CHAPTER FOUR
ANALYSIS OF A LITTLE LIFE
4.0 Introduction
This work shall analyse and examine Masculinity and the notion of Emasculation in A
Little Life. The biography of the writer and the synopsis shall be viewed and Raewyn Connell’s
theory of masculinity shall be used in analysing the novel and the notion of Emasculation.
4.1 Hanya Yanagihara
Hanya Yanagihara was born on September 20, 1974, in Los Angeles. Her father's family had
lived in Hawaii for multiples generations and includes Japanese ancestry, while her mother is
South Korean and was born in Seoul. Yanagihara complete high school in Hawaii, she attended
Smith College, a women-only liberal arts college in Massachusetts. Yanagihara graduated in
1995 and moved to New York City. She began her career working as a publicist and eventually
began writing for Conde Nast Traveller, where she subsequently became an editor. Yanagihara
was working at Conde Nast Traveller when she published her first novel, The People in the
Trees, in 2013. This novel received very favourable reviews and established Yanagihara as a
notable new voice in fiction. In 2015, Yanagihara began a new job as editor-in-chief at The New
York Times Style Magazine. That same year, she published her second novel, A Little Life.
Yanagihara has received some attention due to her career combining a mixture of commercial
journalism and media work with the writing of literary fiction.
4.2 A Little Life
A Little Life revolves around four friends with different backgrounds and dispositions,
Malcolm, JB, Willem, and Jude. Jude doesn’t disclose anything about himself, he’s loved and
adored by others. He is successful but stays uncommunicative and fragile. His past is unknown,
and mysterious to his friends. The novel progresses with Jude’s past trying to suffocate him and
saviors like Willem, Harold, Julia, Andy, Ana and so many trying and struggling to save him,
despite all the help from friends, Jude still habitually cuts himself because of his traumatic past.
The novel progresses through the individual lives of the four friends where they interact with
each other; the four spend time together which also shows their intimate relationship. So, there is
a clear understanding of their love for each other but Jude finds it difficult to reveal his past or
his current state of mind. Whenever his friends try to get closer, his consciousness goes back, to
where he was physically, mentally, and sexually abused by monks and this later leads to him
successful killing himself. The novel contains six parts, each part has three chapters and the
novel has 761 pages.
4.3 Masculinity in A Little Life
Masculinity examines the enactment of men’s manhood and centres on the understanding of men’s
lives and experiences as gendered beings. It is associated with manliness suggesting essential differences
that make a man different from a woman, especially from the biological configuration of the sexes
(Kaufman 1994: 14).
4.3.1 Psychoanalysis and life history case study method
There are characters in the novel that best fit the psycholoanalysis and life history case study
method because these characters are important in terms of their personalities and trajectories.
The four friends met and lived together at a small Massachusetts college, after college they
moved to New York, where Willem and Jude lived together in a small apartment, Malcolm lived
with his parent while JB lived at Ezra’s place. The four friends strived hard to live a successful
life; they made it a routine to always meet twice in a month for dinner at a restaurant to discuss
about life. They worked on their different choice in life, even though they are different in race,
colour, personality, background, and they had lot of circumstances that almost ruined their
friendship, the bond of friendship that joined them together was a strong one. Willem and
Malcolm died in a car accident leaving Jude and JB, and Jude finally successful committed
suicide leaving only JB alive.
JUDE
Jude St Francis was the protagonist of the novel, He was a lawyer, an orphan who doesn’t
know where and whom he belongs to. He was abandoned in or next a trash bin according to
Brother Peter and Michael. He was raised by monks at the Monastery; he was stubborn and often
punished, and sexually abused by Father Gabriel and some brothers too. Brother Luke was the
only one that care and love him. One day Brother Luke told him, they should leave to have their
dream life unknownly to Jude, that he would be sold into prostitution and Brother Luke was also
sexually abuse him. Life was frustrating for Jude and brother Luke saw this and taught him to cut
himself. The police came to rescue Jude and brother Luke commit suicide. Jude was brought to
an home where the people such as counsellor who are supposed to helped him, also abused him,
he tried to ran away one day and was caught and beaten up which cause the scar in his back.
He finally succeeded in run away and he started prostituting himself in order to make
money, he got diseases and fainted only to be saved by Dr. Taylor to be sexually abused again
and when he got fed up of him after some month he released him and told him to run and he later
ran over him with his car which made him sustained a leg injury. After the incident, his social
service, Ana took care of him before she died. He was later adopted by a family and when the
family moved he left since he was old enough. He gained admission into the college; he decided
to study Law in order to be able to protect himself so that no one would ever reach him again.
