Casino Royale is one first novel of the James Bond series.
It was published in 1950s around the heart of the Cold War. Bond is merely a figure
designed to resist the ideal of lost power of an empire. British were losing their
power over the colonies. Bond in many ways offered a way to increase the
self-image. Soviet Union was seen as a threat to Britain. At the time communist
influence in trade unions was major. Communist was seen as a big scare to Parliament.
Casino Royale simply took those fears of espionage and traitors in implement a
strong British man conquering their enemies.
M, the head of Britain secret agents assigned James Bond to play against and
cleanout the fifth columnist. James Bond, 007 , Britain’s elite secret agent,
mission was to defeat Le Chiffre , a SMERSH agent working for the Russians.
Bond goes undercover in a high stake baccarat game. One of Le Chiffre's men try
to shoot bond in attempt to end his chances at the gambling table.
Chiffre's wins the first round of baccarat. CIA agent Felix helps
bond by giving him money. The
relationship between Bond and Felix displays the relationship: The relationship of the Americans and British
as they stood together to defeat east against the west in the cold war era. In
the end bond wins taking eight million that belonged to the communist group
SMERSH .Le Chiffre becomes desperate and kidnaps Bond.
Le Chiffre tortures Bond in order to get the money back. The
torture takes a hard toll on bond. But before Le Chiffre's could finally end bonds
life, a SMERSH assassin kills Le Chiffre as punishment for losing the money.
Before the assassin leaves he marks bonds hand with a M. M is a branding for the spy, in order to notify
other SMERSH agents.
During his recovery stage Bond become closely aquatinted with
Vesper. He later falls for her and contemplates leaving he service for her. The
lovers escape to spend time with each other. One day Vesper realizes a SMERSH
spy has been following them. The next morning vesper commits suicide leaving
behind a note for her explaining her conditions. Vesper was forced to work for
SMERSH after they kidnapped her lover. They captured and tortured him in order
to get information on Bond. She knew she could never be free of SMERSH and the
harm they could cause Bond, so she had no choose but to kill herself.
In many ways in the novel the characters are displayed like machines.
In essence that they have no true freedom and have to follow rule and regulation
concerning capitalism.
Take the scene in the end.
Mathis
“Surround yourself with human beings, my dear James they are
easier to fight for than principles. But don’t let me down and become human yourself.
We would lose such a wonderful machine.”
This concept concedes with the Fordism concept. People
basically become a part of a machine like system. Fordism- is the making a
large scale production an incorporating into a large scale productions to
produce mass consumption.
Bond
“It's a confusing business but if it's ones confession, one
does what ones told.”
Bond is simply doing his job with little freedom to make
decisions. In addition he doesn't know what is good or bad.
Bond
“History is moving pretty quickly these days and the heroes
and villains keep on changing places.”
But he knows being good or bad is defined by the opposing team.
This concept correlates with Jacques Derrida concept of Differance. Difference can
be found by finding the middle ground in which the differences meet. In other words, identity can’t be created
based off one separate thoughts or characteristics. We find our identity by
finding the difference in situations.
No comments:
Post a Comment