The Environmental Social Entrapment of Youth

The Environmental Social Entrapment of Youth

Peter Griffin

AML 2020

Savage

Period 7

The Environmental Social Entrapment of Youth

I Am Charlotte Simmons is a novel written by Tom Wolfe that examines how the environment of social structures shape the culture of the college world. Tom Wolfe develops this story through multiplecharacters and their point of views. Wolfetacklesissues such as gay rights, civil rights, depression, and peer pressure; all of these issues are portrayed through the relationships of the different classes in society. These broad ranges of topics are encompassed in the 752 pages that areI Am Charlotte Simmons. Wolfe tries to interpret how the college social environment shapes the future of its students. Wolfe is criticizing how shallow power structures play such a big role in the early adult life.[LS1]

Thomas Kennerly Wolfe was born on March 02, 1930 in Richmond, Virginia. His family consisted of his father Thomas Wolfe, a college professor, his mother Helen Wolfe, and his younger sister Murphy Wolfe (Newsmakers). Wolfe’s involvement and passion in his high school newspaper is portrayed through his character Adam Geller in his novel I Am Charlotte Simmons(ibid). [LS2]Tom Wolfe graduated from Washington and Lee University in 1951 with a degree in English and in 1957 received a Ph.D. at Yale University in American studies (ibid). His experiences at an elite university such as Yale can be portrayed throughout the Dupont campus. Following school,Wolfeventured out into his writing career at various newspapersand later became renowned for his hard work ethic and innovative writing style (ibid). Tom Wolfe constantly worked to push the envelope as an author. This writing style and attitude was also portrayed through his fashion. Wolfe was known for his tacky attire that consisted of a three-piece white suit that not only flaunted his cockiness, but also his willingness to push social boundaries (“Books & Authors”). This aspect of Wolfe shows how he uses the environment to make comparisons and critiques. How others perceived him was a way for him to conduct research on the current norms of society. When asked about his attire he responded, “That was when I had a white suit made, started wearing it in January, and found it annoyed people tremendously... So I liked it. It's kind of a harmless form of aggression, I guess," (ibid)His attire was his way of poking fun at society and expressing himself. This attitude is shown throughout[LS3] the novel because he pokes fun at the ridiculous vulgarity that college students surround themselves in.

In the beginning of Wolfe’s writing career, he wrote nonfiction works and reported for various newspapers. It was later in his career that he began to develop fictionalnovels and short stories. He was quoted in the New York Times for saying, “I was curious, having spouted off so much about fiction and nonfiction, and having said that the novelists weren't doing a good job, to see what would happen if I tried it,” (“Books & Authors”).Wolfe’s comedic tones and comments played a big role in the writing of I Am Charlotte Simmons. Wolfe describes Dupont and all of its students in such a satirical way that it keeps the book a page-turner. At every turn the reader doesn’t know what kind of prank or action that a college kid is going to pull. The comedy and dialogue of the book is one that is apparent on every page (Allen). The added humor makes the overall theme of the book a little more light-hearted. Tom Wolfe is known for being the chronicler of social times and he commentson all facets of social culture (“Books and Authors”). Some writers give credit to Wolfe of inventing New Journalism, a revolutionary technique in the journalism world that worked to describe things to the very last acute detail (Newsmakers). This led to Wolfe following no boundaries for race, sex, and culture. He vastly researched his work to be able to tell a story accurately through his character’s eyes, no matter their gender or race. This approach that Wolfe had allowed him to develop his characters to their truest potential (Anton).In an interview with the Boston Globe, Wolfe took on critics that claimed he over exaggerated racial tensions in I Am Charlotte Simmons by saying, "To which I say, anyone who doesn't think this is exactly the way it is, you go out and take a look, and come back with your notes and tell me what you saw. And I think you'll come back with the same picture I did."This stance on race helps Wolfe accurately capture the still prevalent racial tensions in the 2000s when I Am Charlotte Simmons was written. This book represents the turn of the century attitude that many young adults faced in the early 2000s. A new millennium could mean new developments, new ideas, and even new prejudices. Wolfe’s talent of observation can be attributed to one of his favorite hobbies, window-shopping (Newsmakers). This pastime can be paralleled into Wolfe’s work, especially inI Am Charlotte Simmons because he looks at different aspects in the environment of the youth society and presents them with intense details.His writing style can be described as views into the different windows of classin society.

