Camus, Kaplan and Parks: A Look At Rebellion

Sam Black

6/27/10

Word Count: 1451

Camus, Kaplan and Parks: A Look At Rebellion

The difference between an individual and collective rebellion stems from the awareness attained through rebellion. According to the French philosopher Albert Camus in his text The Rebel, for the individual rebellion the rebel instantaneously imposes a moral boundary, which is a subjective value judgment, when the rebel feels an oppressor transgresses (Camus 13). The rebel invokes a boundary and defends the boundary for self-respecting reasons (Camus 14). An individual rebellion turns into a collective rebellion only when the rebel finds solidarity between the rebel and humanity, and other people become aware of the moral limit and in turn defend it (Camus 15-16). In the film Over the Edge, by the director Jonathan Kaplan, the character Ritchie (played by Matt Dillon) is an example of the individual rebel; which contrasts with the collective rebellion started by the character Carl (played by Michael Kramer). In addition, Rosa Parks and the larger Civil Rights Movement further exemplify individual and collective rebellion.

The character Ritchie, in the Kaplan film Over the Edge, individually rebels against the authority of the police. In the exurb of New Granada there is only a community center for the teenagers to socialize. This makes many of the teenagers in the film transgress by drinking, doing drugs and getting into fights; therefore the police indiscriminately profile against the teenagers. Shortly after the bully from the town (played by Vincent Spano) shoots his car, a police officer named Sergeant Doberman (played by Harry Northrup) confronts the characters Ritchie and Carl. The police officer transgresses against the boys by performing an illegal search, finds a knife, and takes Ritchie and Carl into custody. Through this transgressive act, Ritchie defensively chooses to rebel by refusing to accept the authority of the police. He calls one officer “pinhead” in order to rebel against what he considers unfair treatment by the police. In another act of rebellion, Ritchie aims an unloaded gun towards Sergeant Doberman, but only after he becomes aware of Sergeant Doberman’s intent to arrest both Ritchie and Carl. In The Rebel, Camus claims that the “movement of rebellion is founded simultaneously on the categorical rejection of an intrusion that is considered intolerable and on the confused conviction of an absolute right” (14). Thus Ritchie rebels because he feels Sergeant Doberman crosses a moral boundary by unfairly discriminating against him—through his rebellion Ritchie states that it is his right to be treat as an equal. In the film, this act of rebellion leads Sergeant Doberman to kill Ritchie.

The character Carl starts a collective rebellion when he becomes aware of the transgressive disrespect from the town leaders and Carl finds solidarity in his schoolmates. The town leaders decide to cancel the bowling alley and to shut down the Community Center. These establishments cater specifically to the youth. So, Carl subjectively assigns a transgressive quality to the actions of the town leaders. In his mind the town leaders infringe upon his rights as a citizen of the town. Although, it is only after the death of Ritchie that Carl decides to rebel. This follows the slave metaphor presented by Camus in his text The Rebel:

Before he rebelled, the slave accepted all the demands made upon him. Very often he even took orders, without reacting against them, which were far more conducive to insurrection than the one at which he balks. He accepted them patiently, though he may have protested inwardly, but in that he remained silent he was more concerned with his own immediate interests than as yet aware of his own rights. But with loss of patience-with impatience-a reaction begins which can extend to everything that he previously accepted, and which is almost always retroactive. The very moment the slave refuses to obey the humiliating orders of his master, he simultaneously rejects the condition of slavery. The act of rcbellion carries him far beyond the point he had reached by simply refusing. He exceeds the bounds that he fixed for his antagonist, and now demands to be treated as an equal. (14)

Similarly, Carl is willing to keep the status quo, until the death of Ritchie. At this point Carl imposes a moral boundary against the unjust treatment of the youth in New Granada. He wants equal treatment for the youth in his town. During the climax of the film, Carl unites with the other youth of the town in order to start a collective rebellion. After the death of Ritchie, even the bully of the town unites with Carl to rebel against the adults. The other youth finds the solidarity in rebellion that Camus outlines as though “this solidarity…comes to life only on the level of rebellion” (22). By collectively rebelling, Carl and the youth of New Granada assert the claim that they deserve the respect of the townsfolk as well. Carl and the youth rebel by imprisoning the community leaders, and subsequently destroying their cars. It is through this collective rebellion that the youth hope to establish their place in the town.

By refusing to give up her seat on the bus, Rosa Parks commits an individual rebellion against the segregation laws in Montgomery, Alabama. In 1955, in an act of defiance Rosa Parks “refused to moved to her allotted section of the city bus” (“Negro Boycott Fights Color Lines on Buses” 21). She had decided to rebel against the law that was “passed by the legislature in 1947, the state statute authorizes bus companies to provide and enforce separate facilities for white and [sic] Negro patrons” (“Negro Boycott Fights Color Lines on Buses” 21). Rosa Parks’ refusal to give up her seat exemplifies her awareness that this law infringes on her rights—she should be treated with equal merit—which is similar to what Ritchie experiences when he calls the officer pinhead. This follows the statement made by Camus, that “the rebel simultaneously experiences a feeling of revulsion at the [sic] infringment of his rights and a complete and spontaneous loyalty to certain aspects of [sic] himself” (page 14). Rosa Parks felt the infringement of her rights as a citizen of the United States. She was loyal to the part of herself that demanded freedom, which the Constitution outline is a fundamental right of a citizen. This rationale caused Rosa Parks to rebel.

The Civil Rights Movement signifies a collective rebellion because of the awareness of a subjective boundary and the solidarity between the leaders including Rosa Parks, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and Floyd McKissick. Through the rebellion of Rosa Parks a collective awareness was achieved. For example, later that year “Martin Luther King Jr. achieved prominence by organizing a successful boycott of the bus system” (Civil Rights History 215). This awareness of an infringement of black rights led to a solidarity throughout the Civil Rights Movement. Dr. King started the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to attain similar goals along the lines of desegregating buses in the South. In a study by Ewell Reagin on the Souther Christian Leadership Conference, Reagin defines this solidarity of purpose as “there is implicit, if not explicit, a vision of the end to be gained through social change” (Reagin 89). Thus there is an awareness of a moral limit that Dr. King and Southern Christian Leadership Conference want to defend. They thereby impose the subjective boundary that all men should have equality. As Floyd McKissick—another Civil Rights activist, who spoke at a conference with Dr. King—explains the vision of the Civil Rights Movement through the metaphor of black power, in that “black power…is a means to bring the black American into the covenant of botherhood” (Wehrwein 19). In this sense, equality was transgressed by white, United States citizens; therefore the Civil Rights Movement was connected by the awareness that black citizens were not equal. This awareness led to solidarity among Rosa Parks, and through Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the larger Civil Rights Movement. This in turn, makes the Civil Rights Movement the largest, and most powerful, collective rebellion to occur in the United States.

Ritchie and Carl in the film Over the Edge, as well as Rosa Parks and the Civil Rights Movement, signify the individual and collective rebellion in Albert Camus’ The Rebel. The individual rebellion exists only when the rebel is aware of a personal transgression, and thereby defends a moral boundary that the rebel reflexively creates. An individual rebellion can turn into a collective rebellion only through solidarity with humanity. This is exemplified by the identity politics that played out in the Civil Rights Movement; in essence African Americans were put in a liminal zone, which was a transgression by white citizens. In either case, only through awareness can rebellion be obtained.