Long: Character Analysis in The Hairy Ape

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SYMBOL OF SOCIAL REVOLUTION

      Long is the spokesman of social revolution. He picks up on Yank’s comment that home is hell to urge the men on to revolt against the capitalists who have made their working-class lives aboard ship a living hell. Long is critical of the class - system, with its privileges for the rich along with the plight of the poor and the sufferings of the humanity - all in the violation of the Bible. He blames the Capitalist class for making them “wage slaves in the howls of the bloody ship, sweatin’, burnin’ up, eatin’ coal dust”. He calls those who travel in first class cabins ‘lazy: bloated swines’. In a fit of anger, he calls Mildred the “bloody cow” and the engineers “bloody engineers”. He protests that they are not meant to be insulted like dogs, because it is an insult to their dignity. He calls Mildred’s father a “bleeding millionaire, a bloody Capitalist’.

AS A LABOUR LEADER

      Long is a typical labor agitator who instigates his fellow workers but himself does nothing. He threatens to take recourse to law for protecting the industrial laws of the workers. Being voters, they can seek legal remedies not to be treated like slave-workers.

NO IDEOLOGY

      Yank is not politically connected or motivated. Unlike Yank, Long lacks the passion for his mission; for Yank, it becomes very personal.

FAITH IN EQUALITY

      Long believes in equality and is opposed to any kind of racial discrimination. For Long, all are born equal in the eyes of God. He blames the rich capitalists for treating the workers as petty wage slaves in the stokehole of a ship. He tells the stokers that Mildred has no right to insult the honest and dedicated workers.

NON-VIOLENT METHODS

      Long persuades his fellow victimized workers to resort to legal remedies to punish the rude persons like Mildred and Engineers. He spares no efforts to arouse class-hatred in the hearts of the poor workers against the capitalists. Unlike Yank, he believes in getting the demands of the workers fulfilled by peaceful means. He warns Yank to avoid any direct confrontation with the church-goers because that would land him in trouble. He cautions Yank: “Remember force defeats itself. It ain’t our weapon. We must impress our demands through peaceful means”. This shows his approach to life is more pragmatic practical than Yank's.

SHIP-NOT HOME

      Unlike Yank, Long does not call ship as his home. For Long, the stinking ship is not his home but hell. He tells his fellow stokers: “This is ‘11. We live in ‘ell, Comrades”. For Long, nothing can match with one’s original home. No sense of belongingness can be realized in an adopted home.

CLASS-CONSCIOUS

      Long is class-conscious and is quite aware of the difference between the privileged and the under-privileged classes. He knows that poor workers are born to suffer in the capitalistic setup and can never belong to it. He is critical of the rich who can “pay for a hairy ape’s skin-no, not for the ‘ale livin’with all ‘is ‘ead, and body, and soul thrown in”.

CONCLUSION

      Long is the spokesman of social revolution. He is critical of the class-system, with its privileges for the rich along with the plight of the poor and the sufferings of the humanity. Long is a typical labor agitator who instigates his fellow workers but himself does nothing. Yank is not politically connected or motivated. Long believes in equality and is opposed to any kind of racial discrimination. Unlike Yank, he believes in getting the demands of the workers fulfilled by peaceful means. For Long, the stinking ship is not his home but hell. Long is class-conscious and is quite aware of the difference between the privileged and the under-privileged classes.

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