Masaryk University
Faculty of Education
Department of the English Language and Literature
The Portrayal of Women in Charles Bukowski's Work
Bachelor thesis
Brno 2019
Supervisor: Mgr. Barbora Kašpárková Author: Natálie Hlavatá
I hereby declare that I worked on my bachelor thesis independently and that I used only the sources listed in the bibliography. I agree with keeping this work in the library of Masaryk
University at the Faculty of Education for study purposes.
……………………………………………………
Natálie Hlavatá
Acknowledgements:
I would like to express my very great appreciation to my supervisor Mgr. Barbora Kašpárková for her valuable advice, patience and understanding for my writing tempo. Additionally, I would like to thank my family and friends for their support and to Charles Bukowski for being authentic. Abstract:
The main aim of the bachelor thesis is to provide an analysis of the portrayal of women in selected novels written by a controversial author Charles Bukowski. The analysis deals mainly with description, sexual objectification and position of female characters in novels Women
(1978), Ham on Rye (1982), Hollywood (1989) with a special reference to possible differentiation in illustration of female characters considering the time gap in publishing the works and also author's personal life that is inherently connected to his writing and time period he lived in.
Key words:
Bukowski; Beat generation; women; sexual objectification; description of women; position of women
Anotace:
Hlavním cílem této bakalářské práce je poskytnutí analýzy vyobrazení žen ve vybraných dílech kontroverzního autora Charlese Bukovského. Analýza se zabývá především popisem, sexuální objektifikací a pozicí ženských postav v románech Ženy, Šunkový nářez a Hollywood, s ohledem na možnou odlišnost ve vyobrazení žen vzhledem k časovému odstupu ve vydání jednotlivých děl a také na autorův osobní život neodmyslitelně spjatý s jeho tvorbou a dobou ve které žil.
Klíčová slova:
Bukowski; Beatnická generace; ženy; sexuální objektifikace; vyobrazení žen; pozice žen
Contents
1 Introduction ------1
2 Charles Bukowski's Background ------3
2.1 Born into this ------3
2.2 Wild years ------4
2.3 First relationship ------6
2.4 Harlequin ------7
2.5 Independence ------8
2.6 Newcomer ------10
2.7 Dirty Old Man ------11
2.8 The woman ------13
3 Beat Generation and Female Gender ------15
3.1 Beat Bukowski ------15
3.2 Women's output ------15
3.3 Muses ------17
3.4 Women in words ------18
4 Bukowski's Depiction of Women ------21
4.1 Description of female characters ------22
5 Sexual Objectification of Women ------26 6 A Position of Characters in Novels ------30
7 Conclusion ------36
Works Cited ------39
1 Introduction
There are not many writers with an audience of such an ambivalent approach. Charles
Bukowski is beloved and cursed. Beloved moreover for his plain, unconventional and original style of narrating and ability to add a deep philosophical thought absolutely naturally.
Nevertheless, he is the target of criticism mainly for his vulgar expressions, often connected to female characters in his pieces of writing, that caused his status of a misogynist. This bachelor thesis is devoted to the analysis of portrayals of women in his selected novels, concretely Women (1978), Ham on Rye (1982) and Hollywood (1989) focusing on the potential progress in the portrait of women according to dates of publishing, time period he lived in and ageing of the writer as his novels are based primarily on autobiographical features.
The first chapter deals with the background of Charles Bukowski, that is inherently connected to his writing because his own life experience is the most significant inspiration of his extensive work. Especially his rather pessimistic childhood, where the misunderstanding with women began, loneliness in his early adult age and first real relationships with women in his middle age, continuing to an unexpectable wave of fame and finally settling down at the end of his controversial life.
Considering the time period he lived in and actively wrote, he should be classified as an author of the Beat generation. However, he personally refuses to be a part of Beatniks.
Although they represented the society of castaways, Bukowski was an outsider even among them. He did not share their romanticization of the unconventional life and dwelt on crude depiction without embellishments. Nevertheless, he unconsciously shared a similar attitude
1 to women with the Beat generation and patriarchal society in the USA generally, that probably projects in his narratives and poems.
As the novels selected for the analysis were published with more than four years gap, the main aim of the analysis is to focus on possible differences in the women's depiction between each novel. The presence of hypothetical changes is studied in three aspects of
Bukowski's illustrating of women – concretely in the description of women, objectification of women and their position in the novels.
Although there are already theses concerning similar topic in writing of Charles
Bukowski, such as the Representation of the Female in the Work of Charles Bukowski by Michal
Macner or Women and Style in Bukowski and Nabokov written by Mária Pitoňáková, this bachelor thesis should provide a more complex picture of Bukowski as an author and mainly the comparison of portrayal of women in his three significant novels.
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2 Charles Bukowski's Background
2.1 Born into this1
The necessity for understanding and accepting Charles Bukowski´s writing is a knowledge of his life or at least a small awareness because his narratives are equally controversial to his own seventy-four years of living and even he himself declares that his works are predominantly autobiographical.
Charles Bukowski was born in Germany in 1920 as a son of an American soldier Henry
Charles Bukowski with German origin (his parents emigrated to the USA) and the local sewer
Katharina Fett. Due to the financial crises in 1923, they decided to move to the USA, concretely to California ̶ the future nettle of the Beat generation and often the setting in their and
Bukowski's stories (Sounes 20). He describes his childhood as a very unhappy and harmful period, because of the physical neglection done by father, which usually involved hard criticism of Charles. Even his mother was beaten by Henry, however, Charles Bukowski did not find any solace in her attitude as she usually defended his father (Christy 15). Therefore the first picture of a woman that Bukowski perceived, was quite tragical ̶ a woman accepting the violent behaviour of a man, unfortunately, of her husband who should be a support, being weak and preferring conformity instead of dignity or trying to help her son.
Another important female personality in his childhood was his grandmother Emilie – mother of Henry, who is mentioned in autobiographical novel Ham on Rye (1982). Although the relationship between Charles Bukowski and his grandmother was rather positive, she was
1 “Born into This“ is the poem from the poetry book The Last Night of the Earth Poems from 1992 and also the name of the film about Charles Bukowski. 3 no source of love for him. Her behaviour was affected by her German roots which that create the impression of impersonal and cold attitude:
no show of emotion, no kissing or touching her grandchildren…This frigid carapace did not mean she had no feelings; such restraint was common across the whole of Europe in the days of large families and very high child mortality; to get too close and then have the child die could be devastating. Many parents continued to maintain a heartbreaking distance between them and their children which only the 1960s generation really broke down. (Miles 1)
Similarly, as Bukowski did not feel to be a part of the family, he was also an outsider during his school years. A mindset of the other children to Charles was refusing, mostly due to his
German origin as it is fundamental to realize that the first World War was still an emotive issue and an anti-German attitude was common at the time (Miles). Later in his adolescent years, he started to suffer from Acne vulgaris and the treatment made him stop his high school studies for one semester (Sounes 26). Considering the age when contemporary and especially sexual relationships act a significant part for following socialization (Arnett), it might cause his worsened alienation and deeper estranging from women. Howard Sounes describes one of
Bukowski's castaway moments during his graduation party, “Bukowski graduated high school in the summer of 1939. He hadn't intended to go to the Senior Prom, partly because he didn't have a date, but found himself crouched in the bushes outside the gymnasium on the night, peering in at his fellow students” (Sounes 29).
