The Path to Rehumanizing

This essay was written in my Fiction class.

Rebecca Makkai

Ari Folman

Looking back at history can often times erase those who were affected by a traumatic experience or genocide. These victims easily become statistics. Both Waltz with Bashir by Ari Folman and The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai rehumanize history. They show us how we are able to read about history and feel as if we were there when it happened. By doing this we are both able to move on from the past, but also take with us lessons to apply to the present. The individual narrative in Waltz with Bashir is not as powerful as the cultural narrative in The Great Believers. Waltz with Bashir does not achieve closure, while The Great Believers is able to achieve closure. The Great Believers and Waltz with Bashir rehumanize victims of history and allow us to reflect on the grief we all carry.

In Waltz with Bashir, Ari presents us with an individual narrative. He is trying to remember his past. Ari faces the trouble of trying to remember. He is facing his internalized conflict head-on. His mind his trying to prevent him from remembering the past, as a protective mechanism. Since fighting in the war was a traumatic experience, it is a repressed memory for Ari. He struggles with piecing together the short frames of memory he can recall. The one scene that constantly reappears is him coming out of the water naked with two of his other comrades. Even though Ari realizes this never happened, this scene has a purpose. This was Ari’s mind trying to erase the traumatic memory of the massacre. It is not until the end of the film that we see Ari witnessing the massacre. Dream images, like this one, allow us to reimagine a traumatic experience from a distance. By distancing himself from the massacre Ari was able to realize that he witnessed the massacre. This scene rehumanizes those with PTSD, because it shows how difficult it is for them to remember the traumatic events. It is also rehumanizing because it shows how those with PTSD carry guilt and pain from their traumatic experience. By going through the process of remembering, Waltz with Bashir allows us to understand those who have PTSD and humanizes those who have experienced something traumatic.

Waltz with Bashir is told in an animated style, which allows both us and Ari to distance ourselves from the Massacre of Sabra and Shatila. The last scene shifts from animation to actual footage from the massacre. We see the dead bodies and faces of children who were killed in the massacre. This scene reminds Ari that he witnessed the massacres and did nothing about it. This causes Ari to carry guilt with him. Watching this scene, allows us to imagine what is must have been like for those killed and their families. This reminds us that these events occurred and shows us how easy it is to distance ourselves from history. Even though we did not committ this genocide, we still carry some guilt and pain for the victims and their families. Ari’s message seems to be one of remembrance. He wants us to remember history for what it is and to value every life lost to the Massacre of Sabra and Shatila. When remembering history, we have to accept all the pain that comes with remembering. He knows how easy it is for us to forget history or events. Ari rehumanizes the victims of the massacre by including this actual footage. Waltz with Bashir reproduces trauma in order to gain sympathy from the audience.

Both Rebecca Makkai and Ari Folman choose to retell a forgotten history. They both emphasize how harmful it is to remember history. However, Ari’s personal narrative in Waltz with Bashir offers a different perspective on remembering history. Since, most of us have never experienced a similar traumatic experience as Ari, it is harder for us to truly attach ourselves to his story. Makkai uses a cultural narrative in The Great Believers, that allows us to put ourselves into the story. When this happens, then we are able to relate more to the characters in the book. We then feel more impacted when reading a cultural narrative compared to a personal narrative. The personal narrative in The Waltz with Bashir, is beneficial in understanding history, however it distances its audience. Therefore, the cultural narrative in The Great Believers, allows us to have a more impactful memory of this lost history.

Makkai’s, The Great Believers writes about the history of the AIDS epidemic in a way that erases time from our memories. The cultural narrative in The Great Believers allows us to connect to a time that we did not live in. This is an effective way of reading history because after reading the book we will remember the history of the AIDS epidemic. Deaths from AIDS were not acknowledged, which dehumanized and devalued those lives lost to it. Makkai realizes this and wants to do the opposite and shed light on those lives. She brings color and life back to that time when hope seems lost. The Great Believers, gives space for suppressed voices to be heard, rehumanizing historical events and victims of history.

Yale, was a gay man who lived during the AIDS epidemic. His voice is at the forefront of the 1985 section of The Great Believers. This causes us to attach more to his story. Yale witnesses the deaths of most of his friends to AIDS and tries to remain hopeful throughout it all. Eventually he is diagnosed with AIDS and begins to re-evaluate his past hopes and dreams. He accepts his fate and lives out the rest of his life with no regrets. Fiona, his friend, was extremely close to Yale and finds it difficult when remembering times she spent with him. Looking at Yale’s story, allows us to find a friend in Yale. Makkai uses Yale’s story as a way to rehumanize the victims of the AIDS epidemic.

Erasing time from the narrative allows us to remain in the present during a time in history. When this happens we tend to forget about the tragic consequences that occurred. While reading Yale’s point of view I could assume he was going to get AIDS. Even when we found out I still forgot about that part until parts of the book reminded me of his illness. What was truly impactful was when Yale died. Even though I thought I was prepared for this moment, I really was not. Makkai erases time and allows us to have an insider perspective on the AIDS epidemic. This leaves a lasting impact on the reader, by forcing them to deal with emotions like grief. When we become the characters that we are reading about, we are then forced to feel the same emotions as them.

