Nationality in Graham Greene's England Made Me
The Character of Anthony Farrant and his View on Englishness
Feb 22, 2009
Discourses of England and self-scrutiny are investigated in the novel. It poses questions of morality and what it means to be human at this time, contrasting good and right with corrupt and wrong. In A Marvellous Drama Out of Life, Steven Matthews writes that 30’s novelists were "under the anxiety of modernist influence".
Nationality and Self-Identity
The title England Made Me focuses on the question of nationality, and the ability to fashion self-identities. Greene uses the character of Anthony Farrant as the key protagonist, whose self-creation of a heroic self represents a questioning of modernism itself, and wondering where it is going.
Farrant creates stories of his exploits around the world, passing off the achievements of others as his own, when really he is always fired from his posts of duty. Although he likes to think of himself as typically English, he is a creation of an imaginary England. He works hard to pass himself off as a true gentleman, as Greene writes, Farrant is really "full of the conventions of a generation older than himself." His views and actions are out of date, as shown when he is surprised by Lucia’s sexuality, which shows he is out of time with current notions.
A Borrowed Englishness
Farrant’s lack of authenticity is emphasised by him owning the book The Four Just Men. His version of the novel is a text that is only available in Europe, and is a cheap foreign copy. The poor quality of this disposable imitation symbolises Anthony himself. He represents a pale imitation of what he feels he belongs to, that is, an England that he wishes to be a part of, yet is changing without him.
The book edition classifies him as an outsider. His is a borrowed Englishness, and can be seen through his language. Kate pleads with him early in the novel "Oh, can’t you be yourself?". His slang is that of a time before his own, as is observed that his language goes further back in time "the more he drank". His character is romanticised whereas he is still being ridiculed for his way of being.
The Past and the Future
Whereas Anthony represents the past, his sister Kate represents the future. She is everything that Anthony is not, she "outstripped him in the pursuit of the most masculine virtues". She has ambition and business skills, whereas he cannot hold a job down. Kate has an almost incestuous attachment to her brother which highlights a fear of the new movement. The incestuous possibility shows Greene’s worries of an insular Englishness which is too fascinated by itself.
Sticking together, like Kate and Anthony do, leads to self destruction. Kate is struck by her brother’s charm, which also shows Greene’s respect for Farrant. Although Kate is ambitious she is also sterile, symbolising the sterility that Krogh’s future and the world it belongs in represents. This also ties in with the socio-political worries of the time, of Britain’s ability to repopulate after the war.
The end of the novel is a false homecoming, Anthony’s attempt to return to England is abruptly ended by his murder. However, it is an England that he has never really left behind him, yet at the same time has never truly experienced. Greene’s vision of England is that of competing notions, dealing with social, political and cultural differences. His is an England that is struggling to find it’s identity after the War.
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