Volume 13 • Spring 2012 The Corinthian The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College
FRENCH
“Women in Corneille’s Le Cid and Diderot’s Le Fils naturel ...... 02 Kelsey Brennan HEALTH SCIENCES
“The Effects of Dehydration on Cognitive Functioning, Mood, and Physical Performance”...... 08 Molly Hodges
“Public Health Impact on the HPV Vaccinations: A Research Update”...... 18 Kathleen Ragan
“Crohn’s Disease: A Brief and Elementary Overview...... 41 Dayne Sullivan
INORGANIC CHEMISTRY
“Transmetallation of a Lithium Porphyrin with Iron (II)”...... 60 Kidus Debesai “Progress Towards A Facile Synthesis of a Gadolinium (III) Octabrominated Porphyrin”...... 70 Tseng Xiong
i The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College
LITERATURE
“Reverential Feminism: (Re) Considering the Status of Women in the African Novel”...... 85 Joseph Brogdon
“Take a Third Option: Multigender in Middlesex”...... 96 Cohen Edenfield
POLITICAL SCIENCE
“The International Criminal Court, The United States, What Next”...... 104 Alexandria Russell
“Jury Justice from the Classic Greeks”...... 120 Andrew Whittaker
RHETORIC
“Rhetoric in Comedy: How Comedians Use Persuasion and How Society Uses Comedians”...... 134 Grace Greene
ii Volume 13 • Spring 2012
The Corinthian The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College
EDITORIAL BOARD:
Sophie E. Dunne, Editor Keli D. Ross, Copy Editor Lucy Bartholomew, Copy Editor Natalie Sharp, Copy Editor John W. Bowen, Staff Advisor Tim Vacula, Photography, Front Cover
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR:
The goal of The Corinthian has always been, and continues to be, to promote and uphold the value of student research at Georgia College. The past two years The Corinthian has continued to change, grow, and adapt to constantly ensure that the encouragement and promotion of student research is maintained as the heart of our journal. I have been honored to be a part of this journal for the past two years and have had the opportunity to work with some amazing women: Keli Ross, Lucy Bartholomew, and Natalie Sharp. Of course, our staff would not be complete without the invaluable support and guidance of our advisor, John Bowen. There are many people that have worked very hard to make this volume a possibility. A sincere and grateful “thank you” goes out to all of The Corinthian staff, the volunteer faculty reviewers, the faculty sponsors, and the student authors; without all of you this volume would not have been possible. These last two years as part of The Corinthian have been an incredible journey and I have been honored to have been a part of the adventure. I am excited about the future of the journal and I look forward to many more volumes to come. All the Best, Sophie E. Dunne 2012 iii The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College
iv Volume 13 • Spring 2012
The Corinthian Faculty Review Board
The Corinthian would like to recognize the following Faculty Reviewers of Volume 13. Faculty Reviewers are responsible for evaluating submissions based on their originality and scholarly merit. The critiques of the Faculty Reviewers are an essential part of the submission process. The work of the following reviewers has been greatly appreciated:
The Corinthian Volume 13 Faculty Review Board
Dr. Koushik Banerjee Dr. Beauty Bragg Dr. Scott Butler Dr. Peter Carriere Dr. Rebecca Carte Dr. Aurora Castillo Dr. Kristina Dandy Dr. David de Posada Dr. Hank Edmondson Dr. Marianne Edwards Dr. Steven Elliott-Gower Professor Ashley Emmert Dr. Heidi Fowler Dr. Marshall Bruce Gentry Dr. Gary Giumetti Dr. Richard Greene Dr. David Johnson Professor Gregg Kaufman Professor Brandy Kennedy Mr. Josh Kitchens Dr. Bradley Koch Dr. Kelly Manning Dr. Megan Melancon Dr. Chavonda Mills Professor Caitlin Powell Dr. Katie Simon Professor John Sirmans Dr. Mark Vail Dr. Sandra Webb Dr. Diana Young
v The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College
vi Volume 13 • Spring 2012
Volume 13 of The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College is dedicated to:
All Former Corinthian Staff:
Thank you for paving the way and laying the foundation for The Corinthian
“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” - John Quincy Adams
vii The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College
viii French
French
1 The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College
Women in Corneille’s Le Cid and Diderot’s Le Fils naturel Kelsey Brennan Dr. Hedwig Fraunhofer Faculty Sponsor
The role of women in literature and society has been ever evolving and has also varied between writers and even individual works. In both society and literature, women have often been either marginalized or idealized. In this essay, I will focus on the works of French writers Pierre Corneille and Denis Diderot, specifically their plays,Le Cid (The Cid, 1636) and Le Fils naturel (The Natural Son, 1757). In terms of the role of women in these two plays, there are marked differences regarding their significance as characters and their expected feminine roles as well as how they interact with the men of the plays. In Le Cid, Corneille gives his main character, Chimène, a vital role in the plot. She is a character who is treated with equity in relation to men and, interestingly, even takes on some masculine qualities in the play. However, Rosalie, Chimène’s counterpart in Diderot’s Le Fils naturel, only plays a peripheral role and is underdeveloped as a feminine presence. It is impossible to ignore the similarities that exist between Rosalie and Chimène. They both express their distress over love and marriage, but that is truly where the similarities end. In fact this shared angst does not do much to connect them as specifically female characters because the men of the plays, in particular Don Rodrigue of Le Cid and Clairville of Le Fils naturel, share the same concern. Despite this similitude, the enactment of each female character is distinctively different, as is their individual importance to their stories. The differences between Chimène and Rosalie are most evident in the type of conflict that the women experience in their respective roles. For Chimène the conflict results from the loss of her father at the hands of her lover. She feels the need to avenge her father, but this revenge can only be achieved with the death of another person she loves. As C.J. Gossip observes, she “sees herself as in league with her father’s murderer and thus betraying his spirit” (278). The complexity of her situation is made even clearer when she cries, “Ah! cruelle pensée! Et cruelle poursuite où je me vois forcée! Je demande sa tête, et crains de l’obtenir: ma mort suivra la sienne, et je le veux punir!”[Ah, cruel thought! And cruel pursuit to which I see myself forced! I demand his head, and fear to obtain it. My death will follow his, and I wish to punish him!”] (3.3). She feels the weight of the death of her father, the man who helped give her life. But she also fears the death of Don Rodrigue, the man she loves, and she fears that the misery of her situation will only be exacerbated by it. Chimène’s core conflict is between love and honor. The fact that she must choose, or even has the ability to choose between the two is remarkable 2 Women in Corneille’s Le Cid and Diderot’s Le Fils naturel considering her role as a woman in the setting of medieval Spain. For the most part, in a patriarchal society, the honor of women is not considered important. Honor is only reserved for men. Instead, virtue is seen as the quality that needs to be closely guarded and protected in women. But with Chimène, we see a different kind of woman, a woman who shares concerns mirroring those of men. After Don Rodrigue has killed her father in a duel that was the consequence of the insults directed at his father, Chimène expresses her understanding of her lover’s position. She says to Don Rodrigue, “Je sais ce que l’honneur, après un tel outrage, demandait à l’ardeur d’un généreux courage: tu n’as fait le devoir que d’un homme de bien; mais aussi, le faisant, tu m’as appris le mien.” [“I know that honor, after such an insult, demanded the ardor of a noble courage. You have only done the duty of a good man, but, by doing it, you have taught me mine”] (3.4). Chimène recognizes Don Rodrigue’s actions as those of a dutiful son, but forgiveness is not engendered from her understanding. Her love for him battles with her own sense of duty. Clair Carlin remarks, “Chimène’s waffling between love and honor represents a high form of moral development” (50). Chimène is not easily swayed to forgiveness and acceptance as a result of her love, but rather her commitment to her own filial duty and honor challenges her love for Don Rodrigue. Chimène’s emphasis on her honor is especially poignant when one considers the situation of Rosalie in Le Fils naturel. She too wrestles with indecision in her life. She is Clairville’s betrothed, but she begins to question her love for him when she meets Dorval. She says of her situation, “Amant qui m’était alors si cher! Clairville que j’estime et que je désespère!” [“Lover who was then so dear to me! Clairville whom I respect and whom I despair!”] (4.1). Her conflict is disparate from that of Chimène; they are both forced to choose between two men, but Rosalie’s choice of whom to love pales in comparison to Chimène’s choice between honor or betrayal. Also notable is the different way that the women establish relationships with the men in these plays. The relationship between Chimène and Don Rodrigue becomes conflicted after the murder of her father, but instead of maintaining stereotypical roles that normally govern male-female relationships, the traditional roles of male superiority and female inferiority are reversed. Reminiscent of the tradition of courtly love, Don Rodrigue becomes subordinate to Chimène. He says, “Mon juge est mon amour, mon juge est ma Chimène.” [“My judge is my love, my judge is my Chimène”] (3.1). He puts himself at the mercy of a woman, not the mercy of a king or other men. He further explains the complexity of his situation: “Je mérite la mort de mériter sa haine, et j’en viens recevoir, comme un bien souverain, et l’arrêt de sa bouche, et le coup de sa main.” [“I deserve death for deserving her hate, and I am coming to receive
3 The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College it from her, like supreme good, both the sentence from her mouth and the blow from her hand”] (3.1). Despite the fact that Don Rodrigue feels that his actions were justified as those of an obedient son, he does not feel that he deserves Chimène’s understanding for his plight. He only yearns for her revenge, an act that would make them equals. Chimène neither surrenders to the wishes of Don Rodrigue, nor submits to the wishes of the king, Don Fernand. The king wants marriage for Chimène and Don Rodrigue, but she defies him and instead demands vengeance for her late father. When the king sends Don Rodrigue into battle, Chimène says to Don Fernand, “Je demande sa mort, mais non pas glorieuse, non pas dans un éclat qui l’élève si haut, non pas au lit d’honneur, mais sur un échafaud.” [“I demand his death, but not a glorious one, not in brilliance which raises him so high, not on the field of honor, but on the scaffold”] (4.5). Here is another conflict for this heroine. Not only must she come to terms with the death of her father at the hands of her lover, but she also challenges the wishes of the king. Chimène seeks to do what she views as just and right based on her own ideas and personal opinions. She clearly has a mind of her own and is not controlled by the desires of the men in her life. By insisting on her own honor, a historically male attribute, and by not obeying the king, Chimène doubly challenges patriarchal authority. While we, in our day, see such independence on the part of a woman character as positive, we have to keep in mind that Corneille’s play enacts a time at the end of feudalism where royal authority only began to establish itself. In Corneille’s Le Cid, the king is depicted as a positive character and a benign ruler, who is nevertheless threatened by the female protagonist’s assertiveness. The threat to the new authority of the king is thus feminized. Interestingly, Chimène represents paternal authority (her father’s claim to be avenged), while challenging the paternalistic authority of the king. Rosalie’s relationships with men in Diderot’s Le Fils naturel, on the other hand, are distinctly different. Her primary concern in life is determining which man she should marry. In sum, her only interests are in Clairville and Dorval. She has no concerns of her own about doing what is right, but rather is preoccupied with attaching herself to whichever man she finds most attractive at the time. And unlike Chimène, her opinion of which man will be the best husband for her is easily swayed despite the strong feelings she seems to have for Dorval. When Dorval asks her the price of her virtue, all the convictions she expressed earlier in the play, her desire for Dorval and not Clairville, lose their force. Dorval says to her, “Je vais donc vous parler du seul moyen de vous réconcilier avec vous, d’être digne de la société dans laquelle vous vivez, d’être appelée l’élève et l’amie de Constance, et d’être l’objet du respect et de la tendresse de Clairville.” [“I am therefore going to talk to you about the only way to reconcile with yourself, to be worthy of the society in which you live, 4 Women in Corneille’s Le Cid and Diderot’s Le Fils naturel to be called student and friend of Constance, and to be an object of respect and affection for Clairville”] (5.5). After Dorval’s appeal, which Rosalie accepts willingly and does not rail against, she states, “Je sais enfin où le bonheur m’attend.” [“I know at last where happiness awaits me”] (5.3). She adheres to the traditional rules that value a woman’s virtue as her most prized possession. Valerie Crêtaux Lastinger interprets this apparent lack of feminine independent thinking as follows: “For Diderot, the woman question…. is not so much, ‘what does woman want?’ but rather ‘what can woman say?’” (132). Whereas the conflict in Diderot’s play is caused by Rosalie’s expressing her own desires, desires that diverge from contemporary social expectations for women, she is easily brought back into the patriarchal fold by Dorval’s stern rebuke. The patriarchal status quo is rather effortlessly reestablished at the end of Diderot’s play. Both Chimène and Rosalie feel the pressure of patriarchal society working to marginalize them and render their desires subordinate by virtue of the fact that they are women. Rosalie adheres to her expected and accepted feminine role, doing little to make waves in the world in which she lives besides yearning for a man she cannot have and then acquiescing to the wills of the men in her life. As a result, she remains in the periphery of the story and never fully develops as a character. In contrast, Chimène has a depth and strength that Rosalie lacks.Chimène, too, yearns for marriage and love, but the conflict of her situation, the choice between honor and love, bestows her character and her role with an importance that Rosalie does not share. She challenges what is expected of her as a woman, thus challenging the patriarchal authority that is meant to govern her role in society and propelling her to the forefront of the story. In her, we see a feisty heroine who holds her own in a masculine world and dares man to see the world from her perspective.
Works Cited
Carlin, Claire. “As-tu du Coeur? Women Reading Corneille.” Society for Interdisciplinary French Seventeenth-Century Studies. (1988) 45-55. 21 Feb. 2011 < http://se17.bowdoin.edu/node/148 >.
Corneille, Pierre. Le Cid. Évreux: Bordas, 1998. Print.
Corneille, Pierre. The Cid. Trans. Rosalie Feltenstein. Woodbury, New York: Barron’s, 1953. Print.
Diderot, Denis. “Le Fils naturel.” Theatre du XVIIème siècle. Tours, France: Gallimard, 1974. Print. 5 The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College
Gossip, C.J. “The Denouement of Le Cid, Yet Again.” Modern Language Review 75. (1980): 275-281. MLA International Bibliography. EBSCOhost. Web. 21 Feb. 2011< http://web.ebscohost.com >.
Lastinger, Valérie Crêtaux. “Word of Mouth, Word of Womb: Denis Diderot and Hysterical Discourse.” Women’s Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal 21.2 (1992): 131-142. MLA International Bibliography. EBSCOhost. Web. 21 Feb. 2011 < http://web.ebscohost.com >.
6 Health Sciences
Health Sciences
7 The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College
The Effects of Dehydration on Cognitive Functioning, Mood, and Physical Performance Molly Hodges Dr. Kelly Manning Faculty Sponsor
It is no surprise to most everyone that the human life depends tremendously on a compound composed of two Hydrogen atoms and an Oxygen atom: water. Water is such a huge component of the human life; it comprises 75% of the body weight in infants, 55% in the elderly and is crucial for cellular homeostasis (Popkin 439). In fact without water humans can only survive two to four days (Daniels 505). In a moderately brief period of time, failure to consume enough water will lead to deteriorating neurologic function, organ failure, and ultimately death (Lieberman 1-5555). Failure to consume a proper amount of fluid has always been linked to such life threatening outcomes, but equally important is how dehydration affects the way one thinks, feels, and is able to perform. Each of these are important aspects of life, in that these very components shape the human life. Most research has led to the notion that the inability to take in and maintain the necessary amount of water can lead to impaired cognitive functions, disturbed emotional states, and decreased physical performance.
DEHYDRATION AND COGNITION
When an individual fails to ingest the appropriate amounts of fluid it leads to a condition known as dehydration. Dehydration refers to a loss of body water mainly from the intracellular compartments and a loss of extracellular fluid clinically affecting the vascular tree and interstitial compartment. Most use the term dehydration or hypohydration to refer to total body water loss or insufficient fluids (Thomas 292). Dehydration has been linked to a decline in mental processes known as cognitive functioning. Cognitive function is a process associated with several aspects of mental thinking, such as memory, psychomotor controls, attention, perception, executive thinking, and language skills. Several studies have confirmed that the inhibition of water also negatively affect cognition in several aspects such as short-term memory function, working memory capabilities, perceptive discrimination, and visual-motor function (D’Anci 458). Supporting these claims directly was a study that examined the effects of water deprivation on men and women. The results concluded that heat- and exercise-induced moderate acute dehydration of at least two percent of an individual’s body weight resulted in a significant impairment in the specific areas of cognitive-motor functions dealing with short-term memory, working
8 The Effects of Dehydration memory, perceptive discrimination, and visual-motor function (Szinnai R275). Other results from similar studies concluded that with dehydration, there was significant deterioration in total test solving time, minimum single task solving time, and total overall time (Petri 858).
EFFECTS OF LOWERED COGNITION
Mental haziness that is created from lack of body fluid will affect an individual’s ability to mentally perform to the best of their ability. Mental haziness is a term often used to describe a feeling of not being able to focus and having unclear thoughts. Decrements in physical, visuomotor, psychomotor, and cognitive performance can occur when two percent or more of body weight is lost due to water restriction, heat, and/or physical exertion (Grandjean 459S). This was measured through a study of subjects dehydrated by one to five percent of their body weight through heat, exercise, and absence of water. Several cognitive functions such as arithmetic efficiency, short and long term memory, and attention, showed impairment when the subject was dehydrated by at least two percent of their total body weight (Grandjean 459S). Mild dehydration has been seen to impair performance on tasks such as memory, perceptual discrimination, arithmetic ability, visuomotor tracking, and psychomotor skills (D’Anci 460). Negative effects of dehydration on cognitive performance have been evident in some studies. It has been reported that a seemingly easy task becomes harder when an individual is hypohydrated, therefore an apparent effort to complete the task maybe required. In a study using functional magnetic resonance imaging 10 healthy adolescents, with a mean age 16.81 ± 0.49 years and a body mass index 66.1 ± 9 kg, completed a thermal exercise procedure and nonthermal exercise control condition in a cross-over repeated measures design (Kempton 71). The results showed that dehydration caused higher levels of perceived effort in many tasks, increased tiredness and difficulties in concentration. The findings in this study suggest that an increase in fatigue is overcome by an increase in fronto-parietal brain activation, which may be experienced by participants as giving a larger effort. One of the conclusions from the study indicated that dehydration does negatively impact brain functions underlying important cognitive processes, especially concentration, in young people as opposed to the adult population (Kempton 77).
DECLINE IN MENTAL PERFORMANCE
9 The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College
Since severe dehydration unavoidably leads to delirium, coma, and eventual death, there is no doubt that it will produce a decline in cognitive function before such brutal consequences occur (Liebermann 1- 5560). Disturbances in water homeostasis have shown to cause either a slight or severe decline in overall mental functioning, depending on level of hypohydration. In tasks that require high accuracy, perform under obligatory regime, allow for no mistakes, or involve sophisticated or potentially dangerous equipment, a deteriorated mental and psychomotor processing could potentially endanger overall performance and execution of tasks (Petri 856). There was evidence that dehydration to 2.7% body weight loss by heat exposure or exercise has been shown to drastically decrease alertness, concentration, tracking performance, increase tiredness and headaches in healthy young adults (Ritz S7). It also took dehydrated subjects a longer time to respond to questions (Ritz S7). The inability to adequately function cognitively can cause mild problems such as a bad test grade all the way to severe predicaments such as a factory worker being unable to concentrate on their task, leading to detrimental consequences. Reintroduction of fluids under circumstances of mild dehydration can reasonably be expected to reverse dehydration-induced cognitive deficits (Popkin 446). One study examined how water ingestion affected awakening and cognitive performance in young people following a period of 12 hour water restriction. While cognitive performance was not seen to be greatly affected by either water restriction or water ingestion, water intake did affect self-reported arousal. Therefore in this study, testing did not necessarily indicate a difference in cognition, but the participants felt like they were doing better, which lends to the idea that hydration status consistently affected self-reported alertness, but effects on cognition were less consistent than in other studies (Popkin 447). Researchers have pointed out the limitations in accurately measuring the effect of dehydration on cognitive functioning due to difficulty in assessing just one variable as the cause and the difficulty in distinguishing different levels of hydration (Liebermann 2- S35). It has been pointed out that measuring such a temperamental component as cognition is hard, especially when you are trying to base its decline or improvement on a variable like dehydration. Even so, there seems to be enough evidence supporting the claim the decreased hydration will in most cases lead to some degree of decreased level of cognitive functioning. Alterations to cerebral blood flow and/or metabolism caused by decreased levels of hydration may also be important catalysts of fatigue during exercise in a warm environment (Maughan 604S). Dehydration especially coupled with physical exertion has been seen to cause a mental sedation and feelings of apathy (Kempton 77). By increasing fatigue, people tend to show
10 The Effects of Dehydration more signs of lack of interest and low motivation, due to the feeling of extra strain when attempting even the simplest tasks. In most studies, although it is not a main concern of the experiment, fluid restriction is seen to have a noticeably negative effect on the subjects’ perceived ability to function mentally and on their overall feeling of wellbeing (Sherriffs2 957). Dehydration can have a side effect of irritability and frustration because even simple tasks can seem to require more effort than usual. More technically, it has been suggested that dehydration, unlike other stressors, may create shifts in electrolytes that could substantially alter brain neurotransmission since neuronal function is highly dependent on the physiological setting of the central nervous system (Liebermann 1- 5559 ). With each study it is clear that dehydration induced by heat exposure, exercise, and fluid restriction impairs emotion (Liebermann 1-5614).
MOOD
The lack of sufficient amounts of fluid can range from mild to severe, with increasingly dangerous clinical signs associated with each range. Basic clinical signs of dehydration include problems such as restlessness, decreased alertness, dizziness, lethargy, agitation, and confusion (D’Anci 460). These signs are directly correlated with altered emotional states, triggered by the lack of sufficient fluids.. One study showed that under conditions of mild dehydration with young adults, there were significantly higher scores for anger, confusion, and fatigue (D’Anci 460). The investigators deprived young male and female volunteers of all fluids for 28 hours and achieved a 2.6% mean body mass loss. Multiple tests of cognitive performance and mood were administered from 24 to 28 hours after the start of each session. Few alterations in cognitive performance were observed, but there were effects of dehydration on self-reported levels of tiredness, alertness, effort, and concentration and some evidence of an altered mood and cognitive performance decrements in females. The results of this study indicate that mood is more likely to be affected by modest levels of dehydration than cognitive performance and that women may be more sensitive to dehydration than men (Lieberman 2-S34).
HORMONAL FLUCTUATIONS
There are several theories surrounding the phenomenon of women being more emotionally affected by dehydration, most all are centered on hormonal changes. One proposed theory that is still strongly hypothetical is
11 The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College that an influence of the natural variation of levels of luteinizing hormone, follicle-stimulating hormone, estrogen, and progesterone may offer some explanation (Szinnai R277). Luteinizing hormone and follicle stimulating hormone are gonadotropin hormones that stimulate the ovaries in females. Luteinizing hormone and follicle stimulating hormone are responsible for the stimulation and the maturation of follicles in the ovary and stimulates secretion of sex hormones, which are necessary for reproduction (Bowen 1). Estrogen and progesterone are also important female hormones that work together and are responsible for functions including but not limited to breast cell stimulation, maturation and development of secondary sex characteristics, fat cell storage, controlling libido, salt and fluid retention, normalizing blood clotting, and restraining bone loss (Lee 1). High levels of estrogen has been linked to improved memory and articulation, while in contrast, low estrogen has been associated with better visual spatial abilities. Osmotic sensibility varies with the menstrual cycle; therefore decreased cognition due to low estrogen values in female subjects in studies could be responsible for significant gender- dehydration interaction in reaction time-based response measures in certain cognition tests (Szinnai R278). Natural hormonal fluctuations is one reason it is hard to decipher if it is dehydration or just hormones causing mood disruptions, or if different levels of hydration may affect the increasing or decreasing presence of certain hormones. Other mood altering factors include the changes in brain neurotransmission, in particular dopamine, which appears to be responsible for fatigue when exercising in the heat (Maughan 6045). Dopamine is a chemical messenger that affects brain processes that control movement, emotional response, and ability to experience pleasure and pain. Dopamine can greatly affect an individual’s emotional states which can be seen in diseases where the brain releases too much, such as schizophrenia, and where it releases too little, such as in Parkinson’s disease (Erikson). Although not widely researched, dopamine seems to be affected by dehydration which can lead an individual to experience mood swings (Erikson).
PHYSICAL PERFORMANCE
Along with there being a decline in cognitive performance, there is also a severe impairment in physical performance that is caused by hypohydration. Peripheral factors, such as muscle glycogen depletion, can account for fatigue in endurance exercise in cool temperature environments, but not in the heat (Maughan 604S). Fluid ingestion during exercise can decrease the subjective sensation of fatigue and enhance performance when exercise lasts more than about 40 minutes (Maughan 604S). Dehydration has also shown to limit the 12 The Effects of Dehydration aerobic and anaerobic components of exercise performance, which includes maximal oxygen uptake, anaerobic power output, and physical work capacity (Yoshida 529). During challenging athletic events, it is not uncommon for athletes to lose 6–10% of body weight through sweat, which inevitably leads to dehydration if fluids have not been replenished. When an individual loses approxiamately 4.8% water body mass loss there is a significant compromise in the ability to perform a resistance exercise bout (Judelson 1824). In fact it has been seen that starting with dehydration of around 4% of the body weight, a greater proportion of water loss comes from intracellular sources which could disrupt the electrochemical potential of the cell membrane and contribute to faster muscle fatigue (Yoshida 530). However, decline in the physical performance of athletes have been observed under much lower levels of dehydration (Popkin 444). Under relatively mild levels of dehydration, individuals engaging in demanding physical activity will experience a decrease in performance related to reduced endurance, increased fatigue, altered thermoregulatory capability, reduced motivation, and increased perceived effort. Studies suggest that hypohydration seems to have a more significant impact on high-intensity and endurance activity, such as tennis and long-distance running, than on anaerobic activities such as weight lifting, or on shorter-duration activities, such as rowing (Popkin 445). One speculation for reduced performance is the reduced muscle size that can occur because of loss of fluid. One study concluded that if hypohydration in fact fails to reduce muscle force or power, that exercises such as the vertical jump height should actually increase as total body water decrease, because the jumper would have less mass to move (Judelson 1824). This is only the case if the individual is able to overcome the increasing muscle and mental fatigue caused by dehydration in order to produce the same effort that they would have given prior to the hypohydration. Dehydration coupled with prolonged exercise has also seen to cause a decrease muscle glycogen by up to 16%. This increased muscle glycogen utilization in a dehydrated situation probably results from higher body temperatures, increased catecholamine levels, or a combination of the two (Shirreffs1 S17). Other physical effects of dehydration that hinder physical performance is an increase in body temperature which makes the body have an increased perceived effort and ultimately have a harder time performing overall (Kempton 76). Also when body water content is decreased through total body dehydration, an increased heart rate and decreased stroke volume is observed, indicating an increased cardiovascular strain, meaning that the heart must work harder to try and maintain homeostasis, which in turn increases perceived effort (Shirreffs1 S16).
13 The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College
CLIMATE
Dehydration effecting physical performance is mostly seen to be exacerbated by hot climates. Exercise in hot conditions with inadequate fluid replenishment is more seriously associated with hyperthermia, reduced stroke volume and cardiac output, decreased blood pressure, and reduced blood flow to muscle (Popkin 446). The effects of exercise intensity and heat load on deteriorating performance are connected; performance declines even before physiological responses are impaired and even highly motivated subjects are affected by heat load, especially when assigned to complex tasks that require a high level of attention, cooperation, and coordination (Grandjean 463S). Increase temperatures in effect create a high cerebral temperature which may lead to changes in motor drive that affect the capability to recruit adequate muscle fibers to meet the demands of exercise (Maughan 608S). In hot environments, 31- 32 degrees Celsius, the sweating rate isincreased causing 60 minutes of intense exercise to elicit dehydration by approximately 2% of body weight, which has been seen to cause adverse effects (Coyle 40). In a study where participants were purposefully dehydrated and made to do several different exercise tasks in a warm climate, it was confirmed that hypohydrated individuals who completed isotonic, multiple-repetition, multiple-set, intermittent resistance exercise tasks will likely experience impaired performance (Judelson 1823). Dehydration by 2% of body mass during exercise in a hot environment (31°C–32°C) impairs endurance performance, but when exercise is performed in a temperate environment (20°C–21°C), dehydration by 2% of body mass appears to have a less significant effect on endurance performance (Shirreffs1 S16). Such findings suggest that in less hot environments, dehydration by more than 2% may be tolerable but may also make the dehydration less noticeable and therefore possibly more dangerous. The overheating of the body’s temperature is known as hyperthermia which has been seen to cause changes in the brain’s electrical activity (Maughan 610S). The altered brain activity causes a reduction in the ability to maintain voluntary contractions and in turn creates an increase in perceived exertion (Maughan 610S).
CONCLUSION
Performance of both physical and mental tasks is notably reduced by heat and dehydration (Maughan 604S). While most of the studies point out the difficulty in measuring variables based on dehydration, the research still concludes that aspects of cognitive functioning such as memory, perception,
14 The Effects of Dehydration attention, and concentration are mostly negatively affected. Similarly, the mental and physical fatigues along with other factors, that lack of hydration produces, cause a decline in mood and physical performance. Most of the studies conducted around the effects of dehydration, suggest that deteriorated mental and psychomotor processing occurs early after the beginning of inadequate fluid consumption, pointing to the importance of a regular and perhaps planned regime of fluid intake (Petri 860). It is this evidence that continues to support the notion that inadequate fluid consumption not only can lead to seemingly obvious long term severe consequences but can also lead to immediate and mostly ignored negative effects.
Works Cited
Bowne, R. (2004). Gonadotropins: Luteinizing and Follicle Stimulating Hormones. < http://www.vivo.colostate.edu/hbooks/pathphys/ endocrine/hypopit/lhfsh.html>
Coyle, E.F. (2003) Fluid and Fuel Intake During Exercise. J Sport Sci. Vol.22 (1:39-55)< http://www.uni.edu/dolgener/Advanced_Sport_ Nutrition/fluid_intake.pdf>
D’Anci,K.E.,Constant,F., Rosenberg, I.H., (2006). Hydration and Cognitive Function in Children. Nutrition in Clinical Care, Vol.64 (10:457-464)
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16 The Effects of Dehydration
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17 The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College
Public Health Impact of the HPV Vaccinations: A Research Update
Kathleen Ragan Dr. Scott M. Butler Faculty Sponsor
In recent years, a large volume of medical and public health literature has been dedicated to the sexually transmitted infection Human Papillomavirus (HPV). The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive assessment of recent empirical investigations which assess the public health impact of HPV and recent HPV vaccinations.
