Synthesis with Adaptation

Objects, People, and Self: Dependency in Synthesis

Kaufmann has a unique vision of Orlean and takes the liberty of fully developing a theme in Adaptation only partially developed in The Orchid Thief. Orlean’s book, The Orchid Thief, is a nonfiction account of Orlean’s interaction and admiration of “the orchid thief” himself (a man named Laroche) and his perspective on passion, specifically that regarding orchids. Charlie Kaufmann’s movie, Adaptation, is a movie adaptation of Orlean’s book, following Charlie himself and tracing his pursuit to write the screenplay for the movie Adaptation itself. Both Orlean and Kaufmann address the consistent theme of dependency as a means of coping with the demands of the world through their literary elements. Kaufmann draws the theme out of The Orchid Thief with Adaptation, showing a more existential approach to the universal need for people to “whittle life down,” as Orlean puts it, and to find a solid basis for purpose in life. Orlean focuses more strictly upon the nature of passion and in so doing inadvertently captures Kaufmann’s theme through each of her characters’ pursuit of said passion. Throughout both stories, Laroche and Orlean both display the theme, and in Adaptation, Kaufmann defines it.

Beginning with Laroche, his personality is consistent throughout both The Orchid Thief and Adaptation through biographical sketch. Orlean sees his passion for each of his projects as intoxicating and Kaufmann comments on her need to be around someone so “alive.” (Jonze) He makes no excuses for his passions and relies on them to “live deliberately” as Thoreau would say, or more simply to live in the way the Orlean continually describes as intoxicating in her thoughts and personal opinions brought about through narrative style. Laroche’s desire to possess drives him and he is dependent upon objects for his happiness. Laroche’s tone is continually obsessive, “Even now, just being here, I still get that collector feeling. You know what I mean. I’ll see something and then suddenly I get that feeling. It’s like I can’t just have something- I have to have it and learn about it and grow it and sell it and master it and have a million of it” (Orlean 33). He has to possess objects in the way that Mortimer Adler possesses a book in “How to Mark a Book.” For this reason, he is repeatedly disappointed and, as in Orleans description of all Orchid collectors, “To desire Orchids is to have a desire that will never be, can never be, fully requited” (Orlean 54). Clearly, throughout both stories, Laroche’s dependencies drive him.

Where Laroche’s dependencies are in objects, Orlean’s dependencies are in people, which ultimately lead to her murderous reactions in Adaptation. In the movie, she falls in love with Laroche’s ability to find solid foundation in life (purpose) through his passions. Orlean and Kaufmann share the same desire throughout the stories to find a purpose, but where Kaufmann finds himself (in the abstract sense), and fixes his life, Orlean finds Laroche, and is ultimately disappointed. Orlean becomes a drug user and begins to live two separate lives in order to satisfy her multiple dependencies on people in her life. In The Orchid Thief, Orlean takes an objective, journalistic approach to the story, save her reflection on her “one unembarrassed passion,” which betrays her personal lack of solid purpose in life. Because she seeks to find passion through the passions of others, she becomes dependent upon other people for purpose, which leads to the major conflict in Adaptation. Orlean’s objective tone makes it easy to see Orlean’s perception of other’s passions and dependence upon orchids, but serves to cloud Orlean’s own pursuits a bit. It is important to note, however, that Orlean seeks to comment upon the role of passion in life throughout The Orchid Thief through theme, and by her success, betrays what she pursues throughout the book. Orlean didn’t need to see the ghost orchid (Orlean 281). It was the passion that she was after, vicariously possessed, so that she could find purpose through what others found in their obsession and dependence upon the orchids. Kaufmann’s ending of The Orchid Thief puts it best, where Orlean writes, “life is full of things that are fleeting, and just out of reach” (Kaufmann).

Orlean is a great example of a dependency, but Charlie Kaufmann is the very embodiment of the theme. Kaufmann is socially inept and constantly worried about validation from others as the source for motivation in life. He looks for purpose in other people, anxiously dependent upon other’s reactions in his life. Kaufmann’s personal anxieties are strictly spelled out through his personal reflection throughout the film and, as in The Orchid Thief, his narrative style is essential to his conveyance of the theme. Kaufmann transforms throughout Adaptation, truly the only dynamic character in the film. When Donald tells Charlie in the end about his old love interest, “that love was mine, not even (what’s her name) could take that away from me,” (Kaufmann) Charlie finally finds that if he relies upon himself, and finds purpose solely within his own convictions, he is able to transcend the prison he’s created out of his life. It is precisely this change that touches upon deeper thematic elements within Adaptation, but despite this, dependency is clearly a coherent thematic element of Adaptation.

