a fondness for doing research down on skid row, in "flop" houses, and anywhere he could discover an unusual "experience in the life". That's what he called his adventures. It was interesting to hear him tell stories of places we'd only watched on T.V., seen in the movies, or read about. As part of the course final grade, Professor Rose required us all to have our own "experiences in the life", and write 20 pages about our observations. It was then I realized a deeper lesson, and one not necessarily intended with the assignment. I realized we all need to look a little deeper as we experience life and make our observations..

I had my experience, made my observations, took my notes, and began to write. As I wrote, it occurred to me how nice it was that I could walk in and walk away. I didn't have to live what I saw if I chose not to. The people I observed, on the other hand, didn't have those options. It was their lives I was observing, their lots in life. How these people arrived at this point is largely unknown. Their capacity to, willingness to, and desire to alter their situations was equally unknown. I doubt many could just walk away, but what did I really know from observation? Nothing.

Professor Rose would laugh and recount all the good times he had "slumming" it. Everyone he met on his adventures seemed to know he was a Professor. He knew he was just visiting and could leave any time. To the people he met, he was a minor celebrity. I often wondered if his reception would have been the same if he arrived under different circumstances, and didn't have the option to leave. If they didn't know he was a professor doing research, would the natives be so friendly, or would they attack him for his coat and shoes? As for Professor Rose, would he have been so friendly to the people if he had to compete with them for empty soda cans, and try to get by on what Social Security gave him? Curiously, it was not unlike the book, "Let us now praise Famous Men", which, by the way, I also had to read for this class.

In the book, the authors assembled a collection of black and white pictures taken at the height of The Great Depression. The pictures showed no color, no happiness, and little of what was going on elsewhere in the world. America did not grind to a halt during The Great Depression. Many large buildings were erected, fabulous cars were built, and the world turned. John F. Kennedy said he knew nothing of the Depression. He learned about it at college from people like Agee, Evans and Rose. Now, I'm sure people in the Dustbowl had it rough, but I always wondered if Mr. Agee and Mr. Evans didn't go there with preconceived notions of what they would find and only looked for the information to support their theories. Maybe Mr. Rose did the same. All three were getting three square meals a day, and all three had the option to leave whenever they chose. When they left, they came back to tell us what they saw. They came back with stereotypes.

Stereotypes are those things that make it easier for us to classify people instead of understanding them. We know everyone is different, but we still try to sort people by perceived similarities. It is nearly impossible to do since we all have separate souls and our own individual characters. Heredity, environment and conditioning all work to form our personalities, but ultimately, we decide which aspects will define that individual character which makes us unique. The only way to truly understand people is to experience everything they experienced in their lives exactly as they experienced it all. Anything less is a guess, a hunch or a stereotype. Outward appearance, too, is not a reliable gauge of inward character. Appearances can be so deceiving, you can't always recognize famous men even when they enter your classroom. We proved that. Let us now praise famous men.