“The victim stance is a powerful one. The victim is always morally right, neither responsible nor accountable, and forever entitled to sympathy,” (Zur Institute). When relating this definition of a “victim” to Max’s character from the film Bent, I wouldn’t necessarily say that it applies. In the beginning of the film I would say that Max bullied Rudy (his obsessive boyfriend of sorts) up until the point where they were captured. Even while Rudy was doing manual labor in the fields, Max wasn’t contributing in earning expenses for their escape. On the train ride to the camp when Rudy is being beaten, Max is told not to help because he will be killed as well. Here is where I find myself in a dilemma. Should Max have fought for his loved one? Or did he do the right thing, knowing that it wouldn’t actually help? Once he arrives at the camp, he opts out of being categorized as a “queer” because they are considered the lowest. I would consider this to be among the most cowardly things Max does throughout the entire film. Only after he had to submit to the Nazis did he become a true victim. One could even argue that Max didn’t become a true victim until he accepted himself as a gay man in the concentration camp by putting on Horst’s pink triangle shirt. I don’t think that Max was a completely shitty person, because he did perform some selfless acts. He went down on one of the officers in order to get medicine for Horst (making the officer believe he was the one who needed it). In Taylor’s play, Good, John Halder (the protagonist) is brought in by the Nazis to reaffirm the use of euthanasia. I believe Holder to first be a victim and then eventually turns into a victimizer. He felt that he had no other choice but to assist the Nazis (he being victimized). Eventually it appears that his “honorary” position goes to his head a bit, i.e. leaving his wife, abandoning Morris, etc. I don’t think that Halder was necessarily an evil man, but I don’t really see how he was a particularly “good” one either. It was much easier to empathize with his character in the written text compared to the movie version, although the audience ends of feeling the same about Halder at the end of both artistic mediums. The picture I have included is of Rudolph Brazda, the last known gay Holocaust survivor who just passed away this August. He spent his imprisonment at Buchenwald concentration camp.
I agree that by the definition used, Max would could not be seen as the victim for most of the play. He is held responsible for most of his actions, especially the morally questionable ones that he commits because Rudy and him are captured and transported to the camps. Max only gets the readers sympathy once he decides to be true to himself and put on the pink star. Max is rarely morally correct, his intentions are usually unclear. For example, it is questionable whether or not Max brought Horst to move rocks in order to protect Horst or to keep himself from going insane. Throughout most of the movie, Max is displayed as someone who has chosen to commit morally wrong actions and we can therefore not help but make him responsible for these. I believe that the only moment in which Max truly is the victim is when he chooses to take responsibility for his actions and puts on the pink triangle, thus showing that he has committed homosexual acts and is proud of his choices.
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ReplyDeleteMax and Holder stray between victim and victimizer in both of these plays. Max at first could be considered a victimizer based on his selfish acts, subjugation of Rudy, and the hiding his true sexuality by denying the pink triangle and excepting the Jewish star. It is not until the very end, after he has watched Rudy and Horst die before his eyes, that he accepts his reality and fate. By dawning the pink triangle and grabbing the fence, Max becomes the victim of himself. Holder is originally seen as a victim, forced into working with the Nazi's by reaffirming euthanasia. At first he uses the excuse that he had no other choice. Yet by staying in his role he becomes the victimizer, safely hiding behind the Nazi flag and allowing for the death of millions. So we can assume that these roles as victims and victimizers change, based on the choices of the individual.
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