Epidemiologic Assessment
Human Papillomavirus is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the United States (U.S.; Weinstock, Berman, & Cates, 2004). It is estimated that 20 million people are currently infected with HPV and that an additional 6 million new infections occur every year (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2009). Human Papillomavirus is a small DNA virus that replicates in squamous epithelial cells found on the skin, cervix, vagina, anus, vulva, head of the penis, mouth, and throat (Widdice & Kahn, 2006). It is passed from person-to-person via sexual intercourse or skin-to-skin contact and can infect both men and women (Baseman & Koutsky, 2005). In most cases, infections with HPV are not serious and are usually asymptomatic, transient, and resolve without treatment (Baseman & Koutsky, 2005). However, in some individuals HPV infections result in genital warts, cervical abnormalities, and/or various cancers (CDC, 2009; Worden et al., 2008). Since there are often no signs or symptoms of infection many individuals are unaware of their possible transmission to others (CDC, 2009). It is estimated that 80% of sexually active women will have acquired HPV by the age of 50 with a high prevalence occurring from ages 14-19 (Datta et al., 2008; Myers, McCrory, Nanda, Bastian, & Matchar, 2000). According to Manhart and colleagues (2006) the prevalence of infection among women aged 18-25 increases from 14.3% among those with one lifetime sexual partner to 31.5% with more than three partners. There are more than 100 different strains of HPV and many differ in terms of the epithelium they infect. Some infect cutaneous sites whereas others infect mucosal surfaces (Trottier & Franco, 2006). Over 40 strains are sexually transmitted and can cause genital warts, cervical abnormalities, and/or cancer of the oral cavity, oropharynx, anus, vulva, penis and vagina (CDC, 2009). The
18 Public Health Impact of the HPV Vaccinations: A Research Update incidence of HPV-associated cancers/year is as follows: 12,000 cervical, 4,400 anal, 2,700 vulvar, 1,000 vaginal, and 1,000 penile (CDC, 2009). The strains of HPV that cause cervical cancer differ from those that cause genital warts (Munoz, Bosch, & deSanjose, 2003). Strains 16 and 18 are considered high risk and have been detected in 99.7% of cervical cancer cases. Strains 6 and 11 are considered low risk and account for 90% of genital wart cases. Most genital infections will naturally clear without medical intervention (Munoz et al., 2003). However, women who do not clear high risk strains are at an increased risk for cervical cancer. Human Papillomavirus causes cells on or around the cervix to become abnormal and may progress to pre-cancerous stages (Collins, Mazloomzadeh, & Winter, 2002). Many women may develop mild cytologic abnormalities causing atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASC-US) or low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (LGSIL) as detected on a Papanicolau (Pap) test (Munoz et al., 2003). In the U.S., approximately 4% to 5% of all cervical cytology results are ASC-US (Munoz et al., 2003). These abnormal cells may clear without treatment and most high-risk HPV infections do not result in cancer (Munoz et al., 2003). Persistent infection is associated with adaptations that can result in pre-cancer cells. True pre-cancer cell changes are called high grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (SIL). Pap tests are used to identify cervical cancer precursors that can be treated before progression to cervical cancer occurs. The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) recommends women start having Pap tests approximately three years after the onset of vaginal intercourse but no later than age 21 (ACOG, 2003). Selected strains of HPV can also cause genital warts. There is an estimated 1 million new cases of genital warts each year in the U.S. (Kodner & Nasraty, 2004). Genital warts are usually soft, flesh-colored growths that can be raised or flat, small or large, alone or in clusters. They sometimes disappear without treatment or may need to be removed by burning, freezing, laser or surgical procedures. However, they can return after treatment because the viral infection may be persistent. It is estimated that 25% of cases reoccur within three months (Kodner & Nasraty, 2004). The high prevalence rates of HPV-related strains have generated public health interest in primary prevention methods focused upon risk reduction. Transmission of HPV can be reduced through the correct and consistent use of physical barriers such as male latex condoms (Winer et al., 2006). While HPV can occur in areas that are not covered or protected by a condom, the use of condoms has been associated with decreases in HPV-related problems. A study conducted by Winer and colleagues (2006) assessed the relationship between HPV infection and vaginal intercourse among 82 university students over an eight month period. Results indicated that the participants who used condoms on 19 The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College all sexual occasions exhibited an incidence of genital HPV of 37.8/100 patient- years, whereas participants who used male condoms less than 5% of the time had a rate of 89.3/100 patient-years. According to the CDC (2010a): Condom use may reduce the risk for HPV-associated diseases (e.g., genital warts and cervical cancer) and may mitigate the other adverse consequences of infection with HPV; condom use has been associated with higher rates of regression of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) and clearance of HPV infection in women, and with regression of HPV-associated penile lesions in men. In 2006, Merck Pharmaceuticals introduced a new vaccine titled Gaurdasil® that helps to protect against HPV strains 6, 11, 16, and 18. The prophylactic vaccine is made from non-infectious HPV L1 proteins and is administered through a series of three intramuscular injections (.5-ml doses) over a six month period (0, 2, and 6 months; CDC, 2007). Currently, the vaccine is licensed for females and males ages 9 to 26 and costs $360 for the full series (Food and Drug Administration [FDA], 2010; Harris, 2006). A second vaccine, Cervarix®, was submitted to the FDA in 2008 and is currently available as a bivalent vaccine that protects against HPV 16 and 18 (Lowy & Schiller, 2006). The public health benefits of the vaccines would be expected to significantly reduce HPV-related morbidity and mortality and reduce the overall economic burden upon health care systems (De Melo-Martin, 2006). The vaccines represent a major step toward the prevention of HPV and cervical cancer but should not be used as a replacement for other prevention strategies such as cervical cancer screenings or protective sexual behaviors. The prevalence of HPV infection is high among college women and young adults 20 to 24 years of age (Dunne, Unger, & Sternberg, 2007; Winer, Lee, & Hughes, 2003). College women have a high risk of acquiring HPV when compared to the general population because of their high-risk sexual behaviors (Dunne et al., 2007; Winer et al., 2003). Dinger and Parsons (1999) studied college students living in residence halls and in fraternity/sorority housing at a northwestern university. Results indicated that 39.4% of students living in fraternity/sorority housing reported having 6 or more sexual partners compared to 22.8% of students living in residence halls. In addition, 15% of students living in fraternity/sorority housing reported more than 20 acts of sexual intercourse prior to the study compared to 5% of students living in residence halls. According to the CDC (1997), only 29.6% of sexually active students reported that they or their partner used condoms during their last act of sexual intercourse.
20 Public Health Impact of the HPV Vaccinations: A Research Update
Barriers to Vaccination Acceptance
Recent studies have begun to focus upon the examination of potential barriers to mandatory HPV vaccination as well as overall acceptance of the vaccine by target populations. A solid understanding of potential barriers is crucial for health care providers to enable them to effectively assist parents and adolescents in their decisions regarding the vaccines (Zimet, 2009). Research indicates that school-entry requirements of vaccinations have proven to be a very efficacious method of protecting a large majority of school children from vaccine-preventable diseases (Hinman, Orenstein, Williamson, & Darrington, 2002). Though the school-entry requirements for childhood vaccines vary from state to state, every state offers parents the option to opt-out for medical reasons and some allow exceptions based on religious or philosophical beliefs (Zimet, 2009). Studies also demonstrate that increased outbreaks of preventable diseases occur when vaccination requirements are relaxed (Feikin et al., 2000; Omer et al., 2006;Thompson et al., 2007). Controversy surrounding the quadrivalent HPV vaccine received increased media attention when several states proposed legislative efforts that would mandate HPV vaccination for girls entering middle school (Zimet, 2009). On February 2, 2007 Texas became the first state to mandate HPV vaccination, requiring all girls to receive Gardasil® before entering 6th grade (Cook, 2008). By March 2007, legislation had been introduced in 41 states and the District of Columbia to “require, fund, or educate the public about the HPV [v]accine” (Cook, 2008, p. 213-214). Of these, 24 states required vaccination for enrollment in school, while the remaining 17 proposed policies that were centered upon funding the vaccine or sponsoring education-based programs (Cook, 2008). Many parents view the efforts as an infringement upon their rights and are weary of the safety and efficacy of the vaccine (Cook, 2008). Dissent regarding school-entry vaccination requirements is centered upon the following key arguments (a) currently, long-term safety and accessibility issues have not been empirically assessed (b) fear that vaccination will promote increased sexual activity among young girls and adolescents and (c) the vaccination will provide a false sense of reduced susceptibility from other sexually transmitted infections (Blumenthal, Heyman, Trocola, & Slomovitz, 2008). Although few laws pertaining to school-entry requirements have been enacted, research suggests that HPV vaccination utilization remains higher than comparable non-mandated vaccines for preventable communicable diseases (Jain, Stokley, & Yankey, 2008; Zimet, 2009). In 2007, approximately 25% of 13-17 year old girls in the U.S. received at least one dose of HPV vaccine and an estimated 68% of first dose 21 The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College recipients received at least two doses at the time of follow-up (Jain et al., 2008). In contrast, a United Kingdom (U.K.) study of 2,817 girls attending 36 schools found that nearly 71% received the first dose and 97% of first dose recipients received the second (Brabin et al., 2008). Australian studies yield similar results of high vaccine acceptance, with 3-dose uptake at 75 - 80% (Garland, 2008). Another Australian study conducted by Fairley and colleagues (2009) examined proportions of new clients presenting with genital warts beginning in 2004 before vaccination programs were implemented in 2007 (Fairley et al., 2009). In 2007, school-based and general practice programs began offering free quadrivalent vaccination for school girls aged 12-18 years and women less than 26 years of age. In the period from 2004 – 2007, there was an increase in new clients presenting with genital warts of 1.8% (95% CI 0.2% - 3.4%) per quarter in women under 28 years of age. In comparison, there was a decrease of 25.1% (95% CI 30.5% - 19.3%) in the proportion of women under 28 years presenting with warts per quarter in 2008. The average quarterly change for heterosexual men was a decrease of 5% (95% CI 0.5% -- 9.4%; p = .031). These findings demonstrate that Australian and U.K. school-based vaccination approaches are more effective than the U.S. clinic based-approach (Zimet, 2009). Worldwide acceptance of the vaccines is increasing. As of September 2008, over 100 countries had licensed the quadrivalent vaccine and over 75 countries had licensed the bivalent vaccine (Irwin, 2008). Unfortunately, there is a vast amount of misunderstanding and misperception regarding HPV and cervical cancer. In general, young women, parents, and health care providers appear to be interested in vaccines that prevent HPV, but there are varying degrees of acceptance among the populations (Zimet, 2005). Recent studies of physician attitudes regarding vaccination recommendations have revealed that acceptance rates of physicians generally increased with the girl’s age (Mays & Zimet, 2004; Raley, Followwill, Zimet, & Ault, 2004; Riedesel et al., 2005). In 2005, Daley and colleagues (2006) conducted a national assessment of vaccination-related attitudes among 294 U.S. pediatricians. Results indicated that pediatricians believed that if a future vaccination was developed and endorsed by a health-related organization, they would increasingly be willing to recommend the vaccine to girls and boys based upon age. Vaccination recommendation rates ranged from 46% (ages 10 to 12) to 89% (ages 16 to 18) in girls as well as 37% (ages 10 to 12) to 82% (ages 16 to 18) in boys. In addition, only 11% of participants believed that the vaccine would encourage sexual behavior among their patients (Daley et al., 2006). Other factors that could influence acceptance beliefs include the potential economic and personal benefits associated with decreased health care costs and stress due to abnormal Pap results (Blumenthal et al., 2008; Harper, 2004).
22 Public Health Impact of the HPV Vaccinations: A Research Update
Studies reveal that sexually active college students ages 20 to 24 often lack knowledge regarding HPV and become more aware only after being diagnosed with HPV infection by a health care provider (Vail-Smith & White, 1992; Yacobi, Tennant, Ferrante, Pal, & Roetzheim, 1999). Previous studies have shown that 85% of college women have heard of HPV but are unaware of the infectivity and overall prevalence of the virus (Vail-Smith & White, 1992; Yacobi et al., 1999). A study by Lambert (2001) focused on college women’s knowledge of HPV. The women were given a pre-questionnaire, participated in a brief HPV-focused educational intervention, and were reevaluated 3 months later. Results showed that the women answered 45% of the HPV questions correctly pre-intervention and 78% correctly post-intervention. These findings suggest that targeted intervention efforts may increase general knowledge in specific populations potentially leading to adoption of preventative methods such as receiving a vaccine. Only 30% of women participants in two U.K. studies, as well as 13% of adolescents in a Canadian study, had prior knowledge of HPV (Dell, Chen, Ahmad, & Stewart, 2000; Pitts & Clark, 2002; Waller et al., 2003). Additional research has shown that even among those who had prior knowledge of HPV, many misunderstandings concerning infection, cervical cancer screening, and Pap smears exist (Zimet, 2005). One investigation indicated that 86% of women interested in learning about the virus believed that HPV-related educational materials should be distributed to individuals before they initiate sexual activity (Holcomb, Bailey, Crawford, & Ruffin, 2004). Another study of male and female university students revealed that 74% of participants were willing to receive the vaccine (Boehner, Howe, Bernstein, & Rosenthal, 2003). There were no differences in acceptance rates based on gender or motivation for vaccination (i.e., as an STI vaccine versus a reproductive health vaccine). Overall, this study suggests that HPV vaccination is generally viewed as positive by young men and women. One important public health aspect of HPV for collegiate students is the availability of the vaccinations within their health centers. A study conducted in 2001 by Koumans and colleagues (2005) at the CDC assessed 910 colleges and universities nationally. Findings indicated that 60% of colleges and universities host a student health center/health services. Butler 2009) assessed the availability of the vaccine within 358 colleges and universities with student health centers nationally. Results indicated that 72.3% currently offer at least one form of the vaccine to their student population. Demographic characteristics (size of college/university, geographic region, as well as non-faith-based affiliation) were all significant factors in predicting vaccine availability. In addition, health center institutional complexity and formalization were also significant predictors. 23 The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College
Age of Vaccination
The 2009 Youth Risk Behavior Survey reported that 65.0% of 12th grade females had sexual intercourse; 52.5% of 11th grade; 39.6% of 10th grade; and 29.3% of 9th grade (CDC, 2010b). The median prevalence of having ever had sexual intercourse was 48.2% across state surveys (data ranged from 39.0% to 61.0%). More surprisingly, 5.9% of students nationwide reported having had sexual intercourse before the age of 13 and 8.8% of sexually active 9th graders reported having had 4 or more lifetime sex partners. Based upon these statistics, it is clear that HPV educational programs need to target younger populations and their parents in order to increase vaccination in adolescents before initial sexual activity which would greatly decrease their overall risk of cervical cancer (Blumenthal et al., 2008). Promotion of early vaccination is also important because data shows that the efficacy and potential benefit of the vaccines is not as clear for women older than 19 years as it is for adolescents under the age of 19 (Saslow et al., 2007). However, females over the age of 19 who have not yet engaged in sexual intercourse would still greatly benefit from the vaccine, and women aged 19 to 26 could still benefit if they have not been exposed to all HPV vaccine types. The American Cancer Society (ACS) guidelines suggest that the three primary factors to consider when recommending age to vaccinate are duration of protection, age for optimal efficacy, and feasible plans for distribution (Saslow et al., 2007). Since the vaccines are relatively new, duration studies are limited and only include data from 3.5 to 5 years. The lower age limit for efficacy studies is 16 years of age for Gardasil® and 15 years of age for Cervarix®.
Differences between Specific Populations and Geographic Regions
Another barrier to global vaccination utilization rates is that vaccine acceptance rates appear to differ among specific populations. One study revealed that Latina immigrants unanimously agreed upon acceptance while African Americans were more skeptical and cited concerns about effectiveness, side effects, and potential for an increase in sexual activity (Scarinci, Garc´es- Palacio, & Partridge, 2007). A study in Mexico examined the effect of HPV education on vaccine acceptance (Lazcano-Ponce et al., 2001). After participants were educated about the preventative factors of the vaccine regarding cervical cancer, 84% of the women stated they would allow their teenage daughter to be vaccinated. The effect of brief educational efforts is demonstrated in another study which found that acceptance of the vaccine among parents of 10 to 15-year-old children rose from 55% to 75% after they read an information sheet about HPV and vaccination; parents in opposition to the vaccine cited sexual 24 Public Health Impact of the HPV Vaccinations: A Research Update disinhibition as a barrier (Davis, Dickman, Ferris, & Dias, 2004). A separate review of studies of HPV beliefs in the United States found that only 6 - 12% of parents were concerned that vaccination would lead to increased sexual activity (Brewer & Fazekas, 2007). Furthermore, a study of parental acceptance in California found that 75% of parents would be likely to vaccinate a daughter before the age of 13 (Constantine & Jerman, 2007). In comparing non-Hispanic parents to other populations, Hispanic parents were more likely to accept vaccination, whereas African American and Asian- American parents were less likely. An investigation in England conducted by Marlow, Waller, and Wardle (2007) revealed that 75% of mothers with children in primary and secondary school settings were acceptant of vaccination. In addition, mothers were found to be more acceptant of the vaccine if they were categorized into the following traits (a) experienced cancer in their family, (b) had older daughters, (c) had perceived approval from their spouse/significant other, and (d) viewed vaccine acceptance as normative.
Health System Disparities
Other concerns are that current social and economic disparities within the health care system have led to poor and minority populations being disproportionately affected by cervical and other HPV-related cancers (Zimet, 2009). In 2003, researchers from the International Agency for Research on Cancer conducted a meta-analysis of 57 studies which assessed the relationship between social inequality and cervical cancer risk (Parikh, Brennan, & Boffetta, 2003). Results of the investigation revealed: An increased risk of approximately 100 percent between high and low social class categories for the development of invasive cervical cancer. This increased risk was apparent in all geographic regions, although it was stronger in Africa, Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean than in Europe (Parikh, Brennan, & Boffetta, 2003, p. 687). One of the most significant health disparities associated with cervical cancer is the lack of screening. Cervical screening is a highly effective prevention strategy that enables women to detect precancerous cervical abnormalities early on (Erdman, 2009). According to Erdman (2009), “social health disparities are unjust … because they result from government action that adversely affects the health risks and outcomes of groups already disadvantaged by virtue of their underlying social position” (p. 370 ). Governments all over the world are failing to implement health measures for underserved populations, thus creating health disparities and placing already disadvantaged populations at increased risk (Erdman, 2009). General Comment No. 14 from the United Nations Committee on Economic, Cultural, and Social Rights (CECSR) 25 The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College explicitly states: Inappropriate health resource allocation can lead to discrimination that may not be overt. For example, investments should not disproportionately favour expensive curative health services which are often accessible only to a small, privileged fraction of the population, rather than primary and preventive health care benefiting a far larger part of the population (2000). Increasing the availability of cancer screening programs for disadvantaged populations should be a high priority if the ultimate goal is to prevent worldwide HPV prevalence.
Male Vaccination
Other policies and health measures that would facilitate an overall HPV prevalence decrease are those directed specifically at males. If only women are vaccinated, statistics indicate that 75% of HPV cases caused by the four strains that the vaccine prevents would be prevented, whereas more than 90% of cases would be prevented if both males and females are vaccinated (Cook, 2008). These statistics suggest that vaccinating males would be a very effective preventative method in terms of decreasing HPV prevalence, but some researchers are concerned with the cost-effectiveness of male vaccination programs. Furthermore, until more research is conducted that links HPV to cancer in men, acceptance and advocacy of male vaccination is unlikely. Recent research conducted by Worden and colleagues (2008) shows a possible link between HPV and cancer of the tongue and tonsils in men. In their study, biopsies from 27 out of 42 (64.3%) oral cancer male and female patients tested positive for HPV16. Positive HPV16 results were associated with younger age (median, 55 v 63 years; p = .016), nonsmoking status (p = .037), and, most importantly, sex (22 of 30 males [73.3%] versus 5 of 12 females [41.7%]; p = .08). These results suggest that men with HPV infections have an increased risk for oral cancer. The team suggests that vaccinating both male and female adolescents should be considered because of the high risk of HPV associated cancers in men. Current estimates from the ACS report that HPV DNA is present in about one-third of oropharyngeal cancer cases and about one-half of tonsil cancer cases (ACS, 2010). Considering that men accounted for more than two- thirds (20,100) of the estimated 28,500 Americans who contracted oral cancer in 2009, HPV vaccines for males could prove to be a very effective preventative method (ACS, 2010). Other researchers are focusing on the effectiveness of HPV vaccination regarding the prevention of anal cancer in men (Lindsey, DeCristofaro, & James, 2009). The HPV quadrivalent vaccine Gardasil® may also prove to be effective 26 Public Health Impact of the HPV Vaccinations: A Research Update for preventing anal cancer because the same four strains (types 6, 11, 16, and 18) that are the most common precursors to the development of cervical cancer are also responsible for causing 80% of anal cancers (Lindsey et al., 2009). Therefore, anal cancer could become a vaccine-preventable disease if the HPV vaccine is effective for men (Lindsey et al., 2009). In a recent study of more than 4,000 males ages 16-26, sponsored by Merck & Co., Gardasil® was found to be 90.4% efficacious against HPV 6, 11, 16, and 18-related external genital lesions (EGL; Merck & Co, Inc., 2009). Proponents of male vaccination argue that it will also provide herd immunity which will ultimately significantly reduce the risk of cervical cancer in unvaccinated women (Nath & Thappa, 2009). Future research is needed to assess the causal role of HPV in various cancers as well as the potential beneficial outcomes associated with large-scale vaccination efforts in both male and female populations.
Efficacy
Efficacy analyses of the quadrivalent vaccine found that it was 98.2% (CI = 93.5% - 99.8%) effective in protecting against HPV 16- or 18-related CIN 2/3 or AIS and 96.0% (CI = 92.3% - 98.2%) effective in protecting against any CIN attributed to HPV 6, 11, 16 or 18 (FDA, 2010). Vaccine efficacy against HPV 6- and 11-related external genital warts was 99.0% (CI = 96.2% - 99.9%) and 100% (CI = 55.5 - 100.0) against HPV 16- or 18-related VIN 2/3. The bivalent vaccine Cervarix® has also been proven to be highly effective (Harper et al., 2006). After investigators conducted a combined analysis, the results revealed that vaccine efficacy was 100% (95% CI, 42.4% -100%) in preventing HPV16 or HPV18-related CIN in a study of women aged 15 to 25 years who received the recommended 3-dose vaccination regimen and participated in a 4.5 year (44 to 53 months) follow-up. In addition, other studies have found the bivalent HPV types 16, 18 vaccine to be more than 90% efficacious against incident infection, 100% efficacious against persistent infection and 90.4% to 100% efficacious against HPV types 16, 18-related CIN (Harper et al., 2004; Harper et al., 2006; Paavonen et al., 2007). Furthermore, research shows the vaccine has more than 98% seropositivity after 4.5 years and that cross-protection exists with the bivalent HPV types 16, 18 vaccine against incident infection with HPV types 45 and 31 (Harper et al., 2006).
Adverse Effects
The future of HPV vaccination programs lies within current and developing research studies. While research supporting the effectiveness of the vaccines is the primary focus, reports on adverse effects of the vaccines 27 The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College will also play an important role in whether overall acceptance from the general population, as well as from healthcare providers, increases or decreases. In studies assessing the Cervarix® vaccine, vaccine recipients reported more overall adverse events (injection site and systemic) when compared to placebo recipients (92% versus 88% respectively; Villa et al., 2005). Investigators of school-based vaccination programs in New South Wales have recently estimated the rate of post-Gardasil® vaccine anaphylaxis to be 2.6/ 100,000 doses administered (95% CI 1.0 - 5.3 per 100,000; Brotherton et al., 2008). In comparison, one case of anaphylaxis was identified in a 2003 meningococcal C vaccination program (anaphylaxis rate of 0.1/100,000 doses administered; 95% CI 0.003 -- 0.7). Overall research results revealed that the estimated rate of anaphylaxis following HPV vaccination was significantly higher than the rate following comparable school-based vaccination programs. Other research suggests that the immuno-stimulatory properties of the Gardasil® vaccine may influence the occurrence and severity of CNS demyelination in patients with known multiple sclerosis, however no direct conclusions have been made regarding recommendations for the immunization of these persons (Sutton, Lahoria, Tan, Clouston, & Barnett, 2009). Two post- vaccination cases of status epilepticus with myoclonus (repeated and prolonged seizures and loss of consciousness) in Spain have recently been reviewed by the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) and have been determined to be unlikely associated with the Gardasil® vaccine (European Medicines Agency [EMEA], 2009). The EMEA has also issued a report concerning the unexpected deaths of two females in the European Union (EU), stating that both occurred post-Gardasil® vaccination, but the causes of death could not be identified (EMEA, 2008). As of December 31, 2008, more than 23 million quadrivalent HPV doses had been distributed in the U.S. (Slade et al., 2009). Postlicensure data from the U.S. Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) for the 2.5 years following Gardasil® licensure has recently been released and analyzed. At the time of release, VAERS had received 12,424 reports of adverse events following immunization (AEFI) yielding a report rate of 53.9/100,000 doses. Reports were submitted by the following: manufacturer (68%), providers (17%), “others” (11%), patients or parents (4%), and state health clinics (1%). Due to insufficient information, 7,561 (89%) of the manufacturer reports could not be further reviewed. Gardasil® was the only vaccine identified in 80% of reports (9,910 of 12,424). Females accounted for 97% (12,039 of 12,424) of reports, and of the 47 reports on male vaccine recipients, 53% (25 of 47) were classified as unintentional and 36% (17 of 47) as off-label use. The majority (61%) of the 9,396 reports (77%) listing dose information occurred after the first dose with 25% reported after the second dose, 13% after the third dose, and 1% reported 28 Public Health Impact of the HPV Vaccinations: A Research Update after inadvertently receiving 4 or more doses. There was an average of 3.7 codes per report (range, 2--10; 46,932 codes for 12,424 reports) with the most frequently reported AEFIs including syncope (n = 1,847, 15%), dizziness (n = 1,763, 14%), nausea (n = 1,170, 9%), headache (n = 957, 8%), and injection site reactions (n = 926, 7.5%). Of the 32 total reports of death, 20 (62.5%) had information available to permit further evaluation. Seventy percent of cases (14 reports) were after quadrivalent HPV alone, and the mean age was 18 years (median, 17 years; range, 12-26 years); no clustering of age was determined. Causes of death were generally classified as the following: unexplained (4), diabetic ketoacidosis (2), prescription drug abuse (1), juvenile amyotropic lateral sclerosis (1), meningoencephalitis (1), influenza B viral sepsis (1), pulmonary embolism (3), cardiac-related deaths (6), and idiopathic seizure disorder (2). Although data suggests no major complications during pregnancy, the vaccines are not currently approved for pregnant women (Dawar, Dobson & Deeks, 2007). Data from 1,901 women who became pregnant during the Gardasil® trials indicates similar results of pregnancy related adverse effects among vaccine and placebo recipients (4.2% and 4.3%, respectively; Merck Frost Canada, Ltd., 2006). Persons concerned with the safety of the vaccine can be reassured by the CDC who continues to monitor vaccine-related side effects and currently maintains that the vaccination is safe and effective for the recommended populations (CDC, 2010c).
Future Directions
With the help of recent funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation along with the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Richard Schlegel, a primary researcher behind the development of Cervarix®, and his team now have $3.5 million to use towards the creation of a new vaccine that will be both preventative and therapeutic (Bloom, 2005). The team also plans to combat transportation issues with the current vaccine formula (which must be kept frozen) by developing a powder formula which can be easily transported to developing countries and reconstituted with water. Researchers estimate that the development of a more inclusive prophylactic vaccine could potentially lead to a 70% or more reduction of cervical cancer risk (Saslow et al., 2007). According to Saslow and colleagues (2007): Ultimately, cervical cancer rates will depend on (1) the degree of vaccination coverage of the at-risk population; (2) the number of carcinogenic HPV types targeted by the prophylactic vaccine; (3) the durability of protection; and (4) whether the medical community and
29 The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College
the public continue to follow recommended screening guidelines (p. 18). The possibility of continued protection from a HPV vaccine booster shot is being researched, but the reduction of HPV incidence will depend upon the percent of the population receiving the booster shot as well as the efficacy of the booster (Saslow et al., 2007). An assessment of the cost-effectiveness of Gardasil® by Kulasingam and colleagues (2008) estimated that the vaccination of 100,000 girls would result in a reduction of 400 cases of cervical cancer, 6,700 cases of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia, and 4,750 cases of genital warts, suggesting that the addition of HPV vaccine programs to current screening measures could prove to be a cost-effective way to aid in the reduction of cervical cancer rates. In addition, investigators at Stanford University estimated that if the Gardasil® vaccine were implemented nationally in the U.S. to all 12 year old girls, 1,340 cancer-related deaths could be prevented over the target population’s lifetime (Sanders & Taira, 2003). Researchers assessed factors such as lowered estimates of vaccine efficacy (40%) and potentially required reoccurring booster shots and concluded that the vaccine would be cost-effective even under these circumstances. According to Insinga, Glass, and Rush (2004), annual costs in 1998 for cervical HPV-related disease in the U.S. are estimated to total about $3.4 billion including the following expenditures (a) $2.1 billion for routine screening (b) $300 million for false positives (c) $600 million for treatment of cervical pre- cancerous conditions and (d) and $350 million for treatment of invasive cancer. Estimates indicated that this value had grown to $5 billion by 2005 (Insinga, 2006). In addition, HPV-related health care costs were greater for HPV than other sexually transmitted infections including Hepatitis B, genital herpes, and Chlamydia (Insinga et al., 2004). A recent assessment by the ACS indicated that about 30 women/day were diagnosed with cervical cancer in the United States in 2008 and the cost of cervical cancer screening and treatment is estimated to be as high as $6 billion/year in the U.S. (Saslow et al., 2007).
Conclusion
A systematic review of the available literature reveals that HPV and the accompanying vaccinations have significant public health implications in the U.S. and abroad. Additional research is needed to assess the epidemiological impact of large-scale vaccine implementation including the prevention of HPV-related illnesses as well as the potential negative effects associated with vaccination. As findings of ongoing empirical assessments become available,
30 Public Health Impact of the HPV Vaccinations: A Research Update additional HPV-related health policies will be needed to ensure that the best evidence-based public health practices are enacted.
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40 Crohn’s Disease: A Brief and Elementary Overview
Crohn’s Disease: A Brief and Elementary Overview
Dayne Sullivan Dr. Scott Butler Faculty Sponsor Introduction
Crohn’s disease (CD) is defined by chronic inflammation of an isolated portion of the gastrointestinal track (Longo & Fauci, 2010). Frequently, the site of inflammation is the proximal portion of the colon, or less commonly, the terminal ileum (Schilling-McCann, 2008). Other names for the disease frequently reported in medical literature and research include regional enteritis and granulomatous colitis. The specific etiology of CD is idiopathic but there are several widely accepted theories. Two of these theories are predominantly acknowledged throughout the medical community. According to the National Digestive Diseases Information Clearing House (NDDICH), a chronic autoimmune reaction to bacteria and specific nutrient ingestion is the most popular medical theory used to explain the condition (NDDICH, 2010). Tersigni and Prantera (2010) address another popular explanation, suggesting the etiology of inflammatory bowel diseases is a genetic predisposition to dysregulation of the gastrointestinal system. Various organizations and researchers have attempted to estimate the incidence and overall prevalence of CD resulting in a range of epidemiological estimates. In recent years, both the incidence and prevalence of CD have increased (Hyman, 2009; Loftus, Schoenfeld, & Sandborn, 2002; Neal, 2009). One investigation reported the incidence as rapidly increasing between the late 1950s and early 1970s and thereafter stabilizing at roughly seven cases/100,000 person-years (Loftus, Schoenfeld, & Sandborn, 2002). However, a recent report published by Digestive Disease Weekly cites a dramatic increase of 20.7% in the incidence during the last decade in European countries (Neal, 2009). Although there have not been extensive epidemiological studies in North America, many experts have cited it as a growing problem, linking it to many other disease of increasing incidence (Hyman, 2009). According to the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America (CCFA), the combined prevalence of CD and ulcerative colitis (a closely related disease) is currently 1.4 million in the U.S. (CCFA, 2009). The pharmaceutical company Nexcare Inc. (2003) estimates the prevalence of CD at 183.82/100,000 individuals, or 1 in every 544 citizens that live in the U.S. A national survey throughout random communities for Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS; almost an even split between ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s) reported a standardized prevalence rate of 8.1% for the population (Wilson, Roberts, Roalfe, Bridge, &
41 The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College
Singh, 2004). Overall, the estimates of CD may reflect the various sampling and reporting techniques used in the preceding epidemiological estimations.
Risk Factors
There is an abundance of literature addressing the possible risk factors that are strongly associated with CD (Braat, Peppelenbosch, & Hommes, 2006; Chitkara, van Tilburg, Blois-Martin, andWhitehead, 2008). While there is a mass of these potential variables, several have been sighted within the medical literature and appear to be the most commonly identified, including smoking, use of Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDS), and medication used for cystic acne (Isotretinoin). There is a general consensus among gastroenterologists that smoking is the most important modifiable risk factor for those at risk for developing CD (Katschinski, Logan, Edmond, & Langman, 1988). It has been shown that this behavior is not only detrimental to intestinal health through the inhalation of over 4,000 chemicals, but also increases the risk of colorectal surgery (Laghi et al., 2005). Several epidemiological studies have demonstrated that smoking cessation increases the likelihood of remission (Cosnes, Beaugerie, Carbonnel, & Gendre, 2001; Cosnes et al., 1999; Johnson, Cosnes, & Mansfield, 2005) with an even sharper increase in improvement after surgery (Reese et al., 2008). A study conducted by Somerville and colleagues (1984) indicated that although patients that smoked suffered from more severe symptoms, improvement and even remission was possible with smoking cessation. According to Evans and colleagues (1997), there is also a strong association between hospital admittance of patients with CD and the use of NSAIDS. Additional studies have indicated NSAIDS are not the only drugs that are documented to increase one’s risk of developing CD. Isotretinoin (Accutane©), a now frequently prescribed drug used to treat acne in teenagers and young adults has been associated with the diagnosis of CD and Irritable Bowel Syndrome (Crockett, Portal, Martin, Sandler, & Kappelman, 2010; Shale, Kaplan, Panaccione, & Ghosh, 2009). Many teenagers that were diagnosed with CD were shown to have taken Isotretinoin in recent years (Margolis, Fanelli, Hoffstad, & Lewis, 2010). Although a direct biochemical or physiological link has not yet been established, the relationship between CD and these medications is currently being investigated (Reddy, Siegel, Sands, & Kane, 2006). While tobacco and certain pharmaceutical drugs have been targeted as strong risk factors for the disease, additional genetic, cultural, and behavioral factors may also play a role. Age, ethnicity, and family history have all been identified as contributors to a individual’s risk (Gearry, Richardson, Frampton,
42 Crohn’s Disease: A Brief and Elementary Overview
Dodgshun, & Barclay, 2010). Findings from a study conducted by Polito and colleagues (1996) revealed that over 80% of those diagnosed with CD were 20 years old or younger; and 1 out of 5 of those diagnosed had a relative that is affected by the condition. While a causal relationship between CD and age has not been identified, further epidemiological studies are needed to assess their potential association.