Jude always felt severe pain in his leg from time to time and never want to talk about it, he had
the habit of cutting himself even though the people around him are ready to help, he couldn’t
open up. Harold was his mentor and senior at work before he started working at the U.S
Attorney’s office, he was later adopted by Harold and his wife Julia due to the love they had for
him.
Jude later bought a car because he had started using wheelchair, he then left the U.S
Attorney to work at Rosen Pritchard and Klein, one of the city’s most powerful and prestigious
firms, where he was a litigator and later a partner. He also bought his own apartment through a
friend. Jude was physically and psychological affected by his past that he always cut himself and
fought with JB after he mocked him, He always believed that there are something in life that is
not meant for his kind of species such as love from others. Jude later had a relationship with a
guy called Caleb, but the relationship later ended in an abusive one where he was physically and
sexually abused. Jude then decided to commit suicide but it was unsuccessful and the people
around him cater and care for him. Willem confessed his love for him and they are in a
relationship, during this period Jude still finds things difficult despite Willem's love for him, and
he had to reduce his cutting but when he couldn't take it anymore he resulted into burning
himself, Willem had to force him in telling his past which he later did because he didn't want
Willem to leave him which he didn't, he was always there to love Jude. Jude had lot of issues
with his leg and they had to amputate them.
Jude lost Willem, Malcolm and his wife Sophia to a car accident and to live became difficult
for him, he tried so hard to be alive for Harold, Julia, Andy, JB, Richard and his other people but
he couldn't move on with his life and later committed suicide.
JB
JB whose full name is Jean Baptiste Marion was an artist, a painter who grew up in Brooklyn.
He lost his father when he was three and left with his grandmother, his mother who was a
principal and his aunt, a detective. He had a loving family and had a good upbringing JB was a
Haitian-American who loved his work and enjoyed working in the studio, most especially he
loved painting his friends. He worked as a receptionist at a small but influential magazine, which
was a strategic job for him with the hope of been featured in the magazine, he was not featured
and left. He focused on his painting and was later offered representation by a gallery on the
Lower East Side where he had his first solo show, “The Boys”, where all his painting got sold
and this was a turning point in his career. JB was the liveliest, outspoken, outrageous and
adventurous among the friends. JB later had a problem and his friends suspected it but didn't
expect he was doing drugs, because he felt his friends had abandoned him, while his friends were
trying to help him, he had abused them and went far as mocking Jude with his disability which
caused a separation among the friends. He was diagnosed with kidney infection and was later
sent to rehab where he was later healed. He regained his life again and went back to painting but
lost his friends; Willem not talking to him at all, he and Jude became causal friend because Jude
couldn't forgive him and Malcolm was the only one that was still with him. JB visited Jude when
he attempt to commit suicide, and they later reconcile. He was the only friend that lived after
Willem and Malcolm car accident that took their life and Jude killing himself.
WILLEM
Willem Ragnarsson is a white guy, an actor, Jude’s roommate and the first person among the
friends to witness Jude having his pain episode. Willem was not as workaholic as JB and Jude
but he was a very nice person since childhood. He was the only surviving child of his parent, he
once had a brother named Hemmings, a disable, but later died. He also lost his parent during his
graduating school. Willem worked as a waiter at Ortolan restaurant and later began his first
performances in The Malamud Theorem and later became a successful actor. Willem was the
closest to Jude, he loved and care for him, he knew him well than the others. He always had Jude
in mind and even always include him in his future plan which include him buying a house and
took into consideration that it should be a house Jude could visit, all this later led to his break up
with his girlfriend Philippa, and when Willem had another girlfriend named Robin, Jude never
wanted to be their reason for breakup even though Willem never cares. Willem was by Jude's
side when he attempted to kill himself, he left his job to cater for him. Willem later found out he
has feeling for Jude, he confesses and they both dated. Their relationship was difficult because
Jude was not ready to open up, it got serious and Willem had to force him in telling his story.
Willem stood by Jude throughout and love him but he later died in a car accident with Malcolm
and his wife Sophia.
