The Paper Dragon (18 page)

"Possibly. But that doesn't necessarily…"

"If a man sat down to write a play or a novel about the Army, would he not be likely to include men of various backgrounds, such as those who might be found in a
real
platoon?"

"Yes, but…"

"Would he not be likely to include a member of a minority group?"

Arthur hesitated, and then looked out at Brackman.

"Mr. Constantine," Willow said, "would you answer the question, please?"

"I could answer that with a yes or no," Arthur said, "but the answer would be misleading."

Willow looked up in what seemed like genuine surprise. He stared at Arthur for a moment, and then said, "Please answer it any way you wish."

"A writer would include a member of a minority group only if it served a purpose," Arthur said.

"What purpose does Sergeant D'Agostino serve in your play?"

"He is a catalyst."

"For what?"

"For everything that happens on the island. He's the man who sacrifices himself for the lieutenant. He's the man who—"

"What does this have to do with his being Italian?"

"It adds to the conflict. Corporal Janus harps on this. It causes further conflict between the lieutenant and the squad."

"The fact that D'Agostino is Italian?"

"Yes. Driscoll does the same thing in his novel. Only the character is Negro."

"You mean that Mr. Driscoll uses a Negro character to further the conflict between the lieutenant and the squad, is that true?"

"That's it, yes."

"By having a scene in which the lieutenant is suspected of bigotry, is that what you're referring to? Where Sergeant Morley believes the lieutenant is a bigot?"

"Yes, that's the scene."

"And you had earlier used this same device in
Catchpole
, is that right? This is why you chose to put an Italian in your fictitious squad. To point up a conflict with the lieutenant along lines of possible prejudice."

"Yes."

Willow walked to the defense table. "Here's a copy of your play," he said. "Would you kindly show me the scene or scenes wherein Lieutenant Mason and Sergeant D'Agostino confront each other in such a manner?"

"What manner do you mean?"

"Show me a scene where the lieutenant is suspected of prejudice."

"It isn't a scene, there are only references."

"Show me the references."

"I'll have to look for them."

"Please take all the time you need."

Arthur accepted the manuscript. He began leafing through it. He could feel sweat running down the sides of his chest. He wiped a hand across his lip. "I don't know if this is what you're looking for…"

"I'm looking for any lines in your play that would indicate Sergeant D'Agostino suspects the lieutenant of being prejudiced against Italians. Or rather, Mr. Constantine,
you
are looking for them."

"May I read this?"

"Certainly."

"This is in Act II, it's Corporal Janus speaking to sergeant D'Agostino. He says, 'I understand you, Mike. You're a Wop and I'm a Pole, and we just don't fit.' "

"And this—"

"There's more."

"Please read it."

"He answers—"

"D'Agostino answers?"

"Yes. He answers, 'We're just poor little orphans, huh, Danny?' and Janus says, 'We're misfits. They'll never understand us as long as we live.' That's the reference."

"The reference to what?"

"Prejudice."

"As I understand it, Mr. Constantine, this series of speeches you have just read to us constitute the sole reference to prejudice…"

"There are others."

"Find them, please."

"Perhaps more specific," Arthur said.

"Yes, please find them."

He wiped his lip again. He knew
exactly
why he had made D'Agostino Italian. He had done it to point up the conflict, the very conflict Willow was harping on, and which Driscoll had stolen and amplified in his book, making the character a Negro to cash in on the burgeoning civil rights movement, where
were
those other scenes? "Well, here," he said, "on page 2-16 (there's another short encounter between Janus and D'Agostino that I think points up this business of racial prejudice between the lieutenant—"

"
Racial
prejudice?"

"No, I mean his prejudice against Italians."

"Please read it, Mr. Constantine."

"D'Agostino is talking about the feast of La Madonna di Carmela which they have every year on 115th Street in Harlem. I don't know whether or not you're familiar with it."

"No, I'm not."