Symptoms and Diagnostic Methods
Although CD can present in a variety of manners, the majority of cases exhibit symptoms of diarrhea, abdominal pain and cramping, blood in the fecal matter, ulcers, reduced appetite, and weight loss (Mayo Clinic, 2011). Less common symptoms observed include fever, fatigue, arthritis, inflammation of the eye, skin disorders, inflammation of the liver or bile ducts, and delayed growth or abnormal sexual development (Mayo Clinic, 2011). Individuals should seek medical attention and visit their primary care physician when they experience prolonged abdominal pain, observe blood in the stool following bowel movements, diarrhea lasting more than two days and is unresponsive to over-the-counter medications, or unexplained fever lasting more than 24 hours (Mayo Clinic, 2011). Most patients who have CD are unaware of it until a diagnosis has been made. Frequently, they will make an appointment with their primary care providers to discuss commonly reported digestive issues. If the provider renders the case as serious, the patient will be referred to a gastroenterologist. Only then, will endoscopy and colonoscopy be preformed in order to collect biopsy samples of the gastrointestinal tract. In most cases, they are taken from the colon, but they may be collected elsewhere, depending on where the physician believes the atypical cells are located in the body. The analysis of these samples is by far the most definitive way to diagnose the condition. According to Chandrasoma (1999): Histologic examination of endoscopic biopsy samples is the best method for establishing the diagnosis of IBD in a patient with symptoms of colitis. Features in the biopsy specimen permit accurate differentiation of acute self-limited colitis and IBD in the majority of cases (p.309). Chandrasoma (1999) reported that once biopsy samples have been collected, every effort is made by the pathologist to categorize the results as either CD or ulcerative colitis.
Susceptible Causes 43 The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College
The pathological components of CD have been intensely researched and a multitude of findings have been published on the subject. In spite of this, no definitive etiological process has been identified. There is some evidence that Escherichia coli may play a key role (Peeters, Joossens, & Vermeire, 2001), based upon a deficiency of defensins caused by a theoretical dysfunction of the NOD2/CARD15 gene (Fellermann, Wehkamp, Herrlinger, & Stange, 2003). This is supported by the presence of E. coli found within the ileal mucosa of CD patients (Darfeuille-Michaud et al., 2004). Furthermore, research conducted by Sasaki and colleagues (2007) documented growing strains of invasive E. coli cultures obtained from CD patients. During their investigation, all bacterial samples taken from CD patients were identified asE.coli regardless of the disease activity in a variety of tissues. A form of fungus that is conjectured as a cause of CD is Candida albicans (Nahas, 2011). A study published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology by Standaert-Vitse and colleagues (2009) reported a correlation between high levels of C. albicans and CD in 129 patients with a median age of 45 years. In addition, previous research has found that over half of patients who suffer from CD also exhibit higher levels of anti-S. cerevisiae antibodies (ASCAs; Peeters, Joossens, & Vermeire, 2001; Quinton, Sendid, & Reumaux, 1998). Standaert-Vitse and colleagues (2009) suggested that these abnormally high levels of ASCAs may be caused by C. albicans.
Treatment
While physicians from various medical philosophies agree upon the diagnosis criteria for CD, there is no consensus among practitioners regarding proper course of treatment; and divisions exist within both conventional and alternative approaches. If the pathogenesis is severe, many allopathic physicians recommend antibiotics for treatment of the abscesses and inflammation (Bressler, & Sands, 2006; Greenbloom, Steinhart, Greenberg, 1998). Others question this theory as antibiotics are known to irritate the gastrointestinal tract as well as diminish the number of colonies of bacteria that have been shown to be the basis of the human immune system (Levy, 2000). However, balance of gastrointestinal flora may be reestablished through supplementation of probiotics (Johnston, Supina, & Vohra, 2006). When the disease process appears to be stable, allopathic medicine suggests the prescription of either corticosteroids such as Budesonide (Entocort EC) or a form of mild chemotherapy such as Infliximab (Remicaid©; Benchimol, Seow, Otley, & Steinhart, 2009; Sands et al., 2004).
44 Crohn’s Disease: A Brief and Elementary Overview Conventional Treatment
The pathophysiological details of CD are not clear nor is there a definitive course of treatment leading to certain life-long remission. Due to this difficulty, the conventional treatment for CD is highly debated. Therefore allopathic practitioners utilize a variety of pharmacological therapeutic modalities, all of which seek remission in the patient for as long as possible (Lichtenstein, Hanauer, & Sandborn, 2009). Sellin and Pasrichia (2006) state: Medical therapy for Irritable Bowel Disease is problematic. Because no unique abnormality has been identified, current therapy seeks to dampen the generalized inflammatory response; however no agent can readily accomplish this, and the response of an individual patient to a given medicine may be limited and unpredictable (p. 1009). Following conventional allopathic medical philosophy, treatment is selected based upon the severity of the disease process at the time it is to be rendered (Akobeng, 2008; Clarke & Regueiro, 2009; Colombel, et al., 2010; Schwartz, Pemberton, & Sandborn, 2001). Patients experiencing mild symptoms are advised to take over-the-counter medications to manage symptoms, such as Loperamide for diarrhea, milk of magnesia for constipation, and iron supplements to treat deficiency caused by excessive bowel movements (Hanauer, 2008). For patients experiencing mild to moderate symptoms, there are several classes of pharmaceuticals that can be utilized to reduce the intensity of symptoms and/or promote induction of remission (Akobeng, 2008). Though there is much debate on the proper course of treatment, physicians typically select a medication based on the intensity of the symptoms. Commonly prescribed drug classifications include: aminosalicylates, antibiotics, corticosteroids, immunosuppressants, biologics, rifaximin, tacrolimus (Sellin & Pasricha, 2006). For those that experience mild to moderate symptoms, one of several medications may be prescribed. Mesalamine (5-aminosalicylic acid, 5-ASA) and sulfasalazine is generally used as the “first line of defense” for CD (Sellin & Pasricha, 2006). However, Sulfasalazine has not been shown to be efficacious in the maintenance of remission and more recently other 5-ASA preparations have been prescribed (Sellin & Pasricha, 2006). Two of these new preparations, Pentasa (mesalamine) and Asacol (mesalamine) have become popular in the gastrointestinal community due to their rate of admittance into remission (Lim & Hanauer, 2010). There is no clear benefit of continuing this type of therapy once patients enter remission. This causes their use as a maintenance drug to be controversial (Sellin & Pasricha, 2006).
45 The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College
Glucocorticoids and steroids may also be used as treatment for mild to moderate symptoms, depending on whether the case of CD is steroid-responsive, steroid-dependent, or steroid-unresponsive (Lemann et al., 2006). In ideal cases, steroid-responsive patients will show improvement within 1-2 weeks of treatment and remain in remission. Future steroid use is tapered off and eventually discontinued (Sellin & Pasricha, 2006). Patients classified as “steroid- dependent” respond to initial treatment administration yet their symptoms begin to reoccur after the treatment is tapered off or stopped. Approximately 40% of patients are steroid-responsive, 30% to 40% have only a partial response or become steroid-dependent, and 15% to 20% do not respond to steroid therapy at all (Sellin & Pasricha, 2006). Thiopurine derivatives are prescribed for patients who are experiencing moderate to severe symptoms of CD and are either steroid dependent or steroid resistant (Sellin & Pasricha, 2006). Mercaptopurine (6-MP), known on the market as Purinethol®, and Azathioprine, known commonly as Immuran are two of the most commonly used thiopurines for CD (Sellin & Pasricha, 2006). Both have been shown to be successful in inducing remission but are sometimes viewed as non-viable options due to the uncomfortable side effects experienced in some patients, such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and loss of appetite. In addition, thiopurines may take several weeks or months to induce therapeutic effects in patients making them the less desirable choice for acute symptoms or flare-ups (Sellin & Pasricha, 2006). Methotrexate, originally developed as an anti-cancer drug, was later recognized as an effective treatment for psoriasis and rheumatoid arthritis (Sellin & Pasricha, 2006). Since the 1990s, Methotrexate has also been shown to be useful in the treatment of CD, with current research still supporting this data (Chande, Abdelgadir, & Gregor, 2011; Feagan et al., 1995). It is also typically reserved for patients who are steroid-resistant or steroid-dependent (Sellin & Pasricha, 2006). Known for its ability to induce and maintain remission, it can be a desirable choice due to a patients’ quick response to its therapeutic properties (Alfadhli, McDonald, & Feagan, 2005). A relatively new form of biologics, anti-tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF- α) therapy, has become an extremely popular treatment option for CD in the last decade. TNF- α binds with a chimeric immunoglobin causing it to become neutralized (Panés et al., 2007). There are many different cytokines generated in the intestine of a patient suffering from CD but there is rationale suggesting TNF- α is one of the principal cytokines mediating the TH1 immune response, a primary immunological characteristic of the disease (Sellin & Pasricha, 2006). Infliximab (Remicaid©) is a relatively new pharmaceutical, and has been established as beneficial for CD patients. Two-thirds of patients with 46 Crohn’s Disease: A Brief and Elementary Overview moderate to severe cases indicate a decrease in the frequency of acute flares when treated with Infliximab (Sellin & Pasricha, 2006). Though its use as a long-term treatment has yet to be thoroughly ascertained, current research supports the medication’s efficacy in preventing the recurrence of fistulas and maintaining remission (Present et al., 1999; Schröder, Blumenstein, Schulte-Bockholt, & Stein, 2004). While it may seem like a panacea, there is also data that causes practitioners to heed caution due to adverse side effects, both acute and sub-acute. Some of the adverse effects include fever, chills, urticarial, anaphylaxis, and serum sickness (Sellin & Pasricha, 2006). Therapy with Infliximab has also been shown to increase the incidence of respiratory infections, reactivity of tuberculosis, and complications in patients with congestive heart failure (Sellin & Pasricha, 2006). In addition, it shares an association of increased incidence of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, as is the case with most immunosuppressants (Bebb & Logan, 2001; Lakatos & Miheller, 2010). More research is needed to fully understand the beneficial effects of medications used to reduce TNA-α. For example, Etaneracept have demonstrated limited efficacy. Furthermore, additional research is needed to explore potential methods to limit the side effects of medications that have been identified as beneficial for CD patients. Antibiotics may be used to treat CD for a number of reasons, including prophylaxis for recurrence in postoperative CD, treatment for a specific complication of CD, or adjunctive treatment along with other medications for active CD (Feller et al., 2010). The most frequently used antibiotics are Metronidazole, Ciprofloxacin, and Clarithromycin (Sellin & Pasricha, 2006). Each of these pharmaceutical substances are more beneficial for different types of cases in patients with the disease (Sellin & Pasricha, 2006). However, recent research has shown that prolonged use of antibiotics can disturb the balance of intra-intestinal bacteria flora, resulting in the worsening of the pathogenesis (Guarner & Malagelada, 2003). Probiotics supplements have demonstrated an efficacy to restore this balance by populating the intestines with the bacteria lost through prophylaxis with antibiotics (Cary & Boullata, 2010; Damaskos, & Kolios, 2008; D’Souza, Rajkumar, Cooke, & Bulpitt, 2002; Gionchetti et al., 2006; Guarner & Malagelada, 2003; Kanauchi, Mitsuyama, Araki, & Andoh, 2003; Kwon & Farrell, 2003; Quigley, & Quera, 2006; Sans, 2009; Sartor, 2004; Kruis, 2004). If the patient must be hospitalized in order for the disease to be suppressed, enteral nutrition is commonly advised (Tsujikawa, Andoh, & Fujiyama, 2003). A recent study conducted by the Department of Gastroenterology at Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine in Nagoya, Japan, reported a significant decrease in hospital admissions from complications in CD patients due to improvement through enteral nutrition targeting a specific 47 The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College caloric intake (Watanabe et al, 2010). Caution must be taken though, as it has long since been discovered that this can lead to a severe selenium deficiency if the treatment is maintained over a long period of time (van Rij, Thompson, McKenzie, & Robinson, 1979; Sikora, Spady, Prosser, & El-Matary, 2011). However, this deficiency can be corrected by selenium supplementation (Baker et al., 1983). Surgery is considered if the bowel becomes necrotic or if there is evidence of a perforation. Surgeons and gastrointestinal specialists concur that this must be viewed as a last resort, for the bowel does not regenerate and is very sensitive to invasive procedures. Because of this, all treatment options are usually exhausted before surgery is considered, excluding cases of extreme circumstances such as trauma or complete perforation (Peyrin-Biroulet et al., 2011; Slattery, Keegan, Hyland, O’donoghue, & Mulcahy, 2011).
Alternative Treatment
As research concerning the contributing factors of CD continues to develop, the involvement of diet and nutrition have been established as relevant components (Lucendo & De Rezende, 2009). A study in The European Journal of Clinical Nutrition found carbohydrate consumption to be much higher in CD patients than in comparative control groups (Geerling, Badart-Smook, Stockbrügger, & Brummer, 2000). There has been speculation that a diet primarily consisting of processed foods could be a risk factor for CD. There have been studies from as early as 31 years ago reporting increased intake of refined sugars in patients with CD (Mayberry, Rhodes, & Newcombe, 1980; Thornton, Emmett, & Heaton, 1979). Another study following patients placed on a dietary regimen of unrefined carbohydrates reported an 80% decrease in hospitalization when compared to a control group of patients without dietary guidelines (Heaton, Thornton, Emmett, 1979). Additional research not only supports the excess of refined sugars in the diet as a risk factor for CD, but a lack of raw fruits in vegetables in the diet as well (Thornton et al., 1979). Naturopathic physicians also advise nutrition for the treatment of CD, only they suggest nutrient rich foods such as fruits and dark green vegetables as well as orthomolecular doses of certain minerals including magnesium, selenium, and zinc (Rannem, Ladegoded, Hylander, Hegnhoj, & Jarnum, 1992). Nutritional therapy can be very useful in the treatment of CD, especially in the case of children. It has been cited as a successful treatment in the control of inflammation and mucosal healing, exhibiting positive benefits to growth and overall nutritional status with minimal adverse effects (Hartman, Eliakim, & Shamir, 2009). Recently published research reveals the advantages of elemental diet as a maintenance treatment for CD (Takagi et al., 2006). This has been 48 Crohn’s Disease: A Brief and Elementary Overview shown to be beneficial in lowering the rate of relapse in patients, as well as provide an alternative for those that cannot tolerate pharmaceuticals such as thiopurines (Takagi et al., 2006). Research by Rajendran and Kumar (2010) demonstrates successful remission in patients with CD by eliminating foods causing unwanted reactions from the diet. They hypothesize that remission may be achievable through this method entirely, without reliance upon pharmacological aids.
Conclusion
There is still no known cure for CD, although there are several treatment theories available for the condition. Comparatively, we know very little about CD versus other chronic diseases. Because of this, future research is needed to understand the etiological factors, treatment options, and preventive approaches to the disease. This includes biomedical research and investigations concerning not only the pathophysiology on a molecular and cellular level, but also a holistic approach to treatment. Through research, we have seen that allopathic treatment can help patients gain remission quickly, but soon after patients fail to maintain this status. Moving forward, holistic practitioners continue to question the possible treatment options through rigid medical nutrition therapy, as well as herbalism and naturopathic medicine. As the prevalence of CD increases, it has become more evident that future research is needed to create efficacious treatment options, eventually resulting in a cure.
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Quinton J.F., Sendid B., Reumaux D.,Duthilleul, P., Cortot, A., Grandbastien, B., …Poulain, D. (1998). Anti-Saccharomyces cerevisiae mannan antibodies combined with antineutrophil cytoplasmic autoanti- bodies in inflammatory bowel disease: prevalence and diagnostic role.Gut, 42, 788–91.
Rajendran, N., & Kumar, D. (2010). Role of diet in the management of inflammatory bowel disease.World Journal of Gastroenterology, 16, 1442-1448.
Rannem, T., Ladefoged, K., Hylander, E., Hegnhoj, J., & Jarnum, S. (1992). Selenium status in patients with Crohn’s disease. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 56, 933-937.
Reddy, D., Siegel, C.A., Sands, B.E., & Kane, Su. (2006). Possible association between isotretinoin and inflammatory bowel disease.The American Journal of Gastroenterology, 101, 1569-1573.
Reese, G., Nanidis, T., Borysiewicz, C., Yamamoto, T., Orchard, T., & Tekkis, P. (2008). The effect of smoking after surgery for Crohn’s disease: a meta-analysis of observational studies. International Journal of Colorectal Disease, 23, 1213-1221.
Sans, M. (2009). Probiotics for inflammatory bowel disease: a critical appraisal. Digestive Diseases (Basel, Switzerland), 27 Suppl 1111-114.
Sands, B., Anderson, F., Bernstein, C., Chey, W., Feagan, B., Fedorak, R., & ... van Deventer, S. (2004). Infliximab maintenance therapy for fistulizing Crohn’s disease. The New England Journal of Medicine, 350, 876-885.
Sartor, R.B. (2004). Therapeutic manipulation of the enteric microflora in inflammatory bowel diseases: antibiotics, probiotics, and prebiotics. Gastroenterology, 126, 1620-1633.
Sasaki, M., Sitaraman, S., Babbin, B., Gerner-Smidt, P., Ribot, E., Garrett, N., & ... Klapproth, J. (2007). Invasive Escherichia coli are a feature of Crohn’s disease. Laboratory Investigation; A Journal Of Technical Methods And Pathology, 87, 1042-1054. 56 Crohn’s Disease: A Brief and Elementary Overview
Schilling-McCann, J. A. (2008). Professional guide to diseases. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Schröder, O., Blumenstein, I., Schulte-Bockholt, A., & Stein, J. (2004). Combining infliximab and methotrexate in fistulizing Crohn’s disease resistant or intolerant to azathioprine. Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics, 19, 295-301.
Schwartz, D.A., Pemberton, J.H., & Sandborn, W.J. (2001). Diagnosis and treatment of perianal fistulas in Crohn disease.Annals of Internal Medicine, 135, 906-918.
Sellin, J.H. & Pasricha, P.J. (2006). Pharmacotherapy of Inflammatory Bowel Disease. In Brunton, L.L., Lazo, J.S., & Parker, K.L. (11), The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics (1009-1019). The McGraw-Hill Companies.
Shale, M., Kaplan, G.G., Panaccione, R., & Ghosh, S. (2009). Isotretinoin and intestinal inflammation: what gastroenterologists need to know. Gut, 58, 737-741.
Sikora, S., Spady, D., Prosser, C., & El-Matary, W. (2011). Trace elements and vitamins at diagnosis in pediatric-onset inflammatory bowel disease. Clinical Pediatrics, 50, 488-492.
Slattery, E., Keegan, D., Hyland, J., O’donoghue, D., & Mulcahy, H. (2011). Surgery, Crohn’s disease, and the biological era: has there been an impact? Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology, 45, 691-693.
Somerville, K.W., Logan, R.F., Edmond, M., & Langman, M.J.S. (1984). Smoking and Crohn’s disease. Journal of the British Society of Gastroenterology, 289, 954-956.
Standaert-Vitse, A., Sendid, B., Joossens, M., François, N., Vandewalle-El Khoury, P., Branche, J., & ... Colombel, J. (2009). Candida albicans colonization and ASCA in familial Crohn’s disease.The American Journal Of Gastroenterology, 104, 1745-1753.
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Takagi, S., Utsunomiya, K., Kuriyama, S., Yokoyama, H., Takahashi, S., Iwabuchi, M., & ... Shimosegawa, T. (2006). Effectiveness of an ‘half elemental diet’ as maintenance therapy for Crohn’s disease: A randomized-controlled trial. Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics, 24, 1333-1340.
Tersigni, R., & Prantera, C. (2010). Crohn’s disease: a multiplinary approach. New York: Springer.
Thornton, J., Emmett, P., & Heaton, K. (1979). Diet and Crohn’s disease: characteristics of the pre-illness diet. British Medical Journal, 2, 762-764
Tsujikawa, T., Andoh, A., & Fujiyama, Y. (2003). Enteral and parenteral nutrition therapy for Crohn’s disease. Current Pharmaceutical Design, 9, 323-332.
Van Rij, A.M., Thompson, C.D., McKenzie, J.M., & Robinson, M.F. (1979). Selenium deficiency in total parenteral nutrition.The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 32, 2076-2085.
Watanabe, O., Ando, T., Ishiguro, K., Takahashi, H., Ishikawa, D., Miyake, N., & ... Goto, H. (2010). Enteral nutrition decreases hospitalization rate in patients with Crohn’s disease. Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, 25 Suppl 1S134-S137.
Wilson, S., Roberts, L., Roalfe, A., Bridge, P., & Singh, S. (2004). Prevalence of irritable bowel syndrome: a community survey. British Journal of General Practice, 54, 495-502.
58 Inorganic Chemistry
Inorganic Chemistry
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Transmetallation of a Lithium Porphyrin with Iron(II) Kidus Debesai Rosalie A. Richards, PhD Faculty Sponsor
Abstract: Synthesis and characterization of the iron(III) derivative of the 2,3,7,8,12,13,17,18-octabromo-meso-tetrakis(N-methylpyridium-4-yl)porphyrin was accomplished via metal metathesis of the lithium porphyrin and iron(II) ion. Preliminary molecular orbital analysis of the iron(II) and iron(III) derivatives demonstrate that the iron(III) porphyrin exists at a lower energy state.
INTRODUCTION Porphyrins have been considered among the most important molecules and have been studied extensively because of their major role in oxygen transport (heme), photosynthesis in plants (chlorophyll), and their oxidation and reduction capabilities in biological systems.1 Figure 1 below represents the simplest structure of a porphyrin, porphine. Porphyrins are cyclic organic compounds with four pyrrole rings. The structure and function of porphyrins can be changed by replacing the beta and gamma carbons with various substituents and replacing the core protons with metal ions. �
�
N HN �
NH N
Figure 1. Structure of the simplest porphyrin, porphine
Since iron porphyrin plays a central role in biological systems, the study of iron porphyrin has been a major component of porphyrin investigations.2 Aside from their function as heme, iron porphyrins have been implicated in several medicinal applications such as the photodynamic therapy (PDT) of cancers.3 Scheme 1 shows the first process of photosensitization.
60 Transmetallation of a Lithium Porphyrin with Iron(II)
Scheme 1: PDT sensitization (vibrational levels omitted) In the presence of light, some porphyrins excite ground state triplet state (3O2) 1 oxygen to the excited state, singlet state ( O2). Singlet state oxygen is highly toxic and has the potential to destroy the cancer cells or tumors by reacting irreversibly with cellular bodies. This approach shows much promise in the non- invasive treatment of cancer. However, for PDT to be effective, photosensitizers must absorb light at wavelengths that can penetrate target tissue (> 630 nm) and efficiently transfer energy to the dioxygen agent.3
MOTIVATION We recently reported on the synthesis of a novel gadolinium(III) porphyrin for application as an contrast agent for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and as a PDT agent.4 We have extended our studies to the iron(III) porphyrin derivative since iron porphyrin complexes could provide the optimal conditions required as a photosensitizer including (a) low cytotoxicity; (b) selectivity for tumor cells; (c) light absorption at long wavelengths; (d) ability to photosensitize triplet oxygen to the singlet species; (d) robustness in the presence of the reactive singlet oxygen species; (e) oxygen aqueous solubility in injectable fluids; and (f) ease of synthesis.5
MATERIALS AND METHODS meso-tetrakis(N-methylpyridium-4-yl)porphyrin 4-toluenesulphonate
(H2TMPyPTos) was purchased from Frontier Scientific, Inc. Bromine (Br2), dimethylformamide [(CH3)2NCHO], copper(II) acetate (Cu(OAc)2.2H2O), iron(II) chloride (FeCl2), 2-propanol, methanol, ammonium hexafluorophosphate
(NH4PF6), diethyl ether, lithium hexafluorophosphate (LiPF6), sodium hydroxide
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(NaOH), n-butylammonium chloride (nBu4Cl), and acetone [(CH3)2CO)]. All other reagents were purchased from Sigma Aldrich and used without further purification. Absorption spectroscopy was performed on a Shimadzu UV-2401PC. Molecular orbital diagram modeling was conducted using the Amsterdam Density Functional Software program (ADF 2010) by Scientific Computing and Modeling.
EXPERIMENTAL 4+ Synthesis of H2TMPyPBr8(PF6)4: The starting material, H2TMPyP , was characterized by absorbance spectroscopy and showed an absorbance spectrum that was diagnostic of porphyrin (Figure 1). The octabrominated freebase 4+ porphyrin, H2TMPyPBr8 , was prepared as the PF6- salt via bromination of the copper derivative using a procedure reported by Richards et al.6
423 nm
4+ Figure 1. Absorption spectrum of H2TMPyP at pH 7
First, CuTMPyP4+ was synthesized by mixing 0.252 g H2TMPyP4+ and 0.251 g Cu(OAc)2.2H2O in a 27 mL methanol:water solution (25:2.5 v/v). The rust- brown mixture was heated to ~50oC for 1 hr and the crude copper(II) porphyrin derivative was isolated by removing the solvent via simple distillation (Scheme 2). Then, the solid was washed with small aliquots of 2-propanol (total 7.5 mL) and the brown solid was collected.
62 Transmetallation of a Lithium Porphyrin with Iron(II)
Scheme 2: Insertion of Cu2+ ions
The absorption spectrum was consistent with formation of the Cu(II) complex (Figure 2).
426 nm
4+ Figure 2. UV-Vis spectrum of CuTMPyP in H2O
A bromine solution (0.5 mL in a 10 ml DMF) was added drop-wise for 30 minutes at room temperature to 10 mL DMF containing 0.159 g of the copper porphyrin. The solution turned green upon addition of bromine and was stirred for 12 h to ensure completion of reaction. The reaction was quenched by addition of 30 mL water. A green precipitate was collected by suction filtration, washed with water (3 aliquots of 5 mL each) and air-dried (Scheme 3).
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Scheme 3: Bromination of β-pyrrole carbons
The absorbance spectrum shifted from 425 nm to 456 nm, indicating that octabromination had occurred (Figure 3).
456 nm
Figure 3. Absorption spectrum of CuTMPyPBr84+ at pH 7
4+ The free-base octabrominated porphyrin, H2TMPyPBr8 , was synthesized by demetallating the Cu(II) complex. Exactly 0.221 g CuTMPyPBr84+ was added slowly to 7.5 mL of concentrated sulfuric acid cooled to 10oC. The solution turned orangish-gold immediately. The solution was stirred for 2 hr and poured over ~100 g of ice. After all the ice had melted, excess NH4PF6 (~3.5 g) was added and green tinsel-like crystals precipitated. The solid was washed with 20 mL of diethylether/propanol (1:1 v/v) solution and dried overnight (Scheme 4).
64 Transmetallation of a Lithium Porphyrin with Iron(II)
Scheme 4: Demetallation of Cu2+ ions The Soret band shifted from 456 nm to 497 nm (Figure 5).
497 nm
5+ Figure 4. Absorption spectrum of H3TMPyPBr8 at pH 7
3+ Synthesis of LiTMPyPBr8 : To prepare the lithium porphyrin derivative, the 5+ free-base H3TMPyPBr8 was deprotonated in 0.1M NaOH and excess LiPF6 was added. The solution turned pink and eventually dark brown precipitate appeared. The precipitate was collected by suction filtration. To increase the water-solubility of the lithium complex, the solid was dissolved in acetone (5 mL) and excess nBu4Cl was added to the solution. A red precipitate formed immediately and was collected by suction filtration Scheme( 5).
65 The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College
3+ Scheme 5: Synthesis of LiTMPyPBr8 Absorption spectroscopy revealed a Soret band at 532 nm, consistent with previous findings.
532 nm
3+ Figure 5. Absorption spectrum of LiTMPyPBr8 in 0.1M NaOH
3+ Approximately 1 mg of the chloride salt of LiTMPyPBr8 was dissolved in water at pH 7 solution and excess FeCl2 was added. The solution changed color from pink to rust-red. The absorption spectrum showed two distinct peaks in the Soret region (Figure 6).
66 Transmetallation of a Lithium Porphyrin with Iron(II)
455 nm 480 nm m
480 nm 480 nm m
3+ Figure 6. Absorption spectrum of reaction between LiTMPyPBr8 and Fe(III) ion (pH 7)
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The following table shows the porphyrin derivatives synthesized and their spectral data. Table 1. Absorbance Data for Porphyrin Derivatives
Porphyrin Derivative λmax (nm) Solvent 4+ H2TMPyP 423 pH 7 CuTMPyP4+ 426, 597 pH 7 4+ CuTMPyPBr8 456, 597 pH 7 5+ H3TMPyPBr8 497, 640, 730 pH 7 3+ LiTMPyPBr8 537, 730 1 M NaOH 5+ FeTMPyPBr8 455, 470 pH 7
Absorbance data confirmed were consistent with literature for the synthesis of the freebase porphyrin and revealed bathochromic shifts of the Soret band upon bromination by about 9 nm per bromine atom.6.ibid Synthesis of the lithium porphyrin complex was accomplished via the deprotonated porphyrin species, 2+ TMPyPBr8 , in aqueous base.
Subsequent addition of the iron(II) ion in aqueous solution resulted in two Soret peaks at 455 nm and 480 nm. While the peak at 455 nm is likely due to
67 The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College the axially-ligated bis-aquo Fe(III) porphyrin derivative, the absorbance at 480 nm could be explained by the formation of the mono-hydroxo/aquo Fe(III) porphyrin complex in an equilibrium mixture at pH 7. This is supported by 5+ other experiments in our labs.7 When the H3TMPyPBr8 is mixed with Fe(II) acetate under nitrogen, a black solid formed. Dry acetone solutions of the product revealed a single Soret band at 470 nm. On exposure of the solution to air, the color immediately changed from black to green with a single Soret band at 455 nm, suggesting that oxidation of the metal ion had occurred. In addition, analysis of pH-dependent cyclic voltammetry of the iron(III) complex, 5+ FeTMPyPBr8 , gave a pKa of 6.5 for the axially-ligated aquo-species (Equation 1).
5+ 5+ + (H2O)2FeTMPyPBr8 = (OH)(H2O)FeTMPyPBr8 + H (1)
Therefore, at pH 7, mono-hydroxo/aquo Fe(III) porphyrin complex would be the predominant solution species. Cyclic voltammetry was confounded above pH 8, presumably due to formation of demetallation of the iron ion from 5+ FeTMPyPBr8 and formation of Fe(OH)4- species. Density Function Analysis: ADF 2010 was used to construct molecular orbital diagrams for both Fe(II) and Fe(III) porphyrins as illustrated in Figure 7. Preliminary results of energetic studies of Fe(II) and Fe(III) porphyrin via ADF 2010 predicted that Fe(III) porphyrin complex is more stable than the Fe(II) derivative.
Fe(II)P Fe(III)P
Figure 7. Molecular orbital diagrams for Fe(II) and Fe(III) derivatives of 5+ H3TMPyPBr8
Table 2 shows that the triplet state of the Fe(II)P and the quadruplet state of the Fe(III)P are the most stable forms of the metalloporphyrin complexes. These 68 Transmetallation of a Lithium Porphyrin with Iron(II) results are preliminary and further studies are currently underway.
Table 2. Energetics of Fe(II) and Fe(III) porphyrins Porphyrin Moiety Electronic State Energy (kcal/mol) Fe(II)P singlet do not converge triplet -12415.4953 quintuplet -12406.1834 Fe(III)P doublet do not converge quadruplet -12052.5869 Sextuplet -12074.3291
CONCLUSIONS AND OUTLOOK The metal metathesis reaction between the lithium porphyrin and iron(II) allowed for the synthesis of the Fe(III) species. Further characterization is required via NMR, elemental analysis, and Mossbauer. Scale up of the 3+ LiTMPyPBr8 provides opportunities to prepare not only the Fe(III) porphyrin complex but other transition metal ions under ambient conditions. Preliminary findings in this work provides the foundation for synthesizing a library of transition metal and lanthanide porphyrin derivatives.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS K.D. gratefully acknowledges the Georgia College Chemistry Scholars Program for the four-year research award, the Georgia College Science Education Center for funding materials required for accomplishing this project, and Jeffrey Ivie for assistance with the ADF data. R.A.R. gratefully acknowledges the Faculty Research Awards furnished by Georgia College to support this project.
REFERENCES 1. Gouterman, M.; J. Molec. Spectrosc. 1961, 6, 138 2. Tabata, M.; Nishimoto J.; Kusano T.; J. Incl. Phenom. Molec. Recognit. Chem. 1998, 46, 703. 3. MacDonald, I. J.; Dougherty, J. J. Porph. Phthal. 2001, 5, 105. 4. Owens, J. H.; Richards, R. A. The Corinthian. The Journal of Student Research at GCSU, 2009¸ 10, 407-420 5. Sternberg, E. D.; Dolphin, D.; Brickner, C. Tetrahedron, 1998, 54, 4151-4202 6. Richards, R.; Hammons, K.; Joe, M.; Miskelly, G.; Inorg. Chem. 1996, 35, 1940 7. Unpublished results.