2.2 Wild years
After graduating, Charles Bukowski started studies at Los Angeles City College, supported by government scholarship. He took Journalism, English, Economics and Public
Affairs courses with the intention to become a journalist. However, he was not able to achieve
4 average grades and on the top of that, he was trying hard not to be an ordinary student by claiming he supported the ideas of Adolf Hitler (Baughman). Bukowski just desired to break the status quo and later he excused his contentious behaviour, Howard Sounes this tendency describes as “Bukowski was basically apolitical, throughout his life, but he also enjoyed doing and saying outrageous things to shock and draw attention to himself, and was attracted to extreme characters” (Sounes 32).
This period of his life can be perceived as “searching for himself” because he started to get in touch with “low-life”, manifested by his enormous taste in alcohol and sitting in a bar all night. Alcohol is one of the significant topics in Bukowski's writing, another one is women.
At this time, he is finally starting to approach them, however, not as a result of love, but he is reaching them only as sexual objects – erotic dancers and prostitutes:
They also attended burlesque shows, giving Hank his first taste of women. No doubt this exposure at such a young age to the seedy side of sexuality and social drinking played a large role in establishing Hank’s future relationship patterns, in which sex and alcohol played the primary catalysts. (Baughman 10)
Being caught writing stories on the typewriter by his father, who threw away all his manuscripts, Bukowski decided to leave his home. The era of moving and an unstable job just began. He worked in Southern Pacific railways, then he followed to New Orleans to work in a warehouse. After that Bukowski continued to Atlanta, where he decided to starve instead of being a regular employee. Going through Texas he appeared in San Francisco as a driver of the
Red Cross. Bukowski wanted to join the army, however, he was excused for his psychical conditions (Sounes). Within this time he was tirelessly sending his stories to newspapers with a hope to become a full-time writer and still without any success, however, finally in
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Philadelphia his short story was published in Story Magazine. Unfortunately for Bukowski, it was only for twenty-five dollars and at the very end of the magazine (Sounes).
2.3 First relationship
Changes appeared after several months he spent in prison for supposedly avoiding the army. He still continued sitting in a bar and drinking, but he also kept writing stories until he received a letter from the founders of Black Sun Press and soon afterwards he was part of the third issue of Portofilo in 1946 (Sounes). Coming back to Los Angeles he met in a bar the first woman of his life – Jane Cooney Baker. After so many years being alone without any emotional bond to anyone this connection between him and Jane had to leave a trail:
Jane inspired much of Bukowski's most powerful work: the poetry book The Day Run Away Like Wild Horses Over the Hills is suffused with her memory, she became Betty in his first novel, Post Office, and Laura in his second novel, Factotum. Most famously she became Wanda, the character played by Faye Dunaway in the film Barfly, for which he wrote the screenplay. (Sounes 40)
This relationship is described as an uncommon and blusterous, full of drinking and physical fighting with each other. Since Bukowski had no previous experience with living with a woman and Jane got pregnant immediately after graduation and for many years lived in an unhappy marriage with an alcoholic, the partnership could barely be unproblematic (Sounes).
Sounes also suggests that Jane affected Bukowski's perception of women when she did not stop flirting with other men in spite of her relationship with Charles Bukowski. Jane's intentions for such behaviour was usually just a need for alcohol – therefore she was actually selling herself (Sounes). This experience forced Bukowski to keep this opinion about all women
“the relationship left Bukowski with a very poor opinion of women. He often called his girlfriends 'whores' or 'bitches' and described sex in brutal language, frequently using 'rape'
6 as a synonym for intercourse. Linda King believes he expected all his girlfriends to behave as
Jane had” (Sounes 44). Michael Gray Baughman adds “Nonetheless, few would dispute that
Hank’s first relationship established a destructive pattern that doomed nearly all those that followed” (Baughman 22).
During this time Bukowski found the first stable position in the post office, that happened to be an inspiration for his first novel Post Office (1971). He finally had a regular source of earnings and once he could not drink, because of his desolated health, he started to bet on horse races with Jane. However, Bukowski's first love with her was about to end and after a short while, they finally split definitely (Christy).
2.4 Harlequin
The beginning of 50's affected Bukowski's personal life altogether with his career as he was not able to get published. Saviour of him became the editor of the magazine Harlequin –
Barbara Frye, who was seeking for new writers. Their cooperation started with writing letters and resulted in marriage. Barbara related Bukowski and his poetry to William Blake and
Bukowski was delighted by the attention he received (Sounes). Hence there is a relationship created not from love or falling in love, but just from plain needs of both – Barbara complained about her loneliness and fear of staying alone and Bukowski's empathy during consummation of alcohol forced him to offer her a marriage “and Bukowski couldn´t help feeling sorry for her, especially as she had been so kind about his work” (Sounes 48).
They got married on 29 of September in 1955 and Bukowski seemed very submissive as he agreed with no sexual intercourse until the wedding even though later the sex life is again a leitmotiv in his description of their partnership in interviews and even his writing, for example in Notes of a Dirty Old Man (1969) and also Post Office. In contrast, he also claims,
7 that he never loved her (Miles). This might lead to the impression that Bukowski did not understand the concept of marriage or relationship as such. Bukowski and Barbara divorced nearly three years later. The main reason for their divorce was an enormous difference between their personalities and background, “Barbara clearly had expectations for a standard of living that Bukowski did not share. Coming from a wealthy, prestigious family and believing she had married a great writer, she must have been shocked by his low class, haphazard lifestyle” (Baughman 26) but the disappointment felt even Charles Bukowski, who was not able to subordinate to Barbara's demands “Bukowski was quickly tired of Barbara’s uppity nagging and snobbish attempts to civilize him, taking him to art galleries and such” (Baughman
26). Furthermore, they did not even share the same opinion on the subject of children and it was the peak of their arguments. In spite of that, Barbara got pregnant, however, later she miscarried. The blame was thrown on Bukowski's lifestyle by both of them (Baughman).
2.5 Independence
Years from 1956 were years of independence on the one side, however, on the other side, it was also a time of becoming even more lonely. Because people who played the most significant role in Bukowski's life are gradually dying (Sounes).
Kate Bukowski, the author's mother, is leaving first. Her death caused heavy drinking and cancer. Charles was not allowed to farewell with her properly due to the ban from his father. Sounes claims that her death did not leave any visible signs of mourning on Charles
Bukowski “To what extent the bereavement caused him pain is impossible to say for certain because Bukowski never dwelt on his feelings for his mother, either in his writings or in private conversation, but it seems to have made little impression on him” (Sounes 56).