MALCOLM
Malcolm Irvine is a talented architect who worked at Ratstar, he was born to a black father and a
white mother. He unlike Jude and Willem came from a wealthy family he often relied on, for a
long period of time he lives with his parent. Malcolm was caring and doesn’t like to bother
others with his problem, though Malcolm was one of the main character in the novel, the story
doesn’t talk much about him except mostly through other characters. Malcolm quit his job at
Ratstar and with two of his colleagues they founded a firm called Bellcast which was doing well.
Malcolm later got married to Sophia. Malcolm was by Jude's side and care for him when he
attempted to commit suicide, and also when his leg was amputated. Malcolm later died in a car
accident with his wife Sophia and Willem.
4.3.2 A Hegemonic concept
A Little Life portrays different kind of masculinity, such as Normative, Surbordinate,
Marginalized. None of the four friends fit into the hegemonic masculinity fully but all fit into the
Normative masculinity.
Jude the main character of this novel, the one that the story revolves around. Jude was
successful in terms of his career and professional success, he was feared by his colleagues and
important in his office. This is an attribute of hegemonic masculinity but while looking at Jude's
life and personality in general he also fit into different categories of masculinity.
"They were talking, but Jude’s eyes were closed, and Willem knew from the constant,
hummingbird flutter of his eyelids and the way his hand was curled into a fist so tight that
Willem could see the ocean-green threads of his veins jumping under the back of his
hand that he was in pain. He knew from how rigid Jude was holding his legs, which were
resting atop a box of books, that the pain was severe, and knew too that there was nothing
he could do for him".
Yanagihara 22-23
According to the hegemonic masculinity, the male body must be strong and not weak. Jude
sustained a leg injury which made him a disabled person and this had forced him into the
surbodinate masculinity, Jude's sexual orientation also made him a surbordinate masculine, Jude
was always in a homosexual relationship and all the sexual experiences he had are with males.
Jude's race and colour also issue in which in the American society, the hegemonic man's colour
supposed to be white.
"Like Judy here: we never see him with anyone, we don’t know what race he is, we don’t
know anything about him. Post-sexual, post-racial, post-identity, post-past.” He smiled at
him, presumably to show he was at least partly joking. “The post-man. Jude the Postman.
Yanagihara 101
Jude’s ethnic origin was unknown so we cannot say if he is marginalized or not. JB described
him as being white but Willem said he was not, Jude's background was unknown to them all.
Another attribute of Hegemonic masculinity is being brave, even though Jude's friends see him
as being brave he doesn't sees himself in that way that at some point he told himself that,
"Be brave, he tells himself. Be brave for once"
Yanagihara 334
Bravery is one of the quality of hegemonic masculinity, even though Jude tried to turn off his
emotions as much as possible it still later slip through, he couldn't protect himself when he was
in an abusive relationship with Caleb, he would just kept crying and pleading.
JB was the most outrageous and outspoken among the friends, he is never afraid of what to say
and he is a successful artist. JB as a loving family and good upbringing and his family adores
him, he is even describe as,
“The king of the house”
Yangihara 19
All these made JB fit into the hegemonic masculinity but JB sexual orientation failed him, even
though JB was the only character who was outspokenly gay at the beginning of the novel, this
had made him fall into the surbordinate masculinity. JB's race and colour also pushed him into
marginalized masculinity, JB was described as Haitian-American which means he was black. He
was also look down in school when he was young.
"In high school, where a bit of revisionism seemed necessary in order to distinguish
himself and, especially, make his rich white classmates uncomfortable, he blurred the
truth of his circumstances somewhat: He became another fatherless black boy, with a
mother who had completed school only after he was born (he neglected to mention that it
was graduate school she had been completing, and so people assumed that he meant high
school), and an aunt who walked the streets (again, they assumed as a prostitute, not
realizing he meant as a detective".
Yanagihara 19
JB never corrected them about himself because he knew that was what they all wanted to
believe, even if he explained he still wouldn't be part of them which made him join a black to
black class.
Willem was white which made him belong to the hegemonic masculinity in this society, he was
also a successful and famous actor, at the beginning he was heterosexually orientated but at the
end he later became gay which turned into a subordinate Masculinity and Willem was said to be
nice and emotional which is not a trait of hegemonic masculine.
Malcolm belongs to the hegemonic masculinity, he was a successful architect, a heterosexually
orientated made, even though Malcolm was Bi-racial, born to a black father and white mother
which could have made him fall into the marginalized Masculinity but his family background
being that he was born into a wealth family and he too was wealthy too had been overlooked by
the society.