69 The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College
Progress Towards A Facile Synthesis of a Gadolinium (III) Octabrominated Porphyrin
Tseng Xiong Dr. Rosalie Richards Faculty Sponsor
Abstract Towards preparing porphyrin complexes that combine contrast agent and photodynamic therapy capabilities at tumor sites, the Gd(III) porphyrin derivative of the octabrominated meso-tetrakis(N-methyl-4-pyridyl)porphyrin, 5+ 5+ GdTMPyPBr8 was synthesized by refluxing Gd(III) ion with 3H TMPyPBr8 at pH 7. The metallocomplex was characterized by UV-visible spectroscopy and showed a Soret band shift from 503 nm to 463 nm at pH 7, suggesting that metal insertion of Gd(III) into the core of porphyrin ligand had occurred. However, synthesis of the Gd(III) complex required high temperatures and long reaction times. To circumvent these harsh conditions, the lithium porphyrin derivative was first prepared and subsequently combined with Gd(III) ion to yield the desired product at room temperature.
INTRODUCTION Cancer is the number two killer in the U.S. just after heart disease. Recent statistics show that 1 in 4 deaths in the United States are due to cancer.1 Current treatments for cancer and harmful tumors include chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery. However, these treatments are invasive in nature and may produce a number of negative side effects. Photodynamic therapy (PDT), a relatively new mode for cancer treatment, combines a light source and a photosensitizing agent to destroy targeted cells through a photodynamic effect. The photosensitizer is an organic compound that is activated when exposed to light as demonstrated in Figure 1.2
Photodynamic Therapy Figure 1 shows that exposure of the photosensitizer to light of appropriate wavelengths causes energy transitions from the electronic ground state (So) to excited singlet energy states (S1, etc). The fate of this excited energy depends on the photosensitizer - energy can be emitted as fluorescence (kf) and in some cases, intersystem crossing (ISC) to triplet excited energy states can result in phosphorescence (kp). The goal of PDT is for the transfer of excitation energy to 1 molecules such as oxygen to form singlet oxygen ( O2) or other reactive species (•O2-) that are cytotoxic to cancer and tumor cells.2
70 Progress Towards A Facile Synthesis of a Gadolinium (III)
Figure 1. Photosensitization of oxygen represented as a Jablonski diagram
The photosensitizing agent in PDT is a critical component of the treatment. Consequently, porphyrins are currently under intense investigation as photosensitizing agents.
Porphyrins and Photodynamic Therapy Porphyrins are cyclic organic compounds that possess four alternating pyrrole rings and two acidic core protons.3 From a structural perspective, porphyrins are derived from the parent porphyrin “porphine” that is comprised of four alternating pyrrole rings with four methane bridges (Figure 2). Porphyrins consist of 22 π-electrons and 18 contribute to the aromatic system. Porphyrins are highly conjugated systems that strongly absorb visible light. These aromatic macrocyles exhibit a diagnostic optical spectrum due to π-π* transitions. At approximately 400 nm, porphyrins exhibit an intense Soret band (extinction coefficients ~ 105 cm-1M-1) and less intense Q-bands between 500 and 700 nm. A key characteristic of porphryin is that the conjugated structure allows for substitution at the β- and γ-carbons. In addition, metalloporphyrins can be prepared by substitution of metal ions for porphyrin’s core protons.
71 The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College
Figure 2. Porphine structure
Our interest in porphryins centers on their application as contrast agents in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and their potential as photosensitizers in the photodynamic therapy of tumor and cancer cells. Porphyrins absorb visible light strongly and at long wavelengths (> 600 nm) necessary for penetration of photons through deep tissue, they have demonstrated selective accumulation in tumors, low level or dark toxicity, and general lack of severe side effects and disfigurement of patients.4 At the same time, Photofrin®, the first porphyrin- based PDT treatment to win approval in the U.S., Canada, Japan, and Europe, has one major limitation – it accumulates in the skin for up to six weeks, rendering patients photosensitive especially to strong sunlight.5 Plus, the longest wavelength at which Photofrin® can be photo-activated is 630 nm which is within the general absorption profile of hemoglobin, an abundant pigment in blood. This limits Photofrin’s® therapeutic application.
Porphyrins and Magnetic Resonance Imaging Gadolinium(III) Contrast Agents At present, four non-porphyrinic gadolinium(III) MRI contrast agents have been approved for clinical use since the gadolinium(III) ion provides high quality enhancement of internal images in the human body.6 However, Gd(III) contrast agents have been linked to negative health issues such as Nephrogenic Systemic Fibrosis, a rare disease that causes hardening of skin, joints, eyes, and internal organs.7 Recent studies suggest that Zn(II), Cu(II), and Ca(II) ions in vivo compete for the binding site of the organic ligand to which the Gd(III) ion is bound via a transmetallation reaction that releases the acutely toxic lanthanide ion.8 However, other reports demonstrate stability of the metal ion in other porphyrin-based ligands.9
MOTIVATION We recently reported10 the synthesis of the Gd(III) derivative of a novel 72 Progress Towards A Facile Synthesis of a Gadolinium (III) octabrominated water-soluble porphyrin, 2,3,7,8,11,12,17,18-octabromo- 5+ meso-tetrakis(N-methyl-4-pyridyl)porphyrin, H3TMPyPBr8 because of our interest in combining the tumor accumulation and photosensitizing properties of porphyrins with the contrast agent enhancement capability of Gd(III) ions. 5+ While most porphyrins are near planar, the H3TMPyPBr8 exhibited a saddle- shaped structure with a core that appears large enough to form a stable complex with the large ionic radius of the Gd(III) ion (~108 pm). Although we have 5+ successfully synthesized the GdTMPyPBr8 complex, reaction at pH 7 required long reflux times (100oC, > 24 h) (equation 1), reducing the cost-effectiveness of the product. 5+ 3+ 5+ + H3TMPyPBr8 + Gd = GdTMPyPBr8 + 3 H (1) Arnold and others10 have demonstrated the ease of synthesizing lanthanide porphyrin complexes by reaction between lithium porphyrins and lanthanide ions such as ytterbium(III) ions (equation 2). However, manipulation of these materials required air-sensitive environments. 3+ - + 2 Li2P + Yb = YbP2 + 4 Li (2) 3+ We were the first to show that a stable mono-lithium complex, LiTMPyBr8 , could exist in aqueous basic media (equation 3).11 5+ + 3+ + + H3TMPyPBr8 + 2 Li = (LiTMPyPBr8 ) Li + 3 H (3) Therefore, transmetallation of the lithium complex should provide a pathway for the preparation of the Gd(III) porphyrin complex at room temperature (equation 4). 3+ 3+ 5+ + LiTMPyPBr8 + Gd = GdTMPyPBr8 + Li (4) To enhance this reactivity in aqueous and nonaqueous solutions, we recently isolated the air-stable lithium ion porphyrin complex as a red solid at room temperature via metathesis of lithium hexafluorophosphate and the free base octabromoporphyrin.
MATERIALS AND METHODS 5+ 5+ Synthesis of GdTMPyPBr8 was achieved via reaction of H3TMPyPBr8 and Gd (III) ion using the methods of Richards et al.10 The reaction progress was monitored by UV-visible spectroscopy using a Shimadzu UV2401PC 4+ spectrophotometer. meso-Tetrakis(N-methyl-4-pyridyl)porphyrin, H2TMPyP , was purchased as the 4-toluenesulfonate (OTs-) salt from Frontier Scientific,
Inc. Ammonium hexafluorophosphate (NH4PF6), lithium hexafluorophosphate
(LiPF6), bromine (Br2), dimethylformamide (DMF), gadolinium(III) chloride
(GdCl3) and acetate (GdOAc3), and tetrabutylammonium chloride (NBu4Cl) were purchased from Sigma Aldrich. All other reagents, including metal salts, were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich and used without further modification.
5+ Synthesis of H3TMPyPBr8 73 The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College
4+ To 0.239 g (0.175 mmol) of H2TMPyP was added an equimolar quantity of cupric acetate (Cu(CH3COO)2; 0.0401 g) in 20 mL of methanol. The solution was refluxed for 2 hrs resulting in an initial color change of the solution from purple to dark red (Scheme 1). The mixture was cooled and the solvent removed via distillation. The red solid was collected by suction filtration and air-dried without further purification.
Scheme 1. Synthesis of CuTMPyP4+
The reaction was monitored by UV-visible spectroscopy (Figure 3).
425 nm
Figure 3. Absorption spectrum of CuTMPyP4+ (pH 7) Next, approximately 0.35 g of the product was dissolved in 25 mL DMF. While stirring, 12 mL of Br2 solution (1 mL Br2 in 11 mL DMF) was added drop-wise over a time span of 30 minutes. Upon exposure to Br2, the solution slowly transitioned from a red solution to a dark green solution and was allowed to stir for an additional 24 hrs as shown in Scheme 2.
74 Progress Towards A Facile Synthesis of a Gadolinium (III)
Scheme 2. Bromination of CuTMPyP4+ The resulting solution was vacuum filtered, resulting in a green powder that was air-dried. The product was characterized via UV-Vis spectroscopy (Figure 4).
457 nm
4+ Figure 4. Absorption spectrum of CuTMPyPBr8 (pH 7)
4+ The resulting CuTMPyPBr8 was dissolved in 10 mL of concentrated sulfuric acid to demetallate the Cu(II) ion. The solution changed to a dark brown color and red vapors were evident. After stirring for 30 min, approximately 50 mL of ice was poured into the solution and allowed to stir gently. Once the ice started to melt, excess NH4PF6 was added resulting in the formation of a precipitate (Scheme 3). Suction filtration produced a black-brown solid that was washed several times with deionized water and allowed to air-dry overnight.
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5+ Scheme 3. Demetallation of Cu(II) ion to prepare H3TMPyPBr8 The product was observed by absorption spectroscopy (Figure 5).
503 nm
5+ Figure 5. Absorption spectrum of H3TMPyPBr8 (pH 7)
5+ Synthesis of GdTMPyPBr8 5+ To 0.352 g of H3TMPyPBr8 was added an equimolar GdCl3 (0.0103g) in 15 mL of water at pH 7. The reaction was refluxed for 24 h and the solution color changed from a black-brown solution to a dark green solution (Scheme 4) as previously reported.
76 Progress Towards A Facile Synthesis of a Gadolinium (III)
5+ Scheme 4. Synthesis of GdTMPyPBr8 The solution was filtered via suction filtration and the solid was collected and air dried. The absorption spectrum is shown in Figure 6.
463 nm
5+ Figure 6. Absorption spectrum of target molecule, GdTMPyPBr8 (pH 7)
5+ 3+ Synthesis of GdTMPyPBr8 via LiTMPyPBr8 3+ The LiTMPyPBr8 was prepared via metathesis of the deprotonated freebase 2+ porphyrin, TMPyPBr8 , with lithium ion in basic solution. To a clean glass vial charged with 5 mL of 0.1M NaOH (pH 11) was added approximately 1 mg of 5+ the chloride salt of H3TMPyPBr8 forming a purple solution (Scheme 5).
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0.1 M NaOH
H3TMPyPBr85+ TMPyPBr82+ λmax 503 nm λmax 579 nm
Scheme 5. Synthesis of the deprotonated free base porphyrin at pH 11.
3+ - Thereafter, the LiTMPyPBr8 complex was prepared and isolated as the PF6 salt using two different routes. (1) Excess LiCl was added to the basic solution 2+ of the TMPyPBr8 followed by addition of excess NH4PF6. The solution color immediately changed from purple to red. Formation of the red precipitate was slow (~ 1 h). The solid was collected by passing the mixture through a glass pipette plugged with glass wool and air-dried (2). To the basic solution of the 2+ TMPyPBr8 in 0.1M NaOH was added excess LiPF6. A red solution formed followed immediately by a precipitate. The solid was collected using a glass - pipette filtration system and air-dried. The resulting PF6 salt was then dissolved in acetone by passing 1 mL aliquots of solvent through the glass-wool charged with dried porphyrin. The solution was collected in a glass vial (~ 5 mL) and transformed to the chloride salt by addition of excess nBu4Cl. The resulting precipitate was collected using the glass pipette filtration and air-dried (Scheme 6).
3+ Scheme 6. Synthesis of LiTMPyPBr8 under ambient conditions
3+ The absorption spectrum of the LiTMPyPBr8 is shown in Figure 7. 78 Progress Towards A Facile Synthesis of a Gadolinium (III)
530 nm
Figure 7. Absorption spectra of Li+ porphyrin derivative (pH 11)
3+ Approximately 2 mg of LiTMPyPBr8 in 1 mL of pH 7 solution was added to an aqueous solution of GdCl3 at room temperature. The mixture immediately changed from red to yellow-green. Addition of excess NH4PF6 formed a green precipitate that was collected using the glass pipette filtration system.The solid was air-dried (Scheme 7).
3+ Scheme 7. Reaction between Gd(III) ion and LiTMPyPBr8
The absorbance showed a Soret band at 455 nm (Figure 8).
79 The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College
455 nm
Figure 8. Absorbance spectrum of reaction product between Gd(III) ion 3+ and LiTMPyPBr8 (pH 7)
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 5+ The project design for a more facile synthesis of the GdTMPyPBr8 was based on a transmetallation reaction between the lithium porphyrin derivative and Gd(III) ion which was a modified reaction approach to our previous report on 5+ 10 3+ the synthesis of GdTMPyPBr8 . To advance this reactivity, the LiTMPyPBr8 precursor was prepared using a multistep synthetic scheme.
4+ Table I demonstrates that bromination of the starting material, H2TMPyP , resulted in the shift of the porphyrin absorption spectrum from 425 nm to 503 5+ nm. Deprotonation of H3TMPyPBr8 in aqueous base resulted in the purple 2+ TMPyPBr8 species presumably due to delocalization of the negative charges at the core nitrogen atoms and solvation of the dianionic species in polar solvent. Subsequent metallation with lithium ion transformed the color from purple to pink, consistent with previous studies using curve-fitting analyses and7 Li NMR that established the formation of a mono-lithium porphyrin species.12 Bromination was likely required for the subsequent insertion of the Gd(III) ion since β-substitution afforded a saddle-shaped macrocycle with a core large enough to bind the Gd(III) ion.
80 Progress Towards A Facile Synthesis of a Gadolinium (III)
Table I: Absorption spectral data of synthesized porphyrins and metal derivatives Porphyrin λmax (nm; pH 7) Color 4+ H2TMPyP 425 red CuTMPyP4+ 425 red 4+ CuTMPyPBr8 457 green 5+ H3TMPyPBr8 503 brown-black 2+ TMPyPBr8 579 purple 3+ LiTMPyPBr8 530-538 red-pink 5+ GdTMPyPBr8 455-463 green
The UV-visible spectrum of the reaction product between the lithium porphyrin derivative and Gd(III) ion was consistent with our findings for the synthesis 5+ of GdTMPyPBr8 and resembled the absorption profile of transition metal 5+ 13 derivatives of the H3TMPyPBr8 . Our preliminary results indicate that we can 3+ efficiently prepare and use the LiTMPyPBr8 as a precursor for transition metal ion complexes and the Gd(III) porphyrin.
CONCLUSIONS AND OUTLOOK We plan to further characterize the Gd(III) complex via NMR spectroscopy and powder diffraction analysis. Thereafter, the photophysical properties of the 5+ GdTMPyPBr8 will be investigated to determine its interaction with dioxygen. 3+ A scale-up of the LiTMPyPBr8 product as the solid hexafluorophosphate salt was confounded during the precipitation stage, presumably due to reactivity of the anion in aqueous base. Therefore, this reaction will be revisited.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS T.X. would like to acknowledge the Department of Chemistry, Physics, and Astronomy Chemistry Scholars Program and the Young Scientists Academy and the Science Education Center at Georgia College for research support. T.S. gratefully acknowledges research support from the Kaolin Science Education Endowment at Georgia College. G.J. is grateful for support from the Young Scientists Academy at Georgia College and the Georgia Military College Bull Dog Club. C.J. would like to acknowledge the American Chemical Society Project SEED summer research program and the Middle Georgia Section of the American Chemical Society for funding. R.A.R. gratefully acknowledges funding from the Faculty Research Grant program at Georgia College.
81 The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College
REFERENCES 1. Jemal, Ahmedian; Siegel, Rebecca; Xu Jiaquan. Cancer Statistics, 2010. A Cancer Journal for Clinicians. 60, 5, 277-300. 2. Porphyrin-based Photosensitizers for Use in Photodynamic Therapy. Sternberg, E. D.; Dolphin, D.; Brickner, C. Tetrahedron 1998, 54, 4151-4202. 3. Kadish, K.M.; Smith, K.M.; Guilard, R., Eds. The Porphyrin Handbook, Vol.1, Synthesis and Organic Chemistry. Academic Press: New York, NY, 2000. 4. Kadish, K.M.; Smith, K.M.; Guilard, R., Eds. The Porphyrin Handbook, Vol. 6, Applications: Past, Present, and Future. Academic Press: New York, NY, 2000. 5. Adler, A.D. The Chemical and Physical Behavior of Porphyrin Compounds and Related Structures; New York Academy of Sciences: New York, NY, 1973. 6. (a) Goldman, M.P. Photodynamic Therapy: Information on Gadolinium-Containing Contrast Agents. Elsevier Science: Philadelphia, PA, 2005. (b) Stark, D.D.; Bradley, W.G. Magnetic Resonance Imaging; C.V. Mosbey: New York, NY, 1988. 7. Information for Healthcare Professional. Gadolinium-Containing Contrast Agents for Magnetic Resonance Imaging. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. http://www.fda.gov/ederdrug/infopage/ gcca/default.htm. (accessed October 20,2011) 8. Gd(III)-Based Contrast Agents for MRI. Aime, S.; Botta, M.; Terreno, E. Adv. Inorg. Chem. 2005, 57, 173-237. 9. (a) Porphyrin-based Sensitizers in the Detection and Treatment of Cancer: Recent Progress. Vicente, M.G.H. Current Medicinal Chemistry - Anti-Cancer Agents. 2001, 1, 175-194. (b) Motexafin Gadolinium Cancer Treatment Product Candidate. 2008. Pharmacyclics. http://www.pharmacyclics.com/wt/page/ xcytrin. (accessed October 19, 2011). 10. Synthesis of a Novel Gadolinium (III) Porphyrin as a Contrast Agent and Photosensitizer in Tumors. Owens, J. H.; Richards, R. A. The Corinthian. 2009¸ 10, 407-420. 11. (a) Synthesis and characterization of lithium, sodium, and potassium
porphyrin complexes. X-ray crystal structures of Li2(C6H12O2)2TMPP,
Na2(THF)4OEP, and K2(pyridine)4OEP. Arnold, J.; Dawson, D.; Hoffman, C. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1993, 115, 2707-2713. (b) New
Lithium Porphyrin Derivatives: Synthesis of Li2(P)(Et2O)2 (P = 7 15 TTP, TBPP) and Solution Structure of Li2(TTP)(Et2O)2 by Li and N 82 Progress Towards A Facile Synthesis of a Gadolinium (III)
NMR. Brand, H.; Capriotti, J. A.; Arnold, J. Inorg. Chem. 1994, 33 4334–4337. (c) Metal Complexes with Tetrapyrrole Ligands, LIX – Redox Potentials, Near-Infrared Absorption, Ionic Radii, and Ring-Ring Distance in Metal(III) Bis(tetraphenylporphyrinate) Systems with Porphyrin Rings in Different Oxidation States. Buchler, J.W.; Hiittermann, J.; Loffler, J. Bull. Soc. Chem. Jpn. 1988, 61, 71-77. (d) Lithium complexes and the kinetics of interactions of zinc ions with tetra(N-methyl-4-pyridyl) porphyrins in basic solution. Islam, M. Q.; Hambright, P. Trans. Met. Chem. 1998, 23, 727-733. 12. (a) Rosalie. R.; Hammons, K.; Joe, M.; Miskelly, G. M. Observation of a Soluble Water-Soluble Lithium Porphyrin. Inorg. Chem., 1996, 35, 1940-1944.(b) Jadol, G; Debesai, K; Shoman, T; Rosalie, R. Air-stable lithium porphyrin intermediates: Pathways to metallocomplexes. Paper presented at the Sixth International Conference on Porphyrins & Phthalocyanines, Albuquerque, New Mexico. July 4-9, 2010. 13. Richards, R; Miskelly, G., Unpublished results.
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Literature
84 Reverential Feminism
Reverential Feminism: (Re) Considering the Status of Women in the African Novel Joseph M. Brogdon Dr. Eustace Palmer Faculty Sponsor
In assessing the African novel from a twenty-first century Western perspective, the tendency inevitably arises to interpret the culture as inherently bearing an excessive force of patriarchal subjugation against which all African women must struggle. Perhaps such a reading is not entirely unwarranted, but if this is the chosen lens for interpretation, it then becomes necessary distinguish the author’s beliefs from those represented in the cultural attitudes of their text. In failing to make this ideological distinction between the world of the novel and the world of the novelist, it becomes easy to err in the way of too readily assuming that the literary treatment of culture and tradition in African must necessarily promote an anti-feminist agenda, when actually the opposite may be more accurate. This matter of anti-feminist sentiment in the African novel has been a source of great contention and heavily leveled critique for Chinua Achebe in his landmark novel Things Fall Apart. Such harsh critique seems to offer a shallow reading of only the explicit narrative action, neglecting the feminine triumph that arises when the text is observed in appreciation of its more meaningful, though perhaps understated, implications. This same issue of a somewhat concealed feminist perspective, which might require greater consideration than readers are perhaps willing to offer, can rather easily become an interpretative issue for Ngugi Thiong’o’s complex tale of Kenya’s struggle for independence, A Grain of Wheat, where so much of the novel’s meaning is imbedded deeply within and spread throughout the narrative. But understanding this characteristic feminine reverence in the African novel is not always so difficult to realize as it is in the case of Achebe and Thiong’o, for in more recent works by a growing body of female African novelists, like Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions, we can observe a refreshingly unequivocal veneration of feminist perspectives that have long been victimized by the traditional patriarchy. Those feminisms can come across unsurprisingly suppressed in male- dominated traditional cultural narratives like Things Fall Apart and A Grain of Wheat. In the case of each of these novels, however, female characters are ultimately held in the author’s highest regard, and though it might not always be so readily observable, the feminine perspective of each work surfaces by the end with unquestionable reverence, even in spite of the inescapably anti-feminist force of African patriarchal tradition and the phallocentric cultural institutions therein that all African women must at some point face. On a surface understanding of feminine perspectives in Things Fall Apart, it is not difficult to see how the events of the novel could potentially 85 The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College mislead one to the erroneous conclusion that Achebe has presented a narrative whose aim is ultimately anti-feminist. Despite the gendered second-class status of women in Achebe’s treatment of Igbo culture, we would be remiss to conclude that Achebe is supportive of the extent to which his protagonist serves the narrative with such violent feminine repression—we must not, as readers, make the mistake of equating Okonkwo’s regard for feminine perspectives with Achebe’s. Rather than with Okonkwo, Achebe’s narrative alliance is with Igbo society, so it is therefore crucial to understand that not only is Okonkwo at odds with Achebe in his treatment of women, but also with the very social foundations of his own beloved traditional culture. Concerning this issue of Achebe’s feminine presentations, critic Chijioke Uwasomba notably indicates: Achebe does not portray women in a patronizing manner but clearly depicts the reality of the African society which recognizes the patriarchal and matricentric units of the society. Anyone who understands the Igbo philosophy and the nuances of Things Fall Apart will realise that Achebe demonstrates convincingly that women are considered very important in the affairs of the society he portrays in spite of the patriarchal subjection of women by the like of Okonkwo. (25) Inspecting the text with particular attention to its female characters should allow readers to see that Uwasomba is quite on the mark in her understanding of Achebe’s honest social awareness. And far from unimportant, this issue of feminine perspective is central to a sound critical understanding of the novel. Though it is Okonkwo’s refusal to accept and understand the colonial intrusion that takes over in Part Two and drives the immediate narrative action which results in the tragedy of his death, the seed of his downfall is sown much earlier through his nearly lifelong intolerance for all things feminine. This intolerance existed pervasively as a narrow-minded projection of his personal insecurities upon the entirety of his cultural interaction and social aspirations in Umuofia. In fear of inheriting the emasculated characteristics which he sees defining his father, Okonkwo conditions himself from childhood to irreverently despise all things feminine, allowing himself in turn to subconsciously hate and seek dominance over women: “Even as a little boy he had resented his father’s failure and weakness, and even now he still remembered how he had suffered when a playmate had told him that his father was agbala. That was how Okonkwo first came to know that agbala was not only another name for a woman, it could also mean a man who had taken no title” (13). In an essay on the West African female poet Nana Asma’u, Chukwuma Azuonye references this childhood episode in a brief tangential consideration of feminine centrality in Things Fall Apart: “Why does the hero Okonkwo fail in the end? He fails because of his complete misunderstanding of the gender balance in his own 86 Reverential Feminism culture…Acting on his superficial and literal understanding that femininity or feminine things can be equated with failure, because of the application of the odium agbala to his failed, ne’er-do-well father…” (65). There is a moment in Chapter Five that can perhaps pass with unrecognized significance when Okonkwo’s core repressed desire for feminine domination is subtly, yet definitively, revealed. It is at this moment that the author’s voice brilliantly matches up with his protagonist in order to provide wonderfully illuminating subtextual implication that reveals Okonkwo’s culturally antithetical and ultimately devastating desire for gendered dominance: “[Okonkwo] trembled with the desire to conquer and subdue. It was like the desire for woman.” (42). With these unassuming lines, it is conveyed that Okonkwo’s desire for women is in essence simply a desire to conquer and subdue—woman and conquer become synonymous within the realm of his desires. Therefore, even prior to the missionaries’ arrival and the disastrous colonial struggle that ensues in Part Two, we can see that Okonkwo has already triggered the onset of his downfall and sealed the fate of his solitary demise by situating himself in opposition to his own culture through disregarding its requisite feminine concern. Okonkwo’s hand in the slaying of Ikemefuna, and more specifically his attitude in the aftermath, can demonstrate more concretely the way in which his tragedy is sourced as much from his prolonged anti-feminist cultural transgression as it is from the impending colonial intrusion. In the wake of his role in Ikemefuna’s death, despite Obierika’s warning against it, Okonkwo finds a voice of regret and empathetic disappointment in this sage friend whose advice he could not heed: “What you have done will not please the Earth.” When Okonkwo replies, “The Earth cannot punish me for obeying her messenger,” (67) we can see the extent to which he feels superior and impervious to the power of even the most fundamental feminine cultural forces. In his deep fear of femininity and the overcompensated masculinity with which he masks it, Okonkwo is willing to disregard even the most sacred cultural energies, assuming of course that they are feminine energies, and feels delusionally safe in his manliness from the danger of upsetting female deities. Through his masculine arrogance in this sequence of events, it is clear that Okonkwo has irrevocably and unforgivably transgressed against the God most central to the culture which he lives his life to epitomize: “Ani [the Earth goddess] played a greater part in the life of the people than any other deity. She was the ultimate judge of morality and conduct” (36). It is in observation and preparation for The Feast of the New Yam in Chapter Five that we first see Okonkwo physically combating feminine influence through his unwarranted beating of Ekwefi. This violent domestic dispute—
87 The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College which escalates with seemingly irrational intensity before ending with Okonkwo turning a gun on Ekwefi and firing a stray bullet—is again demonstrative of Okonkwo’s need to conquer and subdue anything even remotely feminine in his life. Moreover, in addition to the basic understanding of this act as a clear manifestation of Okonkwo’s immense fear and insecurity in facing the feminine, his prejudiced quest for a dangerously unchecked sort of masculine dominance can be seen here existing as not only a literal attack on Ekwefi, but also as yet another declaration against the Earth goddess Ani of his utter refusal to respect and acknowledge the status and authority of feminine perspectives within Igbo culture—even when those perspectives belong to deities. Indeed, we begin to understand this action as unquestionably motivated by his contempt for the feminine when we recall that this action is taking place amidst preparations for a sacred day designated for the worship of Ani in praise of all her feminine earthly offerings and blessings in relation to the life and prosperity of traditional Igbo culture. But Okonkwo will not join in the jovial celebratory atmosphere, for it is celebrating the female, and we see the directly precipitous correlation between the chapter’s violence and his mounting attitude in both the days preceding the festivities, as well as in the precise moments preceding the attack: But somehow Okonkwo never could become as enthusiastic over feasts as most people. He was a good eater and he could drink one or two fairly big gourds of palm wine. But he always got uncomfortable sitting around for days waiting on a feast or getting over it. He would be very much happier working on his farm…The festival was now only three days away…And then the storm burst. Okonkwo, who has been walking about aimlessly in his compound in suppressed anger, suddenly found an outlet. (39) Due to the novel’s masculine narrative-absorption guided by Achebe’s central interest in Okonkwo’s tragedy, some feminist readers might find it disappointing to realize that the key female perspectives are afforded relatively minor overall consideration. Despite the domineering narrative effect of Okonkwo’s overwhelming masculine perspective, it is nonetheless necessary to consider the novel’s feminine perspectives, suppressed though they may be. Specifically, we would be doing a significant disservice to a feminist reading of the text if we were not at the very least attendant to Achebe’s treatment of Okonkwo’s wife Ekwefi, as she provides an avenue by which Achebe’s feminist agenda is taken beyond the dominant narrative warning against the danger of Okonkwo’s phallocentric mindset, allowing readers to see more clearly the feminine veneration that the novel intends. From the moment she is introduced in the previously discussed scene as Okonkwo’s domestic abuse victim, Ekwefi establishes herself through an act of defiance as a force triumphantly feminine and unwilling to comply with her 88 Reverential Feminism husband’s weak-minded authoritarian masculinity. In the moments following the violence, Okonkwo (who is apparently far from a skilled marksman) decides to go hunting. “And so when he called Ikemefuna to fetch his gun, the wife who had just been beaten murmured something about guns that never shot” (38- 39). In a remarkable display of courage that could have come from none of his wives but Ekwefi, we see a female force standing up to deride Okonkwo in full awareness of his patriarchal authority, challenging his oppressive masculinity complex. We can also see the non-traditional feminist force of Ekwefi in the story of her escape from marriage in favor of a new life with Okonkwo. In a way that other women in the novel are not, Ekwefi is able to confront and defy the injustices that she feels result from her status as a female in an unquestionably male-dominated cultural and domestic world. A final noteworthy act in which Ekwefi exercises her feminine will in open defiance of culturally prescribed gender boundaries and patriarchal subservience is her tracking of Chielo on the night that the priestess comes to take Ezinma and deliver her in darkness to the goddess Agbala. Understanding the power of her feminist convictions, and that he could not dissuade her even if he liked, Okonkwo does not even slightly object to her pursuit. Actually quite the contrary, in an anomalous moment of feminist sympathy, Okonkwo allows his wife to follow their daughter and transgress culture freely—he even helps her. In an odd subconscious form of something akin to gender reversal, Okonkwo serves on this particular night as a sort of help mate for Ekwefi, following her with enough distance to allow for the charge of her independent feminine movement, yet close enough to offer his help should she need it. In this fleeting moment Okonkwo seems to have somehow shed his domineering masculinity and aligned himself with the novel’s esteemed feminine perspective. But unfortunately, and perhaps unsurprisingly, this is the only time he demonstrates this capacity for feminine sympathy—it is indeed his high point in the novel. Ngugi wa Thiong’o presents in A Grain of Wheat a multitude of plot lines woven into a single overarching narrative thread of Kenya’s struggle for independence. As a result of this multifaceted exploded narrative, however, the feminine perspective and Ngugi’s treatment thereof can become perhaps a touch difficult to pinpoint. Therefore, in order to more readily observe the novel’s feminine agenda, it is helpful to narrow our consideration of events and follow the action of singular characters and relationships rather than the action of the narrative more comprehensively. Along these lines, we can perhaps best illuminate Ngugi’s regard for the feminine perspective by looking in depth at Mumbi with close consideration of her relationships with men and interactions with the force of masculinity in the text. In A Grain of Wheat, as Mumbi emerges the narrative champion, 89 The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College we can ultimately come to see Ngugi bestowing tremendous admiration upon the feminine perspective that he has cultivated through the line of Mumbi’s character development. In the essay “Changes in the Image of the African Woman: A Celebration,” Ebele Eko suggests that Mumbi is indicative of a more general trend: “One sees a definite attempt, on the part of some male writers, at taking their female characters more seriously, investing them with more humanity and dignity by allowing them to grow through experiences that demand choices, that challenge them and reveal their strengths and weaknesses realistically” (212). And Ngugi certainly does all these things for Mumbi as he increasingly comes toward the full exposure and endorsement of Mumbi’s fundamental feminist qualities. In beginning our evaluation of Ngugi’s feminist discourse through Mumbi, it is crucial to revisit her initial characterization: “Her dark eyes had a dreamy look that longed for something the village could not give. She lay in the sun and ardently yearned for a life in which love and heroism, suffering, and martyrdom were possible” (75). The irony in these lines is that Ngugi proceeds unquestionably to grant his beloved heroine each of these things for which she yearns, contrary to the narrative implication that “the village could not give” such things. With regard to Ngugi’s depiction of Mumbi’s as an admired feminist force, analyzing her relationship with men in the novel becomes immensely helpful. Again through her initial characterization in Chapter Seven, we come to learn that not only is Mumbi beautiful, but she also has maintained a sense of her feminine autonomy and independence apart from the masculine force that remains culturally embedded in spite of colonialism’s marginalization of a more traditionally patriarchal Africa. Uninhibited by patriarchal influence, Mumbi is presented as a woman whose decisions are based on her own feminine desires rather than on the outside imposition and pressure of some masculine force. Guided entirely by her own perspective, Mumbi is free from masculine pressure and patriarchal social apprehension, and thus has no issue declining the marriage proposal of a leading clergyman’s son (75). The love triangle that emerges with Gikonyo and Karanja provides much of Mumbi’s feminine characterization. As the tension between these two suitors mounts, Gikonyo is presented as possessing consuming admiration of woman in pursuit of Mumbi’s love, while Karanja offers only masculine nonchalance with an implicit sense of patriarchal entitlement—it is not unsurprising, then, that Mumbi chooses Gikonyo. Indeed, it is Gikonyo’s admiration for the force of femininity that sets him ahead of Karanja in Mumbi’s eyes. It is also his feminine reverence for not only Mumbi, but also for his mother, that provides his life’s last hope upon his dismissal after six years of detention camp: “Bare, disillusioned in his hope for early Independence, he 90 Reverential Feminism clung to Mumbi and Wangari as the only unchanging reality…His reunion with Mumbi could see the birth of a new Kenya” (102-103). Upon his arrival, however, all his hopes and feminine exaltations are vanquished at the sight of a child conceived by Mumbi and Karanja. In anger and humiliation, he sheds his favor toward the feminine and adopts the furrowed brow of a decidedly coldhearted masculinity. He even goes so far as to physically punish Mumbi, before coming back around and racing once more for her honor in the novel’s climax, and extending himself to her in the final moments of the novel in full admission of the atrocity of his actions. Mumbi’s relationship with Mugo also warrants consideration in attempting to understand what Ngugi might be implying in regards to the novel’s treatment of the feminine perspective. It is to Mugo that Mumbi conveys at length the tale of her time without Gikonyo and how she came to sleep with Karanja. Though she quite honorably never once refuses blame in the telling of her story, what ultimately unfolds with honest humility is a tale in which she becomes the victim of calculated manipulation at the hands of Karanja, in the service of a colonial patriarchy that is in every way her antithesis. She recounts the climactic event’s aftermath: “When I woke and realized fully what had happened, I became cold, the whole body. Karanja tried to say nice things to me, but I could see that he was laughing at me with triumph” (146). Though here she can only sense her exploitation implicitly through Karanja’s demeanor, the full extent to which it actually existed is revealed in the novel’s climax in the narrative of the second race: When Gikonyo was taken to detention, Karanja suddenly knew he would never let himself be taken away from Mumbi. He sold the Movement and Oath secrets, the price of remaining near Mumbi… But Mumbi, his Mumbi, would not yield, and he could never bring himself to force her. Ironically, as he thought later, as he thought now, she only lay under him when he stood in the brink of defeat. He had felt a momentary pang of intense victory which, seconds later, after he fact, melted into utter isolation and humiliation.He had taken advantage of her. (205) The story has a critical impact on Mugo, who is harboring a tale of his own in which he is the guilty party who must answer the novel’s pervasive question concerning Kihika’s betrayal. It is indeed the profound emotional effect of Mumbi’s story that sparks change in Mugo, and leads him ultimately to convey the truth of his own story: “He could not escape from his knowledge of Gikonyo and Mumbi’s lives…Yesterday, this morning, before Mumbi told her story, the huts had run by him, and never sang a thing of the past. Now they were different…How was it that Mumbi’s story had cracked open his dulled inside and released imprisoned thoughts and feelings?” (167). It is made quite 91 The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College clear in the moment of Mugo’s admission that it has everything to do with Mumbi, for it is her face and her honesty that haunts and compels him to publicly account in the end for his treasonous actions. But even before the very end, we can see that Mumbi at least is aware of her force as a woman as it relates to Mugo: “She held him balanced at her finger-tips, and suddenly knew her power over him. She would not let him go” (178). Thus, the novel’s feminine influence becomes more and more evident as we begin to see Mumbi becoming empowered so triumphantly through the tremendous amount of reverence with which Ngugi invests his feminist perspective. Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions differs from the previously considered works of Achebe and Ngugi in that its feminine perspective from the very opening line explicitly confronts the cultural dominance of masculine voices that work openly to subjugate women under the pretense of patriarchal tradition. With this evocative opening remark, “I was not sorry when my brother died” (1), we are introduced to Tambudzai, and it is not long into her story before we realize that, for more reasons that one, there is quite plainly nothing to dispute in her detached reaction to Nhamo’s passing. Given its first-person narration, we must understand in a very literal way that this narrative belongs to Tambu—it is her story and she is the one telling it. What we receive is a compelling tale of what it means to be a woman in Africa. For Tambu, and by extension for African women more generally in the novel, the gendered injustice to which she is subject is something that she learns early in life through her brother’s insensitive enjoyment of luxuries and opportunities that are afforded him as a male within the traditional African patriarchy. The novel then emerges as an individual feminist manifesto of sorts, providing Tambu the platform to display the absurd injustice mounted against African women by a long-standing tyrannical patriarchy. As a child, Tambu must struggle against her culture in order to educate herself in hopes of defining her existence as something more than a domestic servant simply at the disposal of patriarchal tradition. We can understand early on exactly the sort of forcibly masculinist mentality that she is up against, as her father so derisively comments: “Can you cook books and feed them to your husband? Stay at home with your mother. Learn to cook and clean. Grow vegetables” (15). Seemingly against all odds, however, and without any family support, Tambu perseveres with regard to continuing her education through feminist determination and an unwavering refusal to fall victim to tradition in the way of her mother. It is by virtue of this very feminist determination, the personal drive which has alone been responsible for her continued schooling, that we can empathize with her indifferent response to her brother’s death— better to remain indifferent than to outwardly rejoice. And rejoice would not be completely unmerited, for only in Nhamo’s death is she afforded a spot in the 92 Reverential Feminism mission school which allows her to finally escape the cultural insularity which especially stifles any woman like Tambu with sustained hopes of bettering herself through education. In addition to Tambu, the novel offers anther distinct feminist voice in Nyasha, who is subject to a dual victimization—not only is she marginalized by her femininity in the realm of her father’s traditional patriarchal dominance, but she has also been indoctrinated from birth into an oppressive system of colonial authority by virtue of her parents education and status. In maintaining adherence to traditional custom through a mindset deferential to his agrarian African heritage while living a life of imperial opulence through his success in the developing colonial world, Babamukuru has structured his family’s domesticity in a manner rife with devastatingly consequential contradictions. The effect of this household, cased in the coexistence of such antithetical cultural perspectives, is suffered most gravely by Nyasha, whose sense of identity has been so problematically developed that she is in a sense without cultural identity altogether. Nyasha feels the effect of these two forces that seek to dominate her, and this psychological burden manifests itself in her physicality when she develops an eating disorder. Her personality is ripped in so many different oppressive directions, for so many different oppressive agendas, that her psychological and physical health never stand much of a chance—such conflict was bound to take its toll eventually. By means of their shared feminist perspective, Tambu links herself to Nyasha’s pain on the night of the dance when Nyasha arrives home late after being with a young boy and is met with a ruthless beating at the hands of her father: …and I feeling bad for her and thinking how dreadfully familiar that scene had been, with Babamukuru condemning Nyasha to whoredome, making her a victim of her femaleness, just as I felt victimized at home in the days when Nhamo went to school and I grew my maize. The victimization, I saw, was universal. It didn’t depend on poverty, on lack of education or on tradition. It didn’t depend on any of the things I thought it depended on. Men took it everywhere with them… But what I didn’t like was the way all the conflicts came back to this question of femaleness. Femaleness as opposed and inferior to maleness. (118) On the alternate routes upon which Tambu and Nyasha situate themselves by the novel’s end, there is perhaps cause for concern in the fact that these cousins will be without the solidarity of their feminist bond, left ill-equipped in facing the world’s winds of feminine social alienation and patriarchal oppression. Others have also considered the potentials of this hypothetical post-textual concern, as in the essay “Fighting the Good Fight: What Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions Says about Language and 93 The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College
Power,” wherein Gillian Gorle asserts on the basis of a similar postulation: “Tambu’s plight is the least desperate at the end of the story, containing at least some measure of hope. By contrast, her anglicized cousin Nyasha, in hospital with acute anorexia nervosa, may not survive” (181). What becomes fundamentally clear in each of these novels is that they are in unanimous agreement concerning their support of feminine perspectives. Though there are scarcely grounds on which to contend this feminist backing in Dangarembga’s case, it is noteworthy to see how a female African novelist might go about treatment of the subject in comparison to the men who have dominates the country’s literary landscape before her. Dangarembga’s explicit feminist agenda in Nervous Conditions operates nicely alongside Things Fall Apart and A Grain of Wheat to offer Ngugi and Achebe’s more subliminal feminist agendas a source of illumination by contrast. When given due consideration, it becomes clear that Achebe fully endorses feminine perspectives in Things Fall Apart—a fact that has been too readily overlooked on the superficial grounds of the novel’s surface action. While perhaps not the victim of such severe feminist critique as Things Fall Apart, A Grain of Wheat suffers likewise from a sort of understated feminism that might be overlooked in the face of Ngugi’s male-dominated narrative if we are not mindful to accord the novel’s female characters with appropriately weighted consideration. In any case, what we should ultimately avoid is the tendency to too readily condemn a work on the grounds of anti-feminist subject matter, or to conclude that any male-dominated narrative must by converse extension be an anti-feminist narrative. For as we see in the case of Achebe and Ngugi, this is not always true—far from it, in fact, and sometimes we may only need the contrasting aid of a female African novelist to see the feminism that can often be subdued in the cultural narratives of her male literary counterparts.
WORKS CITED
Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New York: Anchor Books, 1994. Print.
Azuonye, Chukwuma. “Feminist or Simply Feminine? Reflections on the Works of Nana Asmā’u, a Nineteenth-Century West African Woman Poet, Intellectual, and Social Activist.” Meridians, Vol. 6, No. 2, Women, Creativity, and Dissidence (2006): 54-77. JSTOR. Web.
Dangarembga, Tsisti. Nervous Conditions. Oxfordshire: Ayebia Clarke Publishing, 2004. Print.
94 Reverential Feminism
Eko, Ebele. “Changes in the Image of the African Woman: A Celebration.” Phylon, Vol. 47, No. 3 (1986): 210-218. JSTOR. Web. 12 November 2011.
Gorle, Gilian. “Fighting the Good Fight: What Tsitsi Dangarembga’s ‘Nervous Conditions’ Says about Language and Power.” The Yearbook of English Studies, Vol. 27, The Politics of Postcolonial Criticism (1997): 179-192. JSTOR. Web.
Thiong’o, Ngugi wa. A Grain of Wheat. London: Penguin, 2002. Print.
Uwasomba, Chijioke. “A Feminist Reading of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart.” The African Symposium: An Online Journal of African Educational Research Network, Vol. 7. No. 2 (2007): 19-26. JSTOR. Web.
95 The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College
Take a Third Option: Multigender in Middlesex
Cohen M. Edenfield Dr. Marshall Bruce Gentry Faculty Sponsor
Jeffery Eugenides’ Middlesex presents a protagonist, Calliope, coming to terms with hir gender identity. For some critics, the final stage of this development is Calliope’s return to hir family and decision to live as a man. By this understanding, they mistakenly conflate the end of that narrative with the narrative of the framing device, set in the present. They ignore the fact that Cal’s time as a firmly-defined man is even worse than hir time as a woman, a sad reality that has not changed in the present. Adult, male-identifying Cal still lives in hiding, cut off from society and unable to bring any romantic relationship to fruition. Conversely, when Cal accepts the hybrid nature of hir gender and reveals it to others, xe is able to form hir most meaningful and honest relationships: with Julie, with Zora, and with the Obscure Object. The fact that these relationships exist across the three stages of Cal’s gender development— female-identifying, male-identifying, and hybrid—will address the argument of some critics that Cal’s happiness at the novel’s close is due to a presumed acceptance of a masculine identity. It is tempting to cheer Cal on when he declares, in his self-assured letter written to his parents when running away, “I am not a girl. I’m a boy. That’s what I found out today” (439). After so much doubt, living through years of unhappy uncertainty as an imperfect girl, Cal is finally able to take a firm stance in his masculine identity. And yet, these lines are proceeded by a somewhat disheartening caveat: “I know you’re only trying to do what’s best for me, but I don’t think anyone knows for sure what’s best” (438). Furthermore, there is something vaguely threatening about which possessions Cal chooses to take and which he leaves behind: a brassiere is “abandoned” in favor of “darker garments” including “alligator shirts,” and a wad of money which will be paid back “with interest” (438-9). The signature, “Callie,” rendered epitaphic by the assertion that “it was the last time I was ever their daughter,” further reveals the letter’s deeply ambivalent nature (439). While some might argue that this letter really is a definite epitaph for the female identity, and that as Cal heads West he leaves Calliope behind and moves into a state of self-acceptance and comfort in his masculinity, this is not really an interpretation supported by the text. The last view of the feminine identity is shrouded in doubt and second-thoughts: “There she was, for the last time, in the silvered glass: Calliope. She still wasn’t gone yet. She was like a captive spirit, peeking out[…]. What if the girl in the mirror really was me?” 96 Take a Third Option: Multigender in Middlesex
(442). Cal’s first view of his newly-shorn masculine face is hardly encouraging, either: “I opened my eyes. And in the mirror I didn’t see myself” (445). Consider, further, the language the barber uses to describe the haircut, rife with castration imagery: “This is like taking down a tree[…]. First you gotta go in and lop off the branches. Then you chop down the trunk” (442). The haircut becomes, in its assault on Calliope, a dark mirror of the surgery which would have destroyed Cal. Hardly anyone suggests that it would have been better for Cal had Dr. Luce performed the “corrective” surgery—why, then, should we interpret this as a positive transformation? Perhaps it is because we want so badly to believe Cal will be happy, that Cal truly has become a “new creation” who reflects an interior self now whole and in order (445). Yet Callie herself laid a groundwork for the skepticism with which we should view this new identity, only a little earlier: “It wasn’t difficult to pour my identity into different vessels. In a sense, I was able to take whatever form was demanded of me” (434). Callie is foreshadowing that the vessel into which she will soon pour her identity is something demanded of her—but by whom? She answers this in the same breath: “The prospect of having everything solved was wildly attractive to me” (434). In essence, this is a demand Callie places on herself. Though the idea of living as a man is frightening, it is something definite, and as such represents the solution she seeks to the problematic, uncertain nature of hir as-yet-unrealized hybrid gender. Patricia E. Chu argues that by “refusing surgery, Cal rejects the old depth-ridden fate” (281), but one might argue that blindly choosing the exact opposite of what one perceives as one’s genetic fatalism is still, itself, fate—just in the opposite direction. The unhappiness Cal feels at the creation of his masculine identity betrays the unhappy nature of the days and years to follow. The reason for this, really, is that Cal is more vulnerable as a male. During Cal’s trip West, he is picked up by Scheer, a lecherous intellectual-type who gets Cal drunk before attempting to have sex with him in a cheap motel. Thankfully, Cal is able to stop him, but it is an unquestionably repulsive encounter. Bob Presto later reveals that Scheer is a “chicken hawk,” a sexual predator who preys on the weak, which Cal, having opened himself to the rigid standards of masculinity, now is (461). The indeterminacy which projected strength in Callie becomes weakness and vulnerability in Cal, leaving him open to more predators than just Scheer. The uncertainty with which Cal inhabits his masculine form entices the exploitative Bob Presto, and, eager for new talent at his sex shows, he grills Cal for the details of his sexuality and gender: “Are you gay?” (461). “You a tranny?...Don’t get offended, I know about pre-op and post-op and all that stuff” (463). Presto wishes to make a freak of Cal, but Zora is there to save him. 97 The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College
Zora takes Cal into hir home, but more importantly xe accepts the hybrid-gendered Calliope lurking within him. This acceptance is three-fold; first, Zora accepts Cal as a being deserving of life, sheltering him as xe’s sheltered other “strays” with non-standard genitalia (488). Furthermore, as Cal reveals when he reminisces—“She was the first one I met. The first person like me”— Zora alerts Cal to the non-uniqueness of his hermaphroditism (488). “I wasn’t the only one! Listening to Zora, that was mainly what hit home with me...I just wanted to stay with Zora, to learn from her, and to be less alone in the world” (489). Zora is, for Cal, an in-the-flesh example of aperson living as a hybrid- gender, as opposed to the hypothetical “MONSTER” of the Webster’s dictionary (430). For Calliope, that label calls up images of a “lumbering, shaggy creature paused at the edge of the woods,” a clear illustration of her fear that she is subhuman, some horrifying half-beast that must live on the edge of humanity and wilderness (431). Zora, as a mermaid, presents a contrasting mythological hybrid which is far more appealing: “no lewdness...Her face was serene, her eyes a light Caribbean blue” (431). Further, unlike the Loch Ness monster in its “icy lake,” or the Minotaur, lost and lonely in its labyrinth, a mermaid is neither a prisoner nor alone, but free to swim where she will in the company of her kind (432). Some might question whether this is applicable to the masculine-bodied Cal, but, as he says, “though we looked nothing alike, Zora was always emphatic about our solidarity. We were up against the same prejudices and misgivings” (492). Having already awakened Cal to Calliope’s humanity and potential for freedom and human connection, Zora then gives Calliope a nation. First, their history: “There have been hermaphrodites around forever, Cal. Forever. Plato said that the original human being was a hermaphrodite” (489). Xe also reveals to Cal a culture, in the form of the “berdaches,” who in the Navajo tradition “are the shamans of the tribe. They’re the healers, the great weavers, the artists” (489). Cal’s identification of Zora as a “John the Baptist crying in the wilderness” illustrates this induction of hybrid-gender Calliope into the hermaphroditic tradition (488). Calliope needs this companionship and open acceptance from another person of hir hybrid-gender. To illustrate, compare the previous passages celebrating membership and acceptance with the following: “We hermaphrodites are people like everybody else. And I happen not to be a political person. I don’t like groups….I live my own life and nurse my own wounds” (106). Make no mistake, despite the lip-service self-inclusion into the hermaphroditic tradition of which Calliope was briefly a member, this is masculine-identifying Cal, lonely and defeated: “It’s not the best way to live. But it’s the way I am” (106). Stephanie Hsu accuses Eugenides of portraying this self-exiling “stealth” as 98 Take a Third Option: Multigender in Middlesex
“an alternative strategy for intersex survival,” though the obvious despair from which Cal is suffering does not really suggest that this strategy is an effective one (93). Those who believe that Cal’s identification as a definite male is a positive one would likely interpret teenage Cal’s terrifying journey west as mere gender-identity growing pains, or Cal awkwardly learning how to behave like a man. Any awkwardness, they would argue, hardly discredits the legitimacy of Cal’s gender identity on its own, for after all, Cal himself reminds us that “my swagger wasn’t that different from what lots of adolescent boys put on, trying to be manly. For that reason it was convincing. Its very falseness made it credible” (449). It is the same type of apologizing, justifying language he employs in describing himself thirty years later: “I’m not androgynous in the least…I operate in society as a man…I use the men’s room. Never the urinals, always the stalls. In the men’s locker room at the gym I even shower, albeit discreetly. I possess all the secondary sex characteristics of a normal man except one” (41). Even his clothes aren’t really natural: “The cigars, the double-breasted suits—they’re a little too much. I’m well aware of that. But I need them. They make me feel better. After what I’ve been through, some overcompensation is to be expected” (41). If Cal is making all the same excuses, covering up all the same awkwardness, then it’s a fair assessment that Cal isn’t really any more comfortable operating in society as a man at forty-two than he was at fourteen. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Cal’s terribly depressing, failed interactions with women. His first sighting of Julie produces in Cal “a state of voluptuous agitation, of agitated voluptuousness” (41). Cal’s discomfort might be considered prescience of the fact that the relationship he intends to begin with Julie will fail, if not for the fact that this failure will be the direct result of Cal’s own inability to connect with her. This is a result of his identifying as a thoroughly common male without the courage to reveal his unique genitalia. Hsu argues that “Julie’s companionship is integral to Cal’s performance of heterosexuality,” but in truth only when the commitment to traditional heterosexuality is dropped can Julie actually be a companion (88). Due to the bisected narrative, which describes the events of Cal’s life in sequences which run parallel to each other, it is easy to forget that all this awkwardness transpires decades after Cal’s decision to identify as male. Nothing has become easier, really—Cal is still emotionally on the run, moving from country to country now instead of state to state. The closing lines of the novel are vague and hopeful: “I stood in the door for an hour, maybe two. I lost track after a while, happy to be home, weeping for my father, and thinking about what was next” (529). This closing line is only optimistic when transposed chronologically to apply to the new intimacy of his relationship with Julie; after all, the “next” for Cal was decades of a failed attempt at a male identity. Even at 99 The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College forty-two, Cal tells us “I still don’t feel entirely at home among men” (479). Like his other acts of attempted masculinity—using the men’s bathroom but never the urinals, for instance—Cal’s relationships with women are a perfect artifice except for one detail; in this case, sex: “The final protection, my roomy, my discreet boxer shorts, these I do not remove. Ever. Instead I leave, making excuses. I leave and never call them again. Just like a guy” (107). And yet again, not a guy, only just like one, and not even that— for surely, there is a step missing between the removal of the outer layers of clothing and the abandonment of all contact. Again Cal must retreat to hyper- masculine pantomime to overcompensate, pushing away women with whom he wants desperately to be intimate both physically and emotionally. Merton Lee also recognizes the inherent tension in Cal’s behavior, noting that “Cal, who insistently describes his masculinity as containing not the least amount of androgyny, obviously identifies with maleness, but that masculinity is just as obviously barred” (42). It is important that we note the sad, hopeless fatalism to Cal’s description of his future with Julie: “My date for Friday night. It’s just a first date. It won’t come to anything. No reason to mention my peculiarities, my wandering in the maze these many years, shut away from sight. And from love, too” (107). This is the future to which masculine-identifying Cal is bound, almost deterministically. After a lovely vacation with Julie¸ he fabricates a future in which everything must fail, allowing him to avoid confronting his hybrid- identity: “I began to look ahead. I thought of the next step and what would be required of me. The preparations, the explanations, the very real possibility of shock, horror, withdrawal” (272). It is telling that Julie being disgusted by hybrid-gender Calliope can only be discussed as a possibility, outcome uncertain. What truly scares Cal is the certainty that for further intimacy to exist he must reveal his hybrid-gender identity to himself. This is what he means by “preparation” (272). Julie calls Cal a “cigar faddist” when they run into each other again, an expression of her awareness and acceptance of the put-on nature of his masculinity—he does not smoke a cigar because he wants one, he smokes one because that is what men do (498). By telling Cal that she sees through the insincerity of the phallic cigar, Julie is also saying that she sees through the Cal-mask to the hybrid-gender Calliope inside. Calliope is then able to reveal hirself to Julie, an action directly in opposition with Cal’s typical behavior, as evidenced by his body language: “After a while I swiveled around so I was facing her. She turned her face toward me” (498). If Calliope is willing to turn hirself toward Julie, Julie will turn to hir. The mutual drawing-closer is repeated in their next action: “I leaned toward her. Julie leaned toward me” (498). Buoyed up by this, we see the last scene of the story, chronologically, 100 Take a Third Option: Multigender in Middlesex which confirms Calliope’s happiness as a result of the acceptance of hir hybrid gender-identity: “What I told you about myself has nothing whatsoever to do with being gay or closeted. I’ve always liked girls. I liked girls when I was a girl” (513). Calliope, having already admitted the imperfection of hir masculinity, distances hirself from a purely feminine gender-identity as well. It is only then that xe is able to take Julie to the bedroom, somewhere Calliope hasn’t taken anyone “in quite a long time” (513). There, xe tells us, they “got under the covers and held each other, petrified, happy” (514). This happy image of mutual acceptance is the confirmation of Calliope’s future, whole and happy. The happiness Calliope feels with Julie is of a kind xe hasn’t had since she lost the Obscure Object (O.O.), one of only two people before Julie—Zora, the other—for whom xe was able to be neither the confused girl nor the self- deluding man, but the third, the hybrid gender. Contrasted with the openness of hir intimacy with Julie, however, Calliope’s affair with the O.O. only happens as a kind of shared dream. The O.O. affects enervation, lifting her hips slightly in their first intimate session being “her only contribution” (384). It is never entirely clear if the O.O. is even conscious for these sessions, which Calliope remembers as “wordless, blinkered, a nighttime thing, a dream thing” (385). Only her hand is ever “completely awake” (386). There are some who argue that Calliope’s encounters with the O.O. are not a model for hir future happiness because of the shame with which xe seems to describe them, a “fugue state,” “largely anonymous” (386). They would argue that these early encounters are proof that Calliope cannot be happy as an indeterminate gender-identity because the O.O. is not a willing participant. The O.O.’s “eyes remained closed throughout, her head was often turned slightly away. She moved under me as a sleeping girl might while being ravished by an incubus. She was like somebody having a dirty dream, confusing her pillow for a lover” (387). However, it makes more sense to understand Calliope and O.O’s relationship as the prototype for Calliope’s future relationship with Julie, “the way it goes in adolescence” (386). The Obscure Object’s affected insensibility is not disgust for Calliope’s indeterminate gender. Rather, it is the refuge of the insensible virgin, the same which Calliope offers Jerome: “I was pretty drunk last night” (379). Cal highlights the emotional immaturity of both of them by referring to the act as “sharing your toys,” further exonerating the O.O. (386). Thus we can determine that there is definite precedent established in the work for Calliope’s happiness with Julie with the truth of hir indeterminate gender revealed. From Zora, Calliope received acceptance of hir gender identity, and from the O.O. she received sexual intimacy. These relationships, the most intimate and affirming in Calliope’s life, are both present and possible with Julie. Thus, it is reasonable to reject the interpretation by Shostak that Middlesex 101 The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College
“demonstrates the virtual impossibility of [hybrid-gender identification] except as a Utopian fantasy” (386-7). On the contrary, Eugenides goes to great lengths to present all the pieces which are necessary for this identification to be viable, and to show that they are present in Julie. Those who understand Cal’s masculine-identity as the apex of his happiness will likely interpret the novel as an anthem for perseverance through the social difficulty of living as the gender with which one identifies.They are not far off the mark, but Cal’s dissatisfaction with his purely masculine gender is not entirely a social issue. The overall message of this novel seems to be one of the reward in finding one’s true identity and the wholeness that can come from allowing someone else to see it, even if, possibly only if, that person is the only one who does.
WORKS CITED
Chu, Patricia E. “D(NA) Coding the Ethnic: Jeffrey Eugenides’s Middlesex.” Novel: A Forum on Fiction. 42.2 (2009): 278-83. Literary Reference Center. Web. 17 Oct. 2011.
Eugenides, Jeffery. Middlesex. New York: Farrar, 2002. Print.
Hsu, Stephanie. “Ethnicity and the Biopolitics of Intersex in Jeffrey Eugenides’s Middlesex.” MELUS 36.1 (2011): 87-110. Literary Reference Center. Web. 17 Oct. 2011.
Lee, Merton. “Why Jeffrey Eugenides’ Middlesex Is So Inoffensive.” Critique 51.1 (2009): 32-46. Literary Reference Center. Web. 17 Oct. 2011.
Shostak, Debra. “‘Theory Uncompromised by Practicality’: Hybridity in Jeffrey Eugenides’ Middlesex.” Contemporary Literature 49.3 (2008): 381-412. Literary Reference Center. Web. 17 Oct. 2011.
102 Political Science
Political Science
103 The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College
The International Criminal Court, The United States, and What Next.
Alexandria Russell Dr. Jerry Herbel Faculty Sponsor
INTRODUCTION
The International Criminal Court was set up in order to dissuade state officials from participating in behaviors that are considered war crimes and crimes against humanity. The U.S. is a major super power but not a pivotal character in the ICC institution. This fact has had negative effects on U.S. international policy. This paper explores first what the ICC is and how it came to be, and then addresses the weaknesses of the institution, U.S. relations with the ICC and how they effect U.S. international relations, and finally what policy changes need to be made in order to make the ICC more effective.
THE EVENTS THAT LED TO THE CREATION OF THE ICC
The twentieth century was characterized as an era of impressive “judicialization” on an international scale. Following the conclusion of the Cold War, many countries favored establishing courts in a rejuvenated endeavor to find solutions to international problems. Such problems included severe civil wars throughout the world, conflicts arising from the disintegration of global stability previously maintained by the forty-year-long balance of power between the United States and the Soviet Union. It can be argued that “there is a widening consensus that the protection of human rights is a matter of collective international concern and a legitimate object of foreign policy.”1 A United Nations that was limited in its ability to prevent atrocities in Yugoslavia and then Rwanda chose to create ad hoc courts able to bring the perpetrators to justice. The resulting Tribunals functioned as important precedents to the establishment of the International Criminal Court.2 On February 2nd 1999, Senegal became the first country to ratify the Rome Statue, the treaty creating the International Criminal Court. Nearly 160 states met to negotiate the final act for the proposed ICC. 120 states voted in favor, 7 against (including the United States), and 21 abstaining. The ICC came into being on July 2002 six months after the sixth state ratified the court’s statue into its national laws.3
WHAT IS THE ICC?
The ICC is a permanent and independent court. It was established by 104 The International Criminal Court, The United States, and What Next. governments, but it is not clearly in any given government’s interest. The Court has jurisdiction over all potential cases of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes that occur after July 2002 in the territory of a state that has ratified the Rome Statute or that are committed by a citizen of such a state.4 The crimes in the ICC’s statute are already established in international treaties and conventions and the statute therefore does not create new laws but establishes a new collective enforcement mechanism for already accepted universal norms.5
ICC JURISDICTION
The ICC does not allow states to decide whether or not to accept the Court’s jurisdiction on a case- by-case basis which is different than the previous International Court of Justice.6 The Rome Statute is set up the prosecutor’s office where the prosecutor has the ability to commence cases on her or his own initiative without relying solely on the referrals of states.7 In the past, the jurisdiction of ad hoc court systems like the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) targeted specific events and individual actions. The writers of the Rome Statute carefully included within the treaty the language to allow states to address “situations” that include entire spans of conflict, rather than limiting the references to individual cases of wrongdoing.8 The first step in approaching a state with a potential investigation is to allow their government first to administer their own judicial actions through domestic courts. If the procedures are thorough and accurate the ICC will not step in. However, if for any reason the ICC believes the domestic judicial practices are not adequate they then have the jurisdiction to step in and administer their own judicial policies.
