VLVL Zoyd: good dad or bad dad?

[jbor]

The most obvious aspect of Zoyd's (and Frenesi's) negligence towards their
daughter in this last section is how easy they make it for her to fall into
Brock Vond's clutches. Both of them know that Brock is after her: it's the
whole point of why Zoyd packs her off to a Mafia wedding with Isaiah, her
coke-snorting post-adolescent boyfriend, and both Frenesi and Zoyd know full
well that Brock is lurking in Vineland (349, 374), that he has access to
resources and personnel, and that Prairie is his target. But, again, Zoyd's
"dream of the burning house" doesn't wake him up and remind him of the real
danger, so when Prairie does run into him "on the way out into the woods"
(bringing in any number of old European fairy tales about lost and forsaken
children) he does nothing at all to stop her or ensure her safety (374-5).
Like Frenesi, he's totally self-absorbed.

In symbolic terms, the final section drives home the point that it's the
"adults" who grew up in the 50s and 60s who have sold out their children and
allowed Reagan to be voted into office for a double term, and who, in doing
so, are putting their kids and grandkids at risk of a far worse fate in the
hands of people like Vond.

best

on 13/4/04 5:44 AM, jbor at jbor at bigpond.com wrote:

> I don't dispute that he cares about Prairie, or that he's likeable and
> characterised sympathetically for the most part. I think Pynchon enjoys and
> identifies with his ongoing cast of schemihl protagonists as I've said before.
> But I think Zoyd's flaws are on display too, and I think the main flaw is
> that, invariably, his priorities are all wrong. I'm surprised that you don't
> find his reunion with Prairie at the picnic pretty low-key considering what
> was going on when he sent her away. He doesn't appear to have tried to contact
> her via Sasha as he promised he would, and when Hector tells him that she'll
> be up at Shade Creek (361) he seems ... what? annoyed? distracted? Whatever it
> is, Prairie seems to be the last thing on his mind at this point, when she
> should have been top of the list. We know what she's been through; where's the
> evidence of paternal concern for her well-being?
> 
> Maybe it's just an oversight on Pynchon's part -- this last section does seem
> to have been thrown together without a great deal of effective editing and
> many of the resolutions he's devised ring somewhat hollow -- but when father
> and daughter first meet up again he's immediately off with Flash to look for
> more beer (370). When they do eventually talk Zoyd's inability to answer
> Prairie's question (which I'm not clear if she actually asks: 374-5) takes us
> back to the conversation they had in the back of the camper van, when he
> couldn't express his feelings or say what he wanted to then either because he
> was worried that she'd think he was coming on to her (54). I think the last
> comment she makes to him and his new buddy, Flash, is quite telling: "You're
> adults, you're supposed to know." It seems to be part of the point. These
> supposed "adults", including her mother and grandmother and DL and Takeshi
> too, have let her down, have not provided the guidance or answers she needed.
> Note also how she automatically takes on a parental role with Justin (370-1,
> 374), showing up just how lax both Frenesi and Flash are in that department as
> well.

>>> after the drug bust he leaves her in Eureka "with friends ... all week" when
>>> they first arrive in Vineland (316.12-3)