4.3.3 Cathexis
"And that had seemed to decide something for Caleb. “Well,” he said, “I don’t need to
see all of your body, right? Just the relevant parts.” And for that night, he had lain there,
half dressed and half not, waiting for it to be over and more humiliated than if Caleb had
demanded he take his clothes off after all".
Yanagihara 341
Caleb was a guy who was attracted to Jude, and he and Jude later had a relationship. The first
relationship Jude had since his unforgotten past. Caleb and Jude had their first sex in which Jude
didn't want to because of the injuries in his body but Caleb told him not to worry.
"He likes Caleb’s slow, thoughtful way of speaking, the way he talks about the designers
he’s worked with, his understanding of color and his appreciation of art. He likes that he
can discuss his work about Malpractice and Bastard and that Caleb will not only
understand the challenges his cases present for him but will find them interesting as well.
He likes how closely Caleb listens to his stories, and how his questions show how closely
he’s been paying attention. He likes how Caleb admires Willem’s and Richard’s and
Malcolm’s work, and lets him talk about them as much as he wants. He likes how, when
he is leaving, Caleb will put his hands on either side of his face and hold them there for a
moment in a sort of silent blessing. He likes Caleb’s solidity, his physical strength: he
likes watching him move, likes how, like Willem, he is so easy in his own body. He likes
how Caleb will sometimes in sleep sling an arm possessively across his chest. He likes
waking with Caleb next to him".
Yanagihara 342
Jude was attracted to Caleb and loved everything about him. Caleb and Jude later separated on a
bad note and after some years Willem discovered he was attracted to Jude and had feelings for
him.
"I’m saying I’m attracted to you,” Willem said, patiently. And then, when he didn’t say
anything, “Judy I don’t think it’s all that odd, really. Haven’t you ever felt that way about
me, in all these years?”
Yanagihara 477
Willem fell in love with Jude after all their years of friendship and Jude decided to give love a
trial again afterall Willem was his best friend and he knew can never hurt him like Caleb and
Brother Luke.
4.4 Emasculation in A Little Life
Emasculation is a condition in which a man is deprives of his right and virility: manhood,
manliness. It is a form of weakness in which the power and control of being a man is absent,
causing the man to feel castrated. Emasculation also results from oppression either by female or
male that leads to psychological pain and trauma. Male emasculation implies a social condition
that is created to make a man less masculine psychologically, materially, culturally and in terms
of social responsibilities (Kimmel, 2005).
Jude was the main character in this novel. He was an orphan abandoned in the trash, raised by
monks who sexually abused him, and later by brother Luke.
Brother Luke usually didn’t have sex with him if he’d seen clientsearlier in the evening,
but they always slept in the same bed, and they always kissed. Now one bed was used for
the clients, and the other was theirs. He grew to hate the taste of Luke’s mouth, its old
coffee tang, his tongue something slippery and skinned trying to burrow inside of him.
Late at night, as the brother lay next to him asleep, pressing him against the wall with his
weight, he would sometimes cry, silently, praying to be taken away, anywhere, anywhere
else.
Yanagihara 424
Jude was deceived by Brother Luke on the pretence of providing a better life for him, but he was
sold into prostitution and he got several diseases such as STD and he was later rescued by the
police but this didn't end his abuse.
"so he wasn’t surprised when some of the counselors began doing to him what people had
been doing to him for years. Somehow, the other boys also knew what he was. They
called him names, the same names the clients had called him; they left him alone. When
he approached a group of them, they would get up and run away".
Yanagihara 447
Jude was again abused by the people that was supposed to help him, and he was not accepted by
the society, they don't want to be associated with him because of his story. He later escaped and
fell into Dr. Taylor's hand who also sexually abused him and when he released hin, he ran over
him with his car.
"The last time he fell, he couldn’t get up again. “Get up!” he heard Dr. Traylor yell. “Get
up!” But he couldn’t. And then he heard the engine start again, and he felt the headlights
coming toward him, two streams of fire like the angel’s eyes, and he turned his head to
the side and waited, and the car came toward him and then over him and it was done".
Yanagihara 592
Jude woke up at the hospital and sustained a serious leg injury which made him disable for life,
and always caused him pain almost every day.
"They were talking, but Jude’s eyes were closed, and Willem knew from the constant,
hummingbird flutter of his eyelids and the way his hand was curled into a fist so tight that
Willem could see the ocean-green threads of his veins jumping under the back of his
hand that he was in pain. He knew from how rigid Jude was holding his legs, which were
resting atop a box of books, that the pain was severe, and knew too that there was nothing
he could do for him".