It is clear that the development of the theme within the movie was more developed because it was deliberate, whereas the consistency within The Orchid thief exists as an implication of Orleans intended theme of passion. It could be postulated that Kaufmann intentionally takes the side of Orlean against Orlean in her interview “…you might consider your focus to be living off the desires, focus, and happenings of others. That is how you make your living. As a common parasite, really,” (Orlean 288-9) seeing her dependency in other people and existentially placing Orlean as the antagonist in the end when he shows her unfulfilled and erratic nature. Despite Kaufmann’s further commentary, and possible full theme, both authors refer to the nature of dependency through literary elements focused upon Laroche and Orlean, and Kaufmann drives the theme home with his portrayal of himself in Adaptation. Perhaps human nature truly dictates that dependence and purpose are two sides of the same coin, but, as Adaptation and The Orchid Thief show, life truly fails to reward those who’s defining desire is to possess anything other than one’s own self.

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Works Cited

Adler, Mortimer. “How to Mark a Book.”

Kaufmann, Charlie, screenplay. Adaptation. Dir. Spike Jonze. Per. Nicholas Cage, Meryl Streep, Chris Cooper. Columbia Tristar, 2004.

Minot, Stephen. Literary Nonfiction. New Jersey: Pearson Education, 2003.

Orlean, Susan. The Orchid Thief. New York: Random, 2000.

Analysis

The Orchid Thief: Realism Through Style

If a writer fails to instill an omnipresent sense of reality into a work of literary non-fiction, he or she cannot hope for an effective portrayal of events. Susan Orlean’s work The Orchid thief succeeds where many fail in effectively depicting events as real to her readers. This short work is a nonfiction account of Orlean’s interaction and admiration of “the orchid thief” himself (a man named Laroche) and his perspective on passion, specifically that regarding orchids. Orlean’s style throughout The Orchid Thief serves to portray a more real depiction of events for the reader. Her most evident elements of style throughout the story are diction, syntax, and her narrative mode.

Beginning with diction, Orlean imbues poignancy into her writing by the way of engaging and descriptive words. Diction is simply defined as the author’s choice of words in literary non-fiction (Minot 35). Referring to Laroche and Lee, Orlean writes, “They seemed as if they were cut from the same flammable cloth, but I suspected they had never met, only because I believe the universe would have exploded if they had ever been in a room together,” (Orlean 199) choosing to use phrases like “cut from the same flammable cloth” and “the universe would have exploded” instead less colorful diction. Should Orlean have chosen to use “they were similar people” and “I might have gotten too much of Laroche and Lee” her delivery would have been bland, too formal, and ultimately ineffective in portraying her perception of the two people. Orlean’s attention to her feelings on the subject, not just materialistic objectivity, is represented by her diction in the book and serves to make her account more human and, thus, more interesting and real for the reader.

The words Orlean chooses alone do not fully serve to give life to The Orchid Thief, her choice in sentence structure can further betray Orlean’s feelings on her subject matter. Orlean’s writing through her use of syntax further serves to make her story more realistic for her readers where syntax is regularly defined in terms of length and type when accounting for sentence structure (Minot 35). In Orlean’s portrayal of the Fakahatchee swamp she writes, “The swampy part of the Fakahatchee is hot and wet and buggy and full of cottonmouth snakes and diamondback rattlers and alligators and snapping turtles and poisonous plants and wild hogs and things that stick into you and on you and fly into your nose and eyes,” (Orlean 35) recounting details in a most informal and run-on fashion. This syntax serves two purposes. First, the informal tone betrays her anxiety about the swamp and gives the reader a sense, through her anxiety, that she’s overwhelmed by the place. Second, the swamp is characterized more effectively in terms of a blur of all its details, not just a culmination of them. It seems like a truly chaotic and overwhelming entity. By Orlean’s fashion of depicting detail through syntax, not just simply her choice of details, she effectively makes the story clearly human in perspective and more real for the reader.

Whereas syntax accounts for the human perspective in terms of detail in The Orchid Thief, Orlean’s narrative mode accounts for her overarching point of view. A writer’s narrative mode is the way in which he or she balances action, reflection, dialogue, and description in the work (Minot 35) and is directly telling of a writer’s place in the story. When Orlean writes, “…Tony called and asked again if I was really ready for the Fakahatchee. At that point I gave up trying to be tough and let every moment in the lake at Camp Cardinal ooze back into my memory, and when I finally met Tony at the ranger station I almost started to cry,” (Orlean 37) she recounts her experience in a very reflective and personal way. Her opinions in The Orchid Thief aren’t impositions upon an omniscient or totally objective point of view, she clearly establishes herself as a participating member of the account. For a personal account to be realistic to the reader, the events of the story must seem to be happening to the main character, not just simply for the main character, and Orlean’s particular attention to thoughts and personal reflection in first person perspective serve to accomplish this. Orlean’s attention to her perspective, both the subjective and objective, creates a more realistic air to her story for her reader.

