A social commentary is a piece of work that expresses opinions and expressions about a historical event, appealing to the audience’s sense of social justice. George MacDonald Fraser wrote a novel known as “Flashman “in 1969, which he identified as a reflection of his childhood memoirs.The novel entails the escapades of Flashman. The character is a fictional character that initially appeared in Tom Brown’s work “School days”. The author used his interest in being a soldier in Asia, and quitting his job as a journalist as the majormotivation for writing this novel, and the other series that followed after it. The novel begins with Flashman’s expulsion from Rugby school during his high school days. He later joined the British army.
Flashman decides to join the Military since he thinks life is going to be easy, but he is posted to India, from where he has to work all along( Fraser, p.45). He engages in an affair with the wife of a fellow officer, and this leads him to be posted at Scotland. His promiscuity could not be hidden neither could it be controlled by anyone. When he was still a young boy, he decided to sleep with his father’s mistress and he repeated the same when he in the military. It is not clearly understood as to why he only preferred with other peoples mistresses.
The book is not only nostalgia of the authors’ escapades as a soldier, but it’s also a commentary on the social life during its time. Harry has a tendency of insulting people of every race, creed, and nationality. He disrespects women and uses them as sex toys. Besides, he shows his cowardice when he admires a brave young man. All along the book, Harry appears as a cheater, a bully, and a coward.However, he always has a subtle way of getting a heroic attention from the readers. His life is covered withglory since he gets medals, honor, and titles and even gets a chance to spend some time with Queen Victoria. Although he is a hero, he has so many undesirable character traits. In fact, he is not the kind of a person to consider as a role model. There is no any sane parent who would want their children to have the same characteristics as Harry especially due to his promiscuous behavior.
Flashman is talented with horse riding, and language skills that facilitate his work as a soldier. Due to hisskills, he finds himself assigned to the toughest frontier of the British Empire, which is Afghanistan. When he arrives at Afghanistan, Flashman meets a soldier who describes the way he escaped death by a whiskon November 1842. It was the initial night of the Afghan Uprising. It was characterized by a revolt that was led by Akbar Khan. Kabul citizens heeded to this revolt, and this caused a murder of a senior British Officer, Sir Alexander Burnes, and his staff. The soldier vividly describes how he managed to flee in the midst of the confusion caused by this attack. After the author describes this tell, he proceeds to the exciting adventure of Flashman and other historical moments such as the Battle ofGandamak, the retreat from Kabul and the first Anglo-Afghan war. Flashman is captured and tortured a number of times during his mission in Afghanistan(Fraser, p. 77). He has to act as a royal spy. He is successful in the assignment and appears as a hero regardless of his undesirable traits such a being a womanizer, a self-confessed coward, and a liar. Flashman realizes that his wife might have been unfaithful during his mission in Afghanistan, but he lacks any proof.
Perusing a Flashman’s novel gives the audience some literary pleasure. It is full of romance, has a good flow and entails some bitter truth about the History of England, the effects of industrialization as well as the authors’ opinion on sociology concepts such as liberalism and utilitarianism.The book entails the escapades in many battlefields, and a visit to exotic places in the 19th century. The author has created a character that experienced all the historical events that occurred between 1840 and 1900. Some historic concepts mentioned in the book include the Indian mutiny, the American slave trade, the Little Big Horn, the Prussian Court, and the Chinese boxer rebellion among others(Fraser, p. 1840). The book gets its readers educated about past events without even realizing that this is happening.
Harry was living a disgraceful life, which still seemed heroic through the satirical work created by the author. Flashman takes pride in his faults and even admits them. Actually, his honesty seems to be the best thing about him. There is a part of everyone that gets fascinated with doing bad and getting away with it. The reality is that Flashman’s characterdepicted in the book made Fraser a successful writer and a hero too. The different ideologies developed by people after reading the book from time to time, develop many debates that make the novel remain relevant regardless of the changing times(Fraser, p. 77). Today many people regard the political ideas as incorrect. However, this is the bitter truth that so many people wouldnot like to accept the political situation of the previous century.
