Jerzy Kosinski's Being There, Novel and Film: Changes Not by Chance

College Literature, Spring 2004 by Lazar, Mary

Short clips from television programs of that time often match the action (or non-action) of the film, enhancing the story line and adding an intriguing layer to the presentation. Chance's short attention span is also emphasized as he changes channels every thirty seconds or so. As we watch the screen, we watch Chance watching another screen and relive that frustration when the one in charge of the remote seems to control our minds as well. Today, as in Chance's life, the household with multiple televisions has become the norm. Rather than interact with family and friends in deciding what to watch, we isolate ourselves with our own remotes, avoiding even that minimal conflict.

Rapid changes in selecting channels, however, are skillfully contrasted with extended and sometimes frustrating takes that lack action or apparent direction, reminding one of Beckett's Film. The cumulative effect of both extremes, however, results in a suspension of judgment and a subtle humor. By the end of the film, we think we know the "truth," but Kosinski's new ending blasts even that certainty.

Before analyzing the denouement, I want to discuss two other major differences between the novel and the film. First, the movie omits many scenes devoted to national and international politics and adds a racial focus which the novel did not develop. Apparently, in the late 1970s, Kosinski decided that prejudice was a more urgent concern, even though the Vietnam "police" activity dominated the American national consciousness until the mid-seventies and the Cold War persisted until the late eighties. The novel mentions the Vietnam War twice, but only briefly. The first reference occurs when Eve calls Chance "more of a European man [who does] not practice all of those American lover's-lane tricks" (Kosinski 1970, 65). Chance is "confused" since the unkempt, anti-American individuals on TV had confrontations with the authorities which "often ended in violence, bloodshed, and death" (66). The second passage depicts a dinner party after a United Nations reception. When Chance is asked his opinion of the war, he answers, "The war? Which war? . . . I've seen many wars on TV." After a young woman observes that out "there, at the front, real men are giving their lives," the episode ends (89). Readers draw their own conclusions-is war a staged chimera or a meaningful and self-willed sacrifice which videots cannot comprehend? This topic is completely ignored in the movie. In addition, the novel contains a drawing room power struggle at a party for representatives from West Germany, France, Russia, and England. This episode is also omitted in the film, but in the novel the role of Louise, an African American (in the book a black Jamaican) maid, is expanded. Actually, she never appears in the print version but is mentioned as someone who brought Chance his meals and as a person he trusted. After she returns to Jamaica, the new servant is of Eastern European heritage.

In the cinematic version, however, Louise provides both exposition and commentary. As the film opens, Louise finds Chance waiting at the table for his breakfast and tells him that she has just found the Old Man dead in his bed. When Chance fails to react, Louise castigates him but soon realizes that Chance's understanding simply does not include the notion of human death and its consequences. Placing her hand on Chance's shoulder before she makes his breakfast, she says, "I'm sorry Chance. I just don't know what I was thinkin'. You're always gonna be a little boy, ain't you?" Louise, of course, must leave the estate, while Chance remains serene, incapable of speculating about his own fate or the vagaries of chance. After only a few days' time, Louise sees Chance's interview on a late-night talk show, an interview which launches him into the national consciousness. She observes to her elderly, black, male companions, "It's for sure a white man's world in America. Hell, I raised that boy. . . . He never learned to read or write. No sir! Had no brains a'tall. . . . Stuffed with rice pudding between the ears, short-changed by the Lord, and dumb as a jackass. Look at him now.Yes sir, all you gotta be is white in America to get whatever you want. Gobbledygook!" As has already been mentioned, Kosinski consciously avoided detailed descriptions of locale, clothing, and even people, aiming for reader involvement and identification which transcended boundaries. The revision, favoring an examination of racism rather than of Cold War politics, is especially interesting, then, since subsequent international events have proven his emphasis to be correct.