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Another end of life caused at least some emotions two years later and it was the death of his father Henry. According to Baughman, Bukowski did not mourn at all, however, he was very delighted “On the contrary, he was ecstatic. He was now beholden to no one, blessedly free to do as he pleased” (Baughman 28). Although he did not have a tight emotional bond to any of his parents, death of his close relatives, to whom he devoted the plot of the well-known novel Ham on Rye, was a new experience and therefore it had an influence on his writing as he became darker and themes of his poems often contained thoughts about death (Sounes).
Soon after the bereavement of both parents, Charles Bukowski and his first love Jane reunited again, however, only as companionship for drinking. This period did not have a long- lasting, because the last time he saw her alive was January 22 (Miles). Although their relationship would be absolutely unhealthy and uncommon, her death left Bukowski devastated. He sent a letter to his friend – writer John William Carrington: “I went back to my whore who had once been such a cruel and beautiful woman, and who was no longer beautiful
(as such) but who had, magically, become a warm and real person, but she could not stop drinking, she drank more than I, and she died” (Miles 4). The fact he is calling her a “my whore” can be a reflection of his ambivalent feelings for his first acquaintance – fatal love and fatal hate at the same time. According to Baughman, Bukowski grieved over more than his surrounding expected and he was not hiding the sorrow on the public “He wept openly and went on a weeklong bender that culminated in the writing of the elegy, For Jane, With All the
Love I Had, Which Was Not Enough” (Baughman 32).
Nevertheless, all the grief caused an unexpected increase in Bukowski's career, because when he was not drinking, he was producing an enormous amount of poetry, short stories and also letters (Baughman). He got published in Outsider at the same time with
9 authors of the Beat generation – William Burroughs, Allan Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and also in many smaller magazines such as Quicksilver, Choice, Midwest, Renaissance, Outcry,
Wormwood Review and etc. (Miles). However, the main excitement Bukowski felt when his penfriends and publishers Jon and Gypsy Lou Webb offered him to create an anthology of his poems. Therefore, after some time, seven hundred and seventy-seven copies of his best poetry pieces called It Catches My Heart in Its Hands is published in 1963 (Sounes).
2.6 Newcomer
Changes in professional life were followed by changes in personal life. After a long time being alone, Bukowski got in touch with one of his female admirer Frances Elizabeth Dean
(later FrancEyE), repeatedly through letter correspondence. Frances was a former student of poetry at Smith College and she also wrote her own poems (Baughman), which Bukowski describes as written by a man (Sounes), that leads to an impression of degradation of poetry written by women. Soon their meetings grew up into a relationship and similarly, as all his previous partnerships, even this one suffered from conflicts caused by Bukowski's drinking, gambling and also the temper. In spite of these unpleasant aspects of living with Bukowski,
Frances got pregnant, although Bukowski had a refusal attitude to have a descendant. His reaction was surprisingly positive “Bukowski took the news as best as could be expected and even proposed marriage” (Baughman 37).
Charles Bukowski became a father on 7th of September in 1964 and therefore the fatal woman in his life finally appeared – his daughter Marina Louise Bukowski (Baughman 38). So in the age forty-four, he was experiencing an absolutely different role that had nothing in common with his normal poses such as a lonely drunker and low-life writer. Fatherhood would bring to Bukowski´s life tendency of self-control, especially when he wanted to overcome the
10 behaviour of his own father “'He loved to watch her when she was finding her toes and fingers,' says FrancesEyE. 'I was so grateful for having her when I saw what a wonderful father he was'” (Sounes 81).
After some time Bukowski and FrancesEye decided to split because their disagreement on alcohol was unbearable. However, Bukowski always remained careful father and supported them financially. Even the bond between him and his daughter was not significantly harmed as Marina claims in Sounes' Locked in the Arms of a Crazy Life:
'How my father raised me and how my mother raised me was pretty unconventional, just the fact they weren´t together was one piece of puzzle, but I always felt a really strong connection to him. He let me know both by his actions and his word that he loved me more than anything, so I always took that for granted as a child'. (Sounes 88)
2.7 Dirty Old Man
Another overtune in Bukowski's life started with the coming of John Martin, who spontaneously desired to be a publisher and extremely admired Bukowski. Therefore the very first title of his Black Sparrow Press was a poetry book written by Charles Bukowski, called At
Terror Street and Agony Way (1968). The Days Run Away Like Wild Horses Over the Hills (1969) followed immediately and since this time, Bukowski's fame was merely unstoppable.
German translation of the Notes of Dirty Old Man helped him to spread through Europe and in 1970 he decided to quit the job (and he was also forced to quit the job due to his absenteeism) (Sounes 129) in the Post office after long twelve years. A year later, one of the most successful novels is published – Post Office. In 1972 Bukowski started his famous public readings in the whole USA (Christy). The companion on these tours was Linda King – “After
Jane Cooney Baker, probably the greatest love of Bukowski's life” (Sounes 139).
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According to the list of Bukowski's female partners already mentioned in this theses, he was obviously attracted by complicated and outrageous women who searched for hysterical scenes and felt good in unstable situations, therefore calm women with clear mind bored him. Linda King, twenty years younger than him, belonged to the first group:
King was one of the many high-spirited and headstrong women of the period who waged their own liberation movement, not by marching on Washington or organizing bra-burning protests, but by directly confronting and provoking the men in her life. King’s freedom came with a price, however. Not only was she another casualty of a failed marriage, like Jane Cooney Baker and FrancEyE before her, she had also suffered a nervous breakdown and spent time in a mental institution receiving electro-shock therapy. (Baughman 68)
The intensity of his emotions was enormous, however, their complicated personalities, concretely Bukowski's jealousness and Linda tendency to flirt with other men to tease
Bukowski did not allow them to live in cheerful relationship. Therefore arguments which culminated into breakups were on a daily basis, similarly as it was during the relationship with
Jane. (Sounes 143) In a letter to Steve Richmond, Bukowski reflects his current pose towards women:
the female loves to play against a man. and if she is in a position to do it there is no one who will not resist, the male, for all his bravado and exploration, is the loyal one, the one who generally feels love. the female is skilled at betrayal, and torture and damnation. never envy a man his lady, behind it lays a living hell. (Sounes 147)
According to Bukowski's fame caused by publishing Erections, Ejaculations, Exhibitions and
General Tales of Ordinary Madness in 1972, his self-confidence did not suffer from the lack of female attention as he was receiving a plenty of fan letters, however he was still obsessed by
Linda, who became one of the inspirations for writing his third novel Women published in
1978. Obsession slowly disappeared after Bukowski was inviting home many of his female 12 admirers and Linda found that she is pregnant with another man. After so many aggressive splits-up they finally realized unhappiness of their passionate relationship and Charles
Bukowski is again without a stable partner (Sounes). “But I doubt that there is any real woman upon the horizon (for me, my mind, my need, my weakness) and I’ll probably go to my death without ever seeing her” (Bukowski, Living on Luck: Selected Letters 1960s–1970s 222).