Flashman appears as a worldly and selfish man in the novel. He confesses to his mates at the rugby team that he often visits brothels, and openly despises Christianity.He openly sneers these Christians, and takes pride in the shock they get when he confesses that he visits brothels. The fact that this generation had lost piety, as a result of these two great wars can be used to justify this.In spite of this, Flashman still appears as a hero of his time; he is still honored by the queen and gets noticed for little achievements.
In the novel, Fraser uses a lot of euphemism, allusion and description when narrating the sexual adventures of Flashman.The style used by the author is different from the styleof modern authors who describe sexual scenes with anatomical details. The profanities of Flashman are toned down by the editor to an extent that his sister in law does not even understand Flashman's sexual allusions. The current crop of authors do not use toned down tones in describing sexual escapades amongst their characters maybe because they want to attract young readers. The current young generation of readers prefers reading erotic novels that make them get sexually stimulated.
The book presents many conflicting ideas and ironies that some people would not like to hear about today. Fraser uses a euphemism that will forever stick in the minds of the readers, as well as make sense to them. He criticizes the British military phrase “A caring Force for the Future” which in reality is not. The military is displayed as an organization whose only true function is killing instead of peacekeeping. He describes the social engineering practices happening in England that demand equal rights for all religions and only end up downplaying Christianity.Fraser also describes the realtruth about the slave trade. Although the United Kingdom is blamed for the slave trade, he argues that not a single slave could get out of Africa without the assistance of fellow Africans(Fraser, p. 1840). Healso argues that slave trade was ended up by Britain’s Royal Navy without help from any external military force.
In education, Flashman describes the transition that Britain experiences with a very short span. Examinations are seen as elitist exercises. Flashman believes that the education system was designed to make the students cram whatever they are taught in class and then give a replica of the same in exams. What that means is that the students only memorize what they are taught within a short span of time and then end up forgetting everything once they are done with the exams. Such an education system is bound to fail terribly since it undermines the confidence of the students who do not pass their exams. Those who do not perform above average in the exams are viewed as failures when in real sense they are not failures in life. It is only that such students may not be good at class work but instead have better skills in other areas. For instance, a student may be poor in mathematics but very good in playing basketball. It is therefore unfair to condemn such a student on the basis of poor performance in the mathematics subject. Fraser describes the education system as a lame way of preparing children to face the world full of competition and failures. In fact, he says life is about failures and competition in the liberal world, and the education system should develop a better system of improving the self-esteem of the students who fail in their exams. The children born between the times that the two wars occur seen to have experienced a terrible time during their lives( Fraser, p.45). These kids watch their country experience a lot of transition. These children have watched the standards, values, philosophy, and the national spirit of Britain change beyond belief.
In conclusion, it is clear that Fraser uses Flashman to portray a character that the Victorian age does not present. Flashman is a womanizer, a scoundrel, a liar, a cad and a coward. Regardless of all these, he is still a hero in the novel. Fraser takes a broad swipe in the morality articulated by the literature works written during the Victorian period. Most of these works portray images of properness and respectability, and Flashman does not. The accuracy of history seen in the novel is also amazing. The entire novel is an entertaining read and is easy to read. However, the book entails wild sexual escapades andan unapologetic rape description. Therefore, readers who are very strict with morality may not find the novel as an appropriate reading. The novel successfully describes the history of Britain, as well as its relations with India, and Afghanistan. Historical concepts such as civil war, slave trade and its culmination have been clearly explained along the story line too.
Work Cited
Fraser, George M. Flashman: From the Flashman Papers 1839-1842. Kabul: Shah M Book Co, 2002. Print.
Fraser, George MacDonald. Flashman. New York: World Pub. Co, 1969. Print.
Fraser, George M. D. Flashman: From the Flashman Papers, 1839-42. London: HarperCollins, 2005. Print.