I Am Charlotte Simmons is centered on Charlotte Simmons, a brilliant girl from a mountain town in North Carolina, Sparta. Charlotte enters the esteemed Dupont University in North Carolina for her freshman year. Charlotte is a quiet girl from a very traditional Southern and poor family. She goes off to Dupont completely alone, afraid, and unaware of the what college culture is like. The freshman gets acquainted with a number of stereotypical college students: the cocky athletes, represented by JoJo Johanssen, the socially oppressed nerds, represented by Adam Geller, and the conceited students that make up Greek life, represented by Hoyt Thorpe..The college climate of stress of fitting in encapsulates Charlotte. The life of college men, alcohol, and social expectations start to mount up on Charlotte and eventually cause her to break down. All of these different groups intertwine throughout the plot and Wolfe develops the social hierarchies that make up college life.

Charlotte, JoJo, Adam, and Hoyt each represent different facets of social classesin college. Wolfe uses this novel as a way to examine the role that the college setting class has in the development of students and is criticizing the power structures that dominate the college world. Charlotte Simmons is a small town girl that comes from a very poor, traditional background. She enters Dupont completely oblivious of the trends or lingo, and she struggles with her subordinate social status due to her class and financial situation.German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche’s Ubermensch theory be applied to Charlotte; this theory states that people must take on the “overman” mindset in order for the “tarantulas” that are below them not to take them down (Hawkins).[LS4] This theory is a continuing theme throughout the story, and it is Wolfe’s way of testing Charlotte in the novel to see how far she will go before she stands up for herself. Charlotte’s desperation to break free of her low social standing turns theaccomplished studentinto one that succumbs to peer pressure of fitting in, which eventually causes her to slip into an almost inescapable depression. “As long as she clings to the old-fashioned moral values of her family, she suffers mightily for her sins,” (Ravitch).Charlotte felt conflicted by the person she was raised to be and the person she thought she wanted to be. JoJo Johanssenshowcases the superiority and fame that college athletes typically feel and experience, except when he gets pulled down from his pedestal and gets a reality check due to a reduction in playing time and abusing his athlete tutor’s help.Tom Wolfe played baseball in college, which allowed him to have a rounded perspective of JoJo Johanssen and what life as a college athlete was like (“Books & Authors”). JoJo goes through losing his starting position on the defending National Champion Dupont basketball team to an up-and-coming African American freshman, risking academic probation due to a cheating scandal, and desperately yearning for Charlotte’s attention and guidance. The status of the athletes is one similar to fame. Wolfe uses this novel to call into question the treatment that athletes receive. Individuals that are born with great athletic ability are treated as though they are immortal (Hawkins).The main bright spot in JoJo’s character is when he stands up for his academics and enrolls in high-level classes of French and Socrates. “Actually, JoJo wasn't all that stupid. He just refused to use his head, as a matter of principle. It was sad… he was also a weakling who didn't dare violate the student-athlete code, which decreed that it was uncool to act in any way like a student,” (Wolfe 132-133). JoJo breaks free of this unspoken code and this is Wolfe’s way of providing a light of hope that maybe JoJo won’t turn out to be the typical dumb jock.Adam Geller, the male intellectual of the story, shows the subordinate position that nerds hold under the Greeks and the athletes.One may think that Adam’s passion to print a large, controversial story in Dupont’s newspaper is a reflection of what goals and accomplishments Wolfe wanted of achieved through his journalism. Some describe Adam’s intellectual nature as, “Adam attempts to channel an impulse to develop an analytical matrix that would account for all of human experience,” (Hawkins). This passion can be expressed within his group of friends that call themselves the Millennial Mutants.Their love for intellectually challenging social culture is sometimes the force that brings Charlotte closer and sometimes drags her farther away.Hoyt Thorpe’s character is an arrogant and privileged fraternity member. In society, Hoyt is the top of the social pyramid. Hoyt not only seduces Charlotte and takes her virginity; he is one of the causes of her spiral into depression. Throughout the story, Hoyt is threatened by a scandal with the governor of California receiving oral sex from a female college student and the attack and eventual beating of the governor’s bodyguard on Hoyt. The imminent exposure of this event excites Hoyt in some ways when he thinks about the social recognition it would bring, but it also threatens his future.The only potential bright spot in Hoyt’s future is an unexpected job offer from a prestigious investment-banking firm, only for it actually being a bribe from the governor of California to ensure that the “Night of the Skull Fuck” will not be exposed (Wolfe). All of the different groups that are represented by these characters are what make Dupont the institution that it is.