"Well, he's talking about the feast — he refers to it as 'the
festa
' that's the Italian word for it — and he says, 'Whenever I went to the
festa
, Danny, I felt as if I was stepping into a world I knew inside out and backwards, you know what I mean? All the sounds and all the smells and all the people. It was where I belonged.' And Janus replies, 'Yeah, not on a goddamn island in the middle of the Pacific with a lieutenant trying to get us all killed.' "

"This is the specific reference?" Willow said.

"Yes, it links D'Agostino's Italian background with the lieutenant."

"In what way?"

"D'Agostino is talking about where he belongs, and Janus subtly implies that he does not belong here with the lieutenant."

"Are there any other references, Mr. Constantine?"

"There are several more, I'm sure. This was a thread I put into the play, a constant nagging by Janus, a constant reminder that the lieutenant is aware of D'Agostino as an Italian."

"If you can find any more references, we would be grateful," Willow said.

"Well, if you'll give me a few moments…"

"Certainly."

"Oh, yes," Arthur said, "that's right. The scene with the Jap, when they capture the Jap. Just a second now." He began turning pages. "Yes," he said, "no, wait a minute, yes, here it is, the end of Act II, just before the end of the act. They've captured a Japanese soldier, and they're trying to interrogate him, but they can't find anyone who speaks Japanese. So Meredith, he's one of the men in the squad, says, 'Do you think the Loot speaks Japanese?' and Janus says, 'Don't be silly, the Loot speaks white American Protestant.' Then he turns to D'Agostino and says, 'How about you, Mike? Japanese is just like Italian, ain't it?' That's the thread being picked up again, of course, the constant juxtaposition of D'Agostino being Italian and the lieutenant being aware of it, that's the reference here."

"I see," Willow said. "Are there any others?"

"I'm sure there must be, but those are all that I can think of at the moment." He leaned forward to hand the manuscript back to Willow.

"No, please hold on to it," Willow said. "There are several other things I'd like you to find."

"If I knew you were going to ask me for specific references…"

"That's what we're dealing with here, Mr. Constantine. Specifics."

"I thought we were dealing with plagiarism."

"That is
your
allegation."

"Wouldn't it be more to the point to compare the two works instead of—?"

"Mr. Constantine, it would be more to the point to allow me to conduct my own cross-examination, if that's all right with you."

"Certainly."

"Thank you. You said yesterday in testifying about thematic similarities that your hero, and I am reading from the record now, 'is a new lieutenant who feels that human life is more important than the quarrels of nations, and this theme is stated in Act I, Scene 4, pages 21 and 22 of
Catchpole
.' Would you please turn to those pages now?"

"Pages 21 and 22?"

"That's right."

"I have them."

"Would you read to me the line or lines that indicate the lieutenant felt human life was more important than the quarrels of nations?"

"May I look this over?" Arthur asked.

"Certainly."

Arthur slowly and carefully read the two pages, and then read them again. "I believe this is the reference," he said.

"Yes, which?"

"Lieutenant Mason is talking to the men, it's this one speech beginning on the bottom of page 21, and carrying over onto page 22. 'I know you men are wondering what we're doing on this godforsaken island,' he says, 'I know that's foremost in your minds especially when intelligence tells us there are thirty-five hundred Japs dug in on this atoll. You're all experienced soldiers and you know that even if we blast them out of their holes here, we've got the next island to take and the next one after that, so what's the use, what are we doing here? I know you're thinking that some of us may die,
all
of us may die, and for what? For a barren stretch of Japanese real estate in the middle of the Pacific? No. We're here because there's a job to do. It's as simple as that,' " Arthur looked up. "I believe that's the reference," he said.

"To human life being more important than the quarrels of nations?"

"Not in that specific language. I never claimed that identical language was used in the statement of this particular theme. But there are the springboard references here, the touchstones Driscoll used in shaping his theme, the references to death and dying, the references to empires and their holdings, the references to the grim realities of war, the thirty-five hundred Japs holed up on the atoll, and having to be blasted out. All of these add up to a specific similarity of theme, though not of language."

