Please respond to the post below by 4 p.m., Wednesday, March 2.
How does Walter Bernstein convey his feelings about Frankie's? Pick an image or phrase or device that you believe helps him get across to readers what he wants them to think about the bar. What is the dominant sense of the place Bernstein wants us to have? How does the technique or phrase (or whatever) you picked reflect that? Caveat: Each of you should pick something no one else has.
17 comments:
I believe Walter Bernstein's usage of music throughout "Juke Joint," with a nod to song titles in particular, serves to convey the author's feelings about Frankie's. To some extent, it perhaps even acts as another form of narration, revealing the various "elephants in the room" when it comes to the wartime future that inevitably awaits the bar's customers.
When "You Are My Sunshine" plays, the inhabitants are lively as can be, with the guys boozing it up and the gals being chased around by the guys. With "I'm Walking the Floor Over You," we come to understand that not everyone, a waitress in this case, is necessarily at the unrelenting beck-and-call of the men in uniform. "Goodbye, Dear, I'll Be Back in a Year" and "We'll Have to Slap the Dirty Jap" hardly require extensive explanation - they paint the picture of what lies ahead for these soldiers.
For my money, Bernstein's central point with the narrative of the music is basically that what comes to Frankie's stays in Frankie's. Time, solace, indulgence, ecstacy - they are all fleeting elements here. It is a short-term paradise and a distraction for these men, who will surely face far different surroundings when they exit the bar's doors.
nicely put, andrew. very good writing as well as analysis,
According to Mary, not the inebriated soldiers nor the police 'hurt the business' at Frankie's. World War 2 soldiers are left alone to do what they please, whether it's drinking or gambling, or listening to music. It doesn't even matter whom they choose to be with. There is little to no ethics at Frankie's, in the eyes of Walter Bernstein. The blind man holding a cup for change is usually ignored while large profits are made by gambling WW2 soldiers and disregard Hancock, the bouncer, which is why he limps.
Women are treated like fresh pieces of meat, but rightfully so, they're just serving Uncle Sam's men.
"She seemed very proud of of the fact, although all the girls who work in places like Frankie's are classified in Phenix City as food handlers. What this means is not exactly certain, since there were still 1082 new venereal disease cases at Benning in the past eight months." (p.108)
That was just one of the few perverted and sardonic quotes found to describe the social hierarchy at Frankie's. Frankie is respectable towards everyone and keeps control of her bar, but her responsibility is about keeping the contentment within the room because she knows these good times will not last for some.
The juke box plays "democratic" music, an homage to the soldiers with songs like "Good-by Dear, I'll Be Back in a Year" and "We'll Have to Slap the Dirty Jap." Even the conversations are based on the soldier's rankings and occupations until the Alcohol Control come through for a short time. Even with the imagery of the "young girls with insignias that seemed like they did not belong" or the "heavy smoke like lead" in a windowless bar displays how "Juke Joint" is all about the soldiers' time spent.
Bernstein understands some of it, but probably can't condemn some of the behavior, until the very end when the 19th Barracks are called.
“By now someone had broken the monopoly on the juke box and it was playing ‘I’m Walking the Floor Over You.’ Mary was whistling and tapping the floor to the music. ‘I’m walking over you,’ she sang nasally. ‘Please tell me just what should I do.’ A soldier walking past told her what she should do, and she aimed a kick at him. The kick missed, but the momentum carried her away from the wall and she started her trip around the room again.” P. 108
I think in this passage Bernstein really emphasizes that what goes on at the bar is cyclic. Relating it to Andrew’s comments about the progression and change of the music, I don’t think that happens just this one night in particular that Bernstein’s writing about, but every night, similar themes in music, but different titles.
This passage in particular represents how the cycle is unchanging. Even when the control over the juke box is finally surrendered and the music changes, the cycle still continues. A soldier makes an under-handed comment at Mary, she attempts to kick at him, and when she misses she is tripped up and pulled back into her cycle around the room.
From Bernstein’s perspective you get this idea that each one of the characters that works here goes through this routine every night when the soldiers roll into town. You can see where Hancock is resting against the walls of the bar, and can imagine him there every other Saturday night. You can see in Frankie’s calmness, that she expects the Liquor Control boys, and that everyone except the soldiers fearlessly knows exactly what’s going on and holds their ground. (An interesting image, to see the soldiers retreat in the situation when they’re preparing for war.)