STATE OFFICIALS AND THE ICC
The ICC does not recognize any of the immunities traditionally afforded to heads of state and other senior officials under international law. This includes the president, parliament members, and legislative members. The Rome Statute is very clear that all states bound by the treaty agree that their president, parliament members, or any other legislative officials can and will in fact be targeted for investigation; a threat each government has to weigh when deciding whether to ratify the statue.9
WHY DO STATES JOIN THE ICC? If a state has to give up its own sovereignty in order to be a member of the ICC why would the states want to join? Power is something no state gives up willingly. Or do they? Danner and Simon argue there are two reasons why 105 The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College a state decides to join the ICC. The first is that governments anticipate they will never be found in violation of ICC policy. This might point to the reason why the more peaceful Scandinavian countries jumped on board without any hesitation. The second easy answer is that governments expect to be able to use the ICC to legitimate the prosecution of their political opponents. This can be counter-intuitive considering the governments themselves are also vulnerable to prosecution by the ICC. However, this allows the governments in countries who will more likely find themselves in an ICC courtroom to demonstrate to the opposition within their state that the government is willing to go to such lengths to avert conflict that they are willing to even have themselves subjected to the court, giving the government legitimacy through accountability.10
PROBLEMS AND WEAKNESSES OF THE ICC
I. Voluntary Participation
The main problem remains, however, that even though states sign up to a large number of international laws to protect human rights, the laws’ enforcement is nevertheless dependent on voluntary state cooperation.11 The ICC does not have its own police department to enforce the laws that protect human rights. It is the responsibility of the states to enforce sanctions, extradite suspects, and allow the ICC freedom to investigate. When the goals of the ICC conflict with states’ objectives, states will make things difficult for the ICC to carry out its objectives. Governments can interfere with prosecutions by strategically withholding evidence, interfering with investigations, and denying passports or visas to witnesses.12
II. Management Problems
Some of the weaknesses the ICC battles with are self-inflicted. The ICC operates in a complicated, sometimes hostile political environment within its own management team. By early 2003, the leadership of the ICC was configured as a triumvirate consisting of the prosecutor, the court’s president or ceremonial head responsible for external relations, and the registrar or lead administrative officer.13 The main source of conflict between these offices has been the prosecutor, Moreno Ocamp, who has confronted the registrar in an attempt to prevent his bailiwick, or bailiff jurisdiction, from being raided. He has also refused to coordinate with the president and has initiated fights over issues concerning witness protection and human resources. These conflicts have hindered the ICC’s legitimacy and slowed progress. Furthermore, Ocampo’s former aids voiced complaints that his tendencies to micro manage and 106 The International Criminal Court, The United States, and What Next. his irregular modes of decision making were excessively eccentric. Many upstanding employees have already turned their two-week notice in, which has deprived the ICC of the exceptional minds it once had.13
III. Prosecutorial Problems
Perhaps the most demoralizing fact is that, to the frustrations of victims and dozens of governments who have contributed nearly a billion dollars to its budget since 2003, the ICC has yet to complete even a single trial. Its first trial was nearly dismissed twice. The suspect tried was Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, the Congolese Militia leader accused of recruiting children as soldiers. In this case much criticism of Ocampo has been voiced for his failing to include sexual abuse charges, especially from individuals fighting gender discrimination in a country rampant with it. However, Ocampo’s neglect does not stop there. During the trial, he was repeatedly witnessed focusing his attention on his Blackberry and did not even care to stay long enough to hear the defense’s conclusion. On two occasions the judges were forced to order Luanga’s release, the result of serious concerns that the prosecution denied the defense a shared inspection of potentially exonerating evidence. The prosecution also enraged judges by neglecting to fill out appropriate court documents hindering the prosecution’s ability to conduct a trial in good faith.14
VI. Ocampo’s Bold Demonstrations Compromising Cases
Ocampo has also been criticized for his bold demonstrations and brash actions, which end up hindering the cases. For example the ICC had never charged a sitting head of state of genocide. In 2008 Ocampo requested that the judges issue a warrant for the arrest of Ahmad Harun (senior offical of Bashir’s Government), charging him with genocide in addition to war crimes and crimes against humanity. Due to the additional genocide charge it was eight months before the judges could make a decision on the crimes against humanity. It was an additional year and an appeal for the warrant for genocide to be issued; however, by this time the damage had been done. It was obvious to any defense team that the judges would struggle with internal dissent and public confidence if the genocide charge was undermined. By trying to make bold demonstrations he compromised the case. The Sudanese government, which was already failing to participate with the ICC, went into lockdown. It proceeded to remove any humanitarian work within its borders and exhibited aggression towards domestic opposition. The International Crisis group, though having been a strong supporter of the ICC, criticized Ocampo’s methods, claiming that he risked “politicizing his office” and that he took needlessly “confrontational” attitudes 107 The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College with Bashir. As a result, any progress on the Darfur case seems to have come to a complete halt.15
V. International? Or just Africa?
With all six of the ICC’s investigations taking place in Africa- The Central African Republic, Congo, Kenya, Libya, Sudan, and Uganda, the ICC’s reputation as a truly international tribunal is in question. The court has invited the charge that it is an agent for postcolonial Western interests. This is unfortunate because many atrocities do occur in Africa, and international attention should be encouraged, not shunned. The Prosecuting Office has conducted investigations outside of the African continent including Afghanistan, Colombia, Georgia, Honduras, and the Palestine territories, but Ocampo has not chosen to proceed in these territories. With Columbia, there was sufficient evidence to begin thorough investigations of war crimes and crimes against humanity by paramilitary offices with relations to government agencies. The facts demanded investigation, and with Columbian courts appearing unlikely to accuse high ranking officials, the ICC was left alone to intercede but did not.16 This gives Africa enough of a reason to suspect the ICC’s priorities are honed in on their homeland and avoiding contact with other ICC members states who are also in violation of ICC policy. Jesse Helms predicted that “as long as there is a breath in me, The United States will never- and I repeat never, never- allow its national security decisions to be judged by an international criminal court.”16 The United States has always expressed its interest in an international court. The United States played an active role in the Nuremberg trails and also the creation of the UN ad hoc courts ICTY and ICTR. The United States attended all conferences that led up to the signing of the Rome Statue but when the day came the statue did not include acceptable protection measures the U.S. demanded it have in order to agree to it. Three presidential administrations have approached the ICC differently, approaches ranging from extreme hostility to cautious optimism. It is important to examine how these three administrations dealt with the ICC in order to determine what future U.S. policy should entail when dealing with the ICC.
U.S.’S TWO MAIN OPPOSTIONS TO THE ICC
I. Article 12
First let us look at the U.S.’s two main oppositions to the ICC. One, the Court’s jurisdiction as it is set out in Article 12 and Article 2, the fact that the 108 The International Criminal Court, The United States, and What Next.
ICC is independent from the UN Security Council and does not recognize the “special” role that the United States plays as a major superpower in international relations. Article 12 of the Rome Statute gives the ICC jurisdiction if an offense is committed on a state party’s territory or if the accused is a national of an ICC member state. Therefore, if a U.S. national was accused of committing an ICC crime on a state party’s territory, the ICC could try him or her without the consent of the U.S. The U.S. argues this, in turn, gives the ICC universal jurisdiction, which is not customary in international law.17 As a result, however, the U.S. is unfortunately guilty of using a double standard. It has signed other treaties that include provisions such as the Torture Convention, allowing and even requiring prosecution or extradition of alleged criminals, regardless of their nationality. It is evident “that there is no objection in principle to the idea of international courts”18 but that the objection is only related to an international court exercising criminal jurisdiction over Americans.19
II. Great Power Responsibility
Even though the goals of the ICC in human rights are the same as those in the U.S., the U.S. is concerned that the independence and flexibility of its military forces will be threatened. Some people suggest that the U.S. is a major super power and should be awarded special consideration because, as the saying goes, with great power comes great responsibility. As a member of the ICC, the U.S. could find its hands tied behind its back when issues of international peace and security are involved. 20 However others argue that since the U.S. is a democratic nation, accountability should be a major objective. The ICC would ensure that the U.S. would not only be accountable to itself but to the international community as well.21 The ICC is independent from the UN, which is a major concern for the United States because it cannot fully control the ICC through its powers in the Security Council. The Security Council is limited merely to recommending attention to a situation in which human rights laws are perhaps violated. Article 16, standing as an important adjustment to the statute, declares that no one state, not even the five permanent members of the Security Council, may be in complete control of ICC proceedings. This act is the resulting compromise of the two institutions distinguishing the functions they address. The UN is state centered and focuses on the protection of states’ sovereignty, while the ICC attempts to implement justice universally and independently of states’ influence.22
THE CLINTON ADMINISTRATION AND THE ICC
109 The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College
President Clinton did not sign the Rome Statute mainly because of the fact that he could not fully control ICC actions in case they conflicted with possible U.S. interest. The U.S. believed it could keep its stronghold over international justice without having to join the ICC.23 Clinton continued to negotiate in order to debate about the terms the U.S. required the statute contain to protect in U.S. interests. David Scheffer, the US ambassador at large for war crimes issues and head of the US delegation, argued that “the statute had come to a point where the U.S. should sign for the greater good of enforcing universal norms globally, and that the U.S. had much to gain from joining the court”. He also believed that it was necessary to sign the treaty in order “to negotiate further Treaty friendly proposals and thus protect American interests while pursuing international justice.”24 But on December 31st, 2000, the last day the states could sign the statue, Clinton decided to sign the statute. He wanted to express U.S.’s “strong support for international accountability and for bringing justice to all in the years to come” and to keep U.S. “moral leadership” in years to come.25 President Clinton recognized that it was in the U.S. national interest to stay engaged with the ICC and be able to take part in future negotiations. And hopefully these negotiations would lead to more U.S. friendly policies. But this cautious optimism would not last long.
THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION AND THE ICC
The Bush administration would be very hostile towards the ICC. John Bolton, Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, exemplified the straightforward rejection the Bush administration used when dealing with the ICC. He argued that “America’s posture towards the ICC should be “Three Noes,” no financial support, directly or indirectly; no cooperation; and no further negotiations with other governments to improve the ICC.”26 On May 6th 2002, President Bush decided formally to withdraw from the Rome treaty and effectively to “unsign” it. Bolton, the most vocal opponent of the ICC, maintained that the ICC was “a stealth approach to eroding our constitutionalism and undermining the independence and flexibility that our military forces need to defend our interests around the world.”27 Thus, the Bush administration declared adamantly that it was attempting to move away from “multilaterism” and that it understood justice for the victims of human rights violations to be a state’s concern, rather than international governance. However, by unsigning the treaty the U.S. gave up any chance of being involved in the creation of the ICC and the policies it might adopt, as well as use of the ICC for their own interest. Several members of Congress sent letters to President Bush protesting the unsigning of the treaty saying, “this has damaged the moral credibility of the United States and serves as a U.S. repudiation of the notion 110 The International Criminal Court, The United States, and What Next. that war criminals and perpetrators of genocide should be brought to justice.”27 The letter also pointed out that such “unilateral action may have undesirable consequences on multilateral treaty-making and generally on the rule of law in international relations.”28 Which it did.
BUSH’S ATTEMPT TO UNDERMINE THE ICC
Resolution 1422
The U.S. could not prevent the ICC from becoming more substantial and forceful, and the Bush administration therefore tried extensively to undermine the operations of the court and exempt nations from its influence. In 2002 fearful that its troops would fall under ICC jurisdiction the U.S. vetoed a vote to extend the UN peacekeeping mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina, threatening a complete withdrawal of its troops invested in the UN security force.29 Fortunately, by unanimous vote (despite the criticisms of several non- voting states) the UN passed Resolution 1422 which exempted from the ICC’s jurisdiction for a period of twelve months all peacekeeping personnel. The resolution was then given a further twelve months in 2003,30 and a third attempt at renewal only fell apart because U.S. soldiers were being accused of abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and the U.S. did not want to bring the Security Council into a “prolonged and divisive debate.”30 The U.S. approached the UN and expressed that because the resolution was not signed they would be forced to pull out funding and personnel from ICC territories. A few days later, the Defense Department announced that it would withdraw personnel from peacekeeping missions in Ethiopia and Eritrea and also Kosovo because they were perceived to be at risk of ICC jurisdiction. Altogether, only nine individuals were withdrawn at the time. This was done in order to keep up the appearance of ICC defiance but was much less aggressive than the actions taken earlier.31
Bilateral Immunity Agreements (BIAs) & the American Service-Members Protection Act (ASPA)
Two of the most important measures implemented by the Bush administration were Bilateral Immunity Agreements (BIAs) and the American Service-Members Protection Act. The bilateral Article 98 agreements between the U.S. and individual states requires that U.S. personnel and nationals cannot be detained, arrested, or sent to the ICC. This was supposed to be used in order to make sure U.S. jurisdiction would protect its nationals even if they went
111 The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College into ICC territory. But the Bush administration used this provision to seek exemptions from a number of different states, exerting strong diplomatic and financial pressure if states did not sign. One hundred and two states have signed the BIA’s including 52 ICC member states.32 The European Parliament issued an official position in which it not only outlined its opposition to these agreements, but also argued, “ratifying such an agreement is incompatible with membership of the EU.”33 The Bush administration even signed these agreements into law, requiring the U.S. to do whatever is necessary to rescue a U.S. citizen that has been taken into custody by the ICC court. As it turns out, the BIAs and the American Service-Members Protection Acts (ASPAs) are actually more harmful to the U.S. than helpful. Cuts in military assistance to countries that have not signed the BIAs mean lost opportunities of military training provided by U.S. troops aimed at strengthening U.S. links to other countries, particularly in its fight against terrorism.34 Other concerns have arisen because where U.S. military forces were not there to help China has taken the opportunity to be present in order to gain influence.35 Even Condoleezza Rice admitted that the Article 98 agreements are like “shooting ourselves in the foot.”36 By the fall of 2008, the U.S. waived and withdrew several restrictions pertaining to the refusal of certain countries to sign BIAs as well as all sanction provisions of ASPA. Admitting that Article 98 restrictions had failed, the United States declared that it needed to be done away with “once and for all.”37
OBAMA’S ADMINISTRATION AND THE ICC
Hilary Clinton, the Secretary of State to President Barack Obama, laid out the administration’s approach by stating “we will end hostility towards the ICC and look for opportunities to encourage effective ICC action in ways to promote US interests by bringing war criminals to justice.” Although the United States is still not a member of the ICC there is a shift from Bush’s unilateral approach to a multilateral approach. The Obama Administration is committed to collaborating with the ICC on such matters as prosecuting leaders of the Ugandan LRA and has definitely declared its intent to rejoin the Rome Statute or enlist the Senate to ratify the treaty.
WHAT’S NEXT?
Should the U.S join the ICC?
The United States should approach the ICC the way the Clinton and Obama administrations did: with cautious optimism. In order to keep cordial 112 The International Criminal Court, The United States, and What Next. international relations the U.S. needs to at the very least appear to be considering membership into the ICC. But is it in our best interest? No. The U.S. is such a major super power and a respected one that it is paramount for the U.S. to keep its autonomy. With great power comes great responsibility. The U.S. has a responsibility to the rest of the world to be able to process judicial decisions without the constraints of an international court. In all honestly, the U.S. court system is one of the fairest tribunal institutions. Anyone indicted for a heinous crime that would be considered under ICC jurisdiction will have his or her day in court on American soil. As for the U.S. heads of state being accountable, the U.S. court system does hold them accountable. The additional overlapping jurisdiction is not necessary. However, the U.S. needs to stay tuned into the ICC and even give the appearance that there is a chance that somewhere down the road America will join. This is necessary in order to keep international relations pleasant and hopefully sometimes even beneficial. America has already seen what happens to international relations if a hostile approach is taken.
What needs to be done to make the ICC more effective?
The first plan of action is to replace the prosecutor Ocampo with a prosecutor who can meet the court’s most serious challenges: concluding trials, convincing governments to arrest fugitives, conducting credible investigations in difficult places such as Libya and Sudan, and expanding the ICC’s reach beyond Africa. This may be a great deal to ask for, but the future of the ICC depends on it. Outside of the prosecutor’s position there must be an effort to gain back confidence of the ICC’s investigators, analysts, and other prosecutors. Recruiting and retaining the most highly qualified staff members means giving them substantial authority and providing them with guidance, without micromanaging them. One way in which to gain credit back from appearing as a post Western colonial institution would be to hire an African prosecutor. Having an African lead the prosecution over the next decade could help inspire domestic and regional efforts at developing accountability and the rule of law by demonstrating that international justice is not a norm imposed by the West but one shared by a top African jurist.
CONCLUSION
The objectives of the ICC are noble, but is an international court the answer to dissuading anyone from participating in crimes against humanity? International justice does not work because every territory has different social norms. What one society finds taboo, others find normal. David Easton’s accepted definition of political science indicates the important role social values 113 The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College play in judicial practices. Easton defined a political system as “the authoritative allocation of values for society as a whole.”33 Yet the international community does not have a conformed set of values as a whole. There does seem to be a universal understanding about war crimes and extreme crimes against humanity. But will it stop there? If the ICC were to gain power and momentum, what would stop it from adding more laws to the books? Individual societies should be in charge of their own judicial systems because their laws reflect the social norms people within that environment are comfortable with. On the other hand, if states do want to participate in an international judicial system they should be allowed to do so with the U.S.’s blessing.
Notes
1Mayerfeld, J. “Who shall be judged?: The United States, the International Criminal Court and the Global Enforcement of Human Rights,” HumanRights Quarterly 25, no 1 (2003): 93-129 2Danner, Allison & Simmons, Beth A., Credible Commitments and the International Criminal Court, International Organization 64 Spring 2010 pp 225-56 3Birdsall, Andrea, The Monster That we need to slay? Global Governance, the United States, and the International Criminal Court, Global Governance 16 2010 pp 451-69 4 Rome Statue, Article 12 (2) 5 G. Hafner, K. Boon, A Ruesame, and J. Huston, “A Respondse to the American View as Presented by Ruth Wedgwood,” European Journal of International Law 10. No. 1 (1999): 108-123 6 Lee, Roy S. K. 1999. Introduction: The Rome Confernece and Its contribution to International Law. In The International Criminal Court: making of the Rome Statue- Issues, Negotiations, and Results, edited by Roy S. lee, 1-39. The Hague, Netherlands: Kluwer Law International. 7 Danner, Allison, 2003. Enhancing the Legitamacy and Accountability of Prosecutorial Discretion at the International Criminal Court. American Journal of International Law 97 (3):510-52 8 Rome Statue Article 14 9 Danner, Allison & Simmons, Beth A., Credible Commitments and the International Criminal Court, International Organization 64 Spring 2010 pp 225-56 10 Danner, Allison & Simmons, Beth A., Credible Commitments and the International Criminal Court, International Organization 64 Spring 2010 pp 225-56
114 The International Criminal Court, The United States, and What Next.
11 Birdsall, Andrea, The Monster That we need to slay? Global Governance, the United States, and the International Criminal Court, Global Governance 16 2010 pp 451-69 12 Peskin, Victor A. 2008 International Justicr in Rwanda and the Balkans: Virual Trials and the Struggle for State Cooperation. New York: Cambridge University Press 13 Johannesburg, Johann, The international Criminal Court bares it’s teeth, Economist 5/14/2011 Vol. 398 Issue 8933, pp 57-58 14 Johannesburg, Johann, The international Criminal Court bares it’s teeth, Economist 5/14/2011 Vol. 398 Issue 8933, pp 57-58 15 Lietzau, W. K. “International Criminal Law after Rome: Concerns with the U.S. Military Perspective.” Law and Contemporary Problems 64, no. 1 (2001): 119-140 16“Is a U.N. International Criminal Court in the U.S. National Interest?” Subcommittee on International Operationals on the Commitee of Foreign Relations, United States Senate, 1998 105th Congress, 2nd Session, 23 July 1998, p 6 17 Scheffer, D.L. “Staying th Course with the International Criminal Court” Cornell International Law Journal 35, no. 1 (2001): 124-131 18 Sands, P. Lawless World: America and the Making and Breaking of Global Rules (London: Peguin; London: Allen Lane, 2005) 19 Birdsall, Andrea, The Monster That we need to slay? Global Governance, the United States, and the International Criminal Court, Global Governance 16 2010 pp 451-69 20 Lietzau, W. K. “International Criminal Law after Rome: Concerns with the U.S. Military Perspective”. Law and Contemporary Problems 64, no. 1 (2001): 119-140 21 Ralph, J. “Between Cosmopolitan and American Democracy: Understanding US Opposition to the International Criminal Court” International Relations 17. No. 2 (2003): 195-212 22 Birdsall, Andrea, The Monster That we need to slay? Global Governance, the United States, and the International Criminal Court, Global Governance 16 2010 pp 451-69 23 Ralph, J. “International Society, The international Criminal Court and American Foreign Policy”. Review of International Studies 31, no. 1 (2005): 27- 44 24 Scheffer, D.J. “Restoring U.S. Engangement with the International Criminal Court,” Wisconsin International Law Journal 21. No. 3 (2003): 599-609 25 Statement by Bill Clinton: Signature of the International Criminal Court Treaty, 31 December 2000, Camp David, Maryland
115 The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College
26 Bolton, J.R. “The Risks and Weaknesses of the International Criminal Court from an American Perspective” Law and Contemporary Problems 64 no. 1 (2001) 27 Bolten, J.R. “Unsign that Treaty” Washington Post 4 January 2001, p A21 28 Congressional Letter to President Georgia W. Bush, 22 May 2002, signed by fourty-four democrats and one Republican. 29 UN Security Council. Record of the 456 3rd Security Council Meeting, 30 June 2002 30 Boucher, State Department noon briefing 31 Aita, J. “US Drops Effort to Secure ICC Immunity for Peacekeepers” 23 June 2004, available at www.usembassy.it/file2004_06/alia/a4062304.htm 32 McGoldrick, “Political and Legal Reponses to the ICC” in D. McGoldrick, P. Rowe, and E. Donnelly. Eds. The Permanent International Criminal Court: Legal and Policy Issues (Oxford, UK: Hart, 2004), pp 389-449 33 European Parliament resolution on the International Criminal Court (ICC) (2002) P5_TA (2002)0449 34 Birdsall, Andrea, The Monster That we need to slay? Global Governance, the United States, and the International Criminal Court, Global Governance 16 2010 pp 451-69 35 Posture Statement of General Bantz J. Craddock. United States Army Commander, Senate Armed Services Committee, 109th Congress, 2nd Session. 14 March 2006 p. 26 36 US Department of State, On the Record Briefing, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Enroute to San Juan, Puerto Rico, March 10 2006, http:// montevideo.usembassy.gov/useweb/paginas/2006/06-094aEN.shtml 37 US Congress, House of Representatives, Foreign Assistance in the Americas, House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, 110th Congress, 2nd Session, 16 September 2008, p 12
Citations
1. Abbott, Kenneth., and ducan Snidal. 2000. Hard and Soft Law in the International Governace. International Organization 54 (3): 421-56
2. Danner, Allison & Simmons. 2006. Why States Join the International Criminal Court. Manuscript. Available at http://www.northwestern.edu/ collequium/international/Danner.pdf. Accessed July 2011
3. Danner, Allison & Simmons, Beth A., Credible Commitments and the International Criminal Court, International Organization 64 Spring 2010 pp 225-56 116 The International Criminal Court, The United States, and What Next.
4. Birdsall, Andrea, The Monster That we need to slay? Global Governance, the United States, and the International Criminal Court, Global Governance 16 2010 pp 451-69
5. Johannesburg, Johann, The international Criminal Court bares it’s teeth, Economist 5/14/2011 Vol. 398 Issue 8933, pp 57-58
6. Kaye, David, Who is Afraid of the International Criminal Court?, Foreign Affairs May/June 2011 Vol. 90 Issue 3 pg 118-129
7. Katzenstein, Suzanne, 2009. Stratigic Delegation and the Establishment of the International Criminal Court. Paper presented at the 67th Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, April, Chicago
8. Mayerfeld, J. “Who shall be judged?: The United States, the International Criminal Court and the Global Enforcement of Human Rights,” Human Rights Quarterly 25, no 1 (2003): 93-129
9. Lee, Roy S. K. 1999. Introduction: The Rome Confernece and Its contribution to International Law. In The International Criminal Court: making of the Rome Statue- Issues, Negotiations, and Results, edited by Roy S. lee, 1-39. The Hague, Netherlands: Kluwer Law International.
10. Danner, Allison, 2003. Enhancing the Legitamacy and Accountability of Prosecutorial Discretion at the International Criminal Court. American Journal of International Law 97 (3):510-52
11. G. Hafner, K. Boon, A Ruesame, and J. Huston, “A Respondse to the American View as Presented by Ruth Wedgwood,” European Journal of International Law 10. No. 1 (1999): 108-123
12. Peskin, Victor A. 2008 International Justicr in Rwanda and the Balkans: Virual Trials and the Struggle for State Cooperation. New York: Cambridge University Press
13. “Is a U.N. International Criminal Court in the U.S. National Interest?” Subcommittee on International Operationals on the Commitee of Foreign Relations, United States Senate, 1998 105th Congress, 2 Session23 July 1998 p 6
117 The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College
14. Scheffer, D.L. “Staying th Course with the International Criminal Court” Cornell International Law Journal 35, no. 1 (2001): 124-131
15. Sands, P. Lawless World: America and the Making and Breaking of Global Rules (London: Peguin; London: Allen Lane, 2005)
16. Lietzau, W. K. “International Criminal Law after Rome: Concerns with the U.S. Military Perspective”. Law and Contemporary Problems 64, no. 1 (2001): 119-140
17. Ralph, J. “Between Cosmopolitan and American Democracy: Understanding US Opposition to the International Criminal Court” International Relations 17. No. 2 (2003): 195-212
18. Ralph, J. “International Society, The international Criminal Court and American Foreign Policy”. Review of International Studies 31, no. 1 (2005): 27-44
19. Statement by Bill Clinton: Signature of the International Criminal Court Treaty, 31 December 2000, Camp David, Maryland
20. Bolton, J.R. “The Risks and Weaknesses of the International Criminal Court from an American Perspective” Law and Contemporary Problems 64 no. 1 (2001)