"Thank you. You also testified yesterday, and this too relates to the theme of your play, you testified that Mr. Matthew Jackson at API, in expressing his reaction to
Catchpole
, said — and again I quote from the record — 'I think they'd be leery of an Army theme that tries to show the stupidity and foolish waste of war.' Mr. Constantine, do you agree with Mr. Jackson's statement? Would you say that your play tries to show the stupidity and foolish waste of war?"

"Yes, it does."

"Would you say that this is also the theme of Mr. Driscoll's novel?"

"It is very definitely his theme. The themes are identical."

"Now would you mind showing me where in your play, which scene or which speech or even which line illustrates this theme, the stupidity and foolish waste of war?"

"The entire play illustrates the theme."

"In what way?"

"The antagonism of the men is stupid, the plot to kill Mason is stupid, the accidental killing of D'Agostino by the psychopathic colonel is stupid, everything that happens from the moment the lieutenant
arrives
is stupid. And the men finally realize this at the end."

"Where do they realize it?"

"At the very end of the play."

"Find the place for me."

"Certainly. They realize just what we've been talking about, that war is stupid and a foolish waste."

"Please show me where this realization takes place."

"It's here at the end of the play," Arthur said. "Here, it's on page 3-4-36, shortly after D'Agostino is killed and Janus is exposed. The speech is given to one of the minor characters, his name is Franklin. This is what he says: 'Lieutenant, we didn't know what we were doing. You get out here in the middle of nowhere, and you forget what reality is. You're surrounded by so much bugging killing, so much bugging blood, that you forget what's right or wrong. Now Mike is dead, and for what? The
real
enemy is still out there. We were wrong, lieutenant. We apologize.' This was a very moving scene, as it was done, and it clearly stated the theme of the play."

"Which was what?"

"That war is idiotic."

"Where does it say that?"

"A writer doesn't state his theme that obviously, Mr. Willow. If he did, it would become tract writing, it would become transparent and condescending. I tried to state the theme in human terms, one human expressing himself to another, one human apologizing to another. The man who apologizes for the rest of the squad is a grizzled combat veteran who kills Japanese soldiers the way you or I would brush our teeth in the morning. He comes to the lieutenant and he says in effect that war changes men, makes them lose their sense of reality, wastes their minds and their bodies. He says this in very human and believable terms, but he is nonetheless stating the theme of the play."

"You also testified that the collective reaction of those who had read the play at API was, and I quote, 'that the play was too outspoken, that the United States wasn't ready to take criticism of its armed forces, not when we had just come through a major conflict and also a minor one in Korea.' Do you feel this was a legitimate reason for the rejection of the play?"

"I don't know if it was legitimate or not. I
do
know that's why the play was rejected."

"Because — and again I quote — 'it was too strong for API to do.' Is that correct?"

"That's what I was told."

"This was when, Mr. Constantine?"

"What do you mean?"

"When were these reactions to the play given to you?"

"In 1952 sometime."

"Mr. Constantine, would you say that
From Here to Eternity
, which won the Academy Award in 1953, was a strong movie that dealt harshly with the United States Army?"

"I couldn't say. I neither saw the picture nor read the book."

"From what you know of it, Mr. Constantine, would you—?"

"Objection," Brackman said, rising. "Witness has already stated he has no personal knowledge of either the film or the book in question."

"Sustained."

"If I told you that the book and the film were both highly uncomplimentary to the United States Army, would you accept my word for it?" Willow asked.

"Yes, I would."

"Thank you. Why then do you suppose these people at API said the United States wasn't ready to take criticism of its armed forces?"

"I cannot account for the actions of API."

"Is it true, Mr. Constantine, that your play was submitted to API in September of 1947, a month before it was produced on Broadway?"

"That's true."

"Why was it submitted?"

"To try for a preproduction deal."

"Was it rejected at that time?"

"Yes."