Makkai freezes time, by pinpointing the day Yale was diagnosed with AIDS. Everything around Yale stops and appears to fall apart. Makkai writes, “His favorite song, not yet written. His favorite movie, not yet made” (334). We glimpse into Yale’s inner thoughts and at this point truly understand what it was like for those with AIDS. Even though it is hard for us to hear about Yale’s friends’ deaths, his own diagnosis makes us realize how downhill things quickly turned. When Yale stands outside the house he thought he was going to buy, he imagines how his life would have been without AIDS. Yale is no longer just a character in a book, at this point he becomes a friend to us. We begin to grieve along with the characters as the stories progress.

Throughout The Great Believers we begin to relate to the characters as best as we can. Distancing is used at the beginning to allow us to process everything in and take a step back. Then we eventually put ourselves into the stories. We go through the process of grief and in the end feel as if we lost a loved one. This rehumanizes those lives lost to the AIDS epidemic. Many of those victims’ families hid the cause of their deaths. The Great Believers creates a community of readers that supports those characters within the story. This mirrors the family created within the story that involves Fiona, Yale and others. By having us mourn the deaths of characters like Yale, we are rehumanizing the victims of the AIDS epidemic. Their deaths and lives were forgotten by many, but by reading this book we are able to give life back to their stories. Every person differs in how they deal with trauma.

Fiona in The Great Believers lost most of her friends to AIDS, so she is forced to deal with many of her internalized conflicts alone. This causes her to carry with her survivor’s guilt. She avoids remembering the past because she knows it would make her feel guilty for surviving, while so many of her friends died. Fiona decides to avoid remembering the past. She avoids dealing with the guilt that she carries and internalizes this guilt. Throughout The Great Believers, we see Fiona’s struggles with remembering the past. In the end, we see her begin to heal and find closure. We are able to heal along with Fiona throughout The Great Believers.

Looking back at history through a fictional lens allows us to heal along with the characters in the book. Even if we did not live during the AIDS epidemic, this book teaches us to be hopeful throughout loss. This is universal since everyone has or will lose a loved one in their life. The Great Believers allows us time to reflect on this past experience of loss and understand what its purpose was. Throughout this novel, we see Fiona’s internalized guilt over surviving the AIDS epidemic. Even though she lives on in 2015, she is really still living in 1985. Makkai writes, “And what she remembered now, staring out Richard’s window toward the afternoon sun, was the absurd feeling back then, when Claire was eight, that they already missed the boat forever” (260). She has lost a sense of the present. Fiona worries about the choices she made in the past. Her journey shows us how she looks to the past to find ways to cope with the present. Even though it seemed impossible throughout most of the book to relate to Fiona, in the end we realize that she is human and makes mistakes. Once we realize this, then we are able to rehumanize her experiences and sympathize with her. Sometimes in the healing process, we do not always find the answer we were looking for.

Fiona’s story offers us hope for the future. Fiona was forced to face her past in the last scene of The Great Believers. She watches an old video of her friends and is immediately able to imagine her deceased friends standing next to her, in the present. Makkai says, “Fiona was filled with ridiculous, irrational love for Julian just then, for whichever he was about to say, because she could feel Nico beside her, and Yale and Terrence and all of them, rolling their eyes at Julian making this about himself” (Makkai 415). We see how Fiona is finding closure with her past, through watching the video. She is remembering her friends as who they were before the AIDS epidemic. We then realize that the main reason it was hard for her to think about her past, was because she attached the death of her friends to it. Fiona’s message is one of hope. Even though Fiona does not know what will happen in the future, she is hopeful that things will be different. She realizes she cannot turn back the clock and resurrect her friends, but what she can do is find the good in her life. Julian reminds her of this when he says, “If we could just be on earth at the same place and same time as everyone we loved, if we could be born together and die together, it would be so simple. And it’s not” (Makkai 401). Fiona shows us how to find hope when it seems lost, and to treasure the good memories to replace the bad ones. Through her story we are able to understand how we can find the good in bad memories. She teaches us that even when we feel alone, we are not. Finding closure from a traumatic experience can allow us to move on from the past.

The Great Believers offers us closure. In the end, we see how Fiona is able to remember her past and not feel guilt. She is able to do this by remembering the good times she had with her friends. Makkai acknowledges the trauma that Fiona faced, to show how hope can be found in trauma. The cultural narrative in The Great Believers, provides hope to us that we can overcome traumatic experiences. We are able to relate to this story because we get multiple perspectives on the AIDS epidemic. The Great Believers, teaches us that we all carry grief. The thing that matters in the end is our perspective. We see through Fiona’s eyes that there is hope, and we see through Ari’s eyes that we must remember. These narratives teach us that remembering traumatic experiences can be difficult, but once we work through them we are able to carry on with our lives.

Works Cited

Makkai, Rebecca. The Great Believers. Viking, 2018.

Folman, Ari, director. Waltz with Bashir. Sony Pictures Classics, 2008.