Throughout the novel, Max Havelaar, there are different narratives, each describing or talking about the world that they inhabit. The narratives offer a view of what the characters think of each other and the system that they live under. The novel is full of interwoven storylines. Together with the narrative of the Multatuli, Droogstoppel and Stern are the native stories. The narratives and the stories in the novel lead to the conclusion that there are different stories told from the perspective of the actors. James Scott in his work, “Behind the Official Story” describes the presence of the public, hidden as well as the personal transcript present in the power play between the dominant and the subordinate in the world. Through an examination of Max Havelaar and the different narratives it can be seen that there indeed exists different transcripts that are specific to the different actors. Scott’s essay helps the reader understand the subversive nature of the novel. It isn’t just part fiction or par autobiography but an account of the subordinate against the practices of the dominant.
Scott’s work helps in understanding the motives of the author in writing such a critical and satirical novel. The author of the book Douwes Dekker is a former disappointed civil servant of the Dutch East India company. He is disgusted by the inhuman and corrupt practices of the company. His novel is a personal transcript, a collection of thoughts not publicly discussed yet often thought of, that finally comes out in a novel form under a pseudonym. Although Dekker is unhappy with how the company exploits the citizens of East india, he cannot really say it aloud. He cannot voice his displeasure publicly and neither can he assert himself strongly because he is a public servant and any dissent against the government and its practices abroad would be detrimental to his career and freedom. However his voice, or the personal narrative finds expression in the form of the novel. He writes under a pseudonym and speaks through one of the protagonists. Although a subordinate, he expresses his displeasure. He is no longer a silent spectator of the atrocities committed on other people. As Scott says, “tactical prudence ensures that the subordinate groups never blurt out their transcripts but find artful ways to imply they are participants to the performance (Scott 564).” Dekker through his novel finds the means to articulate his displeasure and dissent.The accounts of Havelaar are in fact the thoughts of Dekker and his experiences working as a civil servant in Dutch East India.
Sometimes, one person takes on the mantle of a speaker for a community or for the oppressed subordinates. Max Havelaar is the scarfman and over the course of the novel, he takes over the writing from Stern. He says, “ Enough, my good Stern ! I, Multatuli, take up the pen. [] It is enough, Stern, you may go !(Multatuli 317).” The author has a dual purpose in taking up the narrative. He wants to recount the stories of the little children whose parents would have perished from hunger. He however also wants his story to be read and his voice to be heard. He wants the different people of the Netherlands to know what is happening in the far east. He is not worried about writing well and admits his writing is disjointed but his primary purpose in writing the novel is to be heard. In weaving the native stories of Java, Multatuli is also acting as their voice. This is especially true when he writes about Adinda and Saijah and their tragic love story. “I know, and I can prove, that there were many Adindas and many Saïjahs, and that what is fiction in particular is truth in general (Multatuli 225).” Although he admits there are a few fabrications he is in fact giving voice to their hidden transcripts. The subordinates in the novel, the people of Java would have expressed their dissent and displeasure in private, terrified of the consequences if their rebellious thoughts were to be known by the oppressor. It is their collective hidden transcript that Multatuli gives a voice to.
Personal and hidden transcripts seldom come to the public sphere. Most times the personal thoughts of people remains hidden within themselves. When Droogstoppel meets his friend on the street, they exchange pleasantries even though he privately calls him the scarfman. Even though he is not entirely happy with the manuscript thrust upon him, he nevertheless accepts it. He also accepts Stern’s condition that he does not interfere with the manuscript. Although Droogstoppel is in the position of power and the rest are dependent on him, all three of them play their roles. They act nice to each other even though they have differing opinions in private. “Much of what passes as normal social intercourse requires that we routinely exchange pleasantries and smile at others about whom we may harbor an estimate not in keeping with our public performance (Scott 553).” Stone lets the reader understand why the characters in the novel behave the way they do. Society has conditioned us in such a way that we put on a performance to avoid conflict and to also play the role we are supposed to. Multatuli brings out this aspect of humans in his novel. Sometimes what happens in the private realm of an individual stays there and never comes to the public. It remains in the place that it occupied in the beginning.
Stone’s essay thus helps the reader look at Multatuli in a different way. It becomes not just a funny, moving tale set in a colony but displays the power struggle among the dominant and the subordinate and how the subordinate uses artful means to finally let his personal and hidden thoughts come out to the public sphere. Max Havelaar provides an insight into a lot of different worlds occupied by the characters in the novel. Havelaar is the disillusioned former civil servant who realizes h cannot do much to change how the system works. His rebellion is in the form of writing about the atrocities of the government in the colonies. Droogstoppel is the quintessential businessman who would not raise his voice against the government as it supports his businesses. Stern is the idealist and the locals are the subordinates with no voice. The public thoughts can only be expressed by Droogstoppel as he stands for everything that colonialism expouses. Morals fall under profit. The hidden thoughts come out through stern and Havelaar. However the private thoughts of the local people stay private and only come out through a foreigner, someone who was part of their subjugation. When the hidden and private thoughts come out, they make people think and cause a revolution which was indeed what the publication of the novel did. The work was revolutionary and created ripples, exposing the dark underbelly of colonialism.
Works Cited
Multatuli. Max Havelaar, Or, The Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company. Trans. Roy Edwards. Amherst: The University of Massachusetts Press. 1982.
Scott, James. “Behind the official Story”. In Domination and the Arts of Resistance. Connecticut: Yale University Press. 1990.