2.8 The woman
In spite of what he wrote in letters, he found the woman. Linda Lee Beighle was his careful friend for a long time and she was almost the only one who refused to have illegitimate sex with Bukowski. Their meetings became more often and Linda's affection for Bukowski stronger (Sounes 20). Unlike the other Bukowski's partners, Linda Lee was emotionally and financially stable and although she was fond of drinking, she did not desire after the attention of other men and her behaviour was neither neurotic nor aggressive (Baughman 91). Bukowski knowing her feelings slowly acquiesce her:
Linda Lee’s quiet strength and persistence won out. Bukowski was chafed by her possessiveness but, in his advancing age, greatly appreciated her sincere concern for his health … After all, the unhealthy and destructive relationships he had been through in the past, one can hardly fault him for finally choosing to nurture, if tepid, tranquillity over passionate turmoil. (Baughman 92)
According to Sounes, Bukowski's previous outrageous life was summed up into the novel
Women and the book of poems Love Is a Dog From Hell (1977) and with Linda Lee he was about to begin a new period.
During this time, Bukowski visited his place of birth and gave successful public readings in Europe. He also continued in writing, particularly his fourth novel Ham on Rye, the book of poems Dangling in the Tournefortia (1981) and collection of short stories The Most Beautiful
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Woman in the Town and Other Stories (1983). He also wrote a screenplay for a movie Barfly, in which he was inspired by his life in the bar in Philadephia and his previous relationships with
Jane Cooney Baker and Barbara Frye (Baughman).
Arguments naturally appeared even in the relationship with Linda Lee, however, all of them found its solution and as follows Linda Lee became Bukowski's wife on 18th of August and both settled in San Pedro (Sounes). Suddenly, this merry occasion was followed by a tragic one. Bukowski was diagnosed tuberculosis and sometime later also leukaemia. During this time Bukowski's production was overwhelming and he releases enormous collections of poems and short stories such as Septuagenarian Stew (1990) and The Last Night of the Earth
Poems (1992). His very last book Pulp (1994) contains symbols of coming death and is surprisingly quickly ended by shooting the main character because Bukowski was afraid of leaving the Pulp unfinished.
Charles Bukowski died on 9th March 1994 and is buried in San Pedro. His funeral was modest and private ceremonial. Sounes in the end of his biographical book about Charles
Bukowski is summering Bukowski's life work with words: there is an uncompromising personal philosophy running through that is convincing, if challenging: a rejection of drudgery and imposed rules, of mendacity and pretentiousness: an acceptance that human lives are often wretched and that people are frequently cruel to one another, but that life can also be beautiful, sexy and funny. (287)
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3 Beat Generation and Female Gender
3.1 Beat Bukowski
The aim of the following chapter is a focus on the status of women in and during the
Beat generation, mainly the position of female writers and the male writer's perception of the opposite gender. As the Beatniks were contemporary writers to Charles Bukowski, it might help to understand the general attitude towards women in the twentieth century's USA and therefore also the Bukowski's personal one.
Considering the age and place of living, Bukowski belongs to the Beat generation, however, he never felt and did not even want to be a part of it. He was an alternative to the alternative group and if there is a need for inclusion, Bukowski would be punk post-Beatnik
(Duval). Although he was living a similar bohemian life for some time – travelling without a full-time job, his view was different and he personally claims that he was not able to have the careless mindset. Bukowski disposed of the romantic and sentimental depiction of the world, in contrast to Jack Kerouac, and offers the rawness (Duval).
3.2 Women's output
The difficult position of women and especially the ambitious ones is closely depicted by Knight in her extensive book Women of the Beat Generation:
Women of the fifties, in particular, were supposed to conform like Jell-O to a mold. There was only one option: to be a housewife and mother. For the women profiled here, being Beat was far more attractive than staying chained to a brand new kitchen appliance. For the most part, the liberal arts educations these young women were given created a natural predilection for art and poetry, for living a life of creativity instead of confining it to the occasional hour at the symphony. Nothing could be more
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romantic than joining this chorus of individuality and freedom, leaving boredom, safety and conformity. (Knight 3)
According to Knight, being an equal female writer to male writers was very challenging in the post-war USA. Beat generation as such was established by men, the base group contented
Jack Kerouac, Neal Cassady, William Burroughs and Allan Ginsberg (Gair) and therefore women were not expected to express their thoughts and emotions and usually were underestimated by male Beatniks to not be able to live such an adventurous and tentative life
(Knight). As a plus, many significant representatives of the Beat generation had also homosexual relationships, which can lead to an impression of praising masculinity at the expense of feminity. Female writers were writing quietly into drawers, overlooked, neglected and not respected (Partoens), Lounsbury in her article in Guardian claims that “There were women, certainly, but they felt like cardboard cut-outs, something to move around, admire, shift gently out of the way when necessary. In fact, the only women Kerouac and Ginsberg seemed to genuinely respect were their mothers” (Lounsbury)
They were usually perceived and simplified just as the partners of the male writers and their success was attributed to it – for instance Joan Glassman (later Joyce Johnson), author of Come and Join the Dance from 1962 and her well-known memoir Minor Characters from
1983 (Gair). “Glassman’s relationship with Kerouac was clearly a mixed blessing: while it did place her in a privileged position in Beat history, it has also shaped critical and commercial responses to her own work” (Gair 126).
Another independent and so on controversial writer, who did not want to be in the shadow of the male writer is Diane di Prima starting career with autobiography Memoirs of
Beatnik (1969) and following book of poetry This Kind of Bird Flies Backward was accepted as a “very rare example of a work by a woman that received high praise from Allen Ginsberg” 16
(Gair 133). Diane di Prima decided to be a single mother and stood out of the conformity, which was the disruption of purely male beatnik's attitude (Gair).
3.3 Muses
Some of the Beat generation members were not writers, however, their contribution rested in inspiration they brought into the writing of the others. Knight listed an extensive number of Beat muses, including Joan Valmer Adams Burroughs, Edie Parker Kerouac and Joan
Haverty Kerouac. Nevertheless, the most significant and the most striking was Carolyn Cassady
– wife of Neal Cassady and she witnesses her troublesome marriage in the autobiographical novel Off the Road (1990). Before her meeting Neal, Carolyn was having a decent life, as a student at an elite school, interested in arts. While she was endeavouring her master's degree,
Neal Cassady charmed her, in spite of his marriage with teenaged LuAnne Henderson.
Connection between Carolyn and spontaneous, erratic Neal was according to her words exhausting, as she could not rely on him in raising up of their three children, she could also barely trust his feelings, whereas he was splitting his love between her, Kerouac, Ginsberg and many other women (Knight) and Neal Cassady also accept her as an object, when he offered to “share” her with Jack Kerouac. Her role in Cassady's life is described as “Carolyn provided Neal with the steady presence he needed when the party, inevitably, was over”
(Knight 57). Carolyn's position in the Beat generations was powerless and most of her life was basically structured by Beatnik's males around her, whose behaviour can be perceived as egocentric and disrespectful to her desires.