It’s a cool contrast, because for the people who work there, it’s almost a little monotonous. Like they do this all the time, the way Hancock deals with the immature boy at the juke box and how Mary is constantly complaining about her feet. But, conversely, for the soldier boys it’s an opportunity to break the redundancy of camp.
Although Walter Bernstein was a soldier himself, its clear throughout the story that he does not see Frankie's as the good time bar that the other soldiers do. When we're first brought into the bar, Bernstein says things like "The one square room that comprised the cafe was ugly, and low-ceilinged." He describes "Dirty tables that dotted the rest of the room" and the shady sexual exchanges of young girls and the soldiers.
Bernstein is never involved in any of the events taking place around the bar. He's always leaning against a wall, or the bar, or standing behind the crowd playing dice observing. As he wonders the bar, his feelings are clear. Almost grotesque images of the old man begging for money, smokey back rooms with soldiers gambling, and young disease infested girls appear in front of us. "They were all dressed very carefully, with their insignia shining, but most of them looked as if they had gotten into the wrong place." Bernstein isn't enthused by any of this, swatting away the girls offers, finding a comfortable place next to Hancock.
The dominant sense of the bar Bernstein wants us to get is this grungy, backwater kind of bar where people sort of loose their souls. "The air was getting more and more foul. I found Hancock and said good-night. He shook my hand warmly and told me to hurry back. As I left the room a soldier was being sick in a corner. The juke box was screaming "Good-by, Mama, I'm off to Yokohama." The most likely under aged soldier (as Hancock pointed out most of them were) throwing up in a corner, epitomizes Bernstein's feelings. The song title serves as a punchline to the situation of the bar, and the soldiers. "Good-by mama" as the young man throws up liquor he can't handle.. and heads off to war.
"The principle industry of the small town of Phenix City, Alabama, is sex, and it's customer is the army. Located ten miles from Fort Benning, Georgia, the town is at least eighty percent devoted to the titillation and subsequent pillage of that group it affectionatly calls "Uncle Sam's soldier boys." This first paragraph relays to the reader a sense of irony in the town of Phenix City. The town is dedicated to the titillation of these military men, and in a perverted twisted way it is considered patriotic.
There is this sad image that flows throughout the piece. The women, very young not more than sixteen or seventeen, the sagging frame houses in the back allies, the taxis that only charge a quarter a head, and for one more will let you in on "a number of good things" which is also ironic.
Our character, he wanders about this bar called Frankie's filled with dirty tables and bad smells, but there is really no place he wants to be.
Towards the end of the story Alcohol Control comes into Frankie's and removes the beer from this illegitimate bar. However, no one really leaves. Frankie just serves up Coca-Cola and Dr. Pepper, because like it was said earlier nothing harder was needed at Frankie's. Frankie's is an escape for these men who are headed toward the uncertainty of war.
There were about fifteen girls in the room. They wee very young; some did not seem any more than sixteen or seventeen. They wore cotton dresses and low-heeled shoes and some did not even wear make-up. A few sat at tables, but most of them walked round, stopping every few feet to speak to one of the soldiers. Every so often one would talk a little longer with a soldier and then the two of them would walk out of the room, through the cubicle, and out a door at the other end."
This part stuck out most to me because I think Bernstein intended for women to be a major role in describing the bar. I think this was a crucial element because it allows you to envision this bar full of men being tended to by women. Frankie, the female owner, is pouring drinks behind the bar while younger girls fetch drinks and act like eye candy. Men aren’t going there strictly to pick up women, some are not even concerned with drinking. They go there because it helps keep their mind off of their lives. It is just an added bonus that girls and beer happen to be there.
I think Bernstein understands what Frankie is trying to achieve with this bar. It’s not fancy, it’s not big, and it isn’t even legal. But, that doesn’t matter because it is still a place for soldiers to go when they are allowed out. It’s their outlet, their escape. A dive bar where they can bullshit with one another and not worry. They might meet a cute girl or they might not. Either way to get to look at cute girls who will wait on them all night, gamble a little money, socialize with men in the same position they are in and relax their mind for bit. If they know no other certainty in their lives they know for sure that Frankie’s will always be there.
