Gaining agency is a key theme throughout both Bellocq's Ophelia and Dreamboy. In both stories that main characters cannot easily escape from their victimization through prostitution and sexual abuse respectively. They both embark on quests for autonomy which doesn't always work out for them.
In Dreamboy, Nathan is teenager dealing with not only with the realization of his gayness but also his constant sexual abuse. Nathan has little agency in his home where his biggest threat lies. Throughout the book he finds ways to gain more agency, but with unforeseen consequences. As he finds ways of escape and gains more agency his existence is increasingly threatened. Unfortunately for Nathan he never gets to be fully be free.
In Bellocq's Ophelia, the title character has little autonomy or hope for her future in the place she lives. She moves to New Orleans to gave some agency, but isn't able to fight work right away. Ophelia turns to prostitution where she has to sell her body and agency to the highest bidder. Finding her agency isn't easy, but she is eventually able reclaim some of it with her earnings. Ophelia's ending is ambiguous, but still filled with deadly possibilities.
Both Ophelia and Nathan are both into worlds where their choices are greatly limited. In Ophelia's case this is because of her class and race. With Nathan it is because of his sexuality and abusive father. These characters both try valiantly to change their situations with less than stellar outcomes. In the end, their quest for agency is just as dangerous as living without it.
In Dreamboy, Nathan is teenager dealing with not only with the realization of his gayness but also his constant sexual abuse. Nathan has little agency in his home where his biggest threat lies. Throughout the book he finds ways to gain more agency, but with unforeseen consequences. As he finds ways of escape and gains more agency his existence is increasingly threatened. Unfortunately for Nathan he never gets to be fully be free.
In Bellocq's Ophelia, the title character has little autonomy or hope for her future in the place she lives. She moves to New Orleans to gave some agency, but isn't able to fight work right away. Ophelia turns to prostitution where she has to sell her body and agency to the highest bidder. Finding her agency isn't easy, but she is eventually able reclaim some of it with her earnings. Ophelia's ending is ambiguous, but still filled with deadly possibilities.
Both Ophelia and Nathan are both into worlds where their choices are greatly limited. In Ophelia's case this is because of her class and race. With Nathan it is because of his sexuality and abusive father. These characters both try valiantly to change their situations with less than stellar outcomes. In the end, their quest for agency is just as dangerous as living without it.
Going further, I think it's really interesting that even when Nathan and Ophelia are at their safest, they still don't have much agency.
ReplyDeleteOphelia seems to prefer the company of Bellocq, but in her poem, "Bellocq," she points out that, while she prefers his company, she still doesn't have much agency with him. She says, "I'm not so foolish / that I don't know this photograph we make / will bear the stamp of his name, not mine" (39). Here, we see that she doesn't have any real power in their relationship, even though it was kind of established throughout the poems that she felt the most agency with him.
The same can be said of Nathan. His relationship with Roy was his healthiest and most stable relationship with anyone else in the novel, but he didn't have much agency in it. It was up to Roy when they could speak at school or sneak off into the woods and have sex. He controlled what their relationship was (by making Nathan not tell anyone about it), and he even tried to police Nathan's sexuality (when he got upset because thought that Nathan had sex with someone else). Nathan admits to feeling the safest with Roy, but, like with Ophelia, he didn't have any agency even in his best relationship.