21. Bolten, J.R. “Unsign that Treaty” Washington Post 4 January 2001, p A21
22. Congressional Letter to President Georgia W. Bus, 22 May 2002, signed by fourty-four democrats and one Republican
23. Bolten, J.R. “Unsign that Treaty” Washington Post 4 January 2001, p A21
24. UN Security Council. Record of the 456 3rd Security Council Meeting, 30 June 2002
25. Resolution 1422 (2002)
26. Boucher, State Department noon briefing
118 The International Criminal Court, The United States, and What Next.
27. Aita, J. “US Drops Effort to Secure ICC Immunity for Peacekeepers” 23 June 2004, available at www.usembassy.it/file2004_06/alia/ a4062304.htm
28. McGoldrick, “Political and Legal Reponses to the ICC” in D. McGoldrick, P. Rowe, and E. Donnelly. Eds. The Permanent International Criminal Court: Legal and Policy Issues (Oxford, UK: Hart, 2004), pp 389-449
29. European Parliament resolution on the International Criminal Court (ICC) (2002) P5_TA (2002)0449
30. Posture Statement of General Bantz J. Craddock. United States Army Commander, Senate Armed Services Committee, 109th Congress, 2nd Session. 14 March 2006 p. 26
31. US Department of State, On the Record Briefing, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Enroute to San Juan, Puerto Rico, March 10 2006, http://montevideo.usembassy.gov/useweb/paginas/2006/06-094aEN. shtml
32. US Congress, House of Representatives, Foreign Assistnce in the Americas, House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, 110th Congress, 2nd Session, 16 September 2008, p 12
33. Easton, David. The Political System. An Inquiry into the State of Political Science, New York: Knopf. 1953
119 The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College
Jury Justice from the Classic Greeks
Andrew M. Whittaker Dr. Jerry Herbel Faculty Sponsor
Trial by jury is a constitutionally guaranteed right, and the concept of being judged by one’s peers is a foundational principle in Western society. It is assumed that criminal cases are best and most equitably decided by juries and general consensus is that a judicial case decided by a jury is inherently more acceptable than any alternative. With that said, the foundations for the modern Western judicial practice, like most other essential practices, rests in the Golden Age of Athens and Greece. While the chain of descent is long and varied, in Greece, one can find the first trace of legitimized trial by jury in keeping with the Western tradition. As such, in order to fully grasp the complexities of the system including its shortcomings and its successes, one must first consider its origins. To that end, a contrast of the trial of Socrates and the trial of Orestes can be considered. While the trial of Orestes is entirely fictional and intended foremost to entertain, it is nonetheless an accurate telling of the myth upon which Greek jury trials were founded. Conversely, the trial of Socrates as presented in Plato’s Apology is considered almost entirely factual and is the subject of considerable scholarly research. Yet in both of these cases one can see the full gamut of both esteemed and undesirable attributes inherent to jury trials. They are excellent illustrations of how jury trials originated and also provide considerable commentary on the mechanisms of the court proceeding itself. Beyond their value as examples of a foundational principle’s development, the trials have literary and political weight in and of themselves that are particularly noticeable when they are contrasted against each other. A detailed understanding of the content of both trials is essential to considering their larger impact and the value of their contrast. While the mechanisms and facets of the jury system will be examined more closely, the content of these two works are of foundational importance. As is the case with any ancient historical account, the details of the backgrounds of each case are somewhat speculative and almost never complete. That said, the first trial to be considered, that of Socrates, is arguably the most written about judicial proceeding in ancient history. Plato regarded this historical event as a turning point in his own life (West, 16) and as such the philosophical implications of the case cannot be overstated. The Apology is broken down into three speeches by Socrates, the longest of which is his defense against the accusations of impiety and corrupting the youth. Interestingly, Socrates opens his defense with a refutation of one of the most prominent shortcomings of trial by jury: the lack of impartiality. He contrasts his own poor and unattractive nature with the 120 Jury Justice from the Classic Greeks flowery, refined presentation of his accusers and says his reputation among the Athenian citizens who compose the jury precludes the possibility of an unbiased jury. His argument extends to include the questioning of his accusers’ motives, the refutation of the charge of corrupting the youth, and the challenging of civic dogmatism. His defense speech concludes with his portraying himself as a stalwart of civic engagement whose philosophy is a service to the city as a whole. After his defense fails to win a majority of jurors and a guilty verdict is rendered, Socrates begins his second speech. This speech is perhaps the most interesting aspect of the trial from a procedural perspective because in it he proposes an option for his own punishment. While his initial proposal is a patently hubristic protest to the initial verdict and the second proposal a final effort for something other than the death penalty, the speech nonetheless illustrates the mechanism of sentencing counterproposals. The sentencing in ancient Athenian trials varied by circumstance; however, in this case there is a series of arguments and proposals made by the opposing sides. This process of counterproposals based on precedent was roughly equivalent to haggling over a proper punishment. Socrates utilizes this mechanism in a way consistent with his philosophical approach to life in that it is an all-or-nothing proposition. Ultimately the jury condemns Socrates to die by hemlock, a particularly merciful ruling according to Dr. Brian McCannon, a professor of economics at Wake Forest University, who presents an argument that “Hemlock may have been a privilege and rarely used.” (McCannon, 48) In the final speech of Apology, Socrates chastises those who voted for condemnation and praises those who sided with him. This section of the trial is unique to Athenian jury trials and is un-replicated in the modern system. Ultimately the entire Platonic dialogue is more famous for the content of the arguments than the process itself. However, the content hinges on the process of the trial and much like the trial of Orestes, the order in which the trial precedes drastically affects the argumentation employed. Unlike The Apology, in which the only voice heard is that of Socrates, The Eumenides is the third tragedy in a trilogy by Aeschylus and, as such, has multiple players, a detailed back story, and a fully developed plot. The trial serves as the denouement of the trilogy and the facts of the case are relatively simple. Orestes is haunted by the Furies, three netherworld deities whose task is to avenge crimes against the natural order, specifically unjustified homicide. Orsetes’ mother summoned the Furies, who serve as the chorus of the play, after she was murdered by her son in retaliation for her own killing of Orestes’ father, Agamemnon. This self-perpetuating cycle of retaliatory killings is a
121 The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College central theme of the trilogy and the trial serves to provide a civilized alternative to reactionary violence. After being assailed by the Furies, and at the behest of Apollo, Orestes flees to the temple of Athena and summons her in an effort to placate his tormenters. Athena appears and the Furies defer to her the power to decide Orestes’ fate saying, “Examine him then yourself. Decide it and be fair… By all means your father’s degree and yours deserve as much.” (Aeschylus, 150, 433) In this way, the Furies enable the creation of a system by which reciprocated violence can be ended in a just fashion. Athena accepts the obligation of deciding Orestes’ fate and determines that a trial will be the proper mechanism. Athena explains the method of the trial, saying, “I shall select judges of manslaughter, and swear them in, establish a court into all time to come. Litigants call your witnesses; have ready your proofs as evidence under bond to keep this case secure. I will pick the finest of my citizens, and come back. They shall swear to make no judgment that is not just and make clear where in this action the truth lies.” (Aeschylus, 152, 483-489) The process outline in her declaration is rather reminiscent of the modern system for jury trials and, indeed, this is one of the first occurrences of trial by jury in Greek antiquity. After a long statement by the Furies, the trial proceeds with Orestes defending himself against the deities from Hades. Interestingly, Apollo intervenes and acts as Orestes’ legal counsel and his utilization of representation is the first time in Greek lore that an individual not directly involved with an incident defends someone else’s behavior. This facet of the trial also contrasts sharply with Socrates self-defense. Ultimately, a vote is held which results in a hung jury. Athena then breaks the tie by casting a vote for Orestes’ innocence. Both works pertain to the general themes of faith, justice, and the rule of law. While the stories do pertain to central commonalities, they are no less distinct from one another. The Apology serves as a historical account of a societal crime relating to religious piety contrasted against Orestes’ very pious plea for resolution of his alleged crime. Indeed the contrast between being accused of disbelief in the gods and actually being defended by one is glaring. In addition to the distinction between each defendants’ piety there is the difference in each one’s attempted defense. While Socrates presents a rational argument to the jury for why the charges of impiety and corrupting the youth could not be true, Orestes appeals to divine providence, asserting his actions were entirely justified because of their sanctioning by Apollo. Further, the two works most sharply contrast in that the opposition’s argument is only presented thoroughly in The Eumenides. By not including the accusers’ speeches, Plato ensures that only one side of the issue is well represented. Conversely, Aeschylus presents the argument for Orestes’ guilt very thoroughly and it could be easily asserted that the arguments of the Furies are more persuasive. Yet these contrasts and 122 Jury Justice from the Classic Greeks commonalities of content are secondary to the contrast of mechanisms. The court proceedings themselves bear striking differences and the variances seem to account for the difference in verdicts. First, consider who is presenting the accusations and the manner in which they do so. For Socrates, the accusations originated from wealthy, conservative Athenians who attacked the philosopher on the grounds that he challenged the status quo. In the first part of his defense Socrates addresses the long history of attacks by his accusers and the preconceived notions of the jurors who hear the case saying, “They got a hold of many of you from childhood, and they accused me and persuaded you… That there is a certain Socrates, a wise man, a thinker on the thing aloft, who has investigated all things under the earth, and who makes the weaker speech the stronger.” (Plato, 64, 18b) The long history between Socrates and his accusers, and the resulting taint of his jury, contrasts sharply with Orestes’ relationship to his accusers. The Furies are a divine entity without personal enmity for Orestes beyond that which resulted from his killing his mother. They present their case in a direct way, asking simple questions without other motive than the accomplishment of justice. Additionally, while the prosecution in Socrates’ case simply gave a speech, the Furies employ the Socratic method of questioning the defendant and witnesses directly. This latter example is much more akin to the modern jurisprudence in which a combination of both styles of proceedings has been implemented. Secondly, consider the employment of counsel by Orestes and the traditional self-defense enacted by Socrates. Most research suggests that Athenian citizens accused of capital crimes and placed on trial defended themselves, and the utilization of an attorney to speak on one’s behalf was not a common occurrence. Further, witnesses to a crime or to a citizen’s innocence were not questioned as they are today, but rather individuals were simply cited as being on one side of the case or the other. (McCannon, 42) Socrates does not employ counsel or call witnesses in his own defense but rather quotes friendly witnesses within his own defense. Conversely, in the Aeschylean drama, Apollo is portrayed as a hybrid of legal counsel in the modern connotation and a witness as they are commonly considered in modern trials. Specifically, Orestes says, “Bear witness now, Apollo, and expound the case for me, if I was right to cut her down… As you answer, shall state my case.” (Aeschylus, 157, 609-610) In so doing, Orestes asks Apollo to act as both witness and lawyer. While the presentations of the prosecutions vary and the mechanisms of counsel and witnesses are conspicuously absent from the trial of Socrates, the most interesting contrast of the two trials lies in the juries. The compositions and size vary widely, while the basic premise and goal of each remains consistent. For Socrates, the jury was composed of more than 500 citizens, all of whom had most likely heard of him prior to the trial if they had not in fact met him. His is a 123 The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College case roughly akin to a celebrity trial in which the jurors were all familiar with the players involved. Conversely, the jurors in Orestes’ trial numbered only eight, and Aeschylus makes no indication that they had any prior knowledge of Orestes or his circumstances. Indeed Athena refers to them as “her finest citizens” (Aeschylus, 152, 487), and the premise of their ruling within the drama is that they are entirely unbiased. A small number of unbiased jurors compared to hundreds of jurors steeped with pre-trial knowledge of Socrates and his accusers is a major point of contrast. It is within this contrast of juries that the question of justice can be considered. It can be considered not only whether justice is served in these two specific cases, but rather if the system as a whole is more apt at rendering just verdicts than any alternative. First, one must consider if the size of the jury is an important factor in rendering just verdicts. Secondly, the rulings in these cases are considered legitimate in the eyes of observers because the juries’ consensus is a natural foundation for what most consider justice. Specifically, are jury trials considered just because they serve as a microcosm of society in general, which in the absence of an absolute standard for conduct defines justice?This question correlates well with the third level of analysis in which one must consider the fallibility of jury trials. While the question of what justice looks like cannot be definitively answered, all aspects of a jury, specifically size and composition, relate to the rulings it renders and the correlating amount of justice contained in that ruling. The assertion that bigger is better in relation to juries is a prevalent notion. The size of the standard American jury has expanded gradually throughout American history to one numbering half of the 500 jurors of Orestes’ jury. Further, the Supreme Court, though not technically a jury, operates in a similar way and has been enlarged to nearly double its original composition. To analyze why an enlarged jury is preferable to an alternative, one needs only to consider the argument against the expanse of the Supreme Court during the Roosevelt administration of the 1930s. While attempting to receive judicial approval for his New Deal programs, Roosevelt threatened to pack the court and add new members to it. This would dilute the vote of the current justices and make their individual voices less relevant. Extrapolating that principle and applying it to the trials at hand, one can see that a larger jury is less likely to be swung or led by a small minority opinion. Specifically, in Socrates’ trial, his argument could not have been effective had it only been catered to a select group or minority. The requirement with a larger jury is that consensus must be reached with a larger group of people, a much more difficult task with a sizable group as compared to a small one. Conversely, Orestes needed only to convince five individuals in order to ensure a verdict he desired. By percentage the jury size is irrelevant in terms of how many people a defendant must convince. 124 Jury Justice from the Classic Greeks
However, a pragmatic review of the realities of achieving consensus in a group reveals a decided advantage to having larger juries. With more minds analyzing a situation, the outliers, or those whose opinion would strongly deviate from the mainstream consensus of society, are by percentage discounted more greatly than if the jury was of a small number. This results in the rulings being more likely to align with what society in general perceives to be best. If operating on the premise that popular consensus determines justice, then a verdict more apt to coincide with societal norms is consequently more likely to be a just verdict. The logical reality of a large jury being better than a small one correlates well with the concept of a court proceeding attaining legitimacy in the eyes of the entire society. In the modern context jurors are randomly selected and are proportionally representative of a local population. As such, optimally the jury’s decisions are reflective of the population’s values and ideals. Within a democracy, the jury system insists to a fault that what society desires is popular justice; that is, “the conscience of a community.” In so doing, the democratic society, ancient Greek or modern American, sanctions the substitution of the rule of law for the popular rule of the people. This principle is seen plainly in Aeschylus’ drama. The Furies are a manifestation of the rigidity of the rule of law and say specifically, “We hold we are straight and just… As witnesses of the truth we show clear in the end.” (Aeschylus, 146, 312,318) Yet their inflexible exacting of perfect justice on Orestes is challenged within the myth and Athena gives legitimacy to the notion that societal consensus on the topic may carry more weight than divine implementation. This trial by jury, and the Furies’ acquiescence to its ruling, cements the democratic reality that justice is not defined universally, but rather by the consensus of a group of individuals who are a proper societal representation. The concept of juries being more apposite for the dispensation of justice than any other judicial system is not entirely conclusive. However, there does seem to be a high level of agreement that jury trials are an integral part of democratic societies. Thomas Jefferson enumerated in his first inaugural address the foundational principles of American government, saying, “Equal and exact justice to all men… freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of the person under the protection of habeas corpus; and trail by juries impartially selected – these principles form the bright constellation that has gone before us.” (Jefferson, 43) It is apparent then that trial by jury is an absolute underpinning of American democracy as well as Western philosophy in general. It is perhaps ironic, then, that the democratic nature of juries and their variable definitions of justice has provoked a crisis of confidence in the quality and accuracy of jury verdicts. As such, it is imperative that the weaknesses of the system be examined and these two specific cases be especially scrutinized as they serve as forerunners to the Western judicial system as a whole. The causation of 125 The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College skepticism of jury trials is readily apparent in both the trial of Socrates and Orestes and it seems all too similar to the reasons for doubt in modern jury justice. First, consider the question of how influenced juries are by their emotional disposition as compared to their consideration of veritable facts. Socrates was the victim of a jury comprised of predisposed men within an emotionally charged atmosphere. His rationale and defense would, by all scholarly accounts, have been more than enough to earn an acquittal had the jurors not already been aligned against him. Indeed, after his conviction, while arguing for exile as opposed to death, Socrates disclaims the jurors’ emotional decision making by saying, “I would certainly be possessed by much love of soul, Men of Athens, if I were so unreasonable that I were not able to reason that you who are my fellow citizens were not able to bear ways of spending time and my speeches, but that instead they have become grave and hateful to you, so that you are now seeking to be released from them.” (Plato, 91, 37d) The philosopher is commenting on the impact the jurors’ emotional swing is having on their capacity to dispense a reasonable ruling. The claim here is that their distaste for the speeches and philosophy they once admired has negatively impacted their capacity to objectively consider his case. This notion is telling and provides a link to the modern juror in that the problem Socrates notes is still prevalent today. Opponents of the jury justice system are quick to point out that juries decide cases according to emotion, prejudice, and sympathy more than according to law and evidence. They have the ability to turn trials into travesties in that they are apt to judge based on race, gender, or a defendants’ manner of dress. Jeffery Abramson, a legal scholar from Harvard Law, says poignantly, “The jury signifies the rule of emotion over reason, prejudice over principle, whim over written law.” (Abramson, 6) The non-objective and variable nature of juries is just one cause for criticism of the jury justice system. A more pressing reason to be critical of juries is their capacity to act tyrannically and without fear of repercussion. Plainly put, a jury is a microcosm of the legislative process in that they are in fact charged with enacting and implementing law. A jury, moved to ignore plain evidence, convinced to feel compassion when there is room for none before the law, or acting in a contra-precedential manner is essentially acting in a tyrannical way. This issue is particularly problematic in democratic societies. Elected legislatures are charged constitutionally with the implementation of laws. However, the jury system operates in only a pseudo-democratic way. Abramson comments, “It [the jury justice system] invites or at least permits an anonymous group of unelected people to spurn laws passed by a democratically elected legislature.” (Abramson, 44) This occurrence forms the jury into an essentially lawless institution, rendering decisions for which the jurors will never be held 126 Jury Justice from the Classic Greeks accountable. The resultant spurning of established laws and traditions is an issue specifically addressed inThe Eumenides. The Furies, the embodiment of justice and the established traditions thereof, repeat a mantra of decrying the jury’s capacity to overrule the long-standing institution of reciprocated violence as the only acceptable manifestation of justice. Prior to the trial, the chorus begins an extended monologue by saying, “Here is the overthrow of all the law, if the claim of this matricide shall stand good, his crime be sustained. Should this be, everyman will find a way to act at his own caprice; over and over again in time to come.” (Aeschylus, 152, 490-498) The prophetic statement has indeed been realized in the era of modern juries. While setting new precedent is not necessarily bad, it is the contemporary inconsistency of juries that critics point to as unacceptable. Contradictory jury results separated by less than a generation have been seen throughout American history. Juries in the Deep South acquitted white men accused of lynching while their northern counterparts ruled to shelter fugitive slaves and the abolitionists who harbored them. A jury trying an obscenity case ruled that Hair was intolerably offensive (SOUTHEASTERN PROMOTIONS, LTD., Petitioner, v. Steve CONRAD et al. 1975), just a few years before another jury ruled Robert Mapplethorpe’s pornographic photography of naked men was in fact art (Cincinnati v. Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center 566 N.E.2d 214 1990). These are examples of numerous similar swings in jury opinions in a relatively short amount of time. The capacity of a jury to unilaterally dismiss time-honored precedent without ramification is what the Furies object to most vehemently. At the conclusion of the trial the Furies attack the ruling and make it clear they feel as though the verdict has made a mockery of justice, saying, “What shall I do? Afflicted. I am mocked by these people [the jury]. I have now borne what cannot be borne. Great the sorrows and the dishonor upon the daughters of [justice]”. (Aeschylus, 163, 787-791) Inevitably there will be opponents to a ruling one way or the other. It stands to reason that had Athena and her jury ruled against Orestes it would have been Apollo decrying the decision. Yet the issue of unpredictable variance and inconsistency is no less prevalent. By entrusting legally binding authority to a randomly selected lot of citizens, a society is certainly taking on an assumption of risk. By allowing for alternate outcomes to very similar cases, the society employing a jury trial system concurrently allows for a variable definition of justice. The case could be soundly made that variable justice is not justice at all, and the Furies are unequivocal in their defamation of the jury trial, saying, “Now the House of Justice has collapsed.” (Aeschylus 153, 515) In addition to juries’ propensity to render verdicts based on emotion and their capacity to act tyrannically and without fear of repercussion, but 127 The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College relating closely to both, is the issue of complexity of subject matter within legal proceedings. In his book The Jury, Stephen Adler phrases it plainly by asking, “What good is a judicial system in which jurors reach their verdicts through prejudice or guesswork simply because they do not or cannot understand the issues?” (Adler, 118) Similarly, Abramson asserts, “The gap between the complexity of modern litigation and the qualifications of jurors has widened to frightening proportions.” (Abramson, 3) The analysis of jury competence forces the consideration that perhaps juries have outlived their usefulness in light of increasingly complex civil cases. It seems the qualifications of the average juror fall short. A jury rarely if ever understands the expert testimony in an antitrust suit or a medical malpractice case and this, in many instances, means a trial by jury is a trial by ignorance. The alternative is to have standard jurors replaced by professional judges or business experts. Opponents of the jury system are quick to point out that understanding an issue is key to its resolution and that average jurors are simply incapable of understanding. This issue has led to many Western nations such as England, France, and Spain to give judges power to forego standard juries and refer particularly complicated cases to “special juries.” In his text A History of Criminal Justice in England and Wales, John Hostetler describes the need for special juries.“Special Juries, employed from thirteenth century onwards, were judges of cases requiring knowledge of some special non-legal field.” (Hostetler, 140) He goes on to explain that because peer jury trials are not a guaranteed right in England, the judicial system has adapted a hybrid plan in which jurors can be selected based on their specialized knowledge of subject matter. Without the adaptation of specialized juries and handcuffed by the constitutional guarantee of trial by a jury of one’s peers, the American judicial system has seen innumerable cases misruled or ruled a mistrial purely on account of the jury’s inability to cope with complexity. One particular antitrust case, Memorex Corp., MRX Sales and Services Corp. v. IBM corp., gained notoriety in this subject because of the public statement of a juror after the judge granted a mistrial over a hung jury. When asked if a jury could ever be qualified to hear such a complex case the foreman replied, “If you could find a jury that’s both a computer technician, a lawyer, an economist, knows all about that stuff, yes, I think you could have a qualified jury. But we don’t know anything about that.” (Adler, 120) As if responding to that quote directly, Chief Justice Warren Burger, while giving a speech at Loyola University said, “Even Jefferson himself would be appalled at the prospect of a dozen of his stout yeomen or artisans trying to cope with some of today’s complex litigation.” (Burger) While more pronounced in the modern era, the problem of ill-equipped jurors is not exclusively a recent phenomenon. The trial of Socrates again serves 128 Jury Justice from the Classic Greeks as an illustration of the dilemmas inherent in jury justice. While not explicitly discussed in Apology, another Platonic dialogue, Euthyphro, highlights the topic succinctly. In the dialogue, Euthyphro and Socrates share their thoughts on con- current cases pertaining to piety. Socrates questions him at great length about the definition and applicability of piety within Athenian society. It quickly becomes apparent that Euthyphro has a very limited understanding of what it means to be pious even within the context of the Greek religious tradition. This ignorance, applied to Socrates’s jury, could explain their ruling. The assumption here is that Euthyphro exemplified the standard juror’s lack of knowledge about piety and that their lack of understanding of the topic at hand obviously impacted their decision. While not as fluid as the religious definition of piety, antitrust laws are no less murky and are in no less need of expert elucidation. Ultimately, the jurors in Socrates’ trial were probably no better off in their understanding of an argument about the nature of piety than the jurors in IBM’s case were in attempt- ing to understand demand substitutability. The quandaries of the jury justice system are numerous and cases exemplifying its problems abound. Emotionally charged issues are abundant, and despite the mechanisms put in place to prevent juror bias, they will continue to be decided by jurors with preconceived notions of how the verdict should turn out. Likewise, the tyrannical variance of jury conclusions, and the built in dilemma of ill-equipped jurors has descended with the system from its formation and implementation by the Greeks. Yet there are reasons why the jury system has withstood the test of time and is still utilized throughout most democratic nations. These positives far outweigh the negatives and the disappointment in juries felt by many is counterbalanced by the hope that the system is still quite capable of being the best conceivable judicial practice in the vast majority of cases. One important positive aspect of a jury justice system is the require- ment of civic engagement. While the extent to which some people are willing to go in an effort to “dodge” jury duty are far indeed, the fact remains that a jury system requires a certain level of political participation. This participation requirement, though not necessarily jury duty specifically, is essential to a repre- sentative democracy. Further, there is perhaps no greater example of entrusting citizens at large with the power of government. While jury selection is random and not always completely representative of the society, it is nonetheless the best and most realistic opportunity to participate in actual governance. The civic engagement element of a jury justice system contributes to a rationale for the system’s desirability in the face of any detractors.
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Beyond the boon of civic engagement, one may consider the fact that no judicial system escapes the problems outlined here. The problems inherent to jury trials are not unique to them. It seems that the issue of biased judges is just as real as predisposed jurors and perhaps even more so in that a single person is far easier to corrupt. Organized crime in the 1920s is a prime example of this in that many, charged with felonies relating to organized crime, refused jury trials in favor of bench trials. While it could be argued that gangsters wanted to avoid the wrath of an angry public, it is more likely that they were simply more confident in their ability to sway the personal dispositions of individual judges. Judges’ personal temperaments on certain issues are easy to see in their past rulings and pre-trial behavior. When and where a judge grants search warrants or his tolerance for certain lines of questioning within a court room provide insight into his inclinations. These insights and the historical likeliness of a certain ruling affect plaintiffs and defendants in the same way research of demographic trends affect jury selection. More exactly, assuming judges do not have patterns of behavior or personal ideology they apply to judgments is simply foolish. And while no one would assert that all judges possess a personal bent that affects their decisions universally, it would be naïve to conclude that judges are unaf- fected by emotional arguments or knowledge of a defendant prior to his or her trial. In much the same fashion, it is unfair to assert that juries are the only judicial entities that are prone to overturning precedent. To the contrary, judges delight in the concept of setting judicial precedent and redefining law in spite of legislative authorities. This trend is most observable on the federal circuit courts of appeal where laws, created in a constitutional way by elected officials, are frequently overturned. Yet somehow the criticism of juries for the same action is considered legitimate because of the layman’s knowledge possessed by the jurors themselves. This conclusion is in keeping with the fallibility of a ruling being closely related to the legal fallibility of the individual or group making the ruling. This argument does, however, neglect the reality that justice and proper law are determined by consensus, hence majority vote requirements for the creation of new law. This contrast of juries overturning precedent or legislation as opposed to appointed judges or panels of judges is simplistic at best. And while this skirts the nebulous concept of judicial review, that political reality can be, and fre- quently is, compared to an unconstitutional way for judges to create legislation. Juries, while acting in a similar way, challenge laws on a much more specific level in individual cases as opposed to courts of appeal that intentionally chal- lenge legislation. It stands to reason then that the attack against jury justice on account of juries’ microcosmic tyranny could be just as aptly applied to bench trials. The practical defense of jury trials is one that asserts that specific attacks 130 Jury Justice from the Classic Greeks on juries can quite easily be made on other forms of judicial proceedings in a more acute way. The most significant defense of trial by jury and the reason why it has survived since the days of Athenian democracy is not a matter of it being the least of many evils. Nor would any legal scholar make the assertion that its best defense is found in claiming juries always make the right ruling. Rather, the cause for the creation and preservation of trial by jury within Greek society in particular and Western society in general is the system’s foundation within the liberal notion of equality. In modern America, jury trials account for less than five percent of total trials. (Simon, 3) This fact gives credence to the asser- tion that jury trials retain primarily symbolic value. Yet, the limited number of jury trials is due in large part to plea bargains and legislation reducing the total number of trials in general. As such, the low number of jury trials belies their significance as a foundational institution upon which Western society rests. The concept of being judged not by members of a separate socioeconomic stra- tum, as is the case in most judicial alternatives, but rather by common citizens endeavoring to utilize common sense as much as legal knowledge, is quintes- sentially egalitarian. While the specifics of equality do vary by era and society, the concept is essentially the same. It is in this indwelt notion of equality that citizens put their faith and why, accordingly, they trust juries. Democratic societies founded on the liberal ideals of freedom and equality have embraced jury justice despite its shortcomings. While some Western nations have provided alternatives to trials by jury or have not estab- lished then as a guaranteed right in the American tradition, they all nonetheless maintain the system as a vital facet of their own unique jurisprudence. Simply put, to greater or lesser degrees, Western cultures believe a mechanism should be in place wherein, if justice is better served, laws can be ignored if equal citizens deem it appropriate. The jury system promotes the adherence to law while al- lowing for exceptions should the sample of society deem it appropriate. Socrates concludes his defense speech by essentially summing up this defense of juries: “For I believe men of Athens… And I turn it over to you and to the gods to judge me in whatever way it is going to be best…” (Plato, 89, 35d). The trials of Orestes and Socrates encapsulate the full spectrum of issues, emotions, and practicalities relating to trials by jury. The tribulations common to almost all juries are apparent within both cases, as are the posi- tive aspects. They provide particular insight into the question of why and how democratic societies have embraced the system based on equality and civic engagement in spite of the inherent limitations. This embrace is uniquely demo- cratic and as such based on certain ideals not shared with much of the world. In Politics, Aristotle suggests that democracy’s primary virtue is its capacity to
131 The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College permit regular citizens gathered from different backgrounds to achieve a “collec- tive wisdom” that no one person could achieve autonomously. At its finest, the jury is the last, best refuge of this connection among democracy, equality, and the achievement of justice by ordinary people.
WORKS CITED
Abramson, Jeffrey. We, the jury: the jury system and the ideal of democracy. New York, NY: Basic Books, 1995. Adler, Stephen J. The jury: trial and error in the American courtroom. New York, NY: Crown, 1994. Aeschylus, “The Eumenides.” Aeschylus I. Ed. David Grene & Richmond Lat timore. Chicago, IL: 1992. Aristotle , “The Politics and The Constitution of Athens.” Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought. Ed. Stephen Everson. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1996. Burger, Warren. Loyola University, New Orleans, LA. November 10, 1984. Speech. Hostettler, John. A History of Criminal Justice in England and Wales. Hamp shire, UK: Waterside Press, 2009. Jefferson, Thomas. “Thomas Jefferson: His Essential Wisdom.” Ed. Carol Kelly- Gangi. New York, NY: Fall River Press, 2010. Katz, Lewis. The Justice Imperative: An Introduction to Criminal Justice. Ander son Publishing Company (OH), 1980. McCannon, Bryan C. “Homicide Trials in Classical Athens” International Review of Law and Economics: 30, (2010) 46-51. Plato, “Apology.” 4 Texts on Socrates. Trans. & Ed. Thomas G. West. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1998. Plato, “Euthyphro.” 4 Texts on Socrates. Trans. & Ed. Thomas G. West. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1998. Simon, Rita J. The Jury: Its Role in American Society. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books, 1980.
132 Rhetoric
Rhetoric
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Rhetoric in Comedy: How Comedians Use Persuasion and How Society Uses Comedians Grace F. Greene Dr. Mark Vail Faculty Sponsor ABSTRACT
Since the 1970’s, stand-up comedy has been a prominent part of soci- ety. Stand-up comedy has grown and progressed with the rest of the world, but one of the things that has remained constant throughout this performance art is the need for one to possess the ability to persuade an audience. This paper looks to analyze how comedy acts as a rhetorical tool for society, using expectancy violation theory to do so. This paper also looks into what can build a connec- tion between a comedian and his or her audience. It will also use the superiority, incongruity, and relief theories to discuss what makes comedy successful. This paper also seeks to rhetorically analyze comedy as a tool of persuasion, using the belief system of the ancient Greek rhetor Isocrates, putting into practice the findings through a text of an original stand-up comedy performance by the author.
INTRODUCTION There are two statements that sum up the culmination of everything that is stand-up comedy and how it is relevant to society. The first is from come- dian and author Jay Sankey (1998), who tells us that “[n]obody chooses to be a comic. It’s so difficult and, at times, so amazingly unrewarding, that the only people who do it are people who don’t merely want to do it, but for some reason, must.” (p. 6) Andrea Greenbaum (1999), in the International Journal of Humor Research, says that stand-up comedy is an inherently rhetorical discourse; it strives not only to entertain, but to persuade, and stand-up comics can only be successful in their craft when they can convince an audience to look at the world through their comic vision. (p. 33) Herein lie the beginnings of what we understand to be the use of persuasion in the foundation of stand-up comedy. Stand-up comedy is not about simply convincing an audience that you are funny, although that is necessary; it is also about teaching the audience that there is a different way to think about things. Consequently, stand-up comedy is about getting an audience to think about things the way you have set before them. A true stand-up comic will listen for a joke everywhere and will therefore find jokes everywhere (Sankey, 1998), much
134 Rhetoric in Comedy like a true rhetorician will listen for and find persuasion everywhere. It is some how even more than this, though. Ancient rhetors like Isocrates and Gorgias believed in rhetoricians as rare people; these are the kinds of people that make successful comedians (Matsen, Rollinson, Sousa, 1990). This paper looks to inspect stand-up comedy as the rhetorical discourse society may not see it as (Greenbaum, 1999). In a world where growing up has turned into a dreaded phenomenon, comics, and their comedy, are often the light at the end of a seemingly endless tunnel. But how is it that we can enjoy something of which we have such little understanding? How can we enjoy or un- derstand something we see as somehow inconsequential to our society’s forma- tion? By coming to a more full understanding of the artful discipline of stand-up comedy and how it uses rhetoric, we will be able to have a fuller appreciation for what stand-up comics have done not only for our society but also for the individual. This understanding cannot be reached without a prior knowledge of the primary aspects of rhetoric and persuasion that are necessary for stand- up comedy to work. To accomplish this task, this paper discusses four humor theories that are accepted in the field of rhetoric. With this theoretical knowledge in hand, this paper goes on to discuss how each of these theories works in the world of stand-up comedy and how, therefore, rhetoric and comedy must go hand-in-hand. This paper also briefly explores the history of stand-up comedy in America in hopes of offering the reader a more comprehensive grasp of how inherently relevant comedy is to our society. Once these assertions have been made, analyses of comedy as a rhetorical discourse will be presented to give the reader a clearer awareness of all other arguments made previously in this paper. Following these discussions, arguments, and analyses, the reader will be able to read, with a rhetorical comprehension of stand-up comedy, a transcript of a stand-up comedy routine written by the author of this paper. From all of this, the reader will not only understand how comedy functions as a tool of rhetoric but also how it functions as a tool of society.
METHODOLOGY AND THEORETICAL REVIEW
Comedy is designed to make people laugh. Comedians are designed to make comedy. What else is there? The first step is to compare stand-up comedy to the classical side of rhetoric. This included quite a bit of research in the field of comedy itself. For this study, I watched several different comedians perform different sketches, including Brian Regan, Bob Newhart, Red Skelton, and a slew of comedians featured in a documentary called I Am Comic. The profes- sional comedians featured in this documentary expressed their feelings for 135 The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College performing stand-up much in the same way I and my peers express our feelings for practicing rhetoric in our own fields. In watching these sketches and attend- ing a live comedy night hosted at Georgia College and State University, I began noticing connections between the performance art I was seeing and the classical rhetoric I have spent the last few years studying. Through these connections, I was able to draw my own conclusions and hypotheses about the relationship of rhetoric to comedy. After this preliminary research had taken place, I began the task of building my own original performance. In order to effectively analyze stand-up comedy as a persuasive tool of rhetoric, I had to have my own set fully com- pleted. This process was both tedious and extraordinarily fun. I looked to other comics when deciding what types of material would be both appropriate and decidedly humorous for my audience. I took in some interesting literature on the art and science of composing, performing, and perfecting stand-up comedy (Sankey, 1998). With the help and inspiration of I Am Comic, Zen and the Art of Stand-Up Comedy, and numerous other texts and stand-up performances, I was able to put together a fairly good amateur stand-up routine. Once the set was en- tirely composed, I could begin to discuss how rhetoric had been used not only in the process but also how it would be used in the actual performance. To do this analysis, I did some research into the history of stand-up comedy in America. I also looked back to classes I had previously taken at Georgia College and State University and pulled from my own knowledge of rhetoric. The bulk of this re- search employed specific humor theories, which are discussed below, beginning with superiority theory.
SUPERIORITY THEORY
Thomas Hobbes, a superiority theorist, describes this theory as the glory we feel when we identify ourselves as having superiority, or supremacy, over others. Both Plato and Aristotle also recognize this theory as something that fuels humor through feelings of aggression (Smuts, 2009). That is to say, the superiority theory supports the idea that certain things are found to be humor- ous when an audience feels victorious (Meyer, 2000). It could be argued that all forms of humor, even the most subtle, are simply developments of this theory and that “the pleasure we take in humor derives from our feeling of superiority over those we laugh at” (Monro, 1997). The superiority theory can be found in stand-up through stories in which we laugh at a comedian because the aftermath of a story being told has never happened to us; we feel that we are above such humiliation. It could also be argued, though, that a stand-up comic tells a story because it is one through which he or she feels superior. In his book Zen and the Art of Stand-Up Comedy, 136 Rhetoric in Comedy
Sankey (1998) says that in his experience, the majority of stand-up comics are “extremely sensitive, relatively insecure, very insightful, highly intelligent people” (p. 5). Thus it becomes easier to understand why a stand-up comic would subconsciously use the superiority theory. He or she becomes funny by telling stories that may or may not be about his or her own life but that persuade an audience to laugh with him or her, rather than at him or her. Even with this understanding of how superiority theory can work successfully in comedy, one main argument against it is that is almost completely overlooks incongruity theory.
INCONGRUITY THEORY
Unlike superiority theory, incongruity theory seems to cover almost all cases of humor, not just those in which feelings of triumph are present (Smuts, 2009). Incongruity theory works much like Judee Burgoon’s expectancy violations theory. Much as the name of Burgoon’s theory suggests, expectancy violations theory deals with what happens to our communication when what we think will happen does not (Littlejohn & Foss, 2009). The incongruity theory of humor works in much the same way. Immanuel Kant (1790) describes it quite eloquently in his book Critique of Judgment in which he says, “In everything that is to excite a lively laugh there must be something absurd (in which the un- derstanding, therefore, can find no satisfaction). Laughter is an affection arising from the sudden transformation of a strained expectation into nothing” (p. 54). Put more simply, incongruity theory is put into practice when humor is found by an event that was not expected, something absurd. Incongruity theory is also de- scribed through the experience of finding surprising connections between ideas (Monro, 1988). With all of these varying explanations, incongruity theory is one that may seem difficult to grasp. The general consensus, though, is that things are incongruous and, as a result, funny when they are surprising. It can also be argued that the incongruity theory works when comedians bring to our attention thoughts we ourselves have had before but we were unable to turn into a joke. In some way, it surprises us that the joke works because we were not able to build it, but it is successful because we connect with it. Jeff Foxworthy may have put it best when he said, “Everyone has that thought. Comedians learn to grab it” (Foxworthy, 2010). This kind of focus on the unexpected lends to the understanding of the third major humor theory, relief theory.
RELIEF THEORY
The relief theory of humor describes laughter as a release of excess energy (Smuts, 2009). The relief theory, according to Sigmund Freud, is based 137 The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College on the argument that there are three distinct sources of laughter: joking, humor, and the comic, the last of which this paper focuses on. Though each one of these sources differ, they all share the commonality of energy being dispelled from the body through the act of laughter. For the purposes of this research, we will simply focus on the comic. When stand-up comics begin to tell their audiences a story or “bit,” as it is technically named, they are proposing some kind of intellectual challenge with which the audience must keep up. When the bit has ended, the audience experiences relief in the knowledge that they have suc- cessfully solved the challenge. This relief allows the audience to release their extra cognitive energy in the form of laughter (Freud, 1905). This argument is supported through stand-up in that comics will tell intricate stories that force the audience to think. The audience is only allowed to enjoy the joke when they un- derstand it. An audience responds once stand-up has been performed, not before (Roy, 2010). The shortcoming of the relief theory is in its inability to distinguish humorous laughter from non-humorous laughter (Smuts, 2009). That is to say, the relief theory only says that an audience will laugh; it does not specify wheth- er it will be because something is comical or because the audience is relieved. Relief theory is the third and final humor theory that this paper uses to critically analyze comedy as a rhetorical discourse. From here, we will discuss one other major communication theory: Expectancy violations theory.
EXPECTANCY VIOLATIONS THEORY
As previously stated, the expectancy violations theory works much like the incongruity theory. One main difference, though, is that the expectancy violations theory is not particular to humor; it is a contemporary communica- tion theory that can be applied to rhetorical situations. Expectancy violations theory is heavily based on the studies of personal space and proxemics, or the study of people’s use of space (Griffin, 2009). The key to the expectancy viola- tions theory is the argument that when our expectations are violated, we have the choice of responding negatively or positively. A comic’s goal is to persuade his or her audience to respond positively to a violation of personal space or any other previously set expectation. If an audience responds negatively to a comic, the joke or set of jokes has not been successful. If the joke or set of jokes has not been successful, the comic has failed to persuade his or her audience to appreci- ate the comedy. The comic has failed to successfully use rhetoric.
