How to Read Donald Duck by Ariel Dorfman

Author:Ariel Dorfman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General Nonfiction
Publisher: OR Books
Published: 2018-08-05T16:00:00+00:00

And since Donald is by definition clumsy and careless, he is always getting the boot. “There are jobs and jobs in the world, but Donald never seems to find one that he can do.” “You’re fired, Duck. That’s the third time you’ve gone to sleep in the dough mixer!” “You’re fired, Duck! You do too much fiddling around!” “You’re fired Duck! Where did you learn barbering—from an Indian warchief?” (CS 12/59). So work becomes for Donald an obsession with not losing work, and not suffering the catastrophes which pursue him wherever he goes. He becomes unemployed through his incompetence, in a world where jobs abound. Getting a job is no problem since the supply of them is far in excess of demand, just, as in Disney, consumption exceeds production. The fact that Donald, like Big Bad Wolf, the Beagle Boys and a host of others, is an inveterate slacker, proves that their unemployment is the result of their free will and incompetence. To the reader, Donald represents the unemployed. Not the real unemployed caused historically by the structural contradictions of capitalism, but the Disney-style unemployment based on the personality of the employee. The socio-economic basis of unemployment is shunted aside in favor of individual psychological explanations, which assume that the causes and consequences of any social phenomenon are rooted in the abnormal elements in individual human behavior. Once economic pressure has been converted into pressure to consume, and jobs are readily available everywhere, Donald’s world becomes one in which “true” freedom reigns: the freedom to be out of work.

Industrial entrepreneurs in the present world push the “freedom of labor” slogan: every citizen is free to sell his labor, choose whom he sells it to, and quit if it doesn’t suit him. This false “freedom of labor” (in the Disney fantasy world) ceases to be a myth, becomes a reality and takes on the form of the “freedom” of being unemployed.

But despite all Donald’s good intentions, employment slips through his fingers. He has hardly crossed the employment threshold before he becomes the victim of crazy and chaotic commotion. These absurd paroxysms of activity generally end in the hero’s rest and reward. Often, however, the hero cannot escape from these apocalyptic gyrations, because the gods do not wish to release him from his eternal sufferings. This means that the reward and punishment do not depend on Donald, and the result of all this activity is unforeseeable. This increases the reader’s feeling of dramatic tension. The passivity and sterility of Donald’s work point up his lack of positive merit, other than his accumulated suffering. All respite is conferred upon him from above and beyond, despite all his efforts to master his destiny. Fate, in making Donald his favorite plaything, becomes the sole dynamic factor, provoking catastrophes, and bestowing joys. Fate is like a bottomless bucket in which water is constantly churning. It is Donald’s job to fill this bucket. As long as no one comes along and benevolently puts back the bottom, Donald will fail, and be doomed to stoop and pour forever.

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