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3.4 Women in words
In order to Bukowski's biographical part of the thesis, his first half of the life was not wealthy experienced with women and life in partnership as such. Especially in contrast to main representatives of the Beat generation, for example, Neal Cassady and Jack Kerouac already mentioned above, whose sexuality was open and a high number of women appeared in their lives (Gair). Masculinity in leadership is noticeable in the Kerouac's novel On the Road (1957), where the only active characters are men and they construct purely homogenous group based on strong male friendship and where is no place for women. Women are not a part of their philosophical and literature discussions, therefore we are not able to see their intellectual processes (Olsson) and therefore
the reader receives very little information about the women's thoughts and feelings and for many people, the female characters may appear as blurred and opaque throughout the story. When a woman is introduced in the text the narrator tends to give her a short external description and possibly adds a few adjectives about her inner features (Olsson 5).
Fatherless, in most cases, women are simplified to the role of housewives and Kerouac usually classifies them as mainstream thinking people, whom he despises. The paradox is that the only female character meeting with respect is lonely mother living out of the society, however, the fascination by her has an origin in her masculinity, outrageous who fascinates them through her masculinity and self-sufficiency “Even though the male Beats take women’s subordination for granted, they seem to find masculine and independent women fascinating.
In this pre-feminist society, the only way for women to achieve equality is obviously to adopt a male manner” (Olsson 9).
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Another aspect of Kerouac's disregards of women in the novel is their objectification.
He considers them as objects, specifically sexual objects and they are shaded of human traits.
Olsson in his thesis refers to a so-called male-gaze that clearly makes women objects of men's pleasure and puts them in a passive position, which they cannot change, therefore they becomes an easily replaceable possession of men (Olsson). Women's degradation goes further
“the Beats’ general neglect of the female as an active agent, the author hardly gives any insight into the female psyche and the way the female characters perceive attraction and sexuality, but rather portrays these women as the muted object of Sal and Dean’s desire” (Partoens 39).
This approach is noticeable in characterization of female characters consisting of plain depiction of their outer beauty, usually full of sexual allusions and Women in On the Road lack a note about their inner qualities “What we find here is an outer description from a strictly male point of view, with focus on certain distinguishing parts of the female body (breasts, flanks, hair and eyes) ” (Olsson 11).
Moreover, the male gaze is sometimes enclosing to possession of women and it is obvious in the way how main male characters treat female characters, abusing them for their own pleasure and at the time they get bored by the women, they leave them. This change is usually caused by an entry of another male friend character or meeting a new woman, therefore women function as a replaceable object and men do have no tendency for responsible attitude towards them (Olsson). Partoens suggests that the male gaze is basically transformed into the sexual objectification:
Kerouac’s perspective is an act of extreme social and moral irresponsibility, free license and fallacious justification for the acquaintance rape and sexual abuse that has been committed in the name of “sexual freedom.” In this way, the egocentric and androcentric
19 nature of Sal and Dean’s pursuit of “getting the kicks” entails that a woman’s usefulness is reduced to her body and her being an object of the male gaze and virility. (44)
Even though the Beat generation was sexually open and tolerant, their tolerance did not spread into a respectful attitude towards woman and this social literary movement became male-centred.
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4 Bukowski's Depiction of Women
The following chapter is dedicated to an analysis of the Charles Bukowski´s work and focuses on the portrayal of women, which Bukowski gives to a reader and is often an object of discussions about Bukowski´s misogyny (Klein), with reference to his real-life experiences revealed in the biographical part of the thesis. Selected work from Charles Bukowski contains his three novels – Women, Ham on Rye, Hollywood. Books were chosen according to their significance in Bukowski´s life, because publishing of each novel always meant a milestone in his literary career. All of them are distanced from each other in the date of publishing four and more years, which might develop his attitude in understanding and portraying his female characters, equally as his own life was changing.
The novel Women was published in 1978 and the wave of feminist criticism came quickly as Bukowski expected in a letter to his friend “´I might get killed on this one. It´s written as some type of high-low comedy and I look worse than anybody else but they´re only going to think about how I painted them´” (Bukowski, Women ix). The plot of the novel focuses on the main protagonist's searching for and desiring after an intimate relationship. However, none of the partnerships were long-lasting and therefore, a reader is a witness of women endlessly coming to and leaving from Hank Chinaski – Bukowski´s alter ego in the novels.
Whereas in Ham on Rye (1982), Hank Chinaski narrates a chronological story about his own childhood and growing up. The novel gives us a complete picture of Chinaski's
(Bukowski's) position in society since the very beginning of his socialization process and his exploration of sexual identity. The novel Hollywood (1989) is basically a later effect of
Bukowski's experiences with writing a movie script, already mentioned in the biographical
21 part. Bukowski gives reader an opportunity to take a look at the background of making a film in Hollywood.
4.1 Description of female characters
None of the novels written by Bukowski were dedicated to a woman. Bukowski did not try to write from the view of the opposite gender and furthermore, he is not even able to write from the position of any other person according to the lasting presence of autobiographical features. In spite of that, women always play a significant role in the main character of
Bukowski´s novel because they are the only possible fulfilment of his sexual desires.
Nevertheless, Bukowski´s outrageous dictionary for the description of women is the main target of feministic criticism. Similarly as it is in the Beat generation, the narrator´s picture of a female characters is primarily focused on a physical appearance with tones of sexism, for example when Chinaski is on a trip with his lady friend Dee Dee, he notices a younger woman "The only thing that helped was a young girl sitting across from us. She had a beautiful body, long good legs and she wore a mini-skirt. With the miniskirt, she wore long stockings, a garter belt and she had on pink panties under the red skirt" (Bukowski, Women
55). There is no romanticization through metaphors or symbols, only a bare description, leaving out the face, focusing on the body and its parts evoking an attraction.
As an argument, the lady mentioned in the extract did not play any role in narration, however, his tendency for emphasizing the superficial aspect is obvious even in longer staying characters such as Lydia, first Chinaski´s love, because his initial impression concerns women's sexualized body parts "Her breasts were good…But she had a behind. I watched that beautiful behind as she walked away. The seat of her blue-jeans cradled I and I watched it as she walked away" (Bukowski, Women 2). Chinaski's erotic deliberation about women, which emphasizes
22 parts of the female body like the bust and hips with buttock, is according to the psychology of sexual behaviour probably controlled by his male instincts, that naturally lead a man to observe his potential partner's fertility (Abramson).
Even his first meetings with a girl at a very young age was initiated with sexual undertone when his neighbour was repeatedly showing him her underwear:
She lifted her dress. The panties were pink and clean. They looked good. She kept holding her dress up and then turned around so that I could see her behind. Her behind looked nice…I put my hand on her behind and kissed her again. I kept kissing her and grabbing at her behind. (Bukowski, Ham on Rye 44)
Although their meetings, consisting of "showing panties", were regular, there is no notion about their potential friendship, not even any suggestion of "children's love" which is typical in this age. Everything the reader can perceive is just an alliance motivated by erotic discoveries and typical omitting of the girl's personality.
