The Groves of Academe by Mary McCarthy

First published: 1952

Type of plot: Social satire

Time of work: The early 1950’s

Locale: Jocelyn College, Jocelyn, Pennsylvania

Principal Characters:

• Henry Mulcahy, a literature instructor at Jocelyn College
• Domna Rejnev, a young colleague of Russian background
• Maynard Hoar, the college president
• John Bentkoop, a colleague who supports Mulcahy
• Alma Fortune, a colleague who organizes things
• Aristide Poncy, a member of the French department
• Howard Furness, the department chairman, who does not trust Mulcahy

The Novel

In The Groves of Academe, Mary McCarthy presents a typical academic novel in that the events that dominate and determine the lives of the characters gain their importance from their roles in a specific academic culture. In the very first paragraph, literature instructor Henry Mulcahy receives notice that his contract at the fictitious Jocelyn College will not be renewed. The entire plot revolves around his reaction to this termination, ending in revenge when Mulcahy’s contract is renewed and the president who tried to fire him is forced to resign.

Mulcahy’s methods define academic politics through which people try to win at any cost, with no concern for the truth that an academic institution is supposed to uphold. Mulcahy immediately circulates two lies that are calculated to put pressure on Maynard Hoar to rehire him. He claims that at one time he was a member of the Communist Party, and he claims that his wife Catherine is suffering from a vaguely defined medical problem, which would mean that the pressure of his job change might kill her.

The direct confrontation between the literature professor and the college president draws on the situation that would have prevailed in a small liberal arts college in the early 1950’s. This was a situation Mary McCarthy would have experienced firsthand while teaching at Bard College and later at Sarah Lawrence. Before the American Association of University Professors encouraged the establishment of procedures for granting tenure, college presidents had a free hand in governing faculties. Thus, Maynard Hoar can dictate the fate of Henry Mulcahy, and the only way to get him to change his verdict is through internal, psychological pressure.

While the novel shifts among the points of view of various characters, it presents a unified judgment of human nature as it appears in faculty circles. Mulcahy’s initial reaction to the firing involves a great deal of self deception, as he convinces himself that Hoar is actually the one at fault. His analysis of other people rests on a set of skewed values; within his circle, only certain schools, experiences, and lifestyles give a person credibility.

The other faculty members share these feelings, which can become simultaneously sources of solidarity and of mutual distrust. When a group gathers to discuss Mulcahy’s case, they all feel good about joining his cause. Individual paranoia separates them, however, and they end up spying on one another.

The basis of all judgments involves trivial academic matters, but even these things, when subjected to the scrutiny of campus gossip, are interpreted as statements of academic loyalties. The plot turns not so much on events as on rumors and suppositions. Still, finally, there is a need for action. The faculty group, having taken the case quite out of the hands of Mulcahy, decides that Domna Rejnev and John Bentkoop should make an appeal to Maynard Hoar.

The scene of the two faculty members in the president’s office reflects all the hierarchy of academic power. They have had to wait ten days for an appointment only to be seen during a holiday, while others are away. Though they feel they have made a positive appeal, Hoar has clearly manipulated them.

A crucial revelation occurs when Domna Rejnev goes to dinner at Mulcahy’s house and learns from his tipsy wife that he has lied. Further revelations come out when a communist poet appears at the departmental poetry conference. At this point, however, Mulcahy’s lies have so confused the situation that the president, who has already renewed Mulcahy’s appointment, feels he must resign. In the last pages of the novel, Mulcahy, by now feeling quite justified in his own moral superiority, bursts into Hoar’s office to accuse him of having investigated Mulcahy’s political affiliations by talking with the communist poet. To Hoar, who had made a reputation by standing up for the political freedom of faculty members, exposure would be worse than the loss of his job.

The Characters

In a sense, all of the characters in The Groves of Academe are rigidly set in their ways and see themselves as loyal to certain principles. All are in turn flexible, however, as they react to external events and reinterpret principles to suit the occasion.

Henry Mulcahy can launch a pattern of lies when he becomes desperate. He has already accepted his job at Jocelyn as a last resort and has no other prospects for supporting his family. Thus he convinces himself that all methods are justified in striking out against a system that will not reward him or his work.

Domna Rejnev is the most developed character in the work and the most changing, in that her one constant seems to be vacillation. When facing difficulties, she asks herself, “What would Tolstoy say?” and tries to live according to precepts from her literary heroes. Her Russian background makes her especially sensitive to the issues of communism and of any form of political persecution. Mulcahy turns to her first, therefore, as the colleague most likely to sympathize with his position.

Several characters are presented from single perspectives that maximize comic effects. Henry’s wife Catherine seems constantly overwhelmed by her responsibilities, whether with Henry as chaperone of a student dance or at home surrounded by their four messy and demanding young children. She usually fills these roles with good humor and supportiveness for her husband. Thus, when she drinks too much and lets Domna know she is not really sick, she makes her influence felt for the first time.

Similarly, the college president, Maynard Hoar, remains straitlaced while running the school and adhering to the liberal views he feels appropriate as part of his position. Only in the last pages of the novel does his control slip, and then what emerges is not a fallible humanity, as in the case of Catherine Mulcahy, but a chink in his armor with which he can no longer survive.

Within Mulcahy’s department, Howard Furness and Alma Fortune represent the dangers of relying on academic colleagues for any sort of specific help. Howard Furness, the chairman, exhibits loyalties divided between the faculty and the president. He does not trust Mulcahy because he does not want Mulcahy to make him look bad. Alma Fortune becomes equally unreliable in her need for action. She organizes the group of colleagues who meet to discuss Mulcahy’s plight, but outraged at the situation, she abruptly resigns, thus sacrificing whatever further influence she would have had.

Colleagues from other departments also participate in roles defined by their fields. John Bentkoop from the department of comparative religions joins Mulcahy’s defense with dogmatic persistence, while Aristide Poncy of the department of French sympathizes but, true to his role as a world traveler, manages to be out of town when it is time to talk to the president. Characters narrowly defined by their professional fields do manage to create activity when events stir up their special interests.

Critical Context

At the same time The Groves of Academe appeared, higher education was a center of opposition to Senator Joseph McCarthy’s pursuit of communists in positions of power. Maynard Hoar is described as having authored a pamphlet, “The Witch Hunt in Our Universities,” which he clearly composed to establish appropriate credentials as a college president, but the title of which aptly evokes the atmosphere of the day.

Domna Rejnev may be an extreme case, but she is not alone in her concern for political persecution. In reaction to government inquiry, college professors banded together in an automatic reaction against any investigation of an individual’s personal background, a reaction that, in effect, made it impossible to hold anything against anyone.

The communist poet who appears at the poetry conference that ends the novel continues the general evasion of truth through his use of two names. To maintain anonymity at meetings of the Party, he had been “John Marshall,” but he now appears as “Vincent Keogh.” Having adopted poetry as his profession, he is, like the faculty, in a field where eccentricity is the norm.

He has nothing to hide, but neither does he have any concern for moral principles or the fates of people around him. When the president asks him what he knows about Mulcahy’s alleged communist connections, Keogh’s reaction is cavalier. An outsider in the college, he sees events there as having no importance.

For insiders on the faculty, however, perception is all. If the government is seen as wrongly pursuing communists, one must be seen as defending the academy, even if one would rather be elsewhere. Truth, in any case, is only of secondary importance.

Bibliography

Gelderman, Carol. Mary McCarthy: A Life. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1988. A chronologically arranged biography. Chapter 11 discusses Mary McCarthy’s formative experiences on college faculties. Chapter 13 traces influences in The Groves of Academe, setting the novel in the context of the anticommunist investigations of Senator Joseph McCarthy.

Hardy, Willene Schaefer. Mary McCarthy. New York: Frederick Ungar, 1981. Chapter 6 analyzes The Groves of Academe in detail, with examples of the symbolic value of how characters are portrayed. A generous plot summary follows the machinations and psychological relationships of the characters. The volume contains a chronology of Mary McCarthy’s life and bibliography.

McKenzie, Barbara. Mary McCarthy. New York: Twayne, 1966. A biography in the Twayne’s United States Authors Series, with bibliography. The latter part of chapter 5 situates the novel and summarizes its plot.

Stock, Irvin. Mary McCarthy. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1968. A brief biography with bibliography. Pages 24 to 29 focus on The Groves of Academe.

Twenty-Four Ways of Looking at Mary McCarthy: The Writer and Her Work, edited by Eve Stwertka and Margo Viscusi. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1996. A gathering of papers from a conference held in 1993, with references to the novel throughout. In chapter 10, Timothy F. Waples examines “Political Dilemma in The Groves of Academe.”