Personal accounts in literary non-fiction should never read like a textbook. Through Orlean’s paid attention to the literary concerns of diction, syntax, and narrative mode, she has rendered her account in The Orchid Thief something more than a bland recounting of facts and events. Orlean conveys a real sense of what it was like to be in her shoes and experience Florida and orchid obsession, which thrusts her work into the realm of the effective and gives extra value to her story. More accurately, The Orchid Thief is a recounting of human feelings and perspectives, and the story benefits by becoming more realistic to its reader.

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Works Cited

Minot, Stephen. Literary Nonfiction. New Jersey: Pearson Education, 2003.

Orlean, Susan. The Orchid Thief. New York: Random, 2000.

Interpretation

Effective Literary Non-fiction: The Orchid Thief in Context

Literary non-fiction is an interesting and expansive genre of literature that covers a wide array of themes and topics. To relate the genre to an appropriate piece of literature and identify key traits can be a rewarding endeavor. Susan Orlean’s personal account in The Orchid Thief is a perfect example to perform this kind of comparison. Orlean’s story is a short nonfiction account of her interaction and admiration of “the orchid thief” himself (a man named Laroche) and his perspective on passion, specifically that regarding orchids. The Orchid Thief demonstrates three of the classic nonfiction forms clearly in the chapter entitled "Cloning the Ghost." Of the six key aspects of literary non-fiction, sense of place, biographical sketch, and slice of history are best represented by Orlean in this chapter. These three aspects clearly and effectively classify her account as a classic example of literary non-fiction.

Orlean’s attempts to draw the reader into the story begin with her vivid description of place. Sense of place in literary non-fiction is essentially the way in which an author attempts to instill a real feeling of being into the reader. Orlean does just this in the chapter “Cloning the Ghost”. Of the great examples the short chapter offers on the subject, one description stands out from the rest. Orlean writes, “It had gotten dopey and warm… and the light in and around the greenhouses was peculiar and still, as if it were captured inside a bubble, and all the sounds… were clear but blunted, like sounds inside a covered bowl” (Orlean 31), referring to Laroche’s friend’s property. Here Orlean seems to start with her feeling of how the place is, not with her physical assessment of the location. With her vivid terminology, Orlean communicates that the area is warm, humid, and still, but the feeling of such a place is much more effectively transferred to the reader. The actual place becomes more sensory for the reader and the story becomes more effective in demonstrating the tenets of literary non-fiction.

One of many biographical sketches of Laroche further characterizes the book in this regard. Laroche’s personality is of central concern in The Orchid Thief. Orlean’s characterization of the man is both descriptive and candid, depicting Laroche in context of her interaction with him. Biographical sketch is essential to many literary non-fiction works as it works to help the reader understand a real person in a real sense, almost as if the reader had personally been acquainted with a character. On Laroche, Orlean writes, “He struck me as the late-sleeping, heavy-smoking, junk-food eating, law-bending type, whereas I am not…” (Orlean 29). In this excerpt the reader is introduced to specific aspects of Laroche as a contrast to Orlean, characterizing both individuals and bringing Laroche’s character into a more real light than if Orlean had simply offered bland details. The relation between the two brings the reader closer to the reality of Orlean’s situation. Laroche’s description here is a great example of biographical sketch as it pertains to literary non-fiction because it serves to deepen the reality of the story for the reader.

Depth of reality in literary non-fiction is further characterized by context, which the literary tenet slice of history provides. History is often taken for granted in one’s sense of reality, but in literary non-fiction it often provides an indispensable backdrop for many of the other tenets of the genre. Character’s actions seem more reasonable and places seem to have more character after a simple and short lesson on pertinent history is provided to the reader. Orlean writes about Hurricane Andrew and its effect on Laroche’s greenhouses, “In the hurricane two of the three greenhouses vanished entirely. The third more or less exploded… [Laroche] knew then and there that he would die of a broken heart if he ever opened his own nursery again” (Orlean 21-2). Here Orlean relates to the reader a bit on Florida, a real history lesson, both characterizing Laroche as a person and Florida as a place. To the reader, the place seems more like a dynamic environment existing beside the events of the story, not simply for their convenience. Orlean’s slice of history regarding Hurricane Andrew is a clear example of the literary tenet, and effectively serves to make the story more real for the reader.

Literary non-fiction at its best is a way in which a reader can vicariously experience a real thing, not just recount a series of facts regarding that thing. In the chapter “Cloning the Ghost” of The Orchid Thief, Orlean is very successful in relating her experiences through the literary non-fiction tenets of sense of place, biographical sketch, and slice of history. In this chapter, the places are vividly real, the characters come to life against a real background, and literary non-fiction shines through Orlean’s effective portrayal of her experiences. The Orchid Thief is a clear credit to the genre.

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Works Cited

Orlean, Susan. The Orchid Thief. New York: Random, 1998.