Wolfe shows theimportanceof status placed by the younger generation through thedownfall of Charlotte’s character.One critic writes, “His young men and women arrive at Dupont “determined” not only by their parents’ social rank and success but also by their moral inheritance,” (Schulman).[LS5] Wolfeis implying that even the most promising and positive individuals can fall to the appeal of a high social status.Students arrive at Dupont with the preconception that class means everything. Wolfe puts Adam in this story to show the unjust treatment and social standing that the intellectuals such as Adam face. The accusation made by Wolfe here is: why is it that the bright minds of America must be treated like they aren’t worth the attention of othersHe has worked his whole life to be a “bad-ass Rhodie” scholar, but somehow his hard work and success are not enough for him to consider himself happy (Wolfe). Wolfe is implying that in the college world, the boundaries of the social class that someone enters Dupont as is heavily influenced by the environment (Hawkins). Wolfe has been quoted saying, “man does not have free will and therefore need not spend time indulging in a lifelong competition to change the structure of the little environment he seems to be trapped in” (ibid).He is implying that individuals are bound into the class they are born into depending on the culture of the environment. Dupont is a place where the environment is fueled by the elitist mindset. This is Wolfe’s way of attacking the younger generation’s version of the American Dream. He is skeptical of the ability of the younger generation to break free of the environmental and social constraints of class due to their materialistic values. Wolfe uses Charlotte as the younger generation’s last chance to prove their competence, but this all fails when Charlotte falls to the materialistic and selfish ways of youth (ibid). The character of Adam represents the hopeless struggle of some to break free of their oppressed status. The dominance of Greek life on college campuses is portrayed through the character Hoyt Thorpe. Hoyt represents the privileged upper class, which is a factor in his social domination at Dupont. He uses his social position to intimidate others and to attract women. In this moment, Wolfe is criticizing the elitist mindset that Greek life portrays. Wolfe made Hoyt Thorpe a character to show that the people at the head of the social pyramid will do anything to stay on top. [LS6]

Wolfe accurately portrays the class relationships in college life due to his heavy research. He researched and visited dozens of universitiessuch as Stanford, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and Duke, in order to get back in touch with the culture (Hawkins). The structure of Dupont is a connection point for so many individuals across the country reading this book because they have been in these kinds of settings. Wolfe’s fearlessness in exposing the vulgarity of college students is one of a true journalist. He exposes that these students he is writing about are not innocent children, but rather sex-obsessed drunks that will do anything for their next hook-up or bottle of beer (ibid). Wolfe worked hard to connect to the attitude and stereotypes that are represented on college campuses. The crude characterization of college students is a jab at the youth due to their obsession with material things. Tom Wolfe stays true to his characters by using the appropriate college lingo such as “sexiled” and “fuck patois” (Leith). The setting set by Wolfe is one that is characterized vulgarity and filth. Wolfe is commenting on how as these young adults get freedom, the choices the make reflect their generation as a whole.

The take on the college sports world can be seen as eye opening and concerning as well. The treatment of college athletes with academics is one that should be called into question and examined, and this could be the reason for Wolfe creating JoJo. The inclusion of the cheating scandal with JoJo and Adam, his tutor, can be seen as necessary for not only the college sports world but also for the rest of the world to see. “The university is concerned mainly to keep scandal out of the newspapers, but it turns a blind eye to the casual and constant debauchery that characterizes student life,” (Ravitch). Athletes receive royal treatment while their tutors are out in the trenches writing papers and following orders. This occurrence shows the prevalent power struggle of the nerds versus the jocks, and how the nerds usually don’t escape their situation of suppression. It is almost as though Wolfe had an underlying agenda to expose the royal treatment and unfair treatment that is received by college athletes. Cheating scandals have ruined universities and their sports programs, so this chronicling of a college athletic academic scandal can be a wake up call to all college programs to ensure that their athletes don’t abuse the system that is put in place to help them become successful.

I Am Charlotte Simmonsis full of vivid details and descriptions of setting and characters. Wolfe’s intention of writing a story based on a college campus is that he believed college is the time when, “American character is created and represented,” (Schulman). Dupont is the kind of place that students dream of going in order to successfully shape their future. This novel represents how being a part of a social class is binding, and the environment can determine the status of it among other classes. The fraternity brothers that are only concerned about their next beer were successful at getting in to Dupont, but they aren’t going far into society after due to their obsession with popularity and partying, and their lack of effort on the academic side. The Millennial Mutants are the socially deprived individuals that work hard at school. Wolfe is implying that these characters will succeed following Dupont due to their values that contradict with the fraternity brothers. There are some extremities to the social life at Dupont and the vulgarity of the students, but the character traits and study habits are pretty spot-on to the real college world (Ravitch). The socially elite think that they are the dominant ones, but morally they rank at the bottom. Their lack of morals may affect their future after they leave their elevated rank at Dupont and enter into the real world where no one cares that who was a Saint Ray (Bowden). The upper class dominance in society seems to be important to the youth generation, and Wolfe is pointing out the ridiculousness of status. The materialistic state of the mind of the youth is one that Wolfe is trying to challenge.