Model
Digital Document
Publisher
Florida Atlantic University
Description
The individual's survival in a hostile, postmodern environment is a principal
theme of Jerzy Kosinski's Cockpit. Tarden, the preeminent survivor in this
landscape, equates survival with control. He achieves control, both of himself
and others, by aggressive forms of psychological and physical manipulation. The
final goal of this manipulation is the absolute subversion of death. As he ages,
Tarde!} realizes that death can only be diverted, and· his strategies to a void the
inevitable become more sophisticated. Initially a being of action, he finally
seeks refuge in words, in confession. Yet his confession is a violent parallel to
his life; as such it becomes another diversionary act. The reader, at whom the
confession is directed, is the target of this will to control and its violence.
theme of Jerzy Kosinski's Cockpit. Tarden, the preeminent survivor in this
landscape, equates survival with control. He achieves control, both of himself
and others, by aggressive forms of psychological and physical manipulation. The
final goal of this manipulation is the absolute subversion of death. As he ages,
Tarde!} realizes that death can only be diverted, and· his strategies to a void the
inevitable become more sophisticated. Initially a being of action, he finally
seeks refuge in words, in confession. Yet his confession is a violent parallel to
his life; as such it becomes another diversionary act. The reader, at whom the
confession is directed, is the target of this will to control and its violence.
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