The Clash of Culture in Neil Gaiman's American Gods
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LEXICON Volume 5, Number 2, October 2018, 139-151 The Clash of Culture in Neil Gaiman's American Gods Naya Fauzia Dzikrina*, Ahmad Munjid Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia *Email: [email protected] ABSTRACT This research aims to examine the portrayal of cultural clash in Neil Gaiman’s novel, American Gods. More specifically, this research aims to identify what cultures are clashing and why they clash, and also to understand how the situation of cultural clash affects the lives and attitudes of the characters. This research also explores how the novel relates to cases of cultural clash happening in the current American society. This research is conducted using the framework of several sociological theories to understand the different forms of effects of cultural clash. The main issue presented in the novel is the conflict between the old gods, who represent society’s traditional beliefs, and the new gods, who represent the shift of culture in modern America. This conflict symbolizes how the two ideals, tradition and modernity, are competing in the American society today. The challenges the old gods face can also be seen as a portrayal of the immigrant experience, where they experience effects of cultural clash also commonly experienced by immigrants: cultural displacement, identity crisis, and conflict. The main finding of this research is that a person or group who experiences cultural clash will face a struggle where they must compromise or negotiate their cultural identity in order to be part of their current community. This is done as a way to survive and thrive in their environment. Keywords: conflict, cultural clash, displacement, identity, modernity, tradition. America has long since—and still is—one of INTRODUCTION the biggest countries with a cultural mix. Its Cultural clash is any form of disagreement founding history can be traced from immigrants or conflict resulting from the interaction between resettling from all over the world. Almost all of two or more different cultures. This can be America’s people come from immigrants, and we individual experiences or nation-wide conflicts. can still see the effect of this today. Therefore, it is For ceturies, this has been one of the main issues natural that cultural issues are familiar in that have shaped the world we know. It has been America’s society and history. the cause of wars and tragedies, but it has also The novel American Gods by British author helped shape new communities and cultures. In Neil Gaiman uses cultural problems as one of its today’s world, cultural clash is one of the most main themes. The story is about ancient gods and frequent problems to arise, since cross country goddesses from different cultures around the migrations and globalization are at their peak. world in America. They are as multi-cultured as The effects of cultural clash have a broad the people of America itself. The novel’s themes spectrum. It ranges from things only an individual deal with the issues of culture, identity, and the experiences to nation scale wars. It may be related conflict that arises from those two aspects. It does to micro things such as how a person feels so by portraying the cultural situation of America, estranged in a new community or to larger cases which is one of the most culturally diverse such as racism and religious intolerance. countries in the world. The story also focuses a lot Naya Fauzia Dzikrina & Ahmad Munjid / The Clash of Culture | 139 140 | LEXICON, Volume 5, Number 2, October 2018 on the immigrant experience. Other than the and its cultural representation in Gaiman’s novel, experiences of the old gods, who consider by examining the types, functions, and effects of themselves immigrants, the novel also provides intertextuality. She concluded that short stories and histories of different groups of immigrants. In American Gods Gaiman created a rich intertextual web of references, American Gods is not the only novel which creates a complex image of focusing on gods and goddesses from mythology America and its identity. Gaiman’s living in the real world. Yet, it is one of the rare America is a pastiche of discordant novels to have those gods as symbols of society individual voices representing dif- today. American Gods offers an insight of the ferent cultures, values and nation- current America to the readers: its landscape, alities, and their corresponding idio- people, history, and cultures. Reading and syncrasies, combined into a represent- understanding American Gods provides a deeper tation of modern America, as a multi- way of understanding cultural issues that have cultural, polyethnic country, marked shaped America, and still relevant in its society by its own strengths and weaknesses; today. yet, incredibly complex and rich in its This award-winning novel has attracted diversity (p. 111). scholars to investigate it. For example, Hill (2005) investigated the novel in answer to the following However, none has specifically examined questions: what does it mean to be American? and cultural clashes in the novel. Therefore, this how does an outsider view the American culture? research focuses cultural clashes in the novel in an He found that the novel polarizes the American attempt to obtain a new perspective and insight culture by time, into two different periods: the for a better understanding of the novel and the past and the present. He concludes that outsiders issues it presents. In particular, it attempts to view that American culture is always changing investigate what cultures are involved in the clash and criticizes that America now is not as great as and for what reasons, and to examine how the it used to be. clashes affect the characters who experience them, Another research on American Gods was and how the clashes relate to issues happening in done by Firman (2010). She examined the ways in America. which the fantasy genre is ideally positioned for METHODS discussing social issues, such as invisibility and liminality. She argues that the features of the The primary data source of the research was fantasy genre that Neil Gaiman uses in his stories the novel American Gods by Neil Gaiman (2002). are used to present a different perspective on The data for this research were events of cultural reality. clash experienced by the characters, which are mainly represented by the characters of mythical Muller (2015) explored how Neil Gaiman gods. The data forms are narratives or dialogues presented the female gender in his novel. She which are related to those events. discussed how the gender myths of the American society were questioned through the novel. In Secondary data sources were also used in American Gods, common gender roles and this research. They include articles, news, and expectations were confronted. Women were journals about cultural issues that happen to presented with traits that defied the common immigrants in the United States. Also, references expectation in society. dealing with mythologies from different cultures such as Norse, Egyptian, and Slovakian Rata (2015) investigated the intertextual mythologies mentioned in the work were also references in the novel as it is renowned for its consulted to fully understand the characters and extensive intertextuality. She also examined the identify the cultural clashes that were found in role and importance of those intertextual refe- the novel. rences in the creation of the American identity, Naya Fauzia Dzikrina & Ahmad Munjid / The Clash of Culture | 141 Close reading was performed to gain a focusing on how the old gods are represented in comprehensive understanding of the novel, and their original mythology. Second, information of how the issue is presented in the novel. Next, the the history of America, especially the formation of work was analyzed to identify events of cultural America as a land of immigrants. And last, news clashes that happen in the novel. This was done or articles describing the lifestyle and also by listing any narratives, dialogues, or events that situation of immigrants living in America during have the elements of culture. the time the novel was written (early 21st century), to give a more complete understanding After identifying and listing the different of the context of the issue that is discussed. occurrences of cultural clashes in the novel, these data were then analyzed to identify what cultures THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK are clashing and the reasons behind the clash or clashes. The effects of this cultural clash were Because the work is viewed as a social categorized into three types: cultural critique to real life society, it is important to relate displacement, identity crisis, and conflict. Each of the work to its actual setting. Therefore, these were analyzed separately to gain a full sociological approach is used to analyse this work. understanding of its causes. According to Scott (1966, p. 123), To understand the phenomenon of cultural Sociological approach starts with displacement, the two major groups of culture conviction that art’s relations to (contemporary and traditional) were analyzed and society are vitally important, and that contrasted with each other to identify the the investigation of these relationships elements that clash. The elements were identified may organize and deepen one’s based on the definition of culture given by aesthetics response to a work of art. Matsumoto & Juang (2012). Art is not created in vacuum; it is the Next, Dubois & Edward’’s concept of double work not simply of a person, but of an consciousness was used to explain the internal author fixed in time and space, clash within the individual, which is their answering to a community of which experience in facing identity crisis. This analysis he is an important, because articulate was done by first identifying the characters that part. The sociological approach, there- experience identity crisis, then understanding the fore, is interested in understanding personalities and traits of these characters.