Yanagihara 22-23
Jude had a leg injury; he always felt pain from time to time and never wants to talk about it
because he doesn't want to be treated as a disablility person. He was disable because of his leg
injury and this caused limitations to what he can do.
“The things I’ve done,” he said, “the diseases I have from them.” He stumbled on, hating
himself. “It’s disgusting; I’m disgusting.”
Yanagihara 208
Jude was said to have ended up with a bunch of diseases from when he was sexually abused, he
didn't only ended up being disable but also had diseases. Jude was scared of all this and didn't
want to associate himself with anyone.
"he was cutting himself so much that even he knew how crazy, how destructive he was
being; even he was scared of himself, as much by what he was doing as by his inability to
control it. He had begun a new method of balancing the edge of the blade on his skin and
then pressing down, as deep as he could, so that when he withdrew the razor stuck like an
ax head into a tree stump there was half a second in which he could pull apart the two
sides of flesh and see only a clean white gouge, like a side of fatted bacon, before the
blood began rushing in to pool within the cut".
Yanagihara 206
Jude was physically and psychologically affected by his trauma. Jude had the habit of always
cutting himself because of his trauma. Jude always cut himself anytime he remember his past, or
felt nervous. He was about to be adopted by Harold and Julia and he thinks he doesn't deserved
it, that at some point he stopped eating, lost weight and kept on cutting and later burning himself
even though his new family and friends and Andy were there to help him he couldn't overcome
his past. Jude always felt that his past can never be forgotten and that any good thing in life
cannot happen to him.
“It doesn’t work like that,” he said to Jude again. And then, before he knew it, he was
doing Jackson’s imitation of Jude, the hideous parody, his mouth open as Jackson had
done it, making an imbecile’s moan, dragging his right leg behind him as if it were made
of stone. “I’m Jude,” he slurred. “I’m Jude St. Francis.”
Yanagihara 299
JB had imitated Jackson in mocking Jude and this had extremely hurt Jude, because JB was one
of his best friend and he couldn't find himself forgiving JB and anytime he sees JB, he always
remember the incident and always cut himself over and over again.
"there is Caleb, yanking him up byhis hair and punching him in the face with his fist, so
hard that he is airborne, and when he lands, he does so against the table, knocking the
base of his skull against its edge. His fall makes the bottle of wine jump off the surface,
the liquid glugging onto the floor, and Caleb makes a roar, and snatches at the bottle by
its throat and hits him on the back of his neck with it.
Yanagihara 349
Jude was physically and sexually abused by his lover Caleb because of his leg injury, he hate
him using his wheelchair because he thought he was been weak,lazy and wants to succumb to his
injury just like his own parent. After his abuse relationship with Caleb, Jude started thinking of
killing himself even though he had had this thought before, he was now clearer to him that the
only way to escape his life was death.
"He waited for a while, crying a bit, because he was tired and frightened and because he
was ready to go, he was ready to leave. Finally he rubbed his eyes and began. He started
with his left arm. He made the first cut, which was more painful than he had thought it
would be, and he cried out. Then he made the second. He took another drink of the
scotch. The blood was viscous, more gelatinous than liquid, and a brilliant, shimmering
oil-black. Already his pants were soaked with it, already his grip was loosening. He made
the third".
Yanagihara 416
This was Jude attempt in committing suicide but it was unsuccessful as he woke up in the
psychiatric wing of a hospital. He was later released and he continue to live his life but things
still get difficult in his relationship with Willem. His leg still caused him pains and they had to
amputate them. Willem, Malcolm and his wife Sophia were involved in an accident which
claimed their life, Jude couldn't take it and after some years he killed himself.
Reference
Hanya Yanagihara. A Little Life. New York: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2015. Print.
Kaufman, M. Men, Feminism, and Men's Contradictory Experiences of Power. In Brod, H. &
Kaufman, M. (Eds.), Theorizing Masculinities. London: Sage,1994. Web. Thurs. 22 June. 2023.
Kimmel, M. Globalization and Its Mal(e)Contents. In Kimmel, M. S., J. Hearn & Connell, R. W.
(Eds.), Handbook on the Study on Men and Masculinities. London: Sage,2005. Web. Thurs. 22
June. 2023.