BACKGROUND OF STAND-UP COMEDY IN AMERICA
According to Lawrence Mintz, quoted in American Quarterly (1985), stand-up comedy may be “the oldest, most universal, basic, and deeply 138 Rhetoric in Comedy significant form of humorous expression.” Stand-up comedy boomed inAmerica in the 1970s, though it had been largely popular before then. The mark this kind of performance made on society was incredible, to say the least. Although many of the most renowned comics of the late 1960s and 1970s may be somewhat forgotten, in studying, performing, and perfecting stand-up, it is important to understand the impact they made on the discipline. From the 1950s to 1960s, comics known as “in one performers” became virtually obsolete; comedy was becoming more about talking with an audience than it was talking to a fellow performer onstage. From this point, comics went from telling jokes based around their everyday lives to turning their everyday lives into a joke. Stand-up comedy was about making a statement, be it political or petty, about things any audience could understand, even if it was not believable. In many cases, jokes were funny simply because they were outrageously unbelievable. The 1960s and 1970s were something of a cultural revolution, particularly for comedy. Some of the most well-known stand-up comics of all time flourished during this time period, completely changing both what qualified as stand-up as well as what audiences would expect and enjoy. Audiences today may sit and wonder when crude, sexual, and/or racist and sexist jokes became acceptable when the truth is that they almost always have been. As surprising as it may seem, even the earliest comics used material about girlfriends and wives in what were arguably disrespectful ways to make a joke. In this way, stand-up comedy became an experience outside of real-world anxieties. These kinds of jokes and commentaries were not supposed to be taken seriously. They were simply, for lack of a better word, jokes (Zoglin, 2008). Stand-up comedy has worked for decades because people like entertainment (Stebbins, 1990). It has changed, though, because the people being entertained have changed. The success of this industry fluctuates greatly because jokes that are constantly recycled quickly lose their zeal (Zoglin, 2008). In a business that depends on consistently changing variables, it makes sense that it is difficult to be considered a truly great comedian. Though the task to make people laugh seemed reasonably simple from the beginning, the job itself required intense discipline. As cultures, traditions, generations, and taboos have changed, so has stand-up comedy, but one thing that has remained constant is the love the audi- ences have for comedians. We tell jokes that have been told to us, spreading the gift of comedy to countless individuals. Whether we enjoy these follies because we identify with them or because they are far outside of what we consider nor- mal, we enjoy them enough to weave them into our daily existences.
ANALYSIS
139 The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College
The analysis section of this paper consists of two separate categories. The first of these categories is the analysis of how rhetoric is used to structure stand-up comedy and how a better understanding of rhetoric will ultimately result in a better career as a stand-up comic. The second category will be an in- depth analysis of my own original stand-up routine (See Appendix A), discuss- ing how I used my knowledge of rhetoric in building the routine as well as how I plan to use rhetoric in delivering the material.
ANALYSIS OF COMEDY AS A RHETORICAL DISCOURSE
The ancient Greek rhetor Isocrates, when discussing what makes an accom- plished orator, states that the people in question must have a natural aptitude for that which they have elected to do; secondly, they must submit to training and master the knowledge of their particular subject, whatever it may be in each case; and, finally, they must become versed and practised in the use and application of their art; for only on these conditions can they become fully competent and pre-eminent in any of endeavor. (Matsen, Rollinson, Sousa, 1990, pp. 47-48) This statement is a belief about the nature of rhetoric that has survived through the centuries. Rhetoric is an art that needs to not only be natural; it should be learned and practiced as should any discipline that deserves to be taken seri- ously. The discipline of writing, performing, and perfecting stand-up comedy fits quite seamlessly into this description. The first step to being a successful comedian is being funny. Some people are; some people are not. From the point of realizing one has the abil- ity to make others laugh, he or she must begin the process of learning to write jokes, which is harder than it may sound. Thankfully, though, many comedians will admit to sharing the belief that what makes a comedian funny is much more his or her ability to tell a joke than the ability to actually write one, which goes back to the idea of the capability to be a rhetor, or in this case, comedian, being something innate (Matsen et al., 1990). That said, it is also important to remem- ber that comedians are comedians because they tell jokes, not simply because they are good speakers. Sarah Silverman, a popular female stand-up, said in regards to the delivery of material, “It’s not really off the top of our [stand-up comics] heads” (2010). For a rhetorician, this has a lot to do with the stylistic devices of deliver- ing material, whether it is a serious speech or a routine of stand-up comedy. This statement brings to our attention that what a comedian does is memorize a previ- ously constructed manuscript and then make it sound as if it is completely
140 Rhetoric in Comedy impromptu. As Sankey (1998) says, what “separates the men and women from the boys and girls is the ability to deliver a joke for the six-hundredth time and still make it look fresh and dewy” (p. 11). Though the material a comedian uses is rather different than the material a serious speaker uses, the method by which a comedy sketch is built is much like that which is used to build a speech. Much like rhetoricians, comedians need to have a point when developing their mate- rial. If all the jokes do not correlate, a comedian needs to be able to incorporate flawless transitions into his or her routine, even if these transitions are based off of audience responses. Like speeches, sets of jokes work better if there is a strong conclusion; where a speaker should anticipate questions, a comedian should anticipate hecklers and laughter. A comedian should perfect his or her eye contact just like any other speaker. Finally, just like any other speaker, a stand- up comedian should prepare until he or she can prepare no more (Bennett). Something else to be recognized in the field of stand-up comedy is that a comedian needs to be able to command the attention of his or her audience. This realization even calls for some understanding of the differences in com- munication between genders. Because the everyday language or jargon men and women use may differ, so will the way in which they tell jokes. Just as the response will be different when men and women communicate in the workplace, jokes may be taken differently depending on the gender of the comedian (Ar- righi, 2001). Regardless of the issue or gender, though, every comedian has to be able to be in control of his or her audience. Due to the mainly humorous nature of the content a comedian will be delivering, this control has to be taken gently, almost without the audience realizing it. A comedian’s audience should feel as if they are part of the sketch, not just responding to it. With all of these elements, it becomes easier to see that stand-up com- edy can be considered a discipline because it fits nicely into Isocrates’ theory of rhetoric. From this point, we can only go deeper into the strictly theoretical side of rhetoric in stand-up comedy. According to Aristotle, rhetoric is comprised of three artistic proofs: Ethos, pathos, and logos. Aristotle argues that while an understanding of all of these proofs is necessary for composing an effective speech, ethos is the most important because it establishes speaker credibility. He argues that it is speaker credibility that encourages the audience to listen to what is being said (Matsen, Rollinson, & Sousa, 1990). For the purposes of comic success, though, this paper ventures to argue that pathos would be the most important of the proofs. Pathos, the proof that deals with emotional appeals, sup- ports the belief that in order to reach an audience, a speaker must move the soul of the listener, ultimately changing the frame of mind of the audience (Matsen et al, 1990). This movement, arguably, is what must happen for a stand-up comic to effectively persuade an audience that a certain joke is truly funny. While speaker
141 The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College credibility is important, in stand-up comedy the purpose of the performance is to convince, to persuade, to move an audience to see how something is funny from the comic’s point of view. As Jim Gaffigan (2010) said, “They [the audi- ence] can hate me. But they should like this joke.” From here, we can move into a short explanation of how a stand-up comic might use each of the previously explained theories to construct sets of jokes. As previously stated, the superiority theory revolves around the idea of bringing a sense of victory or glory over someone else to an audience (Meyer, 2000). One prime example of this is Brian Regan’s sketch Stupid in School, which was released in 1997. The sketch revolves around Brian picking on his younger self for making what could be classified as “stupid” mistakes in elementary school. This sketch relates to the superiority theory because by belittling mistakes made by himself as a schoolchild, Regan places his audience above himself; he makes them superior. Interestingly enough, though, arguments could be made supporting other humor theories from this sketch as well. We can see the incongruity theory and expectancy violations theory in Stupid in School (Regan, 1997) in that jokes about children not being intelligent are not necessar- ily normal. We do not expect to hear Regan make fun of himself, or children like him, for not being able to keep up in school; the topic, though funny, is slightly incongruous and the fact that it does reach its audience so well violates expecta- tions that we might have about what is acceptable to joke about. Lastly, the relief theory could be argued for this sketch in that the topic gets so out of control and ridiculous that we are fighting to keep up with where Regan’s story is going. Consequently, we are also relieved when the sketch comes to a close because the incongruous topic that forces us to think we are superior is finished. One thing that is so fantastic about Brian Regan’s Stupid in School (1997) is that it manages to include each of the three main accepted humor theo- ries as well as the expectancy violations theory. This makes this particular sketch interesting to analyze as a rhetorical artifact because it brings to our attention that despite the differences among these theories, they are able to come together effortlessly if a comedian is a rhetorician.
ANALYSIS OF RHETORIC IN ORIGINAL STAND-UP (SEE APPENDIX A) Found in Appendix A of this paper is a transcript of my original stand- up comedy routine, prepared for the presentation portion of this project. This analysis section of the paper is dedicated to that transcript; as formerly stated, the analyses of this paper were broken down into a specific analysis of rhetoric in stand-up comedy and a specific analysis of rhetoric in my own original stand- up. This section breaks down, using theories and ideas already introduced in this
142 Rhetoric in Comedy paper, my stand-up routine so that it can be more clearly understood how I was able to incorporate my knowledge of the discipline of rhetoric into this perfor- mance. At the beginning of the routine, I explain the pretense behind my stand-up, saying in some ways, I wanted to draw conclusions from my “experi- ence here at Georgia College & State University.” The line that follows this one mentions that my college experience was funny, though not a joking matter, and will be featured in the comedy, but not much. This sentence, though not brim- ming with humor, does entail the incongruity theory in that I am virtually calling my college experience a joking matter. The relief theory comes into play when I admit to my audience that my college experience was not a joke. I had presented my audience with an incongruous scenario of my college career being a joke, a scenario that they thought they would have to follow when I mentioned it may be part of my performance. When it is brought to their attention that neither was my college career a joke nor will it be heavily included in the stand-up, this situation becomes humorous in a very minor way. The audience is both relieved that I am not actually going to challenge them with jokes belittling my time as a college student and surprised that such a connection was even made. From this point on, the jokes get more ridiculous in nature. I mention my cat in a way that tries to personify her as a type of audience, primarily a “good” one. This joke makes use of the incongruity and expectancy violations theory. It is arguably safe to say that no single member of the audience expects the comparison of my cat to a good audience. This joke also leads to even the most subconscious of thought processes about what makes a good audience stand-up comedy and whether the single audience member is accomplishing that task. The joke about my cat is purely a transitional joke; like a speech, my sketch is formulated into sections, and the first bit, or set of jokes centered on a single story or idea, requires a transition from the introductory joke. The bit to which this joke leads is based off of a quote by a well-known movie director. Because this is a set of jokes and not simply a one-liner, the analysis is slightly trickier to organize, so let us take it step by step. I begin the bit by explaining my educational background, and then connect this to a generational addiction to the internet. From this point, I discuss different elements of the internet that appeal to me personally. This introduction has already set up a spot for the incongruity theory, because no matter what comes next, it will not be completely related to my educational background or my internet habits. As expected I give credit to the internet for allowing me to see the quote which then allows for the rest of the joke to occur. The statement, “If you go home with someone and they don’t have any books, don’t sleep with them” (Waters) in and of itself is incongruous; when faced with the decision of beginning a relationship with another party, our 143 The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College automatic reaction is rarely to judge him or her on literary choices. Because of the lovely set up that this quote gives, I am able to form several jokes from this one sentence. The bit, focused on comparing choices of literature or movies to a person’s worth in terms of intimate relationships is incongruous for all those listening; the connection can be made, but it is certainly a bit of a leap. In this same bit, however, there is also a touch of the superiority theory. Part of the joke talks about the frivolity of lists made by women seeking po- tential life partners. When this is brought up in the sketch, my entire demeanor changes; I impersonate a vapid girl who seems to have no grasp on what actually matters in relationships or communication theory. This uses the superiority theory in that, after my audience analysis, it can be argued that the audience for which this sketch was built will feel triumph over this kind of vanity. This does not mean, however, that members of this audience have never made lists for potential mates before. If this is the case, the joke is funny because despite the knowledge that such lists have possibly been made, they have not been as thoughtless as the one created in the sketch. After primarily using the incongruity theory and incorporating the superiority theory in this first bit, I move to a shorter joke that is still focused on the intellectual aspect of the bit that preceded it. This joke, a play off of a poorly titled article in a newspaper (“Missing Bush emails won’t be released”), is ex- plained in itself. This explanation causes the joke to be funny essentially because of the relief theory. For the audience members who kept up without the explana- tion, they are relieved and find humor in that they got it right. For the audience members who need the explanation, they are relieved and find humor in that a clarification was given and they can at least say they got the joke. After this joke, I tell a simple one-liner that could have been found in a children’s book, but I personalize it by telling it as if it were a true story between a close friend and me. This section uses the incongruity and expectancy viola- tions theory because the audience may not be expecting me to throw children’s jokes into the mix. To add flavor to these jokes, I admit that they are part of the sketch for the purpose of having something for people who do not understand the more intelligent jokes. This is funny to the audience members following the sketch well due to the superiority theory; they may find it difficult not to understand the jokes. On the other hand, it is funny, due to the relief theory, to audience members who may be struggling to follow the sketch. Although I have just made fun of them specifically, I have done so in a way that allows them not to be found out. The joke that follows this one-liner is about my personal experience with a Rhetoric class at Georgia College & State University. Though the joke is
144 Rhetoric in Comedy based off of true events, the line that opens it sets it up as a fallacy, which lends to the incongruity theory. Setting up a joke based on my own life as something that is purely fictional is unexpected, and it is the fact that I have discredited myself that becomes humorous. While there is little “laugh out loud” humor in this bit, the joke works well on the audience members who are in the Rheto- ric department and are personally acquainted with the individuals involved. I add in pieces of dry wit and tongue-in-cheek sarcasm to fit the joke to the audience members who are not involved personally with the Rhetoric faculty and students. The joke acts mainly as a transition from the one-liner to a more substantial bit and works almost completely off of the incongruity theory, mak- ing events from my personal life a laughing matter when they, under normal circumstances, might not be. From this joke, I move from talking about college to focusing on childhood, telling a personal story about the first time in my life I considered the possibility of being a comedian. This transition works because although I go from college education to primary education, both bits deal with the relationship between teachers and students and students and classmates. It can be argued that this joke uses the incongruity theory because although none of the connections made in the bit are huge leaps, they are still connections that may not be made automatically. For me to compare myself now to the boys that challenged me in the fifth grade is little more than ridiculous. In the same way, however, this bit uses the relief theory because the audience is not completely aware of where the joke is going or what it will ask of them. When they realize it is essentially an anecdote about how my fifth grade aspirations of being a comedian, which is not necessarily considered a profound profession, beat out the fifth grade aspirations of boys who wanted to be astronauts or politicians, which are more notably recognized professions, they are relieved, both that there was not more to the joke and that it was not directed at them. There is also a sense of relief in that while few of my audience members are likely to have achieved one of these “profound” professions, I am not making fun of them specifically. This bit precedes one that is based off of a joke performed by come- dian Daniel Tosh and keeps with the theme of childhood. I begin with a simple introduction, moving from the joke about being a child in school to being a child at home. This transition, which I was able to build based on my knowledge of rhetoric and basic speech composition, is supported by the idea that the jokes are related because one is about being a young child in school and the other is about being a young child at home. This bit, focused on playing a game that involves pretending a floor is some kind of hazard, works for several reasons.What grabs the audience first and foremost is that the topic is familiar and relatable. It is an experience many people in diverse audiences will know and appreciate, but it is also one that they have never thought of in terms of jokes before. This 145 The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College realization makes it the perfect joke for using the incongruity and expectancy violations theories. People in the audience remember games like the one men- tioned in the joke, but it can be argued that they have never thought about it as a tool for parents in times of economic recession. The joke also uses the incongru- ity and expectancy violations theories when I talk about how parents’ using the game as an excuse to not spend money is more or less using persuasion (rheto- ric) in an everyday situation. It is safe to say that this is not a connection the audience would have made on their own, but it is a simple enough one that they will be able to keep up. This joke is also incongruous in that it is not an original joke. The audience members who recognize the material may well be surprised that I had the gumption to not only add it to my routine but to tweak it and per- sonalize it for my own performance. This bit leads into something of an interlude, where I tell a one-liner that is incongruously humorous, and then use that one-liner to discuss what I did not want my stand-up comedy sketch to be. This interlude goes back to the original bit about books and makes a pun that is incongruous both because the connections are witty and slight and because the audience, by this point, probably was not expecting me to revert back to a previous joke. This is a tool commonly used by stand-up comics to get their audiences not to just think about one joke at a time but to really consider the entire routine as a single entity. From this point, I am able to move onto almost any subject because this interlude allows for new material to be introduced without question. What I choose is to tell a joke that is based on one originally performed by comedian Aziz Ansari. Like the joke originally done by Daniel Tosh, I tweak bits of it to make it appropriate and personal for my audience. In this joke, though, I choose to tell the audience that I am not the creator of the joke. This introduces the incongruity theory right from the start, because the audience will not expect me to tell yet another joke I did not write on my own, let alone admit it. The joke itself is an example of both the incongruity and relief theories. I compare a peer’s obsession with his own music to a hypothetical obsession of mine to my own comedy, which is funny because neither scenario makes much sense. This joke also uses the relief theory, though, because the audience does not know if it is appropriate to enjoy a joke that was not technically mine to begin with. As the punch lines progress, however, the audience understands the joke as well as, perhaps subconsciously, how it is funny, and in these understandings they allow themselves to accept comedy that is not wholly original because it is still pertinent. This joke transitions easily into a bit that also focuses on an interaction with a close friend. This bit, like the one before it, employs purely the
146 Rhetoric in Comedy incongruity and expectancy violations theories. The joke is incongruous and violates expectancies because the audience arguably does not expect me to feel so strongly about the subject at hand (bagels) or to make so many stories out of such a small thing. The bit also uses the relief theory in that when the audience realizes connections are being made that they were not expecting, they may begin to doubt whether or not they will be able to follow the joke, or even if it will have a satisfactory punch line. Once the audience begins to see that while the connections are multiple and quick, they are also simple, they feel relieved and are subsequently able to enjoy the absurdity of everything else going on in the bit. The bit that follows this is the closing bit, which was very important to me. I wanted it to be something closely personal, even so much so that possibly only my colleagues in the Rhetoric department at Georgia College and State University would be able to understand it in its entirety. This fact means that the bit has to involve all of the theories discussed in this paper: Superiority Theory, Incongruity Theory, Relief Theory, and Expectancy Violations Theory. The joke begins with an introduction that leads the audience into what they think may be a series of stories about my time as an undergraduate student at my university. When this is not the case, the relief theory comes into the play because the audi- ence has lost any awareness they had of what the bit would be. The incongruity and expectancy violations theories come when I tell short stories that revolve around my own capstone class. It is debatable whether or not the audience thought I would make such distinct and individual connections in my stand-up, and this in and of itself is amusing. Another comic attribute of this is that I talk about my classmates in a way that is both adoring and frustrated, and this is something to which the audience can relate well. The superiority theory becomes involved when the students and faculty of the Rhetoric department realize this last bit is a tribute to them. It is special because although the joke has aspects that appeal to the entire audience, only those closely involved in rhetoric will be able to enjoy the joke absolutely. This gives those members of the audience a sense of authority or superiority over those who do not understand the rhetorical humor. From this analysis of my own stand-up comedy, it could be argued that of all of the theories discussed in this paper, the ones that seem to have the strongest and broadest connection to stand-up are the incongruity theory, the expectancy violations theory, and the relief theory. While the superiority theory is well-used and successful, it is also privy to very specific scenarios that are not, in this case, as relevant to the humor.
CONCLUSION
147 The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College
This study has shown the scope of the persuasion of stand-up comedy. This art aims to move its audiences into new frames of mind and help them un- derstand something to be funny (Sankey, 1998). This study has also shown that as a societal tool, stand-up comedy has been effectively changing and support- ing societies and the people in them since at least 1960 (Zoglin, 2008). Through the analyses of both stand-up comedy as a rhetorical discourse and the specific analysis of the original stand-up routine found in Appendix A, we can undoubt- edly say that stand-up comedy is indeed an important aspect of rhetoric in con- temporary society. The more this discourse is studied in depth, the more people will be able to see the benefits of both rhetorical expertise and comic success on society. The further these studies of rhetoric in stand-up comedy strive to reach, the better, because not only have these things been shown to be important to the development of our contemporary world, but they have also been shown to be fun and interesting. This study was a challenge, but a welcome one. As a student of rhetoric at Georgia College and State University, I have spent quite a bit of time prepar- ing for speeches and performances; this one was no different. Before I could be expected to write stand-up comedy, I had to have a clear understanding of the task at hand. The preliminary research I did helped me reach a deeper under- standing of how rhetoric could be, and should be, used in stand-up comedy, but it was not until I actually wrote my own comedy that I was able to take notice of how comedy was highly rhetorical and persuasive. “Remember, stand-up tends to focus on (1) simple ideas that can be (2) commonly understood, and (3) verbally expressed” (Sankey, 1998, p. 17). As I was writing my stand-up routine, I noticed myself using rhetorical and hu- mor theories in my jokes. I saw myself trying to convince my future audiences that they were superior to someone or to some situation. I saw myself trying to convince them that subjects they would not have connected could be connected, and that these connections could be done so humorously. Although I wanted at some points to shock my future audiences, I tried to avoid topics that would mean they would have to, at any point, feel relieved of something else. Through my research of which jokes will work and which ones will not, I found myself editing out things that I had realized would not be funny. John Limon’s Stand-up Comedy in Theory, or, Abjection in America (2000) taught me that my comedy, though amateur and perhaps unmoving, could make a statement, and did not have to follow any pre-conceived notions of what stand-up comedy was. In my routine, I had the opportunity to persuade, to get an audience to think in my own terms, for however short that period of time was. I realized that, like speeches, my comedy needed to be rehearsed. As comedian Ritch Shydner (2010) says, “It’s nothing like riding a bike!” In the words of Tommy Morris (2010), “You
148 Rhetoric in Comedy can’t just be good at it. You’ve got to work at it.” With respect to Jim Gaffigan’s aforementioned knowledge, I also realized that my stand-up was not about being well-liked by my audience so much as it was about successfully telling jokes. My stand-up had morphed from being a solitary study of how I could (and did) use rhetoric in being funny to being about sharing a thought, above desiring a reaction (Garofalo, 2010). How exactly, then, did I find rhetoric through stand-up comedy? The answer, for me, is quite simple: passion. I am passionate about rhetoric, about communicating in the best way possible for every situation, and I am passionate about the main goal behind comedy: Making people laugh (I am Comic, 2010).
APPENDIX A
Stand-Up Comedy Routine When I began building my stand-up routine, I was very focused on what I wanted it to be centered around. For instance, sometimes comedians have specific sketches. From Dane Cook’s on crying to Brian Regan’s on being stupid in school to Katt Williams on being a runner with prosthetic legs…the list goes on and on. But what I wanted to bring you today was a little bit of myself, so I wanted to try and focus some of my performance on my experience here at Georgia College which was, at times, funny, albeit not a joke and also at times featured in this sketch…but not much. You know, when I was working on this routine, my roommate was gone so I couldn’t practice material on her. I had to rely on my cat, and I was a little bit wary of that, but she turned out to be a great audience. She didn’t heckle me at all. So, I like to consider myself a pretty smart person as well as quite humble. As you can tell from this being my undergraduate research, I’ve almost successfully completed college. I got through high school and all the prerequi- sites for that. I come from a well-read, well-educated family. But I also come from a generation that lives on the internet. I’m not addicted to much, but You- Tube and StumbleUpon.com have got me pretty good. YouTube, if watching 20 hours of YouTube a day is wrong, I don’t want to be right. For those of you who don’t know what StumbleUpon is, Google it. Just kidding. StumbleUpon is a website where you check boxes of interests, like photography, humor, cartoons, videos, whatever, and StumbleUpon randomly takes you to websites centered around these said interests. One day, my stumble took me to a page of quotes of John Waters, a pretty well-known director. I don’t know anything off the top of my head that he’s directed, but I hear he’s pretty well-known. And one of these quotes was—and I’m editing it both for the sake of this joke and my audience— we rhetoricians like to call that “audience analysis” -- “If you go with someone 149 The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College and they don’t have books, don’t sleep with them.” And I thought, “Oh! What a great quote! That’s so deep and intelligent,” and now you think we’re go- ing to talk about the importance of an open mind when the real issue at hand is whether or not someone can read you a bedtime story. And that’s so pertinent to my life because I’m at this stage where I may like to go out and partake in an adult beverage every now and then and meet new people. So obviously I need to know where the best story time is going to be. And some girls have like…these very extensive lists of qualities for potential mates, like he’s gotta be at least 6’3”, so I can wear heels. And looks aren’t a must, but blue eyes, blonde hair, that wouldn’t hurt. Very Aryan. And I’m just thinking, “Where did you even learn the word ‘Aryan’? Cosmo? Oh, good choice!” And that seems like a lot of work, and I’m very busy with my undergrad research and I don’t want to make a list. I just say, show me your bookshelves. Let’s compare bookshelves. I’ll tell you who’s a good potential mate. Not the guy reading Twilight. Atlas Shrugged? Either he’s read it and is too smart for his own good, or he’s never read it and is overcompensating. Go home with a guy who’s got Animal Farm? He might have his own set of issues. Are you still in your bad-boy stage, ladies? Date a guy reading Animal Farm. The guy that’s got The Great Gatsby? Marry that one. Same way with movies. Twilight? No. Lion King? We all know the answer to that. If you find a guy that still likes the old school Disney movies, before they were digitally restored? Sold. Seriously, though, intellect is a big thing. People that you can really talk to? They are a dying breed. If you ever meet the person who titled the article in the Huffington Post, “Missing Bush emails won’t be released” that’s probably a conversation you won’t regret missing out on. Meet the person who gets why that’s funny? Sit down for coffee. It’s funny because of course they won’t be released…they’re missing. So I went to visit my friend Merry a few days ago, and when I walked into her house, I saw a giraffe lying in the middle of her floor. So I asked her, “Merry? What’s that lying on the floor?” And she said, “Grace, that’s not a lion…that’s a giraffe.” Sometimes I like to incorporate children’s jokes into what I’m saying so that the dummies can keep up. If you didn’t get that joke, why did the chicken cross the road? I went to class the other day, for this first joke. Something pretty com- mon for college students, so I thought it’d be believable. Right? But I went to class with the wonderful Dr. Burt, who has actually graced us with her appear- ance this evening, and I don’t know if you’ve heard, but if you have class with this woman, you are in for a treat. The first thing she does is call roll, but it’s not normal roll-calling. She always has a question for the day, and as each person is
150 Rhetoric in Comedy called, he or she has to answer the question. She really knows how to connect with her audiences, you know? And these questions range from, “How did you parents punish you when you were a child,” which we won’t get into tonight for obvious reasons…I know my parents are here, and I’d hate to name names and get anyone else in trouble…, to “What is your superhuman ability?” I love that question. I love this support that I and the rest of my class got as semi-adults from a completely grown woman that superhuman abilities are not imaginary or irrelevant. I just think it’s fantastic that creativity is still a part of my education and that as rhetoric majors, we are encouraged to still want to be transformers when we grow up. On that subject, let’s take a minute and talk about child- hood…come on, reminisce with me. Childhood is such an enriching experience. I think one of the best parts is that nobody really tries to stifle your dreams. You wanna be an astronaut? Nobody’s gonna be tell you that the chances of that are slim. Every kid is told they could president. People encourage childhood dreams, which I appreciate. And for a while, when I was in the 5th grade, I wanted to be a comedian. I just really liked doing impressions and making people laugh and telling jokes, and at a parent-teacher night, my teacher told my parents that she thought I’d be the first woman president. And I said, “No, I think I’m gonna be a stand-up come- dian.” And all the dudes in my class were like, “Hehe, yeah right.” (That’s an easy guy impression to do, because most 5th grade boys’ voices haven’t dropped yet.) So right now, this is kind of a climactic moment for me, like Take that, you jerk 5th grade boy that didn’t think I was funny! I’m hilarious. Where have your dreams gone? Do you wear glasses or contacts, because if you do you can’t be an astronaut. Continuing on about childhood... I think that’ll be kind of bittersweet for a lot of you guys…like, here we are, almost done with college. Who appreci- ates naptime now, guys? All of us. But also, who remembers playing the game The Floor’s Lava? Or, the floor is covered in alligators? Doesn’t matter what it’s called, I’m willing to be 99% of us played those kind of games, where for whatever reason, the floor has become a gold-mine of hazards. You know what parents call those games? Money-savers. “Hey, Mom, can I have those new in- line skates? Or the mega-pack of legos? How about the new Nintendo?” “Grace, look, the floor’s lava!” I like to call that rhetoric in everyday life. Your parents persuading you that the lava on your floor is much more consequential than the new in-line skates you want. So I’ve heard a lot of people say they get their best thinking done in the shower. Does anyone else experience that? I have…I remember homework, things I need from the store, random errands I need to run. But, I no longer sup- port the idea that the shower is the best place for thinking. I didn’t think of any jokes for this set while I was in the shower. Except for this one. Which, of 151 The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College course, I’d forgotten by the time I got out. I had to shower three times that day just for one joke. You know, I feel like some of my jokes are really a lot funnier than other ones. Like, what do you call a dog with no legs? It doesn’t matter, because he’s not coming either way. That’s a hilarious joke. But I really didn’t want to do a routine of one-liners. My initial goal was to write one story that kept getting off track, but ultimately everything was intertwined. So I was kinda going off the whole people and their books things, but it seems that we’ve turned the page. Feel like we’ve kind of put that back on the shelf. Get it? In preparation for writing this sketch, I watched a documentary on stand-up that featured several comedians publicly declaring that using some- one else’s material is not stealing and is perfectly acceptable because comedy is primarily delivery, not the originality of your material. So before I get into some jokes I’m…borrowing, let it be known that stand-up is probably the only profession where plagiarism is not frowned upon. Anyway, one of my fellow rhetoric majors, Harrison Thacker, is an up-and-coming rapper. And I went over to his house the other day and walked in on him listening to his own cd. And I said, “Harrison! Are you seriously listening to your own cd, bopping your own head?” And he said, “Yeah, girl, this track is hot!” And I said, that’s like me sit- ting in my own apartment, listening to a demo track of my own stand-up, going ‘Hahahahaha, these jokes are awesome!” And that got me thinking just about everyday conversations I have that are generally hilarious. I mean, it’s obvious that wherever I go, hilarity ensues, but that’s beside the point. I was talking to a friend of mine a few months ago, and we were talking about food we like, or don’t, for that matter. And I brought up bagels, the one food I would probably marry if I could. Forget probably. It’s on, bagels! But my friend was like, “Bagels are gross,” and I was like, “Have you lost your mind?” And he went on to talk about how eating bagels is basi- cally like going, “Hmm, what do I want to eat today? I think I’d like a nice assortment of cardboard.” I’m just at a loss as to what could give someone such a deep hatred for bagels. Bagels? Really? I’m convinced that my friend had a negative encounter with a bagel before and has since turned his back on the little packages of deliciousness. So I’ve come up with a couple scenarios that might have happened. In this first scenario, my friend, like me, has decided he would like to marry a bagel. But the bagel’s like, “Nah, man, I’m kinda into bagels.” So my friend, who does not take rejection well, decides to harbor a lifelong grudge against all bagels. In the second scenario, my friend is at a party and is under the influence of hypnosis and is told under hypnosis that he can no longer enjoy bagels or he will die. In the third and final scenario, my friend, for whatever reason, has LOST HIS MIND and thinks bagels are not delicious. Maybe he has
152 Rhetoric in Comedy no taste buds. I have no idea. Ok, so I promised to talk a little bit about my experience here at Georgia College in this routine. So let’s talk about rhetoric. I know what you’re all thinking…this is such an awesome major, look at what she’s doing for her senior project, we’ve already established how fantastic Dr. Burt’s classes are. And you’re right. Best major ever. So I’ve got to have a plethora of hilarious sto- ries from classes, right? Nothing amusing ever happens in rhetoric classes. The story about Dr. Burt? That was a joke, guys, keep up. We’re all business, all the time. If you don’t think that’s funny, you’re not in the rhetoric department. But seriously, I have had a blast in this department, and have grown very close to all of my professors and classmates, particularly these six guys I took capstone with this semester. They’re kind of like my older brothers. Which is obnoxious. Who in the world needs six older brothers who talk all the time and don’t think you’re funny. I also got very close to Dr. Vail, my favorite benevolent tyrant. In an attempt to do my absolute best with this project, I asked him what he thought might make the comedy more appealing to the audience. He responded, as many of you may have guessed, “It depends…on how much you’re paying them.”
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