The noticeable difference appears in the novel Hollywood, where not only the number of female characters is lower than in Women, however, even their description is usually austere and does not lead to any erotic assumptions. And it is even though Chinaski meets obviously beautiful woman Popppy called 'The Princess from Brazil', her introduction is simplified on “young girl with long black hair walked in without knocking. Next thing we knew she was stretched out up on the back of the sofa, lengthwise, like a cat” (Bukowski, Hollywood
7).
Chinaski has a straightly diverse attitude to women he likes or behave kindly to him.
He is not underlying women's sexuality when the woman is older and matured and treats
Chinaski with honest love or when his own feelings are stronger than his sexual instincts. In the case of Dee Dee in Women, he depicts women forty years old, who used to be beautiful 23 according to his words. She is actually taking care of Hank, providing him with a place for living, food, alcohol and also entertainment. Although she loves him, and Chinaski admires her because of her life experiences and sense of humour, he still considers her as a friend and the only mentioned intimate act between these two characters is a kiss.
In a deeper examination, Bukowski and his alter ego Chinaski are unable to connect solicitude with sexuality, and therefore the woman with both of these two aspects is not present in the novels. It might lead to the suggestion that he is always accepting only one part of the female person – the physical part and its sexual attraction, or the inner, psychical part.
It is obvious in Ham on Rye, when young Chinaski is being regularly treated by a kind and emphatic nurse. He even admits he fell in love with her, however, he omits erotic elements in her description and he personally claims “My love-feeling for her wasn't sexual. I just wished that she would enfold me in her starched whiteness and that together we could vanish forever from the world” (Bukowski 142). It is expressly in contrast to the references about his English teacher Miss Gredis, whose likeable appearance evidently fascinates all boys in the classroom
"She had her skirt pulled especially high, it was terrifying, beautiful, wondrous and dirty. Such legs, such thighs, we were very close to the magic. It was unbelievable…There wasn't a boy in class without a hard-on and Miss Gredis went on talking” (Bukowski, Ham on Rye 104).
Nevertheless, her attractivity, unfortunately, overshadows her probable personal qualities as a teacher, particularly her knowledge, when Chinaski claims, that due to her outer beauty he and other male pupils were not capable to listen to her lecture.
This tendency is visible also in Hollywood, where is presented Chinaski's stable female partner Sarah, always altogether with him as a support, however without any notion about her physical appearance or their sexual life. Chinaski behaves to her partner in a lovely and
24 respectful way, nevertheless, he gives the reader a very bare picture of Sarah with words
"Sarah was a good girl” (Bukowski 7). Fading of Bukowski´s erotic perception of female body in Hollywood might be also connected to his ageing, almost harmonious life situation and probably writer's matureness.
Considering all mentioned extracts above, direct description of female characters in
Bukowski's novels can be generally regarded as devoting mostly to bodies and its parts that physically attracts him and mere watching provides him pleasure with a sexual undertone. In the describing passages there is a noticeable usage of bold and realistic language, avoiding embellishments.
Though the descriptions in selected novels have a certain order. The earliest novel
Women is also the most marked one for its sexism. With an exaggeration, it is possible to claim, that descriptions full of eroticism and emphasizing physical appearance at the expense of character's psyche is visible almost on every other page. In Ham on Rye female characters are depicted similarly as in Women, however to a lesser extent and what more, some of them are not connected to sexuality at all - Chinaski's mother, grandmother, nurse and etc. The most significant divergence appears in Hollywood, where the amount of females is lower and none of them Chinaski perceives as sexual objects, even his female partner Sarah is left out without a closer description of her body. Another noteworthy scheme is a different perception of women who create a stable, calm and caring background and whose sexuality is forgotten or not mentioned by Chinaski, with women who are vice versa – indifferent, outrageous women who do not play an important role in the life of the main character and whose depiction consists of mainly erotic references on their physical side.
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5 Sexual Objectification of Women
“King Mongkut of Siam had 9,000 wives and concubines; King Solomon of the Old Testament had 700 wives, August the Strong had 365 wives, one for each day of the year. Safety in numbers” (Bukowski, Women 288). The extract is a result of Chinaski's self-apologizing for his unloyalty to Sara.
Presenting females as sexual objects is already recognizable in the previous chapter dealing with the description of women in Bukowski's novels. Emphasizing their physical appearance and body parts causing attraction along with omitting their inner side – personality, emotions, character, lead to an impression of degradation of the female gender.
Their main purpose represented by Bukowski is the fulfilment of male's desires and needs, usually of sexual character. This tendency is mentioned in the chapter about Beat generation, specified as a "male-gaze". Male-gaze is a term determined by Laura Mulvey, used especially in advertisement and movie production when a woman is a passive sexual object providing pleasure and fulfilling male's fantasies through fragmentation of female's attractive parts.
(Well)
This chapter is devoted to situations in Bukowski's novels where female characters are treated as objects, frequently during sexual activities. Bukowski has no bounderies and breaks taboos while describing sexual intercourse and offers readers a piece of detailed information about the process and genitals organs of both genders “I was astounded and dismayed to find she had a large pussy. An extra large pussy…That was a tragedy. Woman's greatest sin”
(Bukowski, Women 77). Sex is a common feature in Women because it is the (expected) result of each meeting with a woman. This intimate act is happening without any sign of emotions from Chinaski's side and even when he literally can not stand the particular woman “If you
26 hated her right off, it was better to fuck her right off; if you didn't, it was better to wait, then fuck her and hate her later on” (Bukowski 195). This extract clearly depicts woman as not an equal human being to Chinaski (or men generally), whose purpose in men's world one and only – sexual gratification of her male counterpart.
In sexual gratification, Bukowski goes even further and reaches the taboo indicated above when Chinaski has sexual intercourse with his girlfriend Tammie who was under the influence of drugs and alcohol and was basically in a coma “I realized she was still stoned…She didn't move…Her eyes were closed, her mouth was lifeless” (Bukowski 146). Although she previously promised him sex, it hardly gives him permission to abusing her in her unconsciousness for his own pleasure. Chinaski did not even manifest signs of worrying about her health conditions and focuses exclusively on his satisfaction comparing it according to his words to animal copulation. This disturbing act appears exaggerated in a short story The Fiend published in magazine Adam in 1970. However, the exaggeration developed into really unpleasant and controversial narration about paedophile man who is powerless and his desires take control over him and he rapes a little girl.
A similar picture of a woman under the rule of man occurs in Ham on Rye. Although she is a participant of sexual activity, she is usually in a passive role – her pleasure is not the goal and her male partner is not responding to her requests. A proper example of this is obvious in Chinaski's youth in high school. He and another boy are asked by their friend Pete to guard the broken car behind the school while he is having sex in there with their classmate
Lily. Unfortunately, her first sexual experience transforms in an erotic show for the two
“watchers” and later for the whole school, so there is no possibility to speak about an intimate act or at least enjoyable act because the behaviour of Pete shows signs of violent “'You whore!'