As others have already mentioned, Bernstein is able structure his piece in a way that illustrates that the scene in the raucous bar actually the calm before the storm by incorporating changing details like the juke box’s song line-up. Similarly, Bernstein’s descriptions of the corporal and other soldiers playing craps and gambling in one area of the bar in the middle and end parts of the story give readers some insight as to what Bernstein is trying to make us see. When we first hear of this corporal, he is “riding a streak,” fortunate to have nearly $100 on the table; one man even suggests he is using his own dice. However, Bernstein explains that, at the end of the story, he only “had a few dollars before him and he looked scared.” All of this talk of playing the odds is loaded language alluding to the risk these men will soon face upon being deported. Like rolling a die, the outcome of fighting in a war often is unrelated to any sort of skill the participant has, as anything can happen when money, life, are put in such a high-risk situation. Prior to Bernstein’s second mention of the corporal, the bouncer Hancock explains that the bar would not fix the games because the soldiers should know the terrible odds against them even when the dice are “fair.” His quote, uncharacteristically set off by itself in a short graf, is a red light to the reader: Hancock is talking about one kind of gamble, but Bernstein wants you thinking about another, It kind of goes back to a disgustingly overused cliché: all is fair in love and war. These men, these boys, so unsuspecting of the risk are likely to fall from grace like the corporal. However, the price they pay may end up being their own life.
As Andrew states, it is through music that Walter Bernstein is able to express his feelings about Frankie’s. Bernstein uses a cinematic strategy to communicate with his readers- a soundtrack. With every song, he sets a particular mood.
In “Juke Joint,” there are few phrases and scenes that seem a bit ironic. For example, “The soldier turned when they reached the door, but Hancock pushed him gently outside and shut the door after him. Then he limped back and resumed his place against the wall. ‘Boys that age shouldn’t drink liquor,’ he said shaking his head.”
Hancock speaks of the soldiers as if they were inexperienced children even though they were part of the ARMY. I think this phrase depicts the way Frankie’s made soldiers a little more human, more attached to the rest of society.
In this small scene, Bernstein makes the drunken soldier equal to any other member of society- Hancock pushed him out the door like he would do to any possibly dangerous drunken individual.
Frankie's was also a place where soldiers could act their age. In Frankie's, they were allowed to be and feel young. It was where young soldiers drank so much they got sick, or got so drunk they couldn’t function. Frankie’s was a comfort zone for soldiers, a place to let loose.
One of the ways in which Bernstein conveys his feelings about Frankie’s is by introducing the character, Mary.
I felt sorry for Mary even though I didn’t know much about her. I understood Bernstein’s feeling about Frankie’s, the girls who work there and the activity that Frankie’s facilitates through his describing Mary.
He wrote that Mary “looked very young and she was wearing a cheap housedress.” This gave me the impression that Mary—by no fault of her own—didn’t have a good upbringing and found herself in this disgusting harem/bar as one of her limited options for making money. Bernstein doesn’t come right out and say that Mary has it rough or that she living a bad life, but his description of her says it all.
With the limited details he provides, I’ve gathered that Mary is uneducated, has limited funds and likely doesn’t have anyone to tell her that working at Frankie’s is not a good way to make money. She is young, naïve, and will likely find herself objectified, abused and pregnant.
If Bernstein was 22 when he wrote “Juke Joint” and he considered her to be “very young,” Mary must have been no older than 18.
The fact that Frankie’s would hire someone so young shows the lack of morals the bar has. It troubles me to think what an environment like Frankie’s would do to someone as young as Mary. And the way Bernstein describes her attitude towards her job adds to the troubling feelings I have about Frankie’s. Mary seems to accept that walking around a bar of army men and taking them out back for quickies is her life.
Mary’s character stuck out to me as one of the main ways Bernstein conveyed his feelings about Frankie’s.
One of the ways Bernstein conveys his feeling about Frankie's is with his descriptions of the things that went on there. "After a few minutes the novelty and fear wore off and the room slid back to normal. The people who had been at the bar waited to resume their places, but the rest of the crowd moved off to other parts of the room. In about ten minutes the men had cleared the bar of beer. The man with the note book wrote something on a piece of paper and handed it to Frankie. She said something in a low voice and he laughed. The he tipped his hat and went out after the other men." This description of the liquor control men shows a lot about the characteristics of Frankie's. The men know the place is for soldiers to relax and unwind, so they do their jobs quickly and quietly and let them get back to what they were doing with little fuss. They have a respect for the soldiers that is unstated. They tried to do their jobs with as little disturbance to the soldier's mental oasis as possible. This shows that the overall atmosphere of the cafe was a place for the soldiers to unwind. Everyone was to be respectful, but have a good relaxing time, and no one wanted to do much to upset that. As soon as someone got too out of hand, they were dealt with quickly and quietly. The woman who worked there were all friendly and personable and catered to the soldiers well. He wants you to know that is a place for the soldiers escape from the war, which is apparent when the mood changes at the end when an officer comes in to get some soldiers.
