120 Bettina Kaibach
line between the two aspects of his personality blurred. Now it dawns on
him that gardening might not be so innocent an activity after all: by weeding
out unwanted plants, the gardener not only supports but also annihilates life.
The garden thus no longer serves as moral refuge where one finds peace from
the machinery of war. It becomes, on the contrary, a metaphor for this very
machinery itself. By implicitly comparing the bombing of the enemy with
weeding a garden, Barrens presents it to himself as a necessary evil. The art
of gardening thus serves him as justification for the art of killing in the name
of improved life. 56 This attempt at vindication, however, does not put him at
ease. With the bomber intruding into the garden and the gardener entering
the cockpit, the mechanism of doubling no longer shields Barrens from the
moral implications of his participation in the bombing. For the first time, he
is beginning to take responsibility for his deeds as a full, undivided person.
When Barrens realizes that the youngest crew member is having trouble
coming to terms with their deed, he, too, betrays a sense of guilt: “So we’ve
drunk a toast to gardening […]. I used to think that this was the most sincere
and nonviolent activity of all. But now it has occurred to me: let’s better
drink to monasteries instead, right?” 57 Once the innocent refuge of the garden is closed the bomber can only do penance within monastic walls.
In a striking image, Grossman debunks the idea that by delegating the
task of killing to a technological apparatus, one can evade the problem of
individual guilt. Joseph Connor, the youngest of the crew, has the task to
press the button that releases the bomb. So seemingly insignificant is this
act and so remote from its impact that it is easy for Connor to see himself as
but a tiny cog in the machine without any real responsibility. But this strategy of dissociation, too, is shown to be treacherous. This becomes evident
when Connor expresses his emotions during the act of pressing the button in
strangely physical terms:
[…] this moment was always a pleasant one for Connor–it was a soothing
moment, the release of a severe tension. At such moments, it seemed to
him that the bomb was not released from the belly of the plane but from
his very own bowels. 58
Here, the dropping of the bomb is described as an act of defecation and is thus
intimately linked with the man who presses the button. Grossman makes
clear: it is the man, not the machine that kills.
Ironically, it is Joseph Connor, the youngest and most innocent member
of the crew – whom the defense mechanisms of doubling and dissociation
fail to shield from the implications of his deed after the Hiroshima bombing.
Eventually, he is the only one to confront the question of responsibility and
fully accept his guilt. Before the bombing, Connor is depicted as being in a
kind of prelapsarian state: he drinks milk instead of alcohol, has no interest
in women, and spends his spare time writing letters to his beloved mother.
Connor experiences the bombing as a fall from grace from which he will
line between the two aspects of his personality blurred. Now it dawns on
him that gardening might not be so innocent an activity after all: by weeding
out unwanted plants, the gardener not only supports but also annihilates life.
The garden thus no longer serves as moral refuge where one finds peace from
the machinery of war. It becomes, on the contrary, a metaphor for this very
machinery itself. By implicitly comparing the bombing of the enemy with
weeding a garden, Barrens presents it to himself as a necessary evil. The art
of gardening thus serves him as justification for the art of killing in the name
of improved life. 56 This attempt at vindication, however, does not put him at
ease. With the bomber intruding into the garden and the gardener entering
the cockpit, the mechanism of doubling no longer shields Barrens from the
moral implications of his participation in the bombing. For the first time, he
is beginning to take responsibility for his deeds as a full, undivided person.
When Barrens realizes that the youngest crew member is having trouble
coming to terms with their deed, he, too, betrays a sense of guilt: “So we’ve
drunk a toast to gardening […]. I used to think that this was the most sincere
and nonviolent activity of all. But now it has occurred to me: let’s better
drink to monasteries instead, right?” 57 Once the innocent refuge of the garden is closed the bomber can only do penance within monastic walls.
In a striking image, Grossman debunks the idea that by delegating the
task of killing to a technological apparatus, one can evade the problem of
individual guilt. Joseph Connor, the youngest of the crew, has the task to
press the button that releases the bomb. So seemingly insignificant is this
act and so remote from its impact that it is easy for Connor to see himself as
but a tiny cog in the machine without any real responsibility. But this strategy of dissociation, too, is shown to be treacherous. This becomes evident
when Connor expresses his emotions during the act of pressing the button in
strangely physical terms:
[…] this moment was always a pleasant one for Connor–it was a soothing
moment, the release of a severe tension. At such moments, it seemed to
him that the bomb was not released from the belly of the plane but from
his very own bowels. 58
Here, the dropping of the bomb is described as an act of defecation and is thus
intimately linked with the man who presses the button. Grossman makes
clear: it is the man, not the machine that kills.
Ironically, it is Joseph Connor, the youngest and most innocent member
of the crew – whom the defense mechanisms of doubling and dissociation
fail to shield from the implications of his deed after the Hiroshima bombing.
Eventually, he is the only one to confront the question of responsibility and
fully accept his guilt. Before the bombing, Connor is depicted as being in a
kind of prelapsarian state: he drinks milk instead of alcohol, has no interest
in women, and spends his spare time writing letters to his beloved mother.
Connor experiences the bombing as a fall from grace from which he will