27 he said. 'Talk to me nice, Pete!' 'You bitch-whore!' he said and slapped her across the face, hard. She began sobbing. 'Don't, Pete, don't...' 'Shut up, cunt!'” (Bukowski 120). Although she first initiated this meeting, she was overwhelmed by male's dominance, she was not given space for her own needs and was not even allowed to protest when she disliked the process.
A woman is again degraded and due to Pete's word choice also humiliated.
Another example of objectification, though not sexual, is in Chinaski's family, which is strongly patriarchal (as the whole society in the USA was), he and his mother are under the domination of Hank's father. Both of them were victims of his violent physical punishments
“Then my father began beating my mother. She screamed and he kept beating her…Then the beating and the screaming stopped and all I could hear was my mother sobbing” (Bukowski
53), unfortunately, Chinaski's mother is not able to confront her husband and she also condone physical abuse of her son and usually defends her husband, for example when little
Hank is supposed to mow the lawn and then cut it into the same level by shears, but he cannot leave any single blade of grass sticking “'See them?' he asked her. 'Two hairs. See them?' 'Yes,
Daddy, I see them...'” (Bukowski 69).
Overturn in his writing started already in Ham on Ray, when the mentioned extract is one few in contrast to cases of sexual objectification of females in Women. However, it fully appears in Hollywood, as Bukowski leaves out the description of women, he also does not let
Chinaski treat them as sexual objects. So that in comparison of the three novels, Hollywood is the most tolerant and respectful, as it does not contain any mention about intercourse and does not have erotic aspects on the pedestal. Furthermore, Bukowski represents Sarah as an inseparable part of Chinaski, who fully involves her in his decisions and she is an equivalent partner to Hank Chinaski. Nevertheless, special relation to Sarah can be noticed already in
28
Women. She persistently takes care of Chinaski even though he is having affairs with other female characters, their relationship is slowly evolving even without sex and Chinaski himself claims, that “Sarah really was a good soul…Sara deserved better treatment than I gave her”
(Bukowski 300).
In the brief summary of the chapter Sexual Objectification of Women, it needs to be said, that the Bukowski's pattern of depicting women as sexual object is similar to as it is in their description. The most distinctive objectification is happening in the earliest novel
Women, where the majority of females become only erotic tools for Chinaski's joy and reader receives information just about sexual acts, physical appearance or their auster dialogues. This tendency slowly decreases in the second selected novel Ham on Rye, because the objectification is also limited by little Chinaski's (or Bukowski's) experience with women, especially if he is not sexually active. On the other hand, Hollywood deals, off the plot, with the mature relationship of Hank Chinaski and Sara, where the endless obsession with women and sexual self-gratification disappear and reader witnesses merely equal partnership.
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6 A Position of Characters in Novels
This final chapter of analysis is focusing on females' position in the plot of the narration and towards the main male character – Hank Chinaski. As it is already known from the two previous chapters, women in the novels of Charles Bukowski are frequently not presented with the same respect as men are and all the female potential and abilities are reduced on their sexuality especially at the beginnings of his narrative writing. In spite of that Chinaski very often disregards women, calling them "bitches" and "whores", they are inseparable part of his life as the novel Women is about his relationships with them, Ham on Ray is also about exploration of women and Hollywood concerns his settling down with the woman, therefore women represent required element of Bukowski's work. A concentration of women in the novels was probably caused by Bukowski's own struggling with female gender as it is said in the biographical part.
Nevertheless, their position in selected novels is variable. Since the novels are always narrated from the subjective view of the first person – Hank Chinaski, he does not give female characters too much space and so they are never able to function as main characters. Starting with the novel Women, the positions of the characters can be called "heliocentric". The centre, the helio and main ego, is expressed by Hank Chinaski. The other characters are circling around him, some of them are receding, some enclosing and their orbit around Chinaski is changeable.
Chinaski creates the centre because of his narrative approach, however, he is a limited narrator, because the reader can read only his thoughts and see the situation from his perspective and no one else´s. He is also an egocentric narrator as the story is based primarily on his own experiences and without much interest in the background or activity of other characters. His position remains the same since the beginning until the end of the novel.
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Passivity and the stable position of the main hero are expressed by almost no sign of development through the whole novel, except the very last page, when he rejects a woman because of Sara – the fatal love. Another feature that also makes him a passive character is that he is just accepting what is coming to him, however, he seldom initiates the changes.
However, other characters, consisting mainly of females, are depicted as active aspects not only affecting Chinaski's life but also fulfilling it. During the narration, women are coming to Chinaski usually on their own initiative, he is not actively seeking them, because females usually address him first and they desire the attention of the famous writer. Some of the female characters play a more important role for the main hero than the others, their staying in the plot is longer or they keep returning. The proper example is the first Chinaski's love
Lydia phoning him long after their final split up, or Sara who waits for him the whole last third of the story in spite of many other characters approaching Chinaski too.
Furthermore, according to the number of women circling around the Chinaski, their position can be compared to consumption, and once the woman is not suitable for Chinaski, she is changed by another female character, so it makes her replaceable. This is partly confirmed by Chinaski claiming "Basically I craved women craved prostitutes, base woman because they were deadly and hard and made no personal demands. Nothing was lost when they left. Yet at the same time, I yearned for a gentle, good woman, despite the overwhelming price" (Bukowski 76).
In Ham on Rye, the Chinaski's position differs in the development of the character. The novel Women shows Chinaski mostly as a completed person who is not making any essential decision in his life, meanwhile the young Hank in Ham on Rye is more active and his personality is still in progress. The number of female characters is smaller than in the Women,
31 nonetheless, just part of them is directly connected to Chinaski and it is primarily his mother, grandmother, and nurse. Otherwise, Chinaski is just their “observer”, he does not interact with them, but they still have a place in his narration, such as his English teacher Miss Grade, classmate Lily or neighbour Mrs Anderson.
Unfortunately, even the directly connected female characters do not represent a good model of a woman and their position towards Hank Chinaski is always limited. His mother, who should be a personification of certainty and safety is unable to express any kind of love, she lacks interest in his son and her position is weakened by her dominant husband. On the other hand these positive attributes are presented in the nurse who is taking care of him. On top of that their feelings are mutual, but the connection is limited by the time of Hank's healing process “'Henry, this is your last treatment. I'm going to miss you.'…Those big eyes were watery. I heard her blow her nose…I was 15 years old and in love with her and I was covered with boils and there was nothing that either of us could do” (Bukowski 150). As a conclusion, there is no woman with intimate, both physical or emotional relationship with the main character and therefore none of them is "meaningful" in Chinaski's life and Bukowski focuses rather more on Chinaski himself or the boyhood around him.
According to two previous chapters of analysis female's description and objectification, it is already clear that the latest novel from the selected three is significantly different.
Hollywood varies also in positions of female characters. The number of them decreased and one woman is almost placed to the position equal to Chinaski. Nevertheless, the movie industry in Hollywood and concretely production company of Chinaski's movie is depicted as purely male-oriented without an area where women would apply and had a chance to contribute to the shooting. All the decisions about the movie are made by men and also all
32 the crucial positions are represented by males. Females usually pose as characters who have no influence in events depicted in the novel and they function in a lower position as a personal secretary or real estate broker, serving other people.
On the other hand, there is some oddity. The exception is Hank's wife Sarah and an actress performing Jane – Francine Bower. Although Francine does not appear in the novel very often, it obvious from the few lines about her person, that she is respected and worshipped among the men. “MORE LEG, FRANCINE! IT LOOKS GOOD. I LOVE YOU, FRANCINE!
YOU ARE THE LAST GREAT STAR IN HOLLYWOOD!” (Bukowski 290) are the words of the promo photographer of the movie. There is also a sign of female companionship during the shooting which is a new and quite unconventional aspect of the Bukowski's novels. Francine's nervousness is blocking her in performing and Chinaski's wife Sarah is helping her:
Just then Francine walked into the room She looked totally lost, completely out of it. She was in a bathrobe, had a towel around her head. 'I'm going to tell her,' Sarah said. She walked over to Francine and spoke quietly to her. Francine listened. She gave a little nod…Francine came out, headed for the bathroom and the camera. As she went past, her eyes found Sarah: 'Thank you!'. (Bukowski 252)
A special position in the novel Hollywood has Sarah, who is a necessity for Chinaski in the narration. She represents an element of calmness and solid certainty in the world of movie production described as full of changes. She accompanies him through the whole story and she also takes part in important meetings, where she is often the only woman or the meetings are not suitable for a woman according to the male opinion “'No, you can't. It's in the ghetto in Venice.' 'Oh, the ghetto! I wouldn't miss that for anything!' 'Look, do me a favour: please don't come along!' 'What? Do you think would let you go down there all by yourself!' I got my blade, put my money in my shoes 'O.K.,' I said” (Bukowski 117).
33
Chinaski fully involves her into his life, when he discusses his opinions and work with her and surprisingly, he respects and accepts her attitudes and thoughts. And he also admits that his life has changed since the coming of Sarah. In some passages are noticeable almost confessions of love, which are not said to Sarah directly, however, contains sings of pleasure and gratitude of having Sarah as a life partner “The gods had sent Sarah to add ten years to my life. The gods kept driving me toward the blade, then, at the last moment, lifting my head off the block. Very strange, those gods” (Bukowski 35).
The position of the female character in selected novels of Charles Bukowski is diverse.
Firstly, in Women, he places them in devalued positions, where the quantity of women suggests their replaceability and their importance in the life of the main character Hank
Chinaski is in most cases bounded by the sexual pleasure they provide him. If Chinaski has some stronger feelings for a particular woman, her character lasts for a longer time in the novel or she has a tendency to return.
Later in Ham on Rye, he rather focuses on Chinaski himself and his male friends, meanwhile, women are usually very distanced from him. Any of the female characters receive equal attention as male characters because Chinaski does not enclose to anyone, the closer contact is always limited by a physical or psychical border which is impossible to cross for both genders.
Novel Hollywood is ambivalent in approaching the position of female characters. In spite of the fact, that Chinaski's surrounding is purely male and men occupy most of the significant positions in the novel, while the few notions about other women do not affect the story, there is one female character whose importance is not overlooked. It is Chinaski's wife
Sarah, who was inspired by Bukowski's last wife and love of his life – Linda Bukowski. She is an
34 inseparable part of Chinaski, one of few, that deserves his attention and warm feelings. He let her change his status of a drunker and womanizer and due to her presence, he became a calm and steady character.
35
7 Conclusion
In summary, this thesis argued that there is possible progress in Bukowski's three novels –
Women, Ham on Ray, Hollywood in the portrayal of women. Charles Bukowski is often called misogynist by his feminist readers, nevertheless, this term is simplifying his overall attitude to women. His conditions for acceptance of the right model of the women and the relationship between man and woman were limited by reserved behaviour of his emotionless mother who was subordinated to his violent father. Bukowski's mother decided for her own conformity and safety instead of sticking up for her own child, and therefore he was basically rejected by a woman, who should be one of the most important women in his life, already in the childhood.
His later experiences in matured age were not much happier as he had a tendency to create relationships with affected and outrageous women whose mentality was unstable.
Usually, neither of them was able to build the partnership on equal love, understanding and tolerance. They very often shared only a fondness for alcohol, hurting each other and sex. He became famous in his elderly age, and the enormous wave of fame caused his status of a
“womanizer” when he finally was the centre of the women's interest that led to short-term relationships based on sex. However, nearly at the end of his life, he found a woman to settle down with.
The thesis also considers the time period of Bukowski's life which was characterized by the Beat generation and only at that time born feminism and which is indirectly connected to him. The Beat generation would not respect women equally, in real life and also in their writing, as short overview of Jack Kerouac's On the Road or the brief introduction into female
36 writers and muses of the Beat generation confirm, namely Diane di Prima, Joyce Johnson or
Cassady. Beatniks were a homogenous group, whose respect deserved the masculine women who adapted to them in their type of unconventional life of castaways.
The analysis of this thesis focuses on the potential differences of the portrayal of women in Bukowski's novels, considering the time gaps between each novel and ageing of the author. In conclusion, it would appear that Bukowski's description, sexual objectification and position of female characters are various and changes continually and logically to his life. The most marked for misogynism is the earliest novel Women which plot was inspired by the wave of fame in the literary career of Charles Bukowski. Descriptions have tones of sexism and are primarily focused on the physical appearance of women omitting their inner side. Therefore, it logically leads also to the sexual objectification which is also supported by sexual behaviour of the main male character. The position of female characters in Women suggests their replaceability according to their number and their importance lies only in sexual gratification of the main character.
Although the descriptions full of eroticism and sexual objectification of women in Ham on Rye are not so highlighted, Bukowski builds an invisible border between his alter ego
Chinaski and female characters in the novel. He is not able to reach them both emotionally and physically and he is often in the role of their watcher or observer. Women in his surrounding do not display any serious interest of him, for example, his emotionless mother or a girl in his school. If there is a woman, who has some feelings for the main character, it is impossible to develop them into a relationship.
However, Hollywood brings a diversion in portraying of women, especially because
Bukowski omits depiction of women and there is no sign of sexual undertones. Nevertheless,
37 the position of the female characters is ambivalent. On the one side, he is assigning them the low-grade status of secretaries and depicts the society as purely male-oriented. On the other side, he provides an exception in the form of the wife of the male character, who was inspired by his latest wife Linda Bukowski. This female character is beside the main male character in the centre of the story all the time, functioning as his psychical support. Her position is equal to his as he also respects her, understands her and listens to her advice.
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