I think Walter Bernstein conveys his feelings about Frankie's by describing the air throughout the piece. He uses the sense of smell to describe certain moments that are occuring. In the beginning of the story he describes the girls that are in the room and how young they were. He described how the girls would approach a soldier and they would leave for about ten minutes and come back. In the paragraph that follows that description he says, "It was hot and smoky in the room..." I feel like the air represents what happened between the girls and the soldiers.
Bernstein also describes the air when the corporal is gambling and was "riding a streak." Someone said that the corporal "must be using his own dice" meaning he is cheating. Bernstein then describes "there were no windows in the little room and the smoke made the air like lead." Lead is poisonous and bad and so is cheating.
At the end of the piece, Bernstein is "walking around the room trying to find some fresh air." With everything bad happening inside, there is no fresh air. Except at the end where a door had been left open "and the trickle of cool air felt good." The only fresh air Bernstein would get would be outside away from everything that is happening in Frankie's.
Bernstein isn't involved with all of the activities that are going on in Frankie's. He doesn't seem to agree with them either. I noticed the air because it was thick throughout the piece and becamse fresh at the end when some of the soldiers were exiting.
Bernstein conveys his feelings about Frankie's without explicitly saying his feelings on Frankie's. I believe that he thinks of the place as almost a necessary evil. He seems to not particularly enjoy it too much but it's the weekend and he has nothing better to do so he plays along, just as the jukebox keeps playing the songs despite whatever circumstance (liquor authority, MPs) is occurring. I think Bernstein conveys his feeling of Frankie's through his description of the fracas. For example, he makes the gambling sound loud, offensive, and stupid, yet he mentions a few times about wasting his money in the slot machines. I see him walking up with the complete absence of hope, dropping nickels in with a blank face, following the routine, fitting in, and the walking away when he predictably does not win. This to me signifies the entire situation with Frankie's. It's all just a big waste of money. It's technically immoral. It's a hollow escape, but at least it's an escape.
Throughout the piece, Bernstein uses his choice descriptions of what is going on in the room to nudge the reader towards his feelings on the scene. One of the images that stood out in my mind was the description of the cubicle. “They sat around on dirty tables that dotted the rest of the room and spilled into the cubicle that had once been a kitchen, but now held three slot machines and a dice table.” To me, this scene reflects what has gone on in the town. Corruption has taken over, a kitchen turned gambling corner in a bar turned brothel. I think at the core of this story Bernstein was trying to illustrate the amount of corruption that had taken this town.
"There were no windows in the little room and the smoke made the air like lead." By this he wants us to see that the bar is dirty, dingy, and dark. It's not a pleasant place to be it's hard to breathe and there is little to help it. The whole bar is this smoke washed weary atmosphere that he doesn't want to be in.
“After the dice game I put a few more nickels in the slot machines, and then wandered back into the main room. I searched for someone I knew, but all the faces were strange in the familiar way most soldiers have to one another.” Throughout this piece, Bernstein describes the many observations he makes about the crowd at Frankie’s while he sat back and watched it all happen. To Bernstein, Frankie’s is packed with soldiers drinking their worries away, gambling their money away and looking for a woman they can use and throw away.
As Bernstein watches these men in action, the reader sees that he doesn’t view Frankie’s as the same fun time that the others do. At the end, this quote allows the reader to understand that Bernstein feels no connection to the personalities or actions of these men. He denies offers from all of the females, wastes some change gambling and only finds a place of comfort around Hancock. In the end, the soldiers only have one true connection to each other: they are all fighting for their own survival. These young men use gambling, alcohol and sex as outlets in hopes of forgetting about what they have to do every day. Throughout this piece, Bernstein expresses his reaction towards the corrupt military culture that has formed within the walls of this bar.
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