Tropic of Capricorn by Henry Miller
"Tropic of Capricorn" by Henry Miller is a semi-autobiographical novel that explores the author’s deep sense of alienation from both his family and his homeland, particularly the United States. The narrative is a reflection on personal experiences marked by feelings of degradation and humiliation, which Miller associates with the industrial landscape of America, described metaphorically as a "cesspool of the spirit." Through his recollections, Miller juxtaposes his troubled upbringing—characterized by a repressive family dynamic—with moments of carefree childhood innocence.
The novel also delves into themes of existential despair, highlighted by episodes of poverty, the corrupt nature of his workplace, and the impact of racism. Interpersonal relationships are central to the narrative, notably Miller’s brief, intense liaison with an African American woman that ends in tragedy, and his friendship with a man in search of paternal connection, which ultimately leads to disillusionment. The story is punctuated with vivid imagery and philosophical reflections, culminating in Miller’s embrace of a hermaphroditic identity and a quest for deeper understanding and connection with others. Overall, "Tropic of Capricorn" serves as a complex meditation on the struggles of the human spirit amid societal constraints.
Tropic of Capricorn by Henry Miller
First published: 1939
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Autobiographical
Time of plot: ca. 1900–28
Locale: New York City
Principal Characters
I, Henry Miller , the narratorMona , orMara , Miller’s lover and obsessive focusMiller’s Wife ,Hymie , a Jewish clerk at the Cosmodemonic Telegraph CompanyKronski , a Jewish employee of the Cosmodemonic Telegraph CompanyO’Rourke , a detective at the Cosmodemonic Telegraph CompanyValeska , a black colleague of Miller and his loverRoy Hamilton , a friend of MillerMaxie , an acquaintance of Miller
The Story
In a meditation on his alienation from family and homeland, the narrator reflects that his family is made up of Nordic idiots—clean, tidy, industrious, but unable to live in the present or to open the doors into their souls. Nowhere on earth has he felt so degraded and humiliated as in the United States, which he envisions as a cesspool of the spirit. Over the cesspool is a shrine to the spirit of work, with its chemical factories, steel mills, prisons, and insane asylums. Miller wishes to see the shrine destroyed, in vengeance for unnamed crimes against him and others.
Miller comments that he had a good time as a child because he did not care about anything—a lesson learned at the age of twelve as a result of the death of a friend. He realized then that things are wrong only when one cares too much. As if to prove that he had learned not to care, he let out a loud fart beside his friend’s coffin.
During wartime, Miller has a wife and child and badly needs a job. In a farcical episode involving a clerk named Hymie, office politics, and racism, Miller talks the manager of the Cosmodemonic Telegraph Company into giving him a job hiring and firing messengers. The company is inhumane, corrupt, and exploitative. After the company decreases the messengers’ pay, Miller is forced to be less selective in hiring, which results in a number of grotesque incidents involving epileptic, criminal, and delinquent messengers. In response to the poverty around him, Miller gives all his money away, in turn cadging dollars from acquaintances to buy food for himself. During Miller’s time at the Cosmodemonic, he meets an African American woman named Valeska, with whom he has a brief sexual liaison. She commits suicide.
Miller recalls an episode from his childhood in which he and his cousin Gene killed a boy in a gang fight. Miller and Gene hurried home afterward, and Aunt Caroline, Gene’s mother, gave them rye bread with butter. Miller remembers this image as particularly potent. In that house, he was never scolded; the image conveys an angelic forgiveness, divine absolution.
Miller describes his friendship with Roy Hamilton, whom he sees as a kind of mystic and prophet. Hamilton is in search of his biological father, who is either Mr. Hamilton or Miller’s friend MacGregor. Miller views this quest as futile; he views Hamilton as an emancipated man seeking to establish a biological link for which he has no need. When Hamilton leaves, having renounced both paternal candidates, the MacGregor family is distraught. Miller, in contrast, feels no need of Hamilton’s presence after his departure, since Hamilton gave himself completely when he was present. Miller comments that this was his first clean, whole experience of friendship, and his last.
Miller’s father falls mortally ill as a result of swearing off alcohol and stopping drinking too abruptly. He makes a miraculous recovery, however, when he makes the acquaintance of a Congregationalist minister. He reads the Bible and attends all the minister’s services. He then learns that the minister is leaving town to go to a more advantageous position elsewhere. He tries to persuade the minister to stay, but he fails; this leaves him bitterly disillusioned. He never laughs again, and he takes to sleeping and snoring his life away. Instigated by the image of Hymie’s wife’s diseased ovaries, Miller goes to a figurative place called The Land of F——k.
One night, Miller is looking for a woman with whom he had a rendezvous. When he fails to find her, he becomes mad with anguish and wants to annihilate the whole earth. Then suddenly he grows calm, light as a feather, and notices the stars. The stars ask him who he is, to think of blowing the earth to smithereens. They have been hanging there for millions of years, and have seen it all, yet still they shine peacefully every night, stilling the heart. The stars point out how in their light, even the garbage lying in the gutter looks beautiful. Miller picks up a cabbage leaf and sees it as absolutely new, a universe in itself. He breaks off a piece and it is still a universe. He knows at that moment that there is a woman waiting for him somewhere and that when they meet, they will recognize each other immediately.
Miller next presents a long hymn to his intense relationship with the Dark Lady, whose name is Mara or Mona. He recalls that the third time he met her she thought he was a dope fiend, the next time she called him a god, and after that she tried to commit suicide, and then he tried, and she tried again. Nothing worked, says Miller, but it did bring them closer together, so close that they interpenetrated. Miller makes the assertion that henceforth he will become hermaphroditic. In a final violent image, he asks the Dark Lady to tack her womb up on his wall, so that he